Dexter Grant vs. La Pequena Luz

[Wisteria Waltz]

“You harlots will be dead shortly!”

The Nevados all turned to see Stephen Crane, who had desperately thrown his dagger to try and catch any one of them, preferably Luz, with a killing blow, scrambling to pull himself back to his feet before he frantically looked around and dove for the rifle left laying on the ground. He quickly aimed haphazardly in Luz's direction and moved to pull the trigger.

Time seemed to stop as a gunshot echoed throughout the abandoned parking garage.

After a few moments of closed eyes and fearful waiting, Luz slowly opened her eyes and pat herself down, realizing that her only wound had been the one on her face from the dagger. She quickly looked over to her mom and sister, also frantically checking themselves out, and no one found a single bullet wound anywhere.

Then they turned to look towards Stephen, and they were just as shocked as his Empire goons who were starting to stir and had witnessed what happened.

Stephen Crane was standing eerily still, eyes wide in horror but slowly rolling back into his head, before he fell forward and collapsed onto his face. This allowed for a very clear bullet wound to now be visible in the back of his skull, confirming that the leader of The Empire's splinter cell was now dead.

As Stephen's henchmen scrambled and retreated for their own safety, something felt... off.

And Luz realized it the moment her gaze lowered... and she gasped at the sudden appearance of a gun in her hands, the barrel still smoking from a freshly fired shot.

“No... no, no, nononono NO!” Luz shrieked as she dropped the gun, the mere sound of it clattering against the concrete at her feet sending jolts of electricity up her spine. “I... I didn't...”

Luz slowly turned her head, eyes beginning to water and jaw on the ground, as she saw the looks her mother and sister were giving her. They weren't looks of relief, like she swore they would wear because they were all out of danger now. No... they were looks of fear, and the two of them were slowly backing away from Luz, as though they would be next if they lingered too long.

“Tú... lo mataste...” Camila mumbled, her voice monotone from shock and horror.

“No! I didn't, I swear I didn't!” Luz pleaded as she dropped to her knees, though another scream nearly ripped from her throat as she saw the tears that had been raining into her palms now looked like blood.

“Lo mataste...” Valentina repeated, sounding just as horrified.

“No... no, this isn't right! I didn't! But even if I did, he... he was gonna...” Luz tried to plea, but her voice was failing her.

All she heard was her mom and sister numbly repeated the phrase “you killed him” over and over again in Spanish, all she felt was blood on her hands, all she saw was red consuming her vision as she tried to cry out, finding herself unable to say a word anymore. She couldn't have done this... even if Stephen Crane deserved it, she would never find it in her heart to take a life even in self-defense and left with no choice. This was wrong, this had to be wrong, she couldn't have-

“¡No, no lo maté! ¡Lo juro!”

Luz sat up, breathing heavily, feeling the cold sweat training down her skin. She looked around the room frantically, as if trying to convince herself that what she saw wasn't real. She remembered the techniques she and Amelia relied on to try and ground themselves whenever they began breaking down, taking in the sight of the alarm clock beside her bed, the walk-in closet where she and Amelia kept their clothes, the TV in their bedroom which had been muted but was playing K-Pop Demon Hunters for what had to be the millionth time since the movie had dropped on Netflix...

“Luz!? Luz... Luna... talk to me, Lulu. I'm right here.”

Despite the sound of her own heartbeat thundering in her ears, the familiar voice of her wife managed to cut through the cacophony. Luz turned, her unmasked face meeting Amelia's very concerned face in the dark. Under any other circumstances, Luz would've been thinking that her wife looked beautiful even though she'd just been woken up in the middle of the night, or consider herself the luckiest woman in the world to be waking up next to Amelia, or even turning several bright shades of red at remembering they were both naked after a night of passionate 'celebration' that felt long overdue.

This wasn't any of those circumstances, however, and Amelia let out a grunt of surprise but remained sturdy when Luz practically threw herself at her wife, clinging to Amelia like she would disappear if Luz let go.

“Easy querida, I've got you,” Amelia reassured as she held Luz tightly against her chest, one hand wiping the sweat from her bare back while the other gently petted her hair. “I'm here... I'm not going anywhere, I promise. Follow my lead... in for four, hold for seven...”

Amelia's constant talking was a big help as Luz followed her instructions, the two of them doing their breathing exercise that slowly but surely grounded her and cleared the maelstrom of thoughts that had been threatening to devour her brain. There was still the occasional tremble, but Amelia's hold on her was firm yet gentle, reassuring her that whatever happened, she was staying right here with her.

When she would look back on this moment later, Luz would find she wasn't surprised that it had taken a couple of days after Rise to Greatness was finally in the books before she had a nightmare over the encounter with the now-deceased leader of The Empire's splinter cell that made it clear he wanted her and Amelia dead.

As she slowly began to calm down and recover, Luz could now recall the day everyone had arrived in Houston for SCW's biggest show of the year clearly. Despite their found family and the government forces that were watching over them taking every precaution possible and thoroughly planning out how to deal with this fractured faction of the religious cult that had plagued them for years at this point, those who followed Stephen Crane had found a way to force both Luz and Amelia into playing by their terms. They had thoroughly discussed their respective encounters once they were reunited after all was set and done that day, and between the two of them, they could confirm that Stephen had been the only casualty. Amelia's parents and the splinter cell members with them had all been knocked out and were arrested once the NCA and MI5 raided that hidden forest mansion, while the ones who had tried to run following Stephen's demise had ultimately been tracked down and rounded up by the FBI, putting an end to any Empire distractions for the biggest wrestling weekend of the couple's careers yet.

Luz could also remember clearly that she was not the one who had landed the headshot that ended the life of the murderous misogynistic ex-conductor, nor had she even touched a firearm of any kind during that whole ordeal.

Still, even if no one had any answers as to who did pull the trigger and kill him on that day, the very sight of Stephen dropping dead in front of her had been haunting her nightmares ever since. Sure, the man deserved it for being a sick scumbag who gave Caleb White a run for his money, which was really saying something given all of the atrocities The Empire's leader had to his name, but it was still someone else Luz had watched die right before her very eyes in this continuing struggle with a religious cult that just would not leave her and her loved ones alone. Her father, Ryan Lumis, she would count Jacob Harrison despite not seeing his death and despite how much of a creep and nuisance he'd been in his own right, and now Stephen Crane... even if part of her could say some of those names may have deserved it, she still felt sick at the idea of the absolutely unnecessary death toll that was resulting from this whole conflict.

Truth be told, Luz was extremely grateful that wrestling had always been the perfect distraction for her to become completely immersed in, because if you watched her performance at Rise to Greatness, you would never have been able to tell that she'd gone through a life-threatening confrontation and watched a man die before her very eyes in the week leading up to that show.

Luz still couldn't believe it even as her eyes drifted down to the floor, seeing the SCW United States Championship belt that once again belonged to her resting beside her bag. This time, there was no 'interim' tag attached to it... she was, without question, the undisputed champion, having not only overcome Deanna Frost and Asher Hayes to do it, but also hopefully putting the nail in the coffin on the misguided efforts of Jordan Majors to simply claim a title belonged to her and act like it was fact. She also remembers being worried for her wife despite her own hard-fought victory that night, but any fears of jealousy were immediately quashed when Amelia reassured Luz that she already had a plan, and Luz knew better than to question a plan made by her brilliant, awesome wife.

All in all, the entire time they had been in Houston for Rise to Greatness had been an absolute rush of adrenaline that hadn't quite faded yet even when the couple returned to their home in Anaheim for what felt like the first time in a while during the usual post-Rise to Greatness break. In that regard, it really hadn't been that surprising that Luz had been riding that emotional high for so long that this had been buried beneath the surface until now, just when things were finally starting to calm down once again.

“I'm alright... estoy bien, Ames,” Luz slowly breathed out as she did feel her body relaxing finally against her wife's, the two of them just sitting there on the bed holding each other like they were the most precious thing in the world.

“Bad dream?” Amelia carefully asked, and Luz wasted no time in nodding in the affirmative. “Oh, Lulu... I'm here if you want to talk about it, but we can wait until morning if you'd rather try to get some more rest first.”

“No, no, I think it'd be better if we talk about it now,” Luz said, her voice becoming a bit shaky again but she did the breathing trick once more, followed by giving Amelia's lips a kiss to help truly keep her anchored. It didn't fully ease Amelia's worries, but she still gave Luz a reassuring smile that helped so much. “I, um... I d-dreamed about what happened... with Stephen Crane...”

That put a frown on Amelia's lips, but she remained silent, letting Luz take her time.

“I... I... I dreamed about him being shot, and- and falling dead at my feet,” Luz soldiered on. “But unlike how it actually happened, I looked down and... and I saw a gun in my hands, like I'd fired the shot that killed him! Mamá and V were horrified and scared of me and... I didn't kill him! I don't know who did, but he still died because of this stupid mess The Empire just won't let go of with us! Jacob, Ryan... papá...”

“I know, mi amor,” Amelia gently sighed as she somehow held Luz tighter. “I know you didn't kill him, even if he absolutely deserved it. It's... it's a messed-up situation all around, one we're definitely not equipped to be a part of but one we're stuck in the middle of whether we like it or not.”

“Too many lives have been lost, Ames...” Luz sniffled, a sound that absolutely broke Amelia's heart to hear. “All because of us...”

“No... no, Lulu, we can't think that,” Amelia shakily tried to argue. “We're not responsible for anything these lunatics do, no matter how much it hurts. We're not killers, we're not psychopaths, we're just... Amelia and Luna Nevado.”

“Amelia and Luna Nevado...” Luz repeated, trying to make it an affirmation to herself. “Or La Pequeña Luz when we're out in public.”

“There's the woman I know and love,” Amelia wetly giggled, provoking laughter from Luz as the two fell back onto their pillows, cuddling closer.

Despite the spark that seemed to lighten the fog that was suffocating them after everything that happened, Amelia's smile still turned into a worried frown again as she wiped the tears from Luz's eyes, her own landing on the scar that Luz had carried out of her ordeal with Stephen. She had spoken about the dagger that scored a clean cut even through her mask as Luz made sure to shield her mom and sister from anything potentially even more fatal when that thing had been thrown, and Amelia wanted to both smile and curse her beloved's selfless heroics. Thankfully, the scar was in an area that was likely never to be seen publicly for quite some time because Luz's masks would cover it, but seeing the permanent blemish on her wife's otherwise beautiful face beneath those masks...

“Hey,” Luz spoke up, trying to project whatever confidence she could muster to return the favor before Amelia started to spiral herself, gently taking her wife's hand and letting it trace over the scar that cut right through her left eyebrow. “I know what's going on in that big, beautiful brain of yours, querida. If you're going to start worrying about how I got that scar, that means I get to worry about the risk you took playing on your dad's pride to avoid getting shot by him.”

“I think we're both right to worry about those things and everything else that happened besides what we accomplished at Rise to Greatness,” Amelia mumbled. “We've... we've both been through so much, haven't we? And I'm not talking about this crazy ride we've been on together for years called wrestling.”

“More than any person probably ever should, and we asked for none of it,” Luz agreed, lacing her fingers through Amelia's as their hands drifted down to rest on Luz's breast, right over her heart to feel that it was, in fact, still beating.

“We should probably talk to someone about this...” Amelia mused, earning a sigh from Luz.

“You're not wrong, Ames,” Luz reassured her wife before she could take the sigh as a negative. “It's just... who would we even talk to about something like this? Like... yeah, maybe a therapist of some kind could help us better cope with all the crazy stuff we've gone through, because if we don't come out of this Empire nonsense with mental scars I think everyone would be rightfully worried about us. But to just... sit on some couch and unload about how this messed-up religious cult full of dangerous people led by an absolutely deranged and self-centered sociopath keeps trying to either murder us or brainwash us into joining them as some sort of grand plan to 'purge and save humanity' in God's name?”

“...it does sound crazy when you say it out loud, and I'd be afraid any therapist would probably think the same thing even if we had any of our friends or federal agents backing up our claims,” Amelia admitted. “Even if they don't think we've lost our marbles... who would even know how to help with something like that?”

“Maybe a therapist who's helped war veterans with PTSD from being out on the battlefield?” Luz genuinely offered. “That might be our best bet, even if this is an entirely different can of worms.”

“PTSD might be on the short list of issues we should consider when this is all finally over,” Amelia sighed, making sure to emphasize her belief that things with The Empire would come to an end... even if neither one of them knew how long that would take at this point. “You think we should consider talking to Dr. Marsh-Asher before the next Breakdown if he's around?”

“I don't know...” Luz bit her bottom lip in worry at the thought. “I don't want to sound like I'm holding anything against him because of the wrestler he used to be, but... I'd be worried, Ames. What if he realizes this is a problem that would require us to be taken off the road indefinitely, not just for our own sake, but as a safety precaution in case anything is actually tried at a wrestling show?”

“I...” Amelia coughed, almost wanting to vomit at that thought as she took a moment to regain her composure. “I'd like to think Caleb has too much respect for 'the purity of his wrestling' to ever cross that line. Stephen, maybe, but he's thankfully not a factor anymore. You've got a point, though...”

“He did it to Deanna to make sure she would be alright after everything The Enigma, Veil, whatever the heck he's calling himself now put her through,” Luz pointed out, perhaps a little more animatedly than she intended especially considering how late into the night it was, but it did earn a chuckle out of Amelia at seeing some of her wife's infectious enthusiasm starting to finally return. “I could absolutely see him and/or CHBK and the Board making that call if they thought this was going to be a problem they didn't want, and... our Rise to Greatness success aside, wrestling feels like the only real safe haven and outlet keeping us grounded right now through all of this.”

“Right, so the obvious solution is probably not the best one here...” Amelia pondered, although a yawn escaped her lips at that moment which made Luz start to look guilty. “Hey, none of that, mi amor. You had a really bad nightmare, and if you can wake up at ungodly hours of the night to comfort me after all my horrible dreams about my parents, then I'm allowed to return the favor after what happened in Houston.”

“You're...” Luz started to reply until a yawn of her own interrupted. “You're right, Ames... we're together in this for life and we support one another in this household.”

“And we're not alone anymore either,” Amelia reminded her.

“Right,” Luz smiled as she leaned over and kissed her wife's lips. “Maybe we can talk with Avery before we have to hit the road again when SCW picks back up, see what they might suggest as far as some sort of help with... everything that's happened.”

Amelia simply nodded, growing too tired to continue the conversation, and Luz knew her eyes were starting to grow heavy again as well. Part of her was afraid she'd just end up falling right back into that nightmare, but feeling Amelia snuggled up tight against her, the warmth of each other's bare skin serving as an anchor that reminded her she wasn't alone in coping with this or anything else that had happened... she knew that even if she found herself back in that terrible darkness, there would be a light waiting to heal her once she was removed from it.

She didn't know how they would go about trying to recover from everything that had happened up to this point, especially since the demise of the splinter cell didn't mean The Empire itself was dead just yet, but the hope that there was a road they could walk to heal both mentally and emotionally was enough to keep them moving forward.

Especially since Luz was only just getting started in proving what she could do as the undisputed SCW United States Champion.