Gargoyles and The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Walt Disney/Buena Vista. No copyright infringement is intended. Thank you very much to Samuel B. for his beta-reading.

Seeing Jasmine isn't believing, part 5

Castle Wyvern

Elisa burst into the Great Hall, followed by Matt Bluestone, who was panting. Goliath was giving instructions to his clan. Without a word, the raven-haired detective threw her arms around her boyfriend's neck. He hugged her back. No word was needed. He knew it was her: she looked and smelled as if she had spent a few days with no bed, no friends and no bathroom but her eyes were hers again and she acted like her real self.

They finally loosened their hug. Elisa noticed Taurus and nodded at him. She just didn't want to break from the embrace: she had been feeling so alone! She realised then that Bronx was trying to lick her hand, happy to see her back, and she patted his head. At least something was normal again.

"Good te see you again, lass," Hudson eventually said, breaking the silence.

"Good to see you all." She stepped back and looked at the clan. She saw with relief that they were all apparently unharmed. Broadway stepped forward to hug her too and one second later, she was locked in a multiple hug involving several pairs of arms and wings. She could hardly breath. "Stop this now or you are going to kill me!" she laughed.

"You need a good wash," Angela noticed.

"I know." She finally managed to break free from their hugs. "The clones have, err, hatched. They cannot be far from the clock tower. But apparently, their IQ is close to the Labyrinth clones. I'd better arrest them now before Proteus find them and uses them."

"You stay here", Goliath said tenderly, his arms still around her.

"Goliath!" Elisa protested. And then she realised that tired as she was and with no wings to glide with, she wouldn't be able to help them. So she watched Goliath giving out orders to the rest of the clan. "Matt, can I use your mobile phone again?" she asked her partner. "I just want to know if my parents are all right."

OoOoOOoo

"Do the Cyclops again!" Proteus ordered.

The clones all turned into Cyclops, except one, who still had two eyes. Then one of them changed color and became pink-skinned. The other ones laughed and also chose fantastic skin colors, like banana-yellow with purple streaks or electric blue with orange dots. "I won, I won!" shouted one of them, who was wearing a complicated rainbow pattern. "I am the funniest one!"

"I am the funniest one!" one of them protested before turning into a clown. "Am I not beautiful?"

Proteus had never felt that enraged. It was the scientist's fault; he had fooled him! But he was going to kill him, along with that human policewoman, and he would feel better later. "Wait for me here, clones!" he shouted. "If you are still here when I'm back, I… will give you a wonderful present."

The clones all clapped excitedly, sat down and started another game.

OoOoOOoo

It was dark inside the clock tower. Proteus peered inside and saw something moving inside Elisa's cage. He was going to kill her now. No, he was going to tell her exactly how he was going to kill her, to see the fear in her eyes, to listen to her begging for mercy and to kill her slowly. That would be sweet. Very sweet.

He was only a few meters away from the cage when he realised that it was too big to be the human and he only had time to avoid Taurus's force field cell. Enraged, he turned into a giant just before three gargoyles attacked him, eyes glowing. He knew he couldn't stand for very long: sooner or later, Taurus, that human-lover, his daughter and the old one would get the upper hand. Better using trickery.

He turned into the girl, as she was obviously the less experienced fighter, and attacked her. Surprised, she didn't react very fast but then she regained her self control. The other were watching them with worried eyes.

"Father, it's me!" one of the two 'Angelas' shouted.

"It's me! Don't listen to him! Remember what he did to Elisa!"

Taurus pointed his weapon on them and one second later, they were both in a force-field cell. This time he had brought several of them with him, and Proteus hadn't anticipated this move. "Great!" one 'Angela' said. "Now, free me!"

"Free me!" the other one shouted.

Goliath and Hudson exchanged a look. "Aye, you'll have to prove us which of you is the real Angela," the elder one said.

"Ask me a question," one of them suggested.

Hudson thought about. "Well, one minute ago, one of you was mentioning Elisa. Can you tell me what kind of relationship there is between her and Goliath?"

"They are a couple," they both said very fast.

"And you don't mind it?" the brown gargoyle insisted.

"Of course not!" 'Angela' said. "I want him to be happy," the other one added.

"Even though your poor mother is dead and he seems to have forgotten her so fast?"

"I know my mother is dead and nothing on Earth could bring her back but it's not what matters" a gargess protested.

The other one laughed. "My mother is not dead, she's immortal! Free me now, you know who's who."

"It's her, she's Angela," Goliath explained while Taurus was wondering what she meant by "my mother is immortal." He freed her from the cell and Proteus turned back into his true form and forced himself to laugh.

"Poor fools, I'm a clone! Proteus is free, somewhere in this city, free me and I'll tell you where he is!"

"Nice try, but it doesn't work!" the minotaur retorted.

"Oh, you think you won? All the little clones are now causing mayhem in New York City. We New Olympians don't care about those humans but I would be very worried if I were a gargoyle with them on my protectorate."

Taurus didn't think about very much. "Do you know a safe place where I could lock him until we leave?"

"You want to help us?" Goliath asked. It was surprising. Taurus had Proteus now: logically, any human-hater in his situation would have left New-York City as soon as possible.

"It's my duty as a protector of New Olympus: I'm responsible of anything that escapes from it" he explained while glaring at Proteus. And I shouldn't have let Proteus fool me…

OoOoOOoo

The Trio landed on a rooftop and looked around. Broadway was carrying Bronx: the situation of emergency was allowing it. Lexington looked down and sighed. "A Quarrymen meeting just now and evil clones. We're just not lucky."

"Yeah, just add Demona and the situation is just perfect," Brooklyn added ironically.

"What do we do now?" Broadway asked.

The red gargoyle didn't really like when he had to act as the leader. But he had to. "They are probably still in the area of the clock tower. Let's look for anything abnormal."

Bronx ran to the edge of the building and growled. The three young gargoyles followed his look and saw what looked like children playing with a ball on a rooftop. "Their parents let them play in that place?" Broadway wondered. "Seems a bit dangerous."

"They are a bit too big for being children" Lex noticed. Brooklyn took the binoculars they had brought with them, watched the group through them and sighed.

"Jalapeña, we found them!"

OoOoOOoo

The clones were having the time of their lives. They had never played with a ball before, and it was very funny. They hardly noticed that a group of flying creatures was approaching them. A bark made them jump and a clone dropped the ball, which turned into another clone. "Why did you do that?" the latter asked angrily.

"Look! A doggy!"

They all ran to Bronx and patted him on the head and the back. The Trio had the shock of their lives when they saw Bronx licking the clones' faces. He seemed to like them, and the gargoyle beast had practically never failed to identify an enemy of the clan. So these clones were not enemies?"

"Is the doggy yours?" a clone asked Brooklyn.

"Well… his name is Bronx and he is not a 'doggy'" the beaked gargoyle corrected while his rookery brothers were staring at two other clones, who had just turned into strangely colored versions of themselves.

"Do you want to play with us?"

"What?"

"Play! I count up to three and you all turn into ten different things and the one who cannot become ten different things is a big pinhead!"

"I want another game!" another clone protested.

"We've been playing your game for a very, very long time", a third one retorted. "Now I choose the game."

"Do you think we looked that way when we were hatchlings?" Lex asked in dismay. "We've never been that…"

He was hesitating between 'silly' and 'ridiculous'. Unfortunately, one of the clones had been slightly more spoiled as to the brains than the others. He frowned when he heard him. "Hatchlings? I heard humans don't hatch. You are not humans?"

"No, we are gargoyles!" Broadway said without thinking.

There was a long moment of silence. The clones had been told not long ago that gargoyles were monsters and they were feeling like children who think they have just spotted a vampire in their bedrooms. A clone started crying in fear and another one patted him on the back. "You are not going to attack us!" a third one stated childishly. "We are strong, dangerous things and we are going to thrash you!"

"Attacking you? Why? You don't prefer another game?" Brooklyn suggested.

"I want my mommy!" the crying clone whimpered.

"We will find your mommy," Broadway promised while another clone started crying, too. Bronx starting licking his face and the clone hugged him. The green gargoyle had an idea. "You like him, don't you?"

"Yeah, good doggie."

"And he likes you too. But he's not a doggie. He's a gargoyle beast."

The clones thought hard. This nice doggie was a gargoyle. But gargoyles were supposed to be evil. But this gargoyle was nice, undoubtedly. But Proteus had told them that gargoyles were all evil…

So Proteus had been lying. It was really disturbing. If he was a liar, who could they trust?

"So you four are gargoyles?" the stupidest clone asked.

"Yes, we are," Lexington explained patiently with the feeling he was talking to baby Alex.

"And downstairs, there are humans?" he asked again while glancing at the Quarrymen.

"No, they are Quarrymen, nasty beings."

"Nasty beings," he repeated. "Not good. I want to attack the Quarrymen."

"I want it too!" another clone added.

The three gargoyles exchanged looks. "I would have never thought I'd say something like that one day but we cannot let them do that," Brooklyn mumbled. "We have to… protect the Quarrymen from them!"

"What about playing another game, kids?" Broadway suggested in a faint voice.

OoOoOOoo

The same rooftop, one hour later

The Trio were apparently exhausted when Taurus, Goliath, Hudson and Angela found them. Bronx, who had been carrying the 'kids' on his back practically without a pause, seemed about to collapse. The clones themselves looked calmer. "Hello, do you want to play with us?" one of them asked.

The New Olympian was about to fire his weapon on them. The aqua gargoyle protested. "No, they are not dangerous! I mean, they are not deadly…"

"Are you my mommy?" a clone asked Angela.

Explanations ensued, everyone avoiding pronouncing the name of Proteus, as nobody knew how the clones could react to it. He was about to be sent back to New Olympus. But there was another problem. What could they do with the clones?

"We cannot keep them in the castle", Goliath said thoughtfully.

"In New Olympus, we have special services for mentally disabled people", Taurus reassured him. "They will teach them to work for the community, and to use…"

"Are you my daddy?" a clone asked him.

His daddy? The minotaur felt sick. This creature's 'father' had killed his own father! He had also tried to destroy New Olympus, recently killed two innocent dryads in cold blood… And someone who looked like him wanted to call him 'Daddy!'

Well, after all, it was not their fault if they had been 'fathered' by a mad murderer.

"I'm not your daddy. But I'm going to take you to your new home."

OoOoOOoo

A few hours later, Proteus was locked back in his cell in New Olympus. The six clones were left in the social services' care. Nobody in New York City ever heard of them again.

In New Olympus, people finally got used to having doubles of a dangerous murderer behaving like children around them.

A few days later, in prison, Anton Sevarius was told that he had a visit. He jumped when he saw Elisa Maza. She guessed what he was thinking. "It's me. Not the 'beautiful specimen' again," she reassured him.

"Oh. You came to scoff at me?" he asked.

"No. In fact, I came to thank you for, well, having made the copies less dangerous than the original."

Sevarius grinned. "And in those working conditions, determining the subjects' mindsets was not an easy task!" he said proudly.

"I know. What did you tell the police exactly?"

"Why? You're worried about your winged friends?"

She frowned. "You accused the gargoyles?"

"What else could I do? I couldn't tell that I had kidnapped myself!"

Elisa sighed inwardly. It was going on again. Every time she had the feeling things were going better for her and the clan, her hopes were dashed. "You cannot prove that a gargoyle attacked you," she objected.

"You cannot prove that the thing that attacked me was not a gargoyle!"

Elisa clenched her fists. "Well, I hope you enjoy the place where you are because you are going to stay here for a very long time."

"Hey, I made silly clones to help you, can't you help me too?" he pleaded.

She laughed and left the room.

The end.