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Wynonna and Nedley arrived at the Earp homestead, with Nicole, Jeremy, Robyn and Chrissy in tow. They were glad to have recovered their loved ones, however now Wynonna set her intentions on getting Waverly and Doc back.
"Alright Nedley, ready to do this?" she asked.
"Of course I am, I may be an old man but I would do anything to keep you girls safe."
Wynonna looked at Nedley, tears starting to pool in her eyes when Nicole suddenly spoke up. "I am not letting you go alone, Waverly is my girl and I want to help bring her back!"
"Hell no!" Wynonna and Nedley exclaimed in unison. "You have to stay with the others Red, someone needs to look after them and I won't risk something else happening to you...Waverly would never forgive me" said Wynonna. Nedley nodded in agreement and followed Wynonna out the door.
While Wynonna and Nedley were walking through the forest at a steady pace, looking for the stairs, they suddenly heard footsteps behind them. They turned around and saw Nicole marching towards them. Wynonna opened her mouth to speak, only to be immediately interrupted by Nicole.
"I don't want to hear it Earp! She is my girl, this is my town, and I will go where I want and do what I want, you got that!" Neither Wynonna nor Nedley had ever seen Nicole like this. The look on her face terrified them a little.
"Alright Nicole, I guess that's fair"said Nedley. "We are just trying to protect you, that's all."
"I don't fucking need protecting, I need Waverly back! We need to find Doc too. It’s my responsibility as sheriff and as someone who loves Waverly more than anything.” Nicole started to tear up a little. Her determination to be a good sheriff made Nedley burst with pride and the knowledge that he was right about his choice of successor.
The trio soon found themselves at the foot of the stairs; Nicole pushed her way to the front of the trio and hurried up the stairs and trough the door to the garden. Wynonna and Nedley tried to follow, but Wynonna still couldn’t get up there, neither could Nedley. They started to panic, having lost Nicole through the door.
Inside the garden Doc was looking for Waverly all over and calling out to her, fighting plants and forest beasts as he went along, “little darlin’ where are you?! “Waverly!” “Talk to me...please...Waverly!” Just before reaching the centre of the garden a large thorny plant with tentacles sprang up and sprayed a poisoned gas right in his face. He tried to fight it and stay awake, but collapsed to the ground in a deep sleep.
Nicole was advancing through the garden steadily, and took a knife from her boot to cut down vines and vicious plants along the way. Suddenly a werewolf like creature jumped out of the bushes behind her and scratched her across her back, tearing her shirt and causing blood to come pouring out. She let out a growl at the pain and spun around. She lunged at the wolf with her knife but he was too fast and she fell with her face first into the ground.
“Fuck you! She shouted and pulled out her gun from its holster. She fired a shot, but the wolf did not even flinch. It lunged at her once more and she kept firing, emptying the entire magazine on the beast, which fell to the ground with a loud crash. Nicole got up from the ground and checked to see if it was dead. It seemed to be, but now she didn’t have a single bullet left. She needed to find another way to protect herself in case more were-beasts made their appearance. Suddenly she had an idea, she did not know where the idea came from, but was grateful for it none the less.
She picked up a supple branch and split it down the middle and took out an elastic string from the survival kit she was carrying. She fashioned a bow for herself and proceeded to gather some lengthy rigid sticks and feathers. She made a couple of arrows and smiled. “That will do Haught... it will have to...” she said to herself and proceeded deeper into the garden.
She soon found a large tree and climbed high enough into it to get a good view of the environment. She spotted what looked like a large clearing at the centre of the garden and a number of paths leading to it. She jumped down from the tree and made her way to the clearing. The first path she took led her to a barricade made from strong branches, and she tried to kick it down, but without any luck. She let out a heavy sigh and turned around to try another path. The second path almost led her into another werewolf. Luckily she doubled back just in time to avoid the beast. She took the third path and felt a tentacle wrap around her ankle.
Nicole was lifted off the ground and thorns where digging into her sides. She quickly cut the tentacle loose from her ankle and dropped to the ground. Her shirt completely tattered by the earlier werewolf scratch and now the thorns. The contact of her own salty sweat with the cuts on her body made her wince in pain. She readied an arrow in her bow and fired at the thorny tentacle plant, right into what looked like an eye in the centre of the tree. The tree let out a spray of gas and Nicole quickly ducked down, her face as close to the dirt as possible to avoid the spray. She ripped off a piece of cloth from her shirt and fastened it around the tip of a second arrow. She next took some matches from her survival kit and lit the cloth on fire.
She had to shoot quickly before the arrow burned up and hit the eye of the tree once more. The tree went up in flames and Nicole jumped up to advance further. Just then she saw a familiar shape on the ground where the tree had been. It was Doc Holliday; he was in a coma-like state, completely unresponsive. “Doc, Doc...Can you hear me? It’s Nicole, wake up please...Doc.” No luck, the cowboy was out cold. She splashed some water from the bottle in her survival kit on him, but he still did not respond. “Shit buddy!” This is going to suck for both or us.”
She took out a thick rope from her survival kit and tied it around the cowboy. “Alright, here we go!” She slung the rope over her shoulder dragging the cowboy behind her, careful to keep the rope tight enough to keep his head and shoulders off the ground. The rope dug into her back, putting pressure on the wound there, causing more blood to come pouring out. The rope sliced into her shoulder and her knuckles turned white as she struggled to maintain her grip on the rope. “Jesus Doc! You are heavy!” She couldn’t move as fast as she wanted to and tears started streaming from her eyes, both as a result of physical pain and mental exhaustion. She really just wanted to get to Waverly, but could not leave Doc behind. She heard bushes rustling on her left and turned to the sound. Three women emerged from the bushes and Nicole lowered the rope and readied her bow with another arrow.
“Lower your weapon sister” the eldest of the three women said.
“Not a chance in hell” replied Nicole, “who the fuck are you?!”
“No need to be rude” said the youngest of the women, “allow us to introduce ourselves”. “My name is Antiope, and these are my sisters, Hippolyta and Penthesilea”. “We have been waiting for you Nicole Rayleigh Haught. You are our last living descendent.”
“How nice for you” replied Nicole, not really meaning to be rude, but being anxious to get to Waverly. “Now if you three don’t mind I have somewhere to be.”
“You are not listening” Penthesilea chimed in.
“Damn right I am not, now get the fuck out of my way!”
The three women let out a collective sigh. “You are the last living Amazon dear” said Hippolyta, “allow us to help you find your love. You just need to...”
“Okay! What do you know about Waverly.” Nicole lunged forward and grabbed Hippolyta by her shoulders. “You need to tell me right now or I swear I will...!”
“Calm down!” Antiope interrupted, “We can give you what you need to help you get her back. You just need to embrace your ancestry. Acknowledge that you are one of us and we will help you on your way.”
“Alright...Let’s say I am an Amazon, what then! How does that get me to Waverly?”
“You need a few things”, said Penthesilea. “First, the symbol of our father Ares, god of war.” She took Nicole’s knife from her boot, Nicole allowing it to see what the woman was going to do, but in her mind ready to fight should she need to. Penthesilea cut the left side of Nicole’s slacks off just above her knee and waved her palm over Nicole’s calf. “A dog, German shepherd would do nicely” and suddenly a tattoo of a German shepherd appeared on Nicole’s calf, Nicole’s eyes widened in response.
“Next”, said Antiope, “the symbol of our chosen patron goddess Artemis”. She removed Nicole’s tattered shirt and waved her palm over Nicole’s right shoulder blade, the tattoo of a stag appearing in the spot. “and last but not least, the symbol of her great love Kallisto”. The Amazon waved her palm over the spot once more and a she-bear appeared, facing the stag, paws and hooves touching as the animals stood on their hind legs. A moon with an arrow through it appeared above the heads of the animals, completing the design. Nicole looked at the tattoo over her shoulder, and Hippolyta took out a mirror to give her a better view.
“Now you are ready” the amazons said in unison, “go and get your love sister, and remember who you are!” “You can leave your friend with us, we will see that no harm comes to him” said Hippolyta.
“You know, I still don’t know if I should trust you, especially with Doc’s life.”
“You can trust us”, said Antiope, “How do you think you got the idea for the bow?”
“Well I am smart and a survivor...so...”
“Ah and how do you think you knew how to survive as a young girl?” asked Hippolyta.
Nicole attempted to answer, swiftly interrupted by Penthesilea, “It is in your blood, Amazon blood, trust it, trust your gut and trust us.”
“Alright, okay, dammit!”’ “I will fucking trust you, now I need to get to Waverly”. Nicole dashed off onto the path, hoping the women were not leading her into a trap and that no harm would come to Doc.
She soon found her way to the clearing in the centre of the garden, with seemingly nothing there that could harm her. Suddenly a stone statue caught her eye. She carefully made her way to what seemed to be a stone angel sitting on a throne. “Wow!” This is beautiful she thought. Just then she looked at the face of the statue and her body jolted in shock.
The statue was Waverly. The tears started flowing freely from Nicole’s face as she collapsed at the foot of the statue. “No, No, No” she cried, holding her face in her hands. “No!” she shouted and looked up once more, only to see two werewolves and two thorny tentacle trees coming her way. “Damn you all to hell!” she shouted in anger, a look of vengeance painted on her face. She was still crying, but now it was a mixture of grief and rage.
She grabbed her knife and cut off the right leg of her slacks to match the left. She ripped the cloth into pieces and tied the pieces to the tip of her remaining arrows. She lit them up one by one and fired, first at the tentacle trees, killing them with her last arrows. She had nothing but her knife left and readied herself for battle with the wolves, not caring whether she lived or died. She did not want to live without Waverly anyway, but she was not going to go quietly. She needed to make the garden pay.
She kicked the first wolf right to its head, causing its neck to snap back and the wolf let out a cry. “Take that you bastard!” The second wolf scratched her left arm, leaving a horrible gash. Nicole winced in pain, but managed to grab the wolf by the throat, slamming it into a nearby tree. She let out a roar and lunged at it with her knife only to have the other wolf jump onto her back. Both wolves now grabbed onto her and brought her to the ground, digging nails into her body. The first wolf bit into her head and blood came pouring out.
This is the end she thought, struggling against the strength of the wolves. Just then the tattoos started glowing and a German shepherd, bear and stag came to her aid. The animals knocked the wolves off of her. The bear ripped the throat of one wolf out as the German shepherd knocked the other wolf into the horns of the stag, penetrating the beast through its chest. Nicole was in awe, the Amazons had actually given her something that helped her survive. The animals disappeared back into the tattoos and Nicole got up from the ground.
As cool as all that was, she wished the wolves had killed her instead. That way she could stay with Waverly forever. “Is that all you’ve got?!” “Give me some more you fucker!” “Give me all you’ve got!” she shouted absolutely sobbing at this point.
She collapsed onto the statue, having lost too much blood. Her blood and tears were flowing all over the statue and suddenly the statue became flesh. Waverly wrapped her arms and angel wings around Nicole. “You were so brave baby, I love you so much” said the angel, “I saw all of it, let’s get out of here.”
“Waves...” Nicole said weakly.
“Shhh...Baby, save your energy, I am okay. We are okay” Waverly gave Nicole a kiss on the forehead and lifted the sheriff into the air as she flew up and towards the stairs.
They flew over the Amazons at the door of the stairs and saw them lower Doc trough the door and down the stairs with the rope Nicole had tied to the cowboy’s body. Waverly flew through the door and Wynonna and Nedley looked up in shock at the flying angel holding her love in her arms. She landed in front of them and gently laid Nicole down on the ground. Wynonna took the angel in a tight embrace. Nedley made his way over to Nicole, cradling the woman he thought of as a daughter in his arms as he freely let his own tears flow from his eyes.
“Oh Haught...you look like you have been through the wars...We are here now, you are safe...” he said. Wynonna let go of Waverly and knelt down next to Nicole and Nedley. “Dammit, Red! You look like hell.”
“She’s lost too much blood” said Waverly kneeling down next to her sister, “Give me the ring.”
“Baby girl, you can’t. The price might be too much to pay this time.”
“So what!? I should just let her die?! Should I just pretend like I don’t love her with every part of my being and that after she gave everything to save me because she loves me too!? Whatever the price is I will gladly pay it ten times over for her”
“I know Baby girl, I just don’t want to lose you again” said Wynonna as she took the angel ring of Nicole’s finger and handed it to Waverly who slipped it onto her own and healed Nicole.
“Baby, thank you so much for saving me and loving me” said Waverly.
Nicole gave the angel a weak smile and noticed the wings were still on her back. She ran her fingers through the feathers and said “you are indeed extraordinary.” The two women embraced and shared a passionate kiss. Waverly retracted her wings and stood up, helping Nicole off the ground too. She put her arm around Nicole’s waist, “I am never leaving your side again”, she said, “let’s go home.”
The group made their way back to the homestead, Waverly and Nicole not breaking contact with each other. Nedley and Wynonna supported a still unconscious but very much alive Doc Holiday between them and they all lived to fight another day...