I'm diggin' my way Yes I'm diggin my way to somethin' I'm diggin' my way to somethin' better I'm pushin' to stay Yes I'm pushin' to stay with somethin' I'm pushin' to stay with somethin' better Oh yeah... I'm sowing the seeds, yes Yes I'm sowing the seeds I take I'm sowing the seeds I take for granted This thorn in my side This thorn in my side is from the tree This thorn in my side is from the tree I planted Oh it tears me and I bleed! And I bleed! Caught under wheels roll I take the leech I'm bleeding me! Can't stop to save my soul! I take that leash that's leading me I'm bleeding me Oh, oh I can't take it Caught under wheels roll Oh, oh, the bleeding of me Caught under wheels roll I take the leech I'm bleeding me! Can't stop to save my soul! I take that leash that's leading me I'm bleeding me Oh, oh I can't take it Caught under wheels roll Oh, oh, the bleeding of me I am the beast that feeds the beast I am the blood, I am released Come make me pure, bleed me a cure I'm caught, caught, I'm caught under Caught under wheels roll I take the leech I'm bleeding me! Can't stop to save my soul! I take that leash that's leading me I'm bleeding me Oh, oh I can't take it Caught under wheels roll Oh, oh, the bleeding of me
Hercule is waking up, and it is even more agonizing than usual. He feels a needle in his arm. His vision is blurry, but when it becomes clear, he sees himself in a room painted white, lying in a bed, handcuffed to a bedrail. He looks about, it is a hospital. Terror grips him as he looks at the gleam on the floor and the window near it. Sunlight. It is daytime. Just as doctors are entering, Hercule panics and breaks the cuffs and throws himself into the darkest corner he can.
The doctors speak to him. He begs them to shut the blinds and they do so. He threatens to attack if they come to close. They inform him of what happened the previous night as his �friends� dropped him off here. He was biting at the doctors. He is starving. He realizes that in his weakened state, he won�t escape. He finally manages to get the doctors to take him, covered in a blanket, to a room with no windows, where he continues to rest.
Red Lonewolf and Exclamation Point awake. Slowly they stand and survey their surroundings. The place is drenched with blood, but not a single body is in the great hall. Lonewolf recalls, Gold Dust is gone. They find the Rat, and she is still asleep. Their efforts fail to wake her. Slowly they venture outside, and they find the body of Thomas, holding a grenade launcher in one arm and a machine gun in the other. He is dead. Lonewolf calls Jimmy to arrange a funeral, and as they do so, they find Jonas, still alive.
Carrying the sleeping body of the Rat, Lonewolf, Exclamation Point, and Jonas make their way to the SUV and head back for town. There is heavy silence among them, and Jonas, seeming affected by the events of the previous night more than expected, tells them that he wants nothing in payment save for enough money to gas up his SUV and get him back to Chicago. Once back in town, they grant his request. Jonas, looking always on the verge of breaking down, finally leaves them and wishes them good luck. Lonewolf and Exclamation Point, with the body of the Rat, secure a hotel room and try to decide on their next move.
Hercule awakes in the windowless room. Across the room from his bed are three doctors sitting next to some large object covered by sheets. The doctors speak to Hercule at length, seeming to believe he is thoroughly insane. They ask him why he fears the sunlight so. They ask him why he was biting at the doctors. They tell him that he must have had some stressful times recently, and he chuckles that they have no idea. They try to convince him that he is delusional. For a few precious, blissful moments, he almost believes them.
That delusion is shattered, though, as the doctors decide to make Hercule face his fear of sunlight. Taking off the sheets from their machine, it is clearly several large UV lamps, which they turn on. Hercule collapses to the floor, writhing in agony. He feels his flesh burning, his organs ashing, his eyes melting. Everything is pain until blackness overcomes him.
While trying to decide on their next move, Exclamation Point watches the news. For once, a stroke of luck. There is a story regarding a mental patient being brought in and wounding several doctors by biting at them. She grabs Lonewolf and the Rat and they go to steal a car. Before long they are speeding on their way to the mental institution. Exclamation Point is fed up with everything, full of rage. She�ll kill anything, and if nothing else, she�ll get Hercule back.
The Rat never felt that she stopped climbing, but nevertheless, she finds herself floating gradually downward. She lands on the streets of a city like none she has ever seen before. The avenues seem lined with crystals and gems, the buildings marvelous and as if they simply sprang out of the land. Everyone is beautiful and she feels very out of place. Finally, she asks one of them where she is, and he tells her, �Evermore, of course.� She has just enough time to wonder what this means before being ripped away. She finds herself standing on a field of cloud. A figure is approaching.
A man approaches, radiating light. He speaks to her, and tells her that his name is I Am. Simply speaking to this man fills her with well being. He tells her, though, that they are short of time, and that He is here to give her the information she has needed and desired all along. He will tell her what she must do. She knows of the Three Children Of Time, that the purpose of the first was to warn the world, that the purpose of the second was to call up the Antedeluvians. Each of the three has a purpose. Their life is to fulfill that purpose, their death seals that it is done. I Am proceeds to tell her what the Three Children Of Time really are.
He tells her that vampires are, of course, the damned. He reminds her of the prophecies of Gehenna, that one day, the ancients would rise up and devour the world. He tells her that if not for the Three Children, this would have happened many times over already. He tells her that every once in a while, every fifty or every few hundred years, the ancients need to feed. They awake, and I Am gifts three vampires with the ability to control it. The first is a warning, the second is the call. The Third� The Third is the one whom the ancients will listen to, who must find them a meal to satiate them and put them back to sleep, to await the next group of three. The Rat, as she tends to do, stands in a stunned silence.
Exclamation Point floors the car as the near the razor-wire gates. She slams into them full force and takes down the fence. She flies through the parking lot and skids to a halt in front of the door. She whips out her magnum and tells Lonewolf to wait in the car. Entering the place, she is merciless. A doctor, BOOM, is dead. Two warders, BOOM BOOM, are dead. She continues on.
The Rat begs I Am to tell her how she can possibly do this, asking what the others have done. He tells her that feeding them mortals is a waste of time unless the numbers are in the millions, and that feeding them vampires would only work if they were great elders, and it did work once. Others have fed them spirits or fed them great ancient beasts long forgotten. I Am tells her he does not envy her her onus, but that it is hers nonetheless. With that, he bids her goodbye, and she sees white.
Exclamation Point blasts down anyone standing in her way and kicks in the door to Hercule�s room. When she wakens him, he realizes that he is not damaged. The lights were not sunlight, they could only pretend to hurt him. Together, the pair of Brujah go and wipe out any opposition on their way out. They reach the car and hop in, flooring it out. It is only after a considerable bit of driving that they realize that the Rat is awake. They stop, and they speak to her.
She tells them what she has learned, what she must do. They all stop and wonder what the hell would satisfy the ancients, knowing that as they speak, they are coming for her. Hercule knows. He knows what the sweetest blood he has ever tasted was. He tells them what they need. They need werewolves. The rest of them know, then. They need help. They begin to drive again, to drive to town, for the Elysium.
They walk. They walk through the dirty streets and know that the antediluvians are close from the music they hear. Everywhere they go they hear Gold Dust�s song. Passing by the night club, they hear it. Passing by a singer on a street corner, they hear it. Passing by a house where a teenage garage band is playing, they hear it. Everywhere they go they are bombarded by the words, �I see a red door and I want it painted black�� They continue on, running out of time, to the Elysium.
Reaching the Elysium, they decide not to waste any time trying to hide their Diablerists. They walk directly inside, all four of them. They make it past the doorman and reach the prince. Many of the vampires here is discussing the loss of the sheriff from the previous night. The Rat speaks to the prince, but can only begin to say that she needs their help before an old woman approaches the prince, and whispers in his ear. The prince snaps his fingers and stakes fly. Exclamation Point takes it and is paralyzed, but Hercule doesn�t fall so easily. He grapples and eventually, at the Rat�s instruction, gives himself up.
The Rat goes to the Prince saying they don�t have time for this, and that the Antedeluvians are coming, tonight. She tells him everything of the prophecy and what she must do, and that he needs their help. The Prince says that she has spoken too Sebastien too much. She pleads with him to believe her, telling him that she was sent by I Am and knows she must do this. The Prince simply asks why he should believe that they are any different from any other vampires who meander in rambling about Gehenna.
There is a long silence, and by now, most of the vampires here are paying attention. The Rat is at a loss, she knows not what she can do to prove anything to them. But Red Lonewolf does. He comes forward, and asks to see the pale boy that the vamps have been feeding on tonight. They send the boy forward and Lonewolf takes him. He places his hand on the boy�s flesh. He Inhales. Lonewolf experiences the now familiar rapture of it, and when it is done, he is full, and the color has returned to the boy�s face, no blood was lost. The Prince watches, and eventually, says, "All right, let�s talk."
They hear the door swing open. On a cold wind, the ashes of the doorman waft in. In walk several individuals, all in black cloaks. The floor seems to rumble with their footsteps. One has the expression of the hardiest business man. One folds his hands calmly and somehow they already look ready to kill. One has the vampires falling to the ground worshipping his beauty. Another has them falling to the ground worshipping his repulsiveness. Eventually, all of them are inside, and the stupidest vampire in the prince�s entourage goes to them to stop them. None of the interlopers even so much as look at this man, and yet the stupidest vampire is suddenly the stupidest pile of ash.
The ancients walk to the center of the room, and everyone moves from their path. They move in a half-circle around the Rat, and everyone else flees. They stand, and they stare at her, and after a long pause, one steps forward, and says, quite simply, "We are hungry." When the Rat eventually asks what they would like to eat, the only answer is, "We are hungry." The Rat tells them that she will get them food. The ancient tells her that they will be waiting at the place where the call was done. With that, they turn and leave.
The stake is removed from Exclamation Point, and the Prince and his entourage take Lonewolf, the Rat, Hercule, and Exclamation Point out of the main room and into the back of the house. The Prince asks them what they want to do, and tells them that he will help. They tell him about the werewolf idea. The Prince seems reluctant, but can�t come up with anything else. He tells them to wait while he goes and speaks with his people.
When the prince returns, he brings them to the garage to see what they have available. The weapons are laid out, and among those things more interesting, the prince shows them many large syringes filled with very powerful sedatives. There are flares to which a retrieval team can respond. The prince tells them that they have many volunteers to help, and a large truck to carry the bodies. He tells them that they have scouted and have the location of the werewolf camp.
The vampires arm themselves with large weapons. Hercule keeps his grenade launcher. Exclamation Point reloads the machine gun that Thomas had carried. The Rat and Red Lonewolf take Dragonsbreath rifles and heavy sub-machine guns. They all take flares and sedatives.
Ready to face the one thing they have fled from and avoided like no other, the vampires, armed to the teeth, climb in the huge truck and begin to drive. They drive in silence, preparing for what is to come. When the truck stops, they climb out at the park, just by the forest. Exclamation Point, Lonewolf, the Rat, and Hercule get together and count the vampires with them. There are a couple dozen. As one, they enter into the forest, leaving the retrieval team behind. They trod on, toting the big guns, getting closer and closer to the werewolf camp. Finally, it is in view.
The coterie tells the vamps with them to surround the camp with weapons ready. The Rat and Hercule climb into trees to do some sniping. Lonewolf and Exclamation Point get closer, to the treeline, and look into the camp. They see no one there, but it is the middle of the night and there is a fair chance that the werewolves could be sleeping in their tents. Lonewolf disguises himself and goes in with Exclamation Point. It takes very little searching to realize that the camp is empty, there is no one here. They don�t even have time to alert the others before the sounds of battle erupt. The werewolves were ready for them. Gunshots and screams sound from the forest, it has begun.
The fighting is fierce and the vamps take heavy losses, but quickly manage to fight back and begin dropping werewolves with silver bullets from their rifles. Exclamation Point and Lonewolf rush into the woods to fight, but are quickly split up in the fighting. The Rat fires down at Garou from the trees until one of them leaps up to her with a heavy battle Ax and smites the branch she stands on even as she blasts him with her dragonsbreath rifle, bringing him down. Luckily, as she falls to the ground, it is not werewolf claws that catch her, but Exclamation Point. Hercule realizes he can�t aim a grenade through the branches around him and he leaps down from the trees and meets up with Red Lonewolf. The battle is spreading into the forest.
Lonewolf and Hercule decide to employ their talents together. They find a small clearing where the battle has not entered yet. Hercule climbs into a tree and takes aim with his grenade launcher, ready to fire. Lonewolf assumes the form of a wounded werewolf and lies down. He howls until two werewolves come, and then he manipulates their minds to dull their wariness and heighten their sympathy. They come to help their fallen comrade, coming closer and closer until Lonewolf screams for Hercule to fire and leaps up, running. The werewolves stand confused for just half a moment, and half a moment is all it takes for the grenade to strike. The beasts fly, incapacitated. Just in case, Lonewolf and Hercule inject them with sedatives. Then, the flare is struck. Hercule shoulders his empty grenade launcher and they move on.
Exclamation Point and the Rat decide to pull a similar trick. The Brujah readies her machine gun and the Rat conjures up the illusion of a wounded wolf. It lies and howls. And just for good measure, as soon as werewolf happens upon them, she kicks it and runs. This unfortunately had the side effect of feeding the werewolf rage. It chases her down, but she leads it straight to the waiting Exclamation Point, who opens fire and doesn�t let up, pummeling the werewolf with high caliber shots. They slam into him again and again, blood exploding out of everywhere but it simply not stopping, getting closer and closer until finally, the clip of her weapon nearly empty, the thing collapses at her feet. The Brujah stands over it with her smoking gun. The Rat slams down a flare and leave it for the retrieval team.
The Rat and Exclamation Point have attracted attention though. A dozen werewolves are bearing down on them and they run. They run faster than they ever thought they could, and still the werewolves gain on them. They see up ahead a clearing and make for it with no better alternative. They get closer and closer, and the werewolves get closer and closer, until gunfire erupts from the clearing and the werewolves behind them wail and retreat from the silver bullets. When the Ravnos and the Brujah reach the clearing, they find two dozen vampires gathered along with Lonewolf and Hercule. They hear all around them the war-howls of the werewolves. They�ve been herded here. They gather and aim their weapons outward at any sound. What they don�t expect happens, as usual, and several werewolves drop out of thin air directly above them, slashing and biting and ripping them apart. Ash flies in the wind, and the coterie finds themselves thrown and tackled and otherwise removed from each other�s company. They are alone.
Lonewolf opens his eyes with a sense of awakening though he was never asleep. Pain fills him. He hears around him, distantly now, the battle is still going on. Weapons are still firing. He clutches his dragonsbreath rifle remembering the warning, one shot, two maybe, before it melts. He heads out into the woods, fully intending on sneaking around the battle as he is ill equipped for it. But it is impossible, and soon enough there is a werewolf stalking him. Then he realizes it is two, and he runs. He makes it into a clearing just as a shroud is thrown over him and he can see nothing. He is robbed off his precious perfect sight. But he still has his ears. He aims about at nothing, trying to discern from their mocking howls where they are. One comes close, closer, right to him, but too quickly for him to react, and he is slashed. Pain takes him to the ground, and then the werewolf is gone and the inky blackness is still there. It happens again, and he still can see nothing. Finally, he puts all his effort to it, his senses that even in life were perfect, and are even better since then, and he listens. And when he listens, he sees, and without thinking, he fires. The shroud drops, and he sees straight ahead of him a werewolf without a head. Another stands still, looking shocked. Lonewolf spins the rifle and fires again, bringing it down, even as his weapon is melting. He drops the useless thing and strikes the flares.
The Rat rushes through the woods alone, and finds herself tracked by wild dogs. She decides to fight fire with fire and begins summoning animals. They are coming but still she runs. She sees through the canopy above her, a werewolf is flying. She reaches a clearing where the werewolf that had been flying lands and faces off with her. It howls and so does she, and wild dogs and hyenas rush into the field battling each other. They fight wildly, blood flying, their masters encouraging them. The Rat summons more, bigger animals, bears now and more. They come at the beckoning and enter the fray, and more blood is spilled until gradually the animals protecting the werewolf are gone and the Rat�s animals attack the thing. It fends them off and lifts into flight. It soars, but the Rat is not done. She summons birds and they come, flocking about the werewolf, ripping into it, pecking it apart, taking it to the ground. She finds it and sedates it and slams down a flare.
Exclamation Point still has some ammo left in her machine gun, and this means she isn�t about to give up the hunt. She goes and finds a werewolf walking in the forest. It looks suspicious, but she can�t pass up the opportunity. She advances and takes aim with her weapon. Suddenly, out of the bushes leaps another one, knocking away her weapon and grabbing her up. The first werewolf howls and runs off. It snaps at her, claws digging into her. It slams her into a tree and beats her about sadistically. Finally, though, it plays too much, it should have killed her when it had the chance� She bites it, and drinks. She swallows down the werewolf blood and it fills her with a power and feeling she�s never known before. Now she knows what Hercule was talking about. She manages to free herself from the werewolf, and she runs. She runs madly, faster than she ever has before, desperately needing to kill. Unfortunately for her, the battle is dwindling. Gunshots are fewer and fewer, the howls are quieter and quieter. It is coming to an end.
Hercule has nothing left but his knives, but this won�t stop him. He sees a werewolf, and he chases. He rushes after the thing, around the trees, amidst the bushes, leaping and chasing. It shifts into the form of a wolf and still he chases, drawing on his blood to run faster still as it bounds in great leaps. Suddenly, though, the ground collapses under him, a deadfall, and he drops tumbling into a great pit. Down in the pit, there is a path in between two expanses of large jutting spikes. He looks all around, and the walls are a dirt that will be difficult to climb up. He could do it, but it will take time. And time he does not have, as he looks up, and a man, a werewolf, is dropping into the pit, onto the path, with him. Hercule readies himself with the one knife he has left.
Not wanting to get any closer, Hercule throws the knife. It sails and the man backflips, letting it pass him and dig into the wall. The man, on his feet, rips a spike from the ground, and throws it as a stake. Hercule takes it in the shoulder, and ferociously rips it out, charging the man. Hercule dives and the man flies over him. When the brujah stands to turn and fight, the man has grown into the great werewolf. It grabs the vampire, lifts him up, and begins to crush him. His bones break, blood drains from him and the claws dig in. He screams in pain.
Exclamation Point hears the scream, and she smells blood on the air. And she runs, a beast, hungry and angry and delirious with the blood inside her. Closer and closer until she sees Hercule in the arms of a werewolf, and she leaps down into the pit. She latches onto the werewolf�s back and bites. She does not drink, but she bites, again and again, and when it releases Hercule he stabs it again and again and they do not let up until it falls to the ground and lies still� and then, they light the flare.
The hunt is done, and everyone is returning to the park. Lonewolf and the Rat find each other. Hercule and Exclamation Point make it out of the pit and find their way to the rest of the group. The vampires are loading the nearly thirty werewolf carcasses into the huge truck in tarps. Everyone is silent and mourning their fallen friends. So few of them returned. Hercule stumbles out of the woods, and the look on his face is very clear, "What a week� What a mother fucker of a week."
They arrive at the Bucket Of Blood shortly, and all of the vampires are of the opinion that the coterie will be the first to go in. The Rat, Hercule, Exclamation Point, and Lonewolf leave the truck and get to the door. Slowly, they open it and come inside. The club looks nothing like before. It has not been destroyed, it is simply different. Everything is stretched, elongated, upside down, and �various degrees of sideways�. The people are strewn about like decoration, some of them dead, some of them alive in a state that should never leave someone alive. Blood is everywhere, and the ancients sit around, talking softly to each other. When the Rat enters, all attention is on her. They come to her, and they tell her, "We are hungry." She goes to bring them their food.
One by one the werewolves are brought in and lain in a heap in the center of the room. The ancients tell the coterie to stay, but for everyone else to go, and they are obeyed. The feeding begins. The ancients sink their fangs into werewolf flesh, drinking quickly. They drink them drier than dry, sucking down every drop of blood, sucking out every drop of fluid in their bodies. Their eyes shrivel, their skin withers, and everything alive about them turns to death. When finally the ancients are done, there aren�t even bodies left.
The Ancients go to the Rat and surround her. She knows that if she were alive, she would have a heart attack. The ancient who has spoken before speaks again and tell her that the meal was good. He tells her that they are nearly satisfied. Nearly. Suddenly, I Am�s words come back to her, and she remembers. Each Child Of Time has a purpose. Their life is to fulfill that purpose. Their death seals that it is done. They wish to eat her. They tell her, however, that the control given to her by I Am still applies, and that they cannot have her unless she gives herself to them.
The Rat asks them, meekly, what will happen if she refuses. They tell her that they are satisfied from the meal, and that they will go back to sleep. However, that she has not fulfilled her purpose will mean that the Children Of Time can be no more. The cycle will not continue. The next time the ancients are hungry, they will awake, and the world will be theirs. Gehenna will come.
The Rat waits for a long moment, before saying in a voice that is barely audible, "I don�t want to die."
The ancients smile, and they make their way to the door. One by one they exit. And then, it is only the four vampires in the club. The Rat stands in silence, and lets a note fall from her hand that she had written in case she did not survive. Exclamation Point and Hercule can only stand and stare at her, stunned and speechless.
Lonewolf scans the place, and he sees what no one else does. Gold Dust, standing in the doorway. She looks to him and smiles and gestures for him to come. He goes and stands with her, and tells her he misses her. She tells him the same, and points outside. The ancients are standing in the street. One says to the other, "Until next time, then." The other smiles a wide smile and says, "Yes. Next time, finally." And then, they walk away into the darkness.
Lonewolf stands with Gold Dust, and wonders if they should count this as success or failure. Gold Dust hears his thoughts and tells him, simply, "Don�t feel bad, Red� After all, I hear nine out of ten attempts to prevent the apocalypse fail miserably."
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