Meghan Strader, Gavin Taylor & Nevado vs. Oskar Theron, Deanna Frost & Waylon Creek

[SnowQueenSCW]

Frost No More

”Sleepless in New York”

Eyrie Tower
New York City, New York
October 5th, 2025
3:13am

Another sleepless night came for Deanna Frost, causing the redhead to pace around the mass expanse that was her ex-wife’s castle suite on the top of the tall Eyrie Tower. She could hear the ticking of the clock above the marble fireplace every time she entered and re-entered the family room, the whole ground floor (save for the guest bedroom that had been made for Elsianna to avoid the child having to use the stairs while she recovered) being her ‘domain’.

In fact, it wasn’t just the clock that pricked her ears with sound. Every sound felt sharp, unnatural: her own breath, the creak of her bare feet on the panels of the wooden floor, the quiet swish of city wind brushing against hundred-foot-high glass and from thousands of feet below. She could, just barely, hear the occasional horn honking of the impatient driver, New York City at its finest.

For hours, she had walked circles within the living chamber, sometimes seeing herself reflected in the tall glass windows that lead to that damn balcony. Her reflection didn’t lie – she looked like she was some kind of animal trapped in a cage.

Trapped… a good word…

She ran a hand through her red hair—messy now, even by her own standards (a direct result from all the tossing and turning she had endured in a futile attempt to get some sleep). The sleeveless shirt, dark-green in color, clung to her back with a light sheen of sweat, despite the cooling air from the AC (Selena rarely let it get warm in her). She hadn’t worked out. Not tonight. This wasn’t the sweat of effort.

It was anxiety.

“What fucking good are you?” she breathed in before exhaling a shaky breath.

Why had she gone to that stupid event? Why had she let Oskar see her? Why hadn’t she just left after his match and not stuck around for the whole show? Look where that had gotten her! Oskar’s voice had burrowed itself into her skull like a damn parasite!

He didn’t even say it with venom. Deanna laughed bitterly. That was the worst part of it all! The fact that Oskar had not flung the line to ‘get to her’ or play some mind games. He genuinely had been disappointed – crushed – that he was getting her and not Selena on his team. The question, no matter how many times Deanna looked at it… was raw honesty. Nothing else. A passing judgment from someone who thought they were simply stating facts.

“What fucking good are you?”

And with that question, swimming around in her brain came the same answer. The truth she couldn’t outrun in the silence. She didn’t know. She didn’t know what good she was. She didn’t know what good she could do…

Yet, I have less than a year to save Selena.
And find a way back to where I was in SCW.
And fix the relationship between Elsa and Selena.
And…and…and…

The familiar headache and overwhelming feeling of anxiety starting rising deep in her core again, causing Deanna to stop and take a few breaths before resuming her pacing.

It was so frustrating because she used to know. A little over a year ago, she had known, back when it was her tearing through Veil’s – then known as the Enigma – twisted games! Literally fighting through fire to save Jessica Winters, defending the United States Championship in huge matches. Her wife was the Snow Queen, and her? No longer ‘The Queen’s Guard’ but now ‘The Red Lionness’. The striker and grappler. The fighter! The long-reigning champion! Even if she was always seen as the second Frost, the lesser one, it had stung less and less with each passing day she was achieving more and more!

Well… what was she now? Now that all of that had been lost in the past and she was just getting by?

What was she? She wasn’t a red lion anymore. She wasn’t a Queen’s Guard – even with Selena eyeing the tag titles in some twisted form of retaliation. What was she? Just a former champion with a cracked reputation and a ghost in her chest that ached like she had been shot there.

The tournament with Oskar and Creek loomed. First match in a few days. Big spotlight. Bigger expectations. And she was already in ANOTHER tournament! One that was supposed to have her full attention! How had she been roped into this madness? First SoA and now Trios?! What was going on?! It was like the universe, which had left her post-RTG with nothing was now overcompensating or something! And she couldn’t sleep because—because she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be in Trios in the first place! She wasn’t sure she could carry her share – screw the idea of ‘leading the team’. She wasn’t even sure she could be a good member of the time!

She felt her fists clench and relax on their own. Her last tag match, with Luz teaming with her against Oskar and Erik, Luz had been the one carrying the weight and Deanna just managing to hang on and get a good shot that lead to the win. Even so, there was no denying who had done the majority of work and it hadn’t been Deanna. Now? She wouldn’t have Luz – no, she’d be fighting Luz’s partner and Deanna’s friend, Amelia. “What the hell…” Deanna sighed under her breath. What more could possibly happen to mess with her? She dare not ask that question out loud for fear of it actually happening.

She turned from the window and crossed the room again.

“What fucking good am I?” she whispered to the dark shadows, not expecting an answer.

“Dunno,” said a smaller voice behind her, startling her. She spun around, startled. Standing in the archway to the hallway, in a long t-shirt and one crutch under her arm, was Elsianna.

“But I think you owe the swear jar a dollar.” The twelve-year old added.

“Elsa,” Deanna said, rushing to her, “you should be asleep—”

“You were stomping around like a horse.” Elsianna said, crutching forward. “I figured we were under siege or something. That or mother got crazy and bought me a horse.” She rolled her eyes at the thought.

The little jab towards her love did not go unnoticed by Deanna, but she chose to ignore it. “How’s the leg?” she asked, carefully moving Elsianna to sit on one of the comfy chairs, ensuring the leg was properly placed.

“Sucks,” Elsianna answered without hesitation.

Deanna kneeled down beside her, causing the child to look at her sideways.

“So,” the girl asked, “are you okay?”

Deanna blinked. “What?”

“You have that face,” Elsianna said, pointing at her own with exaggerated brows. “The dramatic, storm-in-the-distance face.”

“I’m not being dramatic.”
“You’re being dramatic.” Elsianna repeated calmly. “It’s the tournament, right?”

All Deanna could do was nod her head, causing Elsianna to slowly nod hers.

“You don’t have to win it, Mom.”
It was so blatantly simple, but what did the redhead expect from a twelve-year-old. “That’s not the problem, hunny.”

“Well then, what is?” came the inevitable reply

Deanna breathed.  “I don’t know if I belong there anymore,” she said finally.
“In the tournament?”
“In SCW…”

There was immediate silence but Deanna pushed herself to explain. “It’s not about being enough anymore. It’s about doing enough. Carrying your weight. I used to know my role in the ring. With your mother, it made sense. It was… it was easy. Now I feel like I’m... nothing. Just a name with some history thanks to her.”

Elsianna frowned. “But you’re you. You’re Deanna Frost. You raised me. You used to take down people twice your size! You walked out of a burning building!”

Deanna cracked a smile. “That was one time.”

“And it was awesome,” Elsa stated. “And look, maybe you’re not the biggest, or the flashiest. But the thing is... you don’t have to know exactly who you are to be someone.”

Elsianna leaned in, resting her head against Deanna’s shoulder.

“Maybe you don’t need to figure it all out right now.” The child said softly. “Maybe you just need to trust that you’ll figure it out in the ring and along the way.”

Deanna stared into the fire again. Her reflection in the glass above it was tired, yes. Worn. But there was still something alive in her eyes. Something stubborn. Had that always been there?

She didn’t have the answers. Not yet. But maybe she didn’t need them to walk forward.

“I don’t know if I can carry this team,” she said aloud.
“Then don’t,” Elsa replied. “Just be part of it.”

Slowly, gratefully, Deanna gently wrapped her arms around her daughter in a gentle hug. “You’re awfully wise for a twelve-year-old.”

“I know,” Elsa said smugly.

Quietly, the redhead helped her daughter back to bed, promising to be more quiet so the young girl could sleep. Alone once more, Deanna started for her own bedroom but stopped before reaching the first step, eventually returning back to the living room where the fireplace was, staring into its embers.

What fucking good are you?

She should have known the question would not go away so easily…

_________________________________________

So… where do we start?

I’ve been asking myself that for the last few days, SCW Universe and all the Gritters listening. I’ve been asking myself that because, I have to admit, I want to take you back a year. A year ago, about this time, my life was given a… I guess you could see a wild turn in the road? A radical change that I didn’t want? My career blew a tire and drove into a ditch and was stuck there for nine grueling months.

Doctors telling me I couldn’t go back. Psychiatrists telling me I couldn’t go back. Employment, the Board of Directors, telling me I couldn’t come back. A title that meant so much to me – that I fought for over a year to defend on all levels, against all opponents, that reign forgotten, my credibility as an SCW superstar was shot to hell. I thought, at the time, that not even my time being wrongfully imprisoned in Frankfurt, had I been so thrown off the path and left with no idea where to go.

Fast forward a year to now. No longer the United States Champion. I don’t have a rematch clause so there is no ‘quick solution’ or ‘fast path’ after losing at RTG. I’m left with more doubt than proof that I can still be an SCW superstar, the one thing I wish to prove more than anything. I don’t have any stroke, unlike my wife, I don’t have anything to lean on other than everything “Post-Mental-Breakdown” which seems to be what it’s being called backstage, I have nothing.

No direction.
No stroke.
No clout.
Nadda.

Hell, I’m not even good enough to be on the next pay-per-view card, was I? And let me be clear when I say that. The only bitterness I feel is towards myself. Because I blame myself. Since I came back, something hasn’t been clicking. Something hasn’t been working in my head. Everything feels off. Feels different. I don’t know, maybe I’m still reeling from what I been through, maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Maybe I just don’t have it in me anymore! Maybe RTG wasn’t just the end of what should have ended long ago for me, but also a glaring message that I can’t be who I was before. That I can’t reach those heights.

Like I said, I thought that time was the biggest derailment in my career…

And just like that – SNAP! – it was like I was tossed out of the ditch and onto the road again. Like I was ripped out of the lost wanderings and placed on a path with a map. That map, ladies and gentlemen, was the Shot of Adrenaline Tournament. And I thought to myself, this is it! This HAS to be it! This is the direction I am meant to go! This is the thing I need to do! Not just for my career! Not just for the people that STILL believed in me despite me being gone for so long, despite me failing at RTG, not just for my family that have done all they can to support me in coming back, but also for myself as a woman. As someone that NEEDS to know. That needs to be free of the doubt. Can I?| Can’t I? I need to know!

And Shot of Adrenaline, a tournament near and dear to my family, to be given the chance to be part of that? It seemed like something bigger was at play here! But just as soon as it happened, that road I had been placed on… well, it took a detour! And round and round and round I go until, again, I am so thrown off my course that I am not 100% sure where I am at this point!

I am ONE match into my own trek through Shot of Adrenaline, while several others are on their second and their third. I have one win – two points – and nothing else because ANOTHER tournament has been placed before me and I am having to take that detour before I can refocus and get back to the tournament I need to win.

And the reason I say all of this – how off course I feel – is because I don’t know what the hell is going to happen. Last week on Breakdown, I watched everything dissolve and utter chaos explode in the ring. Everyone attacking everyone. Teammates not working together, enemies siding with one another, a tornado storm thrashing around in the ring, and me… powerless to stop it.

I don’t feel like I’m walking into a tournament, SCW. I feel like I am walking through a damn tornado. A storm that threatens to rip everything and everyone within it apart and it terrifies me. It terrifies me because it endangers the tournament I am supposed to be focusing on. It terrifies me because I saw what happened to someone very dear to me, Amelia Nevado, and I couldn’t do anything about it. What’s more, I don’t know if I can do anything about it. Last year, Amelia, you let Blake Mason guide you to winning the tournament in the finals when he interfered, so I know you understand. I am going to be watching like Oskar – a wildcard like Creek – punching you and attacking you… someone that may relate to me more than anyone else. Feeling lost. Feeling unsure where to go. I am going to be watching them hurt you, Amelia, and I will have to fight every fiber of my being not to get involved and stop them. Not to jump in and hold them back or attack them.

And I hate that, Amelia. I hate that I can’t just do what I want to do and wrestle. I hate that I am teamed with people that care only about winning. That care only about getting the job done. That will accept any way, hook or crook, to get what they want! And I know! Creek is desperate at this point! Hasn’t won a match since, I don’t know, since before I came back. Lost to Xander, lost his mojo – I can relate to that better than most people. Your wife LITERALLY had to carry me through my first match back in SCW, keeping me safe from the European Fiery Nation. But it’s BECAUSE of that match, Amelia, that I know how dangerous Oskar Theron is! It’s because I’ve watched him that I know how dangerous Wayon Creek is!

And while you have some impressive speakers – people that like to run their mouths and bite off more than they can chew, Amelia, with Strader unable to make good on beating Syren and Cannon and Gavin Taylor… well, being Gavin Taylor – talented as they are – I have some people that just want to hurt people. You saw it last week. You experienced it first hand! Oskar and Creek want to hurt people.

And I can’t hold them back, Amelia. Because while everyone is eyeing the prize here. While everyone wants to talk about winning the tournament and getting those Trios contracts, just like you did last year, and talk about the power it gives them, the opportunity it gives them, I… I…

Sigh… I’m sorry, Amelia… I’m sorry, SCW. I just… I can’t keep talking like this.

I’m sorry, Amelia. And even Meghan and Gavin – though I am not really friendly with you two. But everyone is talking about the shiny contracts and… and all I can see is the pandemonium and chaos that happened last week. Everyone wants to talk about how they will win it. How they will use it. How they will take it and change SCW with it or change their careers or ‘finally get what is owed to them’ or gods know what else. All I see is the people getting hurt. Everyone here, including you, Amelia, simply want to win.

And I… I just want to survive.

Because you look past this, Amelia – and it’s either Syren-lead or James Evans-infested – that awaits us the week after in the semifinals. Not just one but two impossible mountains we are talking about here and that doesn’t include this match – and I say that with respect to you and all you’ve done and accomplished, Amelia! I truly do!

And I keep… I keep seeing you on the ground, beaten again, broken moreso – or it’s me that’s beaten again and me that’s broken again, put back on the shelf before I can even finish the Shot of Adrenaline Tournament. And it terrifies me. It terrifies me, Amelia, because for a moment, I actually felt… I felt like I was on the right path again. I was on the right path that could maybe get my career – my life – back on track. And now, I have to walk through this lightning storm, holding a damn metal rod or something and praying to the gods that I don’t get zapped.

Because I truly believe, you and me? We could have an amazing match. You and Syren? Me and Syren? Us and any of our teammates or those opting for the semifinals? But you throw in James Evans next week. You throw in Oskar and Creek tonight. And who’s to say another “Blake Mason” won’t pop up?! Is it going to be another piledriver that gets you through? And on who is it going to be delivered to? Because I can tell you right now, Amelia, there are a good number of people that do NOT want me in the Shot of Adrenaline Tournament and would love to see me taken out of it before I even got really started.

So… what good am I?

Sigh… I don’t know.

I don’t know what good I can be tonight. I don’t know what I can do to help. What I can do to learn. What I can do to achieve. I don’t know any of that. I don’t even know if I can win, Amelia. I don’t know if I can trust my partners. I certainly can’t trust a guy that’s part of Fall of Man. I don’t know if I’m strong enough. I don’t know if I’m fast enough or can strike hard enough to put you or Strader or Taylor away.

I don’t know basically anything, Amelia! And that won’t change next week if I happen to get past you and your team and make it to the semifinals.

The only thing I know, Amelia. The ONLY thing I know unequivocally is that, no matter how much I don’t know… I NEED to survive. I am GOING to survive! I can’t go back, so I am going to go forward. I am going to go forward through this storm and I am going to survive whatever hell and whatever chaos is brought to it! Because I haven seen a GLIMPSE of something amidst this insanity, Amelia. Something bright and NO! it isn’t the shine of a golden ticket in the Trios Contract. It’s a long and winding road that leads to the shine of the Adrenaline Championship!

So I don’t know, Amelia. I don’t know if I will be able to look out for you – I don’t know if you even want me to tonight – I don’t know if I am just wasting time here because this tournament is notoriously lousy to the Frost family. I don’t know what will happen but I can assure, Amelia, and you can tell your teammates and if you run into Syren’s or James’ team on the way to the ring, you can tell them this too. I am going to survive!

I am going to survive whatever happens! Whatever or whomever comes my way! Because I will make it THROUGH this storm and find my way BACK to being what a Frost – what I – am meant to be! An SCW superstar! I just truly hope, when tonight is done, you’ll be able to stand with me one way or another.

Checkmate, bitches!