With my chest aching and almost throbbing, I struggle to my feet in order to start making my way to the ramp. After taking a couple steps forward, I stumble. It’s only then that I realize how light headed and dizzy I am. For a second I look at the cigar, thinking maybe it was one of Chris Page’s variety.
”Hey,” I say into my mic. A moment later I throw up probably three MRE’s. Those things aren’t that great going down so you can imagine what they’re like coming back up.
”Thad?” Cypher radios back.
Stepping forward, I go to speak but nothing comes out. A second later, I collapse to the pavement below me with the bombs ticking around me. Staring up into the abyssal darkness toward the top of the facility, I can’t move a thing. I can’t hear a thing. I can hardly breathe. My vision narrows, slowly at first. Then faster and faster until it’s tunneled. Soon after, blackness.
The car ride back home to Wentworth was mostly quiet. I’ve never killed anyone before. Lincoln Tritter was a trusted ally to my husband for a long time. His betrayal of Thad and Frankie, it just didn’t sit well with me. I’m a lot of things to many people. Most don’t think I have the capacity for love, but I do. I know I don’t express it very well, but I was enraged. Tritter conspired to kill what was at the time, just a ten year old boy. Who would want to hurt that boy? He’s sweet, he’s hilarious, and he means the world to me.
I can’t have children, and you might be surprised how many people try and hurt me with it. Or maybe you wouldn’t. This business is filled with shitbags that will use anything they can to get under your skin. I’m pretty thick skinned as it is, but that’s one that does get to me. Most everyone wants to have children some day and I’m no different. It just isn’t in the cards. Thad tells me all the time “there’s other ways” but I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to fuck someone else.
Regardless, I’ve fallen in love with his children. Especially Frankie. No one will ever hurt them again. Not if I have anything to do with it.
”How do you feel?” Dick asks from the seat beside me in the back of the SUV.
I don’t respond immediately. Instead, I just sort of shrug my shoulders and continue looking out the window as we cross the Queensboro Bridge toward Manhattan.
”Lauren, I really need to give you credit,” he says which, at least for the moment, peels my eyes from the window to look at him. ”I doubted you and I apologize. You’ve been so instrumental this week and...” his voice trails of.
”And what?” I ask of him quietly.
”Had you not defied the chain of command, we might’ve lost the war,” he admits to me. ”You really are kind of good at this.”
”Kind of?” I ask with a smirk.
”You’re unseasoned,” he says with a slight smile. ”A little more grooming and you might be every bit the leader Thad is.
“Even he has room to grow though.”
”He’s young,” I say quietly as I return my attention out the window. ”He lets his emotions get the better of him. That’s his only problem.”
”Astute observation.”
”I’m really not stupid Dick,” I remind him. ”Sometimes I put on an act because it’s what people expect me to be. I’m a beautiful blonde woman that has hit a figurative lottery by falling for Thaddeus Duke.”
”He’s a good man,” he chimes in.
”I know he is,” I agree, while again, turning my gaze toward him. ”But don’t ever let him believe it.”
”Why wouldn’t you want him to believe it?” he asks almost incredulously.
”Dick, we both know what he’s like,” I begin to explain my position to him. ”He works hard to be a good man. If he thinks he’s achieved that goal, he’ll stop caring.”
”So… you think if he believes he is a good man that he’ll stop caring and ultimately stop being a good man?”
”Look at his history,” I say to him. ”Look at all the goals he set for himself. Look at all those completed goals. Now tell me how many times he’s continued caring about those goals after achieving them.”
”I guess you’ve got a point,” he agrees.
”So what happens to him?”
”Thad?”
”Tritter.”
”His remains will be placed in a led coffin,” he begins and turns to face me. ”Then he’ll be buried at sea.
“Same as we’ve done with every traitor since the beginning.”
”It was the right thing to do… right?”
”Well he admitted what he did,” he begins to explain. ”Thad might’ve wanted the pleasure of doing it himself, but… I think you saved him some agonizing over the decision when he does come home.”
Laying here for what seems like an eternity, my eyes dart open. I can see, I can hear, I can breathe and the searing pain in my chest is gone. Lifting my arm as I’m sprawled out, is the only indication I have that I could move. Gingerly, I roll to my side and sit up on my knees.
”Guys, I’m okay,” I say into my mic. ”I’ll be out in a second.”
Reaching around myself, I start to peel off the Velcro straps securing the Kevlar vest to my chest. Tossing the vest aside, I peel the shirt off my back and look down at my chest. A softball sized bruise colors the center with deep blues and purples. It looks a lot worse than it feels, but caressing it with my fingers, I expect to feel tenderness and pain, yet I feel nothing at all.
”Quite a war mate,” comes a familiar voice that about causes me to jump out of my skin.
James Edwards. Affectionately known as…
”Jim,” I say with a smile.
My best friend. I’d known him since he was on my security detail when I was 15 years old. He was three years older, but we got along famously. He’d stayed loyal to me from day one and never wavered. After I lifted the crown from my fathers head, we didn’t see eye to eye on all of my decisions, but he was a soldier. He was there to advise me. He was there to guide me. He was the steady hand I needed, when mine were shaking. Always level headed, always tried to get me to see right from wrong when I was too pissed off or too emotional to see it for myself.
Jim was irreplaceable. I think of the good times though, instead of how it ended for him. Cancer stricken, he begged me to help him die. It was without a doubt the single hardest thing I’d ever done and probably will ever do. I don’t like to think about that though. He left a gaping hole in my heart that can never be filled.
Stepping from the darkness into what little light remains inside the underground building, I see his face for the first time since the battle at sea. He was dead then and he’s still dead now, but nevertheless, he was beside me then just like he was in life. His brand of loyalty isn’t something you can teach. I cherish his memory always and I’ll miss his physical presence for the rest of my life. Even still, whether its lunacy or just a dream or even a hallucination, I’m happy to see his face again.
”You got that mother fucker huh?” he says while looking down at the now deceased General McGovern. ”How did that feel?”
”Indifferent,” I answer him honestly. ”Thought it’d make me feel like a million bucks but...”
”You felt nothing,” he says while looking to me.
”Just glad it’s over to be honest,” I admit to him.
”Hell of a bruise mate,” he says, nodding his head toward my chest.
”Yeah it is,” I say to him while looking at and fingering my giant bruise. Looking back at him, ”It doesn’t hurt though,” I say to him.
He chuckles.
”It hurt like a mother fucker like two minutes ago,” I say to him, scrunching my face in confusion.
”It’s because you’re unconscious as fuck, mate,” he laughs.
”Oh,” I say as if, you know, any of this was normal. ”I guess that’s why nobody answered me a minute ago.”
”The bullet from McGovern,” he begins. ”It didn’t break your skin or anything, but what it did was dislodge the one that’s been in your chest since you were 15.
“It’s pressing against your heart.”
”Hmmm that sounds serious,” I say lightheartedly.
”What’s worse, is those bombs are ticking toward zero,” he reminds me.
”But they’ll come...”
”They don’t know where you are mate,” Jim interrupts. ”Most of them are popping the corks, so to speak.”
”I got time,” probably. ”Anytime the dead visit, time stands virtually still.”
”That wife you got,” he prefaces, drawing my gaze to him. ”I don’t know how you thank her, but… she was really integral in pulling this off.”
”I already know what I’m doin’,” I tell him. ”She can’t carry children. Mother’s Day is around the corner so, I’mma give her the one thing no one else can.
“Motherhood.”
”Frankie?” he asks with a smile. I nod in response. ”Mate that’s incredible.”
”I have my moments,” I laugh.
I don’t feel good about killing Lincoln Tritter. Dick was right though, Thad has piled so much pressure and stress on himself, especially these last few months. If there’s one thing, as a wife, that I should do above all other things, it’s try to alleviate that stress and pressure by any means necessary. That’s why I did it. Tritter was guilty and I don’t feel guilty for it, but taking another life does something that I’m not sure I’m equipped to really put into words.
Hearing him say what he said about how Thad was raising Frankie in his own image as justification for conspiring to kill that lovable little shithead just had me seeing red. All I could think about, was what would Thaddeus do?
Stepping onto the express elevator, the trip up to the top of Woolworth Tower is still about a minute long. It’s uncomfortable, really. As the floors roll by with a beep and beep and a beep, I stand quietly with both Brandon and Dick as we ascend. That’s when my phone rings.
Looking at my phone, it’s from an unknown caller. Phone number disguised as 555-555-5555. Thinking it’s a scam caller, I hit ignore and go to drop it back into my purse. Just as I’m about to do so, all three of our phones start buzzing, vibrating, and all of us have “9-1-1” appearing on our home screens as that caller starts ringing all of our phones simultaneously.
”Hello?” I answer as the three of us look at each other in confusion.
”Lauren, Thad is down!” says the caller.
”Who is this?” I ask before coming to grips with what he said. ”AND WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THAD IS DOWN!?”
”It’s CYPH3R,” he says and I’m reminded of earlier when he hacked into the comms system to talk to Thad directly. ”The charges were set and he gave the order to abandon the building after he killed that McGovern dude.
“And then he collapsed.”
”Well didn’t someone go back in after him!?” I shout out with worry in my voice.
”Not as far as I can tell,” Cypher answers. ”The communications system was switched off after he gave the order. I can see the feed from his helmet. His head is to the side and I can see his hand. He hasn’t moved in a minute or two.”
”God damn, boy!” comes a familiar voice I haven’t heard since the Ares Project destroyed the Compound.
”Grandfather,” I say kindly as I look back at Jim. Unfortunately, he’s gone now.
For years, I had Asmodeus on a pedestal. He was stone cold and steadfast. He commanded respect and I always admired that. When he was alive, he treated me well. Stern, but fair. When I was young, I really thought he, and we, were on the right side of history. I wouldn’t find out just how wrong I was, how wrong we all were, until last year when I was uncovering the truth about my mothers murder.
Despite that, I owe my grandfather more than I could possibly repay. He’s the one that taught me how to lead. He’s the one that taught me how to walk into a room and everything stops because of it. He’s the one that taught me how to make people hang on every word I say.
Without Charles Alexander Duke, more commonly known as Asmodeus, there is no Thaddeus Duke.
He dips from the darkness and into the faint lighting.
”I wasn’t sure you’d receive me,” he says as he steps gingerly over the deceased McGovern with the aid of his cane.
”I don’t have much of a choice,” I tell him. ”Seeing as I’m knocked the fuck out right now.”
”It’s always your choice boy,” he says quietly. ”It has been since the very first time.”
”I miss it,” I say to him, and his gaze raises from McGovern to me. ”I mean… like before.”
”Before what?” he asks.
”Don’t make me say it,” I say with a sigh.
”Your mother,” he assumes correctly. To which, I only nod. ”I was not a good man, Thaddeus.”
”Breaking news, more at eleven,” I joke as I stand up.
The entire time he walked this planet, albeit with a permanent limp, he was an imposing figure. He was kind of short and a little bit plump, so it wasn’t his physical stature. It was the iron fist he ruled with. Anytime I was in his presence, I always felt the need to be on my feet just to counter balance. He was five feet eight and hunched over so it made him look even smaller. So even at six-one myself, I dwarfed him.
”I’ve never appreciated your sarcasm Thaddeus,” he chides. ”And I don’t now.”
”Yeah well, you’re dead. What can you do about it?” I ask of him with a whole lot of cockiness.
”Never mind that,” he says as he steps toward me. ”What do you plan to do when you get yourself out of this little predicament you find yourself in?”
”The war is over,” I begin to answer. ”I plan on following through with what I told you last time we talked. I’m dissolving the Illuminatus State.”
He smiles uncharacteristically.
”The war is over,” he repeats. ”Is it though?” he asks as he takes a step closer.
”McGovern is right there,” I point to the fallen enemy general. ”He ain’t talkin’.”
”If you think this war is over boy,” he says as he clutches my hand in his own. ”You are sadly mistaken. I know you think everything was built on lies. I know you think I was a psychopathic mad man when I was among the living.
“What you don’t know, is it was not us that fired the first shot.”
Standing in silence, I consider what he’s telling me. When he was alive and even now, I don’t know if he’s being honest or if he’s just manipulating me to keep me in the fight.
”I want a normal life, Grandfather,” I argue. ”I want my children, your great-grandchildren to grow up without the constant threat looming over their heads. I want to raise my children to know what peace and happiness is.”
”That’s all well and good,” he replies.
SNORT
What the fuck was that?
”Even though you secured their surrender,” he continues. ”Even though you made your peace with them, they’ve never stopped conspiring against you.
“The war is not over.”
SNORT
”What the hell is that!?” I ask rhetorically as suddenly, the pain I was feeling in my chest before I passed out begins roaring back.
”What is what?” Asmodeus asks.
”I...” I begin as I clutch my bare chest. ”I don’t feel so good,” I say as I kneel down.
”Then rest awhile, my son,” he says as he starts to turn away. ”Perhaps you’re waking up.”
SNORT
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT NOISE!?
When the elevator door opens, the three of us bolt from the car and rush through the house toward the Situation Room. Cypher said Thaddeus was down and I don’t know exactly what that means. Is he hurt? Was he killed? Nevertheless, we bound up the stairs two and three at a time before bursting into the room.
With no hesitation, I pick up the secure red phone and look up at the screen. On it, is exactly what Cypher described. Thad’s lying on his back with his head turned to one side with his upturned hand very much visible.
”Mrs. Duke?” answers the Air Force commander on the other end.
”Get medic choppers to the desert quickly,” I order the man in damn near a state of panic.
”Ma’am?” he says as he wraps his head around what I’ve just ordered.
”Thaddeus is down Commander,” I inform him quickly. ”And the bombs are ticking. Apparently the front has switched off communications and no one knows he’s still in there.”
”Order delivered ma’am,” he replies without hesitation. ”I can override the comms system from here. We’ll get someone back inside in seconds.”
”Thank you Commander,” I tell him before hanging the phone up back in its cradle.
For a moment, I stare down at the surface of the table. I don’t want to see him in trouble.
”Comms are back up,” Brandon says emphatically.
Looking up on the screen on the wall, the communications light is green.
”The King is down!” we hear the Commander relay over the system. ”I repeat, the KING is DOWN! Get back in that building!”
”Thad!” I yell out, but he doesn’t respond. ”Come on baby,” I say quietly as tears start to well up in my eyes.
Also, fuck him for that. Life was a lot more simple when I didn’t care about anything or anyone. Barely even myself. I don’t know how he did it. I had a wall around me I thought was impenetrable. Thinking back, I remember our first interactions on social media. They weren’t kind ones toward each other. He was trying to convince Ricky to break up with me to date Jennie. I thought he was trying to ruin my life but what I learned since then, is that he just loves his friends fully and totally. He wanted Ricky to be happy. He wanted Jennie to be happy. He thought they’d be a perfect match.
He was right.
They’re great together, but I’ll never tell either of them that.
I thought I was manipulating Thaddeus by appealing to his judgment of me. So he invited me to dinner in order to give me the chance to prove him wrong. What happened, was we proved each other wrong. I always thought he was cute, but I thought his arrogance was unwarranted and I never wanted to give him the satisfaction of yet another person thinking he was attractive. As it turns out though, he’s an incredibly talented man. Both in the ring and where it really matters, in life (and the bedroom.) Even today, I don’t know how it happened, but I fell in love with him almost instantly.
In some ways, he’s like me. He doesn’t take shit from anyone and he refused then and still does, to take shit from me. My life has changed for the better since we met and I’d rather die than live a day without him. Thaddeus Leander Duke broke through every wall I ever built like a fucking wrecking ball… and I’ve never been so happy.
”Wake up baby,” I say quietly with a sniffle. ”LEANDER!” I shout, and almost instantly, he stretches out his hand before relaxing it again.
”He just moved!” Dick shouts out excitedly, pointing to Thad’s hand.
”Come on Thad!” Brandon pleads, with tears in his eyes too.
”I need you baby,” I plead to him as tears start to roll down my cheeks. ”Frankie needs you. Talon and Caty need you.”
Coughs.
”He’s coming to!”
SNORT!
Laying on the cold concrete, I hear things in my ears but I can’t make anything out. They’re voices, but of who? They don’t even sound like words. It sounds like that sound effect that adults had instead of words in the old Charlie Brown cartoons.
Out of nowhere, I feel warmth and wetness traveling from my chin to my forehead.
”LEANDER!” Lauren yells in my ear and my eyes dart open.
My eyes adjust to the light and I cough. I still can’t move. I can hear now, and my breathing hurts coming in and going out. As my eyes adjust, standing above me is my trusty steed staring down at me. Phobos, my warhorse from that other time.
Looking down, Phobos lowers his head and nudges my chin. Reaching up, I stroke the beautiful creatures head underneath his thick leather armor.
”Phobos,” I say with fondness and a smile. ”How’d you get here?”
Just a reminder, Phobos is not Mister Ed and he does not speak.
”You’re a good boy Phobos,” I say to him as he snorts in my face. ”Can you help me up?” I ask him as I grab a hold of the harness on his head and start to pull myself vertical.
On my feet, my legs are like jello and I instantly fall back to my hands and knees. Phobos, the great warhorse gently kneels and I grab the harness, pulling myself to my feet again. Throwing my right leg over the saddle, he rises up, taking me with him. Pulling myself into the saddle as he rises, I look to my right as I fumble around weakly to get my feet in his stirrups. To my right is the nearest bomb with the lights down to one red one illuminated. There’s no physical timer like you see in Hollywood. The charges are three minutes. Each light is thirty seconds. In thirty seconds, this building starts coming down.
”HYYYAAA!” I call out with a light kick of my heel into his side. He neighs in response and turns toward the ramp while taking off at a full sprint. Still weak and sort of out of it, I hang on for dear life as Phobos takes me to safety.
Looking at the screen, my heart races. I know I’m not alone. We’ve been informed that the bombs are under a minute left. Those bombs will start blowing any second and they still haven’t found him yet. To their credit, they sent as many as they could to find and retrieve him.
”Thirty seconds,” Dick says aloud, updating the time left on the bombs.
”We got movement!” shouts a soldier. ”Over here!”
The soldier and several others rush into the screen. With very little time, a pair reaches down and grabs Thad by his arms and starts to pull him toward the rampway door.
”Grab his legs!” shouts the soldier.
A pair of men grab him by his legs and four men run quickly toward the door. No sooner do they reach the exit and the bombs begin exploding in series. Up the ramp and out of the facility, they stop a second and watch while the ground shakes and rumbles beneath their feet. Seconds later, the underground former military facility collapsed into nothing by a giant pile of rubble capped by a twelve inch steel shell.
With the ground beneath them beginning to settle down, the four men carrying my beloved resume their exit as military medical choppers roar into the picture and begin their descent toward the ground.
”Dick, get me a plane ready,” I order him, refusing to take my eyes from the screen.
”Yes ma’am,” he replies.
”Can I come with you?” Brandon asks and I nod my response as Thaddeus is hurriedly loaded into one of the choppers.
I’ve been looking forward to making my graceful exit from the Xtreme Wrestling Federation for much of the last six months. Make no mistake about it, I love the XWF. It is and always will be my home and there isn’t anything that will ever change that. That said, now that the timer is almost at zero, I can’t help but think maybe I’m making a mistake. I love this place. Like my father did before me, I’ve put this place on my back and carried it to greater heights. I didn’t do it alone. There are others too, like Alias. Like Chris Page. Like the Bastards, and yes, even Charlie.
My in-ring career is far from over. While I did briefly consider it, retirement was never really on the table. I will be taking a little time off from competition, but what I do and where I go next is sure to turn some heads. I’d tell you all exactly what that is, but I don’t want to ruin the big surprise.
As the clock on this XWF run is turning down, I’ve found myself reflecting on where I’ve been and what I’ve done over the course of the last two years. I’ve concluded that I am immensely proud of everything. I leave the XWF at midnight on the first of June with no regrets.
The thing about home though, is no one ever truly leaves it. When the time is right, when all the planets and all the stars are aligned, the Lionheart will again roar on an XWF stage. Why deny the inevitable?
Before the clock hits midnight though on June 1st, there’s one last thing left to do. One last tick to notch on the score sheet in the win column. One last goal to check off the list. And that’s beat Dolly Waters. Over the years, especially these last two, Dolly Waters versus Thaddeus Duke has been on the table several times. Each and every time, I’ve vetoed it.
Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not that I didn’t want to. It’s certainly not that I was afraid of the outcome. It’s just that this business has a way of breeding bitterness between friends. That’s one thing I never wanted. Especially not between Dolly and I.
I vetoed it always… until now… and here’s why.
I said that I will one day re-sign with the XWF and that is my intention. But who knows what will happen in the interim? Either of us could suffer a career ending injury in the meantime and we’d never get this match. On top of that, I’m a firm believer in poetry. Ending my time in the XWF against the one person that singularly responsible for Thaddeus Duke, the one person that inspired me to become a wrestler in the first place, seems a fitting bookend to my six years, on and off, in this company.
It’s true. While I was already in training to one day become a wrestler, Dolly Waters and her meteoric rise as a teenager in a world filled with monsters and giants and aliens and time travelers… it was inspiring. I’d watch her from home and I wondered what it might be like to be a teenage phenom. So I fast tracked and signed on the dotted line when I was still 17 years old. I was greener than goose shit but even still, I had a great amount of success even early in my career and all of that is thanks to Dolly Waters.
After my debut, we quickly became friends. It’s no secret that there’s always been a little sexual tension between the two of us with mutual lovey feelings for one another, but in case you’re wondering, even in the wake of what you saw on Warfare, Thaddeus Duke and Dolly Waters have still never bumped uglies.
I love Dolly Waters with all my heart. It’s a big heart. It’s a full heart. And this match, and its eventual outcome, won’t change that fact. If she thinks though, that the XWF Universe has heard ‘My Name Is Human’ for the final time… she is sadly mistaken. It’s no secret that I’ve had an up and down ‘22 but I assure you, I have eliminated everything that has been a distraction to this point this year.
I’m calm.
I’m laser focused.
I’m ready to leave the XWF with one final victory.
See, there is a stark contrast between the two of us. It’s true we both started in this business probably before we should have. We’ve both been highly entertaining and very successful. We both had meteoric rises up the ladder in the XWF. The difference though, is that especially these last two years, whether I’ve had a championship around my waist or not, I’ve carried myself like the champion.
Being a world champion isn’t what makes you a champion. It’s eating, breathing, drinking, sleeping as if you are that does it. That’s why everyone knows Thaddeus Duke. That’s why everyone respects the hell out of me whether they’ll outwardly admit it or not. The majority of these last two years has seen me stand toe to toe with some of the greats in this business and I’ve risen to the occasion in every instance. While I haven’t won every battle, those I’ve lost are far, far fewer than those I’ve won.
Can you say the same thing about Dolly Waters?
Can you say that Dolly Waters rises to the challenge?
Yeah, she had a great showing back at War Games. I’d never deny it. Hell, after my exit from the events I spent the rest of the night not sulking over my loss but cheering on one of my best friends from the back. She didn’t win, but she sure as hell went down like a fucking boss.
But when push comes to shove, it’s a Waters/Edgar family trait that when the pressure is on, I mean truly on, they wilt like a flower in the desert and collapse under the pressure like a cheap suit.
I know the drill.
I know how it’s a respected tradition for someone leaving to go out on their back.
Fuck tradition.
I’m not going to Leap of Faith to lose. I’m going to pay per view in what will 100% be my last one in the XWF for quite some time, to win. I have no intention of falling on my sword. I have no intention of lying on my shield. The last image the XWF Universe will see of Thaddeus Duke on XWF airwaves?
Is my arms raised in victory.
Dolly Waters… my friend, my confidant, my sister from another mister…
Welcome…
To the Thaddeus Duke Show.
82-31-1
1x XWF Universal Champion || 3x XWF Xtreme Champion || 1x XWF Supercontinental Champion (First)
1x XWF Hart Champion (Last) || 2x XWF Television Champion || 1x XWF Tag Team Champion
1x OCW Savage Champion || 1x IIW Tag Team Champion || 1x AAW United States Champion
2x SOTM (9/20, 7/21) || 2021 Male Wrestler of the Year || XWF Hall of Legends
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