A beautiful sunset shone down on the Eyrie Building that evening, awakening the clan once it became night. Goliath awoke too, along with the bedridden and still tired Brooklyn.

Brook panted softly, not feeling so much achiness in his belly anymore. That urge to take more of that serum had seemed to die down softly, but his muscles still felt sore and tingly. Goliath had a hand on his forehead, feeling that the fever had slowed down, too. Brooklyn was simply very tired and weak.

"How are you feeling, Brooklyn?" Goliath asked, a look of concern and anxiousness on his face. Brook gave a small smile. "Not as bad... I'm still tired but stomach pains are going away. That serum was crazy but didn't seem to block my stone sleep from getting rid of it like before. Castaway did claim that it wasn't completely finished yet." The red one informed. This made Goliath sigh in relief, squeezing his Second's hand again.

"I hope this never happens to any of us again now that our greatest enemy is perished," Goliath said. Brooklyn nodded too.

They heard relieved voices when the rest of the clan filed into the recovery room with Elisa and Sato. Brooklyn greeted his brothers with a happy smile, hugging Lex and Broadway. Angela even gave him a kiss on his forehead, making him blush.

"We're happy ye look better, Laddie," Hudson said with happiness. Brooklyn nodded, though he still felt rather weak.

"Might be another night before things return to normal," he said in a quiet, tired voice. Sato took some new blood and analyzed it, seeing that most of that strange serum was practically gone now.

"Good news: Stone sleep seemed to do better with this poison than before. You should be fully recovered soon. I recommend a lot of bed rest today," Sato said. Brooklyn agreed. "Definitely after last night, grh..." he winced from weak muscles. Hudson soothed them.

"Don't do nothin' crazy now, and stay in bed," the elder advised. Brooklyn chuckled. "That I won't argue about, but I think a cup of tea would do me good," he suggested. Broadway didn't hesitate to go and get his recovering brother some mint tea. Xanatos came by too, relieved to see that the red one was doing better.

"And how are we feeling? Thought I'd come to visit," Xanatos greeted. Brooklyn looked up at him. "A lot better, thank you. But if, if you see Sevarius, please tell him I said thank you for the first cure. I just wasn't in my right head that first night," he asked. David nodded. "I shall see to it," he said.

Broadway returned with a cup of tea and some crackers, giving the tray to Brooklyn, who gratefully drank it and ate. He was starving. Bronx woofed when coming in, too. He looked a lot better from a veterinarian friend healing the gar dog, who fortunately didn't suffer serious injuries. Brooklyn saw his friend and smiled.

"Hey, buddy!" he greeted. Bronx wagged his stub tail happily, going up to Brooklyn and licking him. Brooklyn laughed as well as the others until Hudson gently pulled him down. Brooklyn scratched his ears. "So happy you're ok, I am too. We're home again." Bronx cooed, nuzzling Brooklyn softly. Lex then had a suggestion.

"We ought to have a special family party for your recovery, Brook, after everything you've been through and for the defeat of Castaway. Can't believe he is really gone for good now," Lex said, feeling rather overwhelmed by it.

This made Brooklyn feel a bit shy about that. "You really shouldn't, I don't think I deserve such a nice party," he said shyly. Broadway thumped his shoulder carefully. "Hey, you really deserve it. Stop being so down about yourself," he said. Brooklyn chuckled. "Alright, thanks guys, suppose it could be fun."

....

The next night, Brooklyn was finally up and about for good, the poison completely gone and happy to be able to move around again and go back on patrols. News of Castaway's death and the scattering of the Quarrymen went globally on the news. Some gargoyle supporters had cheered in happiness at this.

At Nightstone Unlimited, one certain gargess had seen what had happened with Castaway on the news and decided to pay a visit to her old clan and figure out what happened.

The clan were busy getting the party ready while Brooklyn breathed fresh air for a while. Elisa told him he could take a break since he had been helping. He gazed at his city, still stunned that their greatest enemy was dead. Suddenly though, a shadow swooped in and landed, red eyes in the dark.

"So, Castaway is gone, the hunt is over," said a female voice.

Brooklyn turned around to face his old enemy, Demona. "What do you want, Demona?" he snapped.

"I saw that the leader of the Quarrymen is dead on the news. I thought I'd pay a visit to my old clan to know what happened." She clarified.

"Yes, he's dead. He was after me." Brook glared at her, watching her to see if she would make any moves against him.

"Why would Castaway be after you? His bloodlines have always been after me before the Quarrymen came about to be after all of you." Demona said.

"Because I had taken poison before that you knew about, then he kidnapped Bronx and hurt Angela to get to me. I was ransomed for Bronx. Angela's fine." Brook explained.

The part where her daughter had been injured inflamed Demona's temper toward Castaway and all humans again.

"You seem alright now, Brooklyn." Demona commented.

"I just recovered from a second poisoning from Castaway. He was going to have me take some kind of new formula of poison that would make me super strong and fast and could have destroyed the clan. He also took it himself and I didn't take the full doses and he ended up killing himself. His body broke down into little pieces into thin air. I did nothing to tear him apart, as much as I would have liked to." Brooklyn explained.

This surprised the ancient gargess. She had never heard of such a thing, except perhaps what happened on computers. "I'm sorry you were poisoned, Brooklyn, both times." She declared. Her voice had the sentiment in it. "Did he do anything else to you?"

Brooklyn usually never would have wanted to tell an enemy what another enemy did to him, but he couldn't help himself. His sadness overcame his bravery and told her what Castaway had done before.

"He starved, squeezed, beat me, humiliated me, took my loincloth away too. He wanted to traumatize me, and that he did."

"How long did he have you?" she asked.

"A couple weeks."

"It's amazing he didn't smash you in stone sleep." Demona declared.

"I'm sure he was working up to it with the death of my clan when he lured them in to see me in rough shape and naked."

Then there was a smash on the inside of the Great Hall. Demona and Brooklyn both perked up at that. There was laughing inside.

They both went and stood at the door, seeing that a big bowl had fallen onto the floor. It had been going to hold some punch in it, but that wasn't going to happen.

"What happened?" Brooklyn asked.

"We got carried away and dropped the dish." Angela laughed. She and Broadway had been goofing off. Then she noticed her mother in the doorway.

"Oh, hi, Mother. Wasn't expecting to see you here." Angela said.

The other clan members turned to see the redhaired female by Brooklyn, who hadn't attacked her on sight for once.

"She came to see what happened after Castaway died last night." Brook stated.

"I also wanted to see if you were alright, my daughter." Demona declared.

"I'm fine, Mother." Angela replied.

"What's going on?" Demona asked.

"We're throwing a party for Brooklyn's recovery. After being sick for so long the first time and surviving the second poisoning, he deserves some fun in his honor." Angela explained.

Brooklyn gave a flush at this, still a bit shy about it, especially with it being said in front of Demona, who folded her arms. "A party... sounds good, for him," she said in her not so enthusiastic tone.

That was when Goliath and Hudson came from hearing the crash. His eyes shone when seeing Demona. "Why are you here?" he demanded. Brooklyn, out of his own surprise, stood between her and Goliath.

"It's ok, Goliath, she didn't do anything, she only wanted to hear what had happened with Castaway," he insisted. Hudson eyed her. "And did ye, lad?"

Brooklyn nodded, feeling a little guilty of not telling Goliath first, but Hudson wasn't mad; he took Brooklyn's hand. "It'll be fine that ye told her, as long as ye were careful." Brook nodded again. "I was," he said, gazing at Demona again, who hadn't changed her expression, eyeing Goliath with disdain.

At first nobody really said anything, Brooklyn watching to see what was gonna happen if they would make her leave.

Goliath then came to her, gazing into his old mate's eyes. "Demona, now that... that our greatest enemy is dead, we had planned to give Brooklyn a celebration. And I- I want to have a truce, just for this night, if you want to join us?" he asked.

Brooklyn himself was a bit stunned that Goliath had asked Demona this but because she hadn't attacked him, maybe the death of Castaway had done something to her hardened heart, if not all of it. He watched her with bated breath at what Demona would say.

Demona folded her arms. "To me, a party wastes valuable time, but I can probably tolerate this one. A truce it is then," she then said. Broadway and Lex were open mouthed now, but Brooklyn just gave them a grin and shrugged, while Angela was happy that she could have her first meal with both her parents. Brooklyn then went to clean up the mess with his brothers but Demona put a hand on his shoulder.

"I wish to continue our talk," she then requested. Brook swallowed but Goliath gave him a nod, saying it was ok. Demona and Brooklyn both went out into the living room. Brooklyn eyed Demona, wondering what else she wanted to talk to him about.

"What else happened during your first recovery, Brooklyn?" she asked. The red male felt a bit anxious about revealing to her about that stuff, but he gathered his courage.

"Mostly me emotionally recovering. I had PTSD from Castaway's brutal torture on me. Plus, I-I once felt so depressed that... I had cut myself. I wanted to feel the knife on my skin because Castaway's voice in my head claimed I was lesser than the rest of my clan." He mumbled, now feeling tears. Demona couldn't believe that this strong but cocky Second would even have it in him to do such a disgraceful act.

He was now gazing at the floor, chest heaving from having bad memories attack him, but Demona took his head in her hands like she did when first luring him to her side. "A proud gargoyle should never say that about themselves. Don't let that human slime get the better of you," she growled. Brooklyn took his head out of her hands, wiping his eyes with his fist.

"Handling my depression a little better. My family helped me recover from my depression. I swore never to cut myself ever again." He finished, drying his eyes. Despite her hatred at the red gargoyle, Demona felt a flicker of pride lingering. "I'm... glad to hear it," she said.

....

Another few hours went by and the party was finally ready. The table was set up with nice looking food from Broadway and a new bowl of punch that wasn't knocked over this time. Goliath sat Brooklyn at the front of the table while he sat with Angela and Hudson.

Demona sat beyond Fox's seat, not wanting to be too close to Goliath. When David saw her the two came to a mutual truce agreement, too just for tonight. Brooklyn felt so much happiness at being healthy again and sitting with his family once more, anxious to get the dinner going. Goliath stood up, making a speech at how much they all appreciated Brooklyn being in the family, making Brooklyn duck his head in shyness again. Goliath took his hand, a warm smile on his face.

"You were brave in facing Castaway and saving Bronx, Brooklyn. I am proud of you. You will always be loved." Happy tears came out of Brooklyn's eyes and he brushed them away. "T-this means a lot. T-thank you. Love you guys, too," he sniffled. Demona had remained silent but let a small smile come at seeing the red male happy despite their badly crossed paths earlier.

After that, everyone got their portions of the food. Brooklyn ate more than any of them, missing eating good food like this after so long, and enjoyed the punch, too.

When the party was over, Demona then had to make her leave after saying farewell to her daughter. Brooklyn quickly went to her before she took off.

"Uh, Demona, I-I have to say thank you for joining my party. And for listening when I explained my story," he said in an awkward tone. Demona gave a little huff but she nodded.

"Don't expect that kindness from me to last, Brooklyn, now that our truce is up. But we will soon come across each other again. Not for a while, at least."

Brooklyn shrugged, his beaked mouth turning up slightly. "Guess I can live with that." That was when he realized he never felt shy about showing his body to anybody or wore a jacket the whole time. It made Brooklyn feel happy about not worrying about shielding himself from anybody anymore.

Demona gazed back at Brooklyn one more time, then eventually took off into the night. Brooklyn watched her for a while then went back inside, being greeted by a pile hug by his brothers, and licks from Bronx. His happiness threatened to overflow, happy that his health and joy were back to normal, hoping for many more months of peace.