Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Thaddeus Duke · (06-22-2021)

The Hyde || Arlington, Virginia || 12:13 AM

...May 29th...

With the twins making their much anticipated debuts, I spent most of the last two days awake tending to Frankie, the babies and to Elizabeth. Before departing North Carolina by car, I did take a quick little nap at Ginny’s place to at least recharge enough to take care of one last detail before moving onto the more important things in life, like restoring my mothers legacy and torching that of my grandfathers. Part of that process involves me confronting my father and telling him what I learned.

I’m not really looking forward to it.

The fight he and I had here before Dolly and I went to Italy I fear was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot of emotions running through me and I try really hard to not be reactionary. Call it the lasting legacy of the martyred enemy soldier named Harold Jenkins. An enemy sure, but I killed him in cold blood and it scared the hell out of me because its exactly what my father would have done. It’s been a battle ever since to consciously not react to things in the moment. I mean, I’m a highly emotional person. Whether its love or hurt or anger, I have a tendency to react quickly rather than waiting it out.

A large part of me wants to put my father on trial for the murder of my mother, regicide essentially, and negligence associated with his former role as King of the Illuminatus State. Can I really do that in good faith? Could I be fair and impartial? I don’t think so. I already know the truth and there’s not much, if anything at all, he can say that would convince me to be lenient. Regicide is by definition a treasonous act and as such, he’d face the same fate as any person or persons engaged in such activities against the crown.

Death.

Frankie and I pulled in just after midnight. He’s a tired boy and to be fair, so am I. I’m fucking exhausted to be quite honest. Emotionally, physically. I’m just empty. When he and I board Lionheart One later, I think we’ll both sleep like babies.

He is present though for my confrontation with my father. I’m hoping that his presence will remind both me and my dad that cooler heads need to prevail.

As Frankie and I approach my fathers front door, I’m about to knock but hesitate.

”Just knock for hells sake,” Frankie says as he raps on the door. I lightly backhand him in the shoulder. ”What? I wanna go to sleep and you drag this crap out.”

”Thad?” my father says as he opens the door. ”It’s after midnight man.”

”Hi,” Frankie says as he pushes passed my father and into his place. ”I’m here too,” he says as he curls up in a ball on my dads sofa.

”I didn’t really expect you to come back so soon after...” he begins but cuts himself off. ”The cut on your head, looks like its healing.”

”It’s fine,” I say to him curtly. ”That’s not why I’m here.”

He steps away from the door and gestures me to enter. Inside, we both make our way through his hallway towards his kitchen. I’m mindful not to glance at the painting of myself. I comment on my own looks all the time and I know it comes off as narcissistic, but the reality is, I’m mostly not being serious. The painting makes me uncomfortable because so many men, women and children put me on some pedestal that I don’t really deserve to be on.

”You want a drink?”

”Yeah.”

”Stiff?”

”Nah man, I’m exhausted. I drink anything like that I’ll pass out before I...” I begin but cut myself off as he slides a bottle of YooHoo across the breakfast bar. Admittedly, it causes me to smile just a little.

He remembered.

”Before you… what?”

Before I answer him, I give the bottle a vigorous shake and pop the lid open.

”We got some things to talk about,” I answer him quietly. He eyes me a few moments before pulling up a bar stool and takes a seat.

”You got Ned Kaye at Leap of Faith,” he says in an attempt to cut through the tension between us. ”No doubt you’ll add yet another golden accolade to your resume.”

”I’m not here about that either,” I say to him. ”The twins were born.”

”And you didn’t call me?” he asks, sounding a little hurt.

”I didn’t call you and I didn’t tell you because I just don’t know that I want you in their lives,” I admit to him. In response, he just looks down.

”Thad, are you here as my son?” he asks with a pause. ”Or as my King?”

”Yes,” I answer him quickly. It is both. ”By rights I should have you in cuffs and on your way to a prison cell to await trial.”

He looks at me a bit perturbed before he realizes what I’m talking about. ”Your mother,” he says with a sigh.

I nod lightly.

”How did you find out anything I wasn’t already aware of?” he asks and its a fair question.

”D’Ville helped me,” I answer him. ”He was able to find a way into your fathers memories.”

”...and what did you find?” and for a moment there, I thought he might shed a tear. His jaw trembled but as is always the case with my dad… the only emotion he shows is anger. Can’t dare be seen as vulnerable.

Dumbass.

”That your father conspired to frame my mother in order to get you to do… exactly what it is you did.”

”Conspired,” he says as he looks straight ahead toward his kitchen cabinets. The lighting in the room gleams off his eye closest to me and to be honest, it shakes me a bit. It appears as if the gigantic wall he built around himself to shield him from being vulnerable is beginning to crumble. ”To conspire, there needs to be more than one person.”

”The Church,” I answer him and his head bolts in my direction. ”I’m not sure they even knew it. They were definitely planting false information in order to get you distracted and cause infighting. Your father and his co-conspirator used that to their advantage.”

”Who did he conspire with?” he asks the obvious question.

”I don’t know how to...”

”Who was it Thaddeus!?” he interrupts.

Falling silent with hesitation, it occurs to me just how much I’m not enjoying this. I didn’t expect that I would but there was some part of me that wanted to hurt him and now, in the moment, I take no joy in this at all.

”Jacob,” I finally answer him, referring to his closest friend and most trusted advisor. In one swift motion, he takes his long left arm and swings it. Grabbing my bottle of YooHoo, he tosses it across the room, shattering it against his kitchen cupboard.

”I was drinking that,” I say facetiously as I look longingly at the streaks of delicious chocolatey goodness streaming down the cupboard.

”She was innocent,” he says quietly and mostly to himself as for the first time I can recall, he allows a tear to fall from his eye.

”I landed in that memory by mistake,” I inform him and he looks at me, both eyes moist.

Looking over at me, he places his hand on my shoulder. ”You didn’t watch,” he says, almost pleading with me.

”I tried to stop you but I kept getting interrupted,” I inform him. My own emotions now swelling too as I recall the most traumatic experience of my life. ”At least this time she died knowing someone loved her.”

”I did love her,” he says quietly. ”And I still do.”

”Not enough to do the right thing,” I interject.

”C’mon Thad! If it was you and Jim, you’d believe him too!”

”Yeah, that’s true,” I admit quietly. ”But I also would’ve confirmed the intelligence before I murdered someone. And if I found out Jim was conspiring against me, he’d be dealt with too.”

We sit quietly for a few minutes as he reflects on, I assume, what he did, on his life with my mother, on his friendship and the betrayal of him by Jacob. The same man that martyred himself for my father so many years ago.

”So what’s next?” he asks as he wipes the tears from his eyes.

”Their remains are on the plane in North Carolina,” I tell him. ”All three of them.”

”What are you planning?”

”I have Lincoln and his team combing through all of their files and personal correspondence. I mean I know they’re guilty, but I’m still letting the intelligence take its course. Once completed, Jake and your fathers remains will be destroyed. Their legacies removed, destroyed and in time... forgotten forever.”

”You are my fathers legacy.”

”Be that as it may,” I concede to his point. ”My mothers legacy will be restored. She’ll be buried with respect and dignity fitting the mother of the king.”

”At the Compound?”

I scoff at his question.

”I’d never subject her to burial alongside those that killed her.”

”Can I ask why you don’t want me in the lives of your children?” he asks in a quiet voice and I never really thought that part would crush him the way it is.

”I didn’t say I didn’t,” I answer him. ”Just that I’m not sure yet.”

”Why?”

”You killed their grandmother and… believe me… I’m trying not to beat that dead horse,” I begin to answer him. ”The negligence you demonstrated when you were king is a betrayal of the Illuminatus and set us back years, maybe decades. You betrayed the crown you wore...”

”I was the crown,” he interrupts.

”And so was my mother,” I reply quickly. ”No trial, no nothing. You just took Jacob’s word as gospel. That’s a betrayal of the position you held, that I now hold, and my kids will someday hold.

“It’s hard for me to separate the family aspect from the official aspect.”

”Look,” he says and hesitates after. ”I know we don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things Thaddeus. We’re entirely different people. Entirely different mindsets. But please hear me...”

”I’m listening,” I inform him, and I genuinely am.

”If you start dismantling my fathers legacy, many may turn against you,” he warns me and I truly believe his advice is coming from the right place. ”You may find yourself in the middle of a revolt down the road.”

”Then they’ll be dealt with like enemies and traitors,” I say pointedly.

”I’m sorry Thad,” he says aloud and I’m not sure he meant for me to hear it. ”I could’ve helped you find the truth, but I was afraid. I remember months and months ago we talked about this. You planted the seeds of doubt in my head about Jacob and I couldn’t handle it.

“I couldn’t stand to think he might betray me,” he says with a pause as he looks at me. ”I was afraid to know the truth.”

My father and I sat talking candidly but calmly for about another hour. Discussing our one real commonality- wrestling- wasn’t part of the equation. Instead we spoke of our past as well as our present. We spoke at length about my mother and he told me stories about her I’d never heard before. For the first time, maybe ever, we just sat and talked as a father and a son and not some legendary XWF wrestling dynasty. Not as a pair of former world champions. Not as a pair of kings.

Just a father and his kid and I think that maybe, it was something we both needed.

By the end of our conversation, while I wasn’t ready to say “yes, be a part of your grandchildren's lives,” I did think he should at least meet them soon.

At around six in the morning, Lionheart One touched down at Laguardia in New York. As much as I wanted to sleep, I just didn’t. There was just way too much on my mind. Frankie slept like a baby and since this is really just a pit stop, I let him sleep through it all. I debated whether or not to have the Honor Guard here for this, I mean, the deceased hierarchy of the Illuminatus was returning home for the final time. While my mother was essentially killed by that hierarchy, she was still the queen.

She’d receive the honors.

They, however, will not.

After taxiing toward my private hangar, my grandfather and Jacob’s remains were swiftly removed from the plane and loaded into a couple of awaiting hearses. No one really knows the extent of what I know and I’m sure it has caused a bit of confusion among the Honor Guard. “Why are we honoring a traitor while dismissing the loyal?”

Jim though, is dutiful and follows my orders to the letter without deviation. I haven’t spoken to him much at all since I learned of his terminal cancer diagnosis and I think if nothing else, this experience has taught me that I need to change that fast. Even now, I don’t think he knows that I know.

Standing at the head of my mothers casket in the belly of the jumbo jet with its cargo door swung down, James walks up the ramp and stands at her feet just staring at me.

”What’d you learn, mate?” he asks of me.

”Nothing good,” I answer him quietly.

”Your mother the traitor gets the honors, but not Father Asmodeus… Not Jacob...”

”Do the math,” I say quietly as he makes his way around the casket and stands beside me. He grabs me and pulls me into a hug. Resisting at first, I soon hug him back and lay my chin on his shoulder as I watch the Honor Guard drape my mothers casket with the royal flag.

”I’m so sorry mate,” he whispers in my ear before giving me a kiss on my cheek.

To be honest, I feel the urge to grieve a little but I’m so fucking emotionally exhausted that I’m just empty.

”How are the Prince and Princess?” he asks as he releases his hug, clearly referring to the twins. ”I’m sorry, I know the official titles are like nails on a chalkboard to you.”

”Seems appropriate at the moment,” I say to ease his apprehension. ”They’re great though,” I answer with a smile as the pallbearers lift my mother and step by slow step, remove her from the plane.

”What’d you end up naming them?”

”Caitlyn for my mother,” I inform him before placing my hand on his arm to stop him a moment as we follow behind the casket. ”And Talon James… for you.” Jim smiles slightly as we follow the casket to the hearse. Once its loaded, I place my hand upon it and stand in quiet thought for a few moments.

James places his hand on my trap and gives it a light squeeze.

”We should talk soon huh?” I ask him and he hesitates to answer.

”I’d really like that mate,” he answers before retreating away.

Jim proved himself to my father in the earliest days of the German coup. He started out as the head of my protection detail when I was 15 years old. He was a fierce and smart fighter and my father, in his limited wisdom, thought it’d be best with someone at a similar age to my own, just three years my senior, to give me someone I could connect with. That was a really smart decision in hindsight. We became friends quickly and I realized his loyalty, like my own, doesn’t waver and never takes a day off.

I learned a great deal from him about tactics and leadership… and humanity. In a lot of ways, I credit him for me being the leader that I am. The decisions are mine and we rise or fall based upon them. If not for him though, there’s no telling what bad decisions I’d have made. There’s no telling whether I’d even be alive or not.

I learned of his diagnosis months ago and I’ve struggled with that knowledge ever since. Rather than confront him about not telling me, I wanted him to come to me but at the same time, I never gave him a chance to do it. I cut him off at the knees and barely spoke to him in the interim. As time went on, it took on a life of its own and in my misguided rationale, if it wasn’t brought up, it wasn’t real.

I regret that and I’ve lost months with him that we can never have back while his days grow shorter and shorter.

Death waits for no one.

Rel, my dear. If you want to suck me off, you just have to ask. I’mma nice guy and I don’t bite. I’m also very much single so you really don’t have to resort to the figurative blow job you spent all of your two minutes of promo time on. Why do it figuratively when I’d let you do it literally?

Jokes aside…

Sort of.

Ms. Dixon, the first rule of being a title challenger is to actually challenge the title holder and to this point you haven’t done it. You’re supposed to be gunning for my head but instead, you’re aiming far lower at the wrong head and with the wrong intent.

Honey.

Darling.

Sugar pie.

Sweetheart.

You may think you’re running down a dream, but tomorrow night all you’re doing is walking into a fucking nightmare. There are reasons why you know who I am. There’s reasons why people talk about me. Some love me, some hate me but the reality is that all of them envy me and my god given self-made talent. All that glitters is gold honey, and you’re looking at the gold standard not just of the XWF, but the industry of professional wrestling as a whole.

You can think of how cool it might be to walk out with my “shiny” but you can wish in one hand, and probably turn around and wish in the other too because you’re… just… not quite… all there, are you darlin’? Wish and wish as you may, wishes are dreams for those too weak to follow through. So keep on wishing, Rel. My shiny isn’t going anywhere but back home on my shelf with all my other shiny.

I am a rather generous man though so just maybe tomorrow night… I’ll let you touch it.

Fact is Rel, you aren’t ready for this caliber a match. Maybe it hurts to hear that and maybe it should. I mean you’re walking into the House That Duke Built against a Duke and you’re out here barely making a damn bit of sense as you speak.

You talk of wishes and wanting my title, and that’s good. It’s great to have goals but what I’m telling you is you need those fuckin’ meds because until you can focus long enough to string two coherent sentences together, after tomorrow night you’ll be back to jerkin’ the curtain and your stay in the Hart title scene will be over. It’s a lesson you need to learn and tomorrow night is your first, last, and only class with the master until you can prove that you’re worthy of my precious time.

Tomorrow night, Rel. My star power will shine on you… for as long as I choose to allow it.

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode My Father's Son: RP #2
Author	Message