Deanna Frost vs. Marie Jones

[SnowQueenSCW]

DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of fiction and not to be confused as complete or accurate representation of any beliefs, religions, etc. Please refer to research/articles by experts for that.

The Witches of Alden

”Dress”

Frost ‘Forever Home’
Manhattan, New York
February 20, 2024
2:23pm

Selena was silent as she stood there, her eyes locked onto Deanna and the green, sparkling dress she wore. It made the redhead feel like she was under a microscope – the admiration and…desire… clear in her wife’s sapphire eyes (She still knew enough about her wife to recognize such subtle gazes)… and she wasn’t sure if she liked the feeling or not at that moment.

Quietly, Selena scooted Elsianna and Amiliah away, telling the two girls to go play. It was enough of a distraction for Deanna to quickly jerk her head to the side and cast a glance at her mother-in-law, Alejandra VanHohenheim. The dark-skinned woman could only give a sympathetic tilt of her head and apologetic half-smile to the redhead in response.

It was kind, but it did little to help to remove the dressed woman’s nerves. Deanna felt so exposed right now. Standing there in a dress that was anything but ‘casual’. She felt every inch of her exposed shoulders tingle – again, unsure if it was a good feeling or a bad feeling. Every fibre of her screamed to rush back to her room and change back into her casual clothes of jeans and a t-shirt, but her legs would not move. Instead, she could only stand there as the platinum-blonde turned her gaze back over to Deanna, leaning up against the frame of the entryway.

“Hot date tonight?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “What’s her name?”

“Selena.” Alejandra chastised, glaring daggers at the Snow Queen.

In response, the older Frost shook her head, a gentle smile crossing her features. “I was joking, mother.”
“It wasn’t funny.” Alejandra remarked, keeping her cold glare on her daughter.

For a moment, Selena’s eyes flashed across to Deanna, the redhead simply listening to this short exchange. Upon seeing her wife’s eyes on hers, however, she squared her shoulders and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear once more. “I’m going to go change.” She stated, turning on the spot and stepping out and past Selena to reach the stairs that lead upstairs to their…her…bedroom.

“What’s the occasion?” the voice caught in Deanna’s ear and stopped her at the first few steps of the stairs. Turning around, she saw her wife now standing at the balustrade, leaning on the wooden structure with one arm. She was dressed so differently than Deanna was, wearing black dress pants and a purple blouse with a moderately low cut, where matching tinted shades hung. Her hair was in its iconic braid and she seemed to be studying Deanna’s every move.

“I thought you had the kids till the evening.” Deanna settled on answering.

“David threw up at the park and Amiliah was getting tired.” Selena replied, her expression instantly morphing to serious. “They’re all fine. They just wanted to come home.”

“You’re sure?” the redhead asked, casting a glance upstairs.

“Yeah.” Selena answered. “I think it was a corndog or something he ate. He’s fine now.” She rolled her shoulders back. “You going to answer my question now?”

“About what?”

To answer, Deanna watched as Selena’s eyes ran up and down the younger woman’s form. Again, that mixed feeling of desire and repulsion filled Deanna, the woman fighting both down without giving any sign of discomfort.

“I asked you what the occasion for the dress was.” Selena repeated, her tone far more serious than it was before.

“It’s for an outing.” Came Deanna’s answer. “I’m going out to meet friends this weekend.”

“This weekend?” Selena asked with a raised eyebrow. “Where are you headed? Seeing a show or something?”

“No.” Deanna replied. “It’s just a little night-out. I don’t expect to me good company after the pay-per-view, so this weekend is the only free time I have.”

“Of course.” Selena nodded. “Last Person Standing matches are tough. Take it from me.”

“I know.” Deanna shot back. “I’m the one that took care of you afterwards.”

“That a subtle jab?” the platinum-blonde asked with a tilt of her head.

“No.” the United States Champion shook her head. “I don’t need you to look after me.” She stiffened her posture before adding. “I’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure.” Selena sighed, giving a shrug of her shoulders. “So… who you going out with this weekend?”

“Why do you care?” Deanna asked, the frustration growing in her voice. “I have friends you know!”

“Not if one of those friends is Raphael Alden.”

The cold remark from the Snow Queen practically froze Deanna in place. Selena, meanwhile, had shifted her stance to fully standing, her arms crossed as she glared at Deanna.

“Think I didn’t figure it out?” she asked accusingly. “Big party? Me not being invited?”

The redhead took a shaking breath before adopting her wife’s stance, arms crossed over her chest. “You weren’t invited.”

“But you were.” Selena shook her head. “You don’t think that’s odd?”

“Not really.” Deanna shrugged. “It’s meant for the top students in the classes. Last I checked, that wasn’t you. Especially when, for the majority, I was doing your homework for you.” She didn’t need to add the last part in, but she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit to feeling a slight sense of satisfaction. In response, Selena merely scoffed at her wife.

“You couldn’t have told me that?” She asked.
“No.” Deanna answered honestly. “Because I…” she had to be honest. “Because I don’t want you there.”

For a moment, Selena’s eyes widened, the shock evident on her face.

“This is important to me, Selena. I’ve worked hard for this while you complained about it. I’m… I’m proud of this… and the last thing I won’t is you going all ‘Blue-Eyed Devil’ on everyone like last time!”

They were silent, but only for a second, with the platinum-blonde rolling her shoulders, clearly irritated by this turn of events. “So you’re going to some elitist party to just bask in how much ‘better’ you are than everyone else?” the world champion remarked with a scoff. “Maybe it’s a good thing I wasn’t invited.”

Despite the mild truth about that statement, Deanna still felt the pang of anger at the insult towards her accomplishment. In the span of a second, she remembered all the hard work and sleepless nights she had put in to study and projects of the Alden-ways of witchcraft. True, she wasn’t really going to use any of it, but she had worked hard, dammit! And for Selena to say that!

“I’m not going to really listen to that when it’s coming from you. Which one of us is living in a penthouse on a castle tower?”

The remark caught Selena off-guard, the platinum-blonde narrowing her sapphire eyes at Deanna, which only prompted Deanna further. “And which one of us walked through SCW and demanded a world title match on her first match back above everyone else? Oh, and correct me if I’m wrong, but who then used her ‘status’ to demand Aaron Demitria as their official? Sure wasn’t me.”

Selena’s jaw clenched and, for a moment, she was silent, filling Deanna with a, guiltily, sense of satisfaction.

“You really don’t get anything.” The older woman eventually remarked.

“Maybe not.” Deanna countered. “But you’re the one casting stones when you’re the one living in a glass house, Selena.”

The two stared at each other, glaring at one another but too driven to back down-

“For goodness sake, you two!” came the chastising voice as Alejandra stepped back into the conversation, moving to stand beside her daughter at the bottom of the stairs. “Acting like little children.” She shook her head. “Selena.” She focused on the woman beside her. “Deanna is not your property. She’s allowed to go where she wants and do what she pleases, just like you have done! Maybe if you hadn’t walked out, you’d be her plus one and you could go to. But that’s your choice!”

Turning her head to regard her mother, Selena was left with no other choice but to swallow her words and back down, allowing Alejandra to turn her head towards Deanna.

“Deanna, you have every right to be proud of this invitation, but throwing your ‘work’ into Selena’s face is not the way to do it.”

“But she said-“

“She’s worried about you. Anyone can see that! She’s doing it in a weird way, but she is as worried about you as I am. What she does at work, that’s her business. Remember, you were the one pushing her to return to that place.”

“Yeah…but…” Deanna tried but her voice fell flat.

“No buts.” Alejandra barked out. “You two have three children together and you both have told me that you don’t want to divorce.”

“No!” Both Selena and Deanna shot the word out at the exact same time, shocking one another to shoot their gazes at each other.

“Clearly.” Alejandra gave a small, almost imperceptible, knowing smile. “But if you both are going to be this way, then you both need to let the other do what they want to do. Stop judging, stop interfering.”

There was a moment of silence between the trio, one that lasted longer than Deanna would have liked. Still, to her surprise, it was Selena that finally broke it.

“Fine.” The world champion shrugged. “Do whatever you want, Deanna.”

“I’d say the same to you.” Deanna remarked. “But you already have.”

It was immature and she would, later on in the day, regret her choice of words, but not in that moment. Instead, she merely watched Selena glare at her before the taller woman was heading towards the door, opening it and exiting their ‘Forever House’ without another word.

Alone with Alejandra, the dark-skinned woman turned her head towards the dressed woman. “You might pay for that later.” She warned.

“Probably.” Deanna sighed. “Selena was never one to take a defeat very well.”

I suppose… that’s one thing she and I will always have in common.

_______________________________________________________________


So… where do we start?

Do I start off my apologizing? Do I start off by saying that a mistake was made and that I am responsible?

Because that has been hanging over my head for weeks now. The controversial finish – the uncertainty that hangs in the air. The missed observation from the official. The answers not given, the questions still persisting. Haunting me like a bad ghost.

And it’s doubly so when you consider how things have been since the start of the year…

The last match I had to end 2023, I had a chance to do what many people thought I could never do. The chance to become the SCW World Championship. A championship that has become synonymous with the ‘Frost’ name but not with my name. A chance to take the ‘next step’ in carving out a path for myself, a journey that was mine and mine alone. A chance to end what had been one of the best years in my wrestling career on the highest of notes.

That didn’t happen. I didn’t get it done. I got close, as Sharper would say, but I didn’t get it done. Worse than that, I was injured from it and not medically cleared to compete at the next pay-per-view. And for someone like me, someone that makes a point to stand by her grit and determination – of rising above the pain and the obstacles to achieve victory, being told ‘you cannot wrestle’ is a serious blow. It is like telling a fish that it cannot swim. A bird that it cannot fly. It is taking away something so natural to one’s very being.

But I respected the medical team’s wishes – and those guys need more respect, because nobody truly understands how much they give and take for all of us and how often they get reamed out when they have to give bad news like that. I took the time off from in-ring action that I was told to take, missing Body, Heart and Soul while others thrived and left their mark in SCW and continued forging their own paths – writing their own stories.

Fast-forward a bit and I finally am allowed to wrestle again. Better yet, I get the chance to makeup for my lost time and start fresh. Not only in working back up the ranks towards that ‘main-event’ position that the SCW universe gave the chance to participate in last year, but to defend the championship that has meant the world to me – the title I couldn’t defend at the last pay-per-view. And since the word has been tossed around quite a bit by my upcoming opponent this Breakdown, I’ll use it now: this was redemption for me. Because I wanted to prove that I hadn’t lost a step, that one loss was not going to unmake the progress I had made in my journey. That one loss was, simply, a bump in the road, not a derailment!

Like before, I gave it everything I had, but, again, things did not go that way and I find myself still dealing with doubt. Still dealing with uncertainty. Still trying harder than ever before to prove my place here in SCW!

That is why I understand what you are going through, Marie. I understand your desire to forge a path, have redemption, change the perspective, I understand it all. I’ve lived it for over a year – changing controversy to certainty. Changing ‘what-if this happens’ to ‘what will happen’. Changing my defining feature from being my last name to being about my ‘grit’.

And that’s something you missed, Marie. You can prattle off my accomplishments just like I can list off yours. You take away your ‘iconic move’ of ‘Twin Magic’ and Marie Jones is STILL, without a doubt, an accomplished wrestler. Zero denial from me in that regard. But the moment that bell rings and we stand in the ring, all of that fades away. The titles, the accolades, the nicknames, all of it vanishes and all that is left – all that it comes down to - is two women fighting for… something. A fight that comes down to who has more to give and who can take more in order to achieve it.

But like I said, you missed what makes me me, Marie. You missed talking about my ‘grit’ and that is what will be making the difference when we finally get our match this Breakdown. Because you want to talk about the past. About walking out on a tag match against Selena and I nearly two years ago. You talk about making that ‘wrong’ into a right and I respect you for that. I wish I could share with you how I was haunted by missing that tag match with you and your sister, but I would be lying. At the time, I saw it as, if you weren’t willing or desiring or brave enough to face me in this ring, then I would find someone who was. And I did. I found challengers, many more challengers as the years went on and I accomplished more and more. More than what most would believe me capable of.

So, for you now to stand there and say you WANT to face me - you ‘NEED’ to face ‘more than anything’, Marie? Well, then perhaps it all worked out for the best, didn’t it? For me to go from ‘not being worth your time’ to being ‘necessary’ and ‘needed’ in this ring, am I right?

That is what I am trying to accomplish! To go from ‘undesirable’ to ‘undeniable’! To be sought out by others like Polly and you. To be challenged by any and everyone and to stand there victorious as I work my way through the best of SCW!

That is my ‘need’, Marie. My journey. Because redemption is valid and it is wonderful, but it’s not enough. You need more than just pretty words to change perception. More than catchphrases to change minds and prove something. You need to work and work at it until it is proven. Until it is an undeniable truth!

And I need my truth back! I need my truth back that I am, heads and shoulders, the hardest working wrestler in SCW! The truth that you don’t need a faction, a manager campaigning for you, contract dealings, or backstage politics to succeed here! You just need the heart, the passion, and the will to never give up!

So, when you say that a win for you is ‘not necessary’, Marie. When you say that you ‘might not beat me’. When you say that I’d be ‘better off facing Kim’ – you are simply proving my point. Because you won’t hear such remarks from me. You won’t hear me say a win isn’t necessary or that I might not beat you because those thoughts never enter my mind!

Because a win here IS necessary for me. Beating you IS necessary for me! And it is something I not only know I can do, it’s something I HAVE to do!

Because I am not simply fighting for the United States Championship these days. I am fighting to prove all I have said. I am fighting to prove my grit and I am fighting to prepare for one of the most dangerous matches of my career! I am fighting to erase doubt and make my truth in this business!

And nothing short of a win will make such a statement clear, Marie. Nothing short of me outlasting an incredible future-contender for this title will do. Nothing short of an undeniable, devoid-of-controversy win will do for me.

A win to show that I am ready. That I am who I say I am. That I am, undeniably, going to be the last woman standing at Retribution.

So I will meet your blood, your sweat and your tears, Marie, and I will overflow that offering with all of that and my grit until you are overwhelmed and beaten. You asked for a fire for your little phoenix, I will give you much more than you can handle. I will give you a fire the likes of which you have never seen. A fire so intense and so long-lasting that you will not have a chance to ‘rise’ over me, Marie. No… the only option you will have this Breakdown… with this fire, my friend… is to burn out.

Checkmate, bitches!