About You Now

Tournament Finals Pt.2

A/N - Thank you, Wolfgirl2013 (On fanfiction.net), for helping finalize tournament matches and winners. Fair warning: The chapter is long (5.5K) and has not been proofread.

"The following contest is set for one fall," began Lillian upon everyone returning from a small break. Still, the discussions were loud. Some groups were talking about matches that had taken place, and others were excited for those to come. Upon returning from the break, Serenity and her three girls had noticeably switched sides. Gone were the signs they made; instead, they huddled in the shadowy corner near the entrance ramp, hoping no one from Scared Heart noticed their switch.

Soon enough, Tara's entrance music blasted throughout the arena. Unlike those before her, she didn't have a smile painted across her lips. Instead, she stormed to the ring like a vicious storm approaching an oblivious city. Despite her scrawl, Tara looked forward to the battle that awaited her; just like Gail Kim before her, she'd done her research, and she knew her opponent would be no pushover; she liked a challenge and looked forward to the battle of strength awaiting her, and she looked forward to seeing who would come out victorious.

"Maybe we changed sides too early," commented Avery, hearing Serenity's scoff and Samantha's hopeless chuckle.

"I wouldn't be too sure," replied Serenity as "This is my brutality" thundered through the arena. Only then did Tara smile, even more so to see her opponent appear at the top of the ramp in all her dark glory. Rhea grinned wickedly; her pale eyes glistened in the lights as they locked on Tara waiting in the ring. "Rhea's a Darkling, as we saw from Cross earlier; they're pros at mind games," she added, noticing Roman not too far from them, in the front row with the combined Darklings, Wyatts, Mix-n-match family not a part of the team. With him was a woman with curly brunette hair, holding a sign up with "Go Go All Star Go-Go" written across it in bubble writing.

The moment the bell rang, both girls locked up in the middle of the ring, although it appeared more for fun, to see which would win the initial battle of strength. Tara soon came out victorious, managing to push Rhea back with enough force that she collided with the turnbuckles. Rhea offered a sarcastic clap and well done before locking up once more.

This time, Rhea got the upper hand, tripping Tara. However, she didn't attempt a pin, correctly predicting it would take far more than that to keep Tara down for the three-count. The bout soon turned from a battle of strength to speed, both girls showing just how quickly they could change their style and adapt to their opponent's change.

However, just as Rhea came off the ropes, she was met with a vicious clothesline from hell. It was enough for Michael Cole to say Rhea had just been knocked out of her boots at least and to draw cheers from Sacred Heart. All fell silent when Tara pulled Rhea back up to her feet, attempting to set up for Widow's Peak even when she knew it was unlikely to be successful so soon into the match.

As predicted, Rhea countered it with a pinning combination: a kick to the midsection once both were back up to their feet and her own variation of South of Heaven moments later. From the bench, Damian could be heard chuckling. Seconds later, a comment escaped the All-Star's bench: something about Rhea being their girl. Even Cross bounced on the spot, almost being on Finn's lap as she tried not to cause a distraction.

"What's the next match?" asked Serenity, turning her attention to her phone as she typed a message out to Echo at least before she scanned the arena again to see if she could find her, only to come up empty-handed again. For a moment, she questioned if Echo had gotten the weekends mixed up or if something had happened to her, but she knew that couldn't be the case; she'd seen Echo that day with those in her social group and acquaintances, they'd talked about the tournament, and Echo had been fine.