Slaughterhouse

Payback

It's finally time. Time for Payback. Carmen is ecstatic. She's in her dressing room jumping up and down, shaking out her arms and legs getting ready. There's a knock at the door just as she drops down to a kneeling position, stretching out her right leg.

"Come in!" She shouts, chipper.

The door opens and Rhea walks in, looking over her head for her before realizing she's on the floor. Her eyes lower to her and Carmen smiles up at her, shifting over to stretch her left leg out.

"Hey." She says.

"Hey. You ready? It's almost time for us to go out." Rhea says, almost emotionless.

Carmen stands.

"Yeah let's go." She says.

Rhea turns to leave and Carmen grabs her hand, stopping her.

"Hey. Are we good?" She asks as Rhea hasn't spoken much since the sushi date.

She looks at Carmen for a minute before giving a small, somewhat sarcastic looking smile.

"We're good. Come on." She replies.

Carmen isn't sure what to make of her reply, so she shrugs it off and follows her out to gorilla. They're stopped by the guys on the way and thank them for their good luck wishes.

Rhea stands in gorilla with a serious look on her face. One that screams dominance, anger and pure hatred. Carmen admires her for a minute, admiring how good she is at getting into character. Carmen's head snaps to look ahead of them as the Judgment Day music plays.

They walk out to the ring, staring down their noses at Raquel who's standing at the far side of the ring glaring at them both. Waving them on and shouting at them.

The two make their entrance as the announcer calls their names and the ref steps into the ring. He waves for Carmen and Rhea to step back from Raquel before signaling the beginning of the match. The bell rings.

Rhea smirks at Raquel, waving her fingers at her and smacking her cheek.

"Show me what you've got!" She shouts.

Raquel charges at her, ready to throw a punch, but is quickly met with a boot to the side of her face by Carmen. She falls to the floor holding her chin and glares up at her. Carmen smirks and waves.

Rhea laughs and pulls Raquel up by her hair, the ref yelling for her to let go. She spins Raquel around and holds her arms, forcing them behind her back. Carmen rushes in front and starts punching at her sides. Raquel hollers with each hit, jumping and curling in on herself a bit.

Carmen delivers one last blow before Raquel suddenly kicks her feet up and connects with her chin. She stumbles backwards and glares as Raquel wriggles free of Rhea's grasp, turns and shoves her backwards into the turnbuckle. Carmen watches, stunned, as Raquel shoulders Rhea many times.

She runs at her and pulls her off, throwing her to the floor. Carmen starts stomping at her sides as Rhea composes herself before joining her in the assault. Raquel is blocking her face, crying out. She grabs one of Carmen's legs and pulls it hard, causing her to fall backwards.

Rhea pulls her up by her hair again and positions her for a riptide but she counters, flying over her shoulder and landing on her feet instead. Carmen kicks up to her feet and nods to Rhea. They both run at the ropes opposite of Raquel, bouncing off them before running at her and shoving her backwards, throwing her over the ropes and out of the ring.

They laugh as she yelps when she hits the ground. Carmen circles the ring, waiting for her to come back, but she's taking too long. She looks over at Rhea, who is faltering in character too, trying to figure out what to do.

In a last-minute plan, she lunges for Rhea, tackling her to the mat. The crowd gasps and jumps to their feet in surprise. Carmen sees the utter surprise in Rhea's eyes and discreetly winks at her before throwing punches at her, targeting her face and shoulders. Rhea kicks her hips up, throwing her off and rises to one knee.

Carmen kicks up, runs at her and grabs her by the bottom of her chin with one hand and the back of her neck with the other. She holds Rhea's head back, making her back arch, and smirks an evil grin at her.

"You think I'd let YOU win? No Rhea! This is Slaughterhouse territory!" She shouts.

Just as she finishes her rant, she sees a flash of rage in Rhea's eyes. Genuine rage as Rhea throws an arm out and wraps her hand around Carmen's throat. Tightly. Carmen gasps for air and lets go, grabbing Rhea's wrist as she stands back up.

"You wanna play with Mami? Huh?" She shouts.

Before she can retaliate, Rhea is tackled off of Carmen and into the turnbuckles again. She gasps in surprise as Raquel punches her cheek, hard, for real. She looks back at her with a confused expression as Raquel doesn't stop there. She kicks her in the stomach, making her fold in on herself and gasp for air when she falls to the floor. Raquel drags her to the center of the ring and starts stomping on her knee.

It's the knee stomps and Rhea's blood-curdling screams of pain that shows Carmen Raquel isn't faking the assault. Rhea isn't faking the screams. Raquel is pissed and she's targeting Rhea's genuine weakness.

Carmen feels anger of her own building inside of her. She charges at Raquel and tackles her to the ground, punching her over and over in the face until Raquel goes limp. She presses her head down to the mat and the ref thinks she's pinning, falling to his knees and slapping the floor.

1...2...3!

The bell rings but Carmen is still screaming at Raquel. Cursing at her as she resumes punching her. She's seeing red. Completely spaced out as she lays blow after blow into Raquel's face, arms and shoulders as she tries to block her.

She doesn't realize the match is over until she feels officials yanking her away from Raquel and yelling for her to stop. Carmen glares and screams at Raquel as they drag her from the ring and backstage.

Rhea's already there, sitting in a chair with tears streaming down her face as the medical team observes her. When Raquel finally makes her way backstage, her face bruised and bloody, she stomps to Carmen.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" She shouts.

"With ME? The fuck is wrong with YOU?" Carmen screams back in her face.

"I did what I had to!" Raquel defends.

"No! That was REAL! What you did was real! That's how you ruin careers what the hell is wrong with you Raquel!" She shouts.

"Carmen! Walk away!" Rhea shouts at her but groans in pain as the medics squeeze her knee gently.

"I should kick your ass again right now!" Carmen continues shouting.

She lunges for Raquel again but finds herself going nowhere as a strong arm wraps around her waist, hoisting her up off her feet as she screams in annoyance.

"Enough princesa." Damian says in her ear.

"Get her out of here Priest. Carmen go cool off!" Rhea speaks through gritted teeth.

Carmen shoves Damian's arm off her as he starts to drag her away and storms off down the hallway and out the back of the building. She screams when she gets outside and punches the brick wall. Damian sighs and shakes his head, grabbing her hand gently and observing the bloodied knuckles.

He wraps her hand with his bandana and looks at her eyes. They're still full of rage.

"Deep breaths, princesa. You need to stay calm. Rhea's already upset and confused. You should try to help her." He reasons.

"I could kill her, Damian." Carmen mumbles.

"Channel your anger into caring for Rhea. I have a feeling she'll be out of this weekend's supershows and she's not going to like that." He says.

Carmen sighs and nods. He's right. Rhea's going to be upset. She needs to be stronger for her. Killing Raquel will have to wait.