"Welcome to one my homes. I see you've finished touring the area; I guess it must be time to begin. I truly hope you enjoyed the brief tour, but now as they say, it's time to get down to business. Ah, but where are my manners? Forgive me, for I have yet to introduce myself, although by now you must know who I am. My name is Dante. Yes, you once knew me as the wrestler Damien in many other federations and in others yet as The Raven. Time has passed; those names are but mere memories, ravings of a madman. I am not the same person you once knew, the lunatic has ceased to exist, as you can surely tell by now. The few years which have gone by have forged me into what you see here. This doesn't mean I can't do a Death Driver anymore, by all means try me if you must. I am as lethal as I ever was. It's funny the way things work out, no one thought that I'd ever come back into the sport, yet here I am once again in a new federation with my aspirations of leaving my mark in this endless game of cat and mouse, hunter and prey."

"Why am I here, you might ask? Why get back into the game after all this time? Surely you must realize that it isn't for the money. As you can see I have more than enough. The challenge? The Self Proclaimed King of Hardcore Chris Van X. C’est la vie, a cliché for cliché, as I must once again rise the proverbial ladder on my way to the top. First I must prove myself against Van X and then after this glorified punk is taken care of my next victim shall have their hopes shattered. Does it really matter who it is? I fear my only challenge will be if I break a sweat or not. Alas, I digress, the answer to my your question is a simple one, as many of you have undoubtedly guessed already, the only reason I am here is for the gold. The prestige of being once again called ‘world champion’ is what motivates me; I crave the attention once again of being recognized as the best player in the game."

"Only Rembrandt could materialize such a scene. Have not you my dear viewers shown up today at my own study much like Mephistopheles once did to Faust in Goethe’s immortal book? All the eloquence and knowledge that I’ve gained in these past few years is what I sacrifice, in exchange for the vanity which this game of wrestling offers. That is my Gretchen and I am your Faust."

"Ah, but let me not bore, for this is not what you wish to hear. You want me to go into detail of how I will defeat and destroy my opponent eight days from today. You wish for me to ridicule this towering midget whose fate is intertwined with my own. It is the routine you are used to is it not? The monotonous sermon of grandeur that all wrestlers wish to instill on their fans, one which I have been guilty of many times in my career, that is what you are looking for. Nonetheless, tonight I will deprive you of such a speech, dare my opponent squat on me for a one, two three. No, tonight I will not degrade my opponents, you won’t hear squat from me."

"Ah how glorious it is to be back once again, for those who are intrigued stay tuned because this is merely the beginning. To those that have remained loyal, I may not be the same madman that you may remember, but I am that same warrior who always gave you the best he could. And to the rest of you, I can only say that derive great pleasure in wasting your time today with my rant and I receive great solace in knowing that you are of even less consequence that I may have been to you."

I had been out of the ring for quite sometime to find who I really was and where I belonged. The dreams I had each night about my past kept haunting me. I really couldn't help but think about the accomplishments that I had from federations I had been in, but the dreams when I layed my head to rest kept haunting me. I kept seeing birth and I kept seeing bloodshed. I saw the face of a women crying in the middle of the night because a man was holding a gun up to the back of her head. I thought that I would wake up but no, I saw the woman get shot in the head and then nine times in the back. I kept having this nightmare for days only to realize that it was nothing more then my past. When I had ran from my house my dad had killed my mother and I never saw it happen. The only problem was that the woman in the dream was not my mother but a stranger. Someone that I knew nothing about. As I wake up from the nightmare once again in a cold sweat I take my covers off of me and stare straight up at the ceiling. I look over to the wall on my right that holds the replicas of the titles I have won in the past. I stood up on my bed and rubbed the sweat off my face and ran my hands through my hair keeping my eyes on the titles. I stood up slowly and walked over to them thinking to myself about what I had done the day before. The fact that I had went to XCW headquarters and made a verbal contract with Clarckson. My ass now belonged to them and I had gotten myself back into the squared circle once again. I wasn't expecting any kind of hand out or anything. I knew that I had to start fresh. The more I thought about it the harder I stared at the titles on the wall. I took the World title(replica) that I had won from WWA and looked at it in the palms of my hands. ::

Dante: This title has been worn by to many damn people. I don't even know why I even carried it on my waist. It really means nothing to me now. I guess there is only one way to start off my new career in XCW. Beating Van X. I am going to beat the living shit out of him and make him cough on his own blood.

:: I just threw the title down into the garbage can and then looked back to the wall with the rest of the titles just hanging there. I began to franticly throw them off the wall and into the garbage. I didn't know what exactly had come over me. All I knew that this was a way for me to start over. Even though I knew that my opponents weren't worth shit this week I didn't care. I was still going to go in there and fight this match as hard as I could. I knew that the power I possesed would be to much for anyone that stood before me. I was ready to be on top once again, but not without starting from the bottom, and thats exactly what I was going to do. Starting with next Tuesday night Meltdown. I finally had thrown the last title in the trash and I was panting and sweating. My head began to hurt and I didn't know why. Just then I saw the woman again in my head this time I had seen the face of the man who had shot her in the head. He ran quickly through her home and into the darkness. As I came back my eyes opened quickly and I was laying flat on my black carpeted floor. I stood up as I heard a knock at my front door. I was really puzzled seeing how it was three in the morning and I lived in the middle of nowhere, not to mention I was forgotten, but I headed to the door anyway to see who it was. As I did it was thunderstorming outside and before me was a teenage drenched shivering teenage boy. His long wet hair was covering his face and his long arms were wrapped around his body trying to keep himself warm. ::

Dante: Holy shit are you ok?

:: The boy just shook his head no as I looked at his wet clothes I saw a knecklace dangling from his kneck. It was silver and he was wearing a penticle as the charm. I knew that the teenager was nothing but a stranger to me but I couldn't turn my back on my own kind and just send him on his way. So I did what any pegan would do and let him into my home. For some reason the gods must of brought this soul to me and I was curious to find out why. The questions would come later. For now I had to get him out of those wet clothes. ::

Dante: You go ahead and have a seat I will be right back okay?

:: The boy nodded his head and sat down on my black leather recliner as I headed to my bedroom door. I opened the door and walked past my belts in the trash can knocking them over on the way to my closet. I took a pair of black pants down that I hadn't worn since I was sixteen out of my closet and walked over to my dresser. I opened the drawer where I had the collection of Dante shirts made for me by different promotions. I took the one on top from WWA and draped it over my arm with the pants. I headed towards the door and opened it. The boy looked back with his hair now pulled back. I handed him the clothes as I walked to him. ::

Dante: Here take these. You can change in my room but don't steal anything. The only reason why your even in my house is because of what you claim to be. If your wearing that star around your kneck it better mean something to you.

::The boy stood up slowly with the clothes in hand and began walking towards my bedroom door. As he placed his hand on the door knob he turned his head, his cheek facing me and his eye looking at me. ::

Boy: I would never steal from those that understand me. Thank you Dante.

:: The boy had said my name like he knew me. I began to realize that there was more to this then a boy stuck in a thunderstorm. I was quite curious to find out exactly what it was that he wanted. I know that he had a good vibe to him as if he wouldn't harm a thing. For some reason I trusted him and I didn't understand why. There had been alot of things going through my mind. Like the upcoming match I was going into a Meltdown. Chris Van X I had seen in action and I knew that he would be fairly tough competition. Not my hardest opponant but not my easiest. I had him to worry about. A man that I never heard of much and I guess that could be a good thing, because chances are he had never heard much of me either. I would be sure to win this one hands down and the more I thought about it the lighter my head got. The boy came out of my room dressed in dry clothes and his wet clothes in hand.::

Dante: You can just throw those clothes in the washer over there by the door in the kitchen. You can lay down on my couch and rest. I have to get back to sleep. We have to talk tomorrow.

::The Boy did as he was told and I walked back into my room shutting the door behind me. Seeing that nothing was missing, it set my mind back at ease. As I laid down on my bed he closed his eyes I went back to that horrible nightmare.::