PARADIGM SHIFT XXX // BLOOD FOR CHRISTMAS (HALLELUJAH)
ALL I’VE EVER LEARNED FROM LOVE WAS HOW TO SHOOT SOMEBODY WHO OUTDREW YA. AND IT’S NOT A CRY THAT YOU HEAR AT NIGHT, IT’S NOT SOMEBODY WHO’S SEEN THE LIGHT. IT’S A COLD AND IT’S A BROKEN HALLELUJAH.
PENTATONIX .
••••••
The move had been easy – as it should have been, considering the sheer force of manpower in the amassed army that Dickie had beneath his hands. Based on their previous conversation, they decided that Colorado was the best option for both of them; and so, they chose a home on the outskirts of the Front Range, just as the hills rolled more fluidly and the mountains rose up beyond them.
The quiet of the mountains was different than the city, and it was a welcome insight for the both of them. Here, they could think about their careers. They could think about where they were going, what they were doing. There wasn’t the constant bustle of the world, they could reflect on their lives and their hopes and dreams and careers.
Finn could think about his upcoming match with Eddie Lyons. He could consider the cost that laid in front of him, consider the ways that the world worked around him, how he ended up in this moment. Eddie was a good wrestler, this was for certain, but he was confident enough in his own skills that he didn’t think he would end up on the losing side in this match. Not before Christmas. Not before this whole year was over. He’d earned this spot, and he wasn’t about to destroy it.
But Finn also had his own issues as well, continuing with his Yakuza versus Romani war. He was hopeful that the move would put a damper on the whole Kayla trying to find Jace thing, and that it would keep the Romani from seeking them out constantly. If there was just one way to mitigate the entire situation, he was hopeful that this was it. It wouldn’t behove Jace to come search for them in the middle of the country. He couldn’t just pick up his entire compound and move that quickly.
Or so he thought, anyway. If they showed up, at least Colorado had a more liberal use of guns and Make My Day laws. They could protect themselves easier. Especially now that they weren’t located in the middle of a city.
A spacious home, with spacious land. Trees laid across the land, interspersing the golden plains that a poet described in America, the Beautiful, and a large structure built at the top of the hill. The opulence, at least from the outside, was definitely Kayla’s choosing. The rest, though, was modern, what Finn enjoyed, updated with the nicest smart appliances to make the home especially technological. And most importantly to Finn…multiple places for people.
And now?
Now people were flooding it in a way neither were particularly pleased about.
Kallisto Reznikski-Reynolds was at fault for this particularly awful Saturday Christmas party that Finn and Kayla hadn’t had one iota of understanding about it. They were just told to dress nice and be downstairs at five o’clock on the dot. So they did, because it was very difficult to argue with Kallisto when she had her mind set.
“I didn’t think she knew this many people,” he muttered to Kayla as they stood at the balcony overlooking the living area with the vaulted ceilings in the open floor plan that both of them appreciated. He recognized several Wolfslair members floating, discussing, laughing. Sierra Williams, her husband Lachlan Kane; Alex and Sonja Jones; even Austin James Mercer was brooding around the corner with Alicia Lukas nearby.
“I hate it.” She murmured back. “Can we kick them all out?”
Finn smirked, pressed his hand to the back of her elbow briefly as he walked behind her and leaned into whisper in her ear, “Make sure you smile.”
“I don’t smile!” Kayla snarled through gritted teeth as Finn walked down the steps. He simply smiled and shook his head, knowing she’d walk down in her dress eventually and then run twenty minutes back upstairs. He headed to the kitchen island and grabbed a glass of what he assumed with spiced cider. He winced at the burning taste of alcohol in his throat and shook his head lightly, attempting to stifle the initial taste.
“Nice house,” Alex commented, raising a glass as Finn walked up, adjusting his sleeve tacks of his black shirt. Kallie was going to kill him for looking like he was in a funeral, but this was still his house. All with its wooden, rustic and modern glory.
“Thanks,” Finn chuckled.
“It’ll be a shame not to see you brooding about in the Wolfslair facility.”
He nodded, rolling his eyes slightly. “You’ve been trying to get me out of there since I got in.”
“True.” Alex smirked a bit, looking around at the partygoers. “Although, I have thought about the proposal you gave me. It would be nice to have a facility here in the Midwest. Do you think there’s a market for it?”
“I’m sure there is.”
“And it’d be nice to have a high altitude gym for us to utilize.”
“Yeah, I agree, It was definitely a huge part of my training, working here with–”
“Little ol’ me.”
Alex and Finn turned their heads, and both had to look down at the light-blue haired woman that stood next to them both. She held a glass of whiskey in her hand as she swirled it in front of her and batted her eyelashes softly, sweetly – manipulatively. Aaron Asphyxia was not someone Finn wanted to have a conversation with, but nevertheless, when Alex snickered and walked away, he was forced.
“You didn’t return my phone call.”
“I would assume you knew that meant I didn’t want to have a conversation with you,” Finn replied.
“Look,” Aaron turned, standing next to Finn and looking out on the crowd with him. “I know that I may have completely screwed up, but I realized I need to fix it. And I don’t know exactly how I’m going to do so, but I will. I figured I could do so by getting you information about Keevee’s little recruits.”
“I don’t need it.”
“You don’t?” Aaron snorted. “Is this your pride coming out? That little bit of you that just refuses to accept help from the woman who cheated on you? Come on, you wouldn’t be that petty.”
Finn turned his head and narrowed his eyes, keeping his voice low as he didn’t want people looking over and wondering why two people were yelling at each other at a Christmas party. “Petty? This isn’t twenty-fifteen, and you’re not my little guiding light anymore on my shoulder giving me all the pep talks in the world. You don’t think I see what you’re doing here? Slinking in and giving me support in the guise trying to manipulate everything around me. I don’t need you.”
“You needed me when it came to getting that kid from the Romani.”
“No, I needed your father.” Finn corrected. “But you’ve just been a part of this world for longer that I figured you would–”
“Oh, so you used me.”
“You wanted to be,” he countered, his face contorting angrily. “You’ve been begging at my doorstep for months since Kei’s death to be a part of everything involved with the Yakuza. The second I called you to meet me so we could figure out the issue with Jace, you’ve been salivating at the bit like one of Pavlov’s dogs. You wanted this.”
“I wanted to be around you,” she hissed, crossing her arms.
Finn’s nose flared and he grabbed Aaron by the bicep, dragging her to the hallway behind the kitchen that was a quite a bit less crowded. “No. This is not happening again. I am with Kayla. I am happy with Kayla. I have zero interest in you, and you know this.”
“Callien–”
“Fuck no. I walked away. We had a divorce. And it’s been stable for years. You do not get to come in here and try to fuck it up because you’re feeling guilty about everything and you want to try again. I do not want to. I have no desire to, and you’re not going to come to my household and try to fix what you demolished that I don’t even want.”
Aaron defiantly looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. “If I hadn’t tried to get into your mind, you wouldn’t be with Kayla either. I’m responsible for all of it. And if I hadn’t done that, she’d still be only a thought and she wouldn’t be standing out there with her big ol’ boobs and her shitty disposition that screams that she never had a good father growing up.”
“You have no right coming into our home–”
“She’s using you, you idiot.” She growled. “You can’t see that? She found out about all your connections and that’s the only reason she’s with you. If you look at her track record, she always ends up with people who are far better off than her and she leeches off–”
“Get out.” Finn snarled.
“Finn!”
“GET OUT!” He screamed, probably loud enough for the rest of the party to hear. Aaron stared at him for a moment, before turning on her Louboutins stalking out of the hallway. Finn exhaled out of his nose and grit his teeth so hard he could feel them grinding beneath his lips.
He pressed a hand to the hallway wall, and exhaled slowly, looking down at the floor with annoyance in his features. When he looked up, a new person had joined him. Kayla. Standing there in her dress that showed off her cleavage but also her tattoos. She looked at him with a concerned expression.
He sighed. “Aaron.”
“What’d she want?”
“To cause drama. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me,” she laughed, stepping forward and pressing her hand to his shoulder. “Might need to apologize to Kallie, but that’s a regular occurrence. Look…” she glanced around to see if there was anyone with them in the hallway, and when there wasn’t, she raised a hand to his jaw and held his cheek in her hand. “Forget what the little blue haired bitch said – look at what we have now. We’re happy, we have a new home far away from the Romani…we don’t have to worry about anything. Just our jobs. Just our championships.”
He nodded, still trying to exhale slowly enough to calm his heart.
“You’re going to kick Eddie Lyon’s ass and we’re going to go into the new year as dual champions. As we should be. I’m proud of us.” She pressed her hands to his shoulders. “I’m proud of you. Twenty-twenty-four was our year. So will twenty-twenty-five.”
••••••
I’ve been here before. Every month or so, it’s the same thing. I have someone telling me that my time is done. That I’m ignorant, that I’m a failure at what I do and that it’s just a moment more until I’ve got nothing left. That someone is going to take from me what everyone has tried to take from me up until this point. Do you know how tiring that gets? Hearing the same thing over and over again and listening to the same bullshit repeated in a different way?
No one is new. No one says anything different. It’s always that I’m incapable of seeing myself as anything but an alpha, or that I believe myself to be something other than my own beliefs. I’ve told you all time and time again that my own belief in myself isn’t a misplaced, delusional thought, that it’s something I believe because I know in my own abilities. Yet, it’s still thrown in my face that I’m incapable of seeing anything other than my own meteoric rise, like I know there is only one option.
There are always options. Always days where someone could rise above me and take everything I have. Always opportunities that someone could utilize coming out of the gate, and I know that. So I have to adjust, I have to become something different every time that–that someone thinks they’ve gotten some bug up their ass thinking that they’ve finally figured me out, that they’ve solved the magic equation to taking me down, to removing me from the pedestal that I’ve seemingly placed myself on.
Except I didn’t place myself anywhere. I didn’t just walk in and take a spot, like some kind of thief in the night. I walked in and fought for every bit of life I have in this company. I was told that Kayla and I would never claim the Mixed Tag Team Championships, look what we did, even when we didn’t want to. I didn’t want the Heavyweight Championship, but when I was placed into that tournament for it, I did what I did because I don’t let opportunities slip away from me.
I look at every match, whether I want it or not, as an opportunity to continue a legacy that very, very few above me have the ability. In fact, you look at everyone who has ever held this championship and you will see one person who has done better than I. And that man is a fuckin’ dickhead, but a legend in this company.
One.
We can talk about multiple reigns holding that championship, but it’s been three hundred days for me in a single reign alone, and everyone thinks that they can topple me. That the monolith will crumble and fall just because they think it will happen.
But I am tired, Sin City. I am tired of sitting here and listening to every person that comes up against me that refuses to give me the respect that I’m due, that I’ve earned. No, I’ve had Peter Vaughn coming in from a left-angle, trying to catch me by surprise. I’ve had friendships burned because they thought they had to fell a god. I’ve defeated self-flagellating men who thought they were a god twice to maintain this. I’ve felled once prominent men in this very company, once golden men.
But I am just simply the asshole who thinks he’s a god, that thinks he’s better than he is, that doesn’t understand that he’s really nothing.
I’ve heard it all before. It’s boring, it’s ostentatious, it’s the same thing over and over. It’s ridiculous. People approach this like it’s felling some demon who doesn’t deserve their spot in this company.
I deserve every bit of it.
I’ve fought hard to maintain this, I’ve fought for this. And I am tired of getting up here and acting like I didn’t deserve it. I have been a World Heavyweight Champion in this company for over three hundred days in a single reign and all I get is a bunch of bullshit from everyone that comes up against me, thinking I’m worthless and nothing.
When does it end?
When do I get the flowers I deserve?
…
…..
But wait.
See, I could sit here and bitch about this. It’s what a lot of people end up doing, if you look at the rest of the industry. Cry about not being seen, make false claims about being favorites in this business so they stroke their own egos, whine about not getting whatever they think they should have. I could absolutely bitch about it constantly, but come on, when the hell did I ever simply do just that?
I don’t bitch.
I don’t whine.
I make things happen, I push for everything in my life, and I take what I’m given with a vehement desire to do more than I ever have. This is what separates me from everyone else, what separates me from even my own pack. I live for this fight, and I have never needed anyone to peptalk me to do something better than what I have done. I don’t need a coach telling me what I do to get ahead of the game, I don’t look to my training facility to give me pats on the back and help. I don’t seek Kayla’s approval either, because I don’t need it to do my damn job.
I am the World Heavyweight Champion of mine and my own volition. I am the man that this company throws miscreant beings who think they’ve godsent at to try and push them afar.
I’ve earned my flowers. And I will take every little bit of the respect I am owed.
Tell me, Eddie.
Do you understand what that’s like?
••••••
Snow coated the ground outside, which was common in the area more than the Denver proper. There were footsteps – quite a few of them – heading into the forests outside of the house. It was not a place that many of the party goers were likely to head to, so it was strange that anyone was down there to begin with.
Which meant the fact that Finn was walking down the hill after getting a phone call was a strange occurrence…and a strange occurrence wasn’t anything that anyone wanted since the move from New York City.
Standing down at the bottom of the hill stood his younger brother, arms crossed as he waited for Finn to arrive. He didn’t wear a jacket, which was fine with him, but the Australian that stood next to him was bouncing up and down in a pair of snow boots, shorts, and an enormous puffed jacket and was still trying to warm up regardless.
“What is it that you couldn’t tell me on the phone?” Finn questioned.
“It’s…well…” Dickie muttered, looking at Finn, and then back into the forest. “I don’t think the move has really stopped any part of this, to be honest.”
“What is it?” The repetition was sharp, and he seemed to be more alert.
“It’s fuckin’ cold, mate, can we just get to the point.” Aiden muttered, hobbling down the hill while his teeth chattered.
Dickie rolled his eyes, turned, and began trekking back into the forest. Finn followed, placing his own feet into the footprints that dotted the snow. He was thankful for the fact that this area would be void of footprints by midday tomorrow – the snow never stuck around that long. And he was grateful….at least, until he saw darkened spots in the snow. Little pieces, like a trail of blood dripping from someone as they stumbled into the forest.
And that’s what it was. A body, face down, in the snow laid just feet from them in a small clearing of trees. Finn shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned. He couldn’t tell if it was one of their own men or someone else’s, but the thought remained the same regardless.
They hadn’t waited. The Romani.
The clothing was hand stitched, which indicated to Finn that it wasn’t one of Dickie’s men. He didn’t touch the body, didn’t say anything either – at least, not initially. Instead, he peered at the body as it lay on the ground, and then looked at Dickie.
“How long?”
“Reported to me about half an hour ago. Someone searching the property, they shot him on sight. I don’t know if it’s the Romani or anything, but I mean…” Dickie shrugged, “we could probably figure that out quickly.”
“How’d they figure it out so quickly?” Aiden asked, bopping up and down to keep his heat up.
“They must be tracking our movements…and if we’re getting this ballsy already, that means that we need to keep this from Kayla as much as we can. No mention of this in front of her, otherwise, she may do the same thing as before. My primary goal is keeping her–”
“And us!” Aiden interjected.
“Everyone,” Finn emphasized, “safe. Figure out this one, get rid of it, and then let me know when it’s done. We can figure out everything else later. I can’t be doing this right now. I have a match coming up that’s pretty critical for the end of the year, and if I step back now and let this affect what’s going on in my career, the world may possibly end. I need you,” he looked at Dickie, “to handle this.”
“Well yeah,” Dickie said, slowly, looking at his brother with an eyebrow raised. “This is my job, after all. I’m the de facto leader.”
“Yes. You are.” Finn nodded. Aiden looked between the two of them, narrowing his own eyes and looking semi-confused. He didn’t say anything, but what he was absolutely thinking was that this whole Yakuza thing was heavily carried by Finn and Dickie appeared to simply be a figurehead.
Unless…
Unless that’s really just what both of them planned and they’d all been the fools. Finn clearly led everything, and Dickie often looked for support from him before he made any moves. And if that was the case…was this really Dickie versus Jace, or was it Finn?
And how far would Finn go if Jace invaded everything that he held dear to himself.
He was about to ask that when Finn turned on his heel and began heading back up to the house without a word. He looked at Dickie, who was texting quickly on a second cell phone. “Mate, do you think we should tell Kayla anyway? I’d want to know if some crazy, psycho ex-lover of mine was constantly trying to get into my pants and kept trespassing on my property.”
Dickie looked at him, shook his head, and then shoved his cell in his pocket. “You really want to get in between the two of them? I’d rather die, thank you very much. In fact, I’m pretty sure we will if we do get ourselves involved. Let’s not and save our souls, bruh.”
••••••
I know you like to push your own narrative, Eddie. I listened to a lot of your previous promotional videos and found this same common theme. You’re inferred that you’re a warrior, but the least of everyone to be thought of as one. Or perhaps, that’s what I’ve seen. In your fight for the battle royal, that you won, the one thing that I recognized in all of it was your own perceived ineptitude.
A lot of people think that by sitting and arguing that everyone else doesn’t see you for what you are, that you’ve gained an opportunity to prove that. And maybe you did, what with that battle royal. And what was your major argument in all of that?
That’s right. Your magnum opus.
You pinned me.
Congratulations. You pinned me in the one night that I didn’t show up like I always do. You pinned me on the night that I wasn’t at my best, the night that I wasn’t here in my head, that I wasn’t me. And that is something most people also understand. Your one saving grace is that you pinned me and you scream it from the heavens every night you’re in the league like that one little thing is the only piece in the equation that matters. Everything matters, Eddie. Just because you think it’s your time does not mean that it is. Just because you got to this point doesn’t mean that you’re foregone to become the champion just because you think it’s written in the stars.
I get it. I get the pressure to be something. I get the expectation. It sits on your chest and it pushes in and makes you feel like you’re fucking worthless, that you’re not carrying on a mantle the correct way. But you? You care about your mantle. You care about preserving some legacy that has been dead for twenty fucking years. Twenty years since IWF and no one has ever heard the goddamn name Lyons again until you and your little cousins all came into this field.
All this tells me is that you haven’t learned who the legacy is for.
You’re still wearing a mantle of people who could give zero fucks less about you. And maybe that’s my own negative persona sitting in the organ between my ears, Eddie, but I cannot even begin to tell you how much that I despise people who come in screaming family legacy. It’s a burden, and one you so willingly sit on and use as a crutch to push yourself. Tell me, if you weren’t a Lyons, then what the fuck would you be doing this for?
And that is the difference between you and me – or at the very least, one of the biggest differences between you and me. I fight for me, not some familial tie. I don’t fight to continue my trainer’s legacy – and if we’re being perfectly honest, Aaron Asphyxia can go fuck herself right off into oblivion like she fucked a trainee and ruined our relationship, and if I ever hear you mention her again when you’re facing me? You’ll earn the knee in the face that you’ll receive when you’re begging me for mercy upon your soul.
It’s funny to me that you also sat there and told me that you and your cousin don’t get along and that you didn’t see eye to eye, but then again…you’re part of her Queensguard…which sounds like some foos-ro-dah bullshit, and let me tell you how much video game allusions bore the fuck out of me.
But what was it else that you told me? That you wouldn’t take anything from us, and that you were my kryptonite?
Do you know how many people have proclaimed that over the years, and yet still I stand, rising above. Fighting above, doing what everyone else thinks I’m incapable of doing.
You’re just another cricket in the slough, Eddie. And that’s why I picked on you in PWE, because you were an easy fucking target. I should sit here and say that you’ve changed, that you’ve pushed yourself, that you’ve become a man and a hell of a champion, but you never defended your tag team championships and if I remember correctly…you lost your Roulette championship to Aiden.
Yes, the Aiden that lives in my home and sounds like he’s lost a few brain cells over the course of his lifetime. Yes, the one that is my teammate.
But let’s be honest in that one too, because you won it when it was just another vacation of a championship that led you to be the best of a field of men who weren’t anything to write home about. And you think that you, what, made history with that move? That it made you anything more than a rookie trying to pave his way in the world? Because that’s what you are, at the end of the day, kid. You’re still a rookie. You’re still fighting in wars that you don’t even know the cost of.
I told you it was a preview of what was to come. I put you out of your misery in that match and you couldn’t save your little cousin, so we won our championships back. And you couldn’t even sit there and face me like a man without having little ol’ Vicky come up from behind and attack me.
Is that all you people know how to do? Attack people? Come at people from behind and blindside them because you think that’s going to get you over? Without realizing how much that actually pisses people off? Because it was fine. It was dandy, until that moment. You signed your death sentence in that moment, I hope you know, and you can thank Vicky for forging your signature.
I do not give two shits about the legacy that you want to create. I do not give two shits about the Lyons name, and I don’t even give a singular shit about your motives. You and I are not the same, Eddie. The more I come to think about it, there are no pieces that tie us together except one little thread to IWF. And I don’t give a fuck about IWF, or anything involved in it. I don’t live in the past and I don’t care about it. I move forward in this world, this time.
You pinned me one night. And it will never be again. So take your shots. Come at me with everything you have, because in Arizona, at this Christmas show…the only gift you will receive from me is the cold, hard truth that you’re not prepared for this, and that gold will still be in my hands going into twenty-twenty-five. It’ll be hard to swallow. It’ll be hard to manage. But it will be hard fought, and you will be proud of your own loss. Because I know you can stand up to me, that’s for certain.
But you can’t beat me. I won’t let you beat me.
I’m holding J2H to his words from way back when – I plan to be champion into the next year so that he can face me and know that I’m just behind him in everything. And when I sit at the precipice of this company next year, everyone will know that Finn Whelan is a monster that may be defeated once, but never broken. You may think that I have everything to lose, Eddie.
But in reality, I still have everything to gain.
And if you win? If you’re so skilled in this that you have the ultimate ability to finally put me to rest? Know I’ll be right back in the world fo
I’ll see you soon, kid.
I hope this was worth it to you.
