Everything hurt. Absolutely everything from her head to her toe. The war she went through with Luna Pasilno had taken a lot out of her and even though it was a week out from High Stakes she could still feel the result of what her and Luna put each other through that night.
But she won. By hook or by crook it was Victoria Lyons who had her hand at the end of the day and it was Victoria who walked out still the SCW Bombshell Roulette Champion. After that victory she had truly cemented herself as one of the top Bombshells in the company reaffirming her status as the 2024 future star of the year.
But it would appear that a Queen's work is never done as when one challenge has been overcome another challenge arises and Victoria is going to need to find a way to power through the pain because there's some wolves on the horizon and they want to take back what they think is theirs.
__________
She lay face down on the massage table in one of the newer rooms in The Lyons Den. Due to the success of the school over the past year the company had not only seen an influx of newer students who could be hitting the scene in the next few years but also more sponsorships which meant more money coming in, which had allowed for the building of some new rooms. A mini spa of sorts in particular which allowed the students to relax and soothe their sore muscles. Coach Keevee Kaiser had also been considering adding an indoor pool in the near future.
She heard footsteps approach her in the room and even though she couldn't look up to see who it was she knew it was Eddie normally his presence would annoy her but since they became Mixed Tag Team Champions together they had formed something of a strange bond, likely due to their unbreakable blood ties.
“Hello cousin.” she said as she felt her approach closer, “Just leave the stones on my back alone please.”
“Oh I'm not touching those.“ said Eddie “They look way too hot.”
“They are.” said Victoria with a slight annoyed tone, “That's why they're called hot stones. I'm trying to soothe some of my muscles before we have to defend our tag team titles.”
“Yeah I know what they are.” replied Eddie “I just came in to check on you because we have that big match coming up. Our first defense of the Mixed Tag Team Championships. I don't think I need to tell you how important this match is for the both of us.”
Victoria sighed. Eddie was right this was an important match for the two of them. Eddie had staked his claim that he was coming for Finn Whelan's World Championship, and he was looking to gain momentum leading into December 22nd. For Victoria she needed to get her win back over Kayla Richards and furthermore she needed to prove that she was just as important to the team as Eddie was. She was tired of hearing everybody tell her how Eddie won the titles for the team.
“I know I know.” Victoria said, "Just remember Eddie, WE are the Mixed Tag Team champions, not them. We won the championships from them. We were the ones that were able to dethrone them. There is no reason to believe that we are at any disadvantage here because we've already proven we can beat them.”
“I see what you're saying.” said Eddie “But remember let's not get too overconfident Finn is still the World Champion. and Kayla is still the Women's World Champion. They are more than capable of coming back and taking the championships from us if we don't come fully prepared.”
“I know that.” said Victoria, “But you should also remember I'm the Bombshell Roulette Champion. I'm laying on this massage table because I had an absolute war with Luna Pasilno and I'm doing everything I can to get my body back in shape so I can go in there with you and defend our championships.”
“I can see that.” said Eddie, “And I appreciate it. I really do, because soon I'm going to be challenging Finn for his World Championship and I need to use this time to show him exactly what's coming his way.”
“And you'll win that World Championship.” said Victoria, “I saw you run that gauntlet and I've seen the aggression build inside you recently. You deserve this Eddie, not anybody else don't lose sight of that. I believe in you and I'm here to support you every step of the way.”
She may have been a bit more surprised than Eddie was at some of the words coming out of her mouth. Was she being nice? A bit respectful even? Was this Eddie's influence rubbing off on her? What really felt weird to her was that she actually meant it. She really did want to see Eddie succeed and win the World Championship from Finn. Not just so she could be double champions together with him but because she just wanted to see her cousin achieve his dream.
“What about Aleesha?” Eddie asked.
“What about her?” Victoria replied.
“I mean she won the Bombshell Rumble and she just might challenge you for the Bombshell Roulette Championship.” Eddie replied.
“She might.” said Victoria, “And she might not. I'm not highly focused on her right now don't get me wrong, we always stay three steps ahead at The Lyons Den so I am keeping my eyes on her. But she'll make her decision on Climax Control and I'll figure out what to do with her then if she picks me. Right now all we need to worry about is Finn and Kayla.”
“Fair enough.” said Eddie “And that goes two ways as well. If Aleesha does pick you I'll be there to support you in your next defense of Rue.”
“She won't if she knows what's good for her.” said Victoria with a sly grin on her face.
“Honestly after what I saw you and Luna do to each other.” said Eddie, “You're probably right, but that's her decision to make, not yours.”
“Indeed it is.” said Victoria “Indeed it is.”
“Well look.” said Eddie, “I don't want to disturb your peace or whatever, so I'm going to leave you to it. I'll be out having lunch with Sabrina if you need me.”
“All right." said Victoria, “Hey if you see that massage technician Coach hired, can you send them in here please?”
“Yeah I'll send them in.” said Eddie
She could hear Eddie's footsteps move further away as he left the room. This really was going to be a huge month for the team at The Lyons Den and when the new year rolled around they could very well find themselves at the top of Sin City Wrestling.
But for now she could hear the footsteps of the newly hired technician coming in and she needed a nice massage and fresh hot stones.
_________
It's a calm cool evening as the cameras open scene on a dirt pathway leading into a forest as it follows along, beneath the canopy of trees we soon come across Victoria Lyons sitting on a tree stump. As the cameras draw closer she looks their way with her usual arrogant smile both of her championships rest proudly on her shoulders.
Without saying a word she looks down at her Mixed Tag Championship with a smile. She was proud of what she had earned what her and Eddie had taken from Finn Whelan and Kayla Richards. the once proud owners of the Mixed Tag Team Championships.
The Wolves of Gheimhridh had truly dominated the competition and carved their place in SCW history with every victory. Their strength and their Unity had truly made them dominant champions.
But not anymore. The Wolves were now going to be forced to face a simple truth. That their time at the top was coming to an end and it would be the Lyons that push them off the precipice and take their place on top.
Her and Eddie had taken the mixed Tag Team Championships from them already, but it was becoming about more then that they wanted to take their pride and dispel this belief that nobody could dethrone them. They were going to retain their Mixed Tag Championships and then Eddie would go on to become the next SCW World Champion on December 22nd.
“Are you paying attention Kayla? Are you paying attention Finn?" said Victoria, “Because Eddie and myself are about to remind you of something that we think you've forgotten. The two of you have become so used to winning and being on top that you've forgotten nothing lasts forever, not even the Wolves of Gheimhridh.”
She makes sure to draw attention to the mixed tag title in particular has she casually palms it.
“See we know.” said Victoria, “Eddie and I both know that you think our victory over you was a fluke. That Miles Kasey won the belts for us. That it was just a lucky moment where everything went right for us. All I can tell you Kayla is if you continue to believe those delusions then you'll be making our job that much easier.”
She paused and glared into the camera her eyes glinting as she smiled.
“When we had our recent one on one encounter Kayla I didn't tap I didn't quit.” said Victoria “I went to the edge and I didn't break. Not for you and not for anybody else. You can spin that however you want and say you beat me or this and that, but the fact is I stood in that ring took everything you could throw at me and I didn't break that's the real victory and that's why you should be worried.”
Victoria let out of soft almost mocking laugh has she ran her hand over her mixed Tag Team Championship again.
“And don't think I forgot about you Finny Boy.” said Victoria, “But I'm going to save the fun stuff with you to Eddie.” I'll stick to you Kayla. See the thing is the two of you you're so caught up in your pride and your image that you don't realize all you've worked for is starting to slip away from you. What happens if on the same night that Finn loses Championship to Eddie, you also lose your Championship to Aleesha? The Wolves were going to 2025 with nothing. It's a very real possibility that the both of you need to be worried about.”
She paused for a moment shaking her head slightly.
“Kayla, this is what happens when you step into the ring with someone who's better, someone who doesn't care about your history, who just wants to make a name for themselves, someone who already has.“ She said as she looked down at both championships resting on her shoulders. “You may have once ruled this place, but you've outlived your purpose. You won't be taking the mixed tag titles back. I won't allow it, and Eddie won't allow it.”
She kept her eyes fixed ahead almost staring through the camera as if she wasn't talking to the camera, not even if she was talking to an audience. She was speaking directly to Kayla Richards.
“You won that battle between us Kayla, but the war is still mine to win.” said Victoria, “And you awakened a new monster in me that night. Let's not forget Luna thought she had it in the bag because of her sole victory over me and the fact that she ended my undefeated streak. But after High Stakes I left her broken and beaten and now it's your turn Kayla.”
She lets out a soft laugh has her hand runs over her belt again.
“The truth is Wolves.” said Victoria “The two of you are not the best team in this company anymore. The Lyons Den is and we're out to prove it. We have the chemistry and the drive to keep these championships, and we've got a bond of blood that no matter what will never be broken.”
She smirks and runs her hands through her hair before flipping it back.
“So listen to me close Kayla.” said Victoria “Bring the pain, bring the pressure. Bring everything you've got because there's going to be no excuses this time when we retain OUR mixed Tag Team Championships and cement our status as the new standard in the tag team division.”
She lifted her head and her eyes lit up with determination has she looked into the camera.
“You and Finn want these back so bad.” said Victoria, "You want these titles back because you need them back, because you know without them you're nothing and you're becoming desperate. Desperate to be back on top because you need to be so you can feel better about yourself.”
She takes another moment to pause.
“Once the smoke settles,” said Victoria, “You both are going to have to admit that it's over. It's over for the wolves and you aren't the standard anymore. You won't be taking the mixed tag titles back, and Finn is in his final weeks as World Champion. Trust me I've been working with Eddie and he's different. He's meaner, he's angrier and he's ready to take Finn's Championship away.”
With a sigh and a smile she looks proudly at her championships again before looking back to the camera.
“It's okay though Kayla.” said Victoria, “You had a good run and everybody knows nothing lasts forever. But it truly is over because The Lyon's Den is on the rise and we are going to make 2025 our year.”
The camera slowly pulls backward back down the path. As soon as Victoria is out of sight, the scene slowly fades to black with just the sounds of the forest echoing before it finally ends.
__________
She was mildly annoyed with Eddie at the moment because she wanted to meet with him so they could work out some stuff and go over the match, work a strategy and all that other fun stuff any team worth their salt does before going into a big match.
But he was out with that girlfriend of his again. Apparently Sabrina had some big news for Eddie that was life-changing or something but that didn't help Victoria and that didn't help the fact that they had the mixed tag team championships to defend. That Sabrina needed to save her news for later. Right now the tag titles were the most important thing in Eddie's life and then winning the World Championship was going to be. Why couldn't Sabrina understand that?
She looked up from the bathroom sink and splashed water on her face she caught sight of her own reflection in the mirror.
“What's the deal with you anyway?” she said almost teasing in her voice, “You have it all now right? Championships, fame, the adoration…., or at least attention of the masses. So why? Why you staring at yourself like some sort of moody teenager?”
The silent response was almost oppressive and heavy as she sighed Victoria ran a hand through her hair her mind wandering back to Kasey and Carter. She hadn't thought about what happened on her Queen for a Day show with them for some time but now their faces and the incident was vivid in her memory.
She had wanted them to be her beautiful little puppets and watch them tear each other apart but they had fooled her, refusing to play by her games.
“You made them fight each other.” she said “But their love was too strong and they outplayed you. But what what did you really do that for Victoria?”
She stared at herself in the mirror for a few more seconds as if expecting a response that never came.
“For a moment? A headline? Just to prove you could?” she said, “You just needed people to see you as mean and scary. As This big evil force in an attempt to make them fear you.”
She sighed and shook her head straightening up her posture a bit. It wasn't like her to feel bad about the past or feel guilty about things she done people should stepped on to get where she was that just wasn't the type of person Victoria was.
Feeling bad about what she did with those two sounded more like Eddie. Her tag team partner was different than she was, he was good and honest. It was also that goodness in him that made him not judge her or try to change her but his just his presence sometimes made her see things differently.
She thought about her Mixed Tag Championship and how she felt when she saw that when that referee's hand hit the mat and Eddie got the one two three for the team. It had been a high like no other winning a second championship and becoming a dual Championship less than 6 months into her SCW career.
Then there was Kayla Richards with her sharp words and relentless drive. The sting of their match still fresh in her memory. Kayla had pushed her to her absolute limit causing her to pass out in the ring, her body giving up before her pride did. But at the end of the day Kayla walked away with the win and as much as Victoria hated to admit it the knowledge of that burned. And Kayla, she just had a way of cutting through and hitting where it hurt the most.
“She thinks she has me all figured out.“ Victoria said to her reflection defiantly, “That she can break me down and expose me.”
She looked at her lips curl into a smirk and the reflection.
“She just doesn't get it none of them do.” she said.
She sighed and paced a bit in the small bathroom in the back of The Lyons Den. The championships weren't feeling just like trophies anymore to her, they were becoming reminders of who she was or who she could be.
She stopped again to look at her reflection in the mirror thinking about some of the people she had done horrible things to in the past. She wasn't going to apologize for anything she had done but maybe she could cool off a little in the future.
“You're no saint Victoria “ she said, “And you never will be. But perhaps you don't have to be the villain all the time either.”
She could feel her word hanging in the air with uncertainty not sure if she believed in herself but it did feel good to say them out loud.
“Baby steps.” she told herself as she went to the door. "One thing at a time Victoria, one thing at a time.”
As she left the bathroom and made her way back into the main area of The Lyons Den there he was Eddie laughing and smiling and hugging with that girlfriend of his.
“There you are Eddie!” she said marching up to him. “I've been looking for you you you do realize we are defending our tag championships for the first time and we absolutely cannot lose.”
"Sorry about that Vicks." said Eddie. "It's just something happened and don't worry about it it's not going to make me lose any focus on the match in fact I think I'm feeling a lot more motivated now.”
Victoria raising eyebrow and looked at Eddie and Sabrina who couldn't seem to stop smiling at each other.
“Eddie what are you talking about?” she asked.
Eddie and Sabrina looked at each other with a smile and Eddie turned back to Victoria.
“Well…you see” Eddie began….
_______________
As the camera flickers to life the dim glow of a single exposed light bulb swaying lazily from the ceiling casts a weak light on some cracked walls of an abandoned locker room with rusted lockers lining the rows, some doors creaking softly open at the slightest movement of air.
Victoria Lyons sat on a crate, her championships displayed proudly on either side of her. She didn't feel alone in this room. Somewhere in this room she could feel it. A part of her that she tried to bury, the part of her she had claimed to have killed years ago.
“You think you have me all figured out Kayla don't you?” said Victoria “But you don't, because you don't understand that exhaustion is not the same as defeat. What happened between us that night we faced off was simple, you couldn't finish me. That burns you deep inside doesn't it Kayla? That I just refused stay down and quit because you couldn't break me.”
The light bulb swayed around again Shadows dancing around her, the darkest of which rested right behind her as she looked into the camera.
“Thing is Kayla.” she said “I don't need to explain myself to you I know who I am I know what I'm about.”
A small part of her didn't even believe her her own words, she still felt like the version of herself she had spent years creating, but the part she had destroyed was trying to bubble its way back up to the surface thanks to Eddie Lyons.
“You know there was a time.” she said “A time when I thought that I had to destroy everybody to prove that I'm the best, but what I've come to realize while teaming with Eddie is that I can prove I'm the best without destruction and chaos. I can be the best, simply because I know I am.”
That smile still stayed on her face, her eyes beaming with confidence.
“Look what happened with Miles and Carter.” she muttered as her stomach twisted remembering the memory. “What I did to them, making them fight each other for no reason except that I could. So I can watch them crumble and think it was amusing thinking that it was power. I wanted the attention and I wanted people talking about me and you know what? It worked. I had all the attention on me, sure it was hatred but I got everybody talking about Victoria Lyons.”
She thought about if it was all worth it and was able to convince herself that it was. After all Kasey and Carter grew closer as a couple as a result and we're truly able to work together to outsmart her nobody got hurt so in a way everybody won.
“That was really the start of everybody hates Victoria Lyons wasn't it?” she said “When I revealed my queen for a day card they really didn't like what I did to those two nor what I chose to do to Harper Mason and some others. I believe even you expressed surprised. Those actions are what led to me becoming the most hated of the year but you know what else they called me the future star of the year. Do you know what that means Kayla?"
The light bulb continues to sway showing Victoria amid the flickers of light.
“It means that even though they hate me.” said Victoria, “They still respect me, they still recognize my talent and they still know that I and the next up in this company. Of course I would argue that being a dual champion makes me the now but I digress.”
She shrugs casually.
"I'm not going to apologize for the things I've done.” said Victoria “Because I'm not sorry that I did any of them. I did what I needed to do to get to the position that I am in today and I really could care less who I had to step on or make an example of to get there. Alexandra Calaway, Bella Madison, Luna Pasilno and everybody in between. I've been defeating everybody there is to beat in this company just like you Kayla is that what it is? You see a little bit of yourself in me and it scares you? Because at this point after High Stakes, I don't think anybody can deny who the top two Bombshells are in this company and I think you know it too. That's why on X I made the mere suggestion that Aleesha should choose Bella Madison. Bella has gotten stronger since our encounter, since I helped open up her inner monster. She even made herself a champion, but she's still fresh. She's still new. You and I are both seasoned champions and it would just be particularly unwise for her to waste her opportunity on one of us, especially operating at the level that the two of us are. It's just the truth you know it I know it and even Bella knows it but yes at the end of the day the decision is hers to make and hers alone just as Eddie's was to challenge Finn.”
With both hands she lifts up both of her championships and holds him out to the camera.
“You see these?” said Victoria “Like it or not I earned these. I earned the Bombshell Roulette Championship and I earned the Mixed Tag Team Championships with Eddie. I don't care about whatever Miles Kasey did. Do you really think he would be trying to help me after what I did to him? You didn't need anything from miles and it's not our fault that Finn pissed him off. But it doesn't matter, we'll just retain our championship against you and prove that Miles Kasey had no effect on what would have eventually happened anyway. Eddie and I are the yin and yang of this company and while 2024 may have been the year of the wolf, rest assured that 2025 will be the year of the lion.”
Her arrogant smile flickers in between the flashes of light as the bulb continues to swing above her before finally everything turns to black.
