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Summary: Jeff Hardy has been chosen to be the human host that would allow the demon keeper of the seventh layer of hell to enter the realm of Earth. In fighting for his life Jeff has some unexpected allies. Featuring: Matt Hardy, Undertaker, Kane, Batista, Umaga, Ashley, Edge...
000
Jeff Hardy woke with a start when something cold and wet was dumped on his face. He sat up and coughed, then the world started spinning, and his vision blurred. However, he could make out grey walls and the shapes of people standing around him. Suddenly, several hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back down the ground.
His vision cleared little as his adrenaline began to rush in the response to being held down. His eyes frantically danced around his surroundings, taking in ancient stone walls, and cloaked hooded figures standing all around him.
"Who are you? What is this?" Jeff struggled to get free of his captors, but they kept him firmly pinned to the ground.
"It is an honor..." One of the cloaked men stepped forward and spoke in a voice like gravel under the soles of shoes. "You will be the vessel through which the destroyer will do his work."
"Vessel? Destroyer? What the hell are you nutjobs talking about?" Jeff stammered, his heart beginning to pound inside his chest. He made another jerk to get free of the men pinning him to the floor, but to no avail.
Instead of answering, the head man motioned for one of the other cloaked men surrounding them to come forward, and kneeled down at Jeff's side. The man lifted his head to look up at the ceiling. He spoke as if receiving the greatest blessing known to him. "My blood, the first to be shed in the cleansing of the world. All I have, I give to you."
The crowd began to chant a mantra that Jeff could not decipher, though his thoughts were not on the chant of the crowd, but on the huge knife the headman pulled from under his robes. He walked over to the kneeling man and without a second thought ran the blade across the kneeling man's throat.
Jeff Hardy's jaw dropped as his eyes followed the streams of red flowing down the man's neck.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" Jeff screamed, redoubling his efforts to get free, despite the fact his head was starting to spin again and ache. His adrenaline was pumping at full force, he brought up his leg, hitting one of the men holding him down. The man let go of Jeff's arm, and quickly capitalizing on it, the daredevil Hardy punched the other man holding him down with his free arm. Now free, he jumped to his feet and bolted.
Unfortunately, as soon as he was upright his vision took another spin and threw off his balance, so his run turned into a stagger. The wind was knocked out of him when one of the cloaked men tackled him down. This time more hands reached out to hold him down, pinning both his arms and his legs.
"No! No!" Jeff cried, as fear took over his mind, fear that would he would meet the same fate as the acolyte who now lay dead on the floor. "God help me."
"God is dead, if he were alive our world would not be in this turmoil." The leader walked up to him, a bowl with drops of red blood dripping down the side in one hand, and the large blood stained knife in the other. "The keeper of the seventh gate of hell will come and rid this world of the violent ones, then it can be renewed and rebuilt."
"You're fucking crazy man!" Jeff growled.
The man set the bowl down and raised the knife. Jeff gulped and felt involuntary shivers run through his body as the realization that his throat might be slit or his body cut up finally sunk in. However, instead the headman wrapped his hand around the blade of the knife and held it over the bowl allowing his own blood to drip down the blade into the bowl. When he had finished he motioned to his associates, who rolled up Jeff's shirt, exposing his abdomen.
The head man dipped a brush into the bowl, covering the bristles in thick red, before beginning to draw a rather intricate design on Jeff's stomach. The young Hardy remained relatively silent frantically trying to think of a way to get out of this before they decided to turn the painted bloody lines into real ones with his own blood in the mix.
When he had finished the painting, the head man placed a hand in the middle of the design just over Jeff's belly button, and began another chant.
Jeff felt a painful burning sensation in his abdomen. It was the same pain he felt when he got the tattoo on his right arm. Except it was worse, the pain seemed to seep down, deep below the skin attacking every nerve in its path. Jeff bit down on one of his braids that hung near his mouth to help contain the screams that wracked his body. Suddenly there was a surge, and a shockwave coursed through his body, causing all of his muscles to contract at once, making him arch up from the floor. He was lost in the confusion of neuronal hysteria, and the storm of pain, pain, pain...!
000
"No, dad they haven't given me anymore information. You know I'd call you if they had." Matt held his cell phone up to his ear while his other hand was getting exercise with the remote control, cycling through the news channels for any developments on his brother. "I know dad...I'm worried about him too...I'll let you know if anything happens, bye."
There was knock on Matt's hotel room door. Shannon Moore and Ashley entered the room and plopped down next to Matt on his bed. If Matt noticed their presence he didn't acknowledge at, only keeping his eyes on the television and his finger on the channel button of the remote control.
"You okay, man?" Shannon asked carefully.
"I think that's dumbest question you could ask me right now," Matt snapped, still not looking at either of them. "Of course I'm not okay! Jeff's been missing for two days, had drugs slipped into his water bottle by a security guard, taken to God knows fucking where, and the police don't know jackshit!"
Matt got up and began to pace around the room. He was having trouble deciding on whether to be angry or scared, as the full weight of the situation was bearing down on him again.
"Come on Matt, this isn't healthy," Ashley jumped up and stood in front of the older Hardy, momentarily stopping his nervous pacing. "Go workout, you said yourself it always helps you focus. If nothing else, if you get mad you can always throw your weight around," Ashley smiled nervously, hoping Matt would take to the quip and relax a little.
Matt stared at her for moment then let out an amused snort, and a very small smile threatened to tug at his lips. "I'll try..."
"Then what are we waiting for man?" Shannon helped Ashley pull Matt toward the door. "To the weight room!"
When the three arrived in the weight room, they found they were not alone. Batista was in the corner lifting weights, London and Kendrick were sparring in an empty area off to the side, with Jimmy Wang Yang as the referee.
Matt immediately headed over to the treadmill for a warm up run before lifting weights of his own. Shannon and Ashley followed suit and they all began at a gentle jog, then gradually increased the speed and incline, all varying depending on their fitness level.
With the pounding of his feet on the treadmill, Matt vowed he'd find Jeff and beat up whoever had taken him. After about ten minutes of hard running up hill, he vaguely registered Shannon yelling at him, "Slow down man or your lungs are going to explode." Matt noticed how out of breath he was and quickly switched to the "cool-down" phase, to bring his heart rate and breathing down slowly. When he got them under control, he hopped off the treadmill and took a big gulp from his water bottle before heading over to the weights. "Hey, where'd Ashley go?"
"Oh she's over there watching her two tag-team bitches." Shannon chuckled, motioning over to where Ashley was watching London and Kendrick.
"Hey Matt! Shannon! Come over here." London called trying to keep Kendrick in a headlock. "Let's have a five man tag-team match! Ashley can referee."
"What do you mean referee?" Ashley said in mock indignance. "I'll take all you bitches out."
There was a moment of silence before everyone burst into fits of laughter, even Matt managed a small chuckle.
"She'd do it too." Batista said, earning another round of chuckles.
"So you guys in or out?" Kendrick managed to slip out of London's headlock and pulled London into one of his own.
"No Thanks." Matt waved a hand before going to the benchpress.
"I'm in!" Shannon called running over to the ring.
"Hey, I need a spotter over here man." Matt called over to them from the barbell bench.
"I got you covered." Batista came over.
"Oh, thanks." Matt nodded settling down on the bench under the barbell. He was genuinely surprised at Batista's offer, since The Animal had lost his World Heavy Weight Championship title to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 23 he had been in foul mood and had been stand-offish and cold to everyone around him who wasn't a fan.
"Any news on your brother?" Batista asked softly, after Matt had done two reps.
"Nothing." Matt growled pushing the barbell up. His anger was not directed at Batista, but at the inability of the authorities to find out anything. Of course it had only been two days, but every hour that ticked by made Matt wonder what was happening to his brother at that moment. Was he dead or alive? Was he locked away some where? Was he being tortured by whoever held him captive? There were lots of crazy people out there. Matt brought the barbell up again, completing another rep.
"I'm sure they'll find him, the police force is pretty good around here." Batista said assuredly.
"Oh, I'm sure they will find him. I just hope they don't find his dead body on a riverbank." Matt gritted his teeth bringing the barbell up, then down and up again. "Shit...I hope he's okay."
"Jeff's tough. He'll be all right." Batista carefully monitored Matt's movements, looking for signs of fatigue.
"Yeah, but even a tough person can't fight back if their drugged up." Matt pushed the barbell up with extra vigor.
"Was he on drugs?" Batista's sympathetic voice turned serious.
"No!" Matt blurted out at the shock what Batista was implying. He lost his concentration and needed Batista to help him lift the barbell up again and get it back on the holding bars. Matt sat up panting. "The security camera's caught one of the security guards putting something in Jeff's water bottle, while Jeff was in the bathroom."
Batista's eyes widened a little in shock. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to say..." the Animal trailed off when Matt began pacing around again, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Fuck. He's out there somewhere, drugged up and I can't do any-fucking-thing about it!" Matt stopped and sat down on the bench, breathing hard through clenched teeth, his fingernails digging into his knees.
Batista shifted uncomfortably, he never seemed to know exactly what to do in these situations, and just went with his instincts. Hesitantly he reached out and put a hand on Matt's shoulder and gently squeezed it.
By this time the others had taken notice of Matt's reccuring distress and came over to help Batista comfort the elder Hardy. Just then Matt Hardy's theme song played as his cell phone rang.
"Hello?" Shannon answered it, as Matt seemed in no mood to talk to anyone. "No, this is not Matt, but he's not feeling very good right now, what do you want with him?"
Shannon was silent for a moment as the person on the line talked. However, his eyes grew progressively wider as the talker went on. "No shit! I'm sorry, I'm just glad that's all, I'll put Matt on."
Matt lifted up his head at the mention of his name, and Shannon turned to him excitedly. "They think they've found Jeff!"
"What?" Matt's dim, sad eyes snapped wide open in disbelief.
"Yeah, they're on their way to the location they suspect. Now they want to talk to you." Moore handed Matt the phone.
"Hello? Hello? This is a Matt." Matt rasped, his heart pounding with both hope and dread.
"This is the chief of police, we've received an anonymous tip as to the whereabouts of your brother." The police chief's gruff voice, relayed the information, firmly, but not harshly with some warning in his voice. "We're sending officers over there now. In all honesty we don;t yet know if your brother is alive. We want you to come down to the station and be on stand by to identify him when we find him."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be down there in a minute." Matt answered, already starting for the door.
"You want us to come with you?" Ashley started after him, closely followed by Shannon.
"Yeah..." Matt said slowly. "Just in case..."
000
Poor Jeff is not having a good day, and Matt's wasn't much better. Will the brothers be reunited? And was this "destroyer" the leader of the worshippers kept harping on?
Find out next time...
Please review and let me know what you think of the story, at least let me know if you are interested in the idea!