Demona hadn't expected to do more than rest her eyes amid the comforting rocking of the small boat on the waves, but to her surprise, she had managed to fall into such a deep sleep that Goliath had to rouse her once they saw land. Anxious, and a little embarrassed at having fallen asleep in front of the others, she rose to her feet quickly and let her gaze rest on the unexpected, but familiar shoreline that was just beginning to show through the thick fog.
"I don't understand," she asked Goliath apprehensively, "Why haven't we returned to New York?"
"I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," Goliath explained as he gazed curiously at the sea cliffs above them, "When you leave Avalon, you don't have any say in where it sends you." She looked at the approaching scenery as if it was a nightmare closing in on her.
"And of all the places it might have taken us, we end up in this sorrowful place?"
"What do you mean?" Ophelia asked nervously, "What is this place?"
"It's home!" Lexington cried in amazement, "I mean, it was our home in Scotland."
With a silent sense of reverence, they beheld the place of their birth as the skiff drifted along the coastline.
"I do not wish to be here," Demona declared suddenly and sharply, "There has to be an easier route to get back to New York. Can we not return to Avalon and try again?"
"You don't understand," Goliath replied gently, "Avalon doesn't choose the destination at random. Avalon sends you where you need to be."
"Where we need to be?" she repeated, a tone of outrage rising in her voice, "According to whom, may I ask?"
"Well…I suppose, according to fate," Goliath replied with genuine uncertainty.
"Fate," she spat, "Fate can suck my tail!"
Lexington snorted with laughter at the sudden bout of vulgarity, then looked away apologetically, as Goliath shot him a look. Ophelia's eyes widened as she also struggled not to giggle.
"That is probably not the most productive attitude to have," Goliath replied, trying to remain sympathetic. He certainly understood her frustration, having endured an Avalonian quest that kept him from his home and his clan for several months.
"We need to return to Manhattan!" she replied adamantly, "There's no time for these games!"
"If Avalon has brought us here, there is a reason," Goliath explained, "If there's one thing we learned when-
"I don't much care to hear about whatever you think you've learned," she interrupted bitterly, and turning her back on him and the shoreline, she crouched down near the stern to glower at the wake left behind them.
Deciding not to pursue the argument, Goliath instructed the others to help row the skiff toward a rocky ledge at the base of one of the cliffs and haul it ashore. The ledge was covered with sediment left by the waves, and they pulled the skiff back into a notch and worked together to pull it to safety atop some boulders. Confident that the boat was safe there for the time being, they began to discuss what to do next. Still angry, Demona paced away from the others and crouched on a boulder. Goliath watched her silently as the two others discussed the idea of searching the area and reminiscing about their former home there.
"Please, Goliath?" Ophelia asked earnestly, "I'd love to see it! Would you show me?"
Goliath smiled at her and said, "Yes, you should see it. Why don't the two of you go explore while I stay here with Adelpha?" Ophelia looked noticeably disappointed that Goliath wouldn't go with them, but she was excited enough by the prospect of adventure that she agreed to go with Lexington. As the two of them ascended the cliff side, Goliath returned to the skiff to open the storage compartment in the hull, and removed the woven bag that the elders on Bain Felix had given to Demona. He carried it back to the boulder where Demona was pouting, and crouched beside her. She spoke to him with a cold resolution,
"When the dawn comes, I will go into the village and find a phone booth to call Xanatos. That way the clan will know that we are safe. I suspect he will come up with a plan to bring us all back to the city."
"Very well," Goliath replied, "And in the meantime-
"In the meantime, I'd just as soon stay on this rock."
"There is a reason Avalon sent us here," Goliath repeated.
"Nonsense."
"I know you are upset. I know you want to return to New York. I felt the same way the first time I left Avalon. Like you, I made plans to thwart our fate by finding another way back to the clan. But it wasn't long before I realized that every place the magic brought us, we were needed. I'm certain Avalon brought you here for a similar reason."
Demona sneered at his reasoning.
"How very convenient that Avalon's magic seems to look out for you that way. Such has never been my experience. You seem to forget that while you were taken on a voyage of heroism and life lessons, I was delivered into the arms of a psychopath, which I assure you I most certainly did not need!"
Goliath grimaced, recalling Thailog and all of his treachery.
"He hurt you," Goliath acknowledged, "I wish I'd done more to stop it."
"He hurt me," she admitted, "He humiliated me, used me, and broke me both physically and emotionally. And what, may I ask, was the greater purpose in all of that?"
Goliath sighed, but did not claim to know the answer. Demona turned away from him haughtily, enjoying the small victory, but the argument wasn't quite over in her head.
She didn't care to admit to Goliath how low Thailog had truly brought her, nor did she ever wish to share the horrific details of how he'd done it. She should have known better. She knew what it was to love and be loved, but she had been so desperate to reclaim even a piece of the happiness she'd once known with Goliath, that she accepted his cruel abuse as genuine affection and did his shameful bidding without complaint, in the hope of pleasing him. Thailog had only looked like Goliath due to his having been cloned from his genetic code. His soul possessed none of what she had once loved in her mate, and while she had managed to convince her own corrupt mind that this was a version of Goliath that could actually love her, her heart and body had known better. Thailog was not her mate, no matter how desperately she'd wanted to make him so.
"What was the great moral Avalon would have me learn from that ordeal?" she thought, remembering the humiliating night after she'd obediently married Macbeth, securing the fortune and resources that Thailog had wanted. She had boasted pridefully to Goliath of Thailog's supposed undying love for her, but she could not get the lies past Macbeth, who could sense her suffering and had known it was all a farce even before she could admit it to herself. Almost tauntingly, he had offered her the escape of death. He had most likely only meant to mock her, but his callous words had found her fully ready to die. She shuddered as she recalled that dark, desperate moment when she stood with her weapon aimed at her enemy, frantically unable to think of a single hope to live for. Detective Maza had fired on her before she had pulled the trigger, casting her into pain and darkness. A few moments later, when she rose from the agony and opened her eyes, hope was there before her once again in the form of her daughter, Angela.
Surprised by this realization, Demona considered all that had changed in that one single moment. She glanced over at Goliath and was relieved to see that he wasn't looking her way and hadn't noticed the change in her countenance. She wouldn't want to have to admit that he was right.
"What do you have that for?" she asked, suddenly noticing the bag in Goliath's claw. Goliath looked back at her, over his shoulder.
"I thought it might have to do with our purpose here," he explained as he opened the flap on the top and carefully removed the small book from it. Slowly, he scanned the pages while Demona watched, wondering what he was looking for. After several minutes of page turning, he settled on a page and spoke again.
"Not long ago, you told me that you regretted that you hadn't been able to say the proper rituals for our lost clan because you couldn't remember them. But here they are in this book."
"Now?" Demona stuttered, panic rising in her, "No. I…can't."
"Is this not what you wanted?" he asked her gently.
"It is, but, I don't think I…" Her voice trailed off, as she glanced up at the cliffs, her gaze finding the sea cave where she knew her slaughtered family had been laid to rest. Goliath placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Come," he directed as he placed the book back into the bag and strapped it to her arm, "Show me where you put them."
Reluctantly, she led him up the steep cliffside, trembling violently as she climbed. When they had gained enough height, she let go and they glided into a notch. She had half hoped that centuries of erosion would have distorted the cliffside to the point that she couldn't find the cave anymore, but she found she knew the way almost instinctively, as if the cave was calling to her. They landed on a crag that jutted out from the cliff, just below the entrance. There, Demona crouched and wept.
"I can't go in," she told Goliath when he came to her side to comfort her, "I haven't been able to since the night I left them there. Whenever I've tried to visit, I've never gotten further than this rock. I had to send Xanatos in to get the pieces for the Coldstone project. That's how we managed to get three different gargoyles trapped in one body…I'm sorry…I can't face them."
She'd expected him to scold her for her cowardice, but he didn't. Instead, he settled himself on a piece of the crag just above her, and looked out at the sea thoughtfully.
"Then who will recite the rituals for them?" he asked after a while. She looked up at him. His voice sounded mournful and his expression was one of consternation.
"You?" she asked, as if the answer was obvious.
"Perhaps I am also unable to enter this place alone," he suggested sorrowfully.
"Why not?" she asked, "It's a different story for you. You don't carry the guilt I do."
"Was I not their leader?" he asked, his voice rising irritably above the sound of the wind, "Did I not fail to protect them? Did I not also abandon them in my grief?"
Demona was astounded to hear Goliath confess these thoughts. Even though she had accused him herself, in pathetic attempts to deflect some of her own well-earned disgrace, she had never once considered the possibility that Goliath felt any guilt about what had happened to their clan. Now she inched up closer to him and laid her claw on his knee.
"None of this was your doing," she assured him, "As you said, it was all because of me."
"Not all," he replied, placing his own claw on her hair and drawing her closer.
For some time, they remained that way together. The same rocks that had stood around them like guards as they played in childhood, now sheltered them in their mourning. Only feet away, remained the task which they both dreaded in a sense, but knew must be done in the name of love and justice.
It was Goliath who rose first.
"I need you," he said simply as he began to climb into the opening of the cave. Quickly, and without another word of protest, she rose to her feet, wiped away her tears, and followed him.