Last Son

[Ghost Spike]

People have always questioned my motives, from day one they’ve always wondered what makes me tick. Why does Spike Kane do the things that he does? Why does he hurt the people that he hurts? Why, of all people, would he go after poor Tristan? What did the legendary Nighthawk ever do to Spike Kane? I mean he never posed any kind of threat to me. Despite his status, despite people figuratively blowing him left right, and center, Hawk never came close to being on my level….so why did I walk into his school and decimate everyone he cares about?

Because he got involved in my business.

As if there wasn’t already a track record of what I did to people who did that already, huh? The likes of Ryan Shane, Falcon, Johnny….Fuck Boy. Andrew Jacobsen, Devlin Raine…..I could go on, hell, I could go back twenty years if you wanted me to. For a man who claims to be so smart, you’re really fucking dumb Tristan. When Warren came to you, you should have known what you were stepping -I’m sorry, wheeling your way into. This is no ordinary fight, this is no ordinary blood feud…..this is beyond personal, this isn’t some little family spat that will tide over and we’ll have some family BBQ and a few beers and all will be forgiven.

This is a Kane Feud.

You’ve talked about my brother in the past, apparently you and Brad were a bit chummie back in the day. Lord knows you have to know how much of a dick he was, but you got that son of a bitch in a wrestling ring? He was transformed! He became something else, and it runs in the family. Brad knew what it took to put me down….he drilled a fucking train spike through my hand….and that was only temporary. Do you think Warren has what it takes Tristan? Do you think in his state of mind he’ll stop at the train spike? Do you think in his fragile state he’ll know when the match is over? Do you really think this is all about the championship for him?

Do you even think any of you ever mattered in all of this?

Because none of you did.

Not a single one of you.

I ascended to another level. I became the God of Steel, and I reigned over you all, while you all moaned, bitched, and complained, I simply smirked, held my gold aloft, and showed the world how a real champion held himself….and crushed you all beneath my boot.

Warren will not be any different.

I guess this day was always going to come. One way or another. The seeds were sown so long ago, I just never knew if you were man enough, if you had it inside you to actually stand up to me, to pull yourself out of your self involved bullshit to stand up for anything. Everything I’ve done Warren, whether you believe me or not…..siding with Rob, plotting with Roberto, even faking cancer….beating you down to a bloody pulp and leaving you lying there in the middle of the ring….every single thing I’ve done…

Was for your own good.

I can hear your cries of bullshit, and I know you won’t believe me, and to be honest….I don’t care if you want to or not - I’m past that now. You laid your hands on me, and I’m far too proud to let that slide, I’ll be the first to admit that. In my eyes? You’re a grown ass man, and you’re in need of an ass whooping. You see Warren….I’ve been in this game for a long time, a very long….way too long time. I’ve seen what this business does to people, especially well meaning, kind hearted people like you. Hell, look at Johnny Fuck Boy and what has happened to him in such a short span of time. He came in here preaching about “livin’ the dream” or following it, or whatever….and now he’s running around spouting the most hateful shit you could ever hear and threatening to beat up women…..even I don’t say things as hurtful and spiteful as that. Oh, I’ll beat the living shit out of you…..because it’s my job, and I’m the best there is….but that’s a different story. This business warps you, it infects you…...it takes everything that is good about you, and twists it up and turns it all against you.

Don’t believe me?

Ask the boy scout Andrew Jacobsen how fucking clean his ledger is.

Matter of fact why don’t you try asking Bobby Pooler how much he’s strayed over to the “dark side” during his time in the ring? You’ve already seen the effects it’s had on the likes of Rob, on Verona, on people like Jake Conway, hell….I’ve left more evidence than anyone would ever need to see. Perhaps there’s an exception to the rule with your precious Nighthawk….but who knows what the fuck he got up to in Pretentious Wankers Anonymous….

And we all know he won’t be walking anytime soon.

Let alone wrestling.

So, whether you accept it or not Warren….I was trying to do you a favour. I was trying to save you….from all of this. Yet here you are, right back at it, meaning I failed Warren….a word I’m not used to hearing, a word that pisses me off, because I don’t fail….I never fail. I triumph, I succeed, I DOMINATE! You made me into a failure the moment you stepped back into a wrestling ring Warren, and I’ll never forgive you for that. I don’t give a flying fuck what your reasons are, how noble you believe they are….because deep down inside? You know that they’re just petty, they’re just appealing to your base emotions….and when it comes to what the real motivations are?

You’re just like your old man.

~~~

{We open back on Spike’s school, where we previously saw a pretty heated exchange between Pandora Freeman and Spike Kane. Pan had left Spike in the middle of the ring, two thoughts left echoing in his mind…}

“What about me”

“You’re lucky I love you or I’d kick your ass”

{Pandora wasn’t happy with his actions, Spike had targeted Tristan, attacked him in his own and brutally beaten him, but she’d let him off lightly, and in the process really broken through to him. In his mind, the Man of Steel Championship had truly been the only thing he had left, he had been completely blind to the bond that had grown between himself and Pandora, he had been completely oblivious to her feelings for him, and perhaps his own for her….because when she uttered those words, he felt that punch to his gut. He knew that he shared them, he knew he felt the same, and he knew it was why he let her in…..he just couldn’t bring himself to tell her, and he knew why.}

“Letting her in, has already brought her into the middle of this shitstorm….”

{He left her to work, he left her with her thoughts and himself with his own while he prepared and played things over in his mind. It was only a few hours later when she came back to find him, that she saw him sitting with his back towards her, sitting on the other side of the ring, on the apron. She hesitated as she saw him leaning forward, his shoulders seem sulked.}

Pandora Freeman: ...listen, Spike….I-

{She was cut off by the sound of a guitar strumming, once to test the key, and then again as Spike began to strum a song. Pandora tilted her head, confused and intrigued, as she slowly began to walk around the side of the ring, before Spike began belting out a song.}

Spike Kane: No one knows what it’s like….to be the bad man….to be the sad man…..behind blue eyes.

{Pandora’s eyes grow wide as she hears Spike singing and playing, she raises a hand to her chest absolutely stunned and still quite confused.}

Spike Kane: and no one knows what it’s like to be hated, to be fated, to telling only lies. But my dreeeeaaams they are….just empty...as my conscience seems….to be. I have hoooouuurrsss, only lonely….my love is vengeance, that’s never free.

{Pandora walks in front of Spike now, who makes eye contact with her, as he strums on his acoustic guitar, bearing his soul to her.}

Spike Kane: No one knows what it’s like...to feel these feelings….and I blame you! ….no one bites back as hard, on their anger...none of my pain and woe, can show through.

{Spike is in full blown eyes closed singing at the top of his voice mode and Pandora is almost tearing up as he sings the chorus}

Spike Kane: No one knows what it’s like to be mistreated, to be defeated...behind blue eyes…..and no one knows how to say, that they’re sorry….and don’t worry, I’m not telling lies. But my dreeeaaams, they are just empty….as my conscience seems….to be. I have hooourrs, only lonely…...my love is vengeance…..that’s never free. …….no one knows what it’s like to be the bad man…...to be the sad man……...behind blue eyes….

{As he finishes he looks Pandora right in the eyes, with a sort of mix between sadness and happiness in his eyes, she moves right up to him and kisses him deeply, her hands on the sides of his face. He places his on her back, the guitar strap taking the weight of the guitar.}

Pandora Freeman: I had no idea you could play...or sing...I...I..

Spike Kane: A long time ago...in my more...rebellious, believe it or not, days….listen, Pandora. I don’t know if you meant to say what you did, but you did say it, and I wanted to show you in my own way, that I feel the same way. I love you Pandora Freeman, and you make me a better person, I hope you know that….with you in my life? All will be well.

{Spike smiles at her, and leans to the side, letting her see that he’d left the Man of Steel Championship in the ring where she had placed it. The two look into each others eyes for a long time, before we fade.

~~~

Who would have thought a few years ago a phone call from Milo Holland would have led to this? Who would have thought that this random little kid he thought had “it” would turn out to be my long lost boy? It’s funny, because from the day you found out you’ve had this resentment building inside of you. You hated me for me leaving you in this life you had to live…..blamed me for the asshole in your life, who beat you, who beat your mom…...like none of us have had to go through that shit….but the truth of it all, is I didn’t even know, and you? You’re so fucking ignorant to the truth. You’re mom? You’re dear sweet, innocent, pure mom? She wasn’t the woman you think she was…...you’ve seen them Warren, you’ve seen them hanging around after the shows, trying to get you to hang out with them, trying to score some free drinks, or some autographs, or maybe….just maybe, get you into their beds…

Your mother was a slut.

All over me like I was a prime piece of meat and she hadn’t eaten in weeks, baring in mind….I was barely legel to say the least. Just made it in the business, just signed my big contract to head to the United States, I was soaring high, celebrating with my friends….sure, why wouldn’t I want to hang around with some RING RATS, and do what the lesser wrestlers did, and just get my end away. What did I care? I was leaving anyway, right? Little did I know, that bitch lied through her teeth about birth control, and a wee little Kane was brewing inside there, and nearly twenty years later he just happens to be this “wonder kid” old Milo was telling me about. It’s funny, it really is….because it isn’t the first time some stupid bitch kept a kid of mine hidden from me….

It isn’t the first time I’ve been blamed for being an absent father to a kid I never even knew existed.

You blame me for the man you’ve become Warren, you blame me for your temper, for your rage, for those tendencies inside of you….but I didn’t raise you, I didn’t teach you wrong from right….hell kid, I never had the chance. I was never even given the choice, but you’d rather paint me as the bad guy than give me that chance - so I gave you your out, I gave you your bad guy, gave you the chance to go running back home to Mommy…..but you knew, you knew deep down inside, that I was right. Anne never cared about you, all she cared about was which dick she could jump on next, which hit she could score next….that’s why she never stopped that asshole from hitting you, that’s why she never told you who your real Dad was….hell, that’s why she tried to stop you from watching wrestling in the first place. Man, if only she knew, if only she knew, that in this family? The more you tell someone not to do something? The more likely they are to do it…..

Which brings me to why you are here Warren….

You fancy yourself some kind of hero, some kind of saviour to IWF? How did that work out for you last time? How did it work out when Rob twisted that knife and showed you that there just aren’t any heroes in this business? That people with those ideals? They just don’t last, they just cannot get it done…..they don’t have what it takes. It takes a bigger man, a stronger man, a darker man to do what it takes, to do what is necessary to be the best in this business. You’ve told the world that you were a fan of mine before you even got into this game Warren, you told the world that you saw the things I did, and you knew that I did what was needed…..that I did the things nobody else was prepared to do. Yet now you’re here, things have changed, your perception has changed, and you would rather have people cheering your name and saying “That Warren is a good guy, he does what is right” than have any kind of legacy….and that, that Warren?

It makes me sick.

It brought about an epiphany of sorts.

You see, while I’ve spent two decades carving a brutal, bloody legacy in my name….I was so happy to be able to hand that over to you, even though I never wanted any of my kids in this business in the first place - once you got here? I saw you had what it took - I knew you could do it. After watching you go through what you did with Judas Alliah? I knew you had that darkness inside of you, I knew you could go to that place that only I could go to…..but you threw it all away, you tossed it aside to lump in with the likes of Andrew Jacobsen….instead of heeding the call that Verona threw out there, you decided to fight against it - instead of becoming the greatest Invictus Champion the company had seen, you wasted your chance…..because it was the “right thing to do” ….and now look at you, you’re a nobody, you’re nothing….and I realised Warren….

You’re not my son.

You want to take my title away from me Warren, do you understand what that means? Have you seen what I’ve done to people who have tried before you? ….they haven’t done anything else. They hadn’t crossed me before hands…..you boy? You’ve got a laundry list of grievances, and now? Now it’s time for daddy to collect. You made the wrong choice Warren, you chose the wrong path.

Now it’s time for me to teach you what being a Kane really means.