Chapter 7

Castle Wyvern: Several hours later.

The Gargoyles and mutates were gathered outside the infirmary. Inside Goliath and Derek spoke with Xanatos while Delilah watched over Argent by his bedside. The flight back to the castle had been an intense one, and as soon as they landed a medical team was waiting. Delilah had placed Argent on the gurney, and despite the protests from the doctor in charge, she had stayed with him.

Goliath looked over towards the bed in which Argent now occupied. "What did the doctors say? Will he live?"

"Yes. We got him here in time for them to stabilize his condition," said Xanatos. "He's getting the best of care, and they've already informed me that he's healing even as we speak."

"What about possible brain damage?" Derek asked. "He gave himself a pretty good jolt to try and free himself from Sevarius's control chip."

Xanatos looked back towards Argent. "The MRI scans indicate no signifigant damage except in the area around the chip itself. When it was shorted out the tissue around it was cauterized. Unfortunately the area in which the chip was implanted governs long term memories."

Delilah looked up from where she sat. "Does that mean he won't remember us?"

"No. The memories he has since his awakening should still be in tact... but there's little hope that he'll recover any memories of who he was before Sevarius changed him," Explained Xanatos.

Delilah looked back at Argent with tears in her eyes. "He won't have any past at all? That's terrible!"

Goliath went over to Delilah and put a hand on her shoulder. "He may no longer have a past... but he has a future here with us, as long as he wishes to remain here he will be part of our clan."

Argent's eyelids fluttered open. Delilah gasped in surprise and took hold of his hand.

"Where am I?" Argent asked in a weak voice.

"Shhh... don't try to talk," Delilah said as she smoothed the covers over his torso.

"Delilah? Oh Deliah it was awful!" he said. "I could see and hear everything, but I couldn't control my body!" Argent began to cry. "I couldn't stop, I just kept on fighting!"

Goliath stepped closer to the bed. "It wasn't your fault. It was Sevarius. Lexington decoded the second disc and found that you had a computer chip implanted in your brain. It was making you carry out Sevarius's instructions against your will."

"It's a good thing you stopped when you did," Said Derek while moving to the other side of the bed. "Or I would have been in big trouble."

"I'm sorry I tried to hurt you and your clan Derek. Can you, Maggie, and Claw ever forgive me?" Argent whispered.

"There's nothing to forgive," Derek said while taking Argent's other hand. "It wasn't you fault. It's just one more thing Sevarius will have to answer for."

Goliath looked at the clock above the bed. "Derek, you and your clan had best leave now. It's almost sunrise, and you can't risk being seen in daylight."

"If it's all right, I'd like to stay here," Delilah said.

"I don't see any harm in her staying here for the day," said Xanatos.

Goliath and Derek agreed, and left the room to inform everyone that Argent was going to recover.

As soon as everyone else had left the room, Argent spoke to Delilah once more. "You helped me fight back."

"What?"

"You helped me fight back," he said "I could hear you when you stopped me from hurting Derek. It made me think about what I was doing, and how wrong it was. It helped me focus enough to listen and understand about the thing in my head. That's when I fought hard enough to try and burn it out."

"You could have died!"

"I was either that, or become something that I didn't want to be... a monster, an out of control thing being ordered to hurt others. It was the only option left open," he sighed.

Delilah could tell he was fighting to stay awake, and reached out to stroke his long silver colored hair. "Sleep now. I'll be here sleeping right next to you, and we'll talk more tonight."

"Were you the one who caught me, when I went down?" He asked as he fell off to sleep.

Delilah brushed a stray lock of hair from his face, and bent down to kiss his forehead. "I promised you, that I'd catch you if you fell... and I meant it." She made it into position near his bedside just as the sun rose, and she froze in place... locked in stone sleep.

Inside the private office of Davis Xanatos.

"Well, that was certainly interesting," Xanatos said while turning off the monitor connected to the camera in the infirmary. "Owen, are the lab techs working on the blood and tissue samples taken from Argent?"

"Yes Mr. Xanatos. It might take several days for them to do a complete scan... however we have a preliminary report from the body scans of Argent." Owen handed Xanatos a small stack of papers.

"Hmm... it seems that Argent is the new improved model over Derek and the other Mutates." Xanatos scanned over the readouts. "Not only does he have two hearts, but his lungs have a greater capacity for air retention. His bone and muscle structure have a greater density, thereby giving him increased strength and he has twice as many ribs giving him greater protection of his internal organs due to damage or trauma."

"And also enhanced sensory capabilities as well," Owen added. "His sense of hearing, sight, and smell are far greater than either the mutates or the Gargoyles."

"Yes. Aton's really outdone himself this time," said Xanatos. "Only I think that when Argent recovers, he'll be hunting Sevarius instead of hunting for Sevarius."

Sunset: Castle Infirmary

Stone cracked as Delilah awoke from her sleep with a roar. Her usual roar was soon replaced with a cry of panic that brought the rest of Goliath's clan running into the room.