The freezing cold air touched his cheeks, turning them red. Xerces had definitely been here before, his father's home country. Russia. This time, however, he'd come to watch his surrogate father train. "At least he calls it training." Xerces thought as he jogged after the bigger man. Of course, he couldn't complain so much as Cain was wearing one hundred fifty pounds of training gear on top of layers and lays of warm clothes.

He'd never seen the man so determined, so dedicated. He watched the process of Cain's transformation from a murderer who no longer cared about winning into a competitor to whom the fame and the fortune meant everything.

Cain smiled a bit as he ran, thinking about proving his naysayers wrong. He'd not had a lack of championship matches in his career, but this one had more meaning than any of them. This was the Hart Title. He'd always admired the most prominent wrestling family in Canada, and it was a little known fact that Cain had spent some time in the dungeon.

He'd trained with the likes of Lance Storm, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, Owen, and Bret. He'd taken those veterans' words to heart before he'd lost his way. He'd seen work ethic in its purest form, and had hoped to draw upon this in his career now.

Cain sprinted harder for a moment, snow crunching beneath his feet and sweat pouring down his body. He could feel the burn in every single muscle as the weighted training clothing increased its resistance. He stopped for a moment and doubled over, his large hand upon a dead tree to hold himself up. "Xerces... (pants)...stop..."

The young boy looked at Cain wide eyed, adjusting his scarf as the wind picked up. This wind was one which Xerces was used to, but it was still a biting cold. His cheeks tingled as he looked at Cain with concern. "Umm....are you okay, Mister Cain?"

Cain brushed off the pain and stood up. He looked at Xerces with a stubbornness in his eyes. "I'm fine, kid. Just got the strangest feeling. Like we're being watched or something."

"Hrm..." Xerces' eyes darted back and forth."...come to think about it, I did hear some noises in the bushes a while back."

He didn't want to worry the boy, which is why this is the first mention Cain had made of his own suspicions. Apparently Xerces had heard the same thing though. He smirked. He knew his mannerisms would rub off on the child sooner or later.

Cain narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the frigid Russian tundra. "Nice training grounds." he told himself. But he had to focus, because he could feel more eyes upon he and Xerces. He had to "protect his investment". Why not teach the child something in the process?

"Xerces?"

"Yes Mister Cain?"

He looked at the kid and crouched down, Xerces following his mentor's lead. Cain held his fingers to his lips first of all, then whispered in Xerces' frost burned ear. "...shh. I want you to listen very closely...block out the wind and listen...tell me what you hear."

Xerces closed his eyes just as Cain said. The older man had not steered him wrong in the past, and the geeky young man had learned so much. For example, coffee is do much better than hot cocoa. Or to "you can look but don't touch" means just that, as it pertains to Delilah.

As he sharpened his senses, amongst the sounds of owls coming out for the night, Xerces heard it. He could hear what sounded like footsteps in the snow. Not one, not two. Three sets of footsteps. To the east, in a patch of snow covered trees. They were the footsteps of apparently large individuals.

As he opened his eyes, he saw Cain looking at him with the most serious expression. He mouthed the words. "Some of your dad's men."

Xerces lowered and inclined his head. He wasn't afraid in the least bit, but more so suprised. Did his dad send a rescue party for him? No. So out of character for him. He mouthed a question to Cain. "But why?"

Cain shrugged. He was just as confused as the kid, but he knew one thing. Morbid would not have Xerces back. Cain and Delilah had taken a liking to the kid, and Xerces was Cain's biggest fan.

Click. The sound was clear amongst the silence of the cold, dark forest. Cain knew this sound as the sound of a bullet being loaded into the chamber of a rifle. He stood up slowly, his eyes surveying the frozen wasteland. There was only one place the men could hidr, and he deduced that they'd made their "perch" there. He looked at Xerces who was about to stand and growled.

The young boy ducked again, then jumped as a loud POP rang out from the woods, and the sound of birds' wings flapping filled the air. It was then that he saw Cain fly backward with a spray of blood flying up from his chest.

The boy cried out in anguish. "NO!!! CAIN!!!"

After all, he still didn't believe in the power of Cain. He wasn't a Christian and hadn't studied the bible, so he just believed the monster just to be another big man. He scrambled over to his protector and looked down at him, blood forming under the left shoulder of Cain. "Come on Cain, don't die! Please don't die, I'll be good! I swear!" The boy cried, tears stinging his cheek.

Sadly, Cain had shown him more fatherly love than his own father ever had. He was crushed at the thought of his favorite wrestler and new father figure dying in his arms. But his problems would become larger

Three large men dressed entirely in white fur, identical to Morbid Angel stormed the area. Their instructions?

1. Kill Cain
   
2. Do not harm Xerces
   

The boy squirmed and yelled out, sobbing as two of the men grabbed him. They began to drag poor Xerces into the woods, where the sound of a roaring engine could be heard. Xerces whimpered. "Let me go! Don't take me back to that bastard!"

The third man stared down at the immortal Cain, who lie motionless in the snow. He just knew that the shot through the heart had to have put this Beast down, because in the full moon light he couldn't see the man's chest rising and falling.

Morbid Clone #3 smiled proudly and reached into his pocket. Feeling his IPhone there, he pulled it out and opened up the camera app. He stood there for about five minutes, playing around on it and visiting his favorite social media websites. Finally, the proud "killer of Cain" turned on the flash of his camera app and aimed at the spot where Cain had been. He hit the button.

FLASH!!!!

He snickered and looked at the picture. No. That couldn't be right. Morbid Clone #3 looked through the pictures on his phone, going through every single one. In the picture where Cain should have been, he saw just a puddle of blood which was now frozen in the snow.

He gulped as he felt a presense behind him, slowly turning around. You know that feeling you get when you turn around and there's a hungry lion staring deeply into your eyes? No? It doesn't happen often, but this poor clone was staring down at something a bit more frightening.

Cain wasn't happy. First of all, these cowards had snuck up on him and Xerces while Cain was training for Peter Gilmour. Secondly, he insulted our anti hero by actually thinking that one bullet would put him down. What the fool should have known was that nothing could destroy this monster.

Cain sneered at Morbid Clone #3, his voice becoming deep and ominous as his eyes flashed.

"That fucking hurt, you moron. Tell me, what were you hoping to accomplish? Attacking myself and my son like this!" He said this without catching himself. Yes, he'd grown a heart and that was a dangerous weapon. His expression darkened as the Morbid Clone stuttered for an answer. "Now, I must eviscerate you. This of course is a shame, seeing as how I am trying to break a fucking habit here!"

"But....but....but....the boss said..."

"Oh, you're fucked clone."

His rage fueled him as he lunged forward and swung with his left fist, knuckles contacting the jaw of the bigger man. Morbid Clone #3 saw stars appearing before his eyes for a moment as the burning pain from a cracked jawbone sent his body into a temporary shock. He staggered about, then groaned as Cain's knee found it's mark on the bridge of his nose.

He found himself doubled over on one knee, warm red blood flowing down onto the snow from his shattered nose. Through teary eyes, his vision blurred, he looked up at the monster who stood above him. He felt the cold snow strike his cheek first, then the impact of the tip of a cold combat boot. He saw the world spinning as he rolled down a hill, then...THUD!!!

Hitting a tree does NOT feel good! He felt an impact in the snow next to him, body quivering in fear. He coughed blood onto the snow, mouth agape as Cain questioned him. "Where are they taking Xerces, trash? Tell me, and I may just allow you to continue breathing. Don't tell me? I will send you home to your creator in a million pieces. So..." there went that frightening smile. "...I guess it's not so bad, right? I mean, if you're dead you can't feel the pain I'm going to leave you in."

"I....he..."

"Think before you speak, you waste of DNA. I really would like to get out of this situation without having to kill anyone. I'm a recovering addict, you know." he buried a boot into the clone's solar plexes, feeling great delight from the blood now staining the ground at the man's mouth.

Morbid Clone #3 didn't take well to this introduction to fear. He quivered as he raised a hand and pointed toward the north. Cain slowly turned, following the clone's line of sight to see a delipidated old house at the top of a tall hill. He thought to himself. "Really? Nice place for a hideout, ya fucking idiot." His lips curled upwards into a creepy smile as he looked back to Morbid Clone #3.

"Thank you for your cooperation, comrade."

He then turned and began to trudge through the snow, headed in the direction of the large hill. The truth was, he knew that not even this little excursion would stop him from winning the Hart Title. Yes, that thought was still fresh in his mind.

But before that, he would rescue Xerces Angel. Then he would not only walk out of Russia a champion, but he would also walk out something else.

A hero.

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