Bethany and Saif had devised a plan that required them to split into three teams. Two of those teams would be functioning as a diversion. The first unit to act would be the smallest of the teams, only three people. They would be setting off some explosives amongst one of the Imperial Cult gatherings, some high end restaurant that was serving as a front for their meetings. Their goal would simply be to cause chaos. If they could avoid capture, they would move to a second location and set off explosives there, and so on, keeping eyes away from the others.

Saif would be leading the second team, a larger military strike consisting of himself and eight others. They would move once the first explosions went off, infiltrating another separate gathering of Imperial Cult supporters. They would attempt to be covert to make their way in. Saif hoped they could at least get underground before being discovered, but being discovered was ultimately part of the plan. The hope was for the Imperial Cult to send the bulk of their forces to that location, and to hold them in a stalemate for as long as possible. They would kill as many of the Imperial Cult as they could, pushing towards the heart to complete the mission if they could.  None of them truly expected to survive the assault though.

It was heart wrenching to bid farewell to each of them, but it was necessary, and Cara held a steely gaze. Their sacrifice would be a diversion for their team to sneak inside completely undetected. Herself, Bethany, Andie and three others, Jacob, Dwayne and Steggy would be infiltrating a lavish Christmas Eve party downtown. Many politicians and high-powered businessmen would be there (plenty of whom were members of the Imperial Cult). 

An invitation to the party would have been near impossible to come by, but Bethany had forged the right paperwork and got them in amongst the catering staff. Except for Steggy, he would be staying outside, tapped into the building's security system. Steggy was fairly young, but an experienced hacker, and he would be essential for their plan to succeed.

Their disguises did the trick, and once inside they took out the clothes they'd brought in, stashed in some of the serving carts, as well as their weapons. The waiter uniforms had got them in the door, but would do no go from this point onward. They all changed into fancy suits and dresses, the sort of attire fitting a high-class party, as they made their way through the crowds.

Next was finding the pathway into the Sanctum. Steggy, as their eye in the sky, told them which way to go, monitoring off his feed of the security cameras in the building. They made their way toward the back of the building to a corridor where two men stood guard by a hallway. Cara clocked the guns at their sides, the tablets in their hands, and the camera looking right down over the area they were standing in.

This is where they needed the other teams for diversions. The first team had set off their explosives around when they first entered the building, now once Saif's team was discovered they would make their move. Bethany waited for word from Steggy, and once she got it, shortly after that, they moved their plan into action.

Steggy knocked out the live feed from the overhead security camera, instead wiring in a looped recording of the guards standing there. Such a blip may have been noticed by whatever eyes the Imperial Cult had on the screens, if not for the chaos breaking out at other locations across the city.

Then Andie and Jacob were up. Andie wrapped her arm around Jacob's waist and they both went staggering out into the hallway towards the guards. They let out loud obnoxious laughs.

Andie called out toward the guards, in a high pitched, ditsy voice, "Is that the way to the bathroom?"

"This area is restricted, turn back the way you came," one of the guards said. Andie and Jacob were close now.

"Ohh whaddyou got down there?" Andie rambled off, slurring her words. Cara couldn't help but be amused by her drunken performance.

"Sir, I'm gonna need you two to leave the area immediately," the guard said, now focusing his attention entirely on Jacob.

"Oh sure, my apologies, no problem," Jacob said, but Andie stumbled closer so that she was right next to the guard

"Actually, we don't need a bathroom, maybe justa private room," Andie whispered, now right up in the guard's face.

"Listen lady–" he said, putting his hand on her, but that's as far as he got. Andie pulled out the knife strapped to her thigh and went straight up into the man's eye. The other guard made to pull out his gun quick, but Jacob got to him quicker. He pulled up his own knife and drove it straight into the guard's neck.

The others were moving down the hall now to join them. In the few seconds it took them to get down the hall, Andie and Jacob were already pulling the bodies into a side room, just off the hallway. Andie tossed the one guard's tablet to Dwayne, as well as his gun. Jacob stepped out with the tablet of the guard he'd killed, his gun and his earpiece. Next Jacob and Dwayne handed over a few more weapons to Cara, Bethany and Andie that they had been hiding in their suits (dresses do not leave a lot of room to hide things, a reason Cara abhorred them). The women strapped the guns to their waists, and the explosives to their thighs. Then Jacob and Dwayne took the place of the guards at the hallway entrance.

"Don't let anyone else through here," Bethany said to them. "Buy us as much time as possible."

"Will do mam," Jacob said. "Good luck."

They walked down the hall and through the doors at the end. Inside was a lavish room with many historical paintings, and a polished table in the centre with the robes of the Imperial Cult laid out on them, waiting for more members to come through. The room was not empty though.

Two more guards stood, cloaked in black at the table. Alarm rose in their expressions as the three women entered, they raised their guns, but only in time to be shot by Cara and Andie. There were two others toward the back of the room, not guards though, an elderly man and woman, fully dressed in the satanic robes. Bethany shot them despite their cries of protest. Each person that they encountered from this point on, young or old had dedicated themselves to the extinction of humanity on the promise that they would rule the remains. No mercy would be given.

They locked the doors they had come through, not that it would do much good once Jacob and Dwayne were discovered.

"Get into the robes," Bethany instructed. There weren't many left on the table. Most of the members would already be in the Sanctum; it was getting closer to midnight.

Cara threw the black robe on over her dress. It was uncomfortable, and she hated looking like one of them, but it would hide their identities, and their weapons. Cara repositioned where her guns were, and moved the explosives to one of the deep pockets. They were simple explosives, but powerful, set to run on a short timer once activated.

They kept moving, pressing the switch for the elevator at the back of the room, then clambering into the metal box to make their way down. It was a long way to go and nothing to indicate how far along they were. Cara noticed the camera mounted in the corner of the elevator, they hadn't planned for this. They would have only been expecting two people, the old couple, not three, to be coming down this way. Now it all depended on how well the other teams' diversions were working. Would the eyes monitoring this be too distracted to notice the extra person? Would the elevator come to a halt and leave them there helpless? Or would there be a line of guards waiting to execute them the moment the elevator doors opened up.

Cara shared her fears with the others, and they each gripped their pistols tight beneath the robes, waiting for the doors to open. When they did though, there was no line of guns awaiting them, only an archway leading into a large chamber. The room was cold, dark stone, lit only by torches set in sconces along towering pillars. There was a dense smell in the air that hit immediately as the cold cavernous air wafted around them.  

This chamber must have stretched up a hundred feet at least. And in the centre stood a statue, almost as large. It showed a man, a beautiful man, naked; with angelic wings cascading down his back. It took a moment of absorbing this sight before Cara realized that the platform at his feet was carved in the form of bodies, thousands of people writhing in pain. She knew without a moment more of consideration that this was a statue of Lucifer.

The sight was so daunting; she almost missed the man standing at the base before the statue. Luckily Bethany had not and made her way to the man. There were a few others in the chamber too, making their way around the statue. Cara realized that there were other doorways leading into this chamber on the adjoining sides.

"Bare your sigil before the True God," croaked the old cultist standing in front of the statue. Bethany went first, pulling her robe and the dress underneath back to reveal her solar-plex, and the tattoo that now rested there. Each of them had tattooed the three blood red lines that met in the centre of their chests. It disgusted Cara to wear it now, but it was necessary to pass through unnoticed. The old man, satisfied with Bethany, turned to Andie and Cara in turn. Once he'd seen their marks he waved them to the altar at the base of the statue.

The altar was lit by candles around the edge and the middle was a deep basin coated with blood. A knife lay in front of the basin.

"Make your offering," the old man crowed. Bethany picked up the knife first, which was still stained from its previous user, and made a cut along her hand, letting a drop fall into the basin. Cara and Andie followed suit, and the old man stepped aside. "Follow the blood," he instructed. Cara looked at the ground, at the grooves carved into the floor, flowing from the statue. She saw that the blood was draining from the altar, around the statue and out to a pathway on the other side. This trail continued along the floor, though they didn't need it as they joined the procession of other cultists walking along the dark path.

And then there was the chanting. Coming up the path was a hypnotic drum of voices. Cara realized it was the infernal language of demons, a language that spoke clear as day to her. Amongst the chants, she heard two words repeated over and over. Rise Satan. It must be near midnight, the moon full in the sky. They'll be starting soon.

There were other paths diverging off of the one they followed, other cultists joining in the procession from other directions, slowly adding their voices, perhaps not even fully aware they were speaking out loud. It was hypnotic. 

Suddenly a terrible headache struck Cara and she doubled over. Bethany and Andie quickly steadied her, and no one around seemed concerned.

"What's wrong?" Andie hissed. Cara couldn't respond though. Something was hammering through her head. A white light was spreading in her vision. The change was starting. She fought against it, willing herself back to the hallway, to the present.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," she grunted. The chanting felt loud, louder than it should have been; screeching all around her. And the smells that were coming through. There was so much blood in the air, she could barely think straight.

Then one specific scent caught her and she froze. Bethany and Andie stopped too, taking her arms and trying to pull her along.

"What are you doing?" Bethany asked annoyed. Cara was staring down a side corridor, she didn't know exactly where it led, but every instinct in her body was telling her to go that way.

"Please trust me," Cara said to them, looking each in the eye. "Keep going. I'll be back." She didn't know how to explain herself anymore than that, and simply took off, breaking free of their grips. Cara ran, maybe she was attracting the attention of other cultists, she wasn't sure. She was running purely on instinct now, but whether it was her instinct or the wolf inside, she couldn't say.