Dan sat in the airport, his luggage beside him, looking down the long hallway waiting for people to arrive off of the plane. He had a newspaper on his lap, and his hand looked poised and ready to grab it at a millisecond's notice. He continued to peer down the ramp, trying hard not to seem anxious, but the very second he saw a body moving up the ramp, Stein threw the paper up like he was reading it, only there were two holes for eyes so he could see what was going on.

On board the plane, Gemma and Patrick waited impatiently near the back. Patrick was just as monstrous as Dan had envisioned he was, and his tan skin with light red, almost brown, hair made him look like some sort of bronze statue. Gemma and Patrick really looked nothing alike, except in the fact that both looked... well, Irish. Patrick held on to both of their bags, reluctantly.

Patrick: “You think he'll introduce us to Azraith and Kenji? I've been watching them since I was, like... eight.”

Gemma sighed and shook her head.

Patrick: “What? C'mon, you know they're best friends backstage. That's how all people are in wrestling. I've seen it thousands of times on E! And stuff.”

Gemma turned around and gave Patrick a 'get over it' look, before returning her attention to the front.

Gemma: “I don't know what you've heard on TV or whatever, Patrick, but I can assure you that Danny does not like Kenji, and he probably HATES Azraith. Lord knows that Az and Kenji hate each other. So, no, I doubt you'll get to meet either of them. Cade Sydal, maybe. If you're lucky. But even I haven't got to meet him, and I've sle- slept in the same room as Dan...”

She caught herself, and began to blush. Patrick chuckled.

Patrick: “I don't care what you do with this guy. Shoot, I kind of hope you pump out some of his kids like a factory line, Gem. You know how cool it would be to be 'related' to Dan Stein?”

Gemma sighed, her faced contorted into a shit-eating grin. She was head over heels for him, of course she knew how 'cool' it would be.

Stewardess: “Thank you for flying Hawai'i Airlines, the Captain and the rest of the crew hope you fly with us again. Aloha!”

Patrick: “Finally!”

Stein remained anxious behind that newspaper, his hands shaking, heart pounding. When the door to the ramp was open, Stein dropped the paper and hurried to the gate. He watched people pass with their rolling bags, little kids holding hands with their parents with Power Ranger and Dora the Explorer backpacks; Each cooler than any he'd had worn when he was their age. Everyone that walked past him got lei'd by the desk attendant. Stein waited as the entire plane walked past him, spacing out as the line got shorter. He began to worry after a while, and when the stewardess closed the door, he hung his head.

Then he was tapped on the shoulder.

Stein whipped around to see her there, standing in front of her obnoxiously huge little brother. Stein's eyes widened as she jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him. Stein looked at Patrick still, waving at him for a second, before Gemma let go of her vice grip.

Dan Stein: “How in the hell did you get past me?!”

He asked, confused. Gemma chuckled to herself and slapped her brother on the chest.

Gemma: “This moose, here. Snuck behind him. I didn't think you'd recognize him, and I just stayed behind him the entire time.”

Stein laughed as he put his arm around her for a split second, before putting his right hand out for Patrick to shake.

Dan Stein: “Good to see you, Brao. Glad you got to come out here. I heard you've been watching wrestling religiously for a while.”

Gemma's brother was a little star struck at first, but took Stein's hand after a slight hesitation.

Patrick: “Oh, yeah, big time. I've always been a sports addict, and I've always been a 'big' kid, so it... just clicked.”

Stein nodded, smiling.

Dan Stein: “Sweet, Dude. Glad I could do this for you, glad Gemma picked you to come out here.”

Stein looked at his watch for a second, then to the two of them.

Dan Stein: “Listen, though. We got to get going, the limo is right outside and I shouldn't even be up here. Lets get going, huh? You should see the hotel room Jason got us.”

Stein put his arm around Gemma as he walked between the two siblings. His hand dropped and rub against hers until their fingers intertwined. For the first time in a while, Stein walked like he was happy.

* * *

The camera opened up quite a distance from Stein, who was wading in the ocean on the beach of Kahului with his Iron Fist title around his bare waist, covering up the Prototype-X tattoo he had done back in OPW. The ends of his khaki shorts were soaked now from the tide, and his feet were bare. Stein was soaking up the Hawai'i sun for all it was worth, and didn't seem like he wanted to share it. As Stein walked closer to the camera, his smile grew wider. He stopped just a few feet from the cameraman, his hands on his hips as he tried to steady himself in the wet sand. Stein began to speak with the sound of the ocean just right behind him.

The Lights: “My very first SHOOT Project Reckoning Day, right here in sunny Kahului, Hawai'i. Right on the beach. Right where I feel most comfortable... on the water front. Azraith, you and Kenji have Tangoed before, and I've Tangoed with both of you... many times now. To say that any of us are going into this match blind is a dire mistake, we all know that. But to say that I'm not the odds on favorite to win this match? Criminal.”

Stein looked over the water as the sun beat down on them still. It wasn't quite midday, but there were still many hours until the sun set so beautifully on the town.

The Lights: “You and I have wrestled twice now, Azraith, and I've beaten you... both times. But yet, you're still there. You're still trying to prove to... somebody, that you have what it takes to put me down for the ten count. Whether it's an iron pipe to the back of the skull when I'm not watching, or super-mega-holy-crap-W-T-F power bombing me through a mat, you keep trying to prove that you have what it takes to put me out... for good, when you still haven't been able to put down for the ten count. Tsk tsk, Azraith. Tsk tsk you for saying it was ring rust the first time. Tsk tsk for having any excuse as to why I beat you, other than simply... I'm better than you. How does that saying go? 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me'? Something like that, Azraith. I have beaten you TWICE now. I have knocked you out TWICE now. I have defended my title over you... TWICE now.”

Dan smirked, holding up two fingers each time he said 'twice'. He kept his hand up for a second, before extending his thumb.

The Lights: “Third time is not going to be the charm for you Azraith. There is no superstitions in play here. Yes, you've FINALLY beaten Kenji Yamada. Yes, you took Cade Sydal and whomped on him. Yes, you're STILL one of the most skilled talents in SHOOT Project, Azraith, and you are still the man that everyone RESPECTS in the ring, but Azraith; You simply can NOT beat me, until you get it through your thick, dense skull that you need to RESPECT me before you can UNDERSTAND me. And trust me, Azraith, just saying 'Oh, fine, I respect you' doesn't mean that you actually do. You can't simply respect someone just because you say you do; respect is not something that YOU, Azraith DeMitri just give overnight. You're not that guy. That's not who you are. You never have been that guy. You never will be that guy. Even the people you care about, you don't respect. Damien 'The Maverick' Roy, doesn't even have your respect, and you KILLED him. Kenji Yamada doesn't even have your respect, and he NEARLY KILLED YOU. Azrael Goeren? Nothing. Adrian Corazon? Nothing. Ben Jackman? Noth-, ah, who am I kidding, nobody respects that hack anymore. The point is, Az, you don't respect anyone. And that might be fine and dandy in OPW, but in a place where killing each other just to kill each other ISN'T cool, you can't keep up. You can't do it. I've been in the ring with you, Azraith, I've seen you first hand. I HAVE BEATEN YOU TWICE, DUDE. All your accomplishments, all your past, all that respect you have garnered, gone.”

Stein paused for a second.

The Lights: “Because you refuse to admit that someone is better than you are. You refuse to admit that I am not the same Dan Stein you remember from OPW, that you are not the same Azraith DeMitri in SHOOT Project that you were in OPW. You refuse to admit that you, Azraith, are uncomfortable here. You don't know what you're doing in SHOOT Project, you don't know why you picked me. You don't know why, Azraith, that Jason Johnson even hired you back. You are so unsure of EVERYTHING in your life right now. A midlife crisis, if you will. You picked me because I AM the hottest man on the SHOOT Project roster, to date. You picked me because I AM what the fans have come to see. You picked me because YOU thought that I was still just that little kid from the New Years Eve party Belote threw a few years back. You wanted me to cement your return to prominance. You wanted it to be me who fell victim to YOU. And when I beat you the FIRST time, you attacked me again, and got yourself a rematch. Then, when I beat you the SECOND time, you resorted back Kindergarten, and blindsided me, again. Because you knew, the only way you'd get another shot at me, was if I included YOU in this match, Azraith. Everyone in the back, they've seen you lose to me TWICE. They've seen me and what I've done to you, TWICE. They don't WANT to see you in this match, they want something FRESH. Because you keep losing to me, time and time again. But I still have you in this match. Not because you're under my skin, not because I give a care about you and your return to prominance, but because I want you to finally realize, DeMitri, that you can't beat me. Not today, not at Reckoning Day, not at next year's Redemption Rumble. You can't beat me. Even if your own student is in the ring with us.”

Stein again looked out at the greenish blue ocean and the people swimming in it, a smile ran across his face as he ran his hands through his hair.

The Lights: “Kenji, we've been down this path before. First I beat you silly in an Iron Fist match, then I get knocked silly by my former tag team partner, then we take each other to the very end of Sky High... and you beat me for what I thought was going to be my second Sky High Cup. Congratulations, Kenji, you beat me for it, that's your ONE win over me, beating me for the Sky High Cup in a very NON Sky High type match, when I was pulling double duty on Revolution and Sky High, after I'd already been Iron Fist champion, defeating Adrian Corazon. That's your claim to a victory over me, and you have it. You didn't beat me at my best, but you beat me when you had to, just like you 'have' to now, right, Kenji? You have to do it for a memory that seems so REAL to you. You have to do it, because... Akira is your purpose in this match. Akira, the kid that's been DEAD for going on three years, it seems, is WILLING you to win this match against me.”

Stein shook his head.

The Lights: “Kenji, when are you going to learn? There is no Akira anymore. Just like my parents are no more. There is only you, Kenji, you are alone in everything now. You're using Akira, and Azraith, and the Family, as a crutch. Just like you used 'God' as a crutch, just like you used your 'destiny' as a crutch. Until you start doing things for yourself, Kenji, you will be nothing but a nut job, 'destined' for a trip to the psych ward. All you have done since you came in here, Kenji, is lose. You beat some people, you tore through Sky High against men that were pulling double duty, but when it came to the big time, when it was time to get down and dirty... you crumbled. You beat Azraith before, Kenji, what happened this time? You used a crutch. 'OH MY GAWD, I'M BURRRNED'.

Kenji. Nut up. Do things for yourself. Come at me because YOU want to beat me, not because some IMAGINARY character you created in your warped and twisted mind told you to PROMISE to him that you would.”

Stein sighed, toeing the sand for a second. He looked up and pat the title around his waist.

The Lights: “You lost to me once before, Kenji, for this very belt. Now you're in the ring with the man that gives you purpose, and the man that holds the title that WILL give you purpose, but what you don't have is purpose from yourself. You lost that purpose, when you lost your sanity. Now you're running around, more insane than Sammy Rochester and Roland Caldwell combined, and you still think you're dangerous. You're not dangerous to anyone when you're acting like that, Kenji, but yourself. You run into that match against Azraith and I, and you try and pull that imaginary stuff, whip out a fake sword and try imaginary slicing me, and I'll rip your demented head off, figuratively, of course. You're making this a two man three-way match, Kenji, and while part of me wants to thank you, I think both Azraith and I can agree that we don't want to beat you when you're... delusional. We want the real, the true Kenji Yamada.

Do you even remember who that man is? Does anyone, anymore?”

Stein paused, letting that last line sink in.

The Lights: “You got Mallows to whine and cry to Jason Johnson to get you in this match, and now you're mentally bowing out before it even starts. You're hurt, I'm not exactly perfect, and Azraith is still... well, Azraith. Fight like a man, Kenji. Fight me like a man, because this just might be the last time you face me for this Iron Fist championship.

The same goes for you, Azraith. Twice I've beaten you, there were no flukes. There was nothing but Dan Stein doing what you do, but better. Better than Azraith DeMitri, better than Kenji Yamada, and better than Adrian Corazon. When I walk out of this match victorious, when Willie Dean puts that belt back over my shoulder, I will WALK out of that ring. I will not be carted out, I will not let you attack me from behind again, and my career continues the way it is going now.

What about the two of you? Where do you go? Do you keep coming for me, even though I've DESTROYED you, each and every time you step up? Do you whine and cry and get ANOTHER rematch? DO YOU LET ME BEAT YOU AGAIN? Or do you realize what I've been saying all along...”

Stein looked around the beach before taking the belt off of his waist, revealing that Prototype-X tattoo.

The Lights: “You have to respect the past to do something in the present that's going to be remembered in the future. I respect this title's past, and I'm trying to do something that people will remember for MANY Iron Fist champions to come. That's my purpose. It's not to revitalize my dying career, Azraith, or to save a memory of a kid who I hallucinate EACH and every time I want to see him. It's to make sure that this title means something, to make the people that used to wear it PROUD to say that they held this belt. Even... Azraith DeMitri.

I'm a competitor, guys. Give me something to compete with.”