At the sound of Megadeth's heavy, tough guitar riffs that the whole crowd had come to know and love so quickly, cheers and applause filled the arena. It was only seconds later that a familiar brunette, blue-eyed knockout emerged on the ramp, dressed in her bloody white tank top and Tripp pants that were cut off into khakis, which showed her black and red checkerboard lace-up boots. Striped white and black armbands adorned her elbows down to her hands as she raised her arms in the air. But something was different- around her neck was something that had never been there before. It appeared to be a chain necklace with a small scorpion inside the glass pendant. Still, she allowed herself to smile like her old self.

When all along the road,

All the bodies left behind.

May all have been good friends,

Just not good friends of mine.

"This bout is set for one-fall, and it is for the TNA Knockout's Championship! Approaching the ring first, from Green Bay, Wisconsin- Lee Aiden!"

Lee's smile soon changed into a smirk as she ran down the ramp, slapping the hands of fans behind the guard rails before she made her way into the ring, sliding under the bottom rope. Climbing on the turnbuckle and showing respect to the crowd, they cheered even louder for her as she blew a few kisses to them. But the moment quickly ended when her music was replaced with Madison's.

The strange thing was, her opponent didn't look as confident as usual. She was walking slowly toward the ring, staring straight ahead. It was very unlike her, but it didn't phase Lee one bit.

That's right, Madison. she thought, locking eyes with the other Knockout. Take your sweet time coming down that ramp. Either way, that title of yours will be mine.

It took nearly thirty seconds for Madison to make her way into the ring before the opening bell rang. Immediately, Lee backed up into the ropes before hitting Madison with a drop-kick to the face. Giving her no time to react, she grabbed her by the hair and quickly delivered a backbreaker to stun her before landing an elbow drop shortly after. One thing was for sure, if Madison thought she had it bad two weeks ago against Lee, then tonight's match was going to give her hell.

Several minutes later, the match was, for the most part, still in Lee's control. After nailing a Headcrusher, she started to climb up to the top rope to finish her for real this time with a Chaos Theory.

"This time, you're done." she muttered, before executing the finisher perfectly, knocking Madison to the floor. With that, she rushed toward the fallen brunette and went for the pin. Her heart began to beat faster and faster at the sound of the count.

"1..." her shoulders remained on the ground. "…2..." she didn't move an inch. "…3!"Shocked and ecstatic beyond belief, Lee rolled off of Madison with wide eyes and an ever wider smile. She had done it- she'd finally beaten her fair and square. And along with that, earned one of the greatest prizes ever- she had taken away her Championship.

"The winner of this match, and new TNA Knockout's Champion… Lee Aiden!"

The white accented belt was handed to her by the referee, and at first, she could only stare at the reward in her hands. After a few seconds, though, it hit her. She then proceeded to run to the turnbuckle and stand on the top, raising her hands- and her new title- into the air, much to the delight of not only her, but to all of the screaming crowd in the sold-out arena.


"You did it! I can't believe you did it!" I was nearly hugged to death by Shayne and Olivia when they saw my newly acquired Knockout's Champion title slung over my shoulder. Well, they also nearly knocked it off because of them squeezing the life out of me.

"Guys, guys! Take it easy, I'm bruised enough as it is from that match." I laughed, brushing myself off after they had eventually let go. But as I was readjusting the title, their eyes diverted from said belt to the object adorning my neck.

Almost hesitantly, Olivia pointed. "Hey Lee, what's that?"

"Hmm? What's… what?" I responded to her question with one of my own, blinking once and tying my hair up in a ponytail to keep it out of my face.

"That necklace. I've never seen it before…" I soon realized what she was talking about, looking down and taking the pendant portion of the chain in my hands.

"Oh, this? It's a good-luck charm. Sting gave it to me." Unknowingly, a blush made its way onto my face. The two must not have seen it, or knew about my past encounters with The Icon, so they simply took it as a friendly gesture.

"Sting, huh?" Shayne pondered, "That's pretty cool for him to do that." she stepped closer to get a glance at the tiny scorpion inside. I nodded, letting the pendant slip out of my fingers so I could adjust my tank top.

"I'll say. It definitely helped, that's for sure." I chuckled, patting the belt for emphasis. After speaking for a few more minutes, the girls and I went our separate ways. Well, they just walked to their locker rooms and left me alone in mine. Afterwards, I sat down on a chair in front of the mirror and stared at my reflection like I had done not so long ago this same night. Some time passed, and I began to hear footsteps walk into my room. I thought it was either Olivia, Shayne, Angelina, or Velvet, but a white-painted face in the mirror proved me wrong.

"I see we have a new Knockout's Champion," his voice played a smile, "the gift I gave you must've helped."

I didn't even need to turn around to speak to him. "You have no idea." Eventually, though, I stood up from the chair and faced him directly. Once more, those deep brown eyes of his locked with mine and I nearly lost my train of thought. Damn those eyes. They put me under a spell every time, yet they were the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen…

I finally saw that smile appear on his face. Oh, his smile. It was absolutely breathtaking. "You're one of a kind, Lee. I knew there was a reason I had so much faith in you."

My eyes widened at those words as I could only stare at him, my smile turning into an expression of surprise. He chuckled at my changed face, then stepped closer. Like I had grown so used to over the past weeks, he reached out to touch my face, his hand pressed softly against my cheek, fingers brushing against my skin and lightly caressing. The look on my face barely changed as my eyes never left his face. Even when it was painted in white and decorated with the black and red accents, he still made my heart beat faster. And I still didn't know why.

"But why me?" I finally spoke, in little more than a whisper. "Why believe in me? There's others more deserving of this title…" I let the belt slip from my grasp, but Sting caught it with his free hand and placed it back on my shoulder.

"Because," he whispered back just as quietly, his other hand then reaching behind me to place itself on the small of my back and pull me oh-so closer to him. The hand on my face moved to my hair, his fingers running through it gently. "There's something different about you. Something I've grown to like… a lot."

I swallowed the lump in my throat while my heart nearly burst out of my chest. Instinctively, our breaths mingled due to the fact our faces were close enough to touch. And oh lord, this was pure torture. Pure, amazing, enticing torture. Eventually, I found the courage to wrap my arms around his mid-back. Slowly, our foreheads touched. Then, our noses. His lips were only inches from mine… centimeters… millimeters… right about to touch.

Oh my god.. Was he actually… going to… kiss me?

A scream interrupted the moment between us, causing me to yank my face away abruptly, and of course, I had to try my best to hide my obvious reluctance to do so. I heard another identical scream again seconds later. Wait… I recognized that scream. It was Velvet Sky!

I forced myself to look at Sting, my face showing concern and worry. "I-I have to go. That was Velvet. I think she might be in trouble."

He nodded, brushing a strand of hair out of my face. "Then go. She needs you." Before I left, I found myself, once more, being brought into an embrace by The Icon that made my heart soar before he released me and allowed me to go.

Dammit, Velvet. You just ruined the once chance I had with the man I…

No, no, no! Do not say that! You don't feel that strongly about him yet! My mind screamed to me in a desperate attempt to make me focus. My hands reached up to clutch my head to ease the headache that began to grow.

What did I feel for Sting? And why did it continue to haunt me like this?

Did I… love him?


The door to Velvet Sky's locker room was all but nearly thrown off its hinges as the brunette form of Lee rushed through and found the streaked blonde-haired Knockout lying limp on the floor.

"Velvet? You okay?" she questioned, lightly shaking the girl awake. Slowly, she began to stir, and found the strength to sit up, turning to face the brunette.

"Lee… you are not going to believe what just happened." she spoke, tucking some hair behind her ear as said female helped her up.

The Knockout's Champion stared at Velvet as if she had grown a second head. "I've had a lot of crazy things happen over the past few weeks. At this point, I'll believe anything anyone says."

The streaked blonde inhaled slowly, biting her lip before responding. "Okay, then… you know how you found me like this on the ground some seconds ago?" Lee nodded, signaling her to continue. She hesitated, but soon opened her mouth once more. "…Angelina did this."

It took every ounce of Lee's being to prevent her jaw dropping to the floor. She knew that something had been wrong with Angelina the last couple showings of Impact, but never in the world would she think the girl would turn on her best friend. "Wh-why would she do that?"

Velvet shook her head, tears threatening to fall. "I honestly don't know…" she soon started to cry softly, Lee bringing her blonde friend into a hug and letting her cry into her shoulder.

After some minutes of letting go, Velvet then looked up at the brunette. Only her expression had changed drastically. She was no longer sad, upset, or anything similar to that.

She was royally pissed off.

"But I do know who did this to her."

Lee placed her hands on the other Knockout's shoulders, staring her straight in the eyes. "Tell me. I'll find them and make sure they learn a valuable lesson- to never, ever mess with my friends."

When the name left the blonde's lips, the Knockout's Champion scrambled up from the floor and kicked the door back open, running down the hall. Velvet's cries fell on deaf ears as the brunette kept running, only to collapse in a heap on the floor. Her facial expression was mixed with anger and pure hatred. Just like she had done several times before, she let out a scream of rage, the shot to her feet and punched the wall so hard, it actually formed a hole where her fist had been. Slowly bringing her bruised, white-knuckled hand into her line of vision, she let her hair fall in front of her face as she whispered the name of the one who was now number one on her "To-Do List" through gritted teeth. Her eyes were set to kill.

"Damn you…Winter."