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Dolly Waters · (03-10-2025)

Dolly’s in mourning. Kneeling in the damp, muddy soil, her hands trembling against the cold earth. Quiet tears slipping down her cheeks, and drifting into the hush of the cemetery air.

She mourns, not just for the name etched into the forgotten plaque before her, but for all the unclaimed souls buried in this place.

A final resting ground for those lost, abandoned, and left to history’s indifference.

It’s said that the stages of grief aren’t linear. They don’t come in order, nor on schedule.
They circle and spiral through time, looping through years, lingering in the corners of memories long after the world moves on.

And for Dolly? She hasn’t had a moment to process any of it.

Awakening in a Universal Championship match against Sebastian Everett-Bryce.
Being thrown into a virtual wasteland, helping Game Girl save Vault 98 at WarGames.
Reckoning with The SEERS device, a machine that holds her past hostage. Conscripted into an abrupt, uneasy alliance with Madison Dyson.

All in the aftermath of…

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…everything

Everything she lost. Everything she barely escaped from. Everything that still lingers. It constantly blurs in and out of perception, as if it’s all happening again.

Her fingertips trail over the plaque: Patel Gagendepp.

A man she lost in more ways than one.

A friend, smothered on his deathbed.

A lover, washed away from the dreamworld she once called home.

And now, outside of Dolly, he leaves no trace of grief behind.

No mourners.

No funeral.

No one else to remember him.

Just her.

I ain’t… even… The words sputter through a quiet, private wail.
I’m just… so sorry…

She lies down on the cold ground, turning her head to Patel’s grave…
as if they were sharing a pillow one last time.

Depression isn’t always visible.

It hides behind responsibilities.

It simmers beneath routine.

For many, it’s a tightening powder keg, swelling beneath a dying smile, growing heavier by the day. Until the weight of sadness becomes too unbearable to ignore.

Dolly has yet to let herself feel it.

The moral weight of partnering with Dyson, and carrying the XWF Tag Championships.

The burden of protecting The SEERS machine.

A main event against Johnny Bacchus looming.

It has all distracted her from the only loss that truly matters.

The one she has yet to grieve.

"...but I’m still here… always.”

You’ve lost before, haven’t you Johnny?

More importantly, you’ve lost love. No different from me…It grips at you, doesn’t it?

In fact, the more I prepare for our contest, the more I realize just how similar we are, Johnny.

Both stuck in vicious cycles of unreconciled mistakes.

The grieving process for us? We… “BEGIN AGAIN”, and again, and again.

Be it every setback you’ve had in this distraction of a quest to topple Sebastian Everette-Bryce.

BEGIN AGAIN

Be it my repeated, foolish inclination that this place… the XWF… the place I considered my home ever since I was abandoned here as a child actually cares for me.

BEGIN AGAIN

At least for me, I begin now with the truth laying so clearly before me. No one is coming to save us, Johnny. I freed myself from Misty, and after that horror was over, what was there for me?

Finding out that Thaddeus Duke likely slept with that monster… in my body?

BEGIN AGAIN

I haven’t heard a single word from him since I’ve returned. He was my “best friend”, Johnny.

BEGIN AGAIN

You lost your best friend too, didn’t you? Where is Cookie now?

See, what’s fortunate for me, is that there’s no illusion. Thad is in plain sight, and he’s made his feelings clear… by booking me with Misty’s ally in Madison. I know that I’ve lost that, I’m under no false pretenses. My friends are gone, my love is dead. While you?

Your best friend? Your first love? Your first… “loss”...

You have to wonder each day if there’s something worth saving.

Or, when you watched Cookie ride off on that Greyhound, did you just say BEGIN AGAIN?

“…Always. Always here.”

A whisper, almost ethereal, lingers and curls from the barren trees. It’s barely more than a breath, yet it shudders through her ribs like a hammer to glass.

She sits up slowly, blinking, her breath hitching in the cold.

The whisper could have been the wind. Could have been exhaustion, or grief digging its claws in deep. But…

No.

She shakes her head. It wasn’t the wind. It wasn’t exhaustion.

Patel?

Was it him?

Denial sets in. The type of denial that takes you to the bitter end. Poisonous. Destructive. Denial that would send Dolly headlong into the very cage she escaped from in search of an irrecoverable loss.

But she’s convinced she knows that voice. A warmth barely remembered, a tether to something beyond the cold dirt pressing against her palms. She wipes at her eyes with her sleeve, pushing herself up onto trembling legs. The nightfall leans in around her, silent and watching, waiting to see if she’ll break.

But Dolly doesn’t break.

Instead, she turns.

Being carried away from Patel’s grave, out past the rows of forgotten headstones before she even realizes her feet are moving, like she’s being pulled in by the whisper. The hospital cemetery is a maze of shadows and stone, the only sound is the dragging of her boots in the damp earth.

She barely notices the figure watching from beneath the dying oak.

You shouldn’t go back.

The voice is low, and quiet. Yet it cuts through the stillness like a razor.

Dolly halts mid-step, her pulse hammering in her ears. She knows that voice too.

Slowly, she turns her head.

R.L. Edgar stands at the edge of a clearing near the cemetery gates. Partially cast in a shadow, his unmistakable frame leaning against the oak. A cigarette burning between his fingers, the ember pulsing in the dark. His gaze lingers on Dolly with a tired sort of knowing, like he’s already figured out where this is headed.

Dolly calms from her initial state of alarm, her chest rising and falling, her breath unsteady.

Edgar is a former champion in the XWF, and Dolly’s uncle. The bastard son of Misty Waters who only learned of his birth-mother four years ago, when she sought to destroy him, just as she did Dolly.

How long you been standing there?

Edgar exhales smoke into the cold air. Long enough.

I have to do this.

Edgar shakes his head. No, you think you have to do this.

I …heard… him. Her voice is firm, but there’s something fragile under it, Patel. He’s still in there. He’s calling me back.

Edgar studies her for a long moment before flicking the cigarette into the dirt and crushing it beneath his heel. That what you really think?

I know it.

The certainty in her voice is a thin veneer, a fragile thing waiting to crack. But she doesn’t let it. She won’t let it.

Edgar steps forward, his boots pressing into the soft ground. You don’t know what you’re walking into.

I’ve been there before.

Edgar exhales, Yeah. And you barely made it out.

Dolly squares her shoulders. That was different.

Was it? Edgar watches her, his expression unreadableWhat do you think you’re gonna find in there?

Him. The word is nearly a whisper.

Edgar studies her, his dark eyes heavy and understanding.

Then he sighs. You ever think… maybe you’re not supposed to? That Patel wasn’t real, Dolly. The real Patel is buried in the ground over there.

A flicker of hesitation, just for a second, before Dolly sets her jaw.

There’s something real there, and I damn well know it. It’s calling me back. If Patel is still in there, I have to try. I can save him… I can make this right!

Edgar runs a hand down his face, frustration bleeding into his voice. Christ, you sound just as delusional as her.

Dolly stiffens. Who?

You know who.

Misty.

Neither speak the name, but it hangs heavy over the silence between them.

Dolly’s hands curl into fists.

There’s no denying me in this match, Johnny.

Yer’ booked in the Main Event of Warfare… against Dolly Waters.

The last time “we” battled, you only saw me through HER eyes. And while you could relate enough with her to spot an obvious fraud when you saw one, you still nearly fell to Misty.

You think I haven’t gone back and watched the tape?

Studied your approach to that contest?

You think I didn’t watch her pin you clean in the center of the mat for nearly a 6 count?

Saved only by your VLI comrades at the last second?

If you needed them to deal with a fraud… will you need them against me?

Johnny, I care about you. I care about this match. It’s our moment to come clean. A moment to step out of the shadows

For me there’s no denying the mistakes I’ve made. I let the pressure of watching my place in this world fade, drive me to scheme, to manipulate, to call on mysticism, all in an attempt to wrest away what I thought I deserved.

Glory. Power. My place atop the mountain of XWF.

I take responsibility for my actions, Johnny. They opened the door for Misty to do her dirt. I take onus of undoing her destruction, be it in the form of pulling Madison Dyson into the light, or…giving Johnny the chance to exercise some Real. Goddamn. Honesty.

What have your actions led to?

What doors did they open for your dearly betrothed?

You couldn’t admit to Ruby what you truly are. Who Johnny Bacchus TRULY is…

You thought it would protect her. What if she found out that you were lying? That it’s your lies that put her in danger, your lies that… got her kidnapped by Mr. Cook in the first place?

What if she found out that rather than trying to save her, that you needed to blow off steam in a wrestling match first? That you were too stressed to bother with her.

What would your betrothed think?

BEGIN AGAIN… right?

If yer’ not gonna’ save her Johnny, then let me save you.

Let’s lay it all to bear. No more denying who we are, Johnny.

I’m telling you… we’re no different.

I defeated men who’ve defeated you, like Adeyemi

You’ve defeated… well, no one that I haven’t already bested…

Like Ned, like Charlie, like Bobby, like Lucy, like Aurora…Like Misty.

The person who took everything from me

When we get in that ring, Johnny, you’ll have no choice but to admit that…

...I’m not her.

Edgar lets out a short laugh. Ain’t that the tragedy of it all?

Dolly glares at him. Where in the hell have you been all of this time? You don’t get to stand here and act like you understand.

Don’t I? Edgar’s voice sharpens. I was there, Dolly. I watched it all happen. You, depressed and strung out, in denial, bitter and bargaining over your career, over your life. All of the loss you experienced, that you didn’t deal with, it led you to that gypsy-shit. It opened you up, it made you vulnerable to her attack. You think I didn’t see what she did to you? The entire world saw it. You think I don’t know what she did to me? He steps closer. You ain’t the only one who’s carrying a ghost, kid. You have to accept them.

Dolly opens her mouth, but words never come.

The wind shifts, and rattles through the branches above them. Dolly’s eyes dart elsewhere, almost thinking she’d heard that whisper again.

Edgar sighs, throwing his cigarette butt down and stamping it out on the ground. Look… I ain’t here to tell you what to do, Dolly.

Then don’t., steps past him.

But let me help you he moves in front of her, blocking the path.

Dolly’s jaw tightens. I don’t need your help.

Edgar lets out frustrated breath through his nostrils,

Sure you do. You just don’t want to accept it.

Dolly doesn’t flinch. She knows what he’s doing. He’s trying to slow her down. Give her time to reconsider.

But there’s nothing to reconsider.

That voice still curling through the back of her mind, whispering through the wind. It wasn’t a trick. It wasn’t her grief playing games with her.

It was him.

She steps forward. Edgar doesn’t move.

You gonna stop me?

Edgar watches her. A silence building between them.

Then, finally, he shakes his head.

No.

The word hangs for a moment, heavy in the air.

But if you’re going back in there… Edgar exhales sharply. Then I’m coming with you.

Dolly stares at him. You don’t have to do that.

A silence passes. Edgar lowers his head, but doesn’t press. He just waits.

Finally, Dolly exhales through her nose. Fine.

She steps around him, this time, he lets her go.

But when she walks toward the cemetery gates, Edgar follows.

The SEERS machine hums, its soft blue light pulsing like a quiet heartbeat.

Dolly stands in front of it, staring at the console, fingers flexing and curling at her sides. She’s utilized this machine for the remarkable before. But this time feels different.

Edgar leans against the far wall, arms crossed, watching her.

How’s this thing work, anyway?

Dolly keeps her eyes on the machine. It… creates.

Creates…what? Edgar raises a brow. Like, a time machine you can use?

Not exactly. She exhales. It’s going to create like… a door. A way to step inside your own mind. To walk through the places you’ve been. The places you’ve made.

She swallows.

The places you’ve lost.

Edgar watches her carefully.

And what happens if you don’t come back?

Dolly glances at him. A beat passes.

Then I don’t.

Edgar doesn’t like that answer. But he doesn’t push.

You sure about this?

Dolly nods once.

You should be able to watch me from that monitor She points to the large screen hanging above the SEERS

Edgar sighs. Alright. Then let’s get on with it.

She reaches for the console, adjusting the frequency. She sits in a recliner as the machine purrs louder, energy crackling at the edges of perception.

Dolly takes a breath, then presses the activation sequence. An IV engages in her vein.

The world shifts.

A ripple through reality. A lurch in her stomach. The sensation of being pulled through glass, through fog

And then

Darkness.

Dolly staggers up from the recliner, only she’s elsewhere now. Her boots are touching against cold, cracked pavement. The air is thick, damp, like the world is holding its breath.

She lifts her head.

The town is in ruins.

The streets of her mind palace -the dreamworld she once built, the one she fought to reclaim- are nothing but hollow echoes. As if Misty had only just devoured it all over again. The houses are like skeletons, crumbling into dust. The streetlamps flickering, barely clinging to light.
This was once her safe place. Her escape. A world where Patel was alive, where love and hope still had weight.

Again, she finds it only dead and rotting.

Dolly frantically sprints through the streets, No! she cries out, He’s gotta be here… PATEL! she shouts, breathlessly.

Dolly reaches the sidewalk just in front of she and Patel's home.

Immediately she crumbles to her knees.

It’s decayed and vacant, just like everything around her. And not a trace of life to be observed.

Dolly falls forward, pounding her fists into the sidewalk, as he has to be here! barely escapes through her sobs.

She rages in through the front door, breathing heavily PATEL?! she shouts, turning over furniture. She tears through the kitchen, up the stairs and into she and Pate’ls bedroom, screaming like a woman possessed. A blinding rage fueling her. Leaving her unable to accept the truth. Instead she only feels every affront against her. They’re manifested in the thick air she breathes. The abuse, the abandonments, the betrayals, the loss.

And somewhere, just beyond the decay, a whisper curls through the air.

“…I’m still here…always.”

Yer’ not special, Johnny.

You think you are.

You think yer’ one-of-one. You think your grief is unique, that nobody else knows what it’s like to suffer loss the way you have.

Bullshit.

You lost her. I lost him.

And the difference between us?

I don’t pretend I’m the only one carrying that weight.

I don’t pretend my pain makes me untouchable.

I don’t pretend I’m some misunderstood underdog martyr, fighting against a system that doesn’t respect me.

Because we’re not.

Yer’ not some reluctant anti-hero, burning the XWF down to save it.

Yer’ another one of its tragedies.

And the worst part?

Is that you refuse to see it, Johnny.

The truth blotted out by the “sun flooding your canvas”.

You can point fingers at SEB all you like, blame the company for screwing you over, shove blame onto Thad, onto Misty, onto Flynn, onto Schism, onto Bourbon, blame whoever you want.

You think I don’t see you?

You think I don’t know you?

The boy who spent two years chasing SEB, only to fail every time.

The boy who thinks he’s some dark horse Universal Champion in waiting, but when the time comes to rise to the occasion you always fall short?

Where have I heard that before? Johnny Waters anyone?

You think yer’ destined to shatter the crown? You couldn’t even hold onto the Xtreme Championship… no different than Misty. You couldn’t win Leap of Faith… no different than Misty.

Johnny, yer’ so full of your own bullshit, you actually believe yer’ the only person in this company who has suffered. You just can’t deal with the fact that yer’ suffering is ordinary

You can’t deal with the fact that YOU are the reason you lost everything… and that YOU chose it.

You, Johnny.

You did this…

My love is dead. There’s no coming back.

I have lost everything.

But you could still save Ruby.

And deep down you know it.

If you wont save her, then I will… by showing everyone who you really are.

“…Always. Always here.”

Dolly’s breath catches. Her pulse jumps.

Patel?

It’s the whisper again. It pulls her out of the house, and back into the street. Her feet crunching over broken glass and dead leaves. Dolly trudges on, following the whisper.

She’s here. She’s close.

And then…

Dolly sees… her?

A figure bursting through the darkness

A woman.

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She’s bathed in a golden light, her hair a cascade of blonde curls, her face an mirror of Dolly’s own. But there’s something different.

Something otherworldly.

From the monitor Edgar watches this unfold in real time. His face glows in awe, his voice low…Jesus Christ…it’s an angel.

She drifts down from the skies, landing gently on her feet and faces Dolly. Her aura is nirvanic and warm.

It’s… you. The one who freed me from here.

The Angel parts her lips, and speaks in whispers

“Have you come back for me?”

I was- She’s nearly rendered speechless I thought I was coming back for someone else…

The Angel steps forward and brushes her hand against Dolly’s fingertips,

“You came for Patel”

Yes.

Patel. Our children. We had a family. I thought he was waiting for me.

But it’s you I’ve been hearing… the whispers.

“I’ve been here mourning for you. For what you’ve suffered. For your loneliness. For your loss. I can bring them back, if that’s what you really want. You can stay here.”

Dolly’s eyes go wide as the Angel lifts her hand. The soft glow of her radiance washing over this dreamworld like sunlight after a storm. Suddenly the ruins around her and Dolly change.

The air warms. The ruins are rebuilt. The streets bloom with vibrancy, color spilling back into a world that was dead just moments ago.

And beyond the Angel, just past her glowing frame

Patel stands on their front porch. Smiling. Alive. Their children joining him at the hip.

Dolly’s breath shudders. Unable to speak.

The Angel whispers again

“You have a choice.

You can stay here.

Always.”

Dolly floats toward Patel and the children. She weeps in silence, reaching out and touching their unresponsive faces, that are fixed with eerie, lifeless smiles.

“But this place isn’t real. This was a cage built for you.

To keep you from fulfilling your destiny.

If you stay here, you'll lose something far greater.”

What are you willing to give up, Johnny?

What would you bargain for your betrothed?

What would you sacrifice to win this match?

The choice I’m given isn’t really a choice at all. The world I grieve for is one that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just a dream, living only in my memories. This is the moment where I decide against throwing away my future for the depression, for the denial, for the anger.

This match for me is the moment where I break that vicious cycle. The moment where I reconcile my mistakes.

And there's still time for you Johnny, you can… BEGIN AGAIN.

With the Angel’s whisper still lingering, Dolly stands at the threshold of something unreal. Patel, their children, their home, all of it restored in a radiant light.

If Dolly takes but a single step forward, she could have everything she ever wanted.

She could live in this dream.

Always.

But Dolly takes a step back.

The Angel watches her, patient, a knowing smile on her lips.

Dolly turns to face her. Tears washing her face.

What are you? pleading through the sobs almost,

The Angel’s lips part into a smile, but she doesn’t speak.

She doesn’t need to.

Dolly understands now.

You’re me.

“I always have been”

The Angel takes Dolly’s hand…

It’s time to go.

The radiance of the light flares behind their shared smile.

And then darkness.

I know now.

I know why I came back.

Why I fought so hard.

I thought I was looking for Patel. Thought I was chasing something I lost.

But what I was really looking for… was myself.

To make peace with the ghosts that I’ve carried for too long.

I wont be trapped in this cycle anymore.

Not in grief.
Not in guilt.
Not in the past.

And not in the XWF’s endless, miserable loop of broken people playing gods.
I’m moving forward in this match, Johnny.

What about you?

What are you still clinging to?

The dream of a world that doesn’t exist anymore?

A failed war against your rival that you never could win?

A love yer’ too scared to face?

See, I know the truth now.

We’re a lot alike, Johnny…

The difference is I know who I am.

I’m a good person.

Are you a good person too?

A man who's never there for the ones he “cares for” most?

Because I think I’m going to show the world that yer’ no good. That Johnny Bacchus ain’t better than me.

And you’ll have no choice but to accept it.

No choice but to BEGIN AGAIN.

A sharp gasp rips through Dolly’s lungs.

Her eyes snap open.

She’s back.

The hum of the SEERS machine drones in the background.

Edgar is standing over her. Watching. WAiting.

She turns her head, looking at him…. Truly seeing him.

He exhales sharply, relieved [green]Shit.[/green[

Dolly’s breath is unsteady, but her eyes… they’re clear. A light shining from them that’s never been there before.

She pulls herself out of the chair, and straightens. Rolling her shoulders and shaking off the last traces of the dream world, and stepping into something new.

Her time for mourning is over.

Her time for fighting has come.

Edgar watches his niece, there’s a different feeling about her, a different aura. She turns toward the exit, moving forward with no hesitation.

I’m still here. she whispers,

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