Pride: Watch the Throne

Chapter II

Rocky always told me that if I ever ended up in the wrestling business like he did, that there were going to be guys that you either wrestled a lot and ended up becoming career rivals, or you would have the guys you wrestled with who would end up becoming your best friend and even brother. For him, that guy was Stone Cold Steve Austin. I'd love to fill you in on their history, but that's what you can go order the WWE Network for.

For me personally, those two guys were Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. The moment we forged a bond of friendship in NXT, we promised to take over this company and make a name for ourselves in a way that no one had done before. With that promise made, the brotherhood was formed and the Shield was born.

When we made it to the main roster finally, we ran roughshod over the competition. Whatever superteam was thrown at us, we ran right through them. We annihilated many big names, from John Cena to my cousin the Rock, even the Undertaker felt the Shield's wrath. We won championship gold, and at that point nobody could touch us.

Of course, the Authority had to eventually intervene in the Shield's business just to get a feel for what we were doing. They even offered us a deal to work with them; Dean and I were reluctant to do so, but Seth insisted that we at least try it out and see where things lead from there. We reluctantly agreed, however I didn't exactly feel that this was the way to go about serving justice.

After my one man showing in the Royal Rumble where I eliminated 13 people, jealousy started to creep in within our little band of rebels, with Seth walking out on us and leaving us high and dry to the Wyatt Family. It took a bit of violence and a lot of words, but we eventually got back together on the same page in time to destroy the Authority's Director of Operations Kane and Hunter's old tag team buddies the New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania 30.

We were coasting; we were unstoppable and nobody in their right minds could have been able to defeat us, but of course Hunter just had to try his hand at the task. After all, that big nosed goofball had to have his thumb on everything that moved, right? He reformed an old legendary stable of his own with Randy Orton and Batista to combat the Shield: Evolution.

The matches between the Shield and Evolution weren't just matches or battles, but wars. We waged war with the trio of veterans, defeating them at Extreme Rules 2014 and then ultimately winning the war just the very next month at Payback 2014. We had never been so scarred or battle weary in our careers thus far, but at least we had finally won the war and the Authority had ultimately lost, right?

Wrong.

In a move nobody saw coming, someone had shattered our brotherhood. And it wasn't even anyone in the Authority either. It wasn't the Wyatt Family. Hell, it wasn't even the IWC.

It was our littlest brother, Seth Rollins.

Our beloved little brother of the Shield had sold Dean and I out to the Authority. He was officially one of them. And it completely broke our hearts.

Fast forward a year later, and little brother has accomplished a feat Dean and I have yet to achieve: become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Seth was a brilliant strategist and all of his planning and plotting had ultimately led him to achieve his ultimate dream…our ultimate dream. After all, we did say that we would take over this company one day right? We made a promise to each other that it would happen, no matter what.

Maybe this was Seth's road to doing just that, by fate's guiding hand.

But I couldn't help but feel that during that Fatal 4-way match at Payback, when the three of us put Randy Orton through that announce table with the Triple Powerbomb, that the Shield was truly back. And truth be told, it felt hella good. Dean seemed to be enjoying himself too, but when Seth thrust his fist forward, as if it were old times, that hurt. That shit really hurt.

He looked at me and Dean as if his sins he had committed towards us were forgiven, but we couldn't give him that satisfaction. Maybe one day those sins will be forgiven in due time, but now is not that time, nor will it ever be for quite a while.

And yes, while Seth eventually did win that match and walked away the champion, I finally got to reconcile some petty differences with my one true bro: Dean Ambrose.

Underside Sea and Bar

"Consider yourself lucky that I decided to go ahead and buy us the beers, even though we both lost," Roman told his best friend Dean Ambrose, who leaned back in his chair with a whiskey-wide smirk on his face. "And why should I consider myself lucky? I'm the one who kicked the most ass in that match and you know it," he laughed, propping his feet up on the table as Roman brought the beers over from the counter.

"Two boilermakers for us," Roman said, "and don't get it twisted. I think your big ass head is still seeing stars from when I blasted you with my Superman Punch," he grinned, taking a few sips of his boilermaker. "Not that I blame you. Maybe I knocked some sense into you."

"Yeah right my brotha, you couldn't wipe the floor with my boots. I kicked your ass pretty bad, that's why I'm the one with a rematch at Elimination Chamber on Sunday," the Lunatic Fringe chuckled, stealing one of Roman's fries too.

"Yeah, and you nearly got your head smashed through cinderblocks yet again just to get it. You really need an exit strategy bro," Roman smugly smirked, throwing down on the many plates of cheesecake the duo had ordered.

Always hungry, they were, as Yoda would say.

"Hey, with you watching my back I'm pretty sure I can get myself out of a lot more situations than I would have alone. Thanks for posting my bail, by the way," Dean added, taking a few more shots of his boilermaker before stuffing his face with some crabcakes.

"No problem man, I've always got your back," Roman smiled.

"Yeah me too. I just wish you could trust me enough to have yours. You've been so distant since WrestleMania, and it's kind of hurts bro," Dean added. "You can trust me with anything Roman. I'm unstable, not untrustworthy."

Roman heavily sighed to himself. After everything he had been through lately, maybe it was time that he let somebody in other than his family on his situation. After all, carrying this much baggage was draining and unloading it onto somebody else for a change could probably help ease his mental state.

"Alright I'll tell you everything. So, after Seth stole my WrestleMania moment from me, I limped back to my locker room, only to find the bloody and dead body of Sasha laying in front of me. I thought the Authority had killed her just to put the nail in the coffin and get rid of me forever. They knew what her death would do to me."

Dean whistled aloud. "Damn bro, I'm sorry to hear that." Roman shook his head solemnly. "That's barely the start of it. Moments before my match, Sasha came to me with some crazy ass news…she said she was pregnant."

Dean immediately spit out some of the boilermaker he was drinking into the face of one of the waitresses. "Sorry darlin'," he apologized with a sly grin before turning his attention back to Roman. "Well shit, it wasn't a sham?" he inquired, and Roman nodded. "Yeah, JoJo even showed me the pictures of the test she took, but Sasha was taken from me, or so I thought."

Dean rubbed and scratched his chin, trying to put two and two together. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you and the rest of your Samoans attended a funeral for Sasha, but found out that the body of Sasha was a fake, and it was all just a setup for the Authority to destroy you all once and for all. Am I in the ballpark or what?"

Roman arched his eyebrows in slight surprise, but Dean laughed aloud. "What? I do great detective work. I've been in and out of a lot of police stations to know by now," he added, resting his hands behind his head. "So then, the million dollar question is, where's Cleopatra now? And Cleopatra Jr?" the unstable superstar added, acknowledging the infant Sasha was carrying.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I killed Big Show, but couldn't get any answers out of him so I cut his head off. That didn't seem to get me anywhere," Roman added, a dark chuckle escaping his lips, Dean noticed.

"Cutting heads off and you didn't invite me? Damn, you really do owe me one!" Dean exclaimed, while Roman put his hands up in self defense. "Alright alright, you're right. But seriously man, I need to find Sasha. Before the Authority does, if they don't already know," Roman added quietly.

Dean noticed the look of self pity and doubt on his best friend's face, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we're gonna find her Ro, alright? I kinda miss her big forehead, now that I think about it. Gonna make a call to a hacker buddy of mine down in NXT. Name's Solomon Crowe, maybe he can track a few leads for us to see where Cleopatra's been taken."

"Appreciate it man. Forever my bro," he said, as they stood up and they gave each other a tight hug. Perhaps he should have let Dean in from the very beginning after all.

But, better late than never.

Tampa Hard Knocks Gym

Jimmy Uso punched the sandbags with tremendous force each time, unleashing his bent up fury upon the defenseless sandbag. All of the drama and bullshit he had had to deal with lately had come to a head, and he was fed up with everything. The Authority had injured his brother to the point where he would end up missing at least six months of action. They had been lured into a trap and had been dismantled by the Authority. But all of that paled in comparison to what Naomi did to him.

The sting of betrayal stung deep.

The woman he married, the same woman who he called his best friend, cracked jokes with, the one he exchanged his most heartfelt vows with and fell in love with, that very same woman, had betrayed him and almost literally carved his heart out. At this point, he would have preferred that she just destroy him completely.

But that would be too easy.

For all of his frustrations, he was thankful that John Cena kept his gym open 24/7 for anybody who wanted to use it. The gym came in handy for moments like these when too much was going on in one's personal life.

But for the time being, he would have to unfortunately put his personal life aside in this matter, because it was all but an afterthought in the war that was about to commence between the Samoan Dynasty and the Authority's new Empire. People were going to get hurt, people were going to bleed, and there was going to be death and glory. Dwayne had positioned him in this position near NXT, where he could keep a close eye on Hunter and his daily proceedings he carried out for his 'baby' NXT.

Authority be damned though, his family was going to come out on top no matter the cost. But losing Naomi would hurt him more in this fight more than any other bullet could.

Jimmy's personal thoughts and feelings were pushed to the side though, when an unknown face entered the gym, heading straight for the treadmill, a young diva to be exact. The diva had taken off her shirt and jeans to reveal a dark blue training bra and some blue track shorts underneath, commencing her workout. She was quite the looker, but that wasn't exactly the shocking part.

The shocking part was actually her facial features. Was that…Sasha Banks?

"Nah, that can't be," Jimmy said to himself, shaking his head like he was in a trance. The girl kept running the treadmill, far surpassing speeds that Sasha could ever reach. Sasha couldn't be found, so who was this exactly?

"Yo lady, are you like Sasha Banks' stunt double or something? Because there's no way you're the real her!" Jimmy called out over the whirring of the treadmill machine. Catching her attention finally, the young woman finally turned off the treadmill and hopped off the machine, taking her earbuds out and smirking at the Samoan.

"You know, there's better ways to catch a lady's attention than insulting her," the woman smirked, as Jimmy watched the sweat glisten off of the abs on her stomach and trickle down the rest of her body. He was absolutely sure she wasn't Sasha, but he was absolutely sure that she was smoking hot.

"Eyes up here you sick freak," the woman said, lifting Jimmy's head back up to meet hers. "And I'm not a stunt double, I'm actually Sasha. As far as you know anyway," she winked, knocking back a few gulps of her favorite blue Gatorade flavor.

"What the hell is that even supposed to mean uce?" Jimmy asked, only to be met with laughter from the young Sasha look-a-like. "Man fuck this, I'm so done with this shit. I'm going home," Jimmy said, tossing his things into his training bag as the diva's laughs came to a stop.

"Aww come on, don't make a little fuss over nothing sweetie," she said with heavy emphasis on the last word. Jimmy growled, trying to shrug off her words. "No, for all I know you're some stupid ass tri—" the diva slapped Jimmy so hard he tripped and fell and over the weight bench. Elise couldn't help but giggle to herself at how goofy and clumsy Jimmy was being.

"You're a fucking goof, you know that? But I'd rather be here and watch you trip over yourself than listen to that Big Red Suited jackass try and tell me what to do," she explained, her brown eyes watching over the Uso twin with fondness as he collected himself. Was she talking about Kane?

"I think his name is Bane…no wait, Kane! Yeah it's the Big Red Q-tip Kane!" she laughed, as Jimmy chuckled as well. She suddenly didn't seem as bad as she once did before. "Yeah…but I think calling him a Q-Tip would be putting it mildly." Jimmy threw his bag onto his arm, ready to leave for the night but as he reached the door, the diva called out for him once more.

"By the way, I stay right down the street from you if you ever feel like coming by to see me jabroni," she teased, about to head back to her work out.

"We'll see about that 'Sasha'," Jimmy chuckled, smiling to himself as he opened the door.

"Don't call me Sasha, I hate that fucking name."

Jimmy raised an eyebrow as her eye stance softened.

"You can call me Elise."

And for more Elise, you can see her in the other stories as well. That's gonna wrap chapter 2 here, so stay tuned for chapter 3 coming soon! Roman and Dean resume the hunt, more Naomi, and other stuff coming as well. Don't forget to tune in to the other stories as well to stay up to date and keep connected with what's going on!

Also read:

Fire and Ice by RonTheRonin and EloquentAngel90 (Kevin Owens and Becky Lynch)

Temptation: Escape Me by EloquentAngel90 (Sasha Banks)

Fatal Attraction by MellyxBrooks (Dean Ambrose)

Welcome to the Future by PikaSixJoy (Seth Rollins and Paige)