Troy woke up with a start. His heart was racing, he was covered in sweat, and he was breathing hard. He swear he could still feel the bruises and cuts he received in his dream. He spun his legs over so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed, his tired eyes drifting to the window; the sun was just beginning to rise, the sky now stained orange.
Troy had no clue where he was.
Of course he knew he was in a hotel in New York; but he didn't know which. He didn't care. He struggled to remember if today was Sunday.
He popped a pill for the intense migraine he's had the fortune of getting, and began to pack his shit.
He didn't once think about the Cell. Not once did the metal tomb cross his mind. Even when he arrived at the arena, he wasn't thinking about his match.
Troy couldn't help but marvel at Madison Square Garden. The entire building was steeped in history, and Troy felt like every eye was going to be on him tonight.
Oh yeah, tonight.
Troy would finally be able to fight Beno, he would finally get his hands on his torturer.....
And yet Troy felt a certain calm come over him. He wasn't nervous, he wasn't worried. He was barely excited.
But that didn't mean Troy didn't care about the match, because he did, very very much; it was the most important thing to him these days. But he found that under certain high pressure situations, he would become shockingly calm. As he walked into the locker room, he didn't greet anyone, he barely glanced at anyone. He just dropped his bags off and went on his own way, around the arena.
He had no clue if his team mates (and his best friends) were at the arena yet. Last night had been a loooooong night, and Troy didn't remember much after the Hall of Fame situation. Troy couldn't help but smirk to himself when he thought about it. Leave it to Joey to make a scene..... not that Troy didn't love every second of it. It was about time people started respecting the New Age. They were going to have to take WrestleMania to continue this streak. And Joey set them on the right track.
Troy remembered clearly, his feud with Joey. It was bitter and hateful, and they obliterated each other every match (Troy always ended up crotching himself on something every match! He was certain his nuts still hurt sometimes). It all culminated in what was, at the time, the biggest match in his career; Joey the Bastard vs. Troy Motor for the Intercontinental Championship inside an Extreme Steel Cage. The bout was bloody and violent; they truly kicked each other's asses, and even though he lost, and Troy hated it at the time, but he developed a whole new respect for Joey after the match.
Troy never would've thought he would splinter off from the Knights. He hated the fact he did it..... and the hate was only made worse when he was abducted and held prisoner for months inside the dungeon. Troy was beaten and bloodied every single day. It was by the grace of whatever God exists that Troy managed to get out, and that was only because someone had left a knife laying near him after a beating. He cut the ropes holding him back, and he ran, ran until his feet bled (or had it been the blood from the beatings?)
And as if Troy's life up until this point didn't suck enough, Beno took him a second time, and branded him.
Troy felt hatred boil inside of him when he thought about the brand on his pec. It itched a lot, but he knew his issues with it ran far more deeper than a simple itch. He had been marked by the man who had kidnapped him twice.
He'd reached the main part of the arena; the stage was being assembled, the rind had been fully set up, as had the Cell. Troy couldn't help but marvel at the structure. He stepped onto the ramp so he could look straight on at it; and he could visualize the match vividly. Horrifying brutalities performed on each other, to try and take the other out of commission..... possibly forever.
He could see himself picking Beno up on top of the cage, and he drops Beno through the roof with a Jackknife power bomb. And he could see Beno's bloodied body twisting in midair, and he could see Beno's body cease movement when he crashed through the mat.
And by the time Troy climbed down, Beno was barely responding, barely clawing his way out of the hole his body had punched into the canvas. And he would look up at Troy standing tall above him.... and Troy would show him
mercy. Troy would hoist Beno's body up, and wipe him out with the Dropback.
And then Troy would pin Beno, 1..... 2....... 3.......
And Troy would be redeemed....
Troy stopped himself in his tracks.
Redeemed?
What the fuck? What would he be redeemed from? Redeemed from being imprisoned? That's not redemption. What Troy was trying to accomplish was revenge.
So why did he feel like a win would redeem him?
Now it was bothering him. What the fuck was making him think redemption?
Then it hit Troy.
If it was a movie, everything around him would've slowed down, and everything would darken, and Troy would be illuminated by a single spotlight- that's how hard the realization hit him. Like a stereotypical movie scene.
He had a flashback.... but this time it wasn't to a beating in a dark dungeon.
****
The crowd had risen to a fever pitch. Troy had successfully stacked the two tables, and now, like a monster stalking his prey, he was climbing up the cage in the corner, to try and get to Joey, who stood tall on top of the cage.
Joey manages to hit him a few times, and while he had Troy stunned, he wrapped his arm around Troy's head.
"Joey, Joey, no, no, no!" Troy chorused, trying to get Joey's arm away from his head. But he was too late.
Joey leapt from the cage, and Troy was sent face first through both of the tables. Troy felt those impacts, he felt them very vividly, but as soon as they both crashed and burned and hit the mat, Troy lost consciousness.
He woke up backstage, being tended to by the doctors, and he went fucking ballistic.
But he didn't feel very angry on the inside.... he just felt disappointed. In himself.
Kevin Nash had worked so hard to try and help Troy, but he had failed him.
Troy had failed.The only words Troy could think of now were "holy shit". He just had a fucking revelation...
He'd held onto his resentment for that loss for all these years. So was that subconsciously coloring every decision he had made since then?
Had he joined the New Age so he could beat Joey?
There was no fucking way. Noooooo fucking way. Joey was in the New Age with Troy. They were best friends, all of them. They were like family now. There was just no fucking way.
No fucking way!
no fucking way......
****
Troy walked into the Cell almost cautiously. This would be his future.... this structure, the Devil's Playground, as it was aptly named, would be the final judgement on him and Beno; either Troy would fall (figuratively, hopefully), or Beno would fall. There was no compromise to be met. They both would be broken, possibly beyond repair in this match; and only one would be the man to not get up in time.
He lightly touched the cage wall; it was familiar, given his experiences inside a regular steel cage. To think that on this night, he would be using this cage wall to try and break down his opponent.
He climbed into the ring and turned around, taking in every detail of the enclosure.
Holy shit.
He would be in this tonight, damn near for his life.
****
"Beno...... I've been waiting a long time for this."
Troy is on the inside of the cage, his fingers laced through the mesh as he leaned on it and stared directly into the camera.
"I've been waiting so goddamn long to finally get my hands on you. God, I've literally dreamed about Troy Motor vs. Beno in a Hell in the Cell."
Troy chuckles, and for the first time he breaks eye contact with the camera and looks around at the cage.
"It's almost disappointing, Beno.... I'd built it up in my head for so long. Finally, the redemp- the revenge of Troy Motor. I finally get to torture you like you tortured me. And yet, I'm feeling kind of empty Beno. Now make no mistake about it, it's not as if I'm not pumped up for this match; I'm just saying Beno, I'm feeling empty about it. You know why, Beno?"
Troy rests his head on the cage, looking down.
"Because it's just so damned easy, Beno. While the road here, granted, was physically and mentally taxing, the fact is it was just so easy getting you here. So easy getting you to agree to a Hell in the Cell. The match won't be easy, Beno..... For me or for you. Because no matter how I'll slice it, you are a legend, man. A hall of famer. You didn't get to be those things on dumb luck. Hell there was a time when I looked up to you..... but times change Beno. You proved to the world how much of a coward you were when you kidnapped me for months and tortured me."
Troy sighs deeply, choosing his next words carefully.
"I held onto the anger from that, for a long long time. I had flashbacks, I had panic attacks. And all of that anger, that despair.... I get to let it go, Beno. I get to to end this! No, no, we get to end this. Beno vs. Troy is gonna tear apart the world, man. We're going to Hell..... and only one of us will manage to climb out."