This World Will Never Be

With a bag of carryout in one hand and a milkshake in the other, Talia made the long climb up three floors to her apartment. When she got to her room, she had to drop the bag and retrieve her keys. She flipped her backpack around to the front and fished around for her keys. When she finally pulled them out, she unlocked her door and put her keys back. Then, slowly, she creeped the door open and looked inside. She inspected her room cautiously as if fearing that someone could be waiting for her in there. She inched in and gently placed everything on the table. After a thorough walkthrough of her apartment, she was finally convinced that everything was alright. No one was here to attack her.

With a loud sigh, Talia checked her phone. There was still no reply from Cassie. It had taken a great deal of motivation and desperation for her to send that text. She thought it was the first step in fixing all of this. It seemed like it was the root of all her problems. Cassie demanded she apologize to Taylor back during that cage match. It felt natural to start at that point when trying to mend all this. And she did. She apologized to Taylor. And then told Cassie that she had. But as she suspected, it didn't seem to matter to Cassie. The Canadian was probably far more interested in destroying everything about Talia. Why would she text back after all Talia had done to her? Maybe Taylor was right. Maybe this was all Talia's fault. Maybe Cassie shouldn't accept any apology from her.

Talia slouched on the couch and opened up her bag of fast food. It was suppose to be a workout day, but she had other plans. After the argument with Taylor, she had become really lethargic. She had hoped that befriending the blonde, it'd give her an ally against Cassie. Perhaps she could even convince Cassie to see things straight for once and apologize to her. But that plan was in the trash after she told Taylor the truth about who she was. Desperation had driven her to confess that she was Dark Angel and Taylor reasonably sided with Cassie. Now she felt hopeless about the whole ordeal. Now she was all alone yet again.

After the unhealthy fast food meal, Talia dressed up for her part time job and headed down the stairs. She was only a few blocks from the restaurant which was conveient. It helped get her mind off things when she took a leave from the AFW. Everyone there knew she had been a wrestler, they just didn't know she still was. And they certainly didn't know she was Dark Angel. At the very least, she could do that job right.

An hour ago, Taylor and Akashi had nearly come to blows over what to do about Talia. Eventually, after a lengthy shouting match, Taylor won the argument, and that was why Akashi was sitting in the passenger seat of Taylor's car, waiting at the curb. Taylor glanced back at her and drew a deep breath that turned into a sigh, and as she let it out her shoulders went with it. This was all Akashi's fault for not being more persuasive.

She approached the front door of Talia Wilson's apartment building and stopped on the front step. She had found out from Johnny that Talia worked a second job as a waitress, and with some quick thinking and a pretty smile she had convinced the place that she was Talia's sister, and needed her address to surprise her. On a metal panel next to the door were rows of little round, black buttons, each with an apartment number and a last name, or first name in Japan, or however that worked. Her eyes drifted down them, her finger trailing behind, until it fell upon one little black button for a third floor apartment. She pressed it, and somewhere above it buzzed Talia's apartment.

Talia was just about to exit the door when she saw the shadow of a silhouette behind it. Probably some delivery person or visitor. She was a little concerned that it could have been a thief or some person staking out the apartment to get in. But at this time of day it was probably just someone visiting a friend or something. Talia put on her jacket and prepared to brave the sudden Japanese autumn weather. She then pushed the door open and held it briefly for the person to enter.

Then she looked up. "Taylor?" she asked surprised. "What...why..." she fumbled around searching for the right words. She thought Taylor made it quite clear that she had to apologize before even talking to Talia again. And she hadn't as far as she knew. Then it registered that they were standing right outside Talia's apartment. "What are you doing here?" she asked suddenly hostile. How did Taylor know where she lived? No one knew where she lived. "What do you want?"

Almost like magic, Talia appeared. And Taylor didn't even have to climb the stairs to get to her.

"Hey," she said. She put up her hands, palms out, as a sign of peace. "I'm not gonna kill you, okay?"

She took a hard look at the girl. She looked very different from the girl who had caused so much trouble for her. The hair was different, her whole look was different, maybe a bit sluttier, but her face, her eyes were the same. She had the same look of desperation and despair that would've made her so pathetic were she not such a psychopath.

Taylor had met her while she was on a date with Johnny, while Johnny and Taylor were "separated", but Taylor still offered to show her around. She quickly regretted it. She was new, and Taylor knew what it was like. Talia had bitched at Taylor and punched and kneed her in her bandaged-up, broken ribs. She beat on Taylor, lost her nerve, beat on her again, cried some more. Typical Talia. But Taylor had still tried to do the right thing, and not just end her right then and there, and if she could manage that then she could do it again now. For Cassie.

"We need to talk," she said. "Is there somewhere we can go? There's... I've realized some stuff, and there's just something I wanna say."

Talia was initially too upset over discovering Taylor knew where she lived that she didn't even interpret her words. "Who told you where I live? How did you find me?" No one she knew had even seen her in this area. At least that she knew of. "D-Did you follow me here?" If Taylor knew, then anyone could know. Now she had to move.

But at the initial shock wore off, Talia saw a Taylor that, for once, appeared to be sympathizing with her. It could have been a ruse. This could've all just been a way for Taylor (and Cassie by extension) to ruin her. But Taylor's words set in, and Talia couldn't let up an opportunity like this. Maybe, just maybe, Taylor had finally opened her eyes. Maybe...This was Talia's chance to finally make things right in her own eyes.

"I need to get to work...but..." Talia unlocked the door and held it open for Taylor. "Come on in..."

"Okay." Taylor stepped inside the lobby and let the door close. At least it was warmer inside.

"Akashi's here too," she said. "Don't flip out or anything, okay? Just... give me a break from the flipping out." She shook her head.

As the moment of truth approached, she found herself becoming more and more tense. She knew there was no reason to be nervous. There was no way she'd let Talia hurt her any worse than she already had, but she wasn't really worried about Talia trying to fight her. She decided that if it came to it, if Talia tried the psycho act like she had before, Taylor would shut her down as fast and as hard as she could. That gave her some kind of a sense of security, though not much.

"Um..." She said. Where to begin? "Uh... so, like... I just wanted to say that..." She tried to start over. "Okay, I was thinking and I don't really think you have a problem with Cassie. I think you have a problem with me. You've done a lot of shit, a lot of shit that you should get your ass kicked for, but... I want to help." She paused. She swallowed hard.

"I know what I said before, but... What you did to me, in the gym and in my match, was fucked up. But..." This was the really hard part. "I know that... I might've made it... easy for you to flip out." She helplessly looked Talia in the eye. "So... sorry. I need to know... I need to know if you're planning on doing anything to Cassie. And I want us to be okay."

Talia let the door shut and then looked at Taylor curiously. It was weird for someone to actually seek her out for once. But she was off to a bad start. "Akashi?" She asked after a moment of silence. She wanted to flip out. It wasn't bad enough that she came to her home? She had to bring AKASHI too? Talia crossed her arms and sighed as if being ordered to do something by her boss. She listened to Taylor's appeal. It felt surreal. Was Taylor actually apologizing? She had to have misheard that.

But even though she had wanted an apology for so long, she didn't want one from Taylor. "No...that was my fault. I shouldn't have attacked you. You don't owe me an apology." Talia then leaned against the wall and sighed again. "I'm mad at them, not you. After I attacked you, I saw sides of them that I didn't know existed. What I did was wrong, I know that now. But that didn't excuse the actions of the others." Talia felt like she was repeating herself all over again.

"Did...did you not even listen to me last time we met? Did you not even care about what I had to say?" She suddenly pushed herself off the wall as if about to leave. Then she realized Akashi was outside and suddenly felt like staying would be better. "Did NO ONE see what Cassie did to me?" She asked bitterly. "She went out of her way to not only hospitalize me...but to maim me. And you think I'M the one with the plan? You think I'M the one planning on crippling others?" Thankfully her jaw didn't click just then. "I've made mistakes in the past I know that...but I don't look forward to physically injuring others. I'm not Cassie."

"What did you expect her to do?" Taylor shrugged. "You had her back against the wall. You should probably understand what that's like."

She sighed. She couldn't let this get away from her and turn into yet another shouting match. She'd had enough of those. "I don't know if everything Cassie did was right. I know that if I was her, I would've done way worse to you, way sooner. She gave you chances that I wouldn't have. That match... I can't really say anything about it, because I know Cassie and... I can only imagine what kind of pressure she was under at the time. I know she..."

She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was already getting a headache. She was not going to sound like she was selling Cassie out to this chick. "Cassie is used to solving all of her problems by talking and hugging," she said, for whatever it was worth. "Look, what do you want? What would make all of this stop? I can't... it's gone too far. Please, please, please leave Cassie alone." She paused for a moment, and then added "And call off your sister, too."

Why? Why did Taylor keep defending Cassie's actions? Did she really think that everything Cassie did was justifiable? Taylor's thoughts were in the right place. For once, someone showed some restraint and attempted to fix everything that had happened. "It's not that simple, Taylor." That was the simple truth of the matter. "You're not the one who should be apologizing. All of them made this the way it is now. They are the ones who want this to keep going, not me."

Talia then sighed and shook her head. "Why do you think I'm the one keeping this going? Is that what Cassie told you? That her hand is being forced? Did she conveniently forget to tell you about that apology text I sent her as well?" Talia suddenly became certain that she was right. Taylor was being naive about her friend. Even after all Cassie had done, Taylor still seemed to believe that the girl did everything that needed to be done. "Stop..." 'Trusting Cassie' was the word she was looking for. "...just stop Cassie...before she hurts anyone else. Why don't you talk to her?"

And the mentioning of her sister made her sigh yet again. "I don't control what my sister does. She's never listened to me in the past." Talia then frowned and shrugged her shoulders. Aurora and her felt like the mirror of Cassie to Taylor. "I'd tell her to stop but she wouldn't listen." The redhead then turned away. Admittedly, she liked that Aurora called out Cassie for what she was. Everyone else seemed to be content with ignoring Cassie's murderous ways. Finally someone was standing up to her. At the same time, she didn't think Aurora knew what she was getting herself into.

Taylor endured Talia's unfair nonsense, until one line in particular caught her. She nearly gasped, she wanted to yell but her voice caught in her throat and came out as nearly a whisper. "I do talk to her. All the time. You..." She grimly closed her mouth again and let Talia speak.

She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, and tried her very best to stay calm. She put one hand on her hip and gestured helplessly with the other. What could she possibly say? Nothing would ever change Talia's mind.

"Talia..." She raised her blue eyes to meet the girl's. "You're wrong. I can't say anything to convince you, because you're fooling yourself. None of us have ever come after you, you have always come after us. And you're acting now like everything's okay between us, and it's not. I'm not on your side here. What I said before... Before the party, I had no idea who you were. That changes things. Ya know? You really fucked up. Cassie tried to tell you back then."

She sighed, and raised her voice. "And then you put on a mask, and Cassie tried to tell Dark Angel, too. I guess the world will never be good enough to you. You push and push and push until the world nudges you back, and now look at you. You're a mess. I would hate to be you. If I were you..." She pointed her finger in Talia's face. "I would pack my bags and get the hell out of Japan."

She shook her head and flopped her hand in the air. "But I'm not. I can't tell you what to do, but I'm asking you, please leave Cassie alone. Please tell your sister to..." She trailed off. Something occurred to her. Mamouru was managing Talia's siste, but he must also know about Talia and Dark Angel. What the hell was he doing?