With a loud roar, Goliath broke free of his stone skin and stretched.
Blinking, he looked around and realized that he was not home. Not his home.
He had gone into his stone hibernation in the courtyard of his and Elisa's home… and woke in the great hall of the castle. He looked around and spotted the rest of the clan, all of them, who were all similarly confused.
Every light in the room was blazing to make up for the fact that all of the windows had been covered. The great hall was one of the few rooms from the castle that had been kept in its original state, so there were no glass windows. There were two large fireplaces, one at each end, that even in the coldest of winter nights kept the room warm enough that actual window coverings were rarely needed.
Tonight, however, all the windows were covered with thick leather coverings, reminiscent of the ancient times the castle had been built in. Despite the coverings, an odd smell permeated the air from the outside.
"What has happened?" Angela spoke the thought that everyone was thinking.
"I do not know…" Goliath trailed off.
"Well, we'd better find out," Brooklyn stated. Concern was clearly etched on his face.
The large wooden doors at the entrance of the room opened, and Owen walked in.
"Hey, Laddie," Hudson called out in his thick scottish brogue. "Ye mind tellin' us why we are in here?"
"Of course," Owen said. "Mr Xanatos is on his way. He was finalizing security plans with his team, but is on his way back up to the castle now."
"Security plans?" Brooklyn was taken aback.
"What kind of security plans?" Goliath asked, suspicious. He may not be the official clan leader anymore, but this was still his clan. His family.
Why was he here, and not at his home with Elisa and Liam? Were they here as well? As that thought registered, he found himself looking wildly around the room.
Owen must have seen Goliath's searching gaze. "I assure you that the children are all fine." He said in his usual monotone voice.
"What happened?" Brooklyn asked. Something was not right here, and Owen was not going to give up information without being asked direct questions. Even then, he may not give direct answers.
Owen, for the first time in any of their memories, looked uncomfortable. "I ask you to be patient for a few more moments. Mr. Xanatos will tell you everything."
"Where is Elisa?" Goliath asked harshly. "Where is my son?"
"I can assure you that your son is fine," Owen hurried to say. "Elisa sent him here, to the castle, earlier today. After a visit with Dr. James here in the medical wing, where he was pronounced healthy enough to be able to play with the other children. He was given a room to nap in this afternoon and woke up feeling fine."
"Daddy!" came a small voice from the other end of the room. Goliath turned and spotted the small form of his adopted son moments before the child flung himself into his father's arms.
Goliath held his son close, sharing a concerned look with the clan before turning back to Owen. "Where is Elisa?"
"Mommy had to go help, dad," Liam said.
"Help?" Goliath asked, trying to coax the information from his son. "Help where?"
"I don't know," the boy admitted. "There was a lot of noise, and mom was scared. Mrs. Fitzgerald from downstairs was going to bring me here so that mom could go to work, but Owen came and drove us here."
Goliath gently set his son down and turned back to Owen. "Where. Is. Elisa?"
"Goliath," David Xanatos called from the doors. He strolled in with his usual confident air, but even that seemed off tonight. Fox Xanatos, his flame haired wife, followed behind him.
There was almost a visible aura of tension coming from the pair.
Goliath growled in frustration. "Will no one answer me?" His eyes began to glow under the force of his growing anger. "What has happened, and where is Elisa?"
"Goliath," Fox interjected, "I know that it is not in your nature, but I am going to ask you to be patient with us. It has been a long, difficult day, and we want you to have all of the information possible before you… Any of you," She looked to the entire clan where they stood in a half circle around their large comrade. "rush off into a situation that is already difficult enough for this city."
Goliath forced himself to take a deep breath. "Fine. Now, tell us."
Fox placed her hand on her husband's arm. "I will take Liam to the playroom where he can play with the other kids. Be patient," She ordered, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
Liam hurried over to his father, clutching him around one of his legs. "I want to stay with daddy."
Fox knelt down so that she was able to meet Liam's eyes. "I know, buddy. But right now, your daddy needs to go to work like your mommy."
Liam's eyes filled and he clung to his father a little tighter. "But what if he doesn't come home like mommy?"
Every clan member's attention swung towards the small human child. Did he know something that they hadn't been told yet?
Fox could sense the atmosphere change, and did her best to reassure everyone at once. "Your mommy's not here, because she's busy. We could hear from her at any moment, sweetie. Come on," She held out her hand. "Alex just got a hold of a new car racing game yesterday. Want to try it out?"
Liam looked suspicious. "Can we have some hot cocoa?"
Fox smiled, "How's your tummy?"
"Better," Liam insisted.
"O.K. We will give some hot cocoa a try."
"Dad?" Liam, excited at the prospect of the warm chocolate treat and a new game, still sought the approval of his father.
Goliath forced a small smile and nodded his agreement.
Liam reached out and took Fox's hand. He turned and waved goodbye to his father on the way out of the door.
Once the child was gone, attention once more turned to Xanatos.
"I will ask your patience on this, while I explain." Xanatos stated. "It has been a hard day for all of us, and I will do my best to get you caught up." He motioned for the clan to follow him. "Come this way."
The clan followed in silence, the only sound in the hallways was the tapping of talons against the stone as they filed down the hallway.
Xanatos led them to the media room, a large room that he had set up with numerous large screened televisions so that he could keep an eye on world events. For the first time since he had spent the day there, every television tuned to different station around the world. It had been a hive of activity, with Xanatos taking action to protect everyone in his care. His family, the clan and all of the employees in the building.
Once the sun went down, in deference to the clan and their reactions, he had thought ahead to turn the televisions off. He had been afraid to hit them with too much information too quickly.
The silence was deafening.
Xanatos leaned against the arm of the oversized leather chair, the only real piece of furniture in the room, and crossed his arms. He had spent a good part of the day trying to formulate how to start this conversation in his head. The later it got, with no word from Detective Maza, the more he dreaded the moment that the clan would awaken. Now that the moment was here, he decided that the direct approach would be best.
"Just before nine o'clock this morning, an airplane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center," He started, and proceeded to tell them the events of the day. He didn't soften the truth, but he didn't dramatize it either. He stuck to the facts that they knew and avoided the topic of who was at fault. It wouldn't do to point fingers, since that part was still unclear. All speculation would serve to do would be to rile the clan up, and that would help no one.
"Telephone communication is still pretty unreliable, and the cell towers are busy handling millions of phone calls." Xanatos said, trying to add a measure of comfort to the stunned clan. "Any attempts to contact Elisa through the communicators have also proven ineffective as well. As far as we can tell, Elisa may not have thought to take one of the clan communicators when she left home. We can't even guarantee that they would work right now with all of the radio, cell reception and electrical issues, anyhow."
"Has anyone heard from her?" Angela asked.
Xanatos shook his head. "No one has been able to get a hold of her, and she has not returned to her station. She has not stopped to check in with her captain, and while she did have her police radio on her, the radios are full of police, fire and emergency calls, so her call or response may have been missed."
Brooklyn and Goliath shared a look. This was something out of their worst nightmares.
"Perhaps it is time for us to see for ourselves," Goliath stated.
Xanatos nodded his understanding. He was vaguely impressed that Goliath was not tearing the castle apart in anger. The Gods only knew that that is exactly what he would be doing if the situation were reversed and the woman he loved was missing.
"Let's go out to the parapets," Xanatos suggested. "It may help for you to actually see it yourself, so that you could understand better what has happened."
Once again, Xantos found himself leading the way. The gargoyles wanted to know what they were dealing with, yet were afraid of what they were going to see.
He could understand only too well. He had been watching the situation all day, and was still having his own problems believing it all. When the first plane had hit, he had mobilized his security department and his iron clan around the building. When the second plane had hit, and it was obvious that this had been deliberate and not accidental, Xanatos had been grateful for Puck to come out and play. He sent Puck to go get Elisa, Liam and Goliath. When Elisa didn't come, but was sending another woman, Puck had had to improvise. He had donned his 'Owen' facade and created the illusion of a car to get the humans to safety. Once he had returned to the building, he had snapped his fingers and transported all of the gargoyles, Goliath included, inside the safety of the castle.
Xanatos had given orders to his security people to lock down the building, no one in or out without identification. The iron clan had been given the task to do whatever they needed to do to protect the castle and those within it.
Bracing one hand on each of the double doors leading outside, Xanatos took a steadying breath before pushing them open.
The Gargoyles instantly and involuntarily took a step backward. The smells hit them first. The smell of the fire and smoke mixed with the smell of the concrete dust and a trace of scorched metal.
Most of the clan had been alive during the viking attack that had left many of the castle's inner buildings on fire and most of the clan in stone pieces.
When the smell hit his nostrils, Goliath reeled back instinctively. The smell bringing back horrific memories of the original Wyvern Clan, and their ultimate destruction from betrayal. The clan had been reduced to dust while they slept during the day, the holdings in the castle courtyard burned to ash.
This smelled similar to that time, and it brought forth memories that none of them wanted to see repeated.
Goliath was the first to step forward. There, in the distance, was still a large plume of smoke rising. There was a lot of lights that had been set up in that area, otherwise the city was oddly quiet. There was no traffic noise, no people or auto noises were filling the night with its usual buzz. Even the buildings that were usually still brightly lit this early in the evening seemed abandoned.
"They're gone," Angela said, her voice catching. "They're really gone." Turning, she buried her head in Broadway's chest.
Broadway held her protectively, as he stared at where the two towers of glass and stone had stood only the night before. Having Xanatos tell them what had happened, and actually seeing it was something different altogether. While he was angered over the events of the day, he was also concerned with his mate's well being. She was due to deliver any day, and any upset was not good for her. Turning, he led his sobbing mate back inside.
Hudson laid a hand on Bronx's back and hung his head in sorrow. He had the most experience living in times of war, and had a more realistic idea of the loss of life that had occurred that day… and would still happen in the retaliation against who was responsible for this atrocity.
Lexington had hopped onto one of the outcroppings of the castle to be able to see for himself, stunned at the destruction that had hit their city.
Brooklyn leaned against the waist-high wall, his fists clenched and eyes lighting in his fury. "Who did this?" he snarled.
Xanatos had been staying back, letting them absorb what they were seeing. He stepped forward now.
"We don't exactly know," he admitted. "There are theories and accusations being thrown around right now, but we don't know for sure who is responsible."
"What do you know?" Brooklyn snapped.
"I know that there were at least four planes that were hijacked today," Xanatos said. "Two collided with the two towers, one hit the Pentagon in Washington DC and the final plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. If there were going to be more, we don't know. The government shut down airports and grounded flights after it became known what was happening, so if there were going to be more planes used as weapons, they didn't have the chance."
Goliath stood, stoic as ever. His eyes were glowing a luminous white, the only outward show of his emotions. Someone had attacked his protectorate. Someone had threatened the safety of his friends and family. His wife was down there somewhere, he knew. She would not be able to stay out of the way if she thought she would be able to help, and he could only pray to the Gods that she was unharmed.
And all of this during the daylight, when they were unable to do anything.
"David!"
The raised female voice caught all of their attention.
"Fox," Xanatos said, turning to face her. "What happened?"
"I think I just saw Elisa," She said excitedly. "I think I caught a glimpse on the news!"
Together, the clan and the Xanatos' all hurried back inside. Goliath led the way this time, having outrun everyone in his haste to find out something about his wife.
"Please let her be alive and unhurt," He begged whatever deities were listening.
He was scanning the many television screens, searching for any sign of Elisa, when Fox finally got back to the room.
"Damn, I forgot to pause it," she reached out and snatched up the remote control. Images started flying by on the screen in reverse as she searched for the news clip. "Here it is," she said, pressing play. The images were once again in their proper forward motions.
The newscaster was talking about the search and rescue efforts. All fire, police and medical personnel available where there. There were people coming from outside of New York to help as well. Other cities and states were sending volunteers, some coming from as far away as Canada.
"There!" Lexington said, pointing to the left side of the screen.
Fox paused the scene and backed up once more, slowly, frame by frame. "There," She announces, happy to finally find it again.
Goliath felt a spark of relief. There was a woman, hair and skin color lightened by the white dust coating her and the others, but it certainly looked like her. She wasn't wearing her familiar red leather coat, and it was only in a side profile, but it resembled their Elisa enough that Goliath grasped that image and held onto it.
Fox pressed play again, and now that everyone was focused only on the woman, they saw her pull out a small phone and start dialing before the camera panned past her.
She had been trying to call. She was not hurt, and she was not deliberately trying to keep them out of contact.
She was alive.
"Unfortunately," Fox admitted, "This is not a live newscast."
"Judging by the surroundings," Xanatos pointed out, "That must have been sometime around 5 o'clock."
"How can you tell?" Lexington asked.
Xanatos tapped the television image of a building in the background. "That is building seven of the World Trade Center. It was heavily damaged from falling debris and fire. It collapsed a little after five o'clock."
"And no one has gotten a phone call from her?" Lexington asked, concerned.
"No," Xanatos said. "I have left strict instructions with everyone in the building that any phone call from Detective Maza were to be transferred to my personal cell phone immediately."
Lexington frowned. "The cell phone towers and circuits must be completely swamped for the calls not to be going through."
"Everyone in the city is trying to call their friends and family at the same time." Fox said. "Even if she had her communicator, I'm not sure it would have the power to go through with all of the transmission issues and radio disruptions that are happening down there."
"We have to go help," Broadway said grimly from the doorway.
"Angela?" Goliath made the name a question. He had been unable to comfort his eldest daughter, but she had her mate to lean on.
Broadway shrugged. "She is upset, but Dr James says that he will keep an eye on her. I asked her to stay here and watch over the children."
Goliath nodded in agreement, placing a firm hand on Broadway's shoulders. "Thank you, my friend."
Broadway placed his hand briefly over Goliath's, then dropped it back to his side.
"I'll stay here and see if I can't boost the reception of Elisa's communicator and cell connection to the castle." Lexington offered.
"Can you do that?" Brooklyn asked.
Lexington shrugged. "Sure. I already boosted it once, when she was having problems with her phone connection while in the Labyrinth. I wanted to make sure that it could connect clearer from anywhere."
"You are freaking brilliant," Brooklyn said, forgetting for a moment about the tragic events that surrounded them.
"Just get going," Lexington said, heading for the door. "I will do what I can here. Take an extra communicator with you and give it to Elisa. I will keep an ear out for her call."
Xanatos broke in. "I will take it to her."
Goliath snarled, but Xanatos cut him off. "People down there are scared, Goliath. Airplanes and helicopters are grounded, so anything strange in the skies are going to be shot at. I know asking you all to stay here is useless, but I will ask you to stay to the rooftops and away from the World Trade Center. For now."
Xanatos was seeing his words getting through, and hurried to assure him, "I am going to go down there myself, with my iron clan suit to help where I can. I will look for Elisa, and pass her the communicator for you so that you can talk to her yourself."
"He is right, Lad," Hudson said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. Goliath didn't like it, and Hudson couldn't blame him, but he had to see reason before running off into an unknown situation.
"Alright," Goliath sighed. He did understand, but he needed to hear her voice. He needed to see her.
"I will leave now that I have seen and spoken to you. I will find her, Goliath." He said, firmly.
With that, he turned and disappeared down the hall.
Goliath turned to the television once more, looking at that small female figure on the television. Please be alive, he pleaded.