Rey backed away from the door, shaking his head slowly, until his back was completely against the wall, and even there he pressed against it as though trying to fall through it and away. "But...but it can't be you...it just can't be, it..."

Yet despite his denials, there he was. Eddie Guerrero, looking almost silly and out of place in wrestling tights and an old DX T-shirt with a heavy plaid jacket thrown over the outfit, up on his toes in the way he typically was when he was in a hurry or in the ring, and certainly not like he had been dead for almost two years.

And he was also staring at Rey the way Rey imagined he was staring at Eddie. "My God...it's really him..." he whispered, seeming dumbstruck. "He's really here."

"Eddie, I told you to stay back until I could get him prepared for this," Dave growled.

Eddie snapped out of his apparent reverie and shot a glare towards Dave at that comment. "Well, sorry, holmes, but we sorta got a timetable and we need to get moving. You weren't too specific about just how many guards we were gonna have to maul our way through and I'm pretty sure Skittles is going to do someone permanent damage if we don't hurry up."

"Oh man," Rey whispered, sliding down to huddle in the corner, shaking his head. "Why?"

They looked back at him, and Eddie came over, crouching next to him, pulling him up and hugging him close. "Rey-Rey...mi hermano...I can't believe...you're really here..."

"Oh God..." Rey whimpered, tears welling up in his eyes. "Oh God. Oh God. Please don't. Please don't be..."

"Rey?" Eddie leaned back to look at him. "Rey, it's okay, holmes, don't worry, we gotcha, we're gonna get you out of here..."

Rey let out a quiet sob, clutching at Eddie, burying his face in his neck and clinging to him. "Oh God...oh God, Eddie, please...please don't be here...please just let this be another stupid awful dream!"

"What? Holmes, Rey-Rey...it's okay, we're here now, we're gonna-,"

"It can't be true!" Rey wailed, still clinging to him. "It can't be! You can't be here in Hell, Eddie, you just can't be! It's not right! It's not! You can't be here, there's no one good enough on Earth if you're here! You can't be here!"

Eddie stared down at him for a moment, then glanced back at Batista. "What is he talking about?"

"I told you. They told him you were dead."

"Huh..." Eddie seemed at a loss for a minute, then turned his attention back to Rey, lifting his chin slightly to look him in the eyes. "Rey, listen. I'm not dead, I'm okay, see? I'm right here with you, I'm right here."

"I remember...I remember Chavo found you and he called and we were there and we...I held you...I remember...I saw you, Eddie! I saw you there, we all saw you!"

Eddie held on as Rey continued to cry, glancing back at Batista. "He saw me?"

"I don't know, man. I've got the files in the van so we can try to figure out how to help him, but first we just need to get him out of here."

Eddie nodded, then looked back at Rey, lifting his face again. "Come on, Rey-Rey. You gotta calm down and come with us, all right?"

"It's...it's...it won't work, Eddie...it won't work...we're in Hell, we can't get out of here..." He looked up the two of them, who were looking down at him worriedly. "We can't escape from Hell, Eddie...we..." He whimpered, curling back up, hugging his knees. "We're damned...all of us damned...or you're just figments, I don't know...I don't know, Eddie...I can't...this won't work anymore..."

Eddie sat back a little, and he shot what looked to be a very irritated look towards Dave, who sort of ducked his head away, chewing his lip. After a second, though, Eddie looked back at him, reaching out to take Rey's chin in his hand and lift it, looking him in the eyes and smiling some. "Rey, listen to me. You're right, ordinarily people can't leave Hell, but this is a special case, Rey. You were stolen."

"I...I what...?" Rey asked, looking up at him.

"What?" Batista echoed, raising an eyebrow, glancing back towards the two unconscious guards.

"When...when you died, okay, listen..." Batista seemed to move to protest, but Eddie shot a hand up at him for silence. "You were supposed to go to Heaven, Rey, you were. But the devil...he snatched you away before anything could stop him. You aren't supposed to be here so we were sent to bring you out and take you to where you belong, okay?"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Batista hissed, leaning in towards Eddie, who almost seemed to swat him back with a hard dismissal.

"You...came to save me...?" Rey asked softly, looking between them, sniffling and wiping at his eyes.

"That's right. We were sent to come and save you, bring you out of here. I know it's hard and you're scared, but you have to trust me, okay? We're here to take you home. We're gonna do everything in our power to bring you home."

"Wh-what about Kane? He...they gave me t-to him to...to...to...have..."

Eddie shook his head. "I won't let him touch you again, not ever, Rey. I'm going to protect you and I'm going to get you home. You're going to be fine now. But you have to trust us and you have to let us take you out of here. Okay? Can you do that for me?"

"He's gonna be messed up enough already without you adding to it..." Batista snarled, but Eddie whipped around to glare at him.

"We can worry about that once we get him out of here in one piece, all right? Right now we just gotta get him out of this God-awful place!"

Rey bit his lip, shivering a little as he watched them. "It's not a trick, is it?"

Eddie turned back and crouched in front of Rey, offering his hands and smiling warmly. "For once, holmes, I ain't lyin'. It's not a trick."

Rey hesitated a moment, then took Eddie's hands, starting to get to his feet. The instant he was upright, though, his knees buckled, and he staggered forward against Eddie's chest, gasping softly. "Weak..." he murmured. "Think...trying keep me down..."

"Those drugs they were giving him..." Batista growled, gesturing to the blood-like puddle on the ground. "He didn't get but a little of it, but it's still enough to have him groggy. That shit is, for lack of a better term, concentrated."

Eddie considered a moment, then held Rey up some. "Okay, listen, holmes. If they're going to try and keep you from running away, then I can carry you out of here...they can't stop me. You think if I piggyback you, you can manage to hang on, at least?"

"I...yeah...I can..."

Eddie nodded, then turned and crouched slightly, allowing Rey to wrap his arms around his neck before standing, tucking his arms under Rey's legs and holding him up, grunting a little at the effort as he shifted him up into a comfortable position. "No chokeholds now, holmes."

"Maybe I should carry him..." Batista said.

"I can carry him. You need your arms free in case you need to punch somebody or if one of the others is hurt. Besides Cena, you're the only one with enough muscle that we've got to do any good."

Batista sighed, then nodded. "All right, follow me." He turned and went to the door, opening it and peeking out, checking both ways, then stepping out, moving down the hall a bit to a stairwell door, typing in a keycode on a device next to it and pushing it open, holding it for Eddie to slip through before following. "They're gonna be coming after us hard. They won't wanna let us get out of here."

"Well they got a few big surprises waiting for them when they do. They ain't stopping us."

"I hope you're right." Batista led the way down a couple of flights of stairs, checking each landing before leading Eddie and Rey down with him. They were down three floors when a distinctly un-hospital sound filled the air...the revving of a chainsaw and the solid thunk of something hitting the ground, and then the sound of an alarm blaring and a southern accent calling out.

"Dave, Eddie! You guys hurry up! We're getting swamped down here!"

"Fuck!" Dave increased his pace, and Eddie bolted behind him, panting a little from the effort, as Rey winced and held on a little tighter. They spun around the last landing and Dave all but jumped the last flight, bursting through a door that had the doorknob roughly hacked away, and there was a sound of cacophony...grunts and groans of pain and exertion and solid thuds of bodies hitting the floor, overlaid with the still-wrong sound of a chainsaw idling.

When Eddie stepped through the door, Rey's eyes widened at the near mob scene that was unfolding. They were in what looked like the hospital lobby, though it was sparsely furnished and the same bland colors as the hallways upstairs had been. There were nearly two dozen guards in gray jumpsuits, some upright and still fighting, some laid out already, but at the same time, he recognized several of his coworkers who were brawling with them, and were clearly gaining the upper hand.

Jeff Hardy was the one who was first obvious, as tended to be the case whenever he was part of a group. For him, he mostly looked typical...black cargo pants and a white shirt-though one that was now flecked with worrying red and brown stains-blue hair, and shredded sleeves that stopped just before his shoulders. What was unusual even for him was the yellow piece of machinery he was wielding...holding the idling chainsaw and brandishing it at a few guards to keep them back, single-handedly holding off an entire hallway from which people were trying to enter the melee.

As Batista got a running start and tackled a couple of the guards, Chavo Guerrero popped up from where he'd been pinned on the floor and immediately jumped to help Batista fight. Just like Eddie, he was somewhat awkwardly dressed in wrestling tights and a thrown-on shirt and jacket.

Next he saw John Cena, in denim shorts, a pair of high-top sneakers, and a Boston college sweater, who was straddling a rather large guard on the ground and steadily pounding him about the head.

The last was a woman who he felt he should recognize, but didn't quite. She was blonde, muscular, and quite efficiently out-slugging another guard, wearing a shiny black one-piece outfit and with a sleeveless black trenchcoat that, for what it should have weighed, didn't seem to be slowing her down in the slightest.

If not for how utterly bizarre the whole thing was, it wouldn't have looked even slightly out of place on a wrestling show.

"What's going on...?" Rey murmured, blinking at the melee, as with Batista's help, the fight was over in barely a minute.

"Don't worry about it, holmes," Eddie said, shifting his weight slightly. "Just hang on. Dave! I'm carrying him out of here!"

"Please wait..." a woman's voice intoned from behind them, and Eddie spun around towards it. Rey's eyes widened when he saw Marcia, the grandmotherly nurse, standing in front of a set of glass double doors through which he could see the outside world, between it and them-and holding a gleaming pistol at her side.

"Lady, I wouldn't-," the blonde woman started to snarl, but before either could do anything, Batista stepped up between, pushing them apart.

"Chill out, Beth, she's on our side. Marcia, I know I jumped the gun a little," Batista said, holding up his hands slightly.

"Yeah, you did," Marcia grumbled, in a voice that was nothing like her usual cheerful tone...it was annoyed and vaguely frazzled. "I have agents maybe five minutes away from here and you and your little band of musclemen has already taken out the majority of the peons."

"They were about to try resetting Rey, I couldn't let them go through with it again. That shit shouldn't happen to anyone."

"Which is why we've been working to get the evidence to bring this place down," Marcia muttered, glancing over as the others approached, raising an eyebrow at Jeff's chainsaw. "I can assure you that you can turn that off now. Preferably before you dismember anyone by mistake."

"Mistake would be the key word," Jeff drawled, but he released the trigger and the idling engine quieted down.

"Madre de dios..." Chavo murmured softly, stepping closer and reaching over to touch Rey's shoulder, eyes wide. "He's really...it's actually him."

"Did you really think I'd bring you guys all here with a lie like that?" Batista asked, turning and looking back at Rey, who was studying them silently, seeming a little bleary-eyed.

There was the briefest moment of silence from the group, but a groan from one of the beaten guards brought them back to their senses, and Cena stepped forward, frowning. "We need to get out of here now. The calvary's coming, we'll just be in the way." He started towards the door, the others trailing behind him, still staring at Rey.

"We've got a van waiting," Batista said to Marcia, who kept hold of the gun as they stepped through the double doors and out into the cool air...Rey shuddered a bit at the shock of it, wondering how it was so much colder than it had been through his window. "We can load him up and get on our way, get him to a real doctor."

"You should wait until my guys get here," Marcia replied, starting to walk them into a batch of woods, out of line of sight of the hospital. "There's going to be a lot of debriefing that has to get done and you're going to be questioned, too."

"I know I am. But the others can still take Rey away. He doesn't need to be caught up in any more of this, it's going to be enough of a shock on his system as it is."

"Look, it'll only be a few more minutes, then we can-,"

Marcia's words were drowned out when there was a brilliant blast of light, a roar of noise, and a searing rush of heat that even through the slight shielding of trees, knocked them all flat to the ground, and Rey yelped when he was blown away from Eddie, sent skidding across the ground. He grunted in pain, but out of instinct, sat up quickly, eyes wide, looking for the danger, but stopped at the sight he could behold. Or more correctly, could no longer behold.

The hospital's building was gone. All that remained was shreds and piles and a couple of pillars of a towering inferno, the entire lot ablaze with flames and orange heat. Everything...every last bit...was gone.