Waylon Creek vs. Amelia Nevado

[Wisteria Waltz]

To say their time in the City of Brotherly Love hadn't been very kind to them would be an understatement, in Amelia's opinion.

Breakdown had wrapped up, and emotions were certainly running high as she and Luz carefully made their way to their locker room. It had been a wild night that certainly could've gone better, and both women were clearly frustrated. Luz had every reason to be, considering what had just happened in her main event match against James Evans. The Fall of Man had taken advantage of the numbers game and the couple's clear care of one another to allow James to steal a victory over her, finally putting an end to the momentum Luz had been building for herself since Apocalypse. William Heaven clearly saw this as some great accomplishment, and it was clear as day that none of them actually cared for or respected this business and were more than happy to see it die by their hands, irregardless of the greater consequences, so long as they got to stand over the ashes and proclaim themselves the final conquerors.

It truly sickened The Light In The Darkness that a group who proclaimed themselves as “SCW's future” not only had so little regard for actually proving anything honestly, but also threw that in the face of the couple who had done nothing but bust their butts week in and week out to properly earn everything they had. Unfortunately, this fight was only going to get more intense from here, as Luz's match with James tonight had only been the beginning of the gauntlet they would run over the next few weeks. Amelia had heard the announcement before that match, that next week in Glendale she would find herself going one-on-one with Waylon Creek and trying to properly end his undefeated ways.

Such a prospect would have been daunting even if it weren't for the war they had found themselves involved in, but the added stakes of a crucial advantage could make all the difference when it came time for Tactical Warfare.

That was the other big revelation from tonight heading into the next pay-per-view in Germany, and needless to say, it left the married couple with some clear concerns. Like with the Chamber a few months ago, Tactical Warfare was a match they knew about, having initially debuted for SCW around the time of one that was meant to determine control of the company, but it was the kind of match that neither one had ever believed they would take part in. It was one thing knowing that the likes of James and Giovanni had prior experience in this match they would gladly use to cause as much mayhem as possible, but there was also the added issue of having to trust the Dangerous Minds inside that double cage structure.

It was easy to believe that might be the case, considering they had a common enemy and hadn't really gotten in each other's way in trying to fight off the Fall of Man... at least, until tonight. It hadn't taken Amelia long after the show had gone off the air to realize William Heaven, like the brilliant mastermind he probably believed himself to be, had banked on Striker and Dumont's emotions to get the better of them to create all the chaos that gave James his opening. She had wanted to have a word with them about what happened, but making sure Luz was alright had taken priority and the two men had wasted no time in leaving once it was clear the fight wasn't going to continue.

“¿Cómo se supone que debemos confiar en ellos?” Luz mumbled, seemingly picking up on her wife's thoughts.

Amelia exhaled through her nose, not sure how to answer that herself as she helped Luz into their locker room and gathered a change of clothes for her. There had never really been any animosity between the two groups... heck, half the time it felt like Striker and Dumont barely even knew they existed beyond the fact that they held the Tag Titles the duo clearly wanted. On paper, the scenario seemed no different than when she and Luz had become reluctant allies with Twisted & Sadistic against the Dangerous Minds and the Cowgirls From Hell, putting aside their differences to deal with a situation and then going about their business from there. That said, just because something seemed one way in theory didn't always mean it would play out like that in reality, and Striker and Dumont's hair trigger tempers, while understandable and justified, clearly clashed with the way The Light In The Darkness conducted their business, and tonight had been a perfect example of that.

Granted, they had half-expected the Fall of Man to just try and swarm Amelia to give James his opening anyway, because the group just reeked of desperation to get their way by any means necessary.

If tonight had proven anything, it was the fact that they would need to adapt if they were going to ultimately win this war... thankfully, they were no strangers to that concept.

“How are you feeling?” Amelia asked once Luz had finished changing into her more casual clothes.

“...do you want the honest answer?” Luz said after a moment, the frustration still painfully clear in her voice.

“I can hazard a few guesses,” Amelia replied as she pulled Luz close and gently kissed her lips, which helped to relax her wife even just a little bit.

“I shouldn't have lost my focus like that...” Luz lamented before Amelia held up a hand.

“Don't blame yourself for reacting the way you did, mi amor,” Amelia gently responded. “As sad as this might be to admit... I'm surprised it took anybody this long to try and weaponize our relationship against us. Well, in SCW, at least. And at least they're not doing anything like that sick stunt Blake's pulling with Selena.”

“Ay dios mío, don't remind me of that,” Luz groaned. “But... I doubt they'd be that stupid, not when you know everyone we care about can not only defend themselves but are also already chomping at the bit to kick their butts if we ever considered seeing if we could open the SCW doors to them.”

“Considering everything that's happened with The Empire, I'd be worried if they weren't ready to throw down at a moment's notice when it's warranted,” Amelia chuckled, though any amusement her attempt at a joke was supposed to bring died when she saw the shift in Luz's demeanor. “Lulu...”

“Please don't apologize, Ames...” Luz huffed as she started packing her bag. “Admittedly, I tried to forget about it and just focus on winning this match, but...”

Amelia gave Luz a moment, knowing exactly what was going through her wife's head. Prior to tonight's show, The Empire had finally made a move after being silent for months... although, truth be told, it was hard to tell if it truly was The Empire acting or just Theresa conducting her own business and trying to get into their heads again while she was at it. Regardless, she recalled the video the old woman had texted to her, revealing she had captured Jacob and claimed his survival hinged on Luz 'showing something' while she was facing James tonight. There wasn't a doubt in Amelia's mind that Luz had been thrown off even a little bit by that burden weighing on her shoulders before the bell even rang... that had been the reason why Amelia had opted to be the voice of their tandem at the start of the show when they tried to call out the Fall of Man on all their bullshit.

Amelia instinctively checked her phone, but she found no new texts from anybody, nor any missed calls. She couldn't help but lightly sigh as she pocketed her phone and saw Luz checking hers as well, only to find the same lack of results.

“I... I...” Luz shakily started to say, and Amelia quickly pulled her into a hug and gently sat them both down on the bench, forgetting about everything else around them.

“It's not your fault, Luna...” Amelia spoke softly into her wife's ear.

“Not my fault!?” Luz snapped back, taking Amelia by surprise. “Jacob could be dead for all we know! And all because I lost focus and couldn't beat James, or couldn't throw away everything that makes me who I am just so I could hurt him the way he's been trying to hurt me, or whatever they wanted! I know Jacob was a creep and a pest and invaded our privacy several times over, but... but...”

“We don't know that they actually did anything to him,” Amelia noted. “I know that not knowing isn't ideal, but-”

“I can't just sit here and hope this was all just some sick joke to try and screw with us!” Luz rapidly stood up and started facing around the room, looking more frantic than Amelia had seen in a while. “I can't... I don't know if I could take having another casualty on my conscience, Ames. Not after what they did to Ryan... what happened tonight, what Heaven's threatening to do to you next week...”

“Let me worry about whatever he's babbling about,” Amelia firmly stated as she stood up and took Luz's hands in hers, looking her wife dead in the eyes. “Trust me when I say this, Luz... I hate all of this just as much as you do. We both just want to compete and prove ourselves without people like the Fall of Man trying to destroy us because they can't comprehend how we got to where we are while they've failed every step of the way, or The Empire trying to draft us into some deranged scheme to 'save humanity' or whatever Caleb thinks he's delusional enough to accomplish. I hate what happened to Ryan last year as much as you do, I hate everything that we've lost or had to put on the backburner just because people have a problem with who we are. Heck, I hate the fact that we can't even consider going home for a while because of the fires.”

Luz's breath hitched at the reminder, which had quietly loomed over both women's heads all week. While, at least for the moment, Anaheim had somehow been spared for the most part from the wildfires that were ravaging California, they had still decided to take precautions, just in case. Luz had called her mother once the fires had started spreading, and she had rallied the troops as members of their found family quickly headed out there to pack up as much of their home as they could. There were some things they'd hate to lose that couldn't simply be removed that easily, but thankfully, anything that they saw as truly irreplaceable had been relocated to Luz's childhood home in Tulancingo, and would safely remain there until the fires were extinguished and they had the chance to evaluate what kind of shape their home had been left in.

'I'm sure Caleb is having a field day with this, believing that God himself is burning California to the ground just to try and destroy our lives in particular,” Amelia thought to herself, silently praying that the fires continued to miraculously avoid Anaheim so she and Luz could still have a home to return to instead of having to sink their money into rebuilding what had become their sanctuary away from all their problems for so very long.

“Amelia...” Luz had started to say, and Amelia noticed tears starting to form in Luz's eyes.

“Sorry,” she sheepishly admitted. “I just... I know you, Luz. I know how much you care, how passionate you are for all of this and for our relationship, and you know I love you so much for it.” She paused to gently kiss the forehead of Luz's mask as punctuation for that statement. “I know that nothing is ideal right now and we're trying to adapt to a lot of unknowns being played all around us... but we'll find a way to survive it all, come hell or high water, because that's what we've always done.”

“You're... you're right...” Luz took a shuddering breath as Amelia held her close once more. “I'm just... I'm so tired of all of Caleb's games when we never wanted to play in the first place. I hate that the Fall of Man has seemingly adopted that cult's strategy just because they desperately want people to acknowledge them as the unquestioned future of this business. And... I just want you to succeed, like I've been doing.”

Amelia couldn't help but blink at that last remark, and Luz nervously looked away from her. She wasn't going to have that, however, so she gently cupped Luz's cheek in her palm and guided her head back into a position where they could look each other in the eyes... where Luz could see all the love and tenderness that Amelia held for her and her alone.

“You selfless, lovable dork...” Amelia giggled. “Have you been worrying about how our roles were reversed from Taking Hold of the Flame all those years ago?” When she saw Luz slowly nod, her expression softened. “Oh, Luz... I'm grateful that you're worrying about me, but trust me when I say that you're stressing yourself out over nothing. I have my Trios contract in case I ever need to use it, I'll have a heck of an opportunity next week to make a statement all my own by showing Heaven that his greatest investment isn't as 'unbeatable' as he'd like to believe, and no matter what those guys wish to believe, we still have long careers ahead of us. We have plenty of time for the both of us to maybe accomplish everything that we set our minds to, maybe earn our own place in SCW's Hall of Fame someday.”

“I know,” Luz admitted. “It's just been hard not to worry about it considering how much SCW seems to be focusing more on me lately over you. I know I'm a double champion again and all, but you deserve attention just as much as I do.”

“Well, it seems like they decided to trust me on behalf of our whole team to try and earn us that advantage for Tactical Warfare,” Amelia smirked. “I think that's enough proof that I haven't been completely forgotten about on the singles front.”

Luz let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, and Amelia carefully led her into finishing packing up so they could retire to their hotel room for some well-deserved rest. Luz especially deserved it after how chaotic tonight had been, and Amelia grew even more determined to help show her wife that she had nothing to worry about. True, facing Waylon Creek was not going to be easy, and the man's virtually undefeated aura had truly been earned, but she hadn't fought her way to this point in her life just to back down whenever someone thought they could take it all away from her. She wasn't the little girl who was too weak to stand up to her own parents to protect her best friend anymore, nor was she the emotionless wrestling machine who didn't fight for anything that was truly her own. She loved the life she had built with Luz, she cared so deeply for everything she had earned that was, and always would be, hers and hers alone, and nothing anybody could do would ever truly take any of that away from her.

They could certainly try, but one thing the Fall of Man and The Empire both had in common was that, like it or not, they were ultimately going to lose this war no matter how many battles they did happen to win... because, at the end of the day, Amelia and Luz would still be standing and would continue fighting for everything that mattered to them, and nothing was going to change that.

She knew that would certainly try, though. Waylon was no doubt going to have evil intentions next week to both preserve his unbeaten ways and earn his team the advantage for the pay-per-view, and Lord only knew what depths Caleb and his Empire would sink to in their quest to try and break the married couple just to rebuild them in his own twisted image.

That last thought began screaming even louder in Amelia's mind as she and Luz reached their rental car and loaded it up. Amelia had offered to drive so Luz could relax after everything that had happened tonight, and as she went to open the driver-side door and start warming up the car to combat the chilly Philadelphia weather, she noticed an envelope had been pinned under one of the windshield wipers. Raising an eyebrow, she cautiously retrieved it before joining Luz in the car.

“What's that?” Luz asked as she noticed the envelope, with Amelia realizing it was addressed to the both of them.

“I'm almost afraid to find out,” she admitted as she gently tore open the envelope and pulled out a letter. Almost immediately, the sight of The Empire's golden crest stamped into the top right corner had Luz groaning and her about ready to just shred the letter and let the wind take the torn scraps away. “Of course they would have something to say about tonight. Probably had one of their goons in the audience writing this out on Caleb's behalf or something after the main event.”

“Does it mention anything about Jacob?” Luz asked worriedly as Amelia scanned the letter, which was surprisingly brief. A stark contrast to what they were honestly expecting from a group known for having some eloquent speakers among them.

“It says that we have a second chance,” Amelia read out. “Your match with James apparently confirmed something for them, but they're willing to hold off until they see what I can show against Waylon next week.”

“So they're toying with us...” Luz growled, and Amelia couldn't help but agree with her wife's frustration over this irritating game the cult had decided to play with them, and over a human life, no less.

“Yes... and no...” Amelia clarified as she looked through more of the letter. “Apparently, if this letter is to be trusted, my father convinced Caleb and Theresa to hold off on doing anything so I could have a shot and showing them... whatever they're hoping to see from us.”

“I doubt he'd do such a thing out of the kindness of his cold black heart,” Luz jabbed, knowing full well what kind of father Aleister Blythe had been to the woman she now proudly called her wife.

“You'd be right... unfortunately...” Amelia groaned now as she crumpled up the letter and tossed it into the back seat, not wanting to look at it anymore. “Apparently, he's convinced that by further dangling the well-being of a man we know doesn't deserve this even if we're not big fans of his over our heads, I'll 'succeed where you failed' because he sees this as some ploy to get me to embrace that old mindset they drilled into my head, the one I hate so, so very much... all to prove my superiority as a Blythe over a man who, well... I won't repeat the disgusting things this letter had to say about Waylon, because as much as we have every right to hate him, there's still a line of human decency that even he deserves that my father just doesn't care for.”

Luz didn't need to be told twice as she leaned over, her and Amelia embracing one another before they made the drive back to their hotel for some much-needed sleep. Amelia couldn't argue against how much she hated everything about all of this: the pressure she knew was now on her shoulders, the determination to deny William Heaven whatever he thought he could take from her, the games The Empire was playing with them, especially with her father blatantly ignoring the fact that she was no longer a Blythe out of sheer spite and believing she could still be everything he tried to mold her into being.

It all felt like too much, and Amelia could feel herself suffocating at the thought of the Fall of Man getting their way once again. But as Luz snuggled close to her that night, she remembered exactly why they had decided to call themselves The Light In The Darkness, and she knew it was her turn to step back up to the plate and prove that no matter how bad all of this got, they would continue to be that unbreakable beacon that would guide the way to a brighter tomorrow.

For her.

For Luz.

For everyone both in and out of the wrestling business.