The First Step Is the One You Believe In

At the beginning of the day Darcy had been told that she would appear on the steel cage and stare down at John Cena and she thought nothing of it. It wasn't until she stood at the edge of the ring and had to crane her neck to see the top of the structure that she realised how impossible that sounded.

"I can't climb as fast as you need me to climb," she stated firmly, turning to Ellis Edwards – the stunt coordinator – with a grim smile.

"Good thing we don't need you to climb," he said. "Are you familiar with Shawn Michaels' WrestleMania 22 entrance?

"That the one where he came down from the roof?" she asked. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jon pulled an impressed face. She was impressed with herself when Ellis nodded.

"We're going to use something similar to get you onto the cage as quickly as possible," Ellis told her, pointing at the rafters. "We'll also use it to get you back up."

Darcy nodded, looking up at the rafters. They told her to be ready in her dress within the hour so that they could do a run through and see if the length of the dress was going to interfere with the system at all.

She and Jon walked backstage and in search of her attire. She had seen concept art for it but was yet to see it in the flesh. When she had first seen the art her mind had instantly gone to a wedding dress – when she expressed the thought they were quick to tell her that Sister Abigail was meant to look pure. At that Darcy cringed and explained that pure wasn't something she had ever been.

"My job for the next however many weeks is literally to just wear a dress and be there." She smirked, "This is fucking great."

"They'll probably have you cut promos. You know that, right?"

Darcy sighed, "Yeah, I know. I guess I'll have to take full advantage of The Mirror and hopefully not be totally fucking shit."

Jon laughed at her. She had cut one promo at an NXT taping and it had been brief and to the point, simply telling Sasha Banks that it didn't matter how much of a 'Boss' she thought she was because Darcy wasn't going to be taken down by anyone wearing shutter shades.

Sandra was waiting for Darcy's arrival and upon seeing her, pointed to the dress that was hanging up by the wall. Darcy cocked her head to the side, looking it over. She was happy to see that it had been modernized ever-so-slightly and looking less like a wedding dress.

"I suppose I just have to bite the bullet, then."

Darcy stepped into the dress and stood still while Sandra pulled it up her body – Darcy couldn't be trusted to be gentle enough with the fabric. It was zipped up at the back and Darcy looked at the seamstress and her boyfriend.

"What's it like?"

"Look at that, she looks like a girl," Sandra joked, even if it was in a deadpan, and Darcy grunted.

"I'm supposed to be able to walk in this?" She asked, taking a few steps forward and almost tripping on the bottom of the dress.

"You'll get used to it," Sandra said. "Just kick the dress out from underneath you as you walk. How does she look?"

Sandra had turned to Jon who was trying to bite back laughs as he watched his wife stare at the ground as she kicked the dress and walked around.

"Not like Darcy."

"And she hasn't even gone to hair and make-up."

From not too far away, Darcy groaned dramatically. She knew that getting her hair down meant having extensions added to her hair, something she hadn't even thought about since she stopped cheerleading: it was why she had been told to grow her hair out. She also knew that make-up meant taking out all of her visible piercings: nose ring, lip ring, tragus piercing, industrial bar and both sets in her ear lobes. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken all of them out and she wasn't looking forward to it. They had become so much a part of her identity that, after all.

Darcy met back up with Jon, after having sent him away while she got her hair and make-up done, and Ellis and frowned when both of them gawked at her.

"Yes, I am wearing make-up. Yes, I have long hair. Yes, I know that I do not look like me you do not have to tell me."

Jon held his hands up and said that he wasn't going to say anything but she knew him better than that. Ellis smiled at her and told her that she looked beautiful to which Darcy snorted, thus shattering the illusion.

"So," Ellis started when they were standing in the rafters directly above the ring and steel cage, "the first question that I have to ask is: are you afraid of heights?"

"No," she shook her head. Immediately she reached her and up to her mouth to pull hair out of her lip gloss. "I'm afraid of planes, though, that's a new development."

"You're afraid of planes?" Jon asked, looking down at her in surprise. "Since when?"

"I guess since I stopped smoking? It doesn't help that I'm still going through withdrawal."

"Good for you, quitting smoking," Ellis said encouragingly. "But right now we need to sort out your debut so you do need to have that conversation a little late."

Jon pulled a face at Darcy, pretending that he was frightened by being scolded by the stunt co-ordinator. She turned her back on him so that she wouldn't laugh.

Ellis pulled the harness towards her and asked her to step onto it – not sit in it, just step onto it – and hold onto the cable tightly. He assured her that the people down around the ring were there to catch her if anything went wrong – which it wouldn't, he said adamantly – before signalling for the harness to be let down. Darcy stepped off the rafter without hesitation, looking down so that she knew where she was going and when she had to step onto the steel cage.

"Good job, Darcy!" Ellis called down to her as she sat on the edge of the cage and the harness was pulled out of sight. "We're going to bring you back up, okay?"

She knew that it was going to be a lot different when they turned out the arena lights, but Darcy was having a great time being pulled up into the sky by the harness. If she got to do something like that every week she would make no complaints about her appearance.

-Live On Raw-

A familiar distorted combination of sounds, alongside the disturbing flash sequence of graphics played and the lights went out, causing a murmur of uncertainty to pass through the crowd. It was far from unusual when The Wyatt Family were involved but no one ever knew what to expect when the lights came back on.

Light hadn't even returned to the arena when a child could be heard singing "He's got the whole world in his hands", only to be joined by even more children. It was revealed to be a children's choir, serenading John Cena who was standing in the centre of the ring surrounded by a steel cage. He – and everyone watching on – was growing more confused by the minute.

The sound played again and Bray Wyatt's voice came over the microphone. He was singing. He began to instruct the children's choir on what to sing as the lights turned back on and they started to walk down the ramp and surround the ring.

The singing ended – whether for good or just for the moment no one knew – and the lights were gone again. The only thing being lit up was Bray Wyatt, who was rocking back and forth in his chair with his lantern held beside his face. When he blew it out the lights returned and the children in the choir were all wearing sheep masks identical to Erick Rowan's.

John Cena did not know what to do so he closed his eyes and covered his mouth with his hand. He was disturbed at what Bray had done – he'd convinced an entire children's choir to sing his songs.

Bray Wyatt started laughing maniacally, a small child in a sheep mask sitting on his lap. It only added to the eeriness of the situation.

"I got you little John!" Bray exclaimed manically.

John was shaking his head vehemently, trying to get the image out of his head almost as if it was all a bad dream. Trying was pointless, everything around him was actually happening and there was no way to remove it from his memory. He looked up in exasperation and nearly fell backwards. Sitting on the edge of the cage, seemingly having appeared out of thin air, was a young blonde woman wearing a floor-length, full-sleeved white dress. Bray wasn't even acknowledging her presence which only made John question whether she was even there or if he had actually gone crazy.

Almost as soon as he had seen her, the lights went out again and when they flashed back on she was nowhere to be seen.

-Off Air-

It was a good feeling. Even if she hadn't done anything spectacular, being in front of so many people as a character who was going to hold a lot of importance made Darcy feel good. What made her feel even better was that John Cena had told her he was looking forward to working with her. It was probably just something he said to be polite but she was still working alongside the face of the company, something not many Divas could say they had done. Especially not in their debut story arc.