A/N: Sorry this is coming out a bit late. I recently got my booster shot for you know what and like with the first shot and every yearly flu shot, I got sick. Stupid overreacting immune system. So I'm just getting to actually writing this in the early evening of Sat. I hope you are seeing the update later in the evening or at the latest Sunday morning.
Camgodking: Yep, the joy of drugs that somehow mimic the abilities of the Cruciamentum mixture. I wonder how that happened?
AurelLor: Glad to know my story inspired you to start watching Buffy. Avoid the HD Master, the lighting is screwed up and there are several framing issues. The original LowFi version is superior. And I think everyone likes Willow a bit too much. It's normal.
Nesthor5000: Please keep comments relevant to the plot of the story. If you want to debate the writing of the cannon material, take it over to the appropriate subreddit where there are plenty of folks that will be happy to entertain your discussion.
Chapter 12
Of Cults and Cthulu
Summer raced past her teammates into the room. As she passed through the doorway, she spotted a broom out of the corner of her eye. No stranger to improvised weapons, she snagged as she ran. She knew she could take one of the two cultists out even without the added advantage of reach the wood shaft of the broom would give her, but two men who were both physically larger than her could pose a problem. Especially if they had any form of training.
She reached the pair of cultists as they turned around in reaction to the noise she was making as she ran. Part of Summer's mind couldn't help but notice how normal the two looked. Jeans, t-shirts, sneakers; nothing about them screamed, 'We worship an evil hell-goddess that wants to destroy the entire multiverse.' They looked like any other pair of men she had seen on the streets of Vale since starting at Beacon Academy.
That made her even more furious for some reason.
She slammed into the first of the two with a shoulder tackle, pushing him off balance. His partner tried to reach out to grab her but Summer jabbed the broom handle into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. She quickly followed up with a rising strike to his chin with her improvised weapon then threw an elbow into his face for good measure while he was still hunched over.
The first cultist had recovered from her impromptu tackle by then. He didn't bother trying to restrain her. When his fist connected with her cheek, Summer spun in a circle, trying to soften the blow. The cultist followed her and she felt his other fist jab into her stomach, driving her to her knees.
Knowing that if she didn't get back to her feet the two would swiftly overpower her, Summer lashed out, bringing the broom up between the man's legs. He reacted as she expected, slamming his legs together and trapping the broom before it could reach the sensitive bits between them. Summer was fine with that. The broom was just the distraction. As she shot to her feet, her uppercut caught his chin, rocking him back. His sloppy stance from blocking the broom made for a poor foundation to stay upright and he started to tip backward. Before he could fall, Summer grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him down and towards her. Her forehead slammed into his nose with force, breaking it with one blow. Blood spurted out from the headbutt, getting onto Summer's face. She paid no attention as she let the cultist now drop to the floor as he groaned in pain while holding his shattered nose. She turned to the second one, expecting him to be back on his feet by now. Instead, she found him still on the ground with Nora bouncing on his chest as she sat on him.
Then she felt a slap across her face. It wasn't hard but it stung. Summer turned to face her new attacker and found instead Pyrrha standing there, glaring at her. Arms crossed in front of her, the expression Pyrrha was directing at Summer snapped her out of her rage and fear-fueled rush of adrenaline. It took her all of two seconds to realize her own stupidity as she looked at the angry expression of her partner.
Summer gulped, suddenly realizing she really did not like 'Angry Pyrrha.' "I'm sorry?" She said as an apology, her eyes flickering between her partner and her other two teammates.
Pyrrha kept the angry, disappointed look directed at Summer for several more moments before sighing. As her partner's shoulders sagged, Summer watched as the anger morphed into concern. That upset Summer even more than 'Angry Pyrrha,' because she knew that 'Concerned Pyrrha,' had every right to be concerned over Summer's behavior.
"In my defense, I panicked," Summer said with a sigh. "What they are doing here, we have to stop it and we don't know if we have the time for the original plan. If they can do what I think they are trying to do, it would be bad."
Ren stepped up next to Pyrrha and asked, "How bad?"
Summer tried to think of how to express just how bad Glorificus could be. The hell-goddess had only just sprung back into her memories with the mention of her name. They weren't all that clear, either. Several parts seemed to be missing or still affected by whatever had tampered with her memory. There were other parts that were crystal clear.
Fighting against a skank in a red dress, so strong and fast that Summer hadn't stood a chance.
Knowing that the hell-goddess was only toying with her, keeping Summer alive only because she could be useful.
The shining blue portal beneath her. Knowing that it would grow, encompass everything, everywhere, everywhen until it tore down the walls of reality and collapsed it all in on itself. A massive 'Big Crunch' composed of every dimension, every universe, every existence there was or could be.
"End of all reality bad," Summer finally said as she looked down at the cultists. "Not just end of the world but of everything."
Pyrrha actually choked at the description. Ren's eyes narrowed slightly as he considered her words. Nora actually stopped bouncing on the cultist's chest.
"I remembered her when they said her name. Glorificus, Glory, the Beast, the Unspeakable, she's got a few dozen other names and titles. I've fought her. Before whatever screwed with my memories, I fought her. She wanted something from me, something important. She could use it to return home but in the process, it would tear down the walls between all realities. It would destroy everything that ever was or could be," Summer said as she explained to her team just how horrible this all could become.
"You beat her," Pyrrha said after a moment of silence. "Reality is still here. You are here. So you beat this Glorificus."
Summer nodded but her expression darkened. "Yeah, but I didn't win," she said as she leaned back against a table in the room. "Glory got what she wanted, she opened the portal home. I closed it."
Summer knew that Pyrrha wanted more of an explanation but something in Summer's expression must have clued in Ren. He put a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder and shook his head. "Later," he said, looking at both Summer and Pyrrha. Summer knew what he meant. She'd have a reprieve now to deal with the situation before them, but she would be talking to her team afterward.
Summer nodded her agreement.
Nora stood up from the cultist she had been sitting on eliciting a groan from the man. Summer glanced at him and noticed that he was now unconscious. A glance at the one she had floored herself let her know that he was also in no condition to restart the fight, looking at them with wide, fearful eyes.
"Okay, the plan isn't changed much," Summer said as her eyes locked with the conscious cultist. "And it might have gotten a little bit easier now that we have our own personal canary."
The smile that came onto her face brought a whimper from the cultist-turned canary.
Summer could feel the eyes of her teammates on her back as she led them through the halls of the cultists' compound. The one conscious cultist they had captured had become very agreeable when Buffy had explained in detail what he could expect if Glory was brought to Remnant. He had been lower on the totem pole in the cult and hadn't been privy to exactly what they were worshiping.
They had learned from the cultist that they were currently in the middle of a ceremony that was supposed to summon Glory in mortal form. From what little the cultist had learned from the higher-ups of the cult, the leaders were under the impression they could then control the hell-goddess and bend her to their whims. Summer knew what that sort of thinking would get them and the rest of Remnant.
Their steps were hurried as they moved through the lower halls. All of their gear was being stored on the ground floor but the ritual was going on here in the lower levels. That meant their plan had been modified. Summer wasn't willing to waste time getting their gear and risk the cult actually succeeding in summoning Glory. Her team had given her looks that Summer knew meant they had questions that would need to be answered. To her relief, they had put off those questions and were willing to follow her lead.
At her back, she had Nora and Pyrrha. The two strongest members of their team, particularly with her Slayer abilities being repressed, she had kept them with her. The chaos the two could cause in a fight would hopefully be enough to stop any ritual that was underway.
Ren had been sent alone to secure their scrolls. He was the ideal choice to sneak up to the ground floor and get their scrolls. Once he had them, Summer had told him to contact Ozpin or Goodwitch, then summon their lockers. Once he had their weapons, he'd join them on the lower levels in case they needed assistance breaking up the cult's ritual.
Summer led her two teammates around the final corner and into the corridor that led to the ritual chamber. She spotted the large double doors bound in iron at the end of the hall. A pair of door knockers hung from each one where door nobs would normally go. Runic writing was etched into the iron. Summer rolled her eyes as she looked it all over. "Could they be any more stereotypical?" She asked out loud.
"They will be inside?" Pyrrha asked as she stepped up alongside Summer. Summer nodded as her eyes went over the runes one more time.
"So, break their legs?" Nora asked as she stepped up on Summer's other side. Again, Summer nodded causing Nora to grin broadly as she cracked her knuckles.
"Remember, the cultist said there are about twenty of them here for the ritual but there aren't any Aura users that he knew of. So be careful. Both of a surprise and that you don't kill anyone on accident," Summer said as she took a step back. "I'll come in behind you and grab whomever they have as a sacrifice and get them out."
Pyrrha and Nora each stepped up to the doors and took up their positions. "Go," Summer commanded. Pyrrha and Nora each slammed one of the doors open and sprinted into the room at their top speed.
The pandamonium that they caused instantly shot to an eleven. The cultists didn't even realize they had trained Aura users among them until six of their number were already on the ground moaning. Pyrrha was moving through the gathered crowd methodically, a quick single punch to the temple of each cultist dropping them to the ground. Nora was bouncing between her cultists like a rabid jack-in-the-box. Literally in some cases, as she slammed one cultist to the ground then used him as a springboard to launch herself deeper into the gathered crowd.
Summer slipped in behind her teammates as they drew the attention of everyone else in the room. Immediately alarm bells were ringing in her head.
It didn't take a genius to spot the alter with the young girl tied down to figure out where their victim was. The man standing in front of her could only be the cult's leader. He was tall and looked well muscled. In his hand was a kris knife, likely his sacrificial tool of choice. He was watching the systematic destruction of his followers placidly as if none of it mattered. With no sign of concern, he turned back to the girl and resumed his chant.
Summer circled around the room keeping her focus on the cult leader while she kept the brawl her teammates had started in the corner of her eye. From what she could tell, there had been more of the cult's rank and file here than their canary had said there would be. It wouldn't matter, she could tell. It just meant it would take longer for Pyrrha and Nora to work their way through all of them.
When she reached the alter, Summer couldn't help herself. Old habits from a life forgotten crept back as she called out to the cult leader. "So, I thought these things were supposed to be safe and sane. This doesn't look like either."
The man stopped and looked back over his shoulder at her and frowned. "Go away little girl, you are not fit to behold the majesty of Glorificus," he said with a sneer and turned back to the girl on the altar.
Summer narrowed her eyes then sprinted at the cult's leader. She dove into a flying tackle, intending to get the man away from the girl on the altar as quickly as she could. Her shoulder rammed into him at his waist. Instead of moving him, Summer let out a yelp of pain, bouncing back from her target.
The man snarled, setting the kris knife down on the altar as he turned to Summer. He stepped forward and reached down, lifting her up off the ground by her hair. "You little children thought you could interfere. Thought you could stop the return of our glorious goddess," he said, accentuated by a backhanded slap to Summer's face. She felt her lip split open and could taste her own blood. "You would have been among the first of her subjects if you had stayed in your cages like good little slaves." Another backhand came across her face. "But no, you had to be the hero." The man snarled as he lifted her up so her face was inches from his own. "And heroes die."
"Summer!" The yell came from the door. Summer could see Ren standing there, having just arrived. Summer could see Nora and Pyrrha's weapons on his back, his own pistols were seated in the thigh holsters she had bought him the other week as part of the upgrades she and Ruby had performed on his weapons. She didn't see Willow, but in his hands was the Slayer Scythe.
Summer turned back to the man and glared at him with as much defiance as she could muster. "Can I tell you something?" She asked with as much venom as she could put in her voice. She leaned forward as much as she could, putting herself nose to nose with him and making sure the only thing she could see was her own eyes. "Been there, done that, I got better."
Before he could react her arm shot out catching the now flying Slayer Scythe. As her hand wrapped around the haft of the ancient weapon, Summer brought it around aiming at the Cult Leader's head. He didn't even attempt to block when the axe head of the Slayer Scythe lead the swing. The edge caught him just above the ear and didn't slow. He was dead before he hit the ground, blood pooling on the floor.
Summer stared at the body for a moment as she gulped in air, trying to steady herself. Slowly, she noticed that the sounds of fighting had fallen silent. Looking up from the body, Summer saw that the few cultists that had still been standing had stopped struggling, their eyes locked on her. Not changing her gaze, Summer said to Ren, "Are the Professors on their way?"
"Yes, as are the Vale Police," Ren said back as he stepped further into the room.
"Good, Pyrrha, secure the prisoners. Nora, Ren, sweep this level and make sure there aren't anymore hiding then start on the ground floor," Summer ordered as she stared at the remaining cultists. "The rest of you, don't fight us."
There was no spoken or else. The body on the floor said it louder than anything Summer could say.
Ozpin stood outside the Theatre House that had been the headquarters of the Dawn of Glory. His students had already given their statements to the police and returned to Beacon Academy under the watch of Peter Port. Even now, Glynda was helping to ensure there was nothing hiding in the walls of the building's underground level. Cults like this had a bad habit of having secret bolt holes where they kept the things they didn't want the rank and file to find.
Oobleck came up to him, holding a book. He had a finger in between the pages as he came to a stop before Ozpin. Oobleck's ever-present cup of coffee was missing, which alarmed Ozpin more than anything else he had learned this evening.
"Disturbing, this book is, Ozpin," Oobleck said in his usual rapid-fire speech. "Details on human sacrifice rites, cannibalism, and other more vile things. Among them, the ritual that the students stopped to bring a supposed hell-goddess named Glorificus into the world."
Ozpin pursed his lips as he looked at the pages that Oobleck had opened the book to. The script was old with modern translations under parts of it. He could tell that whoever had done them had made errors in some parts. Small things, but enough that it caught his attention. He started reading through the details of the ritual and found himself stopping.
"The girl they found on the alter," Ozpin said as he stared at the details of the ritual, "do you know where they took her, Doctor Oobleck?"
Oobleck nodded as he said, "To King Memorial, the same as the rest of the kidnapped people. Is she important?"
Ozpin turned away, looking in the direction of the hospital. "Just curiosity, my friend. Make sure the police know we will be taking custody of any other books that have more writings on the rituals of this cult as well as this one. Please let Glynda know I'll see her back at the Academy."