The Nightmare Travels

Traveling...we do it more than the NFL , or any other sport...part of being what we were. Wrestlers, but more than that. I risked a slight glance to the right at him, my mentor and teacher. He still drives like a Demon, but even a Demon needs a moment to stretch his legs and I think that he relishes these moments. Away from humanity, a part of it but never...what's that word he said...amalgamated into the mass of it. I took advantage of the rest area's generous women's room to wash my face and arms, toweling off with the thin rust, black, and gold flannel I'd had on loosely over my tank top, tying the arms around my waist so it could dry as we 'rested'.

With us, the silence is not uncomfortable, but even though I despise many of my gender for their foibles there is one that I share. The need to fill space with sound. But at least I ask the good questions, or so he says. I wonder if he is just indulging me, but then I see that answering fire in his eyes...I think he likes the challenge.

"Why is he doing this?"

'Amalgamated', but never quite absorbed. I tried to explain the concept to Sara. She seemed to understand it, but appearances are always deceiving. I couldn't be sure she understood, but for good or bad she stuck beside me. She was my support network, I guess. They say everyone needs a support network, but spending years on your own, on this road was enough to alienate anyone. Donne says that no man is an island, but Donne didn't have a life as -IWF Forced Censored- up as mine, with my military pass. -IWF f orced Censored- you, Donne. You were an optimist--I'm a misanthrope. Kiss my ass. I could feel her looking. I could feel the eyes, the concern. I kept a lot hidden from her, but no companion should ever know all that the other does. I will tell you everything that you need to know, but not everything is worth knowing. Sara was patient, but she was too trusting. She didn't know exactly who she was dealing with. At a moment's notice, I could decide that she was no longer a worthwhile companion. I could decide that she was too much worry about and protect. At the next rest stop, I could just give her the money she needs and tell her to live a life that doesn't involve myself and my insecurities. I could be free from her, but then again, misery loves company. He heard what she said, but it took a long while before he responded. Black leather creaked, the worn in, aged leather jacket groaning under the sudden movement as he turned away from the sunset he'd been watching, studying, as if to glean some unknown secret or plumb some undiscovered truth. It was a long while, and even as he turned, it was slight. A faint acknowledgment of her and understanding of what she'd said. Wraparound sunglasses reflected the glaring, red-orange glow from the sun off of the right lens, his left shoulder turning toward her.

"Why?" After a moment, he shook his head. "Why not?" A question with a question. Was this a pop quiz, or simple conversation? Could she even be sure?

With him, it was always likely a pop quiz...he was a demanding teacher, a perfectionist to a degree that some who didn't understand why such perfection was needed might even say was torturous to himself and her. But it was that steel and darkness inside that had drawn me in the first place...someone who could understand the darkness of the military without ever having set foot there.

"Because the face of the company changed, when I last saw it. There are new men there, and the old ones...including them he despises most...are growing by the numbers. But I note...that remnants of him, will soon be exterminated."

A pause. Did I dare mention to him that I had seen his expression when we watched the company had become? I was Sara. I dared much because with no daring there is no triumph.

"Who are they?"

I kept my tone light, curious despite the heavy accent I would bear to my very grave. No one would ever mistake me for anything but military...but my words were flawless.

"Men who are out for greed and want nothing but absolute power." He had answered her quietly, and his voice, rather than rough, raspy baritone that would have carried that distance, it might have registered to the military as barely a whisper. I could feel myself slipping. I wasn't sure if it was what I wanted Sara to see. I knew she'd been looking when I watched what the IWF had become, when I saw the road the foundation of IWF was heading. I'm sure she saw it--she was observant enough. The tick; the twitch in my eye. The grimace. The tightening of my knuckles. It might be hard for her to understand and grasp the concept. Maybe not. I turned to her, and closed the gap between us. She and I were nearly at eye level. It wasn't something I was used to--not with a woman, anyway. "He is the one that needs to restore order to chaos." He nodded slowly, gently. Acknowledging her statement, he looked past her for a moment, his head turned slightly, marginally to his right. Thinking, almost, though she couldn't see his eyes to be sure. She could most definitely feel his gaze. It was as if he was measuring her up for something. Weighing options maybe. His lips twisted slightly as he began to think, the gears in his mind turning slowly. Eyebrows narrowing faintly, and then? Then he relaxed, and returned to that neutral expression. "So it's even more important that he does this. That he imparts lessons of respect on these faces of greed and power. More importantly, that they come to know fear, just like the people who came before. That company used to be afraid of the dark, Sara, because of men like Erik. Even now, they won't use some of those names--out of fear, perhaps, that is best for them."

My heart sped up, that simple spike of adrenaline that happened as he stepped in close. My body reacted to him on an instinctive level, instantly fight or flight from the intensity of how we trained. He and I, David and Sara in the ring to bring change and order to such a great place, now drenched in blasphemy...but David is no longer here, however his spirit lives through us.

But his voice...it was rare that it was not that raspy and rough baritone so well known in the dreams and nightmares of those he'd faced. Something twisted, in me at the hint of oddness that this man before me, my Mentor and teacher that I knew so well...accepted the man as I accepted his philosophy and teachings...but that he would call anyone friend with that tone of voice? I was not jealous! Amazed, perhaps that another human could earn that sort of regard from a man who was the creation of the primal war of light and dark.

-IWFforced Censored- that was poetic, and I didn't have a poetic bone in my body or so I'd thought.

"So you wait, to learn of them and the landscape of the company...because information is power. They do not expect you? They can not prepare for you."

Perhaps he was the embodiment of duality. Perhaps he was something akin to a physical manifestation of the Great Dichotomy. He approached, and closed the distance between those two while he listened to her, and watched her reaction. He would have smiled, if it wouldn't have tipped his hand and made apparent his approval of Sabra. He was a teacher, a mentor, but although he praised her, he also encouraged her to do better--usually through what some might perceive as brutality, or undue punishment. It wasn't punishment, however; or at least, he didn't see it as such. If she could survive the rigors of his training regimen and his mercurial nature, then she could survive anything the industry could possibly throw at her. Any match, any opponent. If she could survive him in the long term? She would be prepared.

"I watch. I observe. I learn them, all that I can, so that way, when he come into their lives, they aren't prepared for him and they can't prepare for him. When they step against him, He has already beaten them." He tapped the side of my head slightly. "He has the tools to dismantle them. Mentally, physically; however he decides to choose to do so. That's the key, Sara: It's cerebral, much more than physical."

I nodded, I felt that almost involuntary motion but my eyes would tell him that I not only listened but that I understood what he was saying. Any fool could beat a man or woman down with fists be they skilled in a method like Systema that I was, or a rank amateur who barely knew how to ball up his fist but was strong enough to make it hurt. But to truly dismantle an opponent, Keith was right. It was just as much mental pain as physical, and a true fear could develop in those that had to face you after such a thing happened.

I'd seen it myself with some of the people that tried to work with him, wanted him to train them and couldn't comprehend that he only let them in for me to whet my talent on. That look in their eyes was universal, they feared him for what he'd done, but more...for what he was capable of.

"And now that you have him focused on them...who is a threat? Who could be a threat? Among the men, that is."

I'd already formed a few opinions on the distaff side of the roster, but would not speak of them unless he asked.

"A threat? None of them are a threat, they are part of the mass chaos infecting the IWF. These are the men in this company who need extreminated, Sara. A man can be beaten, broken; destroyed. It's when men become monsters--monsters like what Erik and David use to be, that you approach with caution. Those are men only in a physiological sense. Their minds aren't easy to target. Someone with nothing to lose? They can't be broken in the sense that you're thinking. Men like Hawkins, like Apollos? They have weaknesses. They've surrounded themselves with what the status quo accept eagerly: Morality, ethics. To these men, those things are concrete. To the sheep, they're tangible. But you and I know that good and evil exist on an intangible plane. Concepts, trivial notions that don't have a place in the world. They are reliant wholly on a point of view; on a philosophical bend. These men he won't have to worry about. They'll be easy to beat, long before they get into the ring." Did she expect that answer?
Sara stretched, arms over her head and drawing up her lithe 5'10 frame before relaxing, though her eyes had never left his face. A quick look down, and she looked up at him from under those thick dark lashes, a slight crease between her brows as she considered something.

"Even though Erik was once one of those people you dislike? They are too rigid in what they think and feel...and that is their weakness. They could fight, but he can remove that obstacle and make him so maddened he would be rife with mistakes."

A pause, as she considered something.

"But some of them know you, from before. What you are capable of and what you have done that none else dared to do. I...don't understand. You never underestimate any foe, yet you are dismissive of them so easily. You see something I do not?"

She made it a question but she knew the answer already, of course he did.

"No, I don't see anything you don't. That's why I've discounted them so." He shook his head. "What I haven't seen, Sara, is that killer instinct. The motivation that every hunter, every predator--every true predator--has when he is about to bring down its prey. They haven't been pushed to that limit. They haven't been pushed to see how far they are willing to go. These, useless and mindless won't be involved, won't be touched. Unless they get involved first. Then? He will destroy them." He spoke flatly and shook his head. Hesitating for a moment, he opened his mouth as if to speak but closed it just as quickly. Brows knitted together as he shook his head, a slightly annoyed tinge held in that raspy baritone.

"Nevermind. If you haven't seen it, I can't explain it. You'll know, though, when you see it. It's unmistakeable and it can't be missed. It's at that point that we'll find out what he is up against. If they can handle the pressure, and just how they perform under it. They'll either break--and He'll crush him--or They'll rise against him. He'll tap something he never knew he had, in which case, He'll destroy them. They will fail, and you know how I feel about failure."
"So that is what you will do. Push them...push them all. Starting with them...?" A slight rise of her tone, but she didn't wait. That annoyed tinge of voice motivated her the way a belt would someone else.

"I will not touch others, unless they interfere...though from what I have seen they stay out of most matches and get in trouble elsewhere. But I will watch, and learn what you do to someone that fails so badly that you have to get involved."

It made sense to me, even if I wasn't too sure I liked the implication that came with everything. Something dawned on me then and I looked at him with a hint of realization in my eyes that was mixed with surprise.

"They do not know, do they. These men, they don't know why you're going to do this."

He shrugged his shoulders dismissively, and perhaps that was the coldest thing he could ever do. Casual, so casual--it was second nature almost to disregard that man, the former World Champion. To talk of what he would do, to allude to what he was thinking. Sociopathic, perhaps, but that was Keith. He removed the sunglasses slowly, as the sun had sank low enough in the horizon that they weren't all that necessary any more. Those shocking blue eyes locked onto her brown, and that flicker of life? Strangely absent. Gryphon's lips curled in a slight frown, dismissive, 'take it or leave it' kind of gesture, expression. "If they know, then they did this consciously and deliberately. If they let this happen and didn't warn them? Then He'll see to it that they spend the rest of their days in agony, confined to a wheelchair, dependent on someone's care. He'll cripple them. If they wasn't aware that this would happen, then they'll be made to suffer for their ignorance."

Keith turned slightly, cutting his eyes to his left, and then? Right back onto target. "They allwill be pushed, they'll be pressed to their limit. Their bodies will them, their eyes can warn them, but until they experiences this...experiences him, they'll never be able to fully lay claim to it. And if the others get involved? They'll suffer a similar fate. But alongside the massacre? Order will be restored. Erik will make them pay. They are obsessed with sinners and saints? Let's see how they likes coming face to face with The Nightmare they are about to interact with."

Keith's smirk was cold as it formed; a thin, flat, and quite malevolent smile flattened dry lips. His attention focused off to the side once again and lingered, as if he contemplated something. His attention turned back toward Sara. "Does that make me a hypocrite, Sara? To punish a man for an unforgivable sin, and then turn around and punish a man for not being there to protect someone unaware that they needed protecting?"

This took me aback a moment, that he would ask me a question like this as if he truly might ...not care mind but be curious as to what I thought. I felt my tongue wet my lips and my gaze steady on those blasted arctic blue eyes of his that held such empty cold wastelands...but I was from the military, and this was almost comforting to me.

"No, Keith. It makes you the man many feared, it makes you the reminder that there is a standard and it is not your fault they failed to realize it - or could not have met it in the first place."

I was not going to let it bother me, that this person that needed protecting was a woman. I did not need protecting, except perhaps from myself...but part of me burned to ask why he cared. But while I was bold with him sometimes, my teacher...I was a good student because I was not an idiot and only an idiot would ask him what was on the tip of my tongue. So instead I gave him something more worthy.

"And when he has finished with them? Whats next?"

He inclined his head once, briefly, before putting those sunglasses back into place and then extended his hands to her. He held them palms up, and lifted one, then the other. Indication. He looked to his left. "On the one hand, I have a man who was either ignorant of the fact that he was a target, or aware and allowed this to happen. If he warned him, then the burden falls on him, doesn't it?" He paused, and then smiled again, shaking his head. "It doesn't. It falls on the man conducting the chaos, because if he was aware of the possibility, he should have taken steps himself to ensure this man wouldn't happen. A personal appearance. Be it ignorance or ineptitude, he has wronged everyone, and he has wronged the company. On the other hand, I can let Erik watch this madness unfold and I can watch what reality is produced..." And then? Then that smile widened. His tongue lashed briefly to wet his lips, dried in that harsh Mojave wind. "...and if let that deliberate and malicious intent come the wrath and retribution of Biblical proportions will consume all humanity." He nodded his head slightly at her, apparently pleased. "Excellent, Sara. You're learning quickly."

She certainly was. I hadn't expected her to pass that test, but she surprised even me. However Sara, whose blood ran nearly as cold as mine, was tragic in her own way. Tragic, merciless, haunting, cunning. She had admirable traits; she was the perfect companion. She understood what I was trying to see what I was doing and more importantly, why I HAVE to do it. The world--this one especially--was cruel and merciless. Better to be prepared. And while some will claim innocence, will the rest of the IWF as a hole claim their gulit? Innocence and guilt aren't things I concern myself about. Those who have crossed a line, where there is no turning back, There is nothing left for them but inevitability. I am coming, and I am coming for them all. The end of chaos is what I am seeking, but if I get the chance at the championship? Irrelevant bonus; fringe benefit to my arrival. I smirked, thinking of the headlines. 'The Nightmare Lays Waste To The Competiton, and Eyes The World Championship. Accept my prowless, or suffer for your hubris. Alexander Remington has a move called the Cashflow. Kind of fitting: That's what will be flowing after I get paid by the employer who has hired me. I knew that Sara was wondering why. Why this? Why do all this work for this mystery employer? Why for acceptance into a company? Acceptance was just as intangible a concept as good and evil. Greed and jealousy destroys acceptance in the blink of an eye, and alliances in this industry changed with the setting sun. Sara knows this, and she knows not to trust anyone fully--not even me. I wouldn't even trust me fully, but she sees something in me, somewhere. Something that I guess I can't. I owe her an explanation: At the very least she needs to understand why.

Keith gave a little tug of his head and backed up from her, moving toward the driver's side door of that '69 Oldsmobile. The shining black paint job was covered in desert sand and dirt. It would need a wash soon, but for now? Now they had some miles to make up. He opened that driver's side door and paused before getting inside. He lifted the sunglasses from his eyes again, briefly, and when she came to the passenger side, he made sure to find her gaze and hold it. "You want to know why, Sara?"

When I slid into the car it was comfortable. Some might complain about being cooped up and driving everywhere like we did...but they hadn't had the upbringing I had either. This was luxury to me on a scale that most Americans couldn't conceive of. I did not however feel sorry for myself about my past, because after all it led me to make the decisions that I made, including the one that let me be bold enough to talk to this man in the first place. I swiveled my legs into the car before shutting the door, that little lady-like mannerism something I didn't try to change, because it was a part of me. Just as it was a part of me to make sure with a quick look that he had a full bottle of water at hand, and that I'd kept all the trash neatly in its bag getting in and out of the car.

His eyes locked with mine, and while I knew what most others never would, that I could be content with learning things as he decided to teach...it was rare he would offer up a prize like this. I would not let it escape me.

"Yes I do. I want to hear it in your words...out loud. I want to see if they match your voice in my mind."

I did not have a...conscience so to speak, not like others might. I was innocent in ways, jaded in others and my mentor was right. Sometimes I was for all my worldliness painfully naive and too trusting. Even though I know, not to trust anyone fully even if my heart tells me to risk. The mind must discipline the heart in my case or I would be deeply in trouble very quickly. But conscience I lacked the way again an American woman would have...no whining, wailing, second guessing myself or being guilty for being a woman with me. What I had was his raspy baritone voice in my head, pushing me to improve, to better myself...to become the force and weapon, as well as the woman.

The key was thrust into the ignition as he closed the door. He let the chain dangle there for a few moments, and just...listened. To his heartbeat. To the wind whipping through the opened windows. To the gentle swaying and twisting of that metal chain, dangling on the end of that key. His foot planted on the floorboard and he turned the ignition as that car roared to life with a defiant, throaty snarl. American muscle flexed as he smiled thinly, teasing that snarling beast by tapping its accelerator and watching that red needle on the tachometer leap with caged fury. His left hand lifted to grip the steering wheel, tightening slightly. With those sunglasses removed, he turned to her again and spoke.

"Cause no one else can or will, Sara. This business and more importantly this company has been laced with the acts of lunacy and driven by the madness of many, and if not will destory the very fiber this company and industry was bulit on. Most importantly, it what He does, to a science." He paused, and returned those sunglasses to their proper place. Looking westward, he threw the clutch and the shifter into place. That white sphere caught in his right hand, he looked back at her and arched an eyebrow. "It saved Erik's and my life."

My gift, my curse. The Nightmare sustained.