Burning Bright (Honor Reaction)

'You Bastards don't get it do you?' purred a voice from the darkness, and then flames erupted. 

It was a bonfire, blazing bright and hot in the raging winds as the ocean crashed in the distance. And the flames illuminated the solitary figure of Donzig standing nearby, his mask gleaming in the reddish light from beneath his hood. His coat snapping and swirling angrily as sparks billowed and disappeared into the night as the fire roared, and he paced slowly closer as he waved a hand.

'I have assembled, and gathered by sheer force of will the greatest force that the NPW--' A pause, head lifting. '--that the CWA. No, no, no. That all of fucking wrestling has ever seen! I have put together a power that this dying world has never seen! And yet the Bastards clueless, ignorant, and frankly? Pathetically. Sit around and do their same old schtick, their same old song and dance, making their same old jokes. I don't think you boys get it, you're sitting here talking about the past? When I am?'

Donzig flicked a hand, and he circled around the fire before he shrugged.

'I am the future. I am the inevitable.'

Donzig lifted his head again, the reflection of flames dancing across the surface of his mask as he lifted a hand to wipe across the mouth of it. A shake of his head, and he watched the flames as they danced in the wind.

'You sit around and talk about your accomplishments, your list of titles won and lost, and men you have defeated. Like you don't stand across the ring with men who have not fought the same wars, like our names are not known? Sad. Very sad.' A shrug. 'But please, underestimate me. You see I like to see the look of fear and surprise on the face of my enemies when they realize what they are facing, when their little jokes die stillborn on their lips, when they see that Death in High Places is here. That they face not a man, but the Scourge.'

A tilt of his hooded head, and his hands lifted.

'You see in the Empire? We will sit in the ashes, and eat the flesh of kings. Because all who stands before us? Are doomed to fail.'

Donzig's hands fell, and he started to pace again with a hand extended to the flames as they twisted and writhed in the cold winds as he hissed.

'Empires shine bright and implode? No doubt. You see the Bastards seem to labor under the delusions that this is a long term thing. That somehow we want this to last forever? This Empire will last just long enough to punish Gus Arnold, this Empire will burn bright just long enough to punish the guilty, it will last so that we may put our enemies to flame! Until we get back everything that was stolen from us! All of it! The NPW stole from Steve Awesome! The NPW stole from Timeless!'

Donzig's hand curled into a fist, and it slammed against his chest.

'And all of you, all of you, fucking stole from me! And no one steals from Donzig!'

Donzig shook his head, turning to glare at the fire again as he started to pace.

'The Bastards act like they are the hardest men in this company, that they are the Bastards! That they can do whatever they want, like they are unstoppable. But really who have they stopped? What have they done but win some gold off some weak fools and tired old men? Because you know who actually does what they want? Us. We fucking do.'

Pause.

'No one tells Steve Awesome's favorite wrestler what to do.'

Pause.

'No one tells Alex Turner's favorite wrestler what to do.'

A shrug, and a finger lifted.

'And no one tells Donzig's favorite wrestler what to do. We do what the fuck we want, we have become ungovernable! And what we want? Is to crush the Bastards, to teach them who really runs shit in the NPW!'

His hand lifted, and fingers dug into the mask. He pulled it away, and his eyes blazed with fury as his lips twisted into a scowl. He tucked the mask into the long billowing coat, folding his arms before him as he watched the snapping flames. 

'The Bastards act like they are the only people in the entire world that have cocks. Like we should be impressed they are wreckers of womanly virtue? Steve Awesome gets so many bitches? His middle name should be bitches! Timeless has the baddest bitch in the game! And well, I am not impressed by such fucking garbage! You see unlike say--' A pause, and Donzig sneers. '--the Bastards I am not here for a dog and pony show like someone who just discovered what my dick is for! Like I am just out here to pull trim like a Tijuana tourist? I am here to fucking choke the life out of the NPW, and make it bow down before the King in the North!'

A hand tugged at Donzig's beard, and he cocked his head with a scowl. 

'The Bastards act like we're friends, like we're some kind of brotherhood. But you see unlike the Bastards? We don't labor under such delusions. People like us? We're monsters. We don't have friends, we don't hang out, we aren't brothers. Fuck, I am Donzig! I would throw everyone I ever cared about into an open grave to ease my boredom! I left my only friend for dead in a SWAT ring! This is business! Steve Awesome doesn't trust Timeless, Timeless doesn't trust me, and I don't trust Sinclair!'

Pause.

'When we get rid of the Murder Lizards, Bastards, Revenants, and Gus Arnolds? We go back to business, we settle it between us! And we carve the carcass of this place up between the three of us! We fight over the scraps of what is left.'