Kane had come to ringside, against his better judgement. He wasn't going to bail her out, he told himself, but the least he could do was come to ringside with her. The crowd was inconsolable, vibrating with suspense. Who did Lita choose? Who was Freyja going to have to face to get to Lita? Time would only tell.

Kane watched his wife pace impatiently in the ring, motioning for a mic after a full minute of silence.

"Well?" The young Basque yelped impatiently. "I'm waiting. Let's see this 'Champion' of yours." Still silence. "COME ON!"

As if on cue, the stadium went black, dark as night, Kanes heart skipped a beat and Freyja laughed. Over the sound of the gong ringing through the stunned stadium, he swore he could hear his wife losing it in the ring. A familiar organ riff thundered through the floor and overhead as Kane watched his brother make his way down the ramp at the expected pace: torturously slow.

She should be running screaming, but all Freyja did was laugh. She had to be the only person, ever, to be amused at the presence of the Phenom. It was then that Kane discovered his wife's complete lack of any sense of self-preservation. The Deadman was coming, he was coming for her, and she laughed in his face.

"Really? Lita chose you?" Freyja laughed, circling The Undertaker who now stood center-ring, all seven feet of him poised for a fight. He'd make quick work of this tiny woman, it almost wasn't worth the sacrifice Lita had made. "Really Lita? You're going to sicc the Undertaker on me like he's some sort of dog? Ha! How does it feel to be used, big guy?"

Taker took a silent step towards her. She wasn't saying anything he hadn't thought of before, but now that he saw his brother's new wife in the flesh? This bitch was crazy and needed to be stopped. "She brought you out here to scare me didn't she? She brought you out here because she doesn't want to face the truth of what she's done and she knows I can't get through you. Everyone knows that I can't beat you."

Freyja finished her lap around The Deadman, finally standing before his unwavering face. Her last words, before dropping the mic, in the stunned silence of the arena were,

"But I'm sure as hell going to try."

That bell rang, and the fight was on. Kane couldn't possibly stand by, whatever he told her last week be damned, this was now, and this was no regular match. It was survival. He made to climb in the ring, but Freyja, who'd narrowly avoided Taker's grasping hands yelled, "No, Kane!"

She didn't need him, not right now anyway. The Undertaker lumbered towards her again, this time she had the room to baseball-slide right under and in between his legs, wasting no time leaping into the air and drop-kicking him square in the back. She fell upon the ground front first, flipping over quickly to watch as her brother-in-law stumbled toward the ropes. As he regained his balance, his eyes met Kane's, who looked like he was 2 seconds from losing it. He turned to Freyja, who was paying more attention to standing back up than she was to him.

Now was his chance, he moved for her again, his hands coming to her neck, an obvious go to for the Phenom. Without warning, Freyja's knee came up behind her, her hands grabbed his wrists and pulled out with all her might as her head and body dipped low, barely twisting out of his grasp. Her foot extended up over her head, kicking him in the upper abdomen. The girl was basically doing the damned splits in the air as her foot flicked up, like a scorpion tail. As everyone was still trying to process just what the fuck they saw, she dipped under his arm.

She had to stay out of his reach. But, in a ring this size, the only way to stay out of the reach of someone who was seven feet tall was to stay behind them, and that's exactly what she planned to do. Kane watched as his wife lept up, climbing his brother's back like he was a tree, one leg hooking around his waist and under the other, arms running around his neck to pull into a rear naked choke, desperately trying to get any sort of leverage on his much larger frame. It was all in vain, for all the Deadman did was stand there, hoping she'd wear herself out eventually. This 'submission' just felt like wearing a too-tight turtleneck and a backpack.

She wasn't letting go, however, she wasn't giving up. He went through his options, and ultimately just fell backwards. It was enough to knock the wind right out of her, and loosen her up although she refused to let go. Kane started to step into the ring and was again stayed by Freyja as she rasped, "Don't, Kane!" from beneath his brother.

Taker sat up, coming to his knees he hooked a long arm behind him and separated their bodies further, throwing Freyja over his shoulder to the waiting ground. Her backed arched and she looked at him, gasping for air. He threw his body over hers and went for the pin.

1...

2...

And a kickout at 2. Some people just didn't know when to quit. Freyja's legs went around his torso once more, attempting a quick head-arm triangle which was quickly dispatched and she was thrown down again.

Kane was showing an unimaginable level of restraint. This was no regular match, she was going to get killed out there. He couldn't lose her.

Freyja managed to squirm out of another pin and watched as her doom drew closer yet again. This man was throwing her around like a rag doll. She was in way out of her depth. She tried to dodge again, but her throat was caught in a large and surprisingly quick hand. She grasped hard at his wrist and pulled away to keep some space between his strong palm and her airway.

Kane didn't care about what he'd said, he didn't care that Freyja refused his help. He couldn't watch anymore. Leaping into the ring, he stole his wife from his brothers hands and right there in the middle of the ring, choke-slammed her himself.

And the winner of the match, by disqualification... was Freyja Kutlass.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

"Are you talking yet?" Kane snapped, annoyed. He'd been getting the cold shoulder from Freyja since the match. He could tell she was livid about his interference. He didn't care.

"Are you going to apologize for interfering in my match?" Freyja turned to her husband as they walked through the hotel room door.

"No! I'm not apologizing for shit! It was for your own good." He slammed the key card on the dresser. "And now you won, and you get your shot at Lita. Everyone's happy."

"Maybe you don't always know whats best, Kane!" Freyja shot back, obviously upset. She'd bottled her anger for two whole hours and now it was all coming out at once.

"I do this time! You have no idea what my brother is capable of. I don't know how Lita got him to do this, but I just saved you." Kane's voice began to raise.

"I didn't want to be saved! What happened to 'not bailing me out', huh?"

"I wasn't going to let you get hurt. Not the way you would have if I hadn't intervened."

Freyja's hands grabbed at her hair in frustration. "Oh, my God, you aren't listening to me at all."

"Oh, I'm listening all right." Kane laughed bitterly, nearing his wife and taking a firm hold of her chin. "You don't trust me, you don't think I know what I'm doing, but you know what? I've been doing this a lot longer than you have. You just some silly, stupid little girl so hell-bent on revenge you can't see straight. When you're too busy looking forward, you forget to watch your back."

"Oh," Emerald eyes narrowed at the gargantuan before them. She shoved Kane back with impressive force, "And you're just a sad divorcee trying to project your fantasy of normality onto me. Well, guess what, Kane? You might be my husband, but I never asked for you, and it's not my fault that Lita didn't want you."

In all the years since he started speaking again, Kane had never been left speechless. He drew back a bit, cogs turning in his brain to decipher exactly what his wife had just said to him. It didn't take him long to come back to planet Earth.

"Now, hold on one Goddamn second-" He said, taking another step toward Freyja.

"No! I'm done talking about this."

By the time Kane had a chance to yell after her, she was out the door, and as he hung his head out the door to exclaim, "Freyja, get back here!" She'd turned the corner down the hallway. He felt eyes on him, and he turned to see Hurricane, who'd witnessed their little domestic, mouth slightly open.

Kane snarled, "What the fuck are you looking at?!" with such ferocity the young man dropped his ice bucket, letting it make a dull clatter on the carpeted hallway floor.

Freyja burst out to the night outside the hotel. They were in Kansas City, and it was late enough in the summer that the crispness of fall was just barely turning the nights a little crisp. Freyja breathed out a sigh of relief, and let the temperate air dry the tears that threatened to fall.

"Geez, girl." An all-too-familiar voice called from the shadows. "You look like you could use a drink."

Freyja rolled her eyes, "I'm not drinking with you, Edge."

"A bit of trouble in paradise there, bud?" He pressed, trying to goad a response from the young woman.

"It's not really any of your business." Freyja retorted, wiping her tears from her eyes, hoping the veil of night and the poor lighting outside the hotel would help mask them. "In case you haven't noticed, we're enemies, remember?"

"No, nah nah nah," Edge shook his head, clearly he'd already had a few. "Kane's my enemy. Lita is yours. I like you." He turned around, dug around in his tiny cooler, ice rattling in the plastic bin. He popped open a beer and held it out in her direction. "Now, come on. Have a seat."

"I don't drink beer." She excused, taking a tentative step toward him.

"You'll like this one, trust me. A Canadian Original!"

Freyja tentatively took the bottle from Edge's hand, tired of arguing, but she picked it up by the bottle neck with two fingers, like a dead animal or a stinky sock. She rounded his legs to sit on the other side of him on the bench he'd perched on, inspecting the little ship on the bottle label.

"So, where's your little girlfriend?" Freyja taunted, readying herself to take a swig of the Canuck's swill.

"Inside, she didn't feel like coming out." He dismissed, giving Freyja and expectant look as she threw back a mouthful of the beer.

"Tastes like grass..." Freyja admitted and handed back the bottle glibly. "Tastes like... lawn."

"Well, maybe this is more your speed," he conceded, digging through his pocket to reveal a little silver container. Freyja took the flask and un-screwed the top, giving it's contents a cautious sniff.

Straight Everclear.

Lord, this boy was ready to die. Freyja shrugged, taking a much too large swig from the flask.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on there chief!" Edge exclaimed, snatching the flask away and cradling it like a baby. "What's got you out here drinking like you wanna drown, anyway?"

Freyja shrugged. Of all the people she'd consider taking relationship advice from, Edge was not on that list. "Shouldn't even be out here with you."

"Why not?" He slurred, "I'm great company!"

"You aren't exactly known for being an upstanding citizen." The young woman took the flask back and took another small sip, letting the bitterness burn away her troubles.

"You're getting quite the reputation yourself, pal." Edge retorted.

"You already stole one of Kane's wives," Freyja looked up at the quarter moon, talking more to herself than to her new drinking buddy, "And he already doesn't trust me."

"Oh, so this is about Kane?" The man spat her husbands name out like a bad taste in his mouth, an apple with worms inside.

"I never said that!" Freyja defended, shifting away from Edge. She'd said too much, it was time to withdraw.

"Oh, but it is, isn't it?" He pressed. "Why do you care what that monster thinks of you, anyway?"

Freyja tossed back another mouthful. "I don't." she said dryly.

"You wouldn't be out here drinking yourself to death with my liquor if you didn't care." Edge scoffed. "So why do you? Lita never did."

Freyja snickered bitterly, "Oh, that's great, Lita never cared. Let me take a page from her book. Because Lita never cared and look what happened. Look what happened to Kane, to me, to Lita... don't pretend it hasn't affected you, too."

"Nothing happened to Kane." her partner argued. "He was a Monster before all this, and he still is."

The young woman shook her head slowly, voice coming in almost a whisper. "I think we've all become monsters now."

Edge looked away pensively before saying, "Well, I oughtta go, I'm toeing the 'public intoxication' line." As he made to stand, Freyja held the flask up, trying to hand it back to him, but he pushed it back toward her. "Keep it. I think you need it more than I do."

Freyja wasn't going to argue.

Kane had settled into the lobby, having picked out some tome so he could pretend to read and not be bothered. He needed to get out of that damn hotel room. So there he sat, pretending to thumb through the book he'd picked out, trying to ignore the sound of someone flop in the chair next to him. Until he heard the chair next to him say,

"Shit!"

He looked up, attention now diverted, and saw none other than his own ex-wife, already lept up and ready to run.

"I- I'm sorry," she faltered nervously, "I just, I didn't recognize you there- I- " She trailed off, fear turning to interest as Kane's attentive face changed from confusion to apathy, his head shook almost imperceptibly, eyes blinked incredulously.

He should give her a hard time, he just didn't have the energy for it. He didn't care why Lita was here, and if doing nothing made her leave quicker, fine. But Lita stayed, tilted her head to the side,

"You don't read."

"I do when I want to be left alone." He replied, hoping she'd get the hint.

Lita did, of course, she hated to admit she was familiar with his changeable moods. She smiled insincerely, raising her eyebrows and making to take her leave. As she did so, Kane thought better of it.

"Lita, wait-" he called after her, and to his surprise, she turned around, looking at him expectantly. It was something he'd been wondering in the back of his mind all evening. "I'm... not going to say anything about who you chose for your 'Champion', Freyja's the talker out of the two of us but... I have to ask how? How did you get me brother to help you?"

Lita shifted, looking away from Kane, breathing out a sigh before clenching her jaw.

"You didn't." Kane knew he shouldn't care, Lita wasn't his wife anymore, but how stupid could she be? "You did, didn't you?"

Lita looked angrily back at her ex-husband, tears welling in her eyes. "Don't tell anyone, Kane. Please."

"I won't. I don't care, it's your soul, do whatever you want with it but Christ, Lita, was it really that important to you?" Kane asked, almost incredulously.

Lita's brow furrowed, her face turning red. "You know what, Kane? Of all people, you don't get to judge me for this. Or for anything." She spat, turning on her heels and storming off.

Kane was left in stunned silence, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Wow," was all he whispered to himself. He tried go back to pretending to read, but he couldn't even focus on that. Slamming the book shut in frustration, he put it away and went in search of the only person that could possibly ease this Freyja situation.

Kane's knuckles rapped on the black painted door, it would lead to a room he knew was Andone's. No answer.

"Andone, open up!" He told the wood door. After no answer he thought, Maybe he can't hear me.

Kane looked down the hall left, right, no one around. Good. The giant lay himself on the ground before Andone's door, whispering loudly through the cracks. "Andone! I need to talk to you!"

"What the hell are you doing?" A heavily accented baritone queried from behind the wrestler. Kane turned around, eyes finding Andy, head tilted to the side, ice bucket in hand, brow furrowed.

Kane stood faster than Andone had ever seen anyone move, "Looking for you." he excused lamely.

"... Why?" The older man's confusion was apparent.

Kane's gaze shot either way down the hallway, then back to his wife's uncle, "Can we go in?"

Andone eyed Kane suspiciously, this behavior quite odd. "Ehh... sure, sure, come on in."

What will Kane and Andone talk about? Stay tuned to find out! (I had to split this chapter into two chapters because it was long as fuuuuuuuck)