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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, John Cena, Ashley, Maria, Edge...
NOTE: This fic is written with the assumption, that Jeff, Edge, and Umaga are still on RAW, and Matt, Kane, the Boogeyman and the Undertaker are still on Smackdown, and that Undertaker is still the World Heavyweight Champion and Matt and Jeff are still the Tag-Team Champions.
000
Matt found himself in hell once again. The fields of thorn bushes, the river of boiling blood were there just as he remembered from last night. He shivered as he wondered what Chiron had in store for him now. All of the previous dreams involved Chiron torturing Jeff in some way, and forcing Matt to watch. No doubt this would be the same. It always started with Jeff running up to him, and saying he found a way out of hell.
Matt heard footsteps behind him and he turned around. Sure enough there was Jeff running up to him. His little brother grabbed his wrist and began pulling him along. Matt knew what would come next, they would run for awhile, and something would reach out and grab Jeff and tear him away from Matt. This used to terrify Matt, but by the third time he had convinced his mind that it was all just dream, nothing more than an illusion and that the Jeff here was not his Jeff.
However, this time instead of following Jeff, he grabbed his brother's wrist and pulled the younger Hardy to him. He wrapped his arms around Jeff's waist and back, pulling his little brother against his body.
Matt could see the increasingly distressed look on Jeff's face as he tried to get free of his brother's grip. "Matt! Come on, we have no time for this! We have to get out of here!"
Matt agreed completely, but when he commanded his arms to let go of Jeff, they did not. Instead his arms pulled his younger brother closer. Jeff 's face became a mask of pain as Matt's hands pressed in on the sore part of his back.
"Matt! Stop please! It hurts!" Jeff whimpered.
I'm sorry Jeff! I'm trying! But my arms won't listen to me! Matt shouted inside his mind, however his lips whispered. "Ah, your cries of pain, Jeff, are especially sweet."
"What?!" Jeff gasped, looking at his brother in terror.
What?! Matt thought.
With movements not controlled by him, Matt pushed Jeff to the ground and crawled on top of him.
"Matt, stop! Get off me!" Jeff screamed, struggling to get free, as Matt pinned his wrists down.
Matt felt his lips curve into an unwanted wicked smile. "As you wish." He got up, but as he did so branches of the thorny bushes came up and wound themselves around Jeff's arms and legs, binding him to the ground.
Matt redoubled his efforts to regain control of his body and help Jeff, but it was no use, he was only an observer behind his own eyes. He watched in horror as his hands moved of their own accord down the length of his little brother's body and rested on the belt of Jeff's pants.
NO! Matt's mind screamed, while his hands unfastened the belt buckle. Anything, but this! Not by my own hands!
"Matt, please don't…" Jeff pleaded weakly tears rising to his eyes.
Matt only stared down at Jeff with cold eyes and an equally cold smile on his face, even though he was screaming inside. His expression did not change as he yanked the pants clean off and pushed his little brother's legs apart…
000
Matt's eyes snapped open as his head hit the floor. He had fallen part way out of the bed, his body all tangled up in the sheets. He slowly untangled himself and curled up into a ball on the floor. Despite the dream being over, Matt started sobbing uncontrollably. This was the worst of the nightmares he had ever experienced. Even though it was Jeff who was raped in the dream, Matt still felt violated. He was forced to see and feel what he was doing to his little brother, and he could do nothing to stop it. He was once again helpless to save Jeff.
He looked up to the bed next him, and realized it was empty. It looked like it had never been slept in. Jeff's bag was still sitting there unpacked, but Jeff was no where to be found. Matt panicked and grabbed his cell phone. Dialing his brother's number he prayed Jeff was unharmed.
"Please pick up, Jeff…" Matt whimpered shakily into the phone. "Please be all right…"
000
Jeff woke up with a jolt. He had a strange feeling in his gut that something was wrong. However, the feeling quickly dissipated when his eyes focused on Maria lying next to him, sleeping peacefully.
Last night had been quite interesting, it turned out Maria had wanted it as much as he did, and it turned out CM Punk had taught her some very interesting methods of turning safe sex into a type of foreplay. Jeff never knew that a condom could be made to be so erotic. He smiled at the memory of Maria's soft hands on him.
He wasn't exactly sure what way this relationship between himself and Maria was going. Was he just the rebound guy she wanted in the absence of CM Punk? Or was there something more? In all honesty he himself was not sure what he wanted either. So he had decided to just sit back and let Maria be in the driver's seat and see where they went. So far he liked where they were driving.
He reached out and gently stroked the silky skin of her face. She stirred in response and slowly opened her eyes.
"Good morning." She smiled at him and placed her hand on his.
"A very good morning." Jeff grinned sleepily.
Maria giggled and scooted closer to him and gave him a small kiss on the lips. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. They moved in for a deeper "good morning-after" kiss, but were interrupted by the ring of a cell phone.
Jeff growled and reached over to his phone on the night stand. "This better be good..."
"Jeff?" Matt's shakey voice came over the phone. "Are you all right?"
Jeff looked at Maria and grinned at her. "I'm just fine."
"Good, I thought that…" Matt stopped as he choked on the lump forming in his throat over the memories of the nightmare.
Jeff frowned, not liking the shakiness of his brother's voice one bit. "Matt, you okay?"
"I'm…I'm fine," Matt whispered, before hanging up the phone.
"Matt?" Jeff became increasingly worried, usually Matt said "goodbye," before hanging up.
"Is Matt okay?" Maria asked softly, looking equally worried.
"I don't know…" Jeff breathed, and got out of bed. "I should go check on him."
"I'll come with you." Maria got out of bed too.
The two of them threw on their clothes, and in a few minutes were heading out the door. They ran into Candice, who was Maria's current roommate. She had spent the night with her current boyfriend, the champ, John Cena. She raised an eyebrow at them. Maria had fresh clothes on, however Jeff's clothes had the crinkled look of spending a night on the floor.
"Excuse me," she said, slipping past them, and toward the bathroom with a smug smile on her face.
"Well, looks like we won't have to worry about telling everybody." Maria sighed. "In a couple hours everybody will already know."
"Then we better go see Matt, he'd be pissed if he was the last person to find out."
000
Matt was curled up in the corner of the shower, just letting the water run over him, as he stared blankly at his feet and the water, pooling around him. He hoped that if he stayed under long enough it might wash away the dirty feeling on his body.
He might have stayed there until his skin looked like a giant prune, but the sound of the key card unlocking the hotel room door jolted him out of his stupor. He quickly turned off the water, stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist, before opening the bathroom door.
"Hey, guys," Matt greeted Jeff and Maria. "What's up?"
"Just checking on you, man," Jeff greeted him back. "You sounded so shaky on the phone, we wondered if you were okay or not…"
"Oh, I'm fine," Matt said softly. "Where were you all night?"
Jeff looked over at Maria, blushing a little. She smiled at him and giggled a little. "Well, I went out to dinner with Maria... and... well… one thing led to another and…"
"Oh my god…" Matt said with some shock, looking between the two of them. Sure the elder Hardy was exhausted and still a little traumatized by the dream he just had, but he could still read the rather clear writing on the wall. "You two totally did it, didn't you?"
Jeff shrugged, grinning like a cheshire cat; Maria smiled and hugged his arm.
"Wha…" Matt seemed completely speechless, like a big event just happened and he had missed it. "When did all this go on?"
"Well, she and I have been seeing each other. I told you that before," Jeff said a little confused at his brother's complete forgetfulness of the relationship between him and Maria.
"Oh… That's right you did…" Matt murmured, his memories about Jeff telling him about his dates with Maria, somehow they had mired down in the muck of the nightmares sent by Chiron. "I just didn't expect things to move so fast between you two."
Jeff grinned. "Live for the moment, right? Well, when the right feeling comes you have to act on it."
"Yeah, right…" Matt managed a small tired smile. "Just don't break my brother's heart okay, Maria?"
"I won't." Maria smiled and hugged Jeff's arm tighter.
"You sure you're okay, Matt?" Jeff did not like how pale and weary his older brother looked. "You look tired."
"Oh…With all the stress of the Great American Bash coming up, I haven't been sleeping very well," Matt said calmly, trying to shrug the subject off.
"Maybe, we'll all feel better after getting some breakfast," Maria suggested.
Matt quickly jumped on it. "Yeah that sounds good. Let me get dressed and I'll meet you guys down in the café."
"All right…" Jeff said slowly. He had the feeling something was wrong with Matt, but could not tell exactly what was bothering his older brother. "We'll meet you down there then."
Matt breathed out a sigh of relief when Jeff and Maria left the room. He could tell his little brother was starting to catch on that there was something wrong. He shivered as the memory of the horrible dream flashed through his memory. It was still so strong and vivid. Then it occurred to him that Chiron might have the power to take control of him, like in the dream, and force him to do those horrible things to Jeff in reality.
He could not let that happen. But what could he do to protect his little baby brother?
He did know he had to keep Jeff as far away from him as possible, but how could he do that without Jeff knowing what was really going on? He groaned as he realized the only way to do it was to get Jeff mad at him. As much as he hated the idea of picking a fight with his brother, if it would keep Jeff safe, so be it.
000
Jeff knew there was something more going on with his big brother, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. When something stuck in Jeff Hardy's mind, he tended it to not let it go until it was solved.
They were currently walking down the hallway toward the locker rooms. Tonight's show would be an inter-promotional one, featuring both Smackdown! and RAW in the same ring, although the two brands had separate locker room areas.
"Matt, come on, what's going on?" Jeff continued to prod his brother for information.
"Nothing, Jeff, I'm just tired..." Matt insisted, but the impatience was clear in his voice.
"Just tell me what the problem is," Jeff kept pressing, he knew if he pushed hard enough, Matt would crack, and just tell him.
Sure enough Matt did crack, but not the way Jeff expected.
"I said 'I'm fine,' Jeff!" Matt snapped at his younger brother. "Can you just drop it already?!"
Jeff was a little taken aback by the anger on his brother's face. "I'm just worried about you man…What's up your ass all of a sudden?
"You are, Jeff!" Matt shouted right in his brother's face. "You just won't let something go! I told you over and over again that I'm fine, but you keep pressing me! It's irritating as hell! You just get under everybody's skin like a little tick! So right now, why don't you just go occupy yourself with your stupid little sketches and give me some peace and quiet for a change?"
Jeff stood there, open mouthed for a moment; he couldn't breathe right as if Matt's harsh words had punctured one of his lungs. He couldn't find words to respond, so he just turned around and started to storm off towards RAW's locker room. In the pit of his stomach, he could feel a powerful rage quickly replacing the shock. Matt had hurt him with cruel words, so Jeff would give just the same back. He turned around and stormed right back to Matt. "You're a fucking drag, Matt! You're always acting like you're so superior over me, and you can criticize me all you like, just cause you're my older brother. Well, you know what? That doesn't mean shit!"
Now it was Matt's turn to be in shock. He narrowed his eyes at Jeff. "Oh yeah? Well, you're an ungrateful little shit! And you know what? Next time you're in trouble, see if I care. I've already put my life—" Matt immediately shut his mouth as he realized he almost gave away that he had been bearing Chiron's dreams.
"What, Matt? Put your life on the line for me? I've saved your ass to plenty of times too and you know it! And you've done shit to help me in this whole Chiron situation! Taker and Umaga have been a hell of a lot more help to me than you!" Jeff snarled,
Matt shook his head and counted to ten. His heart ached that his brother accused him of not helping at all. He wanted nothing more than to tell Jeff everything, but he managed to swallow it and continued with his plan of separating Jeff from himself. "Screw you, Jeff! When they come after you I won't lift a finger to help! At least when they take you, it'll get you out of my hair!"
"Oh yeah?! Well fuck you too, Matt!" Jeff screamed, and turning around, he stormed off for real this time.
Matt stopped and just stood there, listening, while Jeff said his peace and stormed off. All that time Matt did not dare turn around and face his brother, for he knew if he did he would burst into tears…
000
Down in the depths of hell, a cold smirk crossed the lips of the hell keeper Chiron. When the demon discovered Matt Hardy's resolve to protect his little brother was stronger than anticipated, tactics had to be switched. Chiron decided instead to use the elder Hardy's protectiveness against him, and it had worked perfectly. The separation of the Hardy brothers had been achieved.
888
Oh no! It seems Chiron has turned the Hardy Boyz's greatest strength, the brotherly bond between them, into their weakness! Can it be repaired before it's too late?
Fic Recommendation:
Go check out Green Phantom Queen's fic "A Change of Face", it's well written story with a plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat. You can find it in the favorites section of my profile.