Syren vs. Selena Frost vs. Amelia Nevado vs. Gavin Taylor

[Wisteria Waltz]

“I've come this far... I'm going to make this work.”

That's what Amelia Nevado had been telling herself for weeks, and the more she said it, the more she made herself believe it.

Things in SCW were... not the greatest, is probably how she would have described it a few months ago. The World Title picture had become a chaotic mess with her caught in the middle of it, all of her efforts were being overshadowed once again, and perhaps worst of all, from an outsider's perspective it appeared as though she had sold her soul to the proverbial devil.

Maybe she had, in a sense, but deep down Amelia knew this was what she needed to do, and she wasn't as far gone as everyone believed she was.

She had spent the past several months drowning in her frustrations, questioning if she truly belonged here despite coming from arguably the best family of pure wrestlers to ever exist, despite her and Luz long since earning their reputation as arguably the greatest modern tag team in the company. She thought she had responded to the doubt and criticisms others put forth in the best way possible: when all eyes were on Luz as she cemented her status as a shining singles star as well with her U.S. Title reign, Amelia had been quietly stepping up and putting on arguably the greatest wrestling matches SCW fans had seen in a very long time. Yeah, maybe she'd lost those bouts, but no one could deny that she had pushed the likes of Cid Turner, Glory Braddock and even Syren beyond their limits, forcing them to dig deeper than they had in a very long time just to beat her.

She had stepped up to carry this company and its future on her back, even when no one asked her to. She had made it very clear that while she was just shy of reaching that next level, it was within her grasp and her moment wasn't too far off after all.

But all anybody could focus on were the losses, the failures, the setbacks.

It was just like listening to her parents all over again, constantly moving the goalposts to make her successes amount to nothing.

And then she decided to take a chance on hearing out someone who wasn't very well-liked around the locker room… and now she was being vilified for it.

Frank Delatosso had offered her the opportunities that CHBK didn't seem too keen on providing her, no matter how hard she worked. He pulled some strings to give her a chance to prove herself, and she made the most of it. She had proven she belonged here, and yet, everyone else was still insistent on pushing this narrative that she hadn't earned this.

Syren, interjecting with her rematch and being supported for it. Amelia was no stranger to the constant criticism against her and Luz anytime they lost a title and took their rematch, and she even remembers when CHBK criticized them for not wanting to take their rematch and instead earn their way back fair and square.

Selena Frost, who had to steal an opportunity meant for Deanna just to put herself back into this picture, who had crossed several lines and only added to it by pivoting from her claims that Amelia should challenge a World Champion who was truly worth her talents to just claiming she didn't deserve to be in the picture at all now.

Gavin Taylor… well, the man was in his own little world, and while Amelia had played nice up to this point, he had what she wanted and that was all there was to it.

Amelia sighed, feeling sick of the fact that everyone seemed to want to be against her, that any hatred and distrust towards Mr. Delatosso seemed to bury the fact that she had still earned this opportunity on nothing more than her God-given skills and the hard work she had been pushing herself through for the past year. She had done everything right, but all anybody wanted to talk about was her wife, just because she was doing the same thing but winning matches. But heaven forbid she makes one questionable decision and all of a sudden she's just as bad as Selena or Gavin or Syren if you believed the narrative that she hadn't truly changed at all.

"You look like you're questioning your choices."

Amelia snapped out of her thoughts and turned to face the person in the driver's seat of this white SUV. The way he looked at her as though he saw himself as a caring father figure who was going to do right by her… Caleb White made Amelia sick to her stomach on so many levels. But, here she was.

After she and Gavin had failed to keep Selena and Syren from adding themselves to their title match in Nashville, Amelia had slipped through the crowd and left out an emergency exit she'd been given clearance to use, an intentional move to avoid a confrontation with Luz who was no doubt going to question some of her tactics in that tag match… tactics she knew would have worked if Gavin had just listened to the former three-time Tag Team Champion. In doing so, she had met up with the leader of The Empire to complete her part of their deal:

If Caleb pulled Paul from being a spy within their found family, as well as let Luz be, she would finally cave and join his cult.

Given the relatively short time frame between the Nashville and Los Angeles Breakdowns, Caleb had held off on what he claimed was the "proper next step" and instead tried to indoctrinate her while driving her across the country for the moment where she would stand up to Selena and make it clear she was not going to let the woman she once held respect for walk all over her any longer. Amelia heard everything he had to say, but given her long history of people trying to manipulate her, it wasn't hard to pick up on the subtle clues in his rhetoric that made it painfully obvious his grand religious spiel over "saving humanity" or "cleansing God's finest creation of sin" was a giant self-serving spectacle meant to convince others that they could be "saved" if they followed him when the only person Caleb White cared about at the end of the day was Caleb White.

Now, though? Instead of catching a flight to Melbourne, Australia to try and finally prove she was worthy of calling herself World Champion, Amelia had been brought on a detour all the way to the British countryside, letting Caleb drive her to what she presumed was The Empire's secret base, the one that the NCA had been struggling to find ever since Caleb had escaped from prison the night she and Luz had tied the knot.

And she would be right in the heart of The Empire any minute now.

"I'm just thinking about what awaits me in Australia," Amelia ended up replying to Caleb, which wasn't exactly a lie.

"Ah, yes, your rightful coronation as the World Champion that horrid company desperately needs right now," Caleb smiled, and Amelia hated how soft and caring he tried to make it look. "I will never understand how any of those people could see themselves with as much worth as they do."

"I happen to be one of 'those' people," Amelia fired at him. "And like it or not, this isn't going to change that."

She heard Caleb mumble something under his breath that sounded a lot like "we'll see about that," but she turned her focus back to the road to memorize any important details that could be helpful about where she was going. Just because she had professional beef with Syren and Selena didn't mean she was going to let Caleb get away with his disgusting pseudo-religious garbage towards them just because they, like her, were married to another woman.

Like it or not, Caleb was going to have to accept that… just as she was going to have to accept that he probably wouldn't in order to make this work.

'I've come this far…' she mentally repeated to herself once more.

As she made note of just how deep in the middle of nowhere their destination seemed to be, which certainly helped explain why the NCA struggled so much to find this place, Amelia couldn't help but notice the prevalent silence in the vehicle. She was perfectly fine with that in regards to Caleb, as she preferred not to talk with him any more than she had to, but the silence of someone else had been especially noticeable.

'You're awfully quiet all of a sudden,' she tried to mentally prod. 'No quip about how I lost yet again and the deck is stacked even more against me now?'

'…you cheated…' was the first thing she heard from Other Amelia after the inner critic had been silent for so long.

Needless to say, Amelia was a little taken aback that this was the direction the internal conversation was going to be heading in.

'I did what I had to do to help Gavin and I win that match,' she tried to explain to herself.

'And here I thought listening to Frank and Caleb might finally get you back on the right track,' Other Amelia scoffed. 'Instead, you've somehow become even more pathetic.'

'And everything mom and dad did that destroyed the legacy they were so proud to shove down everyone's throats wasn't?' Amelia fired back. 'And don't give me that crap about how they were just trying to help me realize what, according to them, I was supposed to be all along. As long as I can finally prove, once and for all, that I'm good enough to not just be a champion, but THE champion, then the ends justify the means.'

For a moment, silence reigned once more as Other Amelia seemed to contemplate those words.

'I guess Caleb really does destroy everything he touches, because it's all about him at the end of the day,' the inner critic finally mused. 'He destroyed the Blythe legacy when it no longer suited his goals, and I hope he destroys you in the process. Maybe then, you'll finally understand-'

"We're here," Caleb suddenly said, bringing an abrupt end to Amelia's mental argument with herself, but not before giving her something to mull over considering what she was about to get herself involved in.

As she focused, she realized that Caleb was driving on a downward slope, which didn't make sense considering the forest they'd been traversing had been devoid of any notable hills. It was then that she realized he'd driven into a cave somewhere in these woods… which contained a hidden ramp leading to an underground area that, with the push of a button on Caleb's key fob, rose back up into place once they had cleared it, creating the illusion that he had just driven straight into a dead end and his car had seemingly vanished into thin air.

"So that's why no one could find you guys…" she found herself muttering out loud.

"Oh yes, we had to get quite creative with covering our tracks once the NCA became insistent on wrongfully imprisoning me again," Caleb arrogantly explained. "Thankfully, Vladimir is a technological genius with all that FBI experience, and your parents were more than happy to fund his work. A shame that they had to lose their way…"

Amelia rolled her eyes as Caleb drove for a little longer until he parked the SUV in what looked like an underground parking garage, the car blending in among a seemingly endless sea of identical white SUVs. As Amelia got out and slowly followed behind him, she did catch sight of a few vehicles that weren't plain white SUVs or vans randomly scattered about, immediately assuming those were the personal vehicles of the elites as they seemed to be the only ones who didn't have to be reduced to faceless goons.

"It will be nice to have a Blythe among us once more, especially one who should have always been on our side from the very beginning," Caleb continued. Amelia opened her mouth to correct him on her last name, but he was quick to cut her off with even more talk. "Your father and I were friends for a very long time… I would even dare to call myself a mentor of sorts to him in his earliest wrestling years. He spoke so highly of your potential… a shame that your mother never seemed to believe that was enough. Perhaps she was a bad influence on him…"

"Don't pretend you knew him better than I do," Amelia bit back. "Whatever praise he had for me was solely about the family name above all else. I was just a tool for both him and mom in that regard, and if he was a friend of yours for so long than maybe he was never meant to be a good man."

"As amusing as your insistence that I am such a terrible person has been, Amelia, I'm afraid you're going to have to cease with that nonsense," Caleb stated, sounding far less annoyed with her defiance than his words would suggest. "You're one of us now, and while I may find your efforts amusing, some of your new friends may not, and I would hate for anything bad to happen to you prior to your initiation."

Amelia raised an eyebrow at that. "This is the first time you've mentioned an initiation…"

Caleb chose not to respond any further, which irritated Amelia but didn't surprise her. Given how cryptic the man loved being, the reveal of some secret initiation process that he wasn't going to elaborate any further on right now sounded about right.

It also worked in his favor that just as Amelia was going to attempt to pry for more details, they had finished walking up a stone staircase that led into somewhere that looked oddly familiar to her. She racked her brain, but nothing was clicking. At least, until her eyes caught sight of a painting on the wall just beside another staircase. That wasn't the direction they were heading, but Amelia found herself stopping to examine this painting in greater detail. It felt impossible to ignore when the woman it portrayed looked so much like her, the only difference being the way her hair was styled and the fact that she was wearing an elegant gown that was befitting of a royal princess.

She had seen this painting before, and she knew of only one place it could possibly exist.

"Wait a minute…" she realized. "Are we… at Castle Blythe?"

"Very astute observation," Caleb chuckled as Amelia turned to him, jogging to catch up once she realized he was continuing towards a giant set of golden doors with The Empire's insignia etched into them. "It was a gift from your father once it became clear we were going to need a new base of operations. The NCA raided our old chapel after I was arrested, and this place is so far out of the way… of course, the modifications were necessary to ensure our safety."

Amelia felt her blood boiling even as Caleb pushed the doors open and led her beyond them. She knew that her family lineage on her father's side could be traced all the way back to ancient nobles who were part of the royal court when England was still a full-fledged monarchy, but the old castle in her family's name never held a use for anybody as her father was too focused on forging the Blythe name as a wrestling legacy and her mother's tastes were more in line with the manor she'd been raised in. To know that it was basically being used as either part of, or a cover for, The Empire's base of operations just infuriated her that much more over the thought of how much her parents had sunk into this cult before trying to turn on Caleb for their own interests.

That said, her blood suddenly ran ice cold once she saw what laid beyond those golden doors.

She found herself and Caleb standing on a stage clearly set up to look like a massive pulpit, overlooking a massive gathering room where she saw nothing but a sea of white cloaks and plague doctor masks. Apparently even here, Caleb prefers his followers in full attire when he stood before them. Flanking her and their leader on either side were the remaining elites who hadn't been part of the splinter cell and been taken down… Adrian Verner, her family's (former?) lawyer, was giving her a particularly smug grin that had her wanting to walk over and deck him. But her eyes quickly focused on the burly man she remembered crossing paths with in Germany last year, who seemed to be heating up a small iron over a hot bed of coals.

Amelia was certainly the hard gulp she made would've been audible if this were a cartoon.

"My faithful followers of the Lord's divine will!" Caleb proudly called out to get the attention of his proverbial flock. Seeing how easily he was able to command their attention with grand gestures and a loud, confident voice made Amelia's skin crawl. "Today, we welcome a new soul through the gates of salvation… a soul that brings us one step closer to fulfilling our goal and proving to the world that when we wage our holy war, we are the ones with God's blessing to cleanse the Earth and inherit a world free of sinners!"

The roar of approval from all these faceless followers was deafening, almost reminding Amelia of a wrestling crowd… a crowd that seemed willing to accept her, even though she knew what she was doing was wrong.

"Amelia… Nevado," Caleb said as he turned to her, motioning for her to step up. The reluctance to use her proper legal name was not lost on her and caused some in the crowd to murmur. "It is time to initiate you into our sacred ranks. Please place your left wrist on the altar."

Amelia opened her mouth to question why, but stopped when she heard Other Amelia's snide tone from deep in her mind. 'You best do as he says. You don't want to give away the game and disappoint Luz anymore than you already have, now do you?'

She growled under her breath as she stepped forward, rolling up her sleeve and laying her hand on the altar so her wrist was facing up. Caleb reached over and grabbed her arm while Adrian smugly walked over to press her hand down. She was about to try and question what exactly was going on, but the words died in her throat when she saw the burly man approach with the iron, and finally getting a good look at it, she realized exactly what this 'initiation ritual' was.

They were going to literally brand her with The Empire's symbol.

"A little insurance policy we came up with after those two NCA agents infiltrated our ranks years ago," Caleb filled in the blanks, and Amelia remembered the night her father had threatened to gun down Ivy only to be stopped and arrested by Darius and Evie after they revealed they'd been undercover within the cult for some time back then.

"If you're going to be one of us, then you're going to prove it," Adrian taunted her, and as her eyes looked down, she saw the symbol branded into his own wrist beneath the cuff of his suitcoat, just as it was branded into the wrist of the man who was to brand her. As far as she could see, everyone had this symbol branded upon them…

All except for Caleb himself.

Amelia realized exactly the pickle she found herself in: if she was going to pull this off, she had to be willing to have The Empire scarred into her flesh as a reminder of this dangerous path she'd chosen.

'I've come this far…' she reiterated to herself, steeling her nerves as she looked the burly man dead in the eyes. "Do it."

At her request, the man nodded before pressing the hot brand directly into her wrist. Amelia was no stranger to pain, both in and out of the ring, but this? This was the kind of pain that about had her body ready to just shut down on her altogether, but she grit her teeth and persevered. It only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity before that iron was pulled away.

When she dared to look down, she saw The Empire's symbol burnt into her flesh, clear as day.

"That will heal by the time you set foot in the ring in Australia," Caleb grinned as he and Adrian let go of her before her branded arm was raised for all to see. "Welcome our newest redeemed soul!"

Amelia didn't hear the roar of who she could now call her fellow cultists… all she could think was that she had to make this work now. Otherwise, her hubris would not only cost her the most important match of her life, but also her very life as she knew it.