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Her body ached, each nerve ending alive and alert. All she wanted was to get through this grueling match in one piece.

Amy Dumas raised herself up to her hands and knees as she attempted to crawl toward the door to escape. She was competing against Lisa Marie Varon in the first ever Women's steel cage match. Eric Bischoff had had the second RAW Roulette and spun the wheel to determine the match - then had declared that Lita's opponent for the night would be Victoria.

Amy rose to her feet, exhausted and sore, and she tried to make her way to the door of the steel cage. She was close, so close...

He was there, just as had been planned for the match... As she neared the door, Matt Hardy smashed the steel against her skull - hard... Amy fell back with the force of the blow, shock coursing through her along with the pain.

Damn it... Matt was her boyfriend! He wasn't supposed to be so rough with her. Yet, there was a brutal side to him, one the redhead had actually experienced before. She'd thought those problems had been worked out and cleared up, but judging by his force with the cage door, she suddenly found herself questioning that.

As she held and rubbed her head gingerly, Amy moved herself into a sitting position.

When she looked up, she found herself instinctively cringing.

Matt, a manically gleeful gleam in his eyes, was now inside the ring, and he was coming after her. This had all been part of the plan for the match - however, Matt actually harming her was not. And with the threatening look he was giving her, Amy found cause for alarm. She backed up on her butt, one hand reaching up as though to ward off the dark-haired man.

The diva was nearly cursing herself for her fear, as she was normally strong enough to stand up to anyone - pretty much anyone but Matt Hardy, anyway. As he continued to near her, he was actually licking his lips - as though the prospect of getting his hands on her was delicious...

The redhead suddenly opened her eyes, which she'd squeezed tightly shut as Matt had been getting closer still. Her boyfriend - ex-boyfriend on-screen since the previous week's RAW - was scurrying up the steel cage and escaping - like a scolded dog, as J.R. remarked.

Amy turned her head to see her savior, who knelt by her side to check on her... And, although she still ached, her eyes widened in surprise at who he happened to be. It was so unbelievable to her to see him back - and here, at that. Since the roster split, he'd been a SmackDown superstar, but even more than that, he'd been very seriously injured - and wasn't supposed to be returning until February or even March. Yet, here he was...

Adam Copeland - Edge in the squared circle - was here...

"Are you all right, Amy?" the tall blond man asked, surprising her further by getting out of character.

The redhead blinked, one hand still pressed to her head. She nodded.

"I...I think so..." She looked back toward the ramp, up which Matt Hardy was retreating. The man turned back, and that mad, joyful expression returned to his face. He raised a hand, doing his 'Mattitude' gesture.

Amy's blood ran cold as ice in her veins... Because to her, somehow, the act didn't seem like an act at all...