TITLE: What You Used to Be
AUTHOR:
Juliet3:16
EMAIL:
RATING: R
CONTENT:
VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, TORTURE
CATEGORY: ADULT, DRAMA,
ANGST
SPOILERS: Through WM - X7
SUMMARY: What would you do to
save a friend?
DISCLAIMER: I own none of these people in the
story, they are owned by either World Wrestling Entertainment, or
they own themselves.
DISTRIBUTION: WWOMB, anyplace
else, please ask.
What You Used to Be
Chapter Seven
'Waking up'
Steve had run blindly into his bedroom, shock flowing through him at seeing his necklace again.
The necklace Brian gave him.
The one he thought he lost.
The one Vince stole.
Mick had been right, it had not taken a rocket scientist to know that if it had ended up in Linda McMahon's hands, then it had been stolen. Since Linda never struck anybody as the type to steal anything, only one person had to have taken it off Steve's neck.
Vince.
He went to his night stand, opening the drawer and sifting through it. Finally he took out what he was looking for: A picture of himself and Brian Pillman back when they had been tag team partners in WCW. When everything had felt right with the world.
"What have I become man, Steve whispered, not really noticing that his voice had lost some of the cultured tone that Vince had brainwashed into him.
He took a look at himself in the mirror attached to the room's closet. The image in front of him did not resemble the man that last looked into it with clear eyes. The black slacks and long sleeved turtleneck did not fit the man he had known before. Except for the bald head and goatee, the man in front of him was not familiar at all; he looked like a stranger in his own eyes.
In one swift burst of anger, Stone Cold's fist impacted with the mirror, his mind and soul welcoming the pain of the tiny shards of glass embedding themselves in his hand. It was the first bit of real feeling he had experienced as the zombie - like fog Vince had placed on him began to lift little by little.
As he went to put the framed photograph of him and Brian on the night stand, another caught his eye. One of himself, Vince, Stephanie, and Triple H with the belts shortly after WrestleMania, all smiles.
With another burst of indignant anger, he threw that frame across the room, heedless to the sound of it breaking as he slid down by his bed and cried. In the midst of the emotional storm, he did not notice Mick coming in to knee next to his friend to offer comfort and support.
A few hours later, Steve and Mick sat at the kitchen table with several beers between them. Steve was not actually sure where the beer had come from (he suspected Mick had brought it along with him), as he was pretty sure there had not been much in the way of alcohol in his house for quite sometime. However, it had managed to appear, Steve was grateful for he was sorely in need of alcohol in his system tonight.
After the emotional breakdown in his bedroom, the first thing he had done was change out of the clothes he had been wearing. Steve managed to find an old T - Shirt and jeans from the back of one of his drawers. He and Mick had spent the last several hours trying to figure out just how Vince had managed to manipulate and make a general mess of Stone Cold's life and reputation over the last few years.
"So your saying," Austin asked starting to feel some of the buzz from the few beers he had drank thus far. "That those pictures of Rock and Debra - "
"Where staged, yeah," Mick confirmed for his friend. "Trish Stratus confessed later that she and Stephanie set up and took the photos. All of this after he paid somebody off to drug the wine that was sent to Rock's hotel room. Vince was banking on Rock being too nice a guy to leave Debra distressed like she was after Vince kicked her out of the arena. Trish wrote all this in a letter that was sent right after her injuries."
"Well why didn't she actually say something Mick?" Austin asked, the pain evident in his voice.
"Other than the fact it was basically her word against Vince, Stephanie, and Hunter? I think she was planning to after Ric revealed himself to be co - owner. I never thought it was a coincidence that she stated on an SMACKDOWN shortly after Shane's WCW was crushed, that she had an announcement that would signal the beginning of the end of Vince's 'bubble,' and then on RAW Jazz comes in and ends Trish's career by breaking her neck," Mick mused, "she's in a vegetative state, Steve."
"Vince's way of keeping things buried huh?" Steve snorted. Then he paused, his face somber.
"I remember very little of that night after I left SMACKDOWN," he spoke, "I remember leaving and being pissed off over what Vince did to Debra earlier. I remember stopping at a convenience store to get some beer. I vaguely remember being jumped from behind. Might have been Helmsley, maybe somebody else too."
"In her letter," Mick said, "Trish speculated that Hunter, Angle, and Regal may have had something to do with kidnapping you. She didn't have any proof, and claimed that she didn't know what Vince and crew were really up too until later, but given what you just said, it wouldn't surprise me."
"After that, everything's a blur. Until today," Steve finished quietly, fingering the gold chain that was now around his neck with his uninjured hand. Mick had gotten the glass out of the knuckles and bandaged it after finding Steve in his room.
"Point is Steve," Mick spoke, putting the only beer he had that night down, "that's in the past. What's going to happen now?"
Steve stared down at the beer he was currently drinking for a few moments. When he looked at Mick, there was more fire in those blue eyes than Mick had seen in a long while. When he spoke, it was Stone Cold speaking.
"What happens now? Now, Vince fucking pays!"
