Volume #21: "Life and Death at Castle Wyvern"

In the medlab of Castle Wyvern, Alexander Xanatos checked his tools, nervously waiting for the arrival of the ailing clan leader. Alongside one exam table, Goliath looked around, as well. He looked to Alexander nervously.

"I'm concerned. I don't want to lose her like I lost her mother ..."

The human nodded. "I understand. Truth be told, I'm worried as well, it feels like I'm going to be cutting my own sister."

"All we can do is wait."

Alexander placed a hand on the concerned lavender gargoyle's shoulder, trying to comfort him. Though he doubted anything he could do would make a difference.

"Where ..."

"We're in the Castle. You're going to have your operation tonight, we can't wait any longer."

Rosanna looked up at the Avalonian gargoyle, focusing as best as she could with her right eye turning more sluggishly than the left.

"We can wait ..."

"No you can't. You had a seizure in the battle this evening, you'll be no good to us dead."

"The Clan needs me ..."

Rain stopped abruptly, frustrated with the gargess. "Rosanna ... for once in your life, can't you do a damned thing for yourself?"

She looked up at him, questioning.

"The war will still be here when you come out. The Clan will still be here. Graeme has them well in hand, but if you want to be of any use to the Clan, you need this. Tonight. End of discussion."

Rain continued down the hallway, carrying Rosanna with him.

Rain ran into the room, carefully laying Rosanna down on the table in the center. He took a place alongside the table, across from Goliath. The two males passed concerned looks between themselves. Finally, Alexander joined them.

"Gentlemen ... this procedure will require everything I have both technological and magical. Specifically, it will require soul magics."

Goliath now looked at Alexander. "Soul magics?"

Alexander nodded. "In particular, from you two. Earlier, I informed Rosanna what I would need, and I asked her to choose the two beings for whom she cared about the most. She chose the two of you."

They looked at each other again, then down at Rosanna. Weakly, she smiled, taking her father's hand.

"Father ..."

With her other hand, she took the other gargoyle's hand.

"Rain ..."

Alexander took the hands of the two male gargoyles. Dipping his head and closing his eyes, he began summoning fae magics, which began to swirl about the entire medlab.

Slowly, he began his incantation.

Alexander suddenly cocked his head back. The volume of his voice tripled as he recited the last line of the spell.

The flash consumed the entire medlab. Once it subsided, Alexander sighed deeply, looking up at the two gargoyles.

"She's under. Thank you, gentlemen, that will be all."

The two gargoyles looked at Rosanna worriedly one last time, then left the medlab. As they left, Owen and Coyote came in.

Standing on a far wall of the rookery, Ariana, Brooklyn, Sata and Cadillac stood, watching and waiting. The egg had rocked a few times since Brooklyn had accidentally dropped it, but had not hatched as of yet. This worried Ariana, as it was about due.

Nudnik simply slept in the corner. Once the egg had hatched, his job would be finished.

"When was the last time it rocked?"

"Two nights ago." Ariana approached it slowly. "Maybe he's caught."

"Give him time, Ari." Brooklyn approached his daughter. "If I recall, your egg took quite a while to hatch. It's kind of like punching through a brick wall."

Ariana looked at her father with an unbelieving expression.

"Okay, a really thick brick wall."

Ariana shook her head. Her mother came over to her, wrapping an arm around Ariana's shoulders.

"Patience, Ariana-chan. It is a virtue."

Ariana nodded, sighing heavily. "I know, but ... with everything happening lately ..."

Sata held her daughter tighter to herself.

"Where am I?"

Her call echoed throughout the room. Footsteps at the other end answered her.

"This ... is the landscape ... of your mind."

The footsteps approached closer, until the speaker became clear. Coyote.

"What are you doing in my mind?"

"Oh come on, Rosanna, surely you know my connection to your bloodline. So long as Maza blood flows in you, you have to deal with me."

Rosanna was confused. "How are you related to me?"

"Who do you think managed to get your grandfather off that reservation?"

Rosanna nodded. "True. But when have you ever been here for either me or my mother?"

Coyote's expression changed. "Well ... numerous times." He pointed at the walls of the hallway. "Pick a door, it will show you a time when I helped either you or your mother."

Rosanna suspiciously eyed the fae trickster. "If this is some elaborate practical joke ..."

"Please, would I joke around with a Maza? I think not."

Rosanna nodded, unsure herself, and chose a door. Carefully, she opened it.

When they pulled away, they noticed Coyote approaching them, in a brisk walk. They looked at each other, then at the fae.

Goliath, though, was the first to speak. "What are you doing here, trickster?"

"Guiding the blood, as usual. You know about my link to the Maza bloodline, and I'm here to help you out."

Elisa narrowed her eyes, as she looked at the Hopi fae. Her face appeared streaked. "How? What do you know ..."

"You wish to conceive a child. But your species are incompatible ... that is, incompatible without help. I can help you."

Goliath now narrowed his eyes. "Why would you help us?"

Coyote smirked a bit. If only he knew ... "It's my self-appointed duty to help the Mazas in any way I can. Sooo ... I'm here to help you kids."

Coyote raised his hands, entering a trance and reciting a Hopi incantation. Fae magics swirled about him and the two lovers, finally collecting into Elisa's body. When the lights had subsided, Coyote opened his own eyes and smiled.

"There you go. You have exactly 24 hours in which to conceive. Go to it, kids." Coyote snapped his fingers, disappearing.

It took a minute for the information to sink in fully. Once it did, though, Elisa frantically grabbed Goliath's hand and nearly dragged him inside the Castle.

Coyote nodded, smiling. "Yep. You couldn't have come into this world without my help. If I hadn't been there, you certainly would have been a twinkle in your father's eye ... but nothing more." He approached her slowly. "Now do you trust me?"

He held out his hand to Rosanna. She took it, allowing him to lead her further down the hallway.

He knelt in the Castle chapel, a place of aesthetic wonder erected near an outside wall. A huddled figure in prayer.

Goliath shook with all of the emotion he was holding. It was true, most gargoyles never took a religion, and most were still pagan in nature, but Goliath had always felt a need for something to believe. A need for faith.

He looked up toward a graven image in one of the walls, an image of the Crucifixion. Slowly breathing, he let out a great sigh.

"I know ... you don't hear a lot of prayers from gargoyles ... but I need you, more than ever ..."

He shuddered.

"It's just that ever since I lost Elisa, my daughters have been all that I had. And Rosanna was ... is ... all I have to remind me of her mother. This blight that her stepmother has placed upon her now threatens to take Rosanna away, as well."

His eyes closed, as a single tear fell from his eye.

"I couldn't live with myself if I were to lose Rosanna. Please ... if you never do anything else for a gargoyle, do me this favor and answer this prayer. Help my Rosanna. Heal ... my Rosanna."

In the deepest recesses of his heart, he fully agreed with the tall lavender gargoyle. He closed his eyes, dipping his head with the emotions he felt.

"You love her, don't you?"

The voice interrupted his own prayer. He looked up to see Angela standing there.

"What?"

"You love Rosanna."

Rain chuckled. "Is it that obvious?"

"It's only written across your face."

Rain smiled. "Why does it matter to you, anyway?"

"Rosanna is my sister."

"Rookery sister?"

Angela shook her head. "Sister as in Goliath is our father."

Suddenly the light came on. "You're the other daughter. Which means the stepmother ..."

"... is Demona." Angela shed tears of her own. "To think that my mother could have killed my sister ..."

Rain fully understood, as he and Angela held each other, trying to give one another comfort.

"Now this ..." He pointed toward the door. "This is another point when I helped your mother. And trust me on this one, she needed the help badly."

"How badly?"

Coyote opened the door. "See for yourself."

Elisa lay in an exam bed, legs bent and elevated, in a hospital gown. Her distended belly indicated her pregnant state. The screams coming from her contorted face spoke volumes about her pain. She cocked her head back and yelled again, squeezing the talon of Goliath, standing alongside her.

At the end of the table, watching the proceedings with growing anxiety, stood David Xanatos, alongside a doctor in scrubs.

"What's the problem, doctor?"

"It's ... it's the strangest thing I've ever seen. The baby's coming out breech, but the sharpness of its claws is tearing apart the birth canal." He looked up at Goliath. "If I don't cut her open soon, the effort's going to kill them both!"

Goliath turned to Elisa. The worry on his face was evident. "Elisa, you must ..."

"NO!" Her savage yell took everyone by surprise. "NO ... CUTTING!"

The doctor suddenly took on a strange, distant expression on his face. His eyes closed, as he began an incantation. Goliath and Elisa looked at each other worriedly.

"What is he doing? Xanatos, what is happening?"

"I wish I knew ..."

"That language ..." Elisa breathed out. "It's ... Hopi."

A fae glow in the doctor's eyes settled what had happened. The doctor was possessed. He completed the incantation, allowing brilliant fae magics to swirl about Elisa. She lapsed into a deep sleep.

At that moment, Coyote chose to make his presence known. In a flash, he replaced the doctor between Elisa's legs, grasping hold of the legs and tail which had already crested.

He looked up at Xanatos. "I could use some help here."

Xanatos nodded, also taking a grip on the legs and tail. On Coyote's signal, both men pulled mightily, but taking care not to hurt either the baby or Elisa.

A loud thump as both men fell to the floor announced the arrival of the wet baby, finally pulling free. At that same moment, Elisa roused from the quick trance, struggling to pick up her shoulders.

"Elisa ..." Goliath struggled for words. "Our baby ..."

Xanatos stood up, cradling the naked newborn in his arms. It appeared as a full gargoyle, but certain elements were strange: one claw, one finger on the wings, the horns weren't nearly as long as a full-blooded gargoyle newborn's would be. The newborn cried its discontent, as Xanatos handed it over to the new parents.

"Goliath, Elisa ... it's a girl."

Elisa took the baby from Xanatos, cuddling her in her arms. Goliath embraced both his mate and newborn daughter.

"Come up with a name yet, Big Guy?"

He smiled. "I can't think straight yet. I'm staggered by the rose of our love."

Elisa smiled, thinking it over. "Rose. That sounds good."

The new family lay together in the medlab, holding each other closely. Xanatos, Coyote and the doctor discreetly left the room.

"What? Wasn't that satisfying for you?"

She grabbed Coyote by the lapels of his leather jacket. "If you're so dedicated to furthering my bloodline ... then where the hell were you when my mother died?!"

Coyote sniffed. "Oh. You think I didn't hurt when she died? You think I didn't care enough to save her?" He slapped Rosanna's hands off of him. "You think I just up and abandoned you?! Well, think again, chickie."

He stomped over to another door. "Take a look. I didn't just abandon her."

Rosanna angrily opened the new door.

Elisa reached up and took Goliath's head in her hand.

"With your shield or on it."

She kissed him one last time, then breathed her last. The two gargoyles knelt back, roaring into the night their discontent.

However, beyond their sight, Elisa's soul rose to the sky, where she materialized in a long tunnel. A light shone at the opposite end, a light bright enough to nearly blind her.

"Hello, Elisa."

She turned quickly, hoping to find the speaker. She didn't find him.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"You've died, Elisa. I'm here to help you."

"Help?!" She slapped her hands against her hips. "If I'm dead, how can I be helped?!"

The speaker finally materialized. Coyote.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yes, it's me. And I'm here to help you let go."

She looked toward the dark end of the tunnel, seeing Goliath and Rosanna mourning her.

"My husband ... my daughter ..."

"They will go on without you. You have to know that." Coyote waved his hand, and the scene changed. It was still nighttime, but it was now a large parade of black clad police officers, escorting a horse-drawn caisson carrying a casket, draped in an American flag.

"Mine?"

Coyote nodded. He waved his hand again, letting the scene shift once more. Now it was at the funeral itself. She recognized the speaker at the podium as her partner, Matt Bluestone. She watched as the honor guard fired a salute, gazed as Matt walked over to Goliath and Rosanna and presented the grieving family with the flag, now neatly folded into a triangle.

"How can I leave them?"

"You won't. You'll be in their thoughts, always. And the day will come when they will need your help. Just not today."

"Then when?"

Coyote gave her a stern gaze. "You will know."

Elisa nodded, turning back to the scene. Matt was now embracing Goliath and Rosanna.

"Farewell." She turned to Coyote. "I'm ready to go, now."

"It really did hurt you, didn't it?"

Coyote sighed. "Ever notice how you never see any fae cry? I think I was the first when Elisa died. It will hurt me even more if I lose you, as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Not right now. I'll tell you in a bit." Coyote guided Rosanna further down the hallway.

"Now comes the fun part."

Seeing his attempt at nervous humor lost on Owen, Alexander sighed, turning back to his task. Carefully, he pulled up on a piece of Rosanna's face, skull fragment included.

The diseased piece.

Owen quickly held the specimen tray underneath the bloody fragment, placing it far away from the orignal owner. Alexander breathed heavily once more, looking toward a monitor tracking Rosanna's vitals. Still normal.

"All right, that's over with. The implant, if you will, Owen."

Owen nodded curtly, handing a metal plate to Alexander. He quickly turned over the implant, removing the neural linkages. He turned back down to Rosanna's opened face, toward the small corner of her brain which had been exposed by the retro-virus' removal.

"Keep a careful watch on her higher brain functions. We're going good right now, the last thing we need is to lose her."

"I would assume, then, that Coyote is doing his job?"

"Admirably."

As the operation continued, neither man in the room noticed the cancerous fragment which had just been removed from the gargess. Neither of them noticed the magics swirling about it.

Nor did they see it vanish.

=The specimen has been collected.=

Demona smiled, evilly.

Cadillac, though, stopped their exodus. "It moved!!"

The entire group rushed back to the center of the rookery. Nudnik, excited by the movement, had joined them, as had Broadway and Angela. True to Cadillac's word, the egg was violently rocking back and forth, and looked moments away from cracking.

The excitement in the room was nearly tangible. Ariana was nearly in tears. Memories of her life with Samson began rushing to her as the egg had begun moving. Memories made all the more painful by his current state of servitude.

Brooklyn and Sata stood nearby, along with Broadway and Angela. The expectant grandparents had equal excitement over the first third-generation gargoyle born in Manhattan.

Lexington and Pontiac held each other closely as they watched, recent memories of Cadillac's hatching flashing in their minds.

And Cadillac herself stood close to Ariana, giving her something to cling to as she watched the struggle for life.

A struggle which ended sooner than anyone expected. A loud CRACK! startled everyone in the room. Slowly, a tiny blue talon broke through the shell, grasping the edge of the crack and pushing. Another blue talon joined it shortly, as the hatchling pushed the halves of the shell aside.

Ariana smiled through her tears. "Come on, baby ... come on ..."

The shell finally disintegrated, sending small shards in all directions. And the hatchling made his presence known with a tiny roar of determination. Ariana rushed forward to grasp the newborn and cradle him in her arms.

Her son.

She stood for a minute or so, just cuddling the hatchling tightly to herself. When she turned to face her family, she was smiling widely, as she held the tiny new life.

"Say hello to your grandson ... Solomon."

The crowd rushed in toward Ariana, embracing her and the new hatchling.

"Well ..." Coyote shuffled his feet, hesitantly. "I haven't had much chance, have I? But I have shown up a few times."

Rosanna looked at him expectantly.

"Remember your first date in high school?"

Her expression changed to a sarcastic smirk. "You're kidding."

"No, really. It would have been your last one had I not interfered."

Coyote led her to another door, opening it for her.

The phone distracted her thoughts, though. She walked back into the house, picking up the phone. "Hello?"

"Rose? It's Tommy."

Her eyes widened. "Tommy Walker?"

"Yup. Wanna go out tonight?"

She looked at the phone. "This is really a bad night, Tommy ..."

"I won't keep you out all night, just some dinner. I'll be over in ten, be ready." CLICK

Rosanna groaned. True, she had been looking with a lot of interest at Tommy passing through the halls at school, but a date would be next to impossible. After all, how would Tommy feel about her other form?

The elderly housekeeper chose that moment to enter the room. "Trouble, ma'am?"

Rosanna looked at her desperately. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Thorogood. It's just ... there's a friend from school coming over in ten minutes ... to get me for a date."

"Oh, how exciting!"

Rosanna slapped her hand across her face. "What am I gonna do? He can't be seen with me, he doesn't even know I turn into this!"

Mrs. Thorogood's eyes took on a different hue for a short moment, then returned to normal. "Well, I don't think that'll be a problem, dear."

The doorbell rang. "Oh, no, he's early!"

"Leave it to me, dear." Mrs. Thorogood approached the door, opening it. Tommy Walker, a mid-sized football player built teenage boy of about 16, stood on the other side of the screen.

"Hi, Mrs. Thorogood. Is Rose here?"

The elderly woman chuckled. "She's right here, and she can't wait."

Tommy opened the door and entered the foyer. He came straight up to Rosanna. She nervously chuckled.

"Hi, Rose. Ready to go?"

Her jaw dropped. Apparently, he couldn't see her for what she was. "I guess so."

"Great, let's go. Dad loaned me his car."

He reached his hand out to the gargess. She took his offered hand, allowing him to lead her out of the house. As they left, Mrs. Thorogood clung to the doorframe.

"Ah, young love."

She smiled, at the same time metamorphosing into her true form.

Coyote.

"What can I say? Your mom asked me to look after you as a favor. Puck ... er, Owen ... set me up with everything, including the house and the job."

"You ..." She continued back down the hallway. Coyote ran after her to grasp her arm.

"I wouldn't open that door."

"Why not? It's another time you helped me, isn't it?"

"Well, true ... but it's an especially painful memory of yours. You don't want to relive it, do you?"

"What could be more painful than my mother's death?" She opened the door.

And through the storm, a human and a gargess ran for their lives. Running from an angry mob.

Running from Connecticut Quarrymen.

The two hunted teens made their way to the edge of the cliff. They looked at each other fearfully.

"No place else to go!"

"Yes there is!" Rosanna unfurled her wings against the fury. Tommy almost leaped into her arms, looking back toward the mob.

"Can you glide in this?!"

"We'll find out soon enough, won't we?" Rosanna was about to leap when a gunshot interrupted her. She turned to see the Quarrymen mob fast approaching the cliff. At the lead was Geoffrey Walker, Tommy's father.

He was cocking a twelve-gauge shotgun and brandishing it threateningly toward Rosanna.

"You let go of the boy now, monster!"

She stood defiantly against both the wind and the mob, holding Tommy close to her, trying to shield him from the wind. "No! You don't understand, I'm a protector!!"

Geoff Walker, or "Captain" as the locals familiar with his Army career called him, leveled the gun at Rosanna.

"Bull! Let go of the boy!"

Tommy worked himself free of Rosanna's embrace, approaching his father cautiously. "Dad, don't you recognize her? This is Rose Maza! You know, the nice girl I brought to the house a couple months ago!"

Captain Walker didn't even flinch. "Rose was a nice, human girl. That thing you're with is a beast and an abomination."

The situation was tense, made even tenser by the threat of violence. Something was bound to give.

Eventually, it was Rosanna.

"Tommy ... I love you."

Tommy looked behind him as Rosanna leapt into the heart of the tempest. As she entered the leap, though, he heard the click of a hammer being pulled back on his father's shotgun.

"NOO!"

Tommy ran into the way between his father's gun and Rosanna. The gun fired.

A cartridgeful of lead shot pounded its way through Tommy Walker's body The pellets ripped through his ribcage and into his lungs and heart. He barely had time to turn around.

"Rose ... I loved you ..."

Rosanna's savage roar shattered the night, not the least Captain Walker. He dropped to his knees, the gun falling forgotten at his side. His face twisted into mournful sorrow. Rosanna swooped around, picking up Tommy's broken body and embracing him as he breathed his last. She approached his father, her eyes glowing red with an unholy anger she had never felt before.

"I hope you're happy ... Captain. Your hatred just killed your son."

She took off into the heart of the storm, still carrying Tommy's body. The other Quarrymen soon forgot about Captain Walker running and firing their weapons impotently into the storm, not hitting anything.

The storm had made sure of that.

"How did you help me there?"

Coyote crouched down beside where Rosanna knelt. "The storm. I was the storm. If I hadn't done that and hidden you from those bigots, you would have wound up as dead as Tommy did. And didn't I help you afterward, being there for you at every crying jag?"

Rosanna nodded. "Yes. I suppose ..."

"Now, I've got to show you the most recent time I've helped you."

Rosanna sniffled. "Most recent?"

Coyote nodded, pointing at the very last door of the hallway. "See for yourself. It should look very familiar."

The magics swirling about Rosanna collected into her, as she lay on the medlab table, still holding the hands of Goliath and Rain. Alexander collected himself, letting go.

"She's under. Thank you, gentlemen, that will be all."

Goliath and Rain turned away from the table, leaving the room. As they did, Owen Burnett and Coyote entered. Alexander turned to them.

"Ah, you're just in time. She's under the trance."

Coyote nodded. "You just want me to keep her thinking, right?"

Alexander nodded. "The key to this whole thing is to keep her higher brain functions working while I operate, so that the implant will take easier. I've already placed an enchantment over the implant, so that it will adjust to her transformations. The rest is up to you."

Owen blandly added, "When we performed this procedure on Samson, I was the one who kept him thinking, as the Puck. A small loophole I found in Lord Oberon's decree allowed me to do it."

Coyote nodded. "Well, better go while the getting's good." Coyote dissolved into mist, entering Rosanna's diseased ear. Alexander turned to Owen, who handed him a scalpel.

"All right, let's get this show on the road." Alexander lowered the scalpel to Rosanna's skin.

Coyote nodded at Rosanna's question. "Sadly, yes I must confess. And the procedure is almost over. In fact ..."

He looked to the far end of the tunnel. It was darkening.

"I believe they're ready to bring you out of the trance. At this moment, Alexander should be bringing Goliath and Rain back into the room."

Rosanna smiled. This would soon be over. "I suppose then that I should be thanking you for saving my life ... numerous times."

"No need. Really."

Rosanna placed a small peck on the fae's cheek anyway. "But it's only right."

"Hey come on, now. Save that for Rain."

Rosanna's eyes opened widely. "What?!"

"You can't hide it from me, Rosanna. I know the Mazas too well." With a enigmatic smirk, Coyote dissolved once more. Rosanna felt herself become drowsy, collapsing to the floor of the hallway and falling asleep once more.

Rosanna's chest heaved a great breath. New air was drawn into her lungs for the first time in almost three hours. Slowly, she opened the one eye she had naturally remaining, and looked to either side of her.

Weakly, she spoke. "Father ..."

Goliath's happiness shone brightly on his face. She had never seen him so happy, as he tightly embraced her, father and daughter reunited once more. As she pulled away from his embrace, she watched him turn to stone with the dawn.

At the same time, she went through her own metamorphosis, turning her human once again. She looked up at her other side and saw Rain, still awake because of the pendant around his neck. He was smiling.

And nearly in tears.

"Rose ... I ..."

She sat up, looking up at him. Slowly, she stroked his face, following the traces of the worried tears he had shed.

"Don't say anything. You don't have to."

She brought his head down to her level, approaching him slowly. She placed a quick kiss on his lips before she brought him into her embrace.

Reunited from death's grip.