The House of Frost vs. Light in the Darkness

[SnowQueenSCW]

The backyard of the Frost ‘Forever Home’ in Manhattan is bathed in the warm light of a summer morning. The flower beds bordering the stone patio are in full bloom, the stone gargoyles stand watch – ‘protecting’ the home. Children's laughter drifts faintly from somewhere inside the house before disappearing again.

The camera finds Deanna Frost kneeling beside a row of lilies. She's wearing faded jeans and an emerald-green T-shirt. Her hair is in a simple ponytail. There is no championship over her shoulder.

She finishes eyeing one flower before standing, stretching her back with a quiet sigh. Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out her cellphone and unlocks it, tapping it once more with her thumb. Immediately, from the device, voices are heard as Jessica Winters' interview with the SCW world champion begins to play.

Amelia's voice. Words like  "Coward." and "Not ready." and "You're not ready to become World Champion." Deanna doesn’t react to any of them.  When the interview finishes, she simply slips the phone back into her pocket.

For several seconds, she says nothing, letting the words sink in. Then, a smile – small, gentle, and almost amused – appears on her face, illuminated by the warm sunlight.

So... where do we start? she asks, as per usual, but it sounds slightly more retorical in nature, causing her to chuckle a little. You know... I've been called a lot of things in my few years here in SCW. Her emerald eyes wander over the garden.

Naïve.
Too nice.
Too forgiving.
Soft.
My personal favourite was probably 'hopelessly optimistic.' I've always liked that one.

Her smile fades, however, slowly fades. But 'Coward'...

I've heard that one before too. But not from Amelia. She looks toward the house. I heard it from myself...

There was a time - a long time - where every championship opportunity terrified me. Not because I didn't want to win. But because I wasn't sure I deserved to. When I first came to SCW, I wasn't chasing championships. I wasn't chasing headlines. I certainly wasn't chasing the World Championship.

A warm smile finds her face. I was chasing someone. She pauses for another moment.

Selena. The name comes naturally. I followed her because I loved her. But I stayed – more than that – I became a wrestler because somewhere along the way... I fell in love with this company too. She laughs softly. Funny how life works. The dream changes without you even noticing.

She sits beside another flowerbed, her hand gently tracing along a white lily. Back then, I didn't think I belonged beside women like Syren. Or Christy Matthews. Or Sienna Swann. Or Selena Frost.

Seeing a weed, Deanna quickly plucks it out of the garden. She glances at it between her fingers before tossing it aside.

I thought I was pretending. I thought eventually, everyone would figure out I wasn't supposed to be here. She shrugs her shoulders.
Maybe that's why Amelia using that word didn't bother me. Because it sounded familiar.

You see, to me, being brave isn't believing you'll never fail... It's believing that failure doesn't get to decide who you are.

Her expression grows more thoughtful. I've failed. I've lost championships. I've lost opportunities for examples of both! I've made mistakes. I've trusted the wrong people. I've hurt people. I've been hurt. I've doubted myself. And somehow... despite such words... I'm still here.

She smiles a little more. So... No. I don't think being called a coward scares me anymore. You know what surprised me?

It wasn't what Amelia said. It was who she sounded like. she pauses for a moment, but only a moment. Selena.

She lets the name settle.

I remember Selena telling Amelia that she wasn’t ready. And how much Amelia hated hearing it. I remember her saying Selena was trying to hold her back. Trying to control her. Trying to keep her from reaching the World Championship. She sighs.

Now, here we are months later. Now... Amelia is standing in front of Jessica Winters, looking into a camera and saying exactly the same words. Only this time, the words aren't aimed at her. They're aimed at me.

And for me, Amelia... I was more confused. Because I thought you knew me better than that. I thought you and Luz, more than anyone, would see the journey I’ve gone down. How I came back after nearly a year away from PTSD, against doctor’s and psychiatrist’s instructions to give Luz and Asher and even Jordan Majors the title match they deserved. How I took that loss and kept going, fighting against odds to be undefeated in the Shot of Adrenaline Tournament. And then, to be able to survive the royale, yes, but also retain the Adrenaline championship over and over again, despite everything in my personal life.

I’m not bragging here, Amelia, but you know all of that – and you want to tell the world I am ‘not ready’ to fight you? Not ready to try and be World Champion?

Amidst the garden, Deanna tilts her head. When you said that, Amelia, I wasn’t angry. For a moment, I was in disbelief. But then I realized just how haunted you were by Selena’s words. How desperately you want to convince everyone that you’re as good as you say you are. How desperately you want people to understand that you deserve to be the World Champion. I’ll imagine that’s why you challenged Selena and I to, somehow, team up officially for the first time in about 3 years.

But here’s the thing when you say stuff like that, Amelia...

You better be right. Deanna’s expression grows a bit of an edge to it. Selena proved it at Hubris, didn’t she? You beat her, after she had done all that she did to get a title shot that you were guided to by Frank Delatosso. And what happened? She had to live with being wrong. She’s had to live with her plans turning to dust...

So... are you ready for the same thing to happen? her eyes narrow.

I’m not doubting you and Luz will give Selena and I a hell of a match. You both always have and I have no doubt in the heart and passion of Luz! She’s taken so many bullets for you, Amelia, that it makes what I’ve been willing to give Selena look like small change – and yes! I’ll say it!

You wouldn’t even BE the world champion right now if it weren’t for Luz! She chose you in that tag-team match at the Flame rather than taking the title for herself. Hell, she did that AND fought me to the end just to try and earn her shot, when she could have just taken a shortcut. Like Selena did... Like you have...

So I’m not questioning her heart or love for you, not when I was willing to give the opportunity of a lifetime to the person that is to me what you are to Luz. And I’m not questioning your obsession with beating me and Selena.

Quietly, Deanna runs a hand through her red hair. I question whether or not YOU are ready for when I prove you wrong. You certainly were confident talking to Jessica, and you certainly have a working theory. But every time someone has mouthed off that I wasn’t ready? That I couldn’t do it? I proved them wrong.

Dexter Grant? Polly Playtime? Dawn Lohan? People that said I couldn’t step up and survive them. Members in your New Order that thought they could take me down. Thought I was just ‘the weaker Frost’. ‘The Broken Frost’...

I have survived each and every encounter and come back stronger than before. So, what happes if you’re not the ‘prophet’ or the ‘outlier’ in that system, Amelia? What if you’re like the others and I prove you wrong?

Are you ready for that? Deanna gives a shrug of her shoulders. Are you ready to have it all thrown back at you? Every time you say I’m a coward? Every time you say I’m not ready? Every time you say I can’t beat you? That you’ve ‘already won Rise to Greatness’?

Because how will you explain that main-event? How will you explain it if I beat you? How will you explain it when you’re looking into the ring in a few days... and you see Selena and I as the NEW SCW World tag-team champions?

She smiles at the thought. That’s what you’re really afraid of, isn’t it, Amelia? That’s what Luz keeps you protecting you from, isn’t she? It’s not proving Selena wrong... you’re scared that, for someone that sold their soul to win... and has to keep winning now that the deal is done...

You’re terrified that she was right, aren’t you? You don’t have to ‘like’ winning by disqualification like you did in your last match, but what a relief you must have felt. Amelia didn’t lose! Disprove that by beating the House of Frost!

Because if you lose... you’re scared that it all goes away. the redhead sighs. Just like with how Frank moved on from Gavin to you so easily, your ‘lifeline’ will move on to someone else to try and get the power back into his camp.

That if you lose... everything you turned your back on, everyone you’ve hurt and stepped on, every person you think of in the dark before you go to bed... and for what? A few months of being the World Champion so you can say you did it?

That’s where we are different, Amelia. Deanna sighs. Because I don't hate you. I couldn't. I love you and Luz so damn much! I've watched her grow for years. I've watched Light in the Darkness become one of the greatest tag teams this company has ever seen! And I was mostly proud of you when you became World Champion, just like I was when Luz became the United States Champion.

You earned that. Both you and Luz did! Every step and every moment. No one can ever take it away from you two – I sure as hell have no intention or desire to. Her smile fades.

But becoming champion and becoming the kind of champion people remember aren't always the same journey.

I think somewhere, Luz, that Amelia forgot that. That, instead of treating her championship like you did – with integrity and treating the time had with it as a gift, a way to define what SCW stands for... she just focused on proving everyone else wrong. And, in doing so, she stopped asking whether she was becoming right.

Quietly, the redhead moves to sit on a wooden swing at the edge of the backyard, one hand resting on the rope as it gently rocks beneath her. She simply watches the breeze move through the trees for a moment.

I've been thinking about Retribution four years ago. How our names have been connected for a very long time through tag-team battles and standing by one another. But I don't think either of us realized how much that one match would change all of us. Selena and I walked in as champions. You and Luz walked in trying to prove you belonged...

You didn't leave with the championships. But you left with something far more important – proving that you did. Her smile grows.

Belief. I know... A Frost using that word – insert eyeroll, right? But that’s what it was. Selena, me, all of SCW. We all believed after that night that you two were going to be something special. We had no idea just how right we were... Her expression fills with genuine admiration. You became a four-time World Tag Team Champions. The standard every tag team measured themselves against. And whether you believe me or not... I'm proud of both of you for that.

Because wrestling is supposed to work like that. We're supposed to make each other better! We're supposed to leave each other stronger than we found one another!

Her smile slowly fades. Which is why I couldn't say no when you challenged the House of Frost.

She tilts her head a little. So many people assumed I accepted because of Selena. That this was just me feeding Selena another title shot or trying to save my relationship with her. Or trying to prove something to her. No, that’s not what this match at Breakdown is about. Rise to Greatness will be that night and we will deal with that soon enough.

And it wasn’t because I wanted revenge on you, Amelia, for beating Selena or you, Luz, for taking the United States title last year at RtG.

I accepted... because you, Amelia, asked me to prove something.

The words hang in the air.

You called me a coward.
You said I wasn't ready."
You laughed when I won Taking Hold of the Flame.
You told the world I'd crumble when the spotlight finally found me...

So... she shrugs. Now... I want to find out.

You wanted proof? I'm going to give it to you. You see there's something people keep misunderstanding. They keep forgetting who I am. What I have endured and what I am willing to endure for SCW, for Selena, and for myself! And they think Rise to Greatness starts at Rise to Greatness.

It doesn't. It starts here. Right now! Against the very best tag team in SCW! And I show the world who the hell is challenging for the world title!

Because if I can't stand across the ring from Light in the Darkness... she takes a full breath. Then I have no business standing across the ring from the World Champion!

She lets that proclamation settle for just a moment. It's really that simple.

So thank you, Amelia. Because this is exactly the challenge I needed! To not only accept what I am in for – but what Selena has given me in refusing my offer.

But you want to know if I can? Why I believe that Selena and I can beat you and Luz – the best tag-team in SCW today? Why I believe in her so much?

A small laugh escapes her. I've lost count of how many times I’ve been asked such questions...

'Why?'
'Why Selena?'
'Why now?'
'Why after everything?'

I suppose...it's finally time I answered.

The redhead pauses for a moment. People think belief and trust are the same thing. They aren't. Trust is built, like respect and effort. It takes time. It takes consistency. It has to be earned, as that world title should be – as those tag-team titles should be.

And sometimes, when it's broken, it takes a very long time to rebuild.

Belief is different. It asks a different question. It doesn't ask, 'What have you done?'. It asks...'Who are you?'

I know exactly what Selena has done. I lived through it. I cried through it. My children lived through it. I don't excuse any of it. I never will.

For a moment, Deanna’s eyes close as she contemplated the events her life has taken in these last few months. But... I also know who she is...

I know the woman who taught Elsianna how to ride her bicycle. I know the woman who used to make dinosaur pancakes that looked absolutely nothing like dinosaurs. I know the woman who stayed awake all night whenever one of our children got sick, singing them a lullaby until they fell asleep.

I know the woman who believed in me long before I ever believed in myself. Who would never look at me and see a ‘coward’ or ‘someone who wasn’t ready’ to face a challenge.

Her emerald eyes never leave the camera. Those things don't disappear simply because someone loses themselves. They become harder to find. But harder...isn't the same as impossible.

Like beating you and Luz. Four years ago? It would have been 50/50. Four years ago, House of Frost proved that we were the best tag-team. But now? After four years of experiences you’ve had while Selena and I have had so much less than that? After Light in the Darkness has become the standard of the tag-team division? I won’t lie – it is so much harder than ever, the idea that The House of Frost could pull off an upset.

Harder... she smiles knowingly. But not impossible!

Harder to make history? Absolutely! Harder to repeat it after everything over the last four years? Absolutely! Harder for Selena and I to dig deep and find that passion and ability and unity to beat you two and pull off the upset of the year?

Yes... but not impossible!

And if I’m the only one in SCW – in the whole world – that believes in that... believes in Selena... believes in myself to do something so hard? Then I will believe enough for both of Selena and I... for everyone in SCW and the world! I don't mind.

Because one day, sooner than you think. You’ll believe, Amelia. So will you, Luz. So will SCW... and so will Selena!

She slowly stands from the swing. If that is my flaw, Amelia. If you believe that makes me cowardly and ill-prepared to face the best in SCW? If you think believing in people is my weakness...

Then it's one I'll gladly carry![/color] She places a hand over her heart.

My belief doesn't come from pretending people don't fail. It comes from refusing to believe failure gets the final word.

That honor... belongs to me.

Deanna takes a deep breath, her eyes the brightest they’ve been in this entire promo.

I don't need to become the next Selena.
I don't need to replace her.
I don't need to live up to anyone else's legacy.
I only need to be worthy of my own.

And I don’t need to be a coward or ‘not ready’ just because you say so, Amelia. Just because Frank Delatosso says so. I choose who and what I am and I prove it as I always have!

In an SCW ring!

She lets her words settle for a moment before her voice drops a little. Amelia...

You wanted this. You wanted Light in the Darkness against the House of Frost.  You wanted to prove I’m not ready. So let's answer the question together!

First...the World Tag Team Championships. Then...Rise to Greatness and the SCW World Championship.

She takes one step toward the camera. You don't have to believe I'm ready. Luz doesn't have to believe I'm ready. The fans don't have to believe I'm ready. Even Selena doesn't have to believe I'm ready. Her smile grows. I do. And that's enough.

The only question that remains is... what will the SCW world champion, her wife, the SCW Universe, the whole world...

What will they think of Deanna Frost when she stands beside Selena Frost as the new SCW World Tag-Team Champions?
She gives one last, knowing smirk. Unlike you, Amelia, I’m not afraid to find out...

Checkmate, bitches.

The screen focuses on the smiling, ready Deanna before it slowly fades to black.