act five: prepare to be educated
Dominic Pericolo snaps up in his bed, sweat drenched across his forehead. He is panting, frantically scanning the room surrounding him, escaping the reality he'd been emersed in for the better part of a few hours now. The nightmares that had plagued him only moments before were nightmares that had been plaguing him ever since the day that the main event of When Worlds Collide had been decided on, and, for nightmares, they were stubbornly persistent.
He is alone, his family back at home to watch his big night from a distance, little Ehno having came down with a small cold a few days prior. Dominic's frantic mind came to ease at the memories of his family, their smiling faces at the airport as he bid them farewell for what he knew was going to be an emotionally trying few days ahead.
Stepping out of the comfortable bed provided by the hotel he'd been booked in, Dominic makes his way over to the mirror sitting atop the desk in the corner of the room. His tired eyes stare back at himself as he stands in the darkness, the light of streetlamps from the outside world the only thing illuminating his bedroom. A sigh escapes his lips, his hands rubbing at his face.
"This match is going to drive me insane, isn't it?" he finally laughs sadly, shaking his head, "I can't even get a full night's rest..."
It was as it had always been for him, though... facing Christopher Champion always left him with sleepness nights at the prospect of the beating he was about to receive. The fact of the matter was that, when facing his best friend... Dominic always knew the end was not an inevitability. Against anyone else, Dominic knew with a certain sense of pride that he was almost always going to come out on top, but... Champion left those feelings astray, replacing them with doubt, replacing them with concern.
As often as Dominic had studied his friend, he had never learned how to get the better of him. Champion, on the other hand... had perfected it.
A smile crosses Dominic's lips and he chuckles, taking the chair to the desk and sitting down in it. He leans over, flicking on the lamp at his side and squinting as the small beam of light strikes the desk and spreads, illuminating the papers strewn about its top. Dominic pays little mind to the papers, instead glancing over at the pictures of his family standing at the edge of the desk, their smiling faces looking back at him.
Dominic closes his eyes and sighs, his thoughts drifting away.
The fact of the matter was, for Dominic, that this Sunday... for once, the prospect of fighting Christopher Champion wasn't so bad, at least not as it once had been, anyway. Dominic had done a lot of thinking... he knew that his greatest concern was Champion's illness, and trying to have him treated for it, but... he only had one way possible to see it happen.
He couldn't just aim to beat Champion, a victory against Chris might set him back a bit, it might take the Golden Boy off-guard, but... it wouldn't completely deter him like Dominic wanted.
He couldn't allow a loss, either... a loss spelt more of the same for Dominic and all too much stress for Champion's dying body to handle in the process, something Dominic wanted to avoid at all costs.
So when winning or losing can't seem to make a difference... what's a best friend to do, but try his damndest to hospitalize the guy who refuses to go to the hospital when he needs it most?
"I'm only going to have one shot at this... I can't let these nightmares keep plaguing me anymore."
Dominic glances over at the multitude of picture frames standing along the edge of the desk, the pictures he'd taken with him on his travels. One picture in particular stands out to him, a memory of the past that would bring a tear to his eye were it not for the determination coursing through him to see that past return again some day.
His hands brush across the frame... the faces of two families staring back at him.
Dominic Pericolo. Suki Pericolo. Ehno Pericolo. Christopher Champion. Georgina Champion. Cesar Champion.
They had all been friends. They had all been family. They had all meant the world to each other, and had been forced to watch as the world they had was torn apart. In the time that had past since then, so much had changed for them all... those days almost felt entirely foreign because of it.
But Dominic recognized them as something familiar, as something worth fighting for, even when Champion seemed to want nothing more but cement his legacy and move on from there.
One chance, that was all that was left for Dominic... one chance to change their world to how it was, one chance to restore hope for each of them in the idea that maybe, just maybe... Champion might recover. It was one chance for Dominic to make that change, and no matter what it had to take, he knew he would finally be able to pull the trigger.
Even if it meant kicking the stubborn fucker's ass beyond anything he'd ever done to him before.