Everything Heals Given Time, and Everything Dies Given Time

Jessica looked at the belt. For her entire life, she had thought about little else other than getting a piece of gold and leather around her waist. It guided all of her actions, her time in the gym, and in the ring, and on the sparring mat. The spirits of her dad and her brothers hung on her neck like an albatross, holding her down. The name Wright was a laughingstock in the midwest, and thanks to her brother's incompetence, the name Wright was starting to lose some traction here. She was in the locker room now, in her full gear, staying at it.

She reflected on her time at AFW. She had been in the federation for five years now, and had garnered quite the reputation for herself. Not every match was a walk in the park, or even a victory, but she had wrestled her way to the top. She had literally taken over the arena for a short time, which turned her mind to the woman of the hour.

River. Her girlfriend. They had caused terror throughout Tokyo, both in the ring and outside of it. Jessica breathed in deeply. What she was getting into this evening would be a surprise to River. Hell, when she thought about it, it was a surprise for herself.

She couldn't remember what night it was. It was some time after her sixth beer, but before she started rewatching some of her dad's old matches. She was just staring at the belt, looking at her reflection in the glinting gold. She had improved her living situation greatly. Her first apartment here was not a good one, but having the belt around your waist meant that you got a better contract. It also meant that those endorsements came in. Curiously, very few perfume or fashion companies wanted to employ her to endorse their products, but she found a great source of income from hardware companies. Plus, they gave her the chains that they sold in the stores, which helped her out in her day job. But the more she stared, the more uneasy she felt and a bank account with a lot of zeroes at the end did little to ease that.

Jessica had sighed, then. The Violent Violet lived up to her moniker. In the ring, she was willing to do just about anything to win a match. But right now, as she looked at the belt, she felt incomplete. he told herself that she didn't care about doing the right thing, that she didn't care about the fact that the fans hated her. But she heard how the crowd popped for Alaina during the title bout. She saw that she was on the marquee, but not as high as some of the other women up there. All of those awful things that she did to other women felt less justified now, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Jessica had been mulling it over for several days now, and it was good time. She grabbed the belt and put it on her shoulder. The worker bees showed the proper deference to her. She was at the staging area now.

Little sister there's blood on the tracks...

That song had been her clarion call ever since she had started here in Japan, and the fans knew who she was at this point. There was a mic in her hand and fire in her heart as she strode down to the ring. Usually, she turned to flip off the fans. Other women wave. She only looked, with a somewhat morose look on her face.

The Violent Violet stood in the center of the ring.

"Guys, I am tired." Jessica started. The crowd did not quite know how to react, and the silence permeated the arena. "I am tired of beating women with baseball bats until they don't move. I am tired of doing whatever it takes to win a match, then feeling gross afterwards. I am tired of taking women prisoner and then fucking their brains out." Ordinarily, Jessica would have made a sex joke, but she was here tonight to turn over a new leaf.

"So from now on, you're going to see a new Jessica." Jessica held the mic down for a second, and let that idea percolate. "No more crotch shots, no more shady shit, no more evil things. I am going to be the same badass, don't you fucking worry, but I am going to start winning things cleanly. You know me. It will be the same throws, the same strikes, the same submissions, but this time without any funny business in between."

"I get that most of you don't believe me. Anyone who has watched me knows that my entire time here has been nothing but chaos. So you need some proof. I will get you proof. I am going to lose this belt." Jessica raised the belt high. The audience didn't know whether they should cheer.

"But I am not going to give this up easy. I am going to make the title fucking painful for the woman who has the misfortune of going against me. They are going through the fucking ringer, believe me." Jessica raised the belt once more. "And there is only one person who I can think who is worthy of taking this from me." Jessica paused for a second, to build suspense, but everyone in the audience knew what she was about to say.

"River, come on out and get this shit away from me."

This was going to be a strange day. Styx could sense it when she woke up, came to in her little hovel next to her favorite fighting pit. Something about the air was off, things didn’t smell right, food had the wrong taste. The sun didn’t seem to have the correct tint, not even close, and the day seemed longer, like it was stretching out, trying to stall for time before something truly awkward happened. She couldn’t quite put a finger on it, and she wasn’t the type to believe in mystic shit, but if there was ever a time to believe that the universe was beating to the tune of an invisible drum, this was it.

Something was off, and now, she knew why - Jessica Wright was going straight.

Well, in the moral sense. Styx doubted she was going to be any less gay than before, so that was a relief, but otherwise? She was hearing some truly odd things in the ring.

Jessica was giving up the title - sort of. Not just the hardcore title itself, but the way of life she’d used to earn it and keep it. Turning over a new leaf, a complete 180 degrees. For the longest time, the two of them had been the twin terrors in Friction, the two tallest, strongest, toughest bitches in the league. Apart, they were deadly, but together, they were this unstoppable force that could mow down just about anyone in front of them. Ever since they’d met, it had been this nonstop flurry of fucking and fighting - each other, their opponents, anyone and everyone. Styx trusted the Violent Violet about as much as she could trust anyone, liked her in ways that she couldn’t say for anyone else in her life. If it was possible for anyone to understand River Styx, it was Jessica Wright.

She had thought the same was true in vice versa, but apparently not - in a million years, she wouldn’t have seen this coming.

At Jessica’s summoning, Styx appeared and made her way down to the ring, her theme music booming around the arena as she came down the ramp, canting her head to the side with a quizzical gaze towards her partner. She came around the ring and grabbed a microphone, snatching it off the ring announcer before she came in under the ropes.

Popping up to her feet, she started to circle Jessica, looking at her from a few different angles. Yeah, she looked like the same woman she’d known all these, the same buff bitch she’d spent countless nights with. Still had that same look about her. Same hair. Same muscles. So where was this all coming from?

Styx opened her mouth to speak, then paused, putting the microphone aside for a second as she leaned in, whispering in Jessica’s ear. ”What’s the angle, here?” She chuckled, a low cackle, trying to wrap her head around all this. ”You want me to play along, fine, but tell me the game, first.”

Jessica knew that River would be coming. They had been together for so long now that they were practically inseparable. The history between the two, both inside and outside the ring, was long enough to fill a thousand story books, and Jessica did not regret that for a minute. But at the same time, River was anarchy, River was violent, and River was everything that Jessica was trying to get away from. This was hard for Jessica, almost like cutting off her own arm, but this had to be done. Regretfully.

Jessica looked at River with a great deal of sadness in her eyes. River had seen very many facets of Jessica, literally and figuratively, but Jessica never showed her vulnerability to anyone. Sometime, the mask dropped when she was discussing her dad or her siblings, but Jessica would make sure to quickly change the conversation when that happened. But here, there was no switching the subject. She was out here, in front of everyone, dealing with it all right now.

She held the mic down to her hip, so that no one else but River would hear what she had to say. "I have been thinking a lot. And it pains me to say this, but I don't like who I am right now. I don't like what I have done right now." Jessica was concentrating on what she was about to say next. "And it sucks that it has to come out like this, but, we can't be together anymore." Jessica was ripping the bandaid off. It didn't feel great to do this, but it was going to come out sooner or later.

"I'm sorry. I love you." Jessica's words were low, so that only River could hear them. There were thousands and thousands of people in the ring tonight, but there was only one who really mattered.

"So what do you say," she spoke into the microphone, "you and me for this shiny ole belt?"

No one had ever told River Styx they loved her.

River Stevens had gotten that a few times, sure, though it didn’t mean much. Her parents hadn’t loved her so much as the woman they wanted her to be, had tried to mold them into their good daughter. Their love had conditions, their love wanted something.

But when Jessica said it, it actually meant something. Jessica was the first and only person who not only accepted Styx for who she was, but wanted her to be that way, who’d never asked her to change, who’d never tried to make her different, who thought she was fine, who she could treat as an equal. It was a rare thing - Styx could work with people when their goals aligned, sure, but those were temporary alliances. Jessica was the constant.

Except she wasn’t. Not anymore.

Just like that, she was out of Styx’s life, and the bald bruiser was left to process that fact. It was a weird thing to contemplate, but this was no joke. She knew that look, that tone. Jessica Wright was serious.

So, how could she respond to this? There was only one way she could think of.

Styx reached out and wrapped her arms around Jessica, pulling her in for one, final, smoldering, sloppy kiss, holding her close, feeling their muscles clash, before she pulled away and cut it all off at once. ”You’re on.”

Jessica said it. She put the energy into the universe, and waited to see what the universe would give back to her. River reacted as she always had, with the greatest of responses. Jessica happily accepted the kiss, and hugged River back. Their bodies had embraced each other many times, but this was the first time that such a hug had been this impactful. The Violent Violet half expected River to rear back and slug her, but she didn't, and Jessica was eminently grateful for that.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting. Jessica hoped that there would be some instant catharsis or a choir of angels coming down to tell her that she had made the right decision. But that didn't happen, and that was never going to happen. Instead, she looked at River's face, trying to find out what her friend was thinking. Neither of them were women who needed to talk a whole lot, and as such they were both more than capable of reading the other's body language. It was hard for Jessica, but she was looking somewhere between apologetic and tired. Looking sorry and fatigued was something that she would never suffer in her past life, but this Jessica was not going to be shy about those sorts of things.

"Good." That was all Jessica had to say. With that, she cast the heel Jessica into oblivion. She was not sure that she could walk the most upright path, but she knew that she was no longer going to be the hellion that she once was. The word bounced around the arena before it died out.

She dropped the microphone, and left the ring in silence.