Light in the Darkness vs. Kelsai Adamson & Chance Owens

[Wisteria Waltz]

OOC: Just to help clarify, the events of this piece take place the day after the Breakdown of Kim's Trios cash-in, so there is no reference to anything that happened on the most recent BD. This is because I started working on this before that show was posted and was deep enough in by the time it went up that I couldn't justify altering my course.
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Luz and Amelia often found themselves wondering when their lives and careers had gotten so crazy.

Growing up with parents in the wrestling business, both women had heard their fair share of crazy things that could and had happened. Amelia's parents usually had fairly tame stories, though this was a result of her mother often being the cause of whatever drama she was involved in while her father usually fell back on his influence to keep himself distanced from such scenarios as much as possible. Luz's father, on the other hand, usually had plenty of tales to tell that might sound crazy to the average person but made perfect sense once you realized the culture he represented helped put a lot of those events into context. That didn't change the fact that the two had both endured several hardships growing up that would never fit in with what was considered 'normal' to most people, from the way Amelia was raised from birth to be nothing more than the latest chapter of her family's legacy to Luz's parents arguing over her future and ultimately losing her father to very tragic circumstances that ultimately created a rift in her relationship with her mother.

It was getting to the point where they found themselves pondering which set of events was more insane: the giant bout of chaos they had just endured courtesy of Kimberly Williams and her Trios contract, or the evolving mess that was the Blythe elders' latest attempt to get their daughter back in line while Luz's professional image was being sabotaged as part of some sort of sister scheme.

It was the day after that particular Breakdown and the couple were slowly waking up in the hotel room in Edmonton they had shared, still feeling the effects of what they had endured in that madness. While neither one could at least say they had suffered some of the more gory aspects that typically accompanied an Underground Rules setting (likely to Kim's chagrin), that didn't change the fact that Luz had still been shocked by a stun gun that had subtly affected her for the remainder of the night while Amelia had spent a great deal of time once they'd gotten back trying to flush her eyes out from the powder that had been thrown in her face. That was also ignoring the fact that even if they didn't get involved in the festivities right away, they both still wrestled for a significant chunk of the entire show, easily making it the longest match either one had ever competed in.

Considering they were about a week and a half removed from their long and intense Tag Title battle with the Frosts as well, they wanted to believe they were moving in the right direction to becoming the kinds of wrestlers they truly wanted to be on the SCW roster. A lot of work still needed to be done, though, and taking part in Kim's Trios cash-in had at least given them a foundation to start building from.

After they'd both reluctantly parted from just cuddling in bed to each get a shower in, they had made their way downstairs to get some food, deciding to take advantage of the free breakfast that came with their stay given how sore they still were from pushing their bodies for so long in that match. Plus, they had planned to fly back to Anaheim that afternoon, wanting a brief reprieve in the comfort of their own home to reflect on their past few outings so they could work to adapt and evolve... not to mention have a chance to just relax their bodies while they shifted some of their focus to the other issues at hand.

Neither woman was aware of some of the stares they were getting as they plated their food and took a seat at the nearest vacant table they could find.

“You feeling alright this morning Luz?” Amelia asked as she noticed a slight tremble in her girlfriend's hand as she tried to impale a slice of back bacon with her fork.

“Yeah,” Luz replied with a sigh. “Just some lingering effects of Ravyn using a stun gun of all things on me. I know it was technically legal in that insanity, but there's still lines you don't cross and that was just plain messed up just to try and get some falls.”

“Tell me about it,” Amelia said as she took a moment to rub her left eye. “I don't know what was in that powder she threw at me, but my eyes will probably feel like they're burning for a while no matter how thoroughly I've flushed them out and used eye drops. At least I can see clearly again...”

“How do you think the others reacted to everything?” Luz asked.

“Ivy and Gage are probably proud of the falls we did score, though Ivy will probably want to snap Ravyn like a twig for what she pulled,” Amelia pondered with a chuckle. “My siblings will definitely get a little too doting and overprotective the moment they see me again. I just hope they found anything new we could use to sort some of our other problems out.”

Luz nodded at this. It had just been the two of them coming to Edmonton as the rest of their group had stayed behind to focus on digging more into The Empire and why they were going to such drastic lengths outside of the business to achieve the end goal they sought inside of it. Considering Gage didn't have a passport yet and Ivy had a scheduling conflict with her wrestling bookings, they all agreed it made the most sense. Edward and Emily could have accompanied them, but they felt two extra pairs of eyes back home would help in sorting out any more anomalies that popped up, especially in regards to the Luz doppelganger.

“I just don't understand why someone would want to pretend to be you just to try and ruin your image,” Amelia thought out loud. “That's not something that happens often in lucha libre, is it?”

“Absolutely not,” Luz firmly stated. “The only time you'd ever find more than one person sharing an identity is either with the explicit agreement of all parties involved to help spread the name or because one luchador is passing the identity to another to carry on its legacy. Trying to pass yourself off with someone else's mask and name is disrespectful and is something you normally only find in companies with a loose understanding of our traditions that think they're being clever using the fact that our masks sometimes make it easy to find someone else to imitate us.”

“Sounds like our 'friend' Caleb certainly could care less about lucha libre traditions considering he had that investigator give him whatever he needed to make that happen and then recommended his services to my mom,” Amelia huffed. “I don't even know what he's hoping to gain from this. It seems like way too much effort to try and use it to help my parents get me back in line, especially when we can always vouch for one another in terms of where we're at to discredit her appearances.”

“I'd love to know who would willingly go along with such a scheme,” Luz growled. “It has to be someone who isn't too familiar with—or worse yet, doesn't care about—lucha libre tradition.”

“You mean like you?”

Luz and Amelia immediately turned their attention to a group of two men and a woman sitting at a nearby table who were scowling at the former like she was some sort of horrible person. While Amelia looked surprised, Luz looked almost offended by the accusation.

“Excuse me?” Luz asked them.

“You know, I used to be a fan of yours,” the guy who had spoken before revealed. “But you've really been going out of your way to spit in the face of everyone worldwide who supported you, especially after the sport lost El Espíritu Angélico.”

“What are you talking about?” Luz questioned, genuinely confused. “The fans are everything to me! They're what drive me to be the athlete that I am!”

“Then why on earth did you call lucha libre 'a disgrace to what it means to be a wrestler' because it was 'all style and no substance'?” the other guy asked.

“When did I say that?” Luz asked in return.

“Oh, don't act like you're still some sort of saint,” the woman with them spat. “You said it right before your match two nights ago. And then you show up on Breakdown last night trying to act like you're all honorable again? How much of a hypocrite can you be!?”

“She can't be a hypocrite if she was by my side two days ago, right here in Edmonton preparing for Breakdown,” Amelia noted, eyes narrowing into a glare as she was starting to get fed up with these accusations against her girlfriend. “There's someone out there stealing her name and look and trying to ruin her career.”

“And why should we trust what you have to say?” the woman fired back. “You know, I looked up to you as a fellow lesbian who wasn't afraid to hide who she truly is, but how am I supposed to feel when that turns out to be a lie, huh?”

“Seriously,” one of the guys chimed in. “Real low blow trying to stick up for your so-called girlfriend after it got announced that you're engaged to that Golden Prodigy of The Empire.”

“I'm sorry, what!?” Amelia nearly shrieked, and it was at this point that Luz looked around and started taking notice of all the attention they were receiving, and none of it looked pleasant. She could recognize the looks of wrestling fans in the presence of someone who they weren't a fan of, and to see those kinds of looks leveled their way felt like a low blow.

Amelia, however, kept her focus on the trio. “Where in the hell did you hear something that farfetched?”

“It got heavily talked about before his debut match yesterday,” the other guy noted. “I don't even know why you're surprised by this considering-”

“Do I look like I have a ring on my finger?” she fired back, showing both of her hands as proof. “Besides, I've never even met this guy, nor would I have any feelings for someone like him!”

“Guess all Blythes really are manipulative,” the woman huffed as she and her friends stood up and moved to another table away from them.

Amelia opened her mouth to respond, but Luz gently grabbed her wrist before nodding her head to all the attention they were getting, with most of it being negative. The two of them quickly finished breakfast before heading back to their room, clearly rattled by this turn of events.

“I can't believe how out of hand this is getting,” Luz lamented once they'd reached the floor where their room was and began heading down the hallway.

“No kidding,” Amelia replied in frustration as she scrolled through her phone, showing Luz the various wrestling news sources revealing that Caleb and her father had publicly announced the supposed engagement at a recent show.

Considering how focused the two had been on trying to rebuild themselves after Retribution and figuring out how they were going to approach the madness that had gone down last night, they had blocked out anything that might seem like a distraction only to realize that not addressing the problem was only making it worse. That said, they had to dedicate some focus to SCW if they were going to prove they belonged here and could be that beacon of hope that would lead to a brighter future for the company, especially after the proposal they'd made to the Frosts to prove they were serious about this.

“If it were just your parents, I'd kind of understand,” Luz sighed. “I don't know why they're so obsessed with making you be the next entry in this family legacy when they've got other options they could pursue... not that I think they deserve the claim of beginning a family legacy. But what is this Caleb guy's deal and why is he going this far to try and basically hijack our careers?”

“I wish I had a clue,” Amelia replied. “At least then we'd have an idea of where to even begin dealing with all of this so people can accept that we're exactly who we say we are...”

“The answers you seek are buried deep in the past, long before you were even born.”

The girls stopped right as they opened the door to their room, startled by the sudden intrusion into their conversation. They turned around and found that the door to the room across from theirs was open, and standing in the doorway was a tall woman with piercing green eyes and short black hair that they could easily tell was a dye job based on the more reddish undercut they could see traces of. While she wore a long black dress, a golden pin she wore on the chest depicted a heater shield with a pair of swords crossed behind it and angel wings sprouting from the shield's sides... a symbol that was all too recognizable as the logo of The Empire. That sight alone got both women to put their guards up, to which the woman responded by holding her hands up in surrender.

“Please, I wish only to talk,” she told them.

“Whatever your little group is selling, we're not interested,” Luz growled.

“We just want to be left alone to focus on our careers with SCW right now,” Amelia added.

“While you are correct that I am part of The Empire, I can assure you that my goals run counter to theirs,” she claimed. “Perhaps I should introduce myself, although I believe you might already recognize me, Amelia. The name's Lily Clauson, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Lily!?” Amelia exclaimed, taking a better look at the woman before realizing that a lot of details about her had seemed familiar. “It's been years since I last saw you! You look... different...”

“Not the kind of look I wanted to take on, but it's a sacrifice I made for the job I'm doing right now,” Lily admitted.

“You mean being a part of The Empire?” Luz spat before turning to her girlfriend in bewilderment. “Ames, who is this? How do you know her and why aren't you freaking out because of who she's associated with?”

“Relax, querida,” Amelia replied as she took Luz's hand and leaned over to kiss the cheek of her mask. “When I first entered the business, Lily was tasked by my parents to make sure I stayed on 'the right path' because she was an old schoolmate of theirs and a veteran they trusted. Cold, calculating, efficient in the ring... unfortunately for them, she wasn't quite those things outside the ring. Before I met you, she was actually the first to realize that the way my parents were treating me wasn't right and tried to subtly steer me off of their chosen path to carve my own. My parents caught on however and forced me back in line, right about the time she mysteriously disappeared... it was another few months after that before the fateful night we first crossed paths, and the rest is history.”

Luz raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at this woman, who seemed to be quietly appraising her and nodding to herself as though something seemed to make sense. It was a little unnerving, to be honest, but even with Amelia trying to tell her it was alright, she refused to let her guard down around someone who seemed to be part of the very group that was sabotaging their names.

“Believe me when I say that if I had a choice in the matter, I wouldn't have left you to their devices Amelia,” Lily said as her attention turned to the mentioned woman. “I had intended to intervene, but, as much as I can't blame her for things beyond her control, my younger sister had some rather bad timing. Even though we'd been bitter rivals in the business for years and on rather rocky terms outside of it for even longer, I'd gotten the call that she'd been diagnosed with cancer and had to face the reality that if I wanted to make amends and truly have her in my life again then my window to do so was closing. Thankfully, she managed to beat it and made a full recovery, and by the time she had, you had already found your own way out of your parents' chains... and with the help of the daughter of an old friend, no less.”

“Old friend?” Luz questioned, eyes slowly widening as she was the only person who fit the given description, which meant... “Did you know my father?”

“My sister and I crossed paths with him in the business many times, and we held a great deal of respect for the man,” Lily revealed. “He was a big reason why my sister was motivated to approach the business the way she does, even if I didn't fully agree with it. All three of us also knew Caleb White, the leader of The Empire... it was my sister's idea for me to join them, actually, under the guise of agreeing with their goals and wanting to renew my old rivalry with my sister to make her admit that her way of doing things is wrong and our careers can flourish again together under The Empire's banner. The truth, however, is that I'm working as a mole and passing along whatever I learn because we know how Caleb operates and want him out of this business for good.”

Before that revelation could really sink in for the couple, Lily's phone began going off. She retreated from the door to grab it and quietly cursed at whatever name she saw on the caller ID.

“Sorry I couldn't talk for longer girls, but I have to keep this cover if we're going to take this bastard down,” she told them. “Please know that you can trust me, and if you ever need more help then seek out my sister, Marilyn Clauson. She's been hoping to meet you in particular, Luz. And remember what I said... look deep into the past for the answers you're looking for.”

Before they could press for any more information, Lily had answered her phone and closed the door to her room, leaving the couple standing there contemplating this latest turn of events. They ultimately decided to finally step into their room and start packing for their flight, pondering the hints they'd been given by a woman who wanted them to trust her. Considering they were struggling to figure out how to approach this whole mess, perhaps this was just what they needed, but they wanted to discuss this with their friends once they got back to the States to decide their next course of action.

Considering the only thing that made sense about her cryptic message regarding the past meant trying to get answers from their respective parents, finding what they supposedly needed to look for would be easier said than done.

That said, it was becoming more and more apparent that if they wanted to live up to their namesake, they were going to have to keep adapting both inside the ring and out as well to survive this growing storm.