"I don't understand." The old man said as he kept pacing back, and forth. "He wasn't supposed to know. No one was supposed to know, especially Anton." Gabriel was confused by the way the old man was acting. He was just pacing around the room, and talking to himself. He was acting as if Gabriel wasn't even in the room with him.

"I don't have time for these games, old man!" Gabriel cried out in frustration. "My sister, and Cali's lives are on the line! What was no one, especially not Anton, supposed to know about?"

The old man looked at Gabriel, and sighed. "Who his parents were."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thirty four years prior.....

"What's wrong doctor?" Antonio cried. "Why is her arm turning to stone? She isn't a gargoyle, she's human!"

"I don't know!" Exclaimed the doctor. "But something is wrong! I'm losing her." The doctor, and his internist, had been feverishly working to try and get her stabilized as much as possible.

The princess had gone into labor. Vincent and Antonio had rushed her to the clinic. But on the way there, she started having complications. She was obviously becoming weak, and they both soon noticed that her right hand was slowly becoming rock solid. When they got to the clinic, she was rushed into an operating room.

"Hang in there, angel!" Antonio cried, as he held her hand. Vincent was surprised to see the tears that began to well up in Antonio's eyes. Or in actuality, the eyes of the gargoyle who had stolen Antonio's form. He had never seen the original Antonio, nor the gargoyle king, ever seem to care about anyone else but her.

The princess's eyes began to flutter, as she looked as though she were about to lose consciousness. The heart monitor was becoming erratic, and it seemed as though she was having trouble staying alert. It looked as though she was using all of her strength to barely whisper what she was trying to tell Antonio.

"Pl-please!" She barely cried.

"What is it my love?" Antonio asked her, as he continued to hold her still flesh hand. He was crying profusely, as she seemed to be getting weaker.

"Please!" She pleaded with tears in her eyes. "If you truly love me, promise me you'll take care of him. No matter what, please just promise me that you will always take care of our son."

"Of course, angel." Antonio cried. He then kissed the palm of her had, and began to caress it. All of a sudden, her face lost all emotion, and the heart monitor began to flatline. Antonio had a look of horror upon his face, as her inner light seemed to fade away from this world. Then with a look of disbelief on everyone's face, the princess had completely turned to stone.

"NO!" Antonio cried out, with a look of rage in his eyes. He began to roar in anger, as he soon turned into his original gargoyle form. "MY ANGEL! MY SON!"

"I-I'm sorry." The doctor replied with a sad look upon his. "I wish there was more I could do." Antonio stared down the doctor with burning rage.

"You want to know what to do?" Antonio angrily growled. "I'll show you what to do!" He then grabbed the doctor, by the hair on the back of his head. The doctor screamed with a look of terror in his eyes, as Antonio grabbed a scalpel. With a look of determined anger, Antonio slit the doctor's throat. The doctor began making horrific gurgling noises, as his blood spilt out onto the stone princess. Antonio continued to hold the dying man over her, until he stopped making any sounds. Then just like that, he let go, as the dead body fell to the floor.

The stone exterior began to crack, but she did not break free. The statue just crumbled into dust, and stone. With a look of burning rage, Antonio roared. He then picked up the remains of the statue, and threw it on the floor. All of a sudden, a baby started to cry. It was coming from what was left of the statue.

"My son!" Antonio exclaimed. he then began to tear through the stone ruble. There was a look of determination, and hope with in his eyes. But that look soon turned to wide eyed disbelief.

"It's an abomination!" He cried. As Vincent looked at the child, he too was surprised. Covered in all of the statue's rubble was a boy—a human boy!

"I thought you said he would be a gargoyle like you." Said Vincent.

"So did I!" Antonio growled. "I was able to smell him since his conception. So how the hell is he human?" Antonia then looked at the internist.

"You come here!" He exclaimed. The young doctor cautiously made his way over, as he had a look of fear in his eyes.

"Y-yes." The internist stuttered.

"Congratulations!" Antonio sarcastically told him. "You have been promoted. Now your first act will be to tell my why this—this thing, is human!"

"I-I don't exactly know." The young doctor told him. "But-but if I had to guess, I would say it had something to do with the fact that you both went into stasis centuries ago. I'm guessing that all of his gargoyle DNA absorbed into her body. You said that gargoyle DNA doesn't exist within the X chromosome, that it wasn't compatible. Her body must have seen it as a foreign invader, and her body essentially went to war with itself. It was a deadly poison to her. But the only way her body could remain in stasis with yours, was for her to absorb his DNA. It's what likely killed her, and why he is human."

"I have no use for that thing!" Antonio exclaimed. "It is no good to me, get rid of it!"

"What shall we do with it sir?" Vincent asked, as he couldn't believe that Antonio cared so little for his own son.

"Sell it, or kill it!" Antonio exclaimed. "I really don't give a flying fuck!"

"Sir, I realize that it is not my place to question you." Vincent replied. "But I don't want you to make any rash decisions that you will eventually regret. Don't forget what you just promised your queen on her death bed."

As he looked into Antonio's eyes, a look of outrage soon turned to one of realization. "She knew." Antonio stated. "She knew she was dying, and she knew why. Fine, I will keep my word, my promise to her. I will see that he is taken care of, but I never promised to love him. As far as I am concerned, he took my beloved from me. I shall never forgive him for that. And no hairless primate shall take my thrown. He killed her, he's a murderer. And so that's what he shall be. Vincent, see to it that he is to become a loyal man in this organization. But he, and everyone else, must never find out that he is my actually my son."

"And what shall we tell people about what happened here tonight?" Antonio asked.

"The truth shall never leave this room." Antonio proclaimed. "Do you understand that Vincent, doctor?"

"Yes!" Both Vincent, and the doctor replied in unison.

"Good." Antonio replied with a cold expression upon his face. "We will tell everyone that she died during childbirth, and that the boy was stillborn. As far as I am concerned, he was."

+++++++++++++++++++++

Present day....

"Are you telling me, that my deceased older brother?" Gabriel began to ask. "Has been alive this whole time? And he's Anton?" To say that he was shocked by this revelation would have been an understatement.

"Yes." Replied the old man, as he hung his head in shame.

"How could my father be so cruel?" Gabriel asked in discuss. "Wait, I forgot. He was Antonio Esposito, how wasn't ever that cruel?"

"Your father hired different nannies to raise him over the years." Vincent told him. "He had set them up in different homes, and your father usually had affairs with them. Though after your mother gave birth to Rosalina, Your father had a vasectomy. As your father put it, he didn't want any halfbreed little bastards running around. Then when Anton turned fifteen, I started to train, and mentor him. I could tell that he always felt alone. I think that may have had something to do with my need to save Cali. I think I was making up for not saving Anton."

"If he wasn't supposed to know who he is?" Gabriel asked. "Then how did he find out?"

"I don't know." Replied the old man. "But that has to be it. It's the only reason I can think of for why he would betray you as he did."

All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door. As Gabriel opened the door, one of his guards was standing there holding a box. The man had a shocked look of surprise upon his face. It was probably because he had never seen Gabriel's gargoyle form.

"What?" Gabriel exclaimed.

"I-I'm sorry to bother you sir." He stuttered as he had a look of wide eyed fear. "This just came for you."

Gabriel took the box, and set it down on a table. With his own claw, he slice through the tape, to open it. As he looked inside he became horrified, as he almost threw up. The box housed the decapitated head of Michael, the guard that was in charge of Rosalina's security.

"Oh my god!" Cried the old man, as he covered his mouth.

Gabriel became sickened by it. Anton said his message would show how serious he truly was, and sure enough it did. Gabriel reluctantly looked inside, as he found two pieces of paper. One was a map that showed were Anton was. The other was a note that was in all likelihood written in Michael's blood. Undeniable fear gripped Gabriel, as he read what it said.

"Come alone, or next time it'll be our pretty little sister's head!"