02-19-2021, 11:56 AM
02-25-2021, 12:55 AM
OOC: This was quite the effort, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out, especially since I managed to put all of this together in the span of the last eight or so hours. I didn't intend to just be starting work on this after I got home from work today, but some stuff that happened last night prevented me from getting the jump on it I wanted to in order to make tonight a little easier for me. Still, it's done and here, and I'm happy with it. Best of luck in our latest clash, Alexis!
Also, for the sake of consistency, maybe pretend that the flashback portion of the CD (everything in italics) has all of its dialogue spoken in Spanish but translated into English for readability. I'm not fluent enough in Spanish to attempt to do all that dialogue the way it "should be" and I don't want to butcher the language, nor do I want to feel like I'm being an inconvenience by typing up something that very few people can read at first glance.
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Sometimes, all it took was one win to completely turn the tide. One moment where everyone suddenly sat up and took notice, and all of a sudden, all eyes were on you, eagerly awaiting your next move.
Amelia and Luz have been in that position so many times over the years that they didn’t consider their victory over the Golden Boys such a moment. To them, it was another night of putting their best foot forward and earning a hard-fought win, though they wouldn’t deny the challenge of overcoming a devious longtime veteran of the ring wars and his muscle that easily dwarfed both girls.
The SCW locker room, however, seemed to consider that an upset that was worth sitting up and taking notice of.
Things had been quiet for the couple since that Breakdown in Boston, though for completely understandable reasons. After all, the February 18th Breakdown in Cleveland was primarily consumed almost entirely by a massive World Title gauntlet match that came about courtesy of a prize that the girls had come to learn was a staple of SCW, to some degree, and it was hard to justify their presence being needed since they were still fairly new faces to the promotion and had no involvement with anyone else at the moment.
Getting to sit back and watch the entirety of that battle unfold had certainly been a unique experience, to say the least.
As SCW marched toward its next Breakdown taping in Minneapolis, the tandem decided that they needed to set aside a night to serve as a reminder that there was far more to their relationship than just the private moments they shared or the battle they would fight together. Besides, a break from their rigorous training was always appreciated as a means to keep them from overworking themselves, an issue that, despite how well they usually managed one another in that regard, still tended to consume them both more often than not if they weren’t careful. The beauty of a quiet date night to a couple like Luz and Amelia was that it gave them a break from needing to worry about the issues that they swore to combat together and the means through which they sought to accomplish that.
‘A distraction from the distraction,’ as Luz had once put it.
That was what saw the two ladies spend their evening as a fairly upscale restaurant, getting the chance to just dress up, enjoy some great food, and just talk amidst the pleasant atmosphere. With steak dinners slowly being consumed, the two couldn’t help but reflect on the past few weeks as they looked forward to whatever awaited them come Thursday night.
“I still can’t believe that payaso tried to tear apart my mask,” Luz vented, setting her fork down briefly to run a hand along the mask she currently wore. Even on a date night, she would never break the sacred lucha libre tradition, and Amelia loved and respected that about her girlfriend.
“I know everyone thinks it’s such an easy route to take,” Amelia responded, “but even with this being the first time it happened in SCW, it always feels like it’s getting old.”
“I really liked that mask…” Luz lamented.
“Luz, you like ALL your masks,” Amelia pointed out with a chuckle as she turned her attention away from her own dinner to pull the luchadora’s hand away from her mask to plant a gentle kiss on it. “What’s done is done, though, and now we need to focus on the task ahead of us.”
“Right,” Luz agreed as she suddenly reversed Amelia’s grip to return the favor with a hand kiss of her own, to the British girl’s amusement. “So you said we’ve got a huge step up from the Golden Boys this week, right?”
Amelia nodded. “It’s not quite that Dark Fantasy team Adam accused us of ‘copying,’ but it’s still two former World Champions from that Infamous stable in Syren and Christy Matthews. Apparently, with that contract thing Syren’s doing to try and back up all her talk of being the absolute best every single week, our win caught her eye and she had one sent our way. She wanted it to take place last week, but…”
There was no need for Amelia to finish that sentence, and a heavy silence suddenly settled over their table. Even with the sound of the rest of the building continuing unhindered, she and Luz drowned it all out as they went into deep thought about one aspect of that messy gauntlet they were both torn on: Syren had been confirmed to have the final spot and she basically had the best chance of walking out as World Champion again, and she had abandoned it. They had discovered in preparing for this match that Syren had been quite vocal about how being thrown into this chaos went against her entire plan and wanted out of it, and deciding not to even bother with it altogether and do this her way was somewhat admirable, even if neither one liked the attitude she carried in general. It was hard to decide if Syren should be respected for sticking to her guns and wanting to earn a World Title shot her way, or foolish just because she never took the shot she was given in the first place just to see what could have been.
“I think the fact that match even happened at all was crazy,” Luz finally broke the silence, taking a big bite of her steak before continuing. “Then again, stuff like that seems to be normal for SCW, and even with everything we’ve been through so far, I don’t know if the fact we’ve dodged that bullet up to this point since signing is a good thing or a bad thing.”
“I don’t know if I could handle being caught in the middle of something like that,” Amelia stated. “A gauntlet is one thing, I’ve done those before… no thanks to my parents wanting to find new ways for me to ‘prove myself’ usually, but a gauntlet of that size for the sole purpose of rattling everyone’s cages? I don’t even know if either of us could even deal with the chaos of that Scaffold Scramble that also got announced if our names end up in it.”
“I could jump off a scaffold without a second thought, as much as I know that thought doesn’t appeal to you babe,” Luz stated matter-of-factly, chuckling to herself as her girlfriend nearly choked on her steak even though she was used to the Latina’s impulsiveness by now. “Having to stay on one and fight’s a different story though.”
As they slipped back into focusing on their dinner, the silent agreement had been reached that they wanted to try and avoid some of the usual craziness of SCW as much as they possibly could. There would come a time when having to brave the storm would be inevitable, but until then they would stick to their guns and forge ahead match by match until they’d earned their opportunity at championship gold.
There was enough chaos in their lives to worry about, as it was.
That thought, in particular, slowly had Luz’s facial expression changing as she washed down her latest bite of steak with a drink of water. Something was on her mind and she seemed to be having an internal debate on whether or not to put a voice to it, clearly not wanting to feel like this rare opportunity in their schedule to go out and enjoy some couple’s time together should be ruined, though it could also make for an interesting conversation piece, for better or worse. Amelia was so focused on what remained of her meal that she never noticed the shift until the words were finally unleashed.
“Amelia… did you ever want to do this?”
Amelia’s fork froze in midair as her full attention returned to her girlfriend, and only now did she see the guilty look through the openings of her beloved’s mask. As she slowly put the utensil down, she had a feeling she knew what was being asked but wanted to know for sure.
“This? As in, wrestling? Or our relationship-”
“Wrestling, I meant wrestling! I mean, I would hope you’re not regretting being in a relationship with me all of a sudden, but, I mean-”
“Breathe, sweetheart,” Amelia advised, and Luz nodded and took a few deep breaths to slam her train of thought back on the track she’d chosen to take it down. With another drink of water finishing the job, the masked maiden managed to get a hold of her nerves.
“I meant wrestling,” she clarified once again. “Was it something you actually wanted to do all on your own and your parents decided to get involved? Or was it always their decision and you had no say in the matter?”
Luz’s hands began to shake a bit and Amelia understood why her emotions had shifted all of a sudden. It was a heavy topic, to be sure, but one they’d never actually discussed before despite all the time they’ve been together and everything they’d come to know about the other’s life. She took a moment to contemplate, already knowing the answer but trying to decide how she wanted to word it to hopefully put Luz more at ease.
“I’ll be honest,” she lamented, “it was all my parents’ decision. You’ve seen how much they obsess over everything that their own in-ring glory brought them and the mere thought of a Blythe family dynasty, conquering the ring for generations to come, was too tempting to pass up once they couldn’t keep going. I didn’t find this out until Ed and Em told me once things became kind of alright between us, but apparently them being born as twins set back their ambitions quite a bit because they’re stuck in this mindset that as twins, they’re only destined to succeed as a matching set and nothing more. So, they made sure they had one more child, me, just to fix that issue.”
Luz knew the bitter tone that slowly began creeping into Amelia’s voice the longer she talked about it, and it made her cringe to listen to it. As badly as she had wanted to know, even just for a change of pace in their conversation, bringing up those old wounds always felt like walking through a minefield and it had her fearing she’d already blown up an otherwise peaceful evening. Thankfully, Amelia seemed to catch on and took Luz’s hand in her own, gently intertwining their fingers.
“That said, I’m confident that even if I didn’t come from ‘wrestling royalty’ I’d have found my way into this sport regardless. I wish it would have been on my terms, but that’s just one in a long list of past regrets I can’t do anything about now, only push forward and keep on trying to be a better wrestler and a better person.”
“You sure you wouldn’t have done it just to try and find your way to me?” Luz couldn’t help but ask as some of the joy began to return to her.
“Who knows?” was Amelia’s response, but the wink that punctuated it elicited the giggle she was looking for to know she’d brought her love back around.
Even still, something about the fact that Luz had brought this up seemingly out of the blue was bugging her, and she had a feeling she knew why.
“Luz… are you bringing this up because your mom’s been blowing up your phone about throwing in the towel and not doing this anymore again?”
Unfortunately, that smile she loved so much faded from the lips of the Latina, and after a moment of hesitation, a nod was all the answer she got, but it’s the only answer she needed. It was always odd to Amelia how aggressive Camila Nevado was when it came to trying to dictate the course of her daughter’s life and the way it made Luz feel just infuriated her. It wasn’t the cold, commanding, ‘I say it like you have a choice but you really don’t’ approach her own mother practically built her entire life on. It was blunt, to the point, and designed to guilt-trip the masked competitor with no strings attached. She had come to learn the woman had been this aggressive back when Luz first debuted, but once she had entered the picture the doctor had seemingly backed off aside from the occasional attempt here and there whenever they were in Mexico competing. But now, with the idea that her daughter might be moving on with both her career and her life beyond her reach, it was almost like she had become desperate in trying to keep from losing her child all because she wanted to chase her dreams.
“What about you, Luz?” she suddenly asked, capturing the other girl’s attention. “Did you want to be a wrestler on your own? Or was it always about having to follow in your father’s footsteps?”
“I hate to be the ray of sunshine compared to you, cariña,” she said, trying to inject some of her usual sweetness to mask the guilty tone that was otherwise present, “but donning the mask and getting in the ring was always my dream. Considering my Papi was an icon in Mexican culture and getting to see all the incredible things he did in the ring, he was all for supporting my desire to want to be his successor. Mami, however… she never wanted me to go down this road, even before the accident that took him from us…”
That alone is why it was no surprise that at five years old, one could find the girl jumping on the couch in the living room, excitedly trying to talk along with the words of the commentators and imitate all the crazy high-flying feats as a replay of one of her father’s matches had taken over the TV. Little Luna at least had enough sense to know better than to attempt some of the more dangerous stuff she knew she couldn’t do yet, but it still didn’t keep her from divebombing the poor cushions with giggles and screams of ‘lucha libre pride’ whenever she saw her father’s feet leave the mat on the screen.
“And now, Luna’s going up top for her signature move! The opponent has no idea what’s about to-”
“Sweetheart, no more. You’re going to break the couch, or worse…”
Luna’s attempt to jump from the armrest onto the couch once again was thwarted before she could leap, recognizing the scolding tone of her mother anywhere. From her place in the opening that led to the kitchen, Camila’s facial expression spoke volumes about how disappointed she was in her daughter for trying to recklessly imitate her husband’s wrestling stunts, especially considering she was already covered in band-aids from cuts and scrapes that were mostly self-inflicted from these endeavors going south. As she walked into the living room and shut off the TV, Luna climbed down from her perch and gave the doctor the familiar puppy dog eyes that signaled she was desperately hoping to avoid too harsh of a scolding.
“I’m sorry, mommy. I couldn’t help it! How many kids can honestly say their daddy is a real-life superhero!”
“Well, you aren’t too far off on that, kiddo.”
Both girls turned to the door that led out to the home gym that belonged to the masked man that proudly strolled into the room, a grin fixed firmly in place that not even his mask could hide as he draped a towel over his sweaty neck after the workout he’d just put himself through. To anyone else, El Espíritu Angélico would be an imposing sight even without the legend he’d built his name and mask on over the past decade, but to the two girls who made his time outside the ring worth living, not even a post-workout luchador of his stature would ever be anything besides a caring husband and a loving father.
“Daddy!” Luna called out as she rushed the man, who effortlessly picked her up and nuzzled his mask against her nose to her delight. Even when his attention turned to face the scowl of his wife, his smile never faltered.
“I was just telling Luna that she needs to stop imitating you. If not for the sake of our poor couch, then before she tries something really dangerous and breaks her neck or-”
“But mama!” Luna interjected. “I wanna be just like daddy when I grow up!”
“Now there’s a novel idea!” he boasted. “Following in your old man’s footsteps one day! Maybe focus on enjoying your time as a kid first Luna, because you won’t ever have a time like this in your life again. But when you’re old enough, I’d be more than happy to show you the ropes. Heck, you might even grow up to be a bigger star than me!”
“Or,” Camila tried to hijack the conversation, her tone clearly that of a woman who wasn’t going to let this train travel any further, “she could aim for something a little more realistic. Like being a doctor, or working in a major company.” She walks over to where the two of them are and carefully plucks her daughter from her husband’s arms before setting her back on the floor. “Honestly, honey, you really shouldn’t indulge in her fantasies like that and get her hopes up. Now, Luna, baby, why don’t you go get washed up for dinner, alright?”
“OK, mommy!” the little girl exclaimed before rushing towards the bathroom, driven by the curiosity of whatever delicious meal her mom had cooked tonight for them to enjoy but having learned at a young age to respect the doctor’s wishes for clean hands before and after a meal. It wasn’t long before she was climbing onto the stepstool in front of the sink and hitting the nozzle of the soap bottle, only to find no soap coating her hands waiting to be lathered up. A quick glance confirmed that the bottle was almost completely empty, and whatever remained would be impossible for the girl to retrieve from it. “Aw… good thing there’s more!”
Refusing to let this small hurdle get her down, the little ball of sunshine skipped out of the bathroom towards the nearby closet where she knew a brand new bottle of hand soap was waiting. Before she could turn the handle, however, her ears picked up on the sounds of her mom and dad talking, and the conversation didn’t sound pleasant. As curious as a little kid could ever be, she slowly snuck toward the opening back into the living room, making sure she stayed out of sight as she peeked around the corner to see her parents locking eyes.
“You can’t be serious, honey,” Camila said firmly.
“I am,” was Angélico’s reply. “I’ve been giving it some serious thought Cami. By the time she’s eighteen and old enough to legally start competing, I’ll likely be at the age where retirement will be a very real possibility. Why not pass the torch on to our little light?”
Camila let out a strangled scream at that, angrily turning away from the legendary luchador. The smile he’d been trying to maintain was gone by this point as he tried to embrace his wife from behind, but her folded arms made the task difficult.
“I don’t understand why you have such a problem with this,” he asked her. “She’s clearly excited over the idea, and wrestling opens up a whole new world of possibilities to her. I don’t have to remind you that if it wasn’t for wrestling, I’d have never found the love of my life?”
“You mean if it wasn’t for that nasty concussion you suffered the night of your first big title match that landed you in my care for quite some time,” she corrected him in the kind of tone that left no room for argument. “I never fell in love with you because of the lucha legend that you’ve become, I fell in love with the charming man who despite that concussion was still trying to sweep me off my feet even when I was just trying to get you back on yours.”
Camila let out a sigh and turned around in Angélico’s arms, though she didn’t return the embrace. “I’m getting worried about my masked angel. These matches have been taking a much greater toll on you as you’ve gotten older and had to work harder to give those fans what they want. What about giving me something that I want? What about making sure our daughter doesn’t get needlessly injured?”
“Camila, you knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to marry me, luchador and all,” he stated before softly kissing her forehead. “And you’ve stood by my side, no matter what’s happened.”
“I do love you very much, just as I love Luna,” Camila responded, though the sound of a loving wife and mother was short-lived. “That’s exactly why I don’t want to see her get hurt. It’s bad enough that she’s already getting picked on at school because of her quirky personality and interests.”
Luna tuned out whatever else her mother had to say after that, ducking back around the corner and staring blankly at the wall. She hadn’t wanted her parents to find out about some of the things that had happened at school, not wanting to make them upset because some of the other kids had said she was ‘weird’ or ‘freaky’ just because she had an overactive imagination for a five-year-old and constantly told everyone her father was a superhero, considering that’s how most of Mexico chose to see El Espíritu Angélico. Many of them thought she was just making it up, asking why he wasn’t coming to rescue her whenever she was pushed around or ganged up on.
“Don’t you dare try to tell me that Luna’s in the wrong just because that little girl doesn’t want to live a ‘normal’ life by your definition!”
Luna snapped out of her thoughts and hesitantly peeked around the corner again, and now her mom and dad were no longer in an awkward embrace. The masked icon was furiously pacing back and forth now, though his wife stood firm from her place in the room even as he kept going after whatever the little girl had zoned out on.
“You know what makes our lives special Cami?” he asked her. “It’s the fact that, after so much hard work, we’re both living the lives we want to live. I’m a wrestler and you’re a doctor, and that’s exactly what we both wanted to grow up to be. We chose these paths for ourselves, and it’s only fair that Luna gets to have that same choice when she grows up!”
“I’m sorry dear, but I just can’t!” she argued back. “I know, just from watching her play and try to emulate your in-ring stunts, that she’ll be just as reckless in the ring as you are, and for what? Pride? Status in our culture? Where will those things be if she breaks her neck or ends up crippled or brain-damaged!?”
Angélico leaned down as the two got face-to-face, neither one willing to give an inch as they looked like they would come to blows any minute now, but clearly, neither one was willing to cross that line. A tragic sense of practice came with this spat, almost as if this wasn’t the first time such an argument had happened even if it was Luna’s first time catching it in progress. After a tense minute, Camila finally pulled back and turned her head towards where Luna was hiding.
“Luna, sweetheart, finish up quickly so we can eat!” Her mother’s call was almost as though the war of words that preceded it had never happened, and all too quickly she called an end to the whole debacle by returning to the kitchen. Angélico watched her leave before letting out a frustrated sigh and tossing the towel around his neck aside before he stormed out the front door, clearly in need of some fresh air.
While Luna had heard her mother’s call clearly, she didn’t heed it and return to retrieving the spare bottle of hand soap so she could finish washing up. Instead, she leaned back against the wall, eyes wide as her five-year-old brain tried to process exactly what she’s just seen and heard. At her current mental capacity, the only things that actually made sense were that her mom and dad were fighting and she had been the cause of it. The idea of what she might want to do when she grew up was apparently a big problem to one of her parents, and trying to make her happy would only make the other even more upset, and she had no idea what to do.
Tears started to form in her eyes but she quickly brushed them away with her forearm, trying to put on the most cheerful smile she could manage as she made her way to the dinner table, hoping that if she just pretended none of that had happened then maybe everything would go back to normal.
Maybe both of her parents would love her and each other and there would be no problems at all.
Over the years since they first became friends, she’s learned a great deal about the luchadora, swearing she’d seen the full extent of just how badly her mother wanted her to abandon the sport altogether just to be safe. Yeah, wrestling was a dangerous sport, there was no doubt about that, but incidents like the unfortunate tragedy that befell El Espíritu Angélico were few and far between. Honestly, she would admit that Luz witnessing her father’s death play out before her very eyes and still resolving to join the business where it happened to uphold his memory was proof of how determined she was to dictate her own fate and earn her own way through life, no matter how difficult the fight.
Finding out that Camila had been against the idea even when her girlfriend was still in kindergarten and turned what could’ve easily been a simple case of a child wanting to be just like a hero they just so happened to have in their life into a reason to fight with her husband over their daughter’s future, however, spoke volumes that rattled the Englishwoman just as badly as any memory involving her own horror story of a childhood.
“Maybe…” Luz suddenly said, snapping Amelia out of her thoughts as she realized her love was attempting to use her mask to hide her tears so as not to draw any attention to their table. “Maybe Mami had a point… you- you saw how isolated and beaten down I was against the Golden Boys, to the point where you had to save me. You know Infamous won’t think twice about trying those same tricks, especially if CHBK is wary of your wrestling style since he knows technicians. If you have to save me…”
“Hey, hey, look at me, Luz,” Amelia gently called, getting the luchadora’s attention. She stood up and repositioned her chair so they were sitting closer to each other as opposed to right across, and this allowed her to pull the Latian into a tight embrace, her fingers rubbing small circles along her back and shoulders. “We are each other’s protectors, alright? I was just doing what you’d do for me, and have done for me on several occasions. Heck, that hurricanrana you gave to Adam at the end took him out of the equation. I doubt he would’ve let me pin Bison otherwise.”
Luz nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced, but Amelia wasn’t giving up that easily. She pulled her love in for a gentle kiss on the lips before cupping her masked cheeks in her hands, keeping her face close.
“Don’t worry about your mom, Luz, because your father was right. You’ve gone on to become a star he would be proud of, you did end up finding love by being a part of the business, and if you have any doubts about that, know that I love you more than words could ever express, and that will never change.”
At the reassurance from the love of her life, Luz finally starts to regain the joy that makes her who she is and the two share another kiss before returning to their meals, finishing up what little remains and paying the check before they take their leave for the night. They throw on their jackets as they head out into the cool night air of Minneapolis and begin heading to where they parked their rental car hand-in-hand. All in all, it was a pleasant experience they wished they could do more of when the time was available, although Luz still couldn’t help but be bothered by the moment where it felt like things had gone far too south to salvage what had otherwise been a great date.
“I’m sorry for ruining our date night lamenting over my family problems, cariña,” Luz began, but before she got any further, Amelia squeezed her hand and cut her off.
“On the contrary, Luz. You didn’t ruin anything. We got to spend time together enjoying a nice dinner at a good restaurant and, more importantly, we got to have a bit of a long-overdue conversation. We need to have talks like tonight’s if we’re going to ultimately help each other put everything behind us and be able to commit one hundred percent to just being exactly who we want to be.”
“A kickass couple both inside and out of the ring?” Luz asked, making Amelia laugh in delight at her girlfriend regaining her sense of humor at last.
“Of course, dear.”
As the girls finally reached their rental car, they couldn’t resist indulging in the stereotype of embracing before they got in and sharing a kiss before making the trip back to their hotel room for the night, considering trying to do anything of the sort while in the car was a potential recipe for catastrophe. Their arms wrapped around one another and their lips were mere inches away…
That’s when Amelia’s phone began to ring.
The grappling genius hissed and silently began cussing out whoever had the worst timing in the world as the girls awkwardly pulled away and she began digging through her purse to find her phone. Once her fingers found the device and she could see the screen, she felt her irritation reach an all-time high at seeing her sister’s name greeting her.
“Jeez,” Luz remarked as she glanced at the screen to see for herself who had just killed the mood, “your siblings really have a knack for knowing exactly when to bother us, don’t they? It’s like they have a sixth sense for whenever we’re out on a date or something.”
Amelia rolled her eyes but agreed with the assessment, especially since it had been quite some time since they last had a proper date night and she distinctly remembered getting a call from her siblings back then as well, so she wasn’t about to doubt the existence of some sort of sibling ESP that she apparently wasn’t in the loop on.
As the girls got into the car while the phone continued to ring (making her sister wait seemed like a fitting enough payback for interrupting in the first place), Amelia couldn’t help but wonder why she was getting called from across the pond. Her relationship with Emily and Edward had always been a tenuous one, at least from her point of view. It was easy to blame her siblings for a lot of her issues with their parents, from her being born because they had to be born twins and mess up mom and dad’s ‘perfect plans’ to their decision to rebel and do things their way when they broke into the business causing mom and dad to break her down and rebuild her into a merciless machine whose sole purpose was to wrestle, and their constant bragging over their tag team accomplishments when she still had nothing to her name hadn’t helped matters. After the night she and Luz had not only ended their record-breaking title reign but also made a clear statement of defiance against Aleister and Ophelia Blythe, they began to respect both her and the girl who would go on to become her other half. Sure, the teasing never stopped and they weren’t above bragging and being annoying in general even to this day, but they were more than willing to take Amelia’s side and join her and Luz in standing against their parents so that they could all do things their way and be their own wrestlers, which after the couple had moved to America to pursue new challenges had led to the twins effectively being their eyes and ears back on the European front whenever their parents were up to something.
As annoyed as she was at their awful sense of timing, Amelia found herself quietly hoping they were calling just to bug her about something insignificant or brag about whatever new titles they may have won if they were competing tonight. She really didn’t want to start worrying about her parents finally making some kind of move. Steeling herself for the worst, just in case, she finally answered the phone and put it on speaker so Luz could back her up if need be.
“Hello?” she answered, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice as she wanted to make it clear to her sister that she’d called at a bad time.
“Amelia, we’re really sorry if we interrupted anything important-” Emily began.
“-but we had something a little urgent we thought you should know.” Edward finished, revealing they were on speaker as well so they could both talk to her.
Almost immediately, Amelia felt the warmth of her dinner with Luz begin to fade from her body as a block of ice seemed to form in her gut. Her siblings sounded concerned, already offering a sincere apology and cutting to the chase. That was never a good sign when she heard from them.
“It must be urgent,” Luz remarked. “Isn’t it, like 1 AM where you guys are right now?”
“Yeah, we just finished up a bit of a late show and we’re both exhausted as hell, but you two need to know this sooner rather than later,” Edward stated, said exhaustion evident in his tone of voice but not hindering him from pressing onward.
“While Ed and I were heading back to our locker room after our match,” Emily began, “we came across mom and dad backstage. They didn’t see us, thankfully, but we saw them having a chat with their ‘old friend’ that runs this place that’s always been at the center of the ‘Blythe wrestling empire.’”
“And before you suggest anything Am,” Edward chimed in before Amelia could even form a response, “we didn’t see any sign of cameras around, so whatever this little get-together was, it was meant to be private and not something planned for tonight’s show.”
That revelation seemed ominous as Amelia couldn’t help but fidget in her seat, her nerves slowly fraying from the mere thought of her parents attempting to do anything. Thankfully, Luz was there to keep her grounded, immediately paying her back for being her rock during her breakdown during their dinner date, and a supportive hand on her shoulder was all she needed to get her brain back into a more logical line of thought.
“OK, they’re clearly up to something,” she finally replied. “But you guys do remember that Luz and I are working for SCW now, right? Whatever they’re doing over there would be a more immediate concern to the two of you.”
“That’s what we thought at first, too,” Emily said. “But from what little we could overhear without putting ourselves at risk of getting caught eavesdropping, they weren’t talking to him about us. They mentioned you, Luz, and SCW frequently, and not even in their usual condescending way that makes it seem like they don’t care when they really do.”
“Apparently,” Edward continued, “they’ve been aware of what you two have been up to ever since you both first surfaced on SCW television, and whatever they’ve got planned is only just now starting to be revealed.”
“I’m not surprised they knew,” Luz admitted. “It was kind of not really a secret anymore when we first appeared backstage on camera, though if they waited all this time to start something, who knows what they have up their sleeves.”
“Whatever it is-” Edward started.
“-just be careful, you guys.” Emily finished before the call ended.
The silence that became prevalent in the car at that moment was overwhelming, and both Amelia and Luz were concerned at what they’d just heard. Their situation had been bad enough with just Camila constantly blowing up Luz’s phone as she tended to do, but barring anything more drastic it was a minor annoyance at best. The machinations of the Blythe parents was a far more daunting prospect, considering that when you gave them a reason to scheme against you, they somehow became even more dangerous than they were when pretending to be half-decent human beings in a public setting. The fact that they were more than capable of just talking anyone into submission was enough cause for concern, as Amelia could, unfortunately, attest to and even Luz had come up against firsthand on a few occasions, which is why they now strived to face that challenge together any time it needed to happen.
“I’m worried, Luz…” Amelia finally admitted, and Luz could see her princess trembling a bit as she attempted to put what she’d just learned out of her head just so she could start the car. The masked maiden put a comforting hand over hers and leaned over to kiss her cheek, willing to sit in that parking lot for hours, if necessary, until the system shock had faded.
“I am too, mi amor,” Luz replied. “But it’s a challenge we can overcome together, just like Infamous in any form is a challenge we can overcome together. We’ve defied expectations before, and we can do it again. You and me.”
“Right… you and me,” Amelia breathed a sigh of relief before one more brief kiss shared with the couple was enough to at least get them on the road, where the safety of their hotel room would allow them to better plan out their next moves.
For now, the Blythes would have to be put on the back-burner until they made a move, because stressing out over them before they even did anything was already admitting defeat. Right now, their number one priority had to be the biggest match of their young SCW careers thus far, and they had to make the most of it if they wanted to send the kind of statement that everyone around the world, from the SCW locker room to their respective families regardless of the issues that existed there, could not ignore.
“When Amelia and I stepped into the ring a few weeks ago, we made it clear what we thought of the Golden Boys. We told them, point-blank, why we wanted to defeat them and we delivered. Credit where credit is due: Adam is one of the most experienced members of the SCW roster, and Bison was a roadblock all his own considering how outsized we were compared to him, but we knew we were coming off a setback and needed that win to turn things around to avoid spiraling so soon into our time here and we gave those two more than I think they were prepared to handle.
By the way, Adam… you’re not the first person who’s tried to go for my mask, and I know you won’t be the last. It’s a more common tactic in lucha libre than you think, so I’m prepared for it by now, as you found out firsthand.”
“For as much as we questioned the Golden Boys on how much of a tandem they truly were, and we drove that point home with our victory two weeks ago, we’re choosing not to revisit the issues we had with them and point out the positives they did bring to the table because it helps to put something into perspective. When watching that match back, our victory was considered somewhat of an upset, and when you think about it, to the SCW roster that might be a valid point. That was only our third match as an official part of this roster, and Luz and I overcame a daunting challenge regardless of which side in that match operated like an actual tag team. Because of it, we’ve gotten a bit of attention, just as our friends Lyza and Devin did when they called out the Tag Team Champions right out of the gate.
Actions do speak louder than words, which is quite fitting considering what awaits us now.”
Amelia reaches out of the shot for a moment to retrieve her phone, the playlist the girls were working out to having long since been paused. A few taps on the screen later, and Amelia turns the phone towards the camera as it pans in to get a good look at the e-mail she’s pulled up, and only a few words from it need to be seen to understand the contract that’s been delivered to this up-and-coming tandem. The shot pans back again as Amelia and Luz’s looks grow more focused.
“One of the things we’ve come to learn since joining this roster is the efforts of Syren, a multi-time former World Champion who has essentially left her career in the hands of a man considered one of the most legendary names to ever grace this company in CHBK. In Syren’s efforts to leave no doubt that she is the absolute best, bar none, and the only name worth standing at the top of the tallest mountain in this land, she’s had CHBK sending contracts to anyone who presents an opportunity to further cement her claims.”
“And the fact that we got such a contract tells us one thing: we clearly impressed the legend enough to put us on Syren’s radar. So, let’s get this out of the way right now… yes, we know exactly who we’re up against this week, and no, we’re not afraid like you think we probably should be. Maybe you think that’s naive of us, being the new kids about to stare down two former World Champions and the army that we know always backs them up when they need it. True, maybe it’s not exactly Dark Fantasy, which I’m sure might make Adam sad after he spent so much time and effort trying to paint us as a ‘Dark Fantasy ripoff,’ but while the Golden Boys were a team in maybe the loosest sense of the word, we know full well that even if it’s not their usual duo, Infamous in any combination is no laughing matter.”
“The fact is, we’re not afraid of this match because of exactly what it is to us, and that’s exactly what Syren wants everyone to see it as: an opportunity. To her, this is about making a clear statement that she is everything that she claims to be, and the fact of the matter is she’s been putting in the work week after week to back it up. She’s one of the best to ever set foot in an SCW ring, and now she’s calling us out hoping that we’ll be the latest statement on her resume. But, in doing so, she’s given us the opportunity to make a statement all our own. We’ve already got people talking because of one long-term veteran we’ve overcome… win this match, and all of a sudden we’ve got a real case once Retribution is in the book. We walk out of Breakdown having overcome two former World Champions, two Hall of Famers around here, and we go from just being on the radar to being considered a serious threat.”
“We know that won’t sit well with either of you ladies, but when you’re handing us a golden ticket on a silver platter, how do you think we’re going to react? We get it, you’ve both done just about everything there is to do and you have the rings to prove it, and believe it or not, we do respect you for it, even if we don’t exactly like how you accomplished a lot of it. Amelia and I know full well that we’re being tasked to do the impossible for two wrestlers in our position, but the fact of the matter is that this match even existing under the terms you’re operating on now Syren means that we’re a threat to you, even if you won’t admit to it out loud. We thrive on being challenged, we know what a victory over Infamous at this early stage of our time in SCW would mean, and while we’re not going to sit here and make any guarantees, we’re also not going to simply let you two walk all over us because you might think we made a mistake even accepting this match in the first place.”
Amelia sets her phone aside as both ladies slowly rise to a stand, the grappling genius taking a moment to crack her neck and fingers as the masked maiden stretches herself out a bit to stay loose for when they resume their training efforts once this is all wrapped up.
“As much as there’s a lot of talking to be done about Syren since this match wouldn’t even be a thing without her contracts, that’s no reason to ignore the presence of Christy Matthews, something that’s clearly set her off as of late. She’s angry, she’s made it clear she’s done playing games, and she’s probably insulted at the idea of having to put up with ‘the new kids’ instead of someone she deems more worth her time, an issue we aim to fix once we get a chance to lock up. To be honest Christy, the way you’re acting reminds us an awful lot of Adam, and a lot of what we said to him could sadly apply to you as well. There’s no denying your experience or the path you’ve carved for so many that have come after you, but lately, you’ve been lashing out because you feel nobody respects you for any of that when the reality of the situation is… well… you haven’t really done a whole lot lately to warrant such respect. At least unlike Adam, you have a more legitimate claim to needing to let this business take a back seat to family, but that inevitably creates the problem of you not proving as much or as often that you deserve to be where some others actually are, putting you in the endless cycle of demanding respect you won’t get every time you question your place on the ladder.”
“We get it Christy: you’re angry, you’re frustrated, you don’t like being overlooked or forgotten. I want to say you can take solace in the fact that we’re not ignoring you or treating you like you’re an afterthought instead of the threat you truly are, but we already know that, maybe unlike Syren, we won’t be getting any respect from you. Also, where we can at least respect Syren, ego aside, for wanting to succeed on her own merits with all these challenges so she can shove it back in the face of everyone who doubts her and prove she can succeed on their terms, if we can take anything away from that hectic gauntlet last week about you, it’s that you could care less about what Syren wants out of this so long as you win, by any means necessary, and we’re forced to bow down to you and admit that we’ll never be on your level.
By the way, we won’t be doing that, no matter if we’re just fighting you two ladies or the entirety of Infamous.
Of course, Syren could always surprise us. Maybe she and CHBK decided to single us out not because we proved to be worth her and Christy’s time. Maybe she’ll come right out and say that the only reason this match is happening is because of those comments from our last opponents implying that we ‘are’ a ripoff of the dominant tag team that Syren proceeded to launch her impressive singles career from, and she feels the need to try and end us before we even get anywhere close to accomplishing what she did alongside Ravyn. If that’s the case, however, then it might be proof that Syren’s getting a little paranoid about her standing around here because Ames and I didn’t come here to be the next Dark Fantasy… we came here to be the one and only Light In The Darkness, no matter what it takes to prove that name belongs here just as much as everyone else who signed a contract to compete with the best of the best.”
“Just as our actions have spoken loud enough to perhaps get your attention Syren, your own actions speak just as loudly, though maybe not with the kind of clarity you want. While we understand what you want to gain out of this endeavor, there are many who won’t and will call you out on the fact that you abandoned a World Title opportunity in that gauntlet. You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take, even if it wasn’t how you would have wanted it, and by not trying to play with the hand you were dealt you may only have yourself to blame if others feel that action warrants you waiting a little longer for that one-on-one opportunity you so desire. Perhaps that makes you as angry as Christy, but what it does not do is make us any less hesitant to accept your challenge and meet you head-on, because that is what Luz and I have always been about.”
“Even if we don’t win on Thursday night, we’re going to put forth the kind of effort that makes it clear that even if now isn’t our time, the two of us DO have what it takes to hang with arguably the very best SCW has to offer, and we can only go up from there.”
“But make no mistake: we want to win, we want to make Syren and Christy understand that we are worth their undivided attention, and we want to put all of SCW on notice that the Light In The Darkness is the real deal, and our future has never looked brighter.”
The two girls take their leave from the shot, having said all they need to say and getting right back to work preparing to back up every last word. They were given a chance to prove they belong here, that the hype was real, and they plan on busting their asses to earn it and the respect of everyone in that locker room.
After all, that’s how you separate yourself from the pack and prove you’re the alphas that deserve the spotlight that’s now shining down upon them.
Also, for the sake of consistency, maybe pretend that the flashback portion of the CD (everything in italics) has all of its dialogue spoken in Spanish but translated into English for readability. I'm not fluent enough in Spanish to attempt to do all that dialogue the way it "should be" and I don't want to butcher the language, nor do I want to feel like I'm being an inconvenience by typing up something that very few people can read at first glance.
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Sometimes, all it took was one win to completely turn the tide. One moment where everyone suddenly sat up and took notice, and all of a sudden, all eyes were on you, eagerly awaiting your next move.
Amelia and Luz have been in that position so many times over the years that they didn’t consider their victory over the Golden Boys such a moment. To them, it was another night of putting their best foot forward and earning a hard-fought win, though they wouldn’t deny the challenge of overcoming a devious longtime veteran of the ring wars and his muscle that easily dwarfed both girls.
The SCW locker room, however, seemed to consider that an upset that was worth sitting up and taking notice of.
Things had been quiet for the couple since that Breakdown in Boston, though for completely understandable reasons. After all, the February 18th Breakdown in Cleveland was primarily consumed almost entirely by a massive World Title gauntlet match that came about courtesy of a prize that the girls had come to learn was a staple of SCW, to some degree, and it was hard to justify their presence being needed since they were still fairly new faces to the promotion and had no involvement with anyone else at the moment.
Getting to sit back and watch the entirety of that battle unfold had certainly been a unique experience, to say the least.
As SCW marched toward its next Breakdown taping in Minneapolis, the tandem decided that they needed to set aside a night to serve as a reminder that there was far more to their relationship than just the private moments they shared or the battle they would fight together. Besides, a break from their rigorous training was always appreciated as a means to keep them from overworking themselves, an issue that, despite how well they usually managed one another in that regard, still tended to consume them both more often than not if they weren’t careful. The beauty of a quiet date night to a couple like Luz and Amelia was that it gave them a break from needing to worry about the issues that they swore to combat together and the means through which they sought to accomplish that.
‘A distraction from the distraction,’ as Luz had once put it.
That was what saw the two ladies spend their evening as a fairly upscale restaurant, getting the chance to just dress up, enjoy some great food, and just talk amidst the pleasant atmosphere. With steak dinners slowly being consumed, the two couldn’t help but reflect on the past few weeks as they looked forward to whatever awaited them come Thursday night.
“I still can’t believe that payaso tried to tear apart my mask,” Luz vented, setting her fork down briefly to run a hand along the mask she currently wore. Even on a date night, she would never break the sacred lucha libre tradition, and Amelia loved and respected that about her girlfriend.
“I know everyone thinks it’s such an easy route to take,” Amelia responded, “but even with this being the first time it happened in SCW, it always feels like it’s getting old.”
“I really liked that mask…” Luz lamented.
“Luz, you like ALL your masks,” Amelia pointed out with a chuckle as she turned her attention away from her own dinner to pull the luchadora’s hand away from her mask to plant a gentle kiss on it. “What’s done is done, though, and now we need to focus on the task ahead of us.”
“Right,” Luz agreed as she suddenly reversed Amelia’s grip to return the favor with a hand kiss of her own, to the British girl’s amusement. “So you said we’ve got a huge step up from the Golden Boys this week, right?”
Amelia nodded. “It’s not quite that Dark Fantasy team Adam accused us of ‘copying,’ but it’s still two former World Champions from that Infamous stable in Syren and Christy Matthews. Apparently, with that contract thing Syren’s doing to try and back up all her talk of being the absolute best every single week, our win caught her eye and she had one sent our way. She wanted it to take place last week, but…”
There was no need for Amelia to finish that sentence, and a heavy silence suddenly settled over their table. Even with the sound of the rest of the building continuing unhindered, she and Luz drowned it all out as they went into deep thought about one aspect of that messy gauntlet they were both torn on: Syren had been confirmed to have the final spot and she basically had the best chance of walking out as World Champion again, and she had abandoned it. They had discovered in preparing for this match that Syren had been quite vocal about how being thrown into this chaos went against her entire plan and wanted out of it, and deciding not to even bother with it altogether and do this her way was somewhat admirable, even if neither one liked the attitude she carried in general. It was hard to decide if Syren should be respected for sticking to her guns and wanting to earn a World Title shot her way, or foolish just because she never took the shot she was given in the first place just to see what could have been.
“I think the fact that match even happened at all was crazy,” Luz finally broke the silence, taking a big bite of her steak before continuing. “Then again, stuff like that seems to be normal for SCW, and even with everything we’ve been through so far, I don’t know if the fact we’ve dodged that bullet up to this point since signing is a good thing or a bad thing.”
“I don’t know if I could handle being caught in the middle of something like that,” Amelia stated. “A gauntlet is one thing, I’ve done those before… no thanks to my parents wanting to find new ways for me to ‘prove myself’ usually, but a gauntlet of that size for the sole purpose of rattling everyone’s cages? I don’t even know if either of us could even deal with the chaos of that Scaffold Scramble that also got announced if our names end up in it.”
“I could jump off a scaffold without a second thought, as much as I know that thought doesn’t appeal to you babe,” Luz stated matter-of-factly, chuckling to herself as her girlfriend nearly choked on her steak even though she was used to the Latina’s impulsiveness by now. “Having to stay on one and fight’s a different story though.”
As they slipped back into focusing on their dinner, the silent agreement had been reached that they wanted to try and avoid some of the usual craziness of SCW as much as they possibly could. There would come a time when having to brave the storm would be inevitable, but until then they would stick to their guns and forge ahead match by match until they’d earned their opportunity at championship gold.
There was enough chaos in their lives to worry about, as it was.
That thought, in particular, slowly had Luz’s facial expression changing as she washed down her latest bite of steak with a drink of water. Something was on her mind and she seemed to be having an internal debate on whether or not to put a voice to it, clearly not wanting to feel like this rare opportunity in their schedule to go out and enjoy some couple’s time together should be ruined, though it could also make for an interesting conversation piece, for better or worse. Amelia was so focused on what remained of her meal that she never noticed the shift until the words were finally unleashed.
“Amelia… did you ever want to do this?”
Amelia’s fork froze in midair as her full attention returned to her girlfriend, and only now did she see the guilty look through the openings of her beloved’s mask. As she slowly put the utensil down, she had a feeling she knew what was being asked but wanted to know for sure.
“This? As in, wrestling? Or our relationship-”
“Wrestling, I meant wrestling! I mean, I would hope you’re not regretting being in a relationship with me all of a sudden, but, I mean-”
“Breathe, sweetheart,” Amelia advised, and Luz nodded and took a few deep breaths to slam her train of thought back on the track she’d chosen to take it down. With another drink of water finishing the job, the masked maiden managed to get a hold of her nerves.
“I meant wrestling,” she clarified once again. “Was it something you actually wanted to do all on your own and your parents decided to get involved? Or was it always their decision and you had no say in the matter?”
Luz’s hands began to shake a bit and Amelia understood why her emotions had shifted all of a sudden. It was a heavy topic, to be sure, but one they’d never actually discussed before despite all the time they’ve been together and everything they’d come to know about the other’s life. She took a moment to contemplate, already knowing the answer but trying to decide how she wanted to word it to hopefully put Luz more at ease.
“I’ll be honest,” she lamented, “it was all my parents’ decision. You’ve seen how much they obsess over everything that their own in-ring glory brought them and the mere thought of a Blythe family dynasty, conquering the ring for generations to come, was too tempting to pass up once they couldn’t keep going. I didn’t find this out until Ed and Em told me once things became kind of alright between us, but apparently them being born as twins set back their ambitions quite a bit because they’re stuck in this mindset that as twins, they’re only destined to succeed as a matching set and nothing more. So, they made sure they had one more child, me, just to fix that issue.”
Luz knew the bitter tone that slowly began creeping into Amelia’s voice the longer she talked about it, and it made her cringe to listen to it. As badly as she had wanted to know, even just for a change of pace in their conversation, bringing up those old wounds always felt like walking through a minefield and it had her fearing she’d already blown up an otherwise peaceful evening. Thankfully, Amelia seemed to catch on and took Luz’s hand in her own, gently intertwining their fingers.
“That said, I’m confident that even if I didn’t come from ‘wrestling royalty’ I’d have found my way into this sport regardless. I wish it would have been on my terms, but that’s just one in a long list of past regrets I can’t do anything about now, only push forward and keep on trying to be a better wrestler and a better person.”
“You sure you wouldn’t have done it just to try and find your way to me?” Luz couldn’t help but ask as some of the joy began to return to her.
“Who knows?” was Amelia’s response, but the wink that punctuated it elicited the giggle she was looking for to know she’d brought her love back around.
Even still, something about the fact that Luz had brought this up seemingly out of the blue was bugging her, and she had a feeling she knew why.
“Luz… are you bringing this up because your mom’s been blowing up your phone about throwing in the towel and not doing this anymore again?”
Unfortunately, that smile she loved so much faded from the lips of the Latina, and after a moment of hesitation, a nod was all the answer she got, but it’s the only answer she needed. It was always odd to Amelia how aggressive Camila Nevado was when it came to trying to dictate the course of her daughter’s life and the way it made Luz feel just infuriated her. It wasn’t the cold, commanding, ‘I say it like you have a choice but you really don’t’ approach her own mother practically built her entire life on. It was blunt, to the point, and designed to guilt-trip the masked competitor with no strings attached. She had come to learn the woman had been this aggressive back when Luz first debuted, but once she had entered the picture the doctor had seemingly backed off aside from the occasional attempt here and there whenever they were in Mexico competing. But now, with the idea that her daughter might be moving on with both her career and her life beyond her reach, it was almost like she had become desperate in trying to keep from losing her child all because she wanted to chase her dreams.
“What about you, Luz?” she suddenly asked, capturing the other girl’s attention. “Did you want to be a wrestler on your own? Or was it always about having to follow in your father’s footsteps?”
“I hate to be the ray of sunshine compared to you, cariña,” she said, trying to inject some of her usual sweetness to mask the guilty tone that was otherwise present, “but donning the mask and getting in the ring was always my dream. Considering my Papi was an icon in Mexican culture and getting to see all the incredible things he did in the ring, he was all for supporting my desire to want to be his successor. Mami, however… she never wanted me to go down this road, even before the accident that took him from us…”
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Long before she became known as La Pequeña Luz, she was Luna Nevado, a young girl with a big imagination and big dreams she wanted to fulfill.That alone is why it was no surprise that at five years old, one could find the girl jumping on the couch in the living room, excitedly trying to talk along with the words of the commentators and imitate all the crazy high-flying feats as a replay of one of her father’s matches had taken over the TV. Little Luna at least had enough sense to know better than to attempt some of the more dangerous stuff she knew she couldn’t do yet, but it still didn’t keep her from divebombing the poor cushions with giggles and screams of ‘lucha libre pride’ whenever she saw her father’s feet leave the mat on the screen.
“And now, Luna’s going up top for her signature move! The opponent has no idea what’s about to-”
“Sweetheart, no more. You’re going to break the couch, or worse…”
Luna’s attempt to jump from the armrest onto the couch once again was thwarted before she could leap, recognizing the scolding tone of her mother anywhere. From her place in the opening that led to the kitchen, Camila’s facial expression spoke volumes about how disappointed she was in her daughter for trying to recklessly imitate her husband’s wrestling stunts, especially considering she was already covered in band-aids from cuts and scrapes that were mostly self-inflicted from these endeavors going south. As she walked into the living room and shut off the TV, Luna climbed down from her perch and gave the doctor the familiar puppy dog eyes that signaled she was desperately hoping to avoid too harsh of a scolding.
“I’m sorry, mommy. I couldn’t help it! How many kids can honestly say their daddy is a real-life superhero!”
“Well, you aren’t too far off on that, kiddo.”
Both girls turned to the door that led out to the home gym that belonged to the masked man that proudly strolled into the room, a grin fixed firmly in place that not even his mask could hide as he draped a towel over his sweaty neck after the workout he’d just put himself through. To anyone else, El Espíritu Angélico would be an imposing sight even without the legend he’d built his name and mask on over the past decade, but to the two girls who made his time outside the ring worth living, not even a post-workout luchador of his stature would ever be anything besides a caring husband and a loving father.
“Daddy!” Luna called out as she rushed the man, who effortlessly picked her up and nuzzled his mask against her nose to her delight. Even when his attention turned to face the scowl of his wife, his smile never faltered.
“I was just telling Luna that she needs to stop imitating you. If not for the sake of our poor couch, then before she tries something really dangerous and breaks her neck or-”
“But mama!” Luna interjected. “I wanna be just like daddy when I grow up!”
“Now there’s a novel idea!” he boasted. “Following in your old man’s footsteps one day! Maybe focus on enjoying your time as a kid first Luna, because you won’t ever have a time like this in your life again. But when you’re old enough, I’d be more than happy to show you the ropes. Heck, you might even grow up to be a bigger star than me!”
“Or,” Camila tried to hijack the conversation, her tone clearly that of a woman who wasn’t going to let this train travel any further, “she could aim for something a little more realistic. Like being a doctor, or working in a major company.” She walks over to where the two of them are and carefully plucks her daughter from her husband’s arms before setting her back on the floor. “Honestly, honey, you really shouldn’t indulge in her fantasies like that and get her hopes up. Now, Luna, baby, why don’t you go get washed up for dinner, alright?”
“OK, mommy!” the little girl exclaimed before rushing towards the bathroom, driven by the curiosity of whatever delicious meal her mom had cooked tonight for them to enjoy but having learned at a young age to respect the doctor’s wishes for clean hands before and after a meal. It wasn’t long before she was climbing onto the stepstool in front of the sink and hitting the nozzle of the soap bottle, only to find no soap coating her hands waiting to be lathered up. A quick glance confirmed that the bottle was almost completely empty, and whatever remained would be impossible for the girl to retrieve from it. “Aw… good thing there’s more!”
Refusing to let this small hurdle get her down, the little ball of sunshine skipped out of the bathroom towards the nearby closet where she knew a brand new bottle of hand soap was waiting. Before she could turn the handle, however, her ears picked up on the sounds of her mom and dad talking, and the conversation didn’t sound pleasant. As curious as a little kid could ever be, she slowly snuck toward the opening back into the living room, making sure she stayed out of sight as she peeked around the corner to see her parents locking eyes.
“You can’t be serious, honey,” Camila said firmly.
“I am,” was Angélico’s reply. “I’ve been giving it some serious thought Cami. By the time she’s eighteen and old enough to legally start competing, I’ll likely be at the age where retirement will be a very real possibility. Why not pass the torch on to our little light?”
Camila let out a strangled scream at that, angrily turning away from the legendary luchador. The smile he’d been trying to maintain was gone by this point as he tried to embrace his wife from behind, but her folded arms made the task difficult.
“I don’t understand why you have such a problem with this,” he asked her. “She’s clearly excited over the idea, and wrestling opens up a whole new world of possibilities to her. I don’t have to remind you that if it wasn’t for wrestling, I’d have never found the love of my life?”
“You mean if it wasn’t for that nasty concussion you suffered the night of your first big title match that landed you in my care for quite some time,” she corrected him in the kind of tone that left no room for argument. “I never fell in love with you because of the lucha legend that you’ve become, I fell in love with the charming man who despite that concussion was still trying to sweep me off my feet even when I was just trying to get you back on yours.”
Camila let out a sigh and turned around in Angélico’s arms, though she didn’t return the embrace. “I’m getting worried about my masked angel. These matches have been taking a much greater toll on you as you’ve gotten older and had to work harder to give those fans what they want. What about giving me something that I want? What about making sure our daughter doesn’t get needlessly injured?”
“Camila, you knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to marry me, luchador and all,” he stated before softly kissing her forehead. “And you’ve stood by my side, no matter what’s happened.”
“I do love you very much, just as I love Luna,” Camila responded, though the sound of a loving wife and mother was short-lived. “That’s exactly why I don’t want to see her get hurt. It’s bad enough that she’s already getting picked on at school because of her quirky personality and interests.”
Luna tuned out whatever else her mother had to say after that, ducking back around the corner and staring blankly at the wall. She hadn’t wanted her parents to find out about some of the things that had happened at school, not wanting to make them upset because some of the other kids had said she was ‘weird’ or ‘freaky’ just because she had an overactive imagination for a five-year-old and constantly told everyone her father was a superhero, considering that’s how most of Mexico chose to see El Espíritu Angélico. Many of them thought she was just making it up, asking why he wasn’t coming to rescue her whenever she was pushed around or ganged up on.
“Don’t you dare try to tell me that Luna’s in the wrong just because that little girl doesn’t want to live a ‘normal’ life by your definition!”
Luna snapped out of her thoughts and hesitantly peeked around the corner again, and now her mom and dad were no longer in an awkward embrace. The masked icon was furiously pacing back and forth now, though his wife stood firm from her place in the room even as he kept going after whatever the little girl had zoned out on.
“You know what makes our lives special Cami?” he asked her. “It’s the fact that, after so much hard work, we’re both living the lives we want to live. I’m a wrestler and you’re a doctor, and that’s exactly what we both wanted to grow up to be. We chose these paths for ourselves, and it’s only fair that Luna gets to have that same choice when she grows up!”
“I’m sorry dear, but I just can’t!” she argued back. “I know, just from watching her play and try to emulate your in-ring stunts, that she’ll be just as reckless in the ring as you are, and for what? Pride? Status in our culture? Where will those things be if she breaks her neck or ends up crippled or brain-damaged!?”
Angélico leaned down as the two got face-to-face, neither one willing to give an inch as they looked like they would come to blows any minute now, but clearly, neither one was willing to cross that line. A tragic sense of practice came with this spat, almost as if this wasn’t the first time such an argument had happened even if it was Luna’s first time catching it in progress. After a tense minute, Camila finally pulled back and turned her head towards where Luna was hiding.
“Luna, sweetheart, finish up quickly so we can eat!” Her mother’s call was almost as though the war of words that preceded it had never happened, and all too quickly she called an end to the whole debacle by returning to the kitchen. Angélico watched her leave before letting out a frustrated sigh and tossing the towel around his neck aside before he stormed out the front door, clearly in need of some fresh air.
While Luna had heard her mother’s call clearly, she didn’t heed it and return to retrieving the spare bottle of hand soap so she could finish washing up. Instead, she leaned back against the wall, eyes wide as her five-year-old brain tried to process exactly what she’s just seen and heard. At her current mental capacity, the only things that actually made sense were that her mom and dad were fighting and she had been the cause of it. The idea of what she might want to do when she grew up was apparently a big problem to one of her parents, and trying to make her happy would only make the other even more upset, and she had no idea what to do.
Tears started to form in her eyes but she quickly brushed them away with her forearm, trying to put on the most cheerful smile she could manage as she made her way to the dinner table, hoping that if she just pretended none of that had happened then maybe everything would go back to normal.
Maybe both of her parents would love her and each other and there would be no problems at all.
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Amelia could only stare in complete and utter shock as Luz finished recounting the first time she discovered her mother’s desire to never let her become a wrestler.Over the years since they first became friends, she’s learned a great deal about the luchadora, swearing she’d seen the full extent of just how badly her mother wanted her to abandon the sport altogether just to be safe. Yeah, wrestling was a dangerous sport, there was no doubt about that, but incidents like the unfortunate tragedy that befell El Espíritu Angélico were few and far between. Honestly, she would admit that Luz witnessing her father’s death play out before her very eyes and still resolving to join the business where it happened to uphold his memory was proof of how determined she was to dictate her own fate and earn her own way through life, no matter how difficult the fight.
Finding out that Camila had been against the idea even when her girlfriend was still in kindergarten and turned what could’ve easily been a simple case of a child wanting to be just like a hero they just so happened to have in their life into a reason to fight with her husband over their daughter’s future, however, spoke volumes that rattled the Englishwoman just as badly as any memory involving her own horror story of a childhood.
“Maybe…” Luz suddenly said, snapping Amelia out of her thoughts as she realized her love was attempting to use her mask to hide her tears so as not to draw any attention to their table. “Maybe Mami had a point… you- you saw how isolated and beaten down I was against the Golden Boys, to the point where you had to save me. You know Infamous won’t think twice about trying those same tricks, especially if CHBK is wary of your wrestling style since he knows technicians. If you have to save me…”
“Hey, hey, look at me, Luz,” Amelia gently called, getting the luchadora’s attention. She stood up and repositioned her chair so they were sitting closer to each other as opposed to right across, and this allowed her to pull the Latian into a tight embrace, her fingers rubbing small circles along her back and shoulders. “We are each other’s protectors, alright? I was just doing what you’d do for me, and have done for me on several occasions. Heck, that hurricanrana you gave to Adam at the end took him out of the equation. I doubt he would’ve let me pin Bison otherwise.”
Luz nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced, but Amelia wasn’t giving up that easily. She pulled her love in for a gentle kiss on the lips before cupping her masked cheeks in her hands, keeping her face close.
“Don’t worry about your mom, Luz, because your father was right. You’ve gone on to become a star he would be proud of, you did end up finding love by being a part of the business, and if you have any doubts about that, know that I love you more than words could ever express, and that will never change.”
At the reassurance from the love of her life, Luz finally starts to regain the joy that makes her who she is and the two share another kiss before returning to their meals, finishing up what little remains and paying the check before they take their leave for the night. They throw on their jackets as they head out into the cool night air of Minneapolis and begin heading to where they parked their rental car hand-in-hand. All in all, it was a pleasant experience they wished they could do more of when the time was available, although Luz still couldn’t help but be bothered by the moment where it felt like things had gone far too south to salvage what had otherwise been a great date.
“I’m sorry for ruining our date night lamenting over my family problems, cariña,” Luz began, but before she got any further, Amelia squeezed her hand and cut her off.
“On the contrary, Luz. You didn’t ruin anything. We got to spend time together enjoying a nice dinner at a good restaurant and, more importantly, we got to have a bit of a long-overdue conversation. We need to have talks like tonight’s if we’re going to ultimately help each other put everything behind us and be able to commit one hundred percent to just being exactly who we want to be.”
“A kickass couple both inside and out of the ring?” Luz asked, making Amelia laugh in delight at her girlfriend regaining her sense of humor at last.
“Of course, dear.”
As the girls finally reached their rental car, they couldn’t resist indulging in the stereotype of embracing before they got in and sharing a kiss before making the trip back to their hotel room for the night, considering trying to do anything of the sort while in the car was a potential recipe for catastrophe. Their arms wrapped around one another and their lips were mere inches away…
That’s when Amelia’s phone began to ring.
The grappling genius hissed and silently began cussing out whoever had the worst timing in the world as the girls awkwardly pulled away and she began digging through her purse to find her phone. Once her fingers found the device and she could see the screen, she felt her irritation reach an all-time high at seeing her sister’s name greeting her.
“Jeez,” Luz remarked as she glanced at the screen to see for herself who had just killed the mood, “your siblings really have a knack for knowing exactly when to bother us, don’t they? It’s like they have a sixth sense for whenever we’re out on a date or something.”
Amelia rolled her eyes but agreed with the assessment, especially since it had been quite some time since they last had a proper date night and she distinctly remembered getting a call from her siblings back then as well, so she wasn’t about to doubt the existence of some sort of sibling ESP that she apparently wasn’t in the loop on.
As the girls got into the car while the phone continued to ring (making her sister wait seemed like a fitting enough payback for interrupting in the first place), Amelia couldn’t help but wonder why she was getting called from across the pond. Her relationship with Emily and Edward had always been a tenuous one, at least from her point of view. It was easy to blame her siblings for a lot of her issues with their parents, from her being born because they had to be born twins and mess up mom and dad’s ‘perfect plans’ to their decision to rebel and do things their way when they broke into the business causing mom and dad to break her down and rebuild her into a merciless machine whose sole purpose was to wrestle, and their constant bragging over their tag team accomplishments when she still had nothing to her name hadn’t helped matters. After the night she and Luz had not only ended their record-breaking title reign but also made a clear statement of defiance against Aleister and Ophelia Blythe, they began to respect both her and the girl who would go on to become her other half. Sure, the teasing never stopped and they weren’t above bragging and being annoying in general even to this day, but they were more than willing to take Amelia’s side and join her and Luz in standing against their parents so that they could all do things their way and be their own wrestlers, which after the couple had moved to America to pursue new challenges had led to the twins effectively being their eyes and ears back on the European front whenever their parents were up to something.
As annoyed as she was at their awful sense of timing, Amelia found herself quietly hoping they were calling just to bug her about something insignificant or brag about whatever new titles they may have won if they were competing tonight. She really didn’t want to start worrying about her parents finally making some kind of move. Steeling herself for the worst, just in case, she finally answered the phone and put it on speaker so Luz could back her up if need be.
“Hello?” she answered, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice as she wanted to make it clear to her sister that she’d called at a bad time.
“Amelia, we’re really sorry if we interrupted anything important-” Emily began.
“-but we had something a little urgent we thought you should know.” Edward finished, revealing they were on speaker as well so they could both talk to her.
Almost immediately, Amelia felt the warmth of her dinner with Luz begin to fade from her body as a block of ice seemed to form in her gut. Her siblings sounded concerned, already offering a sincere apology and cutting to the chase. That was never a good sign when she heard from them.
“It must be urgent,” Luz remarked. “Isn’t it, like 1 AM where you guys are right now?”
“Yeah, we just finished up a bit of a late show and we’re both exhausted as hell, but you two need to know this sooner rather than later,” Edward stated, said exhaustion evident in his tone of voice but not hindering him from pressing onward.
“While Ed and I were heading back to our locker room after our match,” Emily began, “we came across mom and dad backstage. They didn’t see us, thankfully, but we saw them having a chat with their ‘old friend’ that runs this place that’s always been at the center of the ‘Blythe wrestling empire.’”
“And before you suggest anything Am,” Edward chimed in before Amelia could even form a response, “we didn’t see any sign of cameras around, so whatever this little get-together was, it was meant to be private and not something planned for tonight’s show.”
That revelation seemed ominous as Amelia couldn’t help but fidget in her seat, her nerves slowly fraying from the mere thought of her parents attempting to do anything. Thankfully, Luz was there to keep her grounded, immediately paying her back for being her rock during her breakdown during their dinner date, and a supportive hand on her shoulder was all she needed to get her brain back into a more logical line of thought.
“OK, they’re clearly up to something,” she finally replied. “But you guys do remember that Luz and I are working for SCW now, right? Whatever they’re doing over there would be a more immediate concern to the two of you.”
“That’s what we thought at first, too,” Emily said. “But from what little we could overhear without putting ourselves at risk of getting caught eavesdropping, they weren’t talking to him about us. They mentioned you, Luz, and SCW frequently, and not even in their usual condescending way that makes it seem like they don’t care when they really do.”
“Apparently,” Edward continued, “they’ve been aware of what you two have been up to ever since you both first surfaced on SCW television, and whatever they’ve got planned is only just now starting to be revealed.”
“I’m not surprised they knew,” Luz admitted. “It was kind of not really a secret anymore when we first appeared backstage on camera, though if they waited all this time to start something, who knows what they have up their sleeves.”
“Whatever it is-” Edward started.
“-just be careful, you guys.” Emily finished before the call ended.
The silence that became prevalent in the car at that moment was overwhelming, and both Amelia and Luz were concerned at what they’d just heard. Their situation had been bad enough with just Camila constantly blowing up Luz’s phone as she tended to do, but barring anything more drastic it was a minor annoyance at best. The machinations of the Blythe parents was a far more daunting prospect, considering that when you gave them a reason to scheme against you, they somehow became even more dangerous than they were when pretending to be half-decent human beings in a public setting. The fact that they were more than capable of just talking anyone into submission was enough cause for concern, as Amelia could, unfortunately, attest to and even Luz had come up against firsthand on a few occasions, which is why they now strived to face that challenge together any time it needed to happen.
“I’m worried, Luz…” Amelia finally admitted, and Luz could see her princess trembling a bit as she attempted to put what she’d just learned out of her head just so she could start the car. The masked maiden put a comforting hand over hers and leaned over to kiss her cheek, willing to sit in that parking lot for hours, if necessary, until the system shock had faded.
“I am too, mi amor,” Luz replied. “But it’s a challenge we can overcome together, just like Infamous in any form is a challenge we can overcome together. We’ve defied expectations before, and we can do it again. You and me.”
“Right… you and me,” Amelia breathed a sigh of relief before one more brief kiss shared with the couple was enough to at least get them on the road, where the safety of their hotel room would allow them to better plan out their next moves.
For now, the Blythes would have to be put on the back-burner until they made a move, because stressing out over them before they even did anything was already admitting defeat. Right now, their number one priority had to be the biggest match of their young SCW careers thus far, and they had to make the most of it if they wanted to send the kind of statement that everyone around the world, from the SCW locker room to their respective families regardless of the issues that existed there, could not ignore.
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Nothing against the city of Minneapolis, but when you’re in the position that the Light In The Darkness are in right now, touring the city for a scenic location to speak their piece was the last thing on their minds. That’s why both ladies were currently in their wrestling attire as they sat on a bench in one of the local gyms, skin soaked with sweat as they downed the water they had brought with them, having just finished up a rather intense workout for the match that awaited them on Breakdown. After a moment of getting their bearings, Luz decided to take the lead, her boundless energy coming in handy for getting the ball rolling sooner.“When Amelia and I stepped into the ring a few weeks ago, we made it clear what we thought of the Golden Boys. We told them, point-blank, why we wanted to defeat them and we delivered. Credit where credit is due: Adam is one of the most experienced members of the SCW roster, and Bison was a roadblock all his own considering how outsized we were compared to him, but we knew we were coming off a setback and needed that win to turn things around to avoid spiraling so soon into our time here and we gave those two more than I think they were prepared to handle.
By the way, Adam… you’re not the first person who’s tried to go for my mask, and I know you won’t be the last. It’s a more common tactic in lucha libre than you think, so I’m prepared for it by now, as you found out firsthand.”
“For as much as we questioned the Golden Boys on how much of a tandem they truly were, and we drove that point home with our victory two weeks ago, we’re choosing not to revisit the issues we had with them and point out the positives they did bring to the table because it helps to put something into perspective. When watching that match back, our victory was considered somewhat of an upset, and when you think about it, to the SCW roster that might be a valid point. That was only our third match as an official part of this roster, and Luz and I overcame a daunting challenge regardless of which side in that match operated like an actual tag team. Because of it, we’ve gotten a bit of attention, just as our friends Lyza and Devin did when they called out the Tag Team Champions right out of the gate.
Actions do speak louder than words, which is quite fitting considering what awaits us now.”
Amelia reaches out of the shot for a moment to retrieve her phone, the playlist the girls were working out to having long since been paused. A few taps on the screen later, and Amelia turns the phone towards the camera as it pans in to get a good look at the e-mail she’s pulled up, and only a few words from it need to be seen to understand the contract that’s been delivered to this up-and-coming tandem. The shot pans back again as Amelia and Luz’s looks grow more focused.
“One of the things we’ve come to learn since joining this roster is the efforts of Syren, a multi-time former World Champion who has essentially left her career in the hands of a man considered one of the most legendary names to ever grace this company in CHBK. In Syren’s efforts to leave no doubt that she is the absolute best, bar none, and the only name worth standing at the top of the tallest mountain in this land, she’s had CHBK sending contracts to anyone who presents an opportunity to further cement her claims.”
“And the fact that we got such a contract tells us one thing: we clearly impressed the legend enough to put us on Syren’s radar. So, let’s get this out of the way right now… yes, we know exactly who we’re up against this week, and no, we’re not afraid like you think we probably should be. Maybe you think that’s naive of us, being the new kids about to stare down two former World Champions and the army that we know always backs them up when they need it. True, maybe it’s not exactly Dark Fantasy, which I’m sure might make Adam sad after he spent so much time and effort trying to paint us as a ‘Dark Fantasy ripoff,’ but while the Golden Boys were a team in maybe the loosest sense of the word, we know full well that even if it’s not their usual duo, Infamous in any combination is no laughing matter.”
“The fact is, we’re not afraid of this match because of exactly what it is to us, and that’s exactly what Syren wants everyone to see it as: an opportunity. To her, this is about making a clear statement that she is everything that she claims to be, and the fact of the matter is she’s been putting in the work week after week to back it up. She’s one of the best to ever set foot in an SCW ring, and now she’s calling us out hoping that we’ll be the latest statement on her resume. But, in doing so, she’s given us the opportunity to make a statement all our own. We’ve already got people talking because of one long-term veteran we’ve overcome… win this match, and all of a sudden we’ve got a real case once Retribution is in the book. We walk out of Breakdown having overcome two former World Champions, two Hall of Famers around here, and we go from just being on the radar to being considered a serious threat.”
“We know that won’t sit well with either of you ladies, but when you’re handing us a golden ticket on a silver platter, how do you think we’re going to react? We get it, you’ve both done just about everything there is to do and you have the rings to prove it, and believe it or not, we do respect you for it, even if we don’t exactly like how you accomplished a lot of it. Amelia and I know full well that we’re being tasked to do the impossible for two wrestlers in our position, but the fact of the matter is that this match even existing under the terms you’re operating on now Syren means that we’re a threat to you, even if you won’t admit to it out loud. We thrive on being challenged, we know what a victory over Infamous at this early stage of our time in SCW would mean, and while we’re not going to sit here and make any guarantees, we’re also not going to simply let you two walk all over us because you might think we made a mistake even accepting this match in the first place.”
Amelia sets her phone aside as both ladies slowly rise to a stand, the grappling genius taking a moment to crack her neck and fingers as the masked maiden stretches herself out a bit to stay loose for when they resume their training efforts once this is all wrapped up.
“As much as there’s a lot of talking to be done about Syren since this match wouldn’t even be a thing without her contracts, that’s no reason to ignore the presence of Christy Matthews, something that’s clearly set her off as of late. She’s angry, she’s made it clear she’s done playing games, and she’s probably insulted at the idea of having to put up with ‘the new kids’ instead of someone she deems more worth her time, an issue we aim to fix once we get a chance to lock up. To be honest Christy, the way you’re acting reminds us an awful lot of Adam, and a lot of what we said to him could sadly apply to you as well. There’s no denying your experience or the path you’ve carved for so many that have come after you, but lately, you’ve been lashing out because you feel nobody respects you for any of that when the reality of the situation is… well… you haven’t really done a whole lot lately to warrant such respect. At least unlike Adam, you have a more legitimate claim to needing to let this business take a back seat to family, but that inevitably creates the problem of you not proving as much or as often that you deserve to be where some others actually are, putting you in the endless cycle of demanding respect you won’t get every time you question your place on the ladder.”
“We get it Christy: you’re angry, you’re frustrated, you don’t like being overlooked or forgotten. I want to say you can take solace in the fact that we’re not ignoring you or treating you like you’re an afterthought instead of the threat you truly are, but we already know that, maybe unlike Syren, we won’t be getting any respect from you. Also, where we can at least respect Syren, ego aside, for wanting to succeed on her own merits with all these challenges so she can shove it back in the face of everyone who doubts her and prove she can succeed on their terms, if we can take anything away from that hectic gauntlet last week about you, it’s that you could care less about what Syren wants out of this so long as you win, by any means necessary, and we’re forced to bow down to you and admit that we’ll never be on your level.
By the way, we won’t be doing that, no matter if we’re just fighting you two ladies or the entirety of Infamous.
Of course, Syren could always surprise us. Maybe she and CHBK decided to single us out not because we proved to be worth her and Christy’s time. Maybe she’ll come right out and say that the only reason this match is happening is because of those comments from our last opponents implying that we ‘are’ a ripoff of the dominant tag team that Syren proceeded to launch her impressive singles career from, and she feels the need to try and end us before we even get anywhere close to accomplishing what she did alongside Ravyn. If that’s the case, however, then it might be proof that Syren’s getting a little paranoid about her standing around here because Ames and I didn’t come here to be the next Dark Fantasy… we came here to be the one and only Light In The Darkness, no matter what it takes to prove that name belongs here just as much as everyone else who signed a contract to compete with the best of the best.”
“Just as our actions have spoken loud enough to perhaps get your attention Syren, your own actions speak just as loudly, though maybe not with the kind of clarity you want. While we understand what you want to gain out of this endeavor, there are many who won’t and will call you out on the fact that you abandoned a World Title opportunity in that gauntlet. You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take, even if it wasn’t how you would have wanted it, and by not trying to play with the hand you were dealt you may only have yourself to blame if others feel that action warrants you waiting a little longer for that one-on-one opportunity you so desire. Perhaps that makes you as angry as Christy, but what it does not do is make us any less hesitant to accept your challenge and meet you head-on, because that is what Luz and I have always been about.”
“Even if we don’t win on Thursday night, we’re going to put forth the kind of effort that makes it clear that even if now isn’t our time, the two of us DO have what it takes to hang with arguably the very best SCW has to offer, and we can only go up from there.”
“But make no mistake: we want to win, we want to make Syren and Christy understand that we are worth their undivided attention, and we want to put all of SCW on notice that the Light In The Darkness is the real deal, and our future has never looked brighter.”
The two girls take their leave from the shot, having said all they need to say and getting right back to work preparing to back up every last word. They were given a chance to prove they belong here, that the hype was real, and they plan on busting their asses to earn it and the respect of everyone in that locker room.
After all, that’s how you separate yourself from the pack and prove you’re the alphas that deserve the spotlight that’s now shining down upon them.