Chris Dumont vs. Amelia Nevado

[Wisteria Waltz]

One loss...

One loss was all it took to send Amelia back into her spiral.

She shouldn't have been as impacted by this. She'd been in the business long enough by now to know that everyone has hot and cold streaks, that no title reign lasts forever, that anyone can lose on any given night. She thought she'd regained enough confidence that this wouldn't bother her to the degree that it was.

And yet... she felt completely, utterly broken, and she knew exactly why.

In the closing moments of that match, all she had to do was tag Luz in. Both she and Deanna were in no condition to continue, Deanna after falling victim to the Blight Choke, and Amelia after Selena had decided to throw the rules out the window just to forcibly level the playing field. Deanna, despite the clear issues present between the Frosts, had still tagged in Selena. Luz was completely fresh and could have handled her, Amelia had no doubt about that. And yet, she had refused, desperate to prove Selena wrong herself...

And in the end, she had only proven her right.

'Failure'

'Disappointment'

'Pathetic'

Those words echoed in her mind, some replaying the familiar memories of her parents she thought she'd finally put behind her, others clearly using her own voice as her inner critic made absolutely sure she was well aware of what she was. She wanted to argue, wanted to blame Other Amelia for her influence in those final moments that drove her into that fatal mistake, but she didn't have the strength to fight with herself. All she could do was start to accept that maybe she was the weak link in The Light In The Darkness after all.

She was the reason their fourth reign as World Tag Team Champions had ended after only a month, their worst run to date.

And the part that stung the most... she'd never even gotten to hold the title belt she had left in Luz's care.

Her mind had been conflicted ever since the lead-up to Taking Hold of the Flame, being forced to reunite with Luz to defend the World Title and save the Tag Titles from the Glimmers, and the more time had passed, the more she began to realize the awful truth of just how far she'd truly fallen. No matter how much she tried to justify it to herself, all roads eventually led to the horrifying reality check that she had become the Blythe prodigy her parents had always wanted... this time, of her own doing.

The fact that Luz was even still putting up with her, trying to pull her back from this a second time when she never should've had to go through this again... that woman had far more patience than her ADHD would lead anybody to believe, and it was being wasted on someone like Amelia.

“Hang on Ames, just a little further.”

And yet, here they were. Breakdown had gone off the air, and for reasons her shattered mind was struggling to comprehend, Luz was helping her through the backstage area of the Moda Center. The thought briefly crossed her mind that, in the face of such a heart-wrenching failure, it was her wife who was there for her, not Frank Delatosso or anybody from the New Order. In the back of her mind, she'd always figured that would be the case... she'd had them all pegged as a bunch of snakes who only cared about themselves and cooperated only when asked to by the CEO or if they had to put up with each other. Of course none of them actually cared enough to help her right now. If anything, half of them were probably salivating at her defeat as proof that she was vulnerable and the New Order was in need of a new crown jewel.

'And you think Luz isn't?' Other Amelia took the opportunity to chime in. 'You know she wants to be World Champion too... she's even going to put Glory in her place to earn it, just like you could never do. Then again, you asked her to support you tonight, and she failed to-'

“Aquí estamos.”

The next thing Amelia knew, she was being lowered onto a bench, realizing that she'd only been vaguely tuning in and out of her surroundings ever since she'd heard the final bell. As she looked around, she realized Luz must've helped her to her own locker room, as Amelia had shared a locker room with the rest of the New Order tonight. The fact that Luz was there for her, acting like nothing had changed... it tore at her heart and she knew the tears were threatening to fall.

“Here, let me get some water for you. It's the least I can do after I let you down.”

Amelia's head snapped up at that comment, the look of raw shock on her face enough to cause Luz to stumble back in shock.

“Why are you blaming yourself?” she asked, her voice raw and broken. “I'm the one that got pinned! I'm the one who should've tagged you in! I'm the one who was such a useless, stubborn idiot who had to prove Selena wrong! I failed you Luz! I failed us!”

Judging by the sudden pain she felt shoot through her scalp, she knew she was blacking out in her spiral and trying to rip her own hair out of her head, as if it would somehow help. That had never been the case when she was a child, but she'd masked it with a false sense of feeling better just because her hair wasn't a mirror of her mother's if she tugged and yanked at it. It certainly wasn't doing her any favors now, and perhaps that was why she felt her hands gently pulled away from her hair as Luz's face filled her vision... her real face, the face of Luna Nevado, the face that Amelia was never supposed to see until the day Luz lost her mask as per lucha libre tradition.

“I'm just as much to blame,” Luz insisted. “I wasn't able to save you tonight despite having your back for reasons no one else seems to understand. I should've fought harder to be there for you, dove deeper to take your hand before you fell too far instead of letting everybody else gas me up over my title reigns.”

“Lulu... no... this is all my fault. I'm the one who let everyone get into my head and put me down, I'm the one who thought I needed to become something I never wanted to be just to succeed, it's all my fault for-”

Amelia found herself cut off by the familiar feeling of Luz's lips, something she hadn't experienced since Taking Hold of the Flame. Instinctively, she felt herself leaning into it, feeling the pleasant love of her wife ground her before she continued to fall into the abyss. As Luz gently pulled away, Amelia must've looked stunned given the goofy smile it brought to her beloved's lips before it softened into something kinder.

“You said earlier wasn't the time,” she noted. “Would now be a good time? I think we're long overdue for a talk.”

Amelia almost wanted to laugh at the absurd yet simple request. Technically, she had told Luz tonight wasn't a good time as a whole, but given recent events...

“Yeah... yeah, I think we are.”

'Opening up to someone who's only going to use it against you?' Other Amelia arrogantly mocked her. 'As if you weren't weak enough...'

“I'm not the one who insisted I had to be the one to stay in and beat Selena,” Amelia snapped back under her breath. As she glanced up, she saw Luz giving her a curious look, her heart twisting in her chest at the realization that without her mask, Amelia could see every detail of Luz's expressions more clearly now.

“The floor's yours, mi amor,” she finally said, keeping her tone gentle. “You've heard me out and pulled me out of my own head more times than I've been able to count... it's about time I return the favor.”

Amelia's breath hitched at the open invitation, even if she always knew it was there. She'd hesitated though, either stubbornly believing this was a problem she could solve on her own or because she didn't want to burden her wife with her problems... but she knew better. The jealousy, cultivated by that haughty voice in her head, had forced her to put her walls back up, and she wasn't going to make that mistake again.

“Luz... I'm sorry,” she choked out, feeling the tears start rolling down her cheeks. “I fell into a rough patch and instead of letting you be there for me, I let everyone else get into my head, convince me that I was only holding you back. For... for months now, I've had this voice in my head mocking me, telling me I wasn't good enough, trying to convince me that the only way I was ever going to fix that was to be the Blythe I was always meant to be.”

“Was it your mom's voice? Or your dad's?” Luz asked, being intimately aware by now of how much every stupid criticism she'd heard growing up had always lingered in Amelia's brain, leeching off her fractured sense of self-worth.

“Worse,” Amelia painfully admitted. “It was my own. 'Other Amelia,' I've been calling her. Dr. Bolton said it was an 'inner critic' preying on my spiral, trying to convince me to become... this.” She motioned to herself as if that made anything clearer. “This... bitch, for lack of a better term. This machine who could confidently call herself the best, this wrestler who wouldn't hold you back because she wasn't even supposed to need you anymore. I let myself become everything I hated, everything I never wanted to be again... because I was convinced it was the only way I'd ever get here. That I'd ever be good enough...”

“Ames,” Luz spoke, concern and sorrow lacing her tone as she sat down beside Amelia and gently wiped the tears away. “I should've known better, and I mean it when I say I'm just as much to blame here. I know your parents, I've seen what they've done to you... I know how fragile you think your confidence is, and I should've known it wasn't something that could just be fixed so easily. You're not a bad person, querida... your perspective has just been tainted by your parents, and we're probably in the worst business possible for trying to fix that.”

“You really don't think I'm a terrible person?” Amelia hesitantly asked. “Even after... everything?”

“I don't think a terrible person would've pulled a genuine Luz stunt like infiltrating The Empire just to protect me,” Luz confirmed.

Amelia felt her entire world shatter around her for the second time in the past half-hour. She hadn't planned on Luz finding out, at least not until she'd found a way to take Caleb White and his cult down from the inside once and for all... then again, she also hadn't planned on Luz even being aware she'd joined them at all, and Caleb had put a dagger through that hope.

“...you know?” she had to ask, had to know for sure.

“Sí,” Luz nodded. “I, um... put the pieces together just a few days ago. I figured there had to be a reason you'd join them, especially now that we all know I was an idiot for blindly trying to help someone who took advantage of my kind heart. Only someone with a kinder heart would pretend to join them just to try and stop me from spiraling if and when 'Paul' ever revealed who he truly was.”

“If only it were that simple,” Amelia sighed. “I... haven't been able to do anything, haven't had the guts to consider...” She trailed off, but the look in Luz's eyes made it clear she had a pretty good idea of where she was going, a thought that worried Amelia in and of itself. “It doesn't help that I know I've got a deadline now.”

“Caleb told you?” Luz asked, her own fears shining through.

“No, not yet,” Amelia shook her head. “I overheard his call to strike that deal with you. I just... I can't let you hand yourself over, Luz. I'm not-”

“You are worth it,” Luz firmly cut her wife off, stunning Amelia with the ferocity in her tone. “We're married until death do us part, Ames, and after everything we've been though, especially because of that pendejo, if anybody in this world deserves long, happy lives and wrestling success, it's us, especially you. It's why I refused to believe his stupid claim that the Amelia I know is dead, because if that were true? I wouldn't be talking with you right now, no Empire or New Order or inner critic to stop me or make you think you need to act like a Blythe when Amelia Nevado is and always has been more than good enough.”

Amelia just stared at Luz, the burning passion in her words slowly warming her body and melting the ice that had frozen her heart for the second time in her life. She could almost feel Luz's love for her beginning to finally weld the broken pieces of her sense of self back together again, clearing the haze to help her remember who she truly is.

'You are Amelia Blythe,' Other Amelia firmly insisted. 'Having her last name doesn't change that, and if you think she's right and I'm wrong, then tell me that brand on your wrist is wrong too.'

Amelia's breath hitched again as her eyes slowly moved down to her left wrist. Considering she always taped her wrists when she wrestled, no one would ever suspect that her flesh was scarred with the sigil of a cult that had become pretty well-known throughout the world by this point considering almost every government that existed was trying to track them down before they actually tried to enact their “humanity-cleansing holy war” Caleb constantly preached.

If Other Amelia was expecting that to be the nail in the coffin that ended this conversation and pushed Luz away again, though, then it was no surprise anything else she had to say was ignored as Amelia slowly started to undo the tape around her left wrist.

“Amelia?” Luz questioned. “What are you...?”

Luz's words trailed off into a gasp as the wrist tape was pulled away and discarded, and there was no denying the stomach-churning sight her wife was presenting to her with shame. In the center of her left wrist was a scar that clearly resembled the symbol of The Empire, burned into her skin for the rest of her life.

“This is what Caleb meant when he said the Amelia you knew was dead,” she shamefully explained, even as Luna reached out and traced her thumb along the lines branded into her flesh. “Right before my match at Hubris, I was 'properly initiated' into The Empire. He said it was his way of knowing for sure I wasn't going to betray him, that he started doing it after Darius and Evie's undercover operation years ago. Everybody in The Empire is branded... everyone except for him.”

She heard Luz cursing under her breath in Spanish, and the fact that her wife had been resorting to such language throughout their conversation when she very rarely swore only cemented just how much even she had come to hate the hypocritical holy man who sought to destroy everything about them. “You didn't have to...”

“If I was going to find a way to take him down... I did,” Amelia firmly admitted. “Just as I've had to pretend that he'd broken me just like my parents did to not raise any suspicion. He can't do anything about what happens during a show, and I know he hasn't paid enough attention to anything I've had to say in front of a camera... he's basically trusting Delatosso has the wrestling end covered without actually speaking with him.”

“Because not even our CEO would be stupid enough to discuss any business with one of the most wanted men across the entire globe,” Luz agreed. “But... you don't have to keep enduring this, Amelia! Come back with me, together we can...”

Amelia's other hand gently took Luz's and guided it away from her scarred wrist as she shook her head.

“I can't,” Amelia reluctantly said. “I can't tell you how badly I want to, Lulu, but... I'm in too deep now. If I don't leave here with my Empire escorts tonight, then what's stopping him from doing something to you and the others? No... we need to let this play out until Rise to Greatness weekend.”

“We need to end this, no matter what it takes,” Luz agreed, her tone darker than Amelia would have liked to hear, but unfortunately, it was the kind of mindset they both needed to have if they were going to do what she realized they both knew needed to be done. How, neither one of them were sure, but the silent conversation as they looked each other in the eyes grounded them both enough to believe they'd find a way, as well as support each other in the aftermath, so long as they did it together.

“Maybe, in the meantime, I can at least make it up to you by helping to get you out on the wrestling end,” Luz changed topics. “Are you actually facing Chris Dumont next week?” When Amelia nodded, Luz gave that brilliant grin of hers. “Then I'll be in your corner, just like you asked. Next week, we start heading back towards the light.”

“Gracias...” Amelia choked out before she and Luz exchanged a long overdue hug. As much as Amelia wished it could last forever, though, she knew they would have to part again until next week, because if she delayed any longer, Caleb might start to suspect something and send his followers to hunt for her.

But if Amelia was going to start turning things around, she realized she couldn't wait a week to start setting up Caleb's downfall.

A brilliant idea that helped kick Other Amelia out of her thoughts before she could get going again saw her tear off a piece of her discarded tape and grab a sharpie from Luz's bag. As Luna put her mask back on, she could only watch in confusion as Amelia quickly scribbled something into the tape, and while it wasn't as neat and elegant as her handwriting usually was, it was legible for something quick, and that was the important part. As soon as she finished, she tossed the sharpie back into Luz's bag before standing up and taking her hand.

“Thank you, mi amor, for still believing in me when no one else will,” Amelia sadly smiled. “Never lose hope, my light... I swear to you, on my life, that I'll come back to you, and I'll make it up to both you and the Frosts for how tonight went.”

With a kiss to her masked cheek, Amelia took her leave, and as much as Luz wanted to stop her, she knew that right now the safest play was to let her return to The Empire, as much as she really didn't want to. As she looked down at her hand, however, she saw that Amelia had left her with the scrap of wrist tape, and she couldn't suppress her gasp at the two words written on it that explained so much and made it clear who especially needed to see them: Castle Blythe.

It hurt Amelia to have to leave Luz behind again, but this time she was leaving with a newfound sense of determination. It may not be the sturdiest, but she just needed it to last a few more weeks until, hopefully, the man she was approaching now out in the parking lot would no longer be a plague haunting their lives in the name of his self-righteous crusade.

“You took your sweet time,” Caleb accused her as his masked Empire goons moved to make sure she'd be herded into the white van waiting to take them out of Portland.

“The trainer insisted on checking me out after what happened in that match,” Amelia lied, the annoyed tone helping to confirm her proverbial mask was back in place.

“...very well,” Caleb let the matter go as he motioned for her to get into the vehicle. “But we will be discussing this rather notable failure in your match tonight once we're back at our castle.”

Amelia wanted to take a swing, considering it was her family's castle and Caleb had simply hijacked it for his own purposes, but she knew she had to let it go. If her faith in Luz, and the growing faith in herself, was strong enough, it wouldn't be too much longer until this nightmare was finally over.

At least... she hoped that would be the case, that there was still a bright future waiting for her.