Exhausted, wracked with pain, Sonya Deville teetered on the edge of the ring apron. She knew she couldn't fall off. Only a few feet in front of her, Asuka also looked ready to collapse at any moment. They were the final two women in the battle royal that would decide the third participant in the triple threat Smackdown Women's Championship match at the upcoming TLC pay-per-view.

Sonya had been on the main roster for over a year, and this was the closest she had come to getting a title opportunity. She wasn't going to fail. She could not fail now. Asuka was all that stood in her way. All she had to do was knock the Japanese woman off the apron, and she would book her place at TLC.

Finding a second wind from deep down inside, Sonya rushed forward, intending to kick Asuka in the face. If she had succeeded, victory would have been a certainty. Unfortunately, Asuka also found fresh energy and was able to duck out of the way, delivering a kick to Sonya's knee.

In that split second, Sonya's stomach leapt in fear. Her left leg had collapsed from under her as a result of the kick. She was falling! She was going to land on the floor and lose! With the reactions of a cat, Sonya stuck out her right leg as she fell. She was just in time. Her right foot remained on the ring apron, while she was standing on her left on the floor. With only one foot touching, she was not eliminated!

"No elimination!" a nearby referee called, pointing at her foot on the apron.

After delivering the kick and seeing Sonya start falling off the side of the ring, Asuka had apparently thought she had won. She was yelling in celebration, climbing back through the ropes. Sonya stretched out a hand and was just able to grab the back of Asuka's shorts by the waistband.

Heaving for all she was worth, Sonya dragged Asuka back through the ropes. Caught off balance, Asuka toppled over backwards, landing on her ass on the apron before bouncing onto the floor, landing with a smack on the padding.

"That's it!" the referee shouted, gesturing for the timekeeper to ring the bell.

Sonya could hardly believe it. She had won! She was in the title match at TLC!

"Here is your winner, Sonya Deville!" the ring announcer said as her music started playing.

Now safe to remove her foot from the apron, Sonya did so before climbing into the ring to celebrate. Sitting at ringside, either side of the commentary table, were Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, the other two women in the triple threat match. Beating those two ladies was going to be no easy feat, but Sonya knew she could do it. No one on Smackdown knew what she was capable of. She intended to show them at TLC.

Walking over to the ropes on that side of the ring, Sonya saw Becky standing up, with the usual arrogant expression on her face. She really did think she was 'The Man', whatever that was supposed to mean. Sonya intended to show her otherwise.

"Don't forget, Deville, I'm The Man!" Becky shouted at her, raising her championship belt in the air.

"We'll see if you're The Man when I kick your head off your shoulders!" Sonya shouted back, pointing at Becky for effect.

Looking unimpressed with the whole exchange, Charlotte got up and calmly walked away, heading for the back.

Dismissing Becky, Sonya turned around, intending to have her hand raised by the referee. To her surprise, she saw that Asuka was back in the ring, standing there looking at her. Sonya put up her fists, ready to fight. However, Asuka seemed to have something else in mind. Rather than acting confrontationally, she was nodding her head in what appeared to be a sign of respect. She stepped forward and offered her hand to raise Sonya's in victory.

In that moment, Sonya heard the words her girlfriend had said to her only a matter of days before. "It's time to get ruthless, Sonya. It's time to start beating the hell out of people. It's time for you to run the division. Make a statement! Make a name for yourself! Unleash the devil inside you! Or should that be the Deville inside you?"

Sonya had loved the play on words with her name, and had taken the advice to heart. She was sick of being stuck in pointless matches low on the card every week, if she made the show at all. She was the baddest bitch on Smackdown, and it was time the roster and the fans realised it. It was time for the inner Deville to be unleashed.

Something inside Sonya snapped in that moment. She launched herself into the air and kicked Asuka as hard as she could in the head. The strike landed perfectly, turning Asuka's lights out immediately. The fans erupted into a mixture of cheers and boos, which surprised Sonya, not that she particularly cared about their opinions. She had expected boos. Cheers were what surprised her. Apparently she and her girlfriend were not the only ones who had wanted to see this change in attitude from her.

Looking down at the fallen Asuka, Sonya felt herself getting even angrier. Kicking the bitch in the head wasn't enough of a statement. Seeing red for a second time, she climbed out of the ring and retrieved a steel chair from under the ring apron. Those fans who had decided to support her in her attack cheered again, urging her on.

Carrying the chair, Sonya climbed back into the ring, feeling herself shaking with anger. It wasn't Asuka in particular she was angry with, she was just the one being used to send the message that there was a new Sonya Deville in the picture, and she would stop at nothing, literally nothing, in order to dominate the Smackdown women's division.

"What are you doing?" the referee who had declared her the winner demanded, now standing between Sonya and Asuka. "Put the chair down and get out of here!"

Sonya headbutted him right between the eyes, knocking him out, not caring in the least that she would be fined heavily for doing so.

With the referee now down and out, there was nothing to stop Sonya assaulting Asuka. She walked over to the fallen Japanese, raised the chair high into the air and slammed it down on her back with all the force she could muster.

Striking Asuka with the chair seemed to send Sonya into some kind of rage-inspired trance. It felt almost like she was starting to have an out of body experience as she hammered away with the chair over and over again, wanting to pound Asuka into dust. Sonya knew she was screaming like a woman possessed, yet she couldn't actually hear herself doing it. She had never experienced anything like it before.

When the trance-like state started to wear off, Sonya became aware that there were now a bunch of referees around her. She hadn't even known they had entered the ring. They were trying to plead with her to put the chair down. Looking down at it, Sonya didn't see anything recognisable as a chair. What she was holding now was a bent piece of black metal that had been literally destroyed by hitting Asuka so many times.

Sonya started to hear the referee's voices as she looked wild-eyes between them.

"Put it down!" one of them yelled.

"She's had enough! Get out of here!" another shouted.

Sonya knew that if anyone touched her right then, she was going to destroy whoever it was. "Get out of my way!" she screamed, throwing the remains of the chair to the mat.

Fearfully, the referees parted like the red sea, granting her clear passage to the side of the ring in front of the entrance ramp. Breathing heavily from the exertion of what she had just done, Sonya walked over and climbed out of the ring.

On her way up the entrance ramp, Deville became aware of a significant number of fans chanting, "Sonya!"

After a moment of pause, Smackdown's recently-appointed Head Writer, Elena D'Agostino, looked up from the tablet that she had been reading aloud from. Across the table from her were Vince McMahon and Road Dogg. Beside her sat Sonya Deville. All three of them sat with their mouths slightly open, which Elena hoped was a positive sign. "So, uh, that's what I had," she said in her thick Italian accent, hoping for a response of some kind from at least one of them.

"That is excellent work," McMahon said after a moment. "It's been a while since I had a writer put an idea across in that manner, but you did it fantastically. You had me hooked in. What did you think?" he asked Road Dogg.

"I could see it all happening clear as day. I think we have to go with it if we're going to push Sonya."

McMahon turned to Deville. "It would be something of a change in character for you to act out that… what was it you called it?" he asked D'Agostino, turning back to her.

"A trance-like state," she replied.

"To act out that trance-like state, brought about by rage," McMahon put to Deville. "Getting so angry that you totally lose your mind. Do you think you can pull that off?"

"Absolutely, sir," Sonya promised him. "And if it makes any difference, I truly love what Elena has come up with. I'd like to ask you to give it the green light."

McMahon didn't commit to a decision. In fact, he had a question for D'Agostino. "You mentioned Sonya's girlfriend in your little piece there. I take it this is also your idea for how we might start the romance angle I wanted?"

D'Agostino nodded. "It is. You said you were looking to have a lesbian romance on the show, and you wanted Sonya to be a part of it. You also wanted to push her, beginning with having her win the battle royal. This would achieve both of those aims. The only thing I didn't know when I was writing it was who you wanted the girlfriend to be. You never mentioned a name."

"I was thinking the same thing," Sonya said. "As I said before, I'm happy to do a romance angle. I would like to know who it will be with, though."

McMahon leaned back in his chair, a crafty smile on his face. "Considering what Elena has come up with, I have the perfect person in mind."


A/N: Thank you for checking out this first chapter. After seeing Sonya lose that battle royal to Asuka, I was so annoyed that I had to write something about it. Sonya is so much better than how they treat her.

Anyway, I'm not going to get into a full-on rant about WWE incompetence. Instead, I'll throw a question at you about the story. Who do you think McMahon has chosen to play Sonya's on-screen girlfriend in the upcoming storyline?