If you recognise it… I don't own it.
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"Magnificent Seven: TV series" & "Highlander" - Continuation
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Prisoner escort was never a fun task. And more often than not at least two of the Seven managed to duck out. But on this occasion the entire company of the Magnificent Seven had been required.
They were expecting to be attacked. Ben 'Blaster' Picoult was the second in command of a large gang of train robbers. His brother Matt Picoult was the leader.
But even so, the ambush was a complete surprise.
The Seven were forced off their horses and behind a collection of rocks for shelter.
'Blaster' was still a prisoner. Though judging by the unequal forces it was only a matter of time.
As usual Buck and JD weren't far from each other. And Buck split his attention almost equally between the fire-fight and the youngest of the Seven.
"Do you think we're wearing them down?" JD asked.
"Not likely, kid." Buck retorted, "But I ain't gonna die today."
"Surrender!" The shout came across the killing zone.
"Very well," Ezra retorted as he reloaded his gun, "Relinquish your armaments and emerge with your hands up."
"We meant you! All we want is Blaster. Then you can just walk away. What you're being paid ain't worth your lives."
"Ah do believe, Mister Larabee," Ezra drawled, "That the common miscreant is accurate. Might ah prevail on Judge Travis the necessity of a raise?"
"If you can convince him go ahead." Chris laughed, "Now, the second we get a break, JD and Vin I want you two on your horses and up that cliff. Vin you're to provide cover for us. JD to help Vin. Nathan, Josiah, you're to grab 'Blaster' and put as much distance as you can. Buck, you're covering them. Ezra and I will delay them, until Vin can lay covering fire."
There were acknowledging nods and remarks as the Seven waited for the right moment.
JD was reloading his Lightning Colts when he saw movement behind the Seven. He paused for a moment. He didn't want to distract the others. But couldn't shake the feeling that something was up.
The movement occurred again, but this time he saw light glint of the gun barrel. It didn't take him three seconds to work out who it was aimed at and that it wasn't friendly.
"Buck! Move!" JD yelled as he heard the hammer pulled back. The Eastener threw himself between Buck and the gun barrel, emptying both his guns at the shooter.
"JD!" Buck shouted as he turned to look at the scene.
By then it was too late. JD hadn't quite been fast enough. He had saved Buck, but the shooter had managed to get off one shot.
And JD had caught that one bullet. Just above his left eye. There was no chance of survival.
"Nathan!" Buck yelled, desperately hoping that the healer could produce a miracle.
But all the others could see the truth. The light had gone from JD's eyes. And also from their lives.
Then, at probably the worst possible timing, there was a lull in the shooting.
"Ezra with Vin!" Chris ordered, "Nathan, Josiah! Go! I'll deal with Buck!"
The other left. Chris crawled over to Buck and shook him.
"Buck! Snap out of it!"
"He can't be dead." Buck almost wailed, "He can't be dead, Chris."
"He's dead!" Chris snapped, "He's dead and gone. There's nothing you can do about it."
"I'll kill them!" Buck growled.
"And you'll die!" Chris retorted, "Do you think that's what he would want? Do you think he gave his life for you so that you could then just throw it away minutes later? Are you going to make his sacrifice worthless?"
Chris knew he had gotten through to Buck, when his oldest friend sagged slightly.
"We've got to go." Chris stated.
"We can't leave him, Chris."
"And if we take him right now, we'll die." Chris replied, "We'll come back for him. I promise Buck. We'll come back. But if we don't go now, we're going to die. And he wouldn't want that."
With Vin and Ezra providing covering fire, the two rode off. Leaving behind the rapidly cooling body of their youngest friend.
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"It took us five days before we could get back to JD." Chris read on. He could feel the emotions behind the simple wording and was almost mourning the loss of the youngest gunslinger, who sounded and acted so much like the JD he knew.
"By then, his body had been picked clean by the animals, but we still took him home. I do not remember much of the funeral. I do not know how Josiah managed to perform the ceremony. I do remember Buck crying though. And the words we put on the gravestone haunted me: 'JD Dunne. Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.'
"Ezra had found the quote. It fit our youngest so well. He had been something different for each of us. And yet had still been the same person. We all mourned his loss, all in different ways.
"Josiah was the simplest. He retreated into his ministry. But sometimes I would pass the Church and hear him asking the Lord why he had taken JD from us. Was the Lord so in need of angels that he had had to take JD from us before his appointed time?
"Nathan set to his medical textbooks. He was punishing himself for not being able to heal something that no one would have been able to heal. He was trying to find some way to prove that he could have saved JD. His skill in healing increased, but his joy in it decreased.
"Vin left the town more often. Going on longer and longer rides by himself. I do not know what he was looking for out there. But he never seemed to find it.
"Ezra seemed to find some sort of solace in his cards. However he left the town more often as well. Seeking bigger and larger amounts of money, if you believed what he said. I did not. He just could not stand being around the memories of JD.
"Buck crawled into a bottle. I would have joined him. Only I knew that if I did, there would be no one to drag either of us out.
"We still fought. We still protected Four Corners. More to honour JD than for the town itself. But every fight we went into it, expecting to die. Wanting to die. We were walking corpses.
"No one had entered JD's room since the funeral. We just paid the board and left it alone. I think we were too scared to do anything about what he had kept there.
"We carried on like that for months.
"One day Vin rode into town in a hurry. I thought he was going to warn us about an attack.
"He did not. He had a big smile on his face. One I had not seen for many months.
"He told us that we had to go to my place. He said that Ezra would meet us there. He said we had to see something.
"We went, and once there waited for Ezra.
"When he arrived, he was leading a second horse with a blanket wrapped bundle on the back. It was body shaped.
"Josiah was half-way through crossing himself, when we saw the bundle move. A voice came through the blankets. It was begging Ezra to let him go.
"Buck went pale. We all did, apart from Ezra and Vin."
Chris stopped reading.
"Chris?" Josiah frowned.
"The handwriting changes," Chris declared, "Ezra, you'd best carry on. It's your writing."
Ezra accepted the letter, and quickly glanced at the writing.
"If this is indeed a forgery," Ezra murmured, "Then Mister Dunne has a far larger working vocabulary than I have previously given him credit for."
"Just read." Buck almost growled.
"From time to time," Ezra began, "I find it is beneficial to practise my craft in other places than Four Corners. After all a man should not wait for monetary gain to be bestowed upon him. Rather he should endeavour to discover it in every opportunity.
"It was on one such emprise that I found myself in a small town saloon, engaged in a profitable game. My concentration was destroyed when I heard one voice…
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"Pint of milk, please, Mister Longmore." The accent was familiar, though Ezra was far more used to such words coming from his own mouth, rather than any other.
But the voice itself… That was what had distracted Ezra initially. Accent not withstanding, the voice was JDs.
Ezra glanced up from his cards to regard the speaker.
Once again, he was startled by familiarity. The young man's appearance was very reminiscent of a certain long-haired Texan.
But the face was JD's.
Only long practise in hiding his emotions allowed Ezra to avoid dropping his cards.
"Chris Sanchez!" The barman grinned, "Long time since you were last here."
Chris and Josiah honoured in the same name. Ezra was having difficulty splitting his attention equally between the cards in his hand, his fellow players and the conversation taking place on the far side of the bar.
"I apologize," The boy who had to be JD smiled, "I have been remise in visiting. However my sainted father has been in dire need of my aid these past few weeks."
A father, Ezra almost sighed in exasperation. It couldn't be JD… But it had to be.
"How is Jack, son?" The barman asked.
Ezra's ears registered the two separate words. But more importantly his eyes registered the almost imperceptible flinch the words caused.
"He's alright," The boy shrugged, "Still flirting with everything being that has two legs, a heartbeat and is of the female gender."
Ezra knew that he would have to bow out of the game soon. He needed to investigate the young man… Who had just perfectly described Buck.
"You long in town?"
"To my greatest regret, alas no," The boy shrugged, "I was merely dispatched to acquire a few items, before returning to my domicile. However I did allow time for a quiet drink, before I returned."
By the time Ezra had managed to extract himself from the game, without causing surprise, the lad had gone.
However the bar-tender still remained.
"Who was that young man with the Southern accent?" Ezra inquired.
"Who? Chris Sanchez?" The barman looked at Ezra, "You leave him be, mister. He ain't never harmed nobody. He's a good lad. He and his pa live up near the hills."
"He still resides with his parents?"
"Naw, just his pa. Old Jack."
Ezra turned to walk away, he must have been mistaken. He should have known. JD was dead. He was imagining things.
"Funny thing is…" The barman continued, "I ain't never met old Jack. Only the lad. Only know his pa's name, 'cause the boy told me he was Jack's son. Said it just like that: 'I'm Chris Sanchez, Jack's son.' Only he said it all fancy-like."
"Where did you say he resided again?" Ezra inquired. A father whom no one had ever seen, put the boy back into the picture as the rejuvenated JD… Ezra had to check further. He could not leave without knowing for sure.
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The Magnificent Seven mainly portrayed here are from Mog's ATF Universe. However the letter comes from the Old West group. The basic idea is that JD is an Immortal, and the Old West group found out. They promised JD that they would come back for him. However their reincarnations have no memories of their Old West counterparts.
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