DC:12New life

by Hardwing

While Elisa is still struggling to live in in the castle, Sevarius arrives and his evulation of Darlene and her unborn child might have a greater impact on the clan than anyone had guessed.

I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES for creating such a great background and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas.

12. New life

"How fast is the pregnancy?" Darlene asked, remembering her last ones and somehow enjoying the thought of letting this one be faster.

"I can't say this exactly." Moore said. "Three months maybe, but this is just a guess and it includes that you won't miscarry..." He coughed, "which is something I can't exclude since a gargoyle body is not made to be pregnant."

"I will call Sevarius." Demona explained as matter of fact, looking to her daughter. "He is a bastard, but he is the one who knows most about our bodies."

8.Decisions to live, decisions to die

"Mother no, they are no danger." Darlene said and saw how her mother studied the six statues with red glaring eyes, which lit up even more when she saw the stone form of Delilah.

"What has happened to them?" Demona asked finally, her eyes normal again and Darlene couldn't help but register that her mother's voice sounded more vivid than before.

"After some months they became sick," Goliath explained. "We brought them to Sevarius and he explained that there had been a failure in their genetic structure. We commanded Sevarius to help us, but he betrayed us."

"He created, with the help of some of our organic material, an antiviral, but it turned out to be a trap of his and Thailog's. Sevarius created a giant Gargoyle that he called little Anton, which we were able to defeat in the end, but Thailog and the others became stone."

3.A secret revealed

02.09.98; 17:31; Castle Wyvern, Elisa's Quarters:

The first thing Elisa noticed, once waking up, was that she wasn't in her apartment. The second thing she noticed was that that the bed was much too comfortable.

The third thing that she noticed while staring at the wall in front of the bed was that she had nearly overslept.

Damn!

Sitting up on her bed, she looked on the clothes lying on the chair right of her, leaving her sleeping just in a black shirt and a slipper.

Elisa vaguely remembered a nightmare about running in complete darkness, but it had already faded, and looking in the sun shining through her window made the cold feeling vanish completely.

Elisa took her clothes and yawned, trying to ignore the slight pain that was caused by the healing bruises on her cheeks, and fighting down the tiredness in her while sitting on the bed.

Silently, she looked around in her room.

The room was small, and without any luxury as she had asked Xanatos. A cupboard containing the few clothes she had brought with her stood right beside the bed, a desk in front of it, a small table with a phone, and a clock right of its head.

Besides everything else, it seemed pretty empty.

Sighing, she stood up, half expecting to find Cagney stroking her legs every moment, and feeling a slight pain at the same time, as that of someone feeling a part of his body, but knowing it had been amputated.

If I just had brought him to someone else, Elisa thought. Or moved in here earlier…

But she knew these thoughts were pointless, so she concentrated back on the tasks of the day, which first was to go back to her precinct and begin her shift, and then to go home to her former apartment and get some more of her personal stuff, more clothing, pictures…

Elisa had to smile when she thought that she could probably finally take some pictures of her and Goliath together without the fear of raising suspicion, at least as long as she kept them in the walls of this castle.

Standing up, she walked to the cupboard, opening it and taking out her red bomber jacket, taking the gun out of its holster, hanging in the jacket and checking.

She mentally reminded herself to retrieve the safety box for her gun, especially with all the hatchlings and Alex running around, before she went to the door.

"Miss Maza?" Owen greeted her, standing perfectly calm on the floor before her room.

"How long where you standing here?" Elisa asked him, half-angry and half-surprised.

"I just arrived," Owen replied in his usual calm way. "Mr and Mrs Xanatos invite you to take the evening meal with them."

Elisa bit her lip, having feared such, but knowing she had a good excuse for not attending dinner with family Xanatos, at least for now.

"Please tell them I have to hurry for my shift," the detective replied. "And I have to see my mate before I go."

"Certainly," Owen replied, watching stoical two men of the guard pass them on their patrol through the castle. "May I guess you won't be back in time for Mrs. Anderson's check up?"

Elisa bit her lip, scolding herself for forgetting this important appointment of her sister.

How could I forget this?

"I might not make it," she explained. "Please tell her I'm sorry, but that I might come later."

"I will do so," the fey in human disguise said.

Elisa was going to leave, but stopped in the turn.

"Oh, and make sure Sevarius doesn't even come near the clan's resting places during the day," she said with a hard voice.

"It has already been arranged, detective," Owen replied.

Elisa watched him a second longer, and then she left to say goodbye to her mate, resting at his place at castle Wyvern's highest tower.

02.09.98; 20:41; Destine Manor:

The evening meal neared its end, and Lana had already silently vanished into her room, eating as few as the meal as she could, while Jarred became restless.

"And one last delivery," Darlene said, leading the spoon full of baby food to Gem's mouth.

The hatchling sitting in her high chair refused this feeding, turning her head away. Gem's mouth was already smeared with a lot of baby food, as was her bib, proofing how successful the hatchling seemed in her refusal.

"Later you will be hungry," Darlene stated in a sweet voice, but achieved nothing.

"Mom, can I watch TV?" Jarred asked, looking up from the remnants of his meal.

Darlene sighed and took Gem out of her seat and placing her in her lap, wiping the hatchling's mouth with the cleaner parts of her bib.

"Take her with you," Darlene said, placing the hatchling on the ground. "Maybe a little walk will give her back her appetite."

Jarred nodded and took his little sister's claw, leading her to the television. Rising from under the table, Shade followed the siblings.

"She is too fussy tonight," Darlene noticed, looking after them.

"You are nervous and she notices it," her mother replied, lying down the newspaper she had been reading.

"Wouldn't you be?" Darlene asked, relaxing a bit in her chair and beginning to clean the table. "For one thing… two lives may depend on the result of the examination tonight, and from all that I've heard of him, the man who does it seems to be some sort of a Dr. Monroe."

Demona shrugged her shoulders, not knowing who that particular human was, but having a good imagination.

"He is many things, but mostly he is brilliant in what he is doing…" the immortal explained. "But besides this, I don't trust him either."

Despite the recent fears she had regarding her, Darlene had to stare on her mother.

"How can you work with someone you don't trust?" Darlene asked.

"Well, daughter," Demona began. "History taught me not to trust any of my human employees as far as it is needed, but believe me when I say that if Sevarius touches you the wrong way… I will tear his limps out of his body, one by one, and he knows it."

The emphasis in the last words made Darlene having no doubts of it, as she had no doubts of the words before.

"Mother, you really must…" Darlene began, wanting to begin another pointless discussion with her mother over the fact that there were humans she could actually trust…

But some knocks on the French door stopped her.

"I'll let them in," Darlene explained, knowing that it would be their bodyguards to guard them on their way to the castle.

Her mother nodded and took up a cup, drinking the last bit of coffee while her daughter went off.

02.09.98; 21:23; Castle Wyvern, The Large Hall:

The yellow skinned elder, with the web wings and the white hair, ate the first half of her second roll without any hunger, listening to the talk of her siblings at her table without much interest.

She tried to eat, but every time she swallowed she felt the slight pain in her breast, and when she felt the pain she remembered what she had seen when Dr. Moore had removed the bandage of the breast this evening.

Don't think about it, she thought. Just accept it.

But she couldn't.

Moore had said that it would heal even more by an additional stone sleep, but she knew the pieces missing couldn't be replaced, and she would never be able to nurse with it again.

Her eyes wandered down, fixing on her right breast now filled to half the place where her left one was, and the elder had to work hard not to vomit.

She forced her eyes to look up, wandering about the clan and her siblings at her side who she knew were watching her, at least with the corner of their eyes.

Her eyes fell on the leader at his table, and she remembered how he had come to her after she had awoken, telling her that the clan was with her and that he hoped that she would return to the rookery, soon.

He is a good leader, she admitted to herself. Though I will never agree with him choosing a human mate and denying the clan future hatchlings… but at least his new mate seems to be more loyal than our former second.

She felt a bit of cold anger rise in her by having to think on the traitor, so she let her eyes wander even more, taking strength of the proximity of her clan.

Her eyes went over to where most of the rookery mothers sat with the little eggs in their arms. Arnadela and Aerie chatted amongst themselves and with the rest of them while taking care of the clan's youngest generation. Suddenly, Aerie opened her blouse to nurse a pale green skinned hatchling without hair.

It was more than the elder could stand, and she closed her eyes, gulping and holding the aching remnants of her right breast.

"Sister?" one of her rookery brothers, sitting beside her on the table, asked.

"I need fresh air," she told him and the rest of the table who was watching her.

Without listening she left the table, choosing the nearest door to leave the great hall and walked out of sight.

Once she past one corner and making sure not to be alone, she allowed herself to breath out, stroking her own hair.

Feeling her strength return, she began to wander through the floors, knowing that most of the clan were still at their meal, and trying to bring order in her thoughts.

Unintentionally and maybe led by instincts, she soon found herself standing by the heavy doors of her rookery.

The elder touched it, searching security, remembering the fulfilling time she had spent there, caring for the clan's hatchlings, but as she did, pictures came into her mind, pictures of blood and the feeling of pain, as if her breast was torn into pieces again…

Gasping, she moved away, staring at the doors of the rookery again. It hadn't happened here, but her mind couldn't rule over her heart, and she felt a terror rise in her.

The elder fled outside, taking deep breathes of the cold air as she reached the courtyard.

Trembling, she thought about her situation.

She had hoped she would be able to help raise this rookery, knowing this was for sure the last one before her milk would die away, but now she knew she couldn't and would never again be able to do it, even when her left breast was still intact.

All she felt now was a deadly cold emptiness, and as she looked in the sky, which seemed so strange without stairs, the elder didn't notice the tears running down her cheeks.

02.09.98; 21:51; Castle Wyvern, Medical Station:

"Ah, so we finally meet, Miss Anderson," Sevarius said. "I have to say you look as pretty as your mother."

Darlene had just entered behind Goliath and Brooklyn, with her mother by her side who was followed by Shade, and looked at the doctor who was standing beside Moore, with suspicion.

From all that she had heard of him… he was a sort of monster, and now that he stood in front of her, in clean white clothes, an attaché case on the bed right of him, and a grin looking as though he wanted to sell them a car, she could say that she wouldn't trust him a bit even without knowing this.

"Spare us, doctor," Demona snarled, tensed, and walked beside him.

Shade jumped on the bed beside her friend, and added a short growl to this.

"Just do your work," Goliath explained to him, having his usual stoic pose.

"Indeed I will," Sevarius said, sounding offended, gaining some glares by Brooklyn. "Now, Miss Anderson, how do we feel?"

"I feel well," Darlene stated shortly, lying since his presence made her feel uneasy. "And it's MRS Anderson, not miss… okay?"

"Good, good," Sevarius replied, ignoring her remark, and pointed to the bed beside him. "Please sit down."

As Darlene did so, Sevarius began to hum, making her feel even more tensed, watching how the doctor opened his bag, revealing a medium sized syringe.

"I will need a bit of blood for my tests," Sevarius revealed, turning to Darlene.

Darlene nodded and revealed her left arm, letting him take the blood samples.

"Don't you have the results of Moore's tests?" Brooklyn asked, watching the doctor carefully.

"Indeed, unfortunately they don't fulfill my standards," Sevarius explained patronizing, turning to Moore and slowly drawing the syringe full of blood from the vein in Darlene's right arm. "Don't be offended, colleague."

"The only offence is someone like you calling me colleague," Dr. Moore said, and placed a piece of cloth on Darlene's wound before bandaging it.

"Well then," Sevarius noticed, over going this remark. "For founded analysis, I need more probes… of other human-gargoyles to see how human and gargoyle DNA interact."

Demona, who had begun to stroke Shade beside her, made her eyes to slits while watching Sevarius, seemingly not liking this topic.

"You will not lay one hand on my children!" Darlene told him angrily, standing up from the bed.

"Well, what about the father then?" Sevarius replied. "Surely he will be interested in the well being of one of his children?"

"He is dead," Darlene hissed through her fangs. "And no one will disturb his peace."

"This limits my ability to help," Sevarius said, placing the blood sample in his bag. "Since there is nothing more to do, I'll go. You will hear from me in two days, or even less"

"What about Delilah?" Brooklyn asked. "Wasn't she a hybrid, too?"

Unnoticed by the second, yet indeed noticed by Goliath and Darlene, Demona's eyes stood slightly in flame.

"Her human genes are marginal, around ten percent at least, so her material isn't helpful by this," Sevarius explained. "It was easy, compared to the task of creating a hybrid worth this name, even with the gargoyle genes dominant… though I have to say it was one of my best work."

Demona already set in motion, pointing with one talon on the human and opening her mouth, but Darlene was quicker, and laid an arm on her shoulder, pleading her with the blue eyes of her father. The immortal Gargoyle had never been able to resist those eyes.

"Your failure and scheming brought the clones to freeze in stone," Goliath accused him, having enough of the doctor's gloating. "We haven't forgotten this."

"Oh well…." Sevarius began, giving first Goliath, and then Demona a haunted look. "Yes… yes of course, naturally. Will you excuse me now?"

The doctor grabbed his bag and wanted to go, yet a big lavender claw in front of him stopped him.

"What are you hiding?" Goliath asked him furiously, having realized that something was wrong.

Sevarius stumbled back, but two angry gargess, and one unhappy looking colleague blocked the place behind him.

"We really shouldn't…" he began and looked desperately to Demona.

The leader of the Manhattan clan noticed this, and looked at his former mate.

"What have you to do with this?" Goliath asked her, demanding an explanation.

"Idiot," the immortal simply said to Sevarius.

"Mother?!" Darlene asked unbelieving.

"What the good doctor was going to say… is that he lied to you from the beginning," Demona finally explained in a hard icy voice, eyeing Sevarius as not to make him forget that he had brought her into this. "The virus that the clones suffered from, wasn't a virus at all, but a security line the doctor created them with, to secure their loyalty."

"And you knew it?" Goliath asked his former mate, after having looked first on Sevarius and then on her, managing to sound at least a bit disappointed.

"Only recently after I saw the clones and heard what happened to them," Demona replied, glaring at first at him, and then on Sevarius. "He forgot to mention it when he created them for me and Thailog, but then again the bastard became sick the same time, even though he was one year older than the rest of them. Funny isn't it?"

Her tone made clear that indeed it wasn't.

Darlene stared at her mother while Goliath's gaze concentrated on the human doctor… He didn't like to be betrayed this way.

"So you had a cure all the time!" he said in a dangerously calm tone, trying hard to hold his temper.

"It's a serum, but after they turned to stone it seemed useless to mention," Sevarius excused himself.

Holding his temper seemed even harder now.

"You will give us this serum," Goliath ordered him. "And you will find a way to give it to them!"

"Unfortunately… " Sevarius began.

"I have the serum now," Demona stopped him, looking to Goliath. "And I told him to destroy the plans for it."

"Why?" Darlene asked unbelieving.

"They are dangerous," her mother snorted. "With Lucifia out there, they are too large a risk."

"Oh yes, Demona," Brooklyn said disgusted, staring at his former second. "First using them and then throwing them away… we know that of you."

The immortal gave the younger gargoyle a snarl.

"Can't you think, you fool?" she told him angrily. "Lucifia needs unhatched gargoyles to regain her full strength!"

Brooklyn's first impulse was to snap back, but he stopped as the full meaning of these words came to his mind.

Goliath studied his former love thinking.

"How sure are you that she could use them for the ritual?" he asked her.

"Sure enough to not take a risk," the immortal replied coldly.

"Couldn't Lucifia just take them while they're in stone, to make the ritual?" Darlene threw in.

"No," Demona replied. "Blood is essential for this."

The group remained silent for a moment until Goliath took the word.

"Our brother and sister," he asked Demona. "Aren't they in danger, too?"

Demona hesitated for no less than a second. "They hatched Goliath, the bodies they live in now doesn't change it."

Goliath and Demona shared a look, lasting just seconds, but showing the rift which was between the former mates now.

"You will give us the cure, Demona," Goliath ordered.

"Even you can't be so foolish," his former mate said with venom in her voice. "You would risk all our lives!"

"We will take measures." Goliath explained to her and the people surrounding them. "We will make sure that Lucifia doesn't lay her claws on them, but we won't just abandon them because of our fears… you will give us the cure."

"I will not," Demona replied, crossing her arms, starring in his eyes.

"I should have suspected such of you," the leader of the Manhattan clan stated disappointed.

"Oh really?" Demona said, first angry and then amused. "Well then, I have the serum for five of them… who do you suspect has the serum made for Thailog?"

Goliath suppressed a growl, as he realized what his former mate meant.

"This doesn't change your part in this," he accused the immortal, pointing with one talon on her. "You will give us the serum so we can heal them."

"And if not?" Demona replied dangerously, her eyes glowing slightly red. "What will you do then, Goliath?"

Her former mate growled, but before he or his second could say or even do anything, Darlene stepped between them.

"Please stop this," she half begged, half ordered, before looking to Goliath. "I will speak with my mother."

Goliath looked first at her, and then to his former love.

"We will speak with Xanatos," he said, directed to both gargess, and turned around, leaving the station together with his second.

Darlene turned to her mother, feeling fury rise in her, matching that of Demona, behind whose back Moore and Sevarius stood, forgotten by now. The latter seemingly eager to search for a good opportunity to leave, but found his only way blocked by a gargbeast, and a very angry immortal.

"You will give them the serum," Darlene told her mother with suppressed anger.

"I knew you were blind since you ran away with this human, but until now I didn't realize how silly you really are!" Demona said sharply "Don't you see that Goliath endangers you and your children if he frees them?"

"I trust his judgement," Darlene replied. "You should, too."

"No," Demona replied. "I will not take part in this foolishness."

Darlene snarled in frustration.

"Have you any idea how you sound?" she asked her mother.

"Oh, do you feel ashamed of me?" Demona asked. "Well, why don't you run away like last time?!"

Darlene found it hard to suppress a snarl.

"Don't change the topic, mother," she demanded. "Why do you refuse to give them the cure?"

"It's idiotic!" Demona replied. "Goliath endangers us all by wanting to free them, and I will not take part in this."

"After what Angela told me, they were harmless gargoyles trying to live their lives," Darlene countered. "And Delilah, she is practically…"

"DON'T mention that slut!" Demona snarled, swinging her tail, making Sevarius jump one step back so as not to be hit, and worrying Shade who was still sitting on the bed beside her.

"Fine, mother," Darlene said. "Then lets talk about the clan… Don't you think after all you did to them, you owe it to them to help them at least a bit? At least for letting you come here?!"

"I haven't asked them to let me come here," the blue gargoyle replied, sounding very defiant in Darlene's ears.

"Right, you didn't," her daughter said determined. "But maybe it is time you do it, time to make amends for what you did to them. Show them that you are worthy to be here, and to spent time with the hatchlings."

"I won't pay for my right to visit my children," Demona snarled. "Especially not by putting us all in danger. And if you think I have to, I think I better go."

With this the immortal walked past her daughter, Shade jumping from the bed and following her.

"Mother!" Darlene called after her. "Stop running away from your problems!"

Snarling, she ran after her.

Left in the room, Sevarius looked unsure to Moore.

"Do you think it is safe to go?" he asked cautiously.

Dr. Moore said nothing, but went to his desk.

Some Minutes Earlier; Xanatos's Room:

Fox and Xanatos lay in their bed, reading. Fox was reading "The Process" by Kafka, while David read an article in "The Economy" about a small but skilled Biotech Company in Japan that he intended to buy. Just then, a knock sounded on the door.

"Duty calls," Xanatos told his surprised wife.

Quickly he stood up, laid the newspaper on the bed table, and slipped into his slippers and walked over the room to open the door, finding the leader of the Manhattan clan and his second in command standing behind it.

"Xanatos, we have to talk," Goliath told him.

The billionaire nodded seriously, and closed the door behind him.

"Sevarius told us that you have the serum to heal the clones," Goliath accused him.

"The lack of reliability is one reason why I fired him," Xanatos replied. "To make it short, the answer is no."

"No, you haven't the serum?" Brooklyn asked skeptically.

"No, I won't give it to you," Xanatos corrected him, looking back to Goliath. "It is just one dose, so it is too few to help all the clones, and I won't help you in healing Thailog."

Goliath suppressed a growl, knowing that Alex slept in the room next door, and realizing that Xanatos had probably not seen the meaning of the clones for Lucifia, yet…

"You made him," he remembered Xanatos's instead. "He is your responsibility, too."

Xanatos crossed his arms, a gesture slightly steamed by the fact that he was wearing pajamas.

"Since he is, I can't help you in any effort to free him," the billionaire replied determined. "Thailog has proven to be a danger to your clan, me, my family and my son… and I will not help you to heal him so that he can continue this."

"I thought we could trust you," Goliath said, pointing on Xanatos. "Seemingly I was wrong… again."

"I assure you that you can trust me," the billionaire replied calm and not sounding offended, despite his eyes having flickered shortly. "And you can count on me, as long as these actions doesn't endanger my family, especially in times like this."

Goliath and Xanatos looked at each other for one moment longer, and then the human turned to his door.

"Good night, Goliath," Xanatos said, and walked back into his room, closing the door behind him.

The leader of the Manhattan clan looked at the door one moment longer, and then he walked along the floor.

"Goliath," Brooklyn called him. "I didn't want to contradict you in front of Demona or Xanatos, but what they said is partly true."

Goliath stopped his walk, looking at his second in fury.

"What?" he asked.

"The clones could help Lucifia in whatever she plans, and you know it can't be anything good." his second noted.

Goliath stared at the younger Gargoyle in anger.

"You want me to leave them in that way?" he demanded.

"Until the whole thing with Lucifia is over, why not?" Brooklyn exclaimed, taking a quick look down the corridor to make sure that no one was listening. "A few more months won't kill them."

"Assuming of course that we defeat her in a few months," Goliath fumed. "Lucifia isn't like anyone we've faced before, you know that. For all we know, we could be fighting her for years, perhaps forever."

"Maybe," Brooklyn admitted. "But even if we don't, we shouldn't risk reviving them, at least not yet. Like I said, they've survived this long, a little more time won't hurt."

"And if it did?" Goliath asked, facing him angrily. "Do you want to risk that someone smashes them in the mean while?"

"Do you want to risk that Lucifia uses them to create some sort of Armageddon?" Brooklyn answered with a question.

"Shall we risk their lives just because of our fears?" Goliath replied. "Where would this end? By imprisoning my sister and my brother, because they probably could be used for this, too?"

Brooklyn stared at his leader, and then he lowered his head, feeling the anger run out of him by these words.

"No," he admitted and leaned himself on the wall. "Naturally not."

Goliath looked for a moment at his second, feeling his own temperature calm down.

"I share your fears," he said, as reconciliation. "We will take measures, maybe even let some warriors live with the clones to protect them."

"And Thailog?" Brooklyn asked, looking up. "Do you think he will let you allow us to protect him?"

"I won't imprison him," Goliath replied calmly, knowing where this was heading.

"He is not one of the good guys," Brooklyn replied. "What if he turns the public opinion against us. For all we know of him, he could even ally himself with Lucifia."

"We stood at the same point with Demona once," Goliath said, trying to stay calm.

"Oh yes," Brooklyn replied cynically. "And look what a fine ally she makes."

His leader didn't answer on this at once, but remained calm.

"She isn't our enemy either," he finally noted. "And as long as I see the chance for a peaceful coexistence, I won't condemn someone to such a fate."

Brooklyn remained silent, knowing that his leader had made his decision.

"I just hope we won't regret it, Goliath," he said, sounding calmer.

Goliath said nothing, but nodded, ending the discussion for now.

"Let us see how far Darlene has come with Demona," he said, and walked down the corridor, followed by his second.

By going around a corner, the leader and his second found Sevarius, frantically pressing the button for the lift that was seemingly coming too slow.

"Sevarius!" Goliath exclaimed. "I have to speak to you."

The doctor stiffened by the voice, and looked at the big lavender gargoyle, as if he had been discovered trying a failed attempt to escape, which was nearly the truth.

"I was just trying to protect the interests of my customers!" Sevarius claimed, rising his case to his chest.

"When the clones turned to stone, you said there might be a way to bring them back,"

Goliath remembered him saying, ignoring his words. "How?"

The doctor swallowed, lowering his case.

"Well, the problem with the clones is a DNA sequence, which destroys their ability to draw energy during their stone sleep, so their cells try to compensate it by turning to stone all the time." Sevarius explained, being back in his terrain. "Theoretically, a device giving them energy in a form their cells could accept would free them long enough to give them the serum."

"Can you create such a device?" Goliath asked.

"If I can have a closer look on your processes during the stone sleep, maybe," the doctor replied unsure. "But it would take months."

Goliath stared at the human for a moment, thinking.

"How long would it take to create a new serum for all of them?" he asked reluctantly.

"Three months at least," Sevarius replied. "I have to start anew with it, and without DNA samples of the subjects, I have to remember it all. Do you want me do begin with it?"

Goliath hesitated for a second.

"That won't be necessary," he said. "One last thing… would the serum work if the dosage for five of them was shared between all six?"

Sevarius thought about it, so he couldn't see the unbelieving look that Brooklyn gave his leader behind his back.

"It should," the doctor guessed. "Naturally, I can't give you a guarantee."

Goliath nodded, and as if to confirm it, the elevator hummed and opened.

"Good night then," Sevarius excused himself, walking into the elevator. "Evening, Miss Maza."

Elisa walked out of the elevator and gave Sevarius an icy look, which gave him one more reason to be happy that the door closed and finally ended this visit for him.

"What has he found out?" Elisa asked her mate. "Are Darlene and her baby okay?"

Goliath took a deep breath, and began to explain.

02.09.98; 22:01; Castle Wyvern, Asrial's lab:

Asrial stood in her lab that was full of gadgets, and stared at her newest invention, the rebuild of a gliding machine she had once constructed in her cave, and which had subsequently fallen to dust in the thousand years that she had been supposedly dead.

Sighing, Asrial put the security mask back over her face and activated the soldering lamp, carefully coming closer to her invention to solder a part of the light fabric, with the aluminum skeleton of the hang glider.

As she believed it was finally tight enough, she put the soldering lamp out and placed it on the ground before turning to her PC and removing her map. Quickly, the clever sister rushed onto the stool and began to read the chat.

Eddison: Ready with the soldering?

Asrial smiled, ever since she had found a mail from Thomas in her PC, they had communicated over this special chat in a website of a large science magazine, and he still owed her an answer about how he had gotten over Xanatos's firewalls.

Quickly, she tipped in: -

Newton: Yes and I actually didn't set anything in fire.

Eddison: Good to hear. J

Newton: The fabric is great! Where did you learn about it?

Eddison: As I heard about gargoyles in Manhattan, I thought about methods to closer observance and…

Newton: CLOSER OBSERVANCE?

Eddison: Well I went through some magazines for hang gliders to watch you in your surrounding.

Newton: Did you ever try?

Eddison: No, I convinced myself that you should have your own life without having guys from the press hunting you from the air, too... Besides they looked pretty unsure.

Newton: You probably helped to make the air much safer through this decision.

Eddison. Rofl, probably!

Asrial smiled, and was going to write something, which really mattered for her in this moment, but just in that second she noticed the smell of something burning, which made her turn around.

"Oh no," she said, seeing the soldering lamp that she had placed much too near to her new gadget, making a part of its right wing glow through the heat that it still beamed off.

Quickly, Asrial rushed back to her new construction and placed the soldering lamp at a safer distance before studying her hang glider for the inflicted damage.

"Stupid," she said to herself.

Not much damage had been done, as the aluminum hadn't melted and the fabric had just been roasted a bit.

"I hope ye didn't activate Xanatos' fire system again, lass," a voice told her from behind.

Asrial shrieked, turning around in shock to see Hudson standing at her PC, holding a plate with filled rolls and a glass of milk.

"Elder," she greeted, still with shock in her voice, yet quickly realizing that her rookery father wasn't looking at the monitor.

"I didn't mean to surprise ye, lass." Hudson assured her, placing the plate and the glass on the table beside the monitor. "I just wanted to bring you the meal you missed… again."

Asrial blushed, looking at the clock, which hung over the entrance and realizing that he was right.

"I'm sorry," she admitted truthfully, and took a short glance at the Monitor.

Eddison: Newt?

"Sure ye are," Hudson noticed and sat himself on the stool. "But I ask myself if this is enough, lass."

Asrial swallowed, trying to force her eyes to stay on the elder instead of the monitor behind him, as she knew that some of the elders were learning how to read. She had never imagined that this would bring her in such a situation.

Relax! the clever sister admonished herself. He hasn't even read it, and even if he does, he doesn't know that Edison's forename is Thomas, not to speak of knowing whom I'm chatting with.

Having calmed herself down, she noticed that her rookery father was looking at her in a way, which showed that he believed she had drifted off again, something which was too close to the truth.

"Sorry, elder," Asrial said the second time in a short while. "I drifted off again."

"Aye, ye were, and I fear this is what ye do all your life," Hudson noticed. "Lass, I know how much ye like inventing, and I know that some of your gadgets help to make life easier for us, and even saved us once or twice, but is this what you want to fill your life with?"

Asrial bit her lip, as she had held this discussion with other elders before, and knew there was no right answer on this.

"I don't spend all night here," Asrial replied, though she knew all too well she did sometimes.

"No, but a lot of it," Hudson said, eyeing his daughter. "You know a breeding season has passed already."

Oh no, not this again! Asrial thought.

"I know, and if this is about eggs, I… " she began.

"Nay, lass, it is about you," her former leader stopped her. "It is about the time ye spend alone instead of sharing it with someone."

Asrial looked to the side.

"I never found someone amongst my brothers whom I believed I could love in such a way," she said. "And our leaders program of bringing mateless ones from the different clans together is reasonable, but… "

The clever sister stopped.

What shall I say? she asked herself. That I would feel like a piece of meat trying to find a buyer, if I searched for a mate like this?

"Aye," Hudson said, as if he understood the unsaid words. "Lass, go out more, share time with your siblings. If you truly search love, ye may find it… as I did."

"I will try," Asrial promised, taking a quick glance at the monitor, and noticed that the lines showing her chat with Thomas had been deleted from the box.

Hudson sighed and stood up.

"I hope so," he said and walked to the door.

Asrial relaxed, releasing the bit of air she had kept in her lungs since she had heard her rookery father's voice.

"Oh and, lass," Hudson said, standing at the door.

The clever sister gulped.

"Yes, elder?" Asrial said, barely taking breath.

"A nice sort of wing ye've created there," Hudson noticed, looking back on her. "But if ye ever want it to glide, ye need to take it out of here. And it is too big for the door… Night, lass!"

Asrial first looked at the closing door, and then on her newest gadget.

"Oh," she said to herself. "Great."

Typical, Asrial rebuked herself. My siblings would say it is typical for me, my head so sunk in work that I don't see the obvious.

She knelt in front of her newest gadget and thought about it. She would have to part the aluminum skeleton and maybe even tear the fabric by this…

Thomas!

Quickly, Asrial returned to her PC.

Newton: Still there?

Eddison: Yes, what happened?

Newton: Just a visit.

Eddison: Ah… still continuing the hang glider?

Asrial looked to her hang glider, feeling a sudden emptiness in her.

What was it for? Another gadget? One, which would never help her clan? Which she couldn't even bring out of this room without destroying it.

Asrial looked back to the monitor.

Newton: I need to go out for a bit.

Eddison: Is everything all right?

Asrial shortly considered telling him what she thought, but decided against it, feeling the urge for fresh air.

Newton: Yes, I just need fresh air, next night same time?

Edison: Sure, have a good night.

Newton: You, too.

Asrial left the chat room and turned off the PC, leaning back on her stool. She quickly threw a glance on the meal that the elder had brought her, and decided to take a roll and some sips of milk, as her stomach demanded his right before she stood up and left.

Silently she walked down the floors, to a door that led to the battlements where two members of her clan held guard.

Finding the needed fresh air, and a fantastic view over the city included, Asrial instead found herself watching the courtyard where a group of hatchlings were playing with a ball while older members of the clan followed calmer businesses.

Do I really shut myself off from them? she asked herself, but found no answers on this.

Just as she felt that maybe she should talk with her leader about this, the guards beside her moved, murmuring to each other, and it didn't take her long to see why.

Demona came into the courtyard, Shade on her tail, causing most of the present gargoyles to turn around to look at her. Even the hatchlings had stopped in their games. Eve stared at her rookery mother in anger.

"Going again?" she asked the immortal, giving her no time for an answer, and ran past her instead.

Wasn't she always the eager one when my rouge sister arrived? the clever sister asked herself, as she watched the red haired immortal share some words with her former second before walking on the wall and gliding away, with Shade in her arms. What has happened?

The fact that she didn't know the answer made her feel really uneasy.

02.09.98; 22:19; Castle Wyvern, floor before the medical station:

Darlene entered the corridor seconds after her mother, finding a startled Desdemona, Fuchsia, Angela and Thersities watching after Demona and Shade.

"You had no success in convincing her?" Desdemona asked.

"No…" Darlene replied, looking angrily after the immortal and the beast, before returning her look to her siblings. "You know?"

"Father told us," Angela said, looking worried on her sister.

"This really tops it," Fuchsia said, looking to Darlene.

"I know," she responded still angrily. "I will talk with her."

So she and her sisters walked in the direction the immortal had headed to.

"Wouldn't it be better to let her calm down first?" Thersities asked, hurrying after the females.

"Mother can be angry a very long time," Darlene replied without turning around. "And we don't have the time."

They reached the door leading to one of the castle's walls, the former second of the Moray clan past them.

"Have you seen our sister?" Desdemona asked the gray elder gargoyle.

"Aye," he replied. "She glided home with Shade."

"Damn!" Darlene exclaimed, hitting a wall with her fist, gaining surprised looks from the gargoyles surrounding her. "Lets follow her."

She looked into the faces of her siblings.

"What?" Darlene asked surprised.

"Maybe me and Angela should try to speak with her alone?" Desdemona suggested.

"You really look… tensed," Angela added.

Darlene looked on them for a second, feeling the slight pain in her right fist, and finally sighed.

"Okay," she gave in. "But please call me if you achieve anything."

Angela nodded and climbed on the parapet, together with Desdemona.

"Please tell our mates where we are going," Angela asked them.

Darlene nodded and watched her sisters jumping into the night.

"Othello is on patrol with his human partner, but will be back soon," Fuchsia told her sister. "I think Broadway should be in the kitchen."

"Would you mind telling me what has happened?" the former second of the Moray clan asked, looking skeptically on the three gargoyles.

02.09.98; 22:27; Castle Wyvern, Kitchen:

Broadway stared at the delicate piece of meat, lying in front of him on the great kitchen table, perfectly surrounded by two candles.

"Wuff!"

Being thrown out of his thoughts, the clan's cook looked down and saw two beasts, a large yellow one with a large beak and spikes growing on his back, and a female with red skin and two large horns above its forehead, looking on him with a hungry expression.

Broadway sighed, and cut the meat into two parts and handed them to the mates.

"At least you two have a good dinner," he noticed, watching the beasts walking away to take their meals in their own places, passing Lexington and Brooklyn on the way.

"No romantic surprise for your mate tonight?" the second of the Wyvern clan asked.

Broadway grunted.

"Take it easy," Lexington helped. "Angela will love it when she hears of it, besides you couldn't foresee it."

"Evil stepmother syndrome I guess," Broadway noticed, knowing that this was one of the things he would never be able to say in front of his mate, unless he wanted to know a lot of problems. "Do you want to go out for a glide?"

"I have to be on call for Goliath," Brooklyn said in an unusually serious and thoughtful tone, which was mostly unknown to his siblings even a year before.

"Sorry, bro," Lexington added. "Me and Bea have planned a glide later."

Broadway nodded.

"No problem," the cook said, and looked in thought on the candles before placing them in the cupboard.

"Well, we could do a little training?" Lexington said, noticing his brother's tone.

"Yeah, I heard some of our brothers wanted to be there, too," Brooklyn added with mild humor. "Flexing their muscles in front of Lana."

His aquamarine brother laughed.

"Okay, I'm with you." he said.

02.09.98; 22:32; Castle Wyvern, Courtyard:

"Okay, hatchlings. I see you all have your swords." Deborah said, taking up her own two-handed sword. "Our training lesson will be about this sword, and how to use it properly."

Pausing for a moment, Darlene looked over the courtyard and in the faces of Deborah's pupils, which were as earnest as they should be.

"For once you'll notice your sword is heavy," the teacher explained. "For the humans who normally fight with it, it is even heavier, but even you will have problems to hold it for a longer time, or even to wield it."

"If it is so difficult then why do we use it then?" a hatchling, in the line in front of her, asked.

"Because you often won't have the luxury to choose your weapons before a battle," Deborah explained with patience. "So it is important to be able to handle even the most difficult of weapons."

Some way back, Jarred lifted the sword with both claws and tried some swings. Despite being made out of wood, the sword which was over half of the hatchling's size, was heavy due to the pieces of metal being fixed on it.

"Boy, are they heavy," Jarred whispered to Connor, who like Eve stood close to him.

"Hmmm," Connor agreed murmuring, having the top of his own sword on the ground.

"I guess Goliath could wield them with one in both hand," Jarred noticed.

"You there, young one," a voice raced through the lines of hatchlings, finding its aim and making Jarred look up in sudden shock. "Have you something better to do?"

"Äh…" Jarred began nervously, looking through the rift in the crowd having suddenly opened between him and his teacher. "No?"

"Then come here to show the others how to follow my instructions," Deborah ordered, pointing on a place in front of her.

Meekly, Jarred followed the order.

Darlene looked on the courtyard, seeing her son training along with the other hatchlings, using wooden swords under the watchful eyes and the guidance of Deborah.

"At least they have their fun," Darlene said to the gargoyle beside her.

"Well," Thersities noticed less enthusiastically, leaning on the parapet besides her. "I sometimes had blisters on my claw through this."

Darlene chuckled, nearly against her will, and turned around to see her youngest child trying to catch a big yellow gargbeast that seemingly enjoyed the game, as did Gem.

"At least you had a chance against your opponent," Darlene said, looking dreamingly in the sky. "Try to win as a hatchling against someone who is double your size, and has at least 800 years more time for practicing."

"Try to win against her," Thersities replied, pointing on Deborah who showed the hatchling how to hold a two-handed sword properly. "If we didn't pay attention, she would make us run several laps around the castle."

"My mother let me sometimes clean the whole garden and the mansion when she caught me watching through the window instead of heading her teachings," Darlene remembered.

"Ha," the other gargoyle laughed. "I had to clean the whole courtyard with my brother, as our teacher caught us talking amongst us… and we had to glide ten times around the castle when she found we were sloppy by it."

The last words came out with visible pride.

"My mother once let me glide four times around the whole of Manhattan when she found me watching TV instead of reading a magic book," Darlene replied, placing her talons on her hips, as if to say he should try to top this.

"Well…" Thersities began, thinking hard, but then stopping "Okay, you win."

Darlene looked for a moment on him, and then she laughed whole heartily.

02.09.98; 22:43; Destine Mansion:

Storming into the living room, Demona was not in the mood to laugh.

"Idiots…" she whispered to herself. "All of them …"

Behind her Shade sat down, watching her friend worriedly with a whine.

She felt the old rage rising in her, and with eyes shining blood red; she searched for something to crush.

Then the immortal saw it, with images being as present as it happened right there, the time with her mate, the night having spent in tight embrace on the couch and the matings coming along with it…

Angrily Demona shook her head to ban these images since they made it hard for her to take breath.

Why is this happening now? she thought. I have lived here so long with no one, why now?

Suddenly the immortal heard a noise behind her, like steps coming nearer, so she turned around, snarling at the intruder with blood red eyes… and making her daughter walk one step back by this.

Demona calmed down a bit, seeing her, Angela and Desdemona standing in the door.

"Mother?" a slightly shocked Angela asked. "Are you all right?"

The immortal looked first at her, and then on her rookery sister standing beside her daughter.

"I'm fine," Demona half hissed, eyeing her guests skeptically, before turning her back to them and walking down the floor.

"We wanted…" Desdemona began, trying to hide her surprise over her sister's outburst.

"The answer is no," Demona said, walking through a door and entering the stairs without turning around.

Desdemona looked to Angela, who just shrugged her shoulders and sighed, and then followed her sister and Shade up.

They came into the immortal's sleep room where they found the door to the secret lower levels open, with Shade rushing in already.

Deep down in the basement, Demona was in her training room, taking up a Katana and turning to face a training dummy.

"Sister, maybe you should begin spending as much time training your diplomatic abilities, as you train your fighting techniques?" Desdemona told her rookery sister, standing calmly in the door.

"The humans use diplomacy to stab you in the back," Demona replied without even looking at her, and attacked the dummy with one stroke against the stomach. "Besides, it is nothing we needed to learn back then."

Desdemona became silent on this while her sister made some more merciless attacks on the poor dummy.

"Mother, why do you refuse to help the clones?" Angela began, stepping into the room and paying short attention to Shade who sat in one corner of the room, in some distance to Demona, so as not to disturb her.

"They are a danger to you and the clan... To everyone," Demona said tensed, not looking to her daughter, while piercing the dummy with her Katana.

"They are gargoyles like you and me," Angela said angrily, stepping as close to her mother as she could allow herself, so as not to come into the reach of the sword. "They love, they hate, they learn…"

"They are animals," the immortal replied, making another set of attacks against the dummy and feeling the heat rise in her, feeling the sweat beginning to run. "Beings cut out of one of Sevarius's bowls."

Desdemona meanwhile had listened to the conversation, and then she wandered along the room until she reached a wall with three Katanas, studying them while listening to the conversation at the same time.

"Who made them doesn't change what they are!" Angela insisted.

Demona didn't listen, but concentrated on the dummy in front of her and her next attack.

"I challenge you, sister," Desdemona's voice called to the immortal from behind, making her turn around.

To her surprise, the immortal saw her sister holding a Katana with one claw and looking at her.

"What is this?" Demona asked tensed.

"Training," Desdemona simply stated, ignoring Angela's surprised look.

"I'm not in the mood," her sister replied.

"Your opponent won't ask you for your mood before attacking you," Desdemona said and took her battle position.

Demona made her eyes to slits, but finally took the same position.

"You have to take the Katana with both claws," she said.

"It is a strange sword," Desdemona noticed, following her sister's instructions. "Where did you learn to wield it?"

"Japan," the immortal replied, still trying to adjust with her sister's change of topic.

Desdemona nodded, not asking further, but starting a slow attack to her sister's left, which she thus countered.

"I'm curious, sister," she asked, beginning a line of faster attack, which ended the swords crossing between the two sisters' face. "I and my mate are clones, too. Are we just creatures to you?"

Demona snarled, pushing her opponent's sword away and attacking her with a combinations of attacks, which forced her sister some steps back until she could block a blow on her left side.

"You know you are not," the immortal said. "Your souls were just transferred to these bodies, this is all."

They took the positions like at the beginning, both starring at each other, both ignoring the younger gargess and the gargbeast who were watching them.

"So you think Sevarius created their souls," Desdemona began, launching surprise strikes to both sides of her sister.

Demona defended herself against these strikes, just to launch her own.

"I'm won't start a theological discussion with you, sister," she replied. "Lucifia could use them to kill you all. Don't you see this? I won't take part in this, not…"

The immortal stopped and instead launched a daring attack on her sister, which she thus blocked and used to throw the sword out of Demona's claws, letting it land near the wall.

The sisters looked on each other, Desdemona holding the sharp top of the Katana to her sister's breast.

"It is our risk and decision, sister," she said calmly. "No one will hold it against you, whatever happens."

Carefully, Desdemona lowered the blade and looked at her sister, seeing different emotions fight in them.

"Fine, I'll help you," Demona said finally, angry over being defeated. "I'll give you the cure if you wish to heal them all... except one."

With this, the immortal left the room, walking past Angela and having Shade near her tail.

02.09.98; 23:02; Castle Wyvern, a floor:

Darlene walked along the floor, Thersities at her side, with Gem toddling a bit ahead.

She had just ended her talk with Goliath and Elisa, and still wished to have been able to give better answers than she had… regarding to the results of Sevarius' check up, and her talk with her mother.

For Elisa she had hoped the first more than the latter.

Sighing, she realized that they had reached the door they were looking for and knelt down, looking to her youngest… hopefully soon to be her second youngest child toddling in front of her.

"Come here," Darlene asked her daughter in a sweet voice, making the hatchling turn around in surprise. "Now come."

Gem wasn't able to resist her mother's call, and with her arms spread she turned to all fours and ran into her mother's embrace.

Darlene smiled, holding her hatchling tightly and strong as she stood up, watched by Thersities.

"She doesn't look tired," he noticed, looking to Gem cradled in her mother's arms.

"She will be," Darlene replied knowingly, softly stroking her daughter's hair. "She better sleeps now than later."

Thersities nodded, managing to hide the fact at how much he wished to continue the evening, which had started so good.

"Good, sleep well then," he said instead. "I will inform you if something happens."

Darlene nodded with a slight smile and opened the door, but stopped in the middle of it.

"Brother?" she addressed him.

"Mmm?" Thersities asked, feeling hope rise in him.

"Do you think I made a mistake?" Darlene asked him, sounding suddenly very vulnerable. "By not allowing Sevarius to take probes of my other children I mean?"

Thersities swallowed, leaning on one of the corridor's walls.

"Well," the gargoyle began. "He is as trustable as a bandit you meet in the middle of the forest."

"Right," Darlene agreed. "But he said that to know what will happen with the child I carry, he might need probes."

"Might is not shall…" Thersities noticed, having gained some scowl by this sort of word gamble from his elder's once. "He still might be able to help you without them, or you'll need no help at all…"

Darlene sighed and cradled Gem in her arms who had become fussy. How much she wished that!

"So I'll have to wait…" she told herself more than anyone else.

Thersities just nodded, knowing there was nothing more to say.

"Thank you," Darlene said, looking at the gargoyle in front of her in a way, which made his heart beat in a strange and yet jolly way before vanishing behind the door.

Thersities still looked at the door for a second, and then he began to walk along the floor, starting to whistle, lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice when he passed his leader and his leader's mate.

Both looked at the happy gargoyle leaving their sight.

"Seemingly he and Darlene are getting along," Elisa noticed.

"Let's wish them well," Goliath replied, looking to his mate.

They both shared a short look of perfect understanding, which made Elisa smile.

"I still wished Derek had some telephones down there," she said, as they walked further. "Then we wouldn't need to go down to see him."

Goliath thought about it.

"He wants to protect his clan," he replied. "They need secrecy even more than we do."

"Tell Mom the next time she complains to me about not being able to speak with her son…" Elisa noticed with a hint of humor.

"I wish we had better news to bring," Goliath said thoughtfully.

"What?" Elisa asked, stopping in surprise. "Big guy, it will be the best news he's had in weeks."

"It will still be months until we have the chance to awaken them," Goliath reminded her. "On Sevarius's word."

The detective looked into the clan leader's eyes, touching his chest.

"He will be happy," Elisa confirmed.

The look between them made everything clear, and as if it was the most natural thing in the world… the human's and the gargoyle's face moved closer to a kiss.

"Mr. Goliath?" a voice stopped them.

The mates looked on one of Xanatos's mercenaries, doing his night shift and now holding a cell phone to the large gargoyle.

"Your daughter," the mercenary said, ignoring the hard look of the couple.

Goliath took the cell phone and looked to his mate before taking the phone to his right ear, his eyes spoke for themselves.

"Angela?" he asked.

Seconds passed.

"What did you achieve?" Goliath asked further.

More seconds passed and the gargoyle's face relaxed a second, just to become hard again.

"Give her to me," he asked.

"What is it?" Elisa asked seriously, ignoring Xanatos's mercenary for now.

"Demona just wants to give us the serum if we promise to not treat Thailog," Goliath said, looking to his mate.

02.09.98; 23:05; Destine Mansion, Demona's Working Room:

Demona placed the whisky and a glass on the table beside the PC, taking a short look on the data of her company, which was loading up after she had entered the password, and to Shade who had taken her place beside the desk.

"You know our brother won't accept your terms," the voice of her sister noticed.

"That's his problem," the immortal replied in an icy voice, and sat down before looking up to see Desdemona enter. "Do you want something? Then take yourself a glass."

Desdemona just shook her head, eyeing her sister skeptically.

"You know what our teacher would say on this," Desdemona objected, now standing close by her sister and taking a look on the monitor of the computer.

"You sound as if you were still a hatchling under her dreadful wing… relax, sister. We are free." Demona noted with the slightest hint of humor and gloating smile before pouring the whisky in her glass. "Besides, even Hudson allows himself a drink from time to time, so there is no reason to worry."

Desdemona's mind played with noticing that their former leader's love for alcohol had once been a reason to worry, but dropped it for the matter of peace, and instead she continued to study the monitor of the PC.

"News of your company?" she asked.

"I have ordered my managers to enter every deal over five hundred thousand in this program, which only I have full access on," Demona explained. "This way, I stay in control."

Desdemona stared on her sister, but before she was able to comment on this, Angela entered, a cell phone in her claw.

"Father wants to speak with you," she explained with an unhappy face, and handed the phone to her mother.

Demona replied this with her face becoming hard and turning to the window while taking the phone to her ears.

"Speak," she ordered, cutting out the effort of polite greetings.

Some seconds past while the two other gargesses in the room looked in worry how the face of the immortal became darker.

"This is not my problem!" she said icily in the phone.

Her tail swung dangerously, as she once again listened to her former mate.

"Don't start with this…" Demona stopped the gargoyle on the other line with a snarl. "You don't have…"

She stopped, as her interlocutor cut her off in return while Desdemona and Angela shared a look, and Shade commented it by turning her head.

"No," the immortal said to the phone.

Seconds later, the gargess's eyes turned red.

"FINE!" Demona screamed into the phone. "Then let them stay there until the building crumbles to dust!"

To make it clear that she had ended the discussion, the immortal threw the cell behind her, making it hit the ground hard, before she commented it by a slight growl and returned to her computer.

Desdemona and Angela shared a look, before the first went to her sister's table while the latter took up the surprisingly undamaged cell phone.

"Sister, did you truly expect anything else?" Desdemona asked her sister, propping her claws on the table.

Demona, who had returned her eyes to the monitor but not before taking another swallow of whisky, didn't look up.

"I don't care," she replied. "He can leave them this way for a thousand years… maybe until even the Quarrymen turn up again, and I have one problem less."

Desdemona's claws tensed, and she left some deep lines in the expensive table.

"You aren't serious?" she more ordered then believed. "Sister, look at me!"

Demona did so, even for just a second, before turning her eyes back to the monitor.

"Besides from your relationship to Goliath…" Desdemona began, taking a deep breath and trying to calm down.

"I didn't know I still had a relationship with Goliath, sister," Demona replied sarcastically, yet having the hint of another emotion in her voice.

"Beside this," Desdemona continued, deciding not to go in on this remark. "It wouldn't harm your reputation to show more readiness to cooperate."

"I don't care," Demona just replied, staring on her monitor.

"What do you care for then?" her sister asked.

The immortal looked at the monitor and was about to answer, when she stopped and looked at Angela who was once again talking on the phone.

"You are talking with your father?" Demona asked her daughter while standing up. "Give him to me."

Angela, like Desdemona, looked genuinely surprised, but she handed the phone to her mother as she thus walked to her under the eyes of two gargesses and a beast.

"Goliath, listen," Demona greeted her former love, once again looking to the window. "There is one thing I demand from you for freeing Thailog."

Three pairs of ears listened while she made her demand.

"I'm serious," Demona replied to Goliath's answer, which came after a while. "And I know how."

A longer silence followed, on which she took a look at her sister and her daughter, whose eyes lacked of any approval, before she received Goliath's answer, which made her eyes look hard.

"So Sevarius said it?" Demona noticed in a cool voice. "Well then, let me higher my offer… what if I offered you a way to free your precious clones and give them the cure without waiting for so long?"

Two seconds passed.

"With magic of course," was the simple answer to an unknown question.

An even longer silence followed, in which nothing was said in the phone, and in which Demona saw no need to turn around, until finally the answer came.

"Come to me in seven hours," she said.

With this, the immortal ended the call and looked into the night, satisfied that the situation might turn out to be her advantage, she then looked around, facing two not so happy faces.

"What?" Demona asked.

03.09.98; 7:01; Destine Mansion, Demona's Working Room:

Demona watched, as her former mate landed on the balcony with his current mate in his arms.

"What does she want here?" she greeted him, still in the air.

Goliath replied her look hard while sitting Elisa down.

"No one of the clan glides alone with Lucifia out there," he responded.

"As if she could help you in a fight," Demona said with contempt, looking from Goliath to Elisa.

"A good night you too, Demona," Elisa responded mildly ironic, seeing no need to anger the immortal further.

The immortal glared at the detective.

"Mother," a disapproving voice from her back called her.

Demona turned around to see Darlene standing in the door, looking a bit sour on her mother.

"Why don't you prepare everything up there while I talk with our guests?" she heard her biological oldest child suggest.

Demona first looked on her daughter, and then back to her new guests.

"Do me a favor, and cut out the embracing," she noted.

With these words she walked past her daughter, walking into her house in the direction of the stairs.

"I'm sorry," Darlene explained, once she was sure her mother was out of sight.

"You don't have to be," Goliath replied.

"Do you know what your mother has planned?" Elisa asked, coming to her point.

Darlene took a quick look in where Jarred was watching TV with Shade sitting by his side.

"I know she prepared two spells," she revealed. "One, the illusion spell is pretty harmless, but I have never seen mother use the other spell."

Goliath looked at Darlene, and then he nodded.

"We should go up," he suggested.

Agreeing with him, Darlene lead them in, walking through the living room where they were greeted by Jarred, up the stairs to her mother's working room.

In her room, Demona was leaned over a scroll lying on her desk beside some other papers, studying it as she heard the others entering.

"What is your plan?" Goliath asked his former love directly.

"You will accompany me to Nightstone, by using an illusion spell, under the name of Alexander Thailog," Demona explained while turning to him and leaned on the table, trying her best to ignore Elisa who was looking around the room. "There we will meet with Thailog's trustee, and you will tell him that you wish to overwrite your parts of Nightstone to me."

"Why do you need me for your scheming?" Goliath asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Demona asked tensed. "Since he couldn't reveal himself, Thailog gave his trustee a device with his recorded voice so that he could prove his identity when he gave him orders. I need you… or better yet, your voice for it."

"Isn't it a bit late for that?" Elisa asked, looking demonstratively to the clock in the room.

Demona glared at her archenemy before turning to Goliath for an answer.

"I had some time to discover a spell, which should prevent you from turning to stone during the day," she explained. "My limousine will take us at 8:15, until then we have a lot to go through."

Elisa, Goliath and Darlene looked equally surprised.

"Mother, why didn't you tell me?" her daughter asked, feeling curious by the opportunities this spell offered.

"It is a spell created to stop humans from falling to sleep," Demona explained, first looking at her daughter and then to her former mate. "I had no opportunity to test it before."

"And you want to use Goliath as guinea pig?" Elisa asked outraged.

"I said it had a price," Demona answered the human, looking on her before turning to Goliath. "It should be harmless."

Goliath replied the look.

"Let us begin." he said.

03.09.98; 8:21; Castle Wyvern, Xanatos's office:

Xanatos watched the videotape calmly. Originally he had planned to go through the reports of the scientists of his tech section before he would go to an unannounced visit at his biotech labors, but this was before Owen had given him a tape of much more importance.

"They are a clan that needs our help," Goliath explained in the great hall where pretty much the whole clan had gathered. "We can't deny it to them."

"They are creatures made to fight you," Kronos threw in. "And from what you told us, they could be an even greater threat if Lucifia uses them to get her strength back."

"Is this possible?" Xanatos asked his majordomo. "And I ask the fey who is ordered to defend Alex."

Owen lowered his glasses and rubbed them.

"It is a possibility," the fey in disguise explained. "But Puck has no experience with this sort of magic, so he can't say for sure."

Xanatos remained silent a moment longer, watching on the monitor how Kronos tried to appeal to the clan for its security.

"He has worked to overthrow Goliath for some time now," The billionaire noticed, in a sudden change of topic, as it seemed, rubbing his beard.

"Indeed, Sir," Owen agreed. "He even appealed to the clan's second to change his sides for the sake of the clan an hour before this meeting."

Surprised, Xanatos looked to his major-domo.

"Didn't he try to put Brooklyn out of his post, saying he was too young?" he asked.

"And too immature," Owen added. "The guard who accidentally overheard this talk said his reaction was negative."

Xanatos nodded, and watched the large black skinned gargoyle on the monitor a moment longer, reminding himself that he had to keep an eye on him before returning his attention completely to the monitor.

"If… it is something we don't know yet," Goliath replied to the question of one clan member, looking at the same time over the faces of his clan. "Should we truly abandon another clan of gargoyles, no matter of their origin, just because of our fears?"

Sitting in his chair, Xanatos had to applaud Goliath's skills of talking.

"Goliath won the argument I guess?" he asked Owen.

Owen nodded.

"Most of the clan is on his side in this, though they stay worried about it," Owen made it short.

Xanatos leaned back in his chair and watched the ongoing discussion on his monitor.

"Please destroy the tape and tell our guards to be silent about it," he ordered his servant. "It seems I will have to take steps of my own, and Goliath better not find out."

03.09.98; 8:42; Nightstone Unlimited Building, Plaza:

A luxurious black limousine stopped before the entrance of the building, and a beautiful woman with red hair and an expensive red dress stepped out. Just a second later, a tall man with long black hair and muscles just hidden under clothing seemingly as expensive as that of the woman, followed.

For a long moment, he looked around in the world brightened by a rising sun, from under his sunglasses and felt the fresh yet surprisingly mild wind. It lasted just two seconds until he bowed himself to gallantly help a woman with long black hair out of the limousine, both of them sharing a long deep look.

"Will you come on, or do you prefer holding hands here the whole morning?" Dominique asked the couple, glaring on them while trying not to vomit.

Goliath gave his former love a look unreadable under the black glass.

"I will hurry," he promised Elisa while turning back to her.

Elisa nodded, and leaned on a wall near the entrance while watching the two persons, who were not really humans, enter the building.

Inside, Dominique stormed forwards, making it hard for Goliath to follow without running despite his greater size. They soon reached the two watchmen in black uniforms, in the entrance, rising from their seats as they saw their boss approaching.

Dominique gave them a look, which showed them that she wasn't satisfied with them and never would be before turning to the elevators.

"Come, Alexander," she advised the man following her.

The gargoyle, hidden by an illusion spell, followed her wordless to the elevators, passing the intimidated watchmen who were trying not to show it, and entered the elevator as it came.

In it, Dominique pressed a button to one of the upper levels and then looked to her former mate as the door had closed.

"The human should be there already," she told him, leaning on one side of the wall and studying him coldly. "Remember, his name is Alfred Rosenberg."

"And Thailog hired him in the August two years ago," Goliath said, standing a bit aside from her, his arms crossed, feeling the elevator move higher.

"Good," Dominique replied icily. "Now take the glasses off. The light here should be dimmed enough."

Goliath did so, and pulled the sunglasses from his nose, hesitating a moment before clipping them in his breast pocket, which were indeed his cloaked wings, and trying to ignore the strange feeling of this.

In this moment, the doors of the elevator opened and he once again followed Dominique. He still had a strange feeling by seeing his former mate as a human, no matter how long he had known of this, and looking human himself made all of this even stranger.

Seeing Dominique walking to an open door, Goliath listened to the sound his feet claws made while he walked along the hard stone floor. Even when Demona had assured him that the human ears were too insensitive to notice the difference to normal footsteps, he still asked himself if it wasn't too large a risk.

He met up with his former love just as they reached the door leading to a larger room.

In it were a lot of humans, working on separate tables divided only by small boards of wood, which should simulate something like a private sphere. The humans were bowed over papers, calculators, and spoke in various phones, everyone trying to do the hard work for a company that worked on all continents.

They passed them on their way to the door on the other side of the room, and Goliath could listen how the voices became more silent while Dominique seemingly paid them no attention, looking to the door that brought them closer to her office.

Suddenly she stopped in the middle of the way, turning her head to the working places and overlooking them with sharp eyes, searching something.

Before Goliath could even begin to ask a question, Dominique walked through the first line of working places and planted herself in front of one in the second line, glaring at its owner who phoned busily.

Dominique remained silent and this silence spread in the ranks of the working places, even though all other workers seemed suddenly very busy as Goliath noticed.

It was a heart beat later that he realized what his former mate had heard, which was when he begun to follow her and two heart beats later when the owner of the working place, a woman with brown hair looked up, slowly sinking the telephone.

"I don't think it is an official phone-talk, nor is it this company's new policy to flirt with customers," Dominique noticed, hard green eyes starring down on her employee who begun to rose.

"No," the woman said, now standing before her boss, having problems to look into her eyes.

"Good, because I don't want Mr. Thailog to have this expression," Dominique concluded. "This has been your second warning, Miss Fletcher. You are dismissed, pack your belongings and leave this building."

Goliath watched how the woman's face grew white though she was trying to hide it, and she had to prop herself on the table, seemingly unprepared for this as her former boss turned around.

"This isn't necessary," he told his former mate walking to him.

"It is," Dominique replied, showing no sign of mercy.

Goliath looked back to the woman she had called Fletcher, and saw that she was trying hard to hold back her tears, maybe thinking on the family she had to support.

"Let her keep her job." Goliath said, stepping in Dominique's way, earning him a cold look from her green eyes. "To celebrate our contract."

The human turned gargoyle stared on her former love a moment longer, and then she looked on her fired employee.

"Be thankful for Mr. Thailog's intervention," the CEO told her in a way as if she actually expected her to be grateful. "You may keep your job, but one more neglect and I'll throw you out, no matter who speaks in your favor."

Having said everything, which was needed, Dominique turned around, walking straight to the door. Behind her, Alexander looked at Mrs. Fletcher who now sank into her chair, trying to hide the trembling of her hand.

"Thank you," she told him.

"There is no reason for it," Goliath replied, and turned around to follow his former mate.

He passed the door, leading to a smaller room where he caught up to Dominique just before one secretary who was sitting by another door, right of her, a floor that led to two elevators and some more rooms.

"You could have chosen another way to introduce me to them," Goliath told her.

Dominique looked at him for a moment in a reserved way by this accusation, not showing if it was accurate.

"A Mr. Rosenberg is waiting in your office," the secretary stated, not showing if she had overheard the sentences.

Dominique nodded, and led her brother into her office where Rosenberg was already sitting in the chair in front of her desk.

"Miss Destine," he stood up and greeted her by shaking her hand. "Ah, and Mr. Thailog… so we finally meet."

Goliath hesitated the half of a second before accepting Rosenberg's hand, despite the fact that Demona had assured him that the illusion would withstand such short contact.

"It seemed time," he said.

Rosenberg seemed to notice the difference of the hand's structure from normal ones, but he didn't realized that he had indeed just shaken a claw since his face quickly overcame its surprised expression.

Dominique meanwhile had taken a quick glance over the papers, both the ones he had brought with him, and the one she had faxed over to her office, noticing to her pleasure that all seemed correct.

"Alexander is a busy man, and I have my business, too." she told Rosenberg, giving Goliath a quick glance. "Lets put this behind us."

The man nodded and walked to the desk, taking his bag from under the chair he had sat on and opening it.

"I'm a bit surprised that you divorced after such a successful partnership," Rosenberg noticed, looking in his back.

Dominique and Goliath exchanged a look.

"We had differences over the course of this company," Goliath answered as Demona had told him to say.

"Ah," Rosenberg noticed, taking a voice recorder out of his bag and placing it on the chair. "But to simply hand your part of such a thriving company over to your partner is strange."

He sounded suspicious, and Dominique gave the human a look that said that it was none of his business, but before she could say something, Goliath replied.

"I do it for my cl… family." he noticed, looking straight to Rosenberg. "Their health is more important to me than any money."

Goliath hadn't to look at his former love to know that her eyes had turned to slits, but the human didn't seem to notice.

"Too true," Rosenberg noticed, seemingly satisfied and pressing a button on the machine. "Please give the password."

"Rubin Twilight." Goliath said, shortly asking himself the question where Demona had got it from?

A green light turned on the machine and Rosenbaum, seemingly satisfied, pressed a button that made it turn off.

"Give me the contract then," he asked.

Dominique handed him a paper, which he signed with a ballpoint pen that he pulled out of his breast pocket, and then handed it back to Dominique who signed it, too, before handing it to Alexander.

Goliath hesitated a second. Despite the words said before, he felt unsure, not because of his signature, which they had trained before to be similar to Thailog's, but of what he was doing right now.

Can I give her Thailog's parts of the company now, after I've seen how she treats the humans here? he asked himself, taking a short look on his former mate who seemed to grow uncomfortable with his hesitation. After I know what she can do with it?

Goliath looked back on the contract, and finally put his signature on it.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed my services," Rosenbaum said, and began to pack his bag, which Goliath responded with a short nod.

Dominique meanwhile had set herself in her chair, looking first on the signed contract, and then on Goliath as the human had left.

"Are you happy now, Demona?" Goliath asked his sister with tension in his voice.

"Maybe not happy, but satisfied," Dominique replied calmly. "And you should be, too. Remember, now you can free your beloved clones. Wasn't it worth it?"

"The serum?" Goliath just asked.

Dominique snorted.

"I will hold my part of the bargain, don't worry," she explained. "Now why don't you just leave with your detective and go home, phone me when you're there, and I'll come to free you from the spell and to give you the serum."

Goliath gave her a short look and then left, deciding to get back to his mate as soon as possible.

03.09.98; 9:34; Nightstone Unlimited Building, Plaza:

Elisa began to feel uncomfortable, catching herself by watching on her watch. Sure she didn't believe that Demona would do anything to harm Goliath, especially since he was much superior to her in her human form, but then again… she had her doubts at how far the rationality of this immortal went.

The detective was just about to go into the building, when its doors opened and Goliath in his disguise as Alexander Thailog stepped out.

"How did it go?" Elisa asked.

"She gives us the cure when we meet in the castle," Goliath replied.

"Sounds pretty good. Where's the snag?" his mate asked, sensing something in his voice.

Goliath now stood pretty in the middle way between the entrance and the street, and looked in the sky, seeing the sun once again without sunglasses despite Demona's advises.

"There probably is none," he noticed, as if to convince himself. "I'm just worried."

Elisa nodded, watching him for some seconds as he took out the sunglasses of whatever formed his breast pocket, under the disguise, and set them on, as he felt that his eyes were beginning to ache.

"What do you think about a little stroll in the park?" Elisa asked.

Goliath looked at his mate and smiled.

"This is a fabulous idea, my Elisa," he told her.

His mate gave him a smile and grabbed his hand/claw, leading him to show him her world.

03.09.98; 12:34; Central Park:

A happy couple, a woman wearing a big red bomber jacket, and a tall man wearing exclusive clothes, walked through the central park, eating hotdogs.

"And?" Elisa asked. "Is it as you remember from the illusion Titania gave you?"

Goliath swallowed another part of his hotdog.

"It is different," he answered "I was a human in it, not just under an illusion, and my senses seem to take it more… intensive."

His mate nodded, knowing that gargoyle senses were more sensitive than that of humans.

"Let's sit down for a bit," Elisa suggested, pointing on a free banc.

As they did so they silently looked at each other, both relishing the moment.

Suddenly the voices of children, four, the half of them boys and the other girls, passed them in loud chatter, seemingly running through the park while half chasing each other, half making a race.

Goliath watched his love seeing the children pass, saw the joy in her eyes, but also a sadness that her eyes couldn't truly hide, and he knew that there was a topic he had to talk soon with her.

"Tell me," Elisa asked him. "Did we stroll through the park in your illusion, too?"

Goliath shook his head.

"I don't know. But when I see how much you like it, I guess we did…" he began and took down his glasses to see his love better. "Elisa, I know you wished more of this…"

Elisa pressed a finger on his lips, making him silent.

"All I wish is to spend time with you, no matter what form we have," she revealed, looking deep into his eyes. "But I know we both have duties, so lets not complain, but live now."

Goliath nodded seriously, which made Elisa smile and swallow another part of her hotdog while her mate did the same, feeling suddenly very hungry.

He still was deeply surprised how much the day differed from the night. It wasn't just the sun and the warmth, but the humans seemed to be much different… nicer, more relaxed, and more ready to laugh… maybe because the world of daylight was truly their world, as the world of the night was that of his race.

Maybe our races could coexist more peacefully if we met by day and just not by night, Goliath thought, but put this aside, realizing that he was drifting from the present, and instead concentrated on his mate. My Elisa…

"You always look beautiful, Elisa," he began, "in the shine of the moon, as in the shine of the sun."

Elisa smiled by this compliment.

"And I will always love you," she replied, "no matter what form or time."

They shared a look of deep passion and then gave each other a deep passionate kiss before looking in each others eyes again so that it needed some seconds until they noticed the were being watched.

"Does the lovely couple want to hold this memory with one of my paintings?" a freelance painter with materials under his right arm, asked sensing a possibility to earn money.

"Why not," Elisa agreed.

03.09.98; 14:21; Elisa's Old Apartment:

Elisa lay naked and exhausted beside her mate, looking how her love was similarly exhausted, looking at her. Silently she thought about thanking Demona for this illusion spell, which seemed to hold even under the wild motion of their sex…but then again she wouldn't do it.

Another person she had to thank was her former landlord, who had insisted her to hold this apartment three months longer before she could terminate the lease, giving them the perfect opportunity to use this half empty apartment.

As Goliath had removed his loincloth, the illusion spell had let it seem as if he had removed his trousers, shoes, socks and underwear at the same time, and even when it was now a loincloth laying at the right side of the bed, her mate's under half stayed human.

Silently she looked on him, thanking heaven for such a great husband and mate, and was about to kiss him when he groaned.

"What is it?" Elisa asked.

Goliath sat up on his side of the bed, shaking his head.

"I feel strange," he said, holding his head. "All is dizzy."

Elisa had stood up, running to his side and looking into his eyes.

"Your eyes are widened," she noticed.

"I feel weak," Goliath said.

Seeing the look on her mate's face, Elisa made a decision.

"Wait," she asked him, turned around and took the card with Demona's number out of one of the pockets of her jacket, taking up her telephone and dialing it.

"Destine here," a tensed voiced answered her call.

"Demona, something is wrong with Goliath," Elisa said, wasting no time on politeness. "He feels weak and dizzy."

"I told you to go back to the castle fast," Demona accused her. "What took you so long?"

Elisa didn't answer this, but looked on her mate who still sat on the bed, his head sunk and breathing heavily.

"What is happening to him?" she demanded to know.

"The lack of stone sleep and the illusion spell has drained energy from him," Demona explained from the other end of the line. "I'll come to the castle."

"We aren't in the castle, but in my apartment," Elisa revealed.

"What are you doing there?!" the immortal on the other side asked furiously.

"No time, can you come here?" Elisa replied, not bothering herself to ask if the immortal knew where she lived.

Demona meanwhile had to hold herself back to speak.

"I will go to my mansion first to get the spell and the serum," she said. "Bring Goliath to the castle and let me take off the illusion, I will meet you there."

Elisa wanted to ask one more thing, but Demona had already hung up.

"Hold on," she told her mate, quickly dialing a number. "I'll call a taxi."

03.09.98; 15:13; Castle Wyvern:

The doors to that of the elevators opened, and Dominique walked in, a metal bag in her left hand and starring at Owen.

"Where?" the immortal asked half snarling,

"Follow me please," the fey in disguise said.

Dominique did so, and they quickly reached a room, which she recognized as one for the more important members of the guard.

Owen knocked, but Dominique pushed him aside, pressed the bag in his arms and opened the door before anyone in there could response. In the room, Elisa was pressing a wet cloth against Goliath's forehead who was lying on the bed, his eyes closed, once again showing his true form.

When the immortal went closer, Elisa looked to her while Goliath opened his eyes.

"Have you brought the serum?" he asked.

Dominique laughed at this without even the hint of humor.

"Yes, I brought you the serum for your precious clones," she explained, pointing on the bag Owen held now. "Now stand up and walk to the window."

Goliath rose from the bed, with the help of Elisa who put the wet clothes back in the dish, while Dominique took a scroll out of her pocket.

"Why don't you just break the spell now?" Elisa asked, helping her mate to stand up and to walk the distance to the window.

"Sevarius believes that we draw energy from the sun and the warmth during the day," Dominique explained, absently studying her scroll.

As she looked up, the immortal noticed that her former mate had reached the place where the sun fell in the room and now looked at her.

"Good," the sorceress said, looked on the scroll she held in her right hand and raised her left one while she spoke the spell.

Five seconds later, a statue kneeled in the middle of the room, bathed in the light of the day.

Relaxing a bit, Elisa softly stroked the hair of her mate now been turned to stone, watched with disgust by Dominique who suddenly realized that this was Elisa's room in the castle. Darlene had told her about it.

"I hope it was worth the fun," she commented sharply.

Before Elisa could find time for an answer, Dominique had turned around, passing a calm Owen while trying to leave the castle on the fastest way, but as she went down the floor, Elisa followed her furiously.

"Yes, Demona, it was worth it," Elisa hissed while Dominique pressed the button of the elevator. "The time I spent with my mate was the most wonderful thing I had in some time, and I thank you for it."

Dominique's eyes lit up in red fire, and she snarled on her ex-mate's current.

"You filthy little human who…" she began, taking a step to her and considering an attack.

"What I hope for you," Elisa said before Dominique could use a rather ugly word. "Is that your little fight with Thailog is worth it, because you not only put it before the lives of the other clones, but over Goliath's trust."

"Nothing of this counts for me," Dominique replied, as the door of the elevator opened and she stepped in.

"It better not," Elisa replied. "For your own future here."

Dominique's eyes lid up red, but before she could reply anything the doors closed, leaving Elisa standing on the floor alone.

03.09.98; 22:41; 23rd Precinct; Top of the clock tower:

The group of gargoyles, consisting of Goliath who led them, Hudson, Angela, Desdemona and Diomedes with their mates, Demona, Darlene and Javin accompanied by Talon and Claw, landed on the roof of the tower that had been home to five of them to what seemed a long time ago.

Elisa and Chavez who came out of the tower once they heard the winged creatures land welcomed them.

"Goliath," Chavez greeted the leader of the Manhattan clan. "I knew you would bring help, but I didn't expect such a mass."

"We felt it was necessary to transport and protect the clones," Goliath replied, taking a short look around. "You know what we are going to do?"

"Yes, I told my other officers that we would meet, so you shouldn't be disturbed," Chavez told him.

Goliath nodded thankfully, and took himself the time to be greeted by his mate who asked him how the glide had been, not fully able to hide the worry in her eyes over her mate's still weakened health from their day trip.

Meanwhile, Chavez turned to Talon.

"Derek?" she asked him.

The mutated human nodded.

"It has been some time," he replied, unsure of the situation himself and happy that his big sister had done the explanation already. "May I introduce you to Claw."

The mute Mutate beside him bowed shortly.

"It is a pleasure," Chavez said.

A bid from Hudson and his mate stood by the stone form of Burbank, Deborah studying the clone of her mate, while the rest of them stood around, watching how Demona prepared her spell by opening a blanket with some interesting magical signs knitted in.

"Are you sure this will work?" Desdemona asked, as her sister prepared the blanket by laying five stones on it.

"It worked with Goliath," Demona explained while staring on the stones. "If there is enough life left in them, it will work on the clones."

"They looked pretty much dying when they where flesh last time," Broadway noticed.

Demona snorted.

"You should rather worry about if your cure works," the immortal said, taking a short look to the iron suitcase that the thicker gargoyle had taken during their glide, and which now stood by his side.

Broadway looked down at it, thinking on the five syringes in it that Owen had put in a serum, made for the four clones while they slept.

"It better be," he grumbled.

Angela laid a claw on her mate's massive shoulder.

"Sevarius told us that if we divide the serum amongst all of them, it could actually loose its effect," she revealed to her mother. "Do you think it will work?"

"Am I a doctor?" the immortal asked sarcastically. "What happens with them isn't my business, only that the spell works correctly."

These words met the disapproval of the gargoyles around her, and of someone else.

"It better do," Talon said, stepping closer to her, as Goliath, Chavez, Elisa and Matt were in a discussion. "We still have a cell free for you down in the labyrinth."

Demona snarled on this, her eyes turning red as she rose, but Darlene was quickly by her side, holding her back while looking on Talon.

"Please," she asked both of them. "Can't you just stay peacefully?"

"Tell me mutate, now that your sister has lost her pet, has she brought you her collar and Whiskas?" Demona asked, ignoring her daughter's pleading.

Darlene just stared on her mother.

"You…" Talon began angrily, feeling his black coat rising.

"Derek, what is going on?" Elisa asked, having heard the discussion like the rest of the surrounding.

"Nothing," Talon told his sister. "Let's just put it behind us."

"The first and only thing I agree with you, mutate," Demona replied, having been released by her daughter. "Let us begin."

Goliath, who had heard this, nodded and looked to the gargoyles surrounding him.

"You all know what to do?" he told them

Some of the gargoyles around them nodded, and Deborah, Angela, Desdemona, Fuchsia and Talon took out the syringes of the suitcase that Broadway had opened, and they took their positions behind the clones, while their mates and Claw placed themselves beside the frozen clones.

Demona stood on the blanket, which began to glow and emit blue fog, and read the scroll performing the spell she had used on Goliath nearly a day before.

In the first few seconds, nothing happened and Darlene was about to say something, when the first cracks showed in the stone shell of the clones, and they freed themselves of it by what seemed more like shuffling than an uprising, some stone shells still hanging on them in the effect.

Much more dramatic was that Burbank, Thailog and Brentwood would have fallen over the edge if not the strong claws of their guardians had stopped them. Quickly as it had been told them, the others rammed the syringes into the clones' backs, injecting the serum into them before they stepped back again.

Likewise quickly, Demona began to lift the spell, still standing on the blanket, which glowed once more, yet not quickly enough to not let Deborah notice the green crust on parts of their skin along with a light shuffling and a pain in the face that all the clones shared, as if they were ripped apart from within.

What the hell has Sevarius done with these creatures? Hudson's mate asked herself, and she saw Brentwood kneeling in front of her, turning to stone once more.

Some meters right of her… Darlene, who had stood a bit away with Javin, Goliath and the humans, so as not to disturb the others, walked over to the stone form of Delilah lying in front of Diomedes and Fuchsia, kneeling down to take a better look at her while at the same time being watched by her tensed mother who packed her belongings.

"You think the serum will work while they are in this state?" Chavez asked Goliath, as she looked over the clones, not being able to show too large a surprise.

"According to Sevarius it will, but they shouldn't awake until the next night," the leader of the Manhattan clan revealed. "I and my clan are thankful for your help."

"I won't stand in your way when you try to cure them from this disease," Chavez replied. "But how will you protect them once they are healed?"

"I will send warriors to help protect them," Goliath informed her, taking a short look to Diomedes and Fuchsia, and then to Javin who nodded.

"And we are still there, too," Talon informed her, his arms crossed, while Claw behind him studied Thailog.

"I didn't mean to offend you," Chavez apologized to the former human.

The mutate nodded grudgingly, and looked to Goliath.

"We're done here," he announced. "Lets bring them to the Labyrinth. I don't want to leave Maggie alone with Fang for too long."

"Agreed," Goliath replied, and looking over the place, which had once been their home, before giving orders to begin their journey to the labyrinth.

04.09.98; 6:32; The labyrinth, Communal Rooms:

Goliath, Javin, Fuchsia, Diomedes, Angela and Broadway sat in what once had been the center of one of Cyberbiotics laboratories, and now served as home to a bunch of Mutates and many homeless.

"I must say, I thought it would be different," Fuchsia noticed.

"Why?" her mate asked.

Fuchsia looked around, finding some humans, one woman with her small, maybe five year old daughter, lying sleeping in her arms, all clothed in rags.

"Didn't they say that they lived like a clan down here?" she asked. "It doesn't seem like this."

"It isn't like one of our clans," Goliath explained. "Talon, Maggie and Claw are here to help the ones the human society doesn't help… most of the humans don't stay for long."

"I can understand that," Javin noticed who, unlike the others, was standing instead of sitting at the table. "Can't they do anything about the smell?"

Goliath was going to say something, but someone beat him to it.

"It was vomit, we tried some cleaners already," a tensed voice said. "If you know a better way, tell me."

Javin was visibly surprised, as he saw Talon step out of one corridor.

"I didn't mean to offend you," he tried to excuse himself quickly.

Talon just shook his head, which stayed hard by this. He hadn't spoken much, as they had worked together to bring the clones here securely, fast and unseen to their home, a task which had lasted longer than any of them had expected, something he seemed now willing to change.

"We don't have much down here, but we try our best," Talon said, looking over his visitors. "We share everything, even when it isn't much."

"I could speak with Xanatos," Goliath suggested. "He would surely help you."

Talon snorted.

"Even if Maggie and I were to accept his help, most of the residents here won't," he explained. "Many have had problems in the streets or fear the public authority and will leave immediately if they think we deal with one of them."

Goliath looked at his mate's brother, as he knew Talon was tense since the sending of help from his clan implied that the mutates weren't able to protect the clones alone, even more after their crash over Thailog's accommodation.

"How do you come along then?" Fuchsia asked. "I mean, how do you get the supplies and the food?"

"We have benefactors who help us," Talon said. "A track driver gives us the food selected out by a big company, a doctor in retirement visits us regularly, and we get help from other sources, not much but enough… even from a former priest once."

"A former priest?" Broadway asked surprised.

"He called himself Callahan, don't know if this is his true name," the mutate said. "Half the people down here don't give us their true names, and we don't demand them, as this is one of the rules. Everyone is welcome, as long he or she stays peaceful."

"And is it peaceful?" Fuchsia asked.

"Mostly," Talon said, crossing his arms. "If not, they must leave or are shortly imprisoned, we…"

"Derek!" a female voice called him, and as he and his guests turned around, they saw Maggie entering. "It is Thailog, he has woken up."

"What?" Goliath asked surprised.

"Has he done something to you?" Talon asked, racing to his wife and checking her for wounds.

Maggie just shook her head.

"He is only half conscious and weak," she told him, and more in the direction of Goliath. "He has some pains."

The leader of the Manhattan Clan didn't wait any longer, and raced to the parts of the labyrinth where they had placed the clones, near the mutates' sleeping rooms. There he found Thailog lying on the floor beside the stone forms of the other clones, and a visibly but looking helpless Claw, slime still covering part of his skin and covering the earth, as he squirmed without conscious.

Goliath knelt down and felt his clone's skin, at once noticing the unhealthy heat it submitted.

"He has a fever," he noticed, as the rest of the group entered.

"I will bring him some water and clothes," Maggie said, rushing down the floor. "Bring him to our sleeping room."

"Maggie!" Talon warned her.

"Derek, he can't harm us at the moment," his wife replied, ending the discussion and walking away.

Goliath didn't say anything on this, but instead took Thailog up in his strong arms and brought him into the Mutate's sleeping room, being watched by an unhappy Talon.

"What's happened to him?" Broadway asked. "Shouldn't he sleep until tomorrow night?"

"Sevarius didn't say anything about this," Fuchsia noticed. "The serum has healed him early."

"He didn't look like this," Diomedes replied.

"Maybe the serum worked, but these are the after-effects?" Angela guessed.

"It is still at least one hour until dawn," Javin said. "Do you think he will survive this?"

The response was a worried silence by the surrounding people.

"Hey, guys!" Fang's voice echoed through the corridor. "If he dies, do I get his bank account?"

Talon growled and looked to the still sleeping clones, and then to his guests.

"We need to make preparations if the other clones wake up," he said. "Bring covers so we have something to lay them on. Claw will show you were they are. I look after our prisoner."

The people around him nodded, following the orders of the leader of the Labyrinth clan.

04.09.98; 7:05; Destine Mansion, Demona's Working Room:

Darlene stood at the window and starred out of it, lost in her thoughts.

After she had taken Gem to bed, she would have gone back to the living room, where her two other children, her mother and Shade were spending the rest of the night, but she preferred to be alone for at least a short while, being as far away from her children as her consciences allowed her.

Right now she longed for the embrace of her husband, and as often as she did this, she came to touch her stomach, thinking about the new life growing in her.

The sound of a telephone ringing tore her out of her thoughts and made her turn around.

The telephone ringed further, and since her mother would still need time to get at the telephone in the basement, Darlene decided to answer it, guessing it was one of the clan.

"Destine… " she began.

"Ah, Miss Anderson, I'm happy to reach you," a voice that Darlene recognized as Sevarius's said. "I have the results."

"Mrs," she corrected him again, tensely. "What are they?"

"I must tell you that the pairing of DNA is highly unfortunate," Sevarius explained. "Your child has a chance of 40 percent to come through pregnancy, and I'm not able to say if its different genes will allow it to live. Additional data shows that because of the uncommon connection between you and your child, there is a 30 percent chance that the pregnancy will kill you also."

Darlene let the telephone sink while she probed herself on the desk.

04.09.98; 20:05 The labyrinth, communal rooms:

He awoke slowly from nightmares of pain and darkness, feeling the blood floating through his head and opening his eyes. He realized that he wasn't in Sevarius's home any longer, but on a more or less soft bed.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to sit up, and closed his eyes as he did this, feeling his head swirling.

"Be careful," a voice, that sounded so much like his own, said in a worried tone. "You are still weak from your sickness."

As he opened his eyes again, Thailog looked straight into Goliath's face.

"So you got Sevarius to heal me," the clone noticed dazed. "Mustn't have been hard by this coward."

"It wasn't a disease," his father who stood before him answered. "He built a program in your cells so that they would react this way. He couldn't give you the antidote."

Thailog first stared at Goliath for a moment unbelieving, and then he laughed.

"I should have known," he said, touching his head to ease his pain, only to add some seconds later in a more cynic tone, as he realized that they were in the labyrinth. "Am I your prisoner now?"

His mirror image shook his head.

"You can go as you please, but there are things you should know. Nearly two years has passed since then." Goliath explained calmly. "A lot has changed."

"Like?" Thailog asked.

"The rest of the clan, which died at the massacre, was resurrected," Goliath explained. "And we live finally at peace with the humans."

"And now you want me to join you," his clone noticed. "And start protecting like a good gargoyle should do."

"This would be for your own safety," the leader of the Manhattan clan explained. "We have a new enemy. Lucifia, a gargoyle who dwells in the dark arts, and who might go after you."

Thailog looked at Goliath, feeling his strength slowly coming back.

"And why should she do this?" the clone asked.

"We believe that she could use a clone to sacrifice in a ritual, which brings her strength," the leader of the Manhattan clan continued to explain. "You are in danger alone, but if you stay here…"

"I'll try my luck," Thailog responded, rising from the bed and staring determined at his father. "I have enough resources to survive alone."

Goliath sighed.

"It is your decision," he gave in. "But before you go, you need to know that for your life I had to turn your parts of Nightstone over to Demona."

"You did what?!" Thailog exclaimed.

"It was your life against your parts of the company," Goliath explained. "A more than fair trade."

Thailog looked at the other gargoyle with contempt and the feeling of weakness in his bones, asking himself if his father really thought this. It was more than likely that this deal had been planned by his former love, and ex-partner… but no matter what Demona thought, he still had enough resources.

"Sure," he replied sarcastically. "And since you have nothing against this, I will go now."

As he tried to take his first step in nearly two years, the clone stumbled a bit, just to find himself propped up by Goliath.

"Think about it," Goliath tried again. "Give yourself a chance for a new life, to learn what clan-hood means, what being a gargoyle means."

Thailog laughed, and pushed Goliath's claw away.

"You gave me a very good impression of it, father." he noted. "Don't be angry, but I prefer owning a part of the world more than protecting it."

With these words, the clone walked out of the room, leaving Goliath behind who watched him with a hard look in his face and a feeling of failing, deciding a second later that he could at least accompany his son out.

To Be Continued…