The Grimoire's Chosen Ch. 86 (Worm AU)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

(I am tentatively trying out returning to direct posting to Patreon, this is not a mistake. Google Docs, PDFs, and EPUBs will also continue as I've made them a routine part of my processes.)

A/N: Jason finds out the truth.

-x-X-x-

They tell him everything. Needless to say, Jason is horrified. And not just by what they can tell him about Scion. The so-called ‘First Hero’ being an extradimensional entity beyond human understanding that is expected to decide to wipe out all life on a multitude of Earths is… one thing. But see, that was the thing Jason had already sort of known about.

He hadn’t known everything there was to know about Scion, such as the fact that he was actually one half of a pair and the only reason Earth Bet wasn’t in an even shittier position was because the other half had been killed. He also hadn’t known that this other alien creature had been killed by one of the two women he’d just been fucking, after which she and the other members of this… multiversal parahuman conspiracy had banded together to form a long term plan to deal with Scion as well.

But Jason had at least known Scion was the big threat by this point and the root of not all, but most powers. It was… everything else that Alexandria, Contessa, and their cohort had been up to that was both horrifying and stomach turning.

They called themselves Cauldron… and for what it was worth, their intentions were seemingly good. The ultimate goal of the organization was to kill Scion and end the existential threat posed to humanity once and for all in the process. That in and of itself was fine, especially since Jason could easily believe that someone like Scion couldn’t actually be negotiated with. Did an ant negotiate with an elephant?

However, in the pursuit of that ultimate goal, Cauldron had… gone quite off the rails in terms of morality and basic human decency. As in, they’d taken both of those things out back and shot them dead fairly early on, all in the name of their plans. Said plans involved building an army of parahumans able to combat Scion, keeping things on Earth Bet as stable as possible while at the same time ensuring the entire planet was welcoming to parahumans and ‘cape culture’.

Maybe on the face of it that didn’t sound too bad… except Jason had been born into their status quo. He’d grown up in the heart of one of the worst examples of it… he was a byproduct of all of the pain and misery their so-called ‘stability’ had produced.

Villain capes outnumbered heroic capes two to one on Earth Bet. The excuses for this were many, though they mostly tended to center around the fact that your average trigger event was life-changing stress and trauma more often than not, prompting quite a bit of broken people to develop powers while your average mentally healthy individual simply… didn’t.

However, listening to Alexandria and Contessa’s explanations, he now knew that was a bit bullshit. They’d had control of both the Protectorate and the PRT from the very beginning, literally so given that Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown was Alexandria’s civilian identity. Cauldron COULD have pushed for a harder line against villains, cutting down on their numbers before things could get worse.

They hadn’t, obviously, because that would have run counter to their grand plan of a parahuman army. The Endbringer and S-Rank truces actually provided a glimpse into the future Cauldron had been aiming for. Where villains were treated with kiddie gloves all so that they would be obligated to come when the fate of the world was on the line.

Only the worst of the worst were sent to the Birdcage unless some sort of political sacrifice was needed such as the recent case of Canary. And yet, even those in the Birdcage were simply being stored until such a time as they could be brought out to fight against Scion… because thanks to Cauldron’s ability to teleport between worlds seamlessly, the Birdcage wasn’t actually the ‘no way back’ prison that it was labeled as.

But truth be told, none of that was nearly as bad as what was going on beneath Jason’s feet. See, Cauldron didn’t just rely on having been first to the buffet table to maintain power. It wasn’t enough that they counted every member of the Triumvirate under their banner, or that Alexandria was secretly leading the PRT while Legend not so secretly led the Protectorate.

No, because natural triggers weren’t enough for them. How could they be… when every last member of the Triumvirate was NOT a natural trigger? Instead, their powers came from the dead carcass of Scion’s other half, the alien entity that Contessa had managed to kill all those years ago. Cauldron had learned to harvest and distill powers from this entity… and then turned themselves into a merchant of such things, selling powers in literal vials that could be drunk at the drop of a hat.

The business side of Cauldron’s operations would not be such a bad thing by itself, to be fair. In fact, on the face of it Jason would even go so far as to say that selling powers to people who could afford them, if those people then went on to be heroes, was more morally upright then secretly controlling the PRT, the one organization that was supposed to be crewed by non-parahumans to have oversight over parahumans.

However, there was two problems with that. First, Cauldron did not sell only to those who would go on to be heroes. They weren’t that discerning. Of course not, because part of selling powers involved extracting a number of favors from their customers, and it helped to have villains at their beck and call as much as it did the heroes. Never mind what those villains might do in the interim… Cauldron only had its eye on the Big Picture.

And that brought Jason to the second problem with their selling of vials. In fact, one might call this the biggest problem he had with Cauldron in general after learning everything. The research and development side of Cauldron put the likes of fucking Mengele to shame.

They were the ones behind the Case 53s. All those so-called ‘monster capes’ who showed up at random with misshapen bodies, no memory of where they’d come from, and the Omega Symbol tattooed on their flesh… that was Cauldron. The ‘Omega Symbol’ wasn’t actually that at all, it was simply a stylized C so that Cauldron could keep track of their work…

And the Case 53s, those poor unfortunate souls who drank vials that didn’t go well and that turned them into monsters… they were the lucky ones. Because at least they got to go free. At least they got a chance to build new lives.

The rest, thousands upon thousands of them, were under Jason’s feet right now. All of them were experiments. All of them were parahumans. Some had powers that were deemed too dangerous to release into the wild. Some had powers that were killing them and had to be in special conditions just to keep them alive. And some, worst of all, had powers that were deemed too ‘useful’ and too ‘critical’ to Cauldron’s efforts to be freed.

All of them were prisoners. Mind wiped. Amnesiac. Transformed. The only saving grace was that Cauldron had the consent of most of them before things had gone wrong. Customers who had paid for a vial, only for the vial to not be quite stable enough. Dying cancer patients pulled from terminal wards across a dozen Earths who had signed off on being turned into experiments for even a chance at living.

It wasn’t enough to redeem Cauldron in Jason’s eyes though. Not even a little bit. And as he listens to Contessa and Alexandria’s explanations in stoney silence, his jaw clenched… he really doesn’t know what he’s going to do with them. With any of them.

“… Get dressed you two. Make yourselves presentable. And then call a meeting of your… comrades. So that we can discuss what happens next.”

Matching shivers run down their spines. Which is interesting given Alexandria’s… state of being. But then he’d altered that a fair bit with his powers in order to fuck her. Something that he had to admit, he now felt a little disgusted by. If he’d known all of their crimes before coming here today, Jason doubts he would have ever gotten close to them. Cauldron was an organization that had strayed from its purpose in a myriad of disgusting and horrifying ways. And both Contessa and Alexandria were tarred with that brush.

As they get presentable and call upon their allies to join them for the meeting Jason has demanded, he turns some of his focus inward, bringing his Chaos Magic swirling to life within him until both it and his less practiced Chi are swirling right beneath his skin.

With everything he has going for him, Jason doesn’t believe that Cauldron can bring anything to bear that could possibly threaten his life. However, he’s not about to take any chances, especially when someone like Eidolon could call upon any power and someone like Legend can make lasers faster than the speed of light that curve.

The Chaos Magic he has at the ready will ensure that nothing they might try SHOULD work. He can effectively push it out in an instant, disrupting their powers and breaking anything they try against him. Cautious? Perhaps, but certainly not overly so. Not after everything he’s learned in the last little while.

After fixing their appearances and hiding the… aftermath of their activities with him, Alexandria leads him to the meeting room while Contessa sends out the messages that will bring everyone else around. Jason stands at the head of the table with his arms crossed over his chest and waits in silence, watching as they enter one by one.

The first to show up is the one they call Number Man… Jason has heard of him, though what Contessa and Alexandria have told him tells an even more complete story. The ‘Cape Banker’ who had once been part of the earliest iteration of Slaughterhouse Nine. When he sees Jason, he pauses for only a moment… before nodding and taking a seat.

After Number Man comes Legend. The Protectorate Leader looks far more surprised to see Jason present, his eyes widening as he steps through a doorway from Earth Bet.

“Portent? I… it’s good to have you onboard?”

Legend looks to Contessa and Alexandria, who have no answers for him. Jason… Jason tries not to be too disappointed in Legend in that moment. On the one hand, he knows from what he’s been told that the man didn’t know about everything, only some things. He didn’t know about the Case 53s. Hell, he hadn’t even known that Coil was a Cauldron Experiment until after he helped them put Thomas Calvert behind bars.

And yet… part of Jason thought even worse of Legend for his ignorance. The man was one of the most powerful humans on the planet, and in a position of extreme political strength and influence as well. As the leader of the Protectorate, he had a ton of people relying on him.

More than that, he seemed relatively intelligent. He had to have his suspicions, right? And yet… he’d stuck his head in the sand. He wasn’t just ignorant; he was willfully ignorant. And that… Jason wasn’t sure he could abide that anymore than he could abide the rest of Cauldron’s innumerable crimes.

“Sit down, Legend. Alexandria, tell him what you’ve been keeping from him.”

The Protectorate leader sits down with a furrowed brow next to the secret leader of the PRT. Alexandria leans over and begins to whisper into Legend’s ear, prompting the man’s eyes to widen and his jaw to drop open in disbelief as he learns about the experiments and the Case 53s. At which point, the anger starts up.

However, before he can have an outburst… the actual door to the meeting room opens and Doctor Mother steps in. She freezes up upon making eye contact with Jason… which is good because Jason needs a moment. Both to take the woman in… and to calm his anger before he does something overly rash.

This woman right here that dared call herself something as trite as ‘Doctor Mother’… had no claim to either title. Frankly, she was the mad scientist of this group. She was the leader of Cauldron. A powerless, completely ordinary human woman who had taken these people around her and effectively pulled them out of the worst times of their lives when they were young, causing them to imprint on her.

Contessa had gotten the worst of it, having been just a child when she and Doctor Mother killed Scion’s partner together. From them on, Contessa had been controlled by her power, her so-called ‘Paths’… but she’d been guided by Doctor Mother. Raised by the woman in fact.

The others had it little better. Doctor Mother had come to those who would become the Triumvirate on their death beds. She’d offered them a way to be something better, to continue on and strive for something greater. And then, afterwards, she’d corrupted them inch by inch, every despicable action she pushed them into taking ‘for the Greater Good’.

Even the Number Man was only twelve years old when he and an equally young Jack Slash had murdered King and then parted ways. He’d been recruited into Cauldron less than a year later.

It was honestly difficult to reconcile the sheer ordinary frumpy middle-aged look of this woman in front of him with all of the evil she’d committed in the name of ‘the Greater Good’. And yet… Jason knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything goes right back to her. She is the root of all of Cauldron’s sins.

Doctor Mother is the first to break away from their stare down, frowning slightly as she looks around the meeting room at everyone else.

“Where is Eidolon?”

The question is spoken in the tone of someone who is used to being answered, used to being obeyed. It’s spoken like she’s taking charge even though she didn’t call for this meeting. She’s trying to lay down the law with him, trying to act like his presence means nothing in the face of HER authority.

Contessa shrugs.

“He hasn’t answered me. I do not know if he is coming.”

Doctor Mother’s frown grows for a moment, her eyes flicking to Jason and giving the game away. She’s trying her best not to react, but the truth is… she doesn’t like that he’s here. And she especially doesn’t like that he’s here and Eidolon, their biggest hitter, is NOT here.

“… Then we’ll wait for him.”

Jason steps forward at that.

“No. We won’t. Sit down. I’m ready to begin.”

Doctor Mother scowls and opens her mouth to respond but Jason cuts her off.

“Sit. Down.”

Finally, when nobody else at the table rises to her defense, the dark-skinned woman takes the hint and has a seat. Once she’s seated, Jason looks around the table, eyes narrowed.

“Here’s the deal. I know everything now. So I’m going to deal with Scion. I’m going to make sure he can’t destroy any version of Earth, including Bet. And then, once I have… I’m going to deal with all of you.”

He sweeps his gaze around the table again; lips pulled into a deep frown.

“What assistance you give me in handling Scion, how much help you can be, how much regret you show me you have… will determine HOW I deal with each of you when that time comes.”

His words hang in the air for a moment… and then everyone begins speaking at once.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and lemme know what you think!

-x-X-x-

Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pJvptTbSfSxhrchpCHpqUQhhX2BKDHciIOnnq6T9n8A/edit?tab=t.0

-x-X-x-

A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, I might have to change it at some point.

Jason's current banked points:

400 Celestial Points

Jason's current banked power:

Darkin Weapon (400 Points)

Jason's current powers:

= Flash Air (Gained in Chapter 1

= Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)

= Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)

= Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)

= Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)

= Staff of Magnus (Gained in Chapter 13)

= Bind and Seal (Gained in Chapter 17)

= Hero of a Hundred Faces: Everyone's Leader (Gained in Chapter 20)

= Minor Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 23)
(Taylor got Major Agility, Vicky got Major Intelligence)

= Restraining Order (Gained in Chapter 25)

= Focus (Gained in Chapter 28)

= Scarborough Fair (Gained in Chapter 30)

= Chaos Magic (Gained in Chapter 36)

= Major Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 40)
(Taylor, Vicky, and Amy all got Minor Regeneration)

= A Collection of Magic Rings (x6 Cursed Rings, x12 Drawback Rings, x6 Buff Rings) (Gained Chapter 44)

= Jason: T3 Armor Ring + Blue Ring, Taylor: T3 Armor Ring + Expert’s Ring, Vicky: Red Ring + T2 Heart Ring, Amelia: T3 Armor Ring + T2 Heart Ring (Handed out Chapter 46)

= Lucky Charm (Gained in Chapter 51)

(Currently worn by Jason as of Ch. 51)

= Presidential Suit (Gained in Chapter 52)

(Currently reshaped to be Jason’s new costume while still looking like the old costume Parian made for him as of Chapter 56)

= Taylor, Vicky, and Amy all get Major Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 57)

= Jason gains Major Intelligence via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 58)

(Crystal and Lisa both get Minor Regeneration)

= Second Skin (Gained in Chapter 58)

= Iron Fist (Gained in Chapter 63)

= Exceptional and Lucky (Gained in Chapter 69)

= Safety Minded (Gained in Chapter 72)

= Oathsworn – Deathless Knight (Boosted by Major Regeneration) (Gained in Chapter 81)

= Covenant Connected to Endbringers – Taylor/Behemoth, Vicky/Leviathan, Amelia/Simurgh, Crystal/Unnamed Endbringer, Lisa/Unnamed Endbringer, Sherrel/Unnamed Endbringer (Gained in Chapter 82)