Confrontation
She didn’t know why she was so angry.
She really didn’t have any right to be. If Aron wasn’t, why would she be? But love and hatred are a lot closer to each other than people realise. And this was a case of zoeys love leading her to hatred. Aron sat across from her, a concerned look on his face as Zoeys nostrils flared. Her bright blue eyes darkened as her pupils widened to almost take up all of her eye.
Aron was worried, concerned that her anger would cause her to do something she might regret.
Moments earlier Zoey had stood from her seat as she took a break at the gym, she had started to storm acids the gym floor, only to be stopped by Aron. His hand grabbing her elbow and holding her back asking her to come with him. Zoey took a deep breathe and complied. Stepping outside she let out a deep sigh and her shoulders dropped.
She was trying to let it all go. All the resentment and anger. The hatred. Aron closed his eyes and took his own deep breath and and prepared to ask one simple question. ”Why now?” Zoey shook her head and gave a small shrug, Aron say forward and reached out grabbing her hands. ”It was a long time ago Zoey, you’ve been back at Wolfslair a while…so why now?”
”I don’t know.” that was a lie. She knew it, Aron knew it. And Aron wasn’t going to let her off that easy. He sat back and folded his arms over his chest staring at her with a knowing frown. ”I just….what he did to you has always been there. In the back of my mind. But I always figured if you and Fen could let it go…I could to”
”And now?”
”Now he’s fucking my sister”
Aron blinked, his jaw was slightly ajar. He seemed to no know this, or atleast, was very good at acting like he hadn’t heard or noticed. ”Whaaaaat?” She gave a small nod and leaned forward placing her chin on her arms that were folded over her knees. Araon sighed and gave a small shrug. ”Well, I can see why you’d want to talk to him…”
”It’s not just that. It’s also the things he’s done. He threatened Alicia, she tried to be his friend and he threatened her, then he snapped and attacked you, put you in the hospital…and that’s not right…you’re not even…” She trailed off. Araon raised an eyebrow.
”Not even what?...tough? Able to defend myself?”
She shook her head and sighed heavily. ”You’re not a wrestler. You are in our world through your brother and through me. Austin went at you to get to Kristjan, what is to say others won’t do the same to get to me?...seems to be the way with these things, to go after our loved ones…”
Aron smiled and shook his head before standing up. ”He….he’s not the same guy Zoey…” She looked up at him raising and eyebrow. ”He had this look in his eyes, when he came at me. It was…terrifying. It was vacant, like nothing was there…I don’t see that anymore…now I see…regret…sadness. Loss. Humanity. And if Kristjan and I can forgive…so can you…and…maybe you should talk to him…like…actually talk…”
Zoey swallowed and pushed up off the step, smiling wide before kissing Aron on his forehead. ”Yeah….you’re right…thanks…you know how to balance me out…” Aron smiled wide, Zoey took a deep breath and moved back through the gym, walking around the main floor to the other side where Austin had just finished a workout, his hair and body drenched with sweat.
He turned as Zoey folded her arms over her chest. ”Zoey…”
She put her hand up and shook her head with a sigh. ”Look I…have a few things to say…” She pauses, Austin just stays silent and stoic, looking over at Alicia who just shrugged and had no idea what to say or what was going to happen. ”I understand you aren’t the same guy you were over the last few years. I even understand moss and wanting to move on…and both you and my sister deserve to be happy…”
He smiled and looked back over at Alicia again before turning to Zoey. ”Well, thank you, I appreciate that and I’m sure Alicia does to..”
Zoey nods again and sighs before leaning in. ”But, you hurt my sister….I will end you…..understand?” Austin just gave a nod, Zoey turned and tapped him on the shoulder, moving past her sister with a nod and back to Aron with a sigh of relief and release. Letting it all go.
Queen.
”This is a huge opportunity”
Zoey laughs to herself, shaking her head as a few strands of blond hair fall over her eyes.
”Stating the obvious right? The Queen for a day match, where three of us will compete and the winner gets to book their very own show. Putting themselves, their friends or their enemies in matches they choose. Champions have been crowned, revenge has been served, all due to this match and the consequences and fall out from it. And to be honest, it doesn’t take a Steiner college graduate to do the math here. Fewer competitors equals better chances for the ones left to win. So with Kim Pain no longer able to be in ther match, well…”
“My chances of winning just went up.”
“But the question remains, what would I do if I was to win the queen for a day? And in answering that question, I know some might be thinking that I’m looking past my two opponents that are left for this match and the opportunity that is presented. But, the truth is that it’s only natural to wonder what you’d do. And to vocalize it gives motivation.”
“So, what would I do?”
Zoey shrugs and folds her arms over her chest with a grin.
”Well, I would be going after the winner of the bombshells championship match. And I’m being nice to Ariana here and even considering that she might win it. We all know that coming out of this SuperCard it’s going to be Courtney Pierce who is still the champion. So, if I win the Queen for a Day match, then that is my goal. I will be coming for Courtney Pierce, I will be coming for that bombshells championships, because I have been overlooked and shut aside long enough. I came into this company with all the momentum in the world. I started destroying every single woman that this company put in front of me, and I did it with style, flair, and dominance.”
“You cannot deny it. You can’t look at my history, my wins, and who I faced, and not be impressed with what I was able to accomplish. But a few key losses and momentum, falling by the wayside, have left me desperate in trying to find ways to keep climbing that light off both figuratively and practically.”
“And it all started..with Tempest.”
“The desperation all started at one pivotal point in my career. And it pains me to say it, or think about it, or bring it up. You say, when you are a family member of someone else in business, whether or not you are a son or daughter, or brother or sister or cousin of someone else who has had any type of success in professional wrestling. If you were the one that comes into a second, you are the one who ends up being in a shadow. Some people shine bright and cast the shadow back onto their family member and others stay cold and fighting.”
Zoey folds her arms over her chest and grits her teeth.
” My sister has had nothing but success. She burst onto the scene in this country and took it by storm. Dominating every single company she had stepped in, including this one. She stepped out of our father’s shadow and eclipsed him to the point where people don’t even talk about the legacy of Jason Maxwell. people forget that he was a huge dominant destructive force in the late 80s and early 90s and even into the 2000s in Japan. No one cares no one talks about it. It is all about Alicia and all about what she has done.”
“And she earned it. She earned through everything that she has ever done. but, I knew I could come in to any company on earth and do the same thing. And in other companies, smaller ones, that people really didn’t give a shit about, I did that. So when I got to this company, when Sin city wrestling decided to signed me to a contract, I was excited at the prospect of being able to do the exact same thing. And I did, right up until I ran into tempest.”
“You all saw it on climax control, the brawl we got into to close the match.”
“There is a mutual respect there. Because that needs to be said, tempest. You need to realize that I do respect you. Hell, from what I know about you, I even like you. But there is one point in our past, that makes me unable to reach out or ever want to be a friend to you, or to not want to knock your teeth down your throat. It’s the fact that all the momentum I had built-up, everything I had that I earned, you took away in beating me. And I can handle a loss, I can handle losing to someone better than me and on that night, you were better than me. But, you did nothing with it.”
“You beat me and then disappeared.”
Zoey throws her hands in the air and paces back and forth before putting them on her hips and tilting her head with a sneer.
”And I refuse to let that happen again, especially in such a big match. And people need to realize that you are the biggest threat in the match, literally. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to look past Mercedes, Vegas. With Kim pain, no longer in the match, Mercedes is the one who we would consider to be the old school veteran. And while Kim had exploded in a new company, and looks like she might be going back in time, and turning back the clock to some sort of Renaissance for herself, Mercedes Vargas is looking to do the same in the company that made her name famous.”
“Mercedes is viewed as a legend in not just this company, but the wrestling world at large. She did time in WWH, IWF, a million other companies, but really found her biggest and brighter success here in Sin City wrestling. And I could sit here and do what everyone else does. I could do all the stuff that my sister does. And I could ask the question of “yeah but what have you done for me lately?”. And I get why they do it.”
“It gets under her skin.”
Zoey scoffs and shakes her head.
”There’s no point in denying it. We’ve seen it Mercedes. You let other people talk about you like that, and it gets onto your skin and you end up, overthinking it or trying to prove them wrong and you fail. The reason why your career has been on a downswing has nothing to do with advanced age and has nothing to do with whether or not you can, or can’t, do it any more. It has everything to do with the fact that you let people play mind games with you, and you come up on the short end of the stick. Mercedes Vargas could be a bombshells world champion in 2023 or 2024. I’m not going to sit here and say that you can’t do it. That would be foolish. And I don’t need to resort to such things.”
“However, what I will say is you are facing an uphill battle. And hey, Tempest and I have our weaknesses in this match. While she and I are both younger and much more physically intimidating, and we are, you have a few things on your side that we have to watch out for. While Tempest, all myself could grab you and break you in half. You have veteran instincts and speed and athleticism on your side.”
“Attributes that I won’t overlook.”
“But you, you need to not think that I’m looking past you. I know damn well that both you and tempest are threats to me in this match. I know that the both of you are looking to do the exact same thing that I am in restarting your career, and to make sure that you have a future. But I refuse to let either of you use me as a stepping stone or wrong on that ladder. I’m going to do everything in my power to become a queen for a day, I’m gonna do everything in my power to face whoever the bombshells champion is and take that championship for myself. This is the moment to do it, and I’m not going to let anyone, not a wiley veteran, not a dominating force, stand in my way.”
Confession
”So the…conversation went well?
”Yeah.”
”You seemed really…adamant about it all. I kind of get it, but….it really seemed to affect you.”
Zoey simply nodded. Giving such a small reaction as she thought back, realising she’d never gone into exactly what happened with Michael and why she not only didn’t have a relationship for years but also disappeared from wrestling and her family. Aron sat there, next to her on the couch, silently waiting, showing his patience and respect. After a few moments Zoey took in a long deep breath and turned looking Aron dead in the eye. ”It did…cause…I know what my sister and I have gone through in the past.”
Aron took a deep breath and sat back. ”I know, well…some of it…”
Zoey swallowed hard, closing her eyes and thinking about the past. All of it, where she was, what she has gone through. All of it. ”I know Austin isn’t a bad guy, entirely. I know he went through horrible things, and loss. And I know that this is the wrestling business so things like what happened to you are not that rare.” She paused and shook her head, thinking carefully. ”When I first came into wrestling, I wanted so bad to impress my sister, my brother and my father….impressing my brother was easy, the second I went out of the state he was freaking out, he stays in the same three indies…”
She couldn’t help but laugh and Aron raised an eyebrow. ”Family business is always built on outdoing those who came before.”
”Don’t I know it…” She paused again and shook her head before swallowing hard and looking away. ”I wanted to explode onto the scene. But then I got distracted. By a guy. Michael Murtagh. A average wrestler with a big personality. I fell hard for him and quickly my career became all about him, about pushing him, about him being the best and a champion while I became nothing….”
She trailed off, Aron leaned over, taking her hand in his and giving it a small squeeze. ”If you don’t want to talk about this you don’t have to, but I’ll always listen. She squeezed his hand back and pushed out another breath.
”I let him think I only mattered because I was dating him. And he used me, chewed me up and spat me out. Went off with another woman. I didn;t know how to deal.” She shrugged and chuckled under her breath before sitting back and throwing her hands in the air. ”I disappeared. I just ghosted. I ghosted bookings, I ghosted my friends, my family. I just left.” She swallowed and calmed herself down. ”I always ran…with everything..”
”What do you mean?”
She bit her bottom lip, not wanting to go into this, but feeling safe enough to talk to Aron. ”I didn’t have the best time growing up Aron. Alicia left, my brother was a lo0ser, my mom remarried, my dad was nowhere to be found. I was…alone.” She trailed off, looking over to the side before pushing up off the couch and moving around the room. ”I looked for acceptance everywhere. But I was always..looked at as weird. Cause I was bigger than literally everyone. I thought it changed when I joined the volleyball team…the whole, tall athletic thing seemed to work in my favor…till other teams started lodging fake complaints…saying it was “unfair” to have me on the team…”
Zoey growled, Arondid too, getting to his feet, clearly angered about how she had been treated. ”Kids can be cruel Zoey….especially teenagers. She nodded again, Aron leaned forward, placing his hands on her shoulders and rubbing them lightly before kissing her forehead. ”Hey…if I’d known you back then, I would have totally meekly asked you out.”
This made Zoey laugh, she shook her head and smiled. Aron was great at making her laugh, getting her to release pain and anger. He was her rock. ”Alot of people see me as…I dunno. Cold. Arrogant? I don’t know. I’m just glad you have been able to see through that I guess.” She trailed off and cleared her throat with a smile. ”God I sound like I’m a whiny bitch….thanks for putting up with it.”
Aron smirked, he leaned forward and kissed her lips before pulling back with a laugh. ”Anytime…anytime at all.”
Life and death
”Respect. It’s a simple enough word. Can you respect someone without liking them?”
“Of course you can.”
“Just like how you can like, even love someone and not respect them.”
Zoey shakes her head, folding her large arms over her chest with her blond hair swept to the side under a black baseball cap that is spun backwards.
”In my world, you live and die by respect. The respect you show others, the respect shown to you. The respect you beat into others time and time again. The fact is, if someone tells me they hate me, it’s dirt off my shoulder. I don’t care and never have. Yet if someone looks me dead in the eye, if I have gone to war with them, whether I have won or lost, and they tell me they don’t respect me? Well, that shit cuts me deep and makes me want to end that persons entire career. To take everything from them until they have nothing except their respect. And then…when they have nothing but that left…”
“I’ll take that too.”
“So Tempest, you need to watch your mouth when addressing me, you need to watch your tone as well as what you say. See, so many people can point to me and say my career has somewhat stagnated, since you beat me. I came in like a ball of blazing fire only to stumble in a loss to you and struggle to scratch and claw my way back.”
“But what about you?”
“You walk around here and talk like you’re the be all end all in SCW and the bombshells division. And despite your fearsome size and strength, when was the last time you actually won anything important? Hmm? You beat me and halted my momentum but then did nothing with it.”
She pauses again and scoffs, throwing her hands in the air.
”You refuse to show any humility, despite the fact your entire history is one of failure. The only time you looked impressive was when Austin carried you to a mixed tag team title reign. And without him, you are nothing. And the fact is, you should be. You should have been the Internet champion, you should have been the roulette champion and should have been the Bombshells champion. You should have been a mainstay main event force and a star, steamrolling over everyone who stands in your way but instead you just simply…”
“Fail.”
“And instead of looking in the mirror and vowing to be better, to do better and rise up you just feel comfortable and stagnant. So, no, I’m not going to sit back and let you become the queen for a day and watch what you want to do, I’m not going to let you run your mouth time and time again without any comupence. Instead I am going to make it my mission to wake you up and make you realise that size and strength isn’t enough…”
“You need heart…and yours is lacking, being held captive by ego and arrogance you FAILED to earn.”
Zoey sneers and sits down before grabbing a bottle of water.
”Speaking of arrogance. Mercedes Vargas. You atleast earned your arrogance. Unlike Tempest who has been dragged to championship glory you have earned yours time and time again. I watched you go toe to toe with Kayla Richards older sister Amber, I watched you go to war with MY older sister and each time you showed the world that you were good enough to hang with the best. And I told you before, I wasn’t going to talk shit about you like you’re not a threat, cause I’m noit that stupid.”
“But, you let me down Mercedes.”
“You let me down hard, as someone who was a fan of yours when I was a teenager.”
“You broke my heart.”
“I wanted an impassioned promo about how you aren’t done yet and you’re going to be queen for a day and you’re the best, instead what we got was lazy. A lazy promo, a lazy moment and someone who clearly is going through the motions because she had no idea what she wants to do or is really capable of anymore. Truth is Mercy…”
“You’re a ship with a broken rudder. Spinning in circles.”
She takes a drink, swallowing and shaking her head.
”You are at the end of a path, and in front of you is a fork in the road. One side, you keep going. You keep fighting on the off chance that you can pull yourself together and your skills are still enough to be a force and a world champion in 2023. It’s a big ask, it is. And I think, personally, you are up to the challenge.”
“However. It’s still a slim chance.”
“To recreate magic.”
“So, there’s the other path. One that many in this company wish you would take. This path is to go out, to bow out. To wave to everyone, give a heartfelt speech nd leave. Retire with some dignity. Cause in this business, we see so many former greats overstay their welcome and now see the writing on the wall. And for you Mercedes the writing is there.”
“But the queen for a day could change that. Give you that one last moment in the sun and in the spotlight…but to win it, to beat Tempest and myself, two women that are bigger, stronger and younger…it’s not impossible…but it’s going to be like ice skating uphill for you…and that is never fun.”