The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The Cabbala.

"When you were young and your heart was an open book

You used to say live and let live

(You know you did, you know you did, you know you did)

But if this ever-changing world in which we're livin'

Makes you give in and cry, say live and let die

Live and let die, live and let die, live and let die

What does it matter to ya

When you've got a job to do, you gotta do it well

You gotta give the other fella hell. (…) – The Wings "Live and Let Die"

Warning: Violence, explicit language, possibly gore.

Timing: 2015, for particular timing of the characters original universes, see footnote of their respective chapters.

Rating: M, possibly MA.

Pairings: Wilhelmina and Allan (past). Wilhelmina and Orlando (friends with benefits).

Disclaimer: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen original comic books © Allan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Neverwhere (in character of Lady Door) © Neil Gaiman. Atomic Robo © Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegner. Stargate Atlantis (in character of Spike the Wraith) © MGM Studios. Hellboy (in character of Karl Ruprecht Kroenen) © Michael Mignola. Slenderman © Eric Knudsen (as Victor Surge). The story © Archer Black.

Dracula (in character of Wilhelmina Murray) by Bram Stoker. Allan Quatermain by sir Henry Rider Haggard. Orlando (or his/hers alike) by Virgina Woolf.

Death black wings.

"(…) Wait, wait patiently

Your death black wings

Unfolding sleep

Spreading o'er me

Empty they say

Death, won't you let me stay?

Empty they say

Death, hear me call your name

Ooh, call your name

Suicide, I've already died

You're just the funeral I've been waiting for

Cyanide, living dead inside

Break this empty shell for evermore (…)" – Metallica "Cyanide".

oOo

East of Poland. Later.

It was getting dark outside, the evenings started early on this time of year and the twilight was deepened by the low, leaden clouds that brought cold, autumn rain. The big, fat raindrops were tapping at the window ledge and the glass, the bare tree branches moved slightly on the wind.

Inside of a hotel room it was warm and light. The still alive jihadist was sleeping, his feeding induced age demanding rest. The man who lay on the bed wrapped in blanket looked nothing like he did only couple of hours before when he wanted to set the world on fire. His face was wrinkled, his hair and beard were now grey and his eyes – when he was awake earlier – filled with pain. Perhaps it was the very pain he planned to unleash on innocent people.

Next to the Jihadists a pile of books and documents rested on the bed, they were brought and left there. The people who would perform their evaluation were occupied at the moment and the other two team members were not qualified for that task.

Atomic Robo and Spike sat on two arm chairs making sure that the Jihadist stayed alive and didn't try to pull any stunt off, not that he was in any shape for doing so.

Kroenen and Door busied themselves with Slenderman's injured tentacle. The faceless entity was known to have amazing regenerative abilities but he asked for assistance explaining with Spike's help, that his tentacle wouldn't heal for some reason.

Kroenen being a surgeon was naturally the one to do the doctoring and he asked Door to act as his nurse because she had small and delicate hands that were more adequate than Spike's sharp claws and Robo's thick, metallic digits.

At that moment Slenderman sat shirtless of a chair, front to back, while Kroenen and Door stood behind him, examining his back. One of the uninjured tentacles held a LED light electric torch. Slenderman as his name indicated was indeed slender though he wasn't cadaverously thin even though when fully clothed he had appearance of a beanpole. Now however it was clear that while wiry, he had actual muscle stuck to his bones even though the proportions of his body seemed to make them absent.

"I see it now." Kroenen commented something he saw on his patient's back. "It's a small tear in the epidermis here, it's not large but it seemed to manage to swell and block your tentacle from retrieving completely."

Slenderman turned slightly and looked back at the German with what seemed to be question.

"He asks if you can fix it." Spike passed the message and stretched his neck to try to take a look but he couldn't see anything from his spot.

"It shouldn't be a problem. We only need to let the tentacle withdraw so it will stop pressing and grazing on the tearing, then your natural healing should do the rest." Kroenen gently lifted the not fully retracted limb. "Herrin Door, you have smaller hands than I do, if you could place them here and hold the swollen tissue back a little, Slenderman should withdraw his tentacle back."

"Like this?" Door asked.

"Yes. And not gently, delicately, push the tissue with your fingers…" Kroenen instructed. "And now, Slenderman, pull the tentacle back in." The tentacle started to retract. "Good, and now I will apply some ointment to lessen the burning."

"I wonder when that happened." Spike pondered.

Slenderman shrugged, ignoring Kroenen rubbing something on his back.

"What did he say?" Door asked.

"That it had to happen when he hit that Golem." Spike replied. "But you were using that tentacle later, in the fight." He addressed the silent creature again.

"That was probably why the tear got aggravated." Kroenen speculated. "You were moving, retrieving and extending all or majority of your tentacles during the fight." He screwed the tube with the ointment and put the dressing on the injured area. "There, done, you can dress yourself."

Slenderman stood up and reached for his shirt.

"He said that he had to beat the golem." Spike repeated Slenderman's words.

"You should have been using your others tentacles and let that one rest." Kroenen replied and vanished in the bathroom.

"He shouldn't be using anything at all." Robo couldn't stay silent any longer.

"It seems that something is bugging you." Spike exclaimed the obvious.

"What bugs me is how he could get wounded by something that shouldn't exist in the first place!" Robo jumped to his feet and pointed at Slenderman who was calmly buttoning his shirt. "You cannot have some monsters made of clay that are animated by writing some 'magical' formula on their foreheads! It's scientifically impossible!"

"And yet there they were." Kroenen replied leaving the bathroom. The medical latex gloves replaces by his own leather ones, never allowing any of his team mates to see even a tiny patch of his skin.

The moment he emerged Slenderman stepped in and closed the door, causing Door to huff in annoyance. She wanted to take latex gloves and wash her own hands too.

"You punched one into deactivation yourself." Kroenen reminded. "You do not understand it but it doesn't mean it is impossible."

"Don't remind me." Robo did his equivalent of tired sigh. There were enough things he didn't understand as it was. He never learned who built that mobile pyramid1) or made the gigantic ants2). And those were problems that he solved with relative ease. "You know dealing with weird and unusual is my lot in life but there is a thin line between weird and nonsensical."

"There are things, all sorts of things that were considered to be nonsensical in the past but are reality today." Kroenen reminded. "There is knowledge that ancients possessed that was forgotten and we managed to reclaim it only recently. You are a man of an open mind, Doctor Tesla, what does it tell you?"

"It tells me that these kinds of things are dangerous." Robo narrowed his optics.

Behind them the door to bathroom opened and Slenderman emerged. His shirt neatly put into his trousers. Door huffed something under her breath and entered. Slenderman paid her no mind; instead he reached for his tie.

"Speaking of dangerous. What with the bunker?" Spike asked.

"We need to collapse it." Kroenen stated. Along with the remnants of the golems.

Slenderman turned to them and then looked at Spike.

"He asks if you have any explosives to collapse the bunker." The Wraith spoke on behalf of the mute creature.

"I have some thermite." Robo admitted. "It's not an explosive material though."

"It can burn through bunker's construction elements, at least the metal ones. That should be enough for the gravity to do its work." Kroenen agreed.

"And what about him?" Spike pointed at the still sleeping Jihadist.

"What about him? Do you want to finish him off?" Robo pried with sarcasm.

"There's not much left." The alien pointedly ignored the sarcasm.

"We're taking him back to London." Door poked her head out of the bathroom; she was wiping her hands in a towel. "Robo, would you be kind to call Miss Murray and ask her for transportation?"

"Sure." Robo started to dial the London.

TBC

OK. Since while LoEG fic, the LoEG is in itself a crossover, so do not worry if you won't be familiar with any of the characters, if the need will arise it will be explain and if you will have any additional questions or something won't be clear, you can also contact me and ask and I will answer you to the best of my abilities.

1) Atomic Robo: Fighting Scientists of Tesladyne, vol 3 "Pyramid Scheme".

2) Atomic Robo: Fighting Scientists of Tesladyne, vol 2 "Pest Control".