Judgement (The Twelve) (60 page)

The dead Edge shimmered and became the body of Chameleon.
Coffee gave the body a quick glance before looking down at Edge kneeling before her. She could see he was bleeding
out
from the leg wound.

“Are you not immortal? Can you not heal thy self? Have you become
so
we
a
k?”

Edge looked up at her for a few seconds, befo
re standing and limping over
in the direction of
Chris but collapsed in a spreading pool of crimson blood. He managed to look up at his half brother, “H
elp me heal.”

Coffee stared with her head tilted at an angle, not sure what was happening.
It was
not
an order
b
ut
a request.
This was what Chris was waiting for. Reaching out he made a quick gesture,
before Coffee could stop him.
Edge disappeared into the In Between,
as
did Chris.

Within that fraction of a second, minutes passed within the In Between
and
when Edge reappeared, he was healed and whole again but standing next to Coffee not his father. That place was filled by Chris.

Chris removed his wide brimmed hat and with a flourish bowed to Coffee, “Enough blood has been spilled here today, let us withdraw.”

Coffee examined Edge seeing him whole again, “
I would have healed him myself after a time but
y
ou have done me a small service
and
for that I grant your wish but we shall meet again and I shall kill you.”

Chris replaced his hat, “That is to be expected but for now a truce.”

Priest called over to Chris, “Before we go can you help me with Slash. I can’t stop the bleeding.”

Chris turned his back on her
and
left Anvil and the others to watch Coffee in case she or the others tried an attack. Chris
hurried over to Slash, who was
kneeling on the ground in the pouring rain with
blood seeping through the fingers of his hand
s
that was pressed hard against the side of his ruined face.

But Coffee had one final trick of decei
t to play, as Chris turned away
to help Slash
,
she
materialised Willow directly behind him
, the others where unaware of her actions, only Bulls Eye glancing over to see how his friend was doing saw her appear.

Her stinger came up over her head and plunged towards Chris’s neck. The blow
w
ould be fatal but suddenly blocking the strike was Heartless
. He never had a chance to shout a warning or raise his hands in defence.

The stinger pierced his heart, filling him with deadly poison. Willow looked back at Coffee for fresh orders.
Stamping her foot like a child at being thwarted she
brought Willow back to her side and slapped her hard across the face.

Edge was white faced with fury, “He healed me and called for a trace!”

Huntress was on her feet and held her bow si
deways, “Hey bitch!” she yelled thinking still of Hot Cross and what they had done to him. Edge would be next.

Coffees head snapped up, she laughed
, “You dare?”

Huntress sneered, “I fucking dare.” and fired.

Coffee raised
her free
hand contemptuously to ward off the blow, but it was a special arrow. One of the timed explosive charges filled with silver church cross fragments and holy water. Huntress had set it to explode
upon
two seconds after leaving the bow. It was a shaped charge so all the force was directed forward.
The arrow sped fast and true, cutting a path directly to Coffee
,
for effect
she casually
blocked the arrow six inches from her raised hand, the arrow
head
exploded!
Coffee staggered back several yards but did not go down.
The holy fragments pierced her magic
and ripped her hand to shreds. Her face also took some of the impact.
Some of the fragments also reached Willow, who staggered and fell to one knee, blood started from several small entry wounds on her chest.
She stared down in disbelief.
Edge had been standing with Willow between him and Coffee so missed being injured. He ignored Willow and took hold of Coffees arm as she staggered in pain.

Screaming
,
Coffee
looked at the mangled remains of her hand. She
sl
ashed the air before her with her good hand,
open
ing
a
jagged black slash and with Edge holding her upright, leapt through the crack. The rest of the Dark
where sucked in through the gap from wherever they stood or lay, alive or dead. With a blast of thunder the c
rack snapped shut.

Spitting out muddy water, Speed coughed and spluttered,
“Never seen the In B
etween entered like that before.

Priest was helping Slash, “That wasn’t the In Between.”

“Then where..?”

Chris looked
over to where she had vanished
, “There is another place besides Purgatory.”

Anvils face was white, “She dares!”

Chris nodded, “By the
river Acheron
, just before entering Hell, is the place called Limbo. No one but she would dare enter there.”

Patch
looked where the crack had been, “
Why
Limbo?”

Priest glanced up from helping Slash
, “They can heal
there. It is a place that belongs to there Master.
”
Then he saw past Chris.

Chris
heard Huntress take a quick intake of breath, followed by a gasp
, as at the same time Priest raised a shaking finger to point behind Chris
. He spun to see what was wrong, noticing H
eartless on the ground, “Heartless?”

Patch ran over, “Hey man you ok?”

Bulls Eye shouted, “It happened so fast. I think that bitch with the tail stabbed him or something!”

Chris and Anvil reached Heartless at the same time they could see he was very badly injured. Chris started to try and heal him but Heartless gripped his arm, “You made a promise to me.”

Anvil looked puzzled, “Son help him.”

Chris took hold of Heartlesses hand in his, “You wish this?”

Heartless coughed, his voice growing weaker, “I do with all my heart.”

Chris lowered his head and
closed his eyes, “So be it.” He took a deep breath and suddenly standing near to Heartless was the shadow like figures of his family
. They
smil
ed
down at him
, his wife holding out a hand towards him
. Anvil took a step away, ”Ghosts!”

Heartless smiled, “No my family.”
a
nd died.

Chris opened his eyes and looked up
.
Heartless was holding the ha
nd of his wife and
smiling down at his children. He nodded once to Anvil and bowed slightly to Chris before they faded away from sight.

Priest who was still helping Slash added, “Blessed be the Creator.”

Anvil turned back to Heartlesses body, “He wanted to be with his family?”

Chris nodded,
”H
e sacrificed himself for another. The Creator granted his wish. I suspect they will all ascend now.”

Jennings
and his people woke at that very moment. He climbed unsteadily to his feet
, “I miss something?”

No one answered but he saw the body of Heartless lying on the ground. H
e looked between his men and Anvil, “
We’ve all lost people
today.”

Anvil nodded, “You did us a great service.”

Rage staggered over
,
he was grinning through a face full of tiny cuts and bruises, “Good fight!”

Then he to noticed Heartless, silently without being asked, he picked him up gently in his arms. Huntress recovered Hot Crosses head. Jennings looked at his own dead and gave instructions for his team to collect the bodies,
”Leave nothing behind.”

Chris placed a hand upon his shoulder, “Have those men that carry your dead, go with Huntress and Rage, they will take them back to the warehouse in no time at all.”

Jennings didn’t understand, but then again, none of this made any sense, “Where are you going?”

Anvil walked up to stand besides his son, “Embankment I think.”

Jennings nodded, “Then I’m coming too.”

Chris inclined his head,” Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Jennings wondered about the local residents and ‘
damage limitations’
as he called it. Chris or rather Judgement told him that a wall of forgetfulness had been erected around the Graveyard, no one would remember hearing or seeing anything.

Chris
waited until one by one the dead whe
r
e removed
from the graveyard. He bowed his head with his hat held tightly across his chest. Anvil stood on his right hand side, head lowered, hands resting on the shaft of his hammer. Priest stood on his left, praying for each soul as they where taken into the In Between.

Finally Chris replaced his hat and squared it off, “Now for Embankment.”

The place
was a battlefield after the battle,
quiet, deadly and
almost
destroyed
. E
xcept that is for the sold
i
ers and security agents that w
h
ere sitting and standing around in small groups, talking amongst themselves, or the medical teams that were seeing to the wounded and the dead that lay in neat rows, concealed in body bags.