All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. I'm taking the idea of the Unseelie Court from the TGS. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of SN.
Note: I'm disregarding the events in the "Goliath Chronicles", with the exception of "The Journey" because I do not wish to use the rest of the "Goliath Chronicles" as canon to my story. This story takes place one week after "My Worst Fear".
The Second Front
By SN/TVfan
Email: Sam_Nary
Village, 20 miles southwest of London
"Macbeth and his allies are in London, you know that?" the man humans knew as Maddox commented harshly to the man sitting across the table from him.
"I lost a large number of my slaves freeing your servant," Lucius retorted, "I need to rebuild my army, and since your people have been so kind as to LEAVE me, I'm forced to improvise."
Maddox glared at the human angrily, "Doesn't he realize he is serving me? That when the Unseelie Court is restored to its rightful place there will be no Second Rome? That he is merely buying his personal salvation by serving me?"
"Therefore, I've temporarily left London to rebuild my army," Lucius continued, "If I drain all of London's homeless into one place it will become suspicious, and right now I don't want to fight the British Army, possibly other NATO units and deal with fire power that pipes sharpened into spears and swords can match."
"My friend," Maddox replied, deciding to use tact rather than anger, "You are an ally of the Unseelie Court. We would be more than capable of dealing with any threat to you once you've helped us achieve our goals."
"And what are your goals, exactly?" Lucius asked, "Whenever I see you, I know I'm about to be lectured for something. You talk to me more as if I'm nothing but a pawn."
"YOU ARE!" Maddox thought angrily to himself, and then said aloud, "I'm sorry if I have made a bad impression on you, Lucius. But you must understand that I am forced to deal with very complex circumstances. You have only to conquer two men and a few gargoyles. I must contend with not only an entire clan of gargoyles but beings similar to myself. The last thing I need is Macbeth and Arthur to show up with their friends in New York."
"So you want me to go back to London, right now, and start a fight with Pendragon," Lucius mused, "While I have no army, little or no weapons, and no knowledge of where they are?"
"You don't know where Arthur and Macbeth are?" Maddox asked in a tone that was increasingly angry.
"I have scouts looking for them, but that has used up all of my slaves," Lucius answered, "Even if I did know where they were, I wouldn't have enough to defeat the gargoyles and definitely not Merlin. Once I've rebuilt my army, I will return to London and I will deal with Pendragon and Macbeth."
"Very well," Maddox sighed as he stood up, "But if Arthur and Macbeth make their way to Manhattan, you will be punished for it. Consider this your warning."
London
Chloe sat lazily in a large leather chair watching while watching television. The program was very entertaining, but Chloe couldn't seem to focus on it.
"I hate this," she cursed as she looked down at her injured shoulder.
The shoulder and the arm were wrapped in a cast so that she could move her shoulder and risk breaking the bones that doctors had worked so hard to set. It was the inability to use that arm, however, that had angered her.
"You must keep you chin up," came Arthur's voice as he entered the room and handed her a cup of tea, "That cast will be off in no time and then you and Merlin can switch back."
"But I want to switch back now," Chloe pouted, "I can't help anybody like this."
"You can help Una sort the paperwork she needs to do to get shop up and running again," Arthur offered, "Once we figure out away to rebuild the shop without bankrupting Macbeth."
"That's just busy work," Chloe moaned, "Besides, being a human is hard. I get tired at night and need to sleep."
"Still not used to being able to see the sun during the daytime, eh?" Arthur asked with a smile.
Chloe glanced out the large windows to see the bright sun sitting over the horizon.
"It's beautiful," Chloe commented, "But how do you humans do this? How do you know when to sleep? As a gargoyle, my body would tell me in some way that dawn was coming and that I'd need to find a safe place. An internal clock, if you will. Now it's not there and I don't really know what to do."
"What you need to do is rest," Arthur said, "Relax a little bit."
"I feel so useless this way," Chloe said weakly.
Macbeth was just returning to the mansion and entering through the front door when he heard Chloe say "useless" to Arthur. The immortal Scottish king felt slightly hurt at her mention of the word. It was his fault that she was forced to be like this for the time being. He should have stayed in London instead going around to find the Holy Grail.
"I'm back," Macbeth announced.
Chloe turned her head to see Macbeth standing there with something in large grocery sacks under his arms. She tried to smile weakly.
"I've just brought back this week's supply of groceries," Macbeth sighed, "As well as some Tylenol and other supplies."
Chloe frowned slightly at the mention of the generic painkiller. It only reminded her of her current situation.
Arthur glanced at Chloe's face and then turned to follow Macbeth toward the kitchen.
"How's she doing?" Macbeth asked.
"Physically, she's doing fine," Arthur answered, "She may even be healing faster than what the doctors think. Mentally, I'm not quite sure about."
"Still moping?" Macbeth frowned.
"She feels that she has no purpose right now, and that she can't help," Arthur sighed.
Macbeth looked down, "When I find that little excuse for a man, I'll teach him a thing or two."
"Getting even with Lucius isn't going to help her," Arthur replied, "She needs someone to spend time with her."
Unseelie Headquarters
Maddox walked carefully through the throne room of his hidden headquarters in a somewhat aggravated mood. A mousey haired man stood by his throne.
"Good afternoon, my lord," the man greeted him.
"I have a task for you and Morrigan," Maddox said coldly.
"What do you wish, my lord?" the man asked.
"Lucius is apparently short of slaves," Maddox replied, "I want you and Morrigan to go to London and establish a second front with Arthur and Macbeth."
"Are you abandoning Lucius, my lord?" the man questioned.
"Ignoring him is more the word," Maddox answered, "Now GO!"
"Yes, my lord," the man bowed and left.
London
"I'd like to thank you for coming out for a walk," Macbeth said calmly as he and Chloe crossed over a bridge on the Thames.
Chloe didn't answer. She merely looked out over the river and the metropolitan city that it split in two. She only managed a pained sigh.
"Are you okay?" Macbeth asked.
"I'm fine," Chloe answered quickly, "I just can't wait to get this cast off and have everything go back to normal."
"It'll be of sooner than you think," Macbeth commented, "Time has a way of flying on you."
"Not when I can't do anything," Chloe mumbled, "Nothing useful anyway."
"You can keep an old man company," Macbeth answered, "That's more than useful."
Chloe sighed, "Do you really like my company?"
"I wouldn't have kept you with me this long if I didn't like your company," Macbeth answered with a weak chuckle.
"You know I'll be of no use when Lucius attacks again," Chloe pointed out.
"I was of no use when he attacked the first time," Macbeth retorted, looking slightly guilty, "If I had stayed, you wouldn't be like this."
Chloe was relatively surprised by Macbeth's comment.
"Why is he blaming himself for this?" Chloe asked herself as they walked, Macbeth holding on to her good arm.
"You're blaming yourself?" Chloe asked.
"We should have expected that he would do something like that," Macbeth sighed, "And we didn't, and that got you hurt."
"It's not your fault," Chloe said weakly, "Besides, Arthur needed the Grail, and you were the only one who could have gone in there safely."
Macbeth looked down at her face and noticed quite quickly that they were both trying to reassure the other, and he sighed heavily.
Elsewhere
"I will say I prefer London to New York," Morrigan commented as she looked over the city's skyline, "But I don't know why Madoc assigned you to come with me."
"Probably to make sure that you do not do anything that would be contrary to Madoc's commands."
"I have never disobeyed, Mouse," Morrigan answered in an arrogant tone.
The mousey haired man silently growled back at her and then spoke, "Regardless of either of our opinions of each other, we must work together. Madoc wants a second front to Arthur and Macbeth in England."
"Do you have any ideas as how to do that?" Morrigan questioned, "Or should I think for both of us?"
"Myth, my dear Morrigan," the mousey haired man replied, "We recruit those who believe in myth."
"Hey Greg, you find anything?" a woman dressed mostly in black called down her partner.
"Keep it down!" Greg shouted back, "We ain't supposed to be here."
"Well, did you find anything?" the woman asked again as she peered in through one of the burned out windows that used to be to Una and Leo's shop.
"Whoever burned this place down had no regard for money," Greg muttered, "There had to be tons of magic stuff in here that was burned up."
"I was thinking more along the lines of the till," the woman said as Greg climbed out the window.
"That burned too," Greg answered.
"Perhaps then you would be interested in some fun of a different nature," came a third voice from behind them.
Griff came down the stairs to find only Arthur watching the television that evening.
"Where is everyone?" Griff asked off hand as he approached a chair nearby.
"Macbeth has taken Chloe for a walk to get her mind off of everything," Arthur answered.
"Ah-ha," Griff acknowledged, "Leo and Una are going to get diner ready. Merlin's gone to his study to continue examining the Grail, and…"
"Julia and I are going out for a patrol," came Octavia's voice from the stairwell, "We are going to continue our search for Lucius."
"Need any help?" Griff offered.
Julia looked back at Octavia's odd smile as Griff stood up to offer his help.
"Octavia would be most pleased if you would join us," Julia commented in a humorous tone.
The other eagle-like gargoyle growled back at her fellow Order member, slightly embarrassed. Griff looked a little shocked at this and glanced at Arthur, who the griffon-like gargoyle saw as a mentor.
"Go on," Arthur chuckled, "A king needn't always command his knights to do everything."
London Docks
Morrigan looked at the crowd that she and her associate had gathered in an abandoned section of the London docks. Most of the people were thugs who had worked for the Unseelie's former ally in Britain, Morgan Le Fey, but there were some people who were simply strange to society. Morrigan looked them over and sighed to herself that some of them were slightly strange, even by Unseelie standards.
"Men and woman, I am Garlon," her associate announced his true name, "The world around you considers you weak or strange! My partner, Morrigan, and I are members of an organization that intends to see that people like yourselves are treated fairly in the future."
Morrigan inwardly sighed at Garlon's comments. He sounded too much like many political speakers of the twentieth century whose primary goal was rabble-rousing. He also sounded somewhat like the human from New York who led the Quarrymen. But then, she didn't know or care much about rallying people to a cause. She preferred doing her own work. Garlon was Madoc and Maeve's ambassador and Maddox and Mavis O'Conner's speech writer and PR man.
"I ask you to ally with us and help us fight in a battle that is larger than you know!" Garlon continued, "If you do so, you will be armed and equipped to win and to easily fight your own battles and we will help you win!"
Muffled cheers were heard, and Garlon soon added to what he had said earlier.
"In addition, I promise that you will be able to set the norms and those that criticize you will be the 'strange' ones!" Garlon said clearly.
The cheers that responded Garlon's newest reply were slightly stronger, but still half hearted. Morrigan now stepped forward and pushed Garlon aside.
"Let me try," Morrigan said in a cold voice, "We'll pay you for your services and buy drinks."
Morrigan's offer of money and drinks did it.
"I believe we have our second front," Morrigan whispered to Garlon.
London Streets
Chloe yawned loudly as she and Macbeth began to turn back toward the mansion. She enjoyed the exercise, but what really made her feel better was simply Macbeth's company.
"I'm getting tired," Chloe commented.
"We'll be back at the mansion soon," Macbeth answered in an assuring tone, "Do you feel better."
"A little," Chloe nodded.
The two continued walking along the busy streets until their path came across a relatively abandoned street. Blocking their path were five men armed with expensive looking weapons and wearing body armor. Macbeth tensed in fear and put himself between the gunmen and Chloe. His fear was not for his own life, because none of these people could possibly be Demona, but he did fear for Chloe's for two reasons. One reason was that Chloe was mortal and these people had some serious firepower. The other reason was that Macbeth could tell from where he was that these people were drunk.
"Well, lookie here," one man said as he pulled his weapon into position that was ready for combat, "Jus' what we've been looking for."
"We mean you no harm," Macbeth said calmly, "Please let us pass."
Another man began to speak, "No harm to us then."
Macbeth would have insisted that they stood aside again if it weren't for the fact that as the man said the word 'harm' he accidentally pulled the trigger on his weapon and fired a laser blast into the sky.
"Oops," the man muttered.
"Chloe had back the way we came, see if you can make it back to the mansion," Macbeth whispered to her quickly, "Someone needs to get these people off the street before they hurt someone."
Chloe glanced at the advancing gunmen and turned and moved as quickly as she could back towards the street they were on earlier.
"Hey!" one man called, "You ain't running anywhere!"
Fortunately, the man's intoxication made it impossible for him to chase after Chloe in an effective manner, and Macbeth easily tripped him to the ground. The immortal Scottish king then back handed another man that was attempting to get by him on the other side. The other three were a problem though. They immediately began firing their weapons. Macbeth's only saving grace was that their aim was so poor that most of the shots went wild. The closest one to him only nicked his shoulder.
Macbeth turned and grabbed the weapon that belonged to the man he tripped off of the ground and threw it at the closest man. The three men fired again, but with an object coming straight at them, and in their inebriated state, the fired more at the flying rifle than they did at Macbeth. One of their blasts it the rifle that Macbeth threw and the device exploded, knocking them to the ground.
Meanwhile Griff, Julia, and Octavia were getting ready to return home themselves. They had thoroughly patrolled the city, and after coming up with nothing, were deciding to head home.
"I wonder where he could have gone," Griff commented, "We never had problems finding him before."
"Fabian tactics," Julia commented.
"Huh?" Griff asked.
"In the Second Punic War, after Hannibal had crushed the Roman army at Cannae, a Roman general named Fabius took up a general strategy of avoiding battle to save what little remained of the army," Julia explained, "By avoiding battle and preventing Hannibal from destroying the rest of the army, Fabius bought time for reinforcements to arrive and protect Rome and eventually allowed Scipio to invade Africa."
"But we didn't crush him; he crushed us," Griff said, "Why would he need to avoid battle with us?"
"Take a look at American military history," Julia then answered, "In 1863 the Union and Confederate armies fought for three straight days around a south Pennsylvania town. In the end the Unionwon the battle but suffered heavier casualties in the process. Perhaps we inflicted such heavy casualties on Lucius's forces that he can not maintain his attacks against us any further."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Griff asked looking rather shocked, there had been no one to teach him or his rookery siblings anything other than clan history, and here was a gargoyle that knew not only her own history, but other people's history as well.
"Ever since Christianity was made Rome's official religion, our clan has had a powerful alliance with the Pope," Octavia explained, "It has been through him that we've learned of much of the world's events outside of Rome and Europe. Our Order has never roosted in the Vatican however because our operations have always been secular."
"You're clan seemed to get all the breaks in terms of human relations," Griff muttered humorously but quickly focused on something below them, "Say, is that Chloe down there?"
Octavia focused her vision on the crowd of humans moving below and noticed a woman with a cast on an arm and shoulder and looking around the same physical age as Macbeth moving at a fairly brisk pace along the sidewalk.
"I believe it is," Octavia affirmed, "But where's Macbeth?"
"We better investigate," Griff said diving down hoping to make contact with Chloe as soon as she got to a location that had fewer humans around.
Macbeth's attempt to get the group of armed men off the streets was not going as well as he planned. More of these armed men had showed up. Some were rather strange looking with painted faces and multiple piercings on their noses, ears, eyebrows, and lips. These people were just as drunk as the first bunch, but thankfully their numbers had convinced them to ignore their rifles for the moment. One man tackled him from the side driving the immortal man to the ground. Macbeth could hear sirens in the distance, and they were coming closer. He either had to get things under control or get away from there before the police arrived.
Macbeth punched the one that tackled him and pulled himself up and moved into an alley where their numbers would count against them. The former King of Scotland glanced around the alley looking for something he could use as a weapon only to find nothing. He growled to himself and put up his fists as the group of armed men attacked him.
Unseelie Headquarters
Garlon walked somewhat nervously into Maddox's throne room as the Unseelie leader sat reading some paperwork. Maddox straightened himself in his chair as Garlon approached closer.
"What do you have to report?" Maddox asked.
"Morrigan and I have raised nearly fifty people to hold Macbeth and Pendragon at bay," Garlon announced slowly, "They have been equipped with body armor, laser and non-projectile weaponry, and a few have grenades."
Maddox nodded his approval and then looked at Garlon and noticed that he was visibly, alone.
"Where is Morrigan?" Maddox demanded.
Garlon gulped nervously and stepped back, "Morrigan has decided to remain in London, my Lord to command the Second Front."
"I need all the Unseelie Court with me," Maddox sighed angrily, "Bring her back!"
"She said that there was no one to lead them, my lord," Garlon said nervously, "And that without a leader, Macbeth and Pendragon will surely be able to evade or defeat them."
"It appears that we will have to continue our partnership with Lucius after all," Maddox grumbled.
London
Chloe had just found her way through the city's side streets to get back to the same street where she and Macbeth had found the earlier gunmen. She glanced down in the direction of where she thought the immortal was. Other than a few men lying unconscious she saw no one in the street, but she could hear definite signs of a struggle coming from an alley.
"Hey there, what's going on that's got you running?" came Griff's voice from behind and above her.
Chloe turned to see the Griffon-like gargoyle, along with Octavia and Julia land behind him.
"Thank goodness you're here," Chloe said quickly and then began pointing in the direction of the fight, "Some group of wild men have attacked Macbeth down that way! They must have forced him into an alley."
Griff glanced in the direction Chloe was pointing and noticed the few unconscious men and heard the fighting going on.
"We'd better investigate," Griff commented, "Can you make it back to the mansion safely?"
"I'm pretty sure that I can," Chloe answered.
Griff then turned to Octavia and Julia, "Come on."
Morrigan looked down on the battle below her and smiled deeply. The immortal man, known as Macbeth had so far proven his might as a warrior and had defeated many of the gunmen that had attacked him, but their numbers eventually did overwhelm him. She watched as two positioned themselves to hold the man down, while many of the rest took their shot's at him. Macbeth was about to drop unconscious when three load roars echoed above her. She glanced up to watch Griff, Octavia, and Julia dive down into the alley.
"This is not what I had planned," Morrigan muttered to herself.
"What you planned is of no consequence," came Maddox's voice from behind her.
Morrigan whirled around to see her somewhat displeased lord standing behind her, "My lord!?"
"My court is needed with me in its endeavor to gain what is ours," Maddox said sternly, "All other fields are distractions for now. Lucius will command these minions to keep Macbeth and Pendragon distracted."
Morrigan looked at the angered and disappointed face of Maddox and bowed quickly, "I understand, my Lord."
"Very good," Maddox answered, "Now come with me, we will inform Lucius that he has a new army."
"Yes, my Lord."
Griff didn't like what he saw when he landed amongst the brawling gunmen. Macbeth was practically out of hit, barely maintaining consciousness Although from what the Griffon-like gargoyle could discern, Macbeth had defeated a fair number of his attackers before they finally overwhelmed him.
The humans that were pounding on the immortal Scottish king soon began to break any resemblance with that of an organized force. Griff dodged several wildly aimed laser shots while he rushed through the crowd tossing several of the gunmen aside to get to Macbeth. He found the man slouched in a corner with his eyes barely open.
"They certainly did a number on you," Griff commented as he lifted Macbeth onto his shoulders and began to climb up a nearby wall.
Octavia watched as Griff began to scale a nearby wall and turned to Julia.
"We must buy him time to get Macbeth out of here," Octavia commented as she grabbed one man by his wrists and flung him into one of his comrades.
"Agreed," Julia nodded and then threw herself into a group of men in women that were moving to help their comrades.
The gunmen that Garlon and Morrigan had raised didn't succeed once the battle had changed from nearly fifty to one to roughly forty or thirty-five against two gargoyles. Their drunken state only added to their inability to fight effectively. By the time the last of the gunmen had either fled or been knocked out, Octavia and Julia noticed that Griff was still waiting for them on the roof.
Macbeth awoke the next morning laying on top of a couch in one of the mansion's living rooms. He noticed Chloe sleeping in an easy chair not far away.
"Next time you decide to get in a fight with half of London, don't," came Arthur's voice in a teasing fashion.
Macbeth groaned as he sat up.
"From what Griff reported to me when his group brought you back here, you were not in very good shape," Arthur added.
"It couldn't be helped," Macbeth answered, "Some hooligans intercepted Chloe and I. They were both drunk and armed."
"So you picked a fight with them?" Arthur asked suspiciously.
"I'm immortal; I can survive anything they could have dished," Macbeth reminded the medieval Englishman, "Besides there was something about them that lead me to believe that a fight was inevitable when they found us."
"How so?" Arthur asked as he sat down in another easy chair.
"They mentioned that I was just who they were looking for," Macbeth answered.
Arthur sighed heavily, "You don't suppose it was Lucius, do you?"
Macbeth shook his head, "From our encounters with him, I'd say no. He seems to be worshiping Ancient Rome. Those men were drunk. No one working for Lucius that we've encountered has been remotely near what those men were."
"It appears we have a new enemy then," Arthur commented, "I'll need to discuss this with Merlin tonight. Lucius will surely return and these people may decide to be a bit bolder than he was."
"If you ask me," Macbeth began, with a look in his eyes that displayed a vision that something greater than both of them was going on, "I think someone is trying to make sure we stay in London. First Lucius and now these gunmen."
"I pray you're wrong, Macbeth," Arthur answered, "Because Merlin told me that once the Unseelies discover that they've lost the Grail, we will be in DIRE straights if it hasn't already been moved."
Elsewhere
Lucius overlooked the new recruits that Maddox had presented him with. He looked at them with a somewhat disappointed scowl.
"These people are not fit to be soldiers in any army," Lucius grumbled.
"And they are yours to command," Maddox answered with a sly smile, "Use them to the best of your ability. I want Macbeth and Pendragon to remain in London."
"What do you got to fear from them anyway?" Lucius demanded as he watched the man move to leave.
"Nothing, but they are enemies in an area that is of little strategic importance to me," Maddox answered, "I would prefer it if they don't move into an area of importance. Here I can isolate them. In New York, I would need to alter my plans so I can deal with them."
With that, Maddox disappeared. Lucius grumbled to himself as he viewed the fifty beaten up men that he had been presented with. Lucius only felt confident about his situation because of the thirty slaves he had gained elsewhere, but Maddox was right about one thing. These men were his to command. To Maddox, Lucius's campaign may only be a second front, but to Lucius however, this campaign was the only front. Lucius intended to command it with the skill he believed it worth.
To Be Continued…