Warning: This is last chapter before the BIG FINALE. Fasten your seat belt and behave!
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"WHAT THE BIGGER PICTURE IS FOR"
Chapter 7 – Who Will Be Next?
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John Cena had left to find Vince McMahon, Triple H, or even John Laurinaitis. Anybody who would have been able to tell him more about Heath's demise. For the first time, this was an errant from Wade he wasn't angry to make. Wade had been right. If Heath had been killed by a fan, and WWE wanted to keep the info secret as long as possible to avoid panic, Cena would probably be one of the rare persons whom people in management would accept to share the info with.
And John had already prepared his own speech in case he met some initial refusal: It was important for him to know if there was some potential danger coming from the audience if one – or more – killers were hid among the Cenation. Also, he would need to anticipate any possible bad reaction of his "so-called leader", especially if the murderer was one of his own fans. The more he was walking, the more ideas to convince people in charge were coming to his mind.
There was just two pieces of info which he wouldn't tell his interlocutor: that he had started to care about the Nexus. Not all of them perhaps, but some of them. And of course, he wouldn't tell about his plan to fully join Nexus in case WWE Universe would applaud the slaughter of the One Man Rock Band. A heel-turn would be bad for business as it would take a drop in the selling of his merchandises. But it was the last thing he cared about now.
And as Cena was heading to one of the administrative offices in this arena, David Otunga also left the Nexus locker room. First of all, he already knew what Wade was going to explain to Harris and McGillicutty but also, he wanted to make some calls and use his connections in the law forces to see if they had heard about anything regarding Justin A. Gabriel and Heath W. Slater. Not that he cared very much about their whereabouts, but a horrible idea had emerged in his mind: what if this was just the beginning?
Left alone with the two newest Nexus recruits, Wade breathed in, then started: "You are probably wondering why the Nexus exists, why we have done all those deeds, and where we are heading to. Beware, because there is much more than meet the eyes". He had the voice of a patient teacher. Not only Husky Harris and Michael McGuiliCutty had to learn all the details of the past months of Nexus existence, but also a few decades of WWE/WWF history. He wanted to make sure that they grabbed the importance of their mission. And when he would be done with them, he would take some time with Cena and make him realize that The Nexus was a "necessarily evil".
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« Yesterday, I had decided to take the evening for myself. But when I've turned my phone on this morning… », John Laurinaitis started from behind his office desk before Cena could even start explaining why he was there. « I had eleven messages. All from Wade Barrett ».
« ELEVEN! », he snapped in a half-bewildered half-mad tone, slamming the palm of his hands and almost making Cena jump on his seat. He went on: « I thought that, once again, you had done something which had hurt his goddamn Brit feelings. And I'll be honest: I didn't bother listening to his complains. I just hate his accent ».
Cena's eyes were wide. His initial surprise was slowly morphing into anger as he considered the talent relation manager in front of him. The man's hair was combed neatly, and his dark suit was sober but comforting. 'I am a man you can bring your problems to', that suit was saying to the top wrestlers of the company. To the mid-carters, it was speaking more curtly: 'This has better be good, you!'. There was a red silk handkerchief in his left pocket, perhaps so that no new trainee or wrestler rookie would mistake John Laurinaitis for the local undertaker.
As he stared in silence, Cena admitted to himself that he probably couldn't have liked the man on that side of the desk had he been a mid-carter. The talent manager wasn't perhaps at the top of WWE pyramid, but he liked to show himself as some kind of oppressive menace, towering from above, and poison seemed to drip from every of his rare smiles. Suddenly, Wade Barrett seemed like a very charming leader.
Cena realized he had let some silent seconds slip by. This was bad; Laurinaitis was the type of man who would probably file such lapses away in a mental database for later consideration.
« Well… », he started, choosing carefully his words. « … I may not be eye to eye with Barrett, but I think his attitude was justified, for once. »
In front of Laurinaitis' frown, Cena decided to fill him with the info they had. Apparently Laurinaitis was unaware of Slater's death, but he surely would know who to contact about this. Cena finished his speech with the little story he had invented in his mind earlier in order to justify his sudden interest in Heath's whereabouts.
Shortly after Cena had started talking, Laurinaitis had started typing quite furiously on his keyboard, checking his emails, probably sending some notes. Cena's hostility rose again: he wasn't sure if Laurinaitis was truly paying attention to his speech, or even if his concern was truly about Slater's well-being. In reality, Laurinaitis was probably worried about the bad consequences for himself since he had failed to deal with a crisis situation simply because he had decided to shut down his phone. No one wanted to hear Vince McMahon's "Yoooou're fiiiiiiiiiired!". Especially because of someone such as Heath Slater. But Cena kept his thoughts for himself and his mouth shut. He really needed every possible piece of info about the red-haired Nexus.
And maybe they would obtain some answer soon. Except that he was now dreading what kind of info he would get. Despite all the previous heat between him and the One Man Rock Band, Cena was hoping that Heath's death had been a quick one. His hands were clenched tightly on his lap, slightly sweating, while he was observing the disdain look on Laurinaitis' face as he was doing some research. As if he didn't concern more about the fate of a midcarter than he would about the plumbing of the building.
'Officious little bastard!', Cena's hands clenched even tighter but his face showed nothing about his inner feelings.
It seemed a bit odd to him that there hadn't been already a call for everyone to go in the meeting room for a briefing. Perhaps WWE management didn't want to see panic rise about some psychopath fans on the loose. Or perhaps, they just didn't care. After all, Heath, as well as every rookie from NXT – Barrett excluded – had been imposed to the main roster. Good riddance! Cena started reconsidering his conclusion about a psycho-fan. What if it was instead a co-worker of his who had suddenly had enough of the Nexus and had decided to take them down one by one? Literally. Maybe that's why Justin Gabriel didn't answer his phone either. Maybe there were now two victims among the Nexus rank. If so, who would be next?
After a few minutes, Laurinaitis grabbed a report from the printer, and almost tossed the sheets of paper to Cena with a disdain look in his eyes. « I think this will give you the exact answer you need to know. Now, will you excuse me », he added with a scornful movement of his hand, « I have more important administrative work to do».
'Officious little bastard!'. Cena managed to plaster a smile on his face. « Thank you for your time and help, mister Laurinaitis ».
"I hope there are no hard feelings, Cena", Laurinaitis added. "I only want what's best for the business. It is a big company with many people to manage. I want to stay focused on what really matters."
"No. No hard feelings." Cena replied, rising from his seat, still with his plastered smile; but he was glad Laurinaitis didn't offer to shake hands. There were hard feelings. All kinds of them.
He turned away, facing the door, happy to be soon out of this office. As he was approaching the door, his eyes were quickly scanning the documents in his hands. At first he wasn't exactly sure of what he was reading. Until his eyes caught something. Two names. He froze.
'It can't be…'
He turned back at Laurinaitis, wide eyes and mouth agape.
« Hold on. Are you sure of this? »
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David Otunga was standing in the parking lot. The morning sun was shining, but the air was still a bit cold. He gathered his coat around him and answered to his interlocutor on the phone.
"Yes, Luke told me he could get the GPS location of Gabriel's phone, even if it was turned off."
A pause.
"You have it? Perfect!". He put his phone between his ear and his shoulder, and grabbed a paper and a pen. He was less concerned about Slater and Gabriel's whereabouts than by the fact that perhaps other Nexuses – like himself - would soon be targeted as well. "All right, I'm listening". Otunga started writing, then thanked his interlocutor, and hang up. He stared at what he had written, feeling something horribly familiar about the address.
Then, it hit him. A moment later, he was dashing towards the building, hoping to catch Wade in time.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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I know I've told previously that chapter 7 would be the last one. But since it felt like most people didn't read the previous chapter (just ONE review?), I wanted to give you one last chance to catch up before the BIG FINALE. So I've split the chapter into two.
I strongly encourage you all to re-read the whole story before you proceed, if you wanna feel the whole impact.
Now, YOUR TURN:
- What did you think of the story so far?
- Have you checked in FCW archives for everything I've mentioned in here?
- What do you think happened to Heath and Justin?