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Atara Raven · (06-19-2021)

The Oracle at Delphi

At the navel of the world, the titaness sat upon her tripod throne. All seeing and all knowing eyes peeked beyond the realm of men and into the fabric of time. Her voice carried to her children, those three that weaved the thread, and to their mother they did heed. She asked them the future and on the wings of a Peregrine they gave an answer.

The falcon flew through a night sky and clutched in its talons like prey was the flaming form of a Phoenix. It screeched in agony. Over mountain and river it flew, desert and tundra, the whole world over and everywhere it went the faceless, the nameless, the old and forgot stirred and woke...they looked up.

They saw him.

They heard him.

From the fame drenched wings of the Falcon's prey, embers hot as the sun fell below, landing on shackles and chains melting away the things bound the faceless, the nameless, the old and forgotten so that they were free once more.

Bound for what seemed like eternity, the ones below were hungry and kept towards the sky trying for the Falcons prize. They chased and collided with each other, tempers flaring and all out war ensued. The world below burned. The falcon disappeared into the sky.

The titaness, Themis, needed no more and returned herself to the realm of men whispering to herself, "Foolish child of Isis."

Grey eyes opened and looked to the one who knelt before her.

"Blood of Hellas, finish what the spawn of Nyx has started. It is broken, we are bound no more."

"Zeus?"

"He is the least of your worries. Our champions wield gold not lightning."

A walking contradiction, flighty and mercurial, that's what she was. Atara was, like the rest of roster and the industry at large, well aware of this predisposition. While she would hardly call it her fatal flaw, the Grecian knew those traits were what ultimately led to the majority of her struggles both professionally and personally. For all her boasting of mirroring Aphrodite the one trait Atara lacked was the Goddess' sometimes obsessive-like commitment to her goals and to herself. It didn't mean she was without conscience however. She knew how she hurt people.
aaaaaWilling to burn any bridge, the victims being innocent or not, sometimes did leave Atara with feelings of regret and it was in those moments that she became that contradiction. Aphrodite, powerful as she was, was not without friend or alliance. There were those she cared for and Atara was no exception. For all the reasons people had to hate the Grecian, all the reasons he had to hate her, James Raven had never held any of it against her. They had fought each other. They fought alongside each other. They had stood and watched their friends go at it. He had stood and watched her go at his friends. Never when the battle lines were drawn had he been anything other respectful towards her.
aaaaaFor whatever reason he had, Atara couldn't say. As much as she would like to think it was because he held her in some higher regard, ultimately it was Raven being Raven. It was what separated him from the rest and really made him the GOAT. He wasn't without fault in her eyes mind you. He had nearly killed her father and beat her to a bloody pulp. A grudge she had harbored for sometime, a grudge that led her to this business and this place and a grudge she sometimes used to justify her actions towards him. It was confusing honestly, no matter how hot Atara stoked that fire he had some way of cooling it in an instant. Warstein had been her Aries, James was her Adonis.
aaaaaPerhaps it was fear of what she knew he was capable of, perhaps it was mutual respect, and it most definitely had something to do with physical attraction, but it was James Raven she had felt had suffered the most with this spat with Betsy. It was what she had done to him that pulled on her guilt and despite them once again being on opposite sides of the fence, it was him she felt was owed the apology. If B.O.B caught wind of what she was doing it was without question she would be suspect. Chris Page had already made it clear she had already been, but some bridges were worth mending. Some relationships were worth the risk.

The seconds had already seemed like hours and with each ring that rattled in her ear, Atara grew more and more hopeless. The absurdity of the idea became more obvious in her mind. He wouldn't answer. He shouldn't answer. After that last ring Atara knew would send her to voicemail she had started to hang up when his voice came through.
aaa"Seriously Atty." His tone was seemingly more annoyed than angry which caused Atara's heart to flutter. Same old Raven, busy as shit but willing to hear her.
aaa"I know James, I'll make it quick. Promise. No Legacy and No B.O.B stuff...it's just me. I wanted you..I want..despite everything. I'm..I'm," Atara stammered in a panic. Her voice cracked as she struggled to say it and hoped she could before he hung up. Instead though she was interrupted by his a sigh of his breath followed with soft spoken words. "I know Atty. It's the business.
aaaA wave of relief rendered Atara speechless. Unwarranted surprise frazzled brain prohibiting the Grecian from formulating words for response. Silence stayed suspended between them until typical James, always in control of the conversation, did his thing.

I'll see you on the other Atty. Tell Bourbon I said Hi."

And that was it. Call was ended and for what it seemed all her anxieties, these worries of her own making, had been put momentarily to bed. At Least those things that concerned James and XWF that is.

No sooner had she hung up and Atara's phone sounded to life again. Instinctively on seeing Johnny Boneceusher's face her phone was held as far as away from her face as possible before hitting the answer button.

"ATAAAARRRRAAAAA!!!" Johnny, for whatever reason, bellowed. Atara wasn't sure if he had trouble with voice volume or just insisted on shouting her name like this, but she had become accustomed to it hence the phone being held from face.

"Yes Johnny?"

"Where Are You? How can I manage you and take you to the top of the UGWC if you're never around when I need you?!?" It should be said that Johnny Hitmaker, while in fact Atara's manager at UGWC, absolutely forgot the Goddess was a staple in the XWF and fast climbing the ranks of Action Wrestling. In fact, she wasn't sure if he knew her schedule at all.

"I'm in Chicago Dove. For XWF."

"WHAT? I need you in Greece. For...what is it...Kalo Mesimeraki!"

"Him. It's a person, Johnny. A talk show."

"Whatever! I need you there ASAP!"

"I'll be there, text me when."

Atara didn't give time for response and hung up while almost simultaneously tossing her phone onto the white comforter sprawled immaculately across her hotel bed. It bounced a few times and clanked against the championships spread across the mattress. Perhaps it was the sound or it was just Atara watching to make sure she hadn't broken her phone, but her attention was inevitably drawn to her Championship belts.

The Grecian moved to the bed's edge, a self satisfied smile on her face as she looked down on both them. First, the Internet, a belt she had never had any ambition to hold. Really who did, but now that it was hers she had come to hold a newfound respect for it. No other XWF Championship really suited her more and it had been an absolute delight to defend.

Aegean blues would no doubt drift over to the Shooting Star. Her most prized possession, the girdle to her Aphrodite. It was the belt that had really cemented her legacy in XWF and the one that had taught her how to appreciate these titles a little more, especially after they had been torn from you. It had been her singular pursuit to regain that belt for over a year now and Atara had stopped to pretty new lows to do it. One of the first things she felt she had legitimately earned in XWF, she couldn't put into words how proud holding the belt made her feel.

The first time, the first time was the crowning achievement of her still budding career, and as proud as Atara was this time...she couldn't help but feel like this time seemed less genuine. It felt hollow and not because of what had been done to get it. She looked at the belt and in her mind Betsy's words kept playing over and over.

""Do It Atara, I fucking dare you."

Atara had passed it off in the instance as some bullshit Count of Monte Cristo bravado moment. As if by daring Atara, Betsy somehow thought it would make the Grecian reconsider. Somehow gave Granger a one up on the Goddess. It was absolutely the dumbest thing she had ever heard because Atara was fully intent on murdering Betsy that night if it meant getting the Shooting Star back. She had nearly done it too. It wasn't until after that Atara realised..that Betsy hadn't planned on retaining. The fight itself was just Granger trying to prove herself against Atara, getting off the steam of all that had been said and done up til that point. Betsy's promos after all but confirmed it.

Bitch was free of burden! The land of opportunity was all but out there for the Impossible Traveller. Lycana was sitting comfortably at #2 and Betsy had all the open fields she needed to make waves in the XWF. Atara was regulated to midcard filler matches once again. The Alpha Bitch was third string and the thought incensed Atara to no end. It didn't help matters Bobby Bourbon had even mentioned that she was oft overlooked when people went on the B.O.B attack.

The Shooting Star made Atara THE woman of XWF. She held 2 championships simultaneously, 2 Belt Atty! She was in line to be a contender for gold elsewhere. Had won gold elsewhere. This was her God Damn Show not some blue hair Victorian era cosplay bitch and not some Star Wars nerd girl who got lucky by slobbing Raven's dick!

She had done battle with The Engineer. She had done battle with James Raven. She had faced Warstein. Jenny Myst. Big D. Madison Dyson. Ruby. Centurion. Noah Jackson. Thunder Knuckles. Bobby Bourbon...Roxy fucking Cotton. Lycana. Betsy Granger. Alias.

She was a 9 time Champion despite running the crucible of the biggest and

superstars to walk the XWF halls!

The more Betsy's words sounded the more Atara began to resent that belt and it wasn't until the words of Roxy Cotton interrupted that Atara realised how wrong Granger was.

It wasn't a burden. It was a boon.

The Grecian's hands scrambled across the bed and grabbed her phone. Fingers frantically dialed a number and holding it to her ear she waited….

"Chris...it's Atty. We need to talk…"

A chattering Crow lives out nine generations of aged men.

[Image: XlZiO9F.gif]

But a stag's life is four time a crow's,
and a raven's life makes three stags old.

[Image: W9NXOU0.gif]

While the phoenix outlives nine ravens,

[Image: YMni4gg.gif]

But we, the rich-haired Nymphs
Daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder,
outlive ten Phoenixes

[Image: yE6RpBf.gif]

"Hello Doves..."

"Hello Michael...Dolly." cooed the mellifluous rasp of Atara Themis. Aegean blue orbs pierced the camera's lense and held in check the attention of viewers worldwide. Seraphic features adopted from her Irish mother held the foreground of the scene the Grecian found herself in. Behind her were all the trappings and hints she was seated comfortably alone in the pew of a church's nave.

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." Atara started again, paunch lips having curled into an impish grin. From her lap, the Grecian produced momentarily for the camera a leather bound copy of Sun Tzu's Art of War.

"No words encapsulate more this thing we do, these back and forths...these straw man arguments than that one phrase. We attempt to get inside an opponent's head and crush them mentally, rip the confidence away before the real actual battle begins. Some of us have built whole reputations on that skill alone and none more than one Dolly Waters." Atara lectured as her gaze drifted from the camera and up to the church's altar.

"12 year old wrestling phenom, articulate country bumpkin and Daddy's girl. One of the best we've ever seen, a girl who has experienced more in a few years than most of us will have in the whole entirety of our lives." Atara said, her voice drifting as she took a moment for reflection.

"Despite being a few years your senior Dolly, I have the utmost admiration for you. For what you've accomplished, for what you have been able to endure. I see a lot of myself in you and vice versa. No woman in XWF can say they have had to walk the same path we have. Especially this new crop, these hypersensitive and easily affected girls who get so out of themselves over the slightest of umbrageous comments. They've never been threatened, very publicly mind you, of rape. Never had another woman threaten very real physical harm, the surgical removal of their womb. Never been booked against those same monsters continually. Never had their lives threatened...heads bashed in and drowned in Clorox. Only the tiniest hints of misogyny. You and I Dolly were baptized in different waters..." she finished with a sigh.

"They think we're just mean girl bitches, bullies a little envious because they've stolen some of our shine. They don't understand we've been molded this way, indoctrinated by the real monsters and villains in how you really get ahead in this company. They don't realise it's not who you know or are aligned with, but what you're really willing to do to win. How deep into human barbarity you're willing to devolve. I have only scratched the surface of what I'm willing to do and I believe you have to Dolly."

"We both are two of the most innately talented athletes this company has ever seen and for whatever reason, we've held back in our careers. We've seen the glass ceilings of everyone else, but you and I Dolly..." Atara paused again turning to the camera with a mischievous smile

"I can't put in words how ecstatic I was that you joined B.O.B because without a doubt you are perhaps the biggest threat to our continued dominance of the XWF. Everyone knows it and everyone has shown it in expressing their dismay...Corey, Thad, maybe even Doc...they lost a big piece of the puzzle and make no mistake about it if anyone topples B.O.B it will be that group of three. Not Lycana, Alias....Betsy. Not Corporate Chaos. Definitely not Apex or Avalanche. It will be those three...three people who have also been baptized in the same fire as us. Three people who know, give me a moment to find it....Atara shuffled through another book in her lap.

“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared...” she recited before offering a wink to camera.

"....Machiavelli, but you know that, don't you Country Bumpkin. That's where so much of the old Dolly's vitriol came from wasn't it? The old Dolly, who I watched as the second coming of Alexander the Great. Who had achieved so much so fast before that flame dwindled out."

"The old Dolly, who like Alexander was made a fool of by drunken father before being handed his crown. Who like Alexander was gifted training by the great minds of his age. The Morbid Angel's and Paul Heyman's of the Hellenistic world. Who like Alexander conquered the world with the best Generals at his back. Thaddeus Duke, Corey Smith, Doctor Louis D'Ville. Who conquered the world's worst in Chris Chaos."

"Who like Alexander that slept with the fanciful tales of the Iliad under his pillow, she slept with that memory of her hero in Freedom Hall Kentucky."

"It was those books, those philosophers, that a poor redneck girl from Kentucky used to educate herself and craft that knife's edge tongue that cut so many so deep that a 12 year girl blazed a trail through this male dominated sport."

"That's the Dolly I hope B.O.B recruited. That's the Dolly I hope I offered a chance at the Shooting Star to. Not this shell of the girl trapped in a commune. The complacent woman is content with being just another plot device in the machinations of the men who use her to promote themselves."

"The Moon and Stars Dolly....bring that fire Dove. Don't be Rhonda..a victim of circumstance. Don't be the hampered unhinged ignorant twat they always thought you to be. Don't be like the useless who's wife, unsatisfied and cheated in marriage, felt the need to step out on. Don't be the mother who gave up."

"Be that survivor you once were Dolly. Find that woman, because B.O.B or not Dove, The Goddess is no longer going to be outshined by anyone anymore. I'm burying everyone so that there's no fear of vengeance." Voice and expression more impassioned, Atara stopped and looked to the altar once more. She huffed and shook her head in disbelief.

"Graves, I don't know what Mary of Bethlehem sized con you've contrived to get into this match, but I'm well aware of that part of Dolly's history too. Whatever game you're playing at, just know there is no magic potato that's getting you out of the world of hurt you volunteered for. Find your way back inside that closet because I'm dead set on crucifying you. For Dolly. For B.O.B..for the whole of the world...

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