Warrior of Hope: "Will the Sun Rise?"

[Caroline Machado]

"Open your eyes, do you think that you're the best?
Try to see the light before the final test
I need to know

Will the sun rise when it's over?
Will the sun rise, will there be a sky?
Will the sun rise another day...?"

"Well, well...had a change of heart, huh?!"

September 18, 2023 -- 5?30 PM.

Caroline Machado had a nice hotel room set up in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It was rather quaint, even by modern standards, but she loved the charm. On this day, R.A. Marshall -- a.k.a. RAM -- had come in to visit after she called him up the other day.

"No. I will not join Yulia's cause..."

Caroline shook her head as RAM took a deep breath. It broke the Brazilian's heart in knowing her far along into the darkness he had been getting into, but even the spikey-haired Watauga graduate knew that she was one of those types willing to stand her ground on something she believed in. So, he decided to change the subject and lighten the mood.

"Lemme ask you somethin'. Have you, Caroline...always looked this pretty?"

It didn't work. Caroline shook her head.

"When your uncle was making those advances towards me at that pub, why did you take it upon yourself to beat him within an inch of his life...?!"

RAM cleared his throat, knowing Caroline wasn't wasting any time.

"Heh, maybe it's 'cause I can't bear to see the women I like be treated like shit..."

Women, PLURAL...Caroline thought. She never fully understood what that meant, but she had an inkling that RAM had been developing feelings for somebody -- two people in particular.

"I haven't told no one yet, not even Yulia, but I was developin' some feelings for Peach."

The Brazilian perked.

"Oh, yeah?! The one who dreamed about doing work for the Final Fantasy franchise?!"

"Yup, that was Peach. Wrote her this letter -- here's a copy of what I wrote for her."

Caroline put her reading glasses on and read RAM's letter to Peach. While it wasn't a "love" letter per se, she couldn't help but smile and marvel in its contents. It was a "thank you" letter written to show appreciation for her being a tour guide while he was in Japan nearly a year ago. At the end of the letter, she read out loud a part where RAM was wondering about what love was and what it meant.

"After we spent that time playing video games together and watching anime, I was thinking. What does it mean to love someone? What does it mean to stay committed to someone?"

Caroline, not doing RAM's voice any justice, couldn't help but muster a slight grin on her face.

"D'awww...I didn't know you were a good writer! How cute!!"

RAM sighed.

"But here's her response. And I...I...I feel ashamed."

Caroline read Peach's response silently -- that was, until she came to the last paragraph.

"I can't answer that question. I think love is something you're gonna have to figure out for yourself..."

Caroline closed her eyes and bowed her head. At that moment, she realized why RAM had been lashing out these past few months. He had interpreted Peach's letter as a rejection letter, and he had no idea on how to process that feeling. She looked at the dates for both letters, and gasped when she saw the timestamps in question.

"August...right before you joined Yulia..."

Caroline cleared her throat and looked RAM squarely in the eyes.

"I want to know something. Who else are you having feelings for...?"

RAM facepalmed, almost too embarrassed to say the quiet part out loud. Yet he did it anyway.

"You, Caroline."

The Brazilian gasped. She slowly paced around her room, pondering what to say next.

"Listen, Robert. I...I-I-I..."

She couldn't say anything else, at least at the moment. Yet deep in her soul, she knew that she was developing feelings for him. It was going to take a little more time than she had planned to sort this saga out.

To be continued...



---

"Hi!!!"

September 22nd, 2023 -- 7:00 AM.

With her Sony Handycam set up on the balcony of her San Jose hotel, we find Caroline Machado staring out towards the west.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?

Oh, I've been busy-busy!! Training, working on my new stargazing project, and so much more!! It's hard to believe that Legacy is just upon us, that a full year has passed since...well, I'll go more into that a little later. For right now, if there's anything I've ever learned when stepping through those ropes?


It's that, even if you're not on the programs on a consisten basis?!

You have to be willing to challenge yourself. After all, what's the point of living this life wn you don't see the chances in front of you after waking up in the morning?! Lately, all I've seen is a certain narrative, prescribed by a certain few individuals, that tells us that the Imperial women's division has gone soft. They've gotten laid back, etc...and that the only way to make them stronger is by assembling a group of women who want to share that ethos. Yet I wonder...what about those who DON'T share that kind of spirit?!

It's for that reason why I decided to challenge you, Brooklyn."

She closed her eyes and bowed her head, taking a sip from a bottle of Lipton green tea.

"It's quite funny, to be honest.

While I haven't been in this sport for as long as you have, Brooklyn, I know enough of it to fully understand its basic ideas. Good is good, bad is bad. I have seen so many things happen that make me want to question myself and debate on whether or not I want to say. Destruction, betrayal, joy, happiness...those are things we all hold near and dear to our hearts, no matter how long certain events have come to pass. I've seen what the Women's World Championship can do to a person's mind, and more often than not...it's not a very pleasant thing.

I remember facing Shelly Diamond around at last year's Legacy in a four-way. I heard a lot of things go into my mind as I waited to step into that Citi Field stadium -- 'Caroline, you're too demure! Caroline, you can't beat Shelly!' For a full year until that moment in time, Shelly...was unbeatable!! Yet despite the odds against me, despite the circumstances surrounding her association with The Work, I...I went out there and ended her record reign.

To this day? I...I still connot begin to imagine what that moment meant to me.

Even after Jennie beat me some time later, I...I still cannot properly express what being a Champion was like without crying!!

The point being...being a Champion means a LOT of things! It means you poured your heart and soul into the work you've been doing for a long-long time. It means you were gonna tell yourself to find the strength within you to seize whatever opportunities might come your way. As much as I hear people criticizing you because Jess Fowler decided to hand you that Queen's Gambit case instead of putting it on the line for a match?

I'm not gonna sit there and deny that you are a competitor worthy of the Hall of Fame. You've shown, as Mr. Worf would say, Klingon guile in the face of your own adversities. You have a certain hurbis around you, an expectation that you just can't miss when you step inside that arena -- hence the old Twitter handle! You have to have an identity that sticks around, otherwise...what is the point of playing the game?! All I've wanted to do, since I made this challenge to you, was talk about how you've always been percieved as being in Rowan's shadow, playing backup libero to her.

And I say...?!

That's not true -- not true at all."

The Brazilian sighed somberly as she placed the butterfly-themed hairpin into her hair, pulling it up into a bun in the process.

"You did something that not even Rowan could do when she had the Women's World title, hold it for a full year. You defeated every challenger that stood in your way. I'm not gonna lie and say that this is gonna be an easy match, because...it isn't, and it wasn't meant to be easy. After all, life would be so boring if everything was as simple as promoting an upcoming match!"

In honesty, I understand how brutal this sport can be sometimes.

I really do -- really, really do.

I guess...you can go ahead and call me Wonder Woman or Captain Kirk and be done with it...hehehehe!!!! Ahem...simply put, I realize that the name of the game of luta livre profissional is to compete against an opponent inside the arena, sometimes hurting them while getting hurt yourself. You have rules that are supposed to keep things in order, codes of honor that we all hold tightly, but at the end of the day? My aim is to either pin somebody or make them submit. If I didn't know any better, I'd ask someone like JJ or Fiona or anybody else about what it'd actually take to succeed in this sport, they'd tell me that treating every match like a Championship match sometimes means reserving two hospital rooms -- one for the opponent and one for for yourself!

It's something I accept, being a part of this promotion and all.

Yet what I will ever, EVER accept..is this belief that the Imperial women's division is either too weak or too lazy to fight someone like you, Brooklyn. For even though I haven't been on the programs every week, every women's match I've seen has been treated like a Championship match, an opportunity to compete against the likes of you. While I understand that not everybody in this division succeeds through awards or accolades, past, present, or future...for everyone like you or Fiona or Rowan or Jennie that's come in and succeeded in Imperial, there's gonna be a Khardiate or Ally or Virginia that's waiting in the wings.

They know it. I know it. We know it.

As we head into this promotion's 10th anniversary, I've always known one thing...this division has always been strong. Sure, you're gonna have different people with different visions. Light and dark...but somewhere in the middle, there's the truth -- and the truth is, Brooklyn?! We two, you and I, have a lot more im common than you realize. The fire that burns within me, burns within you as well. The desire to walk out to that arena, in that special moment, festers deep into our souls. The roots of the Women's division have always been strong, like a bonsai, and it will survive long after we are gone.

You and I are on the same level.

And fighting you will, no doubt, prove this ethos to be right!!

For having that spirit is what it means to be a Champion.

Make no mistake about it...real strength doesn't mean you hit future challengers with a title belt and thinking you can get away with it. Real strength doesn't mean you can smile and poke at those people who want to share their passions outside of the ring. Real strength comes from the heart within -- and NEVER the muscle without! The challenge, Brooklyn, lies on whether or not you're willing to stand your ground and be willing to get hurt where it matters the most.

I will defeat you. I must defeat you.

I am GOING to defeat you, Brooklyn.

A moment like that...would mean more to me than you'll ever know."