A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed me. To everyone else: Please review! I miss hearing your comments. Remember, no comment is a really bad comment as long as it's said in a mature manner!

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Kane stood there brooding as he watched a replay of Thea interrupting him and Kari during the last show. Tonight was the night that she was going to either remain his rookie, a pawn to be used in his reign of terror or she was going to go off on her own and make a name for herself and only herself. All of this hung on a thin line above her head, resting on a single match between him and her.

As much as Kane would love a powerful pawn at his side, he wanted her to be free. She had gone through so much to get where she was. The attacks, the lies, the suffering, all had been against her from the very beginning. Now she was standing tall against the past where she was a scared little girl playing in the adult world.

His gaze lifted to the heavens for a moment. Markus, I know you're up there watching me. You're probably not proud of what I did to your only daughter. You probably hate me, even if the great people up in Heaven don't hate anyone anymore. I've hurt your daughter in so many ways and now, I'm going to go against her in a ring to inflict pain upon her for the entertainment of millions of people. This isn't how you wanted us to end up. You wanted us to end up as a happily married couple with kids and a home to call our own. You wanted me to take care of Thea for the rest of time and make sure she was the happiest I could ever hope her to be. But because of me that will never become reality…

"It's my fault," Kane whispered, tearing his eyes away from the screen to find himself looking at the Undertaker. "What do you want brother?" he demanded bitterly.

"You still feel for the girl," Undertaker commented, his gravelly southern drawl coming out. "If the Devil favored you, I would have thought that he would have removed such a weakness. But…maybe he doesn't favor you as much as you have deluded yourself into believing he has."

"I have no weakness!" Kane growled, glaring daggers at Undertaker's calm face. "I have purged myself of the weakness of which you speak and tonight I will destroy her! You, on the other hand, have yet to remove yourself from the grasp of all of your weaknesses. The weaknesses which I will continue to exploit as soon as I take care of one mistake that I made six months ago!"

Undertaker smirked. "You may believe that everything will turn out in your favor tonight. You may believe that if you say that you are over the girl, that she doesn't matter to you anymore, that no one will question whether you're a heartless monster or not. But I know better, little brother. I know that part of your heart still yearns for the kindness she showed you once before. You want to be a man again and not a monster parading around in the form of the man she loved."

"She never loved me!" Kane spat, his hands clenching into fists. "It was all an illusion! I had power over her and made her believe that she was infatuated with me, but no longer will I amuse myself with those lies! She means nothing to me!"

A knowing smile appeared on Undertaker's lips as the man vanished in a flash of light. Kane let his breath out in a huff and knocked something over in a brief fit of anger. The action brought back images of what had happened in the hotel room with Thea over six months ago.

How he had scared her in a violent fit of reckless anger. How he had put fear in her that he had never wanted to see. All because she had supposedly told her friends about her bruises and sent them after him…Kane was starting to wonder if it was true anymore.

Did he do all of that because of a lie, a simple lie that cost him everything? Had she really remained faithful and defended him against her friends' wild accusations? Had he lost everything because he couldn't tell fact from fiction anymore? Would she ever forgive him once he found the courage to speak with her without running away?

Thea...I'm sorry…

Thea's intro new intro music played and Kane had to smirk inwardly at it. It was called 'Shut Up and Kiss Me', a song that Thea had once quoted to get him to stop talking about wrestling and just kiss her. Moments later, she appeared out of a cloud of red smoke and did a little pose. She started walking down the ramp, waving to the people who called out to her. Her black hair swung in her face and she brushed it back. That's when Kane realized she was wearing a single red glove on her left hand.

He watched her jump over the top rope and narrowed his eyes at the wink she sent his way. With a smirk, she turned her back on him and waved to the crowd. On the back of her midriff top was a black heart outlined in red with red vines of thorns encircling it. A thin red crack split the heart in two, but the thorns were keeping it together. Kane knew the symbolism of the shirt and tore his gaze away from it.

Thea turned once more to face him as the ref motioned for her to come over. She stood there for a moment, looking like she was debating something inside the safety of her head. With a serious expression on her face, she held her hand out as she had with countless opponents before. Kane stared at it suspiciously.

"Kane, I'm not going to trick you," Thea said as if reading his mind. "I'm simply asking to shake your hand as a gesture of good will. You can shake my hand like a man or you can turn it down and prepare yourself for the hardest match of your life. One way or another, one of us is going down and I'm going to be a good sport about it."

Kane extended his hand, but thought better of it. He swatted her hand aside and stepped back, readying himself for battle. Thea let out a small sigh and waited for the bell to ring. It rang and a moment later, Kane attacked.

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Thea groaned when Kane threw her into the corner, her back hitting the turnbuckle and winced. She saw him running towards her and moved out of the way, causing him to run headfirst into the metal pole. A resounding sound of impact rang out and Thea felt her heart squeeze painfully. It wasn't really her goal to hurt him like this, but she had to get him down somehow. It was that or be used as an evil pawn in his reign of terror on WWE.

Which way are you going to move next Kane? Thea thought, brushing her hair back out of her face. What are you going to do next?

Kane shook off the pain and turned to face her. Just as he was about to raise his hand to punch her, Thea did a roundhouse kick that knocked him back. She spun around and did another kick that was reminiscent of HBK's Sweet Chin Music. Kane hit the mat and Thea stood over him, gathering her thoughts.

I've got to stop kicking him. He'll anticipate each of my moves if I keep up with the kicking. If I can somehow get him to stay still I can get him in a submission hold. Thea's eyes narrowed as Kane climbed back to his feet. No, he'll be expecting that too. The only thing he won't suspect is my finisher. I've never shown anyone but the officials my finisher and that was only to get it approved. Stephen's the only one who has really seen me come close to revealing it and he only knows the basics of it. The commentators have been told to look for it, but so far, I've kept it hidden. That's it. I'll use it, but only when I get him where I want him.

Thea ducked under Kane's fist and elbowed him in the stomach in passing. He doubled over and staggered, but didn't fall. Thea moved to set up another move and walked right into Kane's hand. His eyes narrowed and he lifted her into the air, preparing to do a Choke Slam. Thea's teeth ground together as she wriggled and fought to get out of the move before he could complete it. Kane smirked at her petty attempts and threw her down. Thea's skull cracked against the mat, dazing her for a moment.

She rolled out of the way when Kane's big boot came down to press on her throat, narrowly dodging it. As she climbed to her feet, she rubbed her head with the thought of how it was going to hurt in the morning crossing her mind. There wasn't time to give it much more thought than that because Kane was coming upon her once more.

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Kane groaned as Thea sent him flying over the top rope and onto the hard ground below. He attempted to climb to his feet, but was knocked back down to the ground as Thea pulled a high risk move and body slammed him. She rolled to her feet and kicked him in the side. Kane could feel that her blows weren't as strong as they had been when they had practiced with each other months ago during their training and that bothered him. How could she expect to win if she didn't unleash her full strength on him? Had she learned nothing in the time of their training?

Maybe she needs to stay a rookie for a bit longer, Kane thought as Thea pulled him to his feet by twisting his arm. She needs more practice with the basics of wrestling.

Thea's lean muscles flexed as she threw Kane over onto his back once more. Kane had forgotten how strong she was when she was full of adrenaline. She blew her breath out in a hiss and turned away from him as the ref counted six. Kane watched her slide into the ring and climb to her feet once more.

The crowd was cheering for her victory, but Kane would fight like hell to keep her from getting it. He needed this victory to show the world that he had infinite powers while his brother was growing weaker and weaker.

Kane climbed to his feet and slid into the ring just as the ref counted to nine. His eyes narrowed as Thea paced in front of him, watching her for the slightest change that would signal her next move. She stopped pacing and Kane saw her left leg shift position ever so slightly. She was preparing to run at him, but Kane was ready for it.

Thea ran at him and he caught her by the throat once more. Her eyes narrowed as they locked on his and a smirk curved up the corner of her lips. She lifted her legs and planted her feet on his chest. With a force that he had not anticipated, she forced him away with her feet and sent him sprawling one way while she fell the other way. The mat shook underneath of him as he crashed to it and slid to a stop next to the bottom rope. Thea's gaze held his from across the ring as she pushed herself to her feet.

Sweat beaded on her brow and her chest rose and fell rapidly as she fought to catch her breath. Kane blinked when sweat fell in his eye and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. With a wince, he climbed to his feet, holding onto the top rope for support.

Look at the sorry mess we've become, Kane thought as he attacked Thea once more. We're tearing into each other like a pair of wolves fighting over the same carcass. This isn't how it's supposed to go between us. But this is a start. We're at least working off some of the bitterness between us. A few more matches like this and we'll be ready to actually talk…but only if I can find the courage to face her like…the man she thought I was.

Thea was knocked back into the corner once more and Kane rammed his knee into her stomach. She cried out in pain as he repeated the action two more times before the ref could force him away to give her a short break to catch her breath.

Once the ref backed off, Kane advanced on Thea once more. She had her eyes on the ground and Kane couldn't help thinking that maybe he was on his way to winning. One more Choke Slam and she would be finished.

Kane lifted his hand up to take her by the throat and that's when she chose to lift her gaze to his again. Her eyes were soft and pierced him to the core of his broken heart. He took a step back, his anger subsiding slightly under her unwavering gaze. She hadn't looked at him like that since they broke up. It made his heart ache in his breast as he took another step back.

Thea, don't look at me that way. Please don't. I can't – I can't think when you look at me like that. I can't do what needs to be done when your eyes cut into my soul like that. Don't look at me as if I was a man…the man you loved is long dead and a monster stands in his place. Don't look at me like that…

"Kane…" she whispered, climbing to her feet as his hand trembled under her gaze. "Do it. Take me out now like the Devil is whispering in your ear. Prove yourself to him. Or prove to these people that you are not a monster." She held her hand out slowly. "Come back to the side of good."

Kane's eyes saw no trick in her eyes, noted nothing suspicious. She was offering him a way back to the light. A way back to the man that he was once before. He raised his hand once more to take her hand when the image of her scared face flashed before his eyes again. Kane pulled his hand back, but not in time to evade Thea's grasp.

He didn't know what had hit him before his head hit the ground. The crowd was on their feet, roaring at the new move that she had just unleashed upon him. The commentators were saying that Thea had just revealed her finisher, the Venom Kiss, for the first time ever in a match. All he knew was that he was hurting in several areas and couldn't force himself to his feet. He couldn't kip up. Hell, he could barely move at all.

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Thea felt the excitement in the air as she leaned against the ropes after executing her finisher for the first time in over a year. She hated tricking Kane like that, but he wasn't the same man she had fallen in love with. Not yet.

The ref called to her to get her attention before he got down to check on Kane. She could feel Kane's eyes on her. It was obvious that he didn't know what had hit him. His eyes were still a little dazed and his answers to the ref were slow in coming. But Thea could tell that he was going to recover from the attack very soon if she didn't finish this now.

With a little sigh, she pushed herself away from the ropes and walked over to Kane. His eyes looked at her, full of accusations and suppressed rage. It hurt her to know that she had put them there, but she couldn't think of that just now. She lowered herself to pin him.

The arena went black for a split second and all of a sudden, Paul Bearer was in the ring with them. When Thea's attention was taken away from Kane for a split second by the new arrival, Kane had her by the throat…

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A/N: Uh-oh…I smell trouble. What's our lovely Diva-Superstar going to do now that she's getting her butt kicked by Kane? Stay tuned for the next update. And please review. I'll love you all and update sooner if you do. ~ Scarlet