Thanks for reading the latest update and I apologise for the delay! My writers luck decided to desert me. Enjoy the latest chapter! Zelkina xx
Getting to the arena the next day, her thoughts from the previous night plagued her. She realised before she had drifted off to sleep last night, that the intention had been for her to get drafted in to the Rumble in Dolph's place all along. And being in the Rumble...at that place in time, at that moment, the size of the men she would have been fighting with would have ensured she could have been incredibly hurt. If they hadn't been good friends with her and ensured minimal harm came to her while she was in there. So distracted by the thought that this had been the intention all along, she walked headlong in to Hunter as she headed in to the arena. Tama fell back and ended up on her backside, before looking up at her boss.
"Everything ok, Feral? I've not seen you this distracted for a long time."
"Sorry Boss, wasn't looking where I was going," She apologised as he helped her up.
"I need to talk to you about last night, so I'm kinda glad I bumped in to you...or rather, you in to me." He said as he let go, and Tama brushed herself off.
"Good. Because I actualy really, really need to talk to you." She said.
They were now sat in his office. Tama had a cup of tea in front of her and Hunter had a coffee as they discussed the issue.
"So you're saying getting you in to the Rumble last night was on purpose?" Hunter asked, holding his mug halfway to his mouth. Tama nodded, sipping at her cup before continuing.
"Yeah. Think about it. Who was in there with me?"
"Well, before you got chucked out? Me, Roman, um, Bray, Sheamus, Chris and Dean." He said, counting on his fingers to make sure he didn't miss anyone.
"Exactly. You, Roman and Bray alone are built like a brick shit house. Sheamus isn't far behind. Dean and Chris might not be your size, but they can sure as hell do some damage. Imagine if, for whatever reason, none of you were friends with me. Imagine, let's say, that it got down to me, you and Roman in there. You two would want me out of the way, right? Too much of a risk to ignore me and focus on each other."
"True. Leaving you in would just leave you a chance to take the win. We'd want you out...and we'd have to kick the crap out of you to do it." He said, setting down his mug.
"Exactly. It gets their dirty work done for them under the public eye. You'd decimate me." Tama replied. "But I'm not sitting on the sidelines, H. I refuse to."
"I don't think we even have that as an option, to be honest." He said, before typing something in to the laptop in front of him, and turning it to face her. "Go on, read it."
Tama frowned, and pulled it closer to look at the screen. It was a highly regarded sports website, and it was talking about her. It was doing everything short of proclaiming her god.
"What's going on?" she asked confused. For a reply, Hunter told her to click on the next tab. Again, a well known site, and again the accolades were being poured upon her. Five more tabs later and Tama looked at Hunter, red faced and honestly, embarrassed.
"You seem to have caught everyone's eye. Everyone is expecting you to start fighting the guys now, which is what we were building up to when you were injured. But it's going to have to be done sooner than we wanted, if I'm honest. Not that you aren't ready, it's just sooner than we were happy with."
"You think that maybe the person responsible was planning to get me hurt, or noticed failing that? Cause lets face it..if that's what you were working towards...oh crap." Tama felt the blood drain from her face. She saw the same happen with Hunter.
"The intention was to get you to take over Dolph's storyline. To get you noticed enough last night, or him injured enough, that you were the obvious choice to take over. Which means it has to be someone on the inside, or with inside connections."
"But how do we even begin to deal with something like that?" Tama asked, hands spread in front of her.
"I have no idea..." Hunter began as the door knocked, and then opened. It was Dolph.
"Hey Boss." He said with a smile, the smallest bit of a limp visible as he came in.
"How's the ankle?"
"Not as bad as first thought. Doc Amaan wants me to sit out tonight, but I should be good to go next week." He said, sitting in to the chair next to Tama. "Which means someone needs to fill in for me." He put his hand on Tama's shoulder, and raise an eyebrow at Hunter. Hunter chuckled as Tama frowned, and then shook her head. She had no intention of being part of someone elses storyline if she could help it.
But the next thing she knew, she and Dolph were filming a segment backstage for the arena audience.
"Hey, thanks for taking my spot last night in the Rumble...I know you didn't really want to." Dolph said, leaning on a wall, and making it more than obvious that he was hurt.
"That's what friends are for," Tama smiled.
"I'm glad you said that, because I kinda need another favour. Doc said I'm not cleared to fight tonight. So, someone needs to take my place. Could you, I dunno, maybe do that for me?" He asked. Tama smiled and nodded her head excitedly, knowing full well inside she felt anything but.
"Of course I can, I'll go get myself sorted," she said, before starting to walk away, then paused and went back as Dolph began to walk off. "Umm...who am I fighting?"
"Oh it's only Kevin Owens. You'll be fine!" Dolph replied, clapping her on the shoulder and walking off as she looked at his retreating back, horror struck. Not Kevin Owens, she said internally as the cameras went to somewhere else, and she was left alone. They had history, she and Kevin, and she hated the man. Almost as much as Lesnar, perhaps they were even level.
Tama walked towards the backstage area. Her fight was two matches away, and she had all intentions of finding a place to gather her thoughts and warm up in peace. Except that wasn't going to happen, as Kevin Owens bumped in to her, quite literally.
"Ah sorry, didn't see you there," He said with a smirk as Tama scowled at him.
"Of course you didn't." Tama retorted, scowling at the man.
"I hear you're taking Dolph's place tonight. Sucks to be you." He gave her a smirk once again, and Tama gave him back a level stare with a knowing smile of her own.
"I beat you before, Owens. I'll do it again. And it will be in front of the world this time. Or did we forget that now we made it to the lofty heights of the WWE?" she asked as the man scowled, his confident stance took on one of annoyance and anger as he straightened up. "See you in the ring." She added as a parting shot, before walking away, memories from her meeting him backstage at a ring of Honour show surfacing in her mind. She made a conscious effort to drag them once again back to the depths of her memories, and focus on what she had to do.
It had been many, many years since she faced Kevin Owens, and he had no doubt forgotten their little tussle at Ring of Honours backstage. Tama, however had not. He had insulted her, she had bruised his ego, and they had settled it with the current champion losing to someone who hadn't even been a Ring of Honor member. And now, as she walked down to the ring and waited for him, she found herself wondering if he would act as rash and stupidly confident as he did back then.
Backstage, as the match began, Dolph was talking to Hunter. The CCTV had shown someone with their face and hands covered, barely able to make out the slither of skin around their eyes. But as quickly as the person had arrived, they had disappeared.
"Whoever it is, they do really have it in for Tama, don't they?" Dolph asked.
"They do." Hunter nodded. "I don't understand why, however. There's a past issue with Lesnar, but he's hardly ever here, so unless he's got someone on the inside here, it can't be him. I mean, who could have an issue with her?" Hunter spread his hands before him as in the ring Tama was superplexed to the canvas floor. He cringed as she rolled away, but was grabbed and put in a pin, kicking out on one.
"Well, I know she and Kevin don't get along. But he was in NXT when all this crap started." Dolph put a closed fist to his mouth, propping it with his other arm while thinking.
"Kevin has issued with 90% of the roster, to be honest. He's still got a chip about being so slow to get offered a contract." Hunter said with a snort of laughter as Kevin found himself on the receiving end of a superkick. "What about Curtis Axel?"
"Not that I know of." Dolph put a hand on Hunters shoulder as Tama made an attempt at a pin. "Tell you what. She's good with Roman, Dean and Seth right? Let me chat to them, let me see if they might have an idea." He clapped his hand on Hunters shoulder, who nodded as if to say it would be a good idea, and then he went off. Hunter returned his gaze to the monitor where he watched the match play out its last minutes. It had to be someone here, someone who knew the roster, and had access to storyline knowledge Hunter decided. And if it wasn't Brock, who was the most obvious choice, who was it?
Dean stood waiting for her in medical that night as she sheepishly cleaned herself up after getting the all clear from Doc Amaan.
"Well, that was fun to watch." He said with an arched eyebrow.
"Not half as fun as it was to do." She said with a grin. Dean rolled his eyes so hard Tama thought they'd get stuck in the back of his head.
"Between yourself, and whoever it is that's after you, you're gonna get yourself killed. You're mental, agreeing to take on Owens for Dolph like that." Dean admonished as Tama finally finished sorting herself out, bid the doc goodbye and they walked off.
"He can kiss my ass…again. I'm not worried about him."
"Who, the person trying to do you in, or Owens?" Tama tilted her head to the side thinking for a moment.
"Both."
"They're trying to kill you, for want of a better description." Dean said with a frown. "Getting you in to the Rumble like that…it's like trying to get others to do your dirty work."
"I know…makes me think it's one of those guys who've got no chance against me in the ring, like you maybe," She said, with a cheeky smile, getting an elbow in the ribs as a result. "But seriously, I know, this shit is dangerous. I know it. But till I have proof of who it is, what can I do?"
As Fast Lane drew near, Tama found herself constantly on alert. She began to be set against lower card guys, helping to earn her reputation as a tough fighter. A week before Fast Lane, she found herself locked in a cupboard near the girls locker room. Someone had approached her from behind, put her in some kind of sleeper or choke hold, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a cupboard. Rattling the door did no good, as it was locked. She tried to force the handle down, but it was clear something was jammed. As she tried to shoulder the door, the sound of a phone ringing reached her ears. She dug it out and was relieved to see it was Hunter.
"Tama! Where the hell are you? Show starts in an hour, you're second match and we can't find you anywhere!" he asked.
"I think I'm still in the building…I don't know, I'm locked in a cupboard." She said with relief.
"What?"
"Someone choked me out, next thing I knew I was waking up in here. Doors jammed, and it's pretty hefty, I can't shoulder it down." She said, shaking the door again, and then giving it a kick for good measure. The sound of Hunter swearing came down the phone and Tama found herself smiling. She had a few choice words of her own.
"Don't worry, Tam, we'll find you and get you outta there. Hold tight. Someone get me someone who knows this building!" He yelled as he put down the phone. Tama used her phone light to look around at her makeshift cell, and found a light switch. Pulling it, she found she was in the storage cupboard for the vendors. Boxes of snack foods lined the walls, a trolley sat towards the back. No tools in there what so ever. Tama realised she was going to be a while.
When they found her and opened the door, her fight was half an hour away. Tama looked up to find AJ Styles, red faced and out of breath, as the door opened.
"God damn it girl, you've had the whole roster looking for you. Who the fuck wants to take you out of the game this badly?" He asked, extending a hand and pulling her to her feet.
"If only I knew, AJ. If only I knew." She replied.
"Come on, let's get you to backstage asap, your fight is soon!" He said, but not before someone ran past, shoved him in to Tama, and shut the door on them. AJ disentangled himself from Tama, and put his shoulder to the door, and rattled the handle.
"Damn it!" AJ cursed. Tama sighed, and sat down next to one of the buckets of popcorn she had opened, not knowing how long she would be.
"Popcorn?" She offered, figuring they would be a while before being rescued.
Luckily, Big Show and Kane weren't far behind AJ, and had heard the slamming of a door and footsteps running off. They set the pair free, and Tama made it to her fight on time, before spending the remainder of the evening being teased about doing things in the closet with AJ Styles. Hunter, after cracking a joke or two himself, asked her what she'd seen.
"Nothing. Same masked offender, it happened too quickly to get a look at his face." She said with a sigh. "And besides, If I was going to be locked in a cupboard there are other members of the roster I'd have preferred to AJ Styles."
"I can't rewind time and bring back the Attitude Era version of me, or The American Badass, no matter how much you'd like that." Hunter replied, causing laughter from Tama that he'd remembered what she'd said before. "Besides, I thought you were taking Undertaker up on that two weeks to train, anyway?"
"It's Wrestlemania lead up, Hunter. Taker's much too busy training for his match with Shane to train with me." Tama said dismissively.
"Well, I think getting you out of here for two weeks might actually be a good idea. Gives you a chance to mentally take a break from this, and us to try find out who is responsible. Make sure you're at RAW next week, and then I'll sort out getting you to San Antonio to meet up." Hunter said, as Tama began to protest. "That's an order, Tama."
"Goddamn it, H, I'm ok! I just got locked in a cupboard…twice…it's no big deal." She exclaimed, annoyed.
"It's a big enough deal that I'm concerned. You're going, I'm speaking to Taker tonight, and you're going. End of story." The COO had spoken, and Tama was well aware of the fact his word was law. There was no way she was getting out of it, not that she wanted to. Two weeks training with The Undertaker would do her the world of good. And maybe he was right, she reasoned as she said goodbye and left to go back to the hotel. Maybe it would clear her mind, and help them find who it was that was constantly trying to get her. Maybe if she went, when she came back it would all stop.
