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Artificial night fell on the City, and Goliath and Bronx both awoke with their usual roars. The gargoyles bursting out of their stone skin were a familiar sound at sunset, and their roars carried over the darkening City
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She did try and make sure that she was awake at the same time as Goliath, though. There was a lot that she didn't know about what she'd missed during her long sleep in the pods, but she intended to make sure that they made the most of every moment now that she was awake. Just in case it didn't last.
She climbed up to the top of the turret after the false sunset, pausing momentarily to stare out at the skyline.
"It's not exactly New York," she noted to herself, before gazing around the parapets in search of her friend. "Goliath?"
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"Good," she answered, smiling up at him. Physical displays of affection were nothing new in their relationship, but this was a new level of intimacy that she hadn't adjusted to yet. Which wasn't to say that she didn't like it, of course. It felt warm and natural and, in such an alien location, it was a pleasant reminder of ... not normality, since their lives had never been normal, but of everything that was worth fighting for. "It's nice not to have to cross the city to be there when you wake up."
She gestured in the direction of the gate, where Goliath had been standing in contemplation before she'd emerged.
"Did I interrupt something?"
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"I am still considering opening the castle to the rest of the crew."
It was clear the idea still bothered him. Leaving his territory open for just anyone to waltz in bothered him on a deep, instinctive level, one that perhaps was not well suited to this place.
"I cannot think of a reason someone would enter for nefarious purposes. I do not care if Xanatos' things are taken, and you and Peter are well capable of protecting yourselves. Beside this, there are some who visit to maintain the grounds, or use the library, and with my sleep being what it is, I do not think it right to ask them to stay away only as it is convenient to me."
Especially not since these visitors are usually here to help him in some way, either by maintaining the grounds, or by researching a solution for the problem of his sleep.
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She couldn't begin to imagine how lonely and daunting that would feel, but she knew that Goliath had an idea.
"If they did break in, where would they go?" she pointed out. "They couldn't get far on the ship. If it happens, security will track them down and deal with them."
They'd have committed a crime and, war or not, they'd be punished accordingly. Not that it was theft that concerned her. She'd spent more than one day watching over Goliath's stone form, protecting him when he couldn't protect himself.
"Is there anyone here that we shouldn't let in?"
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He . . . might have been joking. His grim smile said he was - not because he wouldn't truly like to continue to live in Castle Wyvern without sharing it with Xanatos, but because he didn't see Xanatos giving up his property that easily.
"In truth, I do not know. There was a woman who openly caused trouble, but she was murdered by a person who then was returned to sleep. If others among the crew are untrustworthy, they are wise enough to hide it."
For all that Goliath was slow to give others his trust, he was much more inclined to assume that everyone around him would, given the chance, prove themselves trustworthy. In a very real sense, Elisa was a better judge of character than he was. Yet another reason to value her presence on the ship.
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Joke or not, that was a given. Xanatos had forced the clan out of their home once before and, although he'd attempted to make amends on more than one occasion since they'd helped to save Alex, Elisa didn't trust him. He'd done too much to earn her forgiveness so easily.
"She was ..?" Elisa shook her head, hoping that the security team had either dealt with the problem at the time or made the preparations necessary to deal with it if the person woke up again. It was no good worrying about it now. "We'll just have to be careful."
She was always careful. She didn't trust easily, even when it would have made her life easier. That wasn't about to change here.
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"There is one thing more. The beings responsible for this ship, the Daligig - we've met them now. There are two at least still on the ship."
He hesitated before going on, considering the troubling conversation he'd had with their alien rescuers. "When I spoke to one, she repeated the claim that they might be able to restore our worlds if this war is won. I've told no one else, because much of the crew takes comfort from this possibility, but I think they might be lying."
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She was ready to head off and interrogate them herself. She certainly wanted to interrogate them. But that would have been one of the first stops on their tour if it had been an option. Goliath wouldn't have kept her in the dark.
With a somewhat tired sigh, Elisa softened.
"What makes you think they're lying?"
She hadn't given much thought to the resurrection of their worlds. The here and now was complicated enough. But it was a small scrap of hope in otherwise dark days and it wouldn't be easy to let go of the idea.
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Stacy was a very large ship.
"I asked one to explain how our world might be restored, knowing that time is immutable. She compared our Earth - our time - to a shattered statue, which might be put back together."
An explanation that almost seemed tailored to upset him.
"I did not consider the explanation sound."
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She winced at the careless analogy that their apparent allies had used.
"I know it doesn't make much sense to a gargoyle," she replied, carefully, "But that explanation will have been enough for a lot of other people."
Even if it was a lot to take on trust.
"Sometimes, if you want something enough, you don't stop to ask questions."
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Nobody in the crew was exactly singing the Daligig's unquestioned praises.
"I do not know what they would gain by lying to us, aside from our complicity - which they would have, even if they gave us a hopeless truth."
He remembered the battles with the ruthless Ohm, the merciless destruction of Zokez II, the invasion attempt that had come so close to threatening his sleeping clan.
"The Ohm are my foes, whether the Daligig are our allies or else, but I no longer confuse friends with ones who awaken me for their own gain."
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"Maybe they're just telling us what we want to hear," she suggested. "Maybe they want us to have hope."
Although they'd have fought without it, it undoubtedly made them stronger.
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Which raised other questions, if it was true - such as why the Daligig considered them better off lied to, even if the lie was for their own good.
"If I could believe it, it would give me comfort."
He set his hand on Elisa's arm, regretting that in sharing his suspicions with her, he was also telling her he believed she would never see her city again.
"I truly hope I am wrong."
For both their sakes - but for her more than his. He could adopt a new home. He had done it already, several times, and it had been a trial he had never wished on her.
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"So do I," she admitted, placing a hand over his. "But I'd rather find out the truth."
If they knew the truth, they could find a way to deal with it.
"It might be my city, but it's the people that make it my home." She just wished she knew how many of her loved ones were actually sleeping in the pods. "We'll cope, whatever happens."
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He'd only met the Mazas under circumstances of duress, but in those times, they had each proven their worth.
"They may not be trustworthy, but they are not fools. I know you will see them again."
He might have been reluctant to make that proclamation before, but he had comforted himself so many times thinking much the same of his own family, and Elisa's presence was all the proof he needed, for the time, to believe it completely.
'We'll cope.' How that 'we' comforted him.
As he had done many times since she'd awoken, he resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and hold her close. It was not in his usual conduct to resist displays of affection, but he had missed her so long that to act on his every urge to do so would have had her in his arms too often to count.
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