Between Darkness and Earth
by Amanda Flowers   E-mail--SamusStar@aol.com
 

     [Author's Note:  Because the original story was written with more of
a variety of fonts, to convert this to plain text I had to make a few
changes.  For example, there are several instances of flashbacks in the
story that had to be seperated from the events in the present.  Those
flashbacks are separated with rows of asterisks.  Breaks in the story
that were took place within the same time frame are divided with blank
lines only.  Also, any direct thought of a character that would normally
be in italics is instead contained within asterisks.
     Because this story is based on "Future Tense", the reader will have to
forgive me for any liberites I took with theories, etc.  Here I attempt
to solve many of the mysteries of the "Future Tense" world, but by no
means do I solve them all.  Also, it does get a little violent, so don't
read this if you faint at the sight of blood. :-)
     Comments--good, bad, and especially constructive--are welcome, as
always.]

********************************************************
Hold back.  Hold back, hold back.  Pull away.  You can't have that again.
When torn between two selves, how could you favor the evil, imagined
passions of forty added years to the child-like innocence that holds the
flyer to the ground?
It can't be done again.  Though neither way is real or right--the way
cannot again be explored.
Why imagine the obsession when it can be erased--why feel more than you
have to?  Have you lost your spark--or grown it anew?
A reawakening.  A revelation.  As it comes to--before when you were lost
in a dark hall of words, without age, without time--before this and after
this you have to return to the old.  This is not the time to become
complacent, to once again be lost in your own thoughts like you lose
yourself in sleep...  This is not the time to force yourself to choose
between darkness and earth.  Not the time to cry dark tears for the words
you did not speak.  And not the time to complain of a fanned fire in an
imagined world...
If before, it was right, then after, it should still be right.  Time and
time again, it will not change.
But hold back, hold back, because you cannot return.
********************************************************
"Previously, on Gargoyles..."

["Thrill of the Hunt"]
Lexington: [in tears] I'm never trusting anyone again!

["Vows"]
Demona: [To "Goliath's Angel"] Don't you see?  I am what you will become!
Goliath's Angel: I will NEVER be like you!

["Future Tense"]
Goliath: I see now that time is like a river... History cannot be altered.

Goliath: Lexington!  What has happened to you?

LeXington: I had to keep you occupied while I finished downloading the
Xanatos program.  In less than a minute, all the world will belong to ME.
Goliath: It was you all along?!
LeXington: Yep.  Xanatos really did die in the fight with Hudson.  I just
kept his memory alive... so I could run the show unmolested.
Goliath: You betrayed your own clan!!

Puck: Was it a dream... or a prophecy?

LeXington: [eyes blazing] You've LOST, Goliath.
******************************************************
        Out of the smoldering wreckage the small form crawled, inching
its way forward over shards of glass and metal.  "Still alive...  Still
alive...  Hold on.  There were plans for this...  There was a margin of
error.  Hold on.  One hour till dawn.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  One hour
until healing time.  The world... is mine."
        And even injured so, he had to laugh at that thought.  That he
owned it all--after nearly thirty-five years of work he owned it all--
and no one, not even Goliath, had been able to stop him.  Goliath was gone,
and he'd gotten his first chance: to taunt his former master, to gloat
over him as he claimed absolute power...  "It's a pity our conversation was
cut so short.  I shouldn't have tried to attack.  Even now...  Even NOW...
there's no way I could have bested him.  Stupid!!  I should have known
that.  At least I got the chance...  I can't wait for the next."
        But he would have to.  Fifty-five minutes until dawn.  "Is there a
chance he survived that encounter?  Of course there is...  But no way he
can get back to me again.  No way he can get past the mutate army before
dawn.  And, and after dawn?  It doesn't matter.  Not a thing he can do.
Not a thing."
 

        Computers all over the globe felt the rule of Xanatos.  Messages
were being sent to every government.  Money was being electronically
siphoned to one account.  Information was being downloaded to one central
area.  Robots turned on their programmers, and would make the world swear
fealty to her new master...
        Very few knew who that master truly was.
        And at that moment, the one who knew, Goliath, ceased to exist in
that world.  His time there was over.  But the age of Xanatopia had only
begun.
 

        For Puck had forgotten that all things are real.  All things, and
all worlds...  A reality cannot be created in the mind of one, only to be
destroyed.  It will become real, and imbibe itself in the minds of others,
and grow...
        Until it ceases to be true in the sight of its own god.
**********************************************
        Dawn rose over the ruined country called Manhattan.  The gargoyles
that remained would sleep in the sun, sleep in the shape of stone, until
the coming of night...  Even the master would sleep now, would sleep to be
healed.
        The mutates, many silent, knew.  They recognized the master, and
they would do nothing to harm him as he slept the day through.  The people
left in the streets began to feel that their champions had failed them.
They realized that their time to become silent was swiftly approaching, for
few believed the lies that the computer Xanatos had promised them.
        The day was still in Manhattan, and no humans were harmed that
day.  All the warriors were waiting for the master to awaken; all the
humans that would resist were solemn in the realization of their defeat.
*********************************************
"Previously, on Gargoyles..."

["Upgrade"]

Jackal: I'm sick of taking punishment.  And I'm dying to be able to give
some back...

        "How can you show your face around here again!?" Lexington yelled
at his enemy.
        "Simple," Jackal replied smoothly, tightening his grip on the frail
neck.  "I know you took down my sister here..."
        Wolf and Broadway fought on the edge of the rooftop.  The moon was
full, and it was a losing battle for the gargoyle.  Coyote, rebuilt, was
taking on Hudson and Brooklyn by himself.  Nobody could even remember how
much the robot had been upgraded...  The only part Lexington could remember
was the tightening around his neck, and how he finally fought back, and how
he felt that he was winning...
        They smashed Coyote again.  Lex saw the sparks out of the corner
of his eye.  And something must've happened to Wolf, too, because he
shouted at Jackal, "We've lost!  Let's get out of here; we can't fight
them!"
        Jackal grimaced.  "Wait."  And right before Brooklyn got the
chance to tear the cyborg away from his prey, Jackal made one more,
telling slash.  Lexington's arm.  Tearing away skin and muscle and even
bone, and tearing cleanly, tearing before the other gargoyles knocked him
out, he nearly removed that thin left arm.  Blood poured like a fountain...
And the others knew that when the next dawn rose above them, the wound
could not be healed.
*********************************************
        Gargoyle morning came.  Lexington awoke with the sunset and
stretched his newly healed bones.  That was it.  He could finally claim
his world.
        He looked down, as he had many times, at his left arm: the
super-strong, cybernetic metal arm that was his trophy of his final battle
with The Pack.  The metal was dingy, as it could not heal itself like his
gargoyle body.  However, the self-repair kept it functioning on the
inside, so even if it seemed damaged, the power was still there.  "Mental
note: run a full diagnostic later."
        But for now, he had some confessions to make to some former
friends.  "Fun."
        Lexington looked around at the smashed computers: the melted metal,
the frayed wires, the shattered glass.  "Something has to be still working."
"Master X requesting access to Xanatopia Program,"  he shouted hoarsely.
        A light came on in the corner, and another.  A calm voice replied
to Lexington's command.  "Sequence correct.  Voice pattern correct.  State
access code."
        "Yes!"  The computer was triple-encrypted, of course--it took
Lexington's exact vocal register, the exact same introduction every time,
and an additional passcode... "Sacrifice, Two, Zero, Zero, Four."
        Another few lights came on from various edges of the room.
"Welcome, Master X."
        Lexington smiled.  The password, of course, he changed frequently:
no use taking any foolish chances.  But the number remained the same--
2004, the year that Manhattan had separated from the United States.
Also, the year that David Xanatos had met his... unfortunate... defeat.
The word he changed to amuse himself...  At one point it had been Alone.
"Alone, Two, Zero, Zero, Four."  A private joke, that one...  Of course
it had been triply ironic since there was no one around to laugh at it
with him.  Too obvious, that word Alone; he'd changed it quickly.  Maybe,
just for fun...  "Request change in passcode."
        "State current passcode."
        "Sacrifice, Two, Zero, Zero, Four."
        "State recommended passcode."
        "Iceage, Two, Zero, Zero, Four."
        A moment to process...  "Passcode altered."
        Lexington laughed.  Then he wrinkled up his face.  "Request change
in passcode."
        "State current passcode."
        "Iceage, Two, Zero, Zero, Four."
        "State recommended passcode."
        "Iceage, Two, Zero, Three, Six."  "No use living in the past, after
all."  Lexington laughed again, getting more amusement than necessary from
himself after his near escape from death.
        "Passcode altered."
        "Request visual/audial access to Pyramid Simulation."
        The computer buzzed, then beeped.  "Processing error.  Access
denied."
        "What?!!"  "Request visual/audial access to Pyramid Simulation!"
        "Processing error.  Access denied."
        Lexington shouted and pounded the nearest module with his metal
fist, denting it inward severely.  "So he really did break it."  Lexington
swore inwardly, remembering Goliath's attack on the machine.  Then, he
remembered his own retort:
        "Thousands of others all over the city..."
        Leaving the smashed, depressing center, Lexington went to find
another computer from which to log in to his world.
*********************************************
        Brooklyn turned to face the breezy night, keeping his back to
Lexington and his frightened eyes away from the sight he could not bear
to face.  "We're going on patrol...  Lex, you stay here and guard the
tower, okay?"
        "Right," Lex muttered frustratedly.  He slammed the remote control
down with his remaining arm as his still-active friends swooped away over
the dark streets.
        "Guard the tower, Lex, guard the tower," he mocked.  "As if that
was all I was good for!" Lexington cursed his own design--armless, he was
wingless.  And wingless, he was useless!  Save for building new toys,
keeping Hudson's chair warm, and guarding the tower, guarding the tower,
GUARDING THE TOWER, he had no role in this clan anymore.  I probably
wouldn't be able to guard the tower right anymore--what good could I do
like this?!  Pitifully, he flapped the vein that remained on his left
side; this part of the wing was still intact, as was the membrane attached
to it.  But it couldn't keep him in the air without his arm, and the
membrane hung limply over the bone that was left behind.  "Well, what do you
do when you can't fly?!
        "You crawl.
        "You crawl down the side of the building, like Bronx used to do...
Before he left with Goliath, with Elisa!!  Before they left us all...
        "What if Goliath were here now?"  Lex found his mind wandering.
Would he had let this happen?  "If Goliath had been there...  To shield the
blow...
        "No point in regrets.  Why not crawl?  Why not take something back?"
        The thought occurred to him suddenly, to take something back.
"Jackal made the blow with an arm not his own, so it's possible...
        "No, don't even consider it.  You're not like them; you're not..."
        Lexington decided to go ahead and crawl.
*********************************************
        "Iceage, Two, Zero, Three, Six."
        "Welcome, Master X."  The computer center in the lower part of the
Xanatos Building seemed to be in perfect order, and, though not as
expansive as the one in the Great Hall, it would suit Lexington's purpose.
        "Request visual/audial access to Pyramid Simulation," Lexington
directed.
        The computer took only a moment.  "Access granted."  The
viewscreen as large as a gargoyle brightened to the image of an abstract
world.  The sky's deep black was unmarred here, the ground an ever-shifting
grid of color.  The world was whatever its inhabitants wanted it to be,
and it had no outward limit-- save that it only existed inside the
computer.
        No limit, of course, meant that the inhabitants might be nearly
impossible to find...  If one did not know how to operate the program.
"Locate specter, Brooklyn."
        "Please wait," the computer's soothing voice replied.  Lexington
drummed his fingers on the keypad.  "Specter located."
        "On screen."
        The image shifted abruptly to that of Lexington's rookery
brother...  "Pitifully disoriented, as usual."  The red-skinned leader
of the gargoyle rebels didn't seem to even realize he was still alive.
Which made perfect sense, considering that last night he was killed in
the virtual reality program.  But in truth, he remained, inside of a small
section of the Xanatopia program called the Pyramid.
        "So now, what to do?  To play with him a while longer...  Or to
let the truth out at last?"
        Lexington knew that the time for playing was over.  "Brooklyn?
Brooklyn, can you hear me?"
        "What?"  Brooklyn stood up and shook head like a dog shakes off
water, or like a human shakes off a bad dream.  "Lex?  Lex?  Is that you?"
        "Yes.  Can you see me now?"
        Lexington knew that Brooklyn could see his face floating in front
of his eyes when the tall gargoyle stopped darting his eyes in all
directions and met his brother's gaze.  "Lexington!  You're alive!"
Brooklyn gasped.  "I'm alive!  How'd you get away?  Where's Goliath?
Where's Xanatos?  Have we won?"
        "Well..."  Lexington looked slyly away.  "I've won.  I don't know
what you mean by 'we'."
        Brooklyn looked puzzled.  "'We', as in the rebels.  As in 'us'.
You and me.  Demona?"
        Lexington smiled.  "No.  Just me.  You see, Xanatos is dead."
        "He is?"  Brooklyn stopped.  "I mean, he is, of course he is.
He explained it to us--how he was killed by Hudson, but--"
        "But lived on in the computer?" Lexington finished.
        "Yes, exactly.  How did you know?"
        "It wasn't true, Brooklyn.  He died.  And he didn't live on.  But
you see...  After he died..."  Lexington dragged off.
        "After he died what?  What do you know about it?"
        "After he died...  I kinda took over."
        Brooklyn squinted.  "You WHAT?"
        "Took over.  I invented the Xanatos program."
        The gargoyle leader shook his head.  "No, no, Lex...  You're not
making sense."
        Lexington growled.  "I did!  I did; you mean you're doubting me
now?!  You always underestimated me, Brooklyn, ALWAYS!  You believed me
when I was Xanatos, didn't you?!  You believed me when I was sucking the
life force out of your little girlfriend..."
        "YOU WHAT?!!!"  Brooklyn's eyes flared up and his wings flew out
in pure rage.
        "So now you're taking my word?" Lexington asked calmly.
        "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!!"
        "Oh, she's alive.  You are too, you see, I can't actually KILL
anybody in my virtual reality.  Your physical essence still remains."
Lexington rolled his eyes.  "And I can't kill Demona anyway; you know
that!  You tried once, so don't you tell me it's possible."
        "That was a long time ago..."
        "We were friends a long time ago," Lexington said evenly.  "You
were my master a long time ago...  But that's over now.  Because now, I
have the Xanatopia program.  And I rule the world."
        Brooklyn's eyes grew wide, as if this information was impossible
to digest.  He stared ahead in speechless shock.
        "Give it time," Lexington consoled sarcastically.  "You'll grasp
the concept eventually."
        Brooklyn stuttered.  "So--so why don't you just kill me now; why
leave me here?  What are you up to?!" he growled.
        "There's a complication.  You see, the only way I could get in
there to you is the matter transformer in the Great Hall.  That's also the
only way YOU could get out HERE...  And become vulnerable again.  Alexander
found that out when my Thailog troops received him and destroyed him..."
Lexington saw Brooklyn wince at that remark.  "But you're lucky, because
Goliath smashed the only exit-- which means you're stuck inside the
Pyramid, until I decide to make repairs.  Frankly, that could be a very
long time from now."
        Brooklyn roared.
        "Don't worry; you'll be comfortable.  You can create whatever you
want.  You won't be hungry, thirsty, or tired.  You won't even be lonely
--somewhere in this world I have your friends... Demona... and her
daughter..." Lexington searched for the name, "whatever.  And, they're
both safe.  Unless I get to them first," he added for amusement.
        "YOU'LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS!!"
        Lexington laughed out loud, Oh, how perfect!  "I'll never get away
with it?  I'll... never... get away with it?  Of all the overused heroic
comments--Brooklyn, I'm disappointed!  What happened to that razor-sharp
wit of yours?  That coolness under pressure you prided yourself on?  You
mean that at the one time when you needed it the most, that flapping beak
of yours actually failed you?!"
        Brooklyn lowered his voice.  "So THIS is what you do when you rule
the world?  You gloat?"
        Lexington continued to laugh.  "What else is there?"
        "Good question."
*********************************************
        Hiding in the shadows, Lex had crawled his way across half the
city--from his home in the tower, to the tall building with the X on the
side.  Heaving a sigh, he began his one-armed ascent up the skyscraper.
He was already tired from the night's effort.  "Wonder what the others'll
think when they see I've left the tower unguarded."
        Putting one leg on top of the other, using his hand to guide his
body, he realized: "I know exactly what they'll think.  They'll think: He
couldn't have gotten far.  But I did.  I got really far, all by myself.
And there's not much farther to go."
        The small gargoyle pulled himself up onto the grass on the
building's roof, up onto the side of Castle Wyvern, and continued the
journey.  He yanked himself awkwardly onto the battlements and walked in
through an open tunnel.  "The Great Hall is one flight down, a passageway
to the right..."
        Lexington peered around the corner and spotted Owen Burnett leaving
Xanatos's "office": what had once been--and still could be considered--
the Great Hall of Castle Wyvern.  Lex considered sneaking by Xanatos's
assistant...
        No, too late.  He'd been spotted.  Lex's heart skipped a beat when
he saw the ice-blue eyes of the human resting on him.  "Hello, there...
Lexington?"  Owen raised his eyebrows.  "Seems you've gotten into a bit
of a scrape there," he said in monotone.
        "'Scrape' isn't the word for it," Lex growled.  He took a brief
glance at Owen's arm, realizing that he was not alone--Owen's left arm had
been turned to stone from the elbow down by a sorcery accident.  Lex shook
the thought away; a hand is one thing, a wing another.  "I'm here to see
Xanatos."
        "Mr. Xanatos is not expecting you, I take it?"
        "I sure hope not."
        The corners of Owen's mouth turned up only slightly.  "I believe
he will admit you.  Wait here."
        Lexington could hear all too well what Owen said after entering
the office.  "A gargoyle here to see you, Mr. Xanatos," the muffled voice
came through the door.
        "Not Goliath..." Xanatos answered.
        "Oh, no.  The... small one."  Lexington bristled at that comment.
"He seems to have come with a... request of some sort."
        "Send him in."
        Owen opened the door calmly.  "Mr. Xanatos will speak with you now."
        Lexington crawled into the hall, out of the shadow of the doorway,
and into the light.  He could see real surprise on David Xanatos's face as
he entered...
        He knew what he was about to say, yet the words were so vile,
nearly unspeakable, that they rolled heavily off his tongue.
        "Help me."
*********************************************
        "Locate specter, Demona."
        "Please wait."
        "Oh, why does everything have to take so long?"
        "Specter--"
        "On screen," Lexington hissed quickly.
        To his delight, Lexington discovered that Demona was not nearly
as befuddled as her lover.  It was night in the virtual world, so Demona
was back in her gargoyle body-- she spent her days as a human, and that
was how she had "died" before.  Of course, both Lexington and Demona knew
that death for Demona was not possible: in the real world as well as the
virtual.
        Demona was not content to stand in one spot here; in the featureless
plane she searched for survivors.  Sometimes she ran, other times stopped
to catch her breath, her dark eyes darting to all sides.  There was no wind
here and nothing to climb on, and no way she could fly to get a better
look at the nothingness all around her.  "Xanatos!  Where are you?!" she
shouted breathlessly.
        Lexington giggled as he watched.  In Xanatos's voice he replied
to her, "Right here, my dear.  All you had to do was ask."
        Demona halted, looking to all sides to divine the source of
Lexington's mockery.  "Show yourself!"
        Lexington was so used to ruses that he'd come to love them, and had
become an excellent impromptu actor.  He'd been playing the Xanatos role
for decades, and it had yet to become a stale one.  "You know, that's the
same thing Goliath said before.  But I don't have to show myself to you;
this world IS me.  I'm everywhere here."
        "If this world is you than you are empty," Demona spat.
        As Lexington enjoyed the wit of that retort, Demona heard Xanatos's
laughter.  Lexington used the keypad in front of him to conjure an image
of Xanatos for Demona to target.  As he expected, she responded physically,
lunging at the intangible form and diving through it straight to the
ground.  The image of Xanatos laughed again.  "Dealing with people this way
can be so much more fun than honesty," Lexington observed.  "But, there
really is no point in these ruses anymore."
        Before Demona's eyes the image of the human in gargoyle armor
shifted, to the figure of a small gargoyle cyborg.  Demona sputtered, and
stood herself up.  "If you think you can get me to comply by using the
shadows of my allies--"
        "What allies?" Lexington replied, in his own voice now.  "You can't
die, so you're the only one left."
        "You lie."  Demona's eyes narrowed.
        Lexington smiled.  "Yes, I did.  Somewhere in this simulation
you'll find Brooklyn.  He's looking for you.  And your daughter, what's
her name?"
        "Angela?  Brooklyn--they're alive?!"
        "Angela.  That's it.  Yeah, she's in here somewhere.  Oh, and
Lexington, of course..."
        "Where is he?"
        "Right in front of you."
        Demona roared, her eyes exploding in red flame.  "Not your pathetic
shade, Xanatos, the real Lexington!"
        "The real Lexington.  Oh, ask your boyfriend to explain it; he'll
get here eventually, once he figures out the secrets of my pyramid.
Suffice it to say that I'm Lexington, not Xanatos--" the gargoyle counted
the points off on his fingers--"Xanatos has been dead for thirty-two years,
you three in the Pyramid are the only rebels remaining..."  Lexington's
expression darkened.  "And that I did in those thirty-two years what YOU
couldn't accomplish in a thousand."
        Demona gasped.  "Not YOU..."
        "Uh-huh."
        Demona shrieked.  "I knew it!  I knew there was something wrong--
all along!  But I couldn't imagine that you were...  This is some kind of
trick, isn't it?"
        "No trick.  You'll have plenty of time to sort it out."  The image
of Lexington faded in front of Demona's disbelieving eyes, but the voice
continued to echo around her.  "While I go and look for your daughter."
********************************************
        "So...  Jackal did this to you?" Xanatos reconfirmed, still staring
at Lexington's new loss.
        "Under your payroll!" Lex exploded.
        Xanatos shook his head.  "The Pack was not under my service when
this accident happened.  I'll admit I hired them before...  Did he seem
like he had some other reason for the attack?"
        "He was going on about his sister...  It isn't like we killed her
then; just wrapped her up for the cops after she broke into the museum!
She'll break herself out of jail again in no time!"
        "You seem bitter about that."
        "Of course I am!  If only there was some better way of..."  Lex
trailed off.  "Never mind."
        Xanatos looked down sadly at the little creature that had climbed
up onto his desk to talk to him.  Lexington recoiled, as he didn't come
asking pity: only assistance.
        "What puzzles me more is why Wolf sounded a retreat," Xanatos
decided.  "It's not like him to want to stop in the middle of a fight.
Did he seem like he had another reason for being there--or another reason
for leaving?"
        "I didn't exactly have time to notice," Lexington answered coldly.
        Xanatos raised his eyebrows.
        "I didn't come here to be grilled," Lexington sputtered, "only to
ask help.  I want you to fix me up, make me whole.  The way you did for--"
"Jackal?  Hyena?"--"Coldstone."
        Xanatos snickered.  "I'd be glad to offer my assistance, as
always.  You know my door has always been open for you.  But... you would
have to do something in exchange."
        Lexington had known there would be a price for Xanatos's
assistance.  He only hoped it would not be too steep.  "What?"
        "For one thing, you'll have to tell me where your clan has been
roosting during the day."
        Lex had been expecting this.  "The clock tower above the police
station," he muttered.  "But--but don't do anything right away!  They don't
need to know I told!  I mean...  If you want, I'll just watch them for
you.  Let you know what they're doing... so you won't have to bother."
        Xanatos smiled, as if he had known already, as if he had known from
the beginning.  "I am expecting your complete honesty in this."
        "You're getting it," Lex said acidly.
        Xanatos sighed.  "So you want an arm.  That's it?  And you would
be willing to cheat your friends..."
        "Not cheat them.  You said yourself you didn't want to hurt them!"
        "But if I had to, and I gave you what you asked, you would hurt
them for me?"
        Lexington's silence was all the answer Xanatos needed.
        "It depends," Xanatos continued, "on what you're really asking for
when you ask for 'an arm'.  We could fix you with one just like the old
one--no problem."  He reached over and felt the smooth skin on Lex's right
arm.  "Cover the prosthesis with artificial flesh, I suppose.  No one
could tell the difference.  Or... were you asking for something a little
better?"
        "Better?"
        "You know--stronger.  You were always the weak one, weren't you?"
        "Don't try to analyze me, Xanatos.  All I'm asking is to be how I
was."
        "Are you really?"
        Lexington took a moment to consider the offer.  That was the last
moment he got that day: he had forgotten about the approaching dawn.
***********************************
        Angela was lying on the ground, looking as defeated and confused as
Brooklyn had.  Lexington took a minute to admire her--he remembered how
protective Demona had been of her, but hadn't really met her yet.  "Kind
of a pretty little thing...  She really does look like Goliath.  No wonder
he was so attached to her.  Interesting; in a different context... in a
different time, we might have..."  He put the thought quickly away.  "At
any rate, she would have gone for one of the others when we were young.
It could never have worked out that way for me.
        "Still, no point in missing the opportunity now."
        "Angela.  Angela?"
        "What?"  The young gargoyle picked herself up off the ground,
looking for the source of the sound.
        "Right here."  Lexington made his whole body visible to her as he
spoke.
        "Who are you?"
        Lexington was embarrassed that the girl had to look down to him,
and he raised the computer's image so his eyes were level with hers.  There
was no reason to be bound to the ground if he didn't have to be, though
Angela seemed to be startled by the levitation until she remembered where
she was.  "I'm Lexington."
        "Where is everybody?  Are we the only ones left?  Where's Xanatos,
and Goliath?"
        "Brooklyn asked me the same questions."
        "Who?"
        "Oh... the gargoyle leader, the one that was with your father."
        Angela put a hand to her head, letting scattered thoughts and
images collect in a pool of confusion.  "Yes, I remember.  He and Demona..."
        "Your mother."
        "Yes...  My... mother," Angela realized.  "But then the sun rose,
and...  What happened?"
        "You weren't defeated.  You're safe, but you're trapped inside
Xanatos's computer.  Your mother, and Brooklyn, who she loves now, are
trapped in here with you."
        Angela looked stunned.  "She left my father...  And Brooklyn was
Goliath's second in command, that he used to talk about!"
        "The leader in his absence."
        "And you're Lexington--I remember what Goliath said about you!"
        Lexington paused.  "What?"
        Angela blushed.  "Oh...  Just that you were smart, and clever, and
knew how to build things...  So you know how to get us out of this computer
world?"
        "After I fix the computer," Lexington admitted.
        "And what about the others?  Goliath's other friends...  Broadway,
and Hudson...?"
        "Both dead, I'm afraid.  Hudson for some time; Broadway in the
current battle."
        Angela's face darkened.  "I'm sorry."
        "Goliath is dead, too," Lexington stated.  "If he wasn't, he would
have come back by now."  "I'm sorry to have to be the one to break it to
you."
        A clean tear slid down Angela's cheek.  For a moment, Lexington
felt remorse at hurting this innocent gargoyle's feelings, and the apology
wasn't as feigned as he had thought.  He put his virtual hand on her wet
cheek; the right one, so she could feel the flesh of her captor.
        "Save it.  I won't get this moment again.
        "Don't tell her just yet."
*********************************************
        Lexington felt stupid for having fallen asleep on Xanatos's desk.
When he awoke, it was to the human's face, staring at him with a sly smile.
"Good to have you back.  While you were asleep, I had an idea.  Would you
like to hear it?"
        Lex narrowed his eyes in suspicion.  "Maybe."
        Xanatos drew out a blueprint from his desk drawer.  Some artist had
rendered Lexington in full--Lex couldn't help but wonder how many people
Xanatos had trekked in here during the day--with a new addition.
        The new arm was a shining metal, with no attempt at concealment.
"You see here, we add the necessary limb," Xanatos explained.  "With certain
modifications, the left arm could be almost five times as strong as your
old one...  The holster we're added on the shoulders will help balance the
weight."  Xanatos pointed to the shoulder-piece on the diagram which fitted
on the prosthesis and around the right arm.  "We'll also run metal veins
through both your wings to keep you in the air despite the extra pounds.
Now this set-up will make you very top-heavy, so...  If you don't mind
losing another limb..."  Xanatos stared at Lexington's tail, which Lex
drew in with a snap.  "Plus, you're still growing; meaning you'll have to
be upgraded every few years to keep up."
        Lexington sighed.  "And I'm basically selling my soul to you for
this..."
        "Look at it this way.  No matter how much I do, you'll owe me the
same.  So there's no point in just getting a little done, right?"
        "Why would you do all this?"
        "I've always been a generous person, Lexington.  If only Goliath
and the others had realized it the way you have..."
        Lexington set his jaw.  "We'll do it."
*********************************************
        Demona shook herself off from the encounter.  "Xanatos is Lexington.
Or... Lexington is Xanatos.  It was always Lexington?  It was always
Lexington!  Of course it was-- why was I so naive?
        "But he said that Brooklyn is alive."
        And that brought the light of hope; that somewhere in this wall-less
labyrinth she could find her one true love.  That she could be once again
wrapped in his warm arms...
        "Daydreaming about it isn't going to help.  Think--what did
Lexington/Xanatos say?  'Once he figures out the secrets of my pyramid...' "
        The one thing Demona did know about the pyramid was that it wasn't
real.  She knew that the surroundings could be manipulated according to her
thoughts, but simply thinking about Brooklyn had not brought him there.
"Maybe thinking about something easier..."
        Concentrating her entire mind, Demona conjured up the image of a
marble staircase.  Suddenly, there it was, before her.  She had not decided
where it should lead, but that was not important.  Demona climbed the
spiral staircase and spread her violet wings, using all her powers of
thought to create wind to glide on.  At least it would make the search
that much easier.
*******************************************
        The third night came when Lexington had not returned.  Searching
the city had proved useless--the three remaining gargoyles found no sign
of their friend.
        "It's like he left us, just like Goliath!" Brooklyn yelled.  "We
should never have let him out of our sight!"
        "Lex'll come back, and so will Goliath," Broadway consoled.  "We
just have to keep looking..."
        "I'm sick of waiting around!"
        "Lads..." Hudson interrupted, looking down from the upper level of
the tower, and looking down upon the younger gargoyles--"there's no reason
to fight over it.  Arguin' won't bring the others back any sooner."  The
old warrior sighed.  "Look at us.  We're all that's left of our clan.  We
should stay joined together."
        "You're right," Brooklyn said defeatedly.
        Hudson came down the stairs and stood next to the younger
gargoyles.  "We just have to keep hoping..."
        "We should go out and keep looking!" Broadway exclaimed.
        A voice echoed above them, sounding both weakened and newly
strengthened at the same time.  "You won't have to."
        "Lex!" Brooklyn shouted.  "You're back!"
        Lexington leapt from the top of the staircase to the front of the
others, and they got a look at the new model.
        "Jalapena..."  Lexington wanted to bottle the look on Brooklyn's
face.  He wanted to take a photograph and make a copy of this moment to
stare at for all time.  And in the years that followed-- years of hardship
and difficulty, of planning and scheming--he would remember the expressions
on the faces of his friends at the moment they saw him anew, and the
memory would always bring a smile to his face.
**************************************************
        "Hold back, hold back.  Pull away.
        "If you leave here now, you'll never have this again.
        "If you stay and tell the truth, you'll never have this again.
        "Though neither way is real or right..."
        Angela put her arm on Lexington's strong one.  "Goliath never told
me about..."
        "He didn't know.  I wasn't like this before he left."
        "How long ago did he leave you?"
        "Forty years."  "Forty long, difficult years.  Forty years of making
up for weakness in his absence."  "But I think that while he was gone, it
didn't seem that long to him..."
        Angela nodded.  "It was only a matter of months for us."
        Lexington, on the outside of the computer, began to envy his own
image on the inside: the image that got to feel that tear-stained cheek
and the pulse of the young girl's blood underneath.  He drew the arm away,
bringing the virtual body back to the separation it deserved.
        Suddenly the sky above flared up with the light of a million stars.
The moon, full and yellow, hung high in the air.
        Angela gazed up in fear and surprise.  "Did you do that?"
        Lexington's eyes were as wide as her own.  "No.  It must have
been..."  Angela gasped as the gargoyle in front of her disappeared.
        The robotic arm pulled back from the keypad, and Lexington left the
world he had nearly become part of.  "Demona?  Brooklyn?  One of them must
have figured that out.  With the stars to guide them, they'll have a way of
locating each other!  I couldn't have done it better.
        "Forget it.  You'll have time to play with your friends later.  It
doesn't matter what they do in there--you've got them trapped!  What about
the rest of this world?"
 

        A small group of humans--some of the handful left in Manhattan--was
kneeling among the ruins of a church.  Praying was not encouraged anywhere
in this country, but all were afraid, and all actions were illegal anyway.
Families cried as they prayed for their God to help them...  But He did not
come when the robots stormed the church; was not there when the children
were taken from their mothers, crying; was not present when the adults were
dragged away to be mutated and programmed for the Master's purposes.
        A click on the keypad, a word to the unfeeling computer, and
governments' own weapons were turned against them.  The average family,
sleeping in the three-bedroom house, did not notice the difference.  Had
they heard about the computer virus on yesterday's news?  In tomorrow's
they would hear of the fall of their government, and they would only know
fear while their Master was asleep.
        And that was it.  What was left?  To journey to each separate
sector of the planet and see what world he had to rule?  Eventually,
perhaps...  But what was left to do?  The Master needed no extra proof that
the world was his that night.
 

        Brooklyn looked up in wonder at the miracle of stars that had
appeared.  "You can create whatever you want...  And Demona must be here,
controlling this!  He saw the shape of the female fly across the moon,
and knew she wanted him to find her there."
*********************************************
        Xanatos, for once, had been true to his word.  The new arm was
absolutely wonderful...  And though the others were initially distrustful
of Lexington's new self, they had quickly adjusted to the idea that
Lexington was capable of creating this kind of technology by himself.
The fact that they misjudged the difficulty of adding a whole new part to
one's own body only convinced Lexington that they were even further from
his intelligence level than he thought.
        Willingly, Lexington wielded his new power, along with the
knowledge that he was carrying a camera that let Xanatos spy on the clan.
Xanatos made no move against the gargoyles as long as he was keeping an
eye on them, and the knowledge that he was being watched became oddly
comforting to Lexington.  So much so, that it was not long before he asked
for another upgrade.
********************************************
        Finding the same wind Demona found, Brooklyn soared for the front
of the moon.  As the moon grew closer, he found that it was not simply an
image, but a tangible object, a fixed sphere in the sky.  Demona was
waiting there for him, standing on the house-sized ball with her arms
outstretched.  The two embraced, enjoying the feeling of reality that
being together brought them.
        "So you really are alive!" Demona exclaimed.  "Xanatos... or
Lexington... told me you were, but I could only hope it was true!"
        "I'm so glad I finally found you..." Brooklyn began.
        Then both lovers had the same thought at once.
        "Wait."  Demona drew away.  "How do I know you're not just an
image conjured by Xanatos?"
        "What do you mean--  How do I know YOU'RE real?  What if you..."
        Demona laughed, uneasily.  "Of course we're real.  I'm real, and
so are you.  I'm just being paranoid; it's hard to trust what you see
here."
        "I know the feeling."  Brooklyn nodded.  "But we have to decide
what to do about Lexington.  There still may...  There may be a way to
stop him."
        "So it's true about Lexington?"
        Brooklyn closed his eyes.
        "I thought that maybe it was one of Xanatos's tricks," Demona
said softly.
        "No."  Brooklyn's voice hardened.  "XANATOS was one of LEXINGTON'S
tricks.  Lex was..."  "Lex?  What a foolish thing to call him."  "Lexington,
LeXington..."  There was something new in the way he said the word, and it
was oddly fitting.  "He tricked us all.  All that time, ever since that
night when he was hurt, he CHANGED.  And it just went on right under our
noses the whole time!"
        "You can't blame yourself for this, Brooklyn--"
        "I should have seen it!  I should have been there for him when he
needed us!  Why was I such a--  Why couldn't I have been as good as
Goliath?!"
        "Don't say that!" Demona cried.  "What happened happened, and you
can't go back!  Goliath wouldn't use the Phoenix Gate to help us--HE made
the mistake!"
        "We've all made mistakes.  Goliath, LeXington...  But especially
me."  Brooklyn turned away.
        "Brooklyn, wait!" Demona shouted.  "I'm worried about my daughter!"
**********************************************
        In the area between a dream and a daydream, Fox heard her husband's
voice.  Back early from his trip...  So few nights had they spent together
lately, so few times had he been beside her...  With Alexander going to
school now, and David acting like he didn't want her participation, Fox
had been getting lonely.  It didn't occur to her that his early return
should be unusual...  She cuddled down close, happy to have David back;
it seemed like he was saying SOMETHING...
        A metal hand clamped over her mouth, and she was instantly awake.
Staring into a large-eyed, mocking face.  "Miss me?" the gargoyle asked--
in her husband's voice!  Fox tried to scream, but the golden fingers
clamped onto her flesh, drawing more blood the more she resisted.  She
tried to summon her former fighting skills, even her meager magic...  This
gargoyle was Lexington: David's ally, but Fox knew right away she was in
danger.
        Lexington used his own voice now.  "Ever since I first saw you...
Ever since that night we met, the first time...  Do you remember?  You
brought me up, used me, for fun, and tried to kill me...  So I knocked you
down.  And this is the continuation of that."  He pushed his heated body
closer and bent his head over her face, baring his fangs, locking into her
throat in a mockery of a lover's kiss.
**********************************************
        Angela got the feeling she was missing something important.  "Why
would the moon scare him?"  She looked up to it, and thought she saw
someone--more than one someone--standing on top of it.  She remembered:
Demona and Brooklyn were supposed to be here.  So maybe that was them.
Angela thought of flying, and realized she couldn't take off.  She wished
there was a wall or something she could latch onto; suddenly there was a
wall, beside her as if it had always been there.  She climbed it and took
off for the moon.
        "Why would the moon scare him?"
*********************************************
        "She was found in her bed, her clothes stripped off.  She
apparently died of numerous puncture wounds to the throat, resembling
tooth marks.  The Pack symbol around her eye was traced around with a
blade, and the same symbol was drawn across her stomach."  Owen related
the information over the phone with frightening calm.  "I'm sorry, sir.
She will be missed."
        "The PACK did this?!"
        "Apparently so, sir.  It's being investigated as we speak."
        Xanatos was, for once, at a loss for words.
*********************************************
        "Angela!"  Demona rushed to her daughter as the slight form
touched down in the white dust.  "You ARE alive!"
        "Mother!"  Angela returned her mother's tearful embrace.
        "We're together again!"  Demona was overjoyed.  "A family!  A
clan!"
        Brooklyn stepped up to the two and looked Angela over.  "She
really IS your daughter.  Look at that...  Look at the wings."  He
smiled.
        "Can you see it in the face?  The eyes?" Demona wondered, looking
to find something of herself in this person she had seen so little of.
        Brooklyn squinted, then snorted.  "The eyes are Goliath's."
        Angela cringed, remembering what Lexington had said about her
father.  "Goliath-- is he...?  Lexington said he..."
        "LeXington said a LOT," Brooklyn snapped.  "Who knows how much of
it is true?"
        "But he said everything was okay.  That, in time, he could get us
out of here.  There may not be so many of us left, but we can still be a
clan, right?"
        "LeXington offered to HELP you?  Wrong!  He's using all of us;
HE's the problem."
        "No...!"
        "We can defeat him," Demona interjected.  "Together, now..."
        "I don't understand," Angela started.
        "With Goliath gone," Demona said, "she needs a father.  You can do
that."  Her eyes pleaded with Brooklyn.
        Brooklyn nodded, bringing Angela closer.  "I can BE that.  If
that's what she needs."
*********************************************
        Xanatos entered his office to find Lexington waiting.  "You."
Xanatos shut the door and looked to the gargoyle accusingly.  "You did
this!"
        Lexington smiled.  "Absolutely.  I'm glad you figured it out."
        "Why...  But, how could you?!"
        "The HOW was easy.  And I know you can figure out the why."
Lexington's large eyes narrowed.  "I'm surprised you didn't see it coming
a long time ago."
        "We had a deal..."
        "And it's over.  I found where you hid that camera, and I finally
destroyed it.  When you were gone, I decided to strike."  Lexington
grinned.  "My argument was with her.  But it seems that she was YOUR
biggest weakness."
        "Only YOU would regard love as a weakness!" Xanatos cried angrily.
The words weren't his, he realized; they had the taint of someone else, a
former enemy who disappeared long ago...  Xanatos groaned in frustration,
and Lexington was loving it.  "You can't blame the rest of The Pack for
this now...!"
        "Search the body," Lexington gloated.  "I guarantee you won't find
any fingerprints."  He lifted up his smooth metal arm.  "And the police
will blame it on the gargoyle?"  He laughed.
        Xanatos wanted to attack, but without his battle suit he knew he
couldn't defeat the new strength he had added to Lexington's frame.  "I
know where you live."
        "Not anymore."  Lexington left out the same broken window he had
used to enter.
        Xanatos shouted after him, putting all his remaining strength into
his voice.  "I will find you!  And this time, I'll make sure I destroy you
all!!"
****************************************************
        That was the night the feud felt new fire.  And the night that
LeXington's real planning began.  LeXington remembered how blindly everyone
had trusted him, reliving the moments that brought him to this place as
world ruler, deciding to gaze one last time on his former allies before
he made ready to destroy them.
        "It seems so strange to accept you as my new father," Angela was
telling Brooklyn.  "After I just got used to Goliath being..."
        "We all missed Goliath," Brooklyn answered.  "WILL miss him."
        Watching the others from a distance was nowhere near as much fun
as torturing them.  "I'm through with missing Goliath," LeXington answered
suddenly, making himself visible to the new family.
        "You again!" Angela cried.  "Brookl--Fath--Mother, what's
happening?"
        "We've been betrayed," hissed Demona.
        "When did YOU start being the bad guy?!" Angela shouted at LeXington.
        The cyborg grinned.  "At least you figured out who to address.
I could tell you all about it..."
***************************************************
        Why they were called there they had no idea.  Jackal, Hyena, Wolf,
a newly, inexplicably rebuilt Coyote: the last remaining members of The
Pack, gathering in the hideout they had all left years ago, Pack Media
Studios.  Entering, they all glanced fearfully around, ready for a trap but
willing to see who was behind it.
        "Pathetic," someone commented.  The voice was deep, a woman's
voice, FOX'S voice!  The blood of the three living ran cold.
        "A trick," Coyote decided, scanning the room for signs of human
warmth.
        "Who leads you now?" the dead woman's voice continued.  "What
direction are you going to take?"
        "I'm still the leader here!" Wolf shouted.  "Stop hiding!"  The
vaguely human features narrowed.  "Or are you afraid to fight us face to
face?"
        "The whole city is looking for The Pack, because of me."
        "Ghosts..." Jackal breathed.
        "Wouldn't be the first..." Wolf commented softly.
        "Not a ghost," Fox's voice said.  "Though I am flattered you think
so."
        LeXington dropped down from the rafters, landing in front of the
stunned assembly.  "Wow," he noted, in his true, though now slightly
robotic, voice, "this seems familiar."
        "It's the runt!" Wolf exclaimed, diving at LeXington to attack.
The gargoyle calmly dispatched him with his strong arm.
        "If I were you, I'd listen to what I had to say," LeXington
sneered.  "The time to join the winning side is now."  He turned his head
and displayed a scar: a scar deeper than any gargoyle should have, a
remnant of augmented eyesight and of a hastily removed camera... a scar
with an eerily familiar shape.

****************************************************

        "...but I'll save the best parts for later.  We have all the time
in the world: my world."
        "You sound more like Xanatos every minute," Brooklyn noted.
        "When you play a part for so long, you get used to it," LeXington
answered.  "And what a part it's been.  If you consider that I've been
'doing' Xanatos since the night he died...  You remember that night, don't
you?  That was the night Hudson died.  I'll bet you remember how I cried,
and shouted."  He began to mock himself, "Why?  Why Hudson?  Why now?!"
and doubled over with laughter as Brooklyn growled.  "It was my idea to
pit those two against each other in the first place; either one dies, and
I luck out...  It couldn't have worked out better!
        "And Demona!" LeXington continued.  "I remember the night Demona
came crawling back to us...  The way Brooklyn wanted nothing but her swift
death, and the way their combat slowly transformed to passion!" LeXington
made a gagging motion.  "A sickening display; they didn't even know I was
watching!"
        Brooklyn sputtered in shock; Demona glared with red-tinted eyes.
        "And you still trusted me, to the end...  The night Maggie and
Talon died..."  LeXington paused.  "The Pack was mine.  That's why it
turned out that way.  And Broadway: I'm sure he was glad I was so helpful.
Especially since I rigged that sonar collar so the first shot he took would
be the last!"
        Angela wiped her cheek with her hand, now aware of the taint on the
one that had touched her.  She shouted at LeXington through a new film of
tears, "I can't believe I trusted you!  And, and it was you who killed my
father!"
        LeXington shook his head.  "Nope, I didn't!  Not that I didn't want
to..."
        "I'm tired of watching him get pleasure from our suffering," Demona
spat.  She grabbed Brooklyn's arm and made ready to take off from the moon.
        "Where are you going to go?" LeXington asked sarcastically.
"You're all my prisoners here.  It isn't like there's anywhere you can
hide from me."
        Brooklyn didn't give LeXington the courtesy of a reply as he pulled
Angela behind him and flew away.  Angela was the only one who continued to
look back, sobbing her dismay over lost parentage and false friends.
        "Best to leave them alone for a while," LeXington decided.
        "Alone, there's that word again."
        The meaning hit LeXington suddenly.
        "Alone."
******************************************************
        Could the nights go by this way?  Could the weeks?  Could the
years?  Unseen, but sensed, ruling... alone?  Trapped, cowering, living in
fear and hatred... together?  What made the suppressed the superior?  What
was left to save the soul?  After the endless night was over, what was
there left to become?
        No way to return to the old as the world's tears were shed.  No way
to counter the loneliness inherent with the position of the new world's
god.  No way to redeem, to discover what made the people that were unhappy
the better people.
        Darkness.
*****************************************************
        Earth.
*****************************************************
        Shaking off what had seemed like a never-ending, waking dream,
Goliath watched the youth dive from the edge of the castle to catch up with
his friends.  Every time he saw Lexington now, somewhere in the back of his
mind he couldn't help conjuring the image of the cyborg, the one Puck had
called a prophesy.  Even though he had dismissed the vision, he still
couldn't ignore the implication: without love, without nurturing, in even
the most innocent there was the possibility of perversion.  Especially in
the most innocent.
        But how to prevent it?  Find a way to relate, to keep the
loneliness from setting in.  But, most importantly, to always be there when
the blow fell.
****************************************************
        In the mind, unmarred by acceptance, LeXington begins to cry.
        No one can pull away so easily.
        Darkness beats on.

       AN END
**********************************************************************
--Amanda Flowers
--(SamusStar@aol.com)
--Patron of the Fifth Dream ; Wielder of the Second Truth
--"In that I can be no one but myself, I can say only my own lines.
--So sad, to be so constrained."
--           --Mephista, Secret of Evermore
**********************************************************************