Baphomet said as he gazed in my direction.

"She also tells me that you have fully accepted your shadows. Is this true?"

I nodded as I looked at Baphomet. I bowed my head in acknowledgement.

"Yes my liege"

Baphomet moved towards me, suddenly and unexpectedly, gazing into my eyes as the heat from his breath panted on my face. He searched inside of my eyes as I struggled to maintain eye contact.

"Please, share... what has changed in you?"

I smirked as I was unmoved by Baphomet moving closer.

"I have embraced who I truly am. I am one with the beasts. I am one with Fenrir. I know who I am and what I am"

For a moment, Baphomet studied me, but a subtle shake of his head stood up and stepped back from me.

"Premature enlightenment."

He scoffed, frustrated, leaving me confused. I looked on as I rolled my eyes.

"Kinda temperamental for a leader aren't you?"

"Little girl! Mind your tongue! I am the Baphomet! You haven't an inkling of what stands before you and you dare attempt fooling me as well as yourself that you have found the darkness over night!"

Baphomet exploded, grabbing my throat and lifting me off of the ground and to his face.

"You haven't a clue as to what drives your deepest emotions!"

Baphomet threw me down to the ground as I held my throat, looking up at him.

"You... are weak."

I stood up quickly and in a pissed off mood.

"Weak? YOU SOUGHT ME OUT! Why would you if I am so fucking weak?"

"That is exactly why."

Baphomet explained.

"Your weakness has forced you into the light... your failures, your fears... your humiliations all have lead you to more and more failure, and I seek out those who have buried who they are.. just as Ash... just as Lycana... just as Marf... You too must face your shadows!"

He grabbed my throat again, quicker than I coiuld see coming.

"You must accept what drives your anger... what drives your frustrations... there is no other way to find your darkness within until you enter the abyss!"

I gasped for air as I kicks my legs wildly.

"What...drives...me....is....acceptance..."

I squeaked out faintly .

"Acceptance..."

Baphomet repeated it so I could hear my own words and how pathetic they sounded from the outside in.

"What does the dark care of your acceptance!"

Baphomet tossed me to the ground again.

"Lycana may have delicately lured you closer, but you aren't ready. You're conditioning only allows you to see what you hope to see, not what's actually there... we must conjoure it from you like a forgotten spirit trapped inside of your vessel."

I looked up at him and then back down.

"Acceptance is everything to a pathetic lost soul like mine"

"Perhaps, you should just rot away..."

Baphomet said.

"That's what the world thinks of you anyway. It's what the XWF thinks of you... it's what Jenny Myst thinks of you, correct? So, wither away... decompose.. and be forgotten."

Jenny Myst. That name sent a raging fire through my body. She fought out of the choke.

"Fuck Jenny Myst and fuck anyone who thinks anything of her in this way."

The name sent me into a frenzy. I felt as if the name, in and of itself, is the worst thing anyone can bring up in my presence.

"Why does Jenny make your shadow react in such a way?"

Baphomet wondered.

"Such a strong reaction... hate? Sure... but what is it that really makes these emotions so... extreme?"

I shook my head side to side as if to tell Baphomet that he wouldn't understand.

"The way she carries herself when she hasn't earned anything. She is someone who is handed everything while people like me have to earn every God damned thing we get."

"Your hate comes from what Jenny receives... and what you do not? "Jealousy..."

I, in a fit of rage, retorted back.

"It is not jealousy. It is a combination of things. Anger, Deceit, the fact that I work my ass off and get no respect"

"Jealousy..."

Baphomet repeated again, poking my emotions intentionally as far as I could tell.

"It is more than that. Do you not pay attention? Of course you don't."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, tears welling up in my eyes.

"You don't get what I have gone through, no one does"

"Pity you."

Baphomet mocked me.

"Now, you are going to cry before me? What kind of soldier are you? Soldier.. Ha! Imagine you, a soldier of the Left Hand."

Baphomet shakes his head in disbelief.

"Ash may have been worse for ware when I found her... but at least she was honest about her failures... and now look at her. Queen of the Ashes! And you... well, you're just A drama queen..."

I hauled back and hit a right cross on the Baphomet's nose.

"Is that the kind of attack you plan on using against Jenny Myst?"

"It's no wonder the mere thought of Geri Vaydan brings laughter and mockery among your peers!"

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!!!"

The confusion was eating me alive. Baphomet watched the tears flow from my eyes, a brief pause as he watched me finish my display of emotion, and then swiftly kicked me in the stomach, causing me to keel over coughing.

"What do I want from you?"

Baphomet asked, reaching down and grabbing my hair to pull me to my feet but I remained dead weight.

"I want you to get UP and SUFFER! GET UP!"

I looked up at Baphomet. I tried fighting but it was no use. I slowly made it to my feet, still coughing a bit from the choke.

"Get up and suffer? Don't you see? I am suffering!"

"I see a young girl suffering, yes."

Baphomet said matter of factly.

"But what I also see is a young girl who allows her suffering to hinder her own evolution going forward."

Baphomet let go of my hair as I stood and reached again, making me wince.

"That..."

Baphomet shook his head in regret.

"Suffering will never end... but you must dig deep within and find the darkness inside of you... you must learn to embrace your suffering and darkness, not cower from, but accept it! Take the dread... and study it. Understand it. Only when you welcome your shadow as one half of who you truly are can you be free to allow your suffering to be what drives you... instead of the other way around."

I shook my head as I pulled back quickly. I looked away as I spoke.

"What do you truly know of me? You only know what I allow you to know, what I allow everyone to know. I have gone into an everlasting hiding within myself. I have held back and kept myself hidden. Suffering never ends? Then what's the fucking point of being here?"

"These shields you have around you... self imposed defense systems... they keep intruders out, intruders that your subconscious has learned have the capabilities to destroy you. What do I know of you?"

Baphomet turned and continued.

"I once went by a name other than the Baphomet. William. When I was known as William, I too allowed the world to control how I felt and I too retreated inside..."

Baphomet paused in reflection before turning to me once again.

"I care not of the paper shield that fails to hide your suffering... I care not of your words of empty confidence... I can see your soul through your eyes. Like a scared child... who has been taught to deny her own truth as if the world will believe your compensation but you cannot fool me."

Baphomet reached for me, but this time, I didn't wince. He placed his hand on my shoulder and felt it shaking.

"Abandon what you think you understand about yourself."

Baphomet said assuredly.

"And allow your shields to stand down in my presence. Only then... can I help you see the darkness within. It's your choice... what will you do?"

I looked away again before looking into the Baphomet's eyes. I unclenched my fist and raised my Left Hand. I looked deep into his eyes as my mouth turned to a smirk.

"I willingly submit. I give you my whole self to use as you need to. I am but a soldier in this war and need to act as such."

"Then LET'S TEST IT!"

Baphomet abruptly roared as he kicks his foot into my chest, forcing me across the room and against a chair that collapses from the impact.

"I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER!"

Baphomet charged towards me, blood dripping from my lip.

"HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH!?"

Baphomet grabbed my hair and yanked it up so he could see my face.

"YOU SUBMIT YOUR WILL BUT DO YOU SUBMIT YOUR BODY?"

I smirked and laughed a bit as I lifted my left hand again. I was silent as I kept the twisted, almost masochistic smirk on my face.

"Do you know how easy it is to lift a hand?"

Baphomet grabbed my left hand.

"Do you know how many pretenders have raised their left hand to me and professed loyalty only to run away when true suffering began!"

He threw me down to the floor looking down on me menacingly.

"Will you still lift your left hand when your smirk has fallen from your face!"

Baphomet kicked up into my mouth, causing me to moan in anguish. I rolled to my side with both hands over my now bloody mouth. Baphomet crouched down to me, grabbing my hair once again.

"DO YOU SUBMIT!?"

I moved my left hand from my mouth and to the sky as I spit blood a bit. I kept my left hand high as I look up, barely able to see through my already swelling eyes.

"You are so weak."

Baphomet said, he stood pushing his foot down to crush my left hand down to the ground before turning from me.

"You can't even muster the internal strength to endure this suffering! What good are you..."

Baphomet began to walk from me when he heard the rustling of me on the floor behind him. He turned his head and from the corner of his eyes, he see's a me, my body covered in a bucket of blood as I tried to push myself against gravity. He turned to me, watching me from a distance.

"Submit."

I crawled toward him as I began pulling myself up using the frame of the Baphomet as a ladder of sorts. I raised my left hand as I spat more blood out. Baphomet squatted down to meet me at eye level.

"Can you speak?"

I shook my head no, my left hand still in the air.

"Good. You will learn that it isn't what you say... it's what you do."

Baphomet said, reaching into his pocket.

"Your friend, Jenny... and that mouth of hers is a fine example of what too much talk can say about a person. Weak. So, this... is a quill."

Baphomet retrivbed a feather quill from inside of his coat.

"This quill has great significance... it was the quill used to draft the original Left Hand's doctrine, passed down through the ages and now here. I give this artifact to you... as a symbol of your evolution."

He used his other hand to brush my hair gently while holding the quill to me with his other hand.

"If you must use words..."

Baphomet said.

"Use them, not as sounds but as daggers. Make each word have meaning... each sentence penetrate the audience's mind like a stabbing knife. Think of Jenny Myst and remember how she uses her words... how they seem clever, they lack true purpose... they lack true depth. You, must remember Jenny and her abuse of human language... so, I want you to write Miss. Myst a letter and you will use this quill. As you write to her, show her that words are much more than egotistical self-praise... they are weapons."

Baphomet handed me the quill in her left hand.

"Ah, but I don't have ink in this resourceful coat of mine."

Baphomet pretended to realize.

"Luckily, you have plenty on the floor behind you."

Baphomet stood, leaving me and Quill with the crimson ink that was once part of Geri's body, now the ammunition to personalize a message for the soon to be former Shooting Star champion. He left me in the mess, knowing I had finally met my own darkness.

As I laid in my own blood I saw the paper on the desk under the light. I sat at the table as I dipped the quill pen in the blood and began writing.

"Dearest Jenny, You sure do like to hear the sound of your own voice, do you not? When you speak so much you are doomed to screw yourself over. You say you do not fear me or the Left Hand but you also say you ran to save your own ass. You are not Atara Themis and that is not a good thing for you. Atara was the definition of a fighter. That is why we took her out and not you. I am going to dispose of you, Jenny. As sure as I am writing you this letter, I am sure I am going to be the Shooting Star Champion. Jenny, you are too hung up on what you have done that you are unaware of what others might do. You are unaware that you are but a mere mortal. You may play it up that you are on another plane than the rest of us but, if the XWF went down, you would be jobless as well. You would end up in the same line as Shane Carver. You can end up being a little bitch like Chris Chaos. How does it feel, Jenny? Knowing that your own words are coming back to haunt you? You run your mouth and yet you say nothing. Saying you don't have the numbers game and yet you count all the numbers you have on your side? Quite the hypocritical stance don't you think? Have you taken your schizophrenia medicine lately, Jenny? Are you in the right head space to really come at me? Jenny, no one is going to believe you ever again. You can keep trying to hide behind all the false pretenses you want, the fact of the matter is, XWF may baby you, but the Left Hand is going to make an example out of you. I am going to make an example out of you. I may live in the shadows or the dark but I do not mislead people about who and what I am. You called me a premo or pretend emo but what are you besides faux royalty? What are you going to do when we step in the ring? Are you going to come out that the whole time you have been a cross dresser living out your dream as women's champion? It is almost 2021. You can be anything you want to be as long as you are honest about it. You can't do that though, can you Jenny? You can't be genuine or up front with anyone. I think you are so deep within your own lies that you have started to believe yourself. You believe your own twisted statements but, come Warfare, fate is going to twist. The world is welcoming a new year. It is out with the old bullshit of 2020 and that means out with you and your deceit. We see right through you, Jenny."