The Time of Repentance Is Over

New York City, New York  May 4, 2010

Michael stood beside The Shepherd. The bandanna on his forehead covered up his third eye as they walked the streets. Shepherd as always was hidden behind the powers of obfuscation while Michael could see him perfectly well when they moved about the city streets.

"Are you sure?" Michael asked him for the second time. They had been trying to rout a nest of heretics that had taken root in the city. Tonight they had them. No one would escape them tonight. They made their way to the back alley where the heretics have been using. Two vampires guarded the door. They ducked behind some dumpsters. Luckily for them the only light source in this alleyway was just above the Brujah's head.

"The two at the door I know them," Shepherd said.

"Do tell dear Gabriel," Michael bantered back. His irish accent when he said his name brought up a vague memory. Something long buried and deeply forgotten. Shepherd shook the thought from his mind and focused on task at hand.

"They are brujah both. I recognized them from the meeting of priest."

"Are they priest themselves?"

"No. But they were serving as escorts."

"What is the pack's name?"

"The Vicious Cycle. The pack consist of neonates and maybe ancilla."

"Shovelheads embraced to shore up our numbers. Do you know any more about them? Their numbers and clans?" Shepherd thought hard.

"Five members. Ventrue. Toreador. Two Brujah. And their priest is a nosferatu."

"Then we work underneath the assumption that that is the resistance we will meet inside." Shepherd nodded. Michael took out his iron reliquary, a sword in the space of the Sabbat symbol. Shepherd pulled out his, a spear in the same style. Michael bowed his head and Shepherd spoke softly.

"Our dark father and creator. Guide our hands to make them true so we may purify the wicked," he said readying himself. Michael moved as if a bolt of lighting. His attack caught the throat of one but not his partner. Before his partner could fully process what was happening The Shepherd's spear pinned to the wall behind him.

When the Shepherd appeared before him, his heart almost started beating just so it could stop again. "Shit man you are...you are..." he stammered out before Shepherd completed for him.

"The Shepherd." Michael checked the first brujah. The attack sent him into torpor almost instantly. However, when Michael took his head off it was no mistaking it. Michael smiled deeply and the Brujah cringed. That was how things were. Michael allowed everyone to see and fear the Shepherd. While every heretic was busy hiding from the Shepherd, Michael moved freely. Listening to their conversation and meet out punishment. Not that The Shepherd didn't do his share of listening and sneaking. Everyone just assumed that there was only one inquisitor in the city.

"Shit man. I repent. I repent. I will never look at another anything just let me live," he plead. Michael smiled and patted him on his shoulder.

"That is good my boy. Repentance is the first step to absolution." The Brujah face brightened as the notion he may live to see another night crossed his mind.

"Sadly however, the time for repentance is over. I find you guilty of heresy. I now pass judgement on your heretic soul." Michael said as his sword decapitated yet another kindred.

"This is why should be more selective about who we embrace," Michael said as he entered the building. Shepherd wanted to comment but they both knew now was the time of silence. What they saw only infuriated them.

In a semi circle away from the door was the pack Vicious Cycle praying before an idol. It was clearly not an idol of the dread father Cain. Michael and Shepherd both knew that it had to be stopped. Michael went for the Ventrue while Shepherd took the Gangrel.

Michael defeated his foe in one volley, his sword going through both the Ventrue's shoulders and neck as if it were tissue paper. The Toreador tried to run but The Shepherd his spear like a javelin pinning her through her torso to the adjacent wall. The Gangrel stood his ground. Though he was not a match for the much older and far more powerful Shepherd. Both used claws though Shepherd's were made of actual bone and bits of implanted steel and not a gift of Protean. Their battle didn't a last long. By the time it was over, he had just enough time to turn his attention to the Nosferatu just he met final death. Michael walked toward the toreador as she plead for mercy. She muttered she was forced against her will to perform the rituals. Sadly, Michael believed her.

"Remove the spear," he commanded.

"As you wish." With one jerk the spear came out and she looked at the ground. The wound in her body already beginning to heal.

"Thank you," she said crying blood tears.

"You're welcome." She made to leave but Michael thrust a stake into her heart. Before the paralyzing grip of torpor took hold she muttered out, "Why?"

Michael turned his back and started to gather kindling and The Shepherd pulled out a small book bound by human flesh. He walked over to the idol.

"Forgive us oh dread father for our failure to keep the faithful on the path of righteousness. Forgive us of our failures to protect the faithful from heresy and wickedness. Forgive us for our failure to live up to your example." Michael gathered the necessary burnables he and Shepherd carried the Toreador to the center of the kindling.

"May your soul find it way to the righteous path." Shepherd said as he folded her arms ceremoniously around her body. With that done, Michael tossed in a match and for a bit it didn't look like burning. But after awhile it was starting to become a roaring inferno.

"Lets be away from this place," Shepherd said with a sigh.

"Gabriel I completely agree."