It was just a day ago when an intoxicated Micheal Graves decided to commandeer a camera crew and record a personal message for one Thaddeus Duke. Micheal was upset because he felt slighted by Thaddeus's apparent lack of concern at the prospect of facing Micheal in an X-Treme rules match. Micheal has been dealing with a lot of self doubt issues since returning. He finds himself more often than not questioning if he still has what it takes to compete at the level required to make it here in the XWF. He struggles with the fact that he has became a forgotten relic of the past, while many of the men that he had defeated in the past have been remembered as legends. You can imagine that it must be hard for him. He hides it well, but Micheal is a bit of an egomaniac. With his narcissistic nature, it's tough for him to come to terms with the fact that he may not have been as good as he thought he was. Now that he has an opponent that isn't putting any effort into promoting the match with him, it's just proving to be his breaking point. Unfortunately for Micheal, when he finds himself in stressful situations, he also finds that he has an unwanted visitor make an appearance. Deep within the psyche of Micheal Graves dwells a much darker force. Imagine if every bad thought you ever had could all come together and form a singular personality. Now imagine that personality constantly battling with you for dominance of your body and actions. That is something that Micheal has had to deal with for years. Ever since he was kidnapped and tested on in 2006. Weapon:Gehenna is what they referred to him as. Micheal doesn't remember much from that experience, but sometimes parts of it will come back to him in his dreams. This is one such dream.
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"It's cold, so cold. I'm laying on a cold wet cement floor. Shivering, freezing... where am I? It's dark, pitch dark. I can't see inches in front of my face. I've never before experienced such darkness before. Where I am? I need to know.... So cold.
What's that? People talking? What are they saying? Wipe his memories? Inject me with what? Who are these people? The last thing I remember was wrestling a match against Sean. What happened? How did I end up here?
Sean, he did this! It had to be him. No, no Sean. This isn't his style. I'm freezing. What's that? They're talking again. I don't recognize the voices. Wait, a name! 
? Shane ? Is he behind this? Why?"
A door opens, flooding the room with light. Micheal is laying on the floor, dirty and naked. The floor itself is damp with a thin layer of wet dirt that sticks to Micheals body as he moves around. Micheal looks up to the open door way, blinded by the intense light that is suddenly entering the room. He can only make out the silhouette of a man in a suit and tie.
“Congratulations are in order Micheal. Out of all of the choices that he had, it's you that we've chosen to be our perfect weapon.”
The man turns around and slams the door shut behind him. Micheal once again is left in total darkness. Cold black darkness. Suddenly Micheal experiences a flash of painful experiments. Scalpels, injections, brainwashing sessions. Torture. Micheal see's flashes of himself absorbing various forms of bodily damage. Gunshots, knife wounds, burns.
Suddenly Micheal wakes up screaming and breathing heavily.
“Fuck!”
Micheal sits there looking feverishly around the room. Where is he, he wonders? It takes a moment, but he realizes that it was a dream. He's in his room on the cruise ship. We're heading to Antarctica for Warfare. These dreams don't happen often. It's even less likely that they offer up new information from a time that Micheal has never remembered well. This time Micheal did get some new information though.
“Shane ?”
He mutters aloud. Could that be who was responsible for the Weapon:Gehenna project? Is that who was responsible for kidnapping him so many years ago? That incident is what lead to Micheal leaving the XWF and professional wrestling as a whole. Whatever experiments they performed on Micheal, they had changed him. For a while, Micheal felt like he was trapped in a cage in his own mind. Somebody else was at the wheel. Eventually Micheal was able to regain control, groggy and afraid he ran off to the one place that he would feel safe. His fiance Stephanie. It took a few months before things would return to anything that even resembled normal for Micheal. Even when things did start to fall back into place, it didn't take long for him to realize that there was some dark entity now living within him.
Micheal throws his blanket back and turns in the bed so that his feet are on the floor. He leans down and rubs his eyes as he lets out a long breathed sigh.
“You are making threats that you can't possibly follow through with Micheal.”
What!? Startled, Micheal quickly looks around the room, desperatly trying to locate the source of this voice.
“Who's there?... Answer me!
A figure walks out from the shadows towards the back of the room. It comes just close enough that Micheal can slightly make it out. It looks like him, but with the blackest of eyes, and a weird purple aura surrounding it.
“Don't be coy, you know who I am Micheal.”
Micheal clinches his eyes shut and shakes it head defiantly.
“No, you're not real!”
The figure lets out a short burst of laughter before speaking up.
“Come now, are you truly still trying to convince yourself that I am just part of your imagination Micheal? You should know full well that I exist, and you should also know why I'm here.”
Micheal takes a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down.
“Whatever you want, you can't have it. Now leave me alone!”
The shadowy figure makes a sound with it's mouth, as if to say tisk tisk tisk.
“I only want what you want Micheal. I'm only here to help you achieve your goals”
Micheal stands up and shakes his head no.
“No, I don't believe that! What could you possibly have to gain from me succeeding?”
The figure smiles before explaining.
“But Micheal, I have everything to gain. For so long you have kept me locked away, buried deep within your psyche. I long to be free, and...”
Micheal shouts and points at the finger, cutting it off mid sentence.
“I'm not giving you control of this body ever again!”
The figure doesn't seem phased by Micheal's outburst.
“...and at this point I'm willing to compromise with you.”
Micheal tilts his head slightly, cautiously curious about what this plague on his mental stability is offering.
“I can see that I have peaked your interest. You too must realize on some level, that we are two sides of the same coin. We need one another for either of us to function effectively. What I propose is a merger. You stay in control, but absorb myself into your consciousness. With me you will all of my power.
Micheal looks both distrusting and confused.
“Powers?”[/shadows]
[shadow=purple]“Yes, long ago when I was created, you were granted certain abilities to help you with your missions. When you wrestled control away from me, those powers were lost to you.”
“Ok, what kind of powers are we talking about?”
The figure smiles, sure that it's offer is too tempting to pass up.
“Age would no longer be a concern of yours. You would be stronger and faster than you ever have been before. While not invulnerable, injuries would not come easily to you, and this self doubt that you have experienced lately, I promise you that you would never doubt yourself again.”
Micheal sits back down on the bed, cradling his head in his hands, deep in thought. Should he agree he wonders? The deal that is being presented to him is pretty tempting. However how can he trust this... demon? This seems to be the same entity that had control of Micheal's body years ago. Micheal fought with everything in his being to regain control. This thing, this figure, it did not want to relinquish control back to Micheal. It also fought with all that it had. Why would it now want to offer itself, and whatever powers that it claims to have, over to Micheal?
“You can't be trusted. Besides, I want to earn what I get out of life, and I can't do that with whatever supernatural garbage your trying to bargain with.”
“A foolish choice, that is most certain. Worry not though Micheal, this offer shall remain on the table. For there will come a time soon enough, that you realize just how much I am needed if you are to continue down this path you've set yourself on.”
With that the figure fades into a smokey fog that eventually vanishes entirely.
“Apparently I just passed on a chance to guarantee a victory against you Duke. I'm not going to get into the details, but if the offer made to me was on the up and up, then it would have eliminated any chance you stand of walking out of Warfare victorious. The problem with that, at least for me is this. If I would have accepted that offer, then the victory wouldn't have been mine. I'm not looking for shortcuts. When I walk into Warfare, I'm walking in for a War. For me, you are not just Thaddeus Duke. You are the living breathing representation of walls that I need to break though here in XWF, and breaking walls is exactly what I plan to do. This match has been booked as an X-Treme Rules match. On top of that, it's taking place in the fucking Antarctic. Depending were we Anchor the ship, there may or may not be any international laws to stop me from doing whatever I damn well please to you. You know, People used to believe that I was a vampire. I was never a vampire, but I will feast on your fucking blood This Wednesday. I'm calling you out Thaddeus, and I'm making my intentions clear. This isn't just about winning and losing for me. I need to make you be a statement. I need to leave you a crippled broken shell. You boasted recently about your win loss record. You made sure to point out that the one loss that you suffered to Dr. D'Ville was not a loss suffered from pin fall or submission. You sure made sure to point out that you only lost because you... how did you put it? Fell first.
Well Thaddeus, let me ask you this question. How is it going to look when you loose to me because I beat you so bad, and I've broken so many of your bones, that no amount of heart was ever going to get you off the canvas? X-Treme Rules pal, I'm not looking for the honorable victory, I'm just looking to hurt you before you have the chance to hurt me. If it takes a baseball bat upside your head, then that's what I'll do. If it takes a can of gasoline, then that's what I will do. If I have to throw you into that God Damn sub arctic water, then by fucking God, that's what I'll do!
I've been around the block Duke. I had a chance to get a taste for what it's like to be at the top, and then I walked away. You've yet to get that taste. This match is going to come down to who wants it more, and normally the younger guy who has yet to get a taste for that big accomplishment, normally that's the guy who wants it more. However I have sampled the taste of big victory, and it's a taste that I want to taste again. So in the end, I know exactly what I've fighting for, and I'm driven. Are you as driven as I am? Or are you still focusing all of your energy on Illumenatus business?
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