Title: Starting at the End

Author: Karen U/revivingophelia

Pairing/Character: Eve Torres/Seth Rollins, others

Disclaimer: No one you recognize belongs to me

Rating: R/M

Summary: Everything comes to an end. It's what you do with the new beginning that counts.

Spoilers: through Battleground 2013, but starts in my own version of a few weeks later.

Warnings: language, violence, adult situations.

Notes: After seeing the results for Battleground tonight, I got this idea in my head, kind of a 'what if' and, well, this is what happened.

Yeah. Two new stories in less than 24 hours. I just couldn't help myself.

[ ... I don't know where you're going... but do you got room for one more troubled soul... I don't know where I'm going but I don't think I'm coming home... and I said I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead... this is the road to ruin, and we're starting at the end... - Fall Out Boy, Alone Together... ]

Part One

He lay on his back on the table in the trainers' room, pain still radiating through his ribs. He'd actually blacked out when his head had hit the mat, but that didn't mean he didn't know what had happened. It didn't mean he didn't remember it... The pain in his ribs was enough for him to have figured it out.

His tag team partner had speared him, then left him in a heap in the middle of the ring... Easy pickings for their opponents tonight. While he didn't remember being pinned, he knew it had to have happened. He'd been pinned, and now he was a former WWE tag team champion. The Usos had won.

"Your ribs are bruised, not broken. At least, that's what I overheard the trainers saying. They think you have a minor concussion," a quiet female voice said, and he frowned for a moment, feeling like he knew who it was... But she shouldn't be here, should she? Hadn't she quit...? Or was his brain just really scattered right now?

Wincing at the pain that moving caused, Seth Rollins turned his head, his brow furrowing a bit as he looked at the woman that was seated in the chair next to the trainers' table he was on. Her hair was shorter than it had been back when she'd been in the WWE, but her face was unmistakable, those clear green eyes watching him calmly.

"What are you...?"

"Technically I'm here visiting Brie Bella. We've become friends again over the past year or so, and she invited me to come and visit," Eve Torres informed him, watching as he went to push his hair back from his face. He cringed a little at the feeling of the gloves he wore for his matches against his skin, quickly fumbling with them to get them off. He managed one of them fairly easily, but had a little trouble with the other... The man blinking in surprise when Eve reached out to help him tug it off.

He took the glove as she handed it back to him. "Does she know where you are right now?"

Eve shrugged. "Probably. But I'm a grown-up. I can go where I want to."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure your friend hates me," he muttered, looking up at the ceiling, then wincing at the brightness of the light, closing his eyes tightly against the glare. Yeah, that was a bad idea.

"I imagine she hates Randy Orton more than she does you. Also Triple H and, after what he did at Battleground and since then... I'm going with her hating the Big Show more than she hates you, too. And after tonight..."

"I'm sure most of the people in the back were cheering when they saw what happened to me tonight," Seth muttered, and he figured he was right about that. He hadn't exactly made any friends since joining the main roster. He hadn't thought he needed to. He was already friends with Roman and Dean, and he'd figured that was enough. Honestly, it had been enough... Until they decided that the friendship was over.

The Shield was no more... Or, at least, it was a two-man game now, and he was the odd man out. Because if Dean was choosing him over Roman? Then he would be here right now.

"I wasn't cheering."

"You've been gone from the company for most of the year," Seth muttered, then winced at his own words, mostly because he didn't want to offend the one person that was currently being nice to him. Thankfully, she didn't seem to be bothered by his comment.

"True enough. But I was with the company when you joined the main roster, and I was around for the first couple of months. You never gave me any reason to dislike you, so... I don't have a problem with you," she replied, shrugging a little.

"One of the few."

"Maybe. But being in the WWE isn't necessarily about making friends. It's a business, and everyone wants to be successful. People want to be champions-"

"I was one. For months, I was one. I didn't think anyone could beat us," Seth said quietly, then looked over at her. He wasn't sure why he was telling her this; maybe just because she was there. Because she was the one person that was willing to listen. The one person that seemed to care that he'd been attacked by someone he'd considered to be one of his best friends that night. "We were a team. We won as a team, and when we lost, it was as a team. That didn't happen often. Losing. And then... Then came Battleground. That's when it changed. I was the one that was pinned. Cody Rhodes and Goldust got their jobs back because I got pinned, and everyone knew it. I was the weak link."

"Seth-"

"When we had the eleven on three handicap match... I was the last one left. Roman and Dean both got pinned before I did. It was five on one. I got it down to four, but... I lost. It's what people remember, you know. That I got beat down by four guys and got pinned. It's like they forget that Roman and Dean got pinned before me, that I was only alone because they were already gone." He sighed. "I'm rambling."

"You're entitled."

He offered the ghost of a smile, though he really didn't feel at all like smiling. "I bet you're sorry that you came to check on me," he said, looking over at her, and Eve shook her head slightly.

"Not really."

"I bet there's a line of people outside that door waiting to kick me while I'm down."

"Well, if there is, I just won't let them in," Eve replied, then shifted closer to him, her eyes on his. "You're entitled to some wallowing. I'm not going to get on you for that. Your tag team partner - your friend - turned against you tonight, and Dean Ambrose? He's nowhere to be seen. Your friends deserted you. It's worth some wallowing. But after the wallowing, you have to start thinking about something."

"What's that?"

"What you're going to do to fight back."

Notes: I adore the Shield and hate the idea of them breaking up, but this idea popped into my head about what would happen if/when they did break up and who would be most likely to turn face and, I kind of feel that Seth is the most likely face turn. After Seth was the one pinned at Battleground, I got to thinking about whether Triple H would punish the Shield for losing and if they would stick together through that and then this story happened. So yeah.