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Thaddeus Duke · (01-19-2021)

OOC: The following takes place the day after the events of ‘Carolina’ posted for Warfare on 12/22/2020. For timeline sake, the events themselves take place the second week of December, 2020.

Illuminatus Compound || Old Saybrook, Connecticut || 5:48 PM

I feel a certain peace from within me for maybe the first time in my entire life. Things are still a little edgy but that’s to be expected. Elizabeth will work hard to forgive me for what I did and I will work tirelessly to never let her down again. To never let Frankie down either, for that matter. Both of them deserve so much better than I have given them lately. They both deserve the world and I fully intend to give it to them.

On the drive home from her mothers in North Carolina, I decided to take a detour and stop in to visit my father in Virginia. Part of me really wants to move south to be closer to my father and to get her closer to her parents. A real big part of me, honestly. It was a nice visit. I’ve seen him three times now since Arizona. Backstage at High Stakes, again in the ring at Savage after my victory speech, then earlier today. Big bad no nonsense Sebastian Duke is proud of his boy and it means so much to me to take his legacy, make it my own, and carry on the family tradition.

To me, that’s what matters most. Not the victories and the championships I win along the way. Not the fans that cheer for me and pay to see me. Not the acting roles that I love taking on in my XWF downtime. I love all of those things to varying degrees, but nothing and no one compares to the family.

Home is where the heart is. Liz and Frankie, and I guess to a lesser extend my father, is home to me.

Liz is curled up on the passenger seat, stretched across toward me and uses my arm as a pillow as she naps. If I said I didn’t enjoy every second of it, despite my arm tingling numb, I’d be lying. As we roll up the long drive toward the big house on the hill, Frankie plays a game on his iPad in the backseat. He too feels peace, and his peace is far more important to me than my own.

”Thad?” he says as he lays down his iPad.

”Yeah Bub?” I answer as I flip down the visor to look at him in the reflection of the mirror.

”You know when we were at your Grandpa’s house and you got mad and wanted to beat him up?” he asks of me and I have trouble keeping a straight face.

”Yeah I remember,” I reply with a shameful smile. I did want to beat the shit out of him, but that’s not what I want Frankie to see from me. If I’m his role model and soon to be his adoptive father, he doesn’t need to see me lashing out in anger. I need to do better than that. He’s picked up on so many of my better traits since he’s lived with us and I don’t really want him picking up my bad ones as well. God knows my bad traits are pretty fuckin’ bad at times.

”You remember when you were warning him not to threaten me?” he asks.

”Yeah of course I do.”

”Do you remember calling me your son?”

Thinking back, I did say that. It wasn’t intentional. Alister threatened him and well… threaten that boy at your own risk. Threaten Frankie and I really can’t be held responsible for what I do to you.

”Yeah, I remember,” I reply to him, this time with a sheepish smile. ”I’m sorry Bub, I was just upset and spoke without thinking.”

”No, I’m not mad about it,” he says with a crooked little smile. ”I just…” he says before his voice trails off. ”It made me feel…” he pauses again. ”I don’t know how to explain it actually.”

”Try,” I urge him.

I watch as he contorts his face in thought.

”It was the first time you called me your son and… Thad?”

I look back into the mirror, meeting his gaze.

”It made me happy is all,” he concludes. ”I don’t know, it’s just been a hell of a year man,” he says with an exasperated sigh causing me to laugh and Liz to chuckle. I thought she was sleeping.

”It has, hasn’t it?” Liz asks as she lifts her head from my arm.

”I might want,” he pauses for a lengthy few moments. ”I mean… I don’t know,” he says, obviously trying to muster up the courage to say what’s on his mind.

”Say whatever is on your mind Bub,” I say to him as I pull the car to a stop outside the big house.

”I’m not sure if I want to say it now,” he says shyly.

”Frankie,” I say turning toward him. ”There’s no judgment from either of us. You’re always safe to say what you think and what you feel,” I try my best to remind him.

”Well, I’m not sure I want to yet,” he begins to finally explain himself. ”I remember I asked you once before and you said you’d rather I didn’t but Thad?”

”What is it kiddo?”

”Do you think it would be okay if I called you Dad?”

Right.

In.

The heart.

”Get your little ass up here,” I say to him as I try so hard not to be emotional. After unbuckling, he stands up between the two front seats. I grab him and pull him into a hug, kind of pulling him through the seats. He buries his head in my shoulder and I in his.

”You can call me Thad, or you can call me dad, Bud,” I say to him in his ear. ”Mix it up if you want kiddo. It’s your call to make and I’ll never force you to call me anything.”

Seeing these two continue to bond, continue to grow into their new roles in each others lives has been a sight to behold. I know what Thad fears about fatherhood. His relationship with his dad is good now but it wasn’t always. He fears he’ll be a father like his but he doesn’t realize that they’re entirely different people. Two entirely different mindsets and entirely different ways in which they treat the people around them. I could have missed out on all of this and despite what happened, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

I let them have their moment as I exit the car and stretch. Snow still rests on the ground after the pounding the north took over the last week and I can only imagine the fun those two had in all of it. They exit the car and join me on the steps. Grasping his hand I lean my head against his arm as we walk toward the house.

”Did you two have fun in all this snow?” I ask of him.

”Nah he was mad at me all week,” Thad replies with a sigh. ”Not that it wasn’t unwarranted.”

Inside the house, we’re greeted warmly by the staff, most of which are basically family that Thad pays rather handsomely. Berta, Jim, and the rest. James especially.

”Welcome home darling,” he says to me with a hug in his thick but weakening South London dialect which is getting raspier by the day. ”I was hoping you two would work it all out.”

”Christ, does everyone know?” I ask with a bit of embarrassment.

”He’s my best mate,” he reminds me. ”Of course I knew.”

”Baby gimme your keys,” I demand, turning toward him. He looks at me perplexed. ”You know? Car keys?”

”But we just got home and...”

”I got something I need to take care of in town, it won’t take long,” I interrupt him, eagerly holding out my hand as he hands me his car keys. I kiss him on the mouth and head for the door. ”Be back in an hour.”

”You think she’s gonna kill him, mate?” Jim asks of Thad.

”I don’t know,” he answers. ”Think I should warn him?”

”Not advisable Thad!” I shout as I close the door behind me.

Twenty minutes later, I pull into the parking spot in front of the Starbucks in town. It’s the holiday season so I’m sure he’s working all he can since his parents cut him off. Once inside, I look around the place with no sign of him. Moments later he bursts through the doors from the back area and notices me standing here almost immediately and gives me a friendly, yet uncomfortable looking wave.

Thad didn’t warn him.

He’s getting smarter.

I return the gesture, forcing a smile in return. Can’t have my prey sneaking out the back ya know? He starts helping get some orders caught up like a good little barista but I’m on a schedule here. I want to be back at the house with my boys.

”Hi Garrett,” I say as I approach the counter. ”It’s time to take your break now.”

”Elizabeth, I’m kinda swamped here,” he replies as he gestures toward the counter with a dozen or so cups waiting to be filled. ”Can’t we do this another time?”

”We can do this privately Garrett,” I say with a shake of my head. ”Or all of your subordinates are gonna watch me come back there and put you on your ass,” I warn him. ”Your call buddy, I’ll leave happy either way.”

”Fine,” he says with a huff as he tosses his hand towel on the counter. ”Sorry guys, I gotta take five.”

He gestures with his head to follow him to the back. In his office, he gently closes the door.

”Before you say or do anything Liz, they can hear me scream,” he says as he backs away from me. God what a little bitch.

”You remember our last meeting, Garrett?” I ask him, referring to the day after Thad’s big graduation party. ”It was right in this building. Out there at one of the tables,” I remind him.

”I remember,” he states coldly.

”You remember how you threatened me with how you can play the long game and watch me destroy my relationship with Thad?”

He says nothing.

”I never told anyone about that threat, Garrett. Not even Thaddeus.”

”Liz, I...”

”You know him,” I interrupt him. ”How do you think he’ll react if I tell him you threatened me?” I ask him and he swallows hard. ”Answer the question.”

”He’d be pretty mad,” he says with a shameful face.

”He’d be furious and you know it,” I say before giving him a light shove. Garrett backs up a step. ”He’d come down here looking for you and no matter what I might do to you, his wrath is far worse than mine ever could be and you know that too.”

That’s a trait that’s both good and bad. No one besmirches his friends and family without suffering consequences. No one threatens those he loves without him flying off the handle and wanting to clean your clock. He may be a lot of things. Weak isn’t one of them. He’s a strong guy that has trained in boxing in the past. A legitimate punch from him isn’t something most would want to feel.

”I told you I loved him Elizabeth,” he reminds me of our meeting here months ago. ”All I did was let him love me back.”

THWAP!

CRASH!

Without even thinking about it, I decked him just like I did to Thad in that bar in Maui. Except this time, I enjoyed it. Garrett stumbles backwards and trips over his office chair. Trying to catch himself, he ends up pulling his desk over and spills the monitor and keyboard on top of him.

”You BITCH!” he yelps from the floor as he tries to get up but trips over a cord. It’d be a lie if I said I didn’t feel a little bad about that part. I mean, I still have to stop myself from laughing at him in the heat of the moment, but still, I don’t actually want to hurt him. I just need him to know just what and who he’s fucking with. It did feel so good to put him on his ass and I’m kind of proud of myself, though.

”Ohhhh now now now!” I say in a mocking tone. ”What will Thaddeus think if he finds out you’re calling his woman a bitch and trying to come at her?”

His face beet red, he sits on his knees and untangles the mouse cord from his leg and tosses the mouse across the room.

”You’re very manipulative,” he says with a tear in his eye, still sitting in the ruins of his office.

”What can I say, Garrett? I learned it from you,” I say as I flip his office chair upright and take a seat. He glances up toward me with a puzzled expression. ”Don’t act innocent, G, that insults my intelligence. One thing I’m not, is a stupid woman.”

”No, I never thought you were,” he admits quietly. ”But I’m not manipulating anyone.”

”No?” I question. ”So when you first met him at school and he was posing as Jack Fitzgerald in order to protect his identity, you didn’t stalk him home to find out who he really was?” I pose him the riddle, confronting him with his own past.

”You didn’t use that in order to manipulate Thaddeus into keeping your dirty little secret that you liked to smoke some pole?”

”Liz,” he begins but I quickly cut him off.

”You don’t have to answer those questions, G. I already know the answers because Thaddeus told me all about it that night when you first showed up at the Compound to ask if he’d speak at graduation.”

He sighs deeply as he kicks his legs out and slides backward to put his back against the wall.

”You think you love him?” I ask with a more even tone, trying to be as understanding of him as I can be.

He nods but says nothing.

”A man that loves someone doesn’t take them to bed when they’re vulnerable, Garrett. When you love someone, and you know they’re saddled with guilt and regret for doing something terrible, when you know they’re seeking help to get through things they’ve done, you don’t take them to bed.

“That’s a kind of manipulation that’s just on a whole ‘nother level, my friend.”

”What would you have me do Liz, honestly!?” he fires back. This time, I stay quiet. I’m interested in what he has to say. ”That was my boyfriend blown out of the sky, not yours! That was my boyfriend that I mourned and grieved over, not yours!

“I remember our conversation here almost verbatim, Liz. I know what I said and I know I gave him subliminal warnings, but I was starting to get over the whole damn thing before it was him that showed up on my doorstep unannounced! He was soaked with rain and entirely confused. It was cold as hell that night and he had no idea how or why he was at my house and yes, I was scared to death for him.

“Thad fucking me that night was never the plan, but you can get off your fucking altar bitch, and stop preaching because it was he that kissed me. Not once, but twice. I’m not sorry I did it, Liz. I’ll admit it was wrong to do it, but when you love someone and they show up at your door like that, you bring them inside and you do what you do best in order for them to feel okay again.”

Admittedly, I can kind of see things through his eyes. I’m not sure I can honestly say I wouldn’t have done the same thing if the roles had been reversed.

”That’s fair,” I admit to him hesitantly. ”But you need to know Garrett, that it’s over now. He made his mistake and he’s paid the price for that. I’m home now with him and as soon as fucking possible, that man is putting a ring on my finger. Do us, and you a favor, and go away.”

He gets to his feet and brushes off his back side. ”What if I don’t?”

”Garrett, you don’t want to play with me.”

”No but I rather enjoy playing with him,” he says, causing my rage to start to boil again. ”He always was an enjoyable playmate.”

Seething with rage, I stand up to leave but he grabs my arm gently.

”If you thought I was being manipulative before honey, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he warns as I pull my arm from his light grip. ”You think I’m not aware of his empathetic bleeding fucking heart?”

For the first time, I feel like maybe I bit off more than I can possibly chew and I might have been better off just letting it all go. When the man in the middle is Thaddeus Duke though, you stand and you fight because he’s worth it. And he’d do the same for you.

”Thad, I need you,” Garrett acts out a scene, tears welling up in his eyes on demand. ”My parents took away my trust fund and left me broke and stranded,” he says with a sniffle. ”I-I-I didn’t even want to call you, but...” he pauses for affect. ”You know how hard it is for me to meet people. You’re the only one I can turn to.”

He wipes his eyes and shoots me a grin.

”You don’t think he’d drop whatever or whoever he’s doing to come help me?”

Fuck. Garrett Wentworth is a god damn sociopath.

”If you think that honey, you got a lot to learn and you’re in over your head.”

I step toward him in as menacing a way as I could muster and he jumps a little and shrinks backward.

”Cute bitch,” he says mockingly. ”I’m more cerebral than physical so if it’s a fight you’re looking for, then you sure as hell just got it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Placing my hand on the doorknob, I hesitate to leave.

”He’s a lot smarter than you give him credit for Garrett,” I say to him without turning around. ”He might even buy your bullshit for a time, but he’s more than capable of figuring you out on his own. What do you think he does to people that violate his trust? What do you think he does to those that betray his love, betray his unconditional loyalty?”

Garrett stats to utter something but I cut him off.

”If I were you, I tread very carefully with whatever you do next. Once you begin, there’s no going back.”

I leave him with those words, hoping, maybe even praying that they hit home and he’ll see that the road he’s threatening to take, isn’t really the road he wants to take. When Thaddeus figures him out… oh… to be a fly on that wall to witness the carnage. All 6’1” and 217 pounds of well trained Thaddeus against a what? 5’9” 140 pound at best limp noodle like Garrett? Ya hate to see it, but as they say, fuck around and find out.

Winning the Universal title is one thing, being able to keep it is another thing entirely. When the bell rings, when your music hits, when the referee hands you something you’ve coveted, that’s when the real journey begins. Some say it’s easier to win it than it is to keep it. To be clear, neither of those things are particularly easy to do. The WaD had me at fifty to one odds to win High Stakes and take home the title, but here’s the thing: until now, I’ve been overlooked by doubters and naysayers my entire career. Overcoming obstacles and long shot odds is nothing new to me.

What’s done is done.

I came out victorious and won the Universal title on the very same night that D’Ville and I won the tag team titles in an instant classic kind of match and while the fans new we had it in us to take Cataclysm to the brink and to destroy the false facade of greatness they spent nearly a year trying to build, I’m not sure most others even gave it a second thought.

“Cataclysm? Say what you will about them individually, but together, they’re an entirely different kind of beast.”

Maybe that’s true, but when you study enough, when you watch the game film enough, when you know your opponents well enough and they think they’re untouchable, unbeatable, unstoppable… they’re ripe for the ‘upset.’ Was it an upset though? I don’t think so. I know Doc D’Ville doesn’t think it was either. Doc is every bit as good as he’s always been and despite claims by anyone with a mouth that he’s just ‘too old’ to do this gig, he proved without a doubt that not only is he not too old, he proved that shutting up loudmouths who aren’t up to the task of doing their homework on him is a recipe for defeat. I’m every bit as good as I always claimed I was and in one fucking night I silenced the haters, the doubters, the naysayers and walked out with two titles around my waist… and I’m proud of it. It’s just so satisfying to not even have to say “I told you so” because all I have to do is point to the Snow Job poster, or point to the marquee outside the stadiums with my face on it, or point to the XWF website where my name is in flashing lights.

Let the self destruction and the downfall of Cataclysm be the lesson to the entire XWF roster. That lesson is inherently clear: just when you think you can’t be beaten, someone will come along and prove you wrong. Doc did that. So did I. Cataclysm fell to their obvious betters and they have no one to blame but themselves. They took their position and their standing within this company for granted, as if everyone should line up and take the loss like those that came before them. Doc and I… we were up for the task and despite everything that shouldn’t have worked, it did. From bell to bell we fought tooth and nail to pry those titles away, fought to end the mystique, fought to end the dominance of Cataclysm.

What I hope they learned, and more specifically, what I hope Chris Page has learned from their demise is that no matter what you think you have over your competition, it matters much less when that competition refuses to stay down, refuses to quit, refuses to die.

This war between Chris Page and myself has raged on now for six months. In my first match after shedding the Collector mask I did something Chris Page couldn’t do and that’s beat Thunder Knuckles for the TV title at Leap of Faith. Clearly he took exception to that. Clearly his jealousy got the better of him when he decided to knock on my door to just to let me know that he noticed me and the golden trinket I just won.

See, there is a stark contrast to Page and myself and I’m not talking about the obvious age difference or personality differences or anything like that. What I’m referring to is that I take both my successes and my failures and try to learn something from them while Chris Page always stays the same. He’s built up a worthy resume and landed himself in the Hall of Legends and while there’s nothing I would even want to do to take that away from him, over the last six months the things I learned about Chris is that he uses the same old tricks he’s always used. Uses the same arguments he’s always used. And never does his homework on those he’s facing.

Why?

Because he doesn’t think he has to.

Our first dance, he got me. I allowed myself to lose focus and Chris took that opportunity, as well he should have, and made me pay for it. I don’t blame him for it in the slightest, but that’s Chris Page. If you can’t beat him, help them beat themselves.

Fast forward to Relentless night one where Chris and I put on a clinic in the art of professional wrestling and storytelling and he’d love for everyone to think that me kissing him was my way of pushing some nonexistent homosexual agenda on him, or that I was somehow romantically interested in a man that’s 25 years my senior. It wasn’t, and I’m not. I didn’t know he’d get himself blatantly disqualified, but the point of the kiss, and he’s proved it for me in promos since that time, is that it allowed me to enter his mind and live there rent free for the last several months. He goes and hits me in the balls in clear view of the referee handing himself the loss and went on to try and blame me for his own choices and his own actions.

I was so good at living in his head, it somehow translated to me also living in Chris Chaos’s head too, but that’s another story.

The real reason he got himself disqualified. The real reason he’s done a piss poor transparent job of trying to deflect that loss and spin it all as my fault and that he’s totally blameless is because as that match wore on, he started to doubt that he could beat me despite his claims to the contrary leading up to that match. In contrast to our first match, he found out just how difficult it is to keep me down, to keep me grounded, to pin my shoulders to the fuckin’ mat. It should’ve been clear from the get go because not a single person has been able to lay me down for a three count pinfall since the day I stepped foot back in this company. And in four plus years? No one has ever made me tap.

I’ve now beaten him twice, thrice if you count the battle royal, and he’s now started resorting to “you won but you didn’t pin me or tap me out.” While that’s true, the fact remains that I can say the exact same thing so the base of those arguments falls flat on their backs just like Page will at Snow Job.

At long last we now inch closer to Lambeau Field and the final installment of Page versus Duke. But it wasn’t supposed to be Page, was it? Nah it was supposed to Robert Main coming for me and I even begged him to do so in my promos leading up to the last pay per view and Warfare rolls around, Main’s shitty music hits but there’s no Robert Main, is there?

Nope. Just Chris Page finding Main out cold. Don’t think for a second that during the promo period for Warfare when I teamed with Page that I didn’t hear Chris try to point the finger at me for that too. I mean, it’d be pretty difficult for me to do anything to Main when I was busy kicking Chaos’s teeth down his throat.
Not only is that not how I operate, I’d really love nothing more than to sit his ass down too, but it looks like Main beat me to it. That’s the same dumbass that said I’d lose the tag title match then not be seen again for months as I was licking my wounds only for he himself to… lose the tag title match then disappear for months to lick his wounds.

In steps Chris Page and I have no issue with that. But if we’re gonna start pointing fingers in a whodunnit, you need look no further than Page himself. The man has lost just about every match he’s been in over the last few months that didn’t include a tag team partner. He had no leg to stand on in hopes of being named a contender to the Universal title. He admitted as much during my victory celebration on Savage when he came out, shook my hand, and said “one day we’ll finish it.”

But just like Chris Page has always done, if you can’t earn it, steal it. He couldn’t beat Main when Rob was the Universal champion so he stole the title. He couldn’t beat Thunder Knuckles for the TV title so he stole the title. He couldn’t win the battle royal and couldn’t fathom that someone else might get a shot at me before him, so he stole Main’s would-be title shot.

No one had more to gain by Robert Main taking that nap on Warfare than Chris Page. Main is out and can’t come to the ring to challenge me but Chris Page is there when the cameras show up. Chris Page’s music hits. Chris Page gets to make the challenge for Snow Job while Robert Main gets to go home for awhile longer to lick those wounds.

I’m not saying Page did it. I am saying no one is a bigger suspect.

Be careful what you wish for Page. One thing I know is that I can beat you. You can’t say the same because despite that lonely victory you had in a ladder match on Savage all those months ago, you haven’t been able to get it done since. That’s not changing at Snow Job, Chris. We’ll put the final nail in the coffin of this feud and Chris, when you lose, this time you’re just gonna have to live with it.

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