"Hey! HEY!" Elisa shouted loudly, in a voice that had many years experience of telling drunk, crazy, and frantic people to shut up and listen, "Everyone calm down!"
"Goliath!" Lexington urged, "Elisa mustn't hear this! Who knows what will happen!" Goliath nodded his agreement and to Elisa's chagrin, he insisted that she take the rest of the clan and wait for them in the dining room. Beloved Mother and her party looked quite concerned and confused at the outburst.
"What is wrong?" the elder asked emotionally, "Has something happened?"
"Please explain," Goliath asked of the interpreter, "Some of our clan were involved in an incident while on their patrol. But we are safe for the time being and there is nothing to worry about. I need to discuss the situation with my charges, but dinner will be served in the dining room shortly."
The interpreter obeyed, though he looked very worried that what he was saying was not the full truth. Beloved Mother nodded her head confidently and clasped Goliath's claw in her own.
"Yes! We will wait for you!" she replied, and to Brooklyn she said gently, "It will be alright for you. You must trust your clan! Do not fear!"
Brooklyn lowered his head as the guests followed Elisa and the remainder of the clan through the courtyard and toward the dining room, leaving Goliath alone with the trio.
Though he still fumed with anger, he was not so enraged that he was spared the embarrassment for the disturbing, and frankly petulant, way he had flown off the handle. He had disrespected his the clan's leader, shamed himself in front of the entire clan and their guests, and though he suspected she would never care to admit it, he knew his words had hurt Adelpha unnecessarily. The Beloved Mother's well-meaning words of encouragement rang more like a harsh admonishment in his mind.
"Brooklyn," Goliath began in a low voice with a hint of a growl in it.
"I know," Brooklyn replied morosely.
"You know what?" Goliath asked, somewhat taken aback at his curt response.
"I shouldn't have come for Adelpha. She did nothing wrong," Brooklyn admitted begrudgingly, "I will talk to her and apologize."
Goliath nodded in agreement.
"I trust you will," he replied simply.
"I don't feel particularly trusted at the moment," Brooklyn retorted scornfully and Goliath sighed.
"It's not like that Brooklyn!" Lexington tried to explain, "We didn't keep it from you because we didn't trust you. We didn't have a-
"Lexington," Goliath interrupted sternly and Lexington stopped, shaking his head at the injustice of Brooklyn's misplaced anger. Then he turned back to the Brooklyn.
"Brooklyn, I would trust you with my own life," Goliath told him, "Moreover, I trust you with the lives of all I love. Surely, you know how I trust you?"
Now even more ashamed, Brooklyn nodded. He didn't know what to say. He felt entirely ridiculous.
"I'm glad to hear that!," Goliath replied with genuine relief, "But Brooklyn, do you not trust me?"
Brooklyn looked up in surprise.
"Of course I do!" he cried defensively.
"And Lexington?" Goliath asked, "Has he not proven himself trustworthy?"
Brooklyn glanced at his brother who glared back at him with his arms crossed impatiently.
"Of course you are, Lex," he replied sheepishly, "I feel like an idiot. Obviously, if you felt you couldn't tell me, there had to be a reason."
"There is a reason," Goliath confirmed, "A secret was revealed to Adelpha, Lexington, and me. We all took a vow that we would never share it, and we have reason to believe that to betray that vow would result in a catastrophe, and could risk the lives of all our human friends."
"But…how?" Brooklyn asked, though his mind immediately went to the formidable Striker, who had threatened and roughed them up with so little concern. Brooklyn couldn't put it past this menacing character to do harm to humans or anyone who opposed him.
"I'm sorry, Lex," Brooklyn said genuinely, "I was a jerk."
"Yeah, a little," Lexington replied, "But I kind of understand."
"If it makes you feel better," Broadway interjected with a voice of consolation, "I was pretty confused too."
"I shouldn't have lost it on you guys," Brooklyn declared resolutely, "Or Adelpha. I'm sorry."
"It's all forgiven, Brooklyn," Goliath assured him, "Now tell me what happened."
Brooklyn explained what they had gone to the harbor to try to do and how the mysterious gargoyles had gotten their attention and lured them into a trap. He told them how Striker had taken Lexington away to talk in private.
"He'll have to tell you what Striker said," Brooklyn explained with a glance at Lexington. Lexington shrugged in response.
"Show him the box," he suggested and Brooklyn handed it to Goliath.
"I already tried to open it," Brooklyn told him, "But I couldn't unlatch it or even break it open. It must have a spell on it or something! Sorrow knew I wouldn't be able to open it though. She told me so before I left. She said it was meant for Xanatos."
"For Xanatos?" Goliath repeated with a frown.
"That's what Striker said too," Lexington confirmed.
"I'm not sure I'm prepared to hand this over to Xanatos, knowing where it came from," Goliath said with obvious concern, "Not until we know what's in it."
"But, wait!" Brooklyn said in a suddenly enthusiastic tone, "This is good news, isn't it? If Sorrow is with Striker's clan, then she isn't the fugitive that Beloved Mother is looking for, right?"
"Errr…" Lexington mumbled uncertainly, "I'm not sure I would come to that conclusion."
"Well, it makes sense doesn't it? Striker knew about her and knew that she was in the castle with us and we were holding her against her will. And he was the one who had the box she was looking for. It seems to me that there's a good chance that she has nothing to do with the Mountain Clan at all!"
Lexington gave Goliath a skeptical look.
"I think it is time we find out for certain," Goliath told them.
"Yes," Brooklyn agreed cheerfully, "Ask Beloved Mother. I bet she's never seen her before! I knew Sorrow wasn't a murderer!"
"Come," Goliath said uncertainly, "Let us ask her."
The four warriors found the rest of the clan in the dining room, all still looking at bit apprehensive as they began to half-heartedly pick into a smorgasbord of pizzas that were laid out for them.
After Brooklyn took a moment to apologize for his outburst and he and Goliath both assured everyone that there was no crisis situation going on, they called Beloved Mother aside. Goliath explained that they had captured an unknown aggressive rogue that they thought might belong to her clan. Goliath showed her the long, thin box, and to Brooklyn's relief, she did not recognize it or know how to open it. But when Lexington showed her security footage of Sorrow in the holding cell, both she and her interpreter gasped.
Brooklyn felt his heart sink as he watched the two elders take Lexington's tablet and enlarge the video so they could see the identifying pattern on her wings and be certain, but he could already see in their eyes that Sorrow was, indeed, their fugitive. Now, Beloved Mother was speaking rapidly to the two guards, their faces a mixture of hope and anger. He knew their next move would be to try to question Sorrow and force out of her what she did with the missing hatchlings and though he couldn't explain why, this thought raised a great anxiety in him.
"Goliath," Brooklyn told him boldly, "I don't think it's a good idea to let them go bombarding in there. I don't think she will tell them anything."
Goliath glanced at the four mountain clan gargoyles, whose bodies and voices seemed to be swelling with the fury and urgency of what was to come.
"I think you may have a point," he agreed in a low voice meant only for Brooklyn to hear, "A calm approach may be imperative to getting those children back alive. But what would you say to her, to convince her to give up this information?"
Brooklyn considered this crucial question over the rising voices of the mountain clan, who were now chomping at the bit to face the criminal who had betrayed them and stolen their children. Brooklyn turned to the clan's interpreter and addressed him and the Beloved Mother.
"I've been speaking with this prisoner and I think I may have garnered some trust in her. We locked her up initially because she was so aggressive, we thought she had gone insane from living as a rogue."
"She must be insane!" the interpreter agreed, "Only one consumed by madness could commit such monstrous crimes!"
"There was a point where she spoke reasonably to me. She told me she didn't care for her life or what happened to her. And when she was wild and in a rage, she seemed to care even less. I don't think we will ever beat this information from her."
The interpreter's face fell at this statement, as did the leader's when he translated it to her. Brooklyn glanced at Goliath again, who was watching him with curiosity.
"Then what can we do?" the interpreter asked in dismay, "How will we get our hatchlings back?"
Brooklyn took a breath.
"I propose that I go in there with something to offer her in return. Something that she would care about. She has told me that she would prefer death to being handed over to your clan."
This statement incited several snarls of outrage.
"She would not face justice for her crimes?" the interpreter asked bitterly, and the others made statements in their own language that sounded of disgust and disapproval.
"We have the capacity to imprison her here," Brooklyn told them pragmatically, "We can design a cell for her that will ensure that she can not escape and will never cause harm to your clan, or anyone else, again."
Brooklyn glanced at his own leader again, realizing that he was taking some liberty with what he offered. To his relief, Goliath nodded his approval.
"I believe that there is a good chance that the prisoner might agree to telling us where the hatchlings are, if I am allowed to promise her in return that we will not hand her over to you."
The elderly clan leader studied Brooklyn carefully, seeming to consider this offer. After a tense moment, she stepped forward, placing her claw on his shoulder. Her translator spoke for her.
"It is a great responsibility you take on for our sake, Brother Brooklyn. We cannot thank you enough. We trust you to do whatever is necessary and within your power, to bring our children home!"
Brooklyn nodded his head respectfully. He felt a dual wave of relief and humility. Now that he had been given trust and permission to try to talk to Sorrow one last time, he hoped he would not fail.
A short time later, Brooklyn ventured into the holding cell directly, holding the strange box that would not be opened. This time, he closed the external gate and opened the electrified bars momentarily, taking the risk to lock himself in the chamber with Sorrow.
Sorrow crouched in the far corner of the cell, almost in the same position he'd left her in. As he approached her, he noted that her color was off. She'd been three days without sunlight now and the early effects were beginning to show. She would be weakened physically, and most likely mentally and Brooklyn hoped that might help his cause a little. He told himself to remind Xanatos to put a sun lamp in her new cell, if his plan worked.
Sorrow looked up in surprise as he knelt by her side. She clearly did not expect him to be joining her inside her cell.
"I found your box," he told her, holding it out to her and she gasped in a brief moment of joy and relief as she took it from him. He noticed the beauty in that rare expression and he realized that, whatever her crimes, she had not always been a monster. She had been well and whole once. The thought unnerved him greatly, though he couldn't say why.
"Will you tell me what is in it now?" he asked.
"I can't," she replied, "But you must see that David Xanatos receives it. It's terribly important!"
"See, the thing is," he began, "We're all getting kind of fond of Xanatos these days, and my leader isn't exactly enthusiastic about handing him a mysterious box from unknown and possibly malevolent sources. There could be anything in here from a bomb, to a curse, to a deadly virus created by bioterrorists, to a…"
"What sort of world do you live in?" Sorrow interrupted incredulously, "That compels you to dream up such terrible things?"
She looked down sadly.
"Perhaps if I had been so vigilant?" she whispered.
"What do you mean?" Brooklyn asked eagerly, hoping he had at last found a crack in her oyster's shell. But Sorrow merely shook her head.
"I give my word," she told him as she set the box on the floor beside her, "There is nothing in there that will do harm to your human. Rather, what is in there can only prevent harm. A real, great harm that perhaps not even your anxious mind can imagine. My word is all I have to give. I have done all I can do now."
With that being said, she buried her face in her arm and caped her wings over herself as that was the only method of dismissing him that was within her power.
Gently, he reached out a claw and placed it on her wing joint, pulling her lightly.
"Hey! Come out of there and talk to me!" he directed in a low, gentle tone. She remained hidden.
"You really need to," he urged, "Your clan is out there now."
"Please just let me go," she whimpered.
"It's way too late for that," he informed her.
"I've done nothing to you!" she groaned.
"Not to us," he admitted, "But you've killed your own mate and two innocent humans as well."
At this, she came from beneath her wings so suddenly, Brooklyn was pushed backward onto the floor. She sprang to her feet and slashed as him with her claws..
"That is a lie!" she roared in agony.
"A lie?" he asked as he crawled backward toward safety and quickly got to his own feet, just in time to catch her by the arm as she charged him.
"What do you mean? What happened?"
"As for the two humans, I know nothing," she snarled, "I never saw them. I never laid a talon on them."
"And your mate?" he asked, "Your clan says you hated one another."
"He couldn't be bothered with me, even enough to hate me," she growled bitterly, "But yes, I hated him. He was a brute. I never wanted him for my mate, but I was no longer a youth, and the elders thought it a good match for me. I trusted them, but I lived to regret it. And then I was trapped, for we mate for life. It wasn't even his indifference and cruelty I resented as much as the loss of the possibility of happiness. I wanted him to die. I wanted him to disappear. But I swear he did not die by my hand!"
"Who killed him, then?" Brooklyn asked and Sorrow's face clenched in pain.
"Why don't you ask our leader," she replied bitterly, "Our dear Beloved Mother, who is no mother to me."
"What do you mean?" Brooklyn asked suspiciously.
"Only that I did not kill my mate," she replied resolutely, "That is the truth, whether or not it is convenient to believe."
Brooklyn reeled in bewilderment. It had been well within his expectations for Sorrow to become belligerent when the time came to confront her. He had anticipated any number of weak justifications for her crimes and had planned to play a sympathetic ear in order to convince her to trust him with the information he sought. What he had failed to imagine was a scenario in which she denied the accusation completely. Now he didn't quite know how to respond to the claim that she was innocent, nor did he know what to do with the storm of disorienting doubt that it raised within him.
His mind raced back, trying desperately to remember precisely what the interpreter had said. Were they certain Sorrow had killed the victim? How did they know? Brooklyn thought he remembered them saying that the man, Pagosa, had found Sorrow's slain mate by day, when she had already turned to stone. Did that mean he had not witnessed the murder? Perhaps in his panic and horror, there was evidence there he had missed? Was there a chance that Sorrow was telling the truth and she had been wrongfully convicted by the mountain clan?
No, Brooklyn realized, in a sudden moment of clarity. He had nearly forgotten the other charge Sorrow had against her. A person wrongly accused does not kidnap children and hold them hostage, he reasoned. He had managed to get Sorrow quiet, reasonable, and talking and he could not let doubt distract him from the most important issue at hand, which was the recovery of two children, who were surely innocent.
"Sorrow," he said gently, "I want to help you. I want to find out the truth, but I need you to cooperate and tell me what you know."
"You can't help me," she retorted.
"Of course I can!" he insisted, "Didn't I get your box for you from the harbor? Doesn't that prove I know a thing or two? If you'd just talk to me, I could help you prove your innocence to your clan!"
"It doesn't matter now," she replied in despair.
"The truth always matters," Brooklyn denied, "We could show them that you are innocent of killing your mate… but first, you've got to make it right with Beloved Mother, if you will only tell her where-
"Make it right with HER?" Sorrow screeched in astonishment, looking at Brooklyn as if she saw the very fires of hell in his eyes.
"I don't want to make it right with HER," she told him, spitting the last word as if it tasted foul, "I hate her! I hate all of them. I was their sister and they betrayed me!"
"Sorrow, they're your clan!"
"I loved my clan! I devoted my whole life to them. I was content to live with a mate I knew I would never love and who would never love me, for them. I would have served them until my last sunrise. But the one I called Beloved Mother betrayed me. She banished me. She took away my family and everything I had ever loved. She left me to die alone, without another look, with no more evidence than the word of her favorite human. How can you understand? I loved her, trusted her, and looked up to her…and I always believed that I was precious to her as well."
Even through her rage, tears of pain found their way to Sorrow's eyes, dripping down from her mask and tearing at Brooklyn's heart.
"You said that truth always matters," she continued, "And I know the truth now. I am nothing to her. I was never anything to her. And I will never forgive her."
Brooklyn let her pull away from him and watched as she retreated to her solitary corner, as if the small space between two walls and a single piece of furniture screwed into the wall could somehow shelter her heart from the world's outrages. Anxiously, he tried to think of what to say. He knew he needed to get her back to the subject of the hatchlings, but his heart ached at what she had told him.
"Sorrow?" he asked finally, "I want to tell you something."
She didn't respond, so he drew a little closer to her, and perched just above her on the edge of a fold out platform that was designed to be used as a bench or bed.
"I do, sort of understand how you feel, Sorrow," he told her gently, "I've been there before."
"I somehow doubt it," Sorrow retorted, not bothering to look at him.
"Before Goliath made me second-in-command, he had another second. We never called her "mother", but anytime I think of the word, I think of her voice. When we were kids, she was always our greatest protector, nurturer, and advocate. She was the one who taught us to defend ourselves, but she also taught us that we were worth defending, so when she betrayed our clan, and tried to kill us all, it broke my heart."
Sorrow, was looking up at him from her place on the floor, her eyes filled with sympathy.
"Oh, Brooklyn," she whispered, "I'm sorry."
"It gets worse, unfortunately," he told her, "Because I had cared for her so much, I couldn't accept that she was way too gone for us to help. I let her trick me. I let her sneak her insanity into my head. I let her convince me to betray my leader. And it almost cost him his freedom forever."
"But Goliath forgave you?" Sorrow asked, clearly amazed, "And he made you his new second-in-command?"
"Well, not both at the same time," Brooklyn explained, "But of course he forgave me! He knew how sorry I was and how much the clan meant to me. And I got the chance, over time, to make it right and prove myself, but…"
"But what?" Sorrow asked after a long pause.
"I had so much hate and anger built up in me, it was really hard," Brooklyn explained, "If I am honest, I wanted to kill her. If I couldn't do that, I wanted to make her suffer, so much that it was worse than death."
"I know," Sorrow replied, her tears returning, "So do I, just hearing about it."
Brooklyn slowly lowered himself to the floor, inching closer to her so he could speak in a lower voice.
"But I couldn't," he whispered, "Because she was already suffering more from her own madness than any punishment I could have inflicted on her. She was so lost in her suffering, she couldn't even see me anymore. Or Goliath. Or any of us! And my hatred, justifiable as it may have been, wasn't ever going to hurt her in the least bit. But it was killing me instead."
"Killing you?" she replied in confusion, "How?"
Brooklyn swallowed.
"Every time I gave in to it, even just in my head, it was making a little more of me into something I detested. It was making me like her. So I had to give it up."
Sorrow's teardrops became streams at this, and her shoulders quivered.
"I don't think I can," she confessed.
Before he gave himself the chance to muster up appropriate reservation, Brooklyn extended his arm and pulled Sorrow into his embrace, holding her within the warmth of his wings. She didn't fight this expression of sympathy, and rested her head on his shoulder as she sobbed. For a long time, Brooklyn held her this way, letting her release her deep pain in what was probably the first embrace she'd found since her mate had been murdered. Brooklyn had to admit to himself that he was now entirely convinced that she was telling the truth about her innocence. Her body trembled in his arms and he could almost feel her sadness as he breathed in the otherwise pleasant scent of her hair. He knew this pain was not contrived. He had been confused by many things that night, but this he was sure of.
"You can let it go," he assured her in a gentle whisper, "It's not for her sake, but for yours. And then we can find out what really happened to your mate and the others will see that you are innocent."
"No," she sobbed, "I don't care what they think anymore! I only want to be free!"
"Then be free!" he pleaded, holding her tighter, "You could stay here with my clan and forget all that pain. I already talked to Beloved Mother and she agreed that we can keep you here. But to be free, you have to let yourself be free. You have to let go of your anger and make it right with your clan."
"I don't understand," she said woefully, as she drew herself into a seated position, "How can I 'make it right', when I didn't do anything wrong?"
Brooklyn drew his breath slowly.
"Sorrow, please. You have to tell me the truth, even if it is very bad."
"What do you mean?"
"You have to tell me what happened to to the hatchlings you stole from the rookery!"
For a moment, Sorrow looked as though she didn't quite understand.
"That I stole?" she repeated in confusion, as if his request simply did not compute. Then she gasped as she scrambled to her own feet, repeating, "That I stole! That I stole!" Brooklyn rose too, sensing that he was in danger of a catastrophic explosion.
"How dare you!" she screamed at him, rage returning to her tear-stained face, "Those are MY children!"
"Yours?"
"Yes, mine! They were born of me, by my mate! SHE tried to take them from me, but I rescued them and carried them away to a place of peace and sanctuary!"
"But our children belong to the clan," Brooklyn said, more as a realization of the problem than an admonishment.
"What clan?!" spat Sorrow, "The clan who betrayed me? The clan who left my mate to rot with no concern for real justice? They were no clan to us, so by what right could they dare to claim to our children?
"Sorrow, stop!" Brooklyn commanded as she swung at him. She was weakened by her lack of sun in captivity, but her wrath more than made up for it, and Brooklyn seized one of her arms as he tried to calm her. Still she bellowed and ranted on as he struggled to contain her.
"I would have taken them to their father's people!" she continued in her rage, "Our sister clan, who live in another valley. I went there with them, hoping that, even if they would not have me, they would love the children of their brother. But I stopped just below the cliff where the two sentries stood. I heard them repeating the lies that SHE told them. I knew my children would never be safe there either, nor with any of our sister clans."
"Sorrow!" Brooklyn exclaimed, trying again to calm her as she struck and shoved him.
"But I found a place! I took them far beyond any of your reach! And there they wait for me! And even if I die here! Even if I can never return to them! I know at least that they are safe!"
"Sorrow, listen!" Brooklyn pleaded.
"No!" she screamed, shoving him again, until he lost his footing and crashed into the electric bars, launching him into a consciousness that only knew pain and blackness.
When Brooklyn regained his senses, he heard the strangely far-off sound of someone calling for help. He glanced up, and discovered Sorrow at his side, crying desperately to summon someone to the cell. Gradually the light grew brighter and the sound of her voice sharper, until Brooklyn was able to sit up and collect his bearings. Goliath and his brothers had unlocked the external gate and turned off electrical current to the bars, and before Brooklyn could speak, they had entered the cell, shoved Sorrow to the side, and carried him to safety beyond the bars.
"Are you all right?" Broadway asked urgently.
"Of course, he's not alright!" Lexington declared in exasperation, "Those bars were set to the 'Demona level'! It's amazing he's even regained consciousness!"
"I'm all right!" Brooklyn whispered hoarsely, though every inch of his body ached and his hair smelled like burnt popcorn.
Meanwhile, Beloved Mother had entered the external gate of the cell, and catching sight of Sorrow, began to shout at her.
"You lie, you deceitful traitor!" Sorrow cried in return, grasping the now-disengaged bars.
'What happened?" Broadway asked, "What's she saying?"
Brooklyn shushed his brother so he could hear Sorrow's words amid Beloved Mother's furious shouts.
"You will never get your claws on them again!" Sorrow screamed tauntingly at her former leader, "They are forever safe from you and your treachery! You can search to the ends of the earth, if you like, and you will never find them! For I have taken them beyond your reach and beyond this world!"
Beloved Mother replied in horror, though Brooklyn could not understand her words.
"Yes, they are dead! Dead to you and this world! And perhaps soon I will join them! I've finished the last of my business here. Whether you kill me now, or I manage to free myself later, I will find my way back to my little ones and we will know peace!"
The hard, bare walls of the cell echoed Beloved Mother's cries of anguish and Brooklyn gasped in horror.
"No!" he cried with what little force his broken voice would allow.
"What?" Lexington and Broadway replied in unison.
"She killed them!" he whispered through his physical and mental pain, "She killed her own children!"