History Lesson

[THE Mac Bry v2]

BLACK.2.1.20.

- Location: Nowhere, Oklahoma... Time: 10:22pm... Date: October 31, 1985 -

When Reeve Gordon was a young boy, his favorite holiday was Halloween. He liked the fact that he could dress up as anything he wanted to, and not be stared at, because everyone else was doing the same thing. He could allow his imagination to soar, and for one day, become someone else... One Halloween, when Reeve was eight years old, he had just finished trick-or-treating, and returned to his home in Nowhere, Oklahoma... when he saw his father, Frank, arguing with his mother, Beth. He had always heard them arguing when he was asleep, but this was the first time he'd ever seen it for himself. He heard his mom ask his dad why she saw him with their son's babysitter. Reeve asked his father, "Did you have fun playing with her daddy? We always have fun together." Beth looked at her husband... angered look on her face. "YEAH, did you have fun 'playing' with her?!", and became so upset he slapped her across the face. She had had enough. She told Reeve that she had to go, but one day, she'd come back for him. Reeve's dad was left with him, but he never took care of him. The babysitter would always come over, and her and Frank would leave Reeve all alone. All he had was the tv... His life centered around wrestling, a company called "XAW", and his favorite wrestler, Javex Valerius. At school, at the age of 14, he felt himself falling in love with a girl by the name of Alexis. He didn't have the courage to tell her though.

After eight years of being with his dad, and at the age of 16, Reeve finally decided he'd had enough of being neglected in favor of his "babysitter". He packed his bags, and headed for the location that XAW held most of its shows, St. Louis. He wanted to get into the business, and he wanted to prove to himself that he wasn't what his dad had always told him he was... that he wasn't worthless. He finally made it there, and got into their traning school. He worked hard for three years, and at the age of 19, they called him in for a try-out match. That's when he met his childhood hero, "The Deite's Dragon", Javex Valerius. Javex saw so match talent in the kid, that he told the owner to make his first match against him. Through TV, Reeve's childhood crush, Alexis, saw Reeve, and came to the arena that night. She had a confession for Reeve... She had a crush on HIM when they were kids. Reeve lost to JVX, but after the show Alexis met with Reeve, and told him. Reeve told her he'd always felt the same about her, so they got together. Though Reeve lost the try-out match, Reeve felt as though he'd won something far more important. Reeve and Alexis were together for two years.

Reeve continued to get better in the ring, but he wasn't able to spend so much time with Alexis. One day, when he was 21, he came home from a match for the developmental program, and found Alexis in bed with Reeve's best friend, Bass Monsoon. Reeve took it extremely harsh... Alexis smiled at Reeve, as she lay next to Bass, in Reeve's bed, in Reeve's house... She looked him square in the eye, and told him, "You've never satisfied me, Reeve. Not like your 'friend', Bass, can... and did. Not once, not twice, but THREE times. Reeve... you are, were, and always WILL be a failure. And as far as our relationship is concerned? I hope I never even have to SEE you again. I hate you Reeve... and I hope your career dies a miserable death." A single tear trickled down Reeve's cheek... as he left the house, without even once thinking about the fact that it was his. He no longer cared about the house, or his car, or his clothes, or any of his material objects.

All he cared about was revenge.

One night, Alexis and Bass had gone out for a film at the local movie theatre. Half-way through the show, Bass told Alexis that he was going to get a refill on their popcorn. They were the only two in the theatre... and with Bass gone, this left Alexisby herself. She felt a bit nervous, but knew in her mind she didn't have anything to worry about. Atleast... that's what she thought. The movie, a horror film filled with blood spraying, and guts flying, began to intensify... A young woman was cornered by a gruesome, hideous beast... As the vile thing came toward her with claws sharpened, and fangs glistening in the light... The movie screen suddenly cut out. And then... the lights returned. At first, Alexis was frightened, but she soon believed this to only be technical difficulties with the projector. Alexis sighed, and began to stand up to go find Bass, and perhaps get their money back... But as she stood, a pair of hands clamped down from behind, pressing down on her shoulders, and slamming her back into her chair. A rag washed in chloroform was held to her mouth... she struggled desperately, and tried to manage a scream, but nothing came... and her eyes slowly fluttered to a close.

Alexis was tied up and dragged to a secluded place in a forest, deep within St. Louis. As Alexis' eyes opened, she found herself sitting in a wooden chair, inside an old log cabin... Before her, she saw a man... face covered by paint, wearing a trenchcoat, and holding a black baseball bat in his right hand. The man asked her, "How does it feel to trick someone, Alexis? To trick someone into believing you feel so much for them... to fool them into loving you back... and then to rip out their heart? How does it feel Alexis? How does it feel to know that person cares so deeply for you... that they would do ANYTHING in the world for you... that when they work, when they bust their ass, they do it for YOU... But that in the end? The fact of the matter is you don't give a shit, and that you could care less if they were willing to drive a knife into their very own heart if it were at your command." He stood before her, holding the bat in his hands... He continued to speak, "Death comes for us all... and each of us must heed its beckoning. For our love... death came at your hands... at your calling. For you? Death will be in the hands of the very same person you made suffer... Alexis, your death will be in MY hands... and my big... black... bat." And with that, he took a swing... striking her clean in the side of the head. She fell into a coma, and eventually, police found her. She stayed in the coma for years, but the police never found out who did it.

A 22-year-old Reeve Gordon returned to XAW's training facility, to try and work his way up to the main stage. But this time, he had taken on a completely different attitude. He had taken on the moniker "The ShowMan, due to the location of where his attack on his ex-girlfriend Alexis first began... before leading to the vicous strike to Alexis' skull. He wore the black and white face paint, and the trenchcoat... and carried the black baseball bat. And he started stalking JVX. Everywhere Javex went, he knew someone was following him. Finally, one night Javex had gotten out of a convenience store, and Reeve met him. He told him that he had always loved Javex in the ring... that he had always wanted to be like him. He even told him that he had feelings for him. Javex laughed, right in Reeve's face. And the next night, right after Reeve had walked away with a victory in a dark match, Javex came out to the ring. He told the fans, from the center of the squared-circle, Reeve's revelation. The entire crowd laughed at Reeve, as he watched from a monitor backstage. Reeve came through the curtains, and stood on the ramp... grabbing a microphone. He told JVX that one day, he would return... and on that day? JVX, and the fans wouldn't be laughing. That he'd prove, once and for all, that he wasn't someone to be laughed at... to be made fun of. He left the arena, and XAW.

Reeve fled to the very same forest he had left Alexis' unconcious body. He started thinking about his life, and how everytime he was so close to feeling so great, that it was all taken out from under his feet. His dad had made his mom leave him... his girl had cheated on him with his best friend... and the hero of his childhood had made him into a laughinstock. He decided that he could either let it eat at him, and eat at him, until there was nothing left but a hollow shell... Or he could Believe. He could Believe that there WAS a light at the end of the tunnel, and that maybe, someway, somehow, he could turn it into a positive. He underwent a transformation. No longer did he allow the hatred to overcome him. No longer was he a victim to the darkness. No longer was he trapped in the closet... He opened up about his sexuality, and in fact, used it as his primary weapon against his opponents. Instead of using rage against them, he'd use physical mind games... And he'd always leave them... with a kiss. The Kiss of Death. A french kiss, so hard, and so strong that it forced them into submission. A mandible claw... with toungue. Reeve entered the XAW training camp once more, and this time, he passed.

Reeve entered the XAW's lead roster at the age of 24. JVX, now a legend in the company, thought it to be ridiculous that Reeve would return after being laughed right out of the building. Javex challeneged Reeve to a match... a triple cage match, with JVX's World Title on the line... and if JVX won? Then Reeve would leave the company, never to return. Reeve had improved drastically... and proved to be a good match for "The Deite's Dragon". They fought to the very top of the triple decker structure, but after a long and arduous fistfight, Javex pummeled raYne to his back. As Javex reached for the gold, raYne lifted his eyes from the steel mesh, and saw that JVX would soon defeat him... Reeve stood up, and rage began to surge through every facet of his being... He couldn't handle it anymore. He had had enough of always losing everything that meant so much to him... and of JVX continuoslly upstaging him... Reeve quickly grabbed Javex by the throat... Before tossing him from the top of the cage... all the way to the steel ramp below. Cracking JVX's vertebrate in seven places. The crowd was silenced... No laughing. No cheering. Not even booing. Only a stunned silence filled the arena.

Reeve grabbed the title... and in his very first official match with the company, became its top player. JVX's best friend, Vlad, took up for his closest compadre, and began feuding with Reeve, not only for the title, but for Javex's honor. After seeing him last time with Alexis, Reeve found his old best friend, Bass Monsoon, after a show, sitting on the hood of Reeve's car. Bass told Reeve he was sorry for what he'd done, and wanted to make it up to Reeve. If Reeve would forgive him, Bass would bring in a couple of friends from a competing promotion, named Keys and Mystic. Reeve accepted the proposition, and together, they formed the Industry. After taking several beatdowns from the Industry, Vlad got together his friends, Leary Garcia, Mangler, and Steven A. Kult, to form the Underground. This war lasted until Reeve was 26.

At that year's pinnacle event, Born Again, the Underground met the Industry, in an eight man, elimination tag main event, which came down to Reeve and Vlad. Reeve was one the verge of losing to Vlad, with "The Dhampir" cinching in his "Blood Moon Rising" sharpshooter. Suddenly, just as Reeve was about to tap, XAW newcomer Krystal Dawn ran down to the ring, and distracted the ref. Reeve tapped, but with the official distracted by "The Gothic Princess", Vlad soon ran out of patience. He released the hold, and shoved the ref... when from out of nowhere, Reeve rolled up Vlad from behind, and got the 3 count. As Krystal ran into the ring to celebrate with "The ShowMan", the ring was literred with garbage. It was revealed on XAW.com that Reeve and Krys had been going out behind the scenes for a few weeks, ever since the triple cage world title match against Javex. Asked about his sexuality, and what happened to him being gay, Reeve simply stated "When did I ever say I was gay?". It soon became apparent that Reeve, and raYne, were two completely seperate personalites... locked inside the same person. raYne, the colorful, flamboyant, and homosexual "Storm"... and Reeve, the depressed, gothic, but entirely straight, "ShowMan". Two men, one body. One in the same... but so different. Till his 29th birthday, Reeve and Krys made the most of the time they spent together, which was most of the time, as Reeve was able to keep his joyful self surpressed... constantly drenching himself in thoughts of death and darkness. Krys and Reeve became XAW's "Power Couple", and Reeve, having held the World Title for six whole years, was now the new face of XAW.

But on his 29th birthday, Reeve received a phone call... the voice on the other end sounded very familiar... a female voice... She spoke to Reeve... "Eight years, Reeve. Eight... long... years. You've left me unconcious for eight, fucking, years. And when I wake up, I get a call from your old pal... Bass. He let me know alot of things about you, Reeve. How you'd achieved everything you ever wanted. A world title... power, fame, money... A woman that can't seem to pull her lips from around your dick. That little bitch you're with might as well find another boy toy, Reevie. Because the one she has now? Is about to go into a deep, DEEP coma of his own. And this is one you won't wake up from." Reeve knew who it was. It was Alexis. Bass had come to XAW simply to become a mole for Alexis... and to let her know everything she needed to know to track him down. But when she made her way to St. Louis, the owner of XAW, Tony Stark, told her that Reeve had quit the day before, and didn't even bother to pick up his last check. On her way out, she saw Krystal Dawn... who was sobbing. Alexis asked her why she was crying, and Krys, not knowing who the woman was, thinking she was but a compassionate stranger, told her that Reeve never told her where he was going. Alexis hugged the poor girl, and leaned her head in close to the Gothic beauty's ear... whispering... "The same place you are, honey... straight to HELL." Immediately, Alexis slit Krystal's throat, but a cop nearby was able to catch her, handcuff her, and drag her to jail. Krystal bled to death on the way to the hospital. Alexis was sentenced to death.

At the age of 30, Reeve found out about the death of Alexis through a newspaper. The death seemingly lifted a weight off of his shoulders... almost as if the past he had lived was finally put to rest... and he could move on. He embraced his homosexuality once more, and this time, changed his name to 'raYne'. He found work with a company called AWE, a company living its second life. A second life just as raYne Believed he was living... raYne Believed that AWE would be the company that XAW never could be... and that it would prove to be a true home for him. That is... Until its second closing. His next match, prior to the closing, was to be for the company's prestigous 'Ironman' title. But once the doors were closed for a second time, he was left without a job... or a chance to start anew. raYne spun into yet another frenzy. For the fifth time, he had something he cared for taken from him... First, his mom. Then, Alexis. Then, his fantasy of being with Javex. Then, the only girl he believed had ever TRULY cared for him, in Krystal. And now, a shot at a new life... new hopes, new dreams... a life not filled with loss and broken promises. It was the fifth time in his life every single thing in his world had come crashing down upon him... raYne went on another quest to find himself... this time, back to his hometown of Nowhere, Oklahoma.

During the 22 years Reeve was away, his old babysitter had grown tired of Frank, finding him too old for her taste. After hearing the babysitter had left Frank, Beth Gordon ran back to her ex-husband as fast as her feet could take her. You see, since leaving Frank, Beth had lived a miserable life. Having nowhere to go, she lived out of her car, and the only work she could find was selling her drug-riddled body for small sums of money... and more drugs. But when she returned to Frank, she quickly discovered that nothing had changed. He still mistreated her. Any time she did even the slightest thing wrong, he would take the back of his hand to her... knocking her flat to the floor. And eventually, she grew very sick of this. As Frank and Beth lie in bed, Reeve's mother... bruises scattered about every inch of her body, black eyes... snuck out of the bed. But this time, she wouldn't simply leave Frank to himself, and leave for a life inside her small car. This time she decided to take his rifle from the mantle above the fireplace... And as he walked into the room, checking to make sure his wife hadn't left him for a second time, the last thing he saw was Beth, aiming the long, skinny barrel of his rifle straight at him... before she pulled the trigger, blowing his head clear of his neck. As Frank's corpse fell to the floor, Beth fell to her knees sobbing... Not because she had killed the husband she knew for years... For she no longer cared anything for him. After all the garbage she had been forced to endure, there wasn't an ounce of love for him left in her body. No... that wasn't the reason she cried. She cried for she knew that she was headed to prison... possibly headed for the chair. And that now, despite the promise she had made to him all those years before, she would never have a chance to see her son again...

- Location: Nowhere, Oklahoma... Time: 10:22pm... Date: October 31, 2007 -

The night of Halloween... All Hallow's Eve. Beth Gordon sat on the cot of her prison cell... The only thing she could think wasn't the fact she was about to have her last walk... but instead, it was of all the fun times her son had enjoyed on this very day... so, so long ago. Beth had her eyes focused on the dirty floor... her hands cuffed together... She hummed a tune to herself. "Hush, Little Baby"... the woman, perhaps 50, slowly lifted her eyes... And after a few moments, she finally realized she had been staring into the eyes of her son for nearly three minutes... without even knowing it. Beth quickly leaped to her feet, and ran to the bars... she lifted her cuffed hands up, managing to brush her fingertips gently against Reeve's cheek. One tear ran down Reeve's face... followed by another, and then another, until he was weeping... his eyes flooded with tears. He clenched the prison bars with his hands, leaning his head against his mother's palm. His face, covered by makeup... his fingernails, painted, his lips, glossed. He told his mother that he thought he may be gay... but she said it didn't matter to her. Nothing mattered but the fact that, for a handful of minutes, before her soul was judged eternally... for even the smallest amount of time, she would have the chance to be with her son... and to know that he's safe.

Reeve told his mother that he really didn't know who he was anymore... Gay, straight, bi... He didn't know if he was a dark goth, or someone flamboyant and full of life, and energy, and joy... He didn't know where to go. He didn't know what to do... He had been everywhere there was to go... he'd done everything he could think of, but no matter what he did, or where he went, Reeve had always been led down the path of heartache and dissapointment. He'd changed his name, and was on the cusp of getting his life straight... when the company he was in closed down. It seemed like he could never do anything right... that the world was against him... that we was destined to be a failure. At that point, Reeve's mom told him, without hesitation, something that changed him forever. A breakthrough in Reeve's life... something that truly revealed to Reeve who he was, and what his purpose was. Beth looked into Reeve's eyes... before ripping her hand away. Beth stared at Reeve... her son... with a blank look. She spoke, "Reeve... you sicken me. I thought you were a MAN." Reeve stared at his mother with a look of disbelief... not comprehending how she could change so suddenly... she continued. "It doesn't matter if you're gay, straight, bi, goth, or flamboyant, or whatever the HELL you want to be. If you can't be a man... if you can't grow a SACK, and start standing up for yourself? Then the Truth is... you're no better than that piece of shit father of yours. I'm glad I shot him, Reeve. I'm not sorry for it, and if I had the chance to do it again? I'd gladly take that opportunity with a smile on my face. Because if I could do it again, I'd know just how much of a fuckin' piss-ant, pussy, cry-baby, BASTARD you are. You weren't worth the tears I shed that night. And you're not worth all the hours I worried away, thinking about how I should have found you when I had the chance... should have told you I loved you. Reeve... I don't love you. And if I had the chance? If I had the chance, I'd shoot you too. I hope... I pray to GOD... that I get sent to heaven. Because I don't want to have to look at your pathetic face when you're burning in hell."

Reeve stared at his mother... still gripping the steel bars... He lowered his head... and looked to the ground. He spoke, without looking up... "Mother... there IS no hell." ... He lifted his head... and a darkness now stood in his eyes, replacing the sorrow that once belonged there. Reeve stared into his mom's eyes... into her soul. Reeve had a frown upon his face... but this frown soon curled... and transformed into a demonic grin. A smile so evil, so dripping with malice, that his mother began to tremble with fear. "There is no hell... and there is no heaven. When you fry in that chair, the only place you'll be headed is a box, six feet deep. You'll be a worm feast, mother. You'll be a worm feast..." Reeve's mother began to back away, as Reeve kept on... "There is no heaven above, no hell below, no god, no devil... but on this Earth? There IS a demon. A truly demonic, terrible, HORRIBLE spirit... And it goes by the name... of Legion." Reeve's mother's eyes began to widen... The guard came over to cell, and told Reeve he would have to allow for the man to take his mother. It was time for her to take the long walk... Reeve smiled, and stepped to the side. The smile on Reeve's face sent chills crawling along the guard's sides... As the guard escorted Beth out, and just as she was about to leave, she turned an eye to her son... who said but one sentence.

"We Are Legion... For We Are Many."

Reeve had finally taken all the loss he could stand. Everyone he'd ever cared about had turned their back on him... and three months after his mother's death, he found out about the third coming of the company that had closed before he had a chance to reach that light that he had so desperately seeked. But now... now, he no longer dwelled in the light. Now, he was consumed by darkness. Now, he was filled by the spirits of so many different personalites and characters... almost like the different colors of paint that mix together, and form pure blackness. He didn't know who he was... But yet?

He did.

He is Legion... he is many...

And he is coming for W$E.