Chapter 19

Vince had vanished as soon as the show was over. Steph was in tears in her office with Hunter trying to explain his reasoning. Ceridwen was sat terrified in catering, not really saying anything to Dean, to Undertaker, or Roman and Seth. Once she knew it would be safe, she walked away from her friends and boyfriend, heading for the ring for some clarity. Dean had made to follow her, but Roman had just put a hand on his shoulder to let her go. She needed to think, to be alone.

As she reached the ring, she dropped her belt on the canvas and sat on one of the turnbuckles.

"This is getting ridiculous." She said aloud to herself. Payback was most definitely the scene for this match, she thought to herself. Although with Vince not stating it, and vanishing as soon as possible, she didn't know. The belt looked up at her from the floor. All this just to get her hands on it. Ceridwen dropped down from the turnbuckle and picked it up. Since she was five, she had wanted it. Now she had it. But what was the cost? She felt her eyes sting as tears began to form and she roughly wiped them with the back of her hand.

"All you've brought me is fucking trouble. Nothing at all but trouble." She said, before throwing it behind her and on to the canvas and slumping down to the ring floor. "I can't do this anymore."

"You sure about that, Feral?" asked a voice. She looked up to see, to her surprise, Brock Lesnar. "The way you've been handling yourself I'd say you were more than capable of going further."

"Vince send you to fuck me over too?" She asked, with a sniff and a quick wipe of her eyes.

"No. I came because after what happened tonight, I figured something was up. And well, as I said before, you might not ever forgive me for the whole taking the streak, but I think you at least respect me enough as a wrestler to shoot the shit a little and maybe get your head straight from someone not involved." He replied as he came down the walkway. He slipped inside the ring grabbed the belt and put it over her shoulder. Ceridwen nodded her acceptance.

"Not going to just take it from me?" She asked.

"Nah. After everything you've been through, after the whole run up to Mania and you not backing down, not even an inch? I respect you too much to just rip it from you like that. But if you wanted to spar, then I'm game." He said, leaning on the ropes next to her. He got a smile from her and laughed himself. "Seriously though, you really going for that Inferno match?"

"I am. I wasn't lying when I said it was my favorite kind of match. I just…I wasn't expecting it to be Hunter in there with me." Ceridwen said as the belt slid from her shoulder. She caught it and put it on the ring floor behind her.

"You figured Vince would go for Dean, cause the pair of you are seeing each other?" Brock asked. Ceridwen nodded.

"He was about to. Hunter just…jumped in. I am fucking screwed, Lesnar, absolutely fucking screwed. I can't beat Hunter and that's exactly what Vince wants." Ceridwen shook her head.

"Oh you absolutely can." He said with a smile.

"I can?" Lesnar took the belt from her and stepped back in to the ring. "Brock, what are you doing?"

"Wow, that's a first, Feral actually called me by my first name." He chuckled.

"Well, I am aware of what it is. What are you doing?" she asked, trying and failing to keep a laugh inside.

"Well, you promised me a match. But you're not really in a fit state to go after me properly right now, being twenty-four hours from Extreme Rules. But also, if you want an advantage over Hunter, you're going to need to face someone similar size. Clearly The Undertaker is no challenge for you. Roman will go too easy. So, option c…." He gestured to himself before setting the belt on the floor outside the ring.

"How do I know you're not just trying to take me out on Vince's orders?" Ceridwen asked as she took a wary step forwards and got in to a fighting stance.

"You weren't the only person he screwed over by getting Taker involved. I was looking forward to that match just as much as you were." Lesnar replied before getting in to his own fighting stance. "Now Feral, come at me."

When Ceridwen returned to the hotel that night it was to find Dean waiting for her in the foyer. The look on his face said he had things to say but he wasn't going to say them in front of everyone. He walked her up to their room and Ceridwen was surprised to be met with Hunter, Steph, Roman, Seth and Taker.

"Let me guess. Pull out, don't put myself through this, you're going to seriously injure me?" she said as she looked round the room at her friends.

"Something like that." Steph said, wiping her eyes.

"Vince was going to put you in a triple threat inferno match," Hunter said, his voice hollow. "I jumped in because well, I knew if he did, you were going to get seriously hurt. It was the only thing I could think of to do." He looked at Steph who just rested her head against his arm, tears leaking silently.

"I have every faith in you that you can do this." Undertaker said. "But what worries me, is what could be next. He knows you hero-worship me, to say the least. What else will he pull from my back catalog?"

"A casket match….a buried alive match." Ceridwen sunk down in to a nearby chair with realization. "And he knows I'd do the buried alive match too. Because, like you said, I hero worship you." She glanced up at Undertaker with a horrified look on her face. He nodded, before shaking his head and swearing.

"Hunter, I don't think you are the target of Vince's ire anymore." Seth said. Everyone in the room nodded or murmured agreement. It was fast becoming clear that as the person who had thwarted Vince's plans, Ceridwen was now the target. He was going to keep pushing her and pushing her until she broke or was permanently injured.

"I rang Dad…I tried to get him to see sense, he was going to ruin your career." Steph said as she wiped her eyes once more. "I don't think anything I said went in to his brain. I called Shane, I didn't know what else to do. He said he's going to see what he can do. See if there is any way…anything he can find, something. There has to be…be something." Muttering broke out among them as they discussed what they could actually do. If they could do anything.

"There is." Ceridwen said, making everyone look over at her. She pulled the belt from around her waste. "There is something I can do." Ceridwen had come to the realization that her own dream was the reason she had become Vince's target. A drunken night had allowed her to say the right things and get in Hunter's ear to get the right words said.

"What are you saying?" asked Taker, looking at her with a frown.

"I'm saying, I'm abdicating my title." There was a momentary lapse in talking, before voices called out in protest.

"But you can't!"

"No! I won't let you!"

"You mean to tell me that after everything we've put you through, every hellish match you're going to give up the title you've wanted since you were a kid?" Taker asked, standing.

"If you guys have a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it." Ceridwen said, wiping her own tears away. "Because right now, I don't even know what my next move should be."

At the arena for RAW the following week, the argument could be heard from all over backstage. No one wanted to even go near the door. Vince was quite clearly furious that his son in law had put himself in the match he'd intended. Hunter was furious that he would put Ceridwen's career on the line by putting her in such a match. Stephanie was furious with both her husband and her father, and the fact she now had a champion who was about to give up their belt rather than suffer any longer. Ceridwen was furious with the lot of them if she was honest, but was sat quietly in the corner wondering what the outcome was going to be. Was she still going to have to take part in the match? She wasn't lying when she said it was her favorite match. She kind of hoped she would get to do it, but she wasn't sure how Hunter was going to swing it so he could take part.

"How could you just put her in such a dangerous match like that?" Stephanie asked her father. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"She can handle it." Vince replied tersely, giving Ceridwen the impression that he was somewhat trapped by Hunter's decision to jump in as her opponent.

"I don't fucking doubt she can handle it!" Stephanie yelled at her father. "She's handled everything you've thrown at her with more grace, dignity and ability than you ever have! But what I don't understand is why you want to hurt her so goddamn badly? What has she ever done that she deserves to be put through everything she's been put through so far?" Ceridwen blinked in surprise, she had never even thought the woman capable of swearing.

"It's not about her, Steph. You think I'm going to let this place be run in to the ground?" Vince returned.

"Do you seriously, seriously think that after all this time, after all the years of my life I have devoted to this place, I would let it fall in to ruin? The hell is wrong with you?" Hunter exclaimed, insulted. "I love the WWE as much as I love Stephanie, if not even that little bit more! This place is everything to me! And you think I would let it fall apart like that?" The three watched as Vince looked from the face of Hunter to Stephanie. He shook his head, slumped down in to the chair behind the desk, and put his head in his hands. The other three looked at each other concerned with the abrupt change in the chairman's demeanour.

"No Hunter. No I don't. I can't do this anymore." He said, his voice barely audible. There was a deep sigh, before he looked up at Hunter, to Steph and finally to Ceridwen. "Would the three of you be agreeable to joining me for dinner Wednesday? And The Undertaker too?"

"Dad?" When he looked back at his daughter his eyes were watering.

"I think it's high time you all knew the truth."