01-06-2026, 09:46 PM
OOC: Chronologically, read this piece for Amelia after you read Luz's, as Luz's takes place after her match on night one of Shattered Reality and Amelia's (this one) takes place after her own match on night two.
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Shattered Reality had left a bitter taste in Amelia's mouth.
For as much as she tried to put it out of her mind, remind herself that she wasn't good enough yet, even accept the congratulations that were given to her by those in the gorilla position when she stepped through the curtain on having yet another potential match of the year contender on her resume, she had to face the facts:
She'd lost to Glory Braddock, one-on-one, once again.
She'd taken her shot, throwing herself at the biggest challenge available to her at the moment, and she'd fallen short again.
Just like she had against Syren.
Just like she had against Cid Turner.
All in all, it was a very bitter pill to swallow, and not how she imagined closing out a year that, on paper, felt like the worst year of her entire wrestling career.
She didn't want to believe that, especially when compared to the earliest years of her time in the business, the times where she was unbeatable, yes, but also absolutely miserable because she was forced to be someone she's not. As she found herself pondering them, however, the facts didn't lie. 2025 had started with her and Luz, after ending 2024 in a defiant display of heart and determination against them, being bullied and thrown aside by the Fall of Man despite their best efforts. From there, Amelia had seen a series of highs and lows, the highest point arguably being a big win at Rise to Greatness that felt like just the proof she needed that she was ready... only for her last three pay-per-view results to say otherwise. Sure, she'd challenged for the World Title, but what else did she have to show for her efforts?
Could she even really count the World Title opportunity considering she'd used her Trios contract to force it, as opposed to Glory who'd earned her way to her own shot or Syren who won a number one contender's match just last night?
Amelia tried to shake it off as she stepped into the backstage area, but for some reason, the pain of this loss was particularly hard to ignore, and worse yet, it was opening up so many old wounds that she thought had healed over time. She could feel herself slipping, the negative thoughts ensnaring her like a tornado that refused to let her out of its eye. She hugged herself tight, her body trembling, as she carefully stepped aside to be out of sight. It was almost instinct, as if her mother's commands were still echoing in her thoughts, especially as she could see Glory not too far away, having left the ring ahead of her and still soaking in the hard-fought victory.
'Do not let that woman see how weak she made you look,' the familiar cruel tone of Ophelia Blythe commanded, and the memory of that voice haunting her thoughts was enough for Amelia to duck out of sight, fighting to keep herself from truly breaking down and crying over this latest setback.
She tried to tell herself it was alright, that she'd do better next time, that 2026 would be a much better year for her, but she couldn't even think it convincingly enough.
“Amelia?”
Amelia looked up, not even realizing that she had sunk to the floor at some point, and locked eyes with her wife. To say that La Pequeña Luz looked worried would be an understatement, and she was already kneeling down beside her wife, not caring if anybody saw or had a remark about it because Amelia was clearly not doing well and that was Luz's top priority.
“Ames? Can you hear me?” she asked, earning a nod from Amelia in return. “Are you alright?”
“What do you think?” Amelia shot back, perhaps more bitter than she might've intended.
“Right, stupid question...” Luz admitted, facepalming at the mistake. “You want to talk about it?”
“...what is there to even talk about, Luz?” Amelia mumbled. “I lost... despite how badly I needed this win, not even because it was Glory standing across the ring from me, I failed. Again.”
“Ames, look at me,” Luz asked, and Amelia did so. “I know it hurts, and yeah, it absolutely sucks. But, we'll have a few weeks to just kind of relax and pull ourselves together before SCW picks back up in the new year. I can feel it... 2026 will be the year of Amelia Nevado...”
Luz kept talking, doing her best to try and cheer her wife up in that special, goofy way that only she could. This time, though... it didn't seem to have the same effect on Amelia that it usually did. If anything, not that Luz seemed to be aware of this as she'd apparently shifted to rattling off possible plans for them to enjoy the holidays together to rest up for a fresh start in the new year, it seemed to be having the opposite effect on Amelia than it usually did. The more optimistic Luz tried to be about Amelia's future, the more she tried to treat this like it was just another setback she could move on from, as though it were just that easy, the more irrationally angry she felt herself growing.
'Who is she to tell you that you can just put tonight behind you that easily?' a voice suddenly spoke in her head... a voice that sounded both familiar and yet foreign at the same time. 'She won her match this weekend! She's holding championship gold again! What does she have to worry about?'
Amelia tried to ignore whatever feeling this intrusive thought seemed to bring with it, but as much as she hated to admit it... there was a good point. Luz had won her match, she'd become United States Champion for the third time last night, and while Amelia had been proud of her wife and happily celebrating with her just 24 hours prior... now the memory just left a bitter taste in her mouth, feeling like she once again ruined what could've been something special all because Luz succeeded where she had fallen short.
She didn't know how much time had passed over contemplating this and hating every second of it, but by the time she snapped out of it, she saw that Luz had risen to her feet and was offering a hand to help her up, though the concern in her eyes made it clear that she was starting to realize her optimistic pep talk didn't seem to do the trick this time.
'She's pitying you,' the voice called out in her head again.
“Ames?” Luz called out, the worry painfully clear in her voice. “Can you hear me?”
Before Amelia could even register what was happening, she found herself smacking Luz's offered hand away before she slowly pulled herself back to her feet. It was a bit more difficult than she seemed to believe it would be considering she'd just wrestled yet another lengthy match and could definitely feel everything that Glory had put her through, but she managed to get back to her feet on her own and started heading towards her locker room.
“Mi amor?” Luz practically choked out, clearly taken aback by Amelia smacking her hand away and now trying to leave without her. She followed after Amelia, keeping a healthy distance so Amelia didn't feel like she was being smothered by her wife... even if Luz felt justified in being more worried than usual.
If Amelia had fully been paying attention, she wouldn't have blamed Luz for being scared right now. After all, she hadn't seen Amelia react this badly to a loss since the night where Luz herself had been responsible for the very first blemish ever on Amelia's otherwise-perfect record at the time, and Amelia's reaction to defeat had still been fairly bad the first couple of times she'd endured it after that night as the wounds from being forced to live up to her parents' unreasonably high expectations were still extremely fresh. And yet, Amelia was arguably the best version of herself now, finally well and truly free of her parents and everything they could ever do to her, allowed to enjoy the life she chose and be unapologetically herself.
So why did she feel like this loss, in particular, had her believing her entire world was crumbling around her again?
Suddenly, she found herself thinking back to two years ago, when she and Luz were challenging Dark Fantasy for what would become their first World Tag Title reign. She remembered the warning that Ravyn had given her, the claims of the challenges she had gone through with Syren when it came to clashing desires and the pride of the wrestling business, the similarities she saw between the two couples. She'd brushed it off back then, believing it was just Ravyn's usual mind games to try and divide and conquer before their title match, confident that she and Luz could just talk through any problem and work through any issues together.
'Can you, though?' that inner voice claimed again. 'Would she truly understand if you explained to her how much you envy her success?'
“I don't...” Amelia started to say. She felt tempted to argue, knowing full well that she and Luz and been in this exact same scenario many years ago, except with the roles reversed now. The problem was, she knew that Luz envied the success she was finding at that time, and while they'd talked through it, she'd be lying to herself if what she felt right now wasn't any different.
“You don't what?” Luz spoke, snapping Amelia out of her thoughts and making her realize she'd spoken out loud. “Amelia, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting really worried now. Please talk with me...”
“...what do you want me to say, Luz?” Amelia replied, again knowing her voice had a sharper edge to it than she intended. Still, that inferno burned within her, and even as she reached her locker room and placed her hand on the knob, it didn't simmer. If anything, she felt it burn hotter in her veins. “I lost. Glory once again proved she's better than me, just like everyone else that's made their point that maybe I don't belong in the main event picture, that I jumped into that deep end a little too soon. Should I apologize for being such a failure and once again ruining what could've been a much better moment for us because I couldn't get the job done? Should I admit that you're the better half of us so everyone can feel happy about being right?”
“Ames, what the heck!?” Luz cried, actually taking a step back at her wife's harsh reply. She opened her mouth to follow up, but suddenly found herself unable to come up with anything to say beyond her initial horrified exclamation. Seeing how awful Luz felt when, truth be told, none of this was actually her fault, briefly snapped Amelia out of whatever haze had overtaken her in the past few minutes, but while she looked guilty, it didn't fully erase the feeling that still simmered in her gut.
The two women just stared at one another, an unfamiliar tension beginning to suffocate them both, until Amelia huffed and opened the door to her locker room.
“I'm going to take a shower,” she declared., though her voice sounded a bit strained, like she, herself, wasn't sure about what to even say right now. “After that... we'll see...”
Amelia didn't elaborate any further, and despite Luz calling her name and reaching for her, Amelia didn't pause or respond, instead just closing the door behind her and locking it, ensuring total privacy. She knew she didn't need it... Luz was already intimately familiar with every inch of her and would never make it awkward or uncomfortable, and she could feel her heart aching for her wife's presence, practically begging her to unlock the door right now and resolve this. In response to any consideration for that, her brain seemed to counter that Amelia was better off without Luz right now, and some time alone would do her some good to stew over the painful facts that she was closing the year out on.
Deep down, Amelia knew that wasn't true, but trying to override the pain of tonight's loss was proving easier said than done.
Even as she stripped down to her birthday suit and made her way to the shower, hoping the hot water would rinse away all the problems that seemed to be clinging to her like a second skin tonight, her thoughts refused to rest. She could hear Paul's words from a few days ago, the ones that had briefly sent her spiraling like she just knew she was now, echoing in her mind once more, claiming that Glory didn't truly care about her or respect her, repeating comments Glory had made in the past to question whether or not Amelia was ready to take that next step up.
As the water began raining down upon her and she worked to try and wash the aches and exhaustion out of her muscles, her brain refused to stop going. She could practically hear her parents' disappointment rattling in her skull, berating her for yet another failure that could've been avoided if she had just stuck to the plan they had laid out for her. Even if she managed to banish that from her mind, her thoughts redirected her back to Under Attack just last month. It wasn't the loss she suffered against Syren, though, that chose to plague her brain next... no, it was the words Meghan Strader had said to her wife leading up to the moment where she had ended Luz's second U.S. Title reign.
“And finally,” Meghan had stated, “you’ll have a legitimate claim to chase the World Championship from what you have done as U.S. Champ before I dethroned you.”
'Meghan wasn't wrong,' that voice from before rattled in her skull. 'Luz has earned that right, and last night only solidified it more. Three times now she's held the U.S. Championship, and people like Meghan believe she's done more for that belt that Cid Turner has for the World Title you failed to take away from him. What have you done? A short TV Title reign? Luz eclipsed that easily. A Trios contract? That ended up being wasted on an opportunity no one believed you deserved in the first place.'
“Shut... up...” Amelia growled, hands going from washing her hair to starting to pull at her brown locks, as if the pain of trying to rip them out by the roots would finally afford her some mental peace and quiet.
'Why aren't more people talking about you, Amelia?' the intrusive thought probed further. 'Why are they saying Luz has earned the right to aim for the top while telling you, to your face, that you don't belong there? Why is Luz constantly featuring in all of SCW's promotional videos while you are nowhere to be found? She has taken the spotlight for herself... and you're simply burning away in her light.'
“Shut up!” Amelia cried again, no longer able to tell if the wet streak trailing down her cheeks was water from the shower or her own tears finally breaking through the proverbial dam.
The problem was, no matter how angry she got at her thoughts for painting this picture for her... they weren't wrong, and Amelia's throat was burning from how badly she wanted to either scream or vomit or... anything that might quell the storm.
'Selena Frost, Meghan Strader, Glory Braddock...' the voice continued. 'All three claim to respect you, one even still considers you a friend... at least, when the cameras aren't rolling. And yet, none of them have ever shown you the same respect they show to your wife. None of them believe you can succeed like she has. Luz is the shining star of The Light In The Darkness, and Amelia Nevado is the failure destined to be forgotten to that very darkness, just as Ravyn predicted all those years ago.'
“No! You're wrong!” Amelia yelled, thrashing around as though she could hit something, anybody, and this voice would finally shut up and leave her alone.
'You know I speak the truth,' the voice continued. 'After all... I'm you.'
Amelia didn't know when it happened, but at some point in her internal struggle, she had wandered out of the shower and found herself back in the locker room again, her gaze drifting over to a mirror set up in one of the lockers. She didn't see the reflection of her naked, trembling, distressed form, however. No... the woman staring back at her wore her face, but looked far more confidant than Amelia had felt in some time. If anything, she almost looked like a champion: poised, proud, unstoppable. Almost like...
“Who I used to be...” Amelia mumbled out loud, feeling her own heart drop as she said those words.
“Correction: who you still are, deep inside,” her reflection claimed. “You can shed the last name, cut all ties with mother and father, but you'll always have the blood of the Blythe legacy pumping through your veins, and you know that's a legacy that demands perfection.”
“That's not me anymore!” Amelia yelled at herself.
“Maybe you're right,” her reflection shrugged. “After all, Amelia Blythe would have never let anyone make a joke out of her, not even her own wife. Think of all you could've had... wrestling greatness, championship glory just by demanding the opportunity, the respect you deserve. Maybe Caleb had a point... maybe you do need to be saved...”
“You don't know what you're talking about,” Amelia spat, shoulders shaking as she breathed heavily, feeling her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
“Oh, but I do,” the reflection scoffed. “Like I said, I'm you... the real you, buried beneath the charade of weakness that everyone has taken advantage of. Case in point: how quickly is someone going to go for your throat over the way you went after Glory's injured leg, trying to beat her at her own game, but will conveniently forget how Luz took advantage of the referee being down to turn Gavin's Lights Out and steal the U.S. Title?”
Amelia tried to turn back towards the shower, hoping that if she finished it and got dressed she could try to put this out of her head. Maybe she could say something to Celine the next time the therapist was available for a session. Amelia was so lost in her head that she'd completely forgotten she just wandered out of the shower soaking wet and hadn't dried off, slipping on a puddle that had formed beneath her and falling to the floor with a thud.
“Face it, Amelia...” her reflection taunted her. “They were all right about you. You haven't earned anything on your own since that U.S. Title tournament where you lost in the finals so very long ago. You had to rely on a contract won for you with the help of others, including outside help, just to give yourself something. Meanwhile, Luz is getting opportunity after opportunity handed to her. Who knows? Maybe Fatal Fortunes will see her challenge for the World Title and succeed where you failed, while the luck of the draw relegates you to something embarrassing that's inevitably forgotten? Maybe you were never good enough to strike it out on your own-”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Amelia roared at the top of her lungs as she reached for the nearest thing she could get her hands on, which turned out to be one of her boots, and hurled it as hard as she could. The sound of glass shattering pierced the agonizing haze of her thoughts as she slowly looked up through burning eyes, seeing the mirror lying in fragments before her. The concerns that she had destroyed venue property or the whole 'seven years of bad luck' thing briefly flashed through her mind before she saw the reflection that manifested from her most intrusive thoughts still grinning at her, almost in mockery and disappointment, in the broken pieces.
“Amelia!?” she heard Luz's voice call through the door, followed by frantic knocking and attempts to turn the knob despite it being locked. “Amelia, are you alright!?”
“Go away!” Amelia yelled, though her throat felt hoarse from yelling at herself. Instead of pulling herself to her feet or even crawling anywhere to either finish her shower or get dressed or... anything at all, she just laid there, naked as the day she was born, every scar gifted to her from her parents fully exposed to the lights above. Luz's frantic attempts to get to her felt like white noise right now, and there was a burning thought that Amelia didn't want Luz to make it inside.
It made her skin crawl, but she couldn't deny it any longer... they were all right. Luz was eclipsing her, and Amelia found herself hating her wife over it just as much as she hated herself.
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Shattered Reality had left a bitter taste in Amelia's mouth.
For as much as she tried to put it out of her mind, remind herself that she wasn't good enough yet, even accept the congratulations that were given to her by those in the gorilla position when she stepped through the curtain on having yet another potential match of the year contender on her resume, she had to face the facts:
She'd lost to Glory Braddock, one-on-one, once again.
She'd taken her shot, throwing herself at the biggest challenge available to her at the moment, and she'd fallen short again.
Just like she had against Syren.
Just like she had against Cid Turner.
All in all, it was a very bitter pill to swallow, and not how she imagined closing out a year that, on paper, felt like the worst year of her entire wrestling career.
She didn't want to believe that, especially when compared to the earliest years of her time in the business, the times where she was unbeatable, yes, but also absolutely miserable because she was forced to be someone she's not. As she found herself pondering them, however, the facts didn't lie. 2025 had started with her and Luz, after ending 2024 in a defiant display of heart and determination against them, being bullied and thrown aside by the Fall of Man despite their best efforts. From there, Amelia had seen a series of highs and lows, the highest point arguably being a big win at Rise to Greatness that felt like just the proof she needed that she was ready... only for her last three pay-per-view results to say otherwise. Sure, she'd challenged for the World Title, but what else did she have to show for her efforts?
Could she even really count the World Title opportunity considering she'd used her Trios contract to force it, as opposed to Glory who'd earned her way to her own shot or Syren who won a number one contender's match just last night?
Amelia tried to shake it off as she stepped into the backstage area, but for some reason, the pain of this loss was particularly hard to ignore, and worse yet, it was opening up so many old wounds that she thought had healed over time. She could feel herself slipping, the negative thoughts ensnaring her like a tornado that refused to let her out of its eye. She hugged herself tight, her body trembling, as she carefully stepped aside to be out of sight. It was almost instinct, as if her mother's commands were still echoing in her thoughts, especially as she could see Glory not too far away, having left the ring ahead of her and still soaking in the hard-fought victory.
'Do not let that woman see how weak she made you look,' the familiar cruel tone of Ophelia Blythe commanded, and the memory of that voice haunting her thoughts was enough for Amelia to duck out of sight, fighting to keep herself from truly breaking down and crying over this latest setback.
She tried to tell herself it was alright, that she'd do better next time, that 2026 would be a much better year for her, but she couldn't even think it convincingly enough.
“Amelia?”
Amelia looked up, not even realizing that she had sunk to the floor at some point, and locked eyes with her wife. To say that La Pequeña Luz looked worried would be an understatement, and she was already kneeling down beside her wife, not caring if anybody saw or had a remark about it because Amelia was clearly not doing well and that was Luz's top priority.
“Ames? Can you hear me?” she asked, earning a nod from Amelia in return. “Are you alright?”
“What do you think?” Amelia shot back, perhaps more bitter than she might've intended.
“Right, stupid question...” Luz admitted, facepalming at the mistake. “You want to talk about it?”
“...what is there to even talk about, Luz?” Amelia mumbled. “I lost... despite how badly I needed this win, not even because it was Glory standing across the ring from me, I failed. Again.”
“Ames, look at me,” Luz asked, and Amelia did so. “I know it hurts, and yeah, it absolutely sucks. But, we'll have a few weeks to just kind of relax and pull ourselves together before SCW picks back up in the new year. I can feel it... 2026 will be the year of Amelia Nevado...”
Luz kept talking, doing her best to try and cheer her wife up in that special, goofy way that only she could. This time, though... it didn't seem to have the same effect on Amelia that it usually did. If anything, not that Luz seemed to be aware of this as she'd apparently shifted to rattling off possible plans for them to enjoy the holidays together to rest up for a fresh start in the new year, it seemed to be having the opposite effect on Amelia than it usually did. The more optimistic Luz tried to be about Amelia's future, the more she tried to treat this like it was just another setback she could move on from, as though it were just that easy, the more irrationally angry she felt herself growing.
'Who is she to tell you that you can just put tonight behind you that easily?' a voice suddenly spoke in her head... a voice that sounded both familiar and yet foreign at the same time. 'She won her match this weekend! She's holding championship gold again! What does she have to worry about?'
Amelia tried to ignore whatever feeling this intrusive thought seemed to bring with it, but as much as she hated to admit it... there was a good point. Luz had won her match, she'd become United States Champion for the third time last night, and while Amelia had been proud of her wife and happily celebrating with her just 24 hours prior... now the memory just left a bitter taste in her mouth, feeling like she once again ruined what could've been something special all because Luz succeeded where she had fallen short.
She didn't know how much time had passed over contemplating this and hating every second of it, but by the time she snapped out of it, she saw that Luz had risen to her feet and was offering a hand to help her up, though the concern in her eyes made it clear that she was starting to realize her optimistic pep talk didn't seem to do the trick this time.
'She's pitying you,' the voice called out in her head again.
“Ames?” Luz called out, the worry painfully clear in her voice. “Can you hear me?”
Before Amelia could even register what was happening, she found herself smacking Luz's offered hand away before she slowly pulled herself back to her feet. It was a bit more difficult than she seemed to believe it would be considering she'd just wrestled yet another lengthy match and could definitely feel everything that Glory had put her through, but she managed to get back to her feet on her own and started heading towards her locker room.
“Mi amor?” Luz practically choked out, clearly taken aback by Amelia smacking her hand away and now trying to leave without her. She followed after Amelia, keeping a healthy distance so Amelia didn't feel like she was being smothered by her wife... even if Luz felt justified in being more worried than usual.
If Amelia had fully been paying attention, she wouldn't have blamed Luz for being scared right now. After all, she hadn't seen Amelia react this badly to a loss since the night where Luz herself had been responsible for the very first blemish ever on Amelia's otherwise-perfect record at the time, and Amelia's reaction to defeat had still been fairly bad the first couple of times she'd endured it after that night as the wounds from being forced to live up to her parents' unreasonably high expectations were still extremely fresh. And yet, Amelia was arguably the best version of herself now, finally well and truly free of her parents and everything they could ever do to her, allowed to enjoy the life she chose and be unapologetically herself.
So why did she feel like this loss, in particular, had her believing her entire world was crumbling around her again?
Suddenly, she found herself thinking back to two years ago, when she and Luz were challenging Dark Fantasy for what would become their first World Tag Title reign. She remembered the warning that Ravyn had given her, the claims of the challenges she had gone through with Syren when it came to clashing desires and the pride of the wrestling business, the similarities she saw between the two couples. She'd brushed it off back then, believing it was just Ravyn's usual mind games to try and divide and conquer before their title match, confident that she and Luz could just talk through any problem and work through any issues together.
'Can you, though?' that inner voice claimed again. 'Would she truly understand if you explained to her how much you envy her success?'
“I don't...” Amelia started to say. She felt tempted to argue, knowing full well that she and Luz and been in this exact same scenario many years ago, except with the roles reversed now. The problem was, she knew that Luz envied the success she was finding at that time, and while they'd talked through it, she'd be lying to herself if what she felt right now wasn't any different.
“You don't what?” Luz spoke, snapping Amelia out of her thoughts and making her realize she'd spoken out loud. “Amelia, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting really worried now. Please talk with me...”
“...what do you want me to say, Luz?” Amelia replied, again knowing her voice had a sharper edge to it than she intended. Still, that inferno burned within her, and even as she reached her locker room and placed her hand on the knob, it didn't simmer. If anything, she felt it burn hotter in her veins. “I lost. Glory once again proved she's better than me, just like everyone else that's made their point that maybe I don't belong in the main event picture, that I jumped into that deep end a little too soon. Should I apologize for being such a failure and once again ruining what could've been a much better moment for us because I couldn't get the job done? Should I admit that you're the better half of us so everyone can feel happy about being right?”
“Ames, what the heck!?” Luz cried, actually taking a step back at her wife's harsh reply. She opened her mouth to follow up, but suddenly found herself unable to come up with anything to say beyond her initial horrified exclamation. Seeing how awful Luz felt when, truth be told, none of this was actually her fault, briefly snapped Amelia out of whatever haze had overtaken her in the past few minutes, but while she looked guilty, it didn't fully erase the feeling that still simmered in her gut.
The two women just stared at one another, an unfamiliar tension beginning to suffocate them both, until Amelia huffed and opened the door to her locker room.
“I'm going to take a shower,” she declared., though her voice sounded a bit strained, like she, herself, wasn't sure about what to even say right now. “After that... we'll see...”
Amelia didn't elaborate any further, and despite Luz calling her name and reaching for her, Amelia didn't pause or respond, instead just closing the door behind her and locking it, ensuring total privacy. She knew she didn't need it... Luz was already intimately familiar with every inch of her and would never make it awkward or uncomfortable, and she could feel her heart aching for her wife's presence, practically begging her to unlock the door right now and resolve this. In response to any consideration for that, her brain seemed to counter that Amelia was better off without Luz right now, and some time alone would do her some good to stew over the painful facts that she was closing the year out on.
Deep down, Amelia knew that wasn't true, but trying to override the pain of tonight's loss was proving easier said than done.
Even as she stripped down to her birthday suit and made her way to the shower, hoping the hot water would rinse away all the problems that seemed to be clinging to her like a second skin tonight, her thoughts refused to rest. She could hear Paul's words from a few days ago, the ones that had briefly sent her spiraling like she just knew she was now, echoing in her mind once more, claiming that Glory didn't truly care about her or respect her, repeating comments Glory had made in the past to question whether or not Amelia was ready to take that next step up.
As the water began raining down upon her and she worked to try and wash the aches and exhaustion out of her muscles, her brain refused to stop going. She could practically hear her parents' disappointment rattling in her skull, berating her for yet another failure that could've been avoided if she had just stuck to the plan they had laid out for her. Even if she managed to banish that from her mind, her thoughts redirected her back to Under Attack just last month. It wasn't the loss she suffered against Syren, though, that chose to plague her brain next... no, it was the words Meghan Strader had said to her wife leading up to the moment where she had ended Luz's second U.S. Title reign.
“And finally,” Meghan had stated, “you’ll have a legitimate claim to chase the World Championship from what you have done as U.S. Champ before I dethroned you.”
'Meghan wasn't wrong,' that voice from before rattled in her skull. 'Luz has earned that right, and last night only solidified it more. Three times now she's held the U.S. Championship, and people like Meghan believe she's done more for that belt that Cid Turner has for the World Title you failed to take away from him. What have you done? A short TV Title reign? Luz eclipsed that easily. A Trios contract? That ended up being wasted on an opportunity no one believed you deserved in the first place.'
“Shut... up...” Amelia growled, hands going from washing her hair to starting to pull at her brown locks, as if the pain of trying to rip them out by the roots would finally afford her some mental peace and quiet.
'Why aren't more people talking about you, Amelia?' the intrusive thought probed further. 'Why are they saying Luz has earned the right to aim for the top while telling you, to your face, that you don't belong there? Why is Luz constantly featuring in all of SCW's promotional videos while you are nowhere to be found? She has taken the spotlight for herself... and you're simply burning away in her light.'
“Shut up!” Amelia cried again, no longer able to tell if the wet streak trailing down her cheeks was water from the shower or her own tears finally breaking through the proverbial dam.
The problem was, no matter how angry she got at her thoughts for painting this picture for her... they weren't wrong, and Amelia's throat was burning from how badly she wanted to either scream or vomit or... anything that might quell the storm.
'Selena Frost, Meghan Strader, Glory Braddock...' the voice continued. 'All three claim to respect you, one even still considers you a friend... at least, when the cameras aren't rolling. And yet, none of them have ever shown you the same respect they show to your wife. None of them believe you can succeed like she has. Luz is the shining star of The Light In The Darkness, and Amelia Nevado is the failure destined to be forgotten to that very darkness, just as Ravyn predicted all those years ago.'
“No! You're wrong!” Amelia yelled, thrashing around as though she could hit something, anybody, and this voice would finally shut up and leave her alone.
'You know I speak the truth,' the voice continued. 'After all... I'm you.'
Amelia didn't know when it happened, but at some point in her internal struggle, she had wandered out of the shower and found herself back in the locker room again, her gaze drifting over to a mirror set up in one of the lockers. She didn't see the reflection of her naked, trembling, distressed form, however. No... the woman staring back at her wore her face, but looked far more confidant than Amelia had felt in some time. If anything, she almost looked like a champion: poised, proud, unstoppable. Almost like...
“Who I used to be...” Amelia mumbled out loud, feeling her own heart drop as she said those words.
“Correction: who you still are, deep inside,” her reflection claimed. “You can shed the last name, cut all ties with mother and father, but you'll always have the blood of the Blythe legacy pumping through your veins, and you know that's a legacy that demands perfection.”
“That's not me anymore!” Amelia yelled at herself.
“Maybe you're right,” her reflection shrugged. “After all, Amelia Blythe would have never let anyone make a joke out of her, not even her own wife. Think of all you could've had... wrestling greatness, championship glory just by demanding the opportunity, the respect you deserve. Maybe Caleb had a point... maybe you do need to be saved...”
“You don't know what you're talking about,” Amelia spat, shoulders shaking as she breathed heavily, feeling her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
“Oh, but I do,” the reflection scoffed. “Like I said, I'm you... the real you, buried beneath the charade of weakness that everyone has taken advantage of. Case in point: how quickly is someone going to go for your throat over the way you went after Glory's injured leg, trying to beat her at her own game, but will conveniently forget how Luz took advantage of the referee being down to turn Gavin's Lights Out and steal the U.S. Title?”
Amelia tried to turn back towards the shower, hoping that if she finished it and got dressed she could try to put this out of her head. Maybe she could say something to Celine the next time the therapist was available for a session. Amelia was so lost in her head that she'd completely forgotten she just wandered out of the shower soaking wet and hadn't dried off, slipping on a puddle that had formed beneath her and falling to the floor with a thud.
“Face it, Amelia...” her reflection taunted her. “They were all right about you. You haven't earned anything on your own since that U.S. Title tournament where you lost in the finals so very long ago. You had to rely on a contract won for you with the help of others, including outside help, just to give yourself something. Meanwhile, Luz is getting opportunity after opportunity handed to her. Who knows? Maybe Fatal Fortunes will see her challenge for the World Title and succeed where you failed, while the luck of the draw relegates you to something embarrassing that's inevitably forgotten? Maybe you were never good enough to strike it out on your own-”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Amelia roared at the top of her lungs as she reached for the nearest thing she could get her hands on, which turned out to be one of her boots, and hurled it as hard as she could. The sound of glass shattering pierced the agonizing haze of her thoughts as she slowly looked up through burning eyes, seeing the mirror lying in fragments before her. The concerns that she had destroyed venue property or the whole 'seven years of bad luck' thing briefly flashed through her mind before she saw the reflection that manifested from her most intrusive thoughts still grinning at her, almost in mockery and disappointment, in the broken pieces.
“Amelia!?” she heard Luz's voice call through the door, followed by frantic knocking and attempts to turn the knob despite it being locked. “Amelia, are you alright!?”
“Go away!” Amelia yelled, though her throat felt hoarse from yelling at herself. Instead of pulling herself to her feet or even crawling anywhere to either finish her shower or get dressed or... anything at all, she just laid there, naked as the day she was born, every scar gifted to her from her parents fully exposed to the lights above. Luz's frantic attempts to get to her felt like white noise right now, and there was a burning thought that Amelia didn't want Luz to make it inside.
It made her skin crawl, but she couldn't deny it any longer... they were all right. Luz was eclipsing her, and Amelia found herself hating her wife over it just as much as she hated herself.
![[Image: uKMzpho.png]](https://i.imgur.com/uKMzpho.png)
Tag Team Record: 29-11-1*
La Pequeña Luz Solo Record: 23-12
Amelia Blythe Nevado Solo Record: 15-14-1
*The tag team turmoil on the 9/14/2023 Breakdown is counted in this record as the three separate matches LITD had in the gauntlet up until their elimination.
Breakdown 3/30/2023 - Kim Williams' Trios Cash-In
La Pequeña Luz: 3 Falls
Amelia Blythe Nevado: 2 Falls
*Neither one finished high enough to win any championships in this match
*Result listed separately and not counted in records due to lack of clarity on how to count falls
SCW Accomplishments
SCW Television Championship (Amelia Blythe Nevado - 29 Days)
SCW Television Championship (La Pequeña Luz - 98 Days)
SCW World Tag Team Championship [3] (1 - 81 Days) (2 - 109 Days) (3 - 231 Days)
SCW United States Championship (La Pequeña Luz) [3] (1/Interim Reign - 94 Days) (2 - 98 Days) (3 - Current)
2024 Trios Tournament Winner (Amelia Blythe Nevado, w/ Xander Valentine and Billy Heaven Jr.)
2023 Tag Team of the Year
2023 Match of the Year (Kim Williams' Trios Cash-In)
2024 Tag Team of the Year