-by Arlee

He looked at her, standing there.  She was fixated on the desolate city spread below them, a few stray hairs escaped from her ebon braid and dancing wildly about her face.  She looked...sad.

"You cannot be serious, Gabriella.  This is nothing like the Manhattan I knew! This is..."  He stopped, at a loss for words.

"I know," she said softly.  "But this is Manhattan.  Look behind you."

As one, the clan and Xanatos turned to see what she was pointing at.  The Statue of Liberty.  Once proud and tall, gazing above the earth as a mother would, she had symbolized freedom.

Now, she lay half-submerged in the dark, turbulent waters, missing half a face and the torch-bearing arm from the elbow up.

"No..."

"Now you see?"  Gabriella questioned quietly. "Things are this bad now, and without your help, they will only get worse.   Demona must be stopped at any cost."

Xanatos was the first to recover.  "When are we?"

"This is the year 2849.  July 11, I think it’s Monday.  Just yesterday, the heads of the two races met, and signed the treaty of peace between Men and Gargoyles."  Gabriella pushed her hair away from her face.  "I must warn you of a few things."

"I don’t think I like this,"  Brooklyn muttered.

She frowned at him before continuing.  "Most of the major cities of the world have been destroyed. The populations of both species are about equal, though humans might have a bit more.  Umm, let’s see... This war was started by Demona, when she publicly killed the President of the United Territories of Earth.  Needless to say, the Men of Earth were really not happy with this.  They declared war on the whole gargoyles species and..."  she paused, unpleasant memories washing over her.  "At first, the gargoyles refused to fight--after all, they protected, they did not kill--but soon it was either fight or die.  So they fought."

Angela looked as if she might cry any moment, and Broadway wrapped an arm around her.  Xanatos listened without emotion showing, but Goliath knew that inside, he was as shocked as they all were.

"Eventually, a few Gargoyles and Men decided that they were sick of the constant fighting, and they banded together to form a group called F.E.P.--Friends of Earth’s People."  She shrugged.  "Of course, most of the colonists joined the Friends, even if they lived on a station, or Mars.   Then there were the Rebels.  They were, until recently, led by Demona.   Any gargoyle who had been banished from the clan, for whatever reason, was welcomed and encouraged to join her.  They hated all humans with a passion, and killed anyone at her slightest whim.  Until she was betrayed."

Lex was enthralled by her history lesson, like someone is who looks at a poisonous snake.  "How was she betrayed?" he asked.

"One of the FEP infiltrated her Rebels, and over the course of years worked her way to become one of Demona’s most trusted.  She even assassinated her own partner for her.  Then, she disappeared.  Demona, of course, followed, and was led into a trap.  She was captured and publically executed.   Of course, she came back to life, but the government didn’t know she would, and that’s how she escaped."

Gabriella was silent for a long time as the others absorbed this, until Goliath asked another question.  "Where is she now?"

"I don’t know,"  the halfling admitted.  "For all intents and purposes, she just...disappeared.  She didn’t re-appear, or make any change in the world at all until 3287, when she released her spell.  438 years of peace, down the tubes."

"How do you know she didn’t effect the timeline?"  Xanatos asked her sharply.

She looked at him with large brown eyes.  "Well, I asked the Fates."  As if that explained everything.

"Oh."

For a while, they all stood, looking out over the once proud city, thinking their own thoughts.  Finally, Goliath drew a deep breath.   "We have 438 years to find Demona.  Let us begin tonight."

"No,"  Gabriella opposed.   "Tonight we must find shelter. Tomorrow."

"Very well."  He made as if to jump from the building, the others following suit.

"Wait!"  Gabriella blurted.  They all stopped to look at her, and she turned red at the attention.  "I can’t glide."

"What?"  asked Lex.  This was unexpected.

"I...I never learned how to.  I mean, the other Gargoyles on Avalon never knew I existed, and the Fairies disdained me...So I never learned."  She flushed again.

"Come then,"  Goliath took her hand.   "I will teach you."

Gabriella stood in the sunshine, letting her wings fill with the wind that blew in from the sea.   She was glad for that wind, it washed away the putrid stench of decaying bodies and an already dead city.  She heard a sound behind her, and turned to see Xanatos.

"I’ll have to admit," he said, "this comes as quite a shock to me."

"The city?"

He nodded.  "That too...but I was talking about the fact that you never learned how to glide."

She glared at the multibillionaire fiercely before turning back to the city.  "If you had grown up as I had, you would not have said that." She paused for a moment.  "Why did you say that?"

He grinned that infuriating and famous grin of his.   "Well, I know that if I was born with wings, I would have leapt at the chance to glide on them."  He chuckled.  "Pun intended."

Gabriella sighed.  "With no one to teach me, how was I supposed to learn Xanatos?"  She capped her wings and shook her head ruefully.  "Then again, who would want to teach me?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I’m a halfling, Mr. Xanatos.  What do you think that means?  Nobody would want me."  Bitterness tinted her voice, mixed with sadness, and a bit of anger.

Xanatos thought otherwise, but kept his thoughts to himself.

That night, after the gargoyles had woken, she took turns with them learning how to glide, experimenting with the various tricks they tried to teach her.  They did that for about a week, until they were approached.

It came from the air, actually.  Lex was the first to see him.  "Look!  Someone’s coming!"

They all turned in mid-air to see what he was pointing at, and as one fled back to the old building they had confiscated as their base of operations.

A few minutes after they had landed, the other they had seen circled.

"It’s a gargoyle!"  This from Broadway.

Finally, he landed.

He was tall, almost as tall as Goliath, with emerald green skin and red hair almost as brilliant as Demona’s.  He was wearing armor, simple plates of metal beaten into shape to fit his torso, forearms and calves.  Holes had been punched into his helmet to accommodate the spiraling horns that swept backwards from his brow, ala Coldfire.

He bowed.  "Greetings.  I have not seen any of you before.  What are you called?"

Goliath stepped forward.  "I am Goliath, this is my second in command, Brooklyn, my daughter Angela, her mate Broadway, and Lexington.   The other two are our friends, the human Xanatos, and Gabriella."

"I am Rui.  Are you with the FEP?"

Before anyone else could respond, Gabriella stepped forward and spoke.  "Yes! Are you?"

Rui smiled.  "Of course. We have been watching you for the past week, and have decided that you are welcome to join us for food and shelter.  Of course, if you betray us, we’ll have to kill you."

They were stunned by that reply, but again, Gabriella spoke up.  "We would be most honored to join your clans."

She was gaining strange looks from everyone, and she knew Goliath was privately seething, but she didn’t care.  She would explain later.

Rui nodded curtly, and soared away, looking back to see if they were following. Goliath took off after him, the rest coming next.

It was a short time later that the strange company came to land at the center of what used to be Central Park.  Rui went straight to an unassuming looking shrub and lifted it up.  It turned out to be a trapdoor, rather cleverly concealed.  As they descended, Lexington noticed a small device set into the bottom of it.

"What’s this?" he asked curiously.

Rui glanced up quickly and gave Lex a strange look.   "That’s a cloaking device, haven’t you ever seen one of those before?"

"We aren’t from around here," Goliath put in quickly.  "In fact our home is very far away."

Rui stared at them for a few hard seconds, but then nodded again, and began to walk.  "Follow me, and don’t touch anything, please."

They were led through tunnels that wound ever deeper into the bowels of the Earth, most of which were lined in cement.  They were in the old sewer and sub-way systems, which were interconnected by hand-dug tunnels.  Gabriella got the strange feeling of being stuck in a beehive.

At last, after too many turns to keep track of, they arrived.

It was huge.

That was their first impression.  The cavernous room that spread before them vaulted over their heads, the ceiling so high that it was lost in shadows.  There were hundreds of people there, of both races, their voices filling the small space and bouncing off the walls, to echo back and double the sounds.

"RUI!!"

The green gargoyle turned, his face lighting up at the older woman running towards him.  She flung herself into his waiting arms and was enfolded in his wings.  She put a tender hand on his face just before they kissed.

The clan, Xanatos, and Gabriella gaped in surprise.

After a long few seconds, the two broke from the embrace, and Rui turned to them again.  Flushing a darker green, his arm still around her, he introduced the human he’d just kissed.  "This is my mate, Sarah."

Sarah offered a somewhat plump hand to the company, smiling a brilliant grin. "Howdy, y’all."

They shook her hand, and Angela smiled back at her.

"So,"  Sarah sighed.  "What are y’all called?"

Introductions were made, again.  Brooklyn studied the human.

She was short, and the once blonde hair had turned to platinum.  Her wide green eyes exactly matched the shade of Rui’s skin, oddly enough, and they sparkled with life.  She was also plump, but not excessively so, and a hint of muscle still showed.  He shrugged, not his cup of tea, but, oh well.

By this time, the others in the cavern (room?) had noticed them, and the noise level had greatly died down.  Goliath cloaked his wings as a group approached them.

They were about half-and-half gargoyle and human, mostly males, but not all.  A female with webbed wings and skin the color of mustard led them.  She studied the group carefully, but for Gabriella, who was behind Xanatos, before stopping her gaze at Goliath.  She smiled.

"I am called Anderson.  I see you have met Rui and his mate.  You are welcome here."

Goliath bowed, never taking his eyes off of them, and addressed them in turn.  "I am Goliath, and this is my clan.  We thank you for your hospitality.  If there is anything we can do...?"

Anderson pulled thoughtfully at the long brown braid that hung over her shoulder.  "How can you ask that when I know not your warrior’s skills, nor you alliance?"

Xanatos pulled off his helmet, deciding it was time to stop playing dumb.

"Really, Anderson, if we weren’t with the FEP, would they be traveling with me?"

She looked at him in surprise.  "I did not know you were human, I thought you were a drone..."  She shook her head.   "Oh well.  You are all welcome here." She turned to leave when she caught sight of Gabriella.

If it had been physically possible, she would have paled.   Instead her jaw dropped and her eyes widened below the spiked brows.   "How?"

Gabriella looked behind her, to the left, and right, before realizing that Anderson was talking about her.  "How what?"

The web-winged gargoyle rushed up to Gabriella so fast she had no time to even flare her wings in alarm before she grasped her hands and stared at them. "Are you a half-breed?!?"

"Uhm, yeah.  So?"

"So how is that possible?  Who did this?"

Gabriella shrank back from the female’s harsh question, fear in her eyes. Lexington put a hand on Anderson’s shoulder.   "Stop it!  You’re hurting her!"

Anderson abruptly let go of her, shock still in her eyes.   The others in the cavern had similar looks.  "I...I’m sorry.  I just never thought...I’m sorry."

Lex had his arm around Gabriella and was glaring at Anderson’s retreating back in white eyed fury.  "Who does she think she is?"

Rui crouched down next to them.  "I apologize for her behavior. She and her husband had been trying for children for years before he was killed.  I guess seeing you really set her off.  She had given up hope on the chance of having halfling children.  Who were your parents?"

Gabriella stood up, shrugging off Lexington’s help, she rubbed her wrists softly. "Actually,"  she said in an undertone,   "I am impossible, sort of.  A halfling child can only be achieved through magic or science."

Rui nodded, looking up at his mate, Sarah.  Sarah came over to her, examining her wrists carefully.  "You’ll need to clean these scratches.  Come to my home, and I’ll attend them for you."  She led her away.

All the while, Goliath had been staring at Xanatos.   He turned and raised an eyebrow.  "Yes?"

Slowly, Goliath walked over to the multibillionaire, towering over him, and snapping his wings open.  Xanatos involuntarily took a step back.

"How?"

"I assume you’re speaking of Oni?"

Goliath nodded;  the rest of the clan, led by Brooklyn, wandered off.

"Alexander, actually.  Elisa’s last birthday present from him was a spell."

Growling, the gargoyle barely refrained from letting his eyes glow.  Barely. "Explain, Xanatos."

He held up his hands in a placating gesture.   "Alexander gave Detective Maza the life-span of a gargoyle, and the ability to bear half-gargoyle children.  Now she’ll live as long as you, and can have your children.  He only wanted his Aunt Elisa to be happy."

"Why weren’t we told?"  His voice had risen, and was just below shouting. People all around them stopped what they were doing to turn and stare.  "Has he cast spells on the rest of my clan, as well?!?  I thought we could trust you, Xanatos!"

"I frankly don’t see why you’re so upset, Goliath.  Nothing was done that harmed anyone, and I didn’t do it anyway.  Yelling at me won’t get you anywhere."

He had a point.

With a half-growl, the lavender gargoyle clapped his wings shut in frustration.

Xanatos placed a hand on his shoulder.  "I know how much you miss her. Them."

The gargoyle considered that.  "I believe that Fox was the best thing that happened to you, Xanatos."

The human grinned at him.  "I agree wholeheartedly."

Gabriella looked around her surroundings.  Their home was not large.  Rui & Sarah lived in a two room "house", that was obviously hand-built.  The living room, as Sarah called it, was the larger, and in one corner was a small electric stove.  It also held the low table used for everything from eating to playing a game of cards on, and the oldest couch Gabriella had ever seen.  Admittedly, she hadn’t seen many, but still...  There was a dirt floor, and many handwoven rugs scattered about.  A blanket, also hand-woven, lay over the back of the couch.

She smiled at Sarah, who had just finished wrapping her wrists, and turned to inspect the blanket.  There were about twenty large squares on it, lined up in rows and columns, each containing a picture, and piece of cloth.   "What is this, Sarah?"

The Human looked up from putting away her med-kit things, and smiled.  "Oh, that’s my family history."

"Really?  Where are the words?"

"There are no words."  Sarah shook her head and moved closer.  "The picture on every square tells the story.  Would you like me to tell it to you?"

Gabriella nodded.  Sarah took it down and pointed to the first square.  "This is the first one, well, the oldest ancestor I can trace.  His name was Blue Stone.  In his day, the Gargoyles had just been revealed to Humans.  He wasa great warrior, a Poe-lease-Man.  His partner was a woman whose name was long lost, but everyone knows it ment Iron, so she is called the Iron Guardian.  She was also a Poe-lease-Man.  They were the First Friends."

"First Friends?"

"Aye.  Don’t you know?"

"No, I told you, we come from very far away."

Sarah dismissed it with a wave of her hand.   "Think nothing of it. I’ll just have more to tell you, then.  Well, when the first clan came to Man-ha-Tahn, they were brought by an evil Man named Zantoz.   At first, they of the clan were only six, and all males.  The Iron Guardian befriended them first, and it was later that Blue Stone came to know them, through her.   The Iron Guardian the clan’s Leader, and the Beast went on a long magical trip by boat when they met the Leader’s daughter, The Angel.  They went around the world saving many people, encountering The Demon many times.  Eventually, they came home. Ahh, this is only the very shortened version I’m giving you, you know that, don’t you?"

Gabriella nodded.  She knew.

"Well then...After a great battle with O’bron and Titya, the King and Queen of the Fairies, they saved Zantoz’s son, and he became a good Man.  Then the Iron Guardian and the Leader mated, and had the first halfling child, and her name was Oni.  Well, some say that, anyway.  No one knows for sure, because it’s all been lost in the mists of time, as my mother used to say."  Sarah smoothed her hand over the blanket, caressing it lovingly.   "I’m sure I’ve bored you with my stories, I often do that..."

Gabriella was about to say something when she lifted her head at a noise from the door.  Xanatos, minus his armor, was standing there.   "How long have you been there?"  she asked sharply.

The Man shrugged.  "Long enough to hear the legend."  His calculating eyes swept over Sarah.  "How much more do you know of this ‘Zantoz’ character? Why did you call him evil?"

"It doesn’t really matter, David."   The quiet words came from Gabriella.

That made him stop.  She had never used his first name before.  Her blue eyes flashed as she continued.  "There are some things that don’t matter, and you don’t need to know the rest of the legends."

There was something about those eyes...Xanatos stepped back from the door not taking his eyes from hers, trying to hide the sudden fear that crawled up his spine.  "By the way," he said, trying to control his fear by covering it with words. "I came here to fetch you.  Rui and Anderson have found a place for us to use as a temporary home, until we can ‘build our own’.   Our fearless leader wants you to come and pick a spot to rest."

Gabriella bid goodbye to Sarah, who turned and began to make dinner for her and her husband.  "Odd group."

Xanatos glanced down at the girl who walked beside him.   Her face was closed, those brilliant blue eyes revealing nothing.  "Why did you stop me?"

"I told you.  There are some things you are not supposed to know.  Like the future.  What if you found out who Alexander was supposed to wed, but you didn’t approve of her, so you prevented them from ever meeting, and the child that they were supposed to have who was supposed to save the world, or something, never does because you screwed with the timeline?"  Angrily, she glared at him.

"How do you know this isn’t ‘screwing with the timeline’ as you so elegantly phrased it?"

Gabriella smiled.  "I told you, I asked the Fates.  This has been written.  It will happen, it has happened, it is happening.  Remember, this is my past, and Goliath will tell you, history is immutable.  Untouchable.  Ask him."

They had reached their destination.  A one room "house", it had been carved out of the ancient tunnels.  There was one door, and a window minus the glass looking out into the cavern.  The room was rather large, perhaps 30x40 feet, and held about four medium-sized hand-woven rugs and a lamp.   On one wall there was a shelf, and pegs had been driven into the others.  A broom stood in the corner.

"Home sweet home."  muttered Brooklyn.

"It’s not that bad,"  Angela mused.   " It’s not like we’re going to stay here for a long time."

"But, there’s no food!"  Broadway looked about in dismay.

"No need to worry about that."  They turned at the strange voice.

A tall, if somewhat gangly man with brown hair and crooked teeth was grinning in the doorway.  "Hi!"  he said.   "I’m Jonathan.  Can I come in?"  He didn’t exactly wait for them to say yes and was in before they could move.  "You shouldn’t worry about food, because every night some one will invite one or two of you to eat with them.  I’m here for the first two who will come with me?"

Broadway was dragging Angela and Jonathan out of the door almost before the sentence was out of his mouth.

Not five minutes later, a two gargoyle children were inviting Xanatos and Goliath.  Next went Brooklyn, with an elderly crone who kept muttering about how much he looked like her son.  Lex and Gabriella were taken last by a girl who looked so much like Maria Chavez he had to look twice.

Goliath had been poking at his food for the last five minutes, his massive form dwarfing those of the children of both races seated all around him.  They were staring at him in apparent awe.  Xanatos observed this, quietly laughing inside. Waving a hand in front of the Gargoyles face, he startled Goliath out of his reverie.  "You were a million miles away, Goliath, what were you thinking of?"

"Elisa."

One of the children, a human male with dark skin an huge eyes, walked up to where Goliath sat, and still had to look up at his face.   "Mister," he whispered tugging on his wings.  "You are really big."

For a split second, Goliath just stared at the child, until a grin spread across his craggy features.  Putting down his food, he gently scooped the child up, and stood.  The kid squealed in delight, as the others got up and surrounded him, laughing.  He was holding four in the air by the time Jean, the woman who was caring for all of them, came in.  She placed her hands on her wide hips, trying in vain to keep from smiling at the sight of the huge Gargoyle juggling four ecstatic children, while sixteen others jumped up and down around him crying for their turns.

Xanatos, unaware of her presence, scooped up a female with two sets of wings and a lot of yellow hair, and threw her gently into the air.  She laughed out loud, baring tiny fangs and flapping her wings.

"Jean!"  One of the Gargoyle children, a sky-blue male with an eagle beak, ran up to her and hugged her around the leg.   "Jean, G’wiaf is neat!  He’s big an’ can pick up four of us!"

"I can see that."  She met the tall Gargoyle’s gaze, and smiled to assure him that she knew he ment no harm.  He put them down anyway.  Xanatos attempted to do the same with the red skinned, yellow-haired girl he was holding, but she was firmly attached to his neck.  She grinned at him.

After they had all settled down, Jean pushed her black hair out of her face and studied the two of them.  "What brings you here, anyway?"

"We are searching for someone."  Goliath said, absently nodding over the very loose tooth a Human girl was showing him.

"Oh?  Who?"

Xanatos was still trying to disengage the child who hung around his neck, but short of hurting her, which he didn’t want to do, he couldn’t think of how to make her let go.  "We don’t know what name she goes by, but we know her as Demona."

"Can’t say that I ever heard of anyone called that," Jean mused.  "What does she look like?"

"Actually," Goliath began.  "She looks very much like my daughter Angela,but for her coloring.  She has blue skin, red hair, and purple wings.  She wears gold on her brow, and on her ankles and ears."

Jean had gone very still.  The children, sensing her mood, had stopped shouting and were watching the adults attentively.  The red one slipped off of Xanatos’ neck.  "What do you want her for?" she asked quietly.

"She,"  Goliath practically spit out the word. "has much to answer for.  It is because of her that our clan numbers so few.  She betrayed us, long ago.  I, we, tried to make peace with her, but she is mad.  Several times she has near succeeded in killing myself, my clan...even my mate.  She must be stopped before she does something worse than what she already has."

Jean laughed nervously.  "Good luck, my friend.   I hope you find her, but then again, there is the gov’t, the F.E.P. , the Rebels, and an old man who calls himself the Hunter, all are looking for her."

Xanatos and Goliath traded a look.  "The Hunter?"  he asked casually.

She nodded to him. "Aye.  He’s old, but fit.  He says that this Demona of yours killed his wife and child.  He’s crazy too.  Claims he’s been hunting her for almost 2,000 years.  Yeah right."  She pointed to her ear and described small circles in the air, crossing her eyes.  Some of the children laughed.

Goliath and Xanatos swapped a glance again.

Jean caught the look, and her eyes narrowed.   "You know more than you’re letting on, aren’t you?"  She asked them.

"Too much,"  Goliath rumbled.   "Far too much."