The Way It Is

[Ryan Blade]

{Open up on an exterior shot of Ryan Blade's childhood home. A medium gust of wind hits the wind chimes hanging from the roof of the front porch, causing them to jingle a disjointed tune as the chimes smack together against a beam. These fall days are getting colder and colder as the wind chills your bones. Inside we find Ryan sitting at the kitchen table next to his mother who is now wearing a black wig that looks like her regular hair. As we zoom in, we see the mother and son are leafing through a photo album filled with pictures of the family over the years.}

Mom: "Aw. The pictures from our trip to Disney World. You probably don't remember much from that trip. You hadn't even started school yet."

Ryan Blade: "Of course I remember it! I talked about that trip all through Kindergarten. Meeting Mickey Mouse made me the coolest kid in Mrs. Berg's entire class."

Mom: "Haha. You were so afraid of him until Chase went up first and showed you that it was okay."

Ryan Blade: "Yeah... I don't remember any of that."

{Okay... maybe Ryan always did kind of look up to his brother when they were kids. Chase was only a little more than a year older, but he was always the more curious and outgoing when they were boys. They may not seem eye-to-eye now, but there was a time when you couldn't seperate the two of them. They loved that Disney trip, but more than anything, they loved that they got to go somewhere with their mom.}

Mom: "You boys had such a good time on that trip. That was the last big trip we took as a family. I wish could have went on more together."

Ryan Blade: "We knew how much you had to scrape together and save just to afford that Disney trip. We didn't need a bunch of vacations because we knew how much that one meant."

Mom: "It's just... looking over these pictures and seeing all these memories... I get sad. You boys are all grown now and we never got to do much when you were kids."

Ryan Blade: "There's still a lot of time for new memories, mom. We've got all the time in the world."

Mom: "I hope so. I really do."

Ryan Blade: "Hey.... You're beating this cancer. You're whipping this cancer's butt, mom. Don't talk like that."

{Blade's mother raises her cup to sip her tea and calm her nerves. As she goes to sit the cup back though, her weakened chemotherapy induced state causes her arm to shake and she drops the cup of coffee down on the kitchen table. The cup shatters and hot tea splashes onto the photo album as Blade's mother lets out a startled yelp. The young Man of Steel Champion jumps from his seat and springs into action.}

Ryan Blade: "It's alright. I've got it, mom."

{Ryan quickly grabs a towel from the counter and wipes up the tea spill, moving the photo album out of the way to keep it from getting further damaged from the spill. He picks the broken china cup up into the towel and drops it in the trash as he mom sits, looking dejected. The young star looks over and sees him mother about to burst into tears and he crouches down and gives her a hug around the side.}

Ryan Blade: "It's cool. Seriously, it's cool. Just a slip from your hand. It could happen to anybody."

Mom: "I'm so weak right now that I can't even hold a tea cup."

Ryan Blade: "Bullcrap. You're the strongest person I know."

{That's the truth. Through it all, Ryan's mother has remained as strong as ever. She raised two kids on a single income with minimal help from anybody. In Ryan's eyes, she's the a superhero. Even now at her weakest, Blade knows she's stronger than he'll ever be. Courage isn't learned, and heart isn't acquired.

The young star breaks the hug and remembers the photo album had been splashed with the tea. He grabs it from the table and looks at the page stained with the drink. He pulls the photos out of the sleeve and starts to flap them in the air, trying to dry them off.}

Mom: "Oh god. I didn't ruin our Disney trip pictures did I? I'll never forgive myself."

Ryan Blade: "They'll be fine, mom. Maybe a little crinkled up, but they'll be fine."

{Blade lays the pictures down on the table to dry out and then looks over at his mom.}

Mom: "I think maybe I should go lay down for a little while."

Ryan Blade: "That's probably a good idea. You need all the rest you can get so you can keep on fighting."

{The woman struggles to push herself up to her feet, but her son places his arm around her and helps her to her feet. The young champion helps his weakened mother walk to her room and into her bed so she can rest.}

Mom: "Thank you son."

Ryan Blade: "Anything for you, mom."

{The Man of Steel stands in the room for a moment before heading back out and into the hallway. He falls back against the wall and sighs to himself. Who ever knew it would be this hard?

Twenty shouldn't be so hard.

Ryan walks back to the kitchen and looks down at the album, pulling the pictures out from the back side of the wet page. As he pulls a photo of himself as a baby laying in his crib, he notices that the picture has been folded on one end. When he unfolds the right end of the picture, he sees his father standing over his crib, smiling down at baby Ryan.}

Ryan Blade: "What the...?"

{The sight of his father stuns the champion. His eyes widen and he stands, speachless, in the center of the kitchen.}

_________________________________________________________________

"Things aren't always as simple as black and white. It's something you'll all learn soon enough, kids. Just like all of you guys, I once thought the world was all unicorns and kitten posters, and that even though the clouds were overhead, a ray of sun would still peak through. It's not hard to be optimistic... hell, it's the easiest thing in the world to expect the best.

It's also the idiots guide to living.

Because when you hit a certain point in your life, you realize that everything sucks. You realize that in this life you've got some people that are always going to be there for you. A parent... a friend... a sibling.... a girlfriend or boyfriend that are going to stick with you through the toughest times. You've got a few that are going to raise you up, and everyone else is going to try and knock you back down.

And that's what's been happening for me ever since day one in Imperial. I've been rising. Week by week my stock has been going higher and higher into the stratosphere that only some people ever reach.

Stratosphere. See, I read sometimes.

Just when it looked like there was nothing that could bring me back to Earth, they told me that I needed a mentor. They told me that somebody needed to show me the ropes... to help me navigate my way through the murky waters of professional wrestling.

They told me Xavier Cross was the key to my success.

Bitch! I'm already the most successful guy here!

See... I went too far too fast, and they wanted to 'help' me by saddling me up with a veteran. Cross was ready and willing to... always there to tell me what I was doing wrong or how I could have handled a situation better. My mentor was there in my ear, telling me all the ways I could be more like him.

A champion is a champion, Cross.

I don't know why it took managment, fans, and even the Heavyweight Champion himself so long to see that I don't do things the way they're 'supposed' to be done. I do things my way. And how has my way worked out so far? Oh, I've only had a belt longer than anybody else.

Damn, what am I doing wrong?

But that's not why you tried to mentor me, is it Xavier? Sure from the outside your intentions look good, but inside, you were only trying to slow down the freight train. You were trying to keep me under your thumb because you know that sooner or later, I'm going to be moving to the top of the cards and I'll be leaving you in the dust. Before you know it, Ryan Blade is going to be the star of the show, and Xavier Cross is still going to be where he is now. Where he's always been.

Pretty good.

Maybe great.

Not great enough.

You saw something in me that scared you. The fire in my eyes... the undying self-confidence... and you wanted to control that. You and everyone else from the old guard wanted to put the reins on this stallion and pull him back into the barn before he strayed too far from the barn... from the status quo. Everyone wants to help build the next big star, but only until that star outshines them. And that's what this relationship was, wasn't it, Cross? It was you trying to knock the shine off my star.

I couldn't let that happen.

So I struck first. I ripped off the reins and I told the world that nobody can control this stallion, and nobody holds back the Man of Steel.

You'd have a better shot telling the sun not to rise in the morning.

It's not personal. I don't hate you, Xavier. Not even close to it. Hell, you may even be a nice guy, but everyone knows that this isn't the life for nice guys. Maybe you had good intentions and maybe you didn't, but the one thing that's for sure is that this business is a 'me-first' business. Even you'd have to admit that you have to look out for number one first; And Ryan being the star of the show? That's not good for Xavier Cross.

I took you out before you could do the same to me.

Because we both know it was going to happen. Today, tomorrow, or a month from now, you were going to see the truth, and the truth was going to be too much to handle...

...Ryan Blade is better than Xavier Cross today, and I'll be even better tomorrow.

You wanted me in your shadow, but now? You get to live in mine.

That's the way it is, and that's the way it should be."