All characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyrighted to Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. I've taken the idea for the Unseelie Court from the TGS. Characters and concepts from Star Trek are property of Paramount and created by Gene Roddenberry. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of SN.
Note: I'm disregarding the events of the "Goliath Chronicles", with the exception of "The Journey" because I do not wish to use the rest of the "Goliath Chronicles" as canon to my story. Also, I am altering large sections of the Star Trek storyline, especially concerning events like WWIII and the Eugenics Wars, which without the Cold War as a backdrop probably wouldn't happen the way Roddenberry wrote them, if at all. This story takes place immediately after "Why We're Needed".
Ice
By SN/TVfan
Email: Sam_Nary
Avalon Mists
Merlin sat quietly staring out into the mists that their small boat was floating through. His mind wondering about why Banshee had been so determined to get revenge. She had looked positively beaten when Titania had sentenced her to live as a 'mortal'. His only real guess that felt would stick was pride. Banshee had been attached to her powers, and now felt inferior without them. From what he knew though, he was glad she no longer had her fey powers and hoped she'd gain some form of common sense.
Although her recent actions had left him with a rather large dilemma. To prevent Banshee from trying to steal his artifacts again, Merlin had taken all of them with him when he and the rest of the travelers left the island of South Uist. Now he had to do something with the artifacts. The present quest to gain what he needed to restore his own stolen powers wouldn't allow him to simply take them with him. The Illuminati or some other villain they might stumble across might steal them and the threat of the objects being used by evil was too great a risk to take.
"Can't we just take them back to London?" Rachel asked, "Let Macbeth and the rest of the clan guard them?"
"We may have been wrong about why were on South Uist, but most times, Avalon's Mists dissipate once the travelers return to their home 'port', which for us would be London," Merlin commented.
"I also wouldn't think that they'd be truly safe in London anyway," Arthur commented from where he was steering the boat.
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked, "They can't kill Macbeth and Griff and the others have proven they can handle what they throw at us."
"Considering our present friction with the Illuminati society, London wouldn't be safe," Merlin commented, "The clan may have defeated the Illuminati's recent efforts, but the Illuminati have only used a small fraction of the resources available to them and have not used some of there more sinister tactics."
Rachel blinked for a few moments as Merlin continued.
"Many of the worst airline disasters throughout history were set by the Illuminati," Merlin sighed, "They either sabotaged the aircraft before takeoff or they had someone shoot it down."
"All those people," Rachel whispered, horrified by what she'd been told.
"And the sad thing is that they were only going after one person, but they felt it necessary to insure that an entire plane would be destroyed," Merlin sighed, "They would do anything to try and find and take the artifacts that I have in the name of their own greed."
"So where can we hide them?" Rachel asked, "Since I'm sure we can not take it with us."
"There are few places that it could be hidden," Merlin sighed, "Either in terms of places that the Illuminati 'can not' look or would not think to look."
It was just then that the mist began to clear and they were all greeted by a biting cold. Shivering they saw a small dock like facility amidst a sea of white. A small weather station stood not far behind it.
"We're off one of the ice caps," Rachel chattered through the cold, "I'd like to shift…"
"No," Arthur said back, himself shivering, "there are buildings there, which means there are people here. They may not respond well to seeing a werewolf suddenly appear on their doorstep."
"We will have a hard time explaining Una," Merlin commented, trying to fight the cold.
"We'll deal with that when we're warmer," Arthur spoke as their boat approached the coastline.
As they got closer, they saw a man run out of the weather station with what looked like several blankets over one arm. They saw him run towards the small docking facilities that were near the coast. Once they arrived, he hastily pulled them onto the dock and began giving them blankets to wrap around themselves. They didn't do much to warm them, but they did cut own on the wind.
"Come with me," the man said hurriedly, "It's not safe to stay out here for long."
He lead them into the weather station as quickly as they go, and once inside, the man quickly shut and latched the door. It was much warmer inside the weather station then it was outside, but it was still fairly cool, although the small group no longer needed the blankets to keep warm, and they began searching for a place to put them while their rescuer hung up his oversized heavy winter jacket and put his gloves on a shelf.
"I certainly hope you people aren't explorers, dressed as you are," the man commented as he turned back to face them as Rachel, Merlin, and Arthur looked at him, "What where you doing out there?"
"We aren't explorers," Arthur answered, "I'm afraid we're the victim of a dreadful accident. You see we were sailing on a ship sailing from South Africa headed for Chile, but it began taking on water and sank. We were lucky to get into the lifeboat that we had with our cargo."
"Your ship sank and you had time to rescue your cargo?" the man asked, sounding confused.
"Our cargo was actually kept in the lifeboats, at least the cargo that we saved was stored in our ship's lone lifeboat," Merlin answered, "We are the ship's crew, in its entirety."
"That was fortunate, but you had to be overloaded if you were carrying cargo in your lifeboat already," the man commented, now sounding suspicious.
"The person who hired us was very insistent, and our ship did fine for most of the voyage," Merlin answered, "and when it began taking on water, it came actually well below the normal waterline, overloading couldn't have been the cause."
The man shrugged and then sighed.
"Unfortunately, we've been largely adrift in our lifeboat for a fairly long time and do not know where we are," Rachel commented, "I don't suppose you could tell us?"
"You must have been drifting for awhile," the man commented, "This is Palmer Research Station, Antarctica."
"How long until a new boat comes to take you back?" Rachel asked.
"I only just arrived," the man replied, "I'll be here for about six months performing scientific research. I could, however, call for a rescue plane to come down for you."
"That won't be necessary," Arthur answered, "If we could get some clothing better suited to this cold, we'll be able to get our boat moving again."
"You intend to row that thing all the way back to South Africa?" the man asked.
"We've found the boat to be rather lucky," Merlin answered, "We've used it for smaller fishing trips when we haven't needed to ship anything."
"You do know this all sounds rather strange to me," the man replied.
"We get that a lot, don't worry about it," Rachel commented with a weak smile.
"Well, we do have some spare jackets that you can borrow, but it'll take me awhile to get to them," the man replied, "And even if you were to take a rescue plane, you'd be here overnight anyway."
"Thank you," Arthur said politely.
It was about half an hour later when Arthur and Rachel, wearing the borrowed heavy winter gear that the researchers had available went back out to the harbor while Merlin remained to try and explain their presence to the rest of the research team, which had been out on a local mission when they arrived.
"I can't believe this, lying about being sailors whose ship had sunk in the Atlantic," Rachel commented as she walked forward.
"I doubt the would have believed the truth," Arthur commented.
"And what about when Una wakes up?" Rachel asked, "Her roar sounds nothing like a seal, and definitely not a penguin, which are the only animals that I know of that live in Antarctica."
"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it," Arthur sighed, "We were obviously sent here for a reason."
"Do you think we can hide Merlin's artifacts here?" Rachel asked.
"I'd think so," Arthur commented, "Antarctica is too cold for there to be any real political interest, so the Illuminati will not have top members here. Hiding it may end up being Una's job, as the researchers won't let us head out to hide it ourselves."
"They want to prevent something like what happened with Robert F. Scott," Rachel commented.
"Yes, I've read about his expedition," Arthur answered, "Tragic that he died, but noble in how he met his end."
Rachel and Arthur then worked to lift Merlin's bag of artifacts and make sure that Una's form would no tip over and fall into the water as the sun began to sink below the horizon. As the sun went down, Una's form slowly cracked and then shattered as Una shook herself free and woke up from her stone sleep. Una looked around for a few moments and then looked to Arthur and Rachel.
"Where are we?" Una asked.
"Antarctica," Arthur answered, "And at a research station, which is actually as a good thing, as we all would have frozen to death if we landed at a spot where there weren't people."
"I see," Una responded.
"Are you alright?" Rachel asked.
"Gargoyles do not feel the cold as easily as humans do," Una replied, "You also might be warmer in your wolf form then you are now, but I will say that I am a little bit cold right now."
"Well, it wouldn't be wise for me to shift forms with these other guys here," Rachel commented, "I'd be shot or worse."
"Can we hide Merlin's artifacts here?" Una asked.
"I would think so, but you'd have to hide it, as they would not let us move too far from their research station," Arthur replied.
"I understand," Una nodded and took the bag of Merlin's artifacts while Arthur and Rachel moved to head back to the small research station.
As they arrived they nearly ran into the man they had met when they had first arrived.
"Did you two hear that?" the man asked, "I heard something that sounded like a mixture between the cry of an eagle and a lion's roar."
"Oh, that was me," Rachel said, trying to look embarrassed and faking a blush, "I thought I saw something near our boat and tried to scare it off."
"You'd best be careful," the man replied, "Leopard seals don't scare easily."
"Well, it swam away," Rachel commented.
The man shrugged and then turned around, "We'd best go inside, it gets really cold around here at night."
They returned inside the other researchers were busy eating and Merlin was setting up something that they could sleep in for the night without stealing someone else's bed. While they removed the heavy winter clothing, Rachel and Arthur slowly approached Merlin and sat down.
"Did he see Una?" Merlin whispered.
"No," Arthur answered, "And I wouldn't suspect that he will for the rest of the night. I sent Una off to hide your artifacts, since I doubt that the Illuminati will look around here."
Merlin nodded, "This generally would seem like a good place to hide it, hopefully that is the only reason we've been sent here."
Elsewhere
Una glided peacefully through the cold air that blew over Antarctica and was very thankful that it wasn't too much of a strain on her. The bag of Merlin's magical trinkets was heavier then she originally thought, but Una did her best to insure that thy wouldn't be dropped. After several hours, however, her wings were beginning to tire and she needed to rest and saw a mountain in the distance that she could use to rest on. Slowly Una came in for a landing on a snowy ledge. She had little time to breathe deeply when someone grabbed her from behind.
"How did you do it, human?" a voice growled from behind her.
"Huh?" Una asked sounding surprised.
"Did you ally yourselves with the frost giants? After all we've done to protect your precious weather and research stations?" the voice asked.
"Excuse me, I am a gargoyle," Una answered.
"Sure, you are," the voice responded, "You are some human that has somehow used your technology to induce a transformation or you have allied yourself with the frost giants to transform yourself into some form of ice gargoyle."
"Ice?" Una asked.
"Why else would you have white skin?" the voce asked.
"It has always been white," Una answered, "What is going on here? What are these frost giants?"
Una then elbowed the owner of the voice behind her and flipped it over her head. To her surprise, the owner of the voice was a gargoyle, or at least what she could assume was a gargoyle.
"You're a gargoyle," Una commented.
"What's a gargoyle?" the creature asked.
Una looked the creature over. It was easily as tall as Arthur but had legs like any other gargoyle, although its three toes were webbed. It's fingers were also webbed, although the claws did come outside the skin, unlike other gargoyles. It had the head of a sea lion and had webbed wings like a flying squirrel. He also appeared to be generally confused by what Una had said.
"Have you ever seen the sun?" Una asked.
"No," the other gargoyle answered, "My pack turn to stone when the sun rises. We are air seals and we protect this continent and have also taken it upon ourselves to protect the human research stations from the frost giants."
"You are a gargoyle, a creature that turns to stone in the day and has a strong protective urge," Una answered, "and an glide as you call yourself an air seal."
"For some creature of the frost giants you know an awful lot of air seals," the other gargoyle answered, backing away.
"I don't even know who are what these 'frost giants' are," Una answered, "I'm a gargoyle, just like you are, and I am from a place called England."
"You smell of humans, you had to be one of them at one point," the other gargoyle growled, "You can not be an air seal."
Una sighed, talking to this gargoyle wouldn't be easy until she could get rid of his suspicions about her being an enemy.
"Why are you so fearful of humans?" Una asked.
"You must know," he other gargoyle answered, "They're loud, they're nosey, and they don't look like air seals."
Una sighed, "I was never human, I hatched a gargoyle many years ago. I must also tell you that humans aren't bad, and even you must know this if your clan is protecting their weather stations."
"We only do that because we know the frost giants are more evil then the humans," the other gargoyle answered.
"The humans I'm traveling with aren't evil," Una answered, "Perhaps I could arrange for you to meet them."
"No!" the other gargoyle said firmly, "We've seen what human hunters do to seals and penguins around here. We can only image what they'd do to an air seal. Almost as bad as what a frost giant would do."
"What are these frost giants you keep referring to?" Una asked.
"The frost giants are monstrous carnivores that inhabit this land," the other gargoyle answered, "Made of ice they must consume the flesh and bone of air seals to survive, although they will also eat humans and the animals of this land. Standing at twenty feet tall and each individual containing the strength of twenty air seals, they are my pack's most dangerous foe."
"Where are these frost giants now?" Una asked.
"They roam the flat lands and the areas near the human stations," the other gargoyle replied, "And lately have been marching toward my clan's home, here on this mountain. And my pack has suffered under their onslaught."
"That must be why we are here," Una thought to herself, "To help this clan save their home from these frost giants."
"Can I see what I can do to help your clan?" Una asked.
This confused the other gargoyle, and he made no effort to hide it.
"Whether or not you believe me, I can not allow a gargoyle clan to be in such danger," Una answered, "And if they destroy your clan, they might move on to the human stations. I can not allow either to happen and I want to help you."
"You wish to help?" the other gargoyle asked.
"Yes, if I could talk to you're clan's leader," Una answered.
"Come with me," the other gargoyle commanded and moved a rock to reveal a tunnel leading into the mountain.
Una did her best to follow him, but found that the tunnel was a fairly tight squeeze for her, with her wings and she had to be much more careful as her clothing could have easily been torn off by the rocks. They went down several feet before they entered into a small 'entrance' chamber with other tunnels leading deeper into the mountain. Another gargoyle was waiting as they came in.
"Brother, what are you doing here?" the gargoyle, a female questioned, "I commanded you to guard our home."
"This stranger wishes to help us," the male gargoyle answered.
The female he had addressed looked at Una with some suspicion, but did not react the way the male had when he first encountered the English gargoyle.
"My name is Una," Una introduced herself, "I am a gargoyle from an island very far from here. Your friend has told me about these frost giants that are threatening your clan."
"If it weren't for our pack's eggs, we would be at the brink of extinction," the female answered, "These frost giants are most wicked creatures."
"I wish to help," Una spoke.
"Yes, my brother has already mentioned that," the female answered, "What is in that bag? Can it help?"
"Not unless you have clan members that know and understand magic," Una answered, "I am traveling with a group of humans on a quest to stop a great evil in the world outside this continent. One of our missions is to insure that it is hidden from our foes."
"Would they look here?" the female asked.
"I do not think so," Una replied.
"If you can help us defeat these frost giants, then we will hide here in our tunnels," the female answered, "Not even the humans can detect us."
"They might in time," Una warned, "now, do these frost giants have any sort of strategy that they follow or do they just attack?"
"With their numbers, all they do is attack," the female answered, "We're trying to maintain a warning system so that when they begin approach the mountain they can be driven off. We also patrol around this area to make sure they do not attack the humans, as they, despite their technology would not last long against the frost giants."
Suddenly another female gargoyle stuck her head through the tunnel that Una had just navigated down and spoke in a very urgent voice.
"Leader, the frost giants are coming, again," the new arrival spoke, "This time straight for the mountain."
"You will help us now?" the female asked.
"Yes," Una answered setting the bag she had been carrying down.
Una slowly made her way to follow the other gargoyles out of their underground home and to face the frost giants that were challenging them. When she first saw the frost giants she was somewhat amazed that creatures of their size could remain hidden. They did in fact stand twenty feet tall, and all of them looked like professional weight lifter. They had wicked looking claws and vampire-like fangs. Other then that they looked remarkably human.
"They're monstrous," Una commented.
"They're the frost giants," the male that she had met first spoke and leaped into the air and began gliding toward the oncoming attackers.
Una watched as he slashed at the first frost giant with his talons. The frost giant's head practically exploded under the blow and it soon fell to the earth. It was what happened next which really startled Una. The creature's head reformed as if it had never been damaged. Una then landed on the chest of one frost giant, taking it to the ground and shattering the entire creature completely.
"These creatures aren't natural," Una called out to the clan's leader.
The gargoyle quickly landed next to Una as she began digging through her belt pouch.
"Now you see how dangerous they are," the female spoke in a firm voice, "they reform and attack again."
"Exactly as I said," Una said as she began working on casting a minor spell, "these frost giants as you call them are nothing more then animated beings. There is a spell in place that keeps them coming."
"We need to defeat them," the female gargoyle said urgently as she saw the frost giant that Una had landed on beginning to reform.
"No, we can't defeat them," Una answered, "We need to defeat the spell that is animating them."
"And how do we do that?" the female gargoyle questioned as she slashed at the reforming frost giant, shattering it again.
"I'm casting a spell of my own that I hope will allow me to trace the magic involved in animating these creatures," Una tried to explain, "If it works, we will be able to find the sorcerer who is casting the magic, or the magical object that was left behind to be the animator of these frost giants."
The leader of the Antarctic clan looked on with some disbelief about what the English gargoyle was saying, but these frost giants had caused her clan great pain and she was beginning to reach the point where she hoped anything could be done to stop them. She watched as Una held something that was hanging around her neck and was chanting something in a language she had never heard before. After a moment or two, she saw Una's pendant glow and then flash a bright green light.
The Antarctic leader looked around, hoping to see the frost giants gone, but was surprised to find them glowing the same color as Una's pendant. She also noticed a thin line of green light leading to some point over the horizon.
"Can they dig into your tunnels?" Una asked.
"No," the female answered, "although they've never tried."
"Okay, we must get airborne again, and leave these things here," Una spoke firmly and began to run to the mountain in the hopes of gaining enough altitude to glide again.
"Why?" the female asked as she followed.
"Because whatever is animating these creatures is located where the lines of magic converge," Una explained as they ran, "If we destroy that, these frost giants will be destroyed as well."
The female followed Una up the mountain as fast as possible until they got to a height where they could attain enough lift to glide and quickly took to the air. The frost giants were yet to cause real danger to her clan at the present moment, but the fight between them had only just begun, and the frost giants wouldn't actually begin winning fights until much later when her clan had exhausted itself fighting them.
Once in the air, Una and the female glided as swiftly as their wings could carry them for the spot where the lines of magic met, which they could see wasn't too far from the mountain once they had the height to see where they converged. They also found that the frost giants lost interest in the mountain and the rest of the Antarctic clan and began following Una and the leader.
"They're following us," the female commented.
"Once whatever is animating them is destroyed, they shouldn't be a threat," Una said firmly, "And I'm certain I can break whatever spell is animating them."
When they landed at the spot where the lines met, Una found them crossing over a small glowing stone. Lifting it up, she also saw a symbol on it, but kept it to herself. The Antarctic clan probably wouldn't know who it was or the fact that they'd already been defeated. The female was meanwhile, preparing for a new fight as the frost giants began to approach their position, and did not even turn when she heard Una chanting again. After a few moments, the frost giants stopped and then collapsed into piles of icy rubble, which surprised the female.
"It's done," Una spoke as she approached the female, "The spell that animated them is no more."
"Thank you," the female answered, finding herself at a loss for words.
"You don't need to thank me," Una answered, "I can understand how you feel. Do not worry. I doubt you will ever see any more of these frost giants."
The Antarctic clan very much enjoyed the defeat of the frost giants and all of them conveyed their thanks to Una. It still frustrated her that they all thought she was a magically altered human, but said nothing. It wasn't likely that they would encounter the London Clan anytime soon and decided to keep quiet about it. Una was also glad that they had agreed to hide Merlin's artifacts. As Una left their mountain, she hoped no one would ever find them.
Palmer Research Station
Mists had appeared over the coastline as dawn returned and to Arthur and Merlin, they signaled that whatever they were required to do in Antarctica had been done. This was however very confusing to the men that had rescued them upon their arrival.
"These mists will ruin your visibility," the first man spoke, "You'd be better served to wait a day and let this pass, then to go out into the ocean in this weather, strike a submerged iceberg and sink into the icy water."
"I'm afraid we must leave now while the mist is in," Merlin answered.
"Could you explain why?" the second man asked.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Merlin replied, "You will just have to trust us."
They then all got into their boat and began to pull it away from the harbor. After a moment or two, they disappeared into the mists, and despite several calls, the researchers received no answer, nor any sound of a splash to indicate that the ship had flipped over or sunk.
"I wonder why Una didn't wake us up when she returned?" Arthur asked as he looked on Una's stone form, once again resting inside their boat.
"She probably didn't want to wake up the researchers as well," Rachel sighed, "I think we freaked them out with everything."
"They would have been even more freaked out if we told them the truth," Merlin pointed.
Rachel nodded and then noticed something underneath one Una's stone hands. She found it was a piece of paper and tore it out from underneath Una's form. She then began to slowly read what had been written on the note.
"First, I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I had returned, but it was too close to dawn to risk it," Rachel read, "Our trip his has lead to some discoveries that could potentially be hopeful, or at least interesting. There is a clan of gargoyles living inside a mountain to the south of the research station where we landed, although it is many miles away. Merlin will be pleased to know that they will hide his artifacts for them, and they seem trustworthy enough to leave the artifacts with them. It is because of a threat to their clan that we were sent to Antarctica. They were being threatened by beings they called 'frost giants', which were actually magical animations of ice created by the Unseelie Court. Why the Unseelies had created such creatures is unknown, but I have defeated their spell and the clan there is no longer in danger."
"They must have used Antarctica as a staging post before attacking Avalon at the start of the last war," Merlin mused as Rachel finished reading, "These 'frost giants' were probably left behind to guard their point of departure, and when we defeated the Unseelie Court, they went wild."
"A good thing that Una defeated the spell then," Arthur commented.
"Yes, and that she was able to get this new clan to hide my artifacts," Merlin nodded, "Now, we can get on to the greater issues and missions."
To Be Continued…