02-06-2021, 02:26 PM
02-10-2021, 08:15 PM
02-11-2021, 12:08 AM
OOC: Going to give a bit of a trigger warning before anyone gets into this for abuse (even if you're legally not a child anymore, it's still not right if your parents treat you this way) and some things that can be considered racist comments. Needless to say... this is only a small glimpse into how bad Amelia's had it under her parents, so consider yourselves warned.
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Amelia Blythe and La Pequeña Luz may both be proud competitors, but neither would ever claim themselves to be unbeatable.
Still, sometimes accepting defeat was hard when the ghosts of your past were constantly lingering over your head.
It goes without saying that when she first broke into the business, Luz wanted nothing more than to always find herself on the winning end of matches, as optimistic new faces always tend to do. Having the additional pressure of being acknowledged as the daughter of the legendary El Espíritu Angélico made that desire for victory burn even brighter, and when those wins didn’t come nearly as often as she would have liked, it left her feeling like her spirit had been crushed on more than one occasion. Even after Amelia came into her life and helped her fully embrace her desire to become more than just the successor to her father’s legacy, there was still the occasional moments where she wouldn’t be able to win and even her indomitable joy would find itself shaken as she sought to try and get herself back together.
Amelia, however, was always a lot harder on herself in defeat, and her parents were entirely to blame for that.
The Blythes always considered themselves elite even among the elites, a fact that was solidified by patriarch Aleister Blythe having arguably one of the best win-loss records out of any professional wrestler to ever grace the squared circle. The man was about as flawless a competitor as you could get, and when he and his wife Ophelia brought their children into the world and dictated they would carry on the family mantle in the ring, it wasn’t expected, but REQUIRED of them to try and maintain either a similar or better record than that of their father. Amelia’s older siblings rarely had trouble pulling this off as a tandem, even if the way they went about it never sat well with mom and dad, but the perfect record Amelia maintained up until that fateful match with Luz that changed everything was never treated as anything special in their household; Amelia never losing was just ‘business as usual’ for the Blythe name.
Amelia would be the first to tell you that, for as hard as she’s working to change and for as much as she’s accepted that she can’t always win and there will be someone out there at times who’s better than you at first, it’s hard to just let go of such a toxic mentality when it was drilled into your head growing up that even the smallest of weaknesses would NOT be tolerated.
That was why, in the aftermath of Last Grasp of Reality, the two girls had thrown themselves heavily into training for whenever their next match was scheduled, working out whatever flaws existed in their abilities so that they could not only turn things around in their next match but also be ready to make a far bigger statement the next time they crossed paths with Lyza Reyes and Devin Brando. Amelia, however, was pushing herself far harder, and Luz often found herself having to physically drag her girlfriend out of their home’s training room in a desperate bid to snap her out of it, knowing full well that if left to her own devices on this front the grappler would push herself to the point where she would cause serious harm to her body without realizing it.
On this particular day, the first Breakdown following the pay-per-view was in the books, and the girls were waiting for news on the next card to find out if they would be able to get back into action. They hadn’t been in attendance due to not being booked and the offer of having the night off, which didn’t sit well with them at first until they decided they could make use of the time to get some more training in and be able to do some more studying to better understand the opposition that would be awaiting them. Amelia had awoken particularly early and managed to slip free of Luz’s snake-like cuddling without waking the luchadora, quickly changing into her workout gear and heading into their home gym. Once she’d taken care of her warm-up stretches to keep her body limber, she wasted no time in retrieving the training dummy she used to practice applying and transitioning between submissions, starting off with some simple joint manipulation at the hand and wrist while slowly working her way into an armbar.
“You’re too slow Amelia. Quicker transitions give your opponent less time to find a way to escape.”
A growl escaped Amelia’s throat as she heard her father’s voice echo in her mind. He in particular had always been the harshest critic of her technique, being that he and his wife both simply accepted that he was the ‘superior grappler’ between the two of them. Her mother would only intervene about technique when he was too busy to ‘coach’ her, though she would always be the first one to scold her for every other thing that was considered a shortcoming by their impossibly high standards. She released the arm and went straight for the dummy’s legs, immediately applying a heel hook and wrenching on it in a manner that would make anybody tap out almost immediately. Once she released that hold, she took a moment to ponder what she wanted to work on next in her offensive technique.
“A Blythe never gives their opponent so much as a chance to breathe, dear. There is no one better than a Blythe, and you must show them why they do not deserve to share the ring with you.”
Amelia shook her head and angrily spat in a random direction, not caring about something she could clean up later as she tried to ignore the memories looping through her brain. Unfortunately, she couldn’t keep her body from going on autopilot from those old habits, and she quickly lunged into a grounded hammerlock on the dummy, almost trying to rip its arm out of socket before flipping into a bridging chin lock.
“Blythes do not give up. Giving up is an admission of weakness, and Blythes do not show weakness. There is no one capable of outwrestling us.”
Going straight into the hold she had tapped out to at Last Grasp of Reality would prove to be a mistake, and she immediately released the hold and let her body hit the floor hard. Her eyes almost seemed glassed over as she could see it flicker through her subconscious; watching as she ultimately had to tap out and give Lyza and Devin the win because Luz wasn’t able to get to her. A frustrated groan was released as she closed her eyes and pressed her palms into her forehead, almost in silent pleading to be left alone so she could just live her life and pursue her career her own way.
She had no idea how long she laid there for, only that she couldn’t stop her mind from recalling the last time she was in the presence of her parents all on her own. After all, that had been the moment where she’s finally started to realize that everything about the way she was raised and trained was wrong, and it took her very first loss to finally realize that.
It had been hard to bid farewell to La Pequeña Luz, the luchadora who had shown her kindness and respect even when Amelia had tried to turn her away and maintain her air of superiority. Considering the masked athlete had the fact of proving she could defeat her on her side, it was impossible to keep her head held high and pretend she was above anything the girl had to offer, and ultimately, that had been for the best. Luz had earned the Blythe prodigy’s respect, both with her well-deserved victory and proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she busted her ass just as hard to earn her place in this business and had just as many demons and obstacles she was trying to overcome as Amelia had, and in opening herself up Amelia had come to terms with the fact that her emotions didn’t make her vulnerable, they made her a human being, just like Luz.
The two had exchanged contact information before Amelia had boarded her flight out of Mexico, and she had promised Luz that no matter what she would stay in contact, especially considering they had sworn to be one another’s emotional rock as needed. It was hard to believe that in just a few months Amelia had felt more like her true self than she had in her entire life, but she knew exactly who was to blame for that and she had no reason to justify the way her parents treated her, just as Luz didn’t deserve the way her mother was acting even if it was understandable why she didn’t want her daughter in the wrestling business.
Still, when her flight finally landed the following morning and she found herself back in the UK, it was hard to just ignore the knot that was present in her stomach, especially when she found someone at the gate holding up a sign with her name on it that indicated her family had hired someone to bring her straight home, which was never a good sign.
‘Better than them being here to meet me,’ Amelia bitterly thought. ‘Though not by much.’
It had always bothered her why her parents opted to wait until they were behind closed doors before they ever said anything to her about her performance in anything, though as she found herself quietly seated in the back of the limo that was returning her to her proverbial prison, she now knew full well the reasoning. Luz had managed to get through to her that the vast majority of everything she and even her siblings had been put through was, by any definition, child abuse, and the fact that even now that she was legally defined as an adult she was still shackled to them and forced to bend to their every command made it that much harder to accept that she truly deserved to be treated this way.
Because she deserved so much better, and Luz’s presence in her life now was more than enough proof of that.
As the limo finally pulled to a stop in front of the manor she called home and the chauffeur opened the door for her, Amelia knew she had no choice but to face the music now. Grabbing her luggage, she nodded in thanks to the man who drove her here before making her way up the stairs to the front door, intentionally taking her sweet time in a vain attempt to prolong the inevitable. Unfortunately, she was going to have to make her way inside sooner or later, so she took a deep breath and steeled herself before opening the door.
“Welcome home, dear. Let the servants take care of your luggage, your father and I would like to have a talk with you in his study.”
She’d barely taken two steps inside before her mother’s voice met her ears, and the woman stood proudly before her, hands folded like a ‘proper woman’ in front of her as she waited for her daughter to abandon her luggage to follow. Amelia knew the tone all too well: her mother wasn’t suggesting or requesting anything of her, she was demanding that her daughter do as she asked, all while hiding it behind that sickening sweetness that would make anyone buy into the idea that she actually cared for her child and that what was about to happen was for her own good.
Amelia knew better, though… and that included knowing this was a fight she wasn’t going to win, which was why she quickly set her luggage on the floor and followed her mother toward her father’s study, glancing back only briefly to confirm that the manor’s staff (she refused to call them servants because even they deserved so much better than that) was taking care of transporting her belongings up to her room.
Once they’d finally reached their destination, Ophelia opened the door and gestured for her daughter to enter first, following her in and closing the door before moving around her to stand beside the desk where Aleister sat. The man was focused on the laptop that rested in front of him, turned at an angle to ensure that when she took her designated place before the desk Amelia could see full well that it was the closing moments of her match with Luz… her very first professional wrestling defeat ever. She watched as Luz, against all odds and logic, had managed to pull her way to the bottom rope to become the first person to escape Amelia’s application of the Blight Choke, the absolute disbelief on her face as the referee confirmed that she had not made the luchadora submit, and the desperate attempt to drag Luz back to the center of the ring to reapply the hold that had initiated the final sequence that led to her undoing. The moment the referee’s hand hit the mat for the three after Amelia had fallen victim to Luz’s Ilumina la Noche finisher, her father paused the video and turned his undivided attention towards her. There was clear disappointment in the look he wore, but it was also easy to see that beneath that mask there was nothing but absolute fury over what he’d just watched.
“Amelia… would you care to explain this to us?”
Amelia gulped, knowing precisely what kind of answer he was looking for. “It… it was one of my matches from my Mexican excursion, father. I… I lost-”
“I can clearly see that,” he cut her off, already sounding irritated. “Would you care to tell us exactly how you allowed this… wretched excuse for a wrestler to actually pin your shoulders to the mat?”
“She…” Amelia was struggling to figure out what she could actually say in this scenario. Truth be told, it was clear as day that she had put her very best foot forward, but she knew she couldn’t use that as an argument because the response would be that she should have won if that was the case. “She escaped my submission, father. I don’t know how, but I let the shock of it happening-”
Amelia flinched when her father slammed the laptop shut, not caring in the slightest about if he’d damaged it considering it was easily replaceable for him.
“You made a mistake,” he growled. “Blythes do not make mistakes. Blythes do not lose to filth from another country, especially those who are too afraid to show their faces in public.”
“B-But… but her mask…”
“You aren’t defending her, are you dear?” her mother asked, her tone cold and condescending. “What matters in her culture is irrelevant because SHE is irrelevant to US. And yet, you have disgraced our family by allowing this walking circus act to pin you. She will forever be able to brag to whoever will give her the time of day that SHE tarnished the future of our family, and YOU are to blame for allowing it to happen. You were trained to be better than this Amelia.”
“Yes, mother…” Amelia let her gaze lower to the floor, fighting every urge in her newly awakened brain to say anything back because it would only make things worse. Deep down, she was wishing Luz had been able to somehow come back with her and stand by her side, giving her the strength to finally stand up to these two and make it clear she was no longer their puppet, that she was so much more than just the future of their family name.
“I suppose there is nothing left to do but correct this mistake,” her father suddenly said as he rose from his seat, carefully moving around the desk to approach Amelia. She could only stare at him, worrying over what he was about to do but doing her best not to show it. A Blythe never shows fear, because Blythes are the ones that others are meant to fear. Her eyes followed her father’s hand as it moved to rest on her shoulder, his gaze devoid of any of the emotion it once held.
Before she even realized what was happening, she suddenly found herself spun around, her oxygen being cut off as her feet left the floor and kicked in the air desperately. She knew this position all too well; considering she’d been in this position far too many times ‘to learn what to do and how it should feel.’ It was the familiar choke that was the calling card of their family, her father’s pride and joy. The same hold Luz had managed to hang on in until finding the strength to reach the ropes. She could already feel her face turning blue as her lungs were deprived of oxygen, yet her father’s grip never relaxed for even a second.
“Listen well, Amelia,” he warned, his voice low and menacing in her ear. “I will give you a few hours to rest off your jetlag, but this evening you are going to meet me in the gym and we are going to ensure that this WEAKNESS you have shown is erased. The next time you step into that ring, you are going to remind everyone who now doubts you why you are the future of our family, why you are the perfect heir to the Blythe legacy. And your mother and I are going to have a little talk about forcing a rematch so you can put this girl in her place and ensure she will NEVER be able to continue her pathetic career believing that she is superior to you in any way. Do you understand?”
Amelia tried to weakly gasp out a yes, but she had nowhere near enough air to even manage that. Aleister seemed to understand, however, and released her, motioning for his daughter to get out of his sight so he and his wife could plan the necessary training session that would attempt to return her to the ‘perfect wrestling machine’ she was supposed to be in their eyes. She wasted no time in vacating the study as best as she could, and once she was back in the hallway she took the necessary time to fill her lungs with oxygen before she even attempted to make her way towards her room.
She had known they were not going to take her first defeat well at all, but actually being put in the Blight Choke by her father went beyond even her worst fears as to how this would go, and knowing things would only get worse when she had to resume her usual training… she knew exactly what she needed to do right now, and it wasn’t sleeping off the jetlag.
She made her way back to her room as quick as her weakened body would allow, making sure to lock the door as soon as she was inside just as a means of buying herself a tiny bit more of that precious time when her presence would be demanded yet again. She quickly dug her phone out of her luggage and turned it on before immediately facetiming the person she needed more than anything right now. She felt bad that she knew the difference in time likely meant she was going to be waking her up, but she’d apologize for that soon enough and she knew it would never be held against her. After a few agonizing moments, the screen flickered to life to show the barely awake masked face she had missed so much.
“¿Hola?” she barely managed to mutter out as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
“L-Luz…” Amelia managed to say, her words becoming shaky as she finally felt her body stop resisting the tears she needed to shed. The very second she heard the British girl’s voice, Luz was immediately upright on her end of the call, suddenly very wide awake.
“Amelia? What happened? What did they do?”
It took Amelia a while to explain, considering she was falling apart, but the Latina was very patient with her and let her vent about everything. To say she was furious was a far cry from how badly she wanted to suddenly invent teleportation to be right by Amelia’s side and give her parents a piece of her mind, but Amelia had managed to convince her to just stay with her as long as she could. Luz agreed without hesitation and the next few hours had been spent with the masked maiden calming and comforting the grappling genius until they both ended up falling asleep, allowing Amelia the reprieve that, at least for now, was all she could ask for.
‘Maybe Amelia and I should look into getting new phones,’ she thought as she took a seat at the dining table. ‘We could easily make sure all our necessary contacts have the new number and maybe not have to put up with any of THEM anymore.’
As she ate breakfast, she found that, thankfully, the notification was from SCW, letting her know that she and Amelia were booked to compete on the next Breakdown in Boston. She also couldn’t resist letting a small smile grace her lips at looking into last night’s results and finding that the team they’d lost to in their last match had fallen short in their efforts against the Tag Champions, meaning a rematch between them following that setback certainly wasn’t out of the question in the near future. They just had to bounce back after their own defeat and work their way past the Golden Boys, and that thought alone already had Luz eager to get in front of a camera because from what she’d heard of the ‘brains’ of that operation, she and Amelia were going to have a LOT to say to them.
Excitement beginning to consume her, Luz quickly finished her omelet and took her coffee mug with her as she tried to track down Amelia. She found herself heading towards their gym, a feeling in the back of her head telling her that she’d most likely find her other half already engaging in training. She couldn’t help but frown at the thought, not because Amelia was working out without her, but because she was very well aware that there was a very good chance her fellow ‘fearless warrior’ was trying to push herself too hard again after their first SCW defeat.
She didn’t have much room to argue on that front, but it was easier to move on and truly better themselves when they didn’t treat it as though it was already the end of the world. That phase of their lives was supposed to be behind them.
“Amelia? Are you in here? I just got word from SCW, and you’ll never guess- ¡Mierda!”
Luz’s mug slipped from her hand and shattered to the floor, eyes wide at the sight she saw before her. The training dummy that they worked with for offensive submission purposes when they weren’t sparring with one another or someone else they could find that was willing to volunteer had both of its arms ripped off, and pinning both arms down as she relentlessly did push-ups was her significant other. The sweat that was pooling beneath her and the easily-noticeable tremble in her arms made it clear she’d been at this for a while now, and as she quickly closed the distance she could hear the familiar mantra that made her blood run cold.
“Blythes do not show weakness. Blythes do not submit.”
Calling her name failed to snap her out of it or even alert the British girl to her girlfriend’s presence, so Luz quickly abandoned that plan, knowing full well what would get her attention. Steeling herself for the potential struggle that would follow, Luz quickly pounced on Amelia once she was at the lowest point of her push-up, forcing the exhausted girl to the ground. She tried to squirm free, but Luz quickly embraced her from behind and held her tightly to ensure she couldn’t get away, though she also planted gentle kisses against her spine to ensure her that she was in no danger. The exhaustion Amelia had brought upon herself quickly won out, and she felt herself snap back to her senses and relax as Luz carefully pulled them both to a seated position, Amelia turning her body to bury her head into the crook of her beloved’s neck. Neither one knew how long they stayed like that, but they both knew that time was irrelevant in moments like this.
For however long they needed, they would always help to calm the other down until they were ready to talk.
Amelia finally pulled away enough to stare Luz in the eyes, and the masked girl gave her the most comforting smile she had to offer as she gently wiped some of the sweat from her girlfriend’s brow. They exchanged a gentle kiss that Amelia could feel herself melting into as Luz finally felt the relaxation begin to kick in.
“I’m… I’m sorry Luz…”
“You have nothing to apologize for, mi amor,” Luz assured her. “I know…”
“Still…” Amelia lamented. “I could hear their voices… I know I could have been better… I cost us because I was weak-”
“Please don’t talk that way about yourself, Ames, please…” Luz pleaded. “We lost… it happens, and it will happen again. Nobody’s perfect, and nobody should have to be perfect. There’s no reason we should feel like we have to destroy ourselves and it’ll magically make us a thousand times better. Your parents were wrong to treat you that way if you lost, just as my Mami was wrong to act as though every loss was her ‘proof’ that I should give all of this up. We’ll face Doom & Groove again at some point, and next time we WILL be much better than the first meeting.”
Amelia nodded, taking a few deep, calming breaths as the luchadora had taught her how to do when she felt those anxieties begin to flare up. “You’re right… one loss doesn’t mean that’s it for us. We push ourselves to learn and improve, the right way, and then we tackle the next challenge and bounce back.”
Luz was about to respond, but the grin on her face from the progress they’d made in fighting off the lingering remnants of Amelia’s toxic upbringing faded when her phone went off again. She knew she’d already seen the news from SCW regarding their next match so that only meant one possibility. Her fears were confirmed when she saw the text message from her mother, who proved she was closely following SCW for her own reasons as she’d likely seen the next show’s card from the company publicly promoting it to drum up ticket sales. That was the only reason why she was desperately demanding in Spanish that her daughter accept the loss their team had endured and leave it all behind ‘before she is publicly abused and humiliated by that horrific sexual deviant’ awaiting her in their next match.
“Do I even want to know what your mom’s going on about now?” Amelia asked once she glimpsed through the text for herself, feeling her own fractured sense of self-worth glue itself back together enough to be able to return the favor for Luz if necessary.
“I got word from SCW before I found you,” Luz began, nervously cutting herself off for a moment to hold Amelia closer before she started beating herself up again over spiraling back into her old forced habits. “Apparently, next Breakdown we’ve got the Golden Boys, and I’m sure at least one of them is no doubt chomping at the bit to address us for…” She trailed off as her other hand, despite clinging to her phone, motioned to how close the two of them were right now. They both let a look of disgust surface as no words needed to be said, knowing full well what people like Adam Allocco no doubt thought when the idea of a relationship between two girls came to mind.
That was all the motivation Amelia needed to help Luz get in gear as they cleaned up the mess Luz had unintentionally made from the shock of finding Amelia in the state she was in as well as themselves before tackling the day properly. Now that they knew what awaited them as they hoped to right their ship in the turbulent waters of the SCW tag division, they were bound and determined to garner a true statement win and begin climbing that mountain that stared them down.
They already had to work extra hard to be there for one another against their own parents, and they had no plans on letting themselves be beaten by a man who only cared about being a father when he could spin the situation in his favor and the partner that was nothing more than muscle meant to give him an easy ride to a championship he didn’t deserve.
“You know something? As Amelia and I stand out here in the cold, we realize that we’re tough enough to admit something that not many others would. At Last Grasp of Reality, we lost. Doom & Groove beat us fair and square, so congratulations guys. But don’t think for a second that’s the end of the Light In The Darkness, because Amelia and I aren’t going away that easily. Yeah, we suffered a setback, but all that did was give us a reason to just work harder and get better so that the next time we meet – and trust me, we WILL cross paths again at some point – we’ll be the team that earns the win next time.”
“Defeat can be a bitter pill to swallow, and I’ll be honest and admit that for the longest time, defeat was considered a fate worse than death. Maybe that sounds extreme to many of you, but ever since I finally found my freedom from their influence, I’ve never been shy about the horrible people my parents were. For most of my life, I was pushed well beyond my breaking point by them until I was nothing more than their perfect little puppet. As far as they were concerned, I wasn’t Amelia Blythe… I was just the latest face representing everything our family name stood for in this business, and before Luz came into my life, a loss like the one I suffered at your hands in that tag match Lyza would NOT have been tolerated. But… nobody’s perfect, and nobody should have to be perfect. I’m grateful that the old me is in the past because instead of being hung up on the fact that Luz and I lost, we’re looking forward to being able to get back in the ring and prove one step backward is no reason to count us out yet.”
“It’s kind of fitting that our next match will be taking place in the very city where America made its biggest statement in demanding its freedom from Amelia’s ancestors-” Luz pauses to give Amelia an apologetic smile as the British girl rolls her eyes, not being fazed in the slightest as many have long since moved past all of that. “-considering how hard the two of us have had to work to get out from underneath our respective family issues. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the lineage I come from and I’m glad my Papi paved the way for me to be able to earn my place in this sport, but I’ve come a long way from just being seen as the girl trying to fill the big boots he left behind, just as Amelia no longer has to feel like she has to always be the absolute best or else. For the record, that kind of mindset actually does more harm than good when you do inevitably falter, and there are a lot of people in SCW who seem like they’re going to be smarting when the cracks finally begin to show.”
There is no smile on Luz’s face even if her voice carries her usual jovial tone, making it clear that even if the competitors who fall under that umbrella could care less about her or outright despise her, they still deserve a warning to reconsider a few things before they push themselves to the brink of self-destruction. Amelia releases Luz’s hand and moves her to the Latina’s shoulder, a message of reassurance that has a silent meaning all its own between the two of them and an acknowledgment of the sort of kind-hearted soul Luz is despite the nature of this business.
“In a way, it also feels fitting that SCW decided our next opportunity to compete would come in the form of the Golden Boys, considering two girls who’ve made it no secret they have a few issues with their respective families are about to clash with the brainchild of a man who has proven time and time again exactly what kind of father he truly is. We’ve done our homework Adam, and we know full well what kind of father you’ve been to your son Alistaire, a man who certainly didn’t deserve what happened to him, just as he doesn’t deserve to find his name coming out of your mouth any time you need an excuse to cover up your own shortcomings. If SCW has proven anything amidst the recent chaos that has taken place regarding a group of wrestlers that have defeated you and your ‘partner’ fairly recently, it’s that if you were serious about caring for your son’s well-being and needing time off to be by his side, then you would have most certainly been granted it… had you actually asked for it.
But no, instead he finds himself being treated as nothing more than your latest attempt to try and cover up the fact that despite all your bragging, you and Bison didn’t have the kind of showing you’d hoped to have in the Tag League. Even if we were to believe that you didn’t perform half as well as you could have because of those circumstances, it doesn’t change the fact that you have no one to blame but yourselves for being unable to prove your claims true that you were worthy of being able to go all the way and find yourselves up against the Tag Team Champions. It’s called being able to adapt even when the situation isn’t in your favor… something I would’ve expected a veteran like you Adam to know all about.”
Amelia can only shake her head, knowing full well what kind of competitor Adam Allocco is even despite how much longer he’s been in the business. No matter how highly touted his skills may be, the fact that he’s desperate enough to even use his own injured son as a shield to hide behind to explain why he and Bison aren’t as successful as they maybe could have been is all the proof she needs.
“Color me surprised that the first thing Adam decides to go for is the fact that we just so happen to be two girls in a relationship. For the record, Amelia is the only one here who’s actually a lesbian. I’m bisexual, though I doubt that means much to a man who thinks what we have is just some sort of gimmick that’s nothing more than a cheap ploy to try and either imitate a team that meant nothing to us until we actually joined this roster or a way to attempt to stand out right out of the gate. Considering his go-to example is a musical duo he can’t even remember the name of whose have long since revealed that while they were never a couple they are both either LGBTQ or in support of it, I’m not surprised that all he knows of the subject is what pornography has done to it. You aren’t the first to target our relationship by thinking only with what’s between your legs Adam, but you could have at least tried a little harder in convincing us that you’re not the kind of man we already know you are.
I mean, the fact that you and Bison walk around with someone who’s clearly a porn star as your ‘manager’ says all we need to know on that front.
But if you’re half the competitor you claim to be, then maybe it’ll actually make you happy to know that we’re coming to Breakdown ready to fight. After all, we’re fresh off a loss and still hungry to make a big impression, and that’s all we could ever need to put your theory of being the team that should, by all accounts, be next in line for the Tag Titles to the test. After all, what better impression to prove that you’re all regrouped from your Tag League performance than by taking down this brand new team that’s primed and ready to fight our way up the ladder?”
Luz certainly looked eager to fight, knowing full well that this wasn’t the first time she and Amelia had surfaced in a new company and had their relationship questioned. Everything about them was one hundred percent real, right down to the love that helped them fight their way through some of the more difficult points in their lives, and if Adam thought he was being entertaining by making a mockery of it, then what would that say about him, and by extension the partner he was so insistent on being a mouthpiece for, when his entertainment was upended by a pair of people that were actually here to compete with the very best?
“I do hate to be the one to break this to you, Adam, but a tag team takes more than one person to be successful, and that’s the part that I think disappoints us the most about you. Such a tenured veteran with all these claims about the accolades he’s held in the past and ‘should’ still be holding today, and you wonder why no one is giving you the respect you believe you deserve. Your atrocious professional conduct aside, why is it that instead of doing the veteran action of leading by example for your partner to ensure he has a long and prosperous future in this business, you’re more than happy to let him do all the heavy lifting while you take all the credit?”
“Considering you weren’t even allowed to speak your own piece to us Bison, I would like to think that you’d surely want more out of this than just doing Adam’s bidding and leaving it at that? I can tell you barely like having to work with him, and we’d both be willing to bet that you could do so much more in this business if you were able to work with someone who could actually give you all the tools you need to succeed. There’d be no need to be the ‘silent muscle’ who levels others and gets paid while your partner gets to do all the gloating. I think it’s painfully clear Adam is holding you back, especially when you could speak your own mind and earn your own success, including a much bigger paycheck than whatever deal he’s probably ensured you got the proverbial shaft on.”
“The fact that Adam has proven himself to be so much of a parasite is an insult to the kind of athlete he claims to be and a slap in the face of everything Bison could be if he stopped holding him back all because he hasn’t realized that he needs an actual, honest TEAM if he ever wants to truly make it in tag team wrestling. Regardless of how narrow-minded he wants to be about our relationship, the fact of the matter is that Luz and I are a genuine team that cares about the tag team division and is more than willing to earn every single victory necessary to prove that we are worthy of calling ourselves SCW tag Team Champions one day.”
“You’ve done a lot of talking Adam, but unless you’re willing to prove us wrong and not hide behind Bison on Thursday night, it’s painfully clear that talking is the only thing you have going for you these days. You can desperately try to spin this how you like when the two of you fall short again, but sooner or later even Bison is going to grow tired of this charade and it’ll be right back to square one. So, that begs the question: when you find out firsthand that the Light In The Darkness is far more legitimate in every aspect than you’re willing to believe-”
“-what excuse will you come up with to explain why this pair of ‘lovebirds’ exposed you for the desperate puppeteer you truly are buried beneath the facade of a veteran not getting the respect he deserves?”
The girls’ hands intertwine again as they make it clear to the viewers just how determined they are to overcome this challenge. Sure, Adam had many more years on them and Bison clearly had them outsized and overpowered, but these two were no strangers to facing the odds and finding a way to emerge victorious. After all, the Golden Boys had their chance to prove themselves in the Tag League and they squandered it… Luz and Amelia were more than ready to take the opening presented by the tournament beginning to wrap up to do what they couldn’t, and that was bounce back and fight their way towards the prize they sought.
No excuses.
No cheap tricks or petty tactics.
Just a full-fledged team succeeding with what brought them to the dance, to begin with.
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Amelia Blythe and La Pequeña Luz may both be proud competitors, but neither would ever claim themselves to be unbeatable.
Still, sometimes accepting defeat was hard when the ghosts of your past were constantly lingering over your head.
It goes without saying that when she first broke into the business, Luz wanted nothing more than to always find herself on the winning end of matches, as optimistic new faces always tend to do. Having the additional pressure of being acknowledged as the daughter of the legendary El Espíritu Angélico made that desire for victory burn even brighter, and when those wins didn’t come nearly as often as she would have liked, it left her feeling like her spirit had been crushed on more than one occasion. Even after Amelia came into her life and helped her fully embrace her desire to become more than just the successor to her father’s legacy, there was still the occasional moments where she wouldn’t be able to win and even her indomitable joy would find itself shaken as she sought to try and get herself back together.
Amelia, however, was always a lot harder on herself in defeat, and her parents were entirely to blame for that.
The Blythes always considered themselves elite even among the elites, a fact that was solidified by patriarch Aleister Blythe having arguably one of the best win-loss records out of any professional wrestler to ever grace the squared circle. The man was about as flawless a competitor as you could get, and when he and his wife Ophelia brought their children into the world and dictated they would carry on the family mantle in the ring, it wasn’t expected, but REQUIRED of them to try and maintain either a similar or better record than that of their father. Amelia’s older siblings rarely had trouble pulling this off as a tandem, even if the way they went about it never sat well with mom and dad, but the perfect record Amelia maintained up until that fateful match with Luz that changed everything was never treated as anything special in their household; Amelia never losing was just ‘business as usual’ for the Blythe name.
Amelia would be the first to tell you that, for as hard as she’s working to change and for as much as she’s accepted that she can’t always win and there will be someone out there at times who’s better than you at first, it’s hard to just let go of such a toxic mentality when it was drilled into your head growing up that even the smallest of weaknesses would NOT be tolerated.
That was why, in the aftermath of Last Grasp of Reality, the two girls had thrown themselves heavily into training for whenever their next match was scheduled, working out whatever flaws existed in their abilities so that they could not only turn things around in their next match but also be ready to make a far bigger statement the next time they crossed paths with Lyza Reyes and Devin Brando. Amelia, however, was pushing herself far harder, and Luz often found herself having to physically drag her girlfriend out of their home’s training room in a desperate bid to snap her out of it, knowing full well that if left to her own devices on this front the grappler would push herself to the point where she would cause serious harm to her body without realizing it.
On this particular day, the first Breakdown following the pay-per-view was in the books, and the girls were waiting for news on the next card to find out if they would be able to get back into action. They hadn’t been in attendance due to not being booked and the offer of having the night off, which didn’t sit well with them at first until they decided they could make use of the time to get some more training in and be able to do some more studying to better understand the opposition that would be awaiting them. Amelia had awoken particularly early and managed to slip free of Luz’s snake-like cuddling without waking the luchadora, quickly changing into her workout gear and heading into their home gym. Once she’d taken care of her warm-up stretches to keep her body limber, she wasted no time in retrieving the training dummy she used to practice applying and transitioning between submissions, starting off with some simple joint manipulation at the hand and wrist while slowly working her way into an armbar.
“You’re too slow Amelia. Quicker transitions give your opponent less time to find a way to escape.”
A growl escaped Amelia’s throat as she heard her father’s voice echo in her mind. He in particular had always been the harshest critic of her technique, being that he and his wife both simply accepted that he was the ‘superior grappler’ between the two of them. Her mother would only intervene about technique when he was too busy to ‘coach’ her, though she would always be the first one to scold her for every other thing that was considered a shortcoming by their impossibly high standards. She released the arm and went straight for the dummy’s legs, immediately applying a heel hook and wrenching on it in a manner that would make anybody tap out almost immediately. Once she released that hold, she took a moment to ponder what she wanted to work on next in her offensive technique.
“A Blythe never gives their opponent so much as a chance to breathe, dear. There is no one better than a Blythe, and you must show them why they do not deserve to share the ring with you.”
Amelia shook her head and angrily spat in a random direction, not caring about something she could clean up later as she tried to ignore the memories looping through her brain. Unfortunately, she couldn’t keep her body from going on autopilot from those old habits, and she quickly lunged into a grounded hammerlock on the dummy, almost trying to rip its arm out of socket before flipping into a bridging chin lock.
“Blythes do not give up. Giving up is an admission of weakness, and Blythes do not show weakness. There is no one capable of outwrestling us.”
Going straight into the hold she had tapped out to at Last Grasp of Reality would prove to be a mistake, and she immediately released the hold and let her body hit the floor hard. Her eyes almost seemed glassed over as she could see it flicker through her subconscious; watching as she ultimately had to tap out and give Lyza and Devin the win because Luz wasn’t able to get to her. A frustrated groan was released as she closed her eyes and pressed her palms into her forehead, almost in silent pleading to be left alone so she could just live her life and pursue her career her own way.
She had no idea how long she laid there for, only that she couldn’t stop her mind from recalling the last time she was in the presence of her parents all on her own. After all, that had been the moment where she’s finally started to realize that everything about the way she was raised and trained was wrong, and it took her very first loss to finally realize that.
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To say that she was dreading having to finally return home was an understatement, but the months had flown by in the blink of an eye and her excursion period for the talent exchange had to come to an end.It had been hard to bid farewell to La Pequeña Luz, the luchadora who had shown her kindness and respect even when Amelia had tried to turn her away and maintain her air of superiority. Considering the masked athlete had the fact of proving she could defeat her on her side, it was impossible to keep her head held high and pretend she was above anything the girl had to offer, and ultimately, that had been for the best. Luz had earned the Blythe prodigy’s respect, both with her well-deserved victory and proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she busted her ass just as hard to earn her place in this business and had just as many demons and obstacles she was trying to overcome as Amelia had, and in opening herself up Amelia had come to terms with the fact that her emotions didn’t make her vulnerable, they made her a human being, just like Luz.
The two had exchanged contact information before Amelia had boarded her flight out of Mexico, and she had promised Luz that no matter what she would stay in contact, especially considering they had sworn to be one another’s emotional rock as needed. It was hard to believe that in just a few months Amelia had felt more like her true self than she had in her entire life, but she knew exactly who was to blame for that and she had no reason to justify the way her parents treated her, just as Luz didn’t deserve the way her mother was acting even if it was understandable why she didn’t want her daughter in the wrestling business.
Still, when her flight finally landed the following morning and she found herself back in the UK, it was hard to just ignore the knot that was present in her stomach, especially when she found someone at the gate holding up a sign with her name on it that indicated her family had hired someone to bring her straight home, which was never a good sign.
‘Better than them being here to meet me,’ Amelia bitterly thought. ‘Though not by much.’
It had always bothered her why her parents opted to wait until they were behind closed doors before they ever said anything to her about her performance in anything, though as she found herself quietly seated in the back of the limo that was returning her to her proverbial prison, she now knew full well the reasoning. Luz had managed to get through to her that the vast majority of everything she and even her siblings had been put through was, by any definition, child abuse, and the fact that even now that she was legally defined as an adult she was still shackled to them and forced to bend to their every command made it that much harder to accept that she truly deserved to be treated this way.
Because she deserved so much better, and Luz’s presence in her life now was more than enough proof of that.
As the limo finally pulled to a stop in front of the manor she called home and the chauffeur opened the door for her, Amelia knew she had no choice but to face the music now. Grabbing her luggage, she nodded in thanks to the man who drove her here before making her way up the stairs to the front door, intentionally taking her sweet time in a vain attempt to prolong the inevitable. Unfortunately, she was going to have to make her way inside sooner or later, so she took a deep breath and steeled herself before opening the door.
“Welcome home, dear. Let the servants take care of your luggage, your father and I would like to have a talk with you in his study.”
She’d barely taken two steps inside before her mother’s voice met her ears, and the woman stood proudly before her, hands folded like a ‘proper woman’ in front of her as she waited for her daughter to abandon her luggage to follow. Amelia knew the tone all too well: her mother wasn’t suggesting or requesting anything of her, she was demanding that her daughter do as she asked, all while hiding it behind that sickening sweetness that would make anyone buy into the idea that she actually cared for her child and that what was about to happen was for her own good.
Amelia knew better, though… and that included knowing this was a fight she wasn’t going to win, which was why she quickly set her luggage on the floor and followed her mother toward her father’s study, glancing back only briefly to confirm that the manor’s staff (she refused to call them servants because even they deserved so much better than that) was taking care of transporting her belongings up to her room.
Once they’d finally reached their destination, Ophelia opened the door and gestured for her daughter to enter first, following her in and closing the door before moving around her to stand beside the desk where Aleister sat. The man was focused on the laptop that rested in front of him, turned at an angle to ensure that when she took her designated place before the desk Amelia could see full well that it was the closing moments of her match with Luz… her very first professional wrestling defeat ever. She watched as Luz, against all odds and logic, had managed to pull her way to the bottom rope to become the first person to escape Amelia’s application of the Blight Choke, the absolute disbelief on her face as the referee confirmed that she had not made the luchadora submit, and the desperate attempt to drag Luz back to the center of the ring to reapply the hold that had initiated the final sequence that led to her undoing. The moment the referee’s hand hit the mat for the three after Amelia had fallen victim to Luz’s Ilumina la Noche finisher, her father paused the video and turned his undivided attention towards her. There was clear disappointment in the look he wore, but it was also easy to see that beneath that mask there was nothing but absolute fury over what he’d just watched.
“Amelia… would you care to explain this to us?”
Amelia gulped, knowing precisely what kind of answer he was looking for. “It… it was one of my matches from my Mexican excursion, father. I… I lost-”
“I can clearly see that,” he cut her off, already sounding irritated. “Would you care to tell us exactly how you allowed this… wretched excuse for a wrestler to actually pin your shoulders to the mat?”
“She…” Amelia was struggling to figure out what she could actually say in this scenario. Truth be told, it was clear as day that she had put her very best foot forward, but she knew she couldn’t use that as an argument because the response would be that she should have won if that was the case. “She escaped my submission, father. I don’t know how, but I let the shock of it happening-”
Amelia flinched when her father slammed the laptop shut, not caring in the slightest about if he’d damaged it considering it was easily replaceable for him.
“You made a mistake,” he growled. “Blythes do not make mistakes. Blythes do not lose to filth from another country, especially those who are too afraid to show their faces in public.”
“B-But… but her mask…”
“You aren’t defending her, are you dear?” her mother asked, her tone cold and condescending. “What matters in her culture is irrelevant because SHE is irrelevant to US. And yet, you have disgraced our family by allowing this walking circus act to pin you. She will forever be able to brag to whoever will give her the time of day that SHE tarnished the future of our family, and YOU are to blame for allowing it to happen. You were trained to be better than this Amelia.”
“Yes, mother…” Amelia let her gaze lower to the floor, fighting every urge in her newly awakened brain to say anything back because it would only make things worse. Deep down, she was wishing Luz had been able to somehow come back with her and stand by her side, giving her the strength to finally stand up to these two and make it clear she was no longer their puppet, that she was so much more than just the future of their family name.
“I suppose there is nothing left to do but correct this mistake,” her father suddenly said as he rose from his seat, carefully moving around the desk to approach Amelia. She could only stare at him, worrying over what he was about to do but doing her best not to show it. A Blythe never shows fear, because Blythes are the ones that others are meant to fear. Her eyes followed her father’s hand as it moved to rest on her shoulder, his gaze devoid of any of the emotion it once held.
Before she even realized what was happening, she suddenly found herself spun around, her oxygen being cut off as her feet left the floor and kicked in the air desperately. She knew this position all too well; considering she’d been in this position far too many times ‘to learn what to do and how it should feel.’ It was the familiar choke that was the calling card of their family, her father’s pride and joy. The same hold Luz had managed to hang on in until finding the strength to reach the ropes. She could already feel her face turning blue as her lungs were deprived of oxygen, yet her father’s grip never relaxed for even a second.
“Listen well, Amelia,” he warned, his voice low and menacing in her ear. “I will give you a few hours to rest off your jetlag, but this evening you are going to meet me in the gym and we are going to ensure that this WEAKNESS you have shown is erased. The next time you step into that ring, you are going to remind everyone who now doubts you why you are the future of our family, why you are the perfect heir to the Blythe legacy. And your mother and I are going to have a little talk about forcing a rematch so you can put this girl in her place and ensure she will NEVER be able to continue her pathetic career believing that she is superior to you in any way. Do you understand?”
Amelia tried to weakly gasp out a yes, but she had nowhere near enough air to even manage that. Aleister seemed to understand, however, and released her, motioning for his daughter to get out of his sight so he and his wife could plan the necessary training session that would attempt to return her to the ‘perfect wrestling machine’ she was supposed to be in their eyes. She wasted no time in vacating the study as best as she could, and once she was back in the hallway she took the necessary time to fill her lungs with oxygen before she even attempted to make her way towards her room.
She had known they were not going to take her first defeat well at all, but actually being put in the Blight Choke by her father went beyond even her worst fears as to how this would go, and knowing things would only get worse when she had to resume her usual training… she knew exactly what she needed to do right now, and it wasn’t sleeping off the jetlag.
She made her way back to her room as quick as her weakened body would allow, making sure to lock the door as soon as she was inside just as a means of buying herself a tiny bit more of that precious time when her presence would be demanded yet again. She quickly dug her phone out of her luggage and turned it on before immediately facetiming the person she needed more than anything right now. She felt bad that she knew the difference in time likely meant she was going to be waking her up, but she’d apologize for that soon enough and she knew it would never be held against her. After a few agonizing moments, the screen flickered to life to show the barely awake masked face she had missed so much.
“¿Hola?” she barely managed to mutter out as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
“L-Luz…” Amelia managed to say, her words becoming shaky as she finally felt her body stop resisting the tears she needed to shed. The very second she heard the British girl’s voice, Luz was immediately upright on her end of the call, suddenly very wide awake.
“Amelia? What happened? What did they do?”
It took Amelia a while to explain, considering she was falling apart, but the Latina was very patient with her and let her vent about everything. To say she was furious was a far cry from how badly she wanted to suddenly invent teleportation to be right by Amelia’s side and give her parents a piece of her mind, but Amelia had managed to convince her to just stay with her as long as she could. Luz agreed without hesitation and the next few hours had been spent with the masked maiden calming and comforting the grappling genius until they both ended up falling asleep, allowing Amelia the reprieve that, at least for now, was all she could ask for.
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As Luz awoke and stretched out with a yawn, her first reaction to finding herself alone in bed was a frown, but it was quickly shaken off as she pulled herself from her bed. Amelia waking up before her was normal, even if she often chose to stay with her love in bed until they could both get up. Still, the luchadora knew that now was as good a time as any to get her day started as she made her way out to the kitchen, not bothering to change out of her choice of pajamas as she planned to grab some breakfast and then shower before figuring out what her plans for the day were. As she worked on brewing some coffee (and being a bit concerned about the fact that if Amelia was up that she hadn’t already made a fresh pot for the day) and making herself an omelet, she heard her phone buzz from where she’d set it on the counter. She chose to wait until her omelet was plated before checking, partly because if it was a text from her mother demanding to talk she knew her immediate reaction would be to start frying up her phone to avoid responding.‘Maybe Amelia and I should look into getting new phones,’ she thought as she took a seat at the dining table. ‘We could easily make sure all our necessary contacts have the new number and maybe not have to put up with any of THEM anymore.’
As she ate breakfast, she found that, thankfully, the notification was from SCW, letting her know that she and Amelia were booked to compete on the next Breakdown in Boston. She also couldn’t resist letting a small smile grace her lips at looking into last night’s results and finding that the team they’d lost to in their last match had fallen short in their efforts against the Tag Champions, meaning a rematch between them following that setback certainly wasn’t out of the question in the near future. They just had to bounce back after their own defeat and work their way past the Golden Boys, and that thought alone already had Luz eager to get in front of a camera because from what she’d heard of the ‘brains’ of that operation, she and Amelia were going to have a LOT to say to them.
Excitement beginning to consume her, Luz quickly finished her omelet and took her coffee mug with her as she tried to track down Amelia. She found herself heading towards their gym, a feeling in the back of her head telling her that she’d most likely find her other half already engaging in training. She couldn’t help but frown at the thought, not because Amelia was working out without her, but because she was very well aware that there was a very good chance her fellow ‘fearless warrior’ was trying to push herself too hard again after their first SCW defeat.
She didn’t have much room to argue on that front, but it was easier to move on and truly better themselves when they didn’t treat it as though it was already the end of the world. That phase of their lives was supposed to be behind them.
“Amelia? Are you in here? I just got word from SCW, and you’ll never guess- ¡Mierda!”
Luz’s mug slipped from her hand and shattered to the floor, eyes wide at the sight she saw before her. The training dummy that they worked with for offensive submission purposes when they weren’t sparring with one another or someone else they could find that was willing to volunteer had both of its arms ripped off, and pinning both arms down as she relentlessly did push-ups was her significant other. The sweat that was pooling beneath her and the easily-noticeable tremble in her arms made it clear she’d been at this for a while now, and as she quickly closed the distance she could hear the familiar mantra that made her blood run cold.
“Blythes do not show weakness. Blythes do not submit.”
Calling her name failed to snap her out of it or even alert the British girl to her girlfriend’s presence, so Luz quickly abandoned that plan, knowing full well what would get her attention. Steeling herself for the potential struggle that would follow, Luz quickly pounced on Amelia once she was at the lowest point of her push-up, forcing the exhausted girl to the ground. She tried to squirm free, but Luz quickly embraced her from behind and held her tightly to ensure she couldn’t get away, though she also planted gentle kisses against her spine to ensure her that she was in no danger. The exhaustion Amelia had brought upon herself quickly won out, and she felt herself snap back to her senses and relax as Luz carefully pulled them both to a seated position, Amelia turning her body to bury her head into the crook of her beloved’s neck. Neither one knew how long they stayed like that, but they both knew that time was irrelevant in moments like this.
For however long they needed, they would always help to calm the other down until they were ready to talk.
Amelia finally pulled away enough to stare Luz in the eyes, and the masked girl gave her the most comforting smile she had to offer as she gently wiped some of the sweat from her girlfriend’s brow. They exchanged a gentle kiss that Amelia could feel herself melting into as Luz finally felt the relaxation begin to kick in.
“I’m… I’m sorry Luz…”
“You have nothing to apologize for, mi amor,” Luz assured her. “I know…”
“Still…” Amelia lamented. “I could hear their voices… I know I could have been better… I cost us because I was weak-”
“Please don’t talk that way about yourself, Ames, please…” Luz pleaded. “We lost… it happens, and it will happen again. Nobody’s perfect, and nobody should have to be perfect. There’s no reason we should feel like we have to destroy ourselves and it’ll magically make us a thousand times better. Your parents were wrong to treat you that way if you lost, just as my Mami was wrong to act as though every loss was her ‘proof’ that I should give all of this up. We’ll face Doom & Groove again at some point, and next time we WILL be much better than the first meeting.”
Amelia nodded, taking a few deep, calming breaths as the luchadora had taught her how to do when she felt those anxieties begin to flare up. “You’re right… one loss doesn’t mean that’s it for us. We push ourselves to learn and improve, the right way, and then we tackle the next challenge and bounce back.”
Luz was about to respond, but the grin on her face from the progress they’d made in fighting off the lingering remnants of Amelia’s toxic upbringing faded when her phone went off again. She knew she’d already seen the news from SCW regarding their next match so that only meant one possibility. Her fears were confirmed when she saw the text message from her mother, who proved she was closely following SCW for her own reasons as she’d likely seen the next show’s card from the company publicly promoting it to drum up ticket sales. That was the only reason why she was desperately demanding in Spanish that her daughter accept the loss their team had endured and leave it all behind ‘before she is publicly abused and humiliated by that horrific sexual deviant’ awaiting her in their next match.
“Do I even want to know what your mom’s going on about now?” Amelia asked once she glimpsed through the text for herself, feeling her own fractured sense of self-worth glue itself back together enough to be able to return the favor for Luz if necessary.
“I got word from SCW before I found you,” Luz began, nervously cutting herself off for a moment to hold Amelia closer before she started beating herself up again over spiraling back into her old forced habits. “Apparently, next Breakdown we’ve got the Golden Boys, and I’m sure at least one of them is no doubt chomping at the bit to address us for…” She trailed off as her other hand, despite clinging to her phone, motioned to how close the two of them were right now. They both let a look of disgust surface as no words needed to be said, knowing full well what people like Adam Allocco no doubt thought when the idea of a relationship between two girls came to mind.
That was all the motivation Amelia needed to help Luz get in gear as they cleaned up the mess Luz had unintentionally made from the shock of finding Amelia in the state she was in as well as themselves before tackling the day properly. Now that they knew what awaited them as they hoped to right their ship in the turbulent waters of the SCW tag division, they were bound and determined to garner a true statement win and begin climbing that mountain that stared them down.
They already had to work extra hard to be there for one another against their own parents, and they had no plans on letting themselves be beaten by a man who only cared about being a father when he could spin the situation in his favor and the partner that was nothing more than muscle meant to give him an easy ride to a championship he didn’t deserve.
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With the next Breakdown set to take place in Boston, it seems oddly fitting to find the tandem known as the Light In The Darkness bundled up in winter gear and walking hand-in-hand along the water’s edge of the Boston Harbor, their focus turned towards the sea as we follow them. After a moment, they finally come to a stop and turn to face the camera, their cold breath visible despite the fire that’s clearly burning in both of their eyes. Luz is the one to take the lead this time, considering that no proper introductions were necessary anymore and the masked luchadora was chomping at the bit to get started.“You know something? As Amelia and I stand out here in the cold, we realize that we’re tough enough to admit something that not many others would. At Last Grasp of Reality, we lost. Doom & Groove beat us fair and square, so congratulations guys. But don’t think for a second that’s the end of the Light In The Darkness, because Amelia and I aren’t going away that easily. Yeah, we suffered a setback, but all that did was give us a reason to just work harder and get better so that the next time we meet – and trust me, we WILL cross paths again at some point – we’ll be the team that earns the win next time.”
“Defeat can be a bitter pill to swallow, and I’ll be honest and admit that for the longest time, defeat was considered a fate worse than death. Maybe that sounds extreme to many of you, but ever since I finally found my freedom from their influence, I’ve never been shy about the horrible people my parents were. For most of my life, I was pushed well beyond my breaking point by them until I was nothing more than their perfect little puppet. As far as they were concerned, I wasn’t Amelia Blythe… I was just the latest face representing everything our family name stood for in this business, and before Luz came into my life, a loss like the one I suffered at your hands in that tag match Lyza would NOT have been tolerated. But… nobody’s perfect, and nobody should have to be perfect. I’m grateful that the old me is in the past because instead of being hung up on the fact that Luz and I lost, we’re looking forward to being able to get back in the ring and prove one step backward is no reason to count us out yet.”
“It’s kind of fitting that our next match will be taking place in the very city where America made its biggest statement in demanding its freedom from Amelia’s ancestors-” Luz pauses to give Amelia an apologetic smile as the British girl rolls her eyes, not being fazed in the slightest as many have long since moved past all of that. “-considering how hard the two of us have had to work to get out from underneath our respective family issues. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the lineage I come from and I’m glad my Papi paved the way for me to be able to earn my place in this sport, but I’ve come a long way from just being seen as the girl trying to fill the big boots he left behind, just as Amelia no longer has to feel like she has to always be the absolute best or else. For the record, that kind of mindset actually does more harm than good when you do inevitably falter, and there are a lot of people in SCW who seem like they’re going to be smarting when the cracks finally begin to show.”
There is no smile on Luz’s face even if her voice carries her usual jovial tone, making it clear that even if the competitors who fall under that umbrella could care less about her or outright despise her, they still deserve a warning to reconsider a few things before they push themselves to the brink of self-destruction. Amelia releases Luz’s hand and moves her to the Latina’s shoulder, a message of reassurance that has a silent meaning all its own between the two of them and an acknowledgment of the sort of kind-hearted soul Luz is despite the nature of this business.
“In a way, it also feels fitting that SCW decided our next opportunity to compete would come in the form of the Golden Boys, considering two girls who’ve made it no secret they have a few issues with their respective families are about to clash with the brainchild of a man who has proven time and time again exactly what kind of father he truly is. We’ve done our homework Adam, and we know full well what kind of father you’ve been to your son Alistaire, a man who certainly didn’t deserve what happened to him, just as he doesn’t deserve to find his name coming out of your mouth any time you need an excuse to cover up your own shortcomings. If SCW has proven anything amidst the recent chaos that has taken place regarding a group of wrestlers that have defeated you and your ‘partner’ fairly recently, it’s that if you were serious about caring for your son’s well-being and needing time off to be by his side, then you would have most certainly been granted it… had you actually asked for it.
But no, instead he finds himself being treated as nothing more than your latest attempt to try and cover up the fact that despite all your bragging, you and Bison didn’t have the kind of showing you’d hoped to have in the Tag League. Even if we were to believe that you didn’t perform half as well as you could have because of those circumstances, it doesn’t change the fact that you have no one to blame but yourselves for being unable to prove your claims true that you were worthy of being able to go all the way and find yourselves up against the Tag Team Champions. It’s called being able to adapt even when the situation isn’t in your favor… something I would’ve expected a veteran like you Adam to know all about.”
Amelia can only shake her head, knowing full well what kind of competitor Adam Allocco is even despite how much longer he’s been in the business. No matter how highly touted his skills may be, the fact that he’s desperate enough to even use his own injured son as a shield to hide behind to explain why he and Bison aren’t as successful as they maybe could have been is all the proof she needs.
“Color me surprised that the first thing Adam decides to go for is the fact that we just so happen to be two girls in a relationship. For the record, Amelia is the only one here who’s actually a lesbian. I’m bisexual, though I doubt that means much to a man who thinks what we have is just some sort of gimmick that’s nothing more than a cheap ploy to try and either imitate a team that meant nothing to us until we actually joined this roster or a way to attempt to stand out right out of the gate. Considering his go-to example is a musical duo he can’t even remember the name of whose have long since revealed that while they were never a couple they are both either LGBTQ or in support of it, I’m not surprised that all he knows of the subject is what pornography has done to it. You aren’t the first to target our relationship by thinking only with what’s between your legs Adam, but you could have at least tried a little harder in convincing us that you’re not the kind of man we already know you are.
I mean, the fact that you and Bison walk around with someone who’s clearly a porn star as your ‘manager’ says all we need to know on that front.
But if you’re half the competitor you claim to be, then maybe it’ll actually make you happy to know that we’re coming to Breakdown ready to fight. After all, we’re fresh off a loss and still hungry to make a big impression, and that’s all we could ever need to put your theory of being the team that should, by all accounts, be next in line for the Tag Titles to the test. After all, what better impression to prove that you’re all regrouped from your Tag League performance than by taking down this brand new team that’s primed and ready to fight our way up the ladder?”
Luz certainly looked eager to fight, knowing full well that this wasn’t the first time she and Amelia had surfaced in a new company and had their relationship questioned. Everything about them was one hundred percent real, right down to the love that helped them fight their way through some of the more difficult points in their lives, and if Adam thought he was being entertaining by making a mockery of it, then what would that say about him, and by extension the partner he was so insistent on being a mouthpiece for, when his entertainment was upended by a pair of people that were actually here to compete with the very best?
“I do hate to be the one to break this to you, Adam, but a tag team takes more than one person to be successful, and that’s the part that I think disappoints us the most about you. Such a tenured veteran with all these claims about the accolades he’s held in the past and ‘should’ still be holding today, and you wonder why no one is giving you the respect you believe you deserve. Your atrocious professional conduct aside, why is it that instead of doing the veteran action of leading by example for your partner to ensure he has a long and prosperous future in this business, you’re more than happy to let him do all the heavy lifting while you take all the credit?”
“Considering you weren’t even allowed to speak your own piece to us Bison, I would like to think that you’d surely want more out of this than just doing Adam’s bidding and leaving it at that? I can tell you barely like having to work with him, and we’d both be willing to bet that you could do so much more in this business if you were able to work with someone who could actually give you all the tools you need to succeed. There’d be no need to be the ‘silent muscle’ who levels others and gets paid while your partner gets to do all the gloating. I think it’s painfully clear Adam is holding you back, especially when you could speak your own mind and earn your own success, including a much bigger paycheck than whatever deal he’s probably ensured you got the proverbial shaft on.”
“The fact that Adam has proven himself to be so much of a parasite is an insult to the kind of athlete he claims to be and a slap in the face of everything Bison could be if he stopped holding him back all because he hasn’t realized that he needs an actual, honest TEAM if he ever wants to truly make it in tag team wrestling. Regardless of how narrow-minded he wants to be about our relationship, the fact of the matter is that Luz and I are a genuine team that cares about the tag team division and is more than willing to earn every single victory necessary to prove that we are worthy of calling ourselves SCW tag Team Champions one day.”
“You’ve done a lot of talking Adam, but unless you’re willing to prove us wrong and not hide behind Bison on Thursday night, it’s painfully clear that talking is the only thing you have going for you these days. You can desperately try to spin this how you like when the two of you fall short again, but sooner or later even Bison is going to grow tired of this charade and it’ll be right back to square one. So, that begs the question: when you find out firsthand that the Light In The Darkness is far more legitimate in every aspect than you’re willing to believe-”
“-what excuse will you come up with to explain why this pair of ‘lovebirds’ exposed you for the desperate puppeteer you truly are buried beneath the facade of a veteran not getting the respect he deserves?”
The girls’ hands intertwine again as they make it clear to the viewers just how determined they are to overcome this challenge. Sure, Adam had many more years on them and Bison clearly had them outsized and overpowered, but these two were no strangers to facing the odds and finding a way to emerge victorious. After all, the Golden Boys had their chance to prove themselves in the Tag League and they squandered it… Luz and Amelia were more than ready to take the opening presented by the tournament beginning to wrap up to do what they couldn’t, and that was bounce back and fight their way towards the prize they sought.
No excuses.
No cheap tricks or petty tactics.
Just a full-fledged team succeeding with what brought them to the dance, to begin with.