Author's note: An Investigation Game for you? ;-)
Most of the times, Fanfics are "what ifs", modifications of initial situations, as if - somehow - the author had travelled back at some point of the initial storyline, and changed the course of history. Well, ok, sometimes the story differs so much from the original, in a completely different universe, with characters' personalities so different from the original that you wonder why the fludge did the author keep calling it a WWE (or LOTR, DBZ, Harry Potter, ...) fanfic. Was the author just lacking of inspiration for his characters' names for an original story, or what? ;-)
By a sheer accident, I happened to read recently a WWE fanfic rather... special. Very well written in style, but with a theme and conclusion that even I found dark and disturbing (and those of you who have been reading my other stories for the past years know that I'm not into the butterflies and teletubbies style either). In that story, if you accepted one drastic change about one of the character, the rest could awfully be seen as logical. So, starting from the fact that something (and not just the author ;) ) had changed one of the character on that fanfic I read, I got the idea of this Time Alteration fanfic.
So the GAME FOR YOU will be to investigate and find which fanfic I'm referring to ;-) I'm warning you, it's not going to be easy, but I'll spread clues inside the chapters that will help you through your investigation. I might also come up with a prize for the winner ;-)
*update after 1st review* : when I meant "which fanfic I'm referring to", I meant the WWE dark fic I mentionned earlier (which isn't written by me) ;-)
Have "fun" ;-)
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RIPPLE EFFECT
"Change one thing, changes everything"
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1- Explosion
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Contrary to common beliefs, the Timeline is not elastic. It does not adjust to gradually reduce any modification until a few (hundreds of) years in the future, everything is back to normal. Killing one of Hitler's ancestors during the Roman Empire will NOT have Hitler exist anyway and be the leader of Germany through World War Two. Hitler won't exist. Period. And the WW2 may happen - or not - but certainly at different date than the one you are used to, and with different intensity and consequences.
No, the Timeline is not elastic. It rather follows the Butterfly Effect: Every modification done, will just amplify, from a simple ripple in events, until it becomes a tsunami and wipes out everything we know. Another future is build, which may lead to the paradox of not having the Time Troublemaker able to travel in the past to ever make his first modification. The timeline would then switch in a perpetual Yo-yo between realities. The worst scenario, ever.
The bad new is: time-travelling exists.
The good new is: the process is so complicated and needs such an amount of energy, that the time-travels are scarce.
And yes, it's a good thing, because a modification can be seen as a stone thrown in a lake. It makes little ripples first, but then - by a sort of resonance effect - they amplify, and end by exploding and creating other ripples, which will in turn amplify and create other ripples. Until the surface of the whole lake is affected.
See now the lake as the known - and unknown - universe.
For every modification, it's not dozen but hundreds or thousands of us who are sent to locate each and everyone of the resulting ripples, and apply enough force or influence to reduce them. To smooth them. I could say 'To set the wrong things right'. But sometimes, we have to prevent a good modified thing from happening and revert to the bad thing. So Good, Bad, it's just a concept we have to ignore.
We are known as Timelords, and we are not there to be loved. Just the Bigger Picture counts.
In fact yes, the time is elastic. At least, it will remain elastic-looking as long as we'll be here to do our job, and make up for every modifications. So that the Time Troublemaker will always be in the position of going back in the past.
Prevent a paradox. Save the Bigger Picture.
That's what I keep in mind as I'm now standing in this wrestling arena, in the middle of the crowd, close to the ring. No one pays attention to me. I can choose my appearance so that I won't have anything special that will ring a bell to anybody. If someone ever looks at me, I'll appear of no interest to that person, and will be forgotten within the minute. My own presence cannot create another modification. Even if they try to be discrete, Time Travellers always have the same effect as a bull in a china shop when it comes to Time stability. We, Timelords, know how to act discretely without affecting the Time. Unless we really want to. Or have to.
We located a Ripple here, but so far, I couldn't locate it exactly. Something has been modified a long time ago, and one of the many consequences is happening here. I can feel the Ripple in formation, its strength increasing with each passing minutes. Yet, I still can't locate it precisely. I'll have to be fast. That Time Ripple is about to explode and create other Ripples around. I can feel it.
I studied the Normal History related to this sport with all the events and participants, through time, so that I can compare with what I now have in front of me. For this 17th January 2011, I can already see the alterations that already happened. And they are not small! The presence of the NEXUS group in the middle of the RAW ring, with Wade Barrett as their leader, and not being booed level 4 is already a big of a change. The crowd still seems to dislike them, but not as much as I expected. And most importantly, the History Record tells me that at that very moment in Time, Barrett, but also the two wrestlers on his direct sides, Slater and Gabriel, should have been in another wrestling division called "SMACKDOWN" and a new - extremely mentally sick - leader called CM Punk should have been in Barrett's position in the Nexus.
It is not my place to judge if Barrett is a better leader than CM Punk, or could build a better future. It is my place to find out what made Barrett still the leader of Nexus, and correct it.
The light decreases suddenly, and briefly, like an electricity power cut, and no, before you ask, there's no blue lightings clashing in the middle of the ring with a Terminator-like figure appearing out of a bright sphere. If only the time-travelling was as demonstrative! It would make things so much easier for us to locate the Time Troublemakers, and make a stop to their incursions when it was still fresh. Oh, they always have good reasons to do their felony. And some of these reasons could be seen as rather noble.
As I spoke of Hitler earlier, trust me: a lot of people already tried. And we went through all the possible troubles to make sure that he would exist. Of course, we couldn't eliminate all the modifications done. Especially the genetic ones. Did you know that originally Adolph Hitler was to be blond with blue eyes? The perfect Arian? But that's not today's matter.
The lights come back with an electronic music. The anonymous Raw General Manager just sent an email, and a man named Michael Cole walks to the laptop and quote the GM words.
"As SmackDown decided to come and taunt us tonight, we shall answer them by a Tag-Team championship match against their actual champions Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov."
I mentally check: originally, at this moment of time, these two were indeed those who had the Tag-Team champion belts. But they should be part of RAW and not SMACKDOWN. On the other hand, Barrett, Slater and Gabriel should have now been part of SMACKDOWN and not RAW. Some switch apparently happened between those two groups. Barrett, Slater and Gabriel still being in RAW NEXUS in this moment of time, I suppose that THE CORRE - Barrett's historical group in SMACKDOWN - doesn't exist in this reality. I focus again on that tag-team championship match. By the history records, Marella and Kozlov are supposed to soon loose their titles to Slater and Gabriel. This is probably what will happen tonight.
"To those champions, I shall oppose a shock team we haven't seen for awhile together in the ring, and who will tonight fight side by side". Michael Cole continues. I frown, having the feeling that it won't be Slater and Gabriel. Maybe that's where I'll find the Ripple. The next seconds are going to be extremely useful. And potentially extremely dangerous. I double my attention, and I prepare myself to jump, in case of an alteration too huge that would happen.
"Nexus leader Wade Barrett...", Cole starts to my surprise, and interest. Barrett doesn't have his legendary arrogant smile, but rather a time-modification interesting small and somehow shy smile, while Slater and Gabriel congratulates him by slapping his shoulders in a friendly way. If only they knew...
"and WWE champion... John CENA!", Cole shouts in conclusion.
My eyes are probably wide open. Cena is the WWE champion? But what else to expect? The Ripple is about to explode, it is normal that the timeline is undergoing huge and complex changes. I mentally note that I'll have to check what happened with the Miz and Randy Orton. Historically, after some very aggressive debuts on RAW, Cena and Barrett had accepted the General Manager's request and made a truce. Their handshake had driven the WWE universe over the edge. How could Good and Evil associate? After that, the Nexus had still been somehow harsh with the other wrestlers, but their treacherous attacks had reduced, and they never got a hand on Cena anymore. During some RAW Battle Royal on October 4th 2010 where the winner would become the #1 contender for the WWE championship at Bragging Rights, Cena and Barrett had even made an alliance to kick out of the ring all the other wrestlers, until there was just the two of them left and they could finally pit their wits against each other, one-on-one. The final battle had been quite long and took almost as much time as it had taken the duo to previously kick out all the other wrestlers. In the end, Barrett had won, narrowly. He had then faced Randy Orton at Bragging Rights, and after a fight people would remember for years to come, Barrett had become the first ever British champion of the WWE.
Except that now I doubt people will remember that fight for years, because apparently, it never happened. Or if it did, it didn't end the same way. No one would now remember that after that fight, when Barrett was barely standing on his feet, The Miz had ran to the ring and immediately cashed his Money In The Bank contract for the championship match. One minute later, the United Kingdom had no more champion at the WWE.
What people remembered most of that evening, was what came next, when John Cena who had commented this battle, alongside Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, took the microphone and spoke to The Miz, saying that even if he had the right to cash his MITB contract anytime, had Cena ever still had an ounce of respect for him, it was now gone. Cena had then helped a defeated Barrett on his feet, carrying him out of the arena, showing where his respect now was.
But apparently, that beautiful conclusion to their feud had probably never happened. I try to imagine all the reasons why. Maybe at Bragging Rights, Orton managed to place one more RKO than previously, and defeated Barrett; then Cena found a way to defeat Orton in a later championship match. Or maybe at the RAW Royal Rumble, Cena had been victorious over Barrett and had later defeated Orton at Bragging Rights. Those two fights had originally been so tense and on equal strength and skills, that a mere butterfly wings flapping could have changed the issue of one of those matches. Barrett's quite calm attitude in the middle of the ring now tends to make me think that his truce with Cena and the face-turn that later resulted in, did happen. The timeline modification probably happened after there handshake.
But my mental computing is interrupted as my eyes moves from Cena to Barrett and I see the latter's face. Wade Barrett's complexion has gone ashy and his eyes are expressing terror. Automatically, as Cena's name has been pronounced and his rap music theme has started, Slater and Gabriel have put comforting arms around Barrett and pulled him backwards, while the rest of the Nexus has gathered protectively around their leader with a mask of pure hatred towards Cena. One of the Nexus - Tarver if my memory is right - does even make a quite clear gesture toward Cena: he's going to slit his throat open.
The crowd around me seems to be puzzled by the situation as well as the commentators. I turn my eyes toward Cena. His energetic and victorious walk down the ramp has slowed down to a halt, and his joyful expression has faded. He's now looking in Barrett's direction but he doesn't seem afraid, or even impressed. No, what lays in his eyes is more of sadness, or guilt, or even regret. I can't decipher precisely. But I correct my initial deduction: Maybe Barrett and Cena never made a truce to begin with. Of course, I can't completely ignore that the truce perhaps happened, but then something particularly strong broke it.
I sense the Ripple growing. And fast. I'll have to jump soon, but I don't have enough information yet on where (when) to go next.
I glance again toward Wade Barrett. He doesn't look at Cena anymore. His eyes are looking downward and in a far distance. His breathing is erratic and he doesn't seem to respond to Slater or Gabriel's calls. I can see his arms are slightly shaking. I automatically recognize the symptoms of a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He's reliving something. Something bad. Certainly something related with Cena. And the attitude of all the Nexus members tell me that they know what it is about. The surprised expression on Michael Cole and his co-commentator Jerry Lawler tell me that they don't know what it is about. This leads me to the deduction that it is probably something that happened off-camera - probably but not 100% sure. But it's obviously something dire kept between Cena, Barrett and the rest of the Nexus. Things are too different now for me to be able to analyse this reality. I feel the Ripple about to explode. If I'm still here when it does explode, I'll be marked by it. And I'll be trapped in this new reality. All the Timelords will be trapped. Situations like that already happened in the past, but the further we are trapped from the first modification moment, the hardest it is to smooth the reality back to normality.
Cena can't seem to be able to move his eyes away, his expression even more sadder and guiltier than a few seconds ago as he witnesses the now consequences of whatever has happened in their modified past. Barrett has fallen on his knees, his arms gathered around his shaking form. The crowd is becoming gradually silent. If I still had a doubt of whoever between Cena and Barrett will cause the explosion of the Ripple, I know now. Barrett doesn't seem to acknowledge his friends any longer. He is trapped in whatever vision is eating him. He takes a deep - hitched - breath. I feel the Time violently convulsing around me. The Ripple is about to explode.
But I've jumped before Barrett ever screamed.
That was the Ripple explosion, I know it now: Wade Barrett's scream probably shocked so many people that it modified drastically some element of their life. Thousands of people in the arena, potentially thousands of new ripples. A disaster that I cannot let happen. That I won't let happen. At whatever costs.
As I'm transporting myself backwards in time, I must make sure Barrett will never scream that day. I just hope it's not a previous Ripple Explosion that modified Barrett's past. Otherwise - like so many Timelords before me - I'll crash against a wall in time and I won't be able to go before that moment and prevent it from happening. All I'll be able to do in such a situation, is to alter Barrett enough so that he'll be able to live with the modification. How horrific it ever was.
Do you understand now why we hate Time Travellers with such a passion?
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TO BE CONTINUED
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... and there goes the Godwin Point... ;-)
I know, another fanfic, while you are all still waiting to see what happened to Barrett in "Never Got a Chance". I'll be back on that one (and the others) in April, but I'll try to update this one at least once a month, to feed you with new clues, but to give you also the time to investigate on your own ;-)
As I like challenges, I decided to write this story in the first person. It's a first time for me, and I hope it turned out well. Just tell me what you think of it :)
Those who want to follow the updates, you can still follow my twitter on twitter . com / roselyne777 (yeah, I gave up resistance and started using it too ;-) )
Okie, gotta go now. ;-)
Hugs & Have a Nice Day :)
::Roselyne::