act five: nothing left to fear
He had given it everything he possibly had in order to make it as far as he did. He had risked everything that meant anything to him, all for the glory of victory and the reassurance that with that victory, he would one day become a legend. He was a man who had earned the respect and admiration of millions, the man who had gone undefeated after that very day as he took on challenger after challenger to his crown and never once backed down against them.
He was a man who represented his nation year after year, a man who proudly brought home the title and a man who earned his nation the praise and respect of its neighbors. A champion and a hero, he was the one who had done the unthinkable and the impossible so very long ago. The stage of the world was his to stand upon, looking down on those who had failed to surpass him as yet another year went by.
So many people wondered when the day would come that he would finally fail against a challenger, when he would finally have his torch passed on to the next big name. Yet what those asking the questions never seemed to realize was just how important the games were to him, and just how much the victory did matter in his heart. He could not allow himself to fail, he could not simply let go of that torch they spoke of and just pass it on to someone he absolutely knew would never live up to the accomplishmets he'd made along the way.
No, he was not about to let his memory be tarnished when people looked back on him and asked, "After everything he'd done... he still failed against such a mediocre competitor?"
He knew it was true, too... there were none left who could possibly stand against him and pose a legitimate threat. All those who could have done so had faded away the moment he'd earned his place atop the stage. He remembered how close the competition was in those days, how much he enjoyed excelling against people who he knew were just as hungry as he was for the spotlight.
A young woman who was so fierce in her determination that she set records in her division that the men within it couldn't have hoped to defeat.
A man who had held success in the games of the past and was looking to continue on with his legacy, looking to strike gold in singles competition when he'd been glorified as a tried and true team player. And then...
... then there was him, the one he would eventually come to face at the very end of the games, the man he would send back into retirement for good.
He was an older man, a man who had found his glory in the games long passed on multiple occassions. He was a man who made such a name for himself that it would already be remembered, regardless of what he did from that point on. Yet despite all his success, after leaving for a short while... that older man decided to return. That older man decided to see if he still had it in him to win at the biggest games of all.
Carmine Vestieri knew the truth, though... he knew that the older man couldn't hope to excel in the day and time that they were in. There was simply no hope for the man against the forces he would come against in the games, and it seemed all too apparent to Carmine that it was nothing more than the vain attempts of a man past his prime trying to recapture those years long past him.
Yet then, the man succeeded against that record-setting young woman... he would be meeting the superstar Carmine at the end of it all.
It was, at this point, that the superstar began to suspect something more than just an attempt at recapturing former glory. He began to feel that the older man was being nothing more than greedy, that he was only focused on reaching the top of the mountain again because retirement was too boring for him. He respected the man for his ability but, in the end, he also could not accept the fact that the man would go back on his own retiement just for some selfish hope of surpassing the rising stars of the time to show how much "better" he was than anyone else.
Carmine began to resent the older man for that perception he held of him, and would throw everything he had into the finals in order to ensure that the man was banished back into the retirement that he should never have left in the fist place.
He smiled. In the end, the superstar had been victorious against that older man, he had finally shown him exactly where he belonged and had sent him on his way... and ever since, the challenges that Carmine faced along the way just were never the same. It was as if, with that older man's departure, he took with him any challenge left for the young superstar to face.
It had all become too easy now.
Ah, but there was hope for Carmine's thirst for a fight yet. He'd heard the rumors, the talks of a once great competitor slowly rising back up through the ranks again, a man who was commanding the respect of the people on his drive to the top of the mountain. The superstar hoped it was one of the competitors he had buried during his stay at the top of the stage, he hoped that it was someone who had finally risen to face him after failing in their attempts the first time around.
In some ways, he would be correct.
As the days passed on and the games drew near, the superstar heard that he would indeed be facing the man who had captured the attention of the people. Excited, the superstar prepared for the day as vigorously as he could. He never expected what he would soon be up against as the day finally arrived.
He never expected to see that old man of his past standing across from him, a smirk on his face to contrast the look of shock on Carmine's own.
He never expected to have to face that man again, the man he'd thought he'd sent back into retirement all those years ago.
More than that, as he stood before the man and realized exactly what he'd be up against that day... he realized that the impact he'd thought he'd made on the man was never true at all, and that all the effort he'd put into putting that man away had been all for naught. The older man had been training, preparing, readying for the day that he could rise once again and take back what he believed was rightfully his.
Carmine Vestieri never expected such a thing could ever happen... not after what he'd done to the man, not after the fear he'd thought he'd put in the man's heart towards him.
Yet now the truth had made itself all too clear to Carmine, and it was something that he just could not believe. That perceived fear he'd placed in the man wasn't fear at all, it was nothing more than a determination to rise once again, and in the end... the old man had managed to do just that.
And on that day, as the faced each other for the first time since all those years that had passed... Carmine realized something else.
He realized that the man had nothing left to fear.