35 - “Breakdown Part 4: The Battle Within”

Originally Written: January 8th, 2001

She would have perhaps seen her own gruesome demise appear before her eyes, as she gazed upon evolution’s greatest triumph tramp to her standing stead.  The ground shook with every one of his heavy footfalls, and she found the light grow dim, snared within his massive, twisted shadow.  Elisa slowly looked up, to see her husband cast the impression of death upon her.

Moments ago, he growled to her a warning of her impending fate at his hands, and now, with the toxin having taken complete control, was quite possibly willing to carry out his threat.  They stood mere inches apart, Goliath tasting her fear with every ragged breath, and incensing the primal animal instinct that had set his species apart from man.

Elisa didn’t move, didn’t flinch, never showed her dread to the beast before her.  As she knew Goliath, the friend, the lover, the husband, the father, had been forced behind a wall of rage, and sealed in his own guilt.  And she would not leave his side, until that man was returned to her.

“I will kill you, betrayer!!” he snarled, his warm breath flowing past Elisa’s face and possessing enough power to push back what hair fell over her shoulders.

“No...you won’t.” she hissed back.

“And what makes you so sure, human scum?” he replied, surprising the human before him, at his allowance of time for her to speak her mind.

“Because I love you, and I know you love me.”

“Don’t be so sure.”  With the swiftness of the wind, he grabbed her neck, much like the poor doctor he had assaulted less than an hour before.

...that’s it...kill her...KILL HER...  The voices cheered his actions with a chilling merriment, taking absolute sickening pleasure in seeing the slender woman hoisted from the ground, her neck pinched in his vice-like grip.

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

“Shit!” Dr. Pierce cried, watching in horror as Elisa was captured by her husband.  “He’s going to kill her...”

“No,” Brooklyn snatched the doctor’s arm, before he could enter the cell with his syringe of powerful sedative at the ready, “he won’t.  Goliath won’t do anything to hurt her.”

“He’s got her neck just like Anne-Marie, he’s going to...”

Brooklyn grasped both sides of the human’s face and pulled it close to his own scarlet beak.  “Listen and listen good, doc.  Elisa will reach him.  She will pull him back.  I’m not guessing, I’m not hoping, I know this for a fact.  He will not hurt her.”

Dr. Pierce slowed his breathing, and nodded his acceptance of the gargoyle’s commanding faith.  Brooklyn let go and allowed them both to turn their attention to the window into the cell.

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

Elisa grappled to maintain her composure, as hands that once roamed her body in so many a loving touch and having administered gentle massages in her time of need, were now seconds from ripping her esophagus from her body.  “You won’t...do it,” she wheezed, “you...can’t do it.”  She pleaded for his life, hoping she could reach him.

Goliath stalled, locking his gaze with hers, seeing this fragile being struggle against his grip.  The woman who pledged her life to him, who bonded her soul with his own, the woman he gained strength from every moment they were together.  And through that connection, he found the power to relent his anger, if only for an instant.  “I...I can’t...”

...kill her...kill her...KILL HER...

(((no...you must not...she is your wife...your mate...I beg of you, Goliath...you can’t allow this to happen...you can’t allow)))

...KILL HER...

“No...my Elisa...I cannot...”

“Goliath!” Elisa called over the static of voices in his head.  “You can fight...you can win.”

“I...can’t.  I don’t know what...is real, anymore.”

“Remember...who I am, what we...mean to each other.  You know I’m real.”  She strenuously guided her hands along his arm, letting her warmth flow to him.  “Remember all the good times we shared.  Don’t let this poison take them all away.”  Her gaze of chocolate washed upon his clouded eyes, and they finally released from their milky confines.  “That’s it.  You know...who I am.”

The lavender giant conceded and loosened his grip some, enough to allow Elisa a fresh breath of air through her once constricted throat.  “I...need help...I can’t fight alone...”

“You’re not alone,” she placed her most heartfelt emotion into the simple sentence, a demanding tone issuing forth the absolute finality of her love, “I am with you...always.” Elisa was released and dropped to the floor, wavering to one knee and rubbing soothingly about her throat.  She looked up as Goliath plunged into a heap, and fell to his backside, on the verge of tears.  Elisa watched as he lost what emotional reserves were left in place, and wailed his agony for all to hear.

“I don’t know what’s real anymore...”

She simply stared on in somewhat an air of disbelief, as his grief flowed freely before her eyes.  His mindfully sheltered emotions were rampaging out of control, and could now not be contained any longer.  And her actions next would completely surprise those watching in the examination booth, as she leaned over and pulled off her shoes.

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

“What the hell is she doing?” asked Talon from the cell’s exterior room.

Brooklyn could not keep his smile hidden from the others.  “Just watch.”

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

Elisa pulled her shirt from her well toned body, throwing it to the side, and quickly started on her jeans.  She tore off the denim material and her socks, leaving only the expanse of her copper skin and her red undergarments.  Almost completely nude, she approached Goliath and sat beside him, allowing his head to fall limply into her lap.  She curled around him, letting her strength reinforce his wounded being, pressing all the glistening bronze upon his violet, trembling skin.

He burrowed deeper against her chest, feeling the soft silken material of her bra, and the velvet smoothness of a warm brass covering about the curvature of her breasts.

Though Goliath outweighed her by more than six times, she held him in her arms, stroking his neck, and the hair that spilled forth with her supple fingers, catching with every soothing caress, the sensitive pressure points just beneath his leathery hide.  “Feel the warmth of my skin, Goliath.  Feel the pulse of life flowing through my veins.  You know I’m real, and I am not going to leave you.  Ever.”  She continued her efforts to calm him, sending hushed tones of serenity and affection into his right ear, her lip barely grazing across the skin.

...no...she lies...she is the enemy...destroy her...

“...no...I will not,” he whispered back to his invisible adversary, “I can’t hurt my Elisa.”

...no...you must......  The voices were drowned by Goliath’s will, if just now for a few minutes.

“Fight them Goliath,” she whispered, “we have built too much together to give up now. Remember everything we’ve gone through, everything good we’ve experienced. Trinity’s birth, our honeymoon, our wedding, all the dates we’ve gone on, the movies, the arboretum, the park, the dinners with my parents, the mini golf...and that damn robotic clown.  All the adventures we’ve lived, the first time we flew together in the sky, the first time we kissed on your high tower...the first time we made love.”

At this comment, Goliath stirred slightly and Elisa noticed the slight tugging to his lips.

“I remember that night like it was yesterday.  It was a Spring evening, with a light rain falling, spattering quietly on the roof and windows.  We arrived home, totally soaked to the bone, and quickly ducked into my apartment to get warm, and so I could change my clothes.  We lit a fire and I decided to throw on nothing but a robe.  We sat in front of the fireplace, and I practically melted into your arms.  You held me for the longest time...and then kissed me like you’ve never kissed me before, looking down on me with eyes of trust and hope...and love.  Before that, I was...scared to physically show my love for you, but it all disappeared with that one look.  I knew you would never hurt me, or ever let me feel an ounce of pain.  We ended up making love several times that night in front of the roaring fire, and I fell asleep in your arms.  I awoke to your statue, wings spread, to protect me from the evils of the world.  For six years, you have done nothing but protect me and keep me safe.  And now, Big Guy, it’s my turn to protect you.”

“H-How?” he asked, in a tiny voice.

Elisa glanced to the windows, and found Demona standing there, with what looked to be a leather bound book under her arm.  The immortal nodded, and Elisa took the cue. “Demona has a spell, that will allow us to fight the toxin firsthand.  To help you battle the demons that have haunted you for so long.”  She leaned in and pulled his face to meet with her own.  “But we need you to be strong enough for the spell to be cast.”

“I shall do...what I can,” he sent forth a rasped whisper, informing Elisa of his withering health and fading strength to combat the pathogen, “but I cannot hold out...for long.”

“I know.” she replied, turning to an opening door and Demona stepping through.  “We’ll be ready very soon.”

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

Less than ten minutes had passed and Demona had prepared herself for the spell to be cast.  A ring of thirteen burning candles had been placed at exact points around Goliath, now sitting upright with his legs crossed.  Elisa remained wrapped around him, continuously rubbing her hands about his chest and shoulders, keeping him anchored in reality through her touch.  Demona placed herself in front of him, intensely studying the open page of her book.  The others mulled around the couple and immortal, keeping their voices low, an intentional strategy to keep the atmosphere as sedate and tranquil as possible.

“I believe I’m ready,” Demona announced clearly, “we can begin.”

The clan moved around them, those chosen to take up the fight for their leader’s very sanity.

“I need total silence for this to work.  I need to concentrate, if you are going to make it.”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Dr. Blackwell cut in suddenly, invoking a low growl from Demona, “you’re going too, Demona.  As are the Xanatoses.”

“What?”  The immortal locked her gaze with the human.  “Why must I go?  What purpose will I serve there?”

Xanatos and Fox stepped forward, the billionaire arching an eyebrow, looking quite confused.  “Indeed.  Sending three of his former enemies may make things even worse.”

“You are all a part of his past, a part of his pain.  Goliath needs to come to terms with everything he has experienced.  That includes you three.  And that’s precisely why you will be going.”  Dr. Blackwell walked the length of the room, passing by each of the three clan associates she just mentioned.  “The mutates should stay here,” she started, looking back to Talon, “in case something goes wrong and Goliath wakes from the spell before the rest of you.”

“And even our children should be involved as well?” Sata asked worriedly.

“Yes.  He considers them a part of his family.  I know it could be dangerous, but he will need them in the fight.”

“And what about you, Anne-Marie-chan?  Your experience and knowledge would be of great help.”

“It’s not my place.  As I understand this...incantation, as it were, you will bare witness to his most personal desires, feelings, hopes and pain in corporeal form, and will delve deeper into his buried memories that even I could not bring out.  It’s a province of Goliath saved solely for his family.”

Demona suppressed a growing rage at this so called professional’s plan, and plunged back into the preparement of the spell.  “If you would all take your places,” she called to the clan, “and Elisa...if you would please get dressed.”

“What?”  Elisa looked down to her body, and suddenly remembered she had nothing to cover herself except her bright crimson bra and panties.  “Oh, yeah!”

She scrambled to dress herself as the immediate clan perched themselves in a seated circle around the Maza couple, including the Xanatoses, placing themselves within the domain of the candles.  The mutates and doctors moved back to allow Demona to work her impressive skills in the arts of black magic.

After reviewing the last of the spell, scrolled upon the browning, tattered pages of the book in an ancient hand, her eyes fell closed, and she raised her arms and spread forth her cobalt-colored wings.  The candles bobbed and weaved in their confinement of melting wax, and through Demona’s alignment with anything magical, sensed the power growing even before the spell had been cast.  “One whose mind has become dark, and as cold as the dead,” she whispered her chanting of the conjuration, growing in volume as she progressed, “allow us, his closest friends, to enter and fight in his stead.  Through pain and torture an evil sickness has supplied, we ask for a portal to open, and grant us free access inside!”

With her last words uttered, the candles exploded with a tempest of flame, incensing the smoke to billow and collect around the bodies of the clan.  A cold wind passed through, and spiraled about, creating a vortex contained within the circle of fire.  It grew and swelled and in it’s fury, enveloped all human and gargoyle forms alike.

They all submitted to the spell’s intended effects, and deep within their very essence, felt their souls being pulled from their physical forms.  Faster and faster the wind surged around them, until finally it ripped their free floating spirits away and towards Goliath’s comatose frame.  Stretching, distending, straining beyond what their bodies could ever achieve, the transference was painful, as each member of the clan found themselves in a frightening journey into the darkness.  A grinding white noise filled every sense, growing in intensity until, just as quickly, a cessation of all sound, and then...oblivion.

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

The first to stir was Shadow, pulling himself from the floor.  But his talons grazed upon a surface like nothing he had ever felt before.  Not steel, not wood, as if the very air had solidified enough to walk on.  His eyes briskly adjusted to the absence of light, and he sensed movement beside.  Delilah used his massive arm to drag herself to a sitting position, and suddenly Shadow grabbed her and raised her into the air, allowing her feet to stand on their own.  She flashed a smile to her love and looked around her.

The clan were all aroused from their enforced sleep, mumbling their discomfort as inaudible complaints.  Brooklyn and Sata were checking on their children, Demona on her daughter, the Xanatoses used each other as a brace to get themselves off the ground. Suddenly, as if a collective thought streaked through them, they all looked to where their leader had last been, but found only Elisa looking frantically around her.

“Where is he?!” she screamed.  “Where’s he gone?!”

“It’s all right, Elisa,” Demona swiftly came to her side, “he’s here.  He’s all around us.” She raised her hands to direct the clan’s assembled gaze to their surroundings.  They had been dumped within a massive hall, a void of absolute nothingness beyond the walls. 

Elisa pressed her hand upon the barrier, and through her skin flowed a bitter cold, and the slight sensation of a pulsing beat.  An odd triple cadence, that she knew so well. Goliath’s heartbeat, heard so many times as she rested against his mighty chest.  “It is him.  We made it,” she looked back to the wide-eyed glares of the clan, “we’re inside Goliath’s mind.”

“This...is his mind?” Todd replied, clicking his eyes back to a barren universe just beyond his reach, almost seeing a swirling of mist flowing past.  “Uhm...kinda...empty, isn’t it?  I thought we would be seeing a little more than this.”

“Perhaps an effect of the toxin.” Shadow muttered.

“Look!” Angela cried, pointing down to expanse of the hallway.  “A light...”

Elisa walked up, straining her eyes to make out a faint glow down the far end of the hall. “Let’s go.”  She quickly took off, a fast stride that even the gargoyles had trouble keeping up with.  As they traversed the entire length of the tunnel, the light grew brighter, and larger, and they soon found themselves at an archway, leading into an even bigger room.

Circular and the size of the Eyrie’s gym, holding upon the curved walls what looked to be picture frames, stretching up almost fifty feet to the ceiling, barely outlined against the darkness.  The clan moved slowly forwards, finding themselves in the center of the magnificent room, where a shaft of pure light erupted from the floor, and rose to the ceiling, barely helping to illuminate the desolate environment.

“What do you suppose these are for?” Desdemona whispered, eyeing the giant rectangular frames, towering over her.

(((those are portals...into his soul)))  A voice called out, answering the gargess’ question.

“Who are you?” Elisa asked hesitantly, searching the entire room for the source of the voice.

(((a friend...who has been fighting...for your husband from the very beginning)))

“You’re the one Goliath mentioned.”

(((yes...though...I cannot hold out...for much longer...this poison is eating at Goliath’s very soul...it must be stopped before...it is too late)))  The voice was fading, losing her battle with what ravaged upon Goliath’s body and mind.

“What can we do?”

(((you must...find what causes...his pain...you must grapple...with the shadows...who hold his pure essence in their grasp)))

“How?” Elisa asked desperately.  “How do find anything in this...empty room?  How can we help him?”

(((a guide...shall appear)))

“A guide?”

(((the parts...of his psyche...still untouched by the poison...will aid in...your...quest)))   The voice finally gave out, her tortured rasp shattering among the walls and leaving nothing but an eerie silence.

“The parts of his psyche?” Elisa wistfully repeated her words, growing despondent with every passing second.  “Where the hell do we start?”

“Uh, Elisa?” Annika’s soft tone called from behind her, causing the slender woman to whirl around and stare past the she-goyle’s shoulder.  “I think we have visitors...”

She was right.  From beneath each one of the frames, doorways had opened, and stepping through came shadowed figures.  They surrounded the clan, who all timidly moved in closer to the center of the room.  Each figure was of a different size and shape, yet still remained concealed from their sight.

“Who are you?!” Shadow snarled, grasping his arms and wings about his blossom, darting his distrustful gaze to the spread of figures creeping steadily closer.

“Do not be alarmed,” the figures spoke as one, “we are of Goliath.”

Elisa had begun to understand, to finally deduce their true intent, and as her eyes picked out the distinct forms, who bared striking similarities to her gargoyle friends, she knew they had commenced their journey to save her husband.

A figure near her stepped into the light.  It was Hudson, gracing her eyes with the embracing grin forged through a thousand years.  His garments were of a perfect ivory, a bright white seeming to glow with a heavenly radiance.  “Dinna worry lass, we be of yer mate’s very self.” he spoke to her in the same gruff accent the real Hudson possessed, yet an otherworldly resonance flowed through.

“You’re all part of Goliath’s mind.” Elisa guessed correctly.

“Aye.  I be Goliath’s experience, his leadership ability.”

Brooklyn appeared from the shadows.  “I am Goliath’s strategy, his cunning.”

And then beside him Broadway.  “I am his forgiveness, his mercy for the weak.”

Lexington emerged next.  “I am his intelligence, his wisdom.”

And Angela.  “I am his friendship, his kindness, his compassion.”

Then Othello.  “I am his sense of justice, his ability to tell right from wrong.”

Desdemona stepped forward from the nothingness.  “I am his memories, his most cherished moments of the past and present.”

Sata appeared.  “I am his sense of honor, his integrity.”

And on either side of her, the spirits of her children.  “We are his sense of family,” they chorused together, slightly unnerving the real twins, “his love for his wife, children, friends and clan.”

Next, came Shadow.  “I am his fighting skill, his battle prowess.”

And then Annika.  “I am his protective nature, his desire to keep those he loves and the innocent safe from harm.”

And Todd alongside.  “I am his sense of humor, or lack there of.”  The real Todd nodded his consent to his counterpart’s role in Goliath’s mind.

Delilah emerged, with baby Trinity in her arms.  “We are his innocence, his wonder at this new world around him and the embracing of new customs, his acceptance.”

The clan had been surrounded by the many parts of Goliath, all dressed in their usual garments, yet completely bleached of all color.  Elisa stepped forward, examining those near her, until they all suddenly drifted their gaze as one to another opening portal.  A slender figure glided serenely towards the group, and when appearing into the light, Elisa gasped.

It was her, clad in a lengthy dress with long tight sleeves.  It was white as the snow and possessed a trail of satiny lace dragging behind her, with wisps of transparent silk near the shoulder blades, forming what almost looked like an angel’s wings.  “I am Goliath’s love, his heart, his soul.”

“How appropriate.” Fox teased quietly.

“Oh wow,” Elisa looked her counterpart over from the length of her dress to her sparkling chocolate eyes, “you’re me...”

“Surprised?” the counterpart answered, a melodious tone that seemed to sing forth with every word.

“I-I guess not.”

The other Elisa smiled, and slowly drifted through the crowd of gargoyles and humans, eyeing each one, finding a strength all their own beneath each divergent covering.  “You are all brave to come here.  This world has become a battlefield, with one casualty, who is at this moment being bombarded with an agony that no one could ever perceive, that none one could ever endure or even survive.”

Elisa rushed forward to her counterpart.  “Goliath?  Is he all right?  Where is he?!”

“Your devotion is truly remarkable for your mate.”  She moved off to the side, heading away from the group, and approaching the edge of the light beam, steadily reaching into the blinding center.  A form loomed within the light, coming into sharp focus with a wave of her hands.

Goliath, huddled on his knees and completely bent over, covered partially by his wings. His entire body had been wracked an unrelenting pain, piercing through every part of his trembling form.  What pain had existed in the reality outside, had no equal to what he felt now.  His very blood boiled, burning through his system, and annihilating what will and strength that had ever dared to reside within.

Elisa rushed forward, only to be restrained by her counterpart.  No matter how hard she struggled, she could not release herself from a grasp as powerful as Goliath’s.  “This is not your husband,” the counterpart bellowed, “it is merely a manifestation of his physical form.  A display of his external torture.  Your husband,” she pointed to the walls behind, “is here.”

“All this isn’t Goliath!  It’s dark, cold...lifeless!!”

“Yes...your husband is dying.  As is his mind.”

“No...” she wailed in a heartbreaking cry, “he can’t...”

“Yes, he will.  If appropriate measures are not taken,” Desdemona’s counterpart spoke up, her husky voice catching Elisa’s frazzled focus, “all this will be lost.”

“What can we...can I do?”

“Battle what forces vie for control.  The poison that gains strength with every second.”

“How?”

“Force your husband to relive his most cherished memories.  Force him to fight, to win, to keep what he has gained.  Only he will decide the final victor for his psyche.” Desdemona stood near Goliath, still writhing in utter torture upon the floor.  “You can use this form to reach your husband.  Talk to him, bring his soul back.”

Elisa immediately dropped to her knees, as the fragments of Goliath’s mind allowed her access to her husband’s form.  She grabbed him, and held upon his neck with all her might, feeling his agonized spasms flow through her.  “Goliath!  Please, fight.  Come back.  Remember everything that you have.  Things, people, places, you hold most dear! Your family, your clan, your children...me...”

As Elisa implored to her mate, the counterpart Desdemona closed her eyes and empowered her region of his mind.  The frames flickered with a mass of color and light, swirling to form pictures of his past.  Like movie screens, they presented over a thousand years worth of history, experienced by a single being.  The clan all watched with awe and wonder at their very lives on display.

Visions of castle Wyvern from the days of Scotland, a clan once shattered brought back to relive their precious instants of existence erased by betrayal and mistrust.  Goliath appeared as a young gargoyle with his brothers and sisters, hunting, joking, learning, discovering, with all those he was hatched with.  And after they awakened from their cursed sleep a millennia later, the meeting of new friends, and intimate moments with each of his treasured family members.  Avalon, the unearthing of his children thought dead, and a journey around the globe, finding that their race had lived on in different countries.  A retaking of their ancient home, a gift from a former enemy for saving his firstborn son.  The victory against perhaps the most dangerous foe of all and his war upon the world and the redemption of an immortal driven to hatred and death.  They all came forth with a well-being and happiness, that now had been threatened by a simple toxin to be destroyed for all eternity.

“Wait a minute,” Brooklyn had noticed a noticeably vacant area that had filled his leader’s recent years, “something seems to be missing.”

“Merely saving the best for last.” the counterpart Desdemona explained.

The screens all went blank, save for one, growing in size.  A scream erupted, and a slender form fell past the window of view, a blur of blue and red.  It was Elisa, as she plummeted towards the ground, having fallen from the edge of the castle’s towering cornices.  And then, a lavender shape dove from the night sky to save her, to pluck her from the claws of death.  It was the first time Goliath and Elisa, had ever met.

Elisa, still holding Goliath, forcefully raised his eyes to the images looming over them. “Look, Goliath, our life as it first began.  When I truly started to live.”

The memories continued, with Goliath having awakened in Central Park and discovering this beautiful human detective had stayed with him all day and protected him from Xanatos’ hired guns.  When Elisa flew on her own wings for the first time, and he saw her not as a friend, but now as a romantic interest.  When they first danced on Halloween, and Elisa discovered this giant had the grace of a swan.  The journey to Avalon and finally finding their way home together.  The night of the Hunter’s moon and their first kiss.  That rainy night when they first made love.  The Unseelie war and having been witness to his human love being struck down and almost brought to the edge of death, but saved by a former enemy.  Their decision to be mated.  Their wedding night and the reception, having danced to the dawn’s light.  The honeymoon, and the night on the beach.  Seeing his daughter born from the woman he loves, and first holding her tiny form in his arms.  His most wondrous moments in life.

“Please, Goliath, don’t let all this die!  Come back to your family!  Your baby daughter, who needs the guidance of a father!” Elisa almost screamed into his ear, forcing him, commanding him to listen to her.  His pain she could feel, through their bond, forged of love and dedication to each other.  She let loose her tears, trailing from the ends of her eyes and dropping onto Goliath’s face.  “Please...fight it.”

“I...I...”  The form of Goliath attempted to speak, battling through the grasp of the poison upon his vocal cords.  “I...cannot...”

“Yes, you can.  You ca...”

Elisa’s most heartfelt appeal was forcefully interrupted by a sickening shattering sound. The windows lining the walls simultaneously erupted with powerful explosions, sending a blast of fire and debris into the room from each frame.  All gathered there covered themselves from the onslaught of jagged shrapnel.

“Well, isn’t this sweet.”  A grating jeer echoed around them, filled with malice and hatred so, that a shiver flowed through Elisa, as she recognized this new sound.  “She’s trying to save her one true love.”  From the opposite side of where they had first entered, the reality they now dwelt within was ferociously torn away by sharpened claws, creating a hole which bled a chorus of agonized screams.  Gargoyle screams of death.  Through the ripped piece came a shadowed figure, blacker than even the walls.  He stood before them, with eyes of a pallid luster.

Elisa knew this shape, for she had almost met her bloody end when having been attacked in her very home.  “Sobek...”

“No,” it answered back, “not quite.”  The shadow stretched and distorted it’s form, growing a pair of twisted wings from it’s back.  “I am what is eating away at your husband’s body, a virus made even stronger by powerful magic.  This form is perhaps what you perceive while in your little spell’s entrapment.”

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!” Elisa screeched, an octave high enough and containing such power to fracture glass.  “You won’t win!!  You won’t take him from me!!”

“Oh, but I already have.  You see, I am in possession of what that shrink bitch would most likely call...his negative feelings, and soon,” he glared upon those representing Goliath’s psyche, still untouched by the toxin, “I will have it all.”  He turned his frightening gaze to the gaping wound in the wall.  “Come, my army.  Show yourselves.”

More forms appeared through the portal.  Six separate figures, each lining up on either side of the poison taken Sobek’s appearance.  “I am his guilt,” it was David Xanatos, clad in black suit and tie, and the malicious grin he had once sported, “his feelings of failure at the loss of his clan.”

And beside him, wrapped around Xanatos’ arm, was Fox, in a slinky black velvet dress. “I am his pain, his torment in losing so many he cared about.”

And further along, appeared Jon Castaway, in full body armor of a frosted ebon gleam. “I am his greatest fears, his sense of hopelessness.”

On the other side, came Jason Canmore.  “I am his jealousy, his possessiveness, his proverbial green eyed monster.”

Then a hulking form, dwarfing the human counterpart alongside.  Back from his gruesome death at Goliath’s hands, was Thailog.  “I am his hatred, his loathing and animosity.”

And last, in a solid black tunic and loincloth, was Demona, eyes bursting forth with a blazing blood glow.  “And I am his anger, his absolute rage.”

Each side had arranged their pieces into place, as if forming a massive chess board and the winner to be awarded with Goliath’s very life.  White versus black, good versus evil. Each of Goliath’s personality traits had lined up on either side of the room, facing one another in a showdown of momentous proportion, and the clan had been caught in the middle.

“You cannot fight us,” whispered Goliath’s soul Elisa, “we cannot fight against those we are a part of.”

“Too true.” agreed the Sobek shadow.

“Goliath’s clan is here to fight you in our stead.”

“Which is why I plan on evening out the odds.”  Sobek drew in a deep breath and howled his depravity, a deafening shockwave causing the clan to bow over and cover their ears in pain.  “I am in control of this mind!!  I am a poison without any possibility for a cure!!  I have this gargoyle’s very soul at my command, with my hordes ready to serve only their master and king.  COME TO ME!!!  COOOOOME!!!”

The walls of the room distended and swelled, with the imprints of taloned hands attempting to break through.  The once solid barriers became pliable and molded to the demons beyond.  The entire clan watched in horror as the walls became as living entities, releasing into the room, misshapen monsters of the purest raven hue.  Resembling what a child would dream about in a fear induced catalepsy, what the clan would wholly dread most, and what evils could be formed from Goliath’s deepest subconscious.  They ripped through, and stepped onto the ground, a battalion of nightmares created from the sickness coursing wildly through Elisa’s beloved.

She maintained her grip around Goliath, and carefully eyed the surrounding masses of horrid deformed creatures.  Most of them possessed barely a humanoid appearance, some had wings, others covered in razor sharp spikes, and some even resembled wild animals. And as a final, sick joke, a few even went as far as to take on the appearance of his dead clan from a thousand years ago.  With fangs, claws and talons, they appeared as instruments of destruction and doom.

The clan staggered in a circle, back to back, and prepared for the impending war.  A war for the life and soul of their closest friend.  Elisa closed her eyes, and pressed her head to Goliath’s lush mane, delving into the faint scent of his being that remained on this physical representation of her husband.

“It begins,” said the shadow Sobek, almost laughingly, “the battle shall commence and to the victor, goes Goliath’s life.”  He surveyed his army, salivating at the chance to rend flesh from bone, and anticipating for the charge.  With one biting command, he would let loose the hordes.  “Attack...”

To be concluded...

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