Zephyr Quinn Vs. Trent Steel

It had been months.



Zephyr stands outside Mac Bane’s Baltimore residence, remembering back to when she was literally dumped on the front yard. Almost instinctively she grabs at the ecig that Mia had given to her in a dream and she magically had when she woke up. But when Zephyr woke up, Mia was a person she had never met before, only reading file material, what little there was, that The Institute was able to gather. Zephyr knew that Cheshire being around wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn’t good either. Cheshire ran off without a word telling Zephyr she’d be back when the time was right. She took care of everything legally with Zephyr and vanished into the night leaving Zephyr to wonder what kind of storm was coming.



Before all the crazy though, Zephyr had been swept off her feet by Belle and had waltzed into a world of something she never thought possible. Love was a weird emotion but to date it remained the strongest force to help Zephyr fully realize which direction to go when on the quest for her missing humanity. Granted, without the cowboy that resided in the house before her, she never would have found that path to begin with. If it weren’t for Mac Bane, she’d still be a soldier of The Institute, and the very idea sent shivers down her spine.



Taking several deep breaths, Zephyr forces herself to take the necessary steps forward to the front stoop. Sure, she could waltz in like she owned the place, but the right thing to do was to knock right? Raising her fist hesitantly, Zephyr quickly puts it back down as the door opens and she is swept in with one big arm. She should have known that he would be waiting and while she wasn’t necessarily fond of hugs in general, there were people that had that privilege.



Mac Bane being one of the few.



“It’s so good to see you up and around again,” he says as he releases her from the hug and urges her to come inside. “You have no idea how proud I was to see you and Belle hand in hand. You guys are cute as hell.” He tells her as they walk toward the dining room. “I’ve got fresh coffee on if you’d like some.” He gestures over his shoulder at the coffee bar.



Zephyr nods and helps herself to a cup, “It’s honestly good to be back up and about.” She shudders, remembering the feeling of being trapped within her own head. Instinctively, her hand goes to her pocket, feeling the e-cig that Mia had left her. She shakes her head, almost as if coming out of a trance before continuing. “Belle has been beside herself, but I can’t help but count myself lucky she’s decided to stay with me. She honestly could have anyone she could possibly want, and…” She shrugs helplessly, blushing as she takes a drink. “She wants me for whatever reason.”



Mac smiles in response, “I suppose you could say the same thing about Amber.” He shrugs and chuckles a bit. “We’re not bad people you and I, we can both say that at one time we didn’t do things the right way. You could even say we didn’t do them for the right reasons.” He pauses for a moment. “That was then, and this is now. We are very different people now, sometimes when a person is able to turn that proverbial corner….everything just seems to click into place.” He frowns for a moment and sighs, “I must be getting old, waxing philosophical and shit.”



Zephyr grins, “Hey, one of us has to be the wise one and we both know that’s not me.” She pauses long enough to take a drink, “But I’d be wrong if I thought that you were having a sentimental moment and just wanted to catch up. I’m guessing you have questions about what happened?” She looks at Mac expectantly, bracing for whichever track he was going to start with. Mia had all but disappeared, Cheshire took over, but has now disappeared as well. Zephyr had been back for one show and all of a sudden, the weight of everything has piled onto her shoulders.



"’The Conscience of Carnage.’ That's quite the burden you've adopted." He says to her. "Even though she explained it prior to the event, I am still amazed at what happened. Maybe I'm just a bit too simple to wrap my brain around." He smiles a bit sheepishly at his own words. "Have you even met the members of the team you've inherited? I mean other than Jimmy that is."



Zephyr pauses to think about it, “No. I haven’t. Not outside of what I was forced to learn at The Institute.” She shudders at the memory. The Forsaken were one of The Institute’s biggest foes and if there was anything they wanted to ensure, it would be to make sure everyone knew exactly what they were up against. Zephyr assumed that’s not what Mac meant. “I was kind of hoping that Mia would be around to make that introduction. I’m sure Jimmy could help now, but…” Instinctively, Zephyr’s hand closes around the e-cig again and she pulls it out of her pocket, setting it on the bar in front of her. “I kinda just wanted to see my big sister, meet her for the first time, ya know? She gave me this when she came to rescue me. I don’t know how it came with me from where she gave it to me in my head, I…” She stops herself as she looks at Mac’s confused expression. Shrugging she sighs, “I don’t know honestly, about any of it. I’m kinda just hoping that I can learn enough quickly to act instead of reacting. I don’t like being on my heels, especially with The Institute and Su here.”



He nods his head sagely, “Jimmy gave me this.” He digs a flash drive out of his pocket and puts it on the table. “To help me to understand everything that’s been going on and the how's and whys of Mia’s actions at the hospital. I hope that helps. The whole theory behind exchanging consciousness is a bit out of my league of understanding.” He grabs his coffee cup and goes to the bar, refilling his cup and adding way too much sugar and creamer to it. He knows that Zeph is watching him and he chuckles. “I like myself, don’t judge.” He sighs as he sets the cup down and sits near Zephyr, not so close that it invades her space though. “The Institute, from what I gather, has almost limitless resources. That being said, as I told Mia not long ago, you guys can use my house as a base of operations. Everything that I have and have access to is yours to use. I have a pretty extensive network of my own, so there’s that.” He raises his coffee cup in salute to Zephyr and what she’s trying to accomplish.



Zephyr salutes back with her own and takes a sip, more to chew on Mac’s words than anything else. “I’m honestly not worried about The Forsaken. It’s intimidating, sure, but I’m sure they’ll accept the help. At least from what I’ve read.” Zephyr shrugs and eyes the flash drive before pocketing it. “Still, I just wish Mia was…” Zephyr’s hand grazes the e-cig and her eyes widen as she watches it roll off the counter. It clatters to the floor and a familiar voice echoes in Zephyr’s head.




Zephyr shakes her head, picking up the e-cig quickly and putting it back in her pocket. Her hands shake as she tries to take a sip of coffee, but the scalding hot liquid slides over her hands instead. She puts the cup back down as uncertainty takes hold and she hears the voice inside her head again.




Yawning, as if trying to pop her ears, Zephyr shakes her head once again as she once again grabs the e-cig, this time taking a nervous puff out of it, holding her breath, and then exhaling. Her green eyes wide, she looks at Mac, “So uhm… I don’t smoke…”





Looking over at Mac, almost pleading with him Zephyr stays silent as her mind reels.



Mac goes a little wild eyed but shakes the effects off and smiles. “Sorry that was a little strange.” Mac tried to hide the fact that he was a bit shaken, he grabbed his coffee cup with both hands to keep them from shaking and finally set it back down. “Does that happen often?”



Zephyr shakes her head, blinking rapidly. “No… It’s new. Brand new… I think… I think Mia is in my head, somehow?”




Zephyr can barely believe it, her eyes widening as she connects the dots, “Mia hopped in and took the blast from the fail safe. She said she didn’t know what would happen, but as long as there was a piece of her left, she’d be able to rebuild. Mac… I think that piece is stuck in my head and…” Zephyr stops herself, “We need to find Cheshire.” Mac’s eyes go wide but only momentarily, he sets his jaw and nods.



"I think 'sooner' would be ideal.” He states in his matter of fact tone, the same one he always uses when he’s about to go to work.






The scene opens in a dilapidated forest filled with empty and crumbling buildings, threatened to be absorbed back into Mother Earth at any possible moment. Opalescent hoodie in place, “The Crazy Angel” Zephyr Quinn stands in front of one of the biggest walls, the abandoned scene has to offer.



“It’s been a little while hasn’t it Trent? Sorry about that, we made an unsuccessful attempt at the tag titles, I made an unsuccessful attempt at ending Cat’s streak of wins, and then…”



Zephyr shrugs, the memory of the cast iron skillet being wielded by Amelia still haunting her. “I don’t know exactly what happened leading up to it, but that isn’t what this is about. So how about we take in the sights of beautiful Ellicott City, and more specifically Daniels, or as some historians may have known it as, Elysville.”



The camera pans out to the remains of a small industrial town. Buildings, if they could still be called that, lie crumbling around Zephyr as she strolls through what was once probably “Main Street.” Nature threatened the man made structures on all sides, in some areas, vines already grabbing the walls of the buildings and pulling as hard as they can, almost as if the concrete was struggling against the inevitable decay.



“Thought you might appreciate this place like I do. I find it fitting that of anyone that could have answered my call to a match, you were the one that answered. The last time we faced off in the ring, against each other, was for, well… It was for this.”



Zephyr stops her stroll and takes the bag off her shoulder and sets it on the ground, pulling out a Carnage Championship title, The Wonderland Title specifically. Purple and green colors ruled the faceplate against black leather, as Zephyr’s gaze gets lost in it. She tosses it over her shoulder as pieces of a nearby building crumble and fall to the ground, almost as if the structure was weeping at seeing the belt over Zephyr’s shoulder again.



“Before Carnage gained all of these new talents, this belt was officially in my hands. I won it off of our current World Champion and my twin, Su, deemed it necessary to make it the ‘Wonderland Title,’ the owner of such a thing being able to make their title match into whatever it was that they wanted. I defended this belt exactly once and lost it to Mac Bane. I got another shot in a triple threat match involving you Trent, and I know you know the history. I know you know what happened, but I needed to bring you back to that time. A time when I was a freshly rehabbed monster and you… You were angry.”



Zephyr shrugs as she continues her stroll, “What else is new though, right?” Zephyr smiles as she takes in the scenery around her, the presence of nothing but the ghost town seeming to calm her nerves.



“You had your reasons though, almost sure of it; but when you had your chance to enter into this war of words before our match, you accused me, my quest for redemption, to be futile. That Carnage only held vengeance for a monster like me. Revenge with no hope for reconciliation for past deeds.” The dirt crunches under Zephyr’s feet as she continues, “You might have a point in that Trent. I can’t go back and take back licking the blood off my opponents beaten and bloody carcasses. I can’t go back and not take advantage of an obviously injured Jack Michaels as I pushed him off the apron and sent him colliding with the ringside barrier during a match that feels so long ago. Just so all the new people that weren’t here for that know…



One of those losses on Jack’s record? Belongs to me.”



The weight of the words seem to press down on Zephyr as her shoulders sag. She doesn’t stop though. “This monster wanted his blood Trent, I wanted to beat that smug and arrogant smile off of his face as he looked down on me and ‘granted’ a rookie on the roster a match against the champ. I won by countout because being the grizzled vet he is, he stayed down.” Her voice seems to be growing to a fevered pitch, high, breathless, and beginning to fill with an unknown fury. “It was about making a name for myself Trent. It was about proving that something like this?” She holds up the Wonderland Title, uncaring that her back is to the camera, “Was not only within my grasp at any time, but that I was deserving of it. That I belonged on that marquee of champions.” She sighs as she stops and turns to the camera.



“People saw it differently. People didn’t want a little monster with a mouthpiece that thought she was a lot more, that she had the right to change a piece of Carnage’s history, as its champion. Mac showed me that but do you remember what happened after all of this went down Trent?”



She stares intently at the camera as she holds up the belt next to her face, her words filled with barely concealed bitterness.



“Nothing. People flocked to Mac Bane as their new Baltimore Champion and we were left under a sheet of obscurity. Sure, on paper we both told everyone we were fine with it, that we would continue on this new path of, I’m not really sure, but that we’d ride off into the sunset, facing off against whatever foe came our way again.” She smiles in bittersweet memory, “A lot happened Trent. I can’t discount that and I can’t forget the fact that I promised I’d never turn into a mindless monster again, but…”



Her gaze goes from the camera to the belt as she smiles, “That just means I have to remember how to be a monster. People abandoned us on our individual treks Trent. They left us to our own devices and I don’t know what exactly that means, but somehow in that moment of loss, in that moment of people moving on from us, our paths became intertwined.” Zephyr begins her aimless walk again as she slings the belt over her shoulder again, “I don’t pretend to be the mind behind the matter, I’m more of the matter behind the mind and I’m sure that you understand exactly what I mean by that. On our own individual paths, we fight whatever comes up before us while outside of that ring, we try to compensate the need for violence, for blood, with whatever we can fill life outside with. Belle came into my life shortly after losing this title and before anyone says anything to the contrary, this is nothing more than a replica of the now defunct Wonderland Title. I didn’t steal it from Adrienne and if I ever want to be Baltimore Champion, if I ever want to hold this belt and try to find that pride that’s been kept from me for so long? I’ll come knocking upon Adrienne’s door. While I claim myself as a monster, a perverse version of an angel, there are certain lines I’ll no longer cross. Causing pain… It’s a skill, just like anything else. Causing pain inside that ring is easy. Causing it in a match, anywhere in or out of that arena, is easy. Physical pain can be dealt with, can be healed from.”



Zephyr winces, “Emotional scars? Those barbed words that we all throw at each other with no regard for what they might do, the path of destruction they leave in their wake? There’s no healing from that. There’s only dealing with it and moving on, hoping to whatever deity a person believes in that the scar won’t be TOO noticeable, won’t become a target. In my time as a mindless being of pure violence, I did things, unforgivable things, that Su thought would get more of a rise out of people if they were done. I…” She clenches her fist, her grip around the replica belt tightening to the point that a careful listener can hear the leather creaking under her fingers, “I did things. Mac’s wife, Jimmy’s mother… In the name of whatever it was Su was claiming at the time, I smashed her gravestone, I pocketed some of the stone from it, and the plan was to use it as a way to make Mac suffer. Pour the dust into his eyes, use it to win back this title.”



Zephyr casts a sidelong glance at the camera following her and maybe it was a trick of the light. Maybe it was the sun shining just right through the leafless trees, but a single glimmer appears in the corner of Zephyr’s eye as she continues, “Nothing is worth that much emotional pain. Nothing.” Zephyr starts walking again and falls into a contemplative silence.



Moments tick by as she walks through the long abandoned town. She enters a few of the buildings, rubs her hands along rough walls before hitting roots and vines of trees, her expression one of amusement and appreciation of life actually finding a way to not only survive, but thrive enough to take back an entire town. Finally, her voice picks back up again.



“That’s all the past though Trent, you know that. Much like this town used to be a bustling, well, not a ‘metropolis’ but we can probably safely assume it was busy at some point; we have so much going on in our pasts. I don’t know what happened to make you into what you are today, and you’ve only seen a fraction of what I’ve been through. You saw me get planted soon after we both suffered losses to Catalina in some way. As you could imagine, I’ve had some time to think.”



The somber tone gone, Zephyr smiles with malice in her eyes. “There’s no changing my DNA, I’m a monster, one of the original ones that Carnage has seen in 2020. I’m no lab rat, I’m not a man that would handcuff a girl to ring ropes and beat the snot out of her girlfriend, then say that it wasn’t their fault. I’m a monster that wants to get in that ring and show everyone exactly what I’m capable of. I’m a monster that as soon as that bell rings, I get to take control. Outside of that ring, there is too much to take in, too much to consider in order for me to truly FEEL like I have control over my own actions. I love Belle, with all of my heart. She lights my soul on FIRE and our passion for one another will burn anything you put in front of us.



But…



She’s no monster. She has no impact on my actions in that ring. I might not have expected you to answer my call for a match at Ultimate Carnage, but I’m glad you did. It almost seems fitting. A match… That says so much in the stipulation alone, ‘Shattered Dreams…’”



She smiles and stops, turning to face the camera.



“‘Shattered’ is a good way of putting what we’re left working with Trent. Abandoned and alone, we fight for what we believe in and hope it sticks. YOU are the monster that I hope to be at some point in the future. Former champion, current champion, it doesn’t matter. Belts? Like anything else manmade, they will eventually fade into nothing. A forgettable title reign sounds lame when compared to the moments that you and I will put together in our match. Glass crunching beneath both of our boots as we collide, not out of hatred, but a hidden need we have to prove just how vicious, just how violent, and just how ruthless we can be. If we have what it takes to stand up after this match, after everything we do to each other, shake hands, and continue on?” The excitement in Zephyr’s voice is nearly palpable as she almost bounces at the thought, “Mmm… It’s going to be good Trent and I promise that both of our bloodlusts will be satisfied. What people don’t seem to understand is that when something becomes ‘shattered,’ it doesn’t mean that it’s gone forever. It doesn’t mean that the opposition has won. It means that now we get a chance to rebuild into something better. All it takes is that once piece of ourselves to take, and build back up on into something new, better than before. Something the world has yet to see…”



Zephyr’s gaze goes off into the distance before coming back and focusing solely on the camera. "A comeback tour is never easy, do people still like you? Do they still find us relevant? Well, there’s only one way to find out. I KNOW I’m ready to return and now the only question left unanswered until Ultimate Carnage is whether or not everyone else is ready. They say that you can’t test yourself unless you test yourself against the best. What better way, what better comeback, than to meet in the ring against another abandoned monster, shattered glass littered around us like the fragments of what once was, and we push each other to the limit, before going even further?”



She smiles, relishing in the thought.



“I love you like a brother Trent. One way or another, we both share the fact that we were born in blood, to bleed, and to share this with others. What do you say to this dance brother? Together, we can show the world that even when something is shattered,” She pauses to look around her before continuing, “Abandoned… That is when we are at our most dangerous.”



She winks at the camera as a wall of a nearby building crumbles behind her, encompassing the scene in a cloud of dust, the last thing we see being Zephyr’s gaze, one eye green, the other brown, before she disappears in the cloud of dust.