Xao:

I watched as Thomas began to fall and Jessica started screaming desperately for it all to stop. The gargoyle we had been fighting jumped into the air, shooting across the side of the building Jessica was standing on and snatched Thomas out of the air. Huge wings ripped out of the creature's back and he flew away.

I wanted to scream too but kept my mind about me. I rushed over to Kyle, a serious wound now on his leg. He must have been shot at some point, though I wasn't sure when. His shin was bleeding and there was no telling how bad the damage really was- though given the gun... Kyle's leg was still in a natural position, so I supposed it could have been worse, but I still got to work. I commanded him to lie down as I started ripping off a piece of my shirt to wrap around his leg over the wound.

Kyle started shuttering at the pain and the blood wasn't stopping at just that so I started scanning the region. I spotted our duffel bag and shot over to it. I quickly then took out my sword, shedding its plastic casing and cutting off one of the straps of the bag. I then shot over to a small metal pipe I saw on the ground, and finally dashed back over to Kyle. I wrapped the strap around Kyle's leg above the knee tying it off and inserting the bar under it. I turned the metal, tightening the strap. Kyle screamed at the pain I inflicted, but didn't fight me, instead slamming his fists into the ground again and again.

Jessica appeared beside me. "Is he gonna be alright?" she asked. "What are you doing?"

"It's called a tourniquet," I replied. "I'm cutting off the flow of blood to his leg so he doesn't bleed to death."

"Is that necessary?" she asked.

"I don't know, probably. I'm doing it just in case." I cut off the excess from the strap and used it to tie to Kyle's upper leg to secure it.

"Should I get in the habit of doing that?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah, you really should learn how to do this right, ask around when you get back," I said. Jessica took off her backpack and pulled out a small needle injecting Kyle's leg. "Is that tissue rebuilding chemicals?" Jessica nodded. "How long before it works?"

"Judging from this wound, Kyle should have a bum leg for the next few hours at least," she replied. Jessica got up, folding her arms, tapping her foot, and seeming to shiver as she looked around. Finally, she grabbed her head and doubled over screaming and crying.

"Jess?" Kyle asked.

I quickly went over to her. "Are you-"

"I'm fine," she interrupted, tears streaming out of her eyes. "That's the point. I'm Kyle's bodyguard and I was supposed to be Thomas's hero. Now Kyle has a wound that could have killed him and Thomas is no better off than if I had never showed up at all. The only one who didn't get in serious danger here was ME!" She grunted. "I don't get it, why choose me? I beat up the guards at Kyle's house, but is that really a reason for Kyle's father to accept my application for bodyguard?"

"You... you took out Kyle's family's house guards... more than one even... to prove you could handle the job of bodyguard?" I asked.

She nodded. "Um... and they're still alive... save the traitor I was rooting out." She nodded again.

"I might just have an inclination as to why Kyle's dad might have taken that resume."

Kyle pushed himself into a sitting position. "Don't act like it's all on you," he said, hissing at the pain. "We were all giving orders... in fact, you were the only one not telling anyone what to do." Kyle shook his head, "You're supposed to be in charge in situations like this but I just went with the heat of the moment. Really it's on me."

"It's not on you either Kyle," I told him. "Jessica couldn't have planned it any better. What happened happened and... Jess, why are you giving me that look?" I asked as a one-sided nervous toothy smile went across Jessica's face and then quickly disappeared.

"Well..." she began, looking at Kyle. "Well to be honest I remember thinking Kyle's and your plan was a horrible idea. If Thomas was supposed to hide he should have actually hidden. Maybe inside the building, but all the same, you should have told him to go somewhere for cover not stay in the open just three stories up. The idea of hiding is the bad guy is not supposed to know exactly where you are." I cringed, remembering that that particular order was mine. "I guess you wanted him out of the line of fire, and that might have worked if Kyle hadn't ordered me to the top of the building right along with him... course really the gargoyle could have just grabbed him if I wasn't up there so really the plan was pretty much doomed to failure from the get-go. Really I have to ask, how many fights have either of you been in?"

"Well," I looked to the side. "We really stayed clear of the actual fighting during the Civil War, just trying to save folks after the soldiers had moved on. Twenty years after it ended I became a trickster god and I haven't really been involved in a war ever since. I did study fencing though."

"I've only ever studied self-defense," said Kyle, "Never really had to fight for myself, the house guards and you always protected me."

Jessica shook her head, "Well you two aren't terrible at one on one combat, but you don't seem to know anything about tactics."

"Well, then we should get going right?" I asked. "Thomas ain't coming back on his own after-" Jessica waved her hand to cut me off.

"Exactly what are you thinking of doing this time? Kyle can't fight at all and I'm not just leaving him here with a gargoyle ticked the heck off at all three of us, which only leaves you to fight the creature and rescue Thomas." She turned to Xao. "I could give you the scanner so you could go after him alone, but before I do, you mind telling me exactly how you're going to even intimidate that thing? In all reality he's got better weapons and just being a gargoyle he out classes you in like twenty categories already." She folded her arms. "Let's get real here, we barely stood a chance as it was. With Kyle out of commission, we're grounded for the next few hours and Lord only knows how far that thing will have taken Thomas by that time." Jessica looked around. "The police should be here soon. Help me get Kyle to cover so we don't have to answer any awkward questions."

By "help" Jessica of course meant I carry Kyle myself, not that I wasn't fine with that, but I sure wish people would be upfront about the fact that you would be doing all the work when they ask for "help".

Inside the building Thomas fell off of, on the second floor, I set Kyle down on a large table. Hissing a few times at the pain, Kyle was still being rather patient about the ordeal, no doubt the whole thing was near agony. When he was finally set down, he looked to Jessica. "So now what do we do?" He gave a sheepish grin. "By the way, you give the orders from here on out alright?"

This new room wasn't as run down as the various places we had been- probably left more recently. The table had to be dusted off, but it could support Kyle no problem, and nothing in the room was broken. I even found a small first aid kit hanging on the wall and started exploring it.

"Actually, I think I need one more order," Jessica replied. "Should... should we continue or not?" She folded her arms. "This just keeps getting more dangerous and as much as I care what happens to Thomas, you are my priority, not some kid I've barely met." She seemed pretty upset at saying this, like she was forcing it out, almost throwing up the words.

I walked over to a nearby window. "I don't know what you two are doing, but I'm going to find Thomas with or without you. I let him down because of my stupid deal-making. I gave up on him without a fight already and I'm not doing that again."

"You don't stand a snow ball's chance in hell," Jessica said to me.

"My thoughts exactly," came a deep voice across from me. I quickly looked to the entrance of the room we were in and saw the gargoyle again, this time with his gun raised and pointed directly at Kyle. Jessica froze. "Did you three think I would just move on from you a second time? I have to protect my family. If there's one thing I learned two and half centuries ago, it's not to avoid conflict, it just finds you in the end. Thus I end this conflict the only way I know to." He moved over to Kyle and grabbed him up by his left arm, lifting the boy unceremoniously with one hand. Kyle lit up with electric energy, but the creature simply grunted at him. "After all, you three already threw at me, you think mild electric shock is going to get to me?" he asked. He snatched the boy under his arm as the electric charges ceased. The gargoyle then pointed his gun at Jessica. "So boy, now you choose, who do I kill first? Neither will attack so long as I have you." He then turned and held his weapon to me. "WELL?!" He shouted at Kyle.

What I saw wasn't what I expected. His hand was shaking and moving around as if he couldn't get a good aim on me. Was this really the creature that nailed Kyle in the leg when the boy was moving at some three hundred miles per hour whipping around the city streets? He had the same green eyes, dark hair, and dark clothes, but something was off from what I expected. "Look," I began, "listen to me, we're not here to hurt you or your family. We're just trying to recover the boy, he was kidnapped two weeks ago. Just return him and we'll leave."

The gargoyle glared at me, holding his weapon tighter, but not firing. "I just found that boy after two hundred forty-five years. I can't find someone like his mother, but you want me to just leave my son to you monsters again?" His voice started to deepen almost to a growl. "Tell me, did he try to reason with you? Did he beg for his life? Did he fight valiantly? Or did you simply stab a nine-year-old boy in the back?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I noticed behind me as Jessica was quietly reaching for her blades.

"Don't you know? Think, think really hard. What happened two hundred forty-five years ago?"

Jessica's eyes widened and she mouthed the answer. "The Purge."

"Look, these two weren't even on earth when that happened, in fact, the war ended in 1771, before either of these kids were even born. You can't take revenge on them for what happened, they couldn't have done anything about it."

"And what of you?"

"I'm two hundred sixty-four years old," I replied. "I was nineteen when that happened, by our planet's standards, I was an infant when the war started and little more than a toddler when it ended."

"I get what this is about with us then," Jessica said behind him. "We attacked your kind. So tell me, you want us to believe this is just a case of us picking on the poor gargoyles? What does Thomas have to do with a war that ended over two hundred years before he was born?"

"This isn't about the war," the gargoyle said. "Nothing I have ever done was about that war. That war triggered things, but I never took part in it then and I won't take part in it now."

"None of us understand what you're saying," Kyle said, starting to squirm in his arm.

"Precious little that will matter in a few moments," the gargoyle said, he fixed his eyes on me again, gripping his weapon. Still, he didn't fire.

Jessica slowly pulled out one of her swords. When it was halfway out I put up my hand. "Jess wait!" The gargoyle turned and looked at her. He then looked back at me. "Hear me out gargoyle, we're not here for you and we're not our father's. I don't know what was done to you, but you don't need to be afraid of us."

"Are you not afraid of me?" he asked back. He looked at his weapon. He pulled his gun down and threw it back in his coat pocket with an air of frustration. "I can't do this. I know I should. Everything in me tells me to kill you before you can kill me... but I can't."

"It's okay," I said. "Just put Kyle down and we'll talk about this."

The gargoyle closed his eyes. "Follow me, and he dies. I will not be merciful if next, we meet on a battlefield." The creature turned and ran out the door.

I quickly moved to go after him but Jessica raised her hand. "Didn't you hear him?"

"We can't just leave him with that guy," I said, "I thought Kyle was your priority,"

"He is," Jessica said back. She pulled out her DNA tracer.

"Right. So we're gonna wait until he's not expecting us and go to his house raise all heck by blowing it up and-"

"And since you can't plan to save your life- literally- I'm in charge remember?" Jessica interrupted.