((Thanks for the kind words. This next bit is only a teaser, but having it here means I've accomplished a lot of the hard work between me and the next full chapter, so we'll see when it comes. I also wanted to get this plot twist out there before anyone guessed out loud that it was coming.))
PART 7
Paige stood triumphantly to the cheers of the fans, but then suddenly the crowd quieted down…as she turned her head to see why, she heard the strains of “Let’s Light it Up,” coming over the speakers. “oh, no,” she said out loud, “it couldn’t be…fuck!” That last syllable was censored for the TV audience, as the camera panned away from Paige and to AJ Lee skipping down the ramp, with a microphone. She was wearing an ensemble with black jean cutoffs, a black half-shirt showing a ribcage and heart, and red accessories. Her hair was in a pair of low pigtails, and she was wearing a little more makeup than she typically did for a match. Her face seemed frozen in a huge grin, and she had an intense look in her eye that was frighteningly familiar to divas who had wrestled her.
“Paige, Paige, Paige. I’ve gotta give it to you. Somehow, you thought you were going to be the champion at the end of this. That’s so adorable that you’d think that much of yourself, that it’s all about you. But I know, and so does everyone else, that you’re no champion.”
“I took the title from YOU,” Paige defended, lowering her arms and holding the belt close to herself. A slight quiver in her voice and her body language showed that she was nervous now.
“I let you have it for a while…” AJ continued, skipping toward the ring casually, “You were my…placeholder while I took a short vacation. But you made a huge mess of it, letting this Bella cow break my record. Now I’m back for what’s rightfully mine.” AJ grinned at how flustered she’d made Paige, then added, “Nice panties, by the way.”
Paige looked down and held her hands and the belt in front of herself as her elation with winning the title had been stripped away and her realization that her clothes also had been stripped away suddenly returned to dominate her consciousness. She stiffened up her posture a little to deliver a response, for the sake of her honor, but failed to achieve anything resembling AJ’s bravado, because she was left tired and vulnerable from the effort it had taken to overcome both Bella twins. Still, she spoke out, in her best attempt at a confident tone: “Go back to wherever you’ve been the last year. This title’s mine and I’m keeping it.”
AJ skipped right up to the ring, putting down her hand mic now that the overhead microphone could pick up her voice. “Oh, poor, deluded, flat-chested Paige.” “Hey, I’m not--” AJ cut her off, “Deluded? Oh, you certainly are. And just like Nikki, lying over there with her face covered in cake and her big butt glowing from a good spanking like a bad kid on her birthday, it seems you might have started celebrating a little too early. This isn’t over.” AJ climbed into the ring, put one foot on the prone Brie’s backside, sending her rolling out of the ring with a slow but firm kick, and walked over to Nikki. Paige was circling, clinging to the title belt, trying to predict what AJ would do, but she was tired from fighting the Bellas, and in no hurry to initiate contact. AJ dipped a finger in the icing on Nikki’s face and tasted it. “Tastes like defeat,” she laughed, “something you ‘Total Divas’ are going to become even more intimately familiar with. Shall the new revolution start with you, Paige?”
Paige’s skin was nearly in goosebumps in anticipation of what was to come. AJ was a formidable opponent any day, but after taking down the Bellas, Paige wasn’t ready for any more action. She steeled herself, and put the belt on the ground by her feet. AJ looked at the title like an old friend, but everyone knew the rules Stephanie had set out for this evening—you’d have to beat the current title holder in some way in order to be champion, and right now, that would be Paige.
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