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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

The Undertaker stared pensively out the hotel room window. With everything on his mind, sleep was nearly impossible for him. Kane and Jeff on the other hand were sleeping like a couple of logs.

Taker was currently going over all of the possible scenarios for when Chiron's minions would come after Jeff again. He looked over at the clock; it was two in the morning of the final day. They had managed to keep Jeff safe the entirety of Saturday, mainly because the rainbow-haired warrior had not strayed from the room all day, and spent most of it catching up on some sleep. Not surprising, the near capture followed by the terrifying nightmare on Friday, had tired the young Hardy out.

Now it was the early hours of Sunday, in a little over twenty-four hours when the sun came up on Monday morning, the window period for the Seventh Gate would be closed and the danger of Chiron entering the mortal world would be gone

However, a lot could happen in twenty-four hours, and that is what made the Undertaker exceedingly on edge. The highly populated arena for the Great American Bash was the perfect place for Chiron's minions to snatch Jeff. In a way, because of that he was glad that Batista, Cena, Randy, Rey and Edge were now in on it. Even though the first four didn't really understand what was going on, they knew Jeff was in danger and would keep their eyes on him.

The phenom was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Jeff moaning. The young Hardy twitched helplessly in his sleep, making soft sounds of protest and pain.

Was Chiron on the attack again…?

000

When Jeff entered his brother's house, he immediately knew something was horribly wrong. For one thing, what was he doing in Matt's house? Wasn't he supposed to be in California for the Great American Bash?

He gazed up the stairwell and saw what looked like snow, blowing across the top of the stairs. He let out a nervous breath and the air lingered in front of his face. Strangely enough, he did not actually feel cold. Steeling himself, he ran up the stairs, calling for his brother. Full blown terror began to rise in his veins with each step and no answer from Matt.

When he reached the top of the stairs, the floor was covered in snow, with the excess blowing about the hallway by a sourceless wind. As he looked closer, the flakes seemed more like ashes than snow. Jeff dashed down the hallway toward Matt's room. He threw the door open and gazed upon a vision of his greatest nightmare. In the middle of the room was a tall spinning pillar, and strung up upon it by thorny branches and chains, were Matt and Maria.

Jeff could only stare in paralyzing horror at the sight of his loved ones, dead and mutilated, spinning around on the rotating pillar like a grotesque merry-go-round. Finally Jeff snapped out of his horrified stupor and screamed, backing out of the room and, slamming the door shut.

He turned around to run away, but ran directly into the Undertaker. Blind from his terror Jeff pushed Taker away and backed up into a near-by wall, looking like he did not know whether to panic or scream.

"Jeff, calm down it's me, Taker," the phenom said calmly. "I'm just here to help you."

"How do I know that?!" Jeff cried hysterically, pressing himself even more against the wall. "You're one of them! You could be all a part of this game!"

Taker frowned darkly and slapped Jeff across the face. "Don't you ever doubt my commitment to protecting you!"

"I'm sorry," Jeff whispered, panting, the strike seemed to have snapped the young Hardy out of his panicked state. "I know you are. Just….what the hell was that? Is Chiron here?"

"No, this nightmare is a manifestation of your own mind," Taker stated. "We're not in the seventh layer of hell, so Chiron is not present."

"Great…" Jeff groaned, this wasn't even over yet and already he was having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "Um... Taker?"

"What?"

"Were you really a hell keeper?" he asked carefully.

Taker paused, debating on whether or not to reveal to Jeff the truth. He figured that after all of this, Jeff had a right to know. He took in a deep breath and confessed. "Yes…"

"How? You're not that bad of a guy," Jeff looked genuinely confused. "I mean not evil, you only dish out an ass whooping to people who deserve it."

"Maybe not in this life," Taker said gravely. "The same can't be said for a past life."

"A past life?" Jeff's eyes widened in surprise.

Suddenly the scenery around them began to change. Instead of Matt's house they were inside a dark dungeon. Jeff jumped cleanly off his feet when a terrible scream erupted down the hallway.

"Welcome to Europe, early middle ages," Taker waved his hand at the landscape before them.

"What is this? How are we here?" Jeff looked around, his heart pounding.

"It's a memory," the phenom said solemnly. He took Jeff's arm and pulled him along the hallway toward the scream. "Remember my Lord of Darkness gimmick?"

Jeff nodded as Taker led him into a room where several people were gathered. In the middle of the room there was woman being stretched the infamous torture device known as "the rack." It was a particularly slow and painful torture where someone's body was slowly pulled apart.

"Well it wasn't too far from the truth," Taker motioned to the torturers.

Almost immediately Jeff recognized the headman dressed in full regalia. He looked exactly like The Undertaker, except his hair was black like a raven's wing, instead of a rusty brown like the phenom had. Also there was something crueler in the double's eyes

"Is that you?" Jeff looked between Taker and his dark haired look alike.

"Was me," Taker corrected. "Known for my particularly extreme brutality."

"Yeah?" Jeff looked at him nervously, not sure if he wanted to hear the gory details.

"Any normal feudal lord trying to get information from someone would simply have them tortured until they confessed," Taker explained, some disgust readily evident in his dark voice. "However, my former self had a different method. Instead of torturing the person he wanted the information from, he tortured that person's loved one; their wife, their brother, their sister, even their…" He swallowed hard. "…child."

Jeff's mouth fell open in shock. Taker looked away from the younger Hardy, as if ashamed that he had once been this person.

"He applied these same methods to when he conquered cities," Taker growled. "He created hell on earth wherever he went. And that's why he was punished the way he was when he died."

"He was made a hell keeper," Jeff said. "Why? How is that a punishment?"

"Who better to guard the souls of the violent, then he who was a master of violence and torture?" The phenom pointed out to him. "And yes it is a punishment, the keeper feels the pain of the souls he is torturing all of the time. Constant pain and his sentence is much longer than the average soul's."

"How long was your sentence?" Jeff queried.

"I was a hell keeper from the time I died in 465 A.D. to when I was reborn in 1965," Taker stated.

"1,500 years?" Jeff sputtered in disbelief at first, but then another scream erupted from the rack as the woman's shoulders were dislocated. The young Hardy turned away and put his hands over his ears. "You deserved it…"

"I did…" Taker nodded. "And I served my full term. You understand the wrong doing you have done when you have experienced your victim's pain first hand."

Jeff just nodded, gulping a little.

"I served my sentence well and made a full repentance. I rehabilitated many souls to full purity including my own," Taker explained. "That's why I was allowed to be reborn, but some hell keepers can't take it, and instead they try to escape when they have the chance."

"Like Chiron…" Jeff whispered, still looking away. It was all becoming clear now.

"Exactly."

"Okay, can we leave here?" Jeff said quietly. "I feel like I'm going to throw up."

Taker nodded and the scene changed, they were in a house again. No torture, no screaming.

Jeff uncovered his ears and looked around. It took him only a second to realize, though they were in a house it was not Matt's house, where they had started. He turned to ask Taker where they were, but stopped when he saw the phenom looked equally perplexed at the new surroundings.

Suddenly they heard voices outside; Taker ran to the window and looked out.

"Taker, what's going on?" Jeff asked. He had rarely seen such alarm on the phenom's face before, which in turn put the young Hardy on edge.

However, instead of answering, Taker abruptly opened the window and jumped out of it. Jeff stared in shock for a moment, and automatically followed. He didn't realize he had just jumped out a window until he landed softly on the ground. He spotted Taker, standing not far off, and jogged over to him.

Taker was staring intently at two children a short distance away. The older one of the two, who looked about thirteen, was up in a tree trying to get a kite out of the branches, the younger one who looked the age of eleven was yelling at him to come down.

"Mark, come down! Momma said not to do that, you'll get in trouble!" the younger boy cried to his older brother.

Mark carefully balanced himself on the branch that hung precariously above a black berry bush and cautiously inched toward the kite. "Calm down, Kane! I'm almost there."

"You'll hurt yourself!" Kane shouted up worriedly. "I hear breaking sounds!"

Mark ignored his little brother's pleas and climbing out a little farther, he managed to grab the kite. "Got it!" At that moment the branch broke and Mark fell into the blackberry bush below.

Jeff watched Taker visibly wince at the sight.

"I remember that was pretty painful," the phenom said in a grim voice.

"That's you and Kane…?" Jeff said a little breathless at the realization, that he was witnessing one of Taker's childhood memories.

Kane ran over and helped his brother carefully work his way out of the blackberry bushes. Finally Mark pulled himself out. He was covered in bloody scratches and gashes.

"You okay?" Kane fussed over his older brother, looking very upset.

Mark was shaky and panting, but calm. "I'm fine, come on let's go inside. I need to wash these out before Mom sees."

Kane nodded and looked back at the blackberry bushes. Surprisingly enough, the kite was lying on the ground undamaged. Apparently when Mark had fallen, he let go of the kite, allowing it to float free, and avoid the black berry bushes.

Kane ran over to it and picked it up, before running back to Mark and, hugging him around the waist. "Thanks, big brother…I can always count on you…"

Mark smiled a little and patted his little brother on the head. "Meh, it's what big brothers do."

With that he walked back towards the house with Kane following closely behind.

Jeff looked at the two kids then back at Taker. "This is a childhood memory of yours? After your rebirth I mean."

"Yes," Taker answered distantly, starting to follow the boys inside. "Strange, I had forgotten it until now…"

The Phenom and the younger Hardy followed the two brothers inside the house and up to the bathroom. Mark turned on the water in the bathtub and started cleaning up some of the gashes on his arms; meanwhile Kane put some soap on a wash cloth and started cleaning the scratches on Mark's back.

"Boy Mom is going to be mad," Kane said looking at some of the gashes that had yet to be washed.

Mark winced a little as the soaped up wash cloth was placed on the open wounds on his back. "Yeah...but not if she doesn't find out. The scratches are shallow, they look worse than they actually are. If I wear a long sleeved shirt, I should be okay..."

"I thought all of your long sleeved shirts were in the laundry..." Kane said worriedly.

Mark gritted his teeth in annoyance. "I'll pull one out and wash it myself."

"You better do it soon before she comes in."

As if on cue, Suzanna Calaway walked in on the boys. Some of Mark's wounds had yet to be cleaned up. The woman's even face suddenly became enraged, and she yelled at the top of her lungs, with most of the force directed at Mark. "You were climbing those trees again weren't you!? I told you not too!"

Mark automatically got to his feet and back into a nearby wall. "I'm sorry, Mom… I was just… just trying to get Kane's kite down... it's not my fault the branch broke."

The mother seemed to have gone deaf to her eldest son's words. Her only answer was delivering a hard slap across Mark's face. It was enough to cause the boy's already shaky body to collapse to the ground and curl up into a defensive position in the corner. He knew what was coming…

"You're a naughty boy!" She hit him again. "You always were! Always causing me grief!" And again. "Never listening to me!" And again.

"Momma! Please stop!" Kane cried, grabbing on to his mother's arm to stop her from hitting his big brother again.

Automatically, Suszanna knocked Kane away in order to free her arm, not realizing what she was doing in the moment. Kane started crying.

Suzanna looked at Kane in shock for a moment. She turned back to Mark, shouting, "Now look what you did!"

She went over to Kane, and when she reached her younger son, her demeanor had completely changed from an enraged banshee, to the picture of a loving mother.

"Are you all right, Sweetie?" she cooed sweetly, hugging him.

Mark remained quiet in the corner while Kane ran out of the bathroom, crying his eyes out and, their mom running after him to try and comfort him.

After a few moments, Mark uncurled himself from the corner and went back over to the bath tub to finish cleaning his wounds. He responded to this incident with calm and purpose like it had happened many times before.

A few minutes later, to Mark's terror, his mother had come back in, smiling a little, looking as if she had just had a good cry herself. She knelt down next to Mark and gently petted his hair, like a real loving mother would. Mark remained tense and apprehensive, fearing that at any moment, the gentle caressing on his head would turn into a slap.

However, no strike came; instead, his mother helped him clean the rest of his wounds with one hand, while the other remained on his head, stroking his hair.

She picked up a sponge and gently cleaned one of the gashes on Mark's shoulder. "I don't know what came over me before. You know I would never mean to hurt you."

Mark, still frightened, shook his head.

"I'm sorry, dear." She continued to gently stroke his hair.

"I forgive you," Mark said shakily.

They continued this way for a few more minutes and just as Mark began to let his guard down, the grip his mother had on his hair tightened. With a sudden burst of strength she pushed his head under the water.

Jeff watched in complete horror. A mother trying to kill her son? It was an inconceivable concept to him. Right up until the day she died, his own mother always made him feel like he was loved and cherished.

After a while all of Mark's struggles ceased. She held his head underwater for a few more seconds as if to be sure he was dead, before letting go of his hair. Her eyes were wide and her face completely blank as she stood up and exited the room, slamming the door behind her.

"I'd forgotten…My second death…" Taker said his eyes still on his fallen self.

Jeff looked back and forth between Taker and the dead Mark. "But if that happened… How can you be here…?"

Taker blinked and turned back to Jeff. "I was given one last chance… Like any other soul, a reborn soul is planted completely at random; the randomness keeps the tiding of nature and fate in balance. I don't think it occurred to them that the life card I had been dealt for my second chance would be such a bad one."

"So what happened? Does this have to do with you becoming a reaper?" Jeff asked carefully.

"It has everything to do with it," Taker replied remotely. "Reapers are not born, they are made. Sometimes someone's life card is so bad that they are given another chance. Only if the Grim deems it so…"

Just then the water around Mark turned black and took shape. A mound began to rise out of the tub and take shape into the dark robed figure of the Grim. The angel of death reached out a skeletal hand covered with a thin, almost transparent skin and lifted up Mark's head out of the water. "Open your eyes child…" the echoing voice of the Grim reverberated through the bathroom.

Mark's eyes slowly opened and widened at the sight of the Grim before him.

"Dear child, your card in life has been dealt harshly twice over, because of this I will give you one last chance."

"What chance?" Mark whispered.

"Become one of my reapers, serve me and you will have another chance at life," the Grim explained his terms. "You will have the power to collect souls and bring them to limbo if need be, you will have knowledge of the afterlife that no other mortal has, and you cannot be killed unless by another being from beyond. As long as you follow my rules, you will be allowed to lead a better life. Do you want this chance, or to you wish to pass on into death?"

"I want the chance…" the young man rasped. Even though his life had not been the happiest one, he still wanted a chance. The Grim nodded and placed a hand on Mark's back, causing the young Calaway to cough up all of the water in his lungs.

"Now go; there are souls for you to collect in the other room…"

"Wha—What?" Mark coughed.

"Unable to bear what she did to you, you mother has set fire to the house to cloak her sin…"

Alarmed Mark staggered to his feet and ran out of the bathroom. Sure enough, the rest of the house was an inferno. He ran into the living room and saw the bodies of both his mother and father lying on the floor dead. It looked like his mother had stabbed his father with a steak knife, obviously he had found out what she'd done and she killed him in a state of panic.

Mark felt strangely detached from the two people, lying there on the floor, as if they were not his parents at all. Still, he knelt down next to them and placed a hand on his father's bloody chest.

"Maybe if you'd protected me more from her, I'd feel more sorry you," Mark said coldly.

Just then Kane ran down the hallway in a panic, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Mark kneeling beside his parents' bodies with bloody hands and fire all around him.

"You…Brother…you did this…?!" the younger boy stammered in horror.

"Kane…" Mark began, but his little brother cut him off.

"Stay away! I hate you!" Kane took off, running toward the front door.

Mark ran after him, but lost track of which way he had gone in the night outside. The elder Calaway looked back at the burning house, at that moment he thought his past was being reduced to ashes and he could start anew, too bad he did not know yet such memories would never die.

"So that's what happened…" Jeff breathed, still completely overwhelmed by what he just saw.

"Yes…Kane thought I was responsible," Taker said despondently. "He was so traumatized by what he'd seen, when he got picked up he was thrown into a mental institution, until his real father Paul Bearer came and got him out. I didn't even know what had happened, until Kane became a reaper."

"How did that happen?" Jeff asked quietly.

"He overdosed on his pills," Taker swallowed a lump in his throat, his voice becoming less even and more wavering. He took a shaky breath. "I should have looked for him… Made sure he was all right… I'm his older brother damn it! I'm supposed to look out for him! He didn't even have a chance!"

"Taker…Mark…" Jeff said quietly. He had never ever seen the phenom like this before, Taker was almost vulnerable.

The young Hardy reached out to comfort his comrade and for the last few weeks his guardian angel, but his hand went right through. At the same time the scenery around him began to fade into blackness…

000

Jeff woke up just in time to see Taker run into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. The slam was enough to rouse Kane.

"What's going on?!" Kane woke up with a start.

"Taker's upset," Jeff said as he went over to the bathroom door.

It was the first time Jeff had seen an alarmed look on Kane's face since May 19, 2004, the day Taker had made his return to the WWE after Kane had "buried him alive."

"What happened?" Kane came over to the bathroom door.

"Well, Taker came into one of my dreams to see if Chiron was there," Jeff explained quickly, hoping Kane wouldn't turn any anger upon him. "And then some how we ended up in one of his memories."

"Which memory?!" Kane demanded.

"One from your childhood, when Taker fell into the blackberry bush," Jeff gulped.

Kane's faced paled and he knocked on the door. "Mark! Mark, are you alright?"

When there was no response Kane pressed his ear to the door. Jeff watched as the Big Red Machine's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"What's wrong?" Jeff asked, becoming frightened.

"He's… crying…" Kane whispered. "What do I do?"

"What do you mean?" Jeff whispered back.

"What do you do when your big brother is crying in your bathroom?" Kane hissed with more urgency.

"I don't know, Matt's never cried in my bathroom…" Jeff looked at him helplessly.

Kane growled in frustration. After a pause Jeff murmured quietly. "Though I have seen him cry before. The best thing to do is just… comfort him."

"Comfort him?" Kane looked at the young Hardy as if he were crazy. "How the hell am I supposed to do that? I don't comfort people... I don't... I don't even know how..."

Jeff sighed. "Let him know you're here, you forgive him, and that everything's all right…"

Kane took a deep breath and opened the door. He walked in to find Taker slumped against the wall, his shoulders shaking. His head was bowed so his long hair completely covered his face.

"What do you want, Kane?" Taker murmured shakily.

"I wanted to make sure you're okay," Kane grunted, the words of comfort rolling of his tongue like a foreign language.

"I'm fine..."

"No you're not!" Kane blurted out. "You've been crying, and I've never see you cry before."

"I said I'm fine! Now leave!" Taker snapped, not even lifting his head.

"No!" Kane shouted back. "Not until I know you've forgiven yourself!"

Taker remained silent for a moment, before speaking, his voice becoming shaky again. "I'm not sure I have..."

Kane hesitantly reached out a hand and placed it on top of Taker's head. "If I can forgive you, I think you can forgive yourself." When his brother did not seem satisfied, Kane took a deep breath and continued. "Look… You may have been my brother, but Paul was my father, and he left me there to rot as well. He only came for me so he could use me for revenge against you... At least you didn't do that... use me for your own ends, that is..."

Taker still didn't look up, but replied none the less. "I guess that's one good thing I did…" he said dryly.

"More than that, you welcomed me into your family, entrusted me a few times to look after Chasey and Gracie," Kane's voice softened a little when he spoke of Taker's two adorable daughters. "That trust meant a lot to me."

Taker finally looked up and managed to smile a little. "I guess you are right... I guess I can forgive myself..."

"Good, now stop whimpering, it's creepy..." Kane smirked.

Taker chuckled a little. "Yeah you're right."

Jeff grinned as he tiptoed back to his bed. It turned out the brothers of destruction were not so different from the Hardy brothers after all. The younger Hardy shut his eyes and fell back into a peaceful sleep.

For now…