The Red Guards got busy inviting the vampires into Vatican City. Chloe had to hand it to Ethan, his people seemed to know exactly where to go. They had all proceeded with confident determination. Once all of the vampires were within the City, the Red Guard started to move towards the meeting place. Chloe hoped the Pope would be there as determined by his regular schedule. He was supposed to be holding a private mass for his cardinal electors in the Sistine Chapel.

Chloe looked around the outside of the Sistine Chapel as they approached. The lights were on inside the building, as they always were. It was undoubtedly the most popular place for tourists to visit. The most famous paintings in existence were on the ceilings. Chloe remembered staring in awe at those works of art, only a few weeks ago. The building was empty of tourists now since it was almost ten o'clock at night.

The Red Guard arrived and appreciated that they could not detect the vampires hidden somewhere in the vicinity. The vampires would show themselves as needed throughout the process of tonight's activities.

They spread out and prepared to enter the chapel at various entry points, blocking the movement to or from the proceedings. They noticed many of the Swiss Guard casting them curious looks, but would leave them for the vampires.

Chloe could hear the Pope's voice delivering what sounded to her like a very boring sermon. She went through her doorway, which was the furthest one away from the Pope. It allowed her to face the Pope from the moment of her entry. He was in the pulpit standing higher than everyone else. His voice faltered as she walked into the room and he glared at her fiercely. She smiled.

He cleared his throat and tried to carry on with his speech. He was talking about The Last Supper. How ironic, thought Chloe with a grin. She let out a soft laugh and gave a loud cough, trying to get everyone's attention.

"What is the meaning of this?" He demanded. "This is a closed service for the cardinals. If you want a meeting, we can speak later."

Chloe narrowed her eyes, but continued to smile. "I think we need to have a meeting now," she said with an edge in her voice.

"How dare you!" he began with heated venom in his voice. But at this point, the rest of the Red Guards entered the room from their various points of entry and the Pope went silent as he looked around the chapel. He made note that all of the Red Guards appeared to be present. "I see," he said gruffly. Chloe could swear that his hands were moving under the pulpit and she thought he must be pressing the button to call in the Swiss Guard. He would be surprised when they never came. With the gruff and somwhat angry words of the pope, the cardinals started to speak to each other and the room filled with surprised chatter. A few, about fourteen, Chloe thought, got up and walked to stand by the Pope.

The Pope looked around quickly and decided to use the confusion of the cardinals as a good time to make His exit. He made eye contact with His closest cardinals, who stood around Him, and as a group they made a move to leave through the back entrance of the pulpit. They were startled to see that Red Guards blocked their way. Quinn was up there and he cast a smile Chloe's way.

"Looks like you can't get out that way," Chloe spoke loudly as she continued to walk down the aisle towards the Pope. She saw the Red Guards at the entrances around the room fall in line behind her as she approached the pulpit. She noticed that Gerty was right behind her, beside Felicity.

The human cardinals were still sitting, finding it hard to move around with all of their complicated garments restricting them. They watched what was happening with some fascination. The Pope turned to fix his glare upon Chloe once again.

"You... I always had a feeling about you," hissed the pope. 

"Where is Jessica?" demanded Gerty from beside Chloe.

The Pope glanced around at the Red Guards who were watching him with keen eyes. "She was transferred," he replied. Unlucky choice of words, thought Chloe. Unbeknownst to the pope, the Red Guard understood the turn of phrase by this point. Jessica was dead. 

Chloe felt Gerty's body stiffen as she grunted like she'd been sucker punched. Chloe was surprised that Gerty hadn't guess Jessica's fate. Perhaps she had been in denial. Having this confirmed from the lips of the pope was a lot to take in. There were many murmurs among the Red Guards around the room. Everybody was upset to hear this news. Chloe closed her eyes briefly, feeling a deep sense of sorrow. Jessica was a little intense, but she was a good comrad who would have your back during combat. She would be missed within The Red Guard.

"Your time is up, Your Holiness," called out Felicity with a growl.

The pope scoffed from his elevated position. "You're not going to get away with this," He said as His eyes glowed a brilliant and dangerous red. There were sharp intakes of breath around the room, and then silence. "Did you really think that it will be so easy?" he asked, finally returning Chloe's smile. Chloe didn't even flinch at all the hate he was projecting towards her. She was ready for him.

He approached the pulpit and pressed another button, as He smiled at the group before Him. Chloe looked around in alarm as taps seemed to come out of the pulpit stairs and blood started to spread across the space towards them. "Goat's blood," hissed Chloe. "It must be goat's blood." It was approaching them quickly and they all ran to stand on the pews nearby. Chloe started jumping from one pew to the next with her eyes focused on her target: the Pope. She was going to get to him and put a stake through his corrupt old heart if it was her the last thing she ever did.

She noticed that several fights broke out around the pulpit. The cardinals had attacked the Red Guards and had successfully staked two of them with the short end of crosses. She noticed the ash piles in dismay and searched quickly for Quinn. He was punching a cardinal in the face and was about to reach for the cardinals head, and Chloe sighed with relief, knowing full well what came once Quinn had hold of a neck.

Then she looked around her own surroundings again and saw that the human cardinals had started to move at the sight of the blood and the panic of the Red Guards. They were moving to the aisle and sloshing through the quickly rising blood in an effort to get out of the Sistine Chapel. It was too bad, she had wanted them to witness what was about to happen. 

But then she noticed that several of the cardinals weren't actually leaving. They were making their way to the pulpit or reaching for crosses around the room. She felt reassurance in the Red Guard choice of replacement when she saw the future Pope lead the way. It's really weird that so many of these crosses have sharpened sides, she thought. But, it's both sides that are sharp. The Pope is prepared for an attack from either side, she guessed.

She watched as the cardinals picked up the crosses and started running towards the pulpit. The Red Guards on the pews were quickly leaping from one seat to the next as they looked ahead with grim determination. She leapt to the next pew, praying that she didn't fall into the sticky pool of blood rising towards her. What a way to go, she thought to herself with disgust.

She heard a splash to her right and followed with her eyes. Gerty had fallen into the pool of blood. It was deep enough to have completely covered her in the fall. Chloe started to move towards her to help pull her out, but she heard a voice just behind her, "Don't," it was Felicity. Chloe looked to her and Felicity continued, "You're too late anyways. It burns very quickly. And if you reach in, you will lose your limb. It won't grow back." Chloe nodded sadly and then cringed as Gerty shot out of the blood. 

All of the Red Guards jumped back at the sight and then watched in shock as Gerty went back down without making a sound. She disappeared then. Those on the pulpit didn't seem to notice, but the Red Guards on the pews paused briefly to reflect on Gerty's fate. "Keep going," urged Felicity. "The blood is still rising. We need to get to the pulpit and finish this."

Chloe looked ahead with new determination and leaped on to the next pew. They were almost at the pulpit now and she wanted to go and help Quinn and the rest of her people. She took her last leap and looked up the stairs to see what awaited her in this battle. She saw that the Pope was fighting one of the Red Guards with gusto that belied his age. He was swinging a cross towards the Guard's heart, but it was blocked as the Guard swung his own cross.

The cardinals continued to fight as well. There were seven vampire cardinal electors left out of the original fourteen, according to Chloe's quick count. There were about twenty human cardinals fighting, but they were being killed quickly. Chloe noticed several bodies around the altar. She glanced around noting how many Red Guards were left of their eighteen and noted with some grimness that there were twelve of them left. Not good, she thought, they are beating us, slowly but surely.

Suddenly there was a loud whistle followed by a gleeful shout, "Marcellus!" There was an echo that followed the proclamation. "It is so nice to see you again... although the circumstances have been better, don't you think?"

Chloe turned to see Ethan standing at the other end of the aisle. He was looking at the pope with a confident, perhaps even gloating, smile on his face.