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My Salvation	By : sesshyluver Category: +G through L > Gargoyles Views: 4454 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Gargoyles, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Two: Past Recollections

Goliath could hear the various gasps that filled the room from his clan members at Mirah’s confession. He had never heard of such a thing happening. This girl looked all human to him. She had no distinguishing gargoyles features. How could she claim to have gargoyle blood running through her veins when it was obvious she was nothing more than a young human woman?

“I can see you’re all a little shocked and confused,” she said dryly, looking at all the stunned faces around her. It was sort of funny if she thought about it too long. From what she knew of this clan, they’d seen and done a lot. It was no small feat to surprise them. Not that she could blame them. She didn’t exactly look like she could lay claim to being part gargoyle. She looked very human.

“Perhaps you should explain further,” she heard Xanatos say quietly. Looking to her side, she met his blue eyes and gave a firm nod.

“You’re right,” she answered before turning to face the other occupants of the room. She gestured for all of them to get comfortable; it was definitely going to take a little bit to explain everything. She pulled a cushy armchair to the head of the little group and plopped down.

“Do you know anything about Avalon,” she asked. She could see the tall blue gargoyle off to the side stand up a little straighter at the mention of the magical land. She also noticed the various nods from the others.

“Aye, lass, we know much about that mystical place. Tis where Angela grew up until she came to us here,” the oldest of the clan replied, gesturing to the lone female gargoyle present. He had a kind aura about him and immediately, Mirah felt she could trust him.

“That’s good. Since you are familiar with that place, it will be easier to follow my explanation. And your name is…” she trailed off, hoping he would throw her that small bone. No one had been outright hostile toward her, but it was easy to see that the entire clan was weary of her presence.

“Tis Hudson, lass. Do not fear us for we will allow no harm to befall ye. Tis obvious you have been through much in your young life,” the old gargoyle answered kindly. She could feel tears prick her eyes. It had been a long time since someone had promised to keep her safe. Swallowing thickly, she worked hard to reign in her emotions. It wouldn’t do to break down now.

“Yes…well…My family is descended from a child of Avalon,” she began quietly. The entire group before her was listening intently. She found their avid scrutiny a little disconcerting.

“As such, everyone born into the family inherits the essence of magic that ran through our ancestor’s blood. I was originally a twin. When I was ten, Oberon ordered that my sister, Amahra, be taken and raised in Avalon so as to properly train her,” she continued, seeing various levels of anger appear on many of the faces watching her.

“Just like they tried to do with Alex,” a small, greenish gargoyle spat, hands clinched into fists. She could practically see the waves of resentment floating off of the bodies around her. He must be talking about Xanatos’s son whom Oberon had once tried to take. Luckily, he’d had two very unwilling parents, a clan of gargoyles, and a child of Avalon named Puck to fight for him. Her sister hadn’t had such luck. She still missed her terribly. It was like a part of her was missing.

“Yes. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone willing and strong enough to fight when they came for her. Xanatos and Alex should feel very fortunate they had so many willing to help them,” she commented. She couldn’t help the sliver of jealousy that clouded her words. But she couldn’t blame others for Oberon’s machinations toward her sister.

“Three years passed, and on the night of my thirteenth birthday my family and I were in a terrible car wreck. All I remember is being dragged from the car by a couple of men and then I passed out. I only found out recently that my parents and little brother died in the wreck. As far as the world is concerned, so did I,” came her next commentary, setting the stage for what she knew they were truly interested in, her gargoyle blood.

“When I woke up I was in what I thought was a hospital room. The first few weeks the doctors were kind to me, explaining that I was an orphan and would stay there until I healed,” she continued, falling effortlessly into her tale. It just seemed like yesterday she’d been a scared thirteen year old, unable to cope with the loss of her little family.

“It wasn’t long before I started asking questions. I knew enough about what was expected when one became an orphan. I wanted to know why no one had come to see me and explain what was going to happen now and if anyone had contacted my aunt in Arizona. I couldn’t get any answers,” she exclaimed heatedly. It still pissed her off when she thought about what those bastards had done to her and so many others. They prayed on those too weak and desperate to fight.

“I must have eventually made somebody mad because a few days later I was moved to another room. This one was just like a prison cell,” she kept going, although the next few parts were always the hardest to tell. She wouldn’t wish her greatest enemy to suffer as she and the others had.

“For about a year, I guess, they tortured me constantly. I was forced to stand for hours at a time in little more than a box that was barely big enough for my body to fit in. If I had to use the restroom, I would just have to relieve myself right there and stand in the filth. I was beaten; sometimes so much that I’d have to be taken to the ICU ward to recover. They only fed me enough to keep me hanging on to life,” she whispered brokenly, her eyes becoming empty and unfocused as she forced herself to relive those terrible, lonely days. She drew her knees up and folded her arms around them in an effort to make herself as small as possible, trying to keep herself warm. Tears began slowly trekking their way down her face to her chin where they gathered until to heavy to hold themselves up and splashed down to her arms.

“Once they realized I wasn’t going to break and give up on my life they stopped. They had to spend the next year after that helping me to recover from the trauma my body took. I was still stubborn, but I was much better behaved. I was fed regular, nutritious meals and allowed to exercise often, until I was as normal a fourteen year old as I was going to get,” she murmured, slowly rocking back and forth in the armchair she was occupying.

“When I was considered healthy enough they started training me. They would switch back and forth between various kinds of technology and magic. The magic was the worst because they were generally life and death situations. I had to kill my opponent or be killed. I watched some I considered friends die by my own hand just so I could keep going another day,” the story continued, the girl before them shrinking in on herself more and more as she went along. She could feel a tightening in her chest, making it hard to breath. She knew she just had a little more to go.

“I guess they decided that I was trained enough because they moved me again to another enclosure, this time made of thick glass and steel so I could be monitored. I was taken to a special lab every day. They injected a virus with gargoyle DNA to make sure it would bond with my own genetic makeup. I was injected with it, along with a few antibodies specially designed to insure that I accepted the new DNA,” she kept going. She could still feel the intense pain from the injection, like her body was burning from the inside out.

“I started new training once they determined that I had accepted the virus. I was trained in various types of combat. They even brought in real gargoyles to test my limits and abilities. This kept going on for a couple of years, I think. It’s hard to remember time tables when each day runs into the other,” the tightness in her chest was slowly starting to dissipate. Just a little longer, and she’d be done.

“One night, the alarm went off. One of the subjects had escaped and flipped the release on all the cells. I remember running to where I’d seen them take files before. I tried to find as many as I could to take with me. There was smoke drifting under the door. Someone had smashed the computers and started a fire. I ran. I remember seeing bodies everywhere. I grabbed a couple, hoping to drag them out of there but they were too heavy and I was too weak. I left them there,” she couple still feel the heat from the flames licking at her body as she’d stumbled her way out of the lab. She could still hear the screams of those that had been left behind.

“By the time I got out of there, the fire was out of control. Only six of us made it. I don’t think any of the scientists made it. That was five years ago. I’ve been struggling to survive ever since. I came to here about a year ago. Phoenix, he’s a crime lord but keeps himself under the radar. He helped me live on the streets. He’s the one who told Xanatos about me and here I am,” she finally finished, slowly coming back to herself. It was a bit of a shock to suddenly realize there were eight different faces staring at her, some in obvious disbelief. Shaking the images from her head, she unwound her arms from around her legs and consciously tried to relax into the comfortable armchair she was sitting in.

“How could you just leave them there,” said a voice to her left. She turned and looked into a red face. Out of all the gargoyles, this particular one looked the least humanoid. She could practically feel the anger coming off of him. Sighing she answered.

“Most refused to leave. They wanted to die. You don’t understand what it was like there. Death was a blessing. The few of us who made it out were days away from becoming like them. It was the least we could do after they’d suffered so much,” she didn’t want to sound hard hearted, but these gargoyles knew nothing of the suffering that had gone on at the lab. To them, life was worth fighting for, but when you’ve only known pain, death seemed so much sweeter. There were times she’d wished to just give into the darkness and release but she couldn’t dishonor her family like that.

“I may not know what that place was like, but I still can’t believe they just wanted to die. You probably just left them there in order to save yourself,” the red gargoyle continued, growing steadily angrier. Mirah could feel her own ire rising. How dare he call her selfish! He knew nothing. He had no right to judge her.

“Listen here,” she spat, rising from her chair to come face to face with her accuser, “you have no right to accuse me of being weak. I left friends in that place. I listened to their screams for five years as they were tortured and killed. I was one of the people who brought death to them more than once. You know nothing of what that place was like. Don’t assume you would have done differently.” She knew she was crying because she could only see the gargoyle in front of her through a watery blur, but she couldn’t help it. She regretted leaving her fellows behind everyday, but they wanted to die in that hell hole. Scrubbing her eyes with her fists, she turned abruptly away from the accusing glare directed at her.

“How do we even know you are telling the truth,” asked a female voice. She looked up into the kind eyes of the lone female in the room save her. Stumbling to the armchair she’d recently vacated, she reach down beside it to grab her backpack. Unzipping it, she pulled a stack of manila folders from its depths and threw them onto the chair.

“There’s your proof. My own file is there along with several others. Most of them are dead, but a few were part of the group that escaped four years ago,” she murmured. She watched as Xanatos picked the files up and passed them to the various clan members in the room.

“You spoke of abilities and magic,” began a deep voice behind her. She turned to look at the tall, muscular blue gargoyle that had been silent for the most part until now. She nodded her head that she understood and would answer his unspoken question.

“I wasn’t trained very well when learning about the limits of my magic. I’m not very powerful and usually need some sort of object to focus my power on to even be affective. As far as the abilities I’ve gained, there are quite a few. The purpose of my mutation was to make me the perfect hybrid. I have excellent night vision, am stronger than any human, can grow talons when I need them, and sensitive hearing and sense of smell. I was still considered a failure, though,” it was funny to imagine herself as such. The scientists had been most disappointed when they’d discovered she wasn’t quite what they wanted.

“Why were you a failure,” this came from the robust light blue gargoyle. He’d been completely silent until now, absorbing what she said and mulling it over. He had a go with the flow kind of personality, and she found herself thinking he would make a good friend.

“I’m a failure because I’m still weak during the day, just like you who turn to stone. Furthermore, I was never able to develop wings in order to glide. I’m also slightly weaker than a female gargoyle, but I can generally hold my own in a fight. I usually won against the females they put me against at the lab because I was faster, but I’m very weak compared to male gargoyles. I can easily be overpowered. The only reason I was kept alive was because I became somewhat of a technical genius and because of the magic,” sometimes she wondered if it would have been better if she’d been a complete failure all around. Maybe then she’d be with her family in the netherworld.

“Wait a minute. You said you were thirteen when you were taken,” began the little green gargoyle. She gestured for him to continue, “And according to you, you were kept there for five years which you have made you eighteen when you escaped. You then say you’ve been free for the last four years, making you twenty-two. But you don’t look much older than seventeen. How is that possible?” She smiled. She had to hand it to him; he was the first to realize that her physical appearance didn’t match up with her estimated age.

“That was another of the ‘abilities’ I gained. I age at the same rate a true gargoyle does,” she almost laughed at all the shocked faces around her. Although, she had to admit, it would be strange to know that a human could live every bit as long as they could.

“I have something for you, though,” she began, reaching into her backpack again and pulling out seven chains with a medallion hanging from each of them. The metal pieces were made of gold with a clear stone resting in their centers. The smell of magic was heavy in the air.

“I’ve spent the last six months perfecting these. I remembered Phoenix telling me about Goliath’s time in the Amazon and the medallions the gargoyles there had in order to stay animated during the day. I was intrigued, so I sought to replicate them. I think I might have even made them better,” she explained, smiling at her achievement. She loved inventing stuff, and these babies were her pride and joy.

“Each medallion will draw a bit of their wearer’s blood. This insures they will only work for that specific gargoyle. They also can’t be removed by anyone else because they sink into the skin. You can still choose to revert to stone during the day or if injured with nothing more than a thought. If you do decide you want to take it off, only you can remove it,” she couldn’t help but be pleased by all the awed faces in the room. She’d put a lot of blood and sweat into these, and she was proud of what she’d accomplished. Mirah noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Xanatos stepping to the fore. He cleared his throat in order to gain everyone’s attention.

“I’ve brought Mirah here to work with you. I thought with her and Lexington’s technical skills, they could make it safer and more productive when you patrol at night. And they can make offensive and defensive devices for when you have to go against Demona. Besides, with her particular mutation, she’s highly sought after. It’s safer for her to stay here than be out on the streets,” he explained. Seeing everyone nod in agreement, Xanatos said good night to the group, briefly detailing where Mirah would be staying before heading to his own room and Fox. It had most definitely been a trying day, and he was looking forward to spending some quality time with his wife.

As everyone grabbed their medallion and headed out to the roof of the castle, Mirah watched Goliath. He seemed to be deep in thought and they were definitely unpleasant. She gotten the distinct feeling he didn’t want her here, although she didn’t know why. She was hoping to catch him alone before he also headed to the room and the coming sun. She waited for everyone to exit before she made her way to the brooding gargoyle with the excuse of giving him the last medallion in her hand.

“Have I done something to offend you,” the voice startled Goliath from his thoughts. He focused on the beautiful face (thought he would never admit such a thing) attached to a body that barely reached mid-chest on him. The strange colors of her eyes emitted an innocence he hadn’t seen, especially in a human, in a long time. Sighing, he knew she was waiting for an answer.

“It is not you I am weary of. We once had a human who fought with this clan. In the end, she betrayed us. I am cautious lest history repeat itself,” he answered. Elisa had been very good at closing his heart off from others. Her callousness had left him wounded.

“I can tell something very hurtful must happened. I just hope you’ll give me a chance to prove my self,” she said determinately. Mirah held out her hand, waiting for the male in front of her to take it. Goliath stared at the small, delicate hand before him and looked at the earnest expression on the young face that hid a painful past. He gently enveloped the slender appendage in his taloned hand, grasping it in a sign of tentative friendship.

Hey everyone! Please remember to read and review. Next chapter will be up in a week or two (hopefully sooner). See ya!

Sesshyluver
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My Salvation