Choices and Surprises

Shona of Wyvern (keith_and_allura_forever@yahoo.com)

All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company.
No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder.
All original characters are the property of Bonnie_S. (a.k.a. Shona of Wyvern).

A gargoyle learns from the time they are young that they are to protect with all that is within them for the sake of the vow made by their earliest known ancestors  – the last two male dragons, who mated with three human females to create the gargoyle species. But none of those gargoyles gathered at Castle Wyvern, nor any of the others who had joined the deathwatch, could protect or save Elisa Wyvern from the cancer that would shortly take claim of her life.

Demona sat half-heartedly playing a chess match with Queen Tatiana as both women thought about the woman the world was losing that night. Both were frightened at what the world would be like once Elisa passed on, but knew that it was what they would have to face. Though neither wanted to talk about it.

They were not the only ones thinking such thoughts. The only ones missing from the crowds that had gathered out of respect for the Manhattan Clan's chief female was Peter and Diane Maza, and Goliath – all of who were sitting at his mate's side until time came to gather their Clan to say goodbye to Elisa.

In their bedroom, Goliath held onto Elisa's hand. He listened as her breath came in wheezing gasps. No, it would not be much longer. Thailog had taken away the Clan leader's true love, and Goliath was torn to his very soul because of it. Diane had not said a word since the three of them retreated into the room, only softly wept for the baby she was losing. Peter wondered how Goliath was handling this so strongly; he himself could not stand the thought of having to go through this kind of parting with his own wife.

~ ******* ~

Ann sat in front of the computer monitor – surfing the web. Any other eight-year-old girl would be on the sites for some television show or checking out the latest music stars, but not little Ms. 'devoted to curing Elisa Wyvern' Ann. She was looking up sites on leukemia – specifically for any information on Elisa's type's base form. Ann didn't realize that her mom, Melody, was in the doorway watching her working hard. Melody hadn't the heart to Ann that it was too late for any kind of a miracle now.

Ann half mumbled out loud, "bone marrow is the root of it. Why not try a transplant? Or maybe..."

"That's because Elisa would not be able to survive the chemotherapy that is needed to kill the marrow currently in her bones. She's on death's door right now. And even if she could survive it, the process would only make her cancer worse because of the virus." Melody startled Ann into reality.

"Are you sure she's going to die soon mom? It's not fair! How can a virus know we'd try to save her anyway? It doesn't have a brain!" Ann yelled out in her aggravation. This seemed to be the hardest goodbye the kid was going to have to face.

Melody pulled Ann into her arms, and let her daughter cry for a few moments. "The virus picks up changes in the chemicals in her body. When chemotherapy starts its work in the blood, it triggers the virus' spark off genes. Whereas, if the cure was magical or radiation, it would go from the outside of the skin inwards, which also causes the body to produce a chemical reaction that starts the same genes. Come on, we'd better go say our goodbyes now."

"I was thinking that if her marrow was destroyed, then replaced with good marrow, and then she went into stone sleep - then Elisa shouldn't be able to infect anyone else and she would be healed. There are so many people here who would willingly give her their strength to help, me included." Ann muttered in her hopelessness.

Melody had heard of the phrase 'out of the mouths of babes', but she had never had it so literally hit home before. Melody hadn't been the only one to hear it. Demona and MacBeth had come to retrieve the pair for the formal parting ceremony. And it gave the gargress more hope than she had held in a very long time.

Demona gave a yelp of hope for the first time in too long! "Ann you are a genius! Let's go – I'll explain on the way."

A few minutes later the four of them rushed out of the elevator and over to the gathered crowd. Demona left MacBeth and the other two to explain the plan to the others.

"We have a plan to save Elisa! But, we have to make her stronger to fight this."

Diane looked up through tear filled eyes, "how can we do that? She's almost dead now."

Demona too had eyes full of tears, but these were tears of pure hope. "She has to want to live."

"I … I … want … to … live." Elisa barely gasped in her weaken state.

"That's all I need then. Come on everyone. Time to give back what we all have gotten over the past few years!" Demona opened the door and shouted out into the hallway.

Oberon and Tatiana walked in – hand in hand. Their faces were unreadable as they took positions at the end of Elisa's sickbed. The ruler of Avalon himself was the one to do the spell.

Elisa Wyvern, Avalon recognizes the services thou hath done us in the past.

The numbers of those you have touched with you pure heart are vast.

To give you the strength to fight what conspires to bring about your life's end,

We give you all the energy friends that love you now do send.

All who were in the Castle became surrounded with a green glow. Then the glow came together to create a large sphere in the hands of Lord Oberon. It seemed to brighten for a moment, and Elisa saw a sparkle of joy in Tatiana's eyes – what was the pair up to?

Elisa's fever quickly came down as her breathing returned to normal. Soon she was becoming stronger, and her thin, frail body regained the strength and appearance it once had. After a few moments, Elisa was as well as she had been a few months before finding out the news of her cancer. It was the first time in so long that she was able to sit herself up on the bed without any sort of help.

On the other hand, everyone else was exhausted. Seeing that their gifts had not been in vain, and Elisa was better enough to try whatever it was Demona had planned, made them all smile with a re-newed sense of hope.

Paul rushed off to see who was Elisa's best match for a bone marrow transplant, and Melody went to mix the chemotherapy the way Demona had instructed. The rest either went off to find their sleeping arrangements, or visit with old and new friends. This left Elisa, Goliath, Demona, MacBeth, Peter, and Diane together alone.

Peter wasn't sure if he could trust the red haired gargoyle female just yet. "Why are you doing this Demona? From what I understand, you hate my daughter more than any other human alive or dead."

"Peter!" Diane chastised.

Demona shook her head solemnly in response. "He is right. I still hate most humans, because most of your species have proven themselves to be the worse scum of this planet. And I still hate you Elisa, because you took my place in the Clan and have become a mother figure to my daughter. Only recently have I begun to accept the blame I have tried to throw onto the shoulders of every human I meet. Mostly because of Angela.

"She told me of how you interceded in her wanting to come to me. Of how you convinced Goliath to let me have time with her. I know that you don't trust me, Elisa. And yet, you have not tried to take my place in her life – though you do have a mother's place in her heart, due to my mistakes and your loyalty.

"I will not hurt my daughter for the world. If I have to accept the blame I have avoided to be a part of her life, then so be it. If I have to accept that you will always be a special mother figure to her, so be it. And if it means accepting that we are sisters through her and your new place within this Clan, so be that as well."

Demona had crossed the room and laid her claw on the door handle. She couldn't handle being near them right then. Being so close to the gargoyle she had once, and in a way still, loved and his new mate was taking a toll on her frayed nerves. When a gentle touch on her arm stopped her, Demona assumed that it was MacBeth (her true love). But looking up she saw that it was Elisa, 'she has to be feeling much better now.' Demona thought to herself.

It was a shock to Demona when Elisa wrapped her arms around her neck. What was happening?

"I have known all along that you still have issues you need to work out. All healing takes time. I'm just glad that you have started finally. And I'm glad and proud to call you my new sister – whether you want to believe it now or not." And then the world stopped when Elisa whispered into Demona's ear, "call me if you ever want to talk about anything."

Demona was able to wipe away the tears she couldn't hold back at all when Broadway and Angela came in. Angela smiled with tears still in her eyes. "Queen Tatiana has made a celebration feast in the main hall. We figured that everyone would be hungry after all we've been through."

"Elisa?" Goliath whispered with a smile she hadn't seen in a long time – one of joy.

"I think that tonight is going to be one of the best? Right sis?" Elisa grinned as she winked over at Demona.

For a moment all that the red haired female could do was stand there in a stunned silence. It was MacBeth who responded for her. "That lass will be the understatement of the century before the night be through. Let's go then, shall we?"

At that he offered his arm to Demona, who was still shocked by all that had happened. The old Scotsman grinned when she instinctively took it without a word. The pair of them led the rest out of the room to the party – with Elisa and Goliath taking up the rear.

Once the couple finally entered the main hall, all who were gathered stood and applauded eagerly – seeing that their sacrifices had indeed healed Elisa enough for her to come to them rather than them visiting her. Elisa tried hard not to smile as she blushed profoundly from the attention. She herself was only happy to still be among them as a living person and not a ghost.

For three hours they all chatted, sang, joked, and enjoyed the happy life in that room. As dawn began to approach, the party reluctantly broke up. The Manhattan Clan all gathered in the library for their change, this time Demona was counted as one of them.

The sky changed in a glorious rippling that too turned the Clan of gargoyles into a family of humans in moments. Yet, from the corner Demona had secured to support her there was no screaming of dire pain – only a gasp of shock as the now Dominique Destine collapsed to the floor with her eyes wide in alarm.

"Mother!" Angela cried out. The Clan rushed to Dominique's side, wondering what had happened.

"Domi, what's wrong?" Elisa calmly asked.

"It didn't hurt. Why didn't it hurt this time?" Dominique stammered uncertainly.

The sound of a certain well-known throat being cleared captured all of their attentions from Dominique to Puck, who was hovering nearby. "That is an simple question to answer. You felt no pain because you had none held inside."

"Puck, what do you mean by that?" Elisa annoyingly questioned.

"To put it plainly, Demona's change only became painful when she harbored hatred towards herself or her Clan. This morning however, she was feeling …"

Dominique knew what he wanted her to say. She just couldn't find the right words at first. Finally she let the tears flow, "… happy, content, whole."

"Exactly. Now that you are home again, and you have let go of your rage, the pain is no more. Consider it a gift from me to you."

"A gift," Demona sputtered indignantly. "All of the pain and torment twice a day everyday! I am suppose to thank you for that gift?"

"No, though you got exactly what you did ask of me – if you remember. No, my gift was to help you return to your Clan. I knew from the moment Goliath left that night you first found out about Elisa that you were too hurt and shattered to return to the Clan as you were. I thought that you would have dropped everything for your old flame, but sadly it was not to be.

"I know what it is like to be away from one's home and family, it is ever the worse torture! Once you left as you did I set about to find a way to give you the one thing I cannot have, your place in your Clan – your family Dominique. You had to be shown where hate and revenge would take you, because there was no one you would listen too. Understand?"

By now Puck was hang in front of Dominique, eye to eye. Elisa wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she saw pain in the infamous Fae's eyes. As often as he and his kind tricked and toyed with mortals, occasionally they did what they did out of a sense of purpose. Puck was trying to save Demona from the excommunication from the Clan that she had been heading for.

Dominique sighed as she accepted the truth. "Puck."

"Yes, Dominique?"

"Thank you, even for the pain." Dominique smiled – the first genuine one Elisa had seen ever.

"You're welcome Dominique. Hope to see ya around more often." Puck chirped. All too soon he changed back into Owen. "That is provided you do not come to visit Mr. Xanatos' company files and such."

At that Dominique chuckled before giving a feigned look of innocent shock. "Me, visit Xanatos' files? Why would I be interested in what he hides in his files? The way you talk Owen, your poor employer couldn't handle a little friendly industrial espionage."

That brought out roars of laughter from her clan, but Owen simply adjusted his glasses (trying to hide his wink to her from the others – it didn't work). But, the happiness was not to last.

When Melody came into the room with a strange look on her face, they all went silent. "That Thailog was one very sick puppy!"

Broadway looked confused. "I thought that you were testing Elisa and her family's blood – not Thailog's. And how did you get his anyway?"

Everyone broke into laughter. Calmly Elisa explained that Melody had used a human saying.

"Thailog re-sequenced Elisa's DNA to where she is no longer a Maza by blood. I had Paul run a maternity and paternity screening on Elisa's blood, and compared it to Mr. and Mrs. Maza's – both came back negative. Then I thought out when and why the cretin would do that. Given what I've been told about the young female he created, Delilah – that is when he did it. On a hunch, I ran Demona's DNA and compared it to the scan she had before that time – and hers has been re-sequenced as well." Melody explained.

Elisa quickly put all of the information together. "Are you saying that Demona and I are genetically compatible?"

Melody nodded, "more than that. Elisa is a gargoyle genetically – in fact she is one of the Manhattan Clan to be very specific."

"Then maybe one of us can help Elisa!" Brooklyn snapped his fingers with a twinkling in his eyes.

Turning to Angela with a sneaky grin, Melody went on. "How do you like having your blood aunt for a new mom?"

Demona and Elisa both stuttered in shock while Angela giggled with happiness before grabbing both women in her arms.

Lexington shook his head, "I don't want to think about the psychiatrists bills that's gonna bring."

All of them shook with laughter, that is excluding Demona and Elisa – both of who were still in shock. Finally they both sputtered, "We're sisters?"

That made the laughter all the worse! A few minutes later the pair followed Melody to her offices, and the Clan began to anxiously wait for some news of how both ladies faired.

Because of the added chemical Demona had given her, Melody had to make the chemotherapy triple strong – but it would hopefully be worth it. The clear purple fluid would mask the chemicals from the virus as normal plasma; the virus would be tricked into assuming that Elisa's bone marrow was deteriorating from Thailog's plan. However it also sped the process of the chemotherapy to just over two hours rather than weeks or months.

Demona herself faired well through the marrow aspiration procedure. Though she was in pain, it was worth it. For once she was going to go the path she disliked instead of the way she had always gone before. She still hated humans for their arrogance and disrespect, but she recognized that she had done nothing to change that point of view – only strengthen it. This time instead of celebrating the end of the one human she had always despised worse than any other, Demona helped to save the former detective's life.

Not long afterwards Goliath brought Elisa to her room for a visit before they went into stone sleep together. Demona couldn't help but give the mismatched lovers a smirk. "Checking up on big sissy? Careful kido, someone might think that you actually care about me."

"Demona, can we not leave the past where it belongs?" Goliath objected.

"I'm just teasing her, leader. After all, from what I have learned, it's appropriate for an older sibling to haze the younger generation. And since Elisa is now my sister by both blood and Clan …" Demona winced when she moved her sore hip the wrong way slightly.

Elisa smiled softly. "Same with you sis. Mom and dad are already calling you one of their own, and are refusing to let you be called Demona. You unofficially are named Dominique Destine – Maza. Like you said yourself - "clan takes care of Clan'. That means both within our gargoyle family and our human family. And you know that I still won't let you boss me around – big sister."

Demona was amazed by what she heard. Those humans had claimed her as their daughter? It made her understand Angela better though, and the girl's hunger to be recognized by her parents. But, for this human she had always curse and came close to killing many times to accept and seemingly love her, that hit her even deeper. "And I thought that I have a stubborn streak! Careful Goliath, or she'll have you trained faster than I did."

"Oh, I thought that I got passed that stage at least a couple months ago!" Elisa smirked as she and Demona exchanged half cocked smiles and high-fives. Much had changed in a short time, and no one wanted things to return to where they had once been – Demona most of all didn't want to go back to being alone.

Goliath looked from one to the other with a look of suspicion, "I think that the two of you are plotting against me!"

"Handsome, romantic, smart, and paranoid!" Elisa chuckled. "You let quite a catch get away Demona."

Demona grinned at that. She had always regretted pushing the handsome male away, but her heart really didn't belong to him anymore. "Indeed I did. Better not make the same mistakes I did, little sister. I'd be very glad to help Goliath ease his broken heart..."

"I doubt that Elisa could pry me away from her with every explosive in this world! But, thanks for the offer." Goliath chuckled as he winked at his former mate.

Both women stared in shock at the other. Demona couldn't let that one get away. "Did Goliath just made a joke? Call the pope the end is near!"

This stirred the room with laughter. Elisa curled into Goliath's arms, and scraped the area on his back near his wings - earning a growl from her mate. Demona chuckled as she remembered doing that a few times herself - centuries before. "That's nothing, Elisa. I have half a mind to give you a few of my secrets for taming the wild beast inside the gentle giant."

"Oh good! Girl talk later on!" Elisa smiled innocently as Goliath growled in his displeasure. "You can't stop the two of us from exchanging notes forever. And then you are going to be so in for it, Big Guy."

Demona chuckled half to herself, "If you only knew that half of it!"

"And what does that mean, Demona?" Elisa's eye were sparkling with curiosity, while Goliath's held the gravest of warnings for his former mate.

"I only mean that if you knew the truth, you wouldn't be using that pet name so lightly."

Goliath groaned as he turned a dark purple. Elisa's eyes would've popped out of there sockets if Demona was to elaborate on it - so the one time bad girl of the Wyvern Clan kept her mouth shut.

"Here's one for you to dream about, baby sister." And with that, Demona pulled Elisa close and whispered something into her ear. It made them both laugh when Goliath pulled Elisa into his arms jealously.

Demona grinned in defiance, "be careful little sister. When he gets defensive – oh well, you'll figure it out soon enough!"

That made Elisa smile and laugh even harder. When Goliath mouthed 'thank you' to his former mate, Demona smiled and nodded to him. "I think that the you have a date with a rock and a very hard place little sister. Enjoy it, because when he can finish the mating ritual properly you'll be wishing you had gotten more energy off of everyone."

They left, and then Demona was alone in the Castle for the first time in so long. She could remember how it felt when the Clan was whole and she'd be resting from a wound. So many would be coming in and out to check that she was fine. Many times the healers would have to keep guard on her to see that she got some decent rest. But now she was alone, and for the first time in many years Demona allowed herself to cry. She began to feel the grief, loss, and guilt she had been so desperately avoiding and ignoring for centuries.

Wouldn't you know that was when Puck would decide to show up. "Hello big sister D! How ya feeling?"

The tired female gargoyle growled in frustration and pain. She wanted to be alone right then, not a spectacle for Puck's amusement. "Leave me alone Puck! I am not in the mood for this right now!"

"Oh, and I brought you a get well soon present! Actually I've given it to the whole Clan, but I think that you need it just as much as they.

Demona you were so very brave,

Thy new sister's life thou didst save.

I grant you in choice regain again,

Your stone sleep, and give you the title of my friend."

As the sun rose, miracles abounded. Elisa was stone in the rock hard grasp of her mate, and Demona too had gone into stone sleep!

Puck was once again Owen Burdett. He chuckled as he slipped out of the room, "just wait until they wake! I only hope that Lord Oberon doesn't find out about this! If he does it could very well mean the end of me."

Well, how was that for a twist?!?! Comments?