~*~Hope You Know What You Are Doing~*~
Climax Control had only been off the air for a few minutes, but the backstage area was still buzzing with activity. Bella had just rounded the corner toward the Bombshell locker room when she heard familiar footsteps behind her.
"Bells."
She turned to find Laura catching up with her, whiched caused her to smile, "Hey, Mom."
Laura returned the smile before motioning toward a quieter stretch of hallway, "You got a minute?"
Bella nodded, "Sure."
The two women stepped away from the traffic of production crew members and wrestlers making their way back from the arena.
Laura folded her arms, "So..."
Bella chuckled, "That's never a good way to start a conversation."
"It usually isn't." Laura smiled before her expression softened, "I just want to understand something. I've watched you your entire career. You've never been the type to look for backup. You've never needed a group. You've never wanted one. And tonight..."
Laura glanced back toward the arena.
"You and Alexandra stopped Krystal from getting involved."
Bella nodded, "Yeah, we did."
"And then the three of you walked out together."
"So..." Laura smiled, "What's going on?"
Bella couldn't help but laugh, "There it is."
"What?"
"The concerned mother."
Laura looked almost offended, "I am not concerned."
Bella raised an eyebrow, "You hunted me down backstage.
Laura shakes her head, “...Curious."
"You hunted me down curiously."
Laura rolled her eyes, "Don't get smart with me, young lady."
Bella laughed, "I'm serious."
Laura took a slow breath.
"I know Victoria. I know Ally. They're good people. This isn't about them."
Bella's smile faded into something more thoughtful.
"I just..." Laura searched for the words, "...I've seen a lot of people in this business lose themselves because they hitched themselves to somebody else's wagon."
Bella nodded slowly, "I know."
"I don't want that happening to you."
Bella stepped closer, resting a hand gently on Laura's arm, "Mom, it's not."
Laura searched her daughter's face.
Bella smiled, "Mom...I'm not following anybody and they're not following me. We just happen to believe the same thing."
Laura tilted her head, "Which is?"
Bella glanced down the hallway before looking back at her mother, "That this division can be better. And instead of standing around complaining about it...We're actually going to do something."
Laura studied her for another moment, "So there is a plan."
Bella grinned, "Oh, there's definitely a plan."
Laura pointed a finger at her, "I knew it."
Bella laughed, "But you're not getting it out of me."
Laura shook her head with a smile, "You know...I really hate when you do that."
Bella shrugged innocently, "What can I say, I learned from the best."
Laura sighed dramatically, "I walked right into that one."
Bella wrapped an arm around her mother's shoulders, "Mom...Just trust me."
There wasn't an ounce of hesitation.
"I do."
Bella smiled, "Then just... let me cook."
Laura blinked, "...Did you just say 'let me cook?'"
Bella grinned, "I've been spending too much time around Ally."
Laura laughed, shaking her head, "Apparently."
The two started walking back toward the locker room together.
Laura bumped Bella's shoulder, "You know...If this blows up in your face..."
Bella laughed, "You'll tell me 'I told you so?'"
Laura smiled sweetly, "Oh, absolutely."
Bella slipped an arm around her mother's shoulders, "Fair enough."
~*~Terrible Twos: Revisited~*~
The Madison household had been unusually quiet. Not peaceful.
Just... quiet.
The kind of quiet that made both Bella and Mal nervous.
Bella glanced up from the kitchen island where she was cutting strawberries, "Where is she?"
Mal didn't even look up from loading the dishwasher, "I haven't heard 'Mama' in almost three minutes."
Bella frowned, "That's not normal."
Before either of them could investigate, tiny footsteps echoed down the hallway. Máire appeared carrying a laundry basket nearly as big as she was....Or rather dragging it. Her little face was scrunched with determination as she pulled it across the hardwood floor one inch at a time.
Bella blinked, "...Bug?"
Without stopping, Máire held up one tiny finger, "I do it."
Bella looked toward Mal and Mal simply mouthed, ‘Don't.’
Bella bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
The laundry basket made it another foot before tipping over, spilling tiny socks, towels and one of Bella's hoodies across the floor.
Bella took one step forward, "I've got..."
"No!" Máire immediately dropped to her knees and started gathering everything back into the basket one piece at a time, "I do it."
Bella slowly stepped back, "...Okay."
Mal leaned closer and whispered, "This has been all day."
Bella snorted, "What happened?"
"I helped her put her shoes on."
Bella nodded, "Reasonable."
Mal sighed, "She cried."
Bella nodded again, "Also reasonable for someone who is 2."
"I poured her juice. Cried. I opened her yogurt. Cried."
Bella covered her mouth, "Oh no..."
"I cut her sandwich."
Bella lost the battle and laughed. Mal pointed toward the tiny tornado currently attempting to shove Bella's hoodie back into the basket.
"I've been personally victimized by a thirty-inch dictator."
Bella couldn't stop laughing now, "You poor thing."
"I asked if she wanted a hug."
Bella smiled, "...And?"
Mal deadpanned, "'No. I hug me.'"
Bella nearly doubled over, "Oh my God."
Finally, after several determined attempts, Máire managed to get everything back into the basket. She stood proudly, "I did it."
Bella immediately applauded, "You sure did."
The smile on Máire's face lasted approximately four seconds. Then she tried lifting the basket, it didn't move. She frowned but pulled harder.
Nothing.
Bella watched the internal battle play out across her daughter's face. Finally, Máire sighed dramatically and she looked up, "...Mama?"
Bella smiled sweetly, "Yeah, bug?"
"...Help."
Bella knelt beside her without a single "I told you so." The two of them lifted the basket together, "There we go."
As they started walking toward the laundry room together, Máire smiled, "I help Mama."
Bella laughed, "You absolutely did."
Mal watched them disappear around the corner before shaking her head, "You know..."
Bella looked back, "What?"
Mal grinned, "She's you."
Bella didn't even hesitate, "No."
Mal raised an eyebrow, Bella thought about it for another second, "...Okay... maybe a little."
From the laundry room came the unmistakable sound of something plastic hitting the floor. Followed immediately by, "I DO IT!"
Bella closed her eyes and Mal started laughing.
Bella sighed dramatically before heading toward the laundry room, "...Round twelve."
~*~Chosen Violence: End It~*~
The camera slowly fades in to reveal Bella Madison standing inside her training barn in upstate New York. The Bombshell Roulette Championship rests comfortably over one shoulder as the steel cables of her Ultimate X training rig hang silently behind her. She takes a slow breath before looking directly into the camera.
"There's something I've learned over the last few weeks, and honestly... it's made this championship mean even more to me than it already did."
She adjusts the title on her shoulder, almost absentmindedly.
"When I won this championship at Summer XXXTreme, I made a promise, not just to myself, but to every woman in this division, that I wasn't going to disappear with it. I wasn't going to hide behind excuses, I wasn't going to wait until it was convenient to defend it, and I certainly wasn't going to spend my time talking about leadership while somebody else did all the work."
A faint smile crosses her face.
"I meant every word of that. So when the light got shined back on Brittany Williams, I smiled."
Bella nods to herself.
"Not because I think Brittany is an easy night. She isn't when she actually wants to put the work in. I've been in the ring with her before, and I know exactly how good she can be when she's focused. I had to earn this championship by beating her, and if I'm going to keep it, I'll have to earn it all over again."
Her expression hardens.
"But somewhere along the way, Brittany stopped being Brittany Williams and became one half of a package deal."
She slowly shakes her head.
"And that's the part I can't stand. I grew up watching my mother build one of the greatest careers this company has ever seen. There were doors that opened for me because my last name was Madison and attached to the Laura Phoenix brand, and there were just as many people who expected me to live in that shadow forever. I could have accepted that. I could have let everyone introduce me as Laura Phoenix's daughter and called it a career."
She lets out a quiet laugh.
"But that was never good enough for me. I wanted people to know Bella Madison because of what I did inside this ring—not because of who raised me."
Bella steps a little closer to the camera.
"That's why I struggle to understand you, Brittany. Because every time your career reaches a crossroads, your mother is right there. Every interview. Every confrontation. Every disagreement... somehow Crystal finds a way to make herself the loudest voice in the room. For someone who was supposedly retired, she's remarkably incapable of staying out of everyone else's business."
“At some point, it stops being about supporting your daughter and starts becoming about making sure nobody ever forgets the Williams name. When I spoke my peace after Summer Xxxtreme about Mercedes winning the World Title? Crystal was there, kissing her ass and forgetting that you fucking existed. And then when I spoke your name, it was like magically she let go of the reins and you remembered that you actually existed."
She shrugs.
"Maybe that works for you. It doesn't work for me."
Bella's voice remains calm, but there's an unmistakable edge behind every word.
"And Crystal... if I'm being completely honest, I think I'm just tired of you. I'm tired of the lectures. I'm tired of the hypocrisy. I'm tired of watching you decide who deserves your praise this week based entirely on who's wearing championship gold."
She lets that linger for a moment.
"You spent years building a reputation that demanded respect, and now you've reached a point where you'll stand beside people whose actions have hurt this division simply because they're holding the biggest championship in the company. That's your decision to make, but don't ask me to pretend I understand it, and don't expect me to applaud it."
Bella rests a hand on the Roulette Championship.
"I've spent the last several weeks talking about leadership because this division desperately needs it. Leadership isn't about standing behind someone else's success. It isn't about protecting your friends or your family when they're wrong. Leadership is about setting a standard and having the courage to live by it every single week."
Her eyes never leave the camera.
"So let's spin the wheel. I genuinely don't care what it lands on. If it's a Street Fight, then we'll fight in the streets. If it's a Ladder Match, then I'll climb. If it's Falls Count Anywhere, then Buffalo is going to get its money's worth. If it's something neither one of us expected... then we'll figure it out together."
A smile slowly spreads across her face.
"I'll treat whatever that wheel gives us the same way I treated Ultimate X. As a leap of faith. Because faith isn't believing everything will go your way. It's believing that when you've put in the work, when you've sacrificed, when you've prepared for every possibility, you'll be ready no matter what happens."
She lifts the Roulette Championship from her shoulder and looks down at it for a brief moment before placing it back where it belongs.
"And that's the difference between us. I'm not walking into Buffalo hoping this championship stays with me. I'm walking into my home state knowing exactly who I am, exactly what I represent, and exactly what this championship deserves from the woman carrying it."
Her expression settles into one of complete confidence.
"The Williams family has had an incredible legacy in this company, and nobody can ever take that away from them. But legacies don't last forever. Every era eventually gives way to the next, and whether Crystal wants to believe it or not, that time has come."
She takes one final step toward the camera.
"So bring your experience. Bring your determination. Bring your mother if you feel like you need to. It won't change what happens when that bell rings. Because when Buffalo watches the Bombshell Roulette Championship be defended in my home state, they're not going to witness another chapter in the Williams legacy."
"They're going to witness the moment it finally comes to an end."
