Selena Frost vs. Alexis Quinne

[SnowQueenSCW]

The Witches of Alden

”Mo(u)rning”

Black Arrow Neighbourhood
Manhattan, New York
June 24th, 2023
5:14am

She was the world champion again.
She was going to headline Rise to Greatness for a third time in a row, a feat that had not been seen in SCW in a decade.
She had laid the demon of her past to rest by defeating Adam Allocco, the man that had used his one win against her back in Vegas and milked it for all it was worth.

In short, Selena Frost had won. She had everything she needed to get SCW get back on track to the standard of integrity. Everything to give it its best shot of surviving against the ‘new owner’ of SCW when he/she/they inevitably took over from O. D..

She should have been happy, able to celebrate with her beautiful wife, Deanna. Should have been able to breathe a little and relax. Spend the week unwinding and getting back to that place she had been before as “The Face of SCW”. Sure, maybe she wasn’t the most cheered in SCW now, but she would get used to that. There was no reason to be so stressed or wound up, right?

Stupid logic… Selena sighed into the cooler morning. The sun would be rising soon and with it, taking away all traces of whatever coolness the night air was bringing. Her eyes took in the details of the forest trail, the flashes of light coming from the streetlights several yards away on the roads of the semi-gated community. Without a word, the Snow Queen raised a hand to run her skin against the bark of a tree that she passed by.

She needed these early morning walks. Spring was in full bloom and with it, the growing heat and humidity that she didn’t care much for. Walks this early had begun to allow the young woman to enjoy the coolness of the outside before the day took it away.

Took it away… her mind dwelled on those words. That was what was keeping her anxiety and stress and the pressure on her in SCW. Even with the title, it wasn’t as simple as simply holding it. It wasn’t as simple as ‘being the champion’ anymore – not like it had been with ‘The Reign of Integrity’. She almost envied her past-year self for that. A year ago, all that had mattered was that she tried her best to bring integrity to the SCW world title and raise the standard. She had wanted to simply inspire people to be better and wear the letters S-C-W/raise the SCW flag proudly. She had never anticipated that the reign would run the months it had into the longest reigning SCW world title run in history. Even the supposed ‘better’ superstars, according to Allocco, that had worn the title after her hadn’t even come close to breaking it! But that Selena had had zero expectations and been overcome with how much SCW had united, even those that hated her, in the idea of integrity. Double Jeopardy, where they had all stepped back to allow her to defeat Holly Adams on her own, every opponent from Tommy Valentine to Giovanni Aries to Glory Braddock, had all desired to fight her on their own and beat her on their own – as if it was some kind of, dare one say, great accomplishment…. Actually being better than the champion to become the champion.

It had all been so wonderful. “So wonderful…” she heard her voice echo in whisper in the quiet night-morn as she continued walking through the trail that lead around the majority of Black Arrow Neighbourhood, circling around the decent sized lake that linked all the properties together. Some had fences just a few yards away to further protect their property. Others, like hers, simply embraced the lake as part of it, Selena having a deck built out that she and her family could run/dive off of to swim outside.

Feeling the hitch in her next step, the platinum-blonde quickly shuffle-stepped her feet, performing an impromptu/improvised little dance to regain her balance, cursing the slight sting in her toe as her running shoe stumped into the over-overexposed tree root. She knew this reign of the world championship – history making, entering into the 20th anniversary of RTG – would not be so wonderful.

Simply because she was no longer so naïve. She no longer believed that SCW could just ‘maintain’ the integrity-standard she had employed last year. Or at least, there were so few people in SCW that willingly wanted to. Owen Cruze had been the last champion to try… and he was gone.

Would he be proud of it being me? she found herself asking that question in her mind, surprising herself at the question’s mere existence. What did she have to prove to Owen? Nothing. He had his shortcomings, albeit he had performed admirably as the world champion in his whole ‘redemption’. It was the story Adam Allocco had pretended to have since his return, except Owen’s was genuine. Still, it wasn’t like she owed the young man any explanation in her behaviour in SCW. Even so, she wondered if he had watched her at Taking Hold of the Flame and had had that same look of relief that Xander Valentine had. Or had his expression been one of joy like Deanna’s had been? Or had it been like Selena’s – a knowledge of ‘it has to be this way’?

That was the one thing few people in SCW were getting. This reign was different than the others. She couldn’t simply just ‘keep going’ until the title was taken from her. She couldn’t just ‘set a standard’ and wait for someone to reach it. She had tried that, set the bar, and then spent nearly a year watching wrestler after wrestler pull that bar back down. From Allocco with his BS, to Xander holding the world title hostage, to Kimberly and her chaos, on and on it went across SCW – not even in one division but in all of them! It had gotten so bad that the world title, TWICE, had to be contested in a title-for-title match, another title having to be brought in to give the supposed ‘greatest world title in all of wrestling’ any kind of prestige!

No… Selena sighed. She had believed so much in SCW. Wanted so badly for others to step up and keep the integrity going when she was done. They hadn’t. The wrestlers of SCW had failed across the board. Not all of them! Some were amazing like Bree and Light in the Darkness – glimmers of light in the sea of unprofessionalism and cowardice. But that was what they were. Glimmers. Ones that could easily be snuffed out when things ‘got too hard’ or there wasn’t ‘enough success’. How many times had Glory Braddock flopped back and forth in her morals to try and get ahead? Almost as much as Syren, Selena was sure.

She hated the situation, but she had no choice. She needed to be the world champion now. She needed to be the one making the headlines and main-events again. Because nobody else was left to do what she could do. Stopping for a moment just outside of her ‘property line’ along the trail, Selena leaned against the nearby tree, feeling the irregular grooves and points of the tree bark press into her dark-blue t-shirt covered back. She let her chest rise and full with a few full inhales and exhales.

She was nervous. It was silly but she was. If she was right, and her being the world champion was what was ‘needed’ in SCW right now until all this shit could be dealt with, then she needed to make a powerful statement. She had already done that as a person when she had cold-clocked Kandis with a stiff right, sending the number one contender to the floor in a ‘shocking display’.

“Serves her right…” Selena growled in her throat as she rested the back of her head against the tree. Trying to goad me with using my family like that.

To say that the Snow Queen was not thrilled over the prospect of facing the former tag-team champion would be an understatement. An any other night? Any other pay-per-view? Sure! If only to shut that woman’s mouth about ‘being owed a world title match’ and ‘getting what should have been mine’. But this was Rise to Greatness XX! This was supposed to be a match for the ages! This was supposed to be a matchup that made everyone take notice! To celebrate SCW’s amazing longevity and history!

And she basically just told the world that she slept her way to the spot!

Another growl escaped the Snow Queen, a hand scrunching into a fist to slam against the bark. There was no missing the signs. Kandis was walking towards the main-event of main-events smug and doing all she could to drag the accomplishment through the mud. To mire and dirty the very path she trod. To make it clear that it had been ‘easy’ for her to get there while Selena had battled through a damn tournament. Breakdown had proven that, Kandis literally throwing her match with Glory Braddock simply on the grounds that ‘it hadn’t mattered’.

“Not mattered…” this time a hiss came from the Snow Queen. She had seen such an arrogant display in the past from the likes of Sienna Swann, Syren, Ace Marshall, and Vixen Cain. When victory was not outright assured? When doubt was existing? Some thought it ‘better’ to get the last laugh than risk losing cleanly. Kandis had thrown away more credibility just to ‘look tough’ or whatever. It was pathetic.

And it made Selena all the more certain of her path heading into her own Breakdown match. Because this was HER first match as the world champion, against a very game Alexis Quinne – like Glory, a former world champion. She couldn’t afford to ‘look weak’ or ‘out of step’ with such a ‘first match’ and Rise to Greatness bearing down on her.

The world would be watching her, wanting to see what kind of world champion she would be this time. And she needed to be dominant. She needed to be sharp. She needed to be as on-point as she had been with Adam Allocco at Taking Hold of the Flame. A bad step now would be catastrophic for what SCW needed in her as the world champion.

That meant she had to beat Alexis Quinne as she had Adam Allocco – where no doubt was left in the minds of anyone, even Jonathan Knots, over who wanted the victory more. Easier said than done… Selena sighed.

Quinne was a tough challenge. Nearly seven years since Selena had beaten her for the world title hadn’t changed that. Lifting up a hand, Selena fiddled with her thumbnail with her teeth, fretting the digit as she contemplated such a matchup. She was sure that ‘interference’ would only be an issue with Kandis if the number one contender decided to show up. That was something the Snow Queen would have to be ready for as much as possible. Last thing she wanted was another repeat of her semi-final match with Ace Marshall.

Maybe if I have Deanna with me to stand guard… Immediately, the platinum-blonde slammed her thoughts down on such a notion. She didn’t need security to beat Quinne! She had done it multiple times over the years! Besides, Deanna was trying to find her own way into Rise to Greatness’ big card, the original plan they had made at the start of the year - wrestling as “The House of Frost” - having been thoroughly hijacked by the events of the past few months.

Better this way… Selena quietly admitted to herself as she pushed herself off the tree she was leaning on, continuing on the path, her ‘Forever Home’ in sight. Outside of wrestling, Selena was struggling as bad as she was in SCW. While she was ‘barely passable’, as her teacher, Abigail Winthrop, had stated, Deanna was a top-grade student, the redhead adorably – Selena had to smile at the image – devouring the material and studying it everywhere. While Selena was studying wrestling videos and writing promos, sometimes needing five or six takes just to do a promo, Deanna was doing homework and mastering the materials of witchcraft to the point where she was even tutoring Selena on several topics.

It didn’t matter to Selena. She didn’t need to be a ‘master’ of the material. She just needed to pass so the Aldens would back off her mother and the rest of the family and this damn ‘debt’ could be paid. But Deanna was the one that was more responsible for that than Selena was.

SCW was very much the same way in Selena’s mind. She wasn’t stupid enough to ignore the signs. She was slipping. She knew she was. Every week, she was getting more and more agitated, more and more tightly wound. Deanna had thought that she couldn’t see it – with Deanna being the voice of reason and Selena becoming the real ‘person that was turning’, as D. had accused Deanna of being months ago.

No, Selena saw it all, but she also knew it was a necessity. It had to be this way. Still, there was no denying the very real conclusion that was potentially waiting her. The platinum-blonde cast a gaze down at her hand. She hadn’t been lying in her promo against Allocco. She had had every intention of quitting SCW if she had failed against at Taking Hold of the Flame, had even written the letter of farewell out. At the time, it had seemed the better choice as opposed to seeing the lying bastard headline the epic Rise to Greatness, and with Kandis now taking the other side – the disgusting display that would have happened had it not been for her? Gods, she would have quit in a second and it was the one solace she could take from all of this. That she had kept THAT from happening, with Adam probably hitting on the new contender and the loose Kandis probably even sleeping with him if it meant she could be world champion.

She had prevented that disgrace of a display, but the conclusion now stood at two possibilities, and the SCW Universe knew it in their rumors and whispers on social media. Either Selena’s plan would work and SCW would be pulled up by its ear back into the standard of integrity that she knew it could be… or she would crash and burn trying.

Either way, Deanna being on her own and away from that was for the best. She could hunt for singles titles – the Snow Queen feeling guilty that she had distracted her wife from being 100% present in the United States Championship tournament – and the redhead could get on the actual RTG card this year and further push herself as “The Rookie of the Year”.

Reaching the deck of her backyard, Selena stared out into the water. Off in the distance, she could see the whispers of gold, orange and red on the horizon of trees and houses. Dawn was coming. She didn’t have much time before sunrise.

Quietly, the world champion removed her shoes and socks, followed by her shorts and shirts. Her underwear followed. She placed them near the thick towel, weighted down by the large rock she had set before starting her morning walk. Feeling the cool air against every part of her skin, she took one last cleansing breath, her eyes fluttering closed before she gracefully dove into the water, barely making a sound with her splash. Immediately, she felt the cold grip onto her, her body revelling in the shock as she felt herself plunge into the waters, floating weightless in the murky depths. She kicked and stroked herself out and forward, turning and spinning wherever she pleased – completely in control.

She yearned for this kind of control in SCW. She was sick of the run-ins, the constant interferences, the mind games, the secret meetings between bosses and ‘potential buyers’. She was sick of the notion of ‘sleeping to the top’ and ‘chaos matches’ with backdoor tricks to win. She was sick of stables. Sick of ambushes. She was just… sick of it all.

What if you buy it? The innocent question, spoken by Tannis Park – the cancer patient in the Manhattan hospital Selena and Deanna had grown quite fond of – echoed in Selena’s mind as she swam in the lake, not for the first time. Gods, would it not be wonderful? She could keep an ear on the Board of Directors. She could hold people like Ace Marshall and Ravyn Taylor accountable. She could give deserving superstars like Luz and Amelia, Chance Owens, and even Deanna, better opportunities. She could deal with frauds like Holly Adams and, most importantly, she would make integrity the mandatory standard of SCW!

It sounded so wonderful… and completely impossible. she thought glumly as she broke through the surface of the water to breathe. She was a wealthy ‘celebrity/wrestler’, there was no denying that, a far cry from the broke, broken woman that had lived in isolation in Nome for so many years. But even with all of her resources, including Deanna’s, Selena could not even make a respectable ‘offer’ for the ownership of SCW. With what few millions she could offer, she’d be laughed right out of the office in Toronto. Against billionaires like Blake Mason and Jenni Anderson, not to mention all the rumored names like Johnny Dollar and Silas Mason – she didn’t stand a chance. Her ‘dream’ was just that… a dream. Nothing more.

All she could do was what she was doing now. Try and change SCW in the ring, on the shows. But again, she needed to start strong, which meant beating Alexis Quinne this Breakdown. Rise to Greatness was less than a month away. She didn’t have time to miss a step or ‘be the observer’ like she had been last year, watching Allocco rise up like a damn rocket while she ‘played catchup’. Now, she needed to set the pace/rules and continue coming on strong and continue making it clear where things were headed with her as the SCW World champion.

For a moment, as she dived down into the water again, her mind displayed an image that still haunted her nightmares, partly the reason for her morning walks these past few weeks. She saw herself again as the woman from her drug-trip: The Snow Queen – complete with part of her head shaved, her eyes cold and calculating, and her logic of ‘simply leveling the playing field’ and ‘making everything fair’. She said nothing under the water, merely staring at the image in her mind.

Would this Snow Queen have slept her way to the 40th spot?
Would this Snow Queen have been part of some porn video that ‘leaked’ for some cheap attention?
Would this Snow Queen have intentionally lost a match just because it ‘didn’t matter’?

Selena couldn’t be certain, but none of that sounded appealing to her, the young woman kicking away from the image and back up to the surface, breaking the waters again. Treading water, she eyed the horizon, the warm colors growing a little brighter each minute, and the starry sky that was quickly fading. As she turned towards her house, she spied that the night was ending its time and as she lowered her eyes downward, she saw the redhead perched on the deck, watching her.

Selena said nothing, merely kicking her bare legs to propel herself back to the dock. The kneeling redhead didn’t move as the platinum-blonde reached the wooden structure, her hands resting against the panels as she stared up at the emerald-eyed beauty, Selena, herself, soaked from the lake.

Without a word, Deanna reached down to gently caress her wife’s wet face, Selena leaning her head into the warm hand.

“Thinking?” came the whispered question from the younger Frost.
“Too much.” Selena whispered back before opening her eyes to stare into her wife’s. “You joining me?”

Quickly, Deanna eyed the horizon sky before slowly shaking her head. “Not enough time.” She replied with a little sadness. “Still…” Quickly, she leaned down to capture her wife’s wet lips in a hot kiss, dragging it out as Selena clung to the ladder that stood in the waters for entry and exit from the lake. Before she could reach out and instinctively pull her wife into the lake with her, Deanna had pulled back, smiling at her beloved playfully.

“Waffles?” she asked, jumping up to her feet and offering her wife the towel that stood by them.

With a sigh, Selena pulled herself out of the water, letting her wife wrap the towel around her frame.

“Yeah.” She nodded her head. “I think I’m as good as I am going to get.”

Quietly, as Deanna gathered her wife’s clothes, Selena cast one more look into the dark waters, remembering the face she had seen there. She wasn’t sure what that Snow Queen would do in her position now.

But one thing she did know – one thing she knew that Snow Queen and her would agree on – now was not the time show any weakness.

SCW and the world title did not deserve that.