13 November 2003 - Figuring it out

Joy, Tegan and Nessa

Glory and Dawn

Dawn figured it out, finally. She gathered everything she needed, and went to the church, she needed to be on hallowed ground. She set up the cauldron, and put the potion inside. Taking an athame, she cut a deep gash into her hand, and poured her blood into the pot.

"Blood calls to blood. I call my sister, the Unholy Child of Chaos, to me now. Let her be cast upon the ground at my feet." A swirl of colours flowed around, and Glory appeared.

"You rang, you little brat?" Glory asked.

"Yep, that's me. The little brat. But guess what, I've finally figured it out>" Dawn cast a binding spell to hold Glory still, and then cut a dep gash into Glory's arm with a knife blessed by the priests froom 3 different religions. The cut did not heal. Dawn then slashed her own wrist, cutting deep into a vein, to make the blood flow strongly. She poured her own blood into Glory's arm.

"Blood of the weak, destroy the strong. Blood of the younger, overtake the elder. Blood of the Key destroy the Beast." Dawn said, and she threw the strongest potion she was able to concoct- one stronger even than one used against the Source of All Evil.

Glorificus exploded. There was a force blast strong enough to blow oput the windows up to an 1/4 of a mile away. All of Glory's magick was undone: The high-rise where her captures were being held was freed, and the godhoods she had stoled were restored to their rightful heirs. But there was a cat crying out in pain.

Dawn collapsed. Unconscious, and barely alive.

Bastet's children, Mouse, Nyx's children and their fathers

Nyx screamed as the magic blasted through her. She spun, free falling, through endless dimensions. Oh GODDESS!

Mouse sat bolt upright on the chair, screaming with the agony that was reflected from Nyx. The tattoo on her arm burnt, the gold shining bright like a lighted beacon.

The kittens wailed, eyes flaring into bright gemstones.

"MAMA!"

Mordred cuddled Faolan, rocking back and forth, crooning softly half remembered phrases of Gaelic.

Sabretooth growled and held Victory tight as she bucked and screamed.

Logan winced as one of Kanika's hands raked down his face, claws sliding perilously close to his eyes.

The sheets surrounding Saku burst into flame.

Serafina clung to the corners of Angel's coat, tears sliding down her face as her eyes shone with unearthly brilliance.

PRISS! SABRE! Nyx screamed, reaching out for them.

We are here. Sabre and Priss caught her and held her as she struggled to get the full power of her birthright under control.

Nyx materialised next to Dawn, and the kittens and Mouse slid into a dead faint.

"Silly, silly little girl. Next time you decide to do something like that, get someone *older*, *wiser*, and more *experienced* to help you," Nyx said in exaspseration as she picked the limp Dawn up.

"Idiot."

Angel

Angel hugged Serafina close, whispering to her.

"Ssssh, baby girl, it's ok, my girl, shhh."

John

Back in Japan, the dark magick had faded enough for the witches to teleport everybody to the mansion.

St. John looked around, and instantly bolted for the door. "Screw this!" he said.

Nyx

Nyx walked down to the medlab, power and energy fair crackling off her.

A litany of irritation and scolding followed her as she admonished the mostly unconscious Dawn.

"You, and ALL of the Summers have this thing where they feel they're all powerful. You're not. And why the hell didn't you at least use your coven, hmmm? Because I know why! You think you're strong enough to do it ALL YOURSELF! Bloody Summers family!"

Tara

Tara orbed in. "Dawn," she said, and she rushed over, healing the unconscious girl. Physically. Dawn didn't awake.

"She fulfilled her destiny. She did what the POwers That Be wanted her to do. She took Glory on solo, and defeated her, she finally got it." Tara beamed with pride. "That's my girl," she said quietly, stroking Dawn's hair.

Nyx

"The Powers That Be are complete and utter arseholes," Nyx snapped.

"And they're stupid to boot. Ashtoreth is not going to be a happy hell goddess."

A crack like lightening, followed by an outraged scream rent the air.

Nyx looked smug.

"Told you."

Triumph

"She only did what the PTB and the Elders required of her. Don't blame her. She didn't want anybody else to get hurt, which is why she didn't tell anybody but me what was happening. She also has a bit of a death wish," Tara sighed.

----

Triumph screamed in agony as her Mother was killed. Gorvath flew to the mansion, and Triumph rained fire onto the building, only to have it deflected by protection spells.

"Damn it. Oh well, I'll have to do it by hand." She popped into the medlab.

"You will die, bitch!"

Bastet's children

"Oh, hello," Nyx said. "Excuse me while I think that somehow you're just going to be an annoyance."

She flicked a sheild into being between her and Triumph.

"Now. PTB. Stands for Powerless Tightarsed Buffons. Or should. The Elders are also so far removed from the world, they obviously didn't think this through."

Nyx gave Tara a long stare.

"And Whitelighters...just another name for thugs. Moralistic thugs at that. Ew."

Priss appeared, looking frantic.

"Nyx! I cannot find Merenseger!"

~*~*~*~

Merenseger crouched in front of Triumph and eyed her carefully.

She was of the blood. This was her litter mate. Therefore, all would be well.

Triumph

Triumph growled. "Cats. Cats are evil. That's why my mother rescued me from my birth family. Stupid evil squatters." Triumph narrowed her eyes at Merenseger.

"Die." she ordered her litter-mate, and attempted to send a bolt of lightening at her.

Bastet's children

Merenseger blinked placidly at Triumph.

"You're being silly," the kitten observed.

Nyx chuckled slightly.

Priss gaped.

"Well, evil is just relative, you know. Glory was an abomination to the earth. Ever hear the soil scream? We're just cats. Neutral. Neither good nor evil, unless we choose to be. She," Nyx pointed at Priss, "chooses to work for good. I'm a Walker of the Middle Path, myself. And let me tell you, half sister. You stink of death and corruption."

"Nefer, be nice!" Merenseger protested. "She's my sister."

"Yeah, the saying is, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. And I think we're going to move this to a slightly better locale."

A flare of power lit up the room, and Nyx removed herself, Triumph and Merenseger to a deserted place.

"Now it's time you should learn respect for what you are, rather then what you've been perverted into."

Nyx shifted into her cat form.

"What you are, is a cat. Be proud of it. We're better then everyone else, sweetie."

Triumph

"I don't wear my cat form, bitch. My Mother didn't approve. she raised me to be something better. And I am NOT your sister," she said, glaring at Merenseger. She teleported to an abandoned castle in Ireland that she had made her home, and called Gorvath to her. She curled up around him and wept. He was all she had left of the only family she had ever known. Glory had given Gorvath to hher on her 10th birthday, and they'd been inseparable for thousands of years.

"Oh Gorvath, what shall I do?" Triumph asked the griffin, weeping.

Nyx

Nyx sighed slightly.

"I have things I need to do. I can't talk her out of this tantrum."

"I will."

"Merenseger..."

"I will be fine. She can't hurt me, even if she tries."

The kitten blinked her one good eye, then teleported after Triumph.

She Who Loves Silence listened to her sister weep and crept cautiously out of the shadows, scars silvery gleaming and her one good eye looking at Gorvath curiously.

Then she was distracted. As kittens can be easily.

"Feather!"

She pounced.

Triumph

Triumph didn't notice Merenseger at first.

"Gorvath, maybe we should just go back to Cortoga," she said, naming the dimension where she had been raised. "This isn't home, it doesn't feel right. The air is heavy, and the sun hurts my skin and my eyes. And there's only one moon. And. . . people, everywhere, they scare me. Mother's gone, and there are these cats, telling me I'm their sister. And. . . well, they don't smell evil, but Mother told me that the older sister, Nyx, left me for dead. Took the littermate, and left me behind. Didn't she want me? Aren't I good enough? Oh Gorvath, please don't ever leave me!"

never, my child, never.

Merenseger

Merenseger padded up to Triumph and sat at her feet.

"The one you call mother took my eye. And scarred me. We love you. If she had known you were alive, she never would have left you."

The kitten sighed.

"See for yourself what happened. Open yourself to ma'at."

Nyx ran through the halls of Bastet's temple, cursing her mother's antisocial tendecies that meant this temple was so far away from all the other temples. It had meant Glorificus had attacked there first. She skidded into the nursery and called her children to her with an imperative meow. The crackle of flames grew louder, and she could hear deathcries in the corridors. They all ran to her, in their feline forms for the moment, as she was.

Kanika, black fur outlining the perfect white stripes that looked like six slashmarks across her chest jumped into her mother's embrace as Nyx shifted upwards into human to carry them all out. Faolon's blue and green eyes glinted up at her from his own black fur. Serafina's brown and cream tabby markings outlined her perfect golden eyes as she wound her way around her mother's feet. Saku's fur was mottled like an Egyptian Mau's, dark and light browns swirling all over each other with hints of creams and dark brown outlines around his dark brown, almost black eyes. Victory was a white tabby with light tan markings and green eyes like her mother.

"We need to go. Now."

Kanika shufted into human, physically looking about two years old due to a cat's faster growing rate. "Where's Nan?"

"She...can't make it right now." Nyx was worried for her mother. Bastet had decided to look for Glory and take her on herself. "Be kitty shaped now, baby girl."

"Ok, mum," Kanika said agreeably, and shifted back. Nyx scooped them all into her arms and looped a fold of her plain white shift around so she could cradle them all safely. Ignoring the fact it meant the top half of her was bare. Nyx slipped to the door and started running for the perimeter. If Glory had attacked here...she had to get her babies out. Nyx's lips curled back from her teeth. And then she saw Glory at the end of the corridor that led straight to the outside. Re give me strength, Horus guide my arm, Sakhmet fill me with righteous fury, Mother bless me.

Nyx coiled herself to spring, when a blast of her mother's magick knocked Glory over and out of the way. A snarling black cat followed up, springing on Glory and starting to claw and bite.

"Mother!"

RUN! Bastet lodged her claws in Glory's dress, and ripped.

Nyx took her mother's advice and ran for it, her kittens mewing in distress.

Glory picked Bastet up and grinned.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat. ANd I happen to know that's physiologically true," Glory declard, as she punched her hand into Bastet's stomach and pulled out the babies, one by one, dropping them on the floor, not caring if they were alive or not.

"How pretty your insides are, Bastet," Glory replied, as she pulled more of them out. Stomach, liver, kidneys.

Bastet screamed in agony, magic flickering vainly and her paws batting weakly at Glory's hand. Nyx wailed, then darted back, snatched up a kitten that was moving slightly and fled.

You will fail, Glory.

Nyx opened a portal and jumped through it, tears falling down her face.

Sooner or later, you will fail. I curse you with my dying breath. Ill luck follow you, misfortune dog you. Die screaming. Bastet's golden eyes lost their light and her head fell forward limply.

~*~*~*~

Sabre howled as he felt his mother die. "MOTHER!"

~*~*~*~

Priss screamed as she felt Bastet flicker out of existence. "MOTHER! NO!"

~*~*~*~

Nyx stumbled out of the portal, stinking of blood, sweat, smoke and fear. The temple had been burning as she'd left it, and one of Glory's minions had caught her over the head with a sword. She felt her mother die, and then the glory of Egypt flared into life around her, inheriting her mother's goddess hood. "Mom..." Nyx didn't know it yet, but her eyes had become green straight across, looking like cut stones of jade or maybe emerald, with slitted black candleflames for pupils. Dark lines ran under her eyes, then extended outwards towards the edges of her face. She felt the last kitten of Bastet moving, and portal jumped again. "Priss!" She handed the kitten to her wailing sister. "Take him."

"Oh, Nyx!"

"Heal him! I have my own children to think of." Nyx disappeared and Priss set to work, still weeping.

Glory grinned evilly as she felt Bastet's life force drain away, and her power shift nto her body. THey, following the rituals, she ate Bastet, and swollowed the dead kittens whole. But one still had a heartbeat, though it was not moving. Glory had an idea. She could take her, and raise her as her own daughter. Then turn her against her sisters and brother. Glory smiled wickedly, and scooped the infant into her atms, before teleporting back to her penthouse.

"Clean this kitten up and heal her," Glory instructed one of her minions. "She is mine now, my daughter." she laughed evilly, and went off to take a bubble bath.

"Except of course, Nyx couldn't tell at the time that I was actually a girl," Merenseger observed. "Kinda clawed to bits by Glory."