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Thaddeus Duke · (04-15-2019)

[duke]4:44 PM | The Compound | Illuminatus Nation | Old Saybrook, Connecticut[/duke]

It has been two days since I fell forty feet to the ring on Savage. I’m not sure if forty feet seems like a lot or not but I assure you, being on the scaffolding that high in the air, it seems higher than that. I’ve never been in a car accident, but I imagine this is what it feels like. Everything is stiff and is terribly painful to move. Structurally I’m fine. No broken bones or anything, but my back is like one solid bruise and is knotted entirely. So I’ve laid here for the last few hours, mostly staring into the vacant space above me while I stroke the mane’s of my pair of lions.

I felt myself doze off a few times, but I don’t think that I’ve slept all the long and certainly not all that much. Many competitors would dope themselves to mask the pain, but in my view, if you don’t feel the pain how are you going to learn anything? I take my lumps in the ring better than most. Some freak out over losing but that’s never been me. It’s never been my thing. Yes, my return has been a failure thus far and I realize it’s easier to just blame others rather than myself, but again, that’s not me. My failures and my disappointments are entirely on me. I came back to the XWF confident. Perhaps over confident.

What’s worse is that I can’t find my voice. Those out there in this industry know what I mean when I say ‘my voice.’ There’s a particular way we speak, mannerisms and such that set us apart from one another and I have yet to recapture my voice of old. Will I ever? I don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe I’ll be relegated to the mid-card trash heap for the duration of the rest of my career. Card filler as an ‘also ran.’

I know.

This doesn’t sound like me. I’ve always been resilient and bounced back from failure with relative quickness. Yet here I am, three whole matches into what was supposed to be a triumphant return to the XWF only to muster up a single solitary win. A year and a half ago, those two failures I suffered recently would have most certainly been wins and I really don’t know what’s different. Something is certainly different and as much as I study my tapes I just can’t quite put my finger on it.

I’m 20 years old, and I’ve already lost a step.

”Wake up,” my father says from my right side. I wasn’t sleeping, or at least I don’t think I was. ”Thad, we have some things to discuss.”

[duke]”How long have you been there?”[/duke] I ask him, wiping the tired from my eyes.

”A few minutes,” he answers impatiently. Maybe I was sleeping after all? ”Get dressed, Tritter is downstairs.”

Ugh. Lincoln Tritter. He’s a no nonsense southerner who is ALWAYS chewing on nicotine gum. He isn’t too friendly either. He was my intelligence chief until he decided to up and leave to go work for my dad at Bona Dipello Group. I should probably fill that position, now that I think about it. Anyway, he’s a take no shit kind of guy and that’s what I love about him. Lincoln is unpleasant, but effective.

[duke]”Okay, I’ll be down in a minute.”[/duke]

Dad leaves my room and I throw on some jeans and my House Stark t-shirt. Ironic, I know, and head downstairs to my war room. It used to be a library full of thousands of books, but I had it changed. I have no use for the ancient wisdom of people that lived and died hundreds of years ago. I do however, have use for a secure room where my team can come together to discuss the issues of the day, should there be any. I wasn’t expecting this, surely. Things have been quiet since the last war ended in November. But for a threat that I don’t think is even serious that popped up recently, I have had no indication that anything was even in need of my attention.

I’m about to find out though, that I am so, SO wrong.

[duke]”Gentlemen,”[/duke] I say, as I enter the War Room. Everyone stands, except Matthew. It irks me a bit. I’m not too serious about the respect for my authority, especially within the confines of the Compound but Matthew seems to defy the respect my authority requires purposely to get under my skin. [duke]”Your legs broken?”[/duke] I ask him. My displeasure quite evident.

”No, sir.”

He has been defiant toward me since the war. Matthew was my fathers right hand but even dad shows me the proper respect. Even though the Illuminatus has been reconstructed and both sides fall under one banner, only Matthew sees black and red.

”You need to see this,” Tritter interrupts my thought process. It’s probably a good thing because my agitation toward Matthew is only growing. Lincoln switches on a photo projector. On the wall a large photograph of a building entirely engulfed in flames.

[duke]”What am I looking at?”[/duke] I ask him, all of us still standing.

”Notre Dame Cathedral. Paris,” he answers.

[duke]”Jesus.”[/duke] I move closer, taking in what I’m seeing. The historic Cathedral looks like a total loss, or damn near it. It hurts me inside. Despite the Illuminatus’ war against the Church for so many years, we always respected their traditions and their historical monuments. Good, bad or indifferent, whatever you might think of us, we have always had a deep respect for history.

”It gets worse,” my dad informs me. All of us still standing, except Matthew of course.

I look at my father but say nothing, waiting for him to drop the other shoe, so to speak.

”There’s reason to believe this was our doing,” he states.

Fuck.

How?

”Despite my work for your father,” he begins, taking his customary pause. ”I still monitor Illuminatus traffic regularly. Whether it’s chatter, or movements.”

Oh.

Why didn’t I know that?

[duke]”Okay, so you work for both of us?”[/duke]

”I don’t trust anyone else to do it is all,” he answers truthfully.

Matthew still sits.

To be honest, I don’t trust anyone else to do it better than he does. Tritter’s team is extremely diligent and very good. I’m glad he’s still been doing Illuminatus work.

”It seems maybe you’re not the leader you think you are, sir,” Matthew interjects. The color drains from his face immediately as all eyes stare at him. I’m not convinced he meant to say that out loud but regardless, my tolerance for his defiance is at an end.

[duke]”Who am I?”[/duke] I ask him.

”Thaddeus Duke. Leader of the Illuminatus Nation.”

[duke]”Who are you?”[/duke]

”An Illuminatus original sir,” he answers after a swallow. ”I’m a dedicated Brother that has worked closely for years with you, your father and grandfather before you sir.”

As if that excuses anything.

[duke]”Look around this room and tell me what you see.”[/duke]

Matthew looks around the room at all the men standing, staring back at him.

[duke]”You don’t have to like me, Matt,”[/duke] I inform him. [duke]”You don’t have to respect me on a personal level, you don’t have to like the fact that I am the leader of this nation.”[/duke] I pause and take a breath. I feel my face reddening and hear my volume increasing as I speak.

[duke]”In this room, in this house, you WILL respect my authority and when you’re in this room, Matthew, when I stand… EVERYBODY STANDS!”[/duke]

Matthew backs away from the table and slowly stands up. Dad slaps the back of his head. He clears his throat. ”You have my most sincere apologies, sir.”

Fuck you, cunt.

”We’re still pinning down just who it was, but we’re certain it was Illuminatus that carried it out sir.”

[duke]”Sit!”[/duke] I say quite a bit louder than I intended. Obviously I’m at the head of the table. My father at my right, James at my left. Tritter and the rest of his team and Matthew spread out along either side of the table.

”I’ve been in contact with the Holy Father at the Vatican and he’s aware of the situation.”

”How soon will we know whether it was us or not, Lincoln?”

”That information could be forthcoming shortly.”

[duke]”If it was us, Linc, how long until we know who it was?”[/duke]

”That’s the challenge, Thaddeus.”

”If it was us, it’d have to me some rogue originals.”

I hadn’t thought about that, actually.

[duke]”What do you mean?”[/duke]

”Well, the fact is, Thad, that most of our population consists of trained militants with devotion to the Illuminatus because that’s what they were trained to do: obey,” he begins explaining. ”They have no regard for the Catholic Church one way or the other. You say kill, they kill. You say stop, they stop. You say be nice to Catholics, they’re nice to Catholics. They do as you command and ONLY as you command.

“If you didn’t order this hit on this cathedral, then it positively has to be a rogue element of Illuminatus originals.”

”That narrows down the possible suspects significantly,” Jim states. It’s the first time he’s spoke and that’s not unusual. He’s a listener. He listens to all possible information before advising.

[duke]”Where have you been concentrating your assets, Linc?”[/duke]

”I have a lot of my people concentrating on whether or not the Illuminatus was actually involved.”

[duke]”Pull some of them away, have them start focusing on cell phone pings of the originals.”[/duke]

He says nothing in return, only pulls out his phone, probably to delegate orders.

[duke]”Matthew, do you have any suspects? Or know of anything that was in the works?”[/duke]

”Sir, I don’t. The Illuminatus is devoted to you and that includes the originals. I have a hard time believing that our men would do something like this without your knowledge and without your approval.”

[duke]”Well, we don’t actually know if...”[/duke]

”Sir,” Tritter interrupts. ”I just received the confirmation.”

[duke]”Linc, don’t leave us in suspense here. Was it an Illuminatus operation?”[/duke]

”Without the slightest hint of doubt.”

Siiiiigggghhhhh.

XWF.

High school.

This domestic threat.

And now, rogue Illuminatus originals.

[duke]”What do you have to say now, Matthew?”[/duke]

”I… I...”

[duke]”Shut up, forget it.”[/duke]

”Giving what little we know, Lincoln, how long until we can pinpoint who is responsible here?”

”Hours. Days. Weeks. It’s hard to say with any real certainty. My team managed to… intercept a mistaken message that was never encrypted or encoded. If we can crack the code, it’ll be easy to trace. Without cracking the code, it’ll be nearly impossible.”

[duke]”The message that was sent without encryption… What’d it say?”[/duke]

”I have approval from His Grace. This mission is a GO.”

[duke]”Who sent it?”[/duke]

”A burner cell phone. It’d be difficult to know. Though it did originate from the Compound.”

”And the list of suspects grows ever smaller.”

”How may originals reside here now?”

”There’s 148 originals that survived the wars, Sebastian. Of those 148, ten reside here. Most are in Europe.”

”Expect a call from His Holiness, Thaddeus. If we saw the message it stands to reason that they’d have seen it too.”

”That’s probably the intent,” Jim thinks aloud. ”The originals are trying to reignite the war between us and the Church. That’s what my instincts are telling me.”

[duke]”Anything else?”[/duke]

No answers.

[duke]”Linc, where are we on the domestic threat? Anything further?”[/duke]

”Not at this time. Still just a little chatter here and there but we haven’t been able to nail anything down. We still believe its domestic, but they’re smart. They cover their tracks very well.”

I stand, so does everyone.

[duke]”Thank you gentlemen,”[/duke] I say as I end the meeting. Jim follows me out of the War Room and into my office down the hall.

”It’s Matthew,” he says after he closes the door behind him and takes a seat.

I thought it too, to be perfectly honest.

”He was never on board with us since you’ve become leader. He never approved of giving control of the Vatican back to the Church. He’s been defiant since the end of the war despite him agreeing with us in your dads war crimes trial.”

[duke]”You know how this ends, right?”[/duke]

”He’d be hanged, along with his conspirators,” Jim answers.

[duke]”So we need to be sure.”[/duke]

”I think its more than trying to reignite the war between us and the Church,” he states as he lowers his voice. ”He’s aware of the domestic threat. And if that threat turns out to be serious, this act would only embolden that threat. Giving those conspiring against the Illuminatus more motivation to act on us.”

[duke]”You know,”[/duke] I begin, the exasperation taking over. [duke]”Maybe I’m not the guy to lead the Illuminatus. I have work, I have school, this domestic threat is out there, now this shit with Matt going rogue, or probably.”[/duke]

”Do you mean that? Yeah there’s a lot on your plate, mate, but I can’t think of anyone better suited to lead us through the unknown than you.”

[duke]”When dad left, he said it was because there would be infighting if he stayed… Seems there is regardless.”[/duke]

I lean back in my chair and start spinning around in circles. Why? I don’t know, but its what I’m doing.

[duke]”Kindly inform my father that he can no longer be in the War Room.”[/duke]

”Why not? He’s still a smart guy, mate. He can be a major asset still.”

[duke]”Because I command it.”[/duke]

Jim bows his head to me, realizing I’m not in the mood to explain my reasoning. I’m a bit frustrated, really. Wrestling isn’t going my way, Garrett following me home and all that went with it, the threat, now this… Part of me hopes this domestic threat is real because in all seriousness, I need an outlet to unleash all this frustration I feel inside.

[duke]”Excuse me, while I rant for a minute.

“You heard me talking about frustration. There’s a lot going on in my life and I’m sure everyone’s lives but to plan something with your friend, to plan to bring that friendship before the XWF cameras for all to see only for that friend to take her ball and go home without so much as a phone call, a text, a fucking twitter message for fucks sake…

“That’s hurtful.

“It hurts because you are my friend, you arrogant self absorbed little bitch!

“Weeks of planning and so many meetings and conversations, all the hard work put in by multiple parties, only for you to flush it and muddy the waters.

“See, there is an unwritten code of honor around this industry that we love and that code was broken. That code states that if you are taking your ball and going home because you can’t hack it all the while planning some big things, then you tell those you’re planning with and you tell them first.

“You broke the code. The greatest tag team that never was!

“Thank you.

“Fuck you.

“Goodbye.”[/duke]

”End rant?”

[duke]”For now.”[/duke]

”Frustration relieved?”

[duke]”Pffft,”[/duke] I scoff, throwing my phone and shattering it on the wall across my office.

”I think that’s trademarked, by the way. The ‘Thank you’ schtick.”

[duke]”I realize I have not had the best time since my return. I haven’t been on my game since I came back and both Blackwater and Scully caught me with my pants down, figuratively speaking.

“That changes this week.

“I’ve heard the snickering and the mumbles. I’ve heard the naysayers coming out of the wood work wondering if maybe I lost what I had. Wondering if maybe I somehow lost what made me special while I was away. Wondering if maybe, I never really had it to begin with and maybe I was just the flavor of the month.

“To be perfectly honest, I’ve even caught myself wondering it myself.

“Obviously things have not been going in my favor since my return and yeah that’s a frustration I’ll have to learn from. I was over confident against Donovan Blackwater at March Madness and I didn’t take Scully seriously enough as a competitor.

“That’s on me.

“No one else.

“My back is in the corner and I know it. How many more failures can I seriously string together before people no longer take me seriously?

“I’m a former three time Xtreme champion. I had an unbeaten streak lasting 10 months where no one could pin my shoulders to the mat. I know its in there somewhere.

“This week, in Biloxi, Mississippi, The Lionheart that is I goes one on one on one with my old friend Donovan Blackwater and Henry Ross...”[/duke]

”Roth.”

[duke]”Whatever. He’s a nobody and has no business in this match with Donovan and I.”[/duke]

”You didn’t want a rematch with Blackwater, you said so yourself.”

[duke]”I know what I said Jim, but I’ve changed my mind.

“See, Donovan got the better of me in my first match back and he didn’t get the best Thaddeus Duke. He deserves to get the best me, wouldn’t you agree?”[/duke]

”I’d argue that everyone deserves the best you. The best you is pretty god damn good, mate.

“Who are you?”

[duke]”Thaddeus Duke.”[/duke]

”You chastise she who shall not be named in this promo and chide her as arrogant but you are…?”

I laugh. Sort of.

[duke]”Hank Roth, Donovan Blackwater, you haven’t seen it yet and again, that’s entirely on me, but Saturday night in Biloxi, I will show you exactly why I am flat out, better than you.”[/duke]

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