The Goldan Jackal and The Silver Falcon

by The Cajun Phoenix

A/N I've been running errands for my mother of late, so I haven't been writing of late.

Into the Unknown

Maryl's rental car had been repaired, enabling Maryl to continue her journey to the next town and then a brief layover at her house before she got back out on the road for more in-ring action. Maryl made no secret of her reason for signing on as a WWE Diva-it was a way for her to bring up her children and never have to count on her estranged mother Carolina or her ex-boyfriend Ben Marchand to not harm her children when she was in the ring.

Maryl never lost sight of her ultimate plan to take the Women's Championship off Michelle McCool's waist and snap it around her own waist. Before she would get the opportunity at a title shot, she would also be booked in Divas tag team matches and singles matches to give her more in-ring experience.

As Remy watched Maryl drive away, he pondered over what led him to sign onto WWE's "SmackDown" roster.

Like Maryl, he was a newly-signed talent who set out to shake up the entire roster and eventually win title gold.

Unlike Maryl, he wasn't here because of an unfaithful former partner's vicious behavior, even though this was also true about him.

This was because after his former girlfriend Evan Spiars had all but given him the ultimatum of choosing his relationship with her or his WWE career, he knew he couldn't stay in his relationship with her without losing himself. And Remy knew if he had to choose between his former girlfriend and his career, one choice would lead him to bitter resentment and the other choice would lead him to a leap of faith into the unknown.

Flashback

"Remy, what the Hell is this?"

Remy exhaled as he found himself on the receiving end of yet another tirade from his girlfriend Evan Spiars. At that moment, Evan held Remy's letter he received from Florida Championship Wrestling, the developmental training grounds for prospective WWE Superstars and Divas.

"What are you doing now, Ev?" Remy was none too happy with Evan grabbing his mail. "Since when do you open my mail? You're not my parole officer and this is not prison!"

"Since when do YOU leave me to go to Florida for days on end?" She was still bitter that Remy had gone to Florida, but she was more bitter that Remy decided not to take her with him.

"I didn't even know I had to get your so-called permission to leave the state!" Remy said, his blue-green eyes darkening with dislike and resentment. Evan's disapproval of Remy's choices was a festering sore point for Remy and one more failed argument for Evan.

"Remy, what have I done to deserve to be left behind?" she pouted, all but wearing a hole in the pale grayish green carpet before she tried to hold Remy closer to her.

"What HAVEN'T you done to deserve to be left behind?" he countered, his arms slack at his sides, a clear indicator that he was not enjoying Evan's embrace.

"I haven't given you cause to think I was cheating on you. When we first started living together, I thought you wanted a more stable home life!"

Remy had no comeback for Evan since everything she said about his life was true.

But it was no longer what he agreed to. And as he adjusted his faded jeans and dark blue shirt, he had no doubt what he would choose.

"I didn't agree to allow you to make me choose between you and my career, " he said.

"You think I don't know that?" Evan asked defensively, shaking her champagne blonde Zexion (1.) and tying her pale pink robe more tightly closed. "Why replicate a career that mirrors your life?"

Evan brought up Remy's young life because his older brothers Alex and Issac struggled to keep a permanent home after their mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when Remy was 10 years old. Their mother died when he was 12 years old. When he was 13 years old, their father was gunned down, and he, Alex, and Issac had lived with family members until the day he received his high school diploma and his scholarship.

When Remy first met Evan, he was struggling to make a living in the independent wrestling circuit not unlike the defunct OMEGA wrestling promotion when his high-flying in-ring heroes Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy were still teenagers.

He wasn't going to deny that his time in the indies hadn't been injury-free. For a time, he was also badly injured and broke, forcing him off the road while he recovered from his injuries. It was all too easy for Evan to sweet-talk Remy since he was weakened from his injuries and barely able to do even the most basic moves let alone his hybrid style which combined jaw-dropping high-flying moves and martial arts moves. But as he grew physically stronger, he also became increasingly resentful of Evan's possessive and controlling behavior.

"And now you decide to try out for WWE without telling me? I thought we agreed that you weren't going to try to have a career in the WWE!"

Remy didn't like being told what to do, and Evan knew this when they became a couple.

"No, Ev. YOU agreed that I wasn't going to try my hand at a WWE contract."

Remy's angry tone of voice made Evan flinch. As much as he hated it when Evan tried to speak for him in social situations, he hated it even more bitterly when she started trying to decide his career for him.

"Stop throwing my words back in my face!" Evan snapped as Remy stalked into their bedroom and proceeded to pack his clothes and belongings into several cardboard boxes he had smuggled and unfolded.

"I appreciate you being there for me, and that deserves my respect."

Evan's face lit up a little bit at Remy's words. Even though she knew their relationship was on the rocks, this didn't necessarily make Remy ungrateful to her for helping him when he was broke and broken. In many respects, Remy owed his comeback to Evan's help.

But Remy wasn't fooled. He and Evan were mere inches away from each other now. The broken sunlight only served to further reveal how pale and ghostly Evan's face really was.

"I never agreed to let you decide what I'm going to do with my life."

Evan glared at Remy with nearly colorless pale green eyes, her champagne blonde Zexion hanging over her lean face in tangled layers.

"And I certainly never agreed to not follow my dreams and my heart just to keep you from nitpicking at me!"

Evan stared at Remy in shock and hurt. Yet even with his lean face marred by unmistakable anger, he was still a hottie and Evan considered herself lucky to have landed him.

"So that means I'll have to bow down to your wishes and your whims just to keep you? Where's the fucking fairness in that?"

Remy looked at Evan and shook his head. She didn't understand and she never would.

"When you and I first became a couple, you weren't always a jealous control freak, " he continued, just barely side-stepping Evan's attempt to grab him.

"A jealous control freak? Is that what you think of me as?"

When Remy refused to answer, Evan's face crumpled.

"How does not wanting to not be able to see you for days on end make me a control freak?" As Remy continued to pack his belongings in the boxes, she screamed, nearly ripping his dark blue shirt off, "Answer me, goddamnit!"

Instead, Remy pushed Evan off him and said, "This grabbing at me and trying to make me stay is what makes you a jealous control freak."

"I am NOT a jealous control freak!"

"If you cared about me, you never would have tried to stop me from getting my contract. And if you really cared about me, you never would have tried to make me choose between you and my career."

Evan didn't want to believe what Remy had just said to her. Nor did she want to believe that Remy would not come back once he and his belongings made their way out of that door.

"What are you saying? Are you leaving me?"

Remy didn't answer Evan's question. As he proceeded to load his belongings into his battered van, he tried not to look at Evan. What did she expect him to say? Was she really expecting him to stay after she chose not to return his love by supporting his dreams of performing as a pro wrestler let alone in the WWE?

When Evan tried to grab Remy's legs as a last attempt to stop him from leaving, that was the last straw for Remy.

"I'm NOT staying with you if that's what you want to ask me, Ev, " he said icily as he bent down and removed Evan's hands from his lean calves before getting to his feet.

"Then I guess that's it, " she shrilled bitterly as Remy packed the last of his belongings into his battered van. "You're dumping me and you won't even let me have any chance to change my ways and deal with your career choice! I fucking hate you, Remy, I fucking hate you! You'll be sorry you ever treated me like a side dish, see if you won't!"

As Remy started his van, he muttered under his breath, "I'm already sorry-that I didn't sign that contract sooner."

End of Flashback

Remy pondered over whether or not he would ever see the attractive Maryl again under less grueling circumstances. But he felt an uneasy chill slice through the air. Would he and Maryl meet again at all?

I realize I've only met Maryl Goldan at least once. But she seems to be a really nice girl. After being on the business end of Evan's nagging, the last thing I want or need is to relive her nitpicking and her jealousy.

Sighing deeply, Remy packed his red, silver, and blue leather rolling backpack into his own rental car and set out to the next show. He had been booked for a house show but Maryl had not. He figured that he would have to wait until the next "SmackDown" to know if Maryl would make a return performance. He obviously didn't like Dolph Ziggler nearly crushing Maryl's throat with his foot after Michelle McCool ended up slicing open her forehead on a turnbuckle she removed the cover from during her match with Maryl.

Maryl is right about one thing. She doesn't owe Dolph or Michelle any apologies for Michelle's stupidity or for the fact that Michelle sliced open her head as a consequence of her stupidity. And this time Maryl was lucky when The Phenom sent Dolph's slicked-back peacock ass running away. For a second, I thought Dolph actually pissed his pants. But what if Dolph decides to go after Maryl again and maybe this time he actually snaps her neck? She can't always count on anybody else being around to save her life.

Remy shook his head in disgust over that possible outcome. He didn't like what the implications of such an encounter between Maryl and Dolph would mean. Maryl could definitely hold her own against the male Superstars just as she had with Michelle. But even Maryl's strengths had their limits. And if he was unable to be at Maryl's side while he was on the road, he could still drop by just to see that Maryl was not out of commission because of injury or illness or other circumstances.

He pondered over one of his upcoming matches-an Over-the-Top-Rope Battle Royal to determine who would get a shot at the I-C title. He smiled to himself as he pondered over what a shot at the I-C title would signify for him.

An I-C title reign for me would be a very good beginning for my career. When the chips all fall wherever they will, what other reason do I need to follow my bliss and get in the ring if it's not for winning gold to go around my waist?

Remy had no idea a lithe, brown-haired, and pony-tailed male Superstar had been glaring balefully at him from the shadows just behind his car nor did he have any clue of the chaotic rivalry he would soon find himself embroiled in. But he did have his next match to look forward to.

What I really hope to see besides my next match is the new Diva who made the Women's Champion her bitch. She really looks like she needs somebody as a friend because the other Divas and some of the guys in the back really have an attitude problem around her. It's their envy that makes them behave so horribly toward her, not her rookie status. And the same could also be said about me since I haven't been here for longer than last night and the many months if not years I've trained just to get here.

This was because before Remy made his in-ring debut, he had also spent several months as the rookie to former WWE Superstar Jeff Hardy even though Remy was never put on camera during Jeff's chaotic tenure on "SmackDown" for good reason. If word had ever gotten out that The Charismatic Enigma kept a rookie as his personal pet, everybody would have gone through Jeff just to get their shots at Remy. And this credo could not have rung more true than Jeff's bitter in-ring rivalry with his older brother Matt after Matt cost Jeff his WWE Championship in a rematch with Edge at "Royal Rumble" several months earlier (2.). Remy often wondered if Jeff's WWE title reign was not the only thing Matt felt threatened by.

Many of the Superstars and Divas knew Matt was also Jeff's lover when neither could be with the ladies in their respective lives. For many years, Matt considered himself the ultimate top, or dominant, next to the majority of the main-eventers and Jeff was not immune to his older brother's natural-born dominance.

Now the other Superstars who had all come to know Jeff as a natural-born top in his own right all ran through the entire gamut of emotions ranging from disbelief to shock and awe to derision to flat-out hatred, bitterness, and envy all directed toward Jeff for netting the slender Gothic rookie for himself.

Only a few of them, including Matt himself and the Hardy brothers' closest friends, knew about the familiar curled pale seafoam green and metallic purple mask Remy had emblazoned on his left hip after he and Jeff had consummated their student-and-instructor relationship. The tattoo on Remy's right hip was that of a variegated pink peony in full bloom and the Kanji characters for "enigma" and "seducer", two words that definitely applied to Jeff Hardy.

Those Superstars who thought Jeff should have been a dom sooner knew Remy was very lucky to have The Rainbow-Haired Warrior as his mentor as opposed to somebody like Edge's former stablemates Chavo Guerrero, Bam-Bam Neely, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, although they still wished they had the slim Gothic newcomer for their understudy whenever they thought Jeff's soulful green eyes weren't piercing through their psyches.

Those Superstars who wished Jeff would revert to being a submissive, or a bottom, all asked themselves this question to this day whenever they cast baleful stares toward Remy-what the fuck had Jeff Hardy ever done to deserve Remy Silver as his rookie let alone as his pet? And what the fuck would spur Remy to hold so fiercely to the seductive Jeff during the latter's tenure on "SmackDown"?

None of their questions ever led them to the answers they clamored for. Indeed, all their questions led them to were more questions that would all but push them over the threshold of sanity.

And Remy was dead-set on making every single one of the envious Superstars who hated Jeff as a dom also come to regret ever asking him, "What the fuck do you see in that painted-up freak we've fucked for years? He's always bottomed for us and now he thinks he can keep you away from us just because he proved to us that he's a dom? Fuck him and fuck you, you pathetic little cocksucking curtain-jerker!"

Remy's lips curled into a half-smile that faded almost as quickly as it formed as he mused over the other Superstars' hateful comments about his student-and-instructor relationship with Jeff.

"Fuck him and fuck you, you pathetic little cocksucking curtain-jerker"? That's all you have to say to me about my relationship with Jeff Hardy? We all know who the pathetic little cocksucking curtain-jerkers actually are, and I'm not one of them!

He didn't bother to bite back a sardonic laugh as he realized the same WWE Superstars who dogged Jeff for what he did in his personal life and also for mentoring him inside the ring and outside the ring most likely also wished they had him as their rookie.

Yes, that had to be it. All the other WWE Superstars wanted Remy as their rookie and perhaps also as their pet from the moment he had been booked for dark matches on the "SmackDown" roster and it ate away at them from the inside out that Jeff drew him toward him and proved that while he might be a painted-up freak in their eyes, in Remy's eyes, Jeff Hardy was and would forever be his Extreme Charismatic Mentor.

It's because all of you want what you'll never get to have. And all of you who said Jeff would never win the WWE title let alone add two World titles and become a three-time world champion? You can all go fuck yourselves now. It's because Jeff finally wised up and stopped being your bitch that you hate him now and you think because he's not on the roster now that means I'm easy prey for you. I may be Jeff Hardy's rookie, but I'm not your personal bitch now or ever!

Starting the engine, he continued on his way, his mind whirling with how he would make his impact on the "SmackDown" roster and even win title gold along the way.

A/N: Your reviews and feedback is always welcome. And the flashbacks in Remy's backstory also form a counterpart to the flashbacks in Maryl's backstory. In later chapters, more on the student-and-instructor relationship between Remy and Jeff will be written.

(1.) A Zexion is a short hairstyle in which the hair is cut in long and asymmetrical layers framing the face and is commonly sported by people who practice the Goth lifestyle as well as Japanese teens who embrace the anime phenomenon.

(2.) The links between Jeff's title defense against Edge at "Royal Rumble" and Jeff's keeping Remy as his student and his pet also underscore Matt's status as "the ultimate top" (sorry, authors, readers, and reviewers, but I didn't give Matt Hardy the moniker of "the ultimate top") being threatened by Jeff's coming into his own as a top in his own right because Matt is not the only one who wants what Jeff has.