All characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyrighted to Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. I've taken the idea for the Unseelie Court from the TGS. Characters and concepts from Star Trek are property of Paramount and created by Gene Roddenberry. 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 of 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. Also, I am altering large sections of the Star Trek storyline, especially concerning events like WWIII and the Eugenics Wars, which without the Cold War as a backdrop probably wouldn't happen the way Roddenberry wrote them, if at all. This story takes place one week after "Preparations".

Ambush

By SN/TVfan

Email: Sam_Nary

Tibet

Bei Ting lead a small patrol along the small valley between two large snow capped mountains in search of the guerilla forces that had been attacking Chinese troops for the past few months, and recently somehow robbed China of its nuclear weapons. He was determined to gain a victory for China and put an end to the sudden rebellion. News reporters on Chinese run television stations had reported that the government was openly debating whether or not to begin outright massacres of Tibetan people, just to draw out the guerrillas. Bei hopped it didn't come to that.

As they came around a small ridge in the valley they suddenly enveloped in smoke and mist that seemed to come out of nowhere. Bei couldn't see anything in front of him desperately moved to rally his men.

"Steady, men!" Bei ordered, "Steady! It's smoke grenades, they'll try and close with us soon."

As he said that, he saw several dark figures move in the mist, and guessed they were some of the guerillas that had been battling China.

"Surrender!" Bei commanded to them, "I order you to surrender in the name of the Chinese Army!"

The answer Bei received was a hail of gunfire that made Bei duck down and killed more then half of his squad behind him. Bei and his surviving men tried to fire back, but their opponents seemed to disappear into the mist and their bullets never hit anything. Bei then screamed as he felt several bits of metal fly into the back of one of his legs making him throw his rifle in surprise.

He tried to roll over and look himself over, despite that that wasn't the safest thing to do in a combat situation, but he had to see where he was wounded and how bad it was. When he did see, he wanted to throw up. He could see blood pouring out of holes in the back of his trousers, and on top of that he could see the gruesome results of what the grenade had done to the two squad members behind him. He hoped their bodies would be properly 'buried' when everything was over. He then put his faced down and moaned in pain and privately hoping for mercy.

It was then that the mist began to clear. As it did so, Bei saw several men wearing commando gear as well as masks that covered their entire face. He also saw one or two young men who looked like they were native Tibetans, at least he thought they were, based on government magazines that he had read describing Chinese 'unity'. All of these men were armed with weaponry that looked like it was actually Chinese, which shocked Bei as he had been told that the guerrillas were being supplied by someone outside of China.

"This one is still alive," one of the Tibetans said, pointing his rifle at Bei.

"Kill him," one of the commando dressed guerillas ordered, "They wouldn't give us any quarter if the situation was reversed. Remember what they did to their own people in Tiananmen Square."

The Tibetan slowly nodded while Bei begged for mercy. Unfortunately for Bei, the last think he saw was the muzzle flash of the gun right in front of him. The lead commando then activated a communications device that patched him through back to Khan's base.

"We have begun the 'escalation' phase of the conflict," the lead commando spoke, "China's government will begin to truly anger the local people now."

"Good," came Khan's voice over the radio, "Make sure that we have their weapons and equipment, as with the original ambush plans, leave anything that the government will need to identify the bodies."

"Strip them of their weapons and ammunition," the lead commando then ordered, "but leave their uniforms, wallets, money, and identification on them."

"Shouldn't we burry them?" one of the Tibetans with them asked, "Or give them a proper ceremonial cremation?"

"No," the lead commando answered, "The Chinese will send out another patrol later and will find the bodies of this patrol. That will let them now that the Tibetan Freedom movement is completely serious."

The Tibetan hesitantly nodded and then sighed, and reluctantly carried out his orders.

Khan's base

"You're certain it is time begin the real defeat of the Chinese army?" Marilyn asked Khan stepped away from the small radio in the main monitoring room of the instillation.

"We've robbed China of its nuclear weapons and have successfully made their government consider using tactics that would get them in trouble internationally," Khan answered, "If we continue using non-lethal tactics, my army will never be able to accomplish our goals."

"I am strong enough that they could never take this base," Marilyn answered, "We could probably defeat without even killing a single person."

"Yes, but sudden regime changes can be difficult and the Chinese will not readily accept a new government," Khan answered, "Their changes in government have always been violent. Either a foreign power invaded, the Emperor was assassinated, or rival factions fought it out amongst themselves for power."

"That could make a case for avoiding a war with China," Marilyn commented, "I still say we should use magic and make their government swear fealty to us."

"No, the Chinese people in general would back the communists and the Chinese in exile on Taiwan would challenge our right to govern," Khan answered, "We must crush the communists through the only way that the Chinese know how. With them defeated, there will be no hope for them to turn to Taiwan for aide."

"They might turn to America or Russia," Marilyn pointed out.

"After the border conflicts they had with Russia in the Cold War, I doubt they'd be willing to turn to them, and if they do turn to America, all we need to do is tell them they're helping communists," Khan said with a smile, "simply say the word 'communist' and Americans get all nutty about it, and not 'nutty' as in in favor of it."

"They do recognize China as an important trading partner," Marilyn pointed out.

"Then we will promise them better trading treaties once we are in power," Khan answered, "Hopefully our scouts elsewhere in the world can find or start a different international crisis that the Americans will stick their noses into and will thus be unable to give us the attention that will be required to stop us."

"Well, hopefully they are successful," Marilyn commented, "What do you suppose the Illuminati will do because of this?"

"Probably think that Demona is upping the ante," Khan answered.

Unknown Location

"The ongoing guerilla war escalated dramatically as the Chinese government has reported that the first Chinese soldiers have been killed in the conflict," a news reporter spoke from a television screen in a very serious tone, "they have not disclosed how many men were killed, nor the exact location, or how the event happened, but it is for certain that this conflict is certainly not going to go away any time soon."

"And these are the first soldiers killed in the conflict?" a studio reporter asked.

"The first that have been reported," he reporter answered, "Tensions have been high here, but so far all the engagements so far have ended with Chinese forces being wounded and their equipment stolen, but that doesn't mean that there have been more violent engagements before this present time that we have not been informed about."

One then turned off the television and sighed heavily to the rest of the gathered Council.

"Demona's followers are escalating the fight," One spoke firmly, "Now what do we do?"

"Ordering the Chinese to increase their efforts to crush the insurgents should be one of the objectives," Four commented, "Send aircraft to try and strike at these rebels."

"I suppose," One sighed, "I would prefer to try and keep this small. All the news attention that is going toward this conflict could reveal us."

"Perhaps we ought to ask Khan to take some role in defeating these insurgents," Three offered, "It would save us a lot of trouble of trying to keep our organization secret."

"No," Two argued, "We need him to directly protect our facility while we try to get a new scientific team to run it."

"But all the potential scientists are killed before we can get them there," Three argued, "It's probably some part of this insurgent war against us, but the point is that we don't have a team to send to our Tibet Installation. It'd be better to give Khan a job more important then guarding one small facility. The insurgents started this war by attacking it. Surely Khan wants vengeance for that."

"No," One said authoritatively, "We will leave Khan where he is. Besides, even if he helps us, the Chinese will ask questions about his presence."

"Then our best option is to kill the brains behind the entire insurgency," Five spoke, "Demona and the gargoyles with her."

"Where is she?" One asked.

"According to our satellites, she and the Chinese gargoyles are nearing the city of Vancouver in Canada," Five answered, "I believe their ultimate intention is to return to Tibet."

"To take a direct lead in the rebellion," One nodded, "Do we have anything or anyone in Vancouver that can deal with Demona?"

"The only one who could is Macbeth," Three answered, "And he has apparently given up hunting her to help Arthur Pendragon."

One sighed, knowing full well the frustration that Arthur was currently creating for the Illuminati.

"Do we have anyone or anything that can knock her out long enough to put her out long enough for us to get her into a cell that we can keep her in?" One asked rephrasing his earlier question.

"I do not know, sir," Four spoke up "We might be able to put something together that takes out some of her help while we ready something more powerful, but we really do not know how this will effect Demona herself. I mean, none of us really understand the spell she is under. Other then that she is immortal unless Macbeth kills her, we know nothing."

"And since the Unseelies, our primary source for knowledge on this have disappeared, we no longer know many of the specifics," Two added.

"Yes, but they would have tried to destroy us if the Manhattan Clan and their allies hadn't stopped them," One reminded the council, "So it's all's well that ends well. We'll just have experiment in dealing with Demona."

"Isn't it possible to 'kill' her, at least for a little while though?" Four asked.

"Yes, but the problem is that we've never been able to calculate how long she will stay 'dead'," Two commented, "The Unseelies told us that she could be dead from anywhere from as long as a day to as short as a few minutes. Repeated experimentation and timing of how long she is out is needed."

"Then we experiment," Three offered, "Surely we can keep her allies busy while we test her to see how long, on average, she stays dead."

"Very well," One nodded, "Notify all commando units in the area. It is time to 'experiment' on an immortal."

Vancouver, Canada

Demona looked out over the skyline of one of western Canada's largest cities and toward the Pacific ocean and Vancouver Island beyond. The others were finishing up their breakfast behind her on the rooftop of a fairly tall church that they had found. Her thoughts were conflicted over how to deal with the supermen that the Tibetans had told her about or with the Illuminati, who now seemed to be shadowing their movement west from New York.

"Troubles?" Wedrington asked as he slipped out of the bell tower where the others were eating.

"Things are continuing to become more difficult," Demona answered.

"You mean these supermen are getting stronger?" Wedrington asked.

"Not them," Demona replied, "They will be foes to face once we arrive in Tibet, but for now it appears that the Illuminati are our real foes."

"Our real foes?" Wedrington questioned.

"They have been shadowing us ever since North Dakota," Demona answered, "That 'Marilyn's' impersonation of me has made me believe that I am attacking them."

"So you're going to attack them because they think you're they're enemy?" Wedrington commented, "Isn't that playing into what Marilyn and these supermen want?"

"I don't want to battle them, but they insist on following us," Demona growled, "I can not allow them to smash the others or smash you."

Wedrington blushed a little bit at the remark, knowing from his experiences that the immortal female did not share many personal thoughts easily.

"We can simply try ignore them," Wedrington commented, "Move carefully and only fight them if they attack us first."

"That is all we can do," Demona answered, "The Illuminati are skilled at hiding. Cowards that they are. But, when they attack us, I have no intention of holding back."

"Killing those that are defeated would be dishonorable," Yama commented as he and he rest began to come out.

"I've told you before that I am not interested in honor," Demona answered, "I am more concerned with survival. The Illuminati would not do the 'honorable' thing if our situations were ever reversed."

"It isn't wise to lower yourself to their level," Yama commented, "Japanese news stations did record the events of the 'Hunter's Moon' in New York, they know that your clan exists, and the Illuminati knows that."

"I am not part of that clan anymore," Demona dodged the comment, "I may not be their enemy, but I am not a member of that clan."

"Maybe," Yoshi spoke up, "but the people of the world won't know or understand that, and from what I have observed, outside of the cities where people know gargoyles exist, at present New York City in America, and Ishimura in Japan, few of the people really believed those news reports, and those that did largely jumped to various conclusions based on half-truths, probably spread by either the few ignorant or racist parts of humanity. The Illuminati likely knows this."

"That is not my concern," Demona answered.

"But if they control the world, and know that the world does not trust gargoyles," Yama commented, "What is to stop them from staging a battle and filming it. Then after you lower yourself to their level, wouldn't they then have enough hard evidence to create a propaganda campaign that could make presently neutral people hate gargoyles?"

That made Demona think for a moment. If she had been asked that question three years ago, she would have sworn that it didn't matter and that humanity deserved its destruction. Things had, however, changed since then and she knew that as well. She had been trying to reconnect with Angela, and she knew that her daughter had long since chosen to follow Goliath and would never do anything that the clan would consider wrong, and her desire for her daughter to like her was far stronger then any of her darker thoughts which she found surprising from time to time, but something she couldn't and probably wouldn't fight.

Then there was also Wedrington. He certainly would not allow her to do anything close to what she had done in the past, and given the time he had spent with her, her instincts told her he was a prospective mate. At the same time, she was becoming more and more certain that she was beginning to love him, which she thought she would never be able to do, especially considering the dramatic events that had happened to her. Goliath being locked in stone sleep for a thousand years, breaking their bond and Thailog purposely betraying her. She hated being alone for so long between each of her previous loves and was absolutely enraged after Thailog betrayed her, but Wedrington had proven calm and to a great degree understanding. And despite learning of some of the worst things she had done, he continued to remain her companion. She felt she would be heartbroken if she were to lose him. She was certain that Angela and certainly Wedrington would accept her old answer.

"I suppose not," Demona sighed, "I still believe that in gargoyle-human relations, it has been humanity's fault that gargoyles have died, but perhaps it might be wiser to try and educate them rather then to give them a real reason to hate us."

"I suppose that is for the best," Je Lu commented, "But we must get moving."

"Yes," Shi La added in agreement, "If the Illuminati are indeed following us, our best move would be to keep moving."

"So what is our next move?" a female named Tai-Wee asked.

"I believe we should stick close to the islands," Demona commented, pointing to Vancouver Island, "There are fewer human settlements on these islands then there are on the mainland. We will not be as easily detected."

The others nodded and they then took to the air. As they did, a lone man on the ground looked up and watched the group head for Vancouver Island, or at least in that direction.

"This is spy one," the man spoke into a walkie-talkie, "Demona and followers appear to be headed for Vancouver Island."

"We're ready," came the reply over the walkie-talkie.

Vancouver Island

As Demona and the others moved over a fairly heavily forested section of Vancouver Island, they found the entire area to be rather quiet, other then the sound of crickets and the hoot of an owl or two.

"This territory is all very interesting," Shi La commented, "So very different from Tibet."
"What the people here call 'the Rockies' seemed to remind me of what Demona and I saw of Tibet," Wedrington commented.

"Parts of it, but there are no forests in Tibet like these here," Je Lu told him, "If it weren't for the fact that our situation was so serious, we would consider this a rather pleasant vacation."

The conversation was then broken up by the sound of a laser blast hitting Je Lu squarely in the chest and knocking him back. His scream of pain and the sound of the weapon firing made the group stop and spread out. Shi La rushed after her wounded mate to make sure he was not seriously hurt, meanwhile, their attackers rose into the air on what appeared Yama and Yoshi as flying motorcycles. Each of these hover-cycles appeared to be armed with powerful laser rifles.

"In the name of the Illuminati Council you are all to surrender!" the lead Illuminati commando ordered.

"Vile murderers!" Demona roared and threw out two lightning spells at the closest hover-cycles to her.

Those two closest cycles then exploded in balls of flame and the group watched as their riders pulled out parachutes and slowly descended toward the Earth. The other Illuminati agents then attacked in full force sending the others diving for either cover or some means o get the drop their attackers.

"Get them off their hover-cycles," Demona ordered, "They can't pursue us if they're stuck on the ground."

While the battle began with the rest of the group, Shi Law caught Je Lu as the laser blast had thrown him back a fair distance from the rest of the battle. He still appeared to be breathing, but the laser blast had left a visible burn mark on his chest.

"Je Lu, Je Lu, are you alright?" Shi La asked as they descended to the ground, "Speak to me!"

Je Lu coughed somewhat as he then struggled to sit up.

"I'll be fine," Je Lu coughed out, "tomorrow."

This made Shi La look back up to watch the battle going on in the air. There, the Illuminati hover-cyclists tried to get a straight shot at Demona, but many of them found themselves under attack by one of the other gargoyles that were present. One was prepared to fire at Demona from the side when he was hit in the back of the head by the handle of a Japanese katana.

"Yama! You could have killed him!" Yoshi exclaimed as he came up beside the Japanese exile.

"I hit him with the handle," Yama answered as he resheathed his sword and took control of the hover-cycle, with the unconscious Illuminati agent in his lap, "He will not be harmed, at least not any more then necessary."

"Do you know how to fly that thing?" Yoshi asked.

"No, I was largely hoping to crash it," Yama answered.

Wedrington, meanwhile, banked right to avoid taking a hit from a pursuing hover-cycle. He had managed to get the Illuminati agent to stop shooting at Demona by physically pushing his hover-cycle, so that the shot would miss the immortal female, but in doing so, he earned someone who seemed quite eager to kill him instead. He was now leading the Illuminati agent through the trees in the hopes that he could get him to fly into a tree. Unfortunately, the spaces between the trees was also short enough that it was not easy for him to fit his wings in between those spaces. The hover-cycle pilot did not have that problem.

"Bloody cyclist," Wedrington growled as he cursed under his breath as the hover-cyclist strafed the treetops with laser fire.

The laser fire made him dive lower, in the hopes of at least forcing his pursuer to have to put up with dodging branches as well. They didn't stop him, but Wedrington found that they did finally slowed him down enough that he thought he could 'lose' his pursuer. He dove behind a tree in front of him, trying as much as possible to not rustle the leaves or branches with his wings. After a few moments the hover-cycle and its Illuminati driver appeared in the area between the two trees. Wedrington gasped that the man did not look to the side where he would easily see a white lion-like gargoyle trying to disappear into a spruce tree.

Wedrington then sighed and ignored the fact that his pursuer expected Wedrington to still be fleeing and rushed forward. He grabbed a hold of the Illuminati pilot and ended up falling with him to the ground, breaking every branch in the other spruce tree as they went down. They landed rather roughly, but it was the Illuminati agent who seemed to get the worst of it. As Wedrington began to pull himself up, he heard the Illuminati man groaning.

"Are you alright?" Wedrington asked.

"That's a funny question coming from a freak that's trying to take over the world," the Illuminati agent retorted.

"Even funnier retort from a man who works for an organization that secretly tries to rule the world," Wedrington answered back, "If you think you're so just, why not just have your Council reveal itself and have every government endorse it?"

"Our control is not as concrete as many of you 'rebels' like to think," the man responded, "Most of the time, we have to rely on a government's bureaucratic system to insure control… and even then, they may not know of the manipulation."

Wedrington wondered why the Illuminati man answered that way and decided it was some sort of intimidation tactic.

"Well, we are not out to rob you of your 'control'," Wedrington answered, "Someone attacked friends of ours, someone that poses a much greater threat to the world then just destroying one clan's home. We are going stop them and make the world safe."

"You make it sound like you're going to fight the Tibetan insurgents, despite the fact that we know you've ordered them to begin killing people in Tibet," the man practically snarled back.

"We have no connection to them," Wedrington insisted, "If you people would listen to reason, you'd know that."

With that, Wedrington kicked the Illuminati member, knocking him out and preventing him from trying to twist what Wedrington said any more. He then carried the unconscious man to leave him below the area where Demona was presently hovering. Demona meanwhile, was forced with several hover-cycle pilots trying to attack her from multiple sides. She watched intently as members of the Tibetan clan tried to drive them away.

The Tibetans were not completely successful at that, but they did succeed in distracting them long enough for Demona to take them out with lightning spells. The stunned riders fell unconscious and were caught by the various Tibetans. As the last of the Illuminati hover-cycle pilots was knocked out, Demona finally lowered her altitude to land on the ground.

"And this is why I say the Illuminati are our enemies as well," Demona snarled as they approached a pile of unconscious Illuminati agents.

"Marilyn must have really done something to deceive them then," one of the Tibetan gargoyles, named Gung-Ho commented, "They aren't the ones who are truly at fault."

"Maybe not," Wedrington commented as he arrived, "but they are fully convinced that we are leading the insurgency in Tibet."

"But we can't just go killing these people because Marilyn worked her deception of the Illuminati so well," Yama spoke, "If in truth they are merely deceived, they must be treated with honor."

"I agree with you," Wedrington nodded, "But these people did not seem to be interested in listening when I told them that we have nothing to do with the insurgents."

"We'll chain them up," Demona stated with a frustrated sigh, "The Illuminati will surely come looking for them, and if they know me at all, they'll have to rethink my involvement in this insurgency that troubles them."

"Meanwhile we must find Je Lu and Shi La," Yoshi commented, "These guys knocked Je Lu out when they arrived and Shi La went after him."

"We're here," came Shi La's voice from the sidelines as she came out from behind a series of bushes, carrying Je Lu in her arms, "Je Lu is hurt and can not glide for the rest of the night."

There was a series of frightened mumbling before Demona decided to take charge.

"Gather their hover-cycles," Demona answered, "They have to be stealth rigged or at least carry some sort of electronic scrambler. We'll need them."

"What for?" Wedrington asked curiously.

"I can use those 'hover-cycles of theirs to create a sort of stealth ship," Demona answered, "We'll sail to Asia."

"What about at dawn when we turn to stone?" a Tibetan female asked.

"We can stay in shallow water and drop anchor when it gets close to dawn," Yoshi commented, "although we would have to hope that the weather remains calm. I do not know what would happen if we were to run into a storm."

"We have no other choice," Yama commented, "If Je Lu is too injured to glide and the Illuminati will return after dawn for their defeated comrades here, we can not still be on the same island."

The group sighed and rushed to gather up the 'abandoned' hover-cycles or what was left of them.

The Next Day

"They're gone?" Two's image on a long range communicator growled.

"The gargoyles and the hover-cycles as well," an Illuminati agent reported, "It would seem that the ambush failed."

"We'll have to try again as soon as we can find them," Two sighed, "The real problem is that they stole our hover-cycles."

"We can always build more," the agent responded.

"At the cost of deliberately hurting Canada's economy, as the agents that participated in the ambush were all Canadian," Two reminded him.

"Be grateful that none were killed, sir," the agent informed the Council member.

"Yes," Two nodded, "Very unusual behavior for Demona. Her hatred of humanity would naturally drive her to kill any humans that would fight her, and considering that she ordered the escalation of the fighting in Tibet, it is doubly odd that she would not view herself at war with us."

"One of our agents reports that Demona's followers do not believe they are helping the insurgents," the agent reported.

"If that is true, then Demona has deceived her own kind, or enslaved them somehow," Two commented, "The Council will rethink these matters and consider sending a sorcerer to free those that Demona has enslaved.

Tibet

Khan patiently walked through an underground warehouse in the main Illuminati base that he had taken over, inspecting several vehicles that his men had captured and brought back. His second in command followed close behind with Marilyn flanking him.

"It will take time to repair the vehicles that our men damaged," his second in command informed him, "They are repairable, but it will take men and time."

"There is little raw Iron in them," Marilyn commented, "Why not use magic?"

"No, my dear, with the war with 'China' beginning to escalate, I believe you will be needed to deal with more direct threats to us, and I'm sure, Marilyn, that you will find dealing with them to be fairly amusing," Khan spoke up, "Order up another battalion created. Insure that they are knowledgeable on repairing all forms of military equipment."

"Of course, sir," Khan's second answered.

"Things are beginning to progress rapidly," Khan said with a smile, "Soon it will come time to 'pull the rug' out from underneath a sleeping world and arrogant organization."

To Be Continued…