Volume #17: "Pas de Deux"

Attacks upon the Castle were becoming a day-to-day routine for the occupants of high Castle Wyvern, overlooking a devastated New York City like a lighthouse upon the wasteland. This one had been no different.

Except that the enemy commander had at one time been the clan's second.

As the attacking party glided away, Graeme came to his grieving sister, kneeling beside her, one arm around her shoulders. Liberty came down closely behind, followed by Lina, her Avalonian stone freshly recovered. The scene itself was quite tragic to the casual observer; one passing upon this scene would never know that this party had successfully repelled an attack by themselves.

They were suddenly interrupted from their sorrow by two strange gargoyles climbing over the battlements to join them. They observed the scene, then quietly disturbed.

The younger one was the first to speak, though: "Which of you are Graeme and Ariana?"

The sorrowing red female and the green male consoling her looked up at the stranger. Graeme narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Not to be rude, but who the hell are you?"

"Later on the introductions. Rosanna just sent us up to tell you to hide. Your folks are here."

Ariana sniffled, looking up. "What do you mean?"

"They showed up in a big ball of fire ..."

The reply from the beaked fraternal twins was simultaneous and panicked: "OH CRAP!!" Hurriedly, they scrambled for a doorway.

Liberty observed this scene with an aloof fascination. "What is that all about?"

Lina shrugged.

"How bad is it?"

Rosanna sighed. "As bad as it looks, Brooklyn. Half the city's dead. The other half fights nearly non-stop against the invaders."

"Who are these invaders?" Sata's question brought a sigh from Morgan, clinging to her back. Rosanna stopped short and looked at the Ishimura gargess.

"Trust me on this one, it's better if a friend of ours tells you herself. Suffice to say, they are unlike anything you have ever faced."

"That's a stretch," Brooklyn quipped.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" came from the angry Steve Bluestone, on Rosanna's back.

"Hey, you got a problem, buddy?"

"Yeah, I've got a problem with your attitude, red ..."

"ENOUGH!"

Rosanna's bellow even stopped Buick short. A soft squeal from General Chavez restarted his ascent.

"Arguing is getting us nowhere here. Let's get up to the Castle and sort everything out there, okay?!"

Sensing agreement from the silence, Rosanna resumed her ascent. Sata cautiously looked at Brooklyn ...

... who was chuckling.

"What is so funny, Brooklyn-san?"

"She's Goliath's daughter, all right."

After all, no one who visits the Cloisters is sure to forget it anytime soon.

The Rokkans, though, towered over her, nearly towering over the varied medieval-style buildings. And in their midst stood a blue-skinned male cyborg gargoyle, stepping forward.

"We await your orders, grandmother."

She smiled at him. "Very well, Samson. Take a party and run a sweep along the East River. I want you to kill anything that moves."

"And the gargoyles?"

Demona narrowed her eyes to slits. Her eyes glowed red, and her Rokkan companions mirrored her appearance, their eyes glowing their peculiar deep blue.

"The gargoyles ... the gargoyles will perish."

"Brooklyn, Sata, this is Liberty. Once a Rokkan."

"Pleased to meet you." Liberty held out her hand. Brooklyn suddenly seemed to go pale, his countenance turning to one of shock.

"Uhhh ... you're a new sight ... tall ... hoo boy ... "

"What Brooklyn-san is trying to say," Sata continued for her mate, "is that it is our honor to make your acquaintance."

Liberty nodded. "I have heard about you. Rosanna speaks well of you and your journey."

"OH!" Rosanna zoomed in front of Liberty quickly. "Uhh ... what she's actually trying to say is that Brooklyn is spoked highly of here."

"I see ..." Sata eyed the distance between her shellshocked mate and the tall female before them. A casual wave of her hand before Brooklyn's eyes told Sata that she had totally lost his attention.

"Okay ... Brooklyn's not feeling well right now, so let's go aside and discuss the situation in private, okay?"

Sata and Liberty nodded, following Rosanna into the building.

"How long to we have to do this?" Ariana harshly asked in a frightened stage whisper.

"As long as it takes before the Gate takes them away again. You know the deal, Rosanna told us a long time ago that they can't know who we are, or that we even exist, even if we're with them!"

"But it's frustrating!!"

"What's frustrating?"

A third voice in the shadows startled the siblings into sudden awareness, as they looked between them and saw the young gargess Cadillac between them.

"What're you doing here?!"

"Nudnik fell asleep, and the egg wasn't moving, so I started exploring again."

Ariana crouched down before Cadillac, eye-to-eye with the younger one. "You spend a lot of time wandering alone here, don't you?"

Cadillac nodded slowly, sadly. Ariana sighed and hugged the child, not so much to comfort the child but more to comfort herself. She allowed her tears to flow once more.

Rosanna leaned against the kitchen counter, shrugging her shoulders. "Them's the breaks, Sata. And you're in the thick of it now, as much as we are."

Liberty, leaning herself against the refrigerator, came closer forward. "My people are a violent race. They live for conquest."

Sata nodded. "There are many I know of like your ... Rokkans. But few with such ferocity as you describe."

"So will you help us? As long as you're here ..."

Sata nodded again. "I understand perfectly, Rosanna-san." She laid a hand on her katana, still in its scabbard. "My sword stands ready to defend this place, as does Brooklyn."

"Thank you." Rosanna finally smiled, as Liberty left the two native Earth gargesses alone in the kitchen. Sata's expression seemed pained, though.

"What's wrong?"

Sata smiled again. "It's nothing, Rosanna-san. It's just ... well, between two females, can I trust you?"

"Completely, Sata."

Sata sighed, relieved. "Good. I fear I may not be able to fight much for a while on our endless journey. If Brooklyn should ever know this, I fear he may not allow me."

Rosanna could see the announcement coming a mile away. "You're pregnant, aren't you?"

"Hai. I would calculate it as about the last two months or so. I've wanted to tell him for a while now, but I can't seem to find the time, or the courage." She chuckled sadly. "Imagine that. Ishimura's finest warrior, and she has not the courage to tell her mate she is heavy with egg."

This revelation brought a smile from Rosanna. "You know, Sata, there are worse things to fear. Death, for one."

Sata raised an eyebrow. "I don't follow."

"Tell him, Sata. Tell him what's going on. Even if he doesn't take the revelation well, it's better than letting him find out for himself."

The Japanese gargoyle sighed resignedly. "I shall think it over, Rosanna-san. Thank you for the advice."

But they were still disappointed.

Samson alighted on a nearby van, screaming into the night sky.

"ROSANNA!! We're here, waiting for you! Come and meet your doom!"

Nothing came. Nobody. Not a single gargoyle.

"COWARDS!! ALL OF YOU!"

Frustrated, he jumped down and swooped off again, followed by his attack party.

Finally, she had their eyes on her.

"Scouting party reports an attack squadron tearing a swath of gunfire through Midtown! Samson is at the lead!"

Rosanna turned quickly to the gargoyles assembled there. "Liberty, Mustang, you're with me. General, get a party and have Sata and Brooklyn take you to the site."

Everyone mobilized at once, leaving the Castle mostly unguarded. Out from the shadows, Graeme and Ariana emerged, followed shortly by Cadillac.

"This is it. The big attack."

The sound of her former title drew General Chavez' attention away from her destination, and focused on the speaker: Peter Maza.

"Peter! How'd you get here?"

"Unimportant. I want in on your attack party."

"Now Peter ..."

"I insist, Maria. I want in. I'm useless just hanging around here." He came closer to Chavez. "I lost Diane to these bastards. I'm not about to go down without a fight."

Chavez smiled. "Fall in, sergeant."

Rosanna had managed to beat off a few attackers, when she saw a familiar face in the crowd below, within the human resistance forces.

"Grandpa?"

She swooped down closer to the action, focusing her attention on Peter Maza as he fought off the attack. Very well, she had to add. He was holding his own quite nicely.

Then she saw him. Samson, creeping up behind him, cyber-arm at the ready. Her eyes glowed in anger and panic, as she dove down toward her grandfather.

"GRANDPA!!"

He barely had time to react. Samson grabbed the old human's head, over his face. He pushed the cyber-arm into the small of Peter Maza's back.

He fired.

Rosanna's panicked cry became an enraged roar, as she tackled the cyborg and began viciously ripping into him.

He was smiling, for some bizarre reason.

"Three down ... two to go."

She glared at him, her eyes burning her fury. "You ... son ... of ... A ... BIITCH!!"

She viciously slammed herself into her former second, sending him flying across the street. Regaining his sanity for a brief moment of clarity, he rose to his feet, calling the Rokkans to his side and gliding off with them.

She approached her grandfather slowly, the shock only now setting in. She dropped to her knees, by his lifeless side.

Brooklyn and Sata alighted by them. Brooklyn was in shock once again, this time in horror. Sata sheathed her weapon, crouching by Rosanna's side.

"I am sorry, Rosanna-san."

The tears that fell were less tears of sadness than tears of rage. She sat back on her heels, screaming impotently into the night air all her rage and sorrow.

She didn't notice the bright fireball encircling Brooklyn and Sata, making them vanish into the mists of time.

Nor did she notice the older gargoyles that took their place.

"Hi, Rosanna. What'd we miss?"

Shaken from her grief, she looked across from her and saw Brooklyn and Sata, now much older, standing there before her. Her rage could barely be contained.

And finally, it broke free. Manhandling him by the chestplate he now wore on a regular basis, she roughly threw the elder gargoyle against a brownstone, coming nose-to-nose with him.

"All right, Mr. Time Dancer, I want straight answers right now,, because TOO MANY people have died because of this whole 'can't reveal the future' line of BULL CRAP! TELL ME!!"

"Rosanna, I can't ..."

"DAMN YOU, TELL ME NOW!!"

Brooklyn set his jaw and his eyes slamming away Rosanna's grip. "Fine then. Wanna hear the whole thing, that's fine with me. The invasion is going to last approximately one year. It goes back and forth like this for about another eight months, and eventually ends with a massive offensive by the Earth forces, where all the gargoyles and the humans attack at once. That attack is easily swept aside by the Rokkans, and the resultant defeat leaves the entire planet under Rokkan control, with all surviving sentients native to Earth being either enslaved or executed. It's not until about twenty years later that a counter-revolution can occur which will succeed."

Rosanna backed away from Brooklyn. He gritted his teeth in a savage snarl.

"In other words, Rosanna, you, me, and just about everyone here will die. There. Satisfied?!"

Rosanna did not take the revelation well. She staggered for a bit under the weight of the new load she now had to bear, as only the fifth person with the knowledge of this future.

Finally, a determined set appeared on her features.

"Fine then. If that's the way it went ... let's find a way to change the future."