The House of Frost vs. Light in the Darkness

[Wisteria Waltz]

OOC: And here's my first for Luz.
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The clock was ticking.

La Pequeña Luz had just over two weeks to figure out how to resolve the most difficult conflict of her entire life, and she was still struggling to settle on a course of action.

Matters in the wrestling business certainly weren't helping, but she couldn't put the career she had poured so much of her heart and soul into on hold.

Especially not when she was determined to pull the love of her life back from the darkness she was drowning in both inside and outside of the ring.

Ever since she'd settled into her hotel room in Portland, Luz had been rewatching Amelia's interview from last week regarding her World Title match at Rise to Greatness, as if analyzing every tiny detail was somehow going to unlock answers she was searching for. She'd seen Deanna's half of the interview as well, but while Deanna was still one of her best friends, she wasn't the issue Luz was hyperfocused on... at least, not until they'd be standing across the ring from one another once again come Breakdown.

“Mi amor...” Luz mumbled to herself as she rewatched the part where Amelia had, without consulting her, challenged Deanna and Selena and was even willing to put their World Tag Titles on the line. “This isn't you... why do you insist on trying to act like a shell of who you never wanted to be again?”

As much as everyone always liked to assume so because of her ADHD growing up, Luz was far from stupid. If anything, she could be far more perceptive than her condition led anyone to believe... so long as it was something her brain wanted to focus so much on. Thankfully, the woman she loved with every fiber of her being fit the bill perfectly, and the more Luz studied Amelia along the road to Rise to Greatness, the more she saw how much Amelia had been trying to pass herself off as the 'perfect prodigy' her parents had raised her to be, doing her best to mask her emotions and come off as cold and arrogant anytime she spoke.

Keyword: trying.

Luz knew exactly what that version of Amelia Blythe was truly like firsthand. She had heard it loud and clear the first three times they had crossed paths in the ring, she had fought against it once the bell rang... and even then, she could tell that wasn't the kind of person Amelia truly wanted to be and had helped her to shed the mask that was causing her to suffer under the burden of expectations she never asked for. This version of Amelia was effectively wearing a fractured version of that old mask, and while she had her moments that truly made Luz's heart sink and brought her back to the early days when they'd still been fierce rivals, she was also making no effort to hide the cracks in the facade like she would have tried so desperately to do before.

It was almost as if she were watching two different Amelias fighting for control, and it pained her to think her wife was struggling so hard to pretend to be something she never wanted to be again because she felt she had to.

“Maybe this Tag Title match isn't her trying to prove something to Deanna to get some sort of edge before Rise to Greatness...” Luz mused to herself, eyes slowly going wide as she seemed to find a thread and was willing to follow it. “Maybe this is her way of trying to ask for help without outright saying it.”

As Luz watched the segment back one more time, she became more convinced of her theory. Throughout the entire interview, Amelia had struggled to maintain the facade of the Blythe she was once expected to be, only really nailing the act a few times that still felt like a dagger to her heart every time she saw it. That said, Amelia desperately tried to use her professionalism to sidestep any questions about both Luz herself and anything regarding some of the vile acts the rest of the New Order were pulling around her, including when Luz had stepped up in Toronto to make Gavin back off after he tried to attack Deanna in a brazen attempt to get himself slotted into the Rise to Greatness main event instead.

She'd picked up similar hints back in the early days of their careers, seeing that Amelia truly had an honorable spirit suppressed by a strict family image she had to maintain at all times. The cracks were a lot harder to spot back then, but there were there if you looked hard enough. In the end, it was all an act her parents had made her put on because of “how a Blythe was supposed to be perceived in public,” and while it looked unpolished and maybe a little shaky, this was no different. Amelia felt she had to play this role she never wanted to find herself in ever again, and there were two reasons why she would feel this was her only option.

Frank Delatosso... and Caleb White.

The New Order certainly made sense based on what Luz had seen of everyone Delatosso had recruited into the ranks, and any doubts were erased the more she saw the seeds of pettiness blooming within the cracks. The group was a doomed collection of egos only co-existing because of the power Delatosso currently had, but if the way Polly had been trying to bully Dawn made anything painfully clear, it was the reality that Amelia was surrounded by lions ready to pounce the moment they sensed weakness within her. Such perceived weakness wouldn't have been a concern if Delatosso had been able to keep Luz away from her wife to continue feeding her jealousy, but Taking Hold of the Flame had forcibly fractured his hold over her.

Not that Luz was ever going to give the Glimmer twins credit for helping her make a breakthrough in her efforts to save Amelia.

As Luz glanced over at the World Tag Title belts sitting side-by-side next to her, she thought more about the situation she'd be staring down come Thursday night over at the Moda Center. Both The Light In The Darkness and the Frosts were marriages in disrepair because of issues caused in the ring, to the point where it felt like the only thread left holding things together was Luz and Deanna's friendship. In a twisted sort of way, though, the couples were mirror images of one another: Luz and Deanna were both fighting to restore some semblance of happiness to their relationships while Amelia and Selena had slowly sunk deeper and deeper into what they felt they had to be for the sake of SCW and their own careers.

Considering how much Amelia had struggled with trying to wear her old Blythe mask ever since she and Luz had become World Tag Team Champions again, asking for this match truly felt like Amelia was trying to set the stage for something, and it certainly wasn't whatever she had claimed to Jessica Winters in that interview. The fact that Amelia had put out a short video trying to accept a challenge that Chris Dumont had made—a challenge that, in Luz's humble opinion, Dumont had no right to make, just as he had no right in trying to invoke her name just to send Amelia deeper into the very spiral she was trying to pull her back from—was proof that the real Amelia was still in there, fighting with everything she had, and she was doing her best to be who she was 'supposed' to be until Luz could help pull her out of that pit.

“For all you know, the woman you once loved in that sinful, disgusting way that God frowns upon may be dead.”

The memory of the sickening things Caleb had to say when he called two weeks ago reminded Luz of the other significant reason Amelia would feel she had to revert back to being someone she despised so much: because her life may very well depend on it. Despite Caleb's claims, Luz saw the signs that the woman she loved was far from dead, and if anybody was worried about Amelia “straying from her chosen path” it was absolutely The Empire. Perhaps more than Delatosso, Caleb had been the one insistent on keeping Amelia as far away from Luz as possible, especially now that she was the bargaining chip he was relying on to finally 'save' Luz from everything that made her the incredible young woman she was.

It was a risk Luz was absolutely willing to take even if she had no idea how she could survive playing the part of a delusional cultist, so long as it got Amelia away from Caleb and back among people who loved her and would absolutely help erase any attempted brainwashing from the wannabe savior while she tried to figure out a way... to...

“Wait a minute...” Luz mumbled to herself, noticing that the replay of last week's Breakdown had finished going through the interview once again and was now showing Glory's latest attempt to bait Luz into buying that she was some sort of brilliant mastermind ahead of their confirmed match for Rise to Greatness. Glory was a concern she'd deal with in a few weeks, though.

Maybe Luz was reading too much into things, but in her mind, puzzle pieces were starting to fit together the more thought she gave it. The whole idea of essentially turning Caleb's 'undercover spy' tactic right back on him was absolutely a move out of her own playbook, and the fact that she was even considering going through with it in Detroit without an ounce of hesitation was exactly the kind of reckless selflessness that defined her. She thought back to the whole 'Paul' debacle, the hints Caleb had dropped upon being exposed that Amelia seemed to be onto him after trying to use the fact that she was among his brainwashed flock of sheep now to break her.

“Did she do what I'm about to do... all to try and protect me...?”

If Luz was connecting the dots correctly, then Amelia's subtle cries for help made a lot more sense. Calling for a Tag Title defense against the House of Frost under the guise of trying to 'prove' to Deanna that the Nevados had their shit together more than the Frosts did wasn't just about putting herself directly in Luz's presence to try and help further extract her from Delatosso's den of snakes, it was just as much about wanting Luz to be the anchor that kept her tethered to this world and to the real her in the only way Caleb couldn't stop.

Even if she was right and Amelia had beaten her to the punch on this tactic, though, it was clear neither one of them had figured out how to use this to resolve the Empire problem once and for all.

“There has to be some way to keep Caleb from pulling his whole 'holy doomsday prophet' shtick to dodge decades of karma he's long overdue on paying,” Luz huffed in frustration. “He's talked others into taking the fall for him, he's manipulated so many into believing he's the only one who can 'save humanity' or whatever, he managed to escape prison. It's not like can just drop dead like Stephen Crane... did...”

A shiver went up Luz's spine as she swore she suddenly heard her own heartbeat pounding in her ears at the memory of how the leader of The Empire's splinter cell had her at gunpoint before dropping dead right at her feet, courtesy of somebody being quicker on the draw. To this day, she still had no idea who had been willing to go farther than she ever dared to, even if it saved her life, but the memory of that moment last year still traumatized her and hadn't ever been properly addressed in therapy with everything else falling apart around her taking higher priority. She hadn't been the one to end the life of Stephen Crane, but the guilt she felt over watching him die made her feel as though she had.

Caleb White was significantly worse than even Stephen was, and with options on how to actually stop him once and for all dwindling based on all her experience dealing with the narcissistic cult leader up to this point, Luz's blood started to run cold at the only option she could think of that might actually stop him once and for all.

La Pequeña Luz wasn't a murderer, nor did she believe she'd ever even consider the thought of taking another human being's life because it just wasn't the kind of person she was. But if it was to save the woman she loved more than anything else and protect the found family that had made her feel like she was worth more than she ever believed she deserved, would she be able to stain her soul if there was no other choice?

With one last glance towards the Tag Title belts laying on the bed, Luz stood up and turned off the TV before leaving her room and making her way down to the lobby where she knew everyone else was probably hanging out. Her mind was racked with conflict and disbelief, but she knew there were a few people who might be able to help her cement her decision if she felt there was truly no other choice.

“Hey, Luz!” she heard Ivy call once she'd finally come down to the lobby, turning to see her friend waving her over to where Gage, Henry, Valentina, Edward and Emily were all gathered together. “I was going to take everyone to Washington Park to show off some of my contributions to their famous rose garden. Want to come with us?”

Luz chuckled, being so lost in her own head that she'd almost forgotten Ivy's family had lived here in Portland since leaving Oxford after Amelia had ended their original friendship as children. Given how half-hearted the chuckle came out, though, not to mention the guilty smile she knew she was giving, she couldn't blame Ivy and the others for suddenly looking concerned.

“Thanks for the offer Ivy,” she ended up saying, “but maybe later. I, um... I need to talk with the agents about something important first... privately, if possible.”

Needless to say, that request immediately had alarm bells ringing in everyone's heads, but Avery, Darius and Evie slowly stood up from where they had been discussing something with Marilyn and Lily before motioning Luz towards an empty conference room. Once the four of them were inside, Luz made sure the door was locked before exhaling a breath she wasn't even aware she'd been holding.

“Is everything alright, Luz?” Avery immediately asked.

“Did you figure something out?” Evie added.

“Maybe...” Luz admitted, though her nervous tone and sheepish look wasn't doing the NCA trio any favors. “I've been thinking a lot about Amelia's actions lately, both in and out of SCW. I might have a crazy theory... mostly because it's something I would definitely do and you've already tried to talk me out of it.”

Darius raised an eyebrow, quickly picking up on where Luz was going with this. “You think Amelia feigned wanting to be 'saved' and joining The Empire to try and figure out how to stop it from within?”

“We've been questioning why Amelia would ever join them,” Luz noted. “But if she had the same concerns everyone else did about 'Paul' being an Empire spy at the very least, I could see her pulling a page out of my playbook just to protect me.”

“While also feeding the narrative of there being issues between you two so she can immerse herself into the role SCW's CEO wants her to play,” Darius stroked his goatee.

“She's been struggling to go back to being everything she despised so much growing up, though,” Luz pointed out, “ever since we teamed together at Taking Hold of the Flame. That's how I know Caleb is full of it about mi amor being truly gone.”

“I can see where you're going with this, Luz,” Evie stated, though putting her hands on her hips didn't make the much smaller woman look any more understanding. “Unfortunately, I don't see how it actually solves the problem you're trying to walk into.”

“Especially if you're right about Amelia already trying this and nothing's exactly changed yet,” Avery lamented.

All three agents watched as Luz seemed to grow more nervous, crossing one arm across her sternum to sheepishly rub her other arm as one leg crossed itself behind the other. It reminded them of a child about to confess to doing something bad and expecting to be punished for it.

“How does it feel to take a life?”

Of all the things they were expecting to hear out of the mouth of La Pequeña Luz, that might've easily found itself at the very bottom of the list, assuming it even made it anywhere near the list at all.

“Luz,” Avery carefully asked. “Why on Earth would you ever want to-”

They cut themselves off as realization began to sink in, and Darius and Evie were starting to pick up on it as well.

“You're not thinking...” Darius started to ask, but Luz's slow nod confirmed his worries.

“I don't know exactly how yet, or even what we'll be staring down once we get to Rise to Greatness weekend,” she tried to explain. “But the more I think about it... the more I realize that nothing has been able to truly stop Caleb so far, especially with his obsession of 'redeeming' himself before his time is up so he can claim an undeserved place in Heaven while leaving behind a world that's nothing more than a living Hell of his own creation. The only answer may be...”

Luz couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, and no one else in the room blamed her.

“Luz,” Avery sighed as they placed a hand on her shoulder to ground her. “It's much easier said than done. Darius, Evie and I have all needed to kill for the sake of national security, among other reasons, and even just doing our jobs and protecting the masses from truly terrible people... the fear of what you've done never goes away.”

“Especially for someone like you,” Evie pointed out. “You're a very nice person, Luz, the kind who struggles with even wrestling more violent matches even though you'll do it if necessary. Even if this is something you feel is necessary... taking another life forever stains your soul, causes you to rethink everything about yourself, even if your reasons for doing so are just.”

“It's something neither you nor Amelia should ever have to even consider, and not just because of what it could mean for your careers,” Darius sternly added. “This is exactly why we've been helping you this whole time. Let us worry about doing our jobs...”

“No... I think I have to be the one to do this,” Luz said, though the shakiness in her voice betrayed her determination. “Me, Amelia, or both of us, assuming she reaches the same conclusion I do. It's not that I don't trust you three... but Caleb's been finding ways to anticipate our every move for so long now that I'm almost banking on him making sure none of you can try anything.”

“...but he'd never expect you to be desperate enough to take such a risk,” Avery began to realize.

“Or even consider that Amelia might not be as 'saved' as he thinks and could still betray him,” Darius continued.

“I don't like this one bit,” Evie insisted. “Even if it's the best we've got, I still don't think you two should be so willing to have that taste of darkness forever haunting you for the rest of your lives.”

“I don't like it either,” Luz honestly admitted, “but pending if I can actually see where Amelia's head is truly at come Thursday night, it may be the only way we can finally end this nightmare for good.”

Luz could only take a deep breath to steady herself, hoping that after Breakdown this week, she and Amelia would not only still be World Tag Team Champions together, but also able to take a big step towards finally fixing everything that had been broken between them.

Even if it ultimately meant having the blood of a genuine monster forever staining the life they had forged together in the face of everything that had always haunted them.