the hymn of a broken man: interlude - the back harlow road

the hymn of a broken man
interlude, pt. 1: the back harlow road
july 2014
somewhere between tokyo and san diego

"Dad?"

Madison Collins was a bit of an anomaly in the world. For being only 11 years old, the young girl had a remarkable gift of perception among adults. It was often said it took a village to raise a child, and Madison was living proof. The child of a single father and every one of his friends that were in the world of professional wrestling, including a small romance Jon had while teaching high school in Philadelphia, Madison often saw things in a way children her age didn't, and she knew things a child shouldn't. It was hardly a problem, but she was just a girl that grew up too quickly thanks to circumstances. She wasn't looking after her father, but the two had developed a close bond, having only relied on one another for so long.

Tonight, however, she couldn't understand her father. For the first time in her short life, Madison was on the verge of tears over her family.

Having joined her father and step-mother Fiona on the trip of Japan, she had barely managed to see her father thanks to his work over the course of the two months while attempting to track down Hal Snyder. Now, on the trip home, her father had been silent and absolutely impossible to talk to. The night of Ascendancy was hardly a banner night for Jonathan Collins. Before the show went on air, all he could think about was the words that echoed in his mind. Printed words on a screen from his former student turned indoctrinated killer for Rachel Foxx, Cassidy Carter.

"We are meant to bring glory to mother!!! All Hail the Sinistry! All Hail The Coalition!! All Hail Mother!!!"

The following tweets, vague jabs about someone not being there for her, declaring she had been saved through "Mother's love" had been like cold oil pouring over long rusted hinges in his mind. The very things Jonathan Collins had spent years repressing and forgetting had suddenly been relived in his mind in gruesome detail. The painful lessons learned at the tortuous hand of Hal Snyder, having taught him to cripple and hurt people before the win. It was more important to leave a scar than have a win.

It was the antithesis of Jon's lessons now. Rachel and Hal achieved academic perfection through control, while Jonathan encouraged creativity and nourished the free mind.

"Where were you when I screamed for you? Where were you when I needed you? You said that you'd never abandon me, that you'd always save me!!"

The words kept flashing in his mind's eye, words that weren't in front of him but couldn't escape his line of sight. The words could have come from any of his students. Be it Cassidy like they had been, Shinji Uchikawa, Sydney Christensen, Payton James, or Carey Dean. They were his students. Though he had no part in their birth, they were his children, the legacy he had planned on leaving professional wrestling.

And one by one, they were burning.

Sydney was a target, Payton was off the board. Carey was turning himself into a magnet for trouble and Shinji had probably drawn the ire of Cleon Gray by his actions at Ascendancy, and probably still had some in the eyes of Christum Furor. Cassidy Carter was an entirely different matter. Trained in secret as Jonathan Collins flirted with the possibility of joining the Frost family's Sinistry and Coalition, Jonathan had found himself becoming increasingly distant. Having ceased to train Cassidy for the fear of what he was being asked to do in their name, Jonathan encouraged his pupil to come with him. He had hoped she would seek a new opportunity away from them while he encouraged her to find anyplace far from them. Yet she stayed, and it was only when it was too late that their relationship was repaired, undone as fast as it was mended by Rachel's wicked ways. Still lost in his own thoughts on the flight home, he barely noticed the voice of his daughter when she called for him, finally looking up.

"We're gonna get through this, right?" she asked, reaching to hand him a pin that had fallen off his laptop bag. The Blue Lantern Corps button.

The symbol of hope.

Clutching the pin, he stopped and remained exceptionally quiet for a moment, closing his eyes before he reached out and wrapped his arms around her.

"Are you okay, Dad?" she asked, concerned that he hadn't spoken a single word.

"I'm working on it," he whispered, looking down at his daughter. Right now, as far as he was concerned, the only people he could trust were on the private jet Chris Strike had requisitioned for this group of people at the moment. Fiona was sleeping, mentally and physically drained from her battle at Ascendancy, and as Madison sat next to her father, all Jonathan Collins could do was look out the window and stay locked in his thoughts.

It was the only reprieve he felt from the agony.



the hymn of a broken man
interlude, pt. 2: the back harlow road
july 2014
anaheim, ca

"I just need to go for a week. I know I've been donig all this back and forth, but I need to get some answers. Look at how everything is right now!" he said to her, knowing Fiona was hardly going to be pleased Jon was leaving.

Again.

"Jon, you've hardly spoken or eaten since Ascendancy. I know things are bad, but tell me how bad they are!" she pleaded. "I know I didn't win, but Gods and Monsters is a situation we can take out together. You and me. I just...I wish Jimmy..." she said, almost misty eyed herself as she realized this would be the first true battle The Marauders couldn't fight together.

"I know. Chris is here and he's as good as Jimmy. It's never going to replace our family, but I've come to realize that nothing can break that bond. People have tried to sever the family connection of The Marauders, but to protect that connection, I have to protect my family. Chris and I have a new set of Turks and we're going to complete the mission. This mission though is probably the worst it's ever been. It's more than just professional wrestling! It's killing families, Fiona! Look at Angela and Brianna! Look at the Carter sisters! We are not just fighting for gold and trinkets, we are fighting for bonds and souls! I need to--"

"YOU DON'T NEED TO DO IT ALONE!" she screamed, running up to him and beating his chest. "You stupid idiot! Look around you! Look at you putting all this burden on you when you're too blind to see the bigger picture! I'M HERE! RIGHT HERE! AND WHILE YOU'RE SAVING EVERYTHING, YOU ARE KILLING ME!" she screamed, clutching him. "Please, I'm begging you. Let me in, Jon. Let me in, please. You promised after last summer, there would be no more secrets," she said quietly. After the original presence of WEAPON, Jonathan had promised her nothing would be hidden. Nothing would be information she wasn't privy to, and it was perhaps these original secrets that had set the seeds for what happened now with Sally Talfourd's defection to Gods & Monsters.

"Fi, I have to go out to a few places, reach out to a few friends. If I'm ever gonna help you and everyone, I need to find him," he said.

"Who?" she asked, looking up at him, tears already running down her face.

"I need to find Hal Snyder," he whispered.

She slapped him.

"YOU ARE NOT BRINGING THAT INTO MY HOUSE! And you're certainly not bringing...her! It's bad enough you've got that shop in that fucking town and you need to go find him?!" she said angrily.

"I've been trying to get rid of it! I was going to sign it over to Cassidy as a gift for graduating!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, because you know, it's a brilliant idea to give a girl escaping a cult a hookah shop IN A TOWN THAT'S A FUCKING CULT IN ITSELF!" she screamed.

"SHE NEEDED A LIFE AWAY FROM RACHEL! She still needs one! Besides, if I find Hal, maybe I can find a way to get Tiffani back for Darrin!" he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I can't leave Darrin twisting in the wind. He's my brother."

"He is a man that has hung onto you co-dependently for thirteen years!" she screamed before covering her mouth. "Jon...I'm so sorry," she whispered, realizing what she had just said. Jonathan was far from pleased.

"Darrin is my brother. Darrin will always be my brother. He was there before you, before Jimmy Riley, before Andreas and the Godfathers. I will help him because he is my friend!" he said as she looked at him. At this point, she was sobbing, and Fiona came over and practically lunged to kiss him.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be doing this. I know it hasn't been your intention to hurt me or anyone, I'm just...I'm scared. LEGION? We could handle that. They couldn't keep rank. Magnus is getting stronger, and I know it. I saw it in him when I fought him, he's not the same man. He's lost in there somewhere," she said, sniffling as she realized the damage she had done with just a few words. "Please just tell me you forgive me."

"It's fine. I promise," he sid to her, taking a breath and closing his eyes for a moment as he took her hands. "Wherever I go in the next few days and whatever I do, I'm going to come back. And I'm going to go to war with you guys in the RIMAC. They've had the home field advantage by not having us in San Diego, but that crowd's gonna be screaming for you, for Chris, for Steve and Wulf, and for whoever us shows up to stand next to us when HATE and Gods and Monsters come calling. Kane was right, Fi. When we stand together, there is no darkness strong enough or powerful enough to drive us to our knees. We're a family," he whispered. "And all will be well."

Just those five words sent the woman sobbing.



the hymn of a broken man
interlude, pt. 3: the back harlow road
july 2014
los angeles, ca

"I'm starting to think you see me more than you do Madison and Fiona," David Zinkus said, almost disturbed by that tidbit when he said it aloud. "You...do spend time with them, right?" David asked.

"As much as I humanly can at the moment. When you're chasing a cult, another cult's leader, and the whereabouts of your brother's wife, this whole thing can cut into your personal life," he said. If there was one thing David could notice in all this, it was how Jon had stopped looking casual. Through all the travels with Jon, he had noticed the evolution. T-shirts and jeans became slowly replaced into suits constantly on his end. The only thing that kept him looking casual that had remained constant was his beat up Angels cap.

"Sir, where's your Arsenal kit?" Zinkus asked.

"Packed. Not the right time for it," Jon said as he started to look up at the screens for departures and arrivals. Without hesitation, he reached into his wallet and handed David a few bills. "Go grab us a couple of drinks and get yourself some reading material. We're Milwaukee bound, then wherever Ashlyn tells me to go. We've got a lot of ground to cover by next Friday. I want at least a few days at home before I gather everyone for our first real assault on everything."

"So we're going on the attack finally?" David wondered.

"Nobody gets out alive. We played nice and tried to just contain, but it's not about that anymore. I'm going to make sure that no faction every tries to dominate and control EXODUS ever again. EVER AGAIN. I'll be the last protector at the gates if I have to be, I owe it to everyone for my inaction," he said quietly.

"You did what you had to do," David said, hopefully reassuring him.

"No, David. Andreas was right. I don't know what to say other than the fact that I should have been at the front from the beginning. I had this weird epiphany when I was beat at Absent Are the Saints. I felt like my time was up. Chandler and I are now the last tag team champions of Pro Wrestling Frontier. I can fade into the good night if I want, and I was truly considering it. There's nothing left of me. Every reason for me to stay was selfish until Ascendancy. Now I realize that I'm staying to stand with people, to fight the war they're fighting because they believe in the values I instilled in EXODUS," Jonathan said quietly. "Values they still believe in while I've remained a coward."

"You're not a coward, Jon. You're putting everything out there for people you love! It's just been a battle of a different kind you've been waging. Sure it's not physical, but look at everything we've done and what we're doing. You and Mr. Strike have a huge opportunity to do something great with the Turks. Not just for EXODUS but for pro wrestling in general," David told him.

"Don't worry about it, just grab the drinks and stuff. I need to just have a few minutes of me time before you ask me for more stories of what it was like to wrestle Ray Willmott," he said, laughing almost bitterly at the name of an old and now deceased friend. Without hesitation, David reacted to his boss' request and got up to the kiosk, looking around for something for himself. A video game magazine, a Sports Illustrated for Jonathan Collins, and as he continued to browse through them, he heard a voice that had seemingly noticed the contents of his backpack, and the big black book sticking out of it.

"That's a hell of a book. Looks old and full of secrets," he heard with a distinct Texas accent.

"I'm not too sure. I'm researching it for my boss," he said, not bothering to turn his head.

"Looks like the Necronomicon," the voice joked. "Not the real one, but like the movie and fictional one."

"I don't know, but we found it and now we're trying to decipher it," David answered absentmindedly.

"The answer's not in the book, but I can tell you this...the answer's in who's using it. Only two people in the world had access to that book before it was stolen," he heard.

"How did you know it was sto--" David said, turning around into the face of a smiling older gentleman with a Glasgow smile.

"Because I know who stole it," he said. "Call me a collector. I know the identity of that book and the person who owned it. I was using it when it was taken from me," he heard as David almost seemed frozen.

"W--what does it do?" David asked as the color drained from his face and his voice weakened.

"It explains how The Perfect Evil works and how to make it work for you. With no doubt, whoever had this book has been far corrupted more than you'd like them to be. Some of what they've done may be beyond repair," he said to David before taking the book. "I'm going to take this. Do me a favor and just know that if you need information, everything's in a little hookah shop in Texas. I love that town, it's just not for me right now," the man said as he took it from David without an argument and a walk off. Whistling, David almost trembled when he stood there long enough to absorb what had transpired. Paying quickly and running off, he got back to the gate where Jonathan Collins remained sitting.

"Jon...the book..." he said to him, practically out of breath and afraid. "It's from Ellum! I think it's Daisuke's!"

Jon looked up at David, worry in his eyes.

"Well...ain't that some shit."