Author: eena_angel2001
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rating: PG-13
Category: BTVS/WWE
Pairings: Lita/Jericho, Willow/Jeff, Faith/RVD, Fred/Edge, Dawn/Matt, Trish/Christian, Stacy/Bubba, Torrie/Rey Mysterio Jr.
Disclaimer: If only I owned them . . . But I don't.
Spoilers: Season Six for BTVS, Angel Season Three. None for WWE.
Summary: Spike needs his family . . .
NOTES: It's capitalized because they're important. PLEASE READ THESE!!!
1) Willow did not kill Warren, though she did come close. Warren is dead however, killed by some angry demon.
2) Spike did not try to rape Buffy. But he did go to Africa.
3) Dawn is nineteen.
4) Angel was not dropped to the bottom of the ocean, though Connor is on his own in LA because he tried.
5) Cordy did not disappear.
6) No Fred and Gunn relationship.
7) Willow and Tara were good friends, nothing more.
8) Faith is out of jail and working for Angel.
~*~*~
Original Challenge
New challenge from me...
Must haves:
1. Lita/Jericho
2. Faith/Christian, Faith/RVD, or Faith/Benoit
3. Fred/RVD, Fred/Benoit, or Fred/Edge
4. Willow/Jeff, Willow/RVD, or Willow/Benoit
5. Dawn/Matt, Dawn/Jeff, Dawn/Shannon, or Dawn/Christian
6. Jericho starts off as a jerk
7. Bischoff, Rosie, Jamal, and Rico get the crap kicked out of them
8. Someone unexpected (ie Victoria, Terri, Ivory, etc.) turns out to be nice
9. No roster split
10. None of the Scoobies can do one of the wrestler's signature moves (ie Litacanrana, Stratusfaction, Whisper in the Wind, Rolling Thunder, etc.)
Pick and Choose:
1. Trish losing the women's title to Lita
2. A diva (not Trish) kissing Bubba
3. A mud match in which the divas turn on the special guest referee (one of the guys) and toss him in the mud instead of fighting each other
4. The lines: "The bitch is back." "I wasn't aware she left."
5. Someone (preferably Lita, Fred, or Faith) being pregnant.
6. The line: "Sex can solve any problem... Except for that one."
7. One of the divas getting pissed off and clocking King for making one too many 'puppy' comments
8. One of the guys sticking up for a diva that doesn't want to be in a degrading match
9. The lines: "Well, I'm an old fashioned kind of guy." "That's good, because I haven't been real fond of the ones they're making nowadays."
10. Someone making fun of Test's 'testicles' and Stacy taking offense
11. The lines: "I talked until its head exploded." "That's a metaphorical explosion, right?" "No, and it was hell cleaning that out of the carpet."
12. The lines: "You used to be such a nice girl." "Yeah, well, we all have to grow up sometime."
13. A backstage brawl between Benoit and Angle
14. Dawn Marie being forced into a real wrestling match
15. Stephanie going ballistic and beating up on Bischoff
16. A masquerade party
17. One of the more chauvinistic guys (you choose who) getting pantsed by two of the divas
18. The line: "If I'd known it would look like *that*, I wouldn't have done it."
19. The line: "I really wish stupid people would stop breeding."
20. The lines: "There are names for people like me-" "Yeah, and most of them can't be said in polite company."
Well, that's it...
Karen
~*~End Challenge~*~
~*~Part One~*~
She could do this. She had to do this for him, and for a lot of others. Buffy would never admit it, but even she wanted him well. Angel, well, whether or not he ever admitted it, Spike had always been his favourite childer. Dawn was scared and helping, and even Xander was concerned. It wasn't normal, it wasn't right. Things had gone so wrong for all of them. Tara was gone. Gone for good. Dead in the ground along with so many other friends the redhead had had to bury in her life. Warren Muirs was responsible, and Willow had come so close to making the man pay for it herself. But she didn't, she stopped herself, though she hadn't really wanted to. But no matter, a Frythric demon had taken care of the job for her.
Anya was a demon again. That was a surprise, and made for an uncomfortable situation back home. A vengeance demon loose on the Hellmouth was not good for anyone. Willow knew that both Buffy and Anya acknowledged that one day, they would have to settle the matter between themselves. One day it would come down to the Slayer and the demon, and only one person could win. But both were choosing to ignore it for the time being. Xander didn't even realize the consequences of Anya's reversion to demon. That boy did like to live in ignorant bliss.
And Spike, God, what had he done to himself. They hadn't the slightest clue as to what happened to him after the whole debacle with him and Anya. And then there was the subsequent shocking revelation of him and Buffy's torrid affair. At the end of it, he just left town. He left Clem in charge of his crypt, leaving the demon only with the cryptic message that he was going to go 'fix' himself.
Willow knew what that meant. It meant Spike went on some wild trip to go overpower the chip and become the big bad once more. He went to Africa for it, undergoing some sort of ritual test of his worthiness or something. And that's when things started to go very wrong.
The redhead had been the one to discover him upon his return to the Hellmouth. Months later, right before the high school was reopened. The Scooby Gang had been keeping an eye on the place because of that, trying to find a way to insinuate themselves in there without raising too many eyebrows. They hadn't come up with much yet, but they had hopes things would work out.
Willow had found him in the basement. It was easy to sneak into the building during the summertime, since Xander's company was doing the construction. She thought she had been hearing things when she heard the sobs coming from the furnace room. But if there was one thing she knew after living on the Hellmouth for her entire life, it was that you never hear things that aren't there.
She had found him huddled up on the floor, an incoherent mess. He was nothing more than skin and bones. He was
paler than usual, and skin ice cold to the touch. And his eyes. Spike's beautiful blue eyes were gone. The iris had for some reason faded out and there was nothing there but the pupil and endless white. She had to swallow her screams at the sight.
He couldn't see her, though he could tell by her scent who it was. And then he was crying once more, blabbering once more about things she couldn't quite grasp. She had to prop him up, get his attention, and asked him what happened.
He said one thing.
"Angelus."
She was making plans for the trip the next morning. Buffy was overly concerned, but confused by the strength of her caring. She wouldn't come with them. Xander wouldn't come as well, he had too much animosity towards the blonde vampire, but even he agreed they should get him to Angel for help. Dawn had insisted on coming, and that commenced a large fight between the Summers sisters. But in the end, Dawn was coming with her and Spike. The young girl had reached nineteen years of age, and she could do things with or without Buffy's permission. Willow hurried her out of Sunnydale before Buffy could retaliate.
They went to LA, presented the shell of Spike to Angel. The dark-haired vampire was quick to lock him and his childer in one of the bedrooms in the Hyperion, to find out what was wrong. They were in there for days.
Time was passed with exchanging of stories and introductions to Lorne and Fred, and a reintroduction with Faith. It was difficult at first to be at ease with the former rogue Slayer. But after seeing how relaxed and comfortable Cordelia and Angel were with her, the redhead decided to give Faith the benefit of the doubt. Willow had been shocked to hear that Angel had a son, something that was in no way possible, but happened. Dawn couldn't believe that Wesley was the one to betray everyone. She never imagined that the ex-Watcher was even capable of something so underhanded. But he was, and it all happened. And now there was teenaged offspring of Angel running around LA, and apparently with a fetish for collecting ears as trophies.
It boggled the mind.
Angel finally came out on the third day, face stone set. Willow knew that look. It meant he was either very angry or very sad. He was both this time.
He had revealed the problem, well, problems. He wanted to know how Spike had done it. He demanded to know. Willow and Dawn had been baffled. How did Spike do what? They had no idea what had happened to the blonde vampire during his sojourn to Africa. But Angel, he had figured it out, partly. Spike had his soul.
That was enough of a shock, but it didn't explain his physical condition. Spike was dying. No amount of blood they fed him would help. He was seriously ill, and there was seemingly no cause for it. But Angel knew what was wrong with him. And it was summed up in one word.
Druscilla.
"There is a curse," he had explained to them. "Known only to the oldest of vampires. It was essentially used to keep fledgings in line. If a vampire was sired and showed too many lingering signs of humanity, the sire could invoke this curse. It would cause the demon inside the vampire to surge forth, making the vampire very ill. The only way to combat the illness was to drink from your sire. It served two functions: made vampires more demonic and it made them more loyal to their sires."
So Druscilla had most likely invoked the spell in hopes of neutralizing the effects of the chip. Only problem was, when she cast it, Spike had already regained his soul. The soul functioned to lock the demon up inside the body. The curse was trying to pull it forth, but the demon could not come out. The soul was fighting to keep it at bay, and in the end, the soul would win. But that didn't mean Spike would live. No, in fact, the strain on the soul would weaken him to the point of death. Very slowly and painfully would the vampire fade away into nothingness. No amount of blood from the sire would save him or the demon.
But how to keep him alive and the soul in power, that was the real question Willow wanted answered. There was only one answer for that. Lorne explained it to him.
"The curse combats humanity in the vampire," the green demon had told them. "And the blood of the sire will bring the demon in him forth. But in order for the humanity to win, he needs the blood of his own humanity."
"Meaning?"
"Spike has to drink the blood from his family members to survive. Only the blood of his family will intensify the humanity inside him, shutting the demon up for good."
So, they needed the blood of Spike's family. But Spike had no family from what Angel said. William Exeter had been an only child, living with his widowed mother at the time of his turning. There was no trace of his family line after William's disappearance. No legitmate trace anyway.
They're only hope was that somewhere, before William, an Exeter had borne an illegimate child. Not a stretch, not for that time period, but the problem was tracking it. Illegimate children were often left on church steps and orphanages with no explanation for where they had come from. So, if they wanted to find such a child in William's family tree, they couldn't do it using ordinary methods.
They would use magic.
~*~*~
The spell was relatively uncomplicated. It had hurt her to take the blood from Spike. He was so weak as it was, but Angel had rushed her along. They were trying to save Spike, and before that could happen, undoubtedly the vampire in question would have to suffer some amount of pain.
Willow had planted herself right in the middle of the hotel lobby, Fred and Dawn creating the circle and symbols around her. Faith had gotten her the appropriate garb and Cordelia cheered encouragingly from the sidelines.
So, she had chanted the right words, lit the right incense, and gave the right offering to the gods. Now all she needed was the right answer.
Wind picked up after two to three chants. Willow kept her eyes shut and mind focused on the task, ignoring the signals all around her. She heard Faith swear softly when the lights began appearing. A loud roaring picked up, causing many of the inhabitants to cover their ears. But Willow kept on chanting.
The wind was furious now, sending her hair flying up and about her face, but still she chanted. The lights got brighter, the glow of the incense higher, and the noise kept going.
And with a loud gunshot like bang, it was over.Willow opened her eyes, confused when she saw nothing of importance in front of her. There was nothing more there, no clues at all. She had been about to get angry, to start cursing some of the higher beings when she notice that one light had not yet disappeared above her head. It was fading, growing smaller and smaller as she watched it. Finally, it became nothing more than a speck and with an audible *pop*, it was gone.
A card appeared in its place, floating down towards the redhead. She extended her palm, catching it before it hit the ground. She flipped it over, reading both the front and the back. The logo on the front confused her, causing the redhead to frown deeply.
"What is it?" Dawn asked, approaching the redhead carefully. Willow shrugged, raising confused green eyes to the others in the lobby.
"What the hell is World Wrestling Entertainment?"
~*~Part Two~*~
"Are you sure this is it?"
Faith snorted, turning to favour Dawn with a smirk.
"Well, if you've seen any other buildings with the WWE logo blazoned across the side, let me know," the brunette shook her head. Dawn glared at the Slayer, stomping her foot a bit.
"That's not what I meant!" the blonde fumed. "What I meant was, are we sure that this is the right WWE place? There's like millions of people working for this company. What if it isn't someone at the training camp? What if the one we're looking for is the guy who makes their coffee?"
Willow gave a small smile, slinging an arm around the blonde's shoulders.
"This is the address that was on the card," the redhead shrugged. "It's still a very vague clue, but a clue nonetheless. And I think it was aimed at either narrowing our search, or helping it along."
"You know, I'm starting to think that the PTB don't really like being helpful," Fred piped up. "I mean, we did the right spell and everything, and all we got is a card. How is that helpful in the least?"
"Well, why don't we head inside and just start looking around?" Faith suggested with a sigh. "There's no way we're going to help Fangless just standing out here."
"The Slayer has a point," Willow agreed, pushing Dawn ahead of herself. "Let's get a moving."
~*~*~
It was nothing but a buzz of activity inside the building. There were numbers of people milling about, all in workout outfits. The only people dressed in street clothes were the rather harried looking receptionists.
Faith nudged Fred, giving her a curious look. The Texan shrugged, making her way to the front desk.
"Excuse me-"
"Name!" the receptionist barked at her, shuffling through a mound of papers on her desk.
"Huh?" Fred was slightly taken back.
"Look honey, there are a ton of people here today," the receptionist told her in exasperation. "I don't time for this. Give me your name and wait for one of the trainers to call you."
"Oh, I'm not here-"
"Name!" this time louder, effectively cutting Fred off. The brunette jumped in alarm.
"Winifred Burkle," she blurted out immediately. The receptionist went off in her papers, riffling through them in great speed.
"She thinks we're here for some sort of tryout," Fred hissed at her friends while the receptionist worked. Willow shot her a strange look at that, moving to speak to the receptionist.
"We're not actually here for-"
"Here we are!" the receptionist announced in triumph, handing a bunch of papers out to Fred. "Winifred Burkle."
The little Texan was stunned, taking the papers from the receptionist in shock. Her eyes went to the top of the sheet, seeing her name written there in her own writing. And at the end of the tryout sign up and general waiver, there was her signature.
"And your name?" the receptionist asked Willow. The redhead was silent, exchanging wide-eyed looks with her friends. Faith shrugged, pointing one finger up to the ceiling. She mouthed the words silently.
"PTB."
"Miss?"
Willow started, remembering the waiting woman behind her.
"Um, Willow," she stammered in response. "Willow Rosenburg."
The receptionist smiled, pulling more papers from the pile.
"Here you go."
~*~*~
"Okay, this is trippy."
Willow could only nod, eyes flicking to the other waiting hopefuls around them. There were a lot of people here, waiting for some shot at the training ring. Then they would have the chance to make their dreams come true. They could become WWE Superstars.
But Willow wasn't one of them. Her eyes went back to the papers in her hand, shaking her head in wonder when she saw her signature again.
"I guess this is the PTBs' way of having fun," Faith laughed, flipping through her own registeration papers. "I mean, we get what we asked for and they get a laugh."
"This isn't funny," Fred protested. "We aren't here for this. We're supposed to be finding Spike's descendants. I don't think this will be helpful."
"But obviously someone up there disagrees," Dawn mused, frowning at her own stack of papers. "Buffy is going to freak."
"Relax," Willow laughed. "I mean, I don't think the PTB planned far enough ahead. I mean, do any of us know the first thing about wrestling?"
"Right," Fred laughed. "We'll just have to either explain it to someone, or flail around like clueless dolts and then get explain. No big deal."
"Winifred Burkle!"
The loud voice came from the direction of the gym. Fred went wide-eyed, shooting her friends a frantic look.
"Just breathe," Faith laughed. "Remember what you said? Explain, or first look like an idiot and then explain. We'll be
out of this place by nightfall."
Fred shot her friends a disbelieving look before getting up and making her way to the direction of the voice calling her name. Dawn watched her go with a worried face.
"You know, this might blow up in our faces."
Faith snorted.
"Unless you're a closet wrestling pro, I doubt we have anything to worry about."
~*~*~
"How did we do that?"
Willow shook her head, flopping backwards onto her hotel bed.
"The PTB," the redhead ascertained. "It had to be them. Because I have never seen, let alone performed, a German suplex in my entire life."
"I think we should check to see if there is any sort of fine print on that spell," Dawn suggested lightly.
"And check for sudden knowledge of wrestling moves as a side effect?" Faith snorted. "I think 'They' just elaborated on what we asked for."
"Why would they do that?" Fred moaned. She hadn't recovered from the corkscrew moonsalt she had performed to perfection for the trainers. Fred wasn't sure how she had done it, and she wasn't sure she wanted to reflect too much on it. It was like her body had been on autopilot the minute the trainers started barking orders at her.
"Buffy is going to freak when she finds out that not only we went through training, but apparently passed with flying colours," Dawn laughed. The blonde herself was wondering how she would explain to her sister how she learned to do backflips in a span of three days. Especially when she had received absolutely no training prior.
"Let's not worry about Buffy," Faith suggested. "We still have to worry about Fangless. We're in, the trainers said as much. Obviously the PTB are directing us to where the descendants are. We just have to follow the trail."
"But to the WWE?" Willow frowned at the ceiling. "Why can't they just tell us who?"
"Who knows?" Faith replied. "But we're in this now, so we're going to have to follow it. You guys want to help Spike, Angel told me to help Spike, so we're going to help Spike."
Fred let out a breath, blowing her bangs off her forehead.
"I still can't believe my body bent like that."
"With the comments like those, you'll be real popular," Faith teased. Willow groaned, throwing a pillow at Faith's head.
"You are not allowed to tease or bed any wrestlers," the redhead ordered. "We're on a mission here, no getting distracted."
Faith pouted, throwing the pillow back at Willow.
"Spoil my fun."
~*~Part Three~*~
"But I don't need a manager."
Stephanie McMahon sighed, closing her eyes briefly as she put a hand to her head. Rob Van Dam remained unmoved in front of her desk, arms folded across his chest in defiance.
"Rob," she started off. "I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that today. Well, I could, two other times, but that's not the point. This morning my Dad dumped four new divas on me and told me to take care of them. Now, I got to assign three before Eric caught on and assigned the fourth. You are this girl's saving grace from
that disgusting little man. If you don't take her, Eric will probably assign her to one of his jerks. Do you want some poor defenceless girl to end up with the likes of Triple H or worse? He already assigned the fourth girl to Jericho and Christian. You know there's nothing good in store for her if you don't take her."
"I can't believe you're guilt-tripping me," Rob mumbled. "Isn't there anyone else out there-"
"That I can trust with a seriously beautiful new girl?" Stephanie finished for him. "Not likely. I'd probably end up with a
law suit by the end of the week if I put her with anyone else."
"But-"
"Rob, I already assigned one of the new girls to Edge and Rey. The second girl was sent to the Dudleys, and you're the only one left,"
Stephanie looked the brunette man in the eyes. "You've got a new manager. End of discussion."
Rob gave a deep sigh, relenting to the Commissioner.
"Who is she?" he asked finally. Stephanie smiled, getting up to go to her door. She peeked her head out, waving someone in. A redhead entered the room and Rob nearly fell out of his chair.
She was tiny, smaller than Terri he bet, and he couldn't see much muscle on her. Very slender, very pretty, and looked very frail. She would snap in half if any of the guys got their hands on her.
"Hi," she greeted him shyly. "I'm Willow."
Rob wanted to back out right there. There was no way she could survive in this business. Especially not against the heavy hitters he was used to facing. And he was about to open his mouth to state this, but he got a good look at Stephanie's face. The brunette Commissioner was sending him a warning look. Rob snapped his mouth
shut, turning to the redhead with resignation.
"Hi. I'm Rob."
~*~*~
"Well, I'm more of a physics kind of girl myself. But this kind of stuff really appeals to Faith, so I think I got dragged along for the ride, and I'm talking too much aren't I?"
Rey laughed at the flustered girl in front of him. Their new manager had been dropped off by Stephanie just a half an hour ago, and Rey decided he liked her already. She was sweet, and funny, and had the most adorable accent.
"Don't worry Fred," he assured her. "There are some people here who do a lot more talking, and usually they're not as cute."
Fred blushed, fidgetting on the locker room bench. Rey seemed like a really nice guy, those the white eyes under the mask were kind of unnerving. But then again, she lived in a hotel with a green skinned, red-eyed empathic demon, so they weren't that hard to get used to.
"So, when is Edge coming?" she asked, frowning as the name came to her along with an image. Fred didn't know the first thing about wrestling. She had never watched one episode in her entire life. So imagine her surprise when she found that she knew everything. And she meant everything. Old and new feuds, wrestlers from all eras,
and duties expected of a wrestling manager.
"He'll be here eventually," Rey replied, turning to look towards the door. "He just got a little caught up at the airport. He should be here in a short time."
"So, does he know?" she ventured. Rey laughed.
"I just found out," he reminded her. "But don't worry about it. Edge is cool, he won't mind. Especially if I give him that speech Stephanie gave me about Eric."
"That was an awful attempt at guilt tripping," Fred mused, scrunching up her nose. "Are you sure that he won't mind?"
"I promise."
~*~*~
Dawn looked up nervously at the man beside her. He stared down at her, smiling easily at her.
"I'm not mad," he assured her. "I'm more surprised. I've never had a manager before. Stacy used to follow me to ringside, but she didn't really add much to the team."
"I'm not sure how I would add to the team," Dawn started off nervously. "I mean, I know how to wrestle-"
"Which makes you a hell of a better than Stacy," a voice piped up in her ear. Dawn turned, favouring the younger Dudley with a grin.
"Thanks, but isn't that mean to Stacy?"
Spike snorted, sitting down next to her.
"Don't worry about Stacy," he waved off.
"Yeah," Bubba agreed. "You should be more worried about Victoria. She's teaming up with the Three Minute Goons against us tonight."
Dawn nodded, listening intently to the man as he started in on strategy. But in the corner of her mind, Dawn was bewildered. How the hell were they supposed to know who they were looking for? When would the PTB let them know?
~*~*~
Faith followed behind Eric, glaring at the man's back.
"Now, I don't know what Vince was thinking hiring all of you," Eric was going on. "Four new divas, I mean, come on. There's only so many gimmick matches a person can put in a show. There has to be actual wrestling at some point in the show."
The Slayer bit the inside of her cheek, trying hard not to punch the man out. She really wanted to hit him, but only her obligation to Angel stopped her. Angel wanted to save Spike, and Faith would save Spike. Even if she had to put up with this ass.
"Here," he announced, stopping in front of a door. "Try not to put out too much."
Faith pushed her way in before she succumbed to her urge to kill that man. Two blondes looked up at her entrance, the taller one lit up at the sight of her.
"See?" he told the shorter one. "I told you Eric would get us a good one."
Faith clenched her fists, closed her eyes, and counted to ten. She was not getting out of this place without killing at least one jackass.
"Get your ass over here and polish my belt girl."
But which one was going to be a toughie.
~*~Part Four~*~
"I really wish stupid people would stop breeding."
Willow cracked a grin at that. She turned to the slightly confused RVD next to her, flashing him a disarming smile.
"Rob, I don't believe you've had the pleasure of meeting Faith yet," the redhead started, nodding her head at the new arrival. "Faith this is Rob, Rob this is Faith."
"Is he an ass too?" the brunette Slayer blurted out, glaring at the hand Rob had extended. The man blinked, frowning at the girl in front of her.
"Excuse me?" he asked her.
"Sorry, but I've spent an hour in the company of Bischoff and the last half an hour with the tag champs. All three are jerks, and perverted. So are you a jerk?"
"He's not a jerk Faith," Willow interjected with a sigh. "He's pretty cool."
Rob nodded, grinning widely at the redhead.
"Hey, thanks."
Willow favoured her new client with a smile, arching a brow at her friend. Faith rolled her eyes, shaking Rob's hand forcefully.
"I've had a bad day," she offered in apology. "It makes me act a bit mean."
"A bit?" Willow repeated with a grin. Faith glared at the redhead.
"Do not start with me Red," the Slayer growled. "I'm so not in the mood. You would not believe the kind of crap I've put with in the last half an hour. I'm about ready to start a world-wide extermination of blondes."
"Jericho and Christian will do that to a person," Rob nodded in agreement. "Hopefully they didn't say anything too insulting to you."
"Well, Jericho wanted me to polish his belt," Faith shook her head. "And Christian wanted a lap dance."
Rob let out a whistle, shaking his head in dismay. Willow only became slightly frightened, rising to her feet slowly.
"Are they still, you know, alive?" she ventured slowly.
Faith giggled a bit, serving only to make the redhead more nervous. As time passed and the Slayer failed to answer, Willow had gone positively white with panic.
"I didn't hurt them," Faith finally assured her. "I told Jericho what he could do with his belt, which can't be repeated in good company. And as for Christian, well, I just pushed him out of his chair and stomped out before I ended up doing too much damage to the idiot."
Willow let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank God," the redhead laughed. "I thought you had done something violent-"
"Oh, I did," Faith was quick to cut her off. "But not to them."
Rob frowned.
"Then who?"
"Well, there was this other tall blonde guy in the hallway," Faith shrugged. "He grabbed my ass and well, I grabbed something else."
Willow paled.
"Faith! You didn't!"
Faith shrugged.
"I figured it wasn't that much of a loss. At least he won't be able to infect the world with his offspring . . ."
Rob was on the floor laughing at this point.
"You castrated a wrestler?" he gasped out between laughs.
"Well, he's not castrated," Faith admitted. "But he won't be able to enjoy the finer things in life for about a few weeks."
Willow was shaking her head while Rob continued to laugh.
"The bitch is back," the redhead moaned. Faith snorted, arching a brow at her friend.
"I wasn't aware she left."
~*~*~
Fred paced in front of the curtains, tossing an apprehensive look at the drapes every few seconds. Edge and Rey watched her in amusement, laughing when she started mumbling to herself and making erratic hand gestures.
"It's just a match," Edge finally spoke up. "You're not even in it. Maybe you should calm down."
"I am calm," Fred argued. "I'm just overly excited and trying to walk out some of that extra energy before I head out."
"Most people try to psyche themselves up before heading out," Rey informed her. "Not usually the other way around."
Fred gave a distracted laugh, already back to her pacing.
"Mama always said I was kind of backwards," the brunette murmured, a small smile on her face as she gave the thought consideration. She stopped suddenly, turning to face her clients.
"No one's going to laugh at me, are they?" she asked in a little voice. "Because I don't handle attention well. Unless it's like some sort of physics lecture, but I doubt anyone out there will care about my position on string theory. Oh, this was such a bad idea. I should just get my ass back to university and leave this to the people that can do this."
"Have you ever considered that you're one of the people that can handle this?" Edge asked her with a grin. "And since you made it all the way here, I think that it proves you want to be here."
Fred bit her tongue, squashing the urge to tell him that she actually didn't want to be here but had to. She doubt either of them would handle her sick vampire story all that well.
"Leave her alone man," Rey spoke up. "Everyone's entitled to first time jitters. Comes with the territory. She'll be fine."
"I will?" Fred asked in genuine surprise. Rey laughed, nodding his head.
"Yeah, you will," the small man assured her. "But how about thinking about your intro? Going with me, Edge, or by
yourself?"
"Not by myself," she quickly cut down. "I can't hide behind anyone if I'm up there by myself."
"Well, then I guess it's between me and Rey," Edge grinned. "So Fred, which one would you prefer?"
The brunette felt a slight blush come to her cheeks. She had quickly learned that Edge liked to flirt. Rey did too, but Edge had that grin that made a girl really flustered.
"Well, why do you guys walk out separately?" she asked in response.
"Well, Edge likes the normal stage entrance," Rey explained. "I like doing this thing where I jump out from underneath the stage."
"Jump out from underneath the stage?" Fred repeated incredulously.
"Yeah," Rey nodded. "I stay in this spot right under the stage. There's like pyro and a blast. Then I pull this lever, and me and the little platform go shooting up through the smoke. You usually have to jump if you don't want to-"
"I'm going with Edge!"
~*~Part Five~*~
"Dawnie! Get the table!"
Dawn sighed, biting the inside of her mouth and glaring at the ceiling while Fred and Willow laughed at her.
"It wasn't that funny," the blonde muttered when the two continued to laugh.
"Yes it was!" Willow countered. "You should have seen the look on your face! You were just like, the table? Why would I want a table?"
The redhead dissolved into giggles once more. Dawn glared at her, stomping her foot in frustration.
"Stop it!" she shrilled. "It was not funny! Do you even realize how much Buffy is going to yell at me?"
"I'd be more worried about Mr. Giles," Fred told her. "He's bound to have some sort of lecture waiting for you. I mean, you put a woman through a table."
"But I had to!" Dawn insisted. "Bubba told me to!"
"If Bubba told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?" Willow mocked her friend. Dawn narrowed her gaze at the giggling redhead, kicking Willow's foot maliciously.
"No, but maybe I should convince him that you need some table time."
"Oh, I'm frigthened," Willow intoned in a scared voice. "The littlest Dudley of them all is going to table me!"
"I hate you so much right now," Dawn muttered, frustration just increasing as Willow and Fred both continued to laugh. Knocking on the door interrupted any further argument between the girls. Rob stuck his head in the locker room, looking amusedly at his hysterical new manager.
"Um Willow? Hate to interrupt, but I do have a match, like next," he reminded her. "Think you could make gather enough calm for a strut to ringside?"
Fred dissolved into more giggles as Willow stilled at the thought of being in front of so many people.
"You have to strut," the brunette teased her friend. Willow glared at her and Dawn as the little blonde joined in on the mirth.
"Shut up," she muttered, climbing to her feet sourly.
"Oh, we had to do it," Fred admonished her. "And it's not that bad. It's actually a lot of fun, especially on the stage for the first time. All those people screaming loudly for you. Well, it might have more to do with Rob, but still, you feel like a part of it."
"She's right," Rob put in from the doorway. "It's a total rush."
"I'll take your word for it," Willow sighed, swatting at the laughing Dawn before joining her client by the door. "By the way, what are we doing?"
"I'm in a tag match with Jeff Hardy against William Regal and Lance Storm," Rob told her. "Lita isn't coming out because she has a match afterwards, so it's going to be just you and Molly at ringside."
"Doesn't sound too hard," Willow murmured. "Though I hope the Virginal One has enough sense to stay out of the
match."
"Not likely," Rob laughed. "But on the bright side, you'll be able to kick her ass if she does try something. You could have a feud on your hands by the end of the week."
"Whoop-de-doo," Willow muttered without enthusiasm. Rob just laughed at her, pulling on her arm to drag her out of the locker room.
"Oh and before I forget," he spoke up, turning back to the other girls in the locker room. "Edge, Rey, and the Dudleys are so excited that your debuts were so great. After tonight, we're all heading out to celebrate."
"What if I don't do as well?" Willow asked.
"Then it'll be a cheer up party," Rob shrugged. "And be sure to invite your friend Faith. She's going to need a pick me up after spending all night with Jericho and Christian."
"She hasn't killed anyone yet has she?" Fred asked in worry.
"Nope, but she did some serious harm to Test's testicles," Rob laughed again. Willow waved off her friend's curious looks, tugging on Rob's arm.
"Maybe we should head out," she suggested. "We'll discuss party plans later."
"Yeah," Fred agreed. "We don't want to overdo it on the first night. After all, if Dawn gets that psyched up again, we might have a horrible serial tabler on our hands."
"Shut up!"
~*~*~
"Now, do not mess this up."
Faith sighed, counting down from ten in her head. She didn't know why she bothered. She had been doing that all night, and she was still pissed as hell. Jericho and Christian just weren't smart enough to realize that their attitude was going to be bad for their health.
"You know, if you're so worried, why the hell did you ask for a manager?" she demanded suddenly. Christian rolled his eyes at the question.
"Duh, a nice piece of ass to help us out at ringside," the Canadian explained. "Almost everyone else has one. We should get one too."
"I don't cheat," Faith told him evenly. Jericho snorted.
"You'll do as your told," the self-proclaimed King of the World told her. "Eric released you into our care. You're part of our team, and you will do as the team leader tells you."
"And you're that leader?" Faith asked, eyebrow raised.
"Well yeah," Jericho snorted. "Who did you think it was? Christian?"
"Hey!" Christian looked offended as Jericho laughed at his own statement.
"Never mind," Jericho waved off his partner's irritation. "Point is, you're on this team. And you will help the team."
"I think the team is beyond any help that I can provide," Faith sneered. "How about this boys? Why don't you go out there and see if you can actually win a match on your own? Ever done that before?"
"We're the tag team champs-"
"And that wasn't the question," Faith rolled her eyes, cutting Christian off.
"Don't worry about us," Jericho growled. "You just do your job and keep Trish out of the damn match."
"Why is she walking out those fools anyway?" Christian asked suddenly, distaste on his face. "Goldust and Booker T. Like they're at impressive."
"Maybe she just wants to get back at the big blond jerks who tried to break her in a six man intergender a few weeks back," Faith muttered under her breath.
Neither man heard her, so caught up with disparaging their opponents. Faith sighed and rolled her eyes again.
This was going to difficult.
****************************************
TBC