This is the last chapter, and I don't know just how long it will end up being, so don't read unless you have some time to spare. This chapter will have a lot of flashbacks in it, but they will all be separated out, so hopefully you won't have to hard a time figuring out who is thinking what. I hope you have enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
The ceremony was beautiful, flowers everywhere, people all dressed up, the entire station showed up in their dress blues, and everyone from the ring who had ever fought against Dannie, even those first few who got her started, showed up at the church to pay their respects, all of them in either dresses or suits, no one in their fighting clothes. Even Kyra, Connor, and the kids were there all dressed up nice. Dannie's favorite flowers were everywhere. They were the GPB Rose Trifecta, the Green, Purple, and Blue Rose Trifecta. It is a single flower with three blossoms, and it grows only on Helion Prime, in three different meadows, only one time a year. If you are lucky enough to find a wild Trifecta, the colors are more rich and are almost, Jade, Midnight Purple, and Sapphire Blue, but when grown indoors, the colors are an Emerald Green, Violet, and Royal Blue.
Because of their rarity, no one is allowed to pick the Trifecta, under penalty of imprisonment and a five hundred dollar fine. But, because of Troy's connections, and that he owns two of the three fields that the Trifecta grows on, only a certain amount of people were allowed to pick a rose to give to Dannie to from a bouquet for her to hold. All the rest of the flowers were either the store bought version which can cost anywhere from seventy-five to a hundred dollars for a single Trifecta, or they were everyday ordinary roses died and intertwined to look like the Trifecta. What can I say, the girl had good taste in flowers. When everyone had gotten their Trifecta from the field, including Riddick, Derick, Kyra, and Troy, there was only a single Trifecta left in the government owned field.
"Dannie reminded me so much of her mother. Beautiful, strong, and strong willed." Riddick said through the tears welling up inside of him.
Your mother was the most beautiful woman that I have ever fought with. She had an air about her. I would want to fight her, but not really hurt her, just let her know who was truly in charge of the entire situation.
"Dannie and I fought almost constantly when I first showed up. I had to find ways to get her to just accept what happened and to allow me to get close to her. But there were days when all I wanted to do was give up, and then she would ask for help, or call me dad not realizing she'd done it, and I would have a whole new reason to keep trying."
It's not like I would have tried to kill her, but I had to come up with some rather inventive ways to keep from actually having to get into a fist fight everytime I came near her. Only once did I not have to fight her. I had pulled her behind one of the buildings while everyone was inside having a drink of the water they found in the settlement, she tried to throw a couple of punches at me, but I caught them, and pinned her up against the building with her hands above her head. I looked deep into her eyes, put my free hand around her waist, and kissed her as hard as I could. She seemed to calm down after that, she didn't fight me everytime she was within arms length of me, but Jonns could see the change in her attitude towards me, and that just pissed him off even more. She ended up sticking closer to me after that so Jonns couldn't get to her.
"I used to tell her stories from when I first met her mother and her Aunt Kyra, and at first she would have a quick remark for everything that I had to say, but eventually, I believe, she grew to trust me, and with that came respect and understanding, so she would keep her comments to herself after that."
I loved your mother, so don't ever think that I just left, I had to. Mercks were after me, and I didn't want them to use her to get to me, so I left in hopes that one day I could return. But if I had known about you, I would have taken her with me and kept you both safe.
"She always hated the idea that I left all those years ago, and at first she actually believed that I didn't love her or her mother, but that was settled right away. We had our differences, but we had so many similarities. She had my fighting abilities, stamina, and my survival instincts, but she was her mother's daughter, and that's why I loved her as much as I did."
I sent Kyra to go help raise you, I didn't think that your mother would have wanted you to end up like me, she wanted you to have a real chance in life.
"Thinking back on my decisions, if I would have stayed with her after her mother died, she might have had a better life. She wouldn't have grown up so angry, I would have changed for the better much earlier in life, and maybe none of this would have ever happened. She would have had me around, so she wouldn't have been so angry all the time, and even if she had been, I would have been around for her to take it out on, and she would never have started this underground ring and I would still have her with me."
Riddick went to sit down as Kyra got up to say her good-byes, and there was a hug between them as they passed eachother, both crying into the other ones shoulder. Kyra got up to the coffin, placed a kiss on her cheek with her finger tips, and then continued to the pulpit, to say her peace. She tried very hard to say what she was going to say without the tears welling up, but one look out at the enormous crowd, all of the beautiful flowers, and she almost completely broke down in front of everyone.
"I look out over this crowd and all I can see is how much every one loved her. Somewhere, deep inside, she loved all of you too. Maybe not in the same way, but she respected you, worked with you, lived with you, and she never once tried to kill any of you. Everyone here knew her in a different way. Some as the Destroyer, undefeated champion of a now closed underground fighting ring, she was known as a teacher to the police for Defense without Weapons, the woman who took down the last remaining merck crew in the universe, she was a daughter to some, and she was a true love to one."
She kept going on about Dannie's childhood and all of the things that made Dannie who she was, but Derick was the only one not listening to her. He kept thinking about that day, the morning before the fight, how he should have stayed there with her instead of leaving with Riddick.
While Dannie was eating her breakfast, Derick woke after turning over and not finding Dannie laying in the bed next to him. He snuck up behind her, grabbed her around the waist, pulled out of the chair she was sitting in, and into his chest in mid bite. Her back was still at him so he was nuzzling her from behind.
"Why aren't you still in bed laying next to me, naked? It's far too early for you to be up and about dressed and out of my arms."
"I have to get ready for the fight tonight, and I can't just lay around in bed all day. I have to get myself focused and I can't do that in your arms, no matter how good they feel around me."
She unwrapped his arms and walked back to the table to finish her breakfast. He went back to the bedroom and laid back down for a few more minutes. It would have been longer, only she wasn't next to him so there was no reason for him to be there if she wasn't. She finished her breakfast and hopped into the shower before Derick had a chance to ambush her again. She took a very hot, short shower, just enough to wake up all of her muscles at once and wash her body. She got dressed in the bathroom, and when she emerged she undid the bun her hair was in during the shower and put it back up into a ponytail braid for the fight.
She was dressed in a black bra and tank top, green, black and brown camouflage pants, it would have been her black cargo shorts, but it was winter there, so she was going to have to change when she got to the ring, and her black army boots, not that she would be fighting in them, but they just worked so well with what she was wearing. For the fight she would be wearing her top, black cargo shorts, and socks, no shoes allowed.
She would have gone outside to workout before her fight, only she never fought in her boots, or pants, so she wouldn't get the right kind of training. Instead, she stayed inside and stretched every part of her body, from her head to her toes, put herself into odd positions, and then finally she sat down in the middle of the floor, closed her eyes, and began to meditate. Not that she was chanting or anything like that, but neither of the guys could get her attention for an hour that morning.
When she did finally come out of her "trance", she went over to the computer and started pulling up some rare fighting maneuvers that she hoped she could learn before the fight tonight. It is rather strange, if someone tries to teach Dannie anything but the most basic of moves manually, nothing will stick in her head, but if she sees it on a video game or on the computer, assuming no powers are involved, she can imitate the move flawlessly.
"Dannie, you are a brilliant fighter, why don't you come out with us today and have some fun before everything goes down tonight?" Derick pleaded with Dannie.
"I can't."
"Why not?" said Riddick already knowing the answer to the question.
"I must prepare for the fight tonight." she said pulling up another page of fighting maneuvers.
"Just for an hour or two, that won't kill you." Derick pleaded again.
"I can't."
"Yes you can. And if you still refuse, than Riddick and I will just have to drag you out with us, kicking and screaming." Derick tried to sound forceful.
"I can't, but that doesn't mean that you two can't. You guys go, have some fun. I have to stay here and prepare, I have to find some way to win this fight. Go!"
With that, Riddick dragged Derick away from Dannie and out the door. He decided not to fight Riddick about this, he figured that he did that for everyone's best interests. This way, Dannie could go a head and focus on what she had to do and Derick wouldn't be there bugging her to death so she wouldn't have to say something she obviously didn't mean to him to get him to go away and end up ruining everything they had now.
While the guys went to a bar to have a few and play some pool and darts to keep their minds off of the night's events, Dannie was at home soaking up every martial arts move she could find on the computer. (A/N: I do realize that most of what you are about to read Derick would never have known about, but it was needed for the story so that you all would know what happened.) Most she already knew from previous downloads, kick-flips, upper cuts, jabs, that sort of thing, but their some things that she had never seen before and those were the ones that she studied hardest.
She found four very odd moves, but she figured that she could do them, Bicycle Kick, Pink Dragon, Peace of Mind, and Pirouette Kick. (Disclaimer: The first three moves are from three different characters from a video game called Mortal Kombat V Deadly AllianceThe last move is one that I made up just to have something to add to the move list.) The Bicycle Kick was the hardest to do because it required you do be fast enough to keep yourself in the air long enough to finish the move. It starts out easy enough, you jump up in the air, but you have to be close enough to someone so you can start kicking them, and when you start, it helps to keep you in the air. Pink Dragon is really just a pretty name for a back kick, it really just has to do with the way you stand when you perform the kick. Now Peace of Mind is so cool, it's a straight up high kick, then you pull it back down, and you finish it off by turning around while doing a back kick, and you send the person flying across the room. And a Pirouette Kick is a lot like a Bicycle Kick. You have to be going at a very high speed to get up in the air, but you extend your leg like you are going to do a Pirouette, and you just continue to go around until you stop. It is a very pretty kick, and it does a lot of damage to your opponent.
When the guys finally got back to the house, Dannie was already gone, but she left a note for them.
Dear Derick and Dad,
I'm sorry I couldn't wait for you to show up. I found a few new moves that I need to practice before the fight, so I went to the gym early while the place is empty enough for me to do what I need.
I hope to see you both at the fight. Don't be late, it starts at six thirty this evening. I love you both so much, so please don't worry about me too much.
Love with all my heart,
Dannie
"Damn! It's already five thirty and Riddick is hammered. There is no way he'll be sober enough to come to the fight in time. I hope me being there will be enough for her."
Derick got Riddick situated on the couch so that he could sleep off his alcohol, and got ready to go. He may have been in jeans and a T-shirt, and he may not have been fighting tonight, but there was still a certain dress code for the ring. Even those people who had no chance to fight always came dressed for it, and if he came dressed the way he was at that moment, he would have been laughed out of the ring after having to kick everyone's ass who so much as looked at him wrong.
It took him thirty minutes to find his clothes that he wanted to wear to the fight, they were scattered everywhere throughout the room, and he had to be careful not to pick up Dannie's clothes by mistake since their fighting clothes looked so much alike.
By the time he found his clothes, got ready to go and wrote Riddick a note telling him that he went to the fight and Dannie left a note that he should read, and finally left the house, he had only twenty minutes to get there and tell Dannie that Riddick wouldn't be able to make it to the fight. But as it turned out, everyone seemed to have left late for the fight, and so the roads to the ring were crowded for miles with cars, trucks, and motorcycles, all parked along the sidewalks because there wasn't any parking any closer.
So Derick had to hoof it all the way to the ring from two miles back. And him not being a good runner only made the distance even worse.
Why couldn't she have made the fight for a later time? At least then I wouldn't have to run the entire way and I might be able to breathe when I get there. I mean hell, if she had just waited until I got back home, then I wouldn't have this problem. We could have ridden in the same car together and then I wouldn't have to walk all the fucking way there, she has her own reserved parking space.
Derick did manage to make it to the fight before it was over, but by the time he made it there, Dannie was already winded, and Troy looked like he could go another ten rounds without breaking a sweat. Dannie was used to fast fights, never any longer than maybe ten minutes and then her opponent was down on the ground begging for mercy. Tonight, however, the ten minutes were almost up and Dannie looked like hell.
Because of this, a buzzer was sounded and the cage went up to allow a ref into the ring to stop the fight for a brief pause while the fighters got a chance to relax, rehydrate, and re-energize their bodies. That was when Derick was finally able to get close enough to Dannie to tell her that he was going to be her only "backup", and make his apologies for Riddick.
When he finished with what he had to say, Dannie reached down, pulled Derick to her and gave him a long passionate kiss before the cage came back down and he was dragged away from her by the mob of people trying to get a better spot to watch what was going on. He would have fought to keep his spot, but he was so dazed by the kiss, and the message he hoped he hadn't felt in it, that he just allowed the people to crowd around him.
She can't be trying to tell me good-bye! She will win this fight, she has to win. That wasn't good-bye, was it? Dannie's screams knocked him out of his trance and he fought his way back up to the head of the mob to find out what happened to Dannie.
"She will be missed by all, and although in reality she was defeated by Troy, she will forever remain the undefeated champion because of his negligence in the ring, and his over-powering need to win at all costs. To the Destroyer, undefeated champion until the day she died."
She left the pulpit and on her way to go sit back down she passed by Derick on his way to go and say his good-byes. Glances and hugs were exchanged between them both.
As he got up to the pulpit, he starred out at everyone there mourning Dannie along with him and her family, and all he could do was think about what happened at the end of the fight.
Troy had thrown her against the cage wall after he had broken her arm in two different places which was why she let out the scream that jogged Derick out of his trance earlier. By the time that Derick made it back up to the front of the mob, Dannie had already performed the Peace of Mind move on Troy, and he ended up across the cage on the ground. It gave her just enough time to reset her arm so she could continue the fight, but in a diminished capacity.
It hurt every time she tried to throw a right jab or anything that concerned that arm, but she was still able to cause him some damage. She hated throwing left punches, but that was the only arm at full capacity, and she needed the practice. Derick stayed up close to the front of the crowd for the remainder of the fight, so he was up close and personal when the fight ended.
He looked over at Troy, the man who killed the only woman he had ever loved, the only person to have ever "defeated" the only woman to have ever defeated him. He filled with anger and even more depression, the only thing he could think to do was kill that son of a bitch, but he knew that there were other people waiting in line for the first shot, and by the time he would get to him, Troy would already be dead. He wanted to have Troy thrown out of the service, but he was paying for most of it, and it wasn't his decision, so he kept it to himself.
After she had reset her arm, she had fallen to the ground on her hands and knees from sheer exhaustion. She would have stayed on the ground, maybe even have fallen the rest of the way down if Troy hadn't gotten to his feet at that point in time. Dannie forced herself back up onto her feet, blood all over her face and arms, mixing with the sweat on her arms so it was dripping off of her.
She decided to try a Pirouette Kick, knowing just how tired she was. She charged at Troy, at what was her full speed for now, and just before she got to him, she jumped into the air and spun around, landing a few kicks, and as she hit the ground she upper-cutted him for good measure. She half ran half stumbled to the cage wall and fell to her knees.
"Dannie!" she heard from the crowd of voices, "Dannie!" She was never called by her first name when she was fighting, "Dannie!" Dannie remembered that Derick had shown up so she started to look for him, "Dannie!"
"Derick!" She found him right under her nose, but he looked more worried than she was, and she already knew what was going to happen.
"Dannie, don't you dare fucking give up. You can still win this, just don't fucking give up."
"I'm not giving up, I just don't think I have a chance in hell of winning this. He has already broken my arm in two different places, and I think when I landed after that kick that I broke my ankle."
"Dannie!" She had thought that she had more time before he was going to get back up, but she was obviously wrong, and now he had her pinned down to the ground under him, in the middle of the ring where he had thrown her, in a head lock choking the life out of her.
"If you give up now, I'll only make you stay with me for a month, and neither of them will have to be put through the torments that I had planned for them."
"I will never give up. If you want to win that badly, than you'll have to kill me, otherwise, I'll fight until you have to give up." He started choking her harder.
"Just fucking give up already! I don't want to have to kill you, and I will not lose against you again."
"I already told you … if you want to win … you'll have … to kill … me."
Troy had to win. There was no way in hell he was going to lose to her again, not after all the damage he had caused her. He was clearly winning, so if she won now, there would be no end to the humiliation that he would have to endure if she was able to come back from the brink of defeat and won.
He became so angry, so enraged. The only thing he could think to do was just to continue to squeeze the life out of her. He knew that if he didn't do it, she really would just continue to fight him until either he killed her or had to quit to save his own life.
He could have quit at anytime and she would have been out cold and he would have won the fight legally, but he was more afraid that she would wake up right after he let her go and she would pull some incredible move and knock him unconscious and win the fight, so he just kept going until he felt her body go limp.
The moment he let her go, the cage was brought up and refs, doctors, and Derick all climbed onto the ring to attend to Dannie. The refs held Troy back to his own "corner" of the ring while the doctors all examined Dannie to make sure that she wasn't dead, while Derick watched everything trying to wake Dannie. The head physician stood after a couple of minutes of examination but didn't look happy in the least bit.
He took Derick by the shoulder and gave him the bad news, "Dannie is dead. Troy killed her by strangulation and he also broke her neck in the process. There is no way in hell we can revive her."
Derick looked over at Dannie laying there on the ground first, and then over at Troy who had yet to hear the news and was looking proud of himself with a smug smile on his face. There was a clear path between him and Troy, the doctors were still hovering over Dannie making sure that none of the spectators disturbed the body, and the refs were all around the ring because Troy had calmed down waiting for it to be announced that he had defeated the Destroyer. The doctor that had told him about Dannie went over to where the other doctors were at, so he was standing there all alone.
She knew that there was no way she would beat him this time. I never should have allowed her to fight him again. I should have taken her some place safe. I should have taken her away to Kyra's or anywhere, just so long as she was no where near here. It's my fault she's dead! No! It's his fault! He could have let go of her at anytime, but he didn't. He killed her! He fucking killed her!
Derick snapped at that point. He ran over to where Troy was standing and lunged at him. Troy was tired from the fight so he had no way to block what was coming at him. Derick landed on top of him and commenced to beating Troy to a bloody pulp, cursing him and yelling things like, "It's all your fault!", "She was finally happy, and you took it all away!", and "It's your fault she's dead!"
A couple of the refs came over to break up the fight that had started without their knowledge. They pulled Derick off of Troy and held him down across the ring. When Troy was able to stand of his own free will, the announcement was made.
"Now this is when I would normally announce that the person standing here next to me is now the new champion of this ring, but because of circumstances unforeseen, the man standing next to me is the loser of this fight. The one and only rule of this ring is that there is absolutely no killing in this ring. Because he killed the Destroyer, our undefeated champion, he is disqualified from the fight and is now and forever banished from this fighting ring."
"What!" cried out Troy. "What do you mean disqualified? I didn't kill her, she is just unconscious."
The head physician stepped forward and said with a heavy heart, "The Destroyer was killed by strangulation and a broken neck, caused by the opponent, Troy." The other doctors all confirmed his announcement and one of the other doctors covered her face with a sheet to signify that she was dead. And she was carried out of the ring on a stretcher through the hole in the crowd that the people made out of respect.
"It will forever be burned into my memory what happened that day, how she died, and how she looked when she died. I loved her more than anything in the world, and if I had known beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would have been killed during that fight, I not only would never have allowed her to fight in it, I would have killed that son of a bitch to keep him away from her for forever."
Derick looked over at Troy again, the wealthiest man in all of Helion Prime, and the loneliest man at that. He almost began to feel sorry for him, but that quickly passed to anger again.
"The only consolations that I have are the memories that I have of her. I had the chance to memorize every part of her body, I got to be apart of her life in more than one way, and I got to love her beyond life and death. More than the majority of you here today ever had a chance to do. I loved her deeply, and she loved me just as deeply. Some day in some way, I will see the man that killed her pay for it, and on that day, Dannie will finally be at peace."
After Derick's speech, the rest of the ceremony was performed and she was buried next to her mother in the backyard of her home. All of the bearers had to carry the coffin the entire five miles from the church to her home and then help place her in the earth.
Her tombstone read:
Dannie the Destroyer
Undefeated Champion
until the day she died.
Beloved daughter and
a great friend to all.
R.I.P.
Her bouquet that was made from the wild Trifecta picked from the fields was planted at the head of her grave, all except for each of the flowers that Riddick, Derick, and Kyra had picked, they were left with her in the coffin for her to hold throughout the after live. After the first year, all of the fields had grown back in more luscious volumes and a new special field appeared in the little cemetery behind the house. Dannie's grave was now covered in the Trifecta year round and every blossom had the most vibrant shades possible, even better than the ones in the fields. Every color was deeper, brighter, and just more the way Dannie had always believed that the flower would look the best.
In some ways it brought a peace to both of the guys, but most of all it brought back all the memories they ever had of her. Derick's prediction had been correct. Two years after the ceremony, Telemicus Rodda, Troy, lost all of his money, power, and connections after people stopped doing business with his company after they all found out that he was the one who killed the Destroyer and took away their chances to face her in the ring.
The ring was closed forever and all other rings like it were closed in memory of Dannie. Riddick even took over her classes at the police station with Derick as his assistant teacher. Both of them stayed in the house, Derick never moved on from Dannie, and Kyra and Connor moved the kids to Helion Prime so that they could all be with eachother and help eachother get through this time. Kyra had another child soon after arriving on Helion Prime, but instead of naming her like they had been doing to their children, always starting with a "K" sound, they named her Dannie Kayla Hall. She was Riddick's favorite of Kyra's children, she was just like Dannie in everyway, only calmer.
