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It seemed that Liv would not get out of Rhea’s hair any time soon. No sooner had they defeated her and Roxanne on Saturday, Rhea and Iyo turned around and had to fight the two of them again on Monday. This time Raquel would be a legal participant, as would Stephanie Vacquer. Rhea genuinely liked and respected Stephanie. She was a fierce competitor and Rhea was glad to have her on the team.
Rhea watched from backstage as one by one the women of the Judgement Day made their appearance. She, Iyo, and Stephanie were secluded from the other women, able to see them but not interact yet. That was probably wise because she was rather eager to get her hands on Liv again. For now, Rhea surveyed the competition.
Raquel came first. Grudgingly, Rhea had to admit that Raquel had grown in her role as Judgement Day’s enforcer. She was imposing and tough as nails. The Judgement Day’s trump card. She came within a few breaths of causing them to lose the belts the last match. Had it not been for Stephanie involving herself and Iyo’s tenacity, the outcome could have been very different. She was not to be taken lightly.
She thought back to their days in NXT. They had come a long way since those street brawls at Night of Champions. Raquel seemed to have found a new edge. Something within her seemed to have changed. Rhea wondered if she was feeling how she’d felt before she had made her own changes.
Roxanne made her entrance second. The rookie, at least when it came to being in this level of competition. She’d made a name for herself in NXT and was carving out her own niche in WWE. For now it seemed that she was comfortably ensconced as Liv’s sidekick, though Rhea was aware of rumblings that Dominik’s wandering eye had landed on her.
Several months ago that knowledge would have bothered her. The idea of Dom being with anyone else had been unthinkable a year or so ago. Times were good then. She’d been happy to style him as her ‘Daddy’. When their relationship ended, she’d been figuratively torn apart. She externalized that by literally tearing him and Liv apart in and out of the ring. But now? Knowing what she now knew and was experiencing with Iyo? She found herself strangely indifferent.
With a twirl, the third and final woman of the Judgement Day made her appearance. Rhea instinctively sneered, and she felt Iyo’s hand gently squeeze her arm. Liv flipped her hair and, flanked by Roxanne and Raquel, strutted to the ring. There was a time that she had been crazy about Liv.
The ‘Liv 4 Brutality’ days were lots of fun. It felt a lot like first love. It had been a whirlwind. It had been completely unplanned. They hadn’t intended to be tag partners initially. They were sort of thrown together by circumstance and then they made it work. It had been relatively early in her WWE career. She was learning a whole different level of competition at the time.
During the day she and Liv would train. Liv was so bubbly and hardworking then. They would watch film. They would work out. They would practice. By night, those grapples would be applied in the bed of whatever hotel they were staying at that week. It was heady. It was intoxicating.
“The tag belt would look so good around your perfect waist!” Liv always said.
Despite Rhea’s usual confidence Liv was one of the few who could really make her blush. She did it effortlessly. There was something very genuine in the way Liv treated her then. Rhea loved being with Liv, she loved spending time with Liv, but something inside her held back. Something inside her set a line that wouldn’t be crossed. It’s as though a limiter had been internally applied to just how close she would let Liv get. They would work together, train together, fight together, fuck together, but it never would go further than that limit inside her.
She fondly remembered the lead up to their Wrestlemania triple threat tag match. It had been the two of them against the world. Natalya and Shayna Baszler, Zelina and Carmella, Naomi and Sasha…it had been a gauntlet. They had come so close to gold only to fall short so many times.
That last loss against Naomi and Sasha made her snap. She was sick of losing. Sick of feeling weak. She gave herself over to Judgement Day completely. In doing that, she closed herself off from Liv. In the blink of an eye, it seemed, something within her changed.
She became ruthless. She had no line she wouldn’t cross. To prove to herself and to anyone watching, she had to destroy the very thing that she had begun to build. The Eradicator took over. Liv’s body was the first to be left in her wake. She hardened her heart. Tucking it away. It was almost an out of body experience.
Over the course of several months she and Liv came into conflict. At first, Liv was trying desperately to win her back. It’s as though she didn’t realize (or didn’t want to admit to herself) that the Rhea she’d known was gone. In her place was The Eradicator. The Eradicator cared for nothing and no one. In her pursuit for gold, for power over the division, there would be no obstacles.
“You mean nothing to me!” Rhea remembered screaming in Liv’s face. The Eradicator spoke then.
The Eradicator even held sway over her relationship with Dom. The love she had for him was expressed primarily through possessiveness. Dom was her man. Her Daddy. It was important that not only he, but everyone knew. She would fiercely defend him against anyone or anything. It didn’t matter if it was Rey Mysterio or Liv Morgan.
Dom was equally possessive and protective of her. He had certainly played his role by coming to her aid during her long title reign. It felt better than being with Liv because she felt as though she had someone strong at her side. An equal. She didn’t need his help. She didn’t need anyone.
During that championship reign she let The Eradicator run wild. Several times it had brought her into direct conflict with Liv. There was an incident where she had defeated Natalya. She had already won but she was just seized with an impulse to continue the onslaught of punishment on the prone woman. In retrospect, she could admit to herself that she did take it pretty far. Liv and Raquel ran into the ring to disrupt the pummeling. And, for their good deed, Rhea damaged Raquel’s knee before their tag title defense that night. They lost.
It was that impulse that drove her to perform her most vicious attack on Liv. It’s as though she needed to prove to herself that she was over her, over their past. A steel chair helped her snap her shoulder. It was brutal, but it was also a rush. It felt as though she were a new woman. This elation was short lived, however, when her own injury forced her to vacate the belt.
As Rhea was rehabbing, Liv was getting close to Dominik and the rest of the Judgement Day. Giving them gifts, helping them win key matches. All with one goal in mind. Liv had set her eyes on Dom, and she would have him. Not even The Eradicator could stop that.
Her forced time away from the ring had given her a bit of perspective. The Eradicator was both a blessing and a curse. If she unleashed The Eradicator fully, there was nothing in her physical path that she could not destroy. Letting The Eradicator run wild, however, had consequences. Permanent consequences. It was important to learn balance, to learn to look around her and really see the people who were there.
Prior to this she had seen her fellow wrestlers as fluctuating sources of power. Some were on the come up, some were on the downswing. The continuous chase for success and the struggle to achieve it dominated all. The injury forced her to engage with their humanity, but also her own. Her own mortality. It was a humbling she needed…after Liv and Dom had been dealt with, of course.
Damien Priest had been a wonderful friend and ally. He could deliver an amazing amount of punishment, but he also didn’t lose himself to it. His help had been greatly needed to keep her balanced and to help her keep her goals in the forefront. Without him, she was certain that she would not be enjoying this moment with Iyo now. It is because of him that she learned when to use The Eradicator and how.
Once the women of the Judgement Day had made their entrances it was her team’s turn. Out came Stephanie Vacquer, the women’s champ. She was a formidable opponent and not a bad looker besides. Rhea appreciated Stephanie very respectfully as she stepped out with her ram horns, her leotard corset, and the leather straps on her legs and thighs. The Devil’s Kiss was a pleasure and a pain.
When Iyo went out for her entrance her heart skipped a beat. More and more she was pleased to hear the roar of the crowd for Iyo, especially as she held up that gold. Since their little tiff the other night, she and Iyo had spent some time talking about the past. That was, perhaps, why Rhea was so nostalgic now prior to fighting Liv again.
She put that thought aside for now. Now was the time for her own entrance. She heard the crowd roar even more loudly, screaming the lyrics of her music. She hugged Iyo before and after hitting her stomp, and then hugged Stephanie. This was a time to tap into The Eradicator. This was a time to be ready to face her foes.
They got to the ring apron and, again, Rhea was pleased to share that private moment publicly with Iyo. She felt Iyo stroking her cheek, her ear. There was something heady about how gently Iyo touched her then and also knowing that she could use those hands easily to strike decisive blows. Another hint of pleasure in pain.
The match got underway and was fairly standard. The Judgement Day managed not to use any underhanded tactics—at first. It didn’t take long for that to change. At one point Stephanie was in the ring. Liv snuck under the apron to Rhea’s corner. Just when Stephanie had been about to tag one of them in, Liv took Iyo’s feet from under her and sent her crashing to the floor.
Rhea’s hackles went straight up. She stalked Liv “Get the hell away from her!” She had shouted before Raquel struck her from behind and pushed her into the steel steps. She felt stupid for falling into one of their traps, but she had to defend Iyo.
Even this wasn’t enough. The Judgment Day used the apron to avoid being pinned. They did illegal double teams. They isolated opponents on their side of the ring. Every advantage that could be seized, they tried to take.
Iyo had to save her from a pin due to a tornado DDT that Liv executed. Then, later on, Roxanne tried to catch her in a double team. This time Rhea was ready, and managed to catch Liv before she was able to hit Oblivion. They tried again with another double attack and Rhea held Liv long enough for Iyo to land a missile dropkick on Liv. In the end, her Riptide won the day. As the Judgement Day looked on in dismay, Rhea chopped her crotch and told them to ‘Suck it’.
The thought hit her just then that Liv had done just that. Multiple times. There was a time that she couldn’t imagine anyone but Liv doing that. She and Liv at that time had something special. Was it really losing that caused her to end it? Or was it something else? She mulled that over as she lifted Iyo to carry her backstage.
They got back to their green room and parted ways, but before doing so Stephanie smiled again. “Good work tonight and good luck in the Royal Rumble, ladies.”
“One of us will see you at Wrestlemania.” Iyo replied with a grin.
“We plan to be the last two standing. We have to give you a good challenge.” Rhea also grinned.
Stephanie waved before making her exit, leaving the two of them alone to take off their makeup and prepare to see the doctor on staff.
“You like Stephanie” Iyo said casually, matter of factly. She was removing her makeup.
“H-Huh?!” Rhea tried to proffer a denial.
“That’s ok. Stephanie is really pretty.” Iyo continued to casually remove her makeup.
“Wait, hold on. What makes you say that?” Rhea was flummoxed. She thought her appreciation had gone unnoticed.
“Rhea…I can read you like a book. We’ve known each other far too long to hide something as simple as that from me.” Iyo chuckled.
Rhea couldn’t help but laugh. “What can I say? When you’re right, you’re right.”
They settled into another comfortable silence. They were physically together, but free to let their minds wander. The silences with Liv weren’t always like this, nor with Dom. Dom didn’t particularly like silence and needed noise or activity of some kind at all times. Liv enjoyed busying herself, her plans always two to three steps ahead of others. It was why, when she really put her mind to it, she was able to play the long game quite well.
Yes, being with Liv had a lot of the markers of a first love, but it came just short. That internal barrier stopped it. As she pondered this, she got a very sinking feeling. There didn’t seem to be that same limiter with Iyo. Which meant…
Rhea didn’t want to think about that right now. She tried to put it and a small mystery aside for now. She had heard Iyo use a particular phrase in Japanese a few more times. Eventually she googled it and what she discovered…
She even physically shook her head as though to shake the very thought loose from her mind.
Iyo noticed. “Are you alright, Rhea?” She quirked an eyebrow.
“Yup! Just needed to clear my head. I’m gonna grab some water. You want some?” Rhea was already standing up to get it. Iyo nodded.
As Rhea left to get the bottles of water she couldn’t tell if Iyo had accepted this answer or if she was tucking this information away to ask about it later. She returned shortly and pressed a kiss to the top of Iyo’s head. Iyo giggled and took the water. They stayed onsite after being medically cleared for the rest of filming and then headed back to the hotel.
It was now routine for Rhea to drive them, Sirius XM’s metal station the steady soundtrack. Rhea’s mind wandered again back to Liv. What she had said to Iyo, about her selfishness…was it true? The Eradicator certainly was selfish. She saw a threat or an enemy in every shadow. She ruled the division with an iron fist. There was no space for mercy. Would The Eradicator betray Iyo, though…?
That certainly was not in the plan. But, then again, betraying Liv to begin with also had not been in the plan. It would be easy to deflect all of the responsibility onto The Eradicator, but Rhea knew better than to do that. She made the decision to give into that voice, that impulse. She willingly and deliberately let those impulses go wild.
Doing that had caused irreparable harm to the people around her. She thought again about Natalya, about Liv, about how she’d delighted in pummeling the helpless Maxxine. To this day Maxxine gave her a wide berth and Natalya never forgot about it. She held a grudge almost as well as Liv did.
She’d left devastation in her wake. Would she do the same with Iyo? The thought filled her with revulsion. With fear. Rhea was rarely afraid of anything now, but that…that scared her shitless. She hated the very notion of destroying this…this thing with Iyo. It was delicate. It was fragile.
Something in her body language must have given away her thoughts because she felt Iyo’s hand gently squeeze her knee. That brought her back from a spiral of anxiety. Just as Iyo had said the other night, she needed to focus on the here and now. She needed to focus on what she knew was true.
But what was that? What was the truth to her now?
Rhea carefully considered that. She let the music carry her down for a moment. She knew that she was happier with Iyo than she had been in a very long time. She knew that she had strong feelings about Iyo. Whenever anyone hurt Iyo or even inconvenienced her in any way, Rhea was ready to come unglued.
Iyo was hers. Hers.
But, for the first time, she also felt as though she belonged to someone. It occurred to her that neither Liv nor Dom, nor anyone else had felt strong enough nor safe enough for her to belong to them. It didn’t feel secure. Her possessiveness, her protectiveness of the two of them came to the fore because they needed it. Iyo, in contrast, really didn’t.
To be sure, Iyo certainly appreciated Rhea’s solicitude on her behalf. It had come in handy over the last several months. In contrast, though, Iyo had been equally protective and possessive. They had a series of coming to each other’s aid. And it wasn’t an underhanded move like with Dom, nor a psychological long play like with Liv. Iyo stood and fought in the same way Rhea did.
As they got to the hotel and parked, these realizations rolled around in Rhea’s mind. There was something very scary to Rhea about this. Iyo took her hand as they headed to their room for the night. Once the door was closed and locked, she pressed Rhea’s back to it and leaned up to kiss her. The kiss was searing. Rhea’s arms went around Iyo’s waist.
When they pulled back from each other and looked into each other’s eyes, Rhea felt as though she were being seen. Really seen. Could Iyo read in her eyes what she’d discovered? Did Iyo know?
She guided Rhea to sit next to her on the bed. There was that silence again. The closeness. Something in Iyo’s eyes right then made her feel brave enough to venture.
“Iyo, I…” as soon as she started, she was tongue tied. The words that had been in her mind flew away completely.
Iyo studied her closely. She took Rhea’s hand and silently urged her to continue.
“I…er…” Rhea wasn’t usually the type to falter. Yet Iyo made her come undone so easily. She took a deep breath. “…Aishteru, Iyo-San.”
Iyo’s eyes went wide. Had she heard Rhea correctly? Where did she learn this? Her face reddened, thinking over the nights she had whispered it. Did Rhea know what that meant? How could she? Yet there she was. Her eyes never wavered. Never faltered. It was said and it was meant.
“Daisuki da yo…” Iyo replied and kissed her deeply.
Rhea couldn’t believe it. It was so simple. Yet she had to confirm it once more.
“Iyo…I love you.” Rhea pressed urgent kisses to her lips.
“I love you, too…” Iyo returned those kisses just as urgently.
It was strange how thoughts of the past had led to this moment. Rhea decided to focus on the here and now.