In the days leading up to the Las Vegas show, the place where the championship belts would be handed out for the first time, Fiona told herself she was looking forward to having a Friday night to recover. Finally knocked out of the tournament, Fiona sorely needed the time to rest physically, but as she watched Elina and Raven battle it out, she knew she'd trade the pajamas she had on for shiny ring attire in a heartbeat. Her quick ascent into NMW meant she'd never had a chance to fight in a real title match, not even at the independent level. The closest she'd come was battling Shin Choon-hee for NMWW's rookie of the year roughly twelve months ago. Feeling the hype of the crowd through the TV, she had to imagine that what she'd experienced wasn't anything close.

Of course, it probably would've ended up with her absorbing another Taken To Hell, like Elina did. Raven was a cut above every other woman on the roster, and this tournament proved it. The belt practically looked like it was made for her, the No Mercy grinning skull right at home with the rest of the Goth Queen's getup. Her celebration was emphatic, authoritative. There was no shock, no disbelief, no catharsis of anxiety lifting off her shoulders.

Raven had the look of a woman who knew she was going to win when the tournament started. [i]I told you so,[/i] was the closest way Fiona could come to translating her expression.

She'd been a storm of emotions since losing the steel cage match a week ago. On the one hand, every NMW fan knew her name now, she wasn't just some promising youngster with potential anymore, she was seen as a rising star on the women's side of the roster. Management wasn't going to run her into the ground with matches, but the fans were going to want to see her in the ring regularly. Opportunities to keep building her reputation were well on their way.

On the other hand... losing to Raven the way she did injected her with a dose of doubt. She told herself that Raven did that to pretty much every woman she entered the ring with, but even so, she felt like she didn't stand a chance against her once it was a one-on-one. If she ever wanted a title, she was going to have to take her on, or someone similar, without any help. That was a mountain she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to climb. For now, she could only keep fighting and defeating the matches put in front of her, but that got her thinking about her path through the tournament. A first round battle marred by interference (a match she was struggling in at the time), and a narrow victory against Tanya Redd, who was strong on paper but never seemed to live up to her own hype. [i]The sooner I can get back in the ring, the better. Need a good, clean win to prove that being top three in this tournament wasn't a fluke.[/i]

Then there was the men's side of things. Though she wasn't involved in any of the alliances and rivalries brewing there yet, Fiona found herself heavily invested in the hero versus villain, David versus Goliath story that had emerged from their tournament...