How To Save The World

"Oh, yeah, totally," Taylor's eyes widened and she nodded emphatically. "Yeah, I definitely want to be working with kids. I can't really call it working, though, because it's really not. But I'm way better at talking to teenagers and playing games than I am with like, business stuff."

She laughed out loud when she imagined herself speaking to a high school, standing in from of a classroom of zombie-eyed teenagers like one of the people that spoke at her school when she was that age. Would she walk in wearing her Doc's and a miniskirt and piercings, all cocky, and start cutting a promo on the high schoolers?

More likely, she would stutter and blush and it would be painfully clear to everyone that she's not cut out for that kind of thing.

"But I really can't just talk to an auditorium full of people or something, or do like a sales pitch to some company. I'd make such an ass out of myself. In the ring, give me a microphone and I'll raise some hell, but what would I do in a high school? Call everyone bitches and show of my abs? Nah, I just want to get to know the kids. I miss my old kids, though, so much. I still think about 'em. I hope they're not like... all down on everything because of me. I feel like I really let them down. I dunno."

Lukretia raised an eyebrow at Taylor's words. "It is not as if you vere ze only contact zose children had. Let zem down? Isn't it better to think zat you got to touch zere lives at all? Now you have a chance to touch ze hearts of many more children instead of greedily focusing on a few, not to put an ill light on vhat you do, of course but you understand vhat I am saying."

Lukretia waved her hand dismissively. "Ze time ve have is ze time ve have und ze people who come und go in our lives are not necessarily our choices." Lukretia smiled. "Ve vill get you as many kids as you can handle. Do not vorry."

Taylor pursed her lips and nodded. Maybe Lukretia was right. It was just so hard for her to let go of what she had. Asia Youth was where she had first discovered how much she loved the work, and to just let go of it was daunting. What if nothing else worked out the same way?

"Lukretia..." Taylor suddenly perked up, her eyes wide and staring at the German exec as if in shock when she suddenly realized how nice she was being. Reassuring Taylor? Giving her guidance? She was willing to admit that there was more to Lukretia than most wrestlers realized, and Taylor knew that she had a connection with her that was deeper than most. But this was like a different person!

She stifled a smile with a twinkle in her eyes, and decided not to call her out on being so nice. She didn't want to jinx it. Instead, she decided to try her luck out a little more. She looked out the window to see how close they were to Manhattan.

"Ya know, my mom lives like an hour that way," she said, pointing east. "I haven't seen her in almost four years. I haven't really talked to her since I came to Friction. A lot's changed though, huh?"

Lukretia's face remained cool as Taylor said her name. Was the girl surprised that Lukretia might actually have a soul? Most people couldn't believe it. Lukretia had always found herself quite benevolent and caring though. She couldn't understand why others didn't but she let it pass.

Lukretia turned her head when Taylor looked out the window. They were starting to become engulfed by the presence of the sprawling city's fringes, like they were driving into a hungry maw. It wouldn't be too long before they were they would start to grind into the traffic.

"Changed?" Lukretia said. "Has it?" She asked rhetorically. Taylor was a different person than she was when she entered the league but she also wasn't in many ways. How different was Lukretia from when she entered the league? She didn't give it much thought. "You can see her if you like. After ve are finished. I have some things I'd like to take care of personally vhile ve are here so you vill have to take a flight back to Japan yourself or sit in a limo vhile I conduct business und I am not sure how long zat vill take. I may even stay ze night."

Lukretia turned her head and bit her lip. She was estranged from her own family as well. "I have no family myself." She said matter-of-factly. "My mother died giving birth to me und meine father und sister both died some time ago. I'm not ze sort to suggest making amends or trying to pass ze vater over ze bridge but perhaps just seeing vhere you stand after four years is not such a bad thing..."

Taylor raised her eyebrows and nodded emphatically. "Yeah, it has."

She felt like the newly-turned twenty-year-old Taylor who first arrived in Japan was at best a distant relative to her now. She knew very well the paths she had taken to be where she was now, but she had come so, so far. Her whole life was different. She felt different. She acted different. She wanted different things. In many ways, she felt like a cicada, molting and leaving the empty shell of her past life behind her.

"Ha..." Taylor scoffed. Lukretia gave her even more advice that she would not have expected. Her face was creased by an absent-minded scowl as she stared into space. "I know where I stand..."

She wasn't good enough for her mom to bother giving her a call. She was pretty sure she had her number. She wasn't worth a second thought to her mom.

"Sorry about your stuff, though," she said, looking back at Lukretia. "I guess you know my dad died, but... you've really got no family left? How did your dad and sister die?"

"Do not be sorry for me, Ms. Parker. I have no use for it." Lukretia said, almost growling the words. "Both of zem threw zere lives avay und zat is ze end of it." Lukretia leaned back in her seat and took a drink of water almost to keep herself from saying more, to keep her mouth occupied. Anyone who spent five minutes around Hilde would know her sister was still alive, but Lukretia didn't, and would never, acknowledge her as family while they were in their current situation.

"I vas expecting you to handle Miss Kytes much more easily zan you did at Summer Splash." Lukretia said, turning the conversation quite away from her family. "I do not know if I should be disappointed in you or pleasantly surprised vith Miss Kytes." Lukretia paused. "However, ze fight vas exactly vhat I believe zis company should be about, so das ist gut."

Taylor gazed searchingly at Lukretia. It was thrilling and reassuring and disappointing all at once to see hints of the cracks in her armor. Not only was she human, she was angry. Taylor could relate.

"I was pretty surprised, too. When she's not assballing like a little bitch, she's actually pretty fucking serious. She's smart. She thinks about stuff. I think about stuff a lot too, but I do my thinking in the gym, and then it's all training and instinct in the ring, but she... the wheels never stop turning for her. I was really impressed

"And yeah, it was crazy, but I hope not all my matches are like that, or else I'll end up with a short fucking career. I plan on being around for a long time, and most of it with a nice, tacky belt around my waist."

She completely ignored Lukretia's little attempt at a jab at her abilities. Because fuck her. Taylor knew what she could do, and aside from Adrian she was the only person in the world who really knew how that match went. She wasn't going to let Lukretia take anything away from her. The more she fought and won and put on memorable matches, the less Lukretia's words would mean. It would be hard to take anything away from Taylor when the day came that she was universally considered the greatest in the world.

But she hadn't missed one little detail, and she wasn't going to let it drop quite yet.

"So how did Hilde die?"

"Hmmmm, I see." Lukretia said and pressed her finger to her lips. "Perhaps I shall take I]t into consideration Chen arranging future matches for her. I have never cared for Miss Kytes. Her vork ethic had been quite atrocious. I cannot suffer zhose who vould cheat to get ahead. You believe she has changed her vays?" She asked.

Taylor, however, seemed unwilling to let things go. Lukretia immediately scowled. "Zat voman is not meine sister. Meine sister vas crushed under ze veight of her own guilt. Und zat is ze last I am speaking on ze subject."

"I like Hilde," Taylor said evenly, for whatever it was worth. "A lot."

She let the subject drop. She didn't need to play therapist, or even best friend with Lukretia. Whatever she was, she wasn't her friend. It wasn't really her business what had happened in their family, but she learned something about Lukretia, and it seemed to make her more dangerous and less threatening at the same time.

"All I know is I gave that match everything I had, and Adrian beat the shit out of me. I really wasn't expecting that much of a fight, I thought she'd just turtle up and fall apart and I'd be able to tear her up without much of a problem. She's more athletic than I gave her credit for, for sure, but that wasn't a problem. I've still got her there. But she's crafty, and for once she didn't fall apart. I think she did attack me before the bell in the second fall, but it's hard to remember... I got hit in the head a lot. But as of a couple days ago, I'm an Adrian Kytes fan."

Taylor's attention drifted off out the window, at the more familiar cityscape. She was from Long Island, and had briefly lived in Manhattan with Cassie while they trained at their pro wrestling gym. She wasn't prepared for the feeling that the New York skyline evoked in her... It felt like home. Suddenly, she wished she had brought Johnny along. This was her home. These were her people. She lived in Japan, worked in Japan, was married to a Japanese man, but she was a New Yorker through and through, and she had no idea how much she had missed it until she laid eyes on it again.

She caught the tears before they managed to escape her eyelids, and blotted them away with the sleeve of her t-shirt. She blinked several times and put on a whimsical, I'm-not-crying smile for Lukretia, and after a pause she said "Did you ever scout me when I applied to Friction? 'Cause, like... this is where it all happened, man. It's so crazy. When I turned pro, after my first two matches my promoter was pissed at me because of how short they were. The shows didn't fill up their whole time slot because of how short my matches were, and I guess that was a problem. The first one lasted like... under three minutes and the second one was under two. My third one didn't go so well... I still remember the chick. Older, real smug, named Jennifer Justice. Brought handcuffs to the ring. She kicked my ass and took her time doing it, long enough that I managed to turn it around and take the win. You'd never know by looking at us afterward that I won. I took her handcuffs, though, as like... I dunno. A memento. Then Friction happened..." She sighed, and looked like she was suddenly a million miles away. "Crazy, right?"

Lukretia ignored Taylor's comment about Hilde. Of course she liked Hilde. Everyone liked Hilde. There was only one person in the world who didn't like her. Unfortunately, it was probably the one that mattered.

"It vas a spectacular match." She said. "Anyone who doubts it has no understanding of vhat it is like to put everything on ze line or vitness two vomen doing it. It is vhat I vould like every match in zis company to be. Und vould if I had meine vay." Lukretia added. She held a lot of power int he company,t hat was for sure. However, she still had a boss and that boss still had people she listened to other than Lukretia. The German didn't like that one bit but it was the best she had going right now.

However, when Taylor spoke about her days before AFW, Lukretia listened with a careful ear. "I do not scout. If I did, it vould be a very different place as I have just alluded to. Perhaps you vould not even have made it to ze league." She teased, raising a wry brow at Taylor.

Lukretia turned her head. "Perhaps it is for ze best zat I have no say in who comes into ze league. Meine expectations are too high und some girls need time to develop into vomen. No one starts at ze top." Lukretia waved her hand dismissing her own words. "It has been quite enjoyable helping to shape your career und ze careers of other vomen. Jawhol. I believe das ist for ze best." She said with a little sigh of her own.