==========
Sophie O’Brian
On Camera
==========
Total War
has reunited!
…
…
…
What? No round of applause? No celebrations? No parade in our honor? It’s a shame, because everyone seemed to
clamor for it. Everyone, including
Tabitha Silverstone and Andre Jordan, seemed to question Total War. They wanted to know what had happened to us?
Nothing had
happened to us. It was all part of my
plan.
Total War
will always reign atop tag team wrestling.
That is something everyone will just have to accept. Everyone has to accept that by hook or by
crook, I will always find some strategy to achieve my goals; whether it be all
nice and clean in the center of the ring or through treachery and deceit.
If we could
not take those titles from The Harem clean and in the ring, then I would have
to use deceit to get what I wanted. So I
infiltrated The Harem. I became one of
them. I sold my soul for the IWC World
Tag Team Titles.
It’s called
strategy and infiltration is classic military strategy.
If you don’t
like what I did then you don’t like Total War; but you know what? I don’t care if you like us or not. I realize now that the cheers and adulation
of the fans are not worth it. Success
and victory and gold, that’s what the goal is and I will achieve my goal
through any means necessary.
My next
opponent is someone I know quite well. I
knew her then as Serenity. Young
Serenity, still trying to make a name in the industry but wanting ever so badly
to be taken seriously as an actual wrestler.
So who else did she come to? Who
else could really show her the ropes?
That’s
right. Me. And she is not alone. I have other students in IWC this very
moment.
Young
Serenity came to me wanting to be taken seriously and I taught her, I trained
her, I gave her enough knowledge to be dangerous. But she clearly let some of that knowledge
slip away. Otherwise she would be IWC
World Champion right now.
I am trained
in the ancient art of warfare. I am the
best strategist in wrestling. I can come
up with a game plan to bring anyone down, including Ba’al. But no one bothers to ask me. Not that I’d just give my secrets away. I would charge a high price.
Abi knows
those same strategies and tactics too.
Not all of them, but enough to defeat Ba’al. Yet she didn’t defeat him. She didn’t defeat him because she didn’t obey
the advice of her teacher.
Naughty,
Serenity.
Now comes
even more bad news for you, Abi. You
see, this may be labeled teacher versus student, but the truth is, a good
teacher never teaches their student everything they know. They always withhold something from the eager
student because they do not want the student to become the master.
I am and
always will be the master, Abi. Know
that. Understand that. Accept that.
==========
Off Camera
Two Days
After Reawakening Day
==========
The IWC
World Tag Team Championship Match didn’t go exactly as Kordy Price may have
wanted it to. She lost her precious
title. She lost her Herbert. But for Sophie O’Brian, losing the title was
inconsequential. For Sophie, something
far greater was accomplished on this night in the aftermath…
…Total War
is together again.
Sophie had
the IWC World Tag Team Championships for a couple of months through
infiltrating The Harem and now that she and her brother Mark are back together
they have inserted themselves squarely into the title picture against a pair of
champions who were not The Harem, a pair of champions in the form of Andre
Jordan and Gavin Taylor who, needless to say, would not and could not ever work
together. Not now. Not after what happened at Reawakening Day.
Sophie saw
it all coming. No one believed her. They all wanted to believe in Team EPIC but
she knew the truth because, as a student of military history, she saw a
backstabbing coming from miles away. But
Sophie, as usual, was right. Sophie saw
it coming, planned on it happening, and now has Total War in prime position to
take the titles.
But first,
she has come to a coffee house to see an old friend…
Sophie approaches a table. She finds Tabitha
Silverstone already there, two cups of coffee; one assuming is for Sophie
herself and the other for Tabitha. Sophie sits down at the table with
her.
“Hello again, Tabitha.”
“Hi, Sophie.”
“Lovely place,” she takes a sip of the coffee “and wonderful
coffee. You have good taste.”
Tabitha lightly smiles. “Only the best, Sophie. Before you
arrived I was thinking to myself, I don’t know if agreeing to this meeting is a
sound idea. Andre won’t be too keen with us meeting, considering the
circumstances.”
“Obviously. But that’s the politics of the game, isn’t
it?” She sets her coffee down after taking another sip. “Which brings me to
another point. I want you realize exactly the position I have placed
myself in right now. I am now an immediate former IWC World Tag Team
Champion and with my brother back by my side we are arguably in line for a
title shot against the champions...Team EPIC isn’t it?”
Sophie chuckles slightly. “Yes, Team EPIC, where one partner
stabbed the other in the back, just as I predicted. I’m in quite a good
position, am I not?”
Tabitha sighed knowing Sophie is one hundred percent correct
in her assessment of the situation. “I wanted so badly to trust Gavin. I wasn’t
an angel either. Taylor Chase and Brittany Lohan were responsible for my
original client Sebastian Knight suffering an concussion that derailed his
wrestling career. I exhausted every means under the sun to exact vengeance. I
had Taylor’s World Championship in my hand. I was quite proud stealing her
precious World Championship. Everything changed when I signed Andre. I wanted
to navigate my business affairs differently. We have Silas Mason, right? No
need for the female version of him. Week in week out the....”
Tabitha shut down a moment, she didn’t want to use the word,
her emotions were worked up to a fever pitch... “ingrates you associated with
put a bounty on my head. Gavin approached us, I wanted to give him the same
second chance Andre gave me. It’s my fault. All my fault.”
Tabitha scowls. “I’m tired, Sophie. Tired of having a target
on my back. Tired of being taken advantage of. The entire roster looks at me as
the weakest link in the chain. I’M NOT WEAK.”
Tabitha screaming that to the heavens draws the attention of
the other patrons. She quickly responds.”Sorry everyone.”
Sophie shakes her head. “No, no, don’t apologize. This
is exactly who you need to be, Tabitha. That anger, the hatred, you need
to harness it just like I taught you when you were still my student. I
taught you to channel that anger and that hatred. But you forgot that
part, or you chose to ignore it in favor of the ideal you just spelled out for
me.”
She sighs deeply. “It’s a shame, Abigail Lindsey, another
student of mine, had a chance to become world champion, but she forgot the
lessons I taught her and thus she failed at Reawakening Day.”
Sophie grins knowingly. “And that brings me to why I wanted
to meet you today. I like you, Tabitha. And I want to help you.
Granted there is no saving the tag titles. My plan is at a point of
no return. Total War will become the tag team champions.”
She holds up one finger. “All we need is for IWC to grant us
one shot and that’s it. Anyone who thinks your client and Gavin can work
together NOW...after what happened...is crazy. There’s no chance in hell
of Team EPIC defeating Total War. But I can help you save Andre’s
Evolution Title reign.”
Tabitha shakes her head. “No, I don’t believe Gavin and
Andre can work together after what transpired at NewAge.” A broad smile forms
on her face. “That’s why I’m here. I want Gavin Taylor’s head after the stunt
he pulled. He played on my emotions, Sophie. He violated my trust. He embarrassed
me. I am done being the damsel in distress. I’m going to make Gavin suffer one
way or another. I still have Sebastian. He’s loyal to me. I have faith Andre
can handle Gavin in the ring, he has on multiple occasions. Beating Gavin one
on one isn’t good enough for me.”
“There is one thing you and Gavin both have in common.” she
holds up one finger. “You are both human. You are correct, he played upon
your emotions. Brilliant strategy. I was impressed with what he was
doing, I was even more impressed with how he had everyone convinced he had
changed.”
Sophie pats herself on the chest. “Someone like me, I see
through that because I accept who I am. I know how to destroy people.
I do it by using their weaknesses against them. Do to him what he
did to you. Find what his weakness is. What does he hold near and
dear to his heart? When you find the answer to that question, take it and
use it. Take what is most precious to him and slowly destroy it.”
Tabitha stares idly at her cup of coffee. “I... know the
answer. His wife. He loves her just as much as he loves himself. If I crossed
that line, I poke the bear of the entire Chase family. I don’t have the
resources to fend off all them. I’m not comfortable going that route. I will
find another way. Even you would agree, poking the bear of an entire family is
not worth the destruction of one individual. ”
“World War II...the empire of Japan had been doing quite
well in their military conquests. They seemed unstoppable. Until
they poked the tiger that is the United States of America. They got an
atomic bomb dropped them later. Japan wanted to take on the world,
Tabitha, but you can’t take on the world unless you have the proper allies.
You can take on the Chase family but only if you have allies. Someone
just as powerful who can back you up.”
Tabitha takes a sip from her coffee. She looks into Sophie’s
cold eyes. “Not just me. I have Andre to think about. I’d compromise his career
entertaining that drastic of an action. Do the least amount of work, reap
extraordinary benefits. I’ll find a less extreme solution to my Gavin
Taylor problem.”
“I am confident you will find a way. Just do not
forget my lessons this time. I hope this was a learning experience for
you.”
“It was. I have to do what is best for my client. If that
requires me crossing the line from time to time, so be it. I do have a
question. Why do you feel Abigail let you down? She took on an entire army,
literally at Reawakening. She did have reinforcements, they weren’t effective,
grant it. She came prepared for Sinistrys antics.”
Sophie frowns. “I could see it in her eyes. I could
see just by looking into her eyes that night that she did not have the killer
instinct necessary to defeat Ba’al. To defeat Ba’al, and Sinistry in general,
you will need to do absolutely anything...and I mean ANYTHING...to win.
You cannot have any qualms about a particular tactic. You cannot
worry about the morality of what you are doing. Just take them out by any
means necessary. That’s the only way she could have defeated Ba’al and
she did not deliver on it.”
She grins. “So on New Age, I’m going to remind her. I
am going to take her back to school and re-educate her on what it means to have
that killer instinct. It’s my gift to IWC. Truth is, IWC needs more
people with that killer instinct if they want to destroy Sinistry. Right
now very few people have that killer instinct. Taylor Chase is among
them. The way she’s being tossed about by anyone and everyone, they have
her worked up enough she’ll commit literal murder in the ring soon if they
don’t stop. That’s the kind of killer instinct IWC needs. It’s what
Abigail needed at Reawakening Day but she didn’t have it.”
Tabitha nods. “I’m shocked, most wrestlers I have come
across take losing the biggest match of their careers personally. Abigail has a
talent for, not allowing the environment affect her. Generally speaking. I
expected her to come out, talk about how she was screwed over. Hop back on the
wagon, none of that. By the care free loose way she has been acting since
losing, I thought she won the match. Never understood how she can walk through
life without a care in the world; most of the time, aside from the few times
‘Serenity’ comes out.”
“And that is exactly what I am talking about!” Sophie
exclaims. “Serenity is what IWC needs right now to help combat Sinistry.
Ba’al didn’t fight Serenity. He fought happy Abi. At New Age
Abi will either give me Serenity or I will finish what Ba’al started.”
Sophie’s eyes grow even colder. “Look into my eyes, Tabitha,
and you will understand a truth. I am a deadlier sociopath than Ba’al
could ever hope to be.”
Tabitha holds eye contact with Sophie. A chill runs up her spine, the cup in her hand trembles due to Tabitha’s hand shaking. “I believe you.”
==========
Off Camera
Later That
Day
==========
The Northern
Irish beauty has finished having her meeting with Tabitha Silverstone and it
was a good meeting. Despite the fact
that she is a sociopath, Sophie O’Brian does care about certain individuals and
among the people she cares about are her students. Witnessing Tabitha’s failure at Reawakening
Day gave Sophie the urge to go and help in any way she could, to give her
student some advice on how to proceed.
Besides, if
Tabitha eliminates Gavin Taylor, that makes it all that much easier for Total
War to take the tag team titles.
But Sophie
cannot focus on the tag titles; not right now.
She has a date with a woman who she knows to be a sociopath herself in
the form of Abigail Lindsey.
Abigail is
also a former student of Sophie O’Brian and Sophie was also disappointed to see
her fail at Reawakening Day.
Unfortunately, Sophie knows exactly why Abigail failed. She believes her failure is due to her not
embracing her true self. Her failure is
due to not embracing the lessons of Total War.
Sophie is convinced that to defeat Ba’al, Abigail needed to become
Serenity, that part of her that would do anything to destroy Ba’al.
Serenity did
not come out to play. Ba’al lived to
fight another day.
Sophie also
believes that for IWC to survive and even to destroy Sinistry, it will need a soldier
like Serenity on their side. Happy Abi
just won’t cut it. Sophie views her
match against her student on New Age to be a way to give IWC what it
desperately needs; another warrior who is willing to do what it takes to kill
the cancer that is Sinistry.
And if
Abigail doesn’t deliver this time, Sophie plans to finish her off.
But now her
day is over and she has arrived back at her home in Belfast where she intends
to turn in for the night. That is, until
she finds a strange car in her driveway.
Whereas most would balk, hesitate, at going forward with a strange car
in the drive, Sophie being who she is doesn’t really care. She approaches fearlessly, even as the driver’s
side door opens.
A heavyset
man of about six feet in height with busy black hair wearing brown khakis and a
white button up shirt and a dark blue blazer approaches Sophie.
“Ms. O’Brian?”
He extends
his hand, expecting Sophie to take it, but she does not. Not at first anyway. She just looks at the hand and then back up
at this stranger who is at her home.
“Yes…and you
are?”
“Oh…sorry…”
he pulls his hand back and produces a badge “…Detective Scott O’Leary.”
Sophie
frowns. Studying the badge and then
studying his face for a moment. “Ok, may
I help you?”
“Yes, you
can.” He looks at her home. “May I come inside?”
She’d rather
him not but it’s too late for that.
Sophie nods her head. “Be my guest…”
She gestures
for him to follow her as she walks towards the front door. Sophie opens the front door and steps inside
with O’Leary behind her. Once inside
they enter the living room where Sophie sits down. Detective O’Leary sits down next to her.
“So, what is
this about O’Leary?”
“I think you
know what this is about, Ms. O’Brian.”
Sophie
shakes her head. “No, I honestly have no clue.”
“Allow me to
give you a few clues, then.”
He reaches
into his blazer and produces a few small pocket photographs. He hands one to Sophie and she looks at
it. It is a picture of Joshua Manning
with his boyfriend. Sophie remembers
both of them quite well. She poisoned
the boyfriend before murdering Manning with a bullet through the head. She made it look like a murder suicide.
“Joshua
Manning and his partner Brice Snyder.”
He hands her
another picture, this one of the woman named Brandy whom Mark dated for a short
while. Another one Sophie killed, this
time with Mark’s direct blessing after he learned of the games she had been
playing with the siblings.
“Brandy
Clark.”
He hands her
yet another picture, this one of Carolyn Rose York. A former patient of Tony Morgan who had
regressed back into psychosis and tried to destroy the O’Brians. Sophie, of course, ended up killing her as
well in order to protect them.
“Carolyn
Rose York.”
Finally he
hands Sophie the last picture in the pile, this one of Tony Morgan
himself. Sophie’s ex-husband was killed
by Sophie herself, though, yet again, Sophie made it look like a suicide. Seeing this picture is too much as it brings
a tear to her eyes. She quickly shoves
them back at Detective O’Leary.
“Too much?”
He asks.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry,
but you do realize what all of these people have in common?” He points a finger at Sophie. “You.”
Sophie wipes
the tears from her eyes. “Detective, are you implying what I think you are
implying?”
“I am not
implying or suggesting anything right now.
I just do what I do and that’s follow patterns. I found a pattern in these string of deaths,
one that I’m shocked no one else noticed yet.”
He holds up
the picture of Manning and Snyder. “Manning once dated your brother’s
ex-girlfriend, who was convicted of murdering Manning’s parents. She maintained her innocent and you and your
brother supported her in that. You
constantly went to visit her. And a few
days after she was executed, Manning and his new lover Snyder ended up dead in
a murder suicide, and neither one seemed suicidal to anyone at the time.”
He holds up
the picture of Brandy. “Brandy had been dating your brother. And she ends up dead too?”
He holds up
the picture of Carolyn Rose York and Tony Morgan. “Carolyn Rose York had been a
mental patient of this man, Tony Morgan, YOUR HUSBAND by the way. The two had an affair which Tony ended
abruptly. It drove York even crazier, to
the point where she tried to kidnap Morgan and kill you. She is captured and put into custody. A couple months after her release, both she
and Tony end up dead just days apart from one another.”
Detective O’Leary
stands up. “I’m not going to take up any more of your time, Sophie, but I am
here to warn you that I am on this case.
I know something deeper is going on here, I just can’t put my finger on
it. And if you know of anything,
anything at all, that can help me crack this case, then you need to tell
me. Are we clear?”
Sophie nods
her head. “Yes…”
==========
Mark O’Brian
On Camera
==========
What exactly
is my sister capable of? That’s a good
question, isn’t it? No one knows quite
how far Sophie will go to get what she wants.
Hell, I’m her brother and she still surprises me. Do you think I expected Reawakening Day to
happen the way it did? Nope. She just kept telling me to trust her.
She was
right, as usual. And as usual she
manipulated everything and every damn one of ya to perfection.
What makes
Total War great is the fact that we each play our part. I’m the muscle. I provide the power. I don’t have to come up with the plans. I don’t have to strategize. That’s what Sophie does and let me tell you,
she’s damn good at what she does. She is
an artist in that ring and she can orchestrate anyone’s destruction.
Abigail, you
had the rare opportunity of being Sophie’s student. You got to learn from her wisdom and
experience. And you know, if you had
just listened to her, if you had remembered those lessons she taught you, then
you would be world champion today.
Sophie knows
what is necessary to bring down Sinistry.
I think you do too, Abigail, but you’re afraid to admit it. You’re afraid to bring her out.
Well my
sister is a very generous person and being the generous person she is, she is
gonna attempt to give IWC what it needs.
She is gonna try one last time to beat these lessons into you, she is
gonna try to remind you of who you need to be.
Pay
attention this time, Abigail. You won’t
get another chance like this.
==========
Glenn
Braddock
On Camera
==========
When I first
met Sophie O’Brian she was just eighteen years old. She had just left a terrible environment
where her father had beat her routinely and that experience left her cold and
afraid. The young lady wanted one thing
from me: she wanted to learn how to defend herself. She wanted me to give her the tools necessary
to make sure that never happened to her again.
She came to
me cold and afraid, so what I did was I took her fear and taught her how to
channel it and use it against her enemies.
And I took that coldness she had developed and I helped it grow. I made her colder. I made her into a cold-hearted warrior inside
of the squared circle. I taught her
everything I knew. You may not like her,
but that’s irrelevant. Her record of
success in the pro-wrestling industry has helped the Braddock name to live on
forever.
Now my
student has become a teacher herself.
Sophie has taken so many young talents under her wing but most notably
she has taken those talents who are in most need, much like how I took her in
when she was most in need.
Allison
Lorraine, former FWA World Tag Team Champion, GDW Women's Champion, SWWC Tag
Team Champion, and most recently a former GCW World Tag Team Champion.
Arcadia
Chavez, former GDW World Tag Team Champion and former SWWC Tag Team Champion.
Jennifer
Alan, Caitlin O’Toole, even Tabitha Silverstone took wrestling lessons under
Sophie.
And yes,
Abigail Lindsey as well.
Sophie is
one of my prize pupils, Lindsey. She
took my lessons to heart and she made a name for herself real early as a
result, winning four world titles in her first year as a wrestler. You would do well to listen to her, Lindsey.
So sit back,
shut up, and open your mind to the wisdom that Sophie is about to share.
==========
Sophie O’Brian
On Camera
==========
The camera
opens in an empty gymnasium. A wrestling
ring is set up near the center and the lights are dimmed. Standing inside the ring, propped up in one
of the corners, is none other than Sophie O’Brian.
“Hello
Abigail. I hope you recognize this place…or
has it really been that long?” Sophie grins knowingly. “Yes, this is my
wrestling school. This is where I train
my students in the art of destruction.”
“And you
should feel honored and privileged because you are one of the few who have ever
got to and who ever will get to grace these halls. I don’t take just anyone under my wing.”
Sophie shakes her head. “I only take certain people and I have a few special
prerequisites.”
She holds up
one finger. “First of all, they have to really need it. The first few times we met in the ring in GDW
I could tell you needed it and you needed it badly. You were relying solely on trickery and
deceit to win matches. Now, granted, my
motto is win by any means necessary, but when the only weapon you have in your
arsenal are cutesy tricks then you are bound to fail. I knew, if you continued on the path you were
heading, that the wrestling world would eventually figure you and your tricks
out and your career would hit a downward spiral from there. Tricks and games alone cannot get the job
done. You needed skill and you needed it
badly.”
She holds up
a second finger. “Secondly, any student I take in has to really want it. You approached me, Abigail. You approached me about getting the necessary
skills and ability needed in order to win.
No longer did you want to get by on trickery alone. You didn’t want the world to remember you as
just a one trick pony. You wanted to be
able to actually wrestle and show the world that you could get the job done. And I saw that look in your eyes, a look that
told me that you wanted it and wanted it badly.
So I took you in.”
“But that
wasn’t the only thing I saw in your eyes.” Sophie shakes her head. “Oh no,
there was so much more to you than just a simple desire and I could see it in
your eyes. You had something special
there, something hidden deep in your soul that made you a threat to this entire
industry if you ever tapped into it. I
call it a killer instinct. Psychiatrists
call it sociopathy….”
“…but you
called her Serenity.”
Sophie
closes her eyes and chuckles. “Serenity was a thing of beauty when let
loose. She damn near killed Alana Starr
at GDW Wrestlecade X. It was wonderful
to watch.”
“See,
Abigail, I gave you the wrestling knowledge that you desired and that combined
with your intelligence and trickery was enough to make you dangerous but it
would never be enough to get you a world championship. Abigail Lindsey just doesn’t have it in her
to get the job done and you know it.”
“I knew it
too. That’s why I had hoped that perhaps
you would remember my own trainer’s words, the same words he uses on all of his
students upon their graduation, the same words I use on all of mine upon their
graduation, but with you I took special care to really emphasize the words,
because I knew if anyone would understand the words and what they meant,
Serenity would.”
“A wrestler
is, him or herself, a deadly weapon. Use
what you now know wisely.”
Sophie
grins. “Glenn Braddock told me that when I completed my training and I knew
immediately what he meant. I knew that I
was to use my skills to achieve my goals through any means necessary.”
“But you
didn’t do that at Reawakening Day, did you Abigail?” Sophie shakes her head. “No,
you didn’t. Even though I taught you the
Total War philosophy, you still chose to play it safe. You fought Ba’al as sweet and happy Abi and
you failed.”
“You failed.”
“When will
the imbeciles of IWC realize that you cannot play it safe against
Sinistry? To destroy them you have to
use deadly force. You have to wage a
total war against them. Destroy anything
and everything that they hold near and dear.
To defeat them you must use your deadliest of weapons and yet when you
had the chance to utilize your deadliest of weapons, you chose to keep her
locked away.”
“Now allow
me to tell you what is going to happen at New Age.”
Sophie’s
eyes grow cold. “IWC needs Serenity to fight against Sinistry. I hope you realize that and I hope you will
give me Serenity at New Age. If you
choose to ignore Serenity, if you choose to keep her locked away, if you refuse
to give me what I want, then I will finish what Ba’al started.”
“So if you
don’t want Buehler pushing you around in a wheelchair the rest of your life, then
you had better give me what I want, you had better give IWC what it needs. You had better let Serenity out to play. She is the only one who can survive what I
have planned for you at New Age.”
