The scene was right out of a war movie, just pure chaos filled the backstage area long after the cameras stopped rolling. Fists flew, 4 letter bombs were dropped, blood covered the faces of some and even a body was being carted out onto a stretcher. The fighting continued as TCW security and arena security tried to put a stop to it of course their efforts were in vain. Then all of a sudden it happened, the sound that caused everyone in the room to realize that their situation was indeed serious, the equivalent of a gunshot going off in the middle of riot. It was the sound of Valerie Stern yelling it was more like a shriek. The entire roster stopped and stared at the former head of the promotion

Valerie: Everyone stop! Just stop! That out there, that was bullshit! Look at yourselves, reinforcing everything our biggest critics have said about us. If it was up to me there will be consequences but it's not up to me, Deng holds your fate and he has a big announcement at Friction involving us all.

Dante stood against the wall still smirking from his attack on Matt, Valerie walked up to him. She stared a hole into him, as she got near his face. Their breaths slightly touching as she spoke in a normal but very serious tone.

Valerie: As for you Dante, you're suspended as of right now. It's one thing to pull a stunt like that during a match but after and to damn near kill that person as well, it won't be tolerated.

Dante didn't say anything, he nodded his head and stood up from the wall. DeSean who didn't even notice that he was standing across from the man who attacked his friend, turned towards Valerie with a surprise look on his face. He expected the words "you're fired" to come out of her mouth. "Fucking bullshit" he thought to himself as he angrily asked.

"How long is Matt is going to be out?"

"We don't know, to be honest I'm guessing it's going to be a long time before we see him"

That's now what he wanted to hear, distraught he started rubbing his head and face, he could feel the blood seep through his bandage still fresh from his match against Freya, a match he choked in but he would come to that realization later. As of right now, there were 3 different thoughts going on in his head. One was Matt's injury, second is that he had no allies on the roster now and the third was hurting Dante. There was silence, no one said anything as DeSean looked as if he was about to cry. He felt a hand, heading near his shoulder, looking to console him but he pushed away. Literally a second later, he rushed at Dante and speared him against the wall. He struck him 3 straight times before he felt some arms pulling him off.

DeSean: You fucking piece of shit!

Dante: Let him go, I'll kick his ass too.

Dante motioned with his hands, taunting DeSean.

DeSean: Yea hide you milky motherfucker, I tried to tell you all, a long time ago he was a piece of shit! You better hope they never let you back or I'm gone because God as my witness, I will make you pay, you piece of shit!

Valerie: DeSean stop it! I know you're upset.

DeSean: Upset is not the word for it, this is bullshit!

Valerie: I know, just take a break. I'm not telling you, I'm asking you, just take a break.

DeSean pulled away from security and some of the wrestlers who were holding him. He turned towards Freya and Darkness he noticed that they didn't come to Dante's aid meaning they didn't improve of his action but again that's something he wouldn't realize until a couple of days later and with his hatred of them both there's no telling that he would even care.

DeSean: I hate you two, this changes this nothing. I fucking hate you, as a matter of fact I hate this promotion, fuck all of you.....I need a beer, a fucking beer....Who wants a beer? It's on me.

Out of the blue the question was asked by a very tired, stressed out and exasperated DeSean, who's now at his lowest point. As he began to take the walk of shame, he heard a voice respond.

"I'll take one"

DeSean turned and looked at the person who said it.

"Ok Loop, let's head to a bar."

The bar was far from the arena as it turned out. The two warriors walked the night, catching eyes, and in those eyes they saw too many emotions - shame, hate, fear, they could deal with. It was the sympathy that did the most damage. "Don't look back." The older man said, when he saw the younger was letting it get to him. Part of him felt a little better when the younger man nodded, grateful. But the truth was the young man was his link to sanity now, all that was keeping him from doing something stupid. He needed him.

"So, you're Loop?" A nod in response. "You ever drink before?"

Busted. "You don't seem like the type to drink either..."

"Call me DeSean. So you thought you'd make sure I didn't go down alone?"

"Something like that, yeah."

Something about the sympathy...he flashed back to Strikmore, the only man who shared his focus...and watched his eyes go egg-white dead again. They passed by a light, and he could see Loop's missing eye through the straw locks. He stopped. Looked at China. Felt nothing for it. Alien world.

Loop watched him. Felt alone, not being able to share the pain. He had no attachments back home. He'd never met Strikmore.

"No sympathy." The man who was the Technician allowed himself to slip back into that mindset. Just like that, the focus was back. Fuck if it wasn't a mask, but it was his gameface now. "I'm going to fight you soon, and I'm going to hurt you..."

Loop took this as a good sign, if a small one. Smiled. His lip was split, so the smile was only half there. "I haven't forgotten."

"No, of course not. You wouldn't forget that part. But the catch is, I don't need the guilt."

They were stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, and even though it was night, the city was alive. How unnatural, to see ordinary life go by. "I don't know what to say..."

"Say it when we cross the street. We're almost there."

The Technician ran the figures in his head, and walked straight through traffic as if he were a ghost. Loop had to apologize to a blue Junjie Wagon carrying an angry young mother of two. "Xie xie!" He shouted, bowing, all too aware of how much the laowai he appeared.

She pressed her lips in a thin smile, waved him on. 15 minutes later she'd remember where she'd seen him before and offer a prayer.

Other side of the street, and he followed DeSean into a dark alley. Streetlights were lit, but the sidewalk extended further out from the buildings than normal, and no lights came from the buildings.

Faint music. They circled around back of the second building, and the smallest. Grey walls. Grey bars on the windows. The windows were painted black, except the paint didn't touch the edges of the frame, giving a peek of the warm light within...

Knock on the door. Just once. Bells were heard.

A middle aged Chinese man with an inviting smile opened up for them. His face was scarred. His eyes piercing. He had one arm that hung like dead weight. He was the scariest fucking dude you'd ever seen who could make you just drop your guard and relax. Something about him... "C'mon in. Almost nobody else found us tonight, so you have your choice of seats."

"You've been here before?" Loop asked DeSean.

"Never. Just heard rumors."

"What kind of rumors?"

They entered a cherrywood room covered in low watt lights. In every corner, hanging from every tile on the ceiling. Nothing overbearing, but there wasn't a single black shadow to be found...even though the place was covered in them. Loop was surprised to see that what he had mistaken for paint on the windows were one way glass. "Kind of rumors you always hear about places that don't advertise."

"We'll have to work on that." Said the barteneder. "If you could figure out the pattern..."

"It was just knowing when people avoided this one dark alley."

"We could have been a crack house."

"It didn't explain the people you attracted. They didn't tell anyone about the place, but you could tell they were dying to." DeSean took a seat at a table at the left wall. Loop joined, and just waited. He was impressed by the man's detective work, but it was obviously just words to pass the time while he put his thoughts in order.

He wasn't aware of ordering a drink. Reflex..and it was the first time he'd ever done it. This didn't bode well for his future. The drink was dark, thin, and smelled like a cat had mixed it on a hot spring night... He'd ordered something American. Talk about a lost opportunity.

"Second thoughts?" Desean asked.

He looked at the drink again. Now it was a challenge. In his hands, at his lips...God. It was shit. "I'm hoping to cure those."

"Yeah, me too. But..I want to hear your second thoughts first."

A pause. Nothing about the night was making any sense, so why not go with the emotion? "I think I'm just here to kill myself. My last opponent, he said he had something to show me. Something that would give me nightmares. Maybe even destroy me...I had a gun on him at the time. I knew what he was...and I didn't shoot. Because I needed to know what he could show me..."

DeSean was the perfect listener. Loop felt like he owed the man his story, and the words just released in a single rambling ejaculation. "I expected to die, when I followed him. But he kept his word. What he showed me was how desperate I was. How I was looking for someone like him, and would continue looking for someone like him..."

DeSean let out a deep breath. "Yeah. I knew that about you the moment I saw you in the ring." This had been a mistake, he'd decided. What the boy was asking him to do was help him with his suicide. He wondered if he'd done that already, for someone who hadn't been looking.

Loop saw it. And that's when he felt the anger inside again. The anger had been growing...he swallowed it. "Wait. Listen to the rest of the story before you decide."

"Alright."

"Until the night when we fought, he was right about me..."

"Learned something about yourself in a fight?"

"No. I learned something about myself when I saw the Hellfire Club destroy someone else. That's when I realized, this game we're playing, it's set up to destroy all of us. And the people who run it know it."

"Yeah. That's where love of the game takes you."

"No, that's where it takes us if we play their game."

First words spoken aloud about a conspiracy. DeSean knew he wanted this conversation to happen. But was Loop someone he could trust with his war? "Stop. Before we break the rules, you have to learn the rules. Right now, you're not one of us. You're still just a fan with a backstage pass..."

"I'll learn."

"How do you know?"

"Because you're not going to fight me unless I do, but somebody else always will."

DeSean was reminded of Izumi. He'd underestimated her too...too? Was he giving in already?

He thought about it...

Paid the bill. How many drinks did he have? Half a glass.

He looked at the bartneder. "Nice place, great atmosphere, but sucks to get wasted here." He needed someplace where it wasn't so easy to think.

The Bartender shrugged. "Not my fault you haven't completely killed your brain yet."

Loop startled as DeSean rose to his feet, paid his bill..."So will you train me?"

"That's what I need to find out. Either I'll see you in two days...or we won't see each other again. Not even in the ring."

Loop joined him at the door.

"Don't follow me. This is something that needs to be decided between just between me..." He decided to tell the truth. " And my partner."

And then he was gone.