"Wait, Toby considered Draco his father... wasn't he one of the former familiars?" Lawrence asked
"Yes, and it was as an adoptive father, not a biological one," Marie-Eliza explained, "and the fact that Toby was a former familiar made it fairly obvious that Draco hadn't broken his vows to the Church."
Betty sniffled, "It's not fair... he suffered trying to live down what others saw of him... Dragons seeing him as a runt and lowly because of his name, which was given to him by humans... Humans and the other races of man seeing the wars that his race fought against them... dealing with his failures as a missionary, finally gaining some success by aiding Marie only being killed by an Arab/Turk who wanted revenge..."
"No everything in life is fair," Marie said, for what felt like the millionth time, "the tale of the witches and their hunters was a tragedy in nearly every sense of the word. The witches' fall from what could have been a powerful force for good into madness, Marie Cruz's struggles to make friends... first with Vatican/Equality, Draco, Gillian, and Lobo... then with the witches... then with Katherine... then with Linus. The struggle between the witches and the hunters as Marie was forced to fight and ultimately kill people she had considered her friends, and then seeing the Curse fall on them and then ravage Glendale, while knowing she would not be able to stop that. And ultimately, the end of the Hunters as a group. Katherine, by Marie's ToD couldn't, Marie laid down her weapons and gave it up, and Draco and Linus were killed."
"What about Free and Equality, even though Free was not one of the Hunters, she did seem to become close to Equality in the aftermath," Alice wondered.
"If they have not eroded away, they are probably still alive, as stone doesn't age or get sick, and the souls that reside within them are immortal, as ALL souls are," Marie commented.
+++++++++++++
On the roof of City Hall, two small, child sized gargoyles stood guard as they had for the better part of three hundred years. Their edges were rounded and worn, from years of sitting underneath the rain and wind, and in more recent years, acid rain. They were old and worn... beginning to approach the age in which most gargoyles finally died of "old age". Despite this, the recent events involving the Curse didn't escape them.
"I can't believe it," the female spoke softly, "it felt like them... but it... it was so wrong... and robbed so much from so many..."
"That was the madness they had fallen into, Free," Equality said to her.
The elderly female gargoyle nodded with what looked like a shudder. Before she could answer, there was a heavy "thump" as something large and heavy... and stone landed on a separate edge of the platform they were on.
"Frontdoor," Free spoke slowly.
"Grandmother," Frontdoor said to the small half-wolf half-dragon gargoyle, and then turned to Equality, "Grandfather."
"It is good to see you," Free spoke, "how are the others at Wolf Manor?"
"Doing well," Frontdoor said slowly, "all things considered."
"This is about the Curse, isn't it?" Equality asked.
Frontdoor nodded, "it came alive and attacked my protectorate and then the world."
"We felt it," Free told him, "even as old and frail as we are."
"The battle has been won," Frontdoor spoke, "the curse will be gone soon."
"And you've left your protectorate to tell us this?" Equality asked.
"A little glass pup asked me too," Frontdoor responded, and then gave what sounded like a chuckle, "and besides not EVERY gargoyle stands guard all the time. Backdoor tells me that her father helps the Lupman that runs the public library museum fairly regularly. You might wish to talk with them on some of the things related to you and the Curse..."
"Frontdoor, all the artifacts they have were given by your grandmother and I," Equality answered, "that is all we need to do. And we are rather traditional when it comes to our actions. It is our duty to guard, so that is what we shall do."
"Until these shells finally erode away," Free finished.
Frontdoor nodded, "I see. Still, the pup thought you should know. I must be returning to my own post now."
Free and Equality nodded as Frontdoor took off for Wolf Manor. Each elderly gargoyle felt grateful that their curse, which affected Free because of her aiding Equality, didn't effect their offspring.
+++++++++++++
1789
"She asked for you and your parents in her own way," Joella spoke slowly as she hugged the stone statue in the "gallery", and then sniffled heavily, "I'm sorry Mal'akh... I failed you... I failed to heal her..."
"You did your best, Joella," Lark said slowly, "I'm sure she knows that."
Joella looked back and slowly nodded. The two of them had grown old together. Neither had ever married, though many of the other former familiars had, as had members of the Witch Pride... which by now no longer existed. The only ones that could really remember it were the cubs and Francis and Julianna. But they didn't answer to that... and whenever Joella had visited Wolf Manor, or interacted with them outside it, their rank prefixes were added when they addressed each other. And Twilight's children, apparently 100% Lupman in outward appearance, with the exception of a mutated form insisted on the rank of Omega as well as their names. And the Witch Pride cubs had all married into the Glendale Pride.
But everyone stayed friendly. Things had gone as Marie Cruz had told them before Running Bear's funeral. People grew up and moved on, and the time as children never remained the same. But her friends DID remain her friends... even if one of them had been cursed by some witches, who tried to frame her mothers. A part of her heart longed for at least her and Lark to be with Mal'akh again, but Marie had told her she would be freed... and she would be happy. Joella could only hope it was soon.
The thought of Marie, made Joella pause and think back to her adopted Aunt. The one eyed Hunter who defended and fought her mothers, who protected the child familiars as they grew up, avenged the murder of Linus and Draco, and the mauling of Dawn, and seemed to feel the worst as a result of the "Transform or Dare" curse which was ravaging Glendale, now without Marie Cruz, Linus Sure, Katherine Chat, and Draco Fire to guide its use was beginning to be abused by those who were vengeful with dark and black hearts.
+++++++++++++
1735
Glendale's Catholic Church and Father Draco's mission was calm and quiet and included rooms that could be used as apartments, as many of the cathedrals in the Catholic nations of Europe did. And its basement included the catacombs that already housed Father Draco's remains. Linus was buried in the "Witch Pride's" cemetery. The former familiar who expressed interest in the Priesthood had taken over the mission when Draco died. And now he stood with Joella in a quiet apartment room with two bed in it.
"What happened?" Joella asked.
The former familiar, Oliver, now Father Oliver, sighed and straightened his robes. A good part of him would have preferred to be naked, but he had made the choice to accept wearing clothing when he joined the priesthood and accepted Draco's position.
"Abbess Katherine died in the night, old age," Oliver answered, "I awoke to hear Sister Cruz collapsed and crying into Katherine's shoulder. I helped her back to bed, but she seemed rather weak... and I'm not talking about her age. I had doctors come in. Rosalie and her husband looked her over. For reasons they can not explain, Sister Cruz is dying."
Joella looked to the one eyed hunter. Her breathing slow and weak. Her good eye red with tears. The two of them had moved into the mission when Joella was old enough to handle her affairs on her own and didn't need Katherine and Marie to act as "parents" for her. They still visited her regularly and aided her whenever possible. And now one was dead, and the other dying. Seeing them so, made Joella feel like crying.
"Father...?" Marie spoke slowly and weakly, "...is that you?"
Joella looked to Oliver.
"She is referring to her own adoptive father," Oliver told her.
"It is I, Sister Cruz," Joella said to Marie as she approached the dying hunter's bed, "Joella."
"Call me, Marie," Marie asked, and then coughed.
"Why are you dying, Marie?" Joella asked, "Oliver has told me the Doctors said you are healthy..."
"It is my time," Marie answered, "and I can endure the effects of "Transform or Dare" no longer..."
Joella took Marie's hand, "your friends need you."
"Gargoyles hold no real "attachment" to friends," Marie said slowly, "Equality has protected me because of his word to my father, Gabriel... not because of our friendship. He will understand that I am not stone and can not live as long as he will... I had to kill your mothers, no matter how much you don't like it, to save Glendale... my past came back to kill Linus and Draco... Katherine finally succumbed to old age... and I am too old go on with you... It is MY time."
Joella began to feel tears go down her cheeks. "Please, Marie... stay with us... stay with me..."
"If I do not go to hell, I will always be with you, in brightest day and darkest night," Marie answered, "even if you can't see me... I'll always be watching."
Joella continued to cry as Marie began to go into some sort of delirium... or see something in the future.
"And the Curse will end in a great battle," Marie spoke, "a Lupman will come... following an Eastern religion... fur white as snow... with red marks... with the spirit of another to guide her... aided by Leoman thought to be dead... and a Catholic Orangutan... they shall end Kurse's reign of terror... and we may all have peace..."
Joella didn't know what an Orangutan was, but didn't get the chance to ask. As soon as Marie said "peace", her hand fell limp and her head dropped off to a side.
"Marie... Marie... MARIE!!!" Joella then cried into Marie's shoulder as the one eyed hunter died.
Oliver shed a few tears as well, but now had to prepare for the funerals of the last flesh and blood hunters, and have the mission's bells toll to announce their death.
+++++++++++++++++
1789
Joella and Lark slowly made their way back to their manor, now called Pax Manor...
+++++++++++++++++
"Pax?"
"Latin for peace," Lawrence told Abbey."
++++++++++++++++++++
"I wish Marie were here," Joella said slowly as Lark opened the door for her, "she could tell me when Mal'ak would be free..."
"I believe she said it would not be until just before the curse was destroyed," Lark told her, "all those years ago."
"Still, I wish she and my mothers were here," Joella answered, "I miss them."
Lark hugged her, "I know."
They ate dinner and then paid respects to those that had either fallen in the battle against Golgotha, Gaal, and Gomorrah, or had died afterward, including Running-Bear and Linus Sure. They then went to bed. As Joella nodded off to sleep, she felt her own body growing weaker, after an almost unnaturally long life. She had visited with the Glendale Pride's Matriarch, Rosa in the past. She had reverted back into a quadrupedal lioness and was twice the size of a mundane lioness, but was still healthy and going strong. Joella and Lark, however, did not undergo such a mutation. They had merely lived a very long life. And now something told Joella in the back of her mind, her long life was now nearing its end. She calmly and peacefully drifted off to sleep.
++++++++++++++++
The next thing Joella's consciousness noticed was a series of clouds and bright blue sky over green fields of grass and golden fields of grain beyond. She slowly walked along a stone road, resembling the Roman roads until she approached a long stone wall that resembled the walls of ancient Jerusalem. Standing guard on the walls were angels and humans and the various races of man and gargoyles. The spirits of Nil-John and his mate Victoria stood beside the spirits of Twilight, the lionesses who died in the battle, and a Leoman male that Joella didn't know, who was Gillian, Marie's friend as a child. Roman Centurions and Legionnaires in their segmented armor and polished helmets stood beside the Jewish rebels of 70 CE and the Maccabees rebels against the Seleucid's. She saw men in chain-mail armor with white tunics with a red Maltese cross on their chests standing beside men who held large flags of varying colors, with either a crescent and star on them, or the words "Allahu Akbar" in Arabic letters on them.
+++++++++++
"Roman Centurions and Legionnaires?" Maddex asked, "weren't they pagan?"
"After Constantine the Great, Christianity was legal within the Empire, and after one of his successors, it became the official religion of the Empire," Lawrence told him, "and there is actually some evidence that some Roman soldiers were Christian, going back as far as even Marcus Aurelius... though a lot of general histories do not mention that because of Gibbon's theory that Christianity was one of the reasons for Rome's fall."
"Anyway..." Marie-Eliza sighed.
+++++++++++++++
Joella slowly approached what looked like gates made of solid gold. Above each gate was an emblem that she had learned about from Marie Cruz and Katherine Chat. One held the "Star of David", two triangles one on top of the other, with one facing down and the other facing up. One held a cross, and the last a crescent moon. Each gate had a guardian and gate keeper.
"Excuse me," Joella said politely, "who are you?"
"I am Moses, bringer of the Law and liberator of my People from bondage in Egypt, and the gate keeper of those of the Jewish Faith back into the Presence of God," the first said.
"I am the Prophet Mohammad, receiver of Allah's word and servant of that word," said the one on the other end.
"I am Saint Peter, Disciple of Jesus Christ," said the one in the middle, as the three gates were arranged by the founding dates of each religion (though using Mohammad's receiving of "God's word" from the Angel Gabriel, not their definition of Abraham's submission to God's will as the the founding date of Islam).
"And this is the realm of Heaven where those of THE FAITH return," the three spoke.
"Joella Cruz, you have lived your life well in accordance with God's Law," Moses told her.
"You have tried to live without Sin," Saint Peter added.
"And you have served Allah's will," finished the Prophet, "you are welcome in the Eternal Kingdom and may return to God's presence."
The gate behind Moses then opened, and allowed Joella to enter. She slowly passed through and saw that their were no walls between each gate, as Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worshiped the same God, just in different ways. She felt a power inside the walls. A power that was like no other. It was nowhere and everywhere, all at once. She couldn't explain it. As she entered she saw the spirits who had gone before. She was a man wearing a King's crown chain-mail and a red tunic with a gold lion on his chest speaking with a Kurdish man in his own armor... Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) and Salah-al-Din (Saladin).
It became an aimless wandering until she heard a voice she recognized.
"Joella Cruz!"
She turned and saw the faces of those she knew personally, and those she did not know. Standing side by side were Joseph Running-Bear and an elderly woman Joella had never met along with a younger woman who she didn't know (Balthilde Volksheer and her daughter). She then saw the man that Linus had described as his guardian grown up standing next to Balthilde. Standing beside him was Linus in his human form, dressed as an officer in the Principality of Bavaria's "army". Though Linus wore a scholar's hat and an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake was coiled around his shoulders.
She then saw Katherine Chat beside Linus and Father Draco Fire, in his Dragon form beside her. Standing slight behind them was a healthy looking man carrying a raven's mask, who Joella only knew of by reputation. Marie's adoptive Father Gabriel. Standing beside him, with one arm around his waist was Marie Cruz, her face and eyes undamaged, as her her soul could never be damaged in the physical world. But her eyes were soon drawn to three spirits she thought she'd never see again.
"Hello, Joella Cruz," Goldwyn, Gita, and Griselle Volksheer said to her.
"Mothers!" Joella said happily and leaped into their arms, "I didn't think you would be here."
"Almost didn't," Goldwyn said carefully, "If not for our friend Marie Cruz's defense at our trail, we would not have..."
+++++++++++++
1689
As Golgotha died from a dagger through the chest, and Gaal and Gomorrah hung, their three souls appeared in what looked like a dark stone room. Two angels stood before them, one armed. One they recognized as the "doctor" from their trial. Azrael, the Angel of Death. The other was the Archangel Gabriel. After a few moments, a third figure entered, as he did so, the room became filled with light. So much so, that three had trouble seeing. They did see the figure as human.
"Goldwyn, Gita, and Griselle," the "man" said in a calm voice, "why have your forsaken me?"
"Who... who are you?" Gita asked.
"I am nothing and everything... I am nowhere and everywhere... I am the one that is all powerful in all things and to Christians I am the part of the Trinity of God... God the Son," the man spoke, "Why have you forsaken me?"
The three felt unbelievable power coming from the man. Like he could do ANYTHING he wanted with no risk.
"The world... the world wasn't fair..." Griselle said slowly.
"It was never supposed to be," the man answered, "How else would YOU be fair? If I took away all your choices and made the world fair, YOU would have no free will and would thus be a slave, which in itself is not fair."
"Where are we?" Goldwyn asked, not noticing that her soul had no damage to her face, and actually looked fairly beautiful.
"What Catholics refer to as Purgatory," the man answered, "where those who will eventually go to heaven, but have committed sins go. And the three of you have committed GREAT sins... but you have a chance for redemption."
The three of them almost cowered before the man.
"I have been informed that your sins against my Father, your denunciations of him and your claim to be better and more powerful then him were because of insanity caused by when you used the gifts given to you by my Father unwisely," the man spoke, "and by the judgment of Azrael and those still on the mortal plane that tried you there, you were mad at the time because of that foolishness."
The three did not answer.
"As such I may offer you the chance of redemption and entrance into heaven," the man spoke, "if you recognize my Father's power and acknowledge your Savior."
"And you would forgive us?" Gita asked in surprise at what they were told. If God was real and knew they had done wrong, they half expected to be tortured out of his vengeance.
"Forgiveness is precisely why I died on the Cross," the man told them.
+++++++++++++
"We spent a long time in Purgatory to pay for the sins we committed on Earth," Goldwyn told Joella Cruz.
"You mean... everything Mal'akh, and the Hunters said about you... it was true...?" Joella Cruz asked.
"We were mad," Gita answered, "we made the mistake of not listening to our Grandmother when she warned us about the dangers of our own magic and made some misunderstandings about what was good... and ended up going mad as a result. We never truly intended to become what we did... and we are sorry to have put you in a position where we had to die and leave you alone, and seeing your friends suffer because of our actions. And must ask your forgiveness."
Joella hugged them.
"Thank you Joella Cruz," the three of them.
When they pulled apart, Joella Cruz was drawn to see a woman who looked just like her standing to the other side of Griselle.
"Who are you?" Joella Cruz asked.
"I am who your mothers modeled yourself after," the woman said, "I am Joella Heynn. It is a pleasure to meet one who has lived so long and cared for so many."
And the two Joella's hugged.
++++++++++++
"And that is essentially the end to my tale as far as it really needs to go," Marie spoke.
"But what about the witches' evil?"
"A result of their madness," Marie answered, "and once the witches died, that separated from them to become the shadow known as Kurse. The witches still had to endure Purgatory for a long time to pay for the sins they committed. It is the sort of irony that their defeat on Earth and their trial and execution ultimately saw to their salvation in the afterlife. One could say that they were two separate sets of people..."
"Like Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker," Samantha commented, "He turns to the Dark Side and kills nearly all the Jedi... but Obi Wan tells Luke in Return of the Jedi that from a certain point of view Anakin was betrayed and murdered by Vader. Almost like they were two separate people, despite the fact that Vader and Anakin were physically the same person."
"I suppose that is one way to put it," Marie finished, "but that is as far as I go... and essentially this last bit was a sort of "epilogue", not officially part of the story itself. But I felt it was necessary."
"And the rest of the story is simply the history of the curse itself," Lawrence sighed, "which lead to the battle against Kurse."
"Yes," Marie-Eliza nodded and then noticed as Lawrence winced heavily.
"Here, let me help you..." Marie spoke and allowed her mother to lift her up, and using the avatar with Judas to channel her magic through her newly acquired familiar and then to Lawrence, began to heal the white Lupman's dislocated arm completely.
Lawrence felt no pain and then slowly rotated the "bad" arm as all the pain in it vanished.
"You healed me..." Lawrence gasped.
"Yes," Marie spoke, "Kurse's making you use an injured limb put you at risk for losing it."
"Can you heal the Lupman and Leomen in the recovery area?" Abbey asked, "the ones who were all mutilated by Kurse?"
Marie looked back to her mother and sighed.
"I will need to see them, and recall and avatar and my familiar to do so," Marie sighed, "but even there... I can not make any promises."
"You'll stay with us won't you?" Samantha asked, "Join the pack? Or do you have one already?"
"I have no pack," Marie answered.
"Stay with us!" Alice, Abbey, and Samantha said in perfect unison, "pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeeeeee."
"I can not make any promises."