The Definition of Being
                              ALONE
                    Gargoyles FanFic by Aves
                      jenjes@simcoe.igs.net
                                
All  Gargoyles characters or episodes mentioned in this story are
copywritten  1997  by Disney and Buena Vista  Television,  please
don’t  sue  me.  Any new characters are property of  the  author,
that,  by the way, is me. (And if anyone would happen to want  to
use  them,  go ahead, like I care.)  This adventure  takes  place
after the Goliath Chronicle: “Genesis Undone,” and before “Angels
in  The  Night.” Now, enough of the confirming that I  can’t  get
sued, just sit back and relax and read. . .

          Elisa voiceover: “Previously, on Gargoyles.”
Goliath: “We found gargoyles  in Brooklyn: “Parting is such sweet
Japan, Guatemala, and London.”                           sorrow.”
                                                    [The Journey]
[Gathering: Part One]               Demona: “My plans have always
Goliath: “If there are any other     been thwarted, one after the
gargoyles, we must find                other, but tonight, I take
                                                        control.”
them, before the Quarrymen do.”                      [The Mirror]
[To serve Mankind. . .]          Demona: “The access code is. . .
                                                         ‘Alone’”
Elisa:  “At least gargoyles  can       [City of Stone: Part Four]
trust some humans; it may
not be much, but it’s a start.”  Goliath: “You and I are one. . .
                                                Now and Forever.”
[Bushido]                                   [Awakening: Part One]

      The  city  was  getting ready for the coming  dark,  lights
flickered  on, parents rushed home to give their children  sleep.
But one citizen of Manhattan had a different way of preparing for
the night. Elisa Maza walked into the Eyrie Building. She entered
the elevator.
      It rolled up the endless floors. The detective looked up at
the ceiling. She rolled up her sleeve to check her watch, “I hope
I’m not late,” she muttered.
      There was a ding on the elevator and it stopped, the  doors
slid  open. Elisa walked out, the stairs were right in  front  of
her.  She  climbed  the winding staircase hurriedly.  Before  she
reached the top, she heard stone cracking, and fragments of  rock
flew down the stairs at her feet.
      She  finally  made  it to the top. A large,  lavender,  and
winged  being flexed his extra limbs, his tail stretching into  a
straight line.
     “Hi, big guy.” Elisa smiled.
     “Hello Elisa,” the beast greeted.
      His  name  was Goliath, and he was many things, but  not  a
beast,  he  was  a gargoyle, a race of magical beings  that  were
stone by day and alive by night.
      Below  the battlement Goliath slept on, the other gargoyles
of  his  clan were coming alive. There was Lexington, the  small,
green  warrior,  Broadway, the large turquoise gargoyle,  Hudson,
the  old,  brown  gargoyle, Angela, Goliath’s lavender  daughter,
Brooklyn, the red second-in-command, and Bronx, the blue gargoyle
dog.
     “Goliath!” Broadway called up, “We’re going on patrol!”
      “Then  be off, lads!” said Hudson, he then turned to Bronx,
“Come, boy, let’s see what’s on tonight.” The old one walked into
the castle Wyvern, with his faithful companion following him.

      The  two  gargoyles  glided  noiselessly  away  from  their
roosting place,  they talked as they did.
       “So,  do you think we’ll find anything here, Aves?”  asked
the dark blue female.
      “Well,  y’know, they wouldn’t have an anti-gargoyle society
if there were no gargoyles,” replied her deep red brother.
      “I  know,”  she replied, “But, I mean, a largely  populated
city isn’t the best place to hide out.”
     “Torana, look!”
      Torana  looked  where  her brother was  pointing,  “They’re
stone, Aves.”
      “I  know,”  said Aves, “but I’ve got a funny feeling  about
‘em. C’mon, Torana, it wouldn’t hurt to look.”
      The  two alighted on a tower, there was six stone gargoyles
standing on the edge. They hated this part of their job.
      Torana got out a small device from her belt, she pressed  a
button  to  activate it. She gasped in horror, it was true,  they
were real gargoyles, or, they used to be. They were dead.
      Aves  looked at them sorrowfully, “These may  be  the  only
ones.”
      “Wait  a  minute!”  said  Torana,  “This  was  the  one  on
television with Shauna Coyle!”
      “That’s a shame,” said Aves, “he  seemed like a really nice
guy.”  He turned his attention to the female of the group, “She’s
pretty.”
     Torana wiped a tear from her cheek, “If only we were able to
get their names.”
      “Let’s  do  what we have to do and get out of  here,”  said
Aves,  and  took a small camera, with a screen and  keyboard,  he
typed   in   the  city,  and  took  pictures  of  each   gargoyle
individually, “Hey,” he said, “What’s that stuff. It  looks  like
stone fluff.”
      “I  dunno,”  said Torana, and scanned the stone  substance,
“Ugh!  They all seemed to die from the same disease, it  attacked
some mutigenic cell.”
     “Mutant gargoyles?” asked Aves.
      “I guess so,” said Torana, “Look, I wanna get out of here,”
she  brushed her head away from her webbed spikes atop her  head,
“it’s making me sick.”
     “I know what you mean.” Aves agreed, “Let’s go.”
      The  two  jumped off the building and let the current  take
them northward.
      Torana let the wind blow her tears behind her as she glided
alongside her brother, as did her brother. He didn’t want  Torana
to  know  he was crying, even though she was older than  him  and
didn’t particularly look up to him, it would hurt her.
     He took her hand, and she smiled.
     They turned the corner of a building.
     Thwak!
      Torana  was ripped away from Aves hand as a huge blue  mass
hit  his  sister,  she landed with a thud on the nearby  rooftop,
with whatever hit her still on her.
      Aves  moved quickly to attack, he bowled the large creature
over  and started at him with claw to claw combat. But some small
green  thing  started pulling him off. Now it was Torana’s  turn,
she  ran  at the little creature and threw him behind  her,  then
pounced  on  him.  She heard a hollow sound  and  turned  to  its
source,  a crimson blur was coming at her top speed. She  quickly
rolled  over,  and the blur hit whatever was fighting  her.  They
rolled  along  the  rooftop in a ball, she decided  to  take  the
situation  to her advantage by taking them both on at  once.  But
first  she  checked on Aves, a lavender creature was pinning  him
down  with the help of the first blue figure. Torana’s eyes shone
bright  red and she hissed like a tiger. She was about to  attack
the  purple  thing  when she was hit hard from behind.  The  last
thing  she  saw  was her brother fighting the four  creatures  by
himself, with no chance of success.

      The small red figure fell to the ground at Broadway’s final
blow.
      “Y’know,”  said  Brooklyn, “maybe you  should  watch  where
you’re going instead of watching Angela.”
      “It wasn’t his fault,” said Lexington, “those two just came
around the corner.”
      Angela  was  examining the frail figures lying  in  a  heap
together,  “They’re armed. They’ve got plasma weapons and  tranq.
guns,  she’s  got a plasma rifle over her shoulder. They’ve  also
got these strange devices. Look.”
     The trio looked at the bodies.
     “Uhh,” said Broadway, “What’d we do with ‘em?”
      “We’ll  take  them  back to Wyvern,” said  Brooklyn,  “then
Goliath will know.”
      Broadway picked up the female and Brooklyn took the  little
male, Angela and Lexington carried their belongings.

     “You what?”
     “I, uh, crashed into her,” said Broadway nervously.
      “And  then you fought them into unconsciousness?”  demanded
Goliath.
      “Well,” defended Lexington, “They started fighting  us!  We
had to defend ourselves!”
     “Actually, I think unconsciousness was a bit reckless.”
      “Oh,  shut  up Brooklyn!” said Angela, “When you  don’t  do
anything serious, you blame everyone else, and you’re the one who
told Lex to knock her out anyway.”
      “Stop  this fighting, lads,” said Hudson, “or I’ll have  ta
fight ye into unconsciousness.”
     Bronx started growling, the guests were coming to.
     “Quick!” said Goliath, “Tie them to a chair!”
     “What?!” that surprised everybody.
     “Tie ‘em up!”
      There  wasn’t anytime to argue, the trio tied  their  hands
together, tied their backs to the chair, and tied their  legs  to
the chair legs.

      Torana  didn’t open her eyes right away, she took stock  of
her situation, she was restrained, probably to a chair, she could
hear people, gargoyles, six, no, seven, and two humans, no wait a
minute,  two  more just came in. Aves was still asleep,  and  she
could tell that they knew she was awake.
      She  lifted  up her head. She had a small fracture  on  her
skull,  but  it  wasn’t serious, and would  heal  in  the  coming
sunrise.  If  she  survived the confrontation.  Torana  had  been
trained  by  her  parents and relatives all  the  necessities  of
confrontation, she had been taught to count people and take stock
of her surroundings without opening her eyes.
      One of the most intriguing techniques was her mental clock,
it  was about one in the morning, she wasn’t off by much. She let
her  head go limp again, Aves had also taken up the act,  he  had
been trained as well as her.
     Torana wasn’t sure if she should take the feisty, struggling
approach, or the cool yet extremely angry approach. She  and  her
brother  had  been in many scrapes, and the cool approach  worked
well  with gargoyles, and the struggling approach worked well  on
humans. But she had never been in a situation where the two  were
combined.
     She decided to combine the two. Torana tapped her foot talon
lightly  on  the  floor. Two short, six long,  five,  long,  four
short.
      The  observers didn’t appear to notice the siblings’ secret
communication.
      Torana opened her eyes, which were glowing red, and started
snarling  and  hissing  like a jaguar. Aves  pretended  that  the
sounds had awakened him and started doing the same.
     The gargoyles backed off for a moment until they were a safe
distance away, and the two were able to get a good look at  them.
They stopped snarling and howling and froze in terror.
      The  big male gargoyle was one of the ones they saw earlier
that night, dead. There was the one with Shauna Coyle.
      The little one, the older one, and the teenager, and one of
the humans looked like the female gargoyle.
     The brother and sister gaped in terror. Neither approach had
been  designed for ghosts! They had encountered Oberon’s children
once, but these were not Oberon’s children.
      The  young female gargoyle approached Torana, who  suddenly
snapped out of it, and clashed her fangs, perilously close to the
gargoyle’s curious finger-tips.
      The big blue one (that had been on Shauna) jumped at Torana
and  punched her jaw, drawing a speck of blood. Aves  lashed  out
and  bit  him in the arm. Torana suddenly found the strength  she
had been looking for and burst free of the ropes which bound her,
she quickly snapped through her ankle bonds, and attacked the big
blue  gargoyle. She punched him, stunning him for a  moment,  and
jumped  onto his back, giving him multiple blows to the  back  to
the head.
     Torana suddenly lost her breath for a moment as mighty hands
ripped  her  off  of  the big gargoyle. She  was  quickly  pinned
against  the wall and found herself looking into the  face  of  a
huge, lavender, and really strong gargoyle. Try as she might, she
could  not overpower his overwhelming strength. She went limp  in
despair,  her shoulders were starting to hurt from this  enormous
gargoyle driving her into the wall.
     “Ow,” she said.
      The  lavender gargoyle stared straight into her eyes, “What
do you want in Manhattan, why did you attack Broadway?”
      Torana  didn’t  answer, he drove her in harder,  “Ah!”  she
cried.
     “Well?”
      Torana  felt  tears  coming to her  young  eyes,  she  felt
completely helpless against this giant’s strength. But she looked
him  straight  in  the  eye, went red in  the  eye  and   started
snarling from the depths of her throat.
      The  gargoyle looked away for a moment, and looked back  at
her, driving her harder into the wall. But she couldn’t tell  him
what  they  were  doing,  it had remained  a  secret  for  twelve
generations.  The  gargoyle  simply  pushed  her  harder.  Torana
couldn’t take this any longer. She cried out in pain and bit  the
gargoyle’s hand.
      The  small  green  gargoyle ran up  to  the  big  gargoyle,
“Goliath! Stop!”
     “Goliath, hmm?” she thought, “matches him well.”
      Goliath let the gargoyle drop to the floor, she cringed  in
pain,  her  shoulders  had marks where the  bricks  on  the  wall
separated.
      The  small green gargoyle went up to Torana, “Are  you  all
right?” he asked.
     Torana smiled, he helped her up as she cringed and twitched.
She  lifted  her  head to find it in the face  of  the  big  blue
gargoyle, growling angrily.
      The small one pushed him away, he sat Torana down where she
had been tied. Aves stopped struggling.
     A human female with a red shirt who was holding a baby, said
“I’ll get some bandages.”
      “Thanks,  Fox.” The small gargoyle said. He then turned  to
Torana, “Do you have a name?” he whispered gently.
     She nodded, “I’m Torana,” she whispered back.
     “I’m Lexington, like the avenue,” he informed Torana.
     Torana painfully nodded at Aves, “That’s my brother, Aves.”
     Lexington went over and freed him.
      “Lex-  ”  shouted the crimson one, but the female (who  was
smiling) held him back.
      Aves  went  behind the crippled Torana and  glared  at  the
gargoyle  clan, who was staring at him and Torana,  but  when  he
turned to Lexington, they turned friendly.
      Fox  came in with a small box and helped Aves and Lexington
clean  her up, her feet were swollen from the bonds, and bandages
were wrapped around them.
      “Are  you all right?” asked Fox, “You’ve been pretty banged
up,”
      “Huh,”  said Aves, “You should’ve seen when we  fought  the
Quarrymen.”
       The  crimson  one  ran  up  to  him,  “You’ve  fought  the
Quarrymen?”
      Aves  had to look up to level with the gargoyle, and glared
at him, “No, I just said it for entertainment value.”
      The  gargoyle grabbed Aves’ collar and pulled it up to him,
he was mad.
     “Brooklyn, leave him alone,” the female ran up to him, “he’s
smaller than you.”
     Brooklyn let Aves go and went back with the female.
      Lex  looked  at him, “You’ll have to forgive Brooklyn,”  he
whispered,  “he’s  gotten all tough since  he  became  second-in-
command. That’s Angela, that’s Goliath, that’s Elisa Maza, that’s
David Xanatos, that’s Hudson, and that’s Broadway.”
     Aves snapped his fingers, "Broadway, I knew I knew it.”
     The gargoyle dog nestled up on Torana’s scarred legs, he let
out  a  gurgle of contentment that sounded something like a purr,
she  reached  down and scratched his ears, “Who’s  this  friendly
guy?” she asked.
     “That’s Bronx,” said Lexington.
      Aves looked up to see Broadway approaching with a sad  look
on his face, “Uh, I’m, uh, sorry for punching you.”
      Torana  raised  her  hand, and patted Broadway,  “It’s  all
right, I’m sorry for biting your girlfriend.”
     Broadway smiled.
     Torana raised herself up off the chair but fell back down on
the chair. “Whoa,” said Fox, “you need sleep. Uh, Broadway?”
      The  big  gargoyle lifted her up in his gigantic  arms  and
followed Fox out the door.
     “Lex’s got a girlfriend, Lex’s got a girlfriend.” Angela and
Brooklyn whispered the chant.
      Broadway  laid the frail form down on a bed  in  the  spare
room.
     They all left her alone to let her sleep.

      Torana  awoke to the creaking sound of hinges as  Lexington
opened the door, he was about to close it when Torana cried  out,
“Lex!”
      The  small  gargoyle  turned around, “I  thought  you  were
asleep.”
      Torana moved over and patted the mattress next to her,  Lex
sat down.
     “So tell me, what brings a gargoyle like you to a skyscraper
with a castle on top.”
     “How did you know?”
     “When I found out it was David Xanatos, I took a hint.”
     “Well, it’s a long story,”
     “I have three and a half hours till dawn.”
      Lex  laid down beside Torana, “Well, it started in 994,  we
were  living in castle Wyvern back in Scotland, and Vikings  were
attacking the castle. . . .”

      Fox  and  Elisa  opened  the door,  the  stone  statues  of
Lexington  and Torana were embracing eachother, they  had  fallen
asleep when they were actually asleep.
     Elisa smiled, “We gotta get a picture of this.”
     Fox chuckled, “Hey, we got all day!”

      The spare room’s shadows lengthened as the day slipped into
night,  Torana  wiped  stone  fragments  from  the  bed,  feeling
completely healed.
      Lexington lay beside her, “Well, now you’ve heard my story,
it’s your turn.”
      Torana hesitated, then she relaxed a little, “I guess  it’s
all  right  to tell you, I mean, it’s not like you’re gonna  tell
the quarrymen.” Lexington looked at her curiously, “My family has
followed  the  bloodline occupation since  the  year  450,  we’re
recorders.  We  travel the world looking for other gargoyles,  we
record  their  names, lifestyles, and families.  We  used  to  be
famous, until the year 1178. I remember what my parent told me, a
group of masked hunters stole their information and wiped out all
the gargoyles on the list. Since then, we have remained a secret,
and  my  family has been following a specific story, her name  is
Demona.”
     “Demona?” shouted Lexington.
     “Yeah, why?” asked Torana.
      “She  was the one I told you about that helped the  captain
betray our clan.”
      “Yes!”  said  Torana,  “I knew that story  sounded  vaguely
familiar, we’ve been recording her life and the sorcery in it, we
know  about MacBeth, we even know about the DI-7 and the  CV-1000
carrier  virus,  the  Midichi Tablet, and the  praying  gargoyle.
Unfortunately, we lost track of her after that incident.”
     “Did you know she had a daughter?” asked Lexington.
      “Yes,  but  my  ancestors lost them on their  way  to  King
Kenneth’s kingdom.”
     “Angela’s her daughter.”
     “She is?”
     “Goliath’s her mate,”
      “Huh,  they  go together nicely.” Torana turned  to  get  a
better look at Lex, “Lexington, I saw a stone statue of you  last
night, it was a dead gargoyle.”
      “Oh,”  said  Lexington, “clones. They got  a  disease  that
attacks  cells that only they have. I could get their  names  for
you.”
      Torana nodded. She scratched the back of her neck with  her
wing talons, “C’mon, let’s go gliding together.”
      Lexington smiled. They got up off the bed and flexed  their
limbs.  They  quickly climbed the stairs to Goliath’s  battlement
and jumped off, the current caught their wings and propelled them
upwards.

      Red  eyes watched from the shadows, the turquoise  gargoyle
noted the dark blue gargoyle, she was strong and agile, a capable
glider. Demona shouldered a plasma rifle, “A shame,” she thought,
“a crying shame.”
     Demona guessed that the young gargoyle wasn’t the only guest
staying in the castle , she decided to look for the other one.
      She  did  not  have to look far, Angela  and  a  small  red
gargoyle came out of the castle and talked.
      The  small gargoyle was explaining himself, “We’re the last
descendants, Torana and I are siblings, we can’t mate. We  expect
no one to take up our torch.”
      Demona thought, Torana must be the blue gargoyle, the small
one was her brother.
      “Oh,  I  don’t know,” said Angela, “it’s a very interesting
job, I’m sure you’ll find someone to do it once you’re gone.”
      Brooklyn  came out of the door and  stopped. Demona  backed
farther into the shadows, and Brooklyn continued towards Angela.
     Demona came fully out of the shadows and looked to make sure
no one was watching. She then quickly stole away into Wyvern.
      She went up onto Goliath’s battlement, she had a clear view
of  the city, but no one could see her. She took her knapsack off
her  shoulders, she took out six charges, and planted  the  first
directly under where Goliath slept. She put the other five around
the battlement, out of sight.
      Demona  looked  around the castle again, nothing  could  be
heard  or  seen. She jumped to the lower section where the  other
gargoyles  slept, and planted a charge underneath  each  sleeping
place.
      “Huh, the sun will heal you, indeed!” she muttered quietly.
A  sly smile spread across her face. Her work was done, but  what
of the remote generator?
     She looked over each shoulder, where, where to plant it? She
suddenly  remembered something, the figurine! She gave  a  mighty
jump  back  to  Goliath’s Battlement, she smiled again.  A  small
figure  of a gargoyle was beneath his sleeping place, in  ancient
times  it  had held a ruby or emerald, but time had destroyed  or
taken  it. It was the perfect place. Demona put the remote system
in  its  hands, when the sun rose, the sensor would  see  it  and
activate  the charges, they would all die before they  were  even
turned to stone.
     But what of Angela? Demona had wished to spare her daughter,
but how? Her daughter trusted her too much, Demona knew this, and
she would use this fact to save Angela’s life, but how? She could
easily  lure her away from the castle, but then she would not  be
able  to  see  her former love perish in the blast,  if  she  was
lucky, Maza would be there as well. At sunrise, the battle  would
be over, completely over.

      Lexington led Torana through the city, they hadn’t  noticed
that they were holding hands at first, but they soon did. Neither
of them noticed the two gargoyles that were following behind them
and hiding behind buildings.
Broadway had gotten Angela and followed them through the city.
     Angela smirked, “Huh, looks like love,”
      Broadway smiled, “Maybe Aves and Torana won’t be  the  last
descendants.”  Angela  elbowed him  at  the  remark.  Torana  and
Lexington  alighted  on a building in eyesight  of  Broadway  and
Angela, “Ah, what a beautiful city!”
      Torana  cried  as they touched down, she folded  her  wings
across  her chest, she breathed in deeply, and exhaled in a  loud
sigh. She suddenly smiled, “Your friends are watching us,”
     Lexington followed her gaze, “Where? I don’t see ‘em.”
     “That’s because they’re behind us,”
     “How can you tell?”
     “Practice. Come, follow my lead.”
      Torana  ran  and  jumped  the  ledge,  Lexington  followed.
Lexington  made  a  quick unnoticeable glance  behind  him,  sure
enough, the shadowy figures of Broadway and Angela were following
them at a distance. He smiled, “You’re good.”
     “I know. Lex, do you know how to mirror?” asked Torana.
     “I think so.”
     “Good, mirror me.”
      Torana  glided ahead of Lex so he could see her lead,  they
went through twin towers and Torana swerved to one side, Lex went
around  the opposite side, they slowly circled the buildings  and
turned  to see Broadway and Angela ahead of them and looking  for
them.
     Lexington twirled around, “Hahaha! It worked!”
     “Always does.”
     “You’ve had enough?”
     “Yeah, let’s go back to Wyvern.” Said Torana.
      The  two  turned  and glided towards the skyscraper,  still
holding hands.

      Demona watched as the Lexington and his companion came back
to the castle and entered it.
     “Yes!” she thought, “They’re all here, except for Angela and
Broadway, ah, what the hell, I’ll let him live as well, he  saved
my life from the hunters. Although, I wouldn’t have died anyway.”
      If she was able to keep the two occupied until morning, her
plan would be comeplete.
     She took a cellular phone from her knapsack, “Hello, this is
Dominique Destine, have some of Nightstone’s people make a little
diversion.”
      “Oh,  Demona, cut the act,” a Romanian voice  said  on  the
other end, “it’s Servarius.”
      “Oh,  swell,  Doctor,  I  am  creating  the  death  of  the
gargoyles,  but I wish to spare my daughter, she’s probably  with
someone  else,  Broadway.  Have our people  locate  them  and  do
something  close  to  them,  make sure  they’re  distracted  till
morning.”
     “But of course,” Dr. Savarius hung up.
     Demona smiled evilly as she hung up the phone.

       “Torana,  I’m  going  to  see  Alex,  wanna  come?”  asked
Lexington.
      “Nah,”  said Torana, “I’m gonna look around for  a  while.”
Torana bent down slightly and kissed Lexington on the cheek.
      She  roamed the halls and looked at the pictures, she liked
it here.
      Owen  Burnett, David Xanatos’s major domo, watched intently
as  she looked around, he saw dark things for her here, very dark
things. . .
      Torana  came  out onto the battlements, she turned  as  she
thought  she  heard  something, she couldn’t  see  anything.  She
continued  onward, something was watching her, something  vaguely
familiar,  something evil. She knew all too well, that the  worst
thing to tell your enemy, is that you know he or she is there, so
Torana  continued  looking around, as if  she  hadn’t  noticed  a
thing.
      She  didn’t see the red eyes burning in the darkness behind
her.

      Demona watched the young gargoyle intently, she was curious
about  these  castles and battlements. If she were to  prove  too
curious. . .
      Demona shouldered a plasma rifle.
      She flinched every time the blue one got close to a charge,
but  she wasn’t worried about the charges, the remote system  was
her  first  priority.  The young gargoyle sat  against  Goliath’s
battlement, directly under the remote system!
      Demona wanted to rush out and slay the gargoyle in a quick,
single motion. But she couldn’t risk foiling her entire plan. She
would  just  have  to watch and let the anger  rise  within  her,
without causing a focus.
      Demona  put  her  head in her hands,  “No,  this  can’t  be
happening!”
      The gargoyle was finding cracks and niches in the wall  and
climbing  upwards, towards the remote system. Demona charged  her
rifle, she had a feeling she would use it soon.
      Brooklyn  suddenly came out into the open,  Demona  quickly
backed  away  into  the shadows. Brooklyn stopped  again,  looked
around, and continued walking, “Torana! What’cha doin’?”
      “Wha,  me?” Torana looked down at Brooklyn, “Ah,  I’m  just
goin’ for a little glide,” said Torana, “I might get Broadway and
Angela.”
     Brooklyn waved at her, “O.K., be back before sunrise!”
      Torana  spread  her  wings  and  jumped  off  of  the  high
battlement. Demona sighed in relief. But her relief faded as  she
realized that Angela was coming back!
     “Oh, well,” she thought, “I’ll improvise.”

     “Angela! Broadway!”
     The two gargoyles turned to see Torana gliding towards them,
“We  caught  ya  spyin’ on us,” the two gargoyles blushed,  “It’s
almost dawn, let’s be gettin’ back.”
     The two gargoyles turned and followed Torana back to Wyvern,
with the sky growing lighter every minute.

      Demona  smiled  evilly  as  she  saw  the  three  gargoyles
returning to the castle, she had booby-trapped the remote system,
if  someone  deactivated it, a small explosive would go  off,  it
would kill the person, but unfortunately, it wouldn’t set off the
charges.
      Demona  backed  away into the shadows as  she  watched  her
daughter walk away towards the library, Demona followed.
     Angela fell to the ground as a tranquilizer dart pierced her
arm. Demona quickly ran up to her drugged daughter and glided  to
a  nearby  building, setting her on the roof,  “I  am  sorry,  my
daughter,” said Demona, “but this fight does not involve you.”
     Demona looked back at the horizon, “Huh, not long now. . .”

      Torana sat on the ledge of the tall castle, Broadway walked
towards the castle, “Torana,” he said, “You comin’? I’m going  to
stop in at the kitchen and meet Angela at the library.”
      Torana turned to Broadway, “Nah, I think I’ll just wait for
the sun to rise.”
     Broadway shrugged, “O.K., but they make great sausage.”
     “Maybe tonight.”
     Little did she know, plans were about to change.
     Torana swung her feet over the ledge, and stared up into the
sky. Her eye caught something flashing in the light of the city.
      She turned and walked up to Goliath’s Battlement. There was
something,  under  where  he slept,  in  the  arms  of  a  statue
gargoyle.
     She started climbing the battlement, it was a device of some
kind, it had some kind of sensor facing the east, she examined it
more  closely. It was a remote system for a bomb! Wait, it was  a
remote  for  several charges. It was set to go off when  the  sun
rose, it wasn’t too long from now, they wouldn’t be able to clear
the  blast  in  time.  IT was booby-trapped to  blow  if  someone
deactivated  it,  but it had to be done. Torana started  sweating
hard, she gulped.
      She  took  one of the wires from the remote and put  it  on
another connector, but it wasn’t enough, she had to
reconfigure it just enough. She looked to the horizon,  not  much
time.
      “Torana, what are you doing?” Lexington cried as he came to
get ready for the arriving sun.
     It was done. She clicked the button.
      A  terrific  explosion  threw Torana  to  the  ground,  and
scattered pieces of the battlement around the ground.
      “Torana!”  Lexington cried, running to his  love,  “Torana,
hold on, just a few minutes, the sun! The sun! Torana, fight  it,
it’s not long now, hold on, hold on!”
      Torana  painfully raised her hand to Lex’s face, “Yes,  the
sun,  Lex, look! It’s the sun, I never imagined it would be  this
warm.”
     “No! Torana, hold on! Just hold on!”
      Torana  smiled weakly, “I’m sorry, I tried my  best,  never
forget me.”
      Torana’s  arm dropped to the ground and she turned  to  her
eternal stone sleep.
      Lexington looked up at the sky, “Nooooooooooooooo!” and the
sun  rose,  turning him to stone, as a tear slid down  his  stone
cheek, and into the stone eye of the permanent statue of Torana.

      The  sun set slowly as Xanatos, Fox, Elisa, and Owen waited
sadly for the gargoyles to reawaken.
      Lexington  burst from his stone burden, still shouting  his
rage, “Nooooooooooo!”
     Torana didn’t come awake, she simply stayed in his arms, her
stone  hand scraping the ground. A tear seemed to fall  from  her
stone eye. (sound familiar?).
      Aves  rushed out to Lexington, they wept as they held their
love, sister, and friend. She had seen her last sunset, her  last
day.  She was the last descendant. When Aves left the world,  his
family history would die with him. It seemed all for nothing.
     Angela glided in slowly as she saw the horror that had taken
place.  Brooklyn and Broadway held her as they wiped  threatening
tears from their eyes.
      Alex  started wailing when he saw Lexington doing  so.  Fox
held  him  close  to her chest as she held back  the  threatening
tears.  Elisa embraced Goliath. Torana was gone, when they hardly
knew her.
      Goliath  sighed, “This is a great tragedy, she was  a  good
woman.”
     Lexington could only nod.

     Aves was leaving to do his family business.
      “Remember,”  said  Goliath,  “if  you  ever  tire  of  your
occupation, Wyvern is a welcome home.”
     Aves sighed, “I have to do this, for Torana if nothing else.
I will not return for a long time.”
      Aves  bid goodbye to each of them and glided off northward,
the  Wyvern  clan  waving to him. Torana had been  put  with  the
statues of the clones, she had company there.
      Lexington  let the wind push into his face  as  he  sat  in
solitude on the highest point of Wyvern, Goliath’s Battlement.
      Lexington looked longingly at the horizon. The first  taste
of  true love had slipped on the icy floor of death, he had never
felt  so  alone. Alone. To him, the word had a new meaning.  When
you  lose someone --the only one-- you love, you then feel  truly
alone,  and only until you lose someone you love, you will  never
feel  loneliness, and when you do, you will never feel  so  alone
again. Nothing can be done about it. But Lexington let loneliness
embrace him. He was alone.

Love  is  a  strange  thing, it can make us do  things  we  never
thought possible to our corporeal selves. But when love is  lost,
it  can be the worst thing anyone has felt. This is an example of
loneliness. Love can betray both members of this link, and  their
souls  will  never again be complete, until they experience  love
once again. Losing love is the only way to know that it was true.
But  being  alone is never worth losing love. These two  will  be
reunited. But only in that life will they know true love. Love is
what  you  want it to be. Loneliness is what you want it  to  be.
This is one of the many definitions of being Alone.

                               END