The moment of truth was upon her, the undercard matches have finished. Edgar and Raven won their tag match, an accomplishment to sure to give them a head of steam heading into the Royale. Except Raven wasn't too happy. Holding a piece of paper with two words written on it, Raven stares at it as if it's a long essay, or that her unflinching gaze would somehow change the print.
Bailey has been ready since her previous match ended. The anticipation killed her, rivaling the pregame jitters. Raven kicks the locker, waking Bailey up from her catnap. "Huh?!" Bailey falls off the thin bench, looking up to see Raven noticeably distraught. "Rae? What happened?"
Too frustrated to explain, Raven merely hands the piece of paper to Bailey.
"Oh." Bailey becoming just as crestfallen as Raven.
"Last year I've entered at number five, this year I'm two!" She rips the paper into little pieces, tossing the shreds in the air fluttering down on to Bailey's hair. Raven clasps her face into her palms, appearing to tear up. Bailey scoots over, draping her arm around Raven.
"I'll have your back out there." Bailey promises. Raven snorts before responding. "What if we're the last two in the ring?" Bailey smiles. "Well, you're going over the top rope, sister."
They walk to the ring together, arm to arm. Bailey massaging Raven's shoulders, hyping her up for the crowd. Raven slowly felt her confidence grow. Having her friend to assist her meant a lot. Though the fans weren't very receptive. No music follows them out to the ring, but they could have cared less. This was their chance at glory and they were going to seize it.
"You ready?" Bailey asks. Raven nods.
"As I'll ever be."
The ticker above the entrance went to double zero, their first challenge walks out, struggle bat in hand, his right eye twitching. "Dude looks deranged." Bailey observes.
"Yeah... You want him?"
"Oh, yeah!" Bailey wasn't intimidated. The moment he went through the ropes she went for the clothesline, he ducks and her gravity nearly sends her tumbling down, luckily she is able to control her gravity and remain on the apron, grabbing him by the back of the neck and bouncing him off the ropes for Raven to clobbering him to the canvass for the one, two and the three. So far, so good.
Raven slowly approaches Bailey still on the apron, they stare at each other for a moment before she offers a hand to help her friend get back inside the ring. "You having fun?" Raven asks.
"Couldn't think of anything better."
The two work in perfect tandem, saving one another from elimination and helping the other when they were corned. They made it all the way to the home stretch. Only four entrants have yet to come out. Bailey and Raven laid perched on the ring posts, unable to stand under their own power, drenched in sweat.
Two more combatants entered the ring, going to town on the exhausted entrants. One of them was Zayn and he made a beeline for Bailey, the other for Raven. They refused to leave their respective corners, holding on for dear life. It appeared reinforcements had arrived in the nick of time. Edgar came rushing to the ring, sliding under the ropes and got the burley gent off of Raven and proceeded to wail on him, before tossing him over the top rope. He went to do the same for Bailey, but the having been recognized, Edgar was thrown backwards
Then, the sound the two women dreaded, but absolutely drove the fans bonkers blared through the speakers. "Here comes number 30!" The announcer grew excited. "Hicks wants the title, luckily only four combatants stand in his way." Hicks was fresh as a daisy, and Bailey knew it.
Edgar tried to cut Hicks off, but was met with a severe knock to the cranium from the nerf bat and thrown over. "There goes Edgar!"
Meanwhile, Bailey was about to be tossed over the top of the ring post, Raven flew in the last second with a chop block allowing Bailey to remain in the contest. Hicks blindsides her with a kick to the face, before swiftly throwing her over the top rope.
Bailey and Zayn fought in the center of the ring, Hicks getting a good view of the show. He takes a hard swing for her head, she ducks, hooking her arms around Zayn's neck to perform a picture perfect DDT near the ring apron. Finding her second wind, Bailey kips-up, feeling the adrenaline flow through her. Hicks jumps her and goes for the clothesline, she tumbles over, holding on to the top rope with every ounce of strength she had left. Believing she was eliminated, Hicks went to work on Zayn. Bailey took care of the hard part, all he had to do was pick his dazed body off the canvass and toss him over. While in the process of doing that, Bailey rushes over and tosses them both over, before frantically crotch chopping to gloat getting her revenge on Hicks for earlier, and then tumbling down to the floor.
It didn't seem real, until her music played. Despite the unexpectedness of her win, the crowd accepted Bailey and gave her a standing ovation. On the outside, Hicks was irate, appearing to demand a rematch. Raven slides into the ring and challenges Hicks to step back inside. Deciding it wasn't worth it, he slinks back to the dressing room while the two girls celebrate. Bailey hugs Raven tight, still unable to stand.
"You did it, Bailey, you did it!" She says more than once. "You're the champion!"
"We're champs, Rae." Bailey corrects her, flashing a tired smile.