4Daughter of Light

by Hardwing

A cruel massacre happens and everybody knows who is responsible... or? See what happens when the Manhattanclan faces his perhaps greatest foe!

4. Daughter of light

02.08.98; 22:01; Castle Wyvern:

The Wyvern leader looked through the glass door onto the scene in the room and smiled. Brooklyn was standing in front of the newest generation of Manhattan gargoyles with his back to the blackboard where some lines from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" were being written by a eager, male, pale brown skinned hatchling. He had two small horns, which turned through his fair hair and some spikes on his shoulders. Meanwhile, Brooklyn read from the book in his claws and asked a female, black-haired hatchling to repeat and continue the text.

~It is good to see our hatchlings so eager~ the clan leader thought ~a new generation to live in this world~. He sighed and leaned on the wall, lost in thoughts. They had started the reading lessons hardly a month after the "Large Awakening" and the kids seemed to enjoyed it very much. Goliath knew it was necessary to do so, in order to prepare the hatchlings for the world outside... Unfortunately, the elders of the clan were not so convinced of it and made clear that they would have preferred more lessons in gliding and fighting, the original training, which in their eyes was much too short- handled.

Goliath even partly agreed in this. Since the hatchlings had no places to play their games and train their skills, the warrior lessons had become more necessary than ever... Especially since the hatchlings discovered the TV, which they had done very fast.

It was not that part of the conversation, which worried him, but the direction that the discussion with the elders always seemed to lead to. They feared that by adopting more and more of the human customs, beginning with the names, they would even loose their identity as Gargoyles and start to become nothing more than humans with wings. The largest part of the newer generations was more open minded and stood behind Goliath, but this only increased the leader's fear of splitting the clan because he could see the cross between them already.

He had to make some compromises to ease the greatest fears of the elders. For example, he allowed Brooklyn to teach the hatchlings how to read, even if he was not the best one for the job. But it was, traditionally, the job of the second to teach the younger generation. This was also a problem because some of the elders didn't truly accept Brooklyn as the new second in command because of his youth and the way he had been appointed to it and wished an older and mature second leader. Deborah, who had refused the request of some elders to become second again, had taken over the physical part of the training, formally under the leading of Brooklyn and assisted him wherever she could.

~Is this enough? ~ He asked himself and thought about the rest of the clan. Hudson offered lessons in reading even for the adults of the clan, since it was clear that the elders would not want to learn with hatchlings in one class, but it was a small number and even after 5 months it did not increase... Originally, Goliath hoped to offer even more courses like math, a foreign language or geography, but he soon realized that the resistance against it would be too large even for the most powerful leader.

And even if not, who would teach them? Brooklyn may have some skills in this, but not enough. He himself as leader was much too busy to do so and besides him, there was just his clever sister Asrial who was experienced in such things. But Asrial preferred to stay in her tower, a real laboratory now, where she worked on gadgets that were much more complicated than ever before or in the library where she tried to learn and understand every part of this new world that they had awakened in.

~Human teachers? ~ He asked himself, but knew at once the answer ~no~. If anything would upset the elders more, it would be human teachers who taught the clan's children and since their status in the city was unclear, such teachers were rare.

"Leader?" A calm, but powerful voice rose and threw him out of his worries. He looked beside him to see that Deborah had approached him without him noticing it. "Teacher" he greeted her respectfully "what is it?"

"Your presence is needed in the Information Center" she explained "Captain Chavez called us by telephone. Something is wrong in a mall down in Queens and we are to come as soon as possible. She really sounded worried." Goliath nodded and started to follow her, but then he stopped. "Go ahead" he ordered "if it is really so important then I had better take Brooklyn with me."

He turned around, knocked at the door and opened it. "Class, greet your leader" Brooklyn ordered when he saw Goliath entering and the whole class did so in perfect union. Goliath smiled shortly "I hate to do this, but I have to steal your teacher away from you." He explained to the class and Brooklyn nodded. "Well you heard what he said kids," he explained to the class "so you are free." When the hatchlings started to stand up, he added "but I want you to read the next chapter till tomorrow." "Yes teacher" they responded again in perfect union, making it hard for Brooklyn to hide a smile, and then ran away to do whatever they were able to do in the small walls of the castle.

Brooklyn looked up to his leader. "They are very eager and clever... They all are." Goliath nodded and laid his claw on his second's shoulder. "They have a good teacher." Brooklyn smiled at this praise. "What is going on?" He asked.

"Well, there is some trouble at a mall down in Queens. Chavez called us for help and so there is a meeting now in the Information Center. Come, we must not waste time." Brooklyn nodded and followed his leader through the corridors of the castle.

When they arrived at their destination, they saw that there was already an assembly of nearly all the warriors of the clan. Goliath saw Angela beside Broadway, Javin, Diomedes and Fuchsia, Lexington, Hudson besides Deborah. Even Ajax and the others, who refused to protect the city with the rest of the clan, were there which let Goliath hope. ~Perhaps...~ But now was not the time for this.

"What is going on?" He asked and the conversations in the assembly quickly died down. "We got a call from Chavez about 8 minutes ago" Lexington explained "they say that there seems to be some sort of hostage situation in the Einstein Mall in Queens..."

"Why can't they handle this alone?" Asked one of the elders who was one of Ajax's groups. "Queens is even outside Manhattan and I doubt that we would be allowed to go shopping there." Some laughter was heard and Goliath sighed, but Lexington continued. "Their Swat teams are busy with some kidnapping outside of New York and they have no other forces, which could handle this."

Goliath nodded "well it is clear that we will help." He looked around, trying to ignore the disapproving whispering of some of his siblings. He looked into the elder's eyes until he made his disapproval clear "it is a mission outside Manhattan, our inner territory, so I will not order anyone to come with me." He looked around to find out who would stand at his side. "Whoever wants to come with me, meet me in the courtyard."

With this, he left the assembly to go to the courtyard where he silently prayed that when he would turn around he would see the whole clan assembled behind him, which was how it should be. But when he turned around, he saw just 2/3 of the gargoyles that he ordered to stand and wait for his instructions. Barely 2/3 and even if some were out on patrol or amusing with their mates, it was heart shattering.

"Well," he said to them, trying not to show his mood and looking to Angela. "Let us get started." With these words, he climbed up the wall of the castle and leaped high into the sky of New York, unsure whether the danger was inside. Or outside the walls of his home.

02.08.98; 23:04; In front of the Einstein Mall:

Goliath and the rest of his group landed near the van, which was the mobile central for the New York police and looked around. He saw some curious bystanders standing in front of the line of policemen who were guarding a large area in front of the entrance of the shopping centre. Some were happy and even took pictures of the arriving Gargoyles and others just looked at them in a very neutral way. Unfortunately, there were even some boos and individual bystanders who shouted paroles like "New York for the humans" or "Gargoyles go back to Scotland." Goliath frowned, there was still a lot work to do and he knew this, but on the faces of his companions he recognized that some had lost their faith already even when they followed him still.

"Goliath" a stressed voice called him. Goliath looked around to see Chavez coming up to him escorted by Elisa who welcomed him with a smile. "Captain... Detective." he greeted them friendly and respectfully, hardly suppressing the urge to embrace his mate, knowing that he could not reveal his true relationship to her... yet.

"What is going on?" He asked, looking at the seemingly empty mall and Chavez whom, besides Elisa and Matt, was the largest advocate for a Gargoyle-Human cooperation in police work, as she shook her head. "We don't know exactly," she admitted "an hour ago, the people practically flew from the shopping center in sheer panic." She took a few moments and then added. "They said they heard unearthly screams and one said he saw something large, but it was much too fast for him to see it really."

Goliath frowned. This did not sound good. "What do we know?" He asked and Chavez shook her head. "We have no exact numbers, but seemingly 40 to 50 humans are still missing" she explained "we have had no demands or explanations yet and not enough officers to dare a rush."

Goliath nodded, he understood. "We are ready" he explained after a view on his group who impatiently waited and looked on the complex. "Any other entrances besides that of the main entrance?" Chavez nodded and led Goliath to a desk near the van where a map of the whole complex was laid. "There are three other entrances, but if the kidnappers... and I hope it is kidnappers, are clever enough then they will guard these entrances."

"The different shops have no windows" Deborah suggested, "when we enter there secretly, we can perhaps overthrow the kidnappers fast." Goliath nodded "Captain, I suggest that my team and I rush in through different openings simultaneously. When we can oversee the situation and discover where the hostages and the kidnappers are, I will send someone back to inform you. Then your officers can rush in to distract them and we take them down." Chavez nodded "a good plan! We'll make it."

One of her officers was seemingly less impressed. "Wait" he said, "we have to play the targets while these beasts..." Under the hard glances of his captain and Elisa, he corrected himself fast ".these gargoyles simply overthrow them. Why not the other way around?"

Chavez looked at him angrily, but even she heard the agreeable whispering amongst some of her officers. "Because," she answered calmly "I ordered it so Sergeant Martinque. Besides, the gargoyles have faster reflexes and can surely overthrow whoever is in there, faster than you."

She stayed calm during this answer, but her eyes sparkled when some of the officers, who did not take the hint, quietly asked themselves why the gargoyles weren't playing the targets? She then made her point "this is no democratic debate," she explained sharply "you are here to follow my instructions. Either you do so or you can go home and give me your badge."

She looked around and saw that her officers had calmed down. "Good." she said and looked up to Goliath "Sorry about this" she said nearly guilty "seemingly some of my officers have yet to learn discipline." Goliath nodded, as he knew this problem all too well.

"No apologies needed" he explained "we will start..." He turned around to instruct his clan. "Wait a moment" Chavez asked and went into the van. When she came out, she had four headsets in her hand and one on her head. "These headsets are how our Swat teams communicate" she explained and handed them over to Goliath. "Take one and give the rest of them to the other three parts of your troop so you can stay in contact with them and we with you."

Goliath nodded. "Thank you" he answered and turned around to his warriors. He looked around them and finally made a decision. "We enter the mall at four points and so make four groups" he explained "I lead the first group, Brooklyn the second, Deborah the third and Othello the last." He threw the remaining headsets to the named leaders and asked them to come to the desk with the plan of the complex.

"My group will enter here" He explained as he pointed with his claw to the front building on the map, near the main entrance. "Brooklyn's group will enter there" he pointed to the left side of the building. "Othello's group will enter here" he pointed to the back of the building. "And Deborah's here" he pointed to the right side. "This should make sure that we can encircle the kidnappers."

"When someone is going there," Elisa said and showed a small room in the back of the plan. "He or she could perhaps enter the security room and use the security camera system, provided that it is not guarded by the kidnappers."

Goliath nodded "a good idea my..." He corrected himself fast ".Detective Maza." And to leave behind this near catastrophe, he added "well the best thing to do is that you take Lexington in your group brother" he explained to Othello "he should have no problems to use the system."

Othello nodded "I'll do so."

"All right" Goliath said to the team leaders "choose your teams and then place yourself on the named coordinates. Wait until I give the sign and then start to work yourself cautiously to the centre of the complex where we'll meet if there are no problems." All of them nodded and made their way to the rest of the group to form their teams, each so with 7 to 9 members, well balanced by the power of its warriors.

13 minutes later; Position of Goliath's team:

"All teams ready?" Goliath asked through his headset. "Team 2 ready" Brooklyn answered. "Team 3 ready" Deborah followed. "Team 4 ready." Othello answered and Goliath nodded even though he knew that they could not see him.

Again, Goliath looked on the complex in front of him. The lights were fluttering and made it very difficult for Goliath to see anything from outside. Gargoyle-eyes were made for the darkness with few lights and even in the bright night of New York, he never had any problems to orientate. But this fluttering irritated his eyes and those of his companions and gave him a feeling of indisposition.

But the decision was made. "Move" he ordered the other team leaders and signalled his own team to do the same. At once, he glided to the window of a Macdonald's Restaurant on the first floor and broke through a closed window as fast and as silently as possible.

"Come," he ordered Angela, Broadway and the rest of his team behind him "and be careful, perhaps they have laid out traps." All nodded and Goliath moved on very carefully.

The scenery looked like something from a horror film that the younger generation liked to watch. The light was even more fluttering than he assumed from outside... ~What the hell what is going on here~ and he could not see any humans around, as if someone knew of his weakness.

He slowly moved forward, the others behind his back and wondered even more. He saw French Fries lying on the tables aside Hamburgers and Cola tumblers. Seemingly, the humans had left this place in very large hurry.

He moved further, smelling the scent of burned burger flesh and something other that he could not identify and feeling even more uncomfortable.

They finally reached the great shop mile, which connected the different shops and Goliath stepped on something damp. He looked down, but the fluttering of the lights stopped him from being able to identify what he had stepped in. Finally, he saw something like the shell of a coconut and took it with his claw to study it. It felt like the shell of a coconut, hairy on the one side, damp on the other

Suddenly, the light was on for more than a second was and Goliath could recognize what he held, better. With an outcry of surprise and shock, he threw it over the railing.

"Father what is it?" Angela asked in surprise, suddenly forgetting how much important it was to not call him father, but Goliath or leader. This was another compromise for the elders who feared a too open father-daughter relationship between the leader and one of the younger generations would mean a preference for her and would undermine the meaning of the clan.

"Nothing daughter" he answered, still shocked, "let us go on." ~It can't be what I thought it was~ he repeated quietly in his mind ~it can't...~

"Goliath look" Broadway whispered and pointed to the main entrance below them. It was barricaded with some heavy benches, which had been lifted out of their foundations and Goliath had no doubt that even the other entrances were barricaded this way.

"By the dragon" he whispered and then made a decision "Goliath to the other team leaders and Captain Chavez, the main entrance is barricaded." "Othello here," the leader of the fourth group answered "the rear exit is even so barricaded, seems as if a lot of people were needed to move it. Or one person with a lot of power."

"We understand" Chavez said, to which Goliath answered "and we will go on" and ordered his team to do so.

Deborah's Team in the right side of the building:

Deborah and her team had entered the first floor through the window of a Hi- fi shop and the leader moved forward very slowly, on the one hand because it was the best way not to run into a trap. On the other hand was because she felt uncomfortable in this area, even if it had been 7 months already since she had arrived in the New World, she still felt uncomfortable in these large buildings, which were so different from the castle she called home.

But she did not let herself get distracted so easily and looked around when she and her team left the shop. Deborah looked down on the floor and was shocked. "Blood" she whispered when she saw in what she had stepped and her mate beside her nodded.

"Look" he whispered and pointed to the pool of blood, which stretched to 3 meters. There was a track, a claw print printed on the floor in blood. Apparently, the person who did this had killed or wounded a person and some time later had carried the person with him or her to the middle of the complex.

Deborah looked into Hudson's eyes and then to Diomedes, Fuchsia and the rest of her group, they all knew what this claw mark stood for. "Leader," Deborah explained through her headset. "We have found claw marks in blood" she reported "seemingly, a grown up Gargoyle is involved."

"I understand..." Goliath answered through the headset "go on." Deborah nodded and ordered her group to do so. They went through the center, unaware of what horror awaited them.

Brooklyn's team in the left side of the building:

Brooklyn's team had entered the building by entering the ground of a large dressing shop, which stretched on both floors of the mall. There, he had noticed that the window was already broken and he, with his team, had just to climb through it.

"Be careful guys," Brooklyn ordered his team by looking at the devastated area of overthrown shelves and still fluttering light. ~Shit, what has happened here? ~ He asked himself.

When he heard Deborah saying that a grown up gargoyle was involved he felt as if his stomach has been turned into ice. ~Great~.

Unlike the other teams, he had ordered his team to check the area of the shop first before moving further. He felt unsure when he did not know what was behind his back and he surely would not let his team fall into a trap.

Brooklyn moved through the escalator on the second floor and saw it on the floor. A track of blood... ~What has happened here? ~ He asked himself again.

Out of curiosity, he followed the track of blood to three changing cubicles where he saw, under one of them, more blood running and then he heard something... A whimpering, which was like that of a little child who had lost his or her mother.

Slowly, he grabbed the curtain of the cubicle and then pulled it back quickly. What he saw in the fluttering light left him no doubt at his senses. He saw a woman, pinned with a stool on the wall through her...The blood... The face...

As fast as possible, Brooklyn closed the curtain. He felt the urge to vomit all he had, but he was able to stop himself... Barely, but knowing that he would not cut a fine figure as second in command if he did.

When he had his body and more importantly his stomach under control again, he noticed that the whining was still there. It seemed to come out from the cubicle beside the one he had just opened. So Brooklyn paced himself before this cubicle and prayed to whatever god or goddess might hear a Gargoyle that he would see something better... And this meant just something other than he saw before.

Slowly, he opened the cubicle and heard how the whining became a frightened screaming, just braked because the person seemingly had not the air in its lungs to scream louder.

Brooklyn looked in sheer wonder at a female gargoyle who forced herself into the corner at the back of the cubicle and tried to make herself as small as possible by winding her tail and the other limbs around her body.

Othello's Team in the back of the shopping center:

Othello and his team finally reached the security room. He thought it would be difficult and that he would have to smash the iron door of the room, but someone else had already done it for him.

"This must have been a gargoyle" his mate noticed. "Look how the iron has been bagged... Perhaps with a morning star." Othello nodded and cautiously entered the room. ~Damned light~ he cursed, but he noticed nothing dangerous. The consoles of the security systems blinked, he saw a plant knocked over and it seemed like a fight had been fought here not long ago.

The locker of the security guard, the window to.... Othello stopped. In the fluttering light, he saw a liquid coming from the bottom of a closed door of the locker... Blood. Cautiously, he opened the unlocked door... and saw a security guard hanging on the jacked holder, his throat slit open.

Othello closed the door fast, but a look in the eyes of his mate told him that she had seen it too. He looked over to Lexington who already took place in the seat of the guardian and was overseeing the consoles with Javin at his side while the other of his team waited outside the room and guarded the entrance.

"How long do you need to handle this system?" Othello asked and remembered with a shudder the time when he could have handled it with the help of the wrack of flesh and steel he had to call his body when he was Coldstone.

"First I must restore the electrical current" Lexington explained "so I have to start the compensation generator first. This way, the other teams will have full lighting and I can start the security system again."

Othello nodded "please hurry," he demanded "I do not feel good with this fluttering light..." and then he silently added ". and at this grave." He looked into the eyes of his mate and saw the same question, which was in his own. ~What happened here? ~

Position of Goliath's team:

Goliath had slowly worked himself through the complex. Still, he feared to see again what he believed to have seen shortly before. ~It can't be~ he repeated to himself and then looked ahead. They had come to the center of the complex, which was a large free area where, from the plan, a fountain should lay, but through the fluttering light he could just see a small dark mountain.

He looked up to the same level where he stood and saw Deborah and her team arriving. She interpreted him that all was okay and Goliath nodded as a sign that he understood. "Goliath to Chavez and the other team leaders" he spoke into his headset "we have not discovered any people yet, but signs of a fight... and much blood."

"Deborah here" Deborah spoke "my team and I discovered much blood too. Seemingly, someone has bleed to death."

"Othello here" the large gargoyle answered "my team discovered the corpse of a guard... His throat has been slit open."

Goliath swallowed, as this did not sound well.

"Brooklyn here," a voice reported "I have discovered a corpse and. A female gargoyle." He swallowed "it seems as if she is under shock and definitely not in the frame of mind to harm anyone."

Goliath nodded "try to find out what has happened while I...."

Then the lights went fully on and Goliath like the other Gargoyles, who could see the scene, gasped in horror.

In the fountain and around it, lay the corpses of humans... Dozens of them of different ages, size, colour and genders. Their blood made the water of the fountain red and when the jet of water started automatically, even Goliath had to turn away.

But it was too late. The scene had impressed itself forever in Goliath minds like the one of the massacre at Wyvern. This, if he did not count the nightmares that he would surely have from it, would make him think about every detail that he had seen.

He had seen and smelt burnt flesh from a Laser weapon and seemingly some had been attacked with a weapon that had a dumb head and spikes like a morning star. These facts together with the fact that the attacker might have been a gargoyle lead Goliath to believe that...

~No, this can't be~ he thought and prayed.

"Goliath to Chavez" he said mechanically into his headset "we have found most of the missing persons..." he took a deep breath "they all seem to be dead and there is no sign of any enemies or a trap. I think the person or the persons have left." There was a silence and a moment Goliath feared that the headset was defect, but finally Chavez answered.

"I understand. We're coming in." "Agreed" Goliath answered and looked around. He saw Angela with her face buried in Broadway's chest; his own face distorted in disgust and horror and understood all too well. Then he looked to Deborah and Hudson, the old warriors had seen a lot in their lives, but this shocked even them and they looked on the scene in horror.

"Leader?" Came the voice of Othello out of the headset and startled Goliath for the first moment. ~Calm down~ he demanded from himself ~at least for the others, calm down~.

"What is it?" He asked a bit more harshly than he intended to.

"You have to come... There is something for you to see." From his brother's intonation, he recognized that it had to be something very important.

"Ok," he answered "I am coming."

"WE are coming" a voice said beside him and in surprise, Goliath looked around to see Chavez and Martinque standing beside him. "I commanded my men to search this area since there is no danger."

Chavez shortly looked down on the unholy scene and then back to Goliath. "Seemingly, there is nobody to rescue..." She noticed "so let us see who is responsible."

Goliath nodded and silently, the gargoyle and the two humans went to the security room passing even more signs of the massacre that had happened. There, Goliath discovered Javin with some of his team standing in front of the door to the room.

Inside, it was as silent as a grave. Goliath saw his caramel-skinned sister standing, with a pale face, beside her mate. "Brother," she said with a shaking face "Lexington has started the security system, but we have not found anyone in the complex that should not be here. Then..."

Othello swallowed "then he came onto the idea to rewind the video tapes and to see what had happened here." He turned around to Lexington "show it him" he ordered and Lexington did so."

What Goliath saw, exceeded his darkest expectations.

Brooklyn's Team:

Brooklyn looked at the female Gargoyle who crouched, trembling in the corner of the cubicle. Now, when the light was on he could see her better. She was large, her hair was as black as the night and above it were two large horns like that of a ram, but with her own colour skin and an extra horn in the middle. Her skin was pale blue and she had three spikes on each wing, which covered her shoulder blade and even the tail had four large spikes like a Stegosaurus that Brooklyn had seen in an animation movie.

"Hey..." Brooklyn said calmly, but this seemed to frighten her even more and she tried to hide herself under her wings. ~She is under shock~ he noticed ~and surely not the one responsible for this~.

"Calm down" he said and tried to let his voice sound as soft and friendly as possible. "I am Brooklyn..." He even smiled by this when he noticed how beautiful she was "you can call me Brook." He moved further and was happy to see that she did not look so scarred any more "all my friends do. What is your name?"

She looked into his eyes and he noticed that hers were deep black... "In my clan we have no names..." she explained under a trembling voice. Brooklyn nodded, after all he had heard about the other clans from Goliath and Elisa when they were on their world tour, he knew that they had took over to the use of names.

"That's okay" he explained "how would it be if you were to come out here?" When he saw the fear in her eyes he slowly added "I am here, you have nothing to fear." He lifted his claw and held it out to her.

Slowly, she took his claw and rose. He could see her now even better. She wore a suit of black armor consisting of an armored top and lower part. Even her under legs was armored as if she was ready for war... Not that she looked as if she wanted to go into one.

She was young, seemingly as old as Brooklyn himself, but she towered him. "The humans" she asked, "I heard their screams even in the cubicle beside me."

Brooklyn shook his head sadly, "all dead now it seems." When he saw the pain in her eyes he added quickly "but many could have escaped, just a few could not." The female Gargoyle nodded slowly.

He looked at her again. Now that she was in the full light, he could see that she was wounded. There were four claw strikes in her left upper leg and her upper armor looked as if it had been attacked with something like spikes.

"Who did this to you?" Brooklyn asked, his eyes blazing white.

"The same one who killed these people" the female answered "a female Gargoyle, a mad gargoyle I suppose. She had fiery red hair, green eyes..."

Brooklyn's eyes widened in shock of realization. "Demona." He growled and the female nodded "that was the name she told me."

Brooklyn was at first confused because even he had believed that Demona had changed at last a bit. But this... This was even worse than the massacre on the night when she had changed the humans in the city to stone and Brooklyn could see no way how they could undo this.

But he knew what his duty as second was. He activated his headset and spoke "Goliath, I know who is responsible for this, it is... " "Demona" Goliath interrupted him with a growl.

"How did you discover this?" Brooklyn asked through his headset in a neutral voice.

"I'm looking at it" Goliath told him.

Goliath's position in the security room:

Goliath looked at the monitor where a well-known red-haired female gargoyle stood. Demona stood in the middle of the ground and fired with her Laser Bazooka at the fleeing humans, a cruel smile on her lips and nearly every time when she hit a human, she laughed evilly.

When a human dared to come near her and attack her with the courage of desperation, she answered with her morning star by bringing him to collapse and she did not even stop there, but attacked him with the morning star even more...

"Who is this?" Chavez asked in shock and disgust. "She is a gargoyle..." Goliath swallowed "once a member of my clan..." He couldn't speak any further, as just looking at the monitor was making his stomach turn.

Chavez looked at him in wonder "we have to catch her before she kills more people." She asked, "do you know where she could be?"

Goliath nodded "yes..." He thought about it "but the clan has to catch her" he said and when he saw the unwilling look on Chavez's face he added, "believe me it is better so. She is a good fighter and it would bring just more death when one of your teams would try to catch her."

Chavez looked into his eyes and knew that he spoke the truth "Okay, to catch her is your priority," she didn't care for Martinque's shocked look, but continued "but she has to be judged by a human court."

Goliath nodded after looking to his siblings "agreed" he said, "we will need some time..." He looked around and thought about the female gargoyle that Brooklyn had reported. "If our help is no longer needed here, my warriors and I will return to the castle."

Chavez looked at the monitor again "okay. I will order that what has really happened here will only be made public when we have her."

This was definitely more than Martinque could bear. "I must protest" he said, "when there is a mad beast out there we should inform the public at once. We can't risk that if it kills more people."

Chavez shook her head, for the moment she was not interested in the fact that he called gargoyles beasts or it. "No, this would just lead to a panic and this helps nobody."

Martinque was still not convinced. "They have to know this" he insisted "who knows, perhaps there are more like this outside."

Goliath looked at him and spontaneously thought about Coldsteel "no, there are not" he explained "and believe me..."

"I believe nothing from you beast and even so the rest of..." Martinque could not speak any further because Chavez suddenly went before him and grabbed him by his jacket. "You do nothing what I do not command you to do and if I discover that you brought anything of this to the public before I ordered it. Loosing your job will be the last thing you have to worry about."

Goliath and Martinque looked at Chavez in wonder. If she would have been a gargoyle, her eyes would surely be blazing red at this moment and Goliath, despite all that had already happened this night, was happy to have her as a friend of the clan.

Martinque nodded more than a bit shocked of Chavez's outburst and she let him go. Then she looked to Goliath "it is better that you take your team and catch this gargoyle as fast as possible. We can interrogate the female gargoyle whom your second has discovered later."

Goliath looked into her eyes and said "thank you." He then ordered his warriors to gather and move off.

03.08.98; 00:19; In the Great Hall of Castle Wyvern:

Nearly the whole clan except the hatchlings who had been sent to the TV room, in order to prevent them from hearing too much about things that weren't their problems, had gathered including Asrial who had come out of her laboratory.

Goliath looked at the female gargoyle that was sitting beside Brooklyn who held her claw while Desdemona tended to her wounds. The unnamed female nodded thankful to his sister. She looked much better than the scared gargoyle they had discovered, which was greatly due to Brooklyn's work because he seemed to really care for her and Goliath could see in the eyes of his second more than simple kindness.

But this was now not his problem and so he simply went to the female gargoyle, which looked at him very shyly at this moment. "I am very thankful for the help of your clan... " She said and then she stopped as if it was too much.

He looked into her dark eyes and started softly. "I know you have been through a lot this night, but we need to know what has happened... Where do you come from? Your features look as if you come from Scotland, but you haven't got our accent."

The dark-haired female nodded slowly and smiled. Goliath thought for a moment that she, with all her innocence on her face, looked very much like Angela. But then again, most young females looked so.

"My clan lives in Los Angeles, but some of our ancestors came from Scotland... They came to America to escape the pursuit of the humans. That is where my Scottish features come from. Many of my brothers and sister look alike" she told the silent, listening clan "we had heard about your clan and what you stand for about a year ago, but the elders of my clan were unsure and so we decided to wait... Until now." She smiled weakly "I had been sent here as a representative of my clan to contact yours because we saw no other way."

Desdemona looked at her in wonder "how were you able to arrive here? It is over 5000 km to Los Angeles." The female nodded "it was complicated yes... But my clan has a bit of money and so they sent me here by package in an airplane... It was a bit rough."

Desdemona nodded and with a look around, she saw that everybody of the clan agreed with her. ~This lass has more courage than she seems to have. ~

"After I awoke in the package," she continued "I flew in the direction of this castle and saw a red-headed female gargoyle flying ahead of me. I approached her and she greeted me, then I asked her if she could bring me to her home and she agreed... It was a dark and unfriendly mansion with a scarred beast in it and I wondered where the other gargoyles were."

She swallowed and looked around, apparently unsure if she could speak it out openly, then she continued "I asked her if she was not part of the Manhattan clan and she laughed and asked me why I would ask. So I told her why I was there and her face darkened..."

She swallowed "she got even more angry when I told her that our clan even desired to make a cooperation with the police in our city like how yours does. Finally she laughed as if she was mad." She looked around and saw some of the clan nodding "then she took her laser gun and the morning star, smiled and said ~I'll bring you to the clan~ and ordered me to follow her."

She laughed a bit sarcastically "I knew that something was wrong, but I thought because you knew her..." She looked around and some gargoyles lowered her head or tried to avoid her eyes. "Whatever, I followed her until we came to the shopping center. There, she stood before the window and said to me ~come, I'll show you how well the humans behave here to us! ~ With this, she flew through the window and started to attack the humans. I followed her and tried to speak to her, but she just laughed and attacked them even more. I was like paralyzed, but when she even attacked a crying child I intervened.... This means that I tried to intervene" she sighed.

"I learned the art of war through my clan, but she was definitely more superior as you can see" she pointed to her bandaged wounds "and she became even more angry through my attacks. I thought she would kill me, her eyes..." She became silent, obviously still shocked about what had happened.

"Finally, she threw me in the cubicle and said that if I would come out then she would kill me. I heard the cries of the humans," she continued "heard how they screamed and Demona laughed, but I could not interfere..." She desperately looked around, trying to make them understand while tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"I wanted to, but..." She could not speak further, as even more tears was running down her cheeks and Brooklyn held her claw even tighter. "It is okay," he said softly while looking into her black eyes "you had no chance against this crazy bitch, I know this." She smiled weakly at him and nodded finally "well. and then you discovered me." So she ended her story.

It took some moments in the Great Hall while the clan tried to digest what they had heard and finally, many of them started talking discussing what had to be done.

"Something has to be done" one of the elders said and the others nodded. "We should not have let her get away with her betrayal in the first time so easily." One especially muscular black-skinned Gargoyle of the generation above Goliath's noted. And again, the most part of the clan agreed.

Around them, the only one who did not say anything were Angela who was still too deeply shocked by what she had seen and by the realization that her mother had done it. The pain she felt was indescribable and tears where running down her cheeks. Even Broadway who held her in his powerful arms could not ease the pain that she felt inside.

Finally, Goliath made a point to stop the clan from talking further. "The mistake.... My mistake" he corrected himself "is done. Now it is our turn to prevent Demona from committing more evil."

The whole clan agreed on this and Goliath continued "well then..." Goliath started, but was interrupted by a small voice.

"Leader" nearly the whole clan was surprised in seeing one of the hatchlings who was ordered not to disturb the elders standing beside the clan leader. He had a brown-Grey colored skin, white hair and green eyes. His body promised, one day, to become muscular, not as Goliath's or Othello's, but definitely more than Brooklyn's. And at this moment, the eyes of nearly the whole clan were directed at him.

"What do you want here?" Goliath asked curiously and added calmer "you and your siblings were supposed to sit before the TV and not to disturb us!"

The hatchling whose name Goliath couldn't remember, nodded "yes, we were watching Macgyver, but then this show was interrupted by a special report...."

The whole clan was alarmed and Goliath tried desperately to sound calm when he asked "what special report?" He prayed that it was something harmless like a car crash, kidnapping or mass-suicide, but the hatchling's answer destroyed his hopes.

"Well they show aunt Demona." The whole clan gasped, but the hatchling ignored it ".How she attacked the humans and killed them..."

Goliath's eyes widened and without saying anything more to the confused hatchling, he left him behind and stormed into the large TV-room followed by the rest of the clan. The hatchlings had been gathered here in order to prevent them hearing something, which would disturb them... Instead of this, they had heard and seen everything on the television, which showed Demona even now killing one human with a morning star.

At first, Goliath feared that she had attacked humans again, but then he saw that it was *just* the same scene that he had seen on the monitor in the mall.

He wanted to hear what the voice of the TV said, but then he noticed that the hatchlings were still gathered before the TV and looked at the scene in shock and partly in horror.

"Out here!" He ordered the hatchlings in an intonation, which allowed no refusal and the elders of the clan, herded the hatchlings out. Then he looked at the TV and heard the commentator speaking.

"I repeat," the commentator of Fox said "an unknown source has sent us this video tape from the Einstein shopping center in Queens where in the early evening, an unnamed horror had happened, seemingly committed by this gargoyle. Comments from the police have not been given yet... But the whole population of New York has but one question. Who is next?"

Goliath looked at the TV in horror... All that he had worked for in the last couple of years since they had awakened decayed right before his eyes. ~I was a fool to trust in the good of Demona~ he accused himself, ~she has no goodness left in her.... She is crazy~.

"Leader..." A small voice beside him took him out of his thoughts. He looked down just to see the hatchling, who had informed him about this, standing beside him and looking up to him with deep green eyes. Seemingly, the elders had been too shocked to notice him.

"This isn't true is it?" He asked desperately and pointed to the monitor. "I mean, aunt Demona is a warrior... The best warrior! But she wouldn't do this." The hatchling tried desperately to explain what he believed and what he knew.

Goliath shook his head slightly "you see that she has done it." The hatchlings of the former clan of Moray were devoted to Demona, much more than that of the Wyvern clan, and especially this one. Nobody had had the bravery to explain to them what Demona did in Wyvern or on the night of stone and so most of them missed her. Something that Goliath believed that they do so even if they did know the truth.

"But Uncle Hudson said that we should not believe everything we see on the TV... It might be a fake."

Goliath shook his head and had to, despite all, smile at the naivete of this hatchling. "No, it isn't..." He swallowed "I wish it to be a lie, but believe me it is the truth."

He still saw disbelief in the hatchlings eyes so he added "go to the others, I will speak with you later about this." The hatchling nodded with a sad expression on his face and went off.

"We have to catch her fast or the humans will demand our heads" one of Hudson's generation said. "That they will so or so," an elder female noted and there was common agreement.

Goliath looked around seeing dark faces "this makes the situation even more dangerous. Demona has to be captured and handed out to the police now." Again, Goliath looked around and made a decision. "Since our guest has been through a lot this night and seemingly needs the help of Brooklyn. One other will have to go after Demona. I can't because when Chavez or someone of the government arrive, he will surely want to speak with the leader of the clan," Goliath said and all the Gargoyles in the room nodded.

"Deborah, take a squad, fly to Demona's mansion and if she is there, capture her as fast as possible. Use all the force you need! She can not be allowed to flee and remember..." Goliath looked deep into the eyes of his old teacher "she is immortal so killing her means no problem."

It was silent in this room for some heartbeats, they all knew that Goliath never had killed his foes so easily and even if Demona was immortal, he could never overcome himself to kill her.

Finally, Deborah nodded "aye, I will." She said and then she turned around to choose her team.

03.08.98; 01:07; On the battlements of Castle Wyvern:

Deborah stood on the wall of the castle and looked around her team. Finally she had chosen Othello, Diomedes, Javin and Ajax as the strongest fighters of the clan to come with her. She already wanted to order the group to leave when a well-known voice beside her ear raised.

"My love, please wait a minute" She looked around to see her mate standing beside her. She wanted to say to him that she had no time, but she knew he knew this by himself. "Yes?" She asked impatiently.

"I wanted to ask you to let me come with you," he said, but Deborah shook her head and said "no. Please my mate..." But Hudson stopped her with his claw on her lip "I do not wish to let you go again..." He said, "I want to be at your side in every battle."

Deborah looked into his eyes ~yes, but in the last battle we fought side by side, I died despite of you~ she thought and then shook her head. "My love, you know we are one and nothing can separate us ever, but I will fight Demona with the troop I chose." ~Because you are not fast enough by gliding~ this was not what she wanted to think, but it was the true and they both knew it.

If Hudson would have been younger like she, she would have gladly took him with her, but in the past months she had noticed that he was not so fast in gliding like she remembered him and she was sure that even his battle skills had faded.

"I will be careful, I promise" she said to him and leapt onto the battlement while ordering her team to leap in the air.

Hudson nodded "aye" and watched her disappear into the night to hunt her former pupil.

At the same time in the Great Hall:

While Deborah and her warriors started their mission to capture Demona... Brooklyn and some of the other Gargoyles were gathered around the female from San Francisco and were talking quietly with her.

"I am very thankful for the help of your clan Brooklyn," the female said and Brooklyn smiled. "Thanks, but this is the minimum we could do for you after what Demona did."

Brooklyn saw how the female shuddered slightly by the mention of this name, but before he could say anything more, she changed the topic. "Tell me, I have heard that you are the second of the clan, is this true?"

Brooklyn nodded, proud to hear the admiration in her voice. "Indeed, since three years already" he declared. "You must have very good leading skills to become second while you are still so young" she said with glittering eyes "the second of my clan is two generations over me."

Brooklyn smiled weakly "there wasn't much choice" he explained "there was just me and my two rookery brothers who survived the massacre." He looked around and saw one brother who had *died* at the massacre so long ago who, understandably, looked a bit perplex, but he knew his position was the reason for the arguments that the elders of the clan were arguing about to Goliath.

Again, the female looked into his eyes and the darkness in her eyes seemed to glitter. "I think this was not the only reason" she smiled, which let Brooklyn's heart beat higher. "How you discovered and helped me was great and shows me that you are the right one for this post and your leader seems to see this too." Brooklyn nodded, slightly happy that she saw it so.

"How is your stomach?" Desdemona asked when she approached the pair.

"Better thank you" the female said "you are good in the art of medicine."

"I am trained in this art," Desdemona explained "but you are strong and my help wasn't even necessary, you would have been fully healed after one day of stone sleep even without my help."

"Nevertheless, thank you for your kindness" the female replied with a smile, but then her face darkened "tell me... Who is Demona? I mean, she seems to have once been a part of this clan, but she is so different from you?"

The gathered gargoyles were all quiet for a moment. "She is crazy" Brooklyn said with his eyes blazing white "and evil!"

Desdemona was quiet too, her eyes seemed to see not something what was now, but what was so long ago. "She is my rookery sister," she explained "one thousand years ago she betrayed the castle to the Vikings, which led to the destruction of nearly the whole clan, while she escaped. The survivors were trapped in stone for a thousand years while she became immortal and evil. When the survivors awoke, she attacked and betrayed them at once."

Desdemona shook her head "seven months ago, she brought my clan and one she had had after this, back. We all thought that she might be able to change, to become the gargoyle. The sister again that we all knew and loved, but now I see..." Desdemona swallowed with tears running down her face "I see now that my sister is dead, she died in the massacre and it is better to remember her so and not as the monster she has become."

Angela approached beside her and lay her claw on her aunt's shoulder "and my mother died even before I was hatched" she tried to smile, but even more tears than Desdemona's were running down her cheeks. "I desperately tried to bring her back... To appeal to her good heart, but she has none. She faked me one time and in doing so, she nearly killed my father and clan leader, but now I thought that she had really changed at last and that she'd stop killing humans, but she tricked me again."

Angela sobbed and Desdemona held her in her arms, trying to comfort her "she faked us all Angela" she said "all of us. But we will never let us get fooled by her again" she swore.

The unnamed female with the black eyes and black hair looked at them with an unreadable expression.

Same time in the courtyard:

Goliath stood still on the castle wall near the battlements and looked down on the city. ~I failed~ he thought ~I am a stupid, sentimental fool and because of this 50 humans died tonight and my clan will perhaps follow~. A single tear rolled down the fearless leader's cheek when he heard a voice behind him, the voice of the only woman in the world who could help ease his pain.

Elisa came beside him and looked into his eyes "I heard what happened Goliath" she said softly. "It was not your fault" He returned her view and saw that she meant it.

"It was my love, it was and I have no right to lead this clan any longer" he said and these words hit Elisa like a blow. She knew from the others that he was depressed, but this.

"You will not give up simple because you believed in the good heart of a person like so many others did" she said to him and held his face with her hands. "And you will not let Demona win by stepping back from leadership and giving up a peaceful coexistence of humans and gargoyles. This would mean letting Demona and all those who are like her win."

He swallowed and Elisa could see the pain in his eyes. "Fifty humans died tonight because I let Demona go instead of imprisoning her like some of the clan consisted in." He turned to the battlement and looked down on the streets below the building, which allowed his good eyes to see and what he saw enlarged his pain even more.

"Xanatos told me that there would be humans outside who demanded our deaths, but this mass?" Goliath asked silently more to himself than anyone else, but Elisa answered him. "Well, when I arrived there came even more... I heard them screaming for justice or what they understand by this." She looked down from the battlements too, but couldn't see anything exactly with her human eyes.

"This is even the reason why I officially came," she explained "Chavez sent me so that you have a police officer on your site if it becomes too difficult. She will come later with much more men to secure this area."

Goliath nodded "Xanatos said that his guards could control this situation at the moment, but he does not know for how long." When Goliath continued, he looked at his mate almost desperately "when these angry people... This mob, comes up to us and attacks the castle, the clan would defend it and this might lead to even more death."

"You could order the clan to leave the castle, at least for this one night" Elisa interrupted "you could come to the clock tower there where you would be safe. I am sure Captain Chavez would allow this."

Goliath shook his head and in worry, he looked at the castle "abandoning our home? Elisa this is impossible," he explained "the elders would not hear on this... God, perhaps not even some of my generation, like Ajax. It would split the clan and we can just survive as long as we are together. Besides, what do we do with the eggs? Shall they hatch outside of our home?" Again he shook his head "it is impossible," he repeated "I just hope Chavez comes in time." But while he said this, his eyes said something other.

Elisa approached her mate and embraced him "you know whatever happens, we will go through it together" she said and Goliath nodded. "Yes, we are one" the last words he said with a true smile.

03.08.98; 01:43; At Demona's Mansion:

Demona stood in the main living room before the fire and thought about the past... And a present that she soon had to face. Shade was lying on the second floor, a bit tired of the night's activities that Demona had done and she still sweated even after she had taken a shower already.

Suddenly, she heard a crashing and knew at once that a window had been broken just behind her. Demona looked around to see her former teacher with a broadsword, standing aside Othello who held a long sword and Diomedes with a mace. All were looking at her with dark faces and glazing eyes, but Demona kept her cool.

"What do you want here?" She asked "and couldn't you simply open the door? These windows are expensive."

Deborah's eyes glazed even more by this accusation and Demona saw her other two brothers, one with the creep and one with brown skin and spikes, whose names she did not know and they had swords too.

~Great~ Demona thought when Deborah answered.

"You know why we are here Demona" Deborah said, barely controlling her voice, "surrender to us so that we may bring you to the castle."

Demona shook her head, "no!" She answered "I really must suffer from amnesia so tell... " But she did not get to speak any further because Deborah at once raised her sword and stormed, with a battle scream, at Demona to attack her and this would no doubt mean her temporary death.

To Deborah's surprise, Demona did not try to grab one of the weapons, a sword and a morning star, which were placed above the chimney, but just attacked her without them.

Demona used this small advantage masterly, not repeating her failure by their last fight, and threw herself on her former teacher. She grabbed Deborah's sword arm, avoiding her sword and grabbed her stomach using Deborah's own power to throw her into the wall behind her, taking care that Deborah wouldn't land in the fire.

Demona did not look around to see how her former teacher had landed, but she heard a body crashing the wall that let her knew that it would stop her for a while.

But while she defended against Deborah's attack, Diomedes and Othello had approached and were now attacking her from different sides. First, she turned against her former love.

"This time, you have gone too far sister" Diomedes said and swung his morning star on her with all of his power.

Demona blocked it with her right upper arm and scratched him with her left claw leaving deep wounds in his right arm, making him scream out in pain and loosing his morning star to Demona.

She grabbed it in the air while sagging on her knees and in doing so, she outdid an attack from Othello at her back with his sword, which would have parted her in two halves, but he just ended up cutting her hair a bit.

But Demona used this situation and whirled her stretched right leg around in a 360 degrees angle so that she could throw Diomedes from his feet and let him land hard on the ground with his head and loose conscious.

With the swing, she tried to knock down even Othello, but he was too good a warrior and jumped some feet back so that Demona's foot just hit the air.

At once, she stood up to face him upright, but she underestimated him because he had, when he landed from his jump, jumped back so that he stood now directly in front of her... And bore his sword right into Demona's stomach up its handle.

Othello stepped back in shock when he saw what he had done. He watched, even more shocked, when he saw that the sword was sticking a few centimetres out of her back. He looked at his claws and saw that they were bloody and that Demona was still bleeding very much.

Demona looked down too while dropping the morning star. She felt the pain of the sword slashing her intestines, but this was nothing compared to the pain she had felt already over her 1000 years of living. Especially since the sword had not cut her spine, which would have been much more unpleasant because this would mean that she would be paralysed for some time or it would lead to her prompt death. As far as Demona could tell, it missed it by just a couple of centimetres. So she simple looked at her brother's unbelieving eyes.

"Now you have made me angry!" She said with a smile while her eyes became red for the first time during the fight. And then she attacked the still shocked Othello with the sword still in her stomach. She grabbed him at his shoulder and when he grabbed her arms to get himself free while digging his claws deep in her flesh, she summoned all her power and banged her left knee up into his balls.

Othello lost all his power and with a whining sound, he let her arms go free so that he could hold his personal area while trying not to empty the contents of his stomach onto the floor. Demona used these seconds of specific male pain by grabbing him at his back, which he offered because he had leaned over and pushed him straight into Deborah's stomach, who had just a second before stood up and wanted to attack her again.

~If he can not use his noblest limb anymore? My caramel-skinned sister is going to hang me~ Demona thought, but without letting herself being diverted by this.

She knew without turning around that both warriors had already collapsed again in pain and she could devote herself to the remaining warriors who had already approached her and Demona was happy that this room was too small for them to attack her all at once.

She looked at her brothers, whose names she did not know, but she knew that they were both good in fighting and wouldn't make the same mistake like their predecessors did to underestimate her and they both had swords.

This reminded Demona of something and she grabbed the handle of the sword, which was still in her stomach and pulled it out with pain. She took hold of the sword, which was red from her own blood, with her trembling claw and looked on her brothers.

"Give up" her crested brother said, "you are loosing too much blood" he pointed to her bleeding wound "and power. You can't win against us both so give up and stop the dishonour that you are bringing on our whole race." She cursed herself and nearly believed he was right. Then Demona saw something. A shadow from behind her large brother's back and she smiled.

"I don't give up so easily brother" she declared "ATTACK!" But this was not a request to her brothers to try their luck, which was how they understood it, but an order to Shade. She had heard the sound of the fight below and had climbed, clever like she was, down the wall of the mansion to surprise the attacker of her master and friend.

This was a success and so the beast could throw the surprised Javin down, whose sword flew away, while the beast bite into his right upper arm, her eyes glaring red.

Ajax saw how his brother wrestled with the angry beast and wanted to help him when he remembered the closer danger. He turned his sword up and looked in the direction of his fallen sister, but it was too late.

With a spin, Demona stroked his sword, which he had held too relaxed, out of his claw. In the same spin, she threw her empty fist into his face with such power that his nose broke.

A part of her hesitated to do this to her brother, even though they had never been very close, but she knew after the evening was over it wouldn't matter anymore so or so.

Ajax staggered back, his claws in his face and bleeding a lot. When he hit the armchair and fell into it, he ended up knocking it down and falling again from it onto the ground.

Demona and every other observer would have found this very funny, but now wasn't the time for it so she went, as if she had all time in the world, to the wall near her and pushed a massive looking stone. A part of the wall opened and presented two laser guns hanging in it.

Demona took them both and turned around, as fast as she could... And aimed them straight onto her old mentor's forehead.

Both warriors looked into each other's eyes, which were not glazing like fire now, but giving each other a hard icy glare.

Demona was impressed by Deborah's quickness, but not surprised, as she knew that her teacher, even in her old age, was still as fast as ever like she had been at this age with the difference that her old teacher looked much better than she had done.

Finally, Demona started to speak and broke the icy silence. "You have acclimated well to the new world teacher. So you surely know what these things are..." Demona saw in her teacher's eyes that she knew.

"So go into the corner at the other end of the room...." She shortly looked at the other warriors who were trying to stand up again, aside of Diomedes who still looked unconscious "and if you do not wish to learn the effect of this weapon, you should do so too. And drop all your weapons here."

She looked into the eyes of her teacher... Deep blue eyes, which were even now more full of contempt than before. Demona knew that she was trying to study her, trying to study if she was able to be faster than her or if Demona would shoot. Finally, she made a decision.

"Do nothing like this!" She commanded her team without looking around "capturing her is more important than my life."

"Do so and she is dead in half a second!" Demona declared coolly "and you in the following three. I am fast and hit my goal every time... " She hesitated shortly then she added "if you can remember?"

The assembled warriors looked at each other, unsure of what to do. They knew very well how fast Demona was and how good she aimed. She had been amongst the best back in Wyvern.

Finally, Othello made the decision. "Come to me brothers, she has us" he explained and carefully moved back, his brothers following his example.

"Damn you," Deborah screamed angrily "follow my orders! One life is not worth the death of the clan." But Othello shook his head "I am sorry teacher," he explained "but she would kill us before we are even near her. This would be senseless."

Deborah looked into Demona's eye and her eyes wanted to hide the knowledge that she was defeated, but they failed.

"Shade! To me" she ordered her beast without taking her eyes off from Deborah. Demona knew that underestimating the old warrior would be deadly.

When she sensed Shade was at her side she continued "brother go the wall with the others and take Diomedes with you" she smiled shortly at Deborah "I know he is acting and he was never very good at it."

"Yes, acting is something I had not taught you..." Deborah said cynically "did the Archmage teach you this or did you learn it by yourself? You are very good at it Demona."

Demona looked her old mentor in the eye and took the challenge up. "Well thank you" she answered coolly while looking with one eye at how Javin and Diomedes slowly went to their brothers. "And no, this was not part of the training by the Archmage. I learned it by myself and it has served me well."

Now Deborah's eyes glazed hellish red "I see."

"Well," Demona answered while more and more of her blood flood down her leg "I would appreciate it if you would go over there with the others and be quiet for one moment."

Deborah looked into Demona's eyes, which were now normal again and if looks could kill then Demona would be dead now, despite her immortality, but Deborah did as she was told.

"Good!" Demona said when Deborah stood with the others. With these words, she walked over to a wall cupboard and opened it. "Brother," she said in a slightly warning voice "you do not really think that you could take up the sword and throw it in my back as fast as I can turn around and shoot you with the laser, do you?"

Diomedes who was willing to do exactly this, stopped his movements and relaxed. "Do not call me brother," he said with contempt in his voice "you make me sick by this. My name is Diomedes, as you know it."

His brothers, whose name was still unknown to Demona, agreed with him. "I agree with you brother" Ajax said while holding his broken and still bleeding nose with his claws. "I am Ajax for you now Demona." "And I am Javin" the last one said.

Demona nodded without turning around and took a bottle of whiskey and a glass out of the cupboard. With the one laser gun in her belt and the other still in her right claw, she went to the armchair that Ajax had knocked over, set it up and sat down.

This was necessary because some seconds later she simply would have collapsed. Shade, who stood aside of her master, sensed this and was diverted from one part that wanted to help her master and another that wanted to attack these intruders who had done this to her.

Demona just looked at the ones who had tried to catch her and were now her prisoners with a short smile, which showed that she knew the irony of the situation very well and that she could hide the fact about how weak she really was.

"Well," she said while she opened the bottle and poured the whisky in the glass and some in her wound so that the pain could wake her up. "Once more, why are you here?" Demona asked, drinking the Whisky, one laser gun in her right claw while she had put the other on the table.

"You know that we would have come after you after what you did" Deborah said "or do you think that 50 dead humans... Men, women and children would not get to us? Or the humans in the city?"

Demona shook her head slightly "no, I wouldn't think so" she said, grabbed the remote control of the TV and switched it on. Javin and Ajax slightly jumped back when the TV at their backs went on. She saw herself on it, in the background, killing one child while a female reporter informed about the newest situation, how a mob tried to storm the Eerie Skyscraper.

"There it is" Deborah said sarcastically "all the humans in the USA, in the whole world are seeing this and will blame our whole race for your deeds! Or do you want to deny that it is your fault?"

Demona shook her head "no, it is my fault..." She said calmly, "why should I deny this?"

"And what do you say on this" asked Diomedes, who had had enough of all this horror.

"She has hit me well, hasn't she?" Demona noticed, smiling by seeing the video of herself behind the female reporter and Deborah looked at her as if she saw her for the first time. "You ARE crazy..." Deborah said, more surprised than angry "I should have known it the first time when I heard what you had done, no sane Gargoyle would do so..."

"Yes, yes, yes teacher, please be quiet. You have won. I give up." Demona said, as if she wanted to calm down a misbehaving little hatchling by telling him that he would get the cookie.

Deborah looked at her as if she had changed into Santa Clause. "What?!" She asked, trying to see any sense in the obviously mad statement of her former pupil.

Demona rolled her eyes and answered as if a little hatchling was asking a silly question. Deborah noticed it with growing anger and asked herself, at the same time, if this mad Gargoyle was worth the hate that she felt.

Demona switched the TV off, stood up and went over to the wall. The second laser gun was still lying on the table just within the reach of Demona's guests, who did not dare to move, unsure what Demona would do next.

Demona felt that her wound had nearly closed and didn't bleed so much anymore. ~Good~ she thought happily ~so I will not loose consciousness~. She sensed how that behind her back, Ajax wanted to try his luck and started to move slowly towards the laser gun on the table.

Just when Demona wanted to turn around and tell her brother that it was not polite to shot someone in the back, she heard how Deborah grabbed and stopped him.

~Intelligent old teacher~ she thought ~very intelligent.~

Demona pushed in another stone in the wall so that another secret partition opened and revealed two swords. She took them both out and turned around so that she could see her prisoners who hadn't moved indeed, but still looked at her with anger and contempt... And even with fear, Demona noticed happily.

"Now," Demona said and threw one sword with ease at the ground before her old teacher. She did not move back or make any sign that she was afraid, but just looked at the sword.

"What?" Asked Deborah critically and Demona smiled again. "Well examine it," the smile increased when she continued "don't fear!" Deborah snarled as an answer with red glazing eyes, but finally took the sword as if it would be a dangerous snake.

When she discovered that it did not explode she examined it more exactly. It was a beautiful sword indeed with runes, which seemed to be made up of some unknown culture, that decorated a part of the under blade. For a moment, Deborah nearly believed that the blade was shining from within an unearthly light, but this had to be her imagination.

"What is so special about this sword?" Deborah asked without trying to hide her curiosity, which would surely give Demona satisfaction, but she just nodded.

"Well to show you what, here a little demonstration" Demona said while laying the special sword on the table and took the one that she had pulled out of her stomach.

"Look!" She ordered and knew that she had had their full attention. So she cut with the sword, the inner side of her right claw.

She heard Javin whispering "she is crazy." and shook her head. "Look!" She repeated and the assembled group saw how the wound closed in quick motion.

Most of the Gargoyles gasped at this, but Deborah stood cool. "I know of your magical healing ability" she said and looked at her "one more reason to dislike the Fay."

Demona shrug her shoulders, threw this sword away and took the strange sword, which was a nearly exact duplicate of the one that Deborah held except for the runes, which were a bit different. She then cut herself again with it in her left claw and the blood was running from there while the wound in her right side had already closed.

"What are you up to?" Asked Diomedes.

"Look" was Demona's only response and unwilling, Diomedes did so. Suddenly, he recognized something "your wound doesn't close."

Demona nodded "yes, what I and Deborah hold in our claws are Angel swords." She saw the surprised faces of her prisoners and nodded "they can undo every magic whether it be Fay, human or what other is up there. Through it, immortals are mortal like you!"

Suddenly, Diomedes seemed to realize what Demona was up to. "I will not allow you challenge our teacher to a fight!" He said, but he had hardly said the last word when Demona threw the sword at him.

Diomedes had not the time to react, but this was good because it hit the wall hardly one centimeter aside from his ear.

At once, the whole group was on alarm again and Ajax was going to attack when Deborah's voice raised. "Stop!" She ordered and when the Gargoyles calmed down she looked at Demona "what are you up to? Again one of your traps is it?" She asked in a dangerously cool voice. She had lost all her patience in this night already.

Demona laughed again, ~if you would only know what kind of a trap it is!~

"No, it is not one of my traps! I told you" Demona said, now emotionless "I give up, capitulate, wave the white flag or whatever name you have for it." Now, their former prisoners looked at her in disbelieve and Deborah in pure suspicion.

Demona looked to Shade who seemed unsure "Shade, go up to the library and wait there until I come back or they come to catch you." Shade stayed unsure, so Demona stroked her head "please, for me." Shade howled slightly, but followed her master's order and went upstairs.

Demona looked at Deborah again and showed her, her empty claws "no weapons, no trap."

"What is this?" She pointed with the Angel sword at the laser gun on Demona's belt.

"Oh sorry, I forgot" Demona said, took the laser and threw it to Othello's feet, but Deborah stayed cautious. "On your knees!" She ordered calmly and Demona did so. "Claws behind the your head."

Demona did so, but not without commenting "you watch too much TV Deborah... " She had just said the last word when she felt the blade of Deborah's sword on her throat, so close that it made a small wound, which bled. "But good to see that you waste no time." She noticed calmly.

Deborah glared at her, her eyes glazing red "give me one good reason not to behead you here and now and send the police your head." Demona returned her view and saw that her teacher was not making fun, which was something that she hadn't planned on, but despite this, she smiled. "Well if you do so then you are like me" she looked deep into Deborah's eyes and their souls met "what? Are you a contempt, merciless killer!" She said these words coolly, without hate or hardness, but just as simple facts.

"Teacher," Othello said from behind "we have to hurry. Let her live, she is isn't worth it." Demona laughed a bit, the whole situation was too funny "well indeed, humans have the ability to make mobs very fast... So let's hurry." Deborah snarled and looked at her former pupil in pure contempt. "Say one word more without me asking you to do so and you will not arrive in Wyvern alive."

"Check her for any hide weapons" Deborah ordered her warriors while Diomedes set the second Angel sword on her back, but much softer than Deborah. They did so and discovered nothing on Demona that could be used as a weapon and finally bound her arms with an iron chain, which had hung on the wall, surely to be used by an unasked appearing of Fay.

"Stand up" Deborah ordered her prisoner and Demona did so. "Listen well, I will not repeat it. We will go upstairs now and glide from here to the castle. You will follow the path between us exactly and if you try anything to escape, I'll kill you." Demona nodded, there was not more to say.

They went up onto the roof of Demona's Mansion and flew to bring the slayer who had killed one time too many, to justice. Shade saw the departure of her master through the library window and whined, unsure if she would come back ever.

03.08.98; 02:56; Castle Wyvern Battlement:

Goliath and Elisa stood on the battlement and looked over the horizon, desperately searching for signs of the troop and their prisoner, but there was still nothing. Just the clouds had darkened and it seemed as if there would soon be a storm.

"I shouldn't have let them go with only so few!" Goliath sighed finally and Elisa looked in worry on him.

"Deborah is an experienced warrior," Elisa tried to calm him down "she knew if she took more than she did then the media would have noticed this. Tonight is not the night for a Gargoyle to be seen in the city." ~Or ever again~ Elisa continued in her mind, but this was not the problem now. "Surely she can handle Demona."

Goliath shook his head. "You don't understand," Goliath said "Demona is not stupid. Crazy yes, but not stupid. She will know that I will send someone and prepare for this."

"It was the right decision," said Elisa calmly, but Goliath shook his head. "I have not made many right decisions in the past" he said emotionless "perhaps it was one failure again."

Elisa looked at her mate. This had hit him more than she had feared at first. Not enough that he doubted on the future, but now he doubted on his qualification to make the right decisions as leader.

She was on to say something when Xanatos coughed slightly from behind. He had neared unnoticed from them while they had stared on the horizon and held a cell phone in his hand. The night had already left its marks on the otherwise so cool Multibillionaire and his eyes showed that there was more trouble ahead.

"What is it Xanatos?" Asked Elisa. She still did not trust Xanatos completely, but on nights like this, she was ready to accept any and every little bit of help.

"Chavez called me three minutes ago," he explained "she will need more time for her troops to get here because of the incoming storm and the fact that the streets are too full. And she still does not know how the video recording became public, whether it was one of her officers or just another reporter."

Elisa nodded and Goliath just looked at him with somewhat anticipation. "What else?"

"The mob will get over the security system and guard soon" Xanatos shook his head "the leader of my security guard told me that they could hold them off for perhaps 15 more minutes, but then... " He looked directly into Goliath's eyes "I could order them to shot with live ammunition, but... "

"No!" Goliath shouted "no more bloodshed tonight, this would turn the people against us even more."

Xanatos nodded. "Okay, but then you have to make a decision," he explained "because when the security system and the guards are overthrown, you will not have much time to escape. I can set the elevators to go out of order, but the stairs cannot be closed. This is the highest building in New York, but they can get here in the castle in 25 minutes. If you lead the clan away, I can offer you an estate outside the city where the clan can stay until things have settled down. If not... I will help you and the clan in every situation."

Goliath looked at his former enemy and knew that his belief in the good of a person had not been wrong... This time. He laid his claw on Xanatos shoulder. "Thank you" was all he could say.

Xanatos nodded. "It is my home too, don't forget this Goliath" he reminded him "oh and Macbeth has called too. He saw the news in Paris and is on his way here in his private jet over the Atlantic. But he will need at least a day to get here."

Goliath nodded ~another ally in bad times.~ "Thank you, we will... " was Goliath could say, but Elisa interrupted him. "Goliath look!" She said and pointed to the horizon, where six fast nearing figures had appeared.

"I will go to the security room to overlook the situation" Xanatos said and he walked away. He thought about what luck it was that his wife and his son were not here, but had departed for a three-day trip in Australia together with Owen the day before. Otherwise, Owen would have been useful on his side.

Goliath watched Xanatos walk away and looked over the battlement. One of his brothers had, unnoticed from them, even so waited for the arrival of the team and was surely telling it to the clan now.

When he turned around, he saw that the figures had come closer already and he could identify them. Demona was in the middle, her claws bound. Diomedes and Ajax were on her right and left side, Javin at her back and Othello before her. Deborah glided over the prisoner with a blade in her claws, ready to kill her at the slightest sign of an attempt to escape.

Goliath looked at his sister and his eyes started to glow white.

Shortly before, inside the castle:

The largest part of the clan was gathered in the Great Hall in dark silence when the male Gargoyle entered and announced the news. "The team returns" he said "with Demona."

At once, there was large talk over what to do now. "We should do the same thing to her that she did to those humans" suggested one of the elders and large parts of the clan, even Broadway who stood beside Angela, whose face had become a mask, agreed.

This forced Brooklyn, who had sat silently beside the unnamed female Gargoyle who shuddered a bit by the announcement of her tormentor's soon arrival, to stand up.

"We will handle her over the police" said Brooklyn with the authority of a clan's second "and nothing more."

A muscular, dark black-skinned, male Gargoyle with three horns on his hairless head who was of the rookery before Goliath's, seemingly did not accept this. "Oh, we should hand her over to the police" he explained and came nearer to Brooklyn "but first, we should... Let her pay for the danger she has brought us in, if not for what she has done before."

There was agreeing muttering in the crowd and Brooklyn saw that not even Angela said anything against this. ~Great~ "would we do so... " Brooklyn started and looked in the eyes of his opponent "we would not be much better than her."

At once, he heard disagreeing muttering from the crowd, letting themselves being compared with Demona did not seem to make them happy.

The black Gargoyle took this up. "Do you want to compare us with this... Creature?" He asked, his eyes nearly blazing white "we have nothing in common with her. We are Gargoyles and she is just a demon!"

Brooklyn responded the view, but stayed cool. The last thing he wanted was a fight, which might let the draft in the clan become even bigger and might cost him his position as second even so.

"Yes, we are Gargoyles and Gargoyles don't torture their prisoners even such creatures like Demona!" He sensed agreeing muttering in the clan and knew that he had won... For the first time that night.

"Believe me," he continued by looking at the black Gargoyle "I am the one who wishes to pay Demona back for her misdeeds more than you might imagine. But I will not let myself be degraded by her."

Both Gargoyles who parted not just two generations, but worlds held their looks, but finally the older one gave up, knowing that he couldn't win... This time.

"You have won... Second." He spoke the last words in a way that made absolutely clear that he most definitely not see him so, but Brooklyn stayed cool and shook his head. "This is not the point. Fact is, is that it is the right thing to do... Kronos."

Kronos looked at him and his ice-blue eyes promised future trouble. Then, without one further word, he turned around and went back to his group.

Brooklyn sighed a bit, as this had been sharp. Kronos was the one that he and Goliath... The whole clan knew. Who was the needed brain behind Ajax's group. Some said that Ajax was even just the figurehead for him.

Kronos had been the greatest critic when Hudson had chosen Goliath as his second and future clan leader because he felt that he and his generation had been betrayed of this honor. When Goliath became leader and he chose his mate as his second, it was reason enough for him to make a little rebellion. He had called a clan council, which tried to refuse Demona the position as clan second with the argument that she was too young like Goliath. They also said that the leader was being prejudiced when he had chosen his mate as second and it would be bad for the clan to be led by such a young pair.

Because Goliath had already proven to be a wise, intelligent and fair second, it was doubtful that he would be any different as a leader and it was known that Demona was the best warrior. She was intelligent, cunning and quick and so he had achieved less than 1/10 of the voices.

Needless to say that Kronos was not very happy about the result and he even refused Goliath's offer to a reconciliation with him, but seemed to wait on a chance to take revenge for his defeat.

He got this chance after the large awakening when Demona's betrayal became known and with this, some even doubted on Goliath's ability to lead since he had chosen her as his second. Ever since, Kronos had tried to undermine Brooklyn's position as second and Brooklyn knew it was just one step to force Goliath down... Not that this made him any happier.

He saw some clan members going over to the door in order to see the demon finally handed over to justice. Brooklyn turned around to see the female still sitting, but looking at him with somewhat of a weak smile.

He went to her and sunk on his knees. "Listen, I have to go out now and see that all is okay." The females dark eyes widened a bit and he could see the fear in them and that the fear was for him when she spoke. "Be careful... She is dangerous and I don't want her to harm any more people... Especially not you." Brooklyn smiled at this sign of affection and saw once again how beautiful she was.

"Do not fear. My clan and I can take care to see to it that she will never harm you or anyone else again... I vow." Brooklyn said and the females smile increased by this even more, which made Brooklyn's heart beat higher.

"I will be back soon... You need not to see her again." He said finally and when the female nodded, he turned around to the door.

In the courtyard, shortly before:

Demona landed in the courtyard and at once, she felt the blades of both angel swords on her neck. ~Very fast indeed~ she thought and smiled while looking on the chains, which bounded her claws. Then, she looked up and saw Goliath coming up to her, his eyes were glowing white and she smiled even more. It was hard to make Goliath angry.

"Hello Goliath" she greeted him "nice night isn't it?"

He glared at her and Demona saw that he could barely control himself. One moment, she thought that he would beat her, but then the detective appeared from behind and laid her arm on him, whispering that she was not worth it, which seemed to calm him down.

~Yes, let her tame you~ Demona thought ~otherwise beating me would perhaps make you enjoy yourself... Thailog had fun doing it and you are the same material.~

"Why?" Asked Goliath when he had cooled down a bit so that his eyes no longer blazed white "why did you this?!"

Demona was going to answer him when Deborah interrupted her. "She is crazy, what else needs explaining!" She shook her head "try not to understand her! During the fight with my team she proofed all too well that she is mad."

For the first time, Goliath really noticed the team beside Demona. He looked over them, saw Ajax's broken nose, Diomedes still bleeding arm and that all had some bruises. Demona was seemingly unhurt except for a wound in her left claw and the fact that the top of her hair was cut.

"She defended herself?" He asked even if he knew that this question was senseless.

Othello nodded "yes and she had won." He looked at Demona suspiciously "but then she surrendered and let herself be captured... She even gave us these two swords, which are seemingly able to kill her."

Goliath looked at Demona, his eyes glazing white again. "What kind of trap is this?"

Demona was going to say something when a red fist hit her left cheek damned hard and let her fall hard onto her back. She looked up to see Brooklyn standing above her, his eyes glowing as white as Goliath's.

"You damned crazy bitch!" He growled while Demona rose up and she felt at once the blades at her neck.

"Oh Brooklyn really, where are your manners?" Demona said mockingly "as second I would have expected more self control of you!"

Brooklyn growled, but could control himself while Goliath calmed down knowing that becoming angry would lead to nothing.

Demona looked around and saw that more and more of her former clan came out to see her, but stayed many meters away as if she had a disease. Their eyes were partly glowing red and white and most of them showed contempt and anger, others even fear.

Finally, Demona discovered Angela beside Broadway and their eyes met. At once, Angela turned her face away and Demona could see tears glittering in her daughter's eyes. Beside of her stood her caramel sister, her eyes were now even so full of contempt like the others.

~It has to end~ Demona decided and made the decision to end the little facade now.

She looked at Brooklyn and felt the amusement and the cynicism, which had made her teacher and the others believe that she was mad, go away and leave behind the feeling of what was to be done.

She looked into Goliath's eyes, which had normalized again and spoke now dry and clear without hate, just hardness.

"Tell me Goliath, where is she?" She asked him "where is the nameless Gargoyle that you have rescued?"

Goliath was going to answer, but Brooklyn was faster. "You will never harm her again!" He swore angrily.

Demona shook her head "won't I?" Before Brooklyn was going to answer, she screamed it out "come out now! I am tired of waiting!"

Brooklyn's eyes glazed white again ~how dare she!~ "You damned bitch I... " But before he could go any further, he was interrupted by a female voice.

"Here I am" called the female Gargoyle who had come out of the castle and stood now between the mass of the clan and Demona's position.

Brooklyn looked first to the female Gargoyle then onto Demona and then back to her again. He finally went to her, his eyes worried. "You need not have to come out here," he said calmly when he stood directly in front of her. "Demona is crazy, let her say what she wants."

Demona and the unnamed Gargoyle looked into each other's eyes, both ignoring the world around them. Demona with the blades on her neck and together with the fact that her claws were chained and the female Gargoyle that Brooklyn wanted to comfort. It was a timeless moment for both, but finally it ended when Demona started.

"Well, have you had fun?" She asked conversationally "you must have laughed your head off inside, didn't you?"

To the surprise of the whole clan, the female nodded. "Oh yes I did," she explained in the same tone as Demona "how much they cared for me... It warmed my heart."

Demona laughed a bit and the female joined in.

Brooklyn looked shocked at the female, unbelieving what he had heard. "But this can't be, I mean... " He couldn't speak any further, but he spoke out what the whole clan thought.

The female looked at him and for the first time he saw the changes, which had gone through her appearance. She looked older and larger, as if the passed time had let her age. Besides this, she looked proud, so proud that it was more than arrogance, but the knowledge of superiority. She did not look like a young timid female anymore, but like a proud warrior and somehow her appearance reminded Brooklyn of someone.

Her eyes looked into his and he saw that they were soft again. ~This must be a joke!~ She softly stroke Brooklyn's beak, but when she spoke she did not do it to him. "He was the nicest of them all." She smiled a mysterious smile "he discovered me first, calmed me and offered me his friendship."

Finally her smile enlarged and suddenly, unbelievably fast with more power than anyone would have expected of her, she hooked Brooklyn's chin and sent him up flying straight into the air. In one movement, she punched the falling Brooklyn in the stomach and sent him sliding just before Demona's feet where he curled into a ball, nursing his aching stomach. His whole body felt a pain that Brooklyn had never felt before, as if a train had hit him.

The whole clan looked in shock on the young female who had shown in this moment, even for a gargoyle, unnatural power.

"Did you know. " Asked the bored female, as if she had just chased away a fly "that all males are equal? Thinking with their noblest limb first!" She laughed. "How he cared for me ha ha ha and he calls himself a second in command? He should grow up first!"

Demona looked at the groaning Brooklyn and then back on the female. "He is doing his duties adequate as far as I can say... " She defended him "at least he was able to hinder me sometimes."

"Defending this nothing?" Asked the female with a smile "how strange for you! As far as I remember, wasn't he your greatest enemy in the clan." She nodded to the still confused Deborah "until you brought her back... Me thinks that you had become bored and wanted to create someone else to go after you when Macbeth and the Canmores gave up."

Demona was going to answer this when Goliath interrupted them. "So this is all a trap of yours Demona!"

Demona looked at her former love and shook her head. ~He doesn't understand, but did he ever?~ "No Goliath," she answered him with patience "it is hers." She pointed on the female who just looked at the shocked Goliath with a smile.

"But we saw you on the video tape!" Protested Diomedes who had indeed lowered the sword from her neck.

Demona looked at him with somewhat like pity. "Oh yes, yes" she smiled again "I saw it too like how you remember and indeed... " She looked now on the female again. "How I told my old teacher... " She said with a short look to Deborah "you have hit me well with this illusion spell! And the movements were even so like mine! You must have trained!"

The unnamed smiled by this praise. "Thanks" she said "I had seen you during that nice little massacre when you changed all the humans in the city to stone, which this clan unfortunately has made undone." She said those last words like the clan had done something naughty.

Demona nodded ~so she has been there all the time! And so close!~ She shook her head inside ~I should have known, I should have felt her!~ But she showed nothing of this to her.

Then she turned to Diomedes. "And you asked me if it was worth learning magic. If you can do such things through it, it has to hasn't it?"

Without waiting for an answer from the more than shocked Gargoyle, she again turned around to the nameless female Gargoyle, but before they could continue their conservation, Desdemona had neared the female.

"So it was all a fake?!" She asked, still unbelieving "the clan in Los Angeles... "

The female laughed "oh yes, they were quite real... " She looked at Desdemona and smiled evilly, "that is. Until I killed them." Again she laughed "oh and the leader, he was large... Even larger than yours, but just as stupid. Oh yes, how I laughed about their remains."

Desdemona's eyes flared red when she understood the full meaning of these words and in a scream of anger, which made Demona proud, she leapt on this female whom she had helped shortly before.

But her enemy was unbelievably fast and had left the point where Desdemona landed, at the moment when she had started the jump. And she did not loose any time, as the female used at once her tail to knock Desdemona from her feet.

When Desdemona lay on the ground, the nameless female hit her with her spiked tail in the stomach and caused 4 middle large wounds, which made Desdemona wince in pain.

This did not leave her mate untouched and in a scream of anger, on all fours and with white glowing eyes, he ran to his mate and her tormentor.

The Gargoyles, even Deborah and Diomedes who had finally understood that Demona wasn't the enemy, turned around to attack the now revealed true enemy. But when Deborah and Diomedes started to run to the battleground, two powerful claws took their shoulders and kept them back.

They turned around to see Demona standing there, free of her chains and shaking her head. Deborah believed already that it was really a large trap from Demona, but then Demona started. "Let her be," she declared "fighting against her would lead to nothing more than death amongst your clan."

"So we let her kill the others instead?" Asked Diomedes unbelieving, but Demona shook her head again "she is just playing with you" she explained "but if she got these swords, she would have all that she would need and would kill you all out of fun."

Deborah understood "she is immortal like you!"

Demona looked on her former teacher "more than me." She pointed to the sword in Deborah's claw, "these swords are the only things in the world, which are able to kill her as far as I know."

"Then we should attack her!" Cursed Diomedes, but again Demona shook her head

"You had no chance against me and I did not wish to hurt you." She looked upon the wounds on Diomede's arm. "But she will and she would have fun."

Deborah looked at Demona and asked cynically "are you asking us to trust you?"

Demona laughed slightly "no, you simple have no choice. See, I will not allow you to give her these swords as a present and fight against me and her at the same time would surely not be the best thing you can do."

By these words, Deborah glared and Diomedes's eyes lit up, but Demona stayed cool. "You played your roles in her game so well this night, why don't you think before you act... At least this time?" When Demona saw that she had made them even more angry than before, she pointed to the battlefield "look!"

Unwilling, Deborah looked to where Demona had pointed to and what she saw made her gasp. The nameless female fought good... Pretty damned good even for Deborah's high demanding.

She had used Othello's energy and thrown him into the mass of watching Gargoyles, which threw some of them, who had attacked them, back. Then Goliath attacked, but she seemed to look into the future and got out of the way of every one of his attacks.

"Oh, how dangerous you are when you are angry... " She teased "no wonder that Demona had chosen you to be her mate over a 1000 years ago." She laughed when she escaped one more of his attacks "a pity that you are too much of a good Gargoyle, else I would have had much fun with you!" The nameless Gargoyle declared and finally started to attack him by herself.

She was faster than any Gargoyle that Goliath had seen before and he knew that magic had to do with it. Aside from this, she was even stronger than Goliath had ever assumed.

"You make me tired!" She declared finally and by this, she punched him first in his ribs, which made three of them break and Goliath felt full of pain. Then she hit him with her elbow in the sensitive point between his wings and he collapsed.

She grabbed his shoulders and threw him with unbelievable easiness into the crowd of Gargoyles. "Oh good, who's next?" She asked impatiently and everybody could see that she was not even sweating from the fights against some of the best warriors of the clan.

Like as an answer, a bang was heard and something hit the nameless heart. She looked around to see Elisa with her smoking gun in her hand, standing some meters in front of her.

"Oh please... " Said the nameless and Elisa saw in shock how the wound closed and pushed the bullet out of it in less than five seconds. This female had even greater healing abilities than Demona.

When three more bullets hit her, the female became angry, her eyes blazed red and she commanded "FREEZE!" At once, the gun in Elisa's hand froze and she had to let it fall to the ground where it broke because the cold burned.

"You poor human" she teased "do you really think you survived so long with Demona as an enemy because of your great skills? Hahahaha, so you think that she missed her goal when she aimed on you four years ago with the poisoned dart." She smiled when she saw that the human was surprised by the change of topic. "She saw you simply as a weakness... The greatest weakness of the clan! You have a life outside these walls or the clock towers, so letting you live was the best way to have a lever on the clan in some cases... I on the other hand have no needs for you!"

With this, she made a gesture and spoke "I call the fire of... " But she did not come to an end with her spell because a sword stabbed her from behind, through her stomach, like Demona just shortly before.

She looked at the sword, which was full of blood. Black blood. The nameless looked around to look into an old soldier's eyes.

"Hudson Hudson Hudson..." She said as if talking to a naughty hatchling and punched so hard into the old Gargoyles face that he collapsed.

"You really should sit in front of the TV where you have spent the last few years... " She declared and looked on the old soldier on the ground while holding his sword, which was black like the night if not blacker.

Meanwhile, Deborah took the fact that her mate was attacked, not very well and wanted to help him, but was held back by Demona.

"No!" Commanded Demona and when Deborah refused to listen and tried get free from Demona's grip, she threw her to the wall where Deborah hit the wall hard with her head.

"Listen!" Said Demona and felt at once the blade of Diomedes's sword on her neck and, more painfully, the blade of Deborah's sword on her stomach. "Listen! You can't help him, all you would achieve is making the situation worse."

Deborah looked into her eyes and Demona could see disgust in them. "We don't let our mates or clan members die by running away!" Demona's eyes glared by this attack, but she kept cool when she responded. "Well I may suffer at forgetfulness, but I remind that someone once said to me that one Gargoyle is not worth the possible death of all the clan..." She looked deep into Deborah's eyes "and this will lead to their death because all she wants is me."

Suddenly, she heard a scream of pain from the other side of the courtyard and saw on the widened eyes of Deborah that something had happened to Hudson, but she did not turn around but just looked into Deborah's eyes when she spoke. "Don't think that it is easy for me..." She explained "but I will not let her win and hurt more of this clan than she already has. Even when this means that I must beat you unconscious and fight against Diomedes."

Deborah saw that Demona meant what she said and with a fast look, she discovered that her mate was out of danger for the moment. She looked into Demona's eyes again and relaxed "I will do so because I seemingly have no choice, but when this is over, you will have a lot of explaining to do." She said angrily and when Demona saw that she spoke the truth, she agreed "when you still have questions about her after this night, I will answer them." So she turned around to the battlefield again.

~But I doubt this so or so~ Demona added in her mind.

She saw how Hudson was still lying on the ground, but his sword had been driven by the unnamed Gargoyle into his right upper leg and had pinned him to the ground. She sensed how Deborah felt the pain nearly by herself, but was unable to come to her mate's aid.

~Perhaps there is hope for you to survive the night after all!~ Thought Demona and looked on the victor and at how she mocked her fallen victim.

"Oh yes, all those nice TV series! But this has made you slow, destroyed your skills." She saw how Goliath and others came nearer again and made a strange gesture with her claw, on which a fireball appeared. Then she smiled and pointed to the trapped Hudson.

Goliath growled and ordered his clan to stay behind, so the female Gargoyle continued her speech.

"Look grandfather, even your mate knows that you are not the Gargoyle for the battlefield anymore," Deborah growled at this. "Why else would she have not chosen you to fight at her side... Perhaps because she died in the last battle where you watched her back?"

By these words, Hudson's eyes glared even more and he started to pull his sword out of his leg and the ground. "Your age has made you weak and useless and you try to overprint this fact by trying to serve the clan as a teacher, even if you know that others would be much better! But really, I would not choose a mate who calls this. " She pointed to Hudson's gut "a stomach... Retire grandfather and let the ones who can still handle it, fight."

The female turned with these words around to Desdemona who had come high on all fours under pain. She went to her and before anyone could stop her, she grabbed Desdemona's neck and lifted her in the air so that her claws could not touch the ground.

"To make this clear, if anyone tries to attack me. I'll break her neck." She said to the gathered clan and then turned around to Demona "now, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?" She asked as if there had been a phone call, which had to be answered and Demona answered in the same way, ignoring the shocked views of her former clan.

"Well you wanted to tell me how you faked them." Said Demona and the female smiled.

"Oh yes, this was funny indeed!" She explained, ignoring Desdemona hanging in her claw. "I don't think I needed to go through all that trouble of acting like a scared hatchling. They are really are such idiots!" She declared with a laugh "I mean, I could have even painted your name in blood with ten meter large letters on the walls of that shopping center and they wouldn't have checked anything!"

Demona nodded, "oh yes, they are... " When she saw that, on this response, Deborah and some others looked as if they would tear her limb from limb in the next moments, she added quickly "but I should not judge so harshly... After all, you were able to fake me once!"

The unnamed smiled. "Oh yes... " She said "but this was my masterstroke!" She laughed again wildly "oh how full of remorse they were when I told them what you did and asked them why they let you free!"

She looked deeply into Desdemona's eyes "oh and this one!" She smiled evilly "do you know what she told me when I asked her who you were? Or do you wish to tell it to her?" She looked even deeper into Desdemona's eyes, which were glaring so red like hell, but she was unable to speak because Lucifia's grab did not let her enough air. "She told me that you are no longer her sister, but that her sister had died on the night of the massacre, to her!"

Demona looked shortly on Desdemona whose eyes were full of regret when she thought about how she had thought about her sister, then on Diomedes who avoided her eyes.

"Well," Demona answered finally "she wasn't the only one, but beside of that you have brought them to this by pretending false facts, they are right." When she heard the gasped and felt the astonished views around her, she continued. "The one they knew once is dead... A fact that I am very happy about you have to know!"

"Interesting view!" Responded the nameless female "but what do you say on this... Your daughter," she looked on Angela and saw with satisfaction how her eyes glared and she became, on this way, similar with her mother in a frightening way. "Your only daughter" these words again were directed on Demona whose eyes stayed centered on the nameless "has denied you even so! She said that after you had faked her twice you would no longer be her mother." Again, she laughed wildly and Demona could see that on Angela's mouth formed the words "I am sorry." But she ignored it, as this was not the time for it.

"As if..." Explained the nameless "as if someone could cut this bond so easily! When she has adopted the view of humanity in this way and sees you as her mother and Goliath as her father, a fact which is indeed no well seen by the elders of this clan. She can't go back... Mother is mother and daughter is daughter. Right Angela?"

These words were directed on Angela whose eyes glazed still red and who felt in this moment more angry and more humiliated than any other time before. If she could, she would gladly kill this evil female.

"Oh, have I embarrassed this little hatchling?" She asked teasingly "go to your father and cry... Something I have seen you do very often since you came here... Last time when you thought that your mother had faked you again... and do you know? You were even so wrong that time before."

When Angela's eyes widened, the female Gargoyle nodded "oh yes!" She explained "I hired the Stealth Guy and the Quarrymen or do you really think that Demona would work together with an organization that desired to extinct our race?"

Angela looked in shock on her mother, but she avoided the look in her eyes. "But... " Angela started unbelieving.

"But what?" Asked the female Gargoyle "she has not told it?" She said and did not wait for the answer. "She let you believe that she was responsible, something you surely have forgiven her for already." She laughed by this "oh yes, you forgive so easily and trust even easier... I mean, you trusted a man who had just shot your father and clan leader more times than your mother. Great, really great. No wonder that she did not want to tell you the truth. Oh and between you and me... She cried even so when she saw you flying away." Angela looked unbelieving at Demona who again avoided her view, this time seemingly embarrassed. She couldn't even imagine seeing her mother cry.

"Yes that must run in the family." The nameless continued.

Angela became even more angrier than before when the whole meaning of these words hit her. "You monster!" She snarled and Goliath thought that it was the first time that he heard his daughter snarling this way.

The female laughed on this, but stopped abruptly "Oh, where are my manners... I forgot to introduce myself," she glanced quickly to Demona who stiffened. "I am Lucifia." Some in the gathered clan gasped.

~A fitting name~ was the collective thought ~Lucifer the prince of Darkness... The fallen angel~.

"What do you want here?" Asked Goliath finally, "I mean other than bringing death and pain."

Lucifia smiled evilly "oh, but I like this so much" she explained "but if you can count two and two together and I know that you can, then you will be able to tell me what I wanted from you."

Goliath growled angrily, but he saw how Lucifia strengthened the grasp around Desdemona's neck and calmed down.

"Now, be the good Gargoyle that you are and tell me what I want." Lucifia demanded "if not then I'll break her neck."

"You wanted that we capture Demona so that she is out of the way." Concluded Goliath fast and Lucifia laughed.

"Oh, not quite so your sister has to die" she declared and Othello's eyes widened in shock when he saw how the muscles in Lucifia's arm contracted.

But Demona's voice stopped her. "Let her be" she commanded.

"Oh come on!" Said Lucifia nearly unbelieving "you don't care for them still, do you? I mean, they are mortals, they will never be able to understand you and you can't live with them. You know that!" Demona nodded slightly and Lucifia laughed again by the next words. "Oh yes, a nice little fake of you too. When you came here and let yourself be judged by Goliath, the oh so wise leader who naturally gave you an absolution. Yet the only reason you came was that you sensed me back in Berlin. If not then you would still be sitting there and ruling Nightstone." Lucifia laughed again "I mean, as if YOU would come to let you being judged by Goliath!"

Demona shrugged her shoulder. "Yes, a funny imagination indeed" she answered coolly and Deborah glared at her.

"So you lied again... " Deborah noticed angrily "I should have known that you did not have the feeling of responsibility to do it by yourself!"

Demona looked deeply into the angry eyes of her old teacher and responded. "Well I did not lie. I said to you and Goliath that I had some important business dealings here and now you see," she pointed on Lucifia who still held Desdemona in the sky "it IS a very important business dealing, so did I lie?"

Deborah did not find words for this impertinence. "You..." She did not know what to say further to describe the anger she felt, but just glared at Demona who had the nerve to smile slightly.

Deborah was ready to skin her alive.

But Demona did not wait on an answer of her old and very, very angry teacher and turned around to Lucifia.

"I am tired of this game Lucifia" explained Demona "I have the swords," which was a bit untrue since Diomedes and Deborah was still holding them. "So let my sister go and let us start the fight for which you have come!"

"Yes and this time, you are the one who have brought the swords," said Lucifia with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Do you know that I trained all the 300 years after you had imprisoned me in that mountain to be ready for this moment? And to think about how you could defeat me?"

Deborah looked at both adversaries in wonder and saw the views they exchanged. There had to be a large story behind this.

"I thought so" answered Demona calmly "but as I said, we should start. So let my sister go and we will begin."

"Perhaps I will kill her first... I mean, when I win I'll do it so anyway." With these words, Lucifia looked deep into Desdemona's eyes, who saw the darkness sparkling deep down and asked herself how eyes could be so dark, and smiled evilly.

"If you do so I will go!" Answered Demona "I will go away and hide myself on places that even you will never find... Or I'll kill Macbeth? Then you might kill all the Gargoyles, humans and even all the Fay of the world, but you would have lost because you will ask your self again and again an endless time if you would have been able to defeat me!"

Lucifia looked into Demona's eyes, trying to sense if she spoke the truth and then looked back to Desdemona hanging in her claw. "Do you really want to do this?" She asked, "I mean, I could kill just her for the beginning. The rest of the clan would have a chance to survive."

Demona shook her head "everybody or nobody and you know I am honest."

Lucifia looked at her and nodded. "Good, good" she looked back to Desdemona and whispered "you have luck that she cares so much for you!" Then she looked to Goliath "and you... Do you agree with this little deal?"

Goliath glared first at her then on Demona who responded his view coolly. "Have I any choice?"

Lucifia smiled "no!" She answered, smiling and then she threw Desdemona easily into the arms of Othello some meters away, where she collapsed in pain.

After she did so, she looked at Demona, ignoring all the other Gargoyles around her.

"So... Shall we?" Lucifia said and Demona nodded. "Yes, but first the rules."

Lucifia laughed "rules don't apply to you Demona! War knows no rules!" Demona nodded "yes, but they can make a fight more interesting."

Lucifia laughed again "okay, which rules?"

"This is a fight between us! You will use no one of the bystanders as a weapon or shield." Demona declared calmly and Lucifia nodded.

"Well then, you have to agree even with my conditions. No magic!" She smiled "not that I think that you could beat me in this, but I have bad memories of the last time... Do you know what it's like to be trapped 300 years in absolute darkness? Just your thoughts as company?"

Demona smiled weakly "no, I have not experienced that yet." She answered "who knows, perhaps in the next 1000 years."

Lucifia glared at her "you will not live so long!" She said angrily and "I'll kill you now and take my revenge!"

Demona smiled weakly, she had heard this so many times before that she had stopped counting.

"Time to find this out, isn't it?" She answered and looked to Diomedes and Deborah. "Give me the swords" she ordered and Diomedes did so after some wavering, but Deborah still held the sword in her claw.

Demona looked at her "I do not ask you to trust me or my fighting skills, but to see that you have no other choice." Deborah hesitated, but finally she gave Demona the sword.

~I am making a mistake~ Deborah thought ~a large mistake and I know it!~.

But it was done and Demona turned around to Lucifia, holding both swords in her claws.

"Oh, I know what you're thinking..." Explained Lucifia "can I risk to attack her, now that I have both weapons? What do you think?"

As an answer, Demona threw one sword on the ground at Lucifia's feet and brought herself in the warrior position while Lucifia took the sword up.

"So let us finally end it," Demona said while raising her sword and Lucifia rose hers and neared to Demona even so. The fight started and it began to rain.

Lucifia made the first attack, a sword blow from above and at once, a further attack on the left side of Demona's middle section, but Demona countered both attacks with her sword and made a counterattack on Lucifia's head, which she could block even so.

There was a mass of attacks and counterattacks between the two adversaries and the whole clan looked at them in wonder including Deborah who had gone to her wounded mate's site and Goliath who tried to discover any sense of the event of the evening.

But suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around just to see Xanatos standing there.

~By the dragon what now?~ He asked himself "what is it?" He asked Xanatos "have you heard what Lucifia said?"

Xanatos nodded "indeed and if she hadn't have had your sister in her claw before you made this bargain," he observed the fight and saw how Demona could flee sharply from an attack, which otherwise would have cost her her head. "I would have sent some robots. But I have more bad news, the mob has broken through the lines of my guards and will be here in about 15 - 20 minutes."

Goliath studied the plan of the castle in his head. "The stairs just lead to one entry. If we barricade this, we should be able to stop them for a while... But not for long and it is not enough time to make an effective barricade."

Xanatos nodded. "Yes and I can't use steel clan robots, as this would just lead to unpleasant questions about them."

Goliath understood. "We will take care of them" Goliath said and looked to a group with Brooklyn who was able to stand again even if it still hurt, as Goliath could see. He had Diomedes, his mate Fuchsia, Thersites and some others who were watching the battle between Demona and Lucifia, with him.

"Brooklyn" started Goliath and Brooklyn looked up while asking "yes?" "Take a team and defend the main staircase up to the castle. The humans have overcome Xanatos's defense and Chavez's team needs more time to arrive. Try on every price to prevent death, but you have the right to defend yourself, your team and our home on all ways you think is necessary."

Brooklyn looked into his leader's eyes and knew what he meant and how heavy it was for him. He nodded and chose his group, which were Diomedes, his mate, Thersites and Ajax. He then took his team and hurried in the castle to defend their home while Goliath looked on the fight, ignoring the disapproved views that his mate sent him.

It became clear that both adversaries were equal in their fighting skills and Goliath noticed that they even used some of the same techniques and it became clear to him that Demona must have trained her.

He looked at Deborah, who knelt beside her wounded mate and saw on her face the same knowledge and question that he had, which was clear since she had been the one who had taught Demona and him some of those techniques.

~But when? Why?~ Goliath asked himself ~and what happened?~

He swore to himself that Demona... Or the Lucifia creature would give him the answers, but he felt that if Demona lost then even the clan would loose and this meant more than the respect of the public.

Meanwhile, both the adversaries started to move faster and Goliath saw in fear that Lucifia made his sister move backwards up the stairs to the tower while the mass of Gargoyles went out of their way.

"You have not improved very much since the last time!" Noticed Lucifia with a smile while she forced Demona three steps more upstairs.

Demona smiled back and defended herself against a further attack while they both entered the inner tower and fought further upstairs. "The time of swords is since two centuries over... I prefer Laser guns."

Lucifia laughed wildly and attacked Demona with her tail, which Demona escaped by a jump further backwards. "Oh, but these are more personal!" Explained Lucifia and jumped with her sword on Demona, which she escaped again "I know you like the feeling of blood on your claws and this is the best way to feel it."

"Oh yes!" Answered Demona while stepping one more time back, as Lucifia attacked. But this time, she took a step toward her enemy and stabbed her left shoulder while jumping back at the same time so that Lucifia snarled in pain.

"I like the blood" said Demona with a grin when she saw the black blood flooding out of Lucifia's shoulder while Lucifia glared at her angrily.

"I will make you suffer for this" said Lucifia, now again with a smile.

"TRY IT!" Demona teased her and climbed up the stairs even more until she and Lucifia were on the top of the tower, Goliath's sleeping perch.

Demona jumped at once on Goliath's perch to escape an attack of Lucifia's spiked tail.

"Stop running away!" Demanded an angry Lucifia who jumped on another perch and continued to attack Demona. But Demona just laughed, threw herself in the air and glided in front of her on an updraft.

"I don't run, but glide!" Explained Demona mockingly, as she knew that the Wyvern clan was now looking on her.

"Come and fight me here... "

Demona demanded "you could never beat me in the air and 300 years under the earth will surely have not trained your skills!"

Lucifia looked at the gliding Gargoyle in front of the dark thunderclouds in anger, but finally, she smiled an evil smile. "Sure, but during this time I have learned other nice abilities."

With this, she held a claw in the air and it started to glow. "Energy of the darkness, come to me and destroy my enemies!" Suddenly, the thunderclouds started to grow bigger and bigger while Demona tried to glide down, but the updrafts were too powerful even for the very good glider and she stayed caught in the air... When a 100.000-Volt lightening bolt hit her.

Many lightening also tortured the structure of the castle, shattered stone and impacted together with the stone near some of the clan members, but they were luckily able to avoid them.

The lights in the castle flickered when the unbelievable power of several lightening bolts hit the electrical system of the Castle and destroyed many light bulbs and other electrical devices, which partly simply exploded.

This wasn't interesting for Angela since she saw in shock how her mother fell from the sky, first on the battlement below Goliath's and then onto the battlements below this, which was much more deeper. Angela even believed to hear the sound of breaking bones, which were terrifying clear in the night and saw in horror how Demona started to slide about this battlement and finally fell, seemingly unable to hold herself with her claws.

The whole clan simply stared at the fallen Gargoyle. Since nobody was in the air, which would be able to catch her and they all knew what a fall of this heights meant... A broken spine or worse and they all could hear the nearly crazy laughter of Lucifia who stood still on the highest tower of the castle and showed that she knew it even so.

But Demona was finally, nearly the last moments, able to enfold her wings near above the courtyard and to glide a bit further. Unfortunately, she put too much power in her glide and was much too low, so she hit the earth and rolled out on it till she lay on her stomach.

"Mother!" Cried Angela and despite the rules of the fight, which had already been broken by Lucifia, she ran to her mother followed by her mate, Goliath and some other Gargoyles who suddenly discovered the empathy with their once second, leader, but still sister.

What Angela saw shocked her so much that she took a claw to her mouth to let the others not hear her gasp. But she heard from behind that others did not hide their shock.

The lightening had hurt Demona more than Angela had seen on the first view. A part of her hair burned, but was put out by the rain and some parts of her blue skin especially on her right shoulder and left leg were seemingly burnt when the electric power cooked the water in it. Demona's left shoulder and seemingly even her left claw were broken because of her hit on the second battlement. Her right wing seemed broken through the rolling on the ground.

When had Angela ever seen a more defeated Gargoyle than this?

Meanwhile in the castle at the main stairs:

Brooklyn stood with his group at the stairs and cursed silently. The main object of these curses, which if they would become true, meant hell for the victims. These were of course Demona because he knew deep inside that it had to be Demona's fault. Then came Lucifia, this grandiose acting evil bitch, which had tricked him and the rest of the clan so unbelievable easily.

But most of all, he blamed himself since he was the one who had discovered Lucifia and had been faked by her in the first time.

Again and again boomed, in one rhythm with the pain that he still felt in his beak and stomach, the words he had heard Lucifia saying

*".... And he calls himself a second in command? He should grow up first!" *

Brooklyn winced by the memory of these words. They had hurt him deep down more than when she had beat him.

~And she is right!~ He cursed and was so deeply in his thoughts that he did not notice that the light went out and on in short intervals, nor the sound of crushing stone from outside. ~First, I let myself be tricked through Demona and now through Lucifia when she used my hate for Demona to fake me again... Am I good enough for this post?~

But his thoughts were interrupted when Diomedes noticed something. "Second! Someone is using the elevator."

Brooklyn cursed ~why has Xanatos not switched this thing off?~ He asked himself ~need we to bring our enemies to us first class?~

"Diomedes, Fuchsia, Thersities, come with me!" He ordered and led them before the elevator door. "And don't forget, we will first try to scare them, no violence if they don't attack us!"

Thersites looked unsure to him. "But what do we do when they do?" Brooklyn looked deep into the older males eyes "then we will do what is necessary to defend our home." He explained and they all knew what he meant, even if nobody had the power to speak it out loud.

Brooklyn looked at the screen above the elevator door... Just 30 levels and the elevator would be there. Brooklyn could hear now already, with his Gargoyle ears, the mob nearing the end of the stairs and suddenly something came to the surface of his mind.

*...Goliath thinks we can hide in their midst like mice and hope for their understanding. This is not possible...*

In his anger over her betrayal on him, he had seen those words like everything that Demona had said as lies...

~Perhaps you were right Demona, perhaps... ~

The screen still showed 20 levels until the elevator came up and Brooklyn thought about the situation. He knew he wasn't allowed to fail, he had to stop the mob here where just a few could fight against them or the castle would fall. Even when these humans were no Vikings, they would overthrow the clan through their pure mass.

He thought on the eggs in the rookery, which would hatch soon. It was clear that they couldn't be transported, at least not so far and then where too? Or the hatchlings when the mob would discover them?

Brooklyn swore to himself and them that this wouldn't happen. He might not be the best second in command that this clan had ever had, but he would not let the humans harm the eggs or hatchlings of the clan, whatever it might cost.

Now the screen showed 10 levels till the elevator would arrive and Brooklyn could hear the angry screams of the mob coming from the stairs even louder than before.

"Take your positions!" Ordered Brooklyn to the ones beside him "we have to appear as frightening as possible. Perhaps we can overthrow them without injuring many people on either sides."

The Gargoyles beside him nodded and made their most frightening poses like they did at sunrise. Brooklyn did even so and looked on the elevator screen ~2 levels~. Then he turned to the doors with his beak open, his claws in the air and his eyes glowing white.

When the doors opened, Brooklyn and his team snarled, which was abruptly stopped when Brooklyn saw the muzzle of a gun aimed at his beak.

He looked at the other end of the gun and saw a man in uniform. His head covered a black mask with three red scars on it.

~No~ thought Brooklyn and looked again on it, it was just a black mask without any marks...

~I am becoming paranoid like Demona! ~ Thought Brooklyn angrily and studied the man more precisely. He or she, Brooklyn couldn't say because of the mask, still held the gun on him.

Then Brooklyn saw the symbol on the humans shoulder... It was a SWAT-Police officer with at least 15 colleagues.

Brooklyn lowered his claws, let his eyes become normal and saw that the others in his team did even so.

"Good that you have come," started Brooklyn "we... "

"Keep your claws up beasts or we will shot you" ordered the masked person, who was definitely a man; in front of him and Brooklyn did so.

He feared that the Swat team would do so, but then a clear feminine voice raised.

"Stop!" Ordered Chavez from behind the back of one SWAT officer. "We are not here to threaten the Gargoyles, but to protect them and prevent a massacre so lower your weapons."

The officers did so even when Brooklyn could see that some were not very happy about this order and Chavez came to him through the police group.

"We could not come faster and when we saw that the stairs were locked through the crowd, one of Xanatos's guardsmen said that we could use the elevator." She explained and beside her glared the Lieutenant whom Brooklyn has come to know as Martinque. His views left no doubt on the fact that he would rather do anything else then helping the Manhattan clan.

"We thank you for your help," explained Brooklyn "please send your troop to the end of the stairs. The mob will surely respect your men more than us."

Chavez nodded and pointed the team to do so, which it did so quickly while the Gargoyles, who Brooklyn had left to guard the staircase, retired.

"Have you the female who is responsible?" Asked Chavez him "this Demona?"

"Yes" was Brooklyn's first answer, but then he reminded of something. "No... " ~Otherwise~ "Yes."

Chavez looked a bit confused "What?" She asked impatiently, the day had left its marks on her. "Have you got her or not?"

Brooklyn changed a view with Diomedes and finally shook his head "It is more complicated than we first imagined." Brooklyn explained and wanted to say more, but then... *BOOOM* something like an explosion shook the building.

"What in heavens name was that?" Asked Martinque in shock.

"Not heaven! Hell!" Muttered Brooklyn, who had no doubt what had happened, under his breath "the area where demons come from."

Martinque and Chavez looked on him dumbfounded and Brooklyn could understand this all too well.

"Sorry," said Brooklyn "it is... " But he was interrupted by the angry voices of many humans who had finally climbed the stairs and were now demanding the heads of the beasts that they had come for. The cops were barely able to hold them back.

Chavez looked on the mob and then back to Brooklyn and his team. "I hope you will have a good explanation" Chavez told him "but for now, take your team and go so that we can calm down the people. I will come to Goliath as fast as I can."

Brooklyn nodded and showed his team to leave.

When he turned around to leave, Chavez asked, "by the way, where do I find him?"

Brooklyn shrugged his shoulders. "Follow the sounds of the battle like I do" he said and left, leaving the confused Captain to take care of the mob.

Shortly before in the courtyard:

Blood flowed from Demona's forehead into her face and melded with her still red glazing eyes. But to the wonder of the whole clan, Demona brought her tortured body onto its claws and knees, even if the pain shook her and made her face become a horrible mask of pain while she coughed blood, which showed that her inner organs had even so been wounded.

Some clan members even looked away from Demona in shock, but Angela couldn't. She knelt by her, crying, because it broke her heart to see her mother so.

"Mother... " Was all that Angela could say and at first she believed that Demona wasn't able to hear her, but then the immortal Gargoyle turned her head around and looked at her daughter, seemingly not recognizing her for the first time.

"Go... " Was all Demona could say when she began to cough anew and even more blood came out of her mouth.

"But... " Protested Angela "you are not in a state to fight further."

Goliath agreed with his daughter and knelt beside Demona who looked to the ground again. "Angela is right Demona" he himself felt a pain deep down when he saw his sister and former love so brutally beaten. "Sister, you can't continue the fight and Lucifia has already broken the rules so let us fight against her."

Demona shook her head, still coughing blood and looked on her brother, her eyes red like the hell. "No" she coughed again and seemingly her pains became larger.

"Hey, what is this?!" Asked a voice some meters away, mockingly "a clan meeting or simply a meeting of the losers? In this case, it is sure one and the same!"

Goliath needn't had to look up to know what was going on. Lucifia, who had looked on the downfall of Demona with wild laughter from the highest battlements, had landed on the courtyard and wanted now to give her adversary the rest.

A group of Gargoyles, which even had Kronos amongst them, much to Goliath's wonder, made a line between their fallen sister and Lucifia in order to protect Demona.

Goliath wanted to stand up even so, but the claw of his sister stopped him while holding his own in a powerful grip. "Brother... " Demona said and he looked in her eyes, which were now back to normal. "No... " She coughed again and the ground under her head was already full of blood "please... " Goliath stopped short, as he had not heard her speak so ever since they had first awakened and she had not pleaded for anything even longer. A view in her eyes made it clear for him and he made his decision.

"Retire!" He ordered with a booming voice and the clan, who had risen to defend Demona from what would surely mean her death, looked at its leader in wonder.

"But... " Angela started, but was interrupted by Goliath "I said retire!" Goliath declared who could not care for his daughter's feelings right now "this is Demona's fight so let her bring it to an end." He silently asked his daughter something he swore that he would always prevent her from doing. "Trust your mother."

Angela looked in her father's eyes and then on her still trembling mother and then back on him. Finally she nodded and whispered to her mother "good luck mother." ~You'll need all of the world's luck~ Angela added in thought when she retired with her father together with the rest of the clan and left the battlefield.

Demona was under great pain to be able to bring herself kneeling to both her legs, then she looked to Lucifia with a glitter of disappointment in her eyes.

"Oh how many years I dreamed to see you like this!" Lucifia said with a smile while Demona coughed again under great pain. She was almost sure that Macbeth would feel this wherever in the world he was.

"You broke the rules" Demona noticed while looking around. She saw her sword lying four meters before her and Lucifia standing four meters behind the sword. So it was clearly out of reach for her, then she looked further around to get a picture of where she was.

She looked up at the laughing Lucifia. "Oh rules, really!" Lucifia laughed "you should see it as a honor that I used magic since I made clear on this way that I think that you are much too dangerous to play with you."

Demona smiled sarcastically "oh yes, I really appreciate this... " She said sarcastically "but surely I am allowed to use my own magic now?"

Lucifia nodded "you know that your magic is useless against me" she explained "but come, try it!"

Demona closed her eyes "FREEZE!" She ordered, but did not aim with her claws on her adversary, as the clan and seemingly even Lucifia had assumed, but on the ground.

"Oh really, what shall this bring?" Asked Lucifia while she looked how the ground under her feet and under Demona in a 10-meter radius, froze "shall I slip on the ice?"

Demona grinned and looked on Lucifia with sparkling eyes. "No, you shall fall!" With these words, she raised her claws again and spoke a spell she knew well enough. "Fulminos magnos venite" but she did not aim on her adversary either, but on the ground below again so that the four large balls of fire hit the ground.

But since the ground was frozen and so fragile through Demona's first spell, it broke under Lucifia's feet with a large *BOOOM*.

Lucifia looked on Demona in the shock of realization and screamed when she failed to jump away and fell with the stones to the levels below.

But, to Angela's shock, the cracks on the ground enlarged and broke the ground below Demona too, which pulled her with it into the depths.

"Mother!" Screamed Angela and ran to the large hole in the ground, which ejected large masses of dust created out off the grind stone, followed by the rest of the clan.

Angela looked carefully down, but was unable to recognize anything because of the dust and was even unable to glide down.

When the dust settled slowly, Angela could see how deep that both adversaries had fallen. They had broken through the first three levels below them and then had fallen deeper down. Goliath saw in shock that they had landed on the level where Macbeth had nearly killed Demona and during the night when Demona had changed all the humans in the city to stone.

He took Elisa who had stood beside him, in his arms and started to glide down to the level where Demona and Lucifia had fallen on, the rest of the clan following him slowly. Nobody was able to see anything in the middle of the room in the first few seconds, but then the dust settled and the recognized someone who was sitting upright on her knees. At first, Goliath thought it was Demona, but then it became clear that it was Lucifia who held her bleeding head.

Seemingly, she had lost her sword during the fall and it lay between her and the clan, out of her reach.

Goliath started to wonder where Demona was when she suddenly came out of the dust behind Lucifia and pinned her with her claw.

Suddenly, a shudder seemed to run through Lucifia's body and she opened her mouth to scream, but she did not release anything.

Then she looked down on her breast and discovered the blade of a sword that was black like the night from her blood, which had stabbed her through her spine in the middle of her upper body.

She tried to grab it, but Demona pulled it in, at the same moment, back and cut the palms of Lucifia's claws.

"Now it has finally ended!" Whispered Demona from behind in Lucifia's ear.

She then raised herself, with the help of her sword, and went to the exit where Angela, Goliath and the rest of the clan stood and looked in sheer shock at her. On her way to them, she picked up the other sword.

Demona did not move fast, but upright and with dignity even if it seemed to bring her great pain. She had her wings cape around her body and Angela could see that the broken one was oblique and her broken left shoulder hung lower than the right.

But Demona did not go to the clan or just to her like Angela had expected, but straight to the exit.

When she was going to pass Angela, she heard a voice, which made her stop.

"Mother."

Angela looked around in shock. She had not said this! She looked to Lucifia, who was studying Demona's back, and then back to Demona.

Demona had closed her eyes shortly and opened it then with an expression of hardness and pain in it, which showed Angela the cruel truth.

The immortal rammed the swords into the ground and turned around to go to Lucifia, ignoring the horrified looks of Angela behind her back.

She went to Lucifia and knelt beside her. Demona's daughter was seemingly dying, black blood spilled out of the wound and even so out of her mouth. That and the fact that she was still able to hold herself onto her knees, showed how powerful she was.

"Yes daughter" asked Demona in a neutral voice and Lucifia smiled, even when her eyes seemingly could not see her mother, but looked at other areas.

"This time, it was short!" Lucifia said with somewhat pride and Demona gave her a weak smile.

"Oh yes, it was" said Demona "but this was it for the last time... Even when I have to say that your attacks have become quicker."

Lucifia smiled by this praise "I had trained all these 300 years" she explained and Demona nodded. "Maybe next time... " Explained Lucifia with a smile.

"Yes, maybe" Demona said and looked at how Lucifia's eyes changed from absolute black to green like her mother's. Then two of her three spikes on her wing and the spikes on her tail disappeared, along with her horns until they were just as large as from chamois and she fell lifeless down on the side.

There was a timeless moment of absolute silent and nobody, not even Brooklyn and his team who had arrived shortly before could speak.

Then Demona rose and moved in the direction of Angela, but when it became clear that she wanted again just to go to the exit, Angela stopped her.

"Mother this... " Angela started, shocked and Demona nodded. "She was your half-sister."

"How could you do this?" Asked Desdemona who still had pain in her stomach where Lucifia had hurt her with her spiked tail and Demona shrugged with her shoulders even if her broken left shoulder still caused her pain. "It was necessary," she said coolly and avoided the look in her sisters eyes.

Desdemona, even the rest of the clan, could not answer on this and just stared at her while Angela shook her head ~she can't be so cold, she can't...~.

But instead of asking her mother the 1000 questions she had, Angela went to the body of her dead half-sister and knelt beside her.

Now that her body had changed the resemblance between Lucifia and her mother was quite obvious, but even before this the resemblance between both faces had been obvious. It was just that nobody had thought on this.

Demona looked on her only living daughter who knelt beside her dead half- sister with somewhat of regret and was then on the move again to turn to the exit. Something that Deborah, who had recovered, was going to prevent and then a voice raised.

"Aunt Demona?" Asked an unsure voice and Demona looked around to see a male brown-Grey skinned hatchling with white hair standing in front of some elders who had seemingly not noticed him.

Goliath recognized him as the hatchling that had informed him and the clan about the special news. He seemed confused, but Goliath noticed the sparkle of certainty in his eyes, which impressed Goliath by such a young hatchling. It reminded Goliath to speak with him about sneaking away from the elders, who were herding the hatchlings, when the whole trouble was over.

"Yes?" Demona answered with a weak smile. Luckily, she stood in front of the place where Angela was kneeling over her body of her dead half sister, but even when the body would have been just beside that of Demona, the hatchling would not have noticed it, since he gasped when he recognized how wounded Demona was.

Demona saw the look in his eyes and took the power to smile slightly. "It is okay" she explained calmly "I have had a rough night." The gathered clan looked at her in wonder by this understatement "but the wounds will heal during the day."

The hatchling nodded unsure, "we saw you on the TV, killing humans... "

"It was a fake" Goliath explained to him and meanwhile studied Demona "what you saw on TV was not Demona... The unnamed female lied to us."

The unsure face of the hatchling lit up "so I was right?"

Goliath looked on the hatchling with somewhat of affection and then back to Demona with a look, which showed her that this was still not over yet.

"Yes... " He said, "yes, you were right."

This broke the last border in the hatchling, so that he ran to his aunt and embraced her with all his strength. This seemed to cause Demona pain, but she did not show it to the hatchling.

"Hey hey... " She said and knelt down to be on the eye level with the hatchling "not so hard, you're crushing me!"

"I've missed you aunt" said the hatchling and looked in Demona's face "I knew you had not done it."

Demona looked in the green eyes of the hatchling and smiled weakly. Desdemona could just wonder how her sister was able to smile again when the body of her, just killed, daughter was not cold already. "I would do nothing, which would harm you or the other."

Deborah was going to set a pointed remark on this, but Goliath ordered her with a view to stand quiet, since this was not the moment for this topic.

"They said even more things about you... " Said the hatchling and Demona nodded.

"These things are true... " She answered, "some I regret, others I simply wouldn't repeat and some," during these words she looked straight to her old teacher who now studied her coolly. When their views met, they also met continents. "I will never regret."

She looked into the hatchlings eyes again, trying to chance the topic. "The others seemingly have all chosen names, which is yours?"

The hatchling smiled by his aunt's interest in him. "I've named myself Connor," said the boy with pride and Demona nodded, appreciating.

"A good choice Connor" said Demona with a smile.

By these words, Angela turned around, who had been trying to get the whole situation in her mind, and looked at Demona and Connor. She had not paid this special hatchling anymore attention than the others, but in this moment, she wished she had done.

Connor had white hair and a brown-Grey skin and this was quite a contrast to Demona, but then she studied him and Angela saw more exactly. His forehead and wing structure, even so like the bones of his body, were very much like his aunt's and then his eyes... Angela was ready to kick herself for having not seen it in his eyes before, they were exactly like Demona's!

"Mother, this is... " Angela started in shock, but Demona interrupted her at once and stood up. "Connor," she explained with a look in her eyes, which allowed no contradiction "is a child of the clan."

Angela looked deep in her mother's eyes and finally gave up, but she saw at the same time that her father and most of the other clan members, Desdemona amongst them, had realized was had made her so upset. "I see."

After these words, there was a moment of silence in the room, which broke when a female elder of Hudson's generation from the original Wyvern clan spoke.

"Well lad, I think it is time for ye to go to your brothers and sisters again." She declared and laid a claw on the hatchlings shoulder. "Come, I will accompany you. Aunt Demona has a lot to talk about with the clan."

"Have I?" Asked Demona tired and, with a lack of shame, somewhat innocent.

"YES!" Was the clear response of Deborah, Goliath and Angela all at once and Demona surrendered. "Well, seemingly I have" she explained to Connor.

"Will you come again sometime and tell us stories about your adventures and fights?" Asked the hatchling and Deborah frowned, disapproving, when she heard the admiration in the hatchlings voice.

~By the dragon, if the other hatchlings think even so then we have to teach them fast that Demona is definitely nobody to adore~ she thought ~or to emulate.~

But Demona did not notice this and nodded. "Sure," she explained "I have even more stories to tell."

Connor's eyes glittered up by the thought of hearing exiting adventures from Demona's life and he hugged her again, before finally going with the elder.

When the hatchling was definitely too far away to hear anything, Deborah started. "So you storyteller," said Deborah sarcastically "we all are very hungry to hear a story."

Demona responded Deborah's view and answered in the same voice. "Well, which then?"

Deborah's patience with Demona on this night had definitely ended since a century and she was going to give her an answer, which was definitely not for ears of hatchlings when Angela spoke from behind Demona's back.

"So Connor is your son... " She noticed "my half brother."

Demona turned around to her daughter, avoiding to see Lucifia's body "yes."

Angela looked shortly to the Gargoyle whom she knew was Connor's father and then back to her mother.

"Back in the labyrinth, you told me you had no other mate in Moray." Angela said "a lie mother? Like nearly all you told me about you, how I had to learn here?!"

Demona saw that Angela's fists were tightened and knew that her typically ironical answers were definitely not the best way to calm her now only daughter.

She shook her head. "I told you that you don't know me" answered Demona calmly, without irony "and that everyone else here don't do so either."

These words left Desdemona wincing, but Demona continued calmly when she did not see any reaction on her daughter's face.

"I did not take a mate back then at Moray" she explained to Angela.

"But Connor... " Said Angela angrily, as she had had enough of her mother's riddles

"Was convinced during Breeder's Moon" explained Demona calmly "and I did this by the old laws of the clans."

Some of the younger Gargoyles in the crowd around Demona gasped, even so Desdemona, whose eyes grew big while some elders of the clan nodded in approval.

Angela and Elisa made the exceptions and looked at their mates and the others in wonder.

"Old clan rules?" Asked Angela and knew that the answer would not please her "what does she mean?"

"You have heard that during Breeder's moon," explained Goliath calmly, studying Demona "we can't control ourselves and have to obey our instincts." Angela nodded, her father had explained it to her and she could not say that she looked on this event in ten years in happiness, when she would glide in the night like crazy, waiting for Broadway to catch her.

"In Wyvern, the ones who had declared themselves as one on the night before, go to another place to prevent being mated to another" continued Goliath "while the ones who had no mates were separated so that they could not mate with the ones they can catch."

Angela and Elisa nodded and Goliath swallowed, he knew what would come now would not appreciate his daughter, since she was raised by humans and had more than their moral codex that of a Gargoyle, not to speak of Elisa.

"Well, back in the old times, it was usual that there was no separation of the clan during this night." Angela's eyes widened when she began to understand and Elisa just looked on Demona who grinned by the human's shock. "This lead to the fact that these pair mated who had caught each other during the flight. So a female and a male could mate with their mate or with someone else... Depending on the fact who was the quickest and strongest."

Goliath looked to Demona "on this way, they saw it as granted that just the strongest and quickest could mate and convince healthy hatchlings for the next generation."

Angela looked on her mother in shock. "So you... " Angela could not speak further, this was against all the Princess had taught her about a relationship, love or getting married, it was even so against all what she had learned from her father about having a mate, but her mother simply nodded.

"How could you do this?" Asked Angela still unbelieving and Demona shrugged her shoulders, which still caused her pain.

"Well," explained Demona "we were few and there were more males in my clan than females who all had a mate, so I did what I could to ensure the continued existence of our race."

Angela shook her head.

"So is Connor just this for you? Your tribute to the continued existence of our race?" Asked Angela even more shocked, but when she saw that her mother's eyes glazed red, she saw that this definitely was not the case.

"I love him," answered Demona nearly snarling "doubt on this never again daughter."

When Demona saw how her daughter slightly moved back in fear on this comment, she calmed herself ~it had been a long night.~

"Listen Angela," she said as calmly as she could, "besides the fact that we had no places where we could chain ourselves so that the Hunter was still abroad so we could not go outside and risk being caught out in the open during the day." She looked to Connor's father whose chin turned red and then over her former second, back to Angela.

She was going to tell more, that she was so lonely because she had to be hard as steel as a clan leader and could not be part of the clan like she had wished. That had been the only night(s) when she could really relax in the arms of her lover, when she could forget the Hunter, the humans... Goliath.

But instead, she answered "it was a different time back in 1028 and it was a pleasure."

Angela nodded. "I am sorry mother," she said with regret "I did not want to offend you."

Demona smiled weakly, "I know daughter" she answered "believe me, I love all my children... If related through blood or not."

Angela pointed to Lucifia's dead body "and her?"

Demona nodded "naturally."

"But if you did, why have you killed her then?" Asked Angela unbelieving.

"Because it was necessary" Demona answered and Angela saw in her eyes that she spoke the truth.

"Oh yes, the great Demona naturally has to decide what is necessary and what is not!" Declared an angry voice from behind Demona, "tell us you genie, what shall we do now when the one responsible for the massacre, which was as exception not yours, is dead?"

Demona turned around to face her old teacher while this continued "I mean, we hardly can give the humans this dead body and that's it."

Demona smiled weakly, "well you had seen her old teacher... " Demona said and smiled when Deborah glared angrily on her by the word *old*. "And I mean this time when she did not fake you so easily and effective that you came like a fury into my mansion and attacked me without even hearing what I had to say." This definitely hit Deborah, as her eyes glazed red and she snarled slightly.

Demona smiled at this. "So tell me, do you think that she would have let herself be handed over to the oh so fair human police so easily? I mean, without killing any of you and the humans that you care for?"

As an answer, Deborah simply glared at Demona, thinking about how she could kill her in the most painful way... ~The throat? Too quick! Cutting out her heart? What if she has none?~

Goliath interrupted her promising thoughts. "I will ask Xanatos to send one of the video tapes, he surely has recorded with his security system," he said with a look to Demona.

"Sorry Goliath, but this is impossible" said a voice behind the mass of the clan and Goliath saw Xanatos standing at the door, which led to the upper parts of the castle. "The lightening Lucifia had summoned, roasted the security system and the video tape in it... We have nothing."

"Great!" Cursed Brooklyn and looked on Demona in anger "tell me you witch, what shall we do now? This is seemingly not part of the great game that you two played with us!"

Demona looked coolly on Brooklyn. "Well sure!" She answered "Seeing as it was Lucifia's revenge. But I have planned this in."

During this, she grabbed something in her hair behind the Tiara and took it out. It was a scroll, which has seemingly been placed behind the Tiara.

"Luckily, your body search was not so exactly as you had wished." Said Demona with a smile to her old teacher, which she answered with a slightly snarl.

~Next time Demona...~ Answered Deborah through her eyes ~oh just wait until next time!~

"What is this?" Asked Goliath calmly "a magical scroll?"

Demona nodded. "Yes, it is a spell that I copied from the Grimorum Arcanorum. I still have a few pages from it" she explained "it is... "

But Demona did not have the possibility to extend this, because Deborah grabbed the scroll quickly out of Demona's claw and tore it to pieces.

"We do not need your magic Demona!" Snarled Deborah angrily.

Demona looked on her angrily at first, but then she laughed. "You see? That is exactly the reason why I did not tell you that I had learned magic!" She said with a barely stopped laughter "I mean, you surely can't call this a considered reaction!"

Deborah glared at her. "I can tolerate magic in responsible claws... You have proven in your life well enough that this is definitely not you." She said and the clan could not know how Deborah meant this really.

But Demona knew well enough and responded her teacher's view. "Well then old teacher," she explained calmly "tell me what to do with the mob who will still attack this building and demand our... Especially mine head."

"We will speak to them." Explained Deborah, on which Demona simply laughed.

"A really good idea old teacher!" Responded Demona and looked to Xanatos "Xanatos, please send me a video tape of Deborah's speech to the mob... And please, enlarge the scene when they tear her to little pieces."

Deborah's eyes glared red on this and she was about to set a pointed remark when Goliath intervened.

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" He ordered with a growl and both adversaries became silent, as they saw that Goliath was hard at the border to flip out. "You both know that this is a dangerous situation. So play your games later, yes?!"

The two of them fell silent.

"Demona," Goliath said, controlling himself, "is right. We can't explain the humans outside what has happened... They would not believe it." He looked directly in his former mate's eyes "what was the spell for?"

"It brings a total amnesia of this night in the minds of the humans." Explained Demona shortly.

"But the death's..." Elisa asked, "they surely would be noticed."

Demona shook her head. "You overestimate your race human," she said and Elisa noticed that she said this without the usual venom in her voice, just tired, like a reflex. "They will find an explanation on their own. If the bodies are mutilated, they will think of a car crash or something. Your race is very gifted in these things. Why else do you think have they *overseen* the presence of 7 Gargoyles in New York for so long?"

Elisa did not know what to answer on this and Demona seemingly was not interested in the answer of this human, "I will go to my mansion and speak the original spell there. Tomorrow at dusk, no human in the city will even have a suspect of what has happened." Demona went where she had rammed the swords in the ground and took one up when the voice of her old teacher stopped her with her.

"Oh yes, this is exactly your way Demona," said Deborah angrily "letting the humans forget and this is it... Doing it like the coward you are."

On every other night or simply an hour ago, Demona would have simply looked over this insult or answered with a clever response. But it had been a very, very long night.

Demona's eyes glared red and with a snarl, she raised the sword in her claw and she went to her old teacher.

"Listen you... " Demona started and everybody of the clan knew that this was the same ritual both had made since they had met on this night. Unfortunately, the person with the shotgun in their hands did not know this.

The clan heard the bang and saw Demona fly some meters backward, hitting the ground hard with her back and loosing her sword at the same time.

They saw Chavez standing amongst them with the smoking shotgun in her hand who had seemingly arrived in the last minutes.

"Why did you do that?!" Asked Brooklyn while getting between her and Demona, slightly shocked while Chavez just studied him, confused.

"She was going to attack one of yours with the sword." Explained Chavez while she saw that the Gargoyle, she had learned to know as Angela, went in shock to the strange Gargoyle. "You should not go there Angela, she is... "

"My mother!" Angela interrupted her while kneeling beside the groaning Demona.

Chavez's eyes widened and she looked at Goliath who simply nodded.

Meanwhile, Demona had slightly recovered from the shock and looked on her perforated right shoulder, which was still bleeding and aching nearly more than everything else she had suffered at the last hour... Except for the lightening, naturally.

But this did not calm Demona's temper. "YOU DAMNED PUNY IDIOTIC PATHETIC MEMBER OF AN INCOMPETENT RACE!" She screamed, her eyes glazing red like hell. Under the greatest pain from both her still broken left and now her shot right shoulder. She raised and if the sword had been in her reach, she would have thrown it at Chavez. But instead, she tried to reach her, without doubt, to kill her with her bare claws.

Luckily, Angela and some other Gargoyles of the clan were able to stop her and it was clear that Demona was at the end of her strength because otherwise she would have easily overthrown them.

Chavez looked angrily at this creature and was surprised that she could still move, considering her injuries. This was the moment when she noticed the other wounds on Demona and then the dead body of the Gargoyle that they had discovered in the shopping centre.

"She killed this Gargoyle?" Chavez asked Goliath and he nodded. "Yes" when he saw the look in her eyes, he added fast "but it was in self-defense. This Gargoyle... " He looked shortly to Demona and saw in her eyes, a glance which showed him not to overstretch it "Lucifia, was even so responsible for the massacre in the shopping center."

Chavez looked at him unbelieving. "But we saw her on the video!" She said angrily "we and the whole world."

"It was magic," Elisa explained "an illusion spell spoken by Lucifia to fake us."

Chavez shook her head "magic?!" She said angrily "really Goliath! I have heard better excuse from criminals out on the streets. If you want to protect her this way... "

Goliath was going to respond, but he was interrupted by Demona who had calmed down, through sheer exhaustion.

"Oh this is typical of a human." She said with contempt, "not believing what they can't see." She glared with Chavez with somewhat of pity.

"Well then see... Mutare!" She ordered while making a complicated gesture with her hands and instead of Demona, suddenly Lucifia stood before Angela.

Lucifia went to the shocked Chavez and said sarcastically "well its funny isn't it?" Said Lucifia in her well-known voice "now, if you believe what you see then you can't imprison me."

She made a new gesture while going around Chavez. "Mutare!" And instead of Lucifia or Demona, now stood a second Deborah in front of Chavez. "Some here," she looked shortly on her old teacher who wasn't happy of being duplicated by her former pupil, "aren't very fond of magic. Even so are humans. But luckily, magic is not just illusion."

She turned around to the body of Lucifia. "Burn!" On which, the body started to burn in an unbelievable heat and the surrounding Gargoyles jumped away in shock. The second Deborah looked shortly to Angela. "In her clan, cremations were usual" she explained and turned back to Chavez.

"But it has a very practical use" she continued "mutare!" She ordered again and Chavez found herself looking right at herself. "So human," said the other Chavez with a smile "you can now start to believe in magic or letting yourself get referred to a madhouse since you are crazy otherwise."

Again, she made a gesture with her hands and she was in her normal form again.

"Well?" Asked Demona with an arrogant smile "what now human?"

Chavez did not like this Gargoyle. It was the way she acted, the arrogant way she looked at her, but when she looked into her eyes, she knew she spoke the truth and she could not attack or imprison her just because she did not like her.

Chavez threw the shotgun away and looked at the strange Gargoyle. "Okay, I believe you... Demona" she answered and Demona laughed on this.

"I did not ask you to believe me, but your eyes human" she answered and Chavez's eyes glittered. She definitely did not like this Gargoyle.

"My name is Chavez," she said roughly, ignoring the fact that she had just shot on this Gargoyle for the wrong reason and this normally would be something to be sorry for. "I am... "

"Maria Chavez, captain of the Police station in the clock tower," Demona interrupted her harshly "boss of Detective Maza and Detective Bluestone, the leader of the Gargoyle Task Force. You passed the police academy with distinction and have been on patrol for more than twenty years. During this time, you have been shot two times and got two medals for bravery in duty. It's been seven years since you lead this district. You are a widow since six years, but have a 20 year old daughter who lives in San Francisco with whom you have irregular contact."

Chavez, even the whole clan, looked on Demona unbelieving, but before anybody was able to ask Demona where the hell she had got this information from? Chavez's walky-talky rang and Chavez took it, still staring suspiciously at the arrogantly smiling Demona.

"Chavez here!"

While Chavez talked on the phone, Elisa approached Demona. "Where did you get this information from Demona?" She asked suspiciously.

"Well detective, it is important to know your foe. " She said and since she knew that Chavez heard her "or possible foe."

While the rest still stared on Demona disbelieving, Chavez ended the phone talk.

"Listen," she explained to Demona "my men are unable to stop the mob much longer, you have to show the people outside what you have shown me so they... "

Demona laughed "oh yes brilliant human! Most of your kind thinks that we are animals or even demons! What do you think they will do when they see how I do my magic... Oh, I can smell the fire of witch-burns again already!"

Chavez shook her head "maybe this will enlarge the fear the people have from your race, but..." Then she realized something "again?"

Demona smiled an evil smile "I am older than I seem to be."

On the confused look of Chavez, Goliath answered. "She is immortal," he explained "so your shot has hurt her, but can't kill her."

"I am very thankful for your great ability to keep secrets Goliath" Demona responded sarcastically on this.

Goliath just looked on her in a neutral way and Chavez sensed that there was more between them than she could say for now.

"Yes Demona. I have no secrets, which could appear suddenly and threaten the clan or every being on this planet" he answered, which made Demona silent for a moment and she just glared at him.

"Well if you can't show the crowd the truth, what then?" Asked Chavez angrily, as she had over a 1000 more questions, but was patient enough to ask them later when they had time.

"I have... " Answered Demona, with a short look to Deborah "or better. Had a scroll here with which I could speak a spell that would let the humans in the world, people here present included, forget what has happened on this night. The dead would remain dead, but the people would imagine normal reasons why they are so... Mass suicide or something like this."

Chavez looked on her and then the rest of the clan, included Elisa.

"Is there no other way?" She asked. The thought that a part of her memory would be deleted did not appreciate her.

"No," answered Demona even when she knew that this question was not directed to her. "Or tell me human, after your experience with mobs of your kind, do you see another way... I mean a way without I or that of my kind are being lynched?"

Chavez glared at Demona, but shook her head and Demona smiled.

"Well so, let me go," she said "I'll glide home, speak the spell from the original page and neither a nightmare will stay of what has happened in the minds of your kind."

While she said this, she went away from Chavez, back to the swords until Chavez's cool words stopped her.

"How long do you need to glide to your home and how long until the spell works?" Asked Chavez and Demona stopped.

"I'll need 20 minutes until I am home" She explained "this means if I would be at full health. So, after the fight with Lucifia and your *help* I will need 30 or 40 minutes. The spell needs some time to work, as it is a slow process. By the end of the night, the mob will not know anymore why they are there and by tomorrow dusk, it will all be over."

Chavez shook her head. "This is too late, I just spoke with the leader of the SWAT team," she explained "they can stop the crowd perhaps for another 10 or 15 minutes, but not any longer... And they refuse to shoot on them."

There was a moment of silent in the room then a large discussion broke amongst the clan about what to do now.

"We have to protect the castle." "What is with the eggs and the hatchlings?" "I knew we could not trust the humans to protect the castle."

Goliath could barely stop it when another voice raised.

"So your SWAT team refuses to protect us." Noticed Kronos when it was calm again before Goliath could say anymore

Chavez noticed him the first time. "They refuse to kill humans for you... " She explained "yes."

Chavez and Kronos looked in each other's eyes for some moments and then Goliath interrupted.

"What can we do?" Asked Goliath while Chavez tried to stay calm.

"They would calm down if they see that we have the responsible Gargoyle," she looked to Demona "or the one they think who is responsible."

Demona glared on her "if you think that I will let myself be captured by you human then... "

"You would be safe," said Chavez "I swear."

A memory flood in Demona's mind.

*"Not while I am about!" Said another captain in another time "I swear I'll keep your clan safe." *

"I trust no human" answered Demona with so much venom in her voice that Chavez nearly took a step backwards and some of the clan, Angela amongst them, looked uneasily at Demona.

"We could bring the page to you Demona." Goliath tried to convince her "please, for the sake of the clan."

Demona's claws were tightened into fists and it was clear that she fought with herself.

"Mother please" started Angela "you need not trust the humans, but us... Or just me, we won't fail."

Demona hesitated, but finally she sighed and nodded.

"Okay listen, here is the plan," she explained "I will let myself be captured by Chavez so that she can show me to the mob and bring me then to the Police station. Meanwhile, you will glide to my mansion and take the scroll. It is in my... " She looked around with a sarcastic glance, ". former secret lab. You find it in up the stairs on the first floor and then the second door left. This is my room and there are bookshelves. The one in the middle contains a secret button behind the book Macbeth by William Shakespeare, pull it out and go down the stairs... There are a lot of rooms, but at the end of the stairs is my laboratory. There is a picture of a Scottish landscape where there is a safe behind it. Open it with the code 2-2-16-23. The page above the others is the one I need. Bring it to the Police station."

She breathed shortly and looked at Chavez. "Then you can let me *flee* so that I can speak the spell and all are happy." She looked around the gathered and rested her eyes finally on Goliath and Chavez "agreed?"

Goliath nodded and Chavez replied. "Agreed," she said "the room in the clock tower is still free and reachable so you could flee to there. It should be safe there for some minutes when you flee."

Demona looked on the human with contempt, but Chavez could see the exhaustion in her eyes when she answered. "Then let us begin the fake" she said with a smile to her and offered Chavez her claws.

Chavez nodded to Elisa who took the handcuffs from her belt and shook her head.

"You have to have your claws behind your back Demona," said Elisa, reminiscing the scene when Demona and Macbeth entered the Police station, dressed and under the spell of the Weird Sisters. "Else it looks unusual."

Demona snorted, but understood what Elisa said to her, even when she could just barely do it, under the great pains.

"I think we can leave it to tell you your rights." Chavez explained and Demona laughed.

"Since when has a Gargoyle rights in this city?" She asked sarcastically, but her voice couldn't hide that she had pains and not just from her wounds.

Chavez could not answer this remark so she just took her walky-talky. "Leader one here Chavez! Detective Maza and I have the Gargoyle who is responsible for the massacre and will bring her down to you."

"I understand, we will wait," said the voice out of the walky-talky and Chavez turned to Demona.

"Come on, let's go." Chavez ordered and to the surprise of all, did the demon do so. "Oh and before I forget," explained Demona on her way through the clan, "take the swords back to my mansion and be careful with Shade. She might be a bit angry on those who attacked me and don't forget this spell has to be spoken on this night or it is useless."

Goliath nodded "we will."

On her way through the gathered clan, some of them wished Demona, to her surprise, good luck. Among them, were Asrial and Diomedes.

When it was just Demona, Chavez and Elisa who climbed the stairs. Demona smiled sarcastically. "This is what you wished since we met the first time, isn't it detective?" She asked Elisa. "Bringing me in handcuffs to your justice."

Elisa did not look into Demona's eyes. "To be honest, yes" she explained calmly "but I wish the circumstances were less... complicated."

Demona laughed bitterly. "Sure."

Chavez looked on them in wonder while they went further, "me thinks that there is much you have not yet told me about your experiences with the clan."

Elisa nodded slightly "yes Captain, she is... " She looked to Demona, unsure of what to say, but Demona helped out.

"A former enemy who tried to kill her and Goliath on numerous occasions."

"But we have peace now." Elisa added quickly, thinking of Goliath "somewhat of peace."

This did not shock Chavez as Demona had hoped. "I guessed as much," she explained "but since, if all works, we lose the memory of this night then it is senseless to ask you more?"

"Oh this human is clever." Demona mocked, but Chavez was not interested in a word fight and so preferred to just overhear it.

"Listen, I have to aim my gun on you," Chavez said "it would look suspicious otherwise."

Demona nodded "just don't shoot on me without reason again."

Chavez left this uncommented.

Finally, they arrived at the floor where the SWAT team, which was now assisted with the lot of Xanatos's guardsmen who had come up the elevator in the entrance hall, was waiting for them. Xanatos had ordered them to guard the entrance to the castle.

And they were needed, since dozens of humans tried to break through the line.

"Captain," Martinque said when he discovered her, Detective Elisa and.... That thing coming through the corridor. "It's good that you came, we can't hold them any longer."

Chavez just nodded and placed herself with Demona so that the crowd could see the prisoner and they became silent at once

"We have the responsible Gargoyle!" Chavez explained "we will see to it that justice will be spoken. You have no more reason to attack this building."

She did not care anymore for the screams of the crowd, which demanded the Gargoyle's head and led Demona to the elevator and then looked to Martinque.

"Have we any more officers in the entrance hall?" Chavez asked quickly and Martinque nodded. "Yes. Twenty arrived five minutes ago, lead by Bluestone."

"Then why are not at least half of them here to protect this entrance?" Chavez asked angrily. "We have lost the entrance hall already so why didn't you set those men where they are needed."

Martinque shook his head, "I thought they were needed on the streets more than here."

Chavez looked on him coolly "sure." She knew that this was a lie, but she had not the time to confront him now, but she would do so later. Then she reminded herself that she indeed would not remember this.

"I will order Bluestone to come with the half of his officers up and take over" she said "when he arrives, you will come to the police station. I will need you there."

Martinque nodded, happy to be free of the silly duty to protect those creatures.

"Perhaps you should take some of the SWAT team with you" he said, "this beast is still a danger."

The beast glared on him and then she smiled, which made Martinque become uneasy.

Elisa knew what it meant, she knew it as if she could hear Demona's thoughts ~oh really human? You have no idea of what a danger I am!~

"No." Chavez answered simply and coolly without looking on Martinque anymore and instead looked on the leader of Xanatos's guards. "Mr. Bush, are you in contact with the our men and yours downstairs?"

Bush nodded and Chavez continued. "Tell them that we are coming with the Gargoyle who is responsible for the massacre and they shall protect us so that we can bring her to the mobile center."

Then she went in the elevator where Elisa was waiting already with Demona and the doors closed behind them.

03.08.98; 5:34; Entrance Hall of the Eerie Building:

Even before the doors of the elevator opened, Demona and the others heard the screams of an angry mob. But they had luck, that and Xanatos's guards who with the police officers had made a living wall around the elevator doors and were guarding the three passengers to the armored police van, which would take them to the police station.

The problem was that more than 5000 angry humans wanted to take justice into their own hands and it was these humans that they had to go through.

"Great!" Elisa cursed and she saw in Demona's eyes that she agreed.

"Fast!" Chavez ordered and the team obeyed.

Unfortunately, the mob wished something else and did its best to break up the circle of officers who protected Demona.

"Kill the beast!" "Burn the demon!" "Make our nights save again!" "Kill the Gargoyles!" "Hang the monster!" "Revenge for the deaths!"

Elisa would have held her hands to her ears if she could, but she couldn't.

Stones and decayed fruits came down on the circle and one stone hit Demona on her head beside others, which hit her on her hip and breast and made her stumble dangerously.

Elisa propped her fast with her arm, on which Demona just growled.

"Listen Demona! I know you don't want my help," said Elisa calmly "but like me, you want to get out of here fast, so please."

Demona threw a short look to this human whom she had hated the first time that they had met her and got up, demonstratively without the help of Elisa. She went to the van, less as a prisoner, but with pride and some arrogance in the way she walked, which did not change, even when a tomato hit her head and mixed the red of its puree with the red of her dried blood.

But finally, they arrived at the armoured van and moved in. The doors were closed and Demona, Elisa and Chavez were alone again.

For a short time, the van had to drive slowly, guarded by the police team, which made sure that it was not stormed by the mass. Then it drove fast to the police building, seemingly out of the reach of the humans.

Elisa looked on Demona who had much tomato puree and blood on her face. She grabbed something inside her jacket and took a clean white handkerchief out of it.

But Demona turned her head away when Elisa neared with it and Elisa sighed. "Demona, I know you don't want any help, but don't you think that it would serve your pride better if you would let me clean your face?"

Demona glared on her and then she answered under pressed teeth "give me the handkerchief."

Elisa looked on her in wonder. "You have no claws free."

Demona tipped on Elisa's leg with her tail and demonstratively showed it to her.

Wordless, Elisa laid the handkerchief on Demona's tail and saw how the proud gargess cleaned her face with great skilfulness and left Elisa wondering about the flexibility of Demona's tail.

Then, Demona laid the handkerchief beside herself on the bank and closed her eyes, leaning back on the wall behind her.

~No thanks needed~ thought Elisa a bit bitterly, but then she saw the deep lines in Demona's now clean face and the shock replaced the mild anger... Demona looked like she was 50 or 60, not at all like the 35-year-old gargoyle that she would stay forever.

~Has this night hit you more than you would ever admit?~ But then Elisa rebuked herself ~she has killed one of her children tonight and besides this, she has been wounded so much that it's enough for 10 deaths... She would not be so normal if she weren't so exhausted~

Again, she looked in the old Gargoyle's face ~but how normal are you?~

"You need not to look so on me human," said Demona suddenly without opening her eyes "you are right, my wounds close faster than at any human... Or gargoyle for this matter."

Elisa had at first thought that Demona would speak to her, but then it became clear that she had addressed it to Chavez who simply nodded.

"As part of the spell who grant you immortality." Chavez supposed and Demona grinned.

"I said already that you are clever human." Demona answered again without opening her eyes.

"You don't like humans?" Asked Chavez, unnecessarily.

"Yes and have you any idea why?" She asked sarcastically and Chavez just glared at her.

~I sit here with an immortal, magically gifted Gargoyle~ Chavez thought ~to arrest her for something that she has not committed... My life is getting more interesting from minute to minute since Elisa introduced me to Goliath and his clan.~

For the rest of the drive, nobody could say how long it lasted, so in the end they were quiet.

03.08.98; 7:12; Police Station:

Chavez groaned behind her desk, as it had been a so damned long night! They had just, 35 minutes ago, brought Demona into a safe cell where she was guarded by some police officers, safe for her, so that she could rest a bit from her injuries and safe for the rest of the station.

Elisa had immediately gone to the clock tower to wait there for the arrival of Goliath and his team. She would come down at once, once Goliath arrived, and informs Chavez when they could lead Demona up there and she could speak the spell.

So far so good, but meanwhile Chavez had to speak through the telephone with the mayor, the press, the Federal Government and strangely now, even the military wanted information about her prisoner.

So she nearly missed the knocking on her door. "Goodnight General" she said into the telephone "I will inform you if there is any news" and hung up without waiting for a response.

She looked on the man who had knocked. "Come in" she said when the telephone rang anew. She took it up and laid it on her desk. "A technical problem" she said to the confused look of the officer.

"I just came here to inform you that more officers of other districts have arrived to help us." The man said and Chavez nodded absently. Suddenly, she noticed something.

"Tell me officer, did I not order you to guard the cell of the Gargoyle?" She asked suspiciously and the officer nodded, unsure.

"Yes, but Martinque came 15 minutes ago and told me that he would take over the beast by your orders." The officer answered and Chavez became cold by this and if she still had the telephone in her hands, she would have dropped it.

"Where is he and the gargoyle now?" She asked as calmly as she could while standing up from her chair.

"He said he would make an interrogation with her" said the confused officer "why?!"

Chavez did not take the time to explain to the confused officer the situation, but walked as fast as she could to the interrogation rooms. A terrible thought flashed through her mind and she prayed that she was wrong.

When she arrived at the room, she saw four policemen standing in front of him. At once, she spoke to the first.

"Is Lieutenant Martinque in there with the prisoner?" She asked quickly.

"Yes Captain" the officer in front of her said, "he and the beast."

"They are called gargoyles officer," she snarled and unconsciously, the officer moved a step back. "And what has hit you that you left him alone with her? It is rule that always two officers have to be present."

"He gave us special instructions... " Started the officer, but Chavez interrupted him at once, angrily.

"Special instructions?" She screamed on the now completely timid officer "the only special instructions you get come from me officer." Now she looked on all four. "Go!"

"But... " Dared an officer to protest

"Go!" She ordered again "now you will just get an enrolment on your file, but if you don't get away from here in the next minute, I will personally see to it that you get such missions that you pray for your discharge papers!"

The four officers seemingly understood that their captain was not joking and walked away as fast as they could.

Now Chavez stood in front of the closed door. A part of her did not want to open this door, but she knew that she owed it to Demona.

She opened the door fast and what she saw let the anger in her raise to a level that she had not known existed before.

The desk of the room was empty and with a quick glance, she knew that the security camera was out. Even so, she knew there was nobody in the room behind the mirror so it was just Demona and Martinque who had been there and nobody had seen them.

And he had used these circumstances seemingly very good. He stood in front of the kneeling and coughing Demona with the still raised and bloody nightstick in his hand and seemingly very surprised to see his captain in front of him.

Chavez glared at him. "What are you doing here?" She demanded and saw how he sunk the nightstick slowly while his cheeks became red.

"I... " He said, but Chavez was not interested in his lies.

"Step aside" she ordered harshly and slowly he did so.

What Chavez saw, shocked her inside even when she did not show it on the outside. When she had first seen Demona, she had been wounded, thanks in partly to her. Now she seemed even more wounded than before.

Her nose was seemingly broken and she coughed blood, which together with the blood from her nose, made a pool on the ground in which Chavez could see a tooth. Chavez could see that one of her chin bones seemed broken along with some ribs, which surely had caused interior injures all over her body as well as some red bruises, which disfigured her beautiful blue skin.

But the worst thing for Chavez, was the eyes that looked on her now. Not red, like she knew it from the angry female Gargoyle, but clear and with nothing else than contempt in it. Contempt for her who she had promised that she would be safe and contempt for the whole human race and in this moment, Chavez could completely understand her.

Chavez eyes wandered back to Martinque who now looked a bit more self- confident.

"I wanted to make an interrogation... " He tried to explain "we needed more information and.... But she refused."

"Was this why you were alone with her and switched the camera off?" Asked Chavez, icily, hiding her true emotions.

"Well I... " He hesitated, but caught himself again "I had success. The beast told me she had killed others like me with passion... "

Chavez looked on him and then to Demona who was still on her knees and coughed blood, but still glared at her, this time with a smile. Then she looked back on Martinque.

"I can't blame her for this." She answered calmly.

Martinque's face became unsure again. "Captain?" He asked.

"Give me the nightstick Lieutenant." Chavez ordered and the hesitating Martinque followed her orders and gave her the nightstick.

When she hold the nightstick in her hands she did not hesitating a second. Chavez threw Martinque with his back against the wall and pressed the nightstick hard against his throat.

"Listen Martinque" she ordered and looked him straight into his shocked eyes. "I don't tolerate subjects like you who have fun torturing prisoners in my station and if I would not know it to be senseless, I would fire you and arrest you at once."

Martinque's eyes grew wide since he didn't have enough air and he tried to free himself from her grip, but she seemed to have more power at that moment and did not let him.

"You will go now and if I see you doing such things again to human, gargoyles or anything else including animals. I will personally take care that you wander into jail" she said even when she knew that it was impossible. "Clear?"

Martinque nodded and Chavez gave him freedom on which he sunk on his knees out of air.

"But she is just a beast!" Martinque dared to protest when he had again enough air to speak. "A monster!"

Chavez looked on him with contempt. "The only monster I see in this room is you" she noticed "and now go, before I forget myself!"

Martinque first looked on her then on the *beast*, but since it, through his help, did not seem like a danger and her claws were still chained. He answered "naturally." Stood up and left as fast as he could.

Chavez needed some seconds of silence until she could look to Demona again.

Demona indeed did not cough blood anymore, something which showed the unbelievable healing rate of this immortal Gargoyle even more.

~How much have you been through this night already?~ Chavez asked her silently.

"I am sorry," Chavez said, but she knew that this did not mean much for this Gargoyle and a look from her proved this.

"You would have killed him if you had the possibility." Noticed Chavez "and I can't blame you for this."

Demona smiled shortly even when Chavez saw that it caused her great pain.

"You think so human?" She answered and took, to Chavez's shock, her unchained claws from behind her back with the chain in the left.

"But... " Chavez couldn't believe it. "Then why didn't you kill him like I saw it in your eyes."

"Oh I wanted to," answered Demona and brought her claws with the chain behind her back again. "And under other circumstances, his intestines would decorate the walls of this rooms already. But if I did so, this room and this floor would be full of your officers already and even the attempt of an escape would be senseless, at least for this night." She looked deep into Chavez eyes "you see, I had no choice."

In this moment, Chavez recognized that she had underestimated this gargoyle. Sure, she had a seemingly explosive temper, but she had even enough self-control to do what was necessary... When she wanted to.

~A dangerous person indeed.~

"Besides," Demona noticed "I could have killed him easily without using my claws... Human bodies are so fragile."

"I wonder how you could bear this?" Asked Chavez, ignoring the insult of her race.

Demona smiled sarcastically, "oh he was nothing compared to the masters of the Inquisition."

Chavez starred, disbelieving, on her and Demona continued the false happiness. "Listen human, I know your race very well," she explained "there is no difference between him and a torture chief back then. You believe humanity has changed, but just the appearance has so. Behind the nice facade, behind the masks, you are the same humans like back then. The same kind of humans who brought my race to the border of extinction. Goliath and the others may ignore this... I WILL NOT!"

Chavez nodded, not because she really agreed with Demona, but because she knew now what lead to the break up of Demona and Goliath. She knew Goliath's position and such different attitudes couldn't coexist for long.

Suddenly, Chavez heard someone behind her and turned around to see Elisa standing in the door.

"I met Martinque, he said... " Suddenly, Elisa gasped when she saw Demona.

"Oh come Detective," explained Demona cynically "surely you have seen worse on the streets?"

"Martinque?" Elisa asked Chavez calmly and the captain nodded on which Elisa cursed.

"Listen detective," Demona started "I could teach you even more names for him, but the fact that you are here means that Goliath has finally arrived."

"Yes, he, Deborah and Angela are waiting in the clock tower." Elisa explained.

"Good then lets go, I want to end this night." Demona said and raised herself up under great pain.

Chavez knew her well enough to not offer her any help.

"Elisa will go first, you in the middle and I on your back." Chavez explained "the entry to the clock tower is not far away, but please look defeated. Else they might be curious that just two officers are guarding you."

Demona simply nodded and so they started.

They had already reached the floor with the broom-closet where the secret stairs to the clock tower were and Elisa was explaining to Demona on how to reach it when they met into Martinque.

Demona had meanwhile opened her handcuffs again so that he looked in shock on her.

"Captain!" He said surprised "shouldn't the beast be guarded by more than two officers? And why are its claws free."

Chavez ignored his question and looked to Demona. "I suppose he won't remember anything too?"

Demona nodded and Martinque became even more confused.

"Captain what... " But he never ended his question because Chavez turned around and hit him with her fist on his chin, on which he fell to the ground and hit it so hard with his head that he became unconscious.

"I've wanted to do this ever since I had to accept him as my lieutenant through the help of his uncle." Explained Chavez to the surprised Elisa and Demona who just looked on the unconscious Martinque with contempt.

"Okay, here is the door," Elisa explained to Demona "Goliath and the others will wait upstairs. We will care for Martinque and see to it that your escape will stay unnoticed as long as possible."

Demona nodded and went into the door without saying goodbye or thank you. She was definitely not in the mood for it.

She went up the stairs to the clock tower and had the strange feeling that she had been here already, but pushed this away when she saw Goliath, Angela and Deborah standing by a burned armchair.

Angela gasped in shock when she saw her mother and even Goliath couldn't hide his shock. When Deborah's eyes even widened, Demona knew that she definitely looked as bad as she felt.

"I had a little crash with a police officer" Demona explained before they could say anything.

"Do you want to sit down mother?" Angela asked worried, but Demona just shook her head.

"No, I just want to put this grandiose night behind me." She answered and looked to Goliath "you have the scroll?"

He nodded, trying not to look on her seemingly broken nose. "Yes, here." He gave it to her and she looked on it.

When she had made sure that it was the scroll, she looked again to the others.

"Come," she said unbelievably tired "it is best that I speak the spell outside."

With this, the four Gargoyles went through the door outside onto the clock tower.

Demona looked on the figure in front of her and snarled, all her senses on alarm again.

Goliath's claw on her shoulder stopped her from attacking the figure at the last moment.

"Stop Demona, he is stone and no danger." Goliath explained calmly and when Demona looked more exactly on the figure that looked so much like Goliath and yet was not, she saw that he was right.

She looked around to discover five statues more, seemingly the clones that she and Thailog had ordered... And his whore called Delilah.

"What has happened to them?" Demona asked finally, the adrenaline had given her new power.

"After some months they became sick," Goliath explained "we brought them to Sevarius and he explained that there had been a failure in their genetic structure. We commanded Sevarius to help us, but he betrayed us."

"He created, with the help of some of our organic material, an antiviral, but it turned out to be a trap of him and Thailog. Sevarius created a giant Gargoyle that he called little Anton, which we were able to defeat in the end, but Thailog and the others became stone."

"Ah," Demona answered. This was quite interesting, even more than Goliath imagined, but she had now no time for this, perhaps later.

"Well, I will speak the spell now." She explained and read from the scroll under the suspicious eyes of her teacher.

"God of memory, hear my prayer. I plead to make all this night undone in the minds and scrolls of all creatures, which should never have happened. Hear my plead."

She spoke these words in Latin, but Goliath understood all too well.

Suddenly, the page seemed to glow and blue lightening flooded in the night sky. At the same time, the page started to burn and Demona let it fall.

"I feared this," she explained to the other Gargoyles. "The power of the spell was too large for this page without the rest of the Grimorum, which was the reason why I copied it. Maybe we would have even so perished if it had still been in the Grimorum and this is the reason why the Archmage never used it... Who knows."

"Good," Deborah explained "I dislike to let the humans forget and in your claws... " She looked into Demona's eyes "well, I dislike it."

"Well than you will hate what I have to tell you now." Demona said with a smile and Deborah, but even so Angela, became uneasy.

"The spell did not just influence humans, but even so us... " Goliath interrupted to Demona's wonder "I think just the one who spoke the spell will remember."

Demona nodded "I thought that you had read the spell Goliath," she said "but you saw that there was no other way."

Goliath nodded, but Deborah glared on her. "You promised me you would tell us what all this had meant, who your daughter... Lucifia was!" She said angrily "you are a liar!"

Demona shook her head. If she would have the power, she would have smirked.

"No old teacher," she explained "I said if you still would have questions about her after this night then I would answer them. So, was it a lie?"

Her teacher hit these words like a beat. "You damned little.... " She looked like she was going to attack Demona who did not move and surely didn't the power to defend herself against her old teacher now, but Goliath stopped her.

"That is enough Deborah," he ordered with a clear voice "she had no other choice and it is better than the alternative."

The orders of her clan leader seemingly calmed Deborah.

"So, I will forget her?" Angela asked her mother sadly "all I have of her... and Connor?"

Demona nodded "yes, all or nothing. There is no other way." When she saw the sadness in the eyes of her daughter, she added. "But I will visit the clan in the next few days and let you know that Connor is your half brother."

Angela nodded "and. " She tried to remember the name, but she couldn't ".my half sister?"

Demona smiled slightly, as she knew it had begun. "No."

Angela nodded, as she knew it was senseless now to discuss it with her mother.

"Come, let's glide home." Goliath ordered and Demona climbed on the roof.

Angela looked shortly at her mother and thought ~she looks so tired~.

"I could accompany you mother?" She offered, but Demona shook her head.

"No, I feel well enough to glide and you couldn't return to the castle before dawn." Demona said, "if you would awake in my mansion tomorrow night then there would be too many questions to answer."

Angela nodded and Demona leapt into the sky.

"Good night daughter and never forget, I love you." Demona said and disappeared into the night.

"I love you too mother." Angela whispered, but Demona already flew away.

"Perhaps we should accompany her," Deborah said "on this way we would perhaps have questions tomorrow."

Angela just shook her head "I don't think that this was the reason why she wanted to be alone."

Deborah just looked on her, but Goliath nodded. He understood what his daughter meant.

"Let's go home" he said and his companions nodded. So they leapt into the sky.

Meanwhile, in the police station:

Chavez laid, with the help of Elisa, the still unconscious Martinque in the cell and closed the door.

"This should ensure that he doesn't make trouble any more... At least for this night." Chavez said and Elisa nodded.

"Well then, I hope that Demona... " Elisa hesitated. What was she going to say? Why did she mention Demona? Chavez did not know Demona, did she?

Chavez nodded, "yes we... " She did not know what she wanted to say any more and just looked on Elisa. Then she decided something "come on, let's go help the rest of the station."

Elisa nodded, still unsure, and they went around to the other parts of the station, leaving Martinque to sleep in the cell.

03.08.98; 7:47; Castle Wyvern:

Goliath, Angela and Deborah landed on the roof of the castle, already expected by Broadway, Hudson and the others.

"Has it all gone well?" Hudson asked his mate and she nodded.

~What has gone well?~ She asked herself. She did not know anymore, but she knew that it had something to do with red head...

~By the dragon, am I angry with her!~ She thought ~why?~ She did not even know this anymore, but just looked at her mate.

Then she saw the bandage around his right upper leg. ~Where did he get that from?~ She was not sure and thought that perhaps he had wounded himself shortly before... She would ask him later.

She looked shortly to the courtyard and froze, as a part of the ground had been broken away!

"The courtyard!" She started and her mate nodded.

"Aye," he answered "Xanatos said it was a structural problem... Somehow, they put this castle together again 4 years before. He said he will order his team to repair it as soon as possible."

Deborah looked on the others "It is fortunate that nobody has been hurt." She noticed.

"Aye," her mate replied "we have had good luck. It's not good to think about if anything would have happened to the rookery."

Deborah nodded, but again her thoughts drifted to Demona... There was something, but she did not know what.

Finally she gave up. "Let's go in my love," she said, "it has been a long night."

~Why?~ She asked herself ~what made this night so long?~

But she did not find the answer and finally forgot it.

03.08.98; 7:51; Demona's Mansion:

Demona arrived on the balcony. Slowly, she opened the doors and closed them behind her. Then she moved some steps in the direction of her bed and collapsed meters before it.

She simply did not have the power any more, the power to move, the power to look up, even breathing seemed to cost her more power than she had.

If she would have been able to do it, she would have curled herself into a ball like small hatchlings did sometimes, but she couldn't. All she could do was cry by exhaustion and pain. But it was not so much the pain of the wounds of her body that she still felt, but a pain much deeper inside of her.

She was remembered one night, so unbelievably long ago...

*"Look, it hatches my love." Said a happy voice and a hatchling worked itself out of the shell. "She has your eyes!"*

The pain seemed to tear her soul into pieces and at the border of her mind, which was now centered on this. She felt something, which snuggled to her and whined slightly.

Demona couldn't sense anything anymore, but it felt good.

Finally, the sleep captured and freed her of the memories and the pain. She slept so deep that not even the pain of the transformation woke her up.

To be continued...