Disclaimer: The characters of Gargoyles belong to Buena Vista Television, Disney, inc. This is a work of fanfiction, and is being written without consent or knowledge of the aforementioned company. Lucia Dominguez, Keith Polasky, Sharon Lewis, Cesar Ramierez, and Rachel Vitreum are my characters. Lina and Maya are Denis DePlaen's, and are concepts used with his consent for this story. Any mentions of Time Lords or Dr. Who are property of BBC and are used out of fun for a great sf series.
Rated PG13 for some language and mature situations.
Last Rest Denied
Part 4
Written by: Trynia Merin
Synopsis by Malkavien@lft.be
*******************************************************************
"Okay, you'll be all right now," Fox Xanatos assured a very exhausted Maria. Mona slept quietly, her eyes pressed tightly shut.
"Are you sure?" Maria Chavez asked Fox.
"I should ask about you! How the hell can you be here without a protective suit is beyond me..."
Fox strode about in her armor, which included a self-sealed visored helmet. It was quite a contrast to some of the other volunteers who milled about in positive pressure suits amidst shiny plastic draperies. Even more of a contrast to Maria Chavez, who wore nothing but shirtsleeves.
"It's a long story. But if you did my bloodwork you must have noticed a difference," Chavez answered cryptically.
"I'll say," Fox shook her head. "Your blood is very rare. So rare that there are proteins in it that appear in no other human sample I've seen."
"Simple explanation," Chavez pointed to the statue of Rachel, which stood watchfully over Mona's bedside.
"You two.. have some history?"
"You could say that..."
Fox grinned. "I always knew you were a wild one, Chavez. Underneath that businesslike exterior, you're a player..."
"Well, not a player," Chavez clarified. "But look, what about Mona. Is she all right here?"
"Well, in a few minutes David's going to be moving the worst ones who are still affected to hospital. I was thinking it's best given Mona's unique situation, that she be moved to the infirmary. Even though she said this Nepharyn doesn't affect Gargoyles... we hope..."
Maria Chavez nodded, and then one of the new volunteers caught her eye.
"Maya?" she asked, grabbing one as they shuffled past.
"Maria!" came the muffled answer. "What are you doing here?"
"Maya, what are you doing?" Chavez responded. "This isn't any place for you with your condition..."
"I'm not laying dead for crying out loud," Maya laughed. "And I do have a suit..."
"Fox, this is my sister, Maya Florez," Maria smiled.
"Nice to meet you," Fox grinned.
"But what are you..." Maria asked. "Don't tell me, you know this place!"
"Please, I knew all about Derek when I first came here..."
Mona slowly groaned, writhing in her sleep. Maria and Fox rushed to her side. "She's coming out of it," Fox muttered.
"Who is this?" Maya asked. "Haven't seen her here before..."
"Mona," said Maria Chavez. "A gal I found... she's new..."
"Yeah," Fox nodded. "She's the one who found the cure for the illness..."
"Extraordinary young lady then," Maya glanced at Mona, who blinked slowly.
"What... hit me..."
"The Nepharyn almost got you," said Fox with a wink. "You should have left here before morning..."
"Maya... Florez?" Mona glanced up at her. "You... you're Lucia's aunt... but why... are you here..."
"You know Lucia?" asked Maya.
"We... are... were friends," Mona smiled gently, rubbing her eyes. Maria gripped Mona's hand firmly.
"Glad you're all right. You scared us for a while..."
"I feel so weak," Mona groaned.
"Are you a medical student at the university then?" asked Maya, rubbing her chin. "If you found a cure for this disease?"
"I know many things... over the years..." Mona sighed. "I mean I have learned a little here and there..."
"Let's say she took some classes," Maria hastily explained.
"Mrs. Florez... your suit..." Mona suddenly pointed to a small rip that had appeared.
"Caramba!" Maria Chavez gasped.
"It's positive pressure, but we should get you an injection quickly," Fox said. Maria took her sister's arm, and helped her to the isolation area.
"No," Mona whispered, and clutched at the silver crucifix around her neck.
***
Strangely they waited, and she did not show up for work. They waited lazily, sipping coffee with their mates, till four. Still no sign of her. Cesar and Arthur became a bit nervous watching the people walk by.
Finally they decided to try Central Park... which was a good hike of city blocks from there.
"Let me know if you find her..." he said. "Me and Brother Ramierez are heading out..."
"We'll keep our eyes open..."
Ramierez and Davidge nodded, heading out of the busy shop onto the street. It was rush hour, and the campus was jammed. Both were quickly split up in the crowd, but little matter, for they had their pagers to keep in touch.
He saw a few professors, milling about as they walked with their briefcases. He caught site of a silver haired gent heading his way. Something seemed familiar. Ah well, on to the park, he thought.
"Mr. Ramierez?" came a deep voice, with a Scottish Accent.
"Yes..."
"There is something I would like to discuss with you. Do you have a moment..." it continued. A powerfully built man, clad in corduroy jacket and a blue colarless shirt, peered at him. Those steely blue eyes fixed into his with an icy calm. He must be a professor, for that briefcase with the initials L and M and the long black coat seemed professorial.
"Sure... what's on your mind Mister..."
"Lennox MacDuff. Professor MacDuff to you, young man. I understand you are acquainted with Lucia Dominguez..."
"Yeah, I know her," he grinned. "She's my girlfriend..."
"Are ye so sure?" the Professor glared at him, steely eyes piercing into his dark ones.
"Hey man, like... easy..."
"I'm only going t' say this once, lad. Ye stay clear of her, lest something happen t' ye that ya might well regret..."
"Or what?" he asked. "What's it to you, sir?"
"There is a penalty against battery and assault..." Macbeth growled, glaring right at him with a look that would have slain Cesar if it contained ammunition.
"What are you talking about?"
"A student of mine, with a suspicious bruise on her cheek, crying and weeping in fear. Does that ring a bell, lad?" Macbeth continued, voice low.
"I don't know nothing about it. You'd better lay off, if you know what's good..." Cesar snapped back, pushing Macbeth away.
"Was that a challenge?" Macbeth asked, hiding a look of contemptible amusement.
"I know who you are now!" Cesar snorted. "You're the gargoyle lover who disrupted the recruitment..."
"Very perceptive lad. Did ye include hitting innocent lasses in yer course work?"
"Shut up!" he snapped, and his fist flashed out. Macbeth instantly blocked, grabbing Cesar's offending hand.
"Dinnae tempt me laddie. Ye've a lot of spunk, I'll admit that. But ye havena a prayer…"
"Let me go, you son of a bitch..." he snarled, and kicked. Macbeth's foot shot out like lightening, drop kicking his feet from under him as he crashed into the pavement.
A foot landed on Cesar's throat, Macbeth standing over him. He grabbed up, twisting as he pulled Macbeth down. Angrily Macbeth rolled over and over, his fist cracking into Cesar's jaw with surprising force. Already a crowd had gathered. Stunned, Cesar lay there with a nasty bruise to rival Lucia's.
"Frickin asshole, you'll pay for this!" he snarled, as Macbeth turned away. He rushed forwards to the attack. Neatly Macbeth dodged, throwing the boy over his shoulder. Cesar ate cement as he landed roughly.
"Ye started this, I recall, insolent whelp... and if you ever so much as touch her again... ye'll answer t' me!" Macbeth pointed at the stunned Cesar.
"What's going on here?" a police officer asked, grabbing Macbeth's arm.
"That man hit me!" Cesar snapped, blood dripping from his nose.
"You'll have to come with us sir..." Morgan grabbed Macbeth's arm. Angrily he cooperated, seeing Cesar's smug grin. At least he was spitting blood for a change!
***
"Yes... I'll be there right away," Xanatos nodded. "What happened..."
Owen watched his boss carefully, knowing who was the source of the call, but not quite sure what had possessed Macbeth to hit a student!
"Owen, get ten thousand out of my personal account, in cash. We have a favor to an old friend to pay back..."
"Is Mr. Macbeth in trouble?"
"Yes, plenty. Seems he punched out a quarryman... a neo quarryman..."
Xanatos stroked his beard, chuckling, "A neo-quarrymen, Owen?"
"One of the new recruits that Castaway signed on. Named Cesar Ramierez..."
"Ramierez... Ramierez... where have I heard that name before," Xanatos pondered. It was right there on the tip of his brain and he was loathe to forget it.
"I seem to recall sir, that the Dracons had ties with a family named Ramierez in an arms smuggling operation a few years back..."
"Ah now I remember," Xanatos snapped his fingers. "Roderigo Ramierez! Dominic Dracon's old business associate. Supposedly his families had ties to the drug cartel in South America... cut their teeth to big time crime by smuggling cocaine in those colorful dolls and pinyatas they used to crate up. Small time, but big enough to get them into weapons smuggling..."
"You do your homework, Mr. Xanatos..."
"Undoubtedly. I once considered having them smuggle some of the Steel clan parts up from Cyberbiotics, through Cuba, to New York. But Ramierez got sloppy..."
"Could he be related perhaps to this Cesar. It is a common name... but Mr. Ramierez was in this country since the nineteen fifties..."
"Fill me in on the way Owen. Pull up the old Internet files of my old contacts. This might answer some questions..."
***
At the police station, Detective Maza shook her head. Lennox MacDuff allowed Matt Bluestone to lead him passively out of the holding cell. Both knew he was capable of flattening almost any resistance they could throw at him. The fact he was so compliant now with the law was a blessing and a quandary for Elisa.
"Macbeth, what were you thinking?" Elisa snapped at him, as Matt sat him in the questioning room. Calmly Macbeth's gray eyes fixed into hers.
"I was merely righting a wrong. Cesar Ramierez abused Lucia Dominguez. I saw the evidence with my own eyes. The bruise on her cheek last night as a matter of fact. No one else took action to stop it..."
"But you keep taking the law into your own hands, Macbeth! In God's name, what gives you that right?" asked Elisa.
Macbeth returned her cold stare, folding his hands on the wooden table before him. Steel gray eyes locked into hers. "What gives ye the right t' judge me, lass? Have ye been alive for 900 years and seen what I have? Experienced what I have?"
"Wait... you mean that guy hit Lucia?"
"Yes. She is in a considerable state of shock over it too. Apparently this is not the first time he lay hands upon the lass. I merely told the lad I would not tolerate such behavior. He was the first one to throw a punch. I merely defended myself."
"He could have done a lot more damage to him," Matt pointed out. "As it was, the report said that all he got was a bloody nose and a few cracked ribs."
"Miss Maza, if I had fought him to the full extent of my abilities, I assure you Mr. Ramierez would have suffered far worse. A fractured spine, and a shattered jaw would only be the tip of the iceberg. I pulled that punch considerably..."
"I know you meant well, but this is going to cost you. You can't go around punching someone out even if they do deserve it! That's what the police are for. We could already add charges of vigilantism to this charge of aggravated assault!"
"Nevertheless, I could not stand by while Miss Dominguez felt her life was threatened. Molly O'Keefe was also endangered. This man sneaked into a girl's dormitory room, Detective! Who knows what else he is capable of!"
Elisa turned her back on him with a big sigh. She folded her arms across her red jacketed chest. For a moment, she chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Macbeth, you are a good man. I sincerely believe that you thought you were doing the right thing. But you can't keep doing this. People are going to get hurt. You could be put away for life... as it is you're gonna have to stand trial!"
"Lass, considering how long I have lived, fifty years is nothing," Macbeth joked sadly. "And that man would walk free to terrorize and torment Miss Dominguez. Not to mention others. Who can tell what his current behavior would suggest! I have seen hundreds of boys like him, angry and full of their own self-purpose. One of them was Canmore... the son of the man that murdered my Father, and who was the Second Hunter. I wasted centuries chasing after my own death when I should have stopped the insanity of the Hunters!"
"Oh Lord. Look, Macbeth, I want to help you here, but this isn't looking good..." Elisa sighed. She turned the chair and sat with her chest propped up against the chair's back.
"Ms. Maza, I respect you for doing your job. Surely you can understand a gentleman's personal code of honor. Of what is right and what is wrong."
"Macbeth, look, you haven't exactly proven that your motives are selfless. What about when you tried to steal Excalibur from King Arthur, or stole the Scrolls of Merlin?"
"I admit that was done out of foolishness," he hung his head. "I was desperate for any advantage, any means of ending my centuries of torment..."
"But why the change of heart?" Elisa demanded. "What makes this time different from all those others?"
"Your Goliath said a few years ago, when Demona had turned the city's inhabitants to stone by night, that Death is not the answer. I suppose I have learned that now..."
"For our sakes I hope so," Elisa responded. "And for Lucia's as well!"
"What?" Matt asked.
"Why else would you be fighting like some schoolboy? I think that you have more then just a passing interesting in her as a student..."
"That is her private affair, and my own," Macbeth coughed.
Matt grinned a bit, and Elisa shot him a glare. "Look, I don't want her or you getting hurt. I don't know what you two have going on, but if she is in any way put into danger..."
"That is precisely why Cesar is nursing a hurt jaw," Macbeth rubbed his hand. Matt burst into a fit of laughter, and Elisa slowly felt steam coming out her ears.
"Jalapeno, cut it out Matt! This isn't helping!"
"Sorry partner! I just never thought I'd see... Mac here... heheeehe mixing it up like a knight in shining armor, to the rescue of the fair damsel's honor!"
"Don't even go there," Elisa sighed disgustedly.
Macbeth allowed himself a small smile. Even handcuffed there, he had never felt so glad he cracked an insolent whelp in the jaw. It was as if he had hit Canmore and Gillcomgain themselves for centuries of torment. Yes, the Weird Sisters had said that vengeance solved nothing. Still, why did it feel so damned satisfying sometimes?
***
Keys clacked under Keith's fingers. It wasn't too long before he would have some answers to the many questions floating through his brain. Lucia's constant disappearances and Sharon's fretting over Rachel had forced him to take drastic action. The illuminated words of Destiny Incorporated flickered backwards across his amber lensed glasses. Soon he would find Dominique, and the answers to such questions.
In the background the strains of Paul Stanley belted out the song Strutter. Indeed he was finding out a thing or two about the elusive Dominique. He couldn't get her figure out of his brain since then.
He could not forget the taste of action as he and Macbeth had taken on the quarryman. Nor could he forget the fact that when he woke up, Mac had been standing over him in that same black suit of armor, sitting patiently for him to wake up.
"So it did happen," Keith had muttered when Macbeth removed the wet cloth from his head.
"Aye lad, it did," Macbeth had answered sullenly. What was that look of sorrow in those steel eyes in regard to?
"But Castaway... didn't you nail him?"
"I did," Macbeth muttered.
"Well..."
"He's been arrested... and will face trial I am sure..." Macbeth sighed deeply. Arms folded across the front of his black suit of armor.
"You mean you didn't kill him?" Keith gasped. "I thought you swore to Rachel..."
"I almost did kill him, God help me," Macbeth sighed. Slowly he rose to his full height, and strode over to the French window. His eyes glanced out into the morning sun. In that instant, Keith realized the complexity of this strange, regal figure. How long had he been alive, and what terrors had he lived through over the centuries?
Keith shivered when he recalled the look of sadness and foreboding written on Mac's face when he turned back from the window. The rising of the sun seemed so commonplace to him, and so wearisome to the black armored figure.
"Ye face a decision lad," Macbeth sternly stated. His steely gaze bored right into Keith's soul.
"Oh don't tell me. This is the part where you give me some crap about keeping my mouth shut and carrying some deep dark secret, right?"
"Essentially you have guessed it. But what you do with this is entirely up to you. I doubt anyone would believe your story anyway, since I gathered you are quite the fan of science fiction. Also, I know that your sense of adventure would lead you to use such skills to as you say... nail the quarryman the next time they should strike..."
"So... what does this mean?"
"Ye are a talented young man. I could... use your skills from time to time. Provided ye behave yerself..."
"You and me, kicking Q-men butt?" Keith laughed. "This just gets better and better..."
Now Keith was putting some of his so called skills to use. When he confronted Mac about Rachel, all Macbeth would say was that he was attempting to find out what Rachel wished. Whether Rachel had chosen to stay with the Gargoyles or rejoin Demona seemed up in the air. Especially when he recalled Demona had saved his life those few weeks ago.
His meetings with Macbeth were brief, yet full of questions. Each time Mac assured him he would let Keith know when next he needed a favor. Whenever her asked about Rachel, Mac said he did not know.
Now Keith had his own agenda. Mac had been arrested, and that put an end to pestering him where Rachel was and how she was doing. He would find out for himself!
A series of beeps and his computer dialed the number he had secured. Any calls to Castle Wyvern were never answered.
"Destiny Incorporated..."
"Uh hi. Can you put me in touch with Dominique Destine?" Keith asked. "I represent a certain computer software firm..."
"She is not available... but I will leave a message..."
"Just tell her a Mr. Polasky wants to talk to her..."
"Shit," he muttered. Seconds later he dialed yet another number. Dominique's unlisted personal line.
"How did you get this number?" her voice grated.
"It's Keith! Look, I need to talk to you! It's about Rachel!"
"What do you know about that?"
"Is she there?"
"There is no one by that name here," came the feral reply, tinged with a snarl.
"Demona... I'm worried about her..."
"How do you know..."
"Come on! You saved my life, and I'm grateful. But can you please tell me if Rachel's okay!"
"Who are you?"
"Macbeth's padawan! Keith's the name, finding Rachel's the game!"
There was silence on the other end. "She has chosen her place, human. At Castle Wyvern. And if you know what is good for you, you will be very cautious in your actions. I spared your life once, but don't tempt me to think it a mistake! Good evening!"
"Demona! wait!"
"What, now?"
"You take care, okay?"
Mute met his words, and for a moment Keith thought she had hung up on him. Imagine his surprise when her voice responded, "You too, hu... I mean... Keith Polaski..."
The phone clicked off, and Keith grinned.
"Bingo."
***
"Sharon!" Keith shouted, pounding on the door of her dormitory room.
"What?" came her annoyed grunt. Slowly she lifted her head from her textbook. Glancing at her watch she realized she had fallen asleep right in the middle of studying for a history exam!
"I have something important to tell you about Rachel!" Keith's voice came.
"What?" she cried, leaping nearly a foot out of her chair. Immediately she jerked the door open on an anxious Keith. His hair was a stirred mess, his bluejean jacket with the KISS army logo on one lapel thrown on over an old Akira T-shirt.
"Why didn't you say so!" she snapped. "Where the hell is she! How the hell is she?"
"Well... she isn't quite the same old Rachel..."
"What could have happened..."
"Um I'd better tell you on the way..."
"On the way where?" Sharon demanded.
"Castle Wyvern. Get your coat. We can just about make the next subway train if we leave now..."
"Keith, why didn't you tell me you heard something?" she asked again, slamming the door behind her as she threw on her bluejean jacket. Down the stairs of her dormitory they both trotted. Keith's long legged pace was difficult for her to keep up with.
"Well, Rachel was afraid of how we'd react. She had a bad accident... that had something to do with those Quarryman..."
"Is she in the hospital... I swear if they..."
"She's fine now... if you want to call it that..."
***
"Call for Miss Vitreum," Owen Burnett announced. All around him the Gargoyles roared to life, showering Xanatos' Major domo in a hail of stone shards.
Hudson stretched, next to Rachel. "What, I have a call? Who is it?"
"A Mr. Keith Polasky. He says it's urgent."
"Keith?" Hudson asked. "Isn't he one of your students?"
"Yes but how did he..."
"Do you wish to talk to him or not?" Owen asked, and held out the cell phone to her. Rachel looked from Hudson to the cell phone, her face fraught with worry.
"Lass, ye have t' face it sometime," Hudson assured her. "Ye can't erase yer past..."
Sighing, Rachel took the phone from Owen. "Hello... Keith..." she asked.
"Rachel! Thank God! Why the hell didn't you call me?" Keith's angry voice crackled. "I was worrying my ass off!"
"Keith... I didn't know if you could... accept what has changed..." Rachel choked into the phone. Hudson frowned when he saw the anguish in her turquoise skinned face. What did this student mean to her? It seemed far beyond just the usual concern of a student for a teacher.
"Shit Rachel, Mac told me what happened! You could have told me! Why the hell didn't you..."
"Keith I'm so sorry. So many things have happened. Look, I want you to come to Wyvern. I want to apologize to you in person..."
"That's more like it! Rachel, I miss you dammit..."
"Keith... could you bring... Sharon with you?"
"Sure thing! See you tonight..."
Slowly Rachel clicked the phone shut resigned, and handed it back to Owen. "I'll... be expecting company," she told him.
"Bring a human friend here?" Hudson asked, a bit concerned.
"Why not?" Rachel turned on him. "He deserves to know..."
Hudson exchanged a gruff look with Owen. Burnett shrugged, and moved off into the castle.
Delilah tentatively walked up, holding Mute in her arms. "Ah, Miss Delilah? We could use your help in the infirmary... with Miss Mona..."
"I shall go to assist..." she nodded.
***
Thirty minutes later, Owen Burnett waited by the main lobby. The doorman had called up to announce Rachel's guests had arrived, and were on their way up.
"You won't believe what's happened to her," Keith said to Sharon, as the elevator door opened. Sharon pulled down the short skirt of her sphagetti strap sundress, and pounded her platform sandaled feet impatiently. She struggled to get her short cropped blond hair into some order.
"What?"
"Well... she said she finally wanted to see us, explain why she wasn't at school. Her voice sounded different... so I want you to be prepared for a shock..."
"What could possibly..." Sharon asked.
"Ah, welcome, Mr. Polaski, and Miss Lewis..." Owen nodded matter of fact. He smiled to himself when he recognized them from Rachel's office two months ago. Back before the events had been set in motion.
"We're here to see Dr. Vitreum..." Keith said, thrusting a hand into his bluejean pocket. Owen eyed them both matter of fact, with an air of some disdain at the choice in clothes.
"She's in the infirmary with a patient..."
"Oh?" Keith asked. "What happened..."
"I would recommend waiting..."
"We want to see her now..."
Rachel suddenly exited a small room, coming off the main corridor. Sharon's eyes dropped out of her head as she saw a blue skinned gargoyle striding in, wearing Rachel's glasses.
"Sharon... Keith..." she said, holding out a claw.
"Holy shit," Sharon muttered. "Rachel?"
"Yes... it is me... "Rachel said.
"Hey, um... Well... you could've come out sooner," Keith said, nervously going up to her.
"Rachel... what happened?" Sharon asked.
"Well, I went through a change..." Rachel said, as Keith pulled Sharon over to her. Still her blonde friend was in shock, but whether it was revulsion or just surprise Rachel couldn't determine.
"I thought you were horribly disfigured..." Sharon stammered. "But this..."
Rachel lowered her head, eyes shining. "I know it's a shock..."
"Thank God you're alive!" Sharon opened her arms, and leapt into Rachel's, almost knocking her over. Her arms latched around her friend's waist, hugging tightly. In surprise Rachel felt her arms wrapped around Sharon, folding her friends in her wings.
"You... you... could have told me!" Sharon cried, pressing a kiss to Rachel's cheek. "Ray, Hon, I was soo worried! how did it happened to you?"
"Shar... I didn't think..."
"Oh shut up!" Sharon wailed, and pressed a smacking kiss to Rachel's lips. Her tongue gently slipped against Rachel's fangs, her lips soft, and sweet, tasting of strawberry lip-gloss. How sweet it felt to be so kissed again by a familiar set of lips. How unexpected.
Surprised, Rachel pulled away gasping, "I thought you would be... repulsed..."
"Ray, damn you! Don't do that again! You had me worried sick!" cried Sharon, her eyes glistening with tears as she fingered Rachel's dark hair.
"Hey, what do you think we are, bigots?" Keith asked, slipping an arm around Rachel. Slowly she lifted a wing and let him pull her close. "Move over, Shar..."
Keith's kiss was just as welcome, and she felt her own hot tears as she pulled off her glasses. Both of her students held her close, and she could just about wrap them in her wings as they pressed against her.
"Oh Matrix I missed you..." she choked.
"Hell, what do you think?" Keith said, stroking her back.
"Shit, why didn't you let me see you before this?" Sharon scolded her.
"Well, considering past.. Ahem... activities... I didn't think you would be amenable to..."
"Shh," Sharon kissed away her doubts. "Look, at least you're alive. Let's take one step at a time..."
"Hmm, I wonder..." Keith got that wicked look in his eye. His fingers brushed a wing strut, and Rachel jumped, flushing.
"Hot spot," Sharon glanced at him.
"This could work," Keith grinned at her.
"Not in front of Owen," she chided them. Owen gave a little smile at the reunion, only interrupting with a cough, "Excuse me, but our patient wants to talk to you..."
"Oh... but..."
"Guest?" asked Keith.
"Hmm... you might as well meet her," Rachel took their hands in her talons and led them into the infirmary.
***
"Dee, prepare an IV with glucose and penicillin."
"Yes doctor," she nodded. Delilah had already learned much basic medicine over the past few months. She had started under tutelage of a homeless doctor that had come to the Labyrinth when the Clone Clan lived there several years back. It felt good to put the skills to use again, especially since Thailog strongly discouraged any such learning. Demona had allowed Delilah to continue her training with some strange disdain. which made it even more difficult to see her facsimile there in the patient bed.
"Her heartbeat is strong," Delilah pressed a stethoscope to Mona's chest. "But body temperature is lower then should be..."
"All right. It would appear that her electrolytes are off balance..."
Mona groaned, shaking her red haired head. It was odd to see her without the gold tiara, yet Delilah recalled some talk among the others of the Manhattan clan regarding her activities.
"She saved all the people in the labyrinth," said Dr. Frazier. "Quite a feat... considering it was a disease none of us had even heard of."
"Nepharyn... 4..." Mona muttered. Eyes sprang open, and flickered between Dee and Dr. Frazier.
"Easy, miss, you've had a nasty shock..."
Just then the phone rang on Dr. Frazier's belt. "Excuse me. Take over, will you, Dee?"
"Doctor..." Dee protested, but gave up when he slipped out into the hallway. Nervous, she turned to Demona.
"Why... am I in the infirmary?"
"You were hit... by disease," Delilah coughed.
"Dee... you're... a doctor's assistant?" Mona smiled. "I always knew you had the skills to heal... but I never thought to see you actually carry it through..."
"You... knew me from your... world?" Dee asked.
"Yes... my pretty one," Mona smiled. "You and I were mother and daughter. When Angela..."
At the mention of the name Angela, Dee noticed the pain in Mona's face. Clearly a bad memory had surfaced that she did not wish to recall, for the next moment she changed her topic, "But that is that world, and this is here and now..."
"What was... I like in your world?" Dee asked. Dr. Frazier had left by then to check on his other patients.
"You were much as you are now. Always caring for Mute... I mean Mute. Helping to teach the young in the rookery. You were always soothing their aches and pains, and I remember you had this really good massaging technique I always used on brook... on my mate..."
"You and I... mother and daughter you said," Delilah looked at her oddly.
"Yes," Mona smiled, raising a talon and cupping Dee's chin. "I would like it if... we could at least be friends. Whenever I was tired of the fight, you... she... was always there to reassure me it was worth fighting for... the clan..."
Dee smiled shyly, and slipped her talon into Mona's. Hesitatingly she said, "I... will give it a chance..."
***
Mona was practicing signing with Mute when she saw the three approaching. Mute had just asked what her name was, when Mona struggled. She had to find something that would distance them from the bad memories of her past and forge a new present. Then the business with the Nepharyn 4 had blotted out the memories for now. She was grateful for the disease that had suddenly overcome her in human form.
"Wow! Who's that gorgeous gargoyle babe?" asked Sharon, seeing the female gargoyle sitting near Mute, in the hospital bed. Indeed the twilight blue gargoyle with the burgundy hair, bobbed was lovely. Those tapering hips and smooth face smiled at both of them.
"Sharon... is that you?" Demona asked, sitting bold upright in bed.
"Uh... yeah... do I know you?"
"Holy shit... it's that Demona lady who took you away!" Keith exclaimed.
"This is not what you think," said Rachel.
"But she looks like..."
"Demona?" she said, holding a hand out to Keith. "I know what you're thinking... but I mean no harm..."
"She's from an alternate universe," Rachel explained.
"No shit," Sharon gasped.
"Okay..." Keith muttered, rubbing his head. He noticed she wore no gold crown, and the look in the eyes was pleasant, kind. Briefly he remembered the hunger within the eyes of the other gargoyle, her loincloth and halter-top hanging around her shapely form. But somehow this one appeared... younger.
"And she saved the lives of everyone in the labyrinth," Rachel added.
"From a toxic nerve gas..."
"Whoa... shades of Burning Zone," Keith muttered appreciatively.
"But we can't call you Demona... can we?"
"No," she muttered, rubbing her chin. "Hmm... I was called... Angel... once..."
"Hmm, Angelina?" Rachel supplied.
"Yes, that is it. I am... Angelina..." Demona smiled. "A new name... for a new start..."
She glanced down at Mute who was struggling to sign the new name. Yet all she could do was make the sign of L, over her heart.
"Lina?" Angelina said.
"Hey, that's nice," Sharon said. "But how... why?"
"How did you get here?" Keith asked.
"It's a long story... Keith..."
"How do you know us... did you tell her Ray?" asked Sharon.
"No... not yet..."
"I know all about you, Keith Polaski, and Sharon Lewis. But I doubt your lives will be the same again... from what I remember..."
"Why do I get the feeling this is gonna be a long story?" Keith asked, as he pulled up a chair and sat down. Sharon took a chair nearby.
***
"What do you mean he got arrested?" Lucia demanded of Owen. Already the poor major domo had been taxed trying to explain this to everyone else. This was the worst, if he suspected what was true.
"Aggravated Assault," Owen calmly explained.
"But why?"
"Ask him yourself," Owen said. "Mr. Xanatos has gone over to pick him up... once he posts bail..."
"Dios!" Lucia moaned. She had a nasty suspicion what the motive was.
Just then the door burst open, and Macbeth stormed out, an angry look on his face. He turned to Xanatos, and extended his hand.
"My thanks, David..."
"My pleasure Lennox..."
"I will of course pay ye back..."
"No problem, consider it my contribution to the cause against that low-life Castaway. He owes me big time..."
"I seemed to have left my wallet behind..." Macbeth muttered.
"Madre de Dios, what the hell did you do?" Lucia rushed up to him, tears in her eyes. She threw herself into his arms, burying her head against his chest. "I was so worried..."
Xanatos and Owen exchanged a look of mute surprise. Slowly a smile crept over Xanatos' saturnine face. Interesting indeed. So the mighty Macbeth had fallen under Cupid's spell as well.
"Merely righting a wrong, m' lass," Macbeth explained as she grabbed his lapels, tears smudging her mascara. "Unfortunately the authorities may not share that opinion..."
"You didn't..." she gasped.
"According to the police, you nailed him. At least that's how Alex would put it..." Xanatos chuckled.
"Oh Dios, no!" Lucia looked at him with a mix of horror and admiration. "You hit Cesar?"
"Plastered him right in the jaw," Macbeth nodded. "It felt rather cathartic. The insolent pup was begging for it, I'd imagine."
Lucia put a hand over her mouth, not sure whether to laugh or cry. Her expression said a little of both. Still she gripped his lapel with the other as his arms rested on her waist. The immortal king pulled her close, his face lowered over hers as she glanced deep into his eyes. They seemed lost in their own reality, as Goliath and Elisa were often wont to do.
"I promised ye that ye'd be safe as long as I'm concerned. And I do keep my word..." Macbeth whispered into her ear.
"Ahem... what about that other matter?" Owen reminded Xanatos.
"Sorry to interrupt this rapturous reunion, but we have found the source of your... problem," Xanatos announced.
"What problem?" Lucia and Macbeth asked together, their heads snapping around simultaneously.
"You complained of pains," Xanatos shrugged. "If you'll come this way we have the answer in our infirmary..."
"Did Demona..." Macbeth got out as they ushered him out of the room. Still his hand was clenched firmly in Lucia's.
***
Angelina straightened up as she heard familiar voices down the hall. Already Keith and Sharon were talking animatedly to her, and Rachel was also present, very amazed at their ready acceptance of Angelina.
"Lucia?" Keith and Sharon got up, and saw their friend, hand in hand with Macbeth. What the hell was going on here, Keith inwardly wondered.
"What are they doing here of all places..." Macbeth tensed his hand within Lucia's, then his eyes darkened.
"Demona!"
Before he could leap on her in anger, Rachel got in his way.
"No! It's not what you think!"
In the meantime, Lina had climbed out of the bed, and was halfway across the floor. Her eyes were full of happiness, and glad tears. The Cuban girl gasped at the site of the gargoyle woman striding up to her with wings caped around her shoulders.
"Do I know you?" Lucia asked, bewildered. Suddenly she was swept up in strong arms as Angelina hugged her tightly. Keith and Rachel, gurgling his protest restrained a shocked Macbeth.
"Sharon... Keith?" Macbeth stammered out. "What in the Devil are you doing here?"
"Don't go nuclear Mac!" Keith said. "She just saved everyone's ass in the labyrinth!"
"OH I'm so glad you're alive my friend! But look at you," Angelina cried, holding her out at arm's length. "You're so young!"
"Er... what's going on?" Lucia asked confused. From what she last remembered, a gargoyle very much like this one had tried to slay Macbeth!
"This is Angelina..." Sharon explained.
"She's like... Demona from an alternate sliders universe or something," Keith supplied. Lucia was very confused.
"But... but..." Macbeth stammered.
"It's true," she held out her hands. Rachel released Macbeth, who was stunned.
"Macbeth... I am so sorry for all the pain I've caused you... over the centuries..."
"How... is this possible..." he wondered.
She pinched a fold of skin, and he winced. Understanding dawned in the steely blue eyes. "I don't know how it's possible... but we are..." she started.
Everyone looked at Rachel. "Well, it's theoretically possible that at the instant of transition, the Macbeth of her reality died... and she bonded to our Macbeth... and since the enchantment was negated in this reality... but not in Angelina's..."
"Whatever," Keith shook his head.
"I see," Lucia nodded. "So you are bonded, in that same spell by the Weird sisters..."
"Yes," she nodded. Macbeth shook his head, cursing something very unflattering in Gaelic.
"I am sorry," she apologized. "I never meant to cause you more pain..."
"This is major league heaviness," Keith shook his head.
"But why are you here?" Macbeth stammered. "For what purpose?"
"To save lives, I hope," Lina looked at him.
"Hey Mac didn't you hear me when I said she saved everyone's ass in the Lab, like in the Hot Zone..."
"Keith, put a sock in it!" Sharon hissed to him.
"So what now?" Rachel asked Macbeth. "You have my word she is from another reality..."
Macbeth sighed. "I dinna ken..."
"Please, can there not be peace between us?" Angelina asked. "I am so sick of the fighting. I would hope we could be friends..."
"Please..." Rachel said, eyes begging. Macbeth hated that look he couldn't resist over the centuries.
"All right then, I give ye one chance. A truce fer now. But ye canna expect me t' accept all this at once..." he sighed deeply. Slowly she extended a talon, and he reached out a hand to her. Both clasped, feeling the odd sensation of each other's hands caressing. Shyly they both withdrew their hands.
"Where did you get that cross?" Lucia asked, glancing at the silver crucifix at her throat.
"You yourself gave it to me before I came here..." she said. "For luck. You always wore it after your Aunt Maya died..."
"Dios... I would do that," Lucia muttered.
"They share pain," Lucia wondered, and a wicked thought came to her mind. That thought of the time before, when she first learned of this whole enchantment. How much pleasure did they share? With a mischievous smile she walked over to Macbeth, and lay a soft kiss on his cheek. Angelina lightly brushed her own cheek in the corresponding place. Keith suddenly caught on to what was happening.
Slowly she worked her way to his mouth, struggling to stand on tiptoes to reach him. Automatically he bent at the knees, lifting her to his level. Lina licked her lips, hungrily feeling the sweet sensation of hot breath in her mouth. Both of them hummed with content at the same time as Lucia withdrew.
"Holy shit," Keith muttered. "Symbiosis!"
"Sort of," Lina laughed a bit. This Keith certainly was refreshing, all full of piss and vinegar that the sarcastic embittered counterpart embodied in forty years.
"Apparently we discovered, at one time... that we share each other's pleasure as well as each other's pain, whenever we are in proximity. However the pain is felt at a greater distance," Macbeth explained reluctantly.
"So when did you two... become an item?" Sharon asked Lucia, pulling her over to one side while Keith listened to Macbeth and Lina.
"Since two weeks ago," Lucia said matter-of-fact.
"Why didn't you tell us," Sharon pulled her sleeve.
"I didn't want a scandal..."
"The fact he punched out your ex doesn't?" Sharon put in.
"How did you know..."
"Please, it was on the Campus news!"
"Oh shit!" Lucia got out, before she clapped a hand over her mouth. Everyone looked in her direction.
"I'm having a good influence on her already!" Keith laughed. "Sandra Dee has defected, ladies and gentlemen! Lucia has officially sworn her first good swear under duress!"
"Young man," Macbeth started, his glare knocking Keith back into his seat.
"Who, Mac, you stud muffin!" Keith laughed out loud. "Way to go!"
Lucia and Mac shared the same blush of sheer embarrassment.
"Virgin territory no longer!" Sharon laughed at Lucia, gripping her arms.
"But I wasn't one to begin with..." she protested. Then she added in a whisper, "I only wish he was the one..."
"Cinderella has found her Prince Charming!" Keith added smartly. "So where did she hide her glass shoe, eh Mac?"
"If we're quite finished discussing Miss Dominguez and my personal business, can you tell me what the devil is going to happen next?"
Macbeth folded his arms across his chest, casting his most stern schoolmaster's gaze yet at everyone.
"Mac, lighten up already," Keith groaned. "We're all friends here. I mean like you and me... kicked major ass with Castaway..."
"But Cesar is a quarrymen, and now you're in trouble for what you did," Lucia sighed at Macbeth, smacking him on the arm.
"Yeah, and I quote, 'when you strike one Quarryman, you strike us all,' and I know he'd make good on that threat!" Sharon added, as if spitting a bad taste out of her mouth. "No telling what the hell they have planned."
"There might be a way to find out," Lina muttered.
"What are ya thinking?" Keith asked.
"Do the Quarrymen take new recruits?" she asked.
"Oh no, you're not going to..." Macbeth scolded.
"How would you know unless you're psychic?" Lina asked him. "WE may share each other's pain but I doubt we share thoughts as Well..."
"Might I suggest you and Lu keep a low profile?" Rachel put in. "I mean... you are a wanted man..."
"Yes senior," Lucia scolded him. "You go home right now... before you decide to punch out any more of my ex boyfriends!"
"Very Well," Macbeth reluctantly nodded.
***
Many a rookie's eyes fell on the slender attractive redhead that strode into the 23rd precinct that morning. The spaghetti strap dress with the small pink flowers and the butterfly clips in her bobbed hair made an interesting combination. She carried a black purse slung across her body.
"Heya, can I help you?" Officer Morgan asked, intercepting her as she stood before the main desk.
"I'm here to see Captain Chavez?" she asked.
"Your name miss..."
"Er... Lina. Angelina... er... Wells..." she stammered out, fumbling for a name. "I'm a good friend of hers, and said that I had some information for her latest case..."
"I'll take you back," Morgan offered.
She glanced around at the repair crews still painting the walls here and there. "Been a while since the explosion, eh officer?" she asked Morgan.
"Three years ago," he nodded. "Still picking up the pieces. Say, you look familiar Miss Wells. You sure you haven't been around here before..."
"Captain Chavez and I went shopping a few days ago. Maybe you saw us in Little Cuba?" she laughed.
"Maybe. Here you go. But try to make it quick... the Captain's a busy woman..." he urged.
Morgan knocked on the door, and Chavez' curt "come in," didn't' surprise Lina. She seemed all business, the phone receiver cradled between her cheek and upraised shoulder.
"Lina! What a surprise," she said, muffling the phone with her hand.
"She said she knew you..." Morgan said.
"I don't want to bother you if you're busy," Lina began.
"No, no, no. Morgan, let them know to hold my calls for the next thirty minutes... oh, and could you get Bluestone in here when I'm done..."
"Sure thing Captain..." Morgan nodded. The cacophony of the squadroom was banished as he closed the door behind him.
"So what brings you for a visit?" Chavez asked, indicating the seat.
"Wanted to see where I worked, eh Hon?"
"I have an idea... to help prove Mac is innocent?"
"Mac?" Chavez raised an eyebrow.
"Lennox MacDuff. I heard he was arrested for punching a student. In fact he came to the infirmary with Lucia..."
"With Lucia?" Chavez frowned. "Look, I know you're all worried about Lu and everything... but that case is under investigation..."
"I would hate for him to be found guilty of something that was a misunderstanding... since Cesar has a history of battery and assault. Isn't domestic violence a crime?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you know that Caesar hit Lucia?"
"Of course... but... Lina... you shouldn't get involved in this. I care a great deal for you... but I have a job to do... and there are times that business and personal shouldn't mix..."
"Even if I might be able to help as they say, put a lid on this case... or bring new evidence to light? Maria... please..."
"All right," Chavez sighed, seeing the sincerity in her eyes. "What's on your mind?"
"Undercover work. Someone should go undercover as a new quarryman recruit..."
"I do have that angle covered, between you and me."
"But if I know Castaway, he's already got that covered. And I have someone in mind that none would suspect..." Lina said.
"Who?"
"Me. I'm untraceable. IN this reality as a human I don't exist. No one can implicate me. Please..." she said, as Chavez began to shake her head. "Let me give something back for your kindness. If I can prove Mac was only acting in self defense..."
***
"I still don't think this is a good idea for you to try this, Hon," Chavez shook her head as Mona, now calling herself Lina, showed up at the modest apartment building.
"I need all the information I can get on the Quarrymen," said Lina.
"Especially now that Mac's a wanted man..."
"Mac?" Chavez asked, with a slight smile again. "You told me he's a friend of yours..."
"Well I hope he'll find me to be one," Lina sighed. "And Robyn too..."
They knocked on Matt's door. There was the dragging scrape of a pull chain, followed by the click of several dead bolts being drawn back.
"It's Chavez. Can we come in?"
Blue eyes glanced from the crack in the door. "Oh, Captain. Sorry, I just get a little bit jumpy... hunter's instinct... who is that with you?"
"Lina Wells... she's a... niece of Dominique Destine..." Chavez said. "She wants to help stop the Quarrymen..."
"What?" Robyn asked, totally confused.
"Can you let us in?"
Robyn gave Lina a glance mixed with anxious fear, and curiosity. As Lina followed Maria Chavez in, Robyn flinched at the similarity between Dominique, and this new arrival. Despite the different hairstyle, and younger face, she was almost the same!
"Captain?" Robyn asked, shutting the door behind them. Still she kept her distance from Lina.
"I know what you're thinking, Robyn," Lina said, holding out a hand. "I look exactly like the woman...whom your family hunted for years... but I assure you I'm not the same..."
"How is this possible?"
"Be prepared for a long story. But Lina has a plan to infiltrate the Quarrymen... and gather evidence that might help save a friend..."
"All right, shoot," Robyn sighed. All three women sat down, Robyn glancing warily at Lina. Even though Chavez seemed very comfortable around her, Robyn's programmed Hunter instincts still screamed of possible foul play.
"So... what do you need to know from me?" Robyn asked. She sat on the edge of her easy chair, while Chavez and Lina settled into Matt's sectional couch.
"Any possible likes or dislikes Castaway has? What most likely might get her close? Any leads... anything," Chavez said.
"How close do you plan on getting?" Robyn asked, looking doubtfully at Lina.
"Close enough to convince them I am worth recruiting," said Lina.
"But you realize he'll recognize you... since you look so much like Dominique... even though now I had to look twice to believe it..."
"We can help with that," Maria grinned. "A little makeup, a little hair dye... hmm..."
"Why are you doing this?" Robyn asked Lina. "If you're not Dominique... who the hell are you?"
"Someone who knows Dominique even better then she knows herself," Lina glanced into Robyn's eyes. "Someone who knows all about the bitter feud between your family and the Demon. Someone who is very sorry for the pain she has caused the Canmores over the centuries..."
"What..." Robyn's eyes narrowed. "Do you know about that?"
"I'm very well acquainted with all of this. For I am not from this world, but one very much like it," Lina breathed. "I already told Maria here about my story. I don't know if you'll believe me or not. But I am what Demona could have been had she given up her hatred of humanity and joined in the fight to preserve her race..."
"And I'm supposed to believe you're some... some... double of Demona that's gone good?" Robyn laughed. "That's a good one! Who or what are you really..."
"I am or was Demona," she glanced levelly at Robyn. "Although in my reality you and I joined on the same side to fight against Xanatos."
"What..." Robyn stammered out. "That... that's crazy..."
"Be ready for a shock," said Maria. "It gets better..."
***
"Are you sure that it's okay for you to be back here?" Molly asked Lucia. Both of them walked back towards the dormitory.
"I can't live in fear, Molly," Lucia admitted. Her dark eyes fixed into Molly's blue ones.
"Can't ya just move in with yer gentleman friend? I'm sure he'd be more then willing to put ya up!"
"Ah Molly, it's not that simple! God knows I'd love to, but my Aunt might not approve! After all I am unmarried..."
"Tosh, it's the twenty first century! You're a legal adult! What's to stop you?"
"Molly, it's the principle. If I don't try to come back, he will have won. Cesar will have intimidated me, and that's as good as a Quarryman victory..."
"I shuild know better then t' try arguing with you," Molly muttered, thrusting her hands into her leather jacket pockets.
Lucia glanced up at the dormitory again. Swallowing, she took one step after the other towards the front door. Molly shook her head, and followed her friend.
They scaled the stairs to the third floor, and Molly slipped the key into the lock. Friends smiled and waved as Lucia came by. Lucia dropped her bag once they got into the door. Things were a bit neater then usual, but so cramped compared to the open rooms of Macbeth's mansion.
"What the heck is that?" Lucia asked, picking up a box that sat near her bed.
"I don't know..." Molly muttered. Then her eyes grew bright.
Lucia suddenly felt Molly throw her to one side. The box fell with a clatter to the floor. A loud scream rang in Lucia's ears as Molly struggled to push her out the door.
Smoke and fire exploded the next moment. The world ended in a blaze of light far hotter then anything she could anticipate. A siren scream rung in Lucia's ears, cutting her consciousness blissfully from her subconscious.
***
Windows rattled for two blocks. Chavez and Lina glanced at each other. "What the hell was that?" asked Lina, her eyes widening.
"It came from the direction of NYU!" Robyn snapped. "Sounded like a plastique explosion too!"
"NYU? Madre de Dios! I need to use your phone!" Chavez snapped. Leaping to her feet she stabbed buttons on Matt's phone.
"Captain Chavez here! Bombing situation on NYU campus! Send units to investigate!"
"No..." Lina gasped, her eyes widening in horror. "Lucia!"
She was halfway out the door when Chavez joined her. Robyn watched in horror, and silently hoped none had perished. Together Chavez and Lina pounded down the stairwell to the front door, almost cracking the glass as they burst onto the street.
"What part of Campus do you think?" Lina asked.
"I don't know..." Chavez huffed. Matt Bluestone pulled up, in an unmarked car. They leapt inside and roared off towards where Lina had heard the blast.
***
All around Canmore Hall swarmed the police and firefighters. A line of curious students was physically pushed back by uniformed officers. Shouts and crackling flames were drowned in the whoosh of hoses and loud piecing sirens. The top floor smoked with occasional tongues of fire. Rubble filled one stairwell to the east, and the other in the middle slowly belched clusters of students in the chaperone of firefighters. Stretchers were threaded through the fallen chunks of masonry and brick scattered on the sidewalk.
"Lucia!" Maria Chavez shouted, as she climbed out of Matt's car. Lina was close behind the police captain, who automatically rushed up to the knot of police officers.
"What the hell happened?" she asked them.
"Bombing... incendiary... on the second floor..." Officer Morgan reported. "Real mess..."
Lina slipped around the line of policemen as Carlos was struggling to get past Morgan and Elisa. Few noticed the young redhead creeping along the line of struggling refugees. Somehow Lina knew where Lucia must be under that mess.
"Miss, you can't go there! Miss!" Morgan shouted. He saw the red headed woman Chavez had come with almost halfway to the stairwell filled with rubble.
"But there are still two people trapped in there!" Lina protested. "Two friends of mine!"
"You're not doing them any good by getting in the way, now please step back!" cried Morgan, gripping her arm gently yet firmly, and pulling her away.
***
"Molly..." Lucia gasped. A scream rang in her ears, and for a moment Lucia wondered just what it was. It sounded much like a cross between a sonorous lullaby, and an air raid siren she'd remembered from a PBS special about the 1960's atomic bomb drills. That high shrill whining mingled with a woman's soprano tones.
Over her, Molly crouched, and yet it wasn't Molly. A tall slender figure with long flowing hair drifted a foot above the floor. That siren song tumbled from between her lips, its blue crackling energy forming a shell of power for nearly a five foot radius.
Lucia could only see the wisps of green cloth swirling around the slender legs, the long hair spilling and furling in a mystical wind. All around them the room shambles crumbled from the bomb blast. Sheets of sheer flame licked around their barrier. Yet it held proudly against the inferno.
Slowly she tried to push up off the floor with both palms pressed flat. A sharp pain sent her screaming in agony, its white hot knives slipping up her arm. The figure's head flickered around and two white radiances fell upon Lucia with concern.
"Who... what are you..." Lucia gasped.
"That is a secret known only to a few, little one..." came the voice. Slowly Lucia was lifted in the power of her song, wrapped in solid blue sound which precipitated into blue eldritch fire. The sphere of sound burst through the wall of flame, which slowly was beaten back by a high compression hose.
Till they both emerged in the still intact stairwell to the west. Suddenly the figure's song took an odd discordant shriek. Looking up, Lucia noticed the line of blood seeping down from the spring green gown. If she traced it up she could see pieces of metal protruding from a cut in the nymph's narrow bosom. "You're hurt!" Lucia gasped, and the sound stopped as they both hit the ground.
"Iron... metal... lethal..." she wailed. Lucia struggled against pain to support the fallen figure. In reality it was featherweight, yet taller then she by at least a foot. Crackling flames hissed closer and closer.
"Do not mind... mortal..." she gasped. Sights and sounds gelled around them when the blue nimbus faded. Lucia wasted no time in trying to figure this out, she wrapped the figure's arm around her neck and stumbled out of the way of the belching smoke. A high pressure hose shot through the stairwell, beating back the creeping flames.
"There they are!" came the voices of men and women.
Lucia grunted, fighting against the sharpness in her useless right arm. Had to get clear or the flames would sear them both.
"Iron... deadly..." the sidthe lady coughed. Lucia gripped the piece of metal protruding from her chest. It was a bit of shrapnel from whatever bomb had gone off. Surely to tear it out would cause a bigger problem. But to leave it in? Her mind jumped at top speed. Iron... that creature... faerie?
She pulled at the metal, gripping with her good hand. The fae let loose a wailing keen as it jarred free. Lucia pressed her hand to the wound to stanch the trickle of blood. Relief spread over her face as the metal came loose. Slowly the shape collapsed into the familiar form of Molly O'Keefe.
"Thank... you..." she coughed, and passed out. Lucia soon followed as she collapsed beside her friend.
"We've found two more!" came the voices that settled around them.
"Get them outside!"
*********************************************************************************
Epilogue:
"It was a really bad explosion... it's a miracle either survived," the Doctor said as he regarded Maria Chavez.
"Firebomb, ground zero," Chavez muttered. "How do you figure they survived?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," the Doctor said.
Lina looked from Chavez to Dr. Frazier, both of whom were relieved and flummoxed. At the back of her mind familiarity mated with recognition. Molly... O'Keefe. Where had she heard that name before in her time?
"Is Miss O'Keefe all right?" Lina asked.
"She took a load of shrapnel in the chest..." Dr. Frazier announced. "She bore the brunt of the explosion..."
"Can we see her?" asked Lina.
"We had to take quite a lot of the iron out of her," said the Doctor. "She'll be in surgery now. But you can see Miss Dominguez now..."
"Let us know when Molly's out, okay?" Chavez asked, taking Lina's anxious shoulders as she guided her out of the room.
"Will do..."
***
Lucia slowly came around, feeling a strong hand pressing into hers. Slowly she blinked into the faces of her Aunt and Lina.
"Hello sleeping beauty," Chavez grinned.
"Molly!" Lucia gasped.
"She's okay," Lina said, gripping Lucia's other hand. "Are you all right? We were so worried..."
"Chicha," Maria sighed, stroking Lucia's forehead. "What happened?"
"I remember Molly throwing me to the side... and there was a loud screaming... and then there was flames..."
"What next?" Lina asked.
"This is going to sound nuts, but it was the strangest thing. I don't know if it was a dream or not..." Lucia glanced up at her aunt glazedly.
"I've been used to serious stuff. Tell me... it might help to pin the perpetrator down..."
"It was as if there were some force shielding me from the blast. The next thing I know I woke up and I saw a strange blue light, and an odd wailing noise. Molly was gone... and there was this... woman in green... it was so weird. I thought I was hallucinating..."
"Woman in green?" Maria asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Shh," said Lina. "Go on..."
"She fell into my arms, grasping her chest. I helped pull her out of it..." Lucia shook her head. "It was as if the metal had... poisoned her. Did I dream it?"
"Maybe," Chavez muttered, and saw the recognition in Lina's eyes. What revelations had her niece's words sparked in her new friend?
Just then a stretcher was wheeled into the emergency room by a cluster of EMT's and medics. A redheaded woman breathed into a ventilator, with bags of saline dripping into a vein on one arm. "Molly!" Lucia gasped.
"She'll live," they said as they pushed her into position. "She wanted to see you..."
A pair of blue eyes fixed on Lucia, and they took the mask away. Weakly Molly reached a hand to Lucia across the gulf, till she was wheeled next to her roommate.
"You're one brave young woman," Chavez said, coming over to Molly and touching her shoulder.
"'Twas nothing... a friend wuild na ha done fer another," Molly shrugged.
"Did they take all the shrapnel out?" Lina asked. Molly glanced over at the new voice, confusion in her eyes.
"Aye they did. But who be ye?"
"Lina," said Maria Chavez. "She's new in town."
"Molly O'Keefe, you are a woman of many talents," said Lina carefully. "Maria and Lucia owe you more then you can imagine..."
"And how wuild ye be knowing that?" Molly asked, her eyes narrowing as she gazed at Lina.
"I know who you really are, Molly O'Keefe, or should I say, Banshee?" Lina winked. As Molly's mouth dropped open in protest, Lucia and Maria stared at Lina.
"It's okay," Lina said. "I know. And the secret is safe..."
"Banshee?" asked Lucia. "What has that to do with my weird dream? Did you really... put on a yard of hair... and two feet in height back there?"
Molly glanced at the three women, and said nothing as she gave a mischievous wink. Slowly she dropped into wearied sleep.
"Care to explain what that was about?" Lucia asked her aunt and Lina.
***
Later, Molly surfaced from the pits of sleep. Weakly she turned her head to regard her roomate, whspering, "Lucia.. I...."
Over her leaned Lucia, her arm wrapped in a sling. Softly she took her friend's hand, shushing her, "Shhh easy, Chica. Lina explained to us."
Molly's eyes widened at the sound of the unfamiliar name, "Lina?"
"The red haired knockout." Lucia indicated with a raised brow, tossing her head in the direction of where her aunt sat quietly with the other woman, who leaned her head on Chavez' shoulder. Lina was fast asleep next to Chavez, who was reading a magazine quietly.
"H… how did she know?" Molly asked, gripping her roomate's arm. Still her grasp was weak.
"Well, she's...hum... Demona's from another dimension. The one that Puck mimiced to fool Goliath, if I remember well."
Molly's look of shock and confusion rivaled Lucia's of a few hours before.
***
"So what is the Banshee exactly?" Maria Chavez asked, shifting the bag of groceries from one arm to the other. Lina grabbed the bag just before it toppled.
"A member of the Third Race…"
"Third Race?"
"There are gargoyles, humans, and the Eldrich. Those that tap into magic instead of technology. Elves, faires, gods, whatever they are, they are real. And they are all collectively known as the third race…"
"Wait, you mean elves really exist? Like in Aria?"
"Exactly," Lina nodded, when Chavez fished out her keys from her purse.
"So… let me get this straight. You said gods? Like Greek gods?"
"They too are members of the Third Race…"
"But where is this Third race today?"
"They live in a realm of magic, called Avalon. A mystical island that supplies them with their nascent magic…"
***
"Nooo!" Chavez screamed into the night. Sweat poured down her forehead in rivulets as she jerked awake. Around her the unforgiving night loomed with that same loneliness as before. Was she really awake to the reality that haunted her so many sleepless nights before.
Across the dark the red lights of her alarm clock flickered out 3AM. Memories fell into place once again. Out of the darkness came a winged shape, its eyes red as the clock's LED. A voice whispered, "Maria, are you all right? I heard you scream…"
"Lina…" Maria stammered out. Beside the bed the shape stopped, resting a twilight blue claw on Chavez' nightgowned shoulder. The large double bed seemed all too empty right now.
"What's wrong?"
"I had… a nightmare," Chavez glanced up at her. "I thought you would be asleep by now… but I guess that's stupid seeing you transform at night…"
"Not really. I was catchign the late night shows. Didn't really feel tired tonight. But are you all right?" Lina asked, and slipped an arm around Maria's shaking shoulders. The police chief was strugglign not to appear overly vulnerable to her.
"I'm fine… it's just an old dream…" Chavez sighed.
"No it's not okay. That scream I've heard before… the scream of a mother who has lost her child…"
"How do you…" Chavez asked.
"I've screamed it too many times," Lina explained, and nudged beside her to sit on the edge of the bed. Her hip was warm against Chavez, comforting.
"Why am I not surprised…."
"It's okay, you don't have to be strong all the time…" Lina felt herself saying. "Tell me about your daughter…"
"My daughter… it has been a long time…" Chavez said, glancing up at Lina. She fought back the tears that threatened to form in her green eyes.
"Tell me," Lina whispered. "Please…"
Gently Chavez stroked fingers through Lina's hair as Lina lay her head and shoulders on the older woman's lap. "It was a long time ago…"