1A: Man on Fire





Ash and embers, I become.

I didn’t scream.

Stupidly, I wonder if they'll remember that.

It wasn’t so bad, in the end that is. The cage was rank with gasoline but as the fire ate its fuel, that stench quickly subsided. By the time there was anything else to smell, my capacity to do so was well and truly eradicated.

But that's not really what people would ask about, is it? Not if they had the chance.

They'd want to know how it felt.

Well the secret there is… it didn't.

The flames took the first layer, peeling back the epidermis in a molten, marbled glow. As my skin fell away, my blood charred in an instant. I felt… nothing. The fire percolated deeper. What lay beneath withered and wilted: the muscles, tendons and ligaments. They stood before the force of change and fell in valour. The fire ran down my veins and up my arteries as if travelling down a series of branching highways. It bypassed the bony barriers and penetrated the core. The abiotic essence of my very existence melted, leaving behind an ivory frame of who I once was. Embraced by the heat in all directions, even the skeleton was rendered unto dust.

They will ask how it felt.

If I’m honest with myself… it felt like the face of God was staring at me..


And thus, I bid you adieu.

---

---

---

1B: Man on High


What lies on the other side of the edge of the world?

One day I’ll find out.

So I told myself one day.


I hear him call. My friend. My guide. He’s here! He has to be!


On the other side of the edge of the world.

Because I found him. The man who condemned me is locked in a fucking cell in Bali!


“Who said that?” I ask, snapping from my dreaming.

I step forward into that which lies beyond.

The Nothing.

But…


“I did! I did! I did!” I plead to… … I plead.

”Did you?”













































































































The Nothing becomes.

Tangible light. I walk upon it. Stepping forth into the abyss. Experienced as I am in the void, fear abates. Around me, the dark brightens. Black to white; sepia to gold; death… to life.

I am.

The light lends itself to form. Dazzling fields of spring’s blossoms sprouting from underneath a rainbow arc. Vaguely familiar as if choices had been presented once before and this, the choice I envisioned, was overturned by the will of the majority.


My will is empowered by something Other. I hear songs of life and love. In the distance, upon a hill, stands a shining city of stars and gold.

No struggle, no battle, no resistance. With a blink, I’m there.

Pillars of luminous aether frame the entrance to the temple. I pass by their guardian gleam and under the heavy, rocky ceiling. Streaked amber lines of bulging magma reach across above me. And below. Consciously I avoid stepping upon the cracks - lest superstitions ring true. I err not as I hop along the floor.

Before me, this realm concentrates into a pulsing orb. Plasma and flares of the most intense brilliance.

Life.

Life!

My new beginning steps forward, emerging from his solar throne. He welcomes me with burning arms that wrap themselves around what remains of my body on this plane. His touch is warm, but not searing. Comfort.

Reserved, I wonder what to do with my arms. Such a silly thing in the grand scheme of things. I make a choice and return the embrace.


He takes his seat upon the sun once more. I’m seized by its orbit.

“Be at ease.” Through a falcon’s beak, his voice is both a whisper and a shout. I have to strain to listen, but at the same time it echoes with an otherworldly force. “Take a seat.”

With an extended arm, he gestures to a small rocky boulder of a seat to his right. Intuitively, I take my seat. The rock is cold to the touch. In the face of creation, a shiver wriggles its way up my spine and tickles the base of my skull. A perspective is loosened. The cobbled rainbows beneath my feet give way to a hole that forcibly deflects the everything-light that forms a phalanx around us. Front and center, the sun and I, stare into the newly-formed abyss.

“What… what is this?” I stammer. Every breath I draw seems to bring new wonders, it’s hard to keep track of it all.

“The world as it was,” his majesty states. Within the hole before us, a swirling mess of blue and green melds into a ball. It rotates on its axis, revealing the dusty, grey moon on its other side. “And as it will be.”

The vision surges forward at a vomit-inducing pace. It hurtles towards the moon with a blurring whir, passing through steel walls, and settles upon the image of a woman sitting against a wall, her face covered. Behind a glass wall, chaos ensues. Two brunette faux-goddesses do battle with a ball of light. A lumbering troll clumsily tries to play with that which is beyond his comprehension.

As the image continues, I see… myself.

“I… I don’t understand…”

“Watch,” I’m told. “Learn.”

Before my very eyes, I fly from the darkness. I barrel into the false idols and the blubbering oaf. They don’t last long. As the light personifies and Dolly Waters stands beside me, we peer into the cell and see the woman, Betsy Granger, cling on in hope as the hatch separating her from life and death opens. She drops.

“No!” I shout from this side of reality, lunging forward to save her. Excellence arrives before I can get beyond spacetime’s membrane. With Betsy pulled to safety, I loose a sigh of relief. The image itself dissipates, returning light to where it had seemed to abandon. On my knees, I look up.

I look directly into the sun.

“What was that?!” I demand from He on High.

“What may come to be.” The answer fills the space between us, but adds no insight.

“No,” I rise from the rock. “That’s not an answer. I’m talking about the deep, dark hole full of things that never happened…”

“Yet,” comes the solar interruption.

“What does that mean?!” I beg. “Where am I? What the hell is all this?”

“Hell…” the falcon-headed being muses. A golden serpent hisses as it wraps itself around an empyreal disk that balances atop his head. “No. Not here. That is not what you were made for.”


“Made for?” I ask, the radiance lending me some composure. “Who are you?”

“So many questions, young one.” The snake atop his head stares at me. “I am merely one of many forgotten faces, neglected and usurped.”

“I was told others would be coming for me…” My mind remembers its dreams. Atop an Aegean mesa I had confronted the face of discord: Aris, nay… Eris… whatever. She had warned as much. In the course of revealing The Salmon-Coloured Minotaur’s absence, she revealed so much more. They were watching me.

“That they are,” the choral voice agrees.

“How did you hear that?” He’s in my head. I don’t like, I don’t like, I don’t like!


“We are hearing you, child. All of us.” Instantly his voice soothes my bubbling rage. “We are all watching. Some of us, like the Grecian you met atop the mountain, are foolish enough to act in public.”

“You’re acting too,” I snipe. “I should be dead.”

“That I am.” Confidence belies sadness. “That you should.”

“Wait… am I...?” A lump forms in the deep of my throat. I can’t believe that it took this long for the thought to cross my mind. “Is this…”

“Not what you’re thinking.” Of course not. Not for me.

“Then…”

“Questions need answers. That suggests your purpose is not yet fulfilled.” He, the sun, rises. “It is not for me to decide what the answers are, but there is a role I can still play in this creation.”

“You… created me?” With the morning sun above me, my heart - or what exists of it here - skips all its beats.

“No, but I can again.” The ultimate dream offered. Return. Rebirth. “For a price.”

“What price?” My ire ignites again, dripping from the question. There’s always a price.

“Just one favour. When required.” It sounds so simple when said like that

“And what would the others think?” I ask. If they are watching me, then they were watching Eris ring discord upon the hill, just as the Lord of Light before me. Why not here, too? “Surely they are watching?”

“No, not here,” he denies. “Horus and his mother have long since drawn attention elsewhere.”

“Oh, great!” I roll my eyes. “I’m sure your motivations are super legit then!”

“Your reservations are valid, but you need to make a choice.” A choice? Better me than anyone else. “Your demise will have been noticed by now. They’ll all be trying to find you.”

“So I say ‘yes’ and I get to go back, or…” I trail off. I haven’t been told the other option.

“One of the others finds you.” That… doesn’t help. But something tells me that’s all I’m going to know.









I crack my fingers and close my eyes.







Opening them again, I tell Ra my decision.

“Life.”

Que será, será.

---

---

---

1C: Man on Ledge

Here doth discord reign
On the mountaintop.
Bloodied bodies stain.

His throbbing heart stops,
Stepped to the edge.
For life, death would swap.

A man on a ledge
Looks down on it all
And recites his pledge.

He knows when the call
Rings he must take heed,
If today he falls.

But death shall not feed
On his soul this day.
That, his earnest creed.

Its hands - forced to stay,
And wait their next chance.
Others flushed away.

Time stalled at a glance,
As he dares look down
In a final stance.

Today sings renown
With no time to bide,
He will take his crown.

Jump! Chaos defied.
Destiny brought forth.
Re-emerge. Revived.

---

---

---

1D: Man on Edge

"There’s nothing as exciting as a comeback – seeing someone with dreams, watching them fail, and then getting a second chance."

“What a fucking comeback, huh?

It was the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows. At least for me, anyway. Not sure I’d say the same about you, Chris. Is it alright if I call you that? I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure, so I feel like I might be making this a little… personal. But fuck it, what have I got to lose except everything, amirite? ‘Chris’ it is. I’m happy to entertain the ‘Corporate’ schtick a little, but it’s just a bit weird to say aloud, okay?

Let’s get some of the preliminary shit out of the way. I… I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. I asked for two steel cages around the ring so that Marf wouldn’t have a chance of getting in the way between Lycana and I, and I miscalculated. As Lycana said, I practically invited him to try at that stage. That’s no excuse. I knew exactly what could happen, tried to stop it, and then… I failed. Worse still, I lost myself in the process. In that cage, I had only one thought: retribution. I went in a straight line towards Lycana with my blinkers on. Full attack mode. And in doing so, I lost track of what I should have been doing. I took my eye off the ball. Tunnel vision.

It fucking cost me.

That’s on me. As if this maimed fucking hand wasn’t enough, now I have to carry this with me too. My failure.

Maybe you could teach me a thing or two about that, Chris.

I did my best to put everything behind me. I conquered the physical pain - scars be fucking damned. The trauma, the ongoing flashes of that fucking hand that I would see everywhere... I came to terms with it. I found a way to live with it. But now there’s this, my new millstone; my new albatross… my fucking prize to wear.

But that’s not where the night ended, is it? No.

Now, I know what people have called me: an iconoclast, a revolutionary even. I’ve denied all of that, and still do. I’m no fucking hero. But when it comes to how Leap of Faith ended for me, in the most un-ironic way... I had a dream.

And it came true.

I took my second chance and fucking ran with it.

Then the spin machine went into overdrive. It’s almost like Chris Page had laid out his excuse before he even lost the championship. And then, surprise surprise, Predictable Page went straight back to the same ol’ same ol’ bullshit. Well hey, babes, you know you’ve got that rematch - you’ve blabbed about it enough - shoot your shot! You know… like I did.

At Leap of Faith, I made up for High Stakes. But I know what the deal is going forward. With the disappointment of Lycana sitting heavy on my shoulders, I know that the only way that I can push through is to keep fucking fighting. It’s uh… it’s kind of my thing.

The funniest part of this is that if it were going to be anyone other than Chris Chaos across the ring from me on Warfare, I’d almost think that I could still be the underdog after that whole Lycana incident. The way Page will frame it if he ever does sack up, that’s exactly the position he’ll try to put me in.

Fucking dummy. That’s where I thrive!

But alas, it’s the other Chris this time. Can you blame me for getting the two of you mixed up though? I mean, there’s the first name, the fact that you both blew chance after chance, and you both also just talk a whole lot of shit that doesn’t really hold true and if anything ever sticks its more just because the incessant droning caused their opponent to literally shoot themselves in the fucking face. I guess the only difference is, one of you cuntrags can actually win a match. Sorry Chaos. I’ll give you this though, I’m kind of excited to see what you’ve got to say for yourself after that literal pile of shit that you got for yourself at Leap of Faith.

Hey, when are those Biebs’ tickets for, my man? Want a date?

You’re right though, Chris (Chaos). About some of the stuff you said prior to Leap of Faith, when you were trying to con us all into thinking you were any different than you’ve always been. With a body as broken as yours, and being at the point of - and these are your words - physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, you probably should’ve learned your lesson. But did you? In your words… I think we all know the answer.

Just so we’re clear… the answer is ‘no’.

That uh… that is what you were trying to say, right? When you said that we all knew.

We. All. Know.

You haven’t changed a single fucking thing to stay, as you said, ‘relevant’. Hell, by your own admission, Theo Pryce was even grooming you when your pimp daddy Thaddy spanked you back in December. And you still fucking lost. Just like you did at Leap of Faith. That’s not growth. It’s the same old shit.

You see how I’d get you confused with Page, right?

I guess Theo didn’t do too good on the whole ‘waking you up’ front, did he? He supposedly set all of this up, ‘fooling’ everyone (allegedly), all for you to fucking squander it. Again. Mark my fucking words, bud, it is going to be the same damn outcome when you step up to face me. Honestly, this whole rebirth of yours is pretty impressive actually, Chris. You’ve only been sucking at Theo’s teet for like three weeks and already you’ve established a modus operandi of failure. He gives you a chance, and you fall short. It’s what you do.

There’s a delicious irony in this. Had my Plan A panned out, it would’ve been me smacking you around last year in place of the Lioncunt. Now, here you are again being fucking fed to a new champion. The Chaos pattern of failure, set to repeat.

I think I actually needed the reality check that I got at High Stakes, because look at what I’ve accomplished since. You - and I quote - ‘stole one’, against Louis way back in the day. I shoved my fucking hand down his throat and took one. You thought your stolen victory was going to be a stepping stone towards something greater. For me, it is. Figuratively, anyway. See, there’s a big difference between my motivations and anyone else’s. I’m not here for fame, for glory, or for money. I’m not here to be the face of the XWF. I’m not even here to prove that I’m the super-duper-bestest-ever-OMG-totally! I’m here because I have no other choice. Life brought me here; circumstances put me in the firing line; and everything I’ve done since has been a matter of survival. I survive. It’s what I do.

Shit… I can literally be burned alive, and come back to win the Universal Championship the same night! Think about that, Chris! My survival instinct has led me to holding the entire universe in my fucking hands! It’s taken me to the top of the mountain; to the fucking White House, man! My will is indominatible! I am indomitable.

I bounced back from failure in November and since then, it’s been forward…




When I bounced back this time, I became the Universal Champion that night. That’s the level of falling upwards you’re dealing with here. That’s the kind of mistakes that I make: ones that make me a champion. Like I said… indomitable. I can survive anything. I know my failures, and have owned them since day fucking one. I’ve proven I can bounce back with a fucking vengeance. You haven’t. This isn’t about a second chance for you. Your second chance was against Thad, and you fucking failed. Your third was at Leap of Faith, and you fucking failed. This… on your fourth… do I even need to say it?

Think you’re gonna need a fifth, son.

You know what, maybe you actually should hang up your tights like you suggested others in your position might. You’re pretty much on the verge of becoming Centurion 2.0 here. Unlike him, I guess you’ve at least got those 111 glory days to lean back on, though I’m not sure beating Peter Gilmour is too much to brag about. I’ve never even faced the guy but kind of already feel like I’ve beaten him.

Must’ve been a past life or something.

You say you have no remorse, no compassion, no qualms with causing pain. I’ve heard that before, you know? Marf said it. Lycana too - let’s not forget I had already beaten her once before. Reggie said it. Louis didn’t need to, but that’s his reputation, you know? It didn’t help any of them. How’s it working out for you? The same as them, I’d imagine. Because they hadn’t faced anybody like me before. Nor have you. I actually have remorse, I have compassion, and I don’t necessarily want to cause pain. I may love myself a little bit of chaos, but as far as you and I are concerned, I’m the fucking anti-Chaos. The anti-you. I’m everything that you wanted to be, come true. You’re the guy who fights the system and loses, I’m the guy who does it and wins. Especially when that system is you. Nary an ass kissed in the process.

I am very, very good at what I do, Chris. I devour people. It’s my core business, so-to-speak. I swear to all the Gods - and trust me, they’re all listening - that my mission is not over yet. It can’t be. Which means I can’t lose to you.

I won’t.

Before I put Louis down, he told me that to do so, would be to do the improbable. Check.

When it comes to putting me down… well, boy, now we’re approaching impossible territory. Because in this match… well… it’s pretty typical rules. For the first time since my rebirth here, there are no weapons nor special stipulations. Aside from the fucking ‘president’ being there and all that. You’re going to have to pin me or make me submit.

Something that nobody has ever done.

I’ve seen the impossible, Chris. On my journey through the flames… I saw what lay beyond the edge of the world. I know that beating me isn’t that, not on the grand scale. But it’s pretty fucking close. And for you it may as well be. It’s going to be a lot easier to just...

Eat Chris Chaos.”


"A second chance doesn’t mean anything if you didn’t learn from your first."