The Once and Future Apostles

Echidna, Mother of Monsters (Theo)

"My dear Father..." the scarred woman gurgled through skinless lips, "the Children hunger for the blood of the unenlightened. Must we stall their cravings for so long?". Tightly gripping a smoking odachi, her footsteps were more akin to slithering, a series of fleshy tendrils trailing behind her every move. Behind her, a crudely dug pit was set, housing a nest of charred apelike humanoids. Each screeching and clawing the walls, the fibers of their muscles lashing erratically as the embers of fire quivered with flesh.

They were beautiful, too much in fact. She could not bear to see them so famished, not even by His command.

Oh, how their perfection marred the world, just like she once did. Once, she was but a crude flesh-weaver, twisting anatomies beyond all mortal laws. Merely satisfied with the squirming of dead flesh, without a sense of passion. But the Burning Lord showed the way! Proved his worthiness beyond her craft! A body truly built to defy the City! Why didn't she discover it before? From now on, her children would grow to bear the face of true beauty.

"Oh Great One..."

Her gaze turned towards the bleeding Mittelhammer crawling in the building, delirious to her true identity.

"Oh One Who Grips.... have you come to bring our tortured souls to our favored dream?"

His only answer was the red blur of the woman's frenzy, and the puncturing of his spine. A bloodcurdling scream was his last sound before he slumped to the floor, the odachi impaled on his back.

Incinerating hate flowed through her mind. Though she had cast off her old Workshop, not every piece of the past could be repurposed. Some simply had to be burned away, wiped out for new life to grow. Like her pack within the pit. Suddenly, a spark lit in her eyes. Her lips twisted into a smile, the tendons twitching with fervor. "What succinct brilliance!" she screamed as she dragged the odachi, and the N Corp Inquisitor's carcass, to the pit. The Children howled in unison, the welcoming tinge of blood wafting in. One could picture a mother bird, bringing worms for her young.

"If the blood of the unenlightened shall be denied, a hypocrite's will do!"

Theo woke up in a cold sweat. Her eyes darted back and forth, expecting the accursed "Skin Bible" to be draped somewhere in her penthouse. Even when the unwelcome sight was nowhere to be found, she sat in her bed for a good five minutes. Then she nervously eased herself back to sleep. Xibalba knew who she was. And he'd found a great purpose for her work.

The Unseen Ember (Shiina)

"I hear and obey, my Lord"

Underneath all of her terror and clumsiness, Shiina is someone that simply likes to live freely and to see others live freely as well. But her Lord has showed her the truth. No such thing exists in this city, not for her or for others. Only her Lord Xibalba possesses true freedom, and in his infinite compassion he grants it to others. Only through his cleansing flames can the weary spirits of humanity find freedom and peace!

...

"My Lord, I have returned"

As an Apostle under her Lord, little has changed save the new inner peace and sense of freedom. She still plies her trade the same as ever- leaping into the night, claiming the heads of the wicked. She is but a small ember, burning away the filth and impurity that writhes within that shadows of the city. She toils in silence, awaiting the day her Lord will burn down this sinful City and leave no more shadows left to hunt in, such that her work might finally have no further need. Such that she might rest her weary soul and stand alight in her Lords burning mercy.

...

"Ack. I'm going to puke. I knew I shouldn't have looked at that thing"

Shiina awakes from a strange nightmare, her head perched over her kitchen sink. Yesterday some weirdo handed her the weirdest looking pamphelet ever, and for some reason she didn't immediately drop the thing. Was it the shock she felt from the material? The disturbing imagery from the page the pamphlet slipped open to? Whatever it was, she stood in terror for a full minute as the wind blew the pages over before dropping in on the group, running away (and later having to come back for it because leaving a dangerous object in the street is a bad idea.) Even just the idea of seeing herself join some sort of cult aiming to fight the head gave her stomach cramps. Actually doing it? She'd never have the guts.