Light in the Darkness vs. The House of Frost

[Wisteria Waltz]

Something was going on, Luz and Amelia knew that much, but they weren't quite sure what and they were afraid to pry.

After they'd parted ways with Ivy and Gage, they had ended up going home and getting a good training session in. Refining their respective techniques, helping one another work out some kinks in using each other's style as necessary, laying the groundwork for some potential new combos they might be able to iron out just enough to feel comfortable trying that they knew the Frosts wouldn't have seen from them yet... Ivy had been right about needing a good workout session to clear their heads because the more they pushed themselves preparing for this match, the more confident they felt about being able to actually pull this off. They knew it wouldn't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but if now was truly their time to take the reins of the tag division then they had to give Deanna and Selena nothing less than their very best to make it happen, and that meant clearing their minds of all thoughts regarding the potential sale of SCW or whatever the hell Amelia's parents were up to now to try and get their daughter back under their thumb and especially the dark cloud that still hung over their heads regarding this particular pay-per-view.

Considering they'd dedicated a solid amount of the afternoon to training, the couple had figured that their friends would be done with the tasks they had split off to do and would be interested in some sort of evening activity together, but they hadn't come back by the house. Luz had send Gage a text to ask if they needed a bit of extra help with loading up that desk he and Ivy had gone out to buy after all, but he replied back fairly quickly saying that they'd taken care of it but had an idea while they were doing so for a little surprise they wanted to put together for her and Amelia before they all headed back on the road. The couple was definitely curious but opted not to pry, especially since Amelia still had some concerns about feeling like she'd come off as pushy for doing so.

Considering she and Ivy had only patched things up within the span of the past month or so, it was clear that a lot of healing still needed to be done.

The rest of the evening ended up being spent cuddling on the couch while watching whatever movies they had lying around that they knew would lift their spirits, as Luz deemed it the best way to keep both of their heads in the game. Amelia thought it was an intentional ploy to make sure she wasn't feeling down about her worries over overstepping and ruining the friendship she'd just repaired, but it was a sweet gesture all the same that led to the both of them going to bed in high spirits.

When Amelia had awoken the following morning, she was surprised to find herself alone in bed. Normally, she was the first to rise as it was hard to break the routine that had been drilled into her head for most of her life that if she wasn't up before the sun was then she was already wasting valuable time on the day. Luz enjoyed sleeping in when she felt justified in doing so, but she was always more than happy to rise with her beloved to see the sun do the same, so the fact that she was already up was curious.

After pulling herself out of bed and taking a moment to stretch her tired limbs, she wandered out into the kitchen to see if she could find her girlfriend. Sure enough, Luz was seated at the kitchen table, already sipping some coffee and quietly mumbling something to herself in Spanish while her focus was on her phone. Amelia slowly snuck up behind her and glanced over her shoulder, noticing that she had pulled up an old family photo that had a very young Luna Nevado happily holding the hands of both of her parents as they stood out in their front yard.

Diverting her own attention away from the obvious thought of how cute her girlfriend looked as a little kid, she focused intently on her parents and how... happy they looked. She'd seen more than her fair share of wrestling photos of El Espíritu Angélico, but never really one of him outside the ring just spending time with his family, a look of joy on his face even through the mask that was very different from the one he'd often wear in interviews or celebrating a victory. It was almost like it was telling her that no matter how passionate the man was about wrestling, his family meant the world to him and then some.

As for Camila... Amelia can't recall any point in time where she'd ever seen the woman look so genuinely happy. Any time she encountered her while she and Luz were in Mexico usually saw her frustrated and upset because Luz was still following the wrestling path her father had laid the groundwork for, and the only other times she'd ever seen the woman's face were news articles or websites that had group photos of her and the other doctors she worked with when such a thing was necessary. In those pictures, it wasn't hard to tell her heart wasn't in the smile she was giving, considering Amelia's own track record with fake smiles for family portraits that only served the purpose of stroking her parents' egos. But this... this was all the proof she could ever need that Luz and her mother did love each other and that she was infinitely better than her own parents could ever hope to be in terms of actually being parents.

“You were such an adorable child, mi preciosa novia,” she gently said, getting the desired reaction when Luz jumped a bit before turning to face her.

“Hey,” she softly greeted Amelia. “Sleep well?”

“Considering you woke up before I did and have been sitting out here seemingly practicing a speech, I should be asking you that,” Amelia replied as she leaned down to gently kiss Luz's cheek before going to get a cup of coffee for herself. “Everything alright?”

“Well...” Luz started, intentionally trailing off as she waited for Amelia to join her at the table and get some coffee in her system before she got going. “You know how I had something I wanted to say yesterday before I got sidetracked by whatever noise I thought I heard? It was... well... what Ivy had to say yesterday got me thinking. I know we've always done our best not to dwell on the past, but I know that's exactly what my mom is doing. She has every reason to still be grieving even years later, and I still miss my papá every day with all my heart and soul. But... that's been the entire crux of her desire for me to give up all of this, even if this is how I choose to honor my dad's memory and feel like he's still with me, guiding me in spirit with every move I perform in that ring. I've been... thinking about giving her a call, maybe try and invite her to Dallas to watch our match with the Frosts and show her things from my perspective. Actions speak louder than words, after all.”

Amelia took a moment to think this over before she replied. She would give anything to see Luz and her mother reconcile, considering she felt Luz was far too much of a kind soul to have to suffer through parental issues like she'd been born into. While Luz had a point, though, there was the matter of whether or not her mom would even be willing to make the trip, let alone hear her out after the fact. Grief was a very powerful force in the world, and Camila had been understandably consumed by it to the point where it was hard for her to try looking beyond it to see the good her late husband had left behind for both her and her daughter.

“I don't want to sound pessimistic Luz,” Amelia carefully said, “but... do you think she'd be willing to actually do it?”

“At this point, I've got nothing to lose,” Luz stated. “If I'm ever going to have her back in my life, then I need to do something to get through to her so we can actually talk about it all. I want her to be able to understand why I'm doing this and what losing dad meant to me... I want to understand her side of things too, and I can't get that if we just keep arguing the second we start a conversation.”

Amelia reached over and gently laid her hand over Luz's, offering a smile that made it clear she would support her partner in this endeavor no matter what. Luz felt herself relax as the tension over her constant practicing of what she wanted to say finally left her body, grateful that she at least had one person in her life who understood what this meant to her and was willing to have her back every step of the way. She shuddered to think about the kind of person she could be had she never taken this plunge in the first place and crossed paths with Amelia, wondering what state her relationship with her mom would've even been in and how long she could've lasted before the burdens of guilt and grief finally crushed her.

It was a life she didn't want to think about, not when it meant a vastly different future than the one she was trying to build for herself no matter how long it took to get there.

Luz shelved the phone call for later, knowing her mom was either not up yet or still working. Plus, she wouldn't do herself any favors trying to sort that out on an empty stomach, so the couple set about making breakfast and trying to figure out their plan for the day. More training was obviously in the cards as it would be the last time they'd get to do so in their home gym before hitting the road, along with getting a hold of Gage and Ivy to see what they were up to and whether or not they were ready for the road trip ahead. Whatever surprise they'd mentioned preparing also crossed their thoughts again, but good things came to those who waited and she and Amelia weren't about to rush their friends to see what they had in store.

After all, they'd waited this long to earn the opportunity that now stood before them in SCW.

It was almost noon by the time the couple had eaten and finished up a rather intense workout, pushing themselves farther and farther to try and make this moment theirs so they could step up and lead the tag team division, wanting the challenge of pushing teams to come together and step up to try and dethrone them to help show the world that tag team wrestling was far from dead, especially in SCW and especially if things did end up going the way of someone else being in charge so they could understand exactly what they had on their hands and why it needed to be respected.

It was as they were getting some water following the workout that their doorbell rang, causing the two of them to exchange glances before going to see who it was. Luz was the one who got to the door first, and as she opened it she couldn't help but grin at the sight of Ivy on the other side.

“Ivy!” she happily called as she threw herself into a hug that her friend returned.

“I hope you don't mind, but we just finished a training session and haven't gotten to clean up yet,” Amelia told her as she walked over to where the two stood.

“Considering I've spent a good chunk of the past few years in the gym, you two are good,” Ivy chuckled as Luz released her hug. “Sorry for not letting you know we were dropping by, but we figured you guys would reach out at some point today anyway.”

“Hey, you and Gage had things to do,” Luz cheerfully replied. “You've got nothing to apologize for!”

“About that...” Ivy trailed off a bit as the couple quickly picked up on how nervous she'd suddenly gotten. “I know Gage said we had a surprise you you guys and part of me wished he hadn't quite phrased it that way, but we might've been hiding more details than we really should have about what we were up to.”

At that, Ivy steps to the side and lets the couple peek out the door, and eyebrows are raised at the sight that greets them. Gage is walking up the pathway, and his focus is on the man following beside him who looks uncomfortable being here. When Gage reaches Ivy he motions for the man to approach Amelia and Luz, and he hesitates for a moment before doing so.

“Hello Miss Blythe, Miss... Luz?” he questions as he bows his head a bit, clearly more nervous than the four individuals around him combined over what's going on here.

“That's the name I go by as per lucha libre tradition,” Luz confirms. “And... who are you, exactly?”

“My name is Ryan Lumis,” he answers. “I'm a private investigator, and I need to discuss some things with the two of you... preferably in private.”

The girls exchange glances again before looking over to their friends, who nod that whatever this is about is probably best taken inside. With that, they invite everyone in and make their way into the living room, where they take a seat on the couch and immediately thread their fingers together. Ivy and Gage stand off to the side, intentionally making it clear they're making it near impossible for him to leave until this was finished. The atmosphere was tense as a result of whatever this was all about, and Amelia immediately had her guard up.

“You said you're a private investigator?” she asked to break the awkward silence that had started to settle in.

“I am,” Ryan confirms. “That said, I have been informed that you're not going to like what I have to say, but your friends have been quite convincing in making sure I was aware of the wrong I have been doing these past few months.”

“Months?” Luz questioned, already not liking where this was going.

“That is correct,” Ryan states. “Shortly before the start of the year, I was contacted by someone who wanted to hire me for a job she claimed was quite important... a Mrs. Ophelia Blythe, to be specific. According to that conversation, she had some concerns about her youngest daughter whom she claimed had abandoned her and her husband and was getting involved in activities that made her worried for her safety and her future. She could keep tabs on what you were up to in your job as you are a professional wrestler competing on television, but she wanted me to keep an eye on you outside the ring and report back to her with every detail I could make note of about your daily life so she could take the proper steps to make sure you stayed on the right path... admittedly, she was vague on a lot of the details and I should have made a greater effort to get more information out of her, but she paid double my usual fee upfront and promised more if I did this.”

As the investigator explained himself, the dots began to connect in Amelia's head. Her mother's cryptic call that revealed private details she couldn't have possibly known about her daughter's life as it was outside of SCW's airtime or beyond the scope of whenever she addressed the fans for whatever match was on the horizon... she almost had to laugh at how obvious it was now how she had known. Hiring a private investigator to tail her from a safe distance and report every last little tidbit of information back to her was low, but not too low for her mom to ever consider. Her family had more than enough money to simply throw at someone like this Ryan Lumis fellow to ensure he got what they asked for and never questioned any of it. The fact that this is what her mother had ultimately resorted to after all of her other failed attempts to drag Amelia back into their toxic talons... her face was beginning to burn from how furious she was, and Ryan flinched at the sight.

“I know it's too late to do anything about the work I've already done for her Miss Blythe-” he started to say.

“Amelia,” she growled. “Drop the formality because I really don't want to hear my family name right now.”

Ryan could only gulp and nod in agreement with this request. “Amelia... I can't take back what I've done. I can only offer my sincerest apologies for what I have provided to her thus far and give you my word that I am done doing business with her and her husband. Any information I have gathered on you throughout this month will not be turned over to her, though I would advise caution in case she decides to hire someone else in this line of work to pick up where I left off.”

“Considering she already knows some of the most important developments I've had in my life recently and is already trying to hold them over my head, I don't think-” Amelia began to bark at him, only cutting herself off when Luz practically yanked her into a hug and spent a minute quietly whispering something to her that slowly but surely calmed her down. As she kept her close and started stroking her hair, Luz turned her gaze to the investigator, who took a step back at the sight of not anger, but disappointment in her eyes.

“My partner has every right to be angry with you, as do I,” she told him with a bit more of an edge than Ivy or Gage had ever heard in her voice before. “What I'd like to know is what got you to come clean about all of this.”

“You have your friends to thank for that,” Ryan admitted. “Mr. Parker noticed during your lunch outing yesterday that I was doing my job from a nearby table and got suspicious, which I have to admit is impeccable insight on his part. I didn't realize they were following me while I was following you until he and Miss Plume pulled me into an alleyway and gave me the full story of what I was helping to perpetuate with this job. Admittedly, as guilty as I felt about the whole thing, I was only going to simply end this job and leave it at that, but Mr. Parker placed a call to his father who threatened to expose me in a report that would have ruined me... you have every right to despise me for coming clean in exchange for protecting my reputation, but this is the wake-up call I needed to vet my clients a little more thoroughly so I'm not helping anyone else wrongfully get around a justified decision of no contact. I am even willing to turn over any money I was paid throughout this job to the two of you as compensation.”

“You can keep it,” Amelia suddenly said, to the surprise of everyone except for Luz. “I already took whatever I felt I needed of my family's money the day I tried to cut them out of my life to get my girlfriend and I set up where we are now. If you were that desperate for a pay day then I'd rather you keep it since otherwise it would go back to them... not that they deserve to get it back or have any more to throw around in the first place hoping it will solve all their problems.” She took a deep breath to help recompose herself. “I'm still upset over the damage you've done, but I know better than anyone how my parents, especially my mom, operate to get what they need by any means necessary. You were manipulated... and I can't fully hold that against you. You swear, though, that this is the end of you essentially spying on me and telling them everything they can use to try and craft some sort of plan to drag me back into that hell?”

“I swear on my life,” Ryan replied without hesitation.

Amelia took a moment to think over everything she'd just discovered, still furious over her mom's latest ploy to keep trying to dictate how she lived her life but content in the fact that she was getting no further information on her private life that easily. There was something more important that brought her gaze toward Ivy and Gage, realizing how far they'd gone to protect not only Luz but her as well when they didn't have to do so. Without them, she didn't know when or even if she would have realized that she had someone who was clearly very good at what they did watching her every move to give her mother ammunition for whatever the next step of her latest scheme was, and even then, they didn't have to intervene since it really had nothing to do with them. Between her and Ivy still rebuilding their friendship from scratch and her and Gage not having really spent too much time with each other outside of their little group yet, they had made it clear what kind of friends they truly were and she had to fight the urge to cry from how much it meant to her.

Luz, who had been in silent awe over the same thoughts, suddenly found her attention being diverted as her phone started going off. When she reached over to retrieve it, her eyes widened at the sight of her mom's number. Amelia glanced over to see this as well and immediately pulled her in close, nuzzling against her cheek to return the favor for earlier because she knew this was going to be an important step in potentially mending another relationship, even if she was a bit surprised at who called who being the other way around from how she thought it would go.

“You've got this,” she quietly said in Luz's ear before kissing her cheek, and Luz nodded.

“Excuse me a moment,” Luz announced as she stood up and took a deep breath before walking out of the room to have a bit of privacy before she answered. “¿Hola?”

“So you can talk to me when I call your phone but you refuse to talk to me in person Luna?” the voice of Dr. Camila Nevado tore through the speaker, and it took all of Luz's willpower to resist falling into the same routine of every conversation they've had with one another over the past few years.

“What are you talking about, mamá?” she asked, her honest confusion coming through loud and clear. “We haven't seen each other since the last time I was in the country before Amelia and I rejoined the SCW roster, and we did talk then... or at least we tried to.”

“Mija, don't lie to me,” her mother practically growled from the other end of the line. “I tried to talk with you after your match last night, hoping to see if I could get through to you about giving this up finally, and you completely blew me off!”

Luz almost choked on her breath at this, growing more and more baffled by this conversation. “I didn't have a match last night? I know Amelia and I wrestled on Breakdown almost a week ago now, but that was in San Diego and we've been back home together since getting ready to head out to Dallas for their upcoming pay-per-view. I've had no reason to take a booking back there, and even if I had... I'd been hoping to talk with you actually-”

“I don't know what you think you're trying to pull young lady,” Camila persisted, “but it clearly has something to do with your new friends and they feel like a worse influence on you than that Amelia girl ever was.”

“New friends?” Luz's thoughts were becoming overwhelmed by alarm bells now because way too much wasn't adding up anymore. “Mom... I have made two new friends recently, but I can promise you they're good people! And Ames is still in my life and we're still going strong together!”

“Then why wasn't she with you last night? Why did I see you get led away by an elderly man in a white and gold suit who claimed that you had a new father figure in your life?” was Camila's response.

Luz's jaw dropped at that, and her phone nearly dropped as well. She had no idea what was going on, but she was not liking the picture being painted for her even if there was still a lot of blank spaces that needed to be filled in. First the supposed claim by some random guy that she'd given him her blessing to try and court her girlfriend because their relationship was supposedly “just a gimmick” and now this? If there were two people that held such importance in her life that the idea of betraying either one of them made her violently ill, it was Amelia and her father, and her hopes of being able to make amends with her mother so she could be added to that important list were starting to fade because of something going on that she hadn't been aware of.

“Mom, I need you to listen to me, please...” Luz started to beg, choking up as she spoke. “I don't know what's going on but you know I would never betray or disrespect dad's memory like that. I don't know who you saw or what's going on-”

“I wish I could believe you Luna, I really do,” Camila sighed. “But given where things have gotten between us... unless you've got some concrete proof that something strange is going on, I'm afraid I don't know who to trust right now.”

Before Luz could plead for a chance to prove her claims, the line went dead. All she could do was pull the phone away from her ear and look at it in disbelief, still trying to figure out what the hell had even happened. She returned to the living room almost in a trance, and everyone else noticed that Luz looked like she'd seen a ghost. Amelia was immediately to her feet and pulling her into a hug, but that and her asking what was wrong barely registered to her. Slowly, she found her eyes drifting toward the private investigator, who was still here and looking far more awkward than he did before now, though this was more of a case of him not knowing what to really do as he had no place in whatever was going on this time.

“Mr. Lumis?” she suddenly asked, startling him and everyone else with the formality. “When you were gathering intel on my girlfriend... did you gather anything on me for Ophelia, by chance?”

Ryan took a moment to think. “Only anything that pertained to Amelia directly, which mostly consisted of updates on your relationship with each other that were apparently nothing new to Mrs. Blythe, or so she told me the last time I had contact with her. Although, now that you mention it... I was hired by another client to do just that before Mrs. Blythe contacted me, and I recall her saying that client was a new associate of hers that recommended my services. I wasn't hired to keep an eye on you like I was for Amelia though... that job tasked me with collecting as much information about your past as I could get access to, which the whole 'lucha libre identity' thing complicated. Wouldn't tell me why he needed it, only that it was important for a project he was working on so I assumed it was something more academic in nature from the way he referred to it in conversation.”

“Can you tell me who it was?” Luz pleaded, attempting to pull herself away from Amelia only for Ivy to help restrain her while Gage gave the investigator another death glare over this new information. “Please, I need to know because I think whoever hired you to get it is using it to try and spread a false idea about who I am somehow!”

Ryan looked conflicted, but knew he really had no moral high ground to refuse given that he'd gotten a reality check that had him questioning his entire career up to this point if he'd allowed his greed and desperation to potentially cause more harm than good. With a deep breath, he answered her question with a name that had only recently popped up on the group's radar, but one they planned on getting far more acquainted with in the near future.

“His name was Caleb White.”

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AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas would soon play host to SCW's Retribution pay-per-view, a night where scores would be settled and the landscape could change with potential new champions at the helm and new challengers being decided. The show was integral to deciding a lot of how the company would operate going forward, especially as word of potential new ownership loomed over the entire roster, and crew members were hard at work getting everything set for the big event knowing full well what this show could mean in the months to come, especially if it meant a chance to make a good impression on whoever may ultimately succeed Mr. D as the one in charge around here.

That said, crew members are not the only faces present as the stage is put together for the evening to come.

In a rare turn of events, The Light In The Darkness are sitting side-by-side in the ring, eyes locked on the set as it slowly comes to life the more work is put into getting it there. They aren't usually ones for being out here this early, but they have their reasons as they slowly intertwine their fingers and take a few deep breaths, almost as though they're meditating together on the challenge that awaits them tonight. Nobody bothers them or tells them that they need to leave, allowing them the perfect opportunity to address the matter at hand without interrupting anything.

“Retribution 2021... Amelia and I would consider that the worst night of our careers, SCW or otherwise. I'm sure everyone knows the story by now: we were one of four teams fighting it out to earn a shot at the SCW World Tag Team Championship, and during the course of that match... everything fell apart for us. First Amelia's neck was injured after being powerbombed out of the ring and I had to go it alone for the rest of the match. Then, I was concussed following a well-placed shot to the skull with a title belt that led to me being pinned and the Golden Boys getting that opportunity we had so desperately wanted to earn. We know full well the injuries weren't our fault because that's the risk that comes with being in this business sometimes, but we still felt like we let everyone down that night. The fans, anybody in the locker room that respected us... ourselves, especially...

It'd be easy to look at how we responded to that and accuse us of a great deal of things, but one thing we will always be is honest with ourselves. As we recovered, we took a good hard look at the lay of the land and felt that we weren't ready to hang with the best of the best that SCW had to offer just yet. We stepped away from SCW and took time to rebuild ourselves, not knowing when we would try again but being certain that SCW had not seen the last of us. It would've been easy to just recover and come right back once we were cleared... it would've been easy for me, as the one with the quicker road to recovery given our respective injuries, to go it alone for a few months and try to make something of myself until Amelia was healthy again. But none of that sat right with us because it doesn't represent what The Light In The Darkness actually is.”

“The Light In The Darkness is more than just a name... it's who we are. This is something that goes beyond SCW or wrestling as a whole... during the darkest points of my life, where I was struggling to break free and figure out who I really am, Luz was the light that guided me to this point. When she found herself being crushed by the burdens of forging her own identity and proving to the world who she truly is, I returned the favor. Ever since we first crossed paths, our lives have been intertwined and no matter how difficult things became, we were there for each other, helping each other learn and grow and fight, overcoming every challenge thrown our way and conquering every demon that tried to drag us down! We were that light keeping one another out of the darkness that threatens to devour us every single day because those challenges, those demons... they don't just stop when you win. They keep coming, pushing us more and more.

Yeah, we walked away from SCW, knowing full well that they might not even give us a second chance. Call us cowards if it suits you. The fact of the matter is that at this show two years ago, we weren't ready... we weren't ready to be our namesake for SCW, we weren't ready to be that hope that not just this company, but wrestling as a whole needs right now. We aren't here to sugarcoat the fact that we failed, just like Luz failed to get out of the first round of Trios or we failed to beat the previous Tag Team Champions... the record books may stare the fact that those losses were by disqualification, but it doesn't change the fact that we failed. And yes, I failed to keep the TV Title beyond my first defense, something that no one has let me forget. In the face of all of that, it'd be easy to assume that the only reason we're still forging ahead is because of the opportunity that awaits us tonight.”

Amelia takes a moment to look around at the empty seats surrounding them, knowing that while they have this moment of relative peace for the time being, they will soon be stepping out here in front of thousands of people for the biggest match of their SCW careers.

“We're not perfect... we'll be the first to admit that. I've made no secret about being raised and trained for this business under the belief that I did have to be perfect, that failure could not be tolerated. And Luz will be the first to tell you that she has put so much of herself into doing this that every setback, no matter how small, feels like someone took a baseball bat to her ribcage. But the fact of the matter is that we didn't come back to SCW to take the easy way to the top. That's why we willingly started over from square one, that's why every failure that has met us thus far has only pushed us to come back stronger than ever, that's why we have treated every challenge that's come our way as though it was a main event match with the highest stakes imaginable. We wanted to do this our way, we wanted to prove to every single soul in that locker room that we are serious about wanting to pay this company back when they had no reason to open the door for us again.”

“That raises a very important question: is tonight our time? Is tonight the night where The Light In The Darkness shakes off the dark cloud that this pay-per-view holds over our heads to reach the top of the mountain? We can stand here and say yes just as much as the House of Frost will tell you no, but the truth of the matter is that we don't have the answer. We can say that we're ready to be Tag Team Champions, that we're ready to bear the burden of carrying the tag division on our backs... it's easy for Selena and Deanna to say we're not ready because they've been in this position for several months now, and Selena especially has been busting her ass to try and carry this entire company on her back for years.

The reality of this scenario tonight is this: how can we know if we're ready if we don't try?”

Luz and Amelia slowly rise to a stand before letting go of one another, the former going to lean on the top rope as she deeply contemplates something before a look of quiet fury overtakes her features.

“Selena, Deanna, let me make something clear to the both of you. Ames and I? We respect the hell out of you. We'd be idiots not to recognize that we are in for the fight of our lives tonight. But as Amelia just said, we're not perfect. Every mistake we've ever made, every failure that has set us back, has only driven us to fight harder and keep evolving so that way we can truly become our namesake not just for SCW, but for this entire industry. If we lose this match, then we will get right back in this ring and face whatever challenge stands in our way to make it back to you so we can fight ever harder the next time to see if you can beat us again. If we walk out as Tag Team Champions, then we want you to come right back at us and hit us harder to see if we can withstand that challenge. We want to be the team that will keep pushing others just as hard as we push ourselves because that is the only way this company is going to survive no matter who's in charge at the end of the day!”

Amelia takes a deep breath as she walks up to lean on the top rope as well, taking a moment to look around the ring.

“Luz and I were both born and raised in this business. To us, wrestling isn't about how many times we can call ourselves champions or what big names we can claim to have beaten as though a single victory means anything in the grand scheme of things. Wrestling is our lives... everything that makes us who we are is on display at all times when we step between these ropes. Every setback is a learning opportunity to get better, every opponent is a change to create that challenge that will make all parties involved push themselves to greater and greater heights. We understand that better than you may think... if we didn't, then this run would have been even shorter than our first. Maybe the Frosts are right and we're not ready yet... if that's the case, then I can promise you right now that it doesn't matter if it takes us months, even years, to get back to this point because we will keep pushing ourselves harder and harder until we are the living embodiment of that hope that keeps SCW and wrestling as a whole alive. Selena, Deanna, we are challenging you to knock us to our lowest point tonight if you can so we can get right back up and tell you both to your faces that your very best wasn't enough to deter us from chasing after you even harder. We made the mistake of letting our demons get the better of us two years ago... we will not make that mistake again.”

“Retribution will be the night that The Light In The Darkness proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are here to stay. Anybody that thinks they can break us, we challenge you to try so we can keep fighting even if we have nothing left to give. To Mr. D and whoever you're talking to about buying this company, we challenge you to tell us to our faces that we aren't worth being on this roster so we can step up to the plate and prove night after night how much we disagree. And to Selena and Deanna, we challenge you to give us a fight beyond any you've ever had before to prove that you're right about this not being our time yet, because this match will end one of two ways. Either we prove you wrong...”

“...or we meet you next Breakdown and tell you face-to-face to keep carrying this division on your backs because Retribution will not be the last you've seen of Amelia Blythe and La Pequeña Luz because when we earn this opportunity again, we want you to be the ones to test us once more so we can prove to you exactly who the hell we are and what being here means to us.”

With that, Luz and Amelia turn their full attention back to the still-incomplete set, relating to it as they know full well that no matter how many times they are torn down, they will rebuild. The Frosts may not believe that, management may not believe that, even the fans may not believe that... but soon enough, come hell of high water, they will. The couple would make sure of that, no matter what kind of hell that needed to put themselves through to get that message across loud and clear.