Bowen and Celeste have nothing for each other but punches and the two slug it out. Bowen, unsurprisingly, gets the better of that and tries to whip Celeste into his own corner. He does so and closes with a brutal high knee strike that seems to knock Celeste out. She's dazed for certain and Ty yells at Bowen to tag him in. He's calling the shots and Bowen obeys, grabbing Celeste by the arms and bringing her to the center of the ring. Ty measures her and nails Consecrated Banishment! He has a sick smile on his face as he tells Bowen to toss Celeste aside, and makes an odd decision to go over and tag S.H.I.T. in. He directs S.H.I.T. in his actions and S.H.I.T. nods affirmative. He climbs the top turnbuckle and flies off with his signature Frog Splash, landing hard on Celeste and covering her for a pin, getting 1, 2, and 3!
Harrys: Ladies and gentlemen, here are your winners...the Apostles of Chaos!
Celeste is laid out in the middle of the ring as the Apostles stand over her, gloating. Kurtesy is still out of it on the ring apron. Darkness celebrates in the center of the ring, with the maniacal Ty Burna presiding over it all, congratulating his servants on a job well done.
Copeland: And in the end, the numbers advantage was just too much. Once Kurtesy was out of commission, the three Apostles dominated Celeste with ease and took this one, cementing their dominance over WZCW.
The sound of clacking echoed across the floor as a pair of high heels reverberated through the hall. The tall platinum blond looked out of place, catching the attention of the backstage hands. She was wearing a long red dress with golden trim; the front cut low, showing much of her ample cleavage. One of the hands catcalled and tried to stop the woman to lay on his charm, but making eye contact he immediately saw whom she was and quickly backed off. She let out a scowl and continued on her way.
She stopped next to the production room, checking the small watch on her wrist. She knocked on the large oak door, and a sharp looking man answered. He greeted her with a smile and waved her inside; the entryway was quite large, as the room branched off in three separate directions. It was obvious that the crews had been pressed for time coping with the changes surrounding the sudden suspension of Aftershock.
“It’s good to see you again, Celeste,” said the man. He paused and gestured at her outfit,
“What’s with the dress? It’s unusual to see you looking so… exposed.”
She sighed,
“I was at a fundraiser Johnny, and it went long. I didn’t have time to change.”
“Regardless, you look nice.”
She frowned slightly as Johnny Klamor excused himself to prepare the green room. She felt out of place wearing the dress; vulnerable because she was so afraid of someone judging her. Her failures were beginning to pile up, and she was losing the edge of intimidation she once had. Hell; no one on the roster feared her anymore… the Violent Reactor had been shut down for good.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye as Becky Serra walked out of one of the adjacent rooms and into the lobby. The brunette took one look at her and kept on walking without even so much as a greeting. She deserved the silent treatment with the way she had treated both her and Stacey last week.
“What was that all about?” asked a voice behind her. She turned and found herself staring at the WZCW champion Steven Kurtesy. He was dressed in a nice clean suit, with the title draped proudly around his shoulder.
“I treated Becky and Stacey like dirt last week. I don’t expect either of them will be speaking to me anytime soon...”
She paused, and took a step forward.
“…and they weren’t the only ones. Steven I-”
“What’s with the dress?” he said jovially.
“Sorry, I’ve never seen you looking, well, so sophisticated.”
“Look Steven, about last week. Those things I said to Sandy, about our partnership, I-I didn’t mean it. I tried to return myself to the way I was years ago. I thought that if I went my own way I could achieve my goals faster, but I know now that I can’t. With the company plunged into darkness I need all the allies I can get.”
He had dropped the smile, and was now looking at her with a serious expression,
“What you did last week Celeste was foolish; you not only hurt me, but you hurt Sandy as well. The two of you were supposed to be friends, but you were willing to throw it all away, because of this.” He tapped the title on his shoulder and Celeste shuffled her body uncomfortably.
“I don’t know if I can trust you now-”
“You don’t understand Steven! I had my reasons.” She took another step forward, closing the gap between them.
“Then help me understand. I thought we were on the same page-”
“I did it because… because. It’s no secret that I am one of the most popular superstars in the company. I have plenty of support from the fans, and many see me as a legend, a future Hall of Famer.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to find the words to describe her anguish.
“When you became WZCW champion you achieved the biggest goal that you had for yourself, right?”
Steven started to speak, but Celeste cut him off,
“don’t deny it, Steven. You carry that belt with so much pride that the only way you’d let someone take it from you is if they pried it from your unconscious grip.”
“It’s true, I do take pride as the champion, but I’d never try to betray my comrades-”
“But you’ve never been in my shoes before. I don’t want to be remembered as the greatest superstar to never win a title. And with the company the way it is now under Ty Burna’s leadership I may never get an opportunity to become one.”
“So you want to rekindle our alliance so you can try betraying me once again? No thanks-”
She reached out and grabbed his arm; the former psychologist stared down into her eyes which were filled with remorse, sorrow, and regret. As much as he wanted to tear himself away, he couldn’t bring himself to.
“The only way we can bring Ty Burna down is to form strength in numbers. You say that you want to save this company from the chaos, and I say that I want to help. Even if you lose the title, and I never get my shot, I promise you that I’ll never leave your side until we see Ty thrown off his high horse.”
Kurtesy continued to stare into her eyes; his years of experience examining people as a psychologist told him that she was being genuine, but the pro wrestler within him was screaming
‘watch your back’. To be weary of the hazard that could activate at a moment’s notice. She loosened her grip as he turned to leave.
“I can understand your fear Celeste about not being able to become a champion in the future; no one, myself included, ever thought that I would win the WZCW title, let alone go on to have one of the most amazing runs in recent history. However; if you say you want to be my partner in the war against chaos, then I have trouble trusting you as you’ve already tried to betray me once before. There have already been casualties, as I’m sure you saw what happened to Chris and Serafina on Ascension; allies are hard to come by Celeste, if you want to regain my trust then show me that you’re genuine…”
He brushed by her, leaving behind one final message,
“… And you owe Sandy an apology. After all of the things that she’s done for you in the past, she’s the one you should be begging forgiveness from, not me.”
Celeste stood in silence; making amends was a hard thing to try and do, especially when the people that got hurt were the closest things to friends that she had in the company. Steven and Sandy were the first to accept her for not only what she stood for, but for the person she eventually became. Deep down, she still wanted to be that person, and her loss last week was a sign that the old Celeste had no place in the company anymore.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting Celeste,” said Klamor. He had returned right as Steven was walking away.
“Was that the world champion?”
She nodded,
“We were just clearing up some business, that’s all.”
She followed him into the green room, with the white background behind her, the camera man stood ready off to the side. Celeste’s outburst the following week had gone undocumented, as both Stacey and Becky had refused to do the interview. The tabloids had teased a heel turn, but she knew better.
He smiled as Celeste remained stoic as the camera began to roll, documenting her in one of those rare occasions in her feminine glory. There she stood, in a red dress, feeling uncomfortable and exposed.
“Johnny Klamor here with my guest at this time, the lovely and beautiful, Celeste Crimson. There has been some controversy surrounding some of the events that happened last week involving an argument between you and Sandy Deserts, the consort to Steven Kurtesy. According to Stacey Madison and Becky Serra you ended your alliance with the champion.”
She stared at the microphone for a second before launching herself into promo mode,
“It’s true, I did end my alliance with Steven Kurtsey, but I made a mistake. My loss last week showed me that I need friends now more than ever. I have approached the world champion about making amends, but broken bonds take time to heal.”
“All of us witnessed the heinous attack last week on Ascension orchestrated by Ty Burna and the Apostles-”
“It was a message from the owner to the rest of the locker room, and I have a feeling that they won’t be the last either,” she interrupted.
“I‘ve made my decision where I stand on this issue, and soon everyone else will make theirs. The company is going to be separated into two categories, those of us that want Ty Burna in power and those of that don’t,” she explained.
“Those of us that don’t want to see him in power will be divided even more; there will be those of us that want to do something about the chaos, but will be too afraid, and those of us that do act, Ty will make our lives a living hell. That was the bed that I made for myself when I first returned; Team WZCW lost at Kingdom Come, and now I have no choice but to see this through.”
“Even if that means turning on a comrade so that you can get your shot at the world title?” he asked tentatively.
“Ever since I started in this company I’ve never once felt bad about being the only woman in a company filled with male competitors," she said solemnly.
"Now as I near what could be the twilight of my career, what do I really have to show for it? I’ll always be known as the first woman in WZCW to do this or the first to do that, but that’s not good enough for me.”
She felt demeaned and stereotyped. If it wasn’t bad enough that she felt that her success was built on the fact that she was an attractive woman, here she was in a tight red dress that hugged every curve on her body, leaving very little to the imagination; and she expected the fans to take her seriously? Such a thing was ludicrous. She could only laugh at the irony of it all.
“I want my name to be synonymous with the other legends in this company like Joseph Rios, Everest, Steamboat Ricky, and Titus because I accomplished just as much as they did, not because I’ve been around just as long.”
“Speaking of WZCW legends, former multi-time world champion Titus will be your opponent this week on Meltdown. Making things interesting is the fact that despite both of you having appeared on the first ever episode of Meltdown, there’s yet to be a one on one match between the two of you.”
She nodded,
“Its history in the making Johnny, and even more overdue than my match with Ty Burna. I know Titus quite well, and we are no strangers to each other. Even though we’ve never fought before in the ring, we’ve fought backstage and through diatribes over the internet. We were teammates on Team WZCW; he was the first person I recruited. I know that when he gets in the ring with me, he’s going to take me as seriously as he would Joseph Rios or Everest.”
She frowned as she struck a serious pose looking into the camera,
“Titus, you may think that I have nothing to prove, but I do. You’ve been to the top of the mountain several times already, and now I want my shot. Defeating you will give me that momentum. Not only that, but by beating you I can prove to Steven Kurtesy that I am serious about reestablishing our alliance. We were teammates on Team WZCW and we lost, except I was the team captain, and had been leading the charge against the chaos for months. And I plan on taking up that cause again, and going through you will show that I’m serious...”
“…I cannot afford to lose to you,” she finished.
The two say their closing remarks, as Celeste walked out of the green room. If she wanted to see Steven and Sandy waiting for her on the other side she couldn’t lose. If she wanted to repair her relationships with Stacey and Becky she couldn’t lose. Ty Burna and the Apostles of Chaos had hurt a lot of people; but they could never hurt her. Like a pit bull she was determined to keep on charging forward until she collapsed.
