[RAISON D'ETRE] To Kill The Past...

[Mav.]

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:: JROK EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE ::

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The spotlight shines down on the pair as the celebrations come around, the large scaled trophy placed in the middle of the ring as the confetti continues to rain down on Maverick and James Raymond, who continue to pose for the cameras before James would roll out of the ring and leave Maverick all to himself. As he is about to stand up himself and carry the trophy to the back--

Hey…

--An ominous voice echoes over the PA System which alerts Maverick as he darts up to his feet, looking around him for where the voice came from. Slowly, the lights within the arena begin to fade and into the darkness, leaving the crowd that surrounds the ring in the pitch black as if there’s nothing there, the only light source now being shunned onto the ring. The tron begins to light up from the static look showing, the voice returning to speak once again.

I hope you remember this voice.
I hope you remember who I am.

In the ring, Maverick looks absolutely perplexed but then the realisation kicks in. That voice is familiar, one he’s heard so many times, it’s his own. The Shooting Star Champion continues to look around him, desperately trying to find the source of the voice, looking for someone to plead for answers… but there’s nobody there. Nobody at ringside. Nobody in the crowd. It’s just him and the tron.

Why do you act so scared? It’s like you’re hearing a ghost, but guess what, Jay… You are. I’m the ghost that you thought you’d kill. Sadly for you, I never did. You couldn’t do the job right, but what you did when I was gone was appalling. Downright disgusting. You manipulated so many into believing you were someone that you weren’t.

Maverick is frozen in fear within the ring. There’s an aura surrounding him as if he’s being held down by something, stuck in a paralysis, all he can do is watch the screen that is filled with the static of a lost signal to a television but that soon changes as the tron lights up to a shot of A Call To Arms and the journey that Maverick took to get there by himself, showing the fight he brought to Team Fuck Mongo that night.

Do you know how it feels knowing that someone who isn’t even the real you is doing the things that you wanted to do, doing the things you’d wish to do, doing the things you fucking dreamed of doing… I wasn’t the one who fixed my friendship with Bobby again. It was you. I wasn’t the one who stood with a sea of legends and stood by their side against the world. That’s all on you. I could have had those things but you took that away from me, didn’t you? Took yourself a girl. Made her yours and then manipulated her for months on end thinking that she’ll never get anywhere near the peak that I had.

The screen shows the couple in question. Maverick and his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Brookes, who he had took under his wing months ago.

That’s manipulation.
That’s gaslighting.

Maverick tries to shake his head but with his entire body frozen, he struggles to even do a simple thing.

You’re a sick bastard, you know that?

The screen shows Maverick, but not the one we see right now, the Maverick that won the XHF X*Crown Championship. The singular framed shot shows a teared up Jason Long as he kneels before his fallen friend after a gruelling contest in the Main Event of A Very AWF Christmas. That was the night where Maverick finally stood out in front of everyone, showing the world that he was a force to be reckoned with, he was a man who finally was out of the shadows.

The thing is that when you left that door open, you didn’t think there was an inkling of hope that I’d ever make it out alive now, did you? For what you have done in the many months that has passed on and by, the fact that you dare to call yourself a good guy is absolutely shocking to me. I’ll tell you why. You’re ruining the reputation I once had when I stood on top of the world as the face of the network. When I was the man that people finally began to see as the man who was doing what was right for this world but you never wanted that.

The screen then shows Maverick once again on top of the world with the Destiny Wrestling Heavyweight Championship, unmasking as the man who was El MaVerino this whole time… or so had everyone including himself thought of.

Champion Wrasslin’ had their season and I thought that I could get away with the disguise of being under a mask but then you decided to take that mask and made a mockery of it in Destiny Wrestling. Everyone thought you were injured with a neck injury but all you did was regenerate yourself and become stronger, that’s how you slain King Brad Swann at his peak, just hours before you slain Zoran Sainovic at Night of Champions. I would have loved to take the honor but then again, that never truly happened, did it?

The voice sighed. The screen went black and the lights shining down on the ring dimmed.

Kill the past.
Live for the future.

The voice would then scoff at those words.

Those were your words, man. Those were the words you tried to use as motivation. See, when you meant that, you weren’t trying to give motivation, you were telling people something. You attempted to kill your past and dump the body from where you came from. You have been living in my own life and looking towards the future where you would corrupt this world like you did to your own. The problem was the same as I had done to you, what goes through doesn’t come out the same as it did before. That’s how you lived. That’s how I lived.

There’s a moment of silence. Maverick is being forced down to his knees by some unseen force as the tears in his eyes begin to fill up, at the point of bursting out in emotion, almost pleading like he’s taking his last breath.

Let me remind you of who I am, Jay.
XHF X*Crown Champion. XHF Tag Team Champion. AWF United States Champion.

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I am you.
You are not me.
We are not the same.
Say my fucking name, you asshole.

The screen then lights up, showing the denim jacket, the fingers crossed and the old school 3D shades. It was a look that a past Maverick would have worn casually.

Say… my fucking… name.
Or are you too afraid to admit the truth to yourself?

Maverick is gasping for air, he can’t help himself any longer.

So weak… and I thought you were the man who survived an entire World War... even saved the damn thing.

All of a sudden, the unseen force releases it’s grip on Maverick as he falls flat down to the ring, finally able to grab the air he wasn’t being able to have. Maverick lifts his head up and watches the tron show Maverick holding the Shooting Star Championship he had just won last week.

All I want is my life back. All I want is my everlasting life back from the hands of an intergalactic war criminal on the run and using my whole realm, my whole universe as a hide out for your sake. What I will do is make you hand over my life back, what I won’t do is hand you back to the men and women looking for you after you massacred so many of their families and loved ones in your own home universe. I won’t do that at all. I couldn’t.

The screen then glitches.

But what I will do is what I should have done a long time ago--

The screen then becomes distorted.

--kill you and dump your body in a river.

Again, the screen goes black.

No longer will you haunt people for being the sick malevolent bastard of a man and then tell people you’re a good man with good intentions, no longer will you ruin the reputation I had once built from my own blood, sweat and fucking tears. No longer will you do the things I should be doing and making myself look like a fucking fool when you fail at your own claims.

Another sigh comes from the voice.

I wanted to be the Key to the Network.
You wanted to kick the fucking door in and wreak havoc.

The sound of footsteps are heard coming fron the darkness, Maverick scrambles back from where the sound is coming from, he’s not even sure where is where anymore or what is even around him.

I want you to know one thing, Jay. I have come back here, to Japan, to end all of this with one simple match. That is if you accept the terms, of course, since you are the self-proclaimed King of Professional Wrestling after all. I want one match with you where we risk it all, we put our bodies through hell, we stop this fucking madness and we answer the question of who truly is the real Maverick all this time?

Maverick looks absolutely shocked. The light then reflects to the figure the voice belonged to, himself, but much younger than the one currently known to everyone. The younger Maverick gives off a signature devious smirk to his face as he slowly makes his way to the ring steps, walking up and onto the ring apron as he faces The King himself.

The match is simple.
Inferno Casket Deathmatch.

The tron lights up once again, showing that younger Maverick during the build up to 2018 A Very AWF Christmas with a burning casket floating out in the ocean.

I want to make sure that whoever walks out of that match will walk out with no feeling of fear that there is someone else living their life and ruining it with their own antics. I want to make sure that whoever is the loser of that match will never ever be seen around here or any other realm again. I make a promise on this statement. Someone will fucking die on that night. Someone will burn to ash, their skin melting as they lay to rest in that casket and burn alive under the smouldering heat being produced.

The younger Maverick would laugh at the thought of what he’s imaging in his head right now.

I just want you to pay for what you have done to me. I waited ten long fucking months for this moment, and I will wait four long weeks until I get my hands on you again, and when I do get my hands on you… I will rip your skin apart and make sure that every bit of pain becomes my pleasure.

The younger Prince would then enter the ring and stare down The King in his face, slowly taking steps up towards him until they are nose to nose with one another.

Think of those words you use as motivation. “Kill the past and live for the future”, but the thing was… I was always the future, you were the past that I could never fucking escape from. So, the question remains, Jay. Are you prepared for a match like this? Are you ready for this to happen? Do you accept the match?

Jay would nod, shakenly but he agrees, which the Prince would smile from ear to ear with the approval.

Then it is settled. In four weeks, at JROK’s Raison D’etre show.
“The King of Professional Wrestling” Maverick versus “The Iconic Prince” Maverick.

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Inferno Casket Deathmatch.

Jay is frightened, but he relaxes as the younger Maverick falls back and gives The King his space.

You see, Jay, we are not living in a race against the realms anymore, we’re racing to see who is the better man and who will be able to walk out with their lives still intact. I know I will bring my everything. I know you will bring your everything. Neither of us will hold back on anything. We’re going to kill one another all for the sake of claiming this universe’s own Maverick. Their own Jason Long. But you have to remember that this isn’t your universe, this was mine and will be mine, and you will pay for your actions because your actions have consequences.

The Prince laughs once more.

I want you to be prepared for what’s to come.
It will be your last.

A click of his fingers and everything succumbs to the darkness. The lights within the arena then come back to life, and the fans are continuing their celebrations, it was as if nothing ever happened. Like it was a daydream. Maverick continues to look around him but there’s no trace of the younger version of himself, none that the naked eye could see, which leads him to stumble back and trip over the trophy in the middle of the ring. Everyone watches Maverick fall, and with great concern, he looks absolutely petrified. With that, Maverick grabs the trophy and begins to leave the ring, heading up the ramp and to the back as finally, Episode Seven of JROK’s Saturday Jam Session finally comes to an end with a fade to black.

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