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Thaddeus Duke · **01-15-2017, 07:42 AM**

Saturday, December 24, 2016 | 11:56 PM Local Time | The Illuminatus Compound | Old Saybrook, Connecticut

The young Prince has a big decision to make. It is assumed that he’s already made that decision but still, it can not be easy. To reveal to the King that their was a fourth assassin involved in the death of his best-friend is one thing. But that fourth assassin being under the Illuminatus roof is another. She sleeps not 50 feet away from the bedroom wall of the King.

Thaddeus stands in the main corridor on the ground floor of the Compound. Part of him is every bit willing to break this news to his father and equally ready for the storm that may follow. Still though, a big part of him doesn’t want to disrupt his fathers progress. Progress in terms of his mourning. Jacob was King Sebastian’s best friend since they were 12 years old. To lose him and watch him die is like burying your own brother. James Edwards is Thaddeus’ one and only true friend. Thaddeus can only imagine what it would be like to go through hell together and have to bury him.

So the young Iluminatus Prince stares at the entry way to the spiral staircase that leads to his fathers private quarters. Reluctant to move forward and unable to turn back. The young man exhales a deep sigh and proceeds to and through the door way and ascends the spiral stairs. At the top he enters the hall to the Illuminatus living quarters. To his immediate right is the door to his fathers quarters. Two doors further down the corridor, and on the same right side, Jacob’s killer sleeps.

He knocks, then enters. The King looks over at him from a dining table against the opposite wall where he’s been messing with his old death blades.

”Hey kid, what’s up? How’d your meeting go?”

Thaddeus closes the door behind him but neglects to answer.

”Is she pretty? Is she ugly?” the King asks while returning his attention to the spring loaded daggers laid upon towels on the table in front of him.

”What kind of mood are you in?” Thaddeus asks. He’s leaned with his back against the door and his hands behind his back.

King Sebastian lays down the knives and looks straight ahead to the wall, already speculating why Thaddeus would ask that. Already knowing in his heart that the mood he’s in is about to change. ”Even tempered,” the King replies, knowing full well his temper was already beginning to rise.

”To answer your question, she’s fucking gorgeous. Jim thinks she has a thing for me.”

The King looks over at his son, ”you be careful. You’re young, and easy to manipulate.”

Thaddeus takes great exception to being told he’s easy to manipulate. ”I’m not one to be manipulated father. I don’t understand why you’d think that.”

The bells in the tower begin to ring out, signaling midnight. It is now December 25. Thaddeus Duke has turned from a teenage boy to a man. ”It’s midnight.”

”Yes, I can hear,” Thaddeus states, annoyed at his father.

”Happy Birthday my boy.”

”Thank you.

“Now answer my question.”

”I don’t mean that you’re typically manipulated. Think about it, kid. You’re 18 now. What does any 18 year old boy want?”

”I don’t fucking know. Seeing as how I’ve never been 18 before and I don’t even know any other 18 year old anyone, it’s kind of understandable that I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” replies the Prince. He’s now decided that leaning against the door isn’t all that comfortable. He proceeds to move to a wooden dining chair, opposite his father.

”Sex.

“15, 16, 17, 18, and on up until you die, mans number one goal is for carnal relations. As such, women, particularly women in her area of expertise will use whatever it is that they have, in order to maneuver and get whatever it is that they want.”

”Noted.

“You’d be happy to know though, that she’s not Catholic,” Thaddeus says, shifting the focus back to why she was even at the Compound rather than what he and Ariana, in his mind, would hopefully do in the future.

Sebastian shakes his head, ”You’re wrong, kid. It makes no difference to me whether she is or isn’t. The fact is she’s worked with the Church and that’s probably worse than being Catholic. See, like us, Catholics are raised as such and they know no other way of life. Not being Catholic and choosing to work with them, that’s a life of choice. You’ve known other ways, but chose theirs,” he concludes as he resumes fiddling with the daggers.

He may be off base, but for all of the things the King has gone through over the years, he’s not exactly wrong to think that way.

Thaddeus shifts in his seat. ”I’m glad you’re sitting down.”

King Sebastian immediately lays down the daggers again and leans back in his chair. ”Just give it to me.”

”I was curious to know of her past and if she ever took down anyone important. She was reluctant at first, but I preached honesty and trust. I figured her mark had to have been Illuminatus otherwise she wouldn’t have been so hesitant.

“She relented and told me her biggest targets were what the Church referred to as the three headed snake of the Illuminatus. Meaning Grandfather, you and I,” Thaddeus concludes, growing ever nervous.

”Germany,” responds the King, more of a statement of fact than a question.

Thaddeus nods his head.

”She killed Jake,” he states in a very withdrawn tone of voice.

Again, Thaddeus nods. ”I told her it didn’t make sense. We captured and killed the three assassins. She politely informed me that we captured and killed three decoys firing blanks.”

Sebastian stands up and begins to walk toward the door. Thaddeus begins to stand up too. ”SIT!” the King shouts, startling Thaddeus and causing him to lose his balance as he falls back into his chair. The King proceeds to make his exit when Thaddeus grips his wrist, stopping him. The King looks down at his son. The Prince, up at his father.

”You will not harm her,” Thaddeus insists.

”Is that a request or an order?”

Realizing his mistake, the young man unhands his father. ”I told her she’d be safe here. I told her nothing she did for them in a time of war, when many atrocities were committed from both sides, would be used against her.

“I’m asking you not to make me a liar.”

Sebastian Duke hesitates at the door. He sighs a deep one then exits the room.

To Be Continued...

...PRESENT DAY...

Micheal Graves can agree with me all day long. He can spout off at the mouth about what or who he was ten years ago and who he faced and who he defeated. He can tell the world how good I am and about all the talent that I possess. The fact is as much as I do appreciate kind words from time to time, no matter how much I appreciate a little recognition for my efforts, not a damn bit of it matters.

As competitors in the Xtreme Wrestling Federation our goal on a weekly basis is to win. Our goal is to draw the crowds and get them interested in what the XWF has set up. If Graves thinks I’m going to sit here and tell him how much I respect his accomplishments from a decade ago or how his victory over Steve Jason was huge, he’s flat out wrong.

Don’t misunderstand me. I do give respect where respect is earned. I do give respect when it is warranted. However nothing that this Dark Warrior has done has earned my respect. I do not, and perhaps even more importantly than my own opinions, todays fans of the XWF do not care what you did ten years ago. Ten years ago is irrelevant to todays XWF. I’d suspect that Micheal Graves would do well to remember that.

Again, do not misunderstand. I’m in no way trying to demean what he’s done in this company in the past. In their time, I’m sure it was hot property. Today though, no one gives a damn. Why? Because the majority of modern day XWF fans never saw it. They weren’t part of that generation.

It’s a new day, a new era, a new generation and when you look at me, you’re looking at the next big box office smash hit. Even Vinnie Lane, as much as a detest that idiot, is smart enough to see the signs of what is to come.

How large must ones ego be to compare themselves to Doctor Louis D’Ville? Sure you could say he was only being analogous but come on, the closes thing to Graves that I’ve faced is D’Ville? Get real. Micheal Graves is not even in Gabe Reno’s league and it pains me so damn much to say that.

Graves there was a time when my father was the measuring stick. Men and women would enter the XWF and sooner or later they’d cross paths with one of the best this company has ever seen. If they could beat him, which few did, it was thought that that man or woman could go on to do big things in this company. With my father retired, Doc is now that measuring stick. For the record, even fewer have defeated Doctor D’Ville.

No I did not defeat him, but even Lane knows that it could have gone either way. A result of that loss, thrust me into the title picture of the XWF. Let’s, for comparison sake, take away my loss to Doc. Take that match out of your mind completely. Pretend it never happened. That match doesn’t take place and I’m not even mentioned in the title picture and not so much as listed in Paul Heymans stupid rankings. Duke versus old Graves, not that new one I dispatched quickly. Again for comparison sake, say I lose to the Dark Warrior. Would a loss to Micheal Graves have thrust me into the title picture?

Quick answer: No.

That’s simply because Michael Graves is not Doctor D’Ville. Losing to Doctor D’Ville is as good as winning just about any other match if you can at least, make it clear in that match that you’re capable of winning against him. I proved that much.

Losing to the Dark Warrior is nothing more than losing to the Dark Warrior.

In the final analysis, Micheal Graves is not Doctor D’Ville. Micheal Graves is not Thaddeus Duke. Thaddeus Duke can dance the dance toe to toe with Doctor D’Ville. Micheal Graves, on Warfare, will prove that his best days were behind him ten years ago.

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