For Her
May 25, 2020 15:33:07 GMT -5
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Post by Kaven Drell on May 25, 2020 15:33:07 GMT -5
Blood trickled down battered and bruised flesh, as Danny Rizzo stares forward into the abyss with the sort of gaze one might see in a vietnam war veterans eyes. The room is empty, save for a single folding chair that the last Apex Champion of Valor Pro is slouched into, a gym bag that’s tossed haphazardly into the corner, and an empty steel garbage can a few feet in front of him. Nobody is there to attend to him. Nobody to comfort him. All that remains is a battered man, fresh off a battle with his best friend. No, fresh off a battle with his greatest enemy. One that hadn’t been won, nor had it been lost. But it had been one that had exacted a high price. One that he was certain would exact a high price again.
However, Danny’s thoughts have already shifted elsewhere, though scattered. Where one battle ends, another one awaits, looming on the horizon. The place he finds himself in, mentally, at that moment was one he had been in before. Every square inch of his body screamed at him to let it be done. To walk away. A voice in the back of his mind continuously whispered that it wasn’t worth it any longer. And yet as the blood trickled down from his forehead, colliding with the flesh of his palm with a thud as it splattered in small droplets, he pushed the voice away and drew himself more upright.
“What’s it worth to you, Jason?”
A gurgled cough rumbled from deep within him as he shifted and adjusted his body position to try and provide relief from the pain that wracked the correct posture he had tried to assume.
“Life is easy when things are coming naturally to you. When you’re slipping away with the sort of wins that your career will be remembered for. When you’re doing the unexpected, and causing people to turn and take notice. Man, life is good then, isn’t it?”
The hint of a smile curled his upper lip slowly as he brought his right hand up to soothe tender ribs with a gentle caress of his own hand.
“When everything is there before you, like a kings feast, it’s easy to sit back and relish the moment. But, you see, Jason. The thing is, while you’re sitting there feasting and dancing on the misfortunes of others. While you’re sitting there kicked back, thinking life is good, those eyes that you love to have on you? Those are hungry eyes. Those are MY eyes. And those eyes are looking back at a man who isn’t even certain of who he is. One minute it’s Captain Save-A-Ho, slapstick dick joke guy. The next minute it’s whatever mask fits the personality you want everyone to buy into. Do you even know who you are, Jason, as you sit at your feast thinking the world is at your feet? Do you have any idea the cost that will be required for you to stay there?”
From deep within a guttural laugh rumbles and wells up, causing his shoulders to heave up and down before the laughter catches up with him and he gurgles and that spews a glob of blood and from his mouth and onto the floor.
“This. This is where I thrive. This is where I’ve made my bones from the moment that I stepped into the ring in Valor Pro over a year ago. I’ve watched people skitter away with smiles on their faces while my body lay broken and cast aside outside of the ring on more occasions than I care to remember. I’ve listened to friends. Family members. Loved ones. All of them tell me it isn’t worth it. That the reward isn’t worth the cost. And for anyone else, maybe that would be true. Maybe they’d do the smart thing and walk away. But me?”
Subtly his head shifts from right to left, wordlessly denying the assertions that others had made to him on countless occasions in the past.
“Only one man in Valor Pro personified what the UnYielding championship represented. I didn’t just step into the fire, Jason. I didn’t just embrace it. I became it. I sacrificed everything to ensure that that mantle and the name Danny Rizzo were synonymous. To this day that moniker follows me wherever I go and for one reason. You can knock me down. You can piss on the spot of ground where my dead body will eventually rest. But until I take that final breath, I will not ever stay down. I will not ever relent, until I get what I’ve come for. This isn’t just about Drell, Jason. My business with him will resolve itself eventually. But this is about you. It’s about you, standing over Leela Watts. It’s about the casual way you mocked her when she was down.”
Leaning back in his chair, he groaned heavily, once more the pain encompassing him and lighting every single nerve ending ablaze. Still, he pressed on.
“Maybe, at the end of the day, what Leela and I were going through on a personal level at Lights Out 37 effected us more than we thought it would. Maybe we underestimated you, and overestimated what we could get by on in the midst of that turmoil. Maybe you could have walked away the interim Batallion champions, or number one contenders, or whatever the fuck they want to call it. Maybe you could have gone on to War of the Worlds, the center of the universe Battalion Championship universe. Maybe all of those hopes and dreams could have remained safely entact. But you…”
Sniffing, Danny pushed himself up from the chair, grasping the black t-shirt that lay in his lap as he did so. With one smooth motion he used it to wipe the blood from his forehead and then tossed it into the garbage can.
“... You did what you did as you stood over her body, and in that moment what was nothing more than a contenders match became something much greater. For my own goals, my own hopes, and my own dreams? I’ll put my body on the line. I’ll shed blood, and sweat and tears. I’ll pass through fire, and plummet to hell, to bring a man like Kaven Drell down with me. But for Leela?”
Suddenly, a man who seemed so scattered and dazed moments before, suddenly snaps to attention as his gaze levels on the camera that was focused on him.
“I’ll move heaven and earth. For Leela, I’ll carry the world on my shoulders. For Leela, I’ll become the man that put Katya Djurdjevic’s career to the sword time and time and time again. For her, I’ll sacrifice everything of myself. What do you know of that, Jason? What do you know of being willing to let the world consume you, not for your own personal benefit, but for the benefit of another?”
Rizzo pauses, letting the question hang on the air before proceeding.
“How much of yourself are you willing to let me rip and tear away before deciding it isn’t worth it anymore? How far are you willing to go to make sure that Leela and I don’t get another shot at the Battalion Championships? How far are you willing to go for Maxx? How much of yourself are you willing to forwake in order to keep her chances at success, at being called a champion, in place? How far are you willing to go for all those training sessions that supposedly set you apart? Because for Leela... “
Gritting his teeth, reflecting on it all, he nodded.
“For her, I would sacrifice everything that I am. I would sacrifice everything that makes me who I am. For her hopes, her dreams, her goals and her aspirations to be achieved, I would put all of mine on the altar and offer them up in sacrifice.”
Shedding the elbow and knee pads he had worn, Danny tossed those into the steel can as well.
“You see, Jason, you think it’s the championships you’ve carried that make the man. But the truth of the matter is that it’s the man who makes the championship. That’s why nobody gives a fuck about the plastic belt you bought at Toys-R-Us. Hell, you were so self conscious about those championships you had to make sure to remind everyone that hey, you’ve been a champion too. That sort of mental fragility is why, even to this day, even after your victory at Lights Out 37, nobody looks at you, or Maxx, as a serious threat. Nobody is putting up Jason Van Owen and Maxx Bennett posters. Because everyone knows your heart isn’t in this. Everyone knows when the ferryman comes asking for his price, you’re not going to be willing to pay it.”
Another pause as he sets his feet and looks directly into the camera, and into the eyes of his opponent.
“But me? For Leela. I’ll pay it all. That kind of chemistry? It’s not found in words. It’s shown in actions. And Jason, you better fucking kill me. Because if you don’t, I’m going to give all of myself to burn those fucking dreams of yours to the ground… and I’m going to do it… for her.”
And then the lights flicker and go dark.
But in the final moments, a single whisper seems to dance on the air. A familiar cry.
Perhaps, in this case, a familiar warning.
Let it burn.
Static.
However, Danny’s thoughts have already shifted elsewhere, though scattered. Where one battle ends, another one awaits, looming on the horizon. The place he finds himself in, mentally, at that moment was one he had been in before. Every square inch of his body screamed at him to let it be done. To walk away. A voice in the back of his mind continuously whispered that it wasn’t worth it any longer. And yet as the blood trickled down from his forehead, colliding with the flesh of his palm with a thud as it splattered in small droplets, he pushed the voice away and drew himself more upright.
“What’s it worth to you, Jason?”
A gurgled cough rumbled from deep within him as he shifted and adjusted his body position to try and provide relief from the pain that wracked the correct posture he had tried to assume.
“Life is easy when things are coming naturally to you. When you’re slipping away with the sort of wins that your career will be remembered for. When you’re doing the unexpected, and causing people to turn and take notice. Man, life is good then, isn’t it?”
The hint of a smile curled his upper lip slowly as he brought his right hand up to soothe tender ribs with a gentle caress of his own hand.
“When everything is there before you, like a kings feast, it’s easy to sit back and relish the moment. But, you see, Jason. The thing is, while you’re sitting there feasting and dancing on the misfortunes of others. While you’re sitting there kicked back, thinking life is good, those eyes that you love to have on you? Those are hungry eyes. Those are MY eyes. And those eyes are looking back at a man who isn’t even certain of who he is. One minute it’s Captain Save-A-Ho, slapstick dick joke guy. The next minute it’s whatever mask fits the personality you want everyone to buy into. Do you even know who you are, Jason, as you sit at your feast thinking the world is at your feet? Do you have any idea the cost that will be required for you to stay there?”
From deep within a guttural laugh rumbles and wells up, causing his shoulders to heave up and down before the laughter catches up with him and he gurgles and that spews a glob of blood and from his mouth and onto the floor.
“This. This is where I thrive. This is where I’ve made my bones from the moment that I stepped into the ring in Valor Pro over a year ago. I’ve watched people skitter away with smiles on their faces while my body lay broken and cast aside outside of the ring on more occasions than I care to remember. I’ve listened to friends. Family members. Loved ones. All of them tell me it isn’t worth it. That the reward isn’t worth the cost. And for anyone else, maybe that would be true. Maybe they’d do the smart thing and walk away. But me?”
Subtly his head shifts from right to left, wordlessly denying the assertions that others had made to him on countless occasions in the past.
“Only one man in Valor Pro personified what the UnYielding championship represented. I didn’t just step into the fire, Jason. I didn’t just embrace it. I became it. I sacrificed everything to ensure that that mantle and the name Danny Rizzo were synonymous. To this day that moniker follows me wherever I go and for one reason. You can knock me down. You can piss on the spot of ground where my dead body will eventually rest. But until I take that final breath, I will not ever stay down. I will not ever relent, until I get what I’ve come for. This isn’t just about Drell, Jason. My business with him will resolve itself eventually. But this is about you. It’s about you, standing over Leela Watts. It’s about the casual way you mocked her when she was down.”
Leaning back in his chair, he groaned heavily, once more the pain encompassing him and lighting every single nerve ending ablaze. Still, he pressed on.
“Maybe, at the end of the day, what Leela and I were going through on a personal level at Lights Out 37 effected us more than we thought it would. Maybe we underestimated you, and overestimated what we could get by on in the midst of that turmoil. Maybe you could have walked away the interim Batallion champions, or number one contenders, or whatever the fuck they want to call it. Maybe you could have gone on to War of the Worlds, the center of the universe Battalion Championship universe. Maybe all of those hopes and dreams could have remained safely entact. But you…”
Sniffing, Danny pushed himself up from the chair, grasping the black t-shirt that lay in his lap as he did so. With one smooth motion he used it to wipe the blood from his forehead and then tossed it into the garbage can.
“... You did what you did as you stood over her body, and in that moment what was nothing more than a contenders match became something much greater. For my own goals, my own hopes, and my own dreams? I’ll put my body on the line. I’ll shed blood, and sweat and tears. I’ll pass through fire, and plummet to hell, to bring a man like Kaven Drell down with me. But for Leela?”
Suddenly, a man who seemed so scattered and dazed moments before, suddenly snaps to attention as his gaze levels on the camera that was focused on him.
“I’ll move heaven and earth. For Leela, I’ll carry the world on my shoulders. For Leela, I’ll become the man that put Katya Djurdjevic’s career to the sword time and time and time again. For her, I’ll sacrifice everything of myself. What do you know of that, Jason? What do you know of being willing to let the world consume you, not for your own personal benefit, but for the benefit of another?”
Rizzo pauses, letting the question hang on the air before proceeding.
“How much of yourself are you willing to let me rip and tear away before deciding it isn’t worth it anymore? How far are you willing to go to make sure that Leela and I don’t get another shot at the Battalion Championships? How far are you willing to go for Maxx? How much of yourself are you willing to forwake in order to keep her chances at success, at being called a champion, in place? How far are you willing to go for all those training sessions that supposedly set you apart? Because for Leela... “
Gritting his teeth, reflecting on it all, he nodded.
“For her, I would sacrifice everything that I am. I would sacrifice everything that makes me who I am. For her hopes, her dreams, her goals and her aspirations to be achieved, I would put all of mine on the altar and offer them up in sacrifice.”
Shedding the elbow and knee pads he had worn, Danny tossed those into the steel can as well.
“You see, Jason, you think it’s the championships you’ve carried that make the man. But the truth of the matter is that it’s the man who makes the championship. That’s why nobody gives a fuck about the plastic belt you bought at Toys-R-Us. Hell, you were so self conscious about those championships you had to make sure to remind everyone that hey, you’ve been a champion too. That sort of mental fragility is why, even to this day, even after your victory at Lights Out 37, nobody looks at you, or Maxx, as a serious threat. Nobody is putting up Jason Van Owen and Maxx Bennett posters. Because everyone knows your heart isn’t in this. Everyone knows when the ferryman comes asking for his price, you’re not going to be willing to pay it.”
Another pause as he sets his feet and looks directly into the camera, and into the eyes of his opponent.
“But me? For Leela. I’ll pay it all. That kind of chemistry? It’s not found in words. It’s shown in actions. And Jason, you better fucking kill me. Because if you don’t, I’m going to give all of myself to burn those fucking dreams of yours to the ground… and I’m going to do it… for her.”
For a moment, Rizzo stares into the camera. He holds his arms out, exposing the bruising, the scrapes, the knicks, the cuts and all of the damage that he had suffered in his war with Kaven at Leela's show.
For Leela. For her benefit.
And then the lights flicker and go dark.
But in the final moments, a single whisper seems to dance on the air. A familiar cry.
Perhaps, in this case, a familiar warning.
Let it burn.
Static.