Post by Rowan MacDonnough on Jul 4, 2017 4:32:01 GMT
Rowan’s laughter echoes through the darkness, soft at first, but growing steadily more maniacal.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better match… Kathleen Conway.”
Lights come up on Rowan sitting in a stone throne, scorched black and laden with ash. She lounges in it, seeming comfortable in the blackness around her, glaring into the camera with a mocking gaze. “This is how it’s been from the beginning, though, hasn’t it? I’ve been sparring with you through pawns and proxies, even if nobody else could see. I knew. From the moment I made demands of you, threatened your authority, I know that I was declaring war on the heights of power within the Diamonds Division itself. Titles… championships… they are not the greatest prize here, though the women under your so-called control will scrape, claw and bleed to attain them. In the end, they are all puppets dancing to your strings.”
Rowan holds up a playing card; a Queen of Diamonds. “You are the greatest prize. The finest catch. The ultimate prey. From that moment when I first defied you, I turned myself into something you could not possibly ignore, nor tolerate – a creature unto myself. I would not let myself submit to you – choosing to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and to whomever I pleased. You would answer, booking me in matches that I found distasteful – punishing me, perhaps, for the insolence that I spat in your face. But I would not yield. I would not stop. I kept finding ways to defy you with every step… goading you into this very moment.”
She laughs again. “And the finest part is that you think this battle was your idea. Humans are all alike – so desperately craving domination that they throw themselves into the grips of whatever will give them the comforting embrace of control, even if they have to deceive themselves into thinking it was their idea all along. Lambs to the slaughter.”
She leans forward, leering into the camera as it pans back, revealing a brazier of fire at the foot of the throne. Smoke and sparks rise from it, wrapping around Rowan’s face and arms like an incendiary shroud. “Control… authority… it is painful, isn’t it Kathleen? The more you hold onto it, the hotter it gets… and you can feel the Diamonds Division beginning to burn. You felt the shift within the company after Night of the Immortals, just as I did… a fire spreads through our heart, consuming all that it touches – and the longer you hold onto it, the more agony you inflict upon yourself. It began to burn as embers before Night of the Immortals, but now? Now that dark elemental power turns that which you hoped to cling to into a raging inferno in your hands… slipping out of your ability to contain or command. It is rising, Conway. That power in the shadows. It is rising, and coming straight for you and everything you hold dear… and for as long as you quail and shield yourself from the burns, you will never be able to withstand it.”
The fire from the brazier intensifies, rising around Rowan and licking up her arms, chest, and to her throat. “That’s the difference between you and me, Kathleen Conway. While you flinch from the burns, I embrace them. That is why, no matter how hard you struggle to lace me in chains… you will never, CAN never, control me. NOBODY can.”
The doors to the compound swung open, hard. Two figures strode through the open passage, walking with brazen confidence through the crowds of Rowan’s followers who watched the intruders silently as they passed. Even though they were woefully outnumbered, the two of them walked as lions through the wolf pack – aware that lesser creatures would be in dire danger here, but certain that they would be entirely unharmed even if the crowd did turn violent. As they walked through the large, shadowed room, the two golden eyes of the Wolf of the Abyss watched them unblinking. Rowan was hunched over her brazier, arms half buried in the blazing embers. The fire singed her clothing and the smoke blackened her flesh, but she did not react to either as she observed the arrival of Xavier Cross and Jason Sandman to her court. Her followers gave them wide berth, save Dean Harper who remained close to Rowan’s side – wary of the two men before him, but certain that he was on the right side of things should this discussion turn sour.
After a few moments of tense silence, Xavier was the first to speak. “I’m not used to being made to travel to these. Usually people come to me.”
Rowan tilted her head to the side. “And yet you came regardless. A display of how much you want whatever it is you desire of me.”
Xavier’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he nodded once. “Your upcoming match with the head of the Diamonds Division was too important an opportunity to ignore. The problems I seek to purge in the IWF may not be as strong there as it is in the world of Spike Kane, but it would be remiss of me to leave the kingdom only half conquered.”
Rowan inclined her head very slightly. “You want my help.”
Xavier smirked. “I’m offering you a place in the Council. My agent to reshape the Diamonds Division to my will, burning it down and building a better world from the ashes. A world where ability is more important than –“
Rowan waved her still-smoldering hand dismissively, cutting him off. “I have heard your rhetoric.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed now, his lip curling into a snarl. For a moment he looked about to charge, but Xavier ceased it with a glance. The Usurper turned his attention back to Rowan, eyes sharpening into a glare. However, he kept his tone momentarily restrained. “Don’t interrupt me again.”
Rowan did not acknowledge the veiled threat, instead piercing Cross with a matching glare of her own. “You look smart enough to have at least done some amount of research. You should know enough about me to glean that building a better world is… not on my agenda. So what is it, then, that you think you have to offer me?”
“Nothing less than the Diamonds Championship, pried from Pandora Freeman’s grasping fingers.”
The words hung in the air for a few moments, and silence gripped the compound. For a few long moments, everything was completely still… until a ripple of sound rose from the crowd around them. They were… laughing. Dean Harper’s face broke into a wide, cruelly amused grin while Rowan’s eyes flashed with golden light. Jason Sandman took a step back, tilting his head to the side as he looked in Rowan’s eyes with uncertainty.
Eventually the laughter died down, and Rowan leaned back. “Is that it?”
Xavier scoffed. “That’s all you say after I offer you the highest trophy in the Diamonds Division?”
“What good is a trophy, Xavier Cross?” Rowan hissed. “Do I strike you as a woman interested in accessories? What does a belt provide that I cannot already accomplish? Does it give me the ability to inflict more pain? Does it give me the chance to offer more sacrifices to the Abyss, cast upon a bloody altar like Patricia Powers? No. Championships are little more than shiny, distracting trinkets that the IWF uses to keep us dancing on their strings… and were you in charge, I suspect you would do the exact same.”
Xavier growled, becoming more visibly angry. “So what? What do you fucking want, then?”
Rowan leaned forward. “Suffering. Suffering of the flesh, and suffering of the soul – an endless chorus of mournful and agonized screams from now until Revelation.”
Jason leaned close to Xavier. “Cross…”
Xavier didn’t seem to hear him. “Then you’ll have that. Help me bring the Diamonds Division crashing down, start with Conway, then together we can –“
“-Build a better world?” Rowan interjected again. “This does not interest me, Xavier Cross. Whatever ambitions you have once you seize the throne are entirely beneath my notice. Verona… Cross… when Night falls, it does not matter whose bones adorn the summit of what was – all that will matter is the Dark, and the denizens who find home within its embrace.”
Xavier had had enough, and stepped sharply forward with a snarl of fury contorting his face… but Jason Sandman shot an arm across his chest, blocking his advance.
“That bitch ain’t human, Xavier.”
For the first time since the two men had arrived, Rowan laughed.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Sandman?”
Jason’s eyes hardened, and he turned to Xavier – but when he spoke, it was with another voice. “There is nothing human left in that vessel, and we have walked into that where mortals shall not tread. You should not be here.”
The fire rose from the brazier at Rowan’s feet, and the Wolf of the Abyss stepped forward and stood in its coals. “You should listen to your friend. He is more perceptive than most. "
“There’s nothing here for us, Xavier,” Jason continued, once again speaking with his own voice, looking at Rowan not with fear, but with understanding. “We should leave.”
Xavier turned back to the woman in the flame. “A king doesn’t retreat.”
Rowan laughed again. “A fearless façade, Cross, but I see your fears written on your heart.” Her eyes flashed again, cruelty in her eyes. “However… you show more… initiative… than the others. I will give you this much. You may do as you will with the IWF and the Diamonds Division. You will continue your road to conquest, and I… will not interfere. I will even destroy Conway, though this was already the plan, to ease your efforts among the Diamonds. I will not stand in your way to claim your sought-for crown… but when Night falls, I would suggest you not stand in mine, or those who walk with me.”
It wasn’t much… but it was all that Xavier would get. “Fine. But whatever you’re planning, it had better not fuck with what I’m building, or I swear to god there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Yeah, that ain’t a threat to her...” Jason whispered as he and Xavier walked out of the compound, Rowan’s followers slowly closing around them as they left. Through the walk, Jason’s eyes never left the Wolf of the Abyss, his face unreadable, until the doors slammed shut behind them.
Rowan’s eyes flash with cruel anticipation. “You are a creature of many contradictions, Conway. The wild rebel with a criminal justice degree – one who would not be controlled herself while in the same breath working to impose control upon others. A woman of unbridled ambition, charging headlong through her life with little heed for the consequences of your actions… the story of your eldest daughter’s birth foremost among such unconsidered consequences. Tell me, Kathleen… does she know that she is a bastard, born of lies and betrayal? It is said that all children eventually return to their roots… what will she become, I wonder?”
She chuckles. “Such behavior will lead to your downfall, Kathleen. You will learn tonight when you drift to slumber that I know full well the depths of your darkest fears… and when we step into the ring I will exploit them. You should have paid more attention to me in the ring, oh Queen of Diamonds – you know the trauma inflicted upon the heads of those who challenge me. You have already suffered one traumatic head injury before… what will happen to you when it happens again? Will it be only time in the ring that you will lose? Or will you face a more painful cost, as can so oft happen when the head and neck are brutalized? Will you lose the ability to walk, as Eileen Callaghan did? Or will the toll be one of lost memories from a bruised mind… The name of your husband, perhaps? Those of your children?”
Her eyes flash again, and she spreads her arms wide in invitation, flesh still caressed by the fire. “But no threat of loss will dissuade you. You have challenged me, and in your ambition to prove yourself the stronger you will drive headlong into yet another deeply costly mistake. So come, then, Conway. Walk with me into the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil as you stride wearing the mantle of leadership. Charge into the trap that I have laid for you, that I have been waiting so very long for you to spring. Come to witness the beginning of the end, as I turn you into the very first sacrifice to be offered at the altar of the coming Night. There I will revel in the opportunity to push you to the edge of madness, reducing body and spirit to mere splinters… before leaving you, shattered, to be hauled limply back to your throne. Only then shall you see the final nail driven into the coffin of your failed ambition… as you are forced to watch helplessly from your high tower as everything you have built is consumed by the Abyss and the Inferno.”
She tilts her head and leans close into the camera. “You should have retired while you had the chance, but now little Solitaire and Domino will have to watch their mother burn to cinders. Perhaps I will visit them, once I am done with you, to help them work through their grief… just as I once did.”
She leans back again and the video fades to black, the sound of Rowan’s heartless laughter lingering for a few moments after only darkness remains.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better match… Kathleen Conway.”
Lights come up on Rowan sitting in a stone throne, scorched black and laden with ash. She lounges in it, seeming comfortable in the blackness around her, glaring into the camera with a mocking gaze. “This is how it’s been from the beginning, though, hasn’t it? I’ve been sparring with you through pawns and proxies, even if nobody else could see. I knew. From the moment I made demands of you, threatened your authority, I know that I was declaring war on the heights of power within the Diamonds Division itself. Titles… championships… they are not the greatest prize here, though the women under your so-called control will scrape, claw and bleed to attain them. In the end, they are all puppets dancing to your strings.”
Rowan holds up a playing card; a Queen of Diamonds. “You are the greatest prize. The finest catch. The ultimate prey. From that moment when I first defied you, I turned myself into something you could not possibly ignore, nor tolerate – a creature unto myself. I would not let myself submit to you – choosing to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and to whomever I pleased. You would answer, booking me in matches that I found distasteful – punishing me, perhaps, for the insolence that I spat in your face. But I would not yield. I would not stop. I kept finding ways to defy you with every step… goading you into this very moment.”
She laughs again. “And the finest part is that you think this battle was your idea. Humans are all alike – so desperately craving domination that they throw themselves into the grips of whatever will give them the comforting embrace of control, even if they have to deceive themselves into thinking it was their idea all along. Lambs to the slaughter.”
She leans forward, leering into the camera as it pans back, revealing a brazier of fire at the foot of the throne. Smoke and sparks rise from it, wrapping around Rowan’s face and arms like an incendiary shroud. “Control… authority… it is painful, isn’t it Kathleen? The more you hold onto it, the hotter it gets… and you can feel the Diamonds Division beginning to burn. You felt the shift within the company after Night of the Immortals, just as I did… a fire spreads through our heart, consuming all that it touches – and the longer you hold onto it, the more agony you inflict upon yourself. It began to burn as embers before Night of the Immortals, but now? Now that dark elemental power turns that which you hoped to cling to into a raging inferno in your hands… slipping out of your ability to contain or command. It is rising, Conway. That power in the shadows. It is rising, and coming straight for you and everything you hold dear… and for as long as you quail and shield yourself from the burns, you will never be able to withstand it.”
The fire from the brazier intensifies, rising around Rowan and licking up her arms, chest, and to her throat. “That’s the difference between you and me, Kathleen Conway. While you flinch from the burns, I embrace them. That is why, no matter how hard you struggle to lace me in chains… you will never, CAN never, control me. NOBODY can.”
The doors to the compound swung open, hard. Two figures strode through the open passage, walking with brazen confidence through the crowds of Rowan’s followers who watched the intruders silently as they passed. Even though they were woefully outnumbered, the two of them walked as lions through the wolf pack – aware that lesser creatures would be in dire danger here, but certain that they would be entirely unharmed even if the crowd did turn violent. As they walked through the large, shadowed room, the two golden eyes of the Wolf of the Abyss watched them unblinking. Rowan was hunched over her brazier, arms half buried in the blazing embers. The fire singed her clothing and the smoke blackened her flesh, but she did not react to either as she observed the arrival of Xavier Cross and Jason Sandman to her court. Her followers gave them wide berth, save Dean Harper who remained close to Rowan’s side – wary of the two men before him, but certain that he was on the right side of things should this discussion turn sour.
After a few moments of tense silence, Xavier was the first to speak. “I’m not used to being made to travel to these. Usually people come to me.”
Rowan tilted her head to the side. “And yet you came regardless. A display of how much you want whatever it is you desire of me.”
Xavier’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he nodded once. “Your upcoming match with the head of the Diamonds Division was too important an opportunity to ignore. The problems I seek to purge in the IWF may not be as strong there as it is in the world of Spike Kane, but it would be remiss of me to leave the kingdom only half conquered.”
Rowan inclined her head very slightly. “You want my help.”
Xavier smirked. “I’m offering you a place in the Council. My agent to reshape the Diamonds Division to my will, burning it down and building a better world from the ashes. A world where ability is more important than –“
Rowan waved her still-smoldering hand dismissively, cutting him off. “I have heard your rhetoric.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed now, his lip curling into a snarl. For a moment he looked about to charge, but Xavier ceased it with a glance. The Usurper turned his attention back to Rowan, eyes sharpening into a glare. However, he kept his tone momentarily restrained. “Don’t interrupt me again.”
Rowan did not acknowledge the veiled threat, instead piercing Cross with a matching glare of her own. “You look smart enough to have at least done some amount of research. You should know enough about me to glean that building a better world is… not on my agenda. So what is it, then, that you think you have to offer me?”
“Nothing less than the Diamonds Championship, pried from Pandora Freeman’s grasping fingers.”
The words hung in the air for a few moments, and silence gripped the compound. For a few long moments, everything was completely still… until a ripple of sound rose from the crowd around them. They were… laughing. Dean Harper’s face broke into a wide, cruelly amused grin while Rowan’s eyes flashed with golden light. Jason Sandman took a step back, tilting his head to the side as he looked in Rowan’s eyes with uncertainty.
Eventually the laughter died down, and Rowan leaned back. “Is that it?”
Xavier scoffed. “That’s all you say after I offer you the highest trophy in the Diamonds Division?”
“What good is a trophy, Xavier Cross?” Rowan hissed. “Do I strike you as a woman interested in accessories? What does a belt provide that I cannot already accomplish? Does it give me the ability to inflict more pain? Does it give me the chance to offer more sacrifices to the Abyss, cast upon a bloody altar like Patricia Powers? No. Championships are little more than shiny, distracting trinkets that the IWF uses to keep us dancing on their strings… and were you in charge, I suspect you would do the exact same.”
Xavier growled, becoming more visibly angry. “So what? What do you fucking want, then?”
Rowan leaned forward. “Suffering. Suffering of the flesh, and suffering of the soul – an endless chorus of mournful and agonized screams from now until Revelation.”
Jason leaned close to Xavier. “Cross…”
Xavier didn’t seem to hear him. “Then you’ll have that. Help me bring the Diamonds Division crashing down, start with Conway, then together we can –“
“-Build a better world?” Rowan interjected again. “This does not interest me, Xavier Cross. Whatever ambitions you have once you seize the throne are entirely beneath my notice. Verona… Cross… when Night falls, it does not matter whose bones adorn the summit of what was – all that will matter is the Dark, and the denizens who find home within its embrace.”
Xavier had had enough, and stepped sharply forward with a snarl of fury contorting his face… but Jason Sandman shot an arm across his chest, blocking his advance.
“That bitch ain’t human, Xavier.”
For the first time since the two men had arrived, Rowan laughed.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Sandman?”
Jason’s eyes hardened, and he turned to Xavier – but when he spoke, it was with another voice. “There is nothing human left in that vessel, and we have walked into that where mortals shall not tread. You should not be here.”
The fire rose from the brazier at Rowan’s feet, and the Wolf of the Abyss stepped forward and stood in its coals. “You should listen to your friend. He is more perceptive than most. "
“There’s nothing here for us, Xavier,” Jason continued, once again speaking with his own voice, looking at Rowan not with fear, but with understanding. “We should leave.”
Xavier turned back to the woman in the flame. “A king doesn’t retreat.”
Rowan laughed again. “A fearless façade, Cross, but I see your fears written on your heart.” Her eyes flashed again, cruelty in her eyes. “However… you show more… initiative… than the others. I will give you this much. You may do as you will with the IWF and the Diamonds Division. You will continue your road to conquest, and I… will not interfere. I will even destroy Conway, though this was already the plan, to ease your efforts among the Diamonds. I will not stand in your way to claim your sought-for crown… but when Night falls, I would suggest you not stand in mine, or those who walk with me.”
It wasn’t much… but it was all that Xavier would get. “Fine. But whatever you’re planning, it had better not fuck with what I’m building, or I swear to god there’ll be hell to pay.”
“Yeah, that ain’t a threat to her...” Jason whispered as he and Xavier walked out of the compound, Rowan’s followers slowly closing around them as they left. Through the walk, Jason’s eyes never left the Wolf of the Abyss, his face unreadable, until the doors slammed shut behind them.
Rowan’s eyes flash with cruel anticipation. “You are a creature of many contradictions, Conway. The wild rebel with a criminal justice degree – one who would not be controlled herself while in the same breath working to impose control upon others. A woman of unbridled ambition, charging headlong through her life with little heed for the consequences of your actions… the story of your eldest daughter’s birth foremost among such unconsidered consequences. Tell me, Kathleen… does she know that she is a bastard, born of lies and betrayal? It is said that all children eventually return to their roots… what will she become, I wonder?”
She chuckles. “Such behavior will lead to your downfall, Kathleen. You will learn tonight when you drift to slumber that I know full well the depths of your darkest fears… and when we step into the ring I will exploit them. You should have paid more attention to me in the ring, oh Queen of Diamonds – you know the trauma inflicted upon the heads of those who challenge me. You have already suffered one traumatic head injury before… what will happen to you when it happens again? Will it be only time in the ring that you will lose? Or will you face a more painful cost, as can so oft happen when the head and neck are brutalized? Will you lose the ability to walk, as Eileen Callaghan did? Or will the toll be one of lost memories from a bruised mind… The name of your husband, perhaps? Those of your children?”
Her eyes flash again, and she spreads her arms wide in invitation, flesh still caressed by the fire. “But no threat of loss will dissuade you. You have challenged me, and in your ambition to prove yourself the stronger you will drive headlong into yet another deeply costly mistake. So come, then, Conway. Walk with me into the valley of the shadow of death, fearing no evil as you stride wearing the mantle of leadership. Charge into the trap that I have laid for you, that I have been waiting so very long for you to spring. Come to witness the beginning of the end, as I turn you into the very first sacrifice to be offered at the altar of the coming Night. There I will revel in the opportunity to push you to the edge of madness, reducing body and spirit to mere splinters… before leaving you, shattered, to be hauled limply back to your throne. Only then shall you see the final nail driven into the coffin of your failed ambition… as you are forced to watch helplessly from your high tower as everything you have built is consumed by the Abyss and the Inferno.”
She tilts her head and leans close into the camera. “You should have retired while you had the chance, but now little Solitaire and Domino will have to watch their mother burn to cinders. Perhaps I will visit them, once I am done with you, to help them work through their grief… just as I once did.”
She leans back again and the video fades to black, the sound of Rowan’s heartless laughter lingering for a few moments after only darkness remains.
Well howdy there pardner.