Kyle:

Things were starting to weigh on my mind. Watching Seraphim, the gargoyle children, being taken in even by someone like Venice who had his misgivings... there was no pretense anymore was there?

I clutched my book, "Triad History 101". It was a book I had been looking over after getting word from my parents, the history of my people and planet. I walked faster and faster away. I turned to that page again.

1721

The gargoyle forces in Europe formed three major strongholds. Plans confiscated later by werewolf forces confirm they had planned to use these castles as staging grounds. From there, they would launch armies slowly taking over the countries of Europe and eventually the world. The mutant societies of earth united to try to stop them, but there is little doubt they would have been overwhelmed by the immortal and far superior gargoyle forces.

To stop this, the Triad High Council initiated one of the most ambitious military campaigns in its history, the Purge. All gargoyles anywhere in the world were to be destroyed with extreme prejudice. The earth would not be conquered, the pharaohs would save it.

The reader should not be concerned about this decision. Gargoyles are monsters, driven mad and to pursue power and conflict by their very being. Death is the only salvation for such creatures...

I closed the book, slowing down. I held my head, whispering to myself. "How... how could I ever have believed that was okay? How could my people do that? How could... how- how? My father... how- just-"

I must have started to cry because someone came over and walked next to me putting a hand on my shoulder. I looked up, expecting to see one of my friends. I looked into the eyes of a stranger, a full-grown man with such kind eyes... I knew he was a gargoyle.

I ran away. "Hey kid, you're okay just-" On instinct, I initiated my electric powers, powers only pharaohs have, and shot away from him.

(***)

I found a door out of the facility and ran outside, running to a building nearby. Inside was a large empty room. It appeared a number of these buildings were abandoned, this one included. There were concrete pillars around and a cement floor. The windows around were so large the area around me was still well lit.

I screamed throwing my book away from me. Then, in a fury, I ran over to it and slammed my fist into it. "NO, NO, NO!" I shouted. "You- it didn't happen, you're just a lie- you-" I charged up my powers in my hand and sent a shock into the book, setting its pages on fire and eventually causing them to shred and shoot pieces of debris everywhere.

The faces of my mom and dad flashed before me as the book was destroyed. Their faces smiled at me. So much love and warmth for me. They made mistakes sometimes but...

"Something makes me doubt that attack was for anything but catharsis." I turned, looking to see who spoke. Venice walked into the room, the massive gargoyle not even seeming phased by my display of power. "I had an interesting time convincing that man to stay silent... so then, why display your powers to the other gargoyles?"

"I lost control... I'm sorry." I turned away from him.

I heard him growl. "How welcome would I be on your world?"

"You would be killed within seconds of showing up."

"I had to tell that man you had an invention I was testing out. What makes you think, if my people knew what you were, you would be so much better off here?" Venice asked.

I turned back to him and fell against a stone pillar, holding my head in my hands. "This is how I was born. I had no say in what happened."

"Did that we were born this way matter to your kind when they tried to wipe us out?"

"It didn't. You're right, it didn't." Tears streaming out of my eyes, I looked up at him, a glare coming from him and cutting straight through me.

"You want me to be moved by a display of emotion or remorse?"

"I- I don't know what I want. I want it to have never happened. I don't want to have to live with what they did..." I paused. Before my eyes and in my mind, I could almost see it. My mother and father, running through fields of men women, and children, cutting them down, the blood, the screams... I started to shake. "I want to believe I would have tried to stop them, I want the chance to have stopped them... I want to believe anything but the truth!"

"One could simply say you are not responsible. What happened, happened in 1721, my guess is that was long before you were born."

I sniffled. I tried to calm my shaking, not sure if it was rage, frustration, or even sorrow that made me shudder. My teeth were trying to chatter. I started to feel cold. "I was born one hundred and six years ago. Nearly a century and a half after the war began and a hundred years after it ended."

"Then to be mature," he breathed in deep. "I cannot forgive nor hold you responsible I suppose."

"I am so sorry for what happened... gargoyles are immortal... you were around when it started."

He nodded. "I was one of the first gargoyles to ever exist. I watched everyone I knew die at the hands of an invading army that cared nothing for what any of them stood for. They assumed we were all evil and that was the end of it. We were nothing more than insects to be exterminated."

My stomach sank. I closed my eyes and there I stood, in a field... a field of bodies. I opened them and I looked into the eyes of a man who had seen that field in real life.

Venice asked a question. "So answer me this. Two of the others are pharaohs too, why does this affect you so much more than the others?"

I bit my lip and looked away. "I... I guess you won't let me just say I don't want to say?"

"Good guess. For all I know, the reason for your attack of conscience is because you are a spy. The pharaohs never had a change of heart, they just got greedy and decided they wanted to end the off-planet war to save money and the lives of their own soldiers."

"We're not spies... my heart has changed... there's a reason that change is so hard for me though." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a picture of my father. I looked at the ground. "This is my father...Joran Jake, head propagandist responsible for telling everyone the Purge was a good idea... if it weren't for him, none of it would have happened." The gargoyle growled again but I continued. "I was taught all my life until I arrived here, gargoyles are part reptile, their DNA merged with ancient dragons."

Venice looked like was holding himself back, clenching his fist so hard. "That we are."

"I was taught they were all destined to be driven insane by their powers, I was taught death was the only salvation, the only way to stop them. I was taught their extermination was mercy."

He growled out the word, "Mercy?"

"He taught me like he taught everyone else..."

"And what do you think of him? The name "Joran" means what to you?" He slammed his hand into the support beam above me, the stone cracking.

I fell to my knees. In the rocks, I swore I could see their faces, my mom and dad.

I remembered my mom, carrying me back to bed after a nightmare, dad recovering after standing between me and a charging animal. I remembered bits and pieces of my dad training me to use my powers- everything I was to this day, I owed to them. They had shown me so much, love.

"Daddy... the man who loved and cared for me... he and I didn't always see eye to eye, but- he taught me to read, he hugged me, he played with me, he and mom were my world... through everything I knew he loved me, he would die for me."

"And what would you do for him?" the gargoyle asked. I could feel his glare on my back as I cried into the ground.

"I don't know. I love him, I love my father, is that a sin? He's not all evil..."

"As far as I saw..." The gargoyle shook his head. "What of your mother?"

"What can I say? Propaganda was the main career for my father, his side job was helping with strategy. My mother had been a front line commander." I swallowed and sat up against the beam, head still in my hands. "I know what this all means. My parents are war criminals. There's nothing I can do to change what happened..." I folded my arms and sighed. "Truth is, I learned six years ago that they were the real monsters. I guess... I didn't react like this, maybe because this is a little different. I faced a bad gargoyle and found his human side... to sum things up. Here, you're all openly showing me your human sides, there's no misunderstanding to be had. Now I have to think, did my father or any of his subordinates ever see something like this and continue their slaughter anyway? My father was in that war for all fifty years it was going on, that's plenty of time to see how just normal gargoyles really are. I guess... I thought there was a misunderstanding- well maybe at first, but the conflict lasted fifty years and in some ways, it's still going... I have to face it...my father was- is, evil." I could swear my heart wanted to stop beating. Again I saw the faces of my parents. No matter how I tried, I could only see their love, their acceptance, I could only see the faces they showed me. What did their faces look like to their victims?

"What will you do about it?"

"I don't know what to do."

Venice continued to glare at me. "I don't know what I'm going to do either." He grabbed my arm. "Guess I'll have to think on it, but in the meantime, don't you EVER try to leave again!"