Chapter XXII: The Great Wall of China

Samia thought Monday night would never arrive. She had managed to get rid of Shawn for the weekend, pushing him back in Kevin's direction with subtle hints about them needing to make plans for this Monday and when she would drop the belt. However, the last two days were even slower. Her contact had called and everything was still on. He had found willing five guys, which made them seven strong. Well, six and a half with me, she derisively thought to herself.

At the arena, she was so nervous that she didn't think she would make it to the main event without vomiting. The guys had noticed too but had just chalked it up to her being paranoid about the hardcore belt, which was partially true. They seemed to have bought it and promised to stay with her every second of the night—that made it all better, she sarcastically thought.

After a meeting with Bischoff regarding the main event, Kevin came back into the dressing room shortly before time for his match. "The Undertaker's called for a no DQ match. I don't know what the idiot's thinking. New game plan. Shawn, Hunter, and Samia's coming with me. Big Show and X-Pac, you guys stay here and be prepared to come out if need be. Bring a chair." Her stomach did a flip when Kevin tugged at the waist of his red leather pants and said, "Let's go. Show time!"

Samia squeezed in the middle of them as they headed for the ring. Nobody would be stupid enough to attack her with them around but she was not about to take chances or give them any suspicions as to why she was hanging back. The run-down was the usual for her, the part was always the same—distract the ref on cue so the ref wouldn't interfere. What exactly am I here for? she asked herself, Absolutely nothing.

The Undertaker was already waiting for them in the ring. They took their usual place and the match commenced. This time she was waiting for another wrestler's cue.

The match went back and forth between the two with neither one of them dominating for long. Samia knew it had to be getting close to the end as both wrestlers flagged, so she leaned over to Shawn to whisper, "I'm going over."

"Good. It's time we end this match," he responded with a wink

"See ya later," she replied, smiling. Standing on the ring apron in the opposite corner, she locked eyes with the Undertaker. Nash had him staggering when he gave the signal. She was quickly up on the top turnbuckle and dropkicked Nash from behind. Taker had enough time to recover and was quickly fighting off Triple H and Shawn Michaels. She wrapped Nash's legs up for the Angel of Death, but he was too large to pull into the surfboard. She locked in hard and tried to put as much pressure on his legs as she could knowing his past knee injuries. She was about to drop his legs out of the lock when X-Pac clocked her from behind. X-Pac wasted no time in pouncing on her instead of helping the Big Show beat down the Undertaker.

The three of them didn't have time to take down the big man when Taker's back-up stampeded down the ramp. Rob Van Dam jerked X-Pac off Samia from where he was pounding her in the corner. Booker T, Goldust, and Bubba Ray Dudley took on the nWo, running them from the ring as Bradshaw and Undertaker worked Nash over. X-Pac was thrown out of the ring and Van Dam ran him halfway up the ramp. The Undertaker picked up Nash for a chokeslam, even though it wasn't necessary. The mat shook under Samia so hard she lost her balance trying to get up. As Taker pinned Nash, Bradshaw helped her up. She joined the Big Red Devil in the middle of the ring and raised his arm, the best she could, in victory. Van Dam joined him on the other side and Bradshaw on her side, arms raised together. The crowd went wild. Samia wanted to stay out there forever. Backstage was going to be a mess and she didn't want to have anything to do with it.

The nWo had taken refuge in their dressing room. Bubba Ray, Booker T, and Goldust now guarded the door. The quartet approached and the group shook hands and congratulated each other. When Nash slowly limped up, the sea of people parted to let him past because the damage had already been done. Taker pushed Samia behind him as Nash walked by, the defeated wrestler's head held high. He knocked on the door and shouted at Michaels. The heavy door then opened and Nash slid in. It shut but quickly opened again. The six men made a wall in front of Samia as a regrouped nWo filed out. X-Pac wasted no time in shouting obscenities at Samia. Shawn calmed him down and then spoke. "Samia, tell me why."

"She doesn't have to answer to you," the Undertaker growled.

"Stay out of this. It doesn't concern you," Triple H commented, returning the sneer.

"Looks like I'm into it up to my elbows," Taker replied, taking a step forward.

Samia quickly looked around and located a folding chair to stand on to answer Shawn since she couldn't see over the Great Wall of China.

"You want to know why? Take a good look at these guys." Interesting view. I wonder if this is how normal people look to Nash, she thought, her train of thought slightly derailing at the feeling of power on this end of the spectrum."These guys represent those you run all over. I refuse to be a part of that."

"You didn't have a problem with that when we got you the women's title and the hardcore belt," Nash shouted back.

"I was forced into the women's title. I am basically the David Arquette of both of these belts," Samia shot back and Nash rolled his eyes at that awful memory. "I thought I was using y'all but instead you were just using me. With or without me, you would have still steamrolled the people in this business. I just made it all too easy. I'm not waiting on y'all to dump me when I can walk out on you, especially you, Shawn. The nWo always does the leaving. This time, the nWo was left. I may be some insignificant person in your lives but this moment isn't. You got screwed!" she shouted.

That was enough to start another fight. Samia quickly hopped down from her chair and folded it back up for protection. When none of the nWo could get through the wall, they backed off but not without a warning. She set the chair back up for the satisfaction of watching the faction turn away first.

Climbing back up, she found Nash staring into her eyes, his own green-gold ones penetrating the depths of her soul. "You are not worth our time. As far as I'm concerned, you don't exist. On the other hand, the hardcore belt still does. The rest of you had better watch your back. Taker, I will be after you." The door slammed behind him.

"Guys, I don't want to be around when they leave. Can we get out of here?" Samia asked in a small voice. They all agreed and the Undertaker swung her down from the chair.

"Come with us," he said, beckoning her down the hall with him and Bradshaw. The other four guys had disappeared to their respective dressing rooms after another round of congratulations. She joined them, flanked by the two wrestlers. Bradshaw saw them back to Taker's dressing room and promised to be back shortly. Samia parked herself out of Taker's way and quietly waited. Once showered and changed, he promised her that he had something coming for her. When a knock sounded at the door, he pulled the door open to reveal Bradshaw holding her bag and her belts.

"How did you pull this off?" she exclaimed, taking them from him.

"I've got friends in high places," Taker answered. "And bad asses who aren't afraid of the nWo."

"You will never know how grateful I am to the both of you and the rest of the guys. I will never be able to repay you," she quietly stated, overcome with the way they had turned out.

"You can start by giving me a shot at the hardcore belt," Bradshaw replied, smiling.

"You can have it next week as far as I'm concerned," she said, returning his grin.

"Anyhow, the nWo's left, along with everybody else. They're waiting on us to shut down the place," Bradshaw stated and opened the door, gesturing for them to leave.

"Can I borrow a cell phone to call a taxi?" Samia asked apologetically after trying to use hers and finding the battery dead. "My ride has obviously left."

"How far do you live from here?" Bradshaw asked.

"Fifteen minutes this late at night."

"I'll take you," Undertaker said, digging for his keys to his rental car.

The both of them had little to say on the short trip. Samia couldn't find the best words to ask what she had wanted to know for months on end. When he pulled up in her apartment parking lot, she still hadn't figured out the right way to start, so she just jumped in. "Why did you agree to do this? Why help me?"

"The way you acted after you supposedly turned on RVD told me you didn't do it. When you would cringe any time somebody looked at you, I knew you couldn't have been the one to have done all that stuff that Benoit and Guerrero did. It wasn't right for them to beat up a woman and was even worse that they did it to get to Shawn Michaels. He's not worth it but I guess you know that now," he explained and she slightly rolled her eyes and looked away. "I was surprised when you joined up with them and a little disappointed but, when you stayed with me at the hospital, I knew you really weren't part of them. They controlled you and I knew you were going to eventually break free when I watched the tape from my match with Nash and you hesitated to interfere."

"I'm sorry I did that," she quietly apologized.

"I know. It's okay. You've made up for it."

Samia nodded in thought and he offered to take her things up. "I can handle it, really, I can. You've done enough for me tonight." The Undertaker could tell she needed to do this one simple act on her own and let her take her bags from him and start for the steps.

"Samia," he called and waited for her to stop. "Next Monday, why don't you meet me for some dinner and we'll go to the arena together? Somebody's still got to watch out for you until this whole thing dies down."

"That's too much. Really it is."

"It's no trouble. So?" he asked, refusing to move where he was leaned up against the car.

After a moment of thought, she replied, "Sure. I'll check in with you on Sunday." They nodded at each other and the Undertaker climbed into his car and sped off. He had cracked her up with his comment about Atlanta apparently not having rental motorcycles on demand. As his taillights faded in the dark, she headed up to her apartment.

Her bed was screaming her name but the flashing light on her answering machine caught her attention. Six messages were from friends. She didn't bother listening to those. X-Pac's R-rated call was immediately deleted. The last message was from Shawn.

"Angel, it's me. Sorry about that call from X-Pac." She really couldn't blame X-Pac for being mad. He was probably the smartest of all of them for not trusting her and that's not to mention that he was supposed to be handed the belt next week. "He's a little worked up. Come back, please. If you come back now, all will be forgiven. But it's your last chance." Last chance, my butt, she angrily thought. No one issues ultimatums to me, now more than ever, especially from you. "If I don't hear from you before next week, I don't plan on seeing you again. That what you want? I already miss you." Yeah, right, she angrily thought. "Call me at Kevin's." In your dreams. She deleted the message and immediately sought out her grandmother's warm patchwork quilt, caring little if Shawn really meant what he said on the message and what agenda he had by calling her. They would never take her back and she knew it.

TBC…