Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or locations from Gargoyles, those belong to their owners.

Author's note: This story takes place the summer following "The Journey", and though it ignores the comic's continuity, I'm using Fang's real name, revealed in Bad Guys #2.

Chance Meetings

Chapter 29

by Remtar85

Fang yawned as he waited patiently by the coffee machine. He had returned from the magic shop soaking wet and cold, immediately jumping into a hot shower, where he stayed for a good half an hour warming up, only to then have to spend a long time trying to warm up again while drying his fur with a blow dryer. He also had to dry up the puddles he had left coming in, before he finally went to bed, dry and tired, but ultimately quite happy after what had happened that evening and hoping he hadn't caught a cold flying in that rain. He woke up in the middle of a cloudy but mercifully not rainy early afternoon, feeling fine, eager for coffee and a big meal, as well as hoping it wouldn't rain later, because he would absolutely go back out that evening.

The cougar-man's cup of coffee was finally ready, and after adding some cream and sugar, he started sipping on it, when the sound of grumbling in the living room area of the penthouse caught his attention. Walking over, Fang saw Anton Sevarius seated at the couch, a bunch of papers on the coffee table in front of him, others in his hands. The scientist looked annoyed and frustrated.

"Something the matter, Doc?" Fang asked before taking another sip of coffee.

"Yes, much to my chagrin," Sevarius replied. "I've noticed a very slight miscalculation while going through my notes. This will set me back extra hours on the project. I despise having my time go to waste, especially over an accidental setback."

"You mean on whatever experiments you're doing here?" Fang asked, then smirked. "Well, I'll be damned. The genius scientist ain't perfect all the time."

"Failures and mistakes are, and always have been, an inherent part of science; your striped comrade being an example," Sevarius said without looking at the mutate. "Thankfully, I do learn from my mistakes."

"Striped? You mean Claw?" Fang asked, then realization hit him. "Hold on. Is this about how he can't talk?"

"Indeed," Sevarius confirmed, still perusing his notes. "After several trial runs, Claw was my first success at mutating a human being. Then I noticed he couldn't speak, and upon further examination, I realized that I had not taken vocal cords into account. The mutagen went to the extent of mutating his vocal cords to those of a tiger, and as such, he cannot form words, instead only sounds a tiger would make. So, I went back to the formula, and after a small tweak, I fixed the problem. That's why you can talk, so in a way, you're technically my first fully successful mutate."

"Oh," Fang said, looking very uncomfortable now. "That's... that's really great, Doc. Good thing you decided I should go after Claw and not before, huh?"

"A good thing indeed, especially since you do prefer your mutated self over your previous body," Sevarius said with a satisfied smile, not looking up from his notes and thus not noticing Fang's discomfort. "It still pleases me to have one of my test subjects be grateful."

"Okay, so, ah... I'll just leave you to your work. 'Scuse me," the mutate said, walking away.

Fang headed for the kitchen, where he put down his coffee cup. He didn't feel like he needed it anymore, because what he had just learned had shocked him fully awake. Gritting his teeth, the mutate then walked over to the bedroom he was using and closed the door behind him, taking deep breaths. Unable to help himself, he jumped onto the bed and buried his face in the pillows, muffling the very loud roar he let out, then another, and another. Coming up for air, the cougar-man continued to pant as he got off the bed and sat on the floor, electricity surging in his hands and arms. That wild, animalistic instinct that would come out whenever he got especially furious had resurfaced again, and the cougar-man struggled to get himself under control.

"Calm down, calm down, calm the fuck down! Don't go all crazy wild beast now, damn it!" he growled to himself in a low voice. "I can't kill that fucker, I can't, or I'll never make it back home..."

What Sevarius told him had shocked Fang more than he would have expected. Not about why Claw couldn't talk, but about how Sevarius had stated that he had carried out several trial runs before finally achieving a mostly successful mutation with Claw. Fang did not need to be a genius to figure out what this meant; Sevarius had experimented on other people before him and Claw, something neither Fang nor any of the other mutates, or the gargoyles for that matter, had ever heard about. And it was more than obvious to Fang that, if none of them had ever heard of previous test subjects, it meant that none of those test subjects had survived the mutation process. It meant that Fang could have been one of those people. He could have been experimented on, died during those test runs, and his body disposed of. Daniel would never have found out what happened to him.

Fang felt that it was just by a sheer stroke of luck that he was alive now, just simple pure luck that he had been experimented on after Sevarius had perfected the process, that Sevarius had chosen on whatever whim to pick Claw and other people before picking him. The fact that Sevarius was so casual about the whole thing, to the point he spoke about it without thinking or even imagining that Fang wouldn't be upset about it, made Fang feel sick to his stomach, and it had sparked Fang's raging animal instincts, that almost uncontrollable and beastial rage he had felt a few times before. The scientist's lack of morals had been clear to Fang since he had met him, but to get to witness Sevarius's utter disregard for people's lives to such an extent, hearing him refer to them and to Fang himself as test subjects rather than people, learning that Sevarius would experiment on people to the point of killing them, get rid of the bodies and treat it in such a casual matter, it disgusted Fang in a way nobody ever had before. It was one of those times where Fang thought to himself that, despite all the bad things he himself had done, there were people out there who were so much worse than him.

"Damn that sick sonovabitch," Fang growled in a low voice, his eyes growing a bright, fierce white. "Soon as I get the chance, I'm gonna get him. I gotta hang in there, gotta pretend everything's okay, then he's gonna pay. Bastard could'a killed me! God, how many people did he kill before he finally got his damn experiment right?"

Fang took a few more minutes to calm himself down, such a revelation having shocked him bad, and he did not want to lose control. After several more deep breaths, he exited the room and returned to the kitchen, picking up his coffee mug again to dump it out. But before he could empty the cup's contents in the sink, he saw that his hand was shaking as he held the mug, making him grit his teeth in frustration as he realized that he was not as calm as he thought, and his animal instincts still clawed at him. He then dumped the coffee into the sink and served himself half a cup more, then left the kitchen towards the mini bar and opened a bottle of whiskey, pouring some into the cup until it was near full.

The mutate then started to drink the spiked coffee, trying to soothe his frayed nerves. To his relief, it worked decently enough, at least to the point his hands weren't trembling anymore. And though he had lost his appetite, Fang decided to order room service anyway, to keep his strength up, especially as he was going out again that evening. Right now he felt he needed the company of the London clan more than ever, especially Cecily.

As the late afternoon approached, Fang had forced himself to eat a big meal, rested, showered and dried off. The mutate now was just waiting for nighttime, which would come quite soon, and doing his best to avoid Sevarius. He could hear the scientist making some final minute preparations before he had to leave for the night. While in the kitchen getting a drink of water, Fang's sharp hearing caught the sound of Sevarius walking to the phone in the living room area and dialing a number.

"Yes, good day, Mr. Xanatos."

Fang stopped in his tracks as he heard Sevarius say that. Walking as silently as he could, he got as close to the living room as he could manage without being seen.

"Yes, sir, I know... yes, I just..." Sevarius spoke. "I understand, Mr. Xanatos, but some unforeseen circumstances... I can't just drop my experiments now! I... yes... yes, sir, I'll try my absolute best. Yes... good day to you."

Sevarius hung up the phone then let out a grunt of frustration. "Pompous bastard. I'm under no obligation to be at his beck and call!" the scientist snarled to himself as he started to head to his room. "I won't allow him to disrupt my schedule."

A moment later, Fang heard the door to Sevarius's bedroom slam shut, and as soon as that happened, Fang darted to the living room, grabbed the cordless telephone and then rushed to his bedroom. After locking the door behind him, he moved away from it, then after making sure there was a dial tone, he hit the redial button.

"Sure hope this works," he said in a low voice as the phone started ringing, and it was picked up after the second ring.

"What is it now, Sevarius?" said the unmistakable voice of David Xanatos.

"Hey, uh... hi, Mr. Xanatos," Fang said.

"Fang? Well, this is a surprise," Xanatos responded. "I assume you're calling regarding the offer to be in my employ?"

"Yeah, it's gotta do with that," Fang said. "I've been real interested about that, but... I just found out something today and I really gotta ask you about it."

"Go ahead."

"It's about when Sevarius mutated me and the others," Fang told the businessman. "He let me know that he experimented on other people before he managed to get the mutation right with me and Claw, then Maggie and Derek too. And even Claw had a mistake Sevarius didn't account for, which is why Claw can't talk. And, uh... and I'm pretty sure those first people he experimented on died and he made their bodies just disappear. So, uh... I just wanna know if you knew about it."

There was silence on the other line for a few seconds, then Xanatos spoke again. "Damn. Sevarius told me he ran tests on lab animals only, that he would move to experiment on humans when he was absolutely certain the mutation would be successful. I always suspected he had experimented with other humans before you, but I could never find proof. It's most likely that he conducted those human trials elsewhere, where I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on him."

"So you didn't know," Fang sighed in relief.

"But now I do, thanks to you," Xanatos told the mutate. "Unfortunately, Sevarius has a tendency to overstep his boundaries. I know he has worked for both Thailog and Demona, among others, and I've been willing to overlook it to an extent. But finding out about this, as well as our little talk a few minutes ago, I believe the doctor is in need of a strict lesson."

"Okay. That's a relief," Fang said. "This whole issue kinda got to me, so I just wanna get back home soon as I can, get away from Sevarius and Demona, and just go work for you instead. I mean, compared to them, you actually have a heart. I really don't wanna see this sicko again."

"I understand, Fang. And thank you, that's very kind of you to say. But please don't go spreading that around; I have a reputation to live down to, you know." He could hear the smile in Xanatos's voice as he said this last. "Then I believe this is a good moment to get you all set up for when you finally return to Manhattan," the businessman added.

Fang slumped onto his bed, feeling so much more at ease now. "Thanks, Mr. Xanatos. You got no idea how much I appreciate this."

Xanatos proceeded to give Fang a number that the mutate wrote down, for Fang to call the businessman the first chance he could upon finding out exactly when Sevarius would decide to return to Manhattan. He then gave Fang an address to write, a place where Fang would go meet him the evening of his return to get Fang settled in to work for him. Their talk ended quickly afterwards and Fang returned the telephone to the living room, feeling a huge sense of relief. Still, in the back of Fang's mind, there was a bit of a nagging sensation, a suspicion that Xanatos just may have lied to him about not knowing about Sevarius's deceased test subjects. However, Fang forced that nagging thought out of his mind, for his own emotional comfort.

Sevarius left around ten minutes later, and the moment it was nighttime, Fang left to meet with his new friends. They ate a good meal at George's once more, hung out together, patrolled the city, and Fang and Cecily managed to sneak in some more intimate time together by patrolling the same area. By the time Fang returned to the penthouse near morning, his mood had been entirely uplifted, and he refused to let Sevarius's presence ruin that.

To Be Continued...

Author's Extra Note: Hello, everyone. I apologize for taking so long, especially in a shorter chapter, but things have been pretty busy and generally unlucky for some time and that has eaten into my writing time, especially now that my sister has given birth to her first baby and she needs help constantly (the father's pretty much out of the picture). As for this chapter, I wished to display some more of Fang's standards and showcase something the show never mentioned but I personally suspected, that being Sevarius having experimented on other people before he did so on Fang, Claw and Maggie, as well as my own take on why Claw can't speak. Next chapter returns to Manhattan, so I hope you all enjoy. Thanks for your patience in waiting for the chapter and thanks for reading!