AN: Hello everyone! I would like to apologise right off the bat for the length of this chapter. The muse hasn't been working well and it's been a bit of a struggle to write. I'm doing everything I can, but I can't guarantee the next few chapters will be much longer. I will try my best though!

But the updates will not stop! I made a promise to myself and to every past, present, and future reader that I would see this story through, and I do not break my promises. I just may have to fire my current muse and hire a new one, is all.

So please, enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

I do not own Gargoyles. Disney owns them. Gargoyles is a show that I love, and write stories about. I own Crystal, and any other characters that did not appear on the show.

New Life, New Beginnings: Chapter 10

Christian walked down the hallway in his boxers, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Crystal had insisted on showing him absolutely everything in the castle, right down to the supply closets. Excited didn't even come close to describing her that night.

He had ended up sleeping the entire day. The only reason he was up before sunset was to see his sister wake up. The nearly two weeks they had known each other in Toronto, he hadn't seen it happen once, and Fox had insisted it was a sight to behold.

He shuffled into the kitchen, and only once did he hear noise coming from the refrigerator did he realize someone was in there with him. And what a beautiful view she was presenting. "Well hello gorgeous," he whispered.

Elisa stood up. "Well hello to you, too." She took the milk out of the fridge and closed the door.

"Uh, hi." Christian could feel the heat in his cheeks rise at the knowledge that he had been heard. "My name's Christian, I'm Crystal's brother." He stuck out his hand.

Elisa placed the milk carton on the table and shook his hand. "Elisa Maza. I saw her dragging you around last night. I'm assuming she was unusually excited, considering she didn't notice me." She looked the young man from top to bottom. "And to be honest, I didn't think I'd be seeing so much of you so soon."

Christian looked down at himself and blushed even harder. "Excuse me," he stammered, as he bolted out of the kitchen.

Elisa chuckled as she finished making her coffee. Christian returned shortly wearing shoes and jeans. "Ran out of shirts?"

"Cut me some slack, will ya? I'm in jeans right after getting out of bed. Be glad I was wearing anything at all when I first walked in."

The raven-haired detective nodded in understanding. She grabbed the pot of coffee, poured some into a mug and handed it to the young man. "I'm guessing you'll need this."

He accepted the offered mug and inhaled deeply. "More than I thought." He took a sip and asked, "Seeing Goliath before your shift?"

Elisa gulped down her coffee and nodded, glad to know not only had Crystal informed him of their relationship, but that he appeared to be okay with it. "And it's almost sunset, so I'll see you later." She placed her mug in the sink and quickly walked out.

Christian took another sip of his coffee and made his way to where his sister and the others were perched. His stomach growled as he walked, making him realize he probably should have woken up with enough time to eat. His minor distraction led him to his destination sooner than he realized, but just in time to see the first cracks begin to form on the stone figures.

The cracks started out small, almost barely unnoticeable, but gradually grew and spread out everywhere, until the figures began to move and burst from their stone shells, throwing shards all around them.

Christian shielded himself and his coffee from the debris. When he straightened up, only one word came to his mind. "Whoa."

Lex smiled at his clan members. "That reaction never gets old."

"I only wish I'd been able to see it before I started doing it." Crystal stepped off her perch and walked over to her brother. "Join me for breakfast before I head out for patrol?"

He frowned slightly as his sister took his coffee and started drinking that. "Well now I have to, now that I need to get another cup of coffee."

They and the rest of the clan made their way inside the castle, except for Brooklyn. He sat on his perch, keeping one leg up while letting the other dangle. He rested an arm on the higher knee and sighed. Things were looking up two weeks ago, and now this guy had shown up.

"I just can't catch a break," he muttered.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The figure stood in the darkened room, staring at the wall map of Manhattan. A single ceiling light illuminated the map. There were multiple harshly marked areas circled, and afterwards scratched out. An area of the map had been blacked out; as a reminder to never hunt there. Any kind of attack there was suicide, both physically and legally. Besides, it would do no good to succeed in the hunt and then to be attacked for hunting too close.

They marked an area of the map with another circle. That would be tomorrow night's hunting location. Tonight, they would rest. Their prey wasn't going anywhere.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Christian tossed the pencil in frustration, and watched as it rolled across and off the table. He rubbed his face, and looked at the mess before him; a map of Manhattan and a whole crap ton of papers and files.

Goliath walked in and stood behind the young man. "Have you managed to make any progress?"

The human glanced up at the gargoyle. "Well, I managed to take another chunk out of that pile, which added another 68 marks on the map." He had been in the room when Crystal was given the heads up about the wacko running around town smashing statues. Christian immediately volunteered to help figure out if the person was a threat to the clan or not, and Elisa offered to get him every file on the acts of vandalism; both past and future files. So here he was, five days later, almost through every file that had been given to him. "The only thing I think I've managed to figure out is why they probably haven't been caught yet; there's no pattern." He gestured to the map, full of dots and dates in corresponding colours. "On the handful of reports that have times, this person will start the day with one statue and one end of the city, destroy a few more at the other end of the city, another one at another end, and then damage a few more back where they started. They've either got leg muscles bigger than yours, or they've got a lot of cash to spare."

"So the only pattern you've been able to distinguish is that there is no pattern."

Christian sighed and nodded. "Unfortunately. I can continue keeping track, but I don't think this is going to help us figure out if they're a threat to the clan, or if they just hate how the city is decorated. If their pattern wasn't so completely random, I would be leaning towards the latter."

Goliath nodded. "Then we will simply have to remain extra vigilant until the perpetrator is apprehended."

"I really wish I could say you don't have to. But it's possible that you may not need to."

The large gargoyle crossed his arms. "And why is that?"

"Because I found an anomaly." Christian pointed to a spot on the map. "You said this is where Demona lives, right?" Goliath nodded. "Well look at the perimeter this person has left around her mansion. They get to within three or four blocks of her place, and then stop. And at first I thought maybe there were no statues there, but I checked it out myself earlier today. There's not a whole lot of them, but there are stone gargoyles within this area that this person is avoiding."

Goliath studied the map. "Perhaps this person knows of Demona's dual life?"

Christian shrugged. "They're either afraid of her, or trying to somehow intimidate her. Either way, maybe Demona is their actual target and they're just trying to get her attention."

"Perhaps another Hunter has arrived to this isle." Christian raised an eyebrow to the gargoyle. "It is a story for another time."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"It's been two weeks since Christian discovered this guy is random. Why are we still trying to follow him?"

Broadway glanced at Crystal out of the corner of his eye. "Because we still don't know what this guy's motive is. He could be after Demona, or he could be trying to lure us out into some sort of attack. Until we know what this guy wants, we should be looking for him."

"Ugh, but he's not doing anything!" She pointed at some statues they were gliding over. "He's caused some damage, yes, and he's a huge nuisance for it. But I really don't think we should be putting any more effort into him."

Broadway could only shrug. "Think of it as us trying to track down another serial thief or something. We wouldn't give up trying to find them just because they're not ever going to attack us."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." But all this extra time spent patrolling could be better spent at the castle. Crystal's wings were beginning to tire and she thought about proposing the idea of heading back to the castle, when she heard something down the street. "Hey, do you hear that?"

The aquamarine gargoyle strained his ears to pick up on the sound. "That sounds like concrete... being smashed."

The two gargoyles shared a look. "Finally, we can be done with this!"

They altered their flight path and turned towards the sound. They were almost overhead when the figure ceased his destruction and casually made their way down the street. "This guy treats destruction like a hobby."

Crystal nodded and raised a finger to her lips. The person was out in the open and in a residential area that was still very awake. It would be very bad for their image for them to swoop down and pick up a seemingly innocent person. So they drifted higher so they could talk if need be, and silently followed.

And they followed him, directly into an alley. The two gargoyles raised an eye ridge at one another, shrugged, and continued to follow. At least now they were being given the chance to tie this guy up for the cops. They glided down and gently dropped into the alley. The last thing they wanted was to spook the person so badly that they used their weapon on them.

"Where did they go?" Crystal looked around them; positive they had dropped in behind the person.

Broadway poked his head out of the alley and looked around. "They didn't go running back out."

Crystal checked behind and in the dumpster. "It's a dead end, and it was silent. They didn't go diving into one of the smaller trash cans." She pulled out a few of the cardboard boxes at the end of the alley to make sure no one was there. "Nothing."

"Uh, Crystal?" She turned to face the other gargoyle, who was pointing to the ground. "I think they went underground."

She walked over and looked down at the manhole cover. "I thought this kind of thing only happened in cartoons." She knelt down. "Think we should follow?"

Broadway shook his head. "We don't know if they're waiting for us down there. If this is how they keep avoiding the cops, they could have traps laid out throughout the whole system."

"Yeah, you're right." Crystal stood back up. "Shall we head back home?"

He nodded. "Yeah, may as well. At least with this information we can get Talon and the others to help now."

The gargoyles climbed the wall and onto the roof. Just as they were about to leap off, a hovercraft flew past high above them. Broadway growled as he recognized the craft. "That guy's got some nerve showing his face around here again."

Crystal looked at Broadway and back at the quickly disappearing hovercraft. "Is that the guy that attacked Angela?"

Broadway flared out his wings and leaned forward, but stopped when he felt a hand on his arm. "What?"

"Let it go for tonight." Broadway opened his mouth to protest, but Crystal spoke first. "Just for tonight. He's already got a huge head start, and it's been a long night for both of us. Neither one of us is in prime condition for a full-on fight."

Broadway huffed in reluctant agreement. "Next time he won't get off so easy."

"I'll be right there with ya."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

They arrived back at the castle to find Lexington and Christian tossing a football around, with Bronx running back and forth between the two trying to catch it for himself. Broadway excused himself so that he could find Angela. Crystal looked around to see who else was outside. She found someone she was half expecting, and leaped off the wall to join them.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Brooklyn stood on Goliath's tower and stared down at the game of 'keep away' being played with Bronx. His ears perked at the sound of wings behind him.

Crystal landed softly behind him. "It's rude to spy, you know."

He looked over his shoulder as she landed. "Your landings have gotten a lot quieter."

"You're a really good teacher." She walked up beside him and nudged him with her arm. "So why the spying?"

He leaned against the wall and kept his eyes on the game. "What do you mean?"

"Well if you wanted to just watch them, you wouldn't be hiding up on the tallest tower. And I'll bet that if someone else was in Christian's spot, you'd be down there playing." She tilted her head and leaned forward slightly to get a better look at him. "So why the spying?"

Brooklyn shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do," she replied, the annoyance she was feeling was beginning to show in her voice. "You think I haven't noticed in these last few minutes you glaring at my brother every time he gets the ball? Or the numerous other glares you've sent his way over the past few weeks?"

"Then you must be seeing things."

She leaned on the wall beside him. "If I'm seeing things, then so is the rest of the clan, and that includes my brother." Crystal did her best to not get angry with him. "You did the same thing with Mike when you met him. When you did it to him it made sense, but it doesn't with Christian."

A small growl escaped his throat. "I'm jealous of all the time he gets to spend with you, all right?!" He took a deep breath and sighed, and shook his head.

Crystal had to admit, that definitely wasn't the answer she was expecting. She had been spending a lot of time with her brother, but who could blame her? She didn't think she was spending too much time with him, but seeing how Brooklyn was reacting to it... Have I been neglecting my relationships with the rest of the clan? "I'm sorry."

Brooklyn's eyes widened as he looked directly at Crystal. "Wait, you're sorry?" That took him by surprise. Wasn't he the one that was acting stupid?

She nodded. "I didn't realize I was favouring him so much over you and the others." She wrapped her arm around his. "I was just trying to make up for lost time, and in doing so, I spent less time with the clan." She gave herself a moment to build up the courage to say, "And with you." The look of surprise hadn't left his face for very long before it was back again, and Crystal avoided looking at him.

Brooklyn's mind was reeling. It was obvious to even a blind guy that he wanted to court her, and he had tried doing so before, but the attack on Nicole had put a stop to it. This was the first time since Crystal's return that they had shared more than a few minutes together, other than during patrols, and he was pretty sure she had just admitted to feeling something for him. At least, I think that's what that was. "Crystal... I..."

Crystal cleared her throat. "But that doesn't let you off the hook for how you've been acting."

Brooklyn smiled, happy to see her saving face for the both of them. "You're right, it doesn't, and I'm sorry for that. I've been a real jerk."

She smiled and rested her head against his shoulder. "It's something I've gotten used to."

He chuckled. "Was that supposed to be an acceptance of my apology?"

She shrugged. "Maybe."

"Thanks, I feel a lot better."

"As you should." She took a deep breath and kissed his cheek. "Now why don't you go down there and join the game? I'm sure my brother would appreciate it."

Brooklyn did his best not to show his surprise at the kiss. "That's not a bad idea." He pushed a lock of hair back behind her horns, and glided down to join the others.

Crystal smiled and watched as he joined the others keep the ball away from Bronx. "Get on his good side while you can, Brooklyn," she whispered to herself. "I have a feeling he's going to take on the role of the protective brother very soon."