Into The Void did not go like Victoria Lyons wanted, she had unfortunately come up short and allowed Mercedes Vargas to leave the Princess Cruise with the World Bombshell Championship.
To say that this fact upset her would be an understatement. She hated it, she wanted to have a more memorable dominant run as champion, as she did with the Bombshell Roulette Championship, and she started off well with a defense against Frankie Holliday.
But then it was all taken from her by the veteran wrestler, and it would be easy for her to make excuses on why it happened maybe she was distracted by the luxury of the cruise or the fact that every year something unfortunate seemed to happen to her aboard the Princess Cruise and she wondered if it was perhaps becoming a curse.
The first year she had her crown stolen, gotten seasick and had a seagull literally crap on her face. The following two years she had lost a championship, the Roulette Championship to Harper Mason on last year's cruise and the most recent loss of the World Bombshell Championship to Mercedes Vargas.
But excuses weren't her style, not anymore. If she didn't leave the Princess Cruise with the World Bombshell Championship it was because Mercedes Vargas was better on that night.
On that night.
She wasn't going to waste her time with excuses. She was simply going to give Mercedes no time to breathe, and do whatever she could to get her rematch and take back her World Bombshell Championship.
Of course she was still Victoria Lyons and just a regular match wasn't enough, no Mercedes had taken something from her, something important and for that Victoria wanted to make her burn.
Time would have to tell if Mercedes would agree to enter the inferno with Victoria Lyons, where one of them would walk out champion and the other one would walk out with permanent burn scars.
In the meantime, she had a snake to deal with. Cassie Wolfe's true colors had come to light proving that she was everything Victoria had told Harper Mason she was just over a year ago.
And if there's anything Victoria Lyons loves more than being a champion, it's being right.
__________
She just stood there staring at the empty space on her mantelpiece above the fireplace where her World Bombshell Championship had once sat, photographs from her and Darian's wedding sat on either side of the empty space.
“Don't worry you'll be back where you belong very soon.” she said, turning away from the mantelpiece and heading back toward the kitchen area. The hardwood floor creaked beneath her feet throughout the quiet of the house. She casually opened the refrigerator not really looking inside, before simply closing it again.
“You've worn a trail into the floor.” she heard Darian from the doorway. He had been watching her pace around the house quietly for the better part of a half hour.
“I paid for the floor.” she said, turning to glance at him.
“Fair enough.” he replied walking over to her carrying two cups of coffee he said, setting one in front of her. The warmth seeped into her fingers as she wrapped her hands around it.
She took a sip, Darian had made it perfectly. Two creams, three sugars just like she liked it. For a moment neither of them spoke Darian knew that sometimes, Victoria needed a minute to sort through everything rattling around in her incredibly stubborn brain.
“I'm going to get it back, Dare Bear.” she said. “That empty space on the mantlepiece won't be empty much longer.”
“You think Mercedes will accept your challenge for an Inferno match?” He asked, sipping his own coffee.
“If she's any sort of champion she will.” said Victoria “If she doesn't, I suppose she'll just be making things worse for herself because anyone who knows me knows I will not relent until I get what I want.”
She sipped more of her coffee.
“Right now we can't do anything but wait to see how Mercedes responds to my challenge.” she said [color=pink
]“For now, I take a detour to visit an old friend.”[/color]
“Cassie Wolfe?” said Darian.
“The one and only.” she smiled.
She kept that smile through another longer sip of her coffee.
“Cassie, the perfect person for me to let some of this frustration out on.” she said. “I've never liked her, you know. I told Harper Mason that Cassie would betray her the first chance she could. I told her and everyone how selfish and self-deluded Cassie really was, but nobody listened and I was called a bully. “
“Well, you were kind of being a bully.” said Darian.
“Maybe a little.” she shrugged “But at the end of the day, I was still right. Cassie's true colors came to light as I said they would, and now all I can hope is that Harper gives Cassie everything I always felt she deserved, and puts an end to her in their Hell in a Cell match at Violent Conduct.”
“That one should be a war for sure.” Darian nodded.
“It should.” Victoria agreed “So many people seemed surprised when Cassie showed exactly who she was, but I wasn't. I waited a long time to be able to tell Harper Mason I told you so, and that time finally came. Harper could have had my assistance in the matter but she blew it now she has to handle Cassie and her Mean Girls reboot.”
She sips more of her coffee.
“I swear they share like three brain cells between the four of them.” she said.
They both laughed.
“You're not worried the other three will get involved in your match?” Darian asked.
“They might, probably will.” Victoria said “I'll just have to deal with them as it comes be it Lexie, Riley or Krystal. If they cross that line, then they will be handled accordingly. Passing should know by now I'm not the one to be playing those kinds of games with.”
Darian nodded in agreement.
“Besides..” she said “If Cassie needs three other women standing behind her to defeat me, or Harper or anybody, then she's not as dangerous as she thinks she is.”
She exhales, letting another sip of coffee slide down her throat.
“I'm the most dangerous woman in Sin City Wrestling.” Victoria continued. "Championship or not, that is the undeniable fact. I am the wildcard of the Bombshell division because you never really know how, or when I'm going to come at you. But when I do, the result is always going to be the same. The result is always going to be violent.”
“And yes, there will be blood.” Darian smirked
Victoria laughed.
“There usually is.” she said with a grin
She took another final sip of her coffee and set her empty mug in the sink filling it with running water.
"You know when I first came into Sin City wrestling.." she began as she turned off the faucet "I wanted everyone to fear me. I wanted them to fear what I might become, but now?”
She turned to look at Darian.
“Now they know exactly what I've become.” she said "I'm a woman that's willing to go further than almost anyone else. I'm someone who will smile as they walk into a fight everyone else thinks is too dangerous.”
“That's why you wanted an Inferno match.” Darian said, moving to put his own empty cup in the sink.
Victoria nodded.
“It's a test of commitment.” she said “If I challenge someone to step into an Inferno match with me, I'm asking them one simple question.”
She pauses.
“How bad do you really want it?” she said “Anyone can go out there in their promos and say that they'll die for this business, sacrifice everything and go through hell. That they'll do anything to be champion. That's a very easy thing to say.”
Another pause.
“It's another thing entirely when the flames are inches away from your face.” she said “Mercedes proved she could beat me, and I respect that. But if she wants to prove that she is the true champion, then she's going to have to stand in the flames with me.”
She smiled.
“But for now..” she said “It's time I cut the head off a snake.”
She kissed her husband softly on the cheek. She didn't have a championship and that disappointment remained but so did purpose. Purpose that she intended to carry with her wherever the highway to regain the World Bombshell Championship took her.
And the first exit led her straight to Cassie Wolfe.
__________
The cameras open as a soft piano melody plays there's a darkened room and Darian Lyons sits playing at the piano while Victoria lays on top like some vintage '50s showgirl.
The melody becomes recognizable as Cyndi Lauper's 1980s hit True Colors, Victoria's voice hauntingly sang along.
“...I saw your true colors shining through.” she sang “Yeah I saw your true colors, and I tried to tell her. But now your true colors came shining through, and your true colors were as predictable as the rainbow.”
The melody fades out as Victoria sits up atop the piano.
“I call that True Colors: The Cassie Wolfe/Victoria Lyons remix.” she grinned. "I suppose the first thing I should do Cassie, is thank you.”
She kept the grin on her face.
“Thank you for proving me right.” she continued, “Thank you for finally allowing your true colors to come to light. There was a time when I told Harper Mason, and the rest of the world exactly who you were and nobody wanted to listen.”
She shook her head as if disappointed.
“Now I'll admit I wasn't really trying to expose you to help Harper Mason.” she said “I was doing it for my own selfish reasons. I thought I could use your treachery to manipulate Harper coming under my wing. Maybe that's why she refused to believe me but that doesn't change the fact that at the end of the day, I was right.”
She smiles proudly, lighting off the piano her boots clicking on the hardwood floor.
“The funniest part is Cassie..” she said with a laugh. “Is that it wasn't even difficult, I didn't undercover some grand conspiracy or spend months searching for evidence. All I had to do was watch you.”
She pointed at the camera.
“That's always been your problem Cassie.” she said “You think you're smarter than everyone else, and that every smile and little performance deserves an Oscar. But you're not as complicated as you believe you are. You always wanted to be the main character but the second Harper Mason's spotlight got bigger than yours, everything I said about you finally came to light. I didn't predict it because I was psychic, I predicted it because selfish people like you are painfully predictable.”
She grins.
“You can only fake loyalty for so long before your own ego starts demanding attention.” she said “And your ego Cassie has always been starving.”
She pauses.
“I've heard the term snake be used to describe you.” she said “I've even used it myself but the more I think about it it's really unfair to compare you to a snake. Unfair to the snake of course.”
She smirks.
“You see the thing about snakes.” she said “Is they don't pretend to be golden retrievers first."
Darian laughs.
“The difference is a snake will warn you.” she said “It'll hiss and it'll rattle, letting you know exactly what it is. Perhaps by that regard I'm more of a snake than you are because I don't hide my true colors. Every Bombshell in that locker room knows exactly what they're getting when they step into the ring with Victoria Lyons. They know if they don't tread lightly when they step in the ring with me then I will sink my fangs into their neck and I rip their throat out with my claws.”
The smile never left her face.
“But you?” she said “You wrapped yourself in friendship, loyalty and trust. Then the second it served your own interest you buried the blade deep into Harper's back and somehow people were surprised, but I wasn't because I already saw the ending.”
She shook her head lightly.
“I don't see you as this intelligence schemer.” Cassie.” Victoria said “I think you'll stand beside whoever benefits you. I think you'll smile at whoever benefits you, and I think you'll fight for whoever benefits you. But the moment those benefits disappear, so does your loyalty.
She lets those words hang in the air.
“I feel bad for you in a way.” she said “Because someone like you will never get to experience real respect. You might get people telling you what you want to hear, you might even get a few followers but you'll never have real respect.”
She pauses.
“Real respect is earned by standing beside people when you have nothing to gain.” she said “Real respect is earned by saying true to who you are and not hiding your colors. Do you know why people respect me more than you even after all the less than savory things I've done and said?”
She pauses again.
“Because I've never lied about who I am.” she said “I'm conniving, I'm controlling, and at times I can be a downright bitch. But unlike you I own it and I don't need a little cosplay Mean Girls act to prove anything to anybody. ”
She leans back casually against the piano.
“I know what everybody's thinking.” she said, “Everyone's thinking that Victoria Lyons just lost the World Bombshell Championship and she's angry, she's vengeful, and is looking to take out anything in her path so she can get back on top, and truth be told they're right.”
She pauses shortly, eyes locked on the camera.
“I need to take some of it out on somebody.” she said “This is the worst possible time anybody could be in the ring with me, because right now I have nothing to lose. Right now I am more dangerous than I ever have been because I've been to the top and had it taken.”
She exhales, a bit more softly.
“I make no excuses about it.” she said “I accept that I lost. I accept that Mercedes Vargas was better than me. On one night.”
She holds up one finger.
“But you won't catch me slipping Cassie.” Victoria said “Mercedes Vargas is a veteran, she was bound to catch me sooner or later. You are still just a little girl trying to get your feet wet. When you look at my eyes you know that your tricks won't work on me. You know that I've always seen you for what you are, there's nothing you can do to surprise me. You going to have one of your stooges get involved?”
She laughs to herself.
“Try it.” she said “I'll shatter Krystal's face just like I did her record as the longest reigning Bombshell Roulette Champion. As for the other two Tweedledee and Tweedledum or whatever their names are, I'll smash their faces together as well.”
“You know what I'm most upset about babe?” Darian chimed in suddenly.
“What's that Dare Bear?” she said casually looking at him.
“The cake.” he replied “A perfectly good cake was ruined because of Cassie Wolfe. The cake is the real victim here.”
“Well technically it was Harper who smashed Cassie's face into the cake but I see your point.” Victoria replied.
“Well she wouldn't have done that if Cassie didn't betray her.” noted Darian.
“Fair point.” Victoria nodded, “But it's doubtful they would have shared a slice with either of us either way.”
“Oh I'd find a way to get us a slice.” Darian grinned.
Victoria just shook her head and smiled.
“That's my husband, ladies and gentlemen.” she said with a slight eye roll.
Darian winked at the camera.
“All I'm saying is Cassie..” she continued “Your tricks won't work on me because I see right through you just like I always have. You told me on X to prepare for war? Then war it shall be, just don't be surprised when it ends and you realize that you just lost the shortest war in history.”
She exhales.
“You're in for a very bad night Cassie.” she continued “Because I am going to ruin and humiliate you. Then I'm going to watch you go into that Hell in a Cell at Violent Conduct where Harper Mason is going to finish the job, and when she does I promise no Bombshell in the back will be clapping louder than me. It's going to be beautiful when she finally puts you down for good. I know it sounds strange coming from me Harper, but I'm rooting for you in this one. I always have been.”
She nods slightly to show respect.
“I'll see you soon Cassie.." Victoria said "And you'll remember exactly what a problem I am for you, you will realize that I will always see right through you and there's nothing you can do to surprise me.”
Darian starts playing the Cyndi Lauper melody on the piano again.
“Cause I knew your true colors…” she sang “...And that's why I hate you. I saw your true colors come shining through, and your true colors were as predictable as the rainbow..”
She grins, as Darian continues playing the melody.
“Cassie Wolfe…” she said “Your true colors may have come to light, but when our match is done the only color anybody's going to remember… is red.”
Her words hang confidently in the air as the scene fades out to black with Darian softly playing the melody and Victoria's hauntingly good singing voice closing it all off.
“I saw your true colors shining through…”
