“Dominic, I don’t understand what’s gotten into you lately. You’ve become obsessed with the world title, to the point of where you’re even willing to risk your friendship with your own best friend! Why, Dominic? What’s come over you?!”

It was greed that had came over me, like some kind of a plague that had spread from a man named Tony Bradshaw into the veins of my body. I'd thought I was right in thinking that the Sharp family in the HWF were trying to hold me down, that it was their fault I couldn't make it as far as so many thought I could... but it was mine, in the end, and I just couldn't see that. It was because I couldn't see it that I took it out on the ones I loved... and why this man so many see as a hero had turned into the devil himself.

I had stopped caring back then, the only thing on my mind being the world title in the HWF. The heavens could have torn open, God's very hand could have shot down from above and crushed all of my greatest enemies, and I still wouldn't be pleased until I held that title for myself. I'd lost every bit of my former self because of my obsession with that piece of gold and leather... and I was so busy blaming it on the Sharps that I never noticed the pain I was bringing the ones I loved.

"What's come over me?! What's come over ME?!"

My voice rose with anger, an anger reserved for only my most hated of enemies... and I was using it on the woman I loved. God, to this day... I still can't forgive myself. I was so damn stupid back then, so misguided...

"Nothing's come over me at all, but something has came to me. It's the truth, Suki... the truth. And, as far as I'm concerned? The truth is FUCKED! Do you hear me?! It's FUCKED! The whole damn thing, Suki! The HWF, the fans... they're all fucked! FUCKED!!"

I'd stood up harshly with those words, as Suki stared up at me with eyes wide in a mix of shock and fear. Even back then my heart screamed to her for forgiveness, but my mind was too stubborn to let my heart speak the real truth to me. The words Suki would tell me back then were the words I should have listened to, and instead I let the COO of the HWF warp my mind into one of the most fragile states it's ever been in.

"I DESERVE THAT TITLE! I have ever since Born to Bleed! These fans shouldn't be booing me, not after all I've done for them! What right do they have, Suki?! I played their hero! I was what they wanted to see me be, and they threw me away! A paper hero, that's all I was! Just another toy to feed their amusement! I AM NOT A TOY, SUKI, I'M A FUCKING HUMAN BEING!"

The cursing, the screaming, the flailing of arms... my actions were bringing tears to her eyes, and yet I not once showed any remorse. It was when I looked into those fearful eyes that another part of my sanity broke in two and my heart felt a painful stab that coursed throughout my body. The twisted side of me knew I was crumbling and longed to get away from that which was breaking its hold, and as such I hardened my face to her and didn't let any trace of warmth escape my lips.

"I'm going for a walk."

That was all that I said to her, before taking my jacket and throwing it on. In an instant I was out the door, leaving her behind to cry for my mistakes. I never did make it home that night, so consumed with my hatred that I'd lost track of time. It was a good thing, too... because had I, my friend and I may have been on worse terms then we already were because of my actions. You see, on that night, he did what I did for him so many times during the course of our friendship... for Suki.

He was there to comfort her when I couldn't, he was there to save her when I wasn't there to hold out my hand, he was repaying a debt he now owed to me. You see, when you help a friend... there are no debts, but when you help a stranger they are sometimes compelled to return the favor. At that point in my life, I was no longer the friend that he'd spent so many good times with-- far from it, I was instead a shell of my former self who was consumed with a hatred unlike any I'd ever felt before.

"I just don't understand..." she'd sobbed out, hugging her knees to her chest with her chin resting atop them. Tears stained her pajama bottoms, her eyes red from crying as she couldn't help but let out a shuddered breath from the pain she was going through, "Months ago we were so happy, and now..."

"He's changed, Suki... you have to understand that," my friend sighed, hating the words coming from his mouth. I know this now because he once told me of this night, long after my hatred had subsided... long after I could have otherwise construed his intentions with Suki as being anything other then genuine, "He... he's not the same man we once knew. He's obsessed."

"He... once told me I was the most important thing in his life, and now..." her words caught in her throat, her heart begging them not to be true, her mind racing to figure out a way to explain how they couldn't...

Yet even with her very soul screaming for a truth it thought still existed... she knew it was true. I did put more importance on that damned belt then I did with her, because I'd fallen so hard that I'd lost sight of all the things that truly mattered to me.

"Suki," he began for her once more, reaching forward and gently taking her hand in his own, "He still loves you. I have a feeling there's still a part of him in there that's not changed at all, but right now... his mind's been corrupted. All you can do is do your best to try and help him, and never give up hope."

Hope... such a small thing to count on, yet if used properly it's the biggest weapon we'll have against our adversaries. It was their hope that brought me back from the sorry state I was in, even after I'd lost my own hope by the end. For as often as it's been said, and as often as I like to remind him of it... he and I both remember the grim times of the past where, for even just a few months, a certain phrase lost its truth before the entire world.

At that point in my life... this Pericolo said die.

It took my friends, my family, my loved ones... it took all of them to bring me back from the pit that I'd dug for myself. It took all of them to break me away from my demons, and put me back on the road I was meant to travel all along. Even I'll admit that I was never capable of being everyone's hero... it was a foolish thing to try for, but in the end I learned something because I tried for it anyway.

I learned that I still have demons dwelling inside of me, and it'll take more then just myself to get rid of them all. I'll always have Suki there for me, no matter what happens...

... but strangely, it was my friend that finally saved me all those years ago.

He knew the time was too perfect to pas up on, because if he did then he may not get another chance to help me. He knew that I needed help then, and even after everything that I'd done to ruin what was once a great friendship... he stepped forward once more to try and save me. Not from another person, not from the world around me, not from the Sharps... he was trying to save me from my own mistakes.

It was the night after another show, and I was getting ready to drive myself home. I'd already packed my ring gear into my bag, I was just going through my locker room to make sure I wasn't leaving anything behind, when I saw the shadow fall on the floor from the doorway; the shadow of another person standing inside of it.

"Care if I come in, friend?"

The emphasis he put on the word was a mockery of the way I'd done so weeks before, trying to justify why I would attack him the way I had. The animosity between us had escalated greatly in a very short matter of time... and all the fans wanted to see was him finally set things right and bring me down for everything that I had done. I had betrayed him, he had every right to hate me like I'd thought he did back then... but I would eventually come to find out that he never did hate me-- he was, in fact, merely waiting for me to realize my mistakes.

"Of course I do, what the hell do you want?" I spat venom from my mouth in the form of words, swinging my body around to face him and wasting no time to lift my fists, fully expecting an ambush from him. He could only look at me in disdain and shake his head, his eyes focused solely on my fists for several moments before they traveled upwards to my eyes.

When he looked me in the eye... it was like staring into a statue. His features, his stance, it was all completely set in stone. He'd came there that night with one objective in mind, and never has he been the type to give up on a goal he has set for himself. I don't think I could have ever expected to hear the one thing he told me that night... but in the end, it was a good thing that I couldn't, because it was the very thing that saved me. Everything happened so abruptley... yet he was prepared to use it to bring me back from my own personal hell.

I had done so many terrible things to him, yet even after all of that... he was still there to try and save me.

"It's over, Dominic."

Three words spoken with strength, and yet filled with regret. I wasn't sure what he'd meant when he told me, my thinking back then leading me to believe that he was trying to tell me I would never accomplish what I wanted to. In a way, that was exactly what he was saying... but it wasn't at all in the manner I thought it was. Nevertheless, I replied to it in kind... and he was fast to tell me my mistake.

"No, it's not over. I'm going to win that--"

"The HWF, Dominic... it's over."

I remember the silence that followed with his words, and the shock that coursed through me like poison in my veins. At first there came denial with the shake of my head, and then there came the anger I felt bubbling up within. It was an anger for a lost hope, a failure of a dream... it was anger for my wasted years of effort. He stood there in silence, just watching my reaction... two former friends who stood at a crossroads with each other, an empire crumbling around them.

"That can't be true, we just finished our show an hour ago!"

"It's the truth, Dominic. We've... we've been bought out. There won't even be an official final show."

I sunk onto the bench behind me, my eyes downcast and my mind an utter wreck. At first I couldn't understand how such a thing could happen to a company that had been around for over a decade, but as the realization that it had all came crashing to an end began to come upon my mind... well, I really couldn't take it. I'd snapped so many times out of anger in the past that I'd almost gotten used to it back then, but for the first time... I'd snapped entirely out of depression.

"Why... why are you, of all people, here to tell me this?" the words barely escaped my throat, the shock bringing a burning lump to restrict my throat. He sensed my pain, he knew that after all my efforts to claim the one thing I'd so desperately desired... I could never claim it after all; and he was ready to use that to his advantage, and make me see what I'd been missing all along.

"Because, Dominic... whether or not you believe it, I still see you for who you were," he'd began, crossing his arms over his chest and casting a glare at me as I simply looked away, "And I wanted to let you know... that you're finally free."

They were more words to confuse me by back then, but thank God for elaboration... I might have never fully caught what he was telling me otherwise.

"The HWF has been a family for all of us, but for you... well, it's been a prison for you as of late. I just wanted to let you know you're free now, Dominic... you don't have to chase that title anymore. You can finally search for other options, you can spend your time with Suki... you're free, okay?"

It was one of the very few times in my life that I'd heard him be so sincere, and it was one of the fewer times that I'd heard it without him following it up with a joke to lighten the mood thereafter.

There were no more words exchanged after that, because all I could do was sit in silence, contemplating what he'd said, as he stood and made his way back out the door. I wouldn't hear for him for several months after, and when I did... well, let's just say the results would bring me to something incredible.

"Hello, who's this?"

"Dominic? You bastard, don't tell me you've forgotten who I am already. The HWF only just closed a few months ago!"

I'd heard from him over the phone in the early hours of a Wednesday morning in August, and at first... I honestly couldn't believe what my ears were hearing. Every muscle in my hand worked to keep that damn phone held in my palm as I stared off into space in shock, and after trying to conjure up the words to respond to him, he did what he's always done best: cut me off in mid-sentence.

"Hey hey hey, just shut up. Listen, everything's cool... I'm sure you have some elaborate explination so if need be we could talk shit over a few beers or something. I just heard you were looking around for a new fed to jump ship to, thought I might be of service."

This was when it finally happened, this was the phone call that made all my dreams come true. Because of a friend who refused to give up on me... I'm here today, and I'm standing tall alongside the world itself.

"You've got my attention...what is it?"

"Oh, it's just an old home away from home called NLCW."

It was his demons that led this hero to his future.