Volume #25: "Doppelganger"

There was a lone Rokkan there. A female. She held a shoulder-mounted weapon on her right shoulder. Her eyes glowed, not blue as the Rokkans' eyes did.

No, this female's eyes glowed purple.

As Rosanna focused her cybernetically enhanced vision toward the Rokkan, she gasped in shock and horror.

Her enemy ... was herself.

=Rosanna ... we meet.= The voice was steady and alien. Almost like her own, but resonating bizarrely.

"What is this? Has Demona resorted to sending clones to do her dirty work?!" Rosanna stood defiant from the battlement, looking up at the ... thing. She watched as it alighted, landing on the stones of the castle.

This close up, Rosanna could now see that her double was nearly ten feet tall. Her horns were an exaggerated version of Rosanna's own, as were her forehead and eyebrow ridges. This made it clear enough that this was no ordinary clone.

=But I'm not a clone, Rosanna.= The Rokkan ran forth, planting a fist into Rosanna's stomach, sending the gargoyle leader flying against a side wall.

Rosanna narrowed her one natural eye at the monster, teeth gritted firmly, her gaze steady. She let out a primal roar and charged toward the creature, with no concern for her own safety, viciously lashing out at the giantess.

"We've got to stop her. What if the implant comes loose?"

"The implant won't come loose. Not unless that thing grabs her by it."

Liberty had now joined the group at the doorway, watching the fight as it progressed. She suddenly narrowed her eyes toward the monstrosity fighting her leader.

"So familiar ..."

All eyes turned to the giant as she came forward.

"What's familiar about her?"

"I don't know, it's just ..." The monster threw Rosanna off of herself, and suddenly Liberty saw it: the last two fingers on the clone's right talon were webbed together. She hadn't seen that since ...

... she was a Rokkan.

Liberty's eyes glowed, as she rushed through the group toward the fight outside.

"Are you okay?"

"Never better. And now I know what it is you fight."

Liberty picked herself up, backing away from the Rokkan militiawoman. The Rokkan hissed at them both.

=Just wait until Demona gets here, then you'll feel the wrath!=

"Well?" Rosanna looked up at Liberty, waiting for an explanation.

"Rosanna, this thing is somehow related to yourself and my Rokkan mate."

Rosanna widened her eyes, then looked back at the Rokkan, who had pulled out some kind of communication device. She extended her arm toward the two gargesses, switching the machine on.

Demona's laughing face appeared in the screen. Rosanna's eyes glowed with barely- caged fury.

"Greetings, step-daughter."

Rosanna roared. "DON'T CALL ME THAT!!"

Now it was Demona's turn to make her eyes glow. "I'll call you any damn thing I please, freak. I see you've met my Thorn in the rose's side."

"What is this thing?"

"Oh well ... since you'll be dead soon anyway, I'll tell you. She is the result of an amalgamation of the genetic material of a gargoyle and a Rokkan. Specifically ..."

Demona stepped backward, allowing Rosanna to see the horrifying sight behind her: a small piece of bone that Rosanna vaguely recognized as a piece of her face.

"... your face."

Rosanna's eyes glowed again. "And I thought you would've been through with clones ever since Thailog betrayed you. You never change."

Demona laughed. "A clone? You think she's a clone? Oh, no." The blue gargess' eyes turned to see Rosanna's companion. "Ah, Liberty. Allow me to introduce to you the other component of Thorn."

Another Rokkan entered the room. Liberty's eyes flared again. "YOU!"

"Yes, him. Thorn!"

The Rokkan siting before the two gargesses stood up, revealing her height to be even higher than Liberty. =Yes, my mistress, I am here.=

Demona smiled once more. "Destroy them both." The screen winked out.

Lina followed Coyote through the passageway from the medlab, still clutching to her damaged and hazardous stone. Coyote turned, a glint in his eye.

"Positive. Believe me, I've had enough experience with her, there's no way you could go wrong." The two beings made their way down the passage, until they reached an unmarked door, which Coyote knocked on.

"Is that you, Rose?"

"It's me."

The door suddenly flew open, allowing Beth Maza to gape in shock at the fae who had knocked on her door. "Coyote?! How long have you been here?"

"Long enough. Listen, I need you to do me a favor, for old times' sake."

Beth responded to that with a smirk, no doubt an expression she learned from her late sister. "Right. What is it?"

At that point, Lina came forward, her eyes still puffy from her frustrated tears of earlier that evening. Beth's face suddenly softened at the sight of the depressed gargess.

"Lina? What's wrong?"

She held up the Avalon stone, without speaking. Beth gave it a quick once-over, then nodded. "I see. I get it now." She looked up at Coyote. "No."

Coyote's jaw almost hit the floor. "WHAT?!"

"You heard me. No, I won't teach the way to Lina. She has her own way to go, I can't make it easier for her. She has to learn on her own how to control this little piece of Avalonian masonry."

"But Beth ... the 'Avalonian masonry,' as you so succinctly put it, is backfiring on her, so she needs some kind of magic that doesn't need an avatar." Coyote put his hands on his knees, looking up at Beth. "Help us, Obi-Beth Maza, you're our only hope."

Lina gave the fae a weird look. Beth couldn't help but laugh, then finally sighed in resignation.

"Okay, princess, I'll do it."

Liberty took the opportunity, though, to grasp Thorn by the shoulders, prying her off and tossing her aside. Rosanna stood back up.

"Thorn, huh? Prepare to be dulled!"

Rosanna nearly launched into a sprint toward Thorn, when Liberty grasped her arm, stopping her. "Wait! You don't understand ..."

"I understand perfectly. The blue bitch can't get to me herself, so she creates a stooge to do the dirty work, using a piece of me!" She looked up at LIberty. "How do you think I feel, knowing I'm fighting something that used to be a huge chunk of my face?!"

"I understand that, Rosanna, but you have to understand that she is no more a gargoyle than I am a human. She may have your genes, but her mindset and, more importantly, her fighting technique, is Rokkan."

Thorn roared at the two females, her eyes glowing their unnatural purple color again. =Stand forth and fight, cowards!=

A low growl emanated from Rosanna, making her lip curl in a determined sneer of hatred. "That's it, she's mine!"

"Rosanna, STOP!"

Too late, Rosanna wriggled free of Liberty's grip, rushing toward the giant and slamming into her full speed. The Rokkan doppelganger rolled with the blow, getting one of her own in as Rosanna followed through, sending her flying toward the outer wall of the battlement. Rosanna, luckily enough, caught the wall with her feet, bending her knees and springing forth, wings spread. The faint draft of her motion was enough to send her hard into Thorn's stomach, sending both females sprawling.

Unseen by either one of the fighters, Liberty quickly ran into the Castle, desperately trying to find help.

"You must eat, Ariana-chan, you've kept yourself locked in that place for almost a week!"

"I know, mother ..." Ariana's gaze became distant. "It's just ... I want to spend my every waking moment with Solomon. I swear, he's so much like Samson was at that age ..."

Sata nodded. "Be strong, Ariana-chan. We will bring Samson back."

The mother and daughter were suddenly interrupted by Liberty bursting into the passageway, panting. Sata ran up to the giant gargess almost immediately, unfortunately leaving her own daughter grasping for a wall.

"What has happened?"

"Rosanna needs help. There's a Rokkan out there ... she can't fight a Rokkan like a gargoyle."

Sata's eyes suddenly became grim and determined. She pulled her katana out of its scabbard at her side. "Attend to Ariana, Liberty-san. I will deal with this problem."

Liberty nodded, rushing over to Ariana's side, grasping the smaller gargess' forearm and helping her to her feet. Sata quickly ran out of the passage, toward the exit.

But she was still growling.

"There's no way you will beat me. I am you, for God's sake!"

=You are a gargoyle.=

"Hate to disillusion you, Thorn, but so are you. Half of you is me!"

Thorn's eyes glowed again. =LIAR!!= Thorn now pulled the sidearm out of her waist holster, pointing it toward the injured gargoyle. =Now you die!=

The sharp CLANG! of metal-on-metal contact interrupted Thorn, as her weapon was knocked out of her grasp. Thorn turned to face her new adversary, a jade green female brandishing a katana at her.

"That is more than enough!"

Now it was Thorn that growled. =Stay out of this, stranger.=

"You attack my friends, you attack me. You attack my leader, you attack me. You attack Rosanna-san ... you are dead."

Before Thorn could react in kind, Sata had dropped the katana and had now taken to whipping a kick across Thorn's face. The hybrid went down hard, barely able to recover before Sata was at her throat. The Japanese gargess' blinding speed now had Thorn in an unfamiliar position ...

... the disadvantage.

"Now ... let's start over again, here."

Rosanna approached the Rokkan, taking her communication device away from her, tuning it to call Demona once more. The blue gargess appeared in the screen through a haze of static.

"Thorn? Is Rosanna dead?"

Rosanna smirked, defiantly. "The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, Demona." She turned the screen so that Demona could see the now-conquered Thorn under Sata's blade. "Now who's in control?"

She couldn't help but smile as she heard Demona roar her rage impotently into the device on her end. "Thorn, return!"

Thorn tried to rise. Sata responded by placing her blade closer to Thorn's throat. "I think not, gaijin."

"You're going to have to do without Thorn for a while, Demmy. She's my prisoner."

"We'll see about that!" Demona's eyes flared. "RETURN!!"

Sata was shocked to discover herself holding thin air hostage. Demona laughed in the communication device.

"Now who has a hostage?"

Rosanna gritted her teeth, her fury uncontrollable as she flung the communication unit far into the night sky over Manhattan. She grasped Thorn's abandoned weapon, steadying its sight at the falling device and blasting it into atoms.

At that moment, Liberty came back out into the night air with Alexander Xanatos. She looked between Sata and Rosanna, trying to figure out what happened.

"Where did Thorn go?"

Rosanna sighed, as Alexander ran over to her, checking on her implants. Rosanna looked up at the giant gargess. "Demona took her back. We'll get her next time."

Alexander's fussing finally ceased. "Well, it's none the worse for wear. I suppose that it would be all right to return you to the Clan."

Rosanna finally relaxed as Alexander walked away from her. "All right. We'll let the sun heal my injuries from this night. Come on, let's call it a night."

Together, the group re-entered the Castle, the thorn in their side repelled ... at least for this night.