Chapter 56

"So, have you and everyone who is coming with us discussed when we're leaving?"

"Soon darlin', real soon. We have a standing army, Steve has been getting them ready. But we're also leaving men here to protect Wonderful, and Malcolm thinks he can cast a protection spell to help, but he's not sure how long it'll last since he won't be in the vicinity." Malcolm had to go with them. "I'm tempted… to leave the talisman here, just in case." He admitted, not surprised when she began shaking her head no immediately.

"No, it's too dangerous without your magic, Mark. I know you hate it, I know you don't like relying on it, but…this is the time TO rely on it." Abigail cupped his face in her hands, softly kissing him, and felt him pull her on top of him, their chests pressed together. She trailed her lips down his jaw to his neck and back up again, feeling him start to rise to the occasion again. "Promise me…promise me you won't leave here without your magic. If anything happens to you…" Shaking her head, Abigail did not want to think about the prospect of not having Mark in her life anymore. "I can't lose you. Wonderful will be just fine because we're taking the fight to them." He sat upright, wrapping her legs around his waist and draped her arms around his neck, enjoying how her fingers got lost in his soft dark red tresses.

"I know, I know… I just… what if's, darlin'. I want to make sure that, if something does happen, all these people aren't left hanging in the wind." He admitted, knowing he sounded like an ass, especially after telling her that they had this and there was nothing to worry about. "Comes with being in charge I guess, you worry about the people." Taker began gliding his lips up and down her throat, smiling when he felt her playing with his hair. "I love you, Abigail." He rumbled, pulling back to press his forehead to hers.

"I love you too. You can't go out there human, just in case Bray doesn't take me as the bait. You have to protect yourself, you have to put yourself first for once." His magic along with Malcolm's would still bring the DOV down, if Bray didn't care to save her. "I know you care about every single person here, even those who oppose and don't agree with you." Dean, Roman, and Seth came to mind instantly. "But just this once, you need to be selfish. After we're done with this, if you want to get rid of your magic forever and keep it as a barrier for Wonderful for the rest of our lives, that's fine. Please don't put yourself at risk when we're going to war, though. These people trust you and I know you're leaving good men here to protect the barrier while we're gone." Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked down, caressing his chest with her free hand. "I'm selfish for asking this of you, for asking you to put yourself first and I know that, but…damn it, Mark, what have you done to me?" Abigail hadn't expected to survive this war, thinking the leader would use her as bait to lure Bray out and ultimately kill her.

She hadn't banked on falling in love with the leader.

"Love makes us selfish, darlin'."

There had been plenty of moments where he had seriously thought about just snatching her up and running. They'd just run and run, leave Wonderful, the DOV, all of it behind. But… that kind of selfishness came at a price so heavy, their hands would forever be bloodstained.

"I won't go human." He said slowly, reaching up to brush away her tears. "As long as you promise me something in return," Because that's how this worked. "I don't want you doing anything stupid. No sacrificing yourself, Abbie. Got me?"

Her confrontation with Dean flowed through her mind, recalling his words and they were nearly identical to what Mark was asking of her now. He wasn't telling her she couldn't do it, but sacrificing herself was off the table. Abigail wanted to protect Mark, the last hope Vesperia had, but she also wanted to survive to be with him. She wanted babies with only him, to marry him and grow old together. Mark saw them having a future or else he wouldn't request this of her.

"I won't, I promise. No sacrificing from either of us. We're going to make it through this, we're going to destroy the Dominion and Bray and we're coming back here to have our happily ever after or whatever. That's what's going to happen, and I won't settle for anything less." Besides, how was she supposed to do anything if she was strung up on his symbol?

"I mean it Abigail, swear it on whatever means the most to you that you won't sacrifice yourself. Not to save Wonderful, not to save Vesperia, and not to save me." He could see a flicker of something hesitant in her gaze before she nodded. "Then I will go as I am, and we'll take down Wyatt and his DOV."

Of course, he wouldn't put it past his woman to lie or change her mind when it came down to crunch time. Abigail had shown she had no problems in doing what she thought was right, even when she was standing alone. It was one of the things he both hated and admired the most about her.

"There's nothing for me here in Wonderful if you're not going to promise you'll be coming back with me."

"Damn it, fine – alright!" Abigail grumbled, smacking Mark when he chuckled at her and rolled her eyes, kissing him passionately. "I promise, I won't put myself in harm's way, not to save you or Wonderful or the world. I will…run, if I have to. Okay?" That promise left a very bad taste in her mouth and made her stomach churn, fresh tears burning her eyes. "T-There's nothing here without you either, Mark. So you better damn well survive this and come back with me. Don't be a hero. Don't sacrifice yourself for anyone, not even me. Glen wouldn't want you to do that. He wanted you to live, which is why he sacrificed himself to save you."

"Well darlin', let's hope we don't find out the limits of Glen's magic."

Intent to live, which had kept him alive over all these years, healed things big and small, and given him some unnatural abilities, as well as enhanced his own. Taker didn't want to know just how bad he would have to be injured in order for the magic to not work. He bet that would be very painful. Making a mental note to ask Malcolm tomorrow just how they were going to get that blood on Wyatt, Taker didn't see the man holding still and letting them do it.


"That's quite simple, my boy. A freezing spell."

"I'm sorry – what?"

Malcolm chuckled, sitting on the bedding in the medical wing while Abigail surveyed his pinky, wrapping it in gauze. There was no way he'd be able to grow the tip back, but that was fine by him. He didn't need the tip as long as the finger, itself, was still functional.

"A freezing spell, Abigail. He will be rendered completely paralyzed by magic."

"You mean like when Mark puts a magic hold on me to where I can't move…" Her cheeks went red as Abigail lowered her eyes, clearing her throat awkwardly. "Freezing spell, got it." Sometimes, she really hated when she inserted her foot in her mouth.

Shaking his head, Malcolm chuckled alongside his son, both of them finding Abigail thoroughly amusing. "A little bit of magic and we'll be able to bathe him in it, with no problems, as long as his soldiers are subdued."

"Can you use magic to just freeze the soldiers and we can hack and slash them down that way?" Steve asked, having trailed around with them, along with a few others. Today was literally follow the leader because they were mere days from leaving.

"That large of a scale? Holding someone in place is a pain enough as it is, holding that many. It'll do you good, boy, doing it the old-fashioned way."

"Guns and swords, gotcha." Taker smirked at Steve, rather preferring it that way. "So, we take out the initial waves, lure his ass out if he's not there already-"

"And ice cube him."

"Malcolm, there is one man I know, for a fact, Bray will have at his side." Her eyes locked with the older man's, seeing the blue in his ice over, and nodded stiffly. "I don't want him to be killed fast."

"Not after what he did to my poor Susan. No, he will be tortured and BEG for death by the time I'm finished with him. We will take him prisoner."

"Sorry, not followin', old-timer?"

Malcolm took a deep breath, his eyes moving up to lock eyes with his son. "The monster who harmed Susan, OUR blood, is named Luke Harper. He raped her publicly…after cutting her tongue out, by orders of Bray Wyatt."

"It was…horrific…" Abigail sniffled, remembering that day, and Susan's screams hadn't left her nightmares until she arrived in Wonderful. "Him and Erick, they both need to die slowly, and they are Bray's most loyal right-hands."

"As long as we capture, Luke, I don't care what happens to the rest of them. Luke Harper is MINE." His eyes flashed dangerously, his fist clenching at his side as she finished bandaging him up.

"Damn right."

Now, Taker knew what he had said about keeping some of the soldiers loyal to Bray for experimentation with ground-up Mythril. But that would have been done fairly humanely and outside of Wonderful's walls. He didn't want the ordinary, everyday populace to see the evil deeds that sometimes kept the kingdom running, so to speak.

"Whatever it is you wish to do to him, do it outside of Wonderful, please."

Susan, and what she had gone through, he agreed that this man, this beast, deserved a horrible, violent death. Shaking his head, he looked at Abigail, frowning. That could have been her if she were any woman except Bray's childhood friend. A breed mare with no tongue, no hope, and no future.

"No worries, Mark, he won't make it back here alive." Malcolm promised, a dark tinge to his tone and let the ice melt away from his eyes as he smiled warmly again. "And I will make sure nobody sees what I plan on doing to him on the way back and dispose of his body…magically."

He planned on torturing Harper, after putting up a magical soundproof barrier in one of the tents and then turning the bastard to dust SLOWLY. To where he felt every particle of his skin deteriorate from his body until all that was left was a pile of ash. Abigail realized how lucky and fortunate she was to be Bray's obsession and friend, his pure Queen, but she couldn't handle the cruelty anymore. Not to mention, she didn't want to be saved for Bray any longer or be impregnated by him to birth his offspring.

What would've happened had she not been allowed out of the DOV? And what would've happened had they had girls instead of boys? Would he have killed her the same as the other breeders, who didn't birth boys? Abigail was thankful not to have to worry about that and knew they had a very long road ahead of them even after the DOV and Bray were brought down.

A very long road indeed, because once they had taken out Wyatt and those loyal to him, then came the task of trying to save who was able to be saved. Weeding out soldiers who were fighting because they had to versus those who simply wanted to. Not to mention all the women, the breeders, physically grown adults but mentally children. Taker rubbed his temples, feeling his head starting to pound just from thinking about it.

"Wait, isn't he supposed to have some kind of spell on him though?" Steve pointed out, all eyes turning on him. "Wouldn't that protection spell stop the freezing spell from workin'?"

"No. A freezing spell doesn't harm him. The spell only stops harm from coming to him, but a freezing spell simply…stops him. It's one of the only loopholes in the spell, actually." Malcolm explained, standing from the bedding and flashed an appreciative smile at Abigail. "Thank you, dear. Feels better already."

"You're welcome." Her gaze turned to Mark, reaching out to grab his hand after taking the medical gloves off. "I think we should have one of those meetings in the tower tonight with everyone. To finalize plans and…tell them what we've decided as far as using me goes."

"She's right, boss. Best to keep everyone who's comin' in the loop. Cena isn't gonna be happy to stay behind though…"

"He just had a baby and Stephanie still needs round-the-clock care until she's healed from the C-section. He'll survive." Taker had already told the man he was staying behind and ordered him to focus on his wife's well-being.

"You know Shaw and Ron are gonna be comin' too. I already got in touch with Mideon and Viscera." Steve didn't care for those two, but didn't mind Shaw and Ron. They were friends whereas Mideon and Viscera were just…weird, but the extra muscle and had damn near perfect shots with guns. "Want me to round up everyone and have them meet in the town square tonight?" That many people would not fit in the tower.

"Ambrose is gone," Melina said by way of greeting, walking into the building with a heavy sigh. "I went to check on his wound and…he escaped last night with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. They're nowhere to be found in Wonderful and…their building was cleaned out completely."

"I like how she says escaped like we're holding them hostage or something." Steve snorted, shaking his head at her. "How'd they even get out?"

"Well, the gates aren't locked from sunup to sundown, and Ambrose has been getting in and out without using the main gates for years."

"If the building is stripped then they went out the main gates. I'm only surprised it took them this long to bail." Ambrose hadn't been a very enthusiastic Taker supporter in a long time, in fact, quite the opposite.

Taker spared a sideways glance at Abigail, wondering if she had been the catalyst.

"He probably used the waterway we used to get out of Wonderful. It takes 10 minutes, roughly, to get through and I know he has some kind of oxygen mask. Roman and Seth probably had ones too, since they also leave the city without detection. Ambrose probably left because of me, because I chose Taker over him." Abigail sighed heavily, wrapping her arms around herself and hoped nothing happened to Dean. Even if she didn't want to be his friend anymore, she still cared for him and couldn't just shut her emotions off like a light switch.

"We can't worry about them, they left and that was their decision. We need to focus on the upcomin' war and finalizin' plans."

"Don't give yourself so much credit; Ambrose has been balking to leave for a while now." Melina said dryly, eyeballing everything around her. Abigail had taken over in the medical wing, which had been nice because it meant Melina had more time to spend with her son.

"That spring isn't wide enough for them to cart their shit out either."

"Uh, what spring? What the hell am I missing? There are other ways into Wonderful besides the gates?"

"You never wondered how we have fresh water and the lake has never depleted?" Honestly… Taker reached out to pull Abigail to him, wrapping his arm around her and stared down into her face. "Are you okay, darlin'?" He asked quietly, knowing whether she wanted to admit it or not, Dean had been her friend. Hearing he had vanished couldn't be easy for her to swallow.

"Never better. I just hope the DOV doesn't get their hands on them." Abigail voiced her concerns, leaning against Taker, and ignored what Melina had said about giving herself too much credit.

Ambrose was perfectly fine in Wonderful, even with his qualms with Taker, until she came along. So, in her mind, with what happened between her and Dean, yes, she was convinced Dean and his friends had left because of her. However, she wasn't about to argue with the woman and kept her mouth shut, knowing it wouldn't do any good to argue over something trivial.

"If they do, they'll become our enemy, simple as that."

"They're all smart guys, they'll be fine."

He was hoping Melina was right about Abigail not being the main reason, elsewise he could see Dean doing something extremely stupid. If it was Abigail, then apparently she had her own magic that lured in men and made them crazy. "Enough, back to work."

Steve nodded, running a hand over his bald head, and sighed. They'd be leaving so soon, it was making his head spin. One way or another, this was it.