I do not own Gargoyles. No copyright infringement is intended with this work. Strong Language and Adult Situations, Reader Discretion is Advised.

The Quarrymen have reared their ugly heads. A member of the clan is gravely wounded. Demona makes a discovery related to her current scheme that chills her to the bone.

Winds of Change

Chapter 9

Hudson followed Elisa into the hospital room cautiously. If not for the hooded cloak he had borrowed, he would not have been permitted in the building. As it was, the hospital staff were beside themselves with agitation. It was obvious what he was, even with the cloak, as he entered the building.

There was next to no one going in or out of the building currently as visiting hours had recently ended. An exception was made for Elisa and her companion in consideration of who it was she was there to see. There had been some complaints directed at Hudson's obvious nature, but nothing more. He was concealed enough that he did not draw the notice of the few patients roaming the halls.

Now, as they came to a halt within the room, Hudson threw off the cloak. Elisa closed the door behind them even as he drew up short of the bed. The woman in the bed seemed small and frail with tubes and wires cascading all around her. At least she was not on a ventilator. Elisa was not sure either of them could have handled that sight.

/

Hudson stopped near the side of the bed and gazed down at the bruised and battered woman. He took her small hand in one of his larger hands even as he brushed a stray strand of hair from her brow tenderly with the other. He let out a sad sigh before speaking her name.

"Maria, lass...," the old soldier spoke softly into the dim room.

Elisa took the scene in with an air of sadness. She thought Goliath may well be correct in his assumption that the elder male and the captain were close. She was not sure if they were truly mates, but there seemed to be a certain undeniable level of intimacy to Hudson's lite touch. Gargoyles generally reserved hair stroking for love interests or mates, she knew. They viewed such contact as tantamount to a lover's kiss. The fact that the elder now ran his talons delicately through the captain's short hair spoke volumes to her.

Coming closer to the bed, Elisa finally got a good look at the woman. Her face was black and blue, one eye was swollen shut with an angry crimson bruise over the puffy lid and her upper lip was swollen with several stitches holding a nasty split closed. Her left arm was clearly broken as it was encased in a cast from fingers to the middle of her upper arm. The woman looked as if she had been in a fight with a bulldozer and lost.

Anger stirred in Elisa's gut as she looked her boss and friend over. The Quarrymen had clearly beaten her within an inch of her life. She still was not out of the woods yet. The doctor had hinted at internal injuries. She knew, in some cases, such injuries could be fatal days or even weeks after they were received.

Shaking herself from her morose thoughts, she noticed that Hudson's touch and his voice must have reached Maria. The woman's eyes slowly slid open and glanced around in confusion. The instant they fell on Hudson's lined face a faint smile touched her lips.

"There ye be, lass..," Hudson whispered with a small smile.

As he smiled, Elisa realized she had rarely seen him smile. Never had she seen the kind of smile that graced his aging features before that moment. That smile crinkled the flesh around his eyes even as it seemed to melt years from his face. There was no doubt in her mind that the old gargoyle felt something for her friend. She was reminded of how her father looked at her mother when she was sick. He very nearly doted on her. This was the same kind of smile, the smile reserved for those nearest and dearest to the heart.

"Hudson...," Maria whispered hoarsely as she tightened her grip on his taloned hand. "They let you in? I hoped they would..."

"Aye, lass, ye 'ave Elisa to be thankin' for that. I'd not be 'ere if not for her." Hudson remarked as he gingerly cupped the side of Maria's face.

"I wanna go home, Hudson. They won't stop pokin' me...," Maria, strong captain of detectives Maria Chavez, was whining.

Elisa's mouth had fallen open at the sound. With an effort of will, she closed it and stepped up to the other side of the bed to look at the woman. She winced in sympathy when the woman's gaze met her own. She was barely recognizable with the swelling and bruises. The detective realized the beating must have taking place sometime in the wee hours of the morning, right after she and Goliath had left the precinct. It struck her then that they might be directly responsible for the attack. The Quarrymen must have seen them enter or leave the building. If Matt was right, one of them might very well have seen them leave the captain's office. She needed to get back to work, root out their man. Her anger was such that she wanted nothing more than to give him a taste of what he had so obviously given Maria. She realized that some of Goliath's occasional thirst for vengeance must be rubbing off.

"Elisa...," Maria whispered weakly as her eyes met those of the detective.

"Who did this, Maria?" Elisa asked vehemently.

"...didn't see his face...," Maria shook her head slightly.

"Was he wearing a hood? Was it a Quarrymen?" she was asking the woman too many questions, but she needed those answers.

"No hood...cop. He was one...of ours, Elisa! How could one of our own...sink so low?" Maria's alertness was wavering.

"A cop...," Elisa hissed under her breath as she backed away from the bed and started to pace the small room. She could not believe it. Matt was right. There was at least one Quarrymen on the force. But who? That was the million dollar question. It could be almost anyone who held a grudge against the gargoyles.

"You need to stay away from the station, you and the rest of the clan," Maria said turning back to Hudson, her alertness renewed for the moment. She released his hand and caressed his cheek down into his beard. "They'll be watching for you. I couldn't stand it if something happened..."

"Rest easy, lass. The clan be safe...," Hudson said just as an alarm went off and a red light began flashing in the hallway. His head snapped up with a start and his eyes met Elisa's.

"Fire alarm. I think we have company..," the detective said even as she pulled her gun from its holster and sidled up to the door to peer around.

"...not on active...duty..." Maria mumbled as she lost her hold on consciousness.

"Doesn't matter, Cap. Active or not, I'm still a cop," Elisa said quietly as she motioned Hudson to stay put.

"Elisa, lass...," Hudson began as his hand strayed to the sword he never left behind.

"Stay with her. If there's trouble, I have the communicator and Goliath is on the roof." Elisa's words were sharp with determination.

Hudson, torn between guarding Maria and serving as Elisa's backup, simply nodded. He had learned long ago, along with the others, that once the human made up her mind about something, she was as stubborn as old stone. The old soldier would remain near the injured woman until he was sure the Quarrymen were not making a play to get at her again. If they do, he thought, may the gods help 'em when I do get me talons on 'em.

/

Goliath heard the alarms going off in the building. The caged light above the rooftop door began whirling around in a kaleidoscope of red and white. He knew the fire alarm must have been pulled. The question was whether it was truly a fire or a ploy to get at the captain. A cold fist had clenched in his gut at the thought of Elisa caught in the middle of yet another Quarrymen attack.

"Elisa..." He said softly into the mic that hung about his neck.

"I'm here, Big Guy. There's no fire," her voice crackled back at him.

/

Icy fingers ran up Brooklyn's spine at Elisa's words crackling over the earbuds in all their ears. There were so many variables, so many things that could go wrong. He had never been sure what the actual trigger for this series of events had been. Now he did; the fire alarm. There had to be Quarrymen inside the hospital and in the noise and confusion of the flashing lights, they would strike, he was sure of it.

"Hudson! Get out of there! Now!" Brooklyn's resolve snapped. He had thought he could stand back and allow history maintain its current course, without interfering, He was wrong. History meant to repeat itself as it barreled down this all too familiar path.

"Lad,...what...," Hudson's voice crackled through the earbud and cut off with a loud bang.

"Nooo, Hudson!" Brooklyn roared as he angled his glide back around to the set of windows he knew looked out from Maria's room.

Shielding his face with his arms, Brooklyn exploded through the glass into the room. The scene was chaos. Hudson was wrestling a human for control of a pistol. Clearly, from the hole in the monitor above Maria's bed, the gun had gone off at least once already. As the pair struggled, the man was forcing the gun lower between them. If it angled a little lower, it would be in position to hit the elder in the chest. A fatal wound, he knew. History would repeat itself with Hudson's death at the hands of the Quarrymen.

With a roar, his one eye glowing white-hot, Brooklyn launched himself at the gun. It must be the gun. If he hit the human, the gun might still go off and wound the elder. The seconds ticked by like hours as he moved through the space between them. He felt the bands of time slip. The scene before him seemed to skip like a broken record for an instant. He prayed the Phoenix was not about to swoop in and whisk him away before his actions saw fruition. The slippage of time around him seemed to beg for intervention.

One instant he was moving painfully slow toward the weapon and in the next his hands began to encircle it. Time seemed to have reached and broken some sort of speed barrier. Snapping from near frozen to complete and utter chaos in the space of a single heartbeat. A deafening bang issued from the muzzle of the weapon along with a tiny fountain of flame. He made contact with it in the same instant. The gun was crushed along with the human's hands by his powerful talons in the next instant. Both human and gargoyle issued a yell. For the human, it was a cry of pain. For the gargoyle, it was a cry of frustration. His actions came too late...

/

Elisa had barely made it to the nurse's station down the hall when she heard the sharp report of a gun echo through the hallway. An instant later the sound of shattering glass followed. It was accompanied by Brooklyn's angry roar. She turned back toward Maria's room with a look of horror pinned on her face. Only seconds after the initial outburst, a second loud crack screamed across her hearing.

"Oh God...," Elisa gasped out in a ragged whisper as she turned and ran for the room, the healing injury of her leg completely forgotten in her haste.

/

Katana jerked as if she herself had been shot when she heard the loud crack explode over the tiny speaker in her ear. With a snarl, she tore the offending device from her ear and hurriedly winged back toward the building. A mixture of emotions raged through her; anxiety chief among them. Her mate had gone against the decision made in their earlier discussion. He had put himself in the equation, put himself inside an event that had previously unfolded without his direct interaction. Who knew what sort of damage his actions might have done to the timestream. If he still lived, she thought she might beat some sense into him with the flat side of her sword.

/

Elisa made it back to the doorway of Maria's room and crouched low, her weapon ready as she peek inside. The sight that hit her took her breath away. The Quarrymen lay in an unconscious heap near the foot of the bed, his hands a crushed and mangled pulp of blood and bone. His weapon was twisted and mashed into what remained of his hands. Brooklyn huddled near the I.V. pole. At first, the detective did not see Hudson. Then, as the brick red male moved slightly, the sight rocked her to the very core.

Slamming her gun into its holster, Elisa rushed forward as Brooklyn clamped down on the bleeding wound high up in the elder male's chest. Hudson lay unconscious in a growing pool of blood even as the other male attempted to staunch the flow. She noticed the anger in the red male's face even as her eyes pinned themselves to the elder male's still form.

/

"Dammit, what's the point of even being in this timeline if I can't change anything?!" Brooklyn growled half under his breath.

Carefully, the brick red gargoyle lifted Hudson just enough to make sure there was an exit wound. When he saw that there was, he reached up and yanked the draw of cabinet near him completely out and began rummaging through it as soon as it hit the floor. He pulled several packages of gauze out and began ripping them open with his teeth. Gently, he began stuffing these into the still bleeding hole. In a matter of minutes, he had both sides of the wound packed and was wrapping it tightly with more gauze and an ace wrap.

Glancing up once at Elisa, he noticed the look of worry mixed with a question on her face. As he taped off the ace wrap, he nodded toward it and said, "Field dressing. It'll hold until we get him back to the Eyrie."

"I could flag down a doctor...," Elisa began and received a one-eyed blazing glare for her suggestion.

"No..., they don't know gargoyles like Dr. Sato does. He's not dyin' on my watch, not like this...,"Brooklyn growled as the white light of anger faded from his eye, and barely under his breath he hissed, "not this time."

Elisa knew the last was not meant for her to hear, but she did hear it and her eyebrows raised because of it. She still was not used to the idea that Brooklyn knew more of the future, and the past, than did the rest of them. He had danced through centuries, fought battles in both the distant past and the distant future. The male before her was a hardened warrior with decades more experience than his younger counterpart had ever dreamed of having. The younger Brooklyn would have known next to nothing about field dressing or packing a wound. This Brooklyn was seasoned, knowledgeable and unafraid of using whatever he could as a weapon. That included his talons, she realized as she glanced at the man slowing bleeding out behind her. His hands... His hands were crushed into his gun. Her friend had done that without a second thought in an attempt to save a member of his clan. She knew Goliath would not hesitate to do much the same and more for her if the need ever arose. The shear brute strength of the clan she loved was, for want of a better word; frightening.

Pulling her eyes back to Brooklyn and Hudson, Elisa tried once more to convince him the doctors scurrying around the building could help. She was afraid they would not make it back to the Eyrie in time to save Hudson. Her words did little to sooth Brooklyn's raw nerves, however. Instead, they seemed only to spur him forward in his determination to get Hudson back to the Eyrie and its state-of-the-art infirmary.

"I said no! These doctors are butchers. They'll make up reasons to cut him up like a damn science experiment." Brooklyn snapped. As he made sure Hudson's wound was ready for travel, he grumbled half to himself, "Forgot just how stubborn Nick Maza's great-great-gran could be."

"What's that?" Elisa asked in both curiosity and irritation. She hated it when anyone grumbled about her under their breath. She had caught just enough to guess he must be grumbling about some future Maza. Her great-great-grandchild had apparently inherited her stubbornness.

"Nothin'. Look, just get Maria awake and on her feet if you can. She's not safe here either. We'll take them both back to the Eyrie." Brooklyn half growled as he realized he had nearly given away too much information about the future. As long as he had been dealing with timedancing, one would think he would have learned to keep his beak shut. Instead, he was flapping it under his breath and jeopardizing events further. He needed to learn better restraint of his grumbling habit.

/

As Katana thumped lightly down on the broken glass scattered across the floor, she was relieved to see her mate was still among the living. She took in the scene with a stern expression. The situation was better than she had expected and yet much different than it should have been. Her small beak twisted into a frown as her eyes fell on the human sprawled across the floor. She let loose a soft string of bitter curses at the condition of his hands. Her eyes fell on Hudson's pale face and she realized in a matter of heartbeats that the elder still lived. Brooklyn had done exactly the opposite of what they had decided; he had interfered with clan history. The repercussions of his choice were bound to rock the entire timeline. Who knew how it might affect future events or his very presence in them.

One life, one life might sway the outcome dramatically. They had no of knowing in which direction Hudson's survival might sway the future. That lack of certainty was the very reason they had never interfered any event that felt as if it could be a focal point. She preyed to the great dragon that this choice would be beneficial to the future. Perhaps Hudson's wisdom might affect some positive change to the horrific future she knew was to come.

There was only one course of action remaining to them in light of the current events. They must go with the flow and see where this new deviation took them. Stepping forward and away from the window, Katana put a three-taloned hand on her mate's shoulder. He jumped, but not as severely as she knew he might have. The male had known she was there. She had not attempted to silence her footsteps as they crunched on the shards of glass.

/

Goliath had wasted no time in following Katana down to the broken window. What he saw when he winged his way into the opening to touch down drew a gasp from his lungs. Hudson, his mentor and friend, was gravely wounded. Brooklyn leaned over him attempting to secure a makeshift bandage. Elisa was attempting to wake the police captain and there was a member of the hated Quarrymen organization lying face down on the floor, his hands a mangled mess. The big clan leader's eyes narrowed at the obvious evidence of force that had been used to subdue the human. He could not say for certain that he might not have done the same in Brooklyn's place.

As Brooklyn glanced up, Goliath noticed the uncertainty that overwhelmed the obvious fatigue in the other males one eye. It was still disorienting to look him in the face. Only a few weeks ago the male had been of an age with Broadway and Lexington. He had been younger, naive and whole. Now he was, perhaps ten years his senior biologically with a custom made eyepatch to hide the missing orb. He had yet to reveal the events that had cost him the eye. All he would say of it was that it had been a lesson in caution, something the younger Brooklyn had never truly embraced.

"Can you carry him, Goliath? We're taking them both back the Eyrie." Brooklyn stated as if it were already decided.

"Would it not be best to allow Chavez to remain here?" Goliath asked slowly as he searched the other male's face.

"No, Maria's not safe here...and Hudson...," Brooklyn trailed off with a sigh as he stood and ran a hand over his face. "Look, I don't know how this is all gonna play out..."

"Of course you do not. You have altered what was to be. Why, my mate? Why must you attempt to change what is, what was, what will be? This is what you have done every time the flaming bird has dropped us in some new place, some new time." Katana broke into the conversations, her fears for the future all but screaming through her words.

"You know I couldn't leave it the way it was, Kat. You know why I do what I do. It's always the same,...hope for a better outcome, a better future. It has to be better...," Brooklyn's voice sounded desperate as he spoke.

"But what if it is not, my love? What if, somehow, we make it worse? What then? We do not know if the flaming bird will every come for us again," Katana reasoned.

"This is my time. No matter what else has happened, this is where the Phoenix grabbed me from. The fact that it dropped us all here when it did has to mean something. I have to believe that it means I...we...can make a positive impact. We have to try, don't we?" Brooklyn sounded determined and yet so lost at the same time.

"I do not know what the future holds that weighs so heavily on your shoulders, Brooklyn, but...," Goliath began as he put a hand to the other male's shoulder in reassurance. His words were disrupted by a commotion in the hallway just outside the room.

The look Brooklyn gave him was heart rending even as he stepped aside for Goliath to lift Hudson. The red male stepped over to the bed and carefully lifted the police captain in his arms. He glanced at the door that was shaking in its frame and nodded saying, "Time to go.."

"Come, Elisa...," Katana motioned the woman to climb up on her back as her usual means of gliding was currently occupied.

/

Elisa listened to the exchange between the clan as she stepped back toward the door. Her mind zeroed in on the idea that Brooklyn was attempting to change some unfavorable future. Hudson's survival seemed to be one of the keys to that change. She wandered if perhaps the same might be true of Maria. Could her friend's life be hanging in the balance here as well? In all probability, it likely was due to her connection with the clan. Maybe the Quarrymen were here to finish the job they had started with her beating. That could be the event Brooklyn was attempting to change. It might have little to do with the elder and more to do with the human woman he was connected to than the brick red male had considered. Her thoughts were interrupted when the door began rattling in its frame. Someone was trying to get past the lock that she had flipped when she had come back into the room.

The detective glanced up at the others with the very same words about to tumble from her lips when Brooklyn stated it was time to go. Now she was hoisting herself up on Katana's back. The female was all hard muscle and sinew, she noted as she clasped her hands around her neck. It was an awkward position as the span of the female's back was not even as wide as Brooklyn's. Her wings would press in on Elisa with each current she caught. It was fortunate that Manhattan General was not so far from the Eryie building. She was not sure the pale greenish-blue female could carry her much farther.

"Do not fear, Elisa. I have carried eggs and a growing son upon my back for far greater distances than your Eyrie building. You're weight is slight in comparison." Katana's small beak twisted into a faint smile as she wrapped one stray end of her long silken belt around herself and the human. "Forgive...habit."

Elisa found herself smiling back at the female. Katana seemed sensible, calm and steady, something Brooklyn needed in his life. She understood, in only a few moments with the gargess, why Brooklyn was now so much more level-headed than he had ever been as a youth. This female had tamed and tempered him. It was good that he had finally found a mate.

Just as the door burst open, spilling several hooded Quarrymen with electrified hammers into the room, the gargoyles launched themselves into the night through the broken window. Elisa glanced back and ducked close against Katana's back as one of the hooded men threw his hammer in a two-handed swing at them with a scream of frustration. It sailed just over her head, barely missing her and the gargess both. She followed it with her eyes as it began a rapid descent toward the ground far below. She hoped it did not hit someone at street level. From that height, it did not bare thinking what condition it would leave some innocent victim in.

/

John Castaway screamed in impotent rage as he threw his hammer out into the night after the retreating forms of the gargoyles. He willed it to hit one of them, just one, any one. When it missed the misty green female and her human passenger, he realized it was going to fall harmlessly to the street below. Harmless if only it did not hit some innocent bystander, but then in his eyes, no one was truly innocent. There were only the Gargoyles, gargoyle lovers and the Quarrymen. The city's inhabitants were either lovers or hates. To him, there was no in between.

As the hammer fell, Castaway tore his hood off and turned to his men. Anger shining in his eyes, he growled at them, "Let's go."

"But sir, what about Captain Chavez?" one man asked from behind his hood.

"Does it look like she's here? Do you think you can end her miserable existence from this room? Go right ahead and try, Ferguson! Be my guest, please!" Castaway raged and motioned toward the broken window and the rapidly escaping clan.

"I'm sorry, sir. I just meant how are we going to handle this? I mean, do we even know where they're taking her?" Ferguson asked sheepishly.

"The Eyrie, that's where they'll take her." Castaway grumbled, calming some of the screaming rage with a sigh.

"Harris is down, sir. Looks like he got one of them though," another member drew attention to the man lying on the floor and the pool of blood a few feet away from him.

Thoughtfully, Castaway twisted the fabric of his hood between his hands. When he spoke, calm had once again returned to his voice, "Goliath wasn't carrying that Maza bitch when they made their escape... No, he was carrying something much larger, maybe one of his clan. There's enough blood here...I doubt the gargoyle will make it until sunrise."

"Yes, sir. Maza came in with a large tan gargoyle. I didn't see him gliding away with the others. That must be the one Goliath was carrying." Ferguson noted out loud.

"If he dies, the night was not a total loss then. We'll pick them off one at a time, if we have to." Castaway tucked his hood into his belt and headed for the door. "Let's go. There's still the demon to hunt down. Finding her roost is more important than Chavez, Maza or their pets."

/

Demona snared the top of the cathedral spire with her talons and worked her way down to the small unused room that currently housed the Atlantean crystal. Her nightly spells had greatly accelerated the growth of the praying gargoyle statue. Another month, she knew, and it would be complete. Sevarius had been hard at work on his mutegenic never suspecting that she was planning to use it to rid herself of his miserable race. Instead of creating more mutates, as was his plan, the compound, when bonded with the last of the disinfectant from Xanatos Enterprises would wipe out all of humanity. It might not happen in a single night and day. She knew viruses took time to sweep through the population. In a few weeks, or even months, the world would be hers for the taking.

As before, the praying gargoyle would protect her kind from the plague. Her only fear was that somehow the accelerated growth of the statue adversely affected its magical properties. If it was inhibited in any way, her kind might perish along with the humans. Tapping her lip in thought, she realized there was only one real problem with her logic; Macbeth. He would survive the plague due to their eternal link. He would surely go mad without others of his kind to mingle with. What might that mean for her? Surely he would realize she was responsible for the destruction of his race. He might come for her and finally attempt to end their eternal lives. She was not yet ready to submit to death. As a matter of fact, she quite enjoyed the prospect of living forever. It held a certain kind of appeal, especially if that eternity were devoid of humanity.

A smile of purest evil spread across her face as she let herself into the room that stood above holy ground. It was fitting that humanity's destruction should begin in one of their most holy places. Snapping her fingers at the candles in the room, each one flickered to life to reveal the contents of that room. As her eyes roved over those contents, she froze, a gasp of horror on her lips at the sight that met her.

/