Derek and the Dominoes' Layla was on the car radio with the Michigan snow playing a steady, pattering accompaniment as KnightMask and Natalia Rodrigo pulled up to the Fight Nation studio building.

Natalia had largely grown up with KnightMask, then just plain old Tyrone Gunder, before moving back to her native Brazil following college.

She was the first woman he'd ever grown close to and the first woman to make him feel as if he wasn't complete anathema to the opposite sex. The first to cook him dinner and let him devour seconds, thirds, fourths and then the refrigerator itself. The first to order and tape Pride FC pay-per-views for him (her mother was Japanese), especially their New Year's eve shows. The first that made him feel (like what? A hero?) when she came to rely on him for help with any paper she had to write.

And, it just so happened, she was also the daughter of the man whose ankle he had broken in the finals of the ADCC world championships.

KnightMask was about to pull the keys from the ignition as Layla entered her instrumental section. He looked over to Natalia and decided to sit inside and listen to the finish. It was a song he'd always associated with her, ever since she told him how her father had initially wanted to name her Layla until her mother convinced him otherwise. He wasn't sure if she loved the song as much as he or dad did, but she did know part of the reason why he loved it so much (the other part being Clapton and Duane Allman's dueling guitars).

Natalia Rodrigo: You know, as much as I appreciate what you're doing for me and oto-san...I just can't have it on my conscience knowing that you're...doing all of this for us. I mean...knowing that whatever horrors you subject yourself to in the XWF, is all just in order to support us...what if...

He couldn't have it on his conscience, he thought, that he won the ADCC world championships at the cost of her oto-san's career as a jiu jitsu competitor and instructor. He couldn't have it on his conscience that her father was going to live the rest of his life dishonored and in poverty because people felt he disgraced Brazilian jiu jitsu by allowing a masked catch-wrestling practitioner to win what they viewed as the most prestigious title in the sport.

KnightMask: Hey, I'm doing the same thing I've always done, its just that now I'm getting paid some money...money I can use to make sure that you are your dad are taken care of. I mean, wrestling has been my whole life. What else am I going to do?

Natalia Rodrigo: You know what I mean. This is not wrestling. Even if you don't end up getting hurt or...or worse...just being a part of this...this thing, this XWF, represents the total, utter perversion of everything that you've worked for, everything that you've spent your life striving to become. You're a sportsman, Tyrone. Like, this "match" that you're slated for...its not one on one, its not one team against another...its every man for himself...in "Xtreme rules"? What exactly are "Xtreme rules"? Even a gang rumble has more decency than this...at least they have two clearly defined sides...!

KnightMask: Natalia, I promise you it will be okay. Remember that time your dad and Euclides were fighting vale tudo and the crowd rioted? They actually have security at XWF shows!

Natalia Rodrigo: Where was this security when Agony jumped you in the dressing room, before your match even started? Where was this security when Arnaud Chevailler was spiking your head on the concrete? This isn't a sport, Tyrone...I don't...

KnightMask: Natalia. I'm going to be. Okay.

She looked away from him and brushed her jet black hair to the side of her face.

Natalia Rodrigo: Baka-desu.

KnightMask: Hai, so-desu-ne?

She giggled slightly and punched him in the stomach, her wrist bending against his abdominal muscles, which retained some hardness even relaxed. He held her, pressing her softness and warmth close to him while Allman's slide guitar chirped out its bird call to finish the song. He turned off the car as Zeppelin was pounding out the introduction of the Immigrant Song, just when Plant was beginning his famous wail. As the two friends stepped outside, lightning crackled across the sky, bringing a brief respite to the darkness and night. A group of leather clad women streaked down the main road on roaring motorcycles, their long hair trailing after them.

KnightMask: See? There are more dangerous things out there than professional wrestling.

Natalia: What are you talking about now?

KnightMask: Those biker-chicks, riding in the snowfall and the black ice...that's almost suicidal...

Natalia: Biker chicks...? What...?

KnightMask: Nothing, never mind.

He craned his neck toward the thick mist of clouds swirling across the black canvas of the night. The lightning crackled again. He could hear the roar of the bikers engine fading but still fierce. Together, they walked inside, for KnightMask's interview with TJ Longstreet.