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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
Kane stopped the Chevy pick-up truck in front of the large stone church. He and Taker got out of the driver's cab and went around to the back, uncovering several black boxes, shaped somewhat liked coffins.
Behind them a white limo pulled up. The other wrestlers who were involved in the Jeff Hardy situation, had agreed to come along and help Taker and Kane if they could. Triple H and HBK stepped out of the front seat. No doubt the limo belonged to Vince McMahon and Hunter was just "borrowing" it.
"Are you sure this is the place?" Hunter looked up curiously at the church.
"Yes," Taker answered simply, pulling out his scythe.
"But this is a house of God," Shawn protested. "How can a gate to hell be here?"
"Sometimes God needs help controlling escaped spirits," Kane explained, with a smirk. "Who better to capture an evil spirit than a demon?"
"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Matt shouted. He was about to head into the church when Taker caught his arm and stopped him.
"Who said you were going in?"
"My brother's in there I have to help him," Matt struggled to get his arm free.
"You're a liability, Matt!" Taker growled.
"A liability?"
"When we go in there and it's too late, what's left will look like Jeff but it won't be Jeff," The Phenom said warningly. "If it is too late and Chiron has taken over Jeff's body and expelled his soul, then he'll have to be destroyed. I can't risk having you try to be a hero for him and get in the way of what needs to be done!"
The older Hardy stopped his struggles and swallowed hard. He looked down at the ground. "I want to help my brother." He looked back up at Taker, a determined expression on his face. "And if that means killing him so he'll be at peace, then…so be it…"
Taker nodded and let go of Matt's arm.
"One thing I'm beginning to wonder is how the hell you expect us fight off demons?" Randy questioned Taker suspiciously.
"You won't be fighting the demon," Taker corrected calmly, "You'll be fighting the demon's incubi."
Kane opened one of the boxes in the back of the truck. It was filled with black stone spires. Kane picked one up and held it out to Orton.
"Just stab one with this and he'll turn into a pile of ashes." A crooked smirk crossed the Big Red Machine's face.
Randy flinched a little when Kane dropped the spire into his hand. Orton expected it to be burning hot, but instead it was cool. "Um… yeah… So what do these incubi things look like?"
"You'll know when you see them," Taker said, as he grabbed another one of the boxes out of the truck.
Meanwhile, the other wrestlers reached in to the first box and armed themselves with the black spikes. Taker opened the second box, pulling out his scythe, while Kane opened a third box and pulled out a chain with a hook on one end and an axe on the other.
"How come we don't get cool weapons like that?" Cena motioned to the scythe.
"'Cause you idiots might kill each other by accident," Kane scoffed. "Those spikes are pointy enough."
"What kind of stone is this?" Umaga asked while he and Khali examined their spires.
"Flint, tempered with brimstone," Taker answered shortly. "Sure to kill any incubi at the first touch."
"Are we done yet? Can we go now?!" Matt urged them. He was becoming more and more anxious by the minute.
Suddenly a beam of light shot out from the roof of the church, striking the clouds and making them swirl in a spiral above. The sky crackled and buckets of hail rained down upon them.
"What the hell was that?" Shannon Moore stared disbelievingly up at the sky.
Taker growled. "Hell itself…"
000
Edge felt his heart jump into his throat when all of the symbols on the great door lit up almost blindingly. With a loud creak, the door began to open and the bright light flooded the room.
There was a dark spot against the light as something walked toward them. As the figure stepped past the threshold the door closed behind him. Edge could finally see the demon's face. It was Jeff, and yet it was not. The demon kept Jeff's face and his dyed purple braids tied up into a topknot on his head. However the similarities ended there. He wore a sleeveless coat with a high neck made of shiny black leather that stretched down to his ankles. Bands of the same fabric wrapped around his arms so they looked almost like Jeff's arm stockings. His skin was now so ghostly pale that one could see vessels full of demonic black blood flowing beneath the surface, winding their way across his whole body, giving his lips a tinge of black. Eyes that once shone like pristine emeralds were now red like the waters of Phelegathon.
Now it was not Jeff anymore, it was Chiron.
Edge gulped and took a few nervous steps back. "J—Jeff…?"
Chiron leveled the R-rated Superstar with a cold hard stare. "I am not that mortal of whom you speak," the demon answered in Jeff's voice, though it lacked the southern accent and any emotion whatsoever. "He is in his own hell and quite unreachable."
"Then give him back, you son of a bitch!" Edge demanded, gathering his courage.
"I think not," Chiron answered. He shoved Edge lightly on chest, but it was enough power to send the R-rated superstar back into the awaiting arms of the demon's incubi. They carried Edge back to the altar, laying him flat upon it.
Edge struggled with all his might to get free of their grip. "So, what are you going to do to me? Use me as a vessel for another demon to get inside my body?"
"No..." Chiron whispered impassively, "I am going to send your soul to where it belongs."
"You're going to send me to Hell?! Edge blurted out, redoubling his efforts to escape. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"
"Why do you not believe me?" the demon's glare grew slightly harsher. "Do you not think you deserve to be there?"
"No!"
"After all the crimes you've committed, you believe yourself worthy of escaping punishment?"
"Crimes?" Edge furrowed his brow in genuine confusion. "I don't understand…"
"Ah, the eternal refrain of humanity," Chiron spat coldly. "Always pleading ignorance and begging for mercy!"
"I'm not begging!" Edge snapped. "Just what are these crimes you accuse me of?!"
"On August twenty first, two thousand and five, you did willfully beat and bloody Matt Hardy until he had to be helped out of the arena because he could not leave on his own power," the demon recited.
"Oh, yeah…that…" Edge winced, remembering the fierce battle that had taken place between him and Matt hardy at Summerslam two thousand and five. Their emotions were still all kicked up from Lita's illicit affair with Edge. It was a brutal fight.
"And many hundreds of crimes of violence beyond that." Chiron raised his hand and dark clouds swarmed around, taking the shape of a staff with round blades on each end. "You must not be allowed to commit further crimes in this world." He made the blade ready to strike.
"Please give me another chance! I promise I won't be violent ever again," Edge tried to bargain with the demon.
"I can't take that chance… You are too great a risk, Adam Copeland, so you must be sent to hell!"
Even after all the ladders he had jumped off, all the fights and injuries he'd been through, this was the first time Adam "The Edge" Copeland had acknowledged his own mortality. He could see his own death and damnation in the metallic reflection of the blade shimmering in the dim light.
Only one thought rang in the R-rated superstar's mind. "Help…"
000
The cavalry is on its way, but will they get there in time to save Edge...?