Author's Note: Okay so this is something that I've had on my computer for a few months now...I've written and re-written it several times now, and I've decided hell with it, it's gotta be posted. This story means a lot to me, and anyone whose been a long term fan should understand why. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do, and please let me know what you think.
~Aracnae
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize, just Aiden and the plot.
August 8th 2001
Chris Benoit carried his ten year old daughter through the maze known as the backstage area of an arena. Tonight was a special night, it was her birthday, and he and his buddies had planned a surprise birthday party for her.
"C'mon Daddy, I don't like surprises and you know it." she whined.
"I know baby, but do you think you can make an exception just this once? For your old Dad?" Chris smiled though he knew she couldn't see it.
"Daddy, you aren't old. But I guess I can wait a few more minutes."
Chris shook his head, but continued walking.
He finally got to the door where his friends were waiting to surprise his little girl. Most people didn't quite understand how much of a family the WWF was, but on days like this, Chris was damn glad for it.
"Alright baby, I'm gonna put you down now. Are you ready for the surprise?"
"Yes, yes, yes! Come on Daddy, I wanna know what's going on!" she clapped her hands together.
Chris just smiled and opened the door.
"SURPRISE!" came the combined voices of Chris's friends.
He knew that he'd done the right thing when his little girl squeaked and jumped up and down. Before running into the room to greet her many uncles and aunts, she turned around and hugged her father around the middle.
"Thank you Daddy." she said.
"Your welcome baby. Happy birthday sweetheart."
As she ran into the center of the room, Chris found himself with Dean Malenko on one side of him, and Eddie Guerrero on the other.
"Your little one is getting big." Eddie said.
"Yeah, I know, I feel old." Chris laughed.
"You are old Chris." Dean grinned, punching Chris in the shoulder.
"Oh shut it man. I wish this day could last forever."
"What, you don't wanna see your baby become a mini you?" Eddie asked.
"Not really. I know she's going to, she talks about it all the time. She even wrestles with some of the other kids. I just don't want this to strain what relationship I have left with her mother. You both know I barely get to see her as it is."
"Yeah but your daughter is stubborn just like you. If she wants to wrestle, you better believe she's going to wrestle." Dean pointed out.
Chris sighed. He knew they were both right. "Yeah yeah. Alright let's go enjoy this party. It's not every day your only child turns ten."
The three men laughed and Chris went on a search for his little girl.
June 24th 2011
Aiden Benoit was walking similar hallways to the ones she had ten years before, the day of her surprise 10th birthday.
A frown crossed her lovely features as she thought of that day. It wasn't that she hadn't had wonderful time, but it was one of the last times she'd gotten to see her father. In the six years between her birthday, and the day that Chris Benoit died, Aiden had only seen her father maybe 12 times.
She knew it wasn't his fault, anymore then it was hers. The blame all landed on her mother. When Aiden turned 12, she had signed up for the schools wrestling team, and that was when everything had gone downhill.
Lisa hadn't wanted her daughter to have anything to do with the sport anymore then she wanted her to have anything to do with her father. So Lisa forbid her to wrestle, but Aiden did anyway, and just kept it hidden. She trained every day, before and after school, under the pretense of having extra help for some of her classes, and Lisa was never any the wiser.
The one thing she did manage to do was keep Chris away from Aiden. The two still managed to keep in contact through phone calls, texts later on and letters, always sent to her best friend's house. It wasn't the same but it was all they had.
This had put a serious strain on the relationship between Aiden and her mother. As of now, Aiden hadn't talked to Lisa in almost a year and a half, and she couldn't be happier about it.
Today was four years since Chris had died, and it just so happened that it was going to be her debut on Monday Night Raw. Aiden's dream was finally coming true and she wished that her father was still around to see it.
She let a few tears fall from her eyes as she made her way to the Diva's locker room. Aiden stopped to get her bearings before entering the room to face the women she would be working with.
She thought back to the conversation she'd had with Vince McMahon after Chris died.
At first the man was dead set against her coming into the company when she became of age, but a lot of convincing from the many uncles and aunts and Aiden herself had finally gotten McMahon to see things from her point of view.
When everything first happened, it seemed like Chris had just gone crazy and killed his new wife and little boy, but Aiden knew deep down that this was not something that her father would do. And when someone who used to work with Chris convinced her grandfather to have the brain scans done, Aiden's theory would prove correct.
With the help of Dean Malenko, Chris Irvine, Trish Stratus, and several others, Aiden had what she'd always wanted.
When she turned 18 (she was only 16 when Chris died), Vince made sure to contact her and let her know that she was to begin further training with Florida Championship Wrestling and as soon as she'd hung up the phone with him she began to pack her bags. She remembered the fight it caused with Lisa as well.
Lisa walked into Aiden's room and saw her daughter packing her things into a suitcase.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm going to Florida. I'll be living there and working for FCW." Aiden replied, not even bothering to look at her.
"I don't think so. We've talked about this and-"
Aiden cut her off. "No Mother, you talked about this and you decided that I wasn't going to wrestle. I talked about this with my family and friends and I've known this is what I wanted to do since I was a little girl. You never could accept that I would take after Dad instead of being the perfect little girl you wanted me to be. I hope you know that even though you kept us from seeing each other, every time the WWE came through, I was there. I went and watched him and then I would stay with him until he had to leave for the next show. We always stayed in touch, no matter what you choose to believe. He loved me, and nothing could have changed that."
Lisa saw red. "You ungrateful little…I cannot believe you would lie to your own mother for all of these years. After all I've done for you…"
"All you managed to do was teach me how not to raise a child. You kept me from my father and in doing so you made it nearly impossible for me to be comfortable here. I'm sorry Mom, but you brought this on yourself. I love you and I always will, but I'm doing this. If you can't accept that, then I'm sorry but I won't be able to stay in touch with you." it pained Aiden to have to say these things but she couldn't think of a better way to explain it all.
All Lisa could do was stand in the doorway and watch her daughter walk out of her life.
Aiden wiped her eyes, and checked her make up in the mirror before pushing open the door to the Diva's locker room.
All the chatter that had been going on before Aiden walked in ceased instantly and most of the eyes in the room turned to look at her.
"Oh my god…Aiden?" Aiden turned to see who'd spoken and a smile spread across her face.
"Hey Nattie."
Nattie Neidhart was one of Aiden's closest friends. The girl was nine when Aiden was born and despite the age gap the two were always close. The most common bond was the fact that both of their fathers were wrestlers.
Nattie crossed the space between the two and grabbed Aiden in a tight hug. "I missed you little sis."
"I missed you too Nat. You have no idea."
"Does this mean you're finally here? Like for good?" Nattie pulled back to ask.
"Yeah it does. Unless I get traded to SmackDown that is." Aided teased.
"Not even funny. I guess I should introduce everybody huh?"
"Might be nice Nattie." Aidan laughed.
"Alright, listen up everybody. It's my pleasure to introduce you to someone I like to think of as my little sister. This is Aiden Benoit." Nattie said loud enough for everyone to hear, and put her arm around Aiden's shoulders.
"Hi guys." Aiden said.
"It's nice to finally meet you Aiden, Nattie here talks about you all the time. I'm Eve."
Aiden smiled, happy that she wasn't going to be treated differently because of who her father was.
After about twenty minutes, Aiden had met Gail Kim, The Bella Twins, Melina, Alicia Fox and Maryse. All of them had been nothing but nice to her and she hated to say it but it shocked her seeing Maryse being nice.
"Well ladies, I've got to go with Teddy to the ring. I'll see you all later." Maryse spoke up.
"Wait, Teddy who?" Aiden asked.
"DiBiase." came the unanimous response.
"Oh geez, I have to put up with his ass again? Please tell me that I don't have to deal with Runnels too?" Aiden sighed.
"So you know Teddy?" Maryse laughed. "He's married now you know? And no, Cody is on SmackDown now."
"Theodore DiBiase is married? I never would've thought it. Well I'm glad he's happy then. I'll have to catch up with him later. It was nice to meet you Maryse, tell Ted that his pain in the ass is back for me would you?" Aiden grinned.
"Can do. Later girls." with that, Maryse exited the locker room.
"Alright, tonight is your debut chica, what does Vince have planned for you?" Nikki asked her.
"Well apart from you guys, nobody knows I'm here. Vince made me swear not to tell anyone, which is why I didn't even tell Nattie." Aiden started.
"So wait, none of your uncles know you're here?" Brie was curious.
"Not a one of them. Most of them will probably be angry but there was nothing I could do. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about what they have planned for me tonight but I guess we'll see how the crowd reacts. I know tonight is special." Aiden finished.
"I hate to bring up such a touchy subject, but I know today makes four years since Chris passed. Up until recently, it was pretty much against the law to talk about him, and I heard some of the guys talking about how tonight all of that was going to change. Do you know what they meant?" Melina had to find out what was going to happen.
"I honestly don't know exactly what's going on except for when I come into play. I hope you don't hold it against me for not telling you guys it's just…I feel like I need to keep this a surprise. I know something's planned with the Nexus 2.0 or whatever and I will tell you Punk isn't going to run his mouth." Aiden smirked. She had nothing against Phil, they actually got along quite well, but this whole heel thing was getting old.
The girls continued talking until there was a knock at the door and one of the crew members stuck their head inside the door. "Aiden, Boss Man wants to see you to run over some last minute things before you go out. And he said that Natalya can come along with you."
"Alright, thanks. I guess I'll be going girls. I'll see you after my debut." Aiden smiled genuinely at all of them. She knew that she could find real friends in these girls.
XXXXX
Nattie and Aiden easily found Vince's office for the night with no one spotting them which was for the best. She'd come all this way, she didn't need her cover blown now.
Aiden knocked and heard a muffled come in through the door. Both girls entered and when Vince looked up and saw who was standing before him, a smile crossed his face.
"Aiden, it's so good to see you again." the older man said, coming around his desk and pulling the girl into a hug.
"Same to you Vince."
He broke the hug and waved cheerily to Nattie who smiled back.
"Have a seat girls, we need to have a chat before Aiden's debut."
"What's the plan Boss Man?" Nattie asked.
"Well we have it planned that Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Hunter, and Dean Malenko are going to be standing in the ring when we come back from commercial break. Now King, and Cole are going to be confused as to why they're all out there, and all of them will be wearing Benoit shirts. Dean is going to start off talking about how none of them think that it's fair to not be able to talk about Chris anymore and before Rey gets his turn to speak, Nexus is going to come out and interrupt. Are you with me so far?" Vince asked, reaching behind him to grab a box of tissues to hand to Aiden and Nattie who both had tears in their eyes.
"We're with you. Go on." Aiden urged, not sure how much longer she was going to be able to handle this.
"Well Punk, is going to start talking trash about your father Aiden, and I want you to know that nothing he says comes from him."
Aiden nodded, "I know, Phil and I were pretty good friends back in FCW."
"Good, well he's going to start talking, then the rest of Nexus is going to agree, and it's going to turn into an impromptu wrestling match ordered by the Anonymous GM. A five on five tag match."
"Wait, you mean to tell me that Uncle Dean is going to wrestle? He hasn't wrestled in a few years." Aiden asked.
"His participation was his idea fully. I offered to let one of the other guys take his spot but he wouldn't back down." Vince assured her.
"Alright, then where do Nattie and I come into play here?" Aiden asked.
"Well during the match, Nexus is seemingly going to get the upper hand, then Chris's entrance music is going to hit, and you're going to run down to the ring, and hit the flying head butt on Mike McGillicutty." Vince explained.
"Yeah…wow I haven't seen him in a long time. This is going to be weird. It's my debut, yet I know all of the men in the ring." Aiden shook her head.
"Well your distraction is going to cause a disqualification, but it then turns into a battle royal. Nattie, this is when you run down to the ring as well. You're going to help Aiden here get out of being thrown from the ring, and this part of the match is completely up to you Aiden, alright?"
"What do you want me to do Vince?"
"You and Nattie are going to take down David Otunga and you're going to lock him in the Crossface. If you aren't okay with that, then Nattie can hook him in the Sharpshooter."
Aiden took a minute to think about it. "I'll do it. I know Dad would love if I took Raw by storm and kicked ass using his moves. So I'll do it. What happens after this?"
"Mason Ryan is going to pull you off of David and attempt to hit you but Randy is going to RKO him and Chris is going to pull you away, while Nattie gets 'saved' by Dean. How does this all sound to you two?" Vince asked.
Nattie reached over and grabbed Aiden's hand. "If little sis is ok with it then so am I. I just expect someone to tell DH and Tyson so they don't come out and ruin anything."
"I've already planned this out and the two will be in a meeting with me so they know nothing of what's going on." Vince replied.
"Alright then. What do you think Aiden?" Nattie asked.
"It's a lot to take in, but I've done both of those moves hundreds of times and I know we can pull it off Nattie. So Vince, this sounds good. Is there anything else you need me to do beforehand?"
"Try to keep your face as much out of sight as possible, it's going to make next Monday even more exciting. You go get ready with Nattie and we'll have somebody round you up when it's time to head to the ring."
Everything was now settled and the girls said goodbye to Vince before hurrying back to the Diva's locker room to get ready.
"Okay, I need to change into something appropriate for the ring." Aiden said as soon as the door closed behind them.
"You and me both. Let's do this. I swear I feel like we're getting ready for a match in FCW again." Nattie laughed.
"Me too Nat, me too."
Aiden changed into black tights with blue claw mark designs in them similar to the ones that Chris once wore, along with a black tank top and her black wrestling boots. She was finishing pulling on her pads when Nattie got her attention.
"What do ya think about the new ring gear?" she asked, doing a twirl.
"Sexy as always. What about me?" Aiden did a similar twirl and Nattie laughed.
"You always look good my dear. Now, what are you going to do with your hair?"
"Uhm…have it down? It's up to my shoulders now to it's not that much to deal with and hair pulling isn't legal remember?" Aiden teased.
"Alright, alright, I give up." Nattie shook her head. "You never change do you?"
"Nope, but that's why you love me." Aiden reminded her and pulled a brush through her dirty blonde hair.
"Yeah I do. Oh I just thought I should say, I love how we both have weird colors in our hair."
"I figured it was time to do something crazy with mine. I like it though, on both of us."
Nattie nodded and finished up her last minute things.
Another knock sounded on the door, and the same crew member stuck their head in again. "Vince says everything's about to start and he wants you to hear what's being said."
"Alright, thank you." Aiden stood and took one last look at her appearance before she and Nattie linked arms and followed the crew member.
There was a time when the two would tell everyone that together, they were invincible and they would be the greatest tag team ever. Maybe Aiden would have to bring this up to Nattie after the nights festivities had ended.
XXXXX
"The men here in this ring before you are here to remind all of you of a fallen wrestler who left us four years ago today." Dean Malenko began to address the crowd.
"Chris Benoit, The Rabid Wolverine, whatever you called him he was an amazing talent in the ring and a great guy outside of it. The five of us, we've decided that we aren't going to stand for not being able to talk about our friend anymore without worry of getting suspended. It's total bull, and it stops right here." Dean stopped speaking and motioned to Rey that it was his turn.
As Rey lifted the microphone towards his lips, CM Punk's music hit and out walked the five members of the new Nexus.
Punk waited for his music to stop playing before lifting his own microphone, sneering at the men in the ring.
"So you wanna talk about Chris Benoit huh? Hmm, I think that's funny. I don't see why anyone would want to talk about him. It wasn't as though he was any good in or out of the ring-"
Before Punk could continue, Chris Jericho stepped forward. "I seem to recall Stephanie McMahon saying that if Chris had faced you for the title, he would've won it."
"Ah, bringing that up. That's real cute Jericho. As I remember it, we won't know if that would've happened because…oh right, because he didn't show up that night." Punk smirked, along with the rest of his followers.
Rey let out a string of colorful words in Spanish and Randy Orton had to physically restrain him from leaping out of the ring at the Nexus.
Before things could carry out any further, the sound of the Anonymous General manager was heard throughout the arena.
"If I could have your attention please," Michael Cole started, as Jerry "The King" Lawler rolled his eyes. "I have just received an e-mail from the Anonymous Raw General Manager."
He walked over to the podium where the laptop sat, and settled his glasses onto his nose before opening the computer. "And I quote; 'Before this little showdown goes any further, I'm going to step in and have it finished where it needs to be settled. There is going to be a five on five tag team match between the Nexus, and Team Malenko. It's going to happen right now, and if Nexus loses, they must publicly apologize to Chris Benoit's family.'"
The Nexus of course protested saying that it was unfair, but Punk held up a hand and quietly spoke to them.
The five men in the ring pulled off their Chris Benoit shirts and tossed them out into the crowd, ready to beat Nexus within an inch of their lives. They stood in the corner, figuring out who would start out the match.
"I'll do it. They won't expect it from me, I haven't wrestled in a few years, and they'll think I've lost my touch." Dean decided.
"Alright man, just be careful." Hunter told him.
"I'm still wondering what the surprise towards the end of the match is gonna be." Randy said what everyone was thinking out loud.
"None of us know dude, and Nexus doesn't either, so let's hope it's going to work in our favor." Chris replied.
"Good enough for me." Rey was bouncing up and down slightly, getting ready for the match.
Nexus had made their way to the ring, and it was decided that David Otunga would start off against Dean.
"You sure you wanna do this old man?" David taunted.
"I'll make you wish you'd never been born kid." Dean growled as the bell rang.
The match started off in the favor of Team Malenko, but Nexus quickly turned the tables on them when the ref wasn't looking.
This went on for about ten minutes, Mason Ryan squaring up against Rey and keeping him in the ring for as long as he could. He had tried to pin the much smaller man several times to no avail, which only caused Punk to yell at him.
"If you can't get the job done, tag somebody else in!"
Mason glared at the self proclaimed leader of Nexus but did as he was ordered. He tagged in Mike McGillicutty and watched as he started to further beat Rey down.
This was not meant to be as entrance music hit that nobody had heard for four long years.
Everybody in and around the ring stopped in their tracks and stared up the ramp.
King and Cole were trying to explain to the people watching at home what exactly was going on but even this was a shock to them.
A girl came tearing down the ramp with a purpose and slid into the ring. She was sure Rey was out of the way before grabbing McGillicutty and forcing him down onto the canvas. She quickly scaled the ropes and hit her target with the flying head butt and grinned in satisfaction as he rolled out of the ring, obviously in pain.
The next person into the ring was Otunga and he charged at her for a clothesline but missed by a mile when she ducked easily under his outstretched arm. When he turned, she planted a boot into his chest, using all her body weight to make him tumble over the top rope.
Punk now walked into the ring, ignoring the protests from Harris, and Ryan and stood even with the girl.
"I don't know what you think you're doing out here interfering in a match like this, but you obviously don't know who runs this show. Now I suggest you get back to wherever you came from and we can forget that this ever happened." Punk pointed towards the ramp.
"You don't own this show, and you sure as hell don't tell me what to do." she shoved Punk hard, and when he was far enough back, she kicked him in the side of the head.
In all of the confusion, the bell had been rung, signaling a DQ but nobody was sure of what was going to happen now.
Husky, and Mason, along with David and Mike weren't sure exactly what to do. David took it upon himself to start towards her while Team Malenko busied themselves, rushing and taking out the other standing members of Nexus.
David was about to attempt to get the girl off her feet when he heard music he knew very well from the early days of Nexus. He should've expected something like this from the Hart Dynasty, but he was floored to see Natalya running for the ring.
'The hell is going on here' he thought to himself.
Natalya wasted no time in getting in the ring and helping the girl beat the crap out of David. Natalya hit him with a Russian leg sweep and sent him to the canvas on his back. She and the girl flipped him over and the girl applied the Crippler Crossface.
Within seconds, David was tapping out but he soon realized that it wasn't going to help him seeing as this wasn't an actual match and there were no rules.
He stayed locked into the submission hold for what felt like forever until he felt the girls hold release him.
Somehow, Mason Ryan had managed to slide into the ring and grab the girl up. He threw her into the ring post and went to swing on her, but before he could connect, Randy hit him with the RKO and the girl slid out of the ring before her face could be clearly seen.
Jericho had all but shoved Natalya out of the way before executing the Code Breaker on Otunga who couldn't seem to take the hint of give up.
Natalya grabbed the girls arm and raised her arm in victory before the two fled up the ramp and fled backstage.
XXXXX
As soon as Nattie and Aiden made it past the Gorilla position, both girls broke into a fit of giggles.
"My god that had to be the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of." Nattie smiled.
"Oh I think I may have made a slight impact on the WWE Universe tonight." Aiden looked up and sighed. "I love you Dad, I know you're watching, and I hope you're proud. I miss you."
Nattie just drew her friend into a hug. "He would have thrown a shit fit had Vince brought that whole thing up to him you know that right?"
"Yeah, but he knew how stubborn I am. He wouldn't have put up too much of a fight." Aiden grinned.
"This is true. So are you ready to face Team Malenko or would you like to get changed first?"
"No time like the present I guess. I just hope they aren't mad."
"Mad wouldn't quite be the word to describe it kid. More like confused…mostly confused. What the hell was that?" Dean asked from behind them.
Aiden slowly turned around. "Well Uncle Dean, that was my WWE debut. I think I did pretty well."
"Aiden Christine Benoit, how dare you not tell me you were going to be the one out there tonight?" Dean demanded.
"I was sworn to secrecy, and hello to you too, it's not like it hasn't been a few years or anything."
Dean picked her up and spun her around in a hug. "I'm sorry kiddo, I was just angry. I didn't know it was you at first, and then I was, oh hell, forget it. You did great tonight."
"I think we all have to agree on that one." Chris added.
"Aiden, you're taller than me now, this is not fair." Rey teased, going to give the girl a hug as well.
"I kinda couldn't help it Rey, I'm sorry." Aiden laughed.
She then hugged Chris, Hunter and Randy. "I am sorry I didn't tell you guys, I was just doing what Vince told me to do. Tonight's been in the works for about two months now."
"Understandable. So you're finally in the big leagues. I'm proud of ya sis." Randy laid a hand on her shoulder.
"I knew you would be. I'm so happy I made it. I never thought I would. Not with Lisa anyway." Aiden shook her head, and leaned against Randy's tall frame.
Randy always treated her as a sister, much like Nattie, and DH did.
"Here's the deal, you go get cleaned up, and then we have a standing date with the SmackDown! roster. You'll be going with and saying hi to everyone over there." Chris suggested.
"Who all's on the blue show now?" Aiden wondered aloud as they began walking back towards the locker room.
"Well, Edge and Christian, though they don't tag together anymore. Taker, Kane, Big Show-" Rey began to list.
"Uncle Paul…oh I hope he didn't see what I just did…he's gonna go all overprotective bear mode and I won't be allowed to leave his side for a month." Aiden groaned.
"That's all on you kid." Dean laughed, ruffling her hair.
"Ugh, ok who else?"
"Well, I am, I was only here tonight for obvious reasons," Rey continued. "Three of the guys from the original Nexus are over there now. Callin' themselves The Corre along with Ezekiel Jackson. Don't you watch SmackDown anymore chica?" Rey asked.
"I haven't really had time to lately. I always made a point to watch Raw because that was the show I was going to debut on but I've been so busy training and such, Friday's are pretty busy for me." Aiden explained.
"We've all been there. But now you're here and the little free time you have left is spent in hotels all over the place." Hunter laughed.
"It's something I remember from when I was little and I still actually got to spend time with Dad. I think I'll adjust ok." Aiden told them.
"Well we'll let you two get changed, and then you should meet us out back. Sound good?" Chris asked.
"Yeah we'll be there." Aiden gave a round of hugs and then waved goodbye before walking into the locker room with Nattie.
"I wonder how exactly Chris would be taking this if he was here today." Randy said.
"I don't know. I remember her 10th birthday, me and Eddie were talking to him about it and he seemed to not want it then. But he understood why she wanted to and when she did start wrestling he was so supportive of her. I think he'd be happy for her." Dean told him.
"All he wanted was for her to be happy and have everything she wanted. Now she has that. I can see him and Eddie freakin' out about it though." Rey laughed.
The guys continued talking amongst themselves while making their way to the locker room.