Quick shout-out to all of you who have read, reviewed, favorited, followed this story. It means the world. I decided to continue with it a bit because of the support so here's part two, this time telling the story through Seth's eyes. Oh and a heads up, hope you like angsty angst with an angst cherry on top because this one, well, if it doesn't hit you in the feels the way it did when I wrote it… Well, just read and you'll see what I mean. Enjoy!

(August 18, 2014)

"I am so sick and tired of Ambrose constantly standing in my way," Seth complained in a huff as Triple H, Stephanie, Kane and Randy all were forced to listen. It would have been one thing if it was the first time but it wasn't and it was clear that the other members of the Authority were getting tired of Seth's whining on the subject.

"I try to cash in the briefcase, that is when he hasn't stolen it, and he's there. He's a cockroach that just won't die no matter how hard I try. Can't you do something about that? Hunter? Steph? Can't you get rid of him?" Seth almost begged until the perfect idea hit him. "Fire him, yeah, that would work."

Triple H looked at his wife and the two couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" Seth frowned.

"Seth, we're not just going to fire Dean Ambrose because he's causing problems for you," Stephanie explained. "You claim to be the Man right? Well, prove it. If you're having a problem with Dean, take care of it the way we've taught you, the best way you know how."

"You know what H would have done, what he has done, what I have done, in these kinds of situations?" Randy teased. "We took out the trash permanently. Seth, Dean's making you look like a joke, more so than you already are. You're really just going to take that lying down? How about you try to prove something to yourself, to him, to the Authority, that you're every bit the tactical mastermind you claim to be."

Seth tensed and he and Randy once again, got into a stare down, only to be broken up by Stephanie, who pushed Randy back much to the Viper's displeasure.

"Randy does have a point," she said to Seth, causing the older man to grin ear to ear. "Now, we believe in you. We wouldn't have chosen you, hand-picked you if we didn't. But you need to believe in yourself. You need to show that you can handle Ambrose once and for all. And we can help you Seth, but we can't do it for you."

Seth nodded slightly. He knew Stephanie was right. He had to do this, he had to prove this, on his own.

"Randy, Stephanie, can I have a moment alone with Seth and Kane?" Triple H asked without really asking, finally inserting himself in the conversation.

Both Stephanie and Randy left without hesitation.

"Now Seth," Hunter said as he put his arm around his protégé. "You want to take care of Ambrose, you want to show him that if he messes with you again it's going to be a problem for him?"

"Yes," Seth said, not even needing to think about it.

"Then you go out there tonight and you beat the living hell out of him in the match," Hunter said. "It's falls count anywhere, the fans voted, so you'll have Kane out there and a little something special by the announce table. When the time is right, it will be revealed and you're a smart guy Seth. You'll know exactly, exactly what to do with it."

Seth seemed a bit nervous. He never really liked surprises. But he trusted Triple H and he knew that the man got results. So he wasn't going to question whatever was out there for him. He was just going to use it and hope that once and for all, it would end the persistent Dean Ambrose problem.

"Show them," Hunter continued. "Randy thinks you're weak, Steph thinks you're dependent, Dean thinks you're a sell-out. The whole world thinks you can't stand on your own two feet. Show them Seth, show me, show yourself, show them all that you are none of those things. Show them that when there's a job that needs to be done, you don't back down and when there's someone standing in the way of what you want that you'll do anything it takes, anything necessary to eliminate them from the equation. Can you do that Seth?"

(Present Day)

It had been close to 10 minutes and Seth still hadn't moved. He'd barely even taken a breath, that memory just playing back in his head. He didn't know Kane was going to be revealing cinderblocks. It was one thing to curb stomp Dean through the announce table, which he had done but again through cinderblocks?

That was Triple H's solution, the one he had blindly agreed to?

Seth felt a lump in his throat the second he saw the blocks and it only got bigger as Kane grabbed Dean's hair and positioned his head mere inches above the gravelly, white means of his former brother's destruction. He looked at Seth and Seth could barely breathe. Hunter had been right. When the time came and the "something special" left by the boss was exposed, he did know exactly what the Authority wanted him to do with it. It didn't take a rocket scientist really.

But what they wanted to do and what he wanted to do quickly became two distinct things altogether. Cinderblocks? Did they not realize that what they were suggesting he do could have ended Dean's career, could have ended his life?

Maybe they did and they just didn't care. Maybe they expected him not to care either. After all, Seth was the one who came to them for help with his problem. He was the one who said he was willing to do anything to get rid of Dean once and for all. Of course, he never meant literally as in erase him from this planet, but his words were still strong and carried conviction.

He tried to rationalize what he was doing, tried to talk himself both in and out of what was expected of him. On one hand, if he didn't go through with it, the Authority would know that he was just as weak and spineless as certain members had been classifying him as. But if he did go through with it, Dean might never be the same again. He'd no longer be a problem for Seth anymore, but there was a chance he'd no longer be himself anymore either. And as much as Seth hated the man and wanted to wring his neck most of the time, that prospect scared him.

Because the truth of the matter was that betraying his brothers really wasn't meant to be anything personal. Sure, using the steel chair probably didn't convey that point in the best way, but this was strictly about his career, his advancement, his opportunity. And after months of wondering when not if, Roman and Dean were finally going to turn on each other, he couldn't risk missing the chance to get out and get on top.

He never hated his brothers. He even kind of hoped they could still be friends in spite of his decision. Of course, knowing Dean, that was never going to be the case, but Seth hadn't anticipated just how far the lengths the man would go to destroy him and destroy everything he worked for. Everything he well, schemed for was probably the better way of looking at it. But back then, Seth didn't see anything he did as being wrong. That was until the curb stomp on August 18, 2014.

He could still hear Michael Cole's voice: "Oh my God, what the, stop him, somebody stop him. Somebody stop Kane, somebody get him off there, somebody get him down. NO, no, no, no, no, no!"

Seth's head just shot up in the middle of the empty room and his heart started pounding in his chest. The picture was playing out perfectly, too perfectly. He could hear every sound, remember every detail, sense every feeling.

That impact, God, that impact. The sound of Dean's head crashing through the blocks, breaking them, or as far as Seth knew at that moment, the blocks breaking him, made his stomach sick. His legs were weak from the match and he collapsed to the floor, seeing Dean in an unmoving heap.

Seth slowly began to crawl away but he kept his eyes fixed on Dean.

In that moment he wanted nothing more than to push everyone else away and place his head next to his former brother's. He wanted to apologize to Dean on the spot, to brush his hair out of his face, to beg of him to move even an inch. He was frozen in time though and all he could do was stare at the sight in front of him, the sight he was entirely responsible for.

He finally made his way to his feet, using what was left of the announce table for balance. He continued to look at Dean, no one else. His eyes were fixed on the man who dammit, still hadn't moved and Seth's own eyes showed just how scared and remorseful he was.

For just a second, his trained eyes looked away. They found Kane, who just smiled at him as if to non-verbally express his satisfaction and how proud he was at him for going through with it. But Seth didn't feel pride, he didn't feel satisfied. He felt like he was going to throw up.

As he made his way closer to Dean, Charles Robinson immediately stood in his way, blasting both he and Kane, telling them, "you went too far, you both went too far."

No truer words had been spoken.

Seth didn't really blame the ref either for not letting him get any closer to Dean. As far as the refs and the medical personnel knew, Seth wasn't done and that he was going to make sure the job was finished before leaving. But that wasn't his intent, it could have never been his intent. But one thing was certain, he wouldn't leave until he knew Dean was okay, or at least relatively speaking.

So to get a better view, Seth hopped up on the table. He almost punched Kane in the face when the man had the audacity to raise his hand in the air as if he had won some big prize, as if he had won the match. The man simply didn't care, as the rest of the Authority didn't, what happened to Dean. They cared about their own interests and Seth just wished that he had figured that out sooner, that it hadn't taken his own career-threatening injury for him to realize how self-serving Hunter and co really were.

But at the time, he didn't have the courage and he didn't have the belief in himself to break away, so he maintained face as to not cause them any suspicion. He let Kane raise his hand and place the championship back on his shoulder. He didn't feel like a champion though, not even close.

Seth took one last look at Dean and laughed. It wasn't self-preservation, it wasn't some sick and twisted sense of pleasure. It was simply a nervous reaction, because he was terrified that he might have done something so unimaginable to Dean that the man might never be the same again. He already had an innumerable amount of regret but seeing Dean, still not moving, was enough to make him absolutely crumble.

And then there was the thought of what Roman would do to him when he found out. He would kill him, Seth was sure of it. He would make him feel every last ounce of pain Dean had felt and the sad part was, Seth wouldn't even blame him.

The moment was fleeting however and thoughts of himself and what Roman might do to him were once again quickly replaced by concern, genuine concern, for his fallen brother.

As Seth was lost in those fears, Kane raised his hand, again, much to his displeasure, and his music hit. He took one last look at Dean, watching as the paramedics loaded him onto the stretcher, stabilizing his neck to avoid further damage. They all looked at him in horror that any human being could do what he did. The fans booed his name.

But Kane, he smiled and nodded. That was too much for Seth. How he himself had managed to smile right before he did it was beyond himself, but seeing the damage, how anyone could delight in that, was pure evil. It was the Authority at its finest and now, he had become one of them. He had become a person he would never be able to look at the same way in a mirror ever again.

Seth tore to the back as fast as he could, ignoring the shocked looks of his co-workers in the process.

He knew everybody wanted to ask "Why Seth, why?" And he knew that there was no answer he could give them that would seem sincere and genuine. The truth was, he knew why he did it. He knew why he made the decision to go through with it. He just didn't know how. How he could have become that person? How he could have almost ended Dean's life with little to no regard? How he could stand there and not have the courage, not have the strength to walk away?

Stephanie had been right. He was dependent on the Authority and that meant being dependent on them accepting him entirely. And to that, he had to prove to them he was a monster. Prove to them he was a worthless, awful human being. Prove to them, to himself, to Dean, to everyone, that he deserved every harsh word said, every insult thrown his way, every pang of guilt he was sure to have for the rest of his life.

Dean had been his brother and while they stopped recognizing each other as such several months prior, family was forever and the fact that he was able to do what he did to his family, to someone who had been a true friend, nearly killed him.

But months went by, years even, and Seth hadn't breathed a word of any of that to Dean. Instead, he accepted who he had become. He got more and more ingrained with the Authority, even becoming the last surviving member as both Kane and Randy wore out their welcome. He was Triple H-lite, a reputation he didn't always love to have.

He never forgot though. The memories never stopped haunting him. He just pushed them back and pushed them back and pushed them back. And seeing Dean recover, seeing Dean come back stronger than ever and with more fight in him than Seth remembered, did admittedly make it easier for him. It wasn't that the guilt went away, just that it had subsided as Seth was able to live with the fact he hadn't killed Dean, hadn't even paralyzed him. As sick as it sounded, that was a comforting feeling, one that made the curb stomp incident seem less and less painful.

But there was a look in Dean's eyes that returned that night in the locker room, a look that reminded Seth so much of the one he saw that day. If only for a second, before Seth had to force himself to turn away, their eyes met. No words were said, but Seth could read the sadness, the shock, the absolute anguish. Dean's eyes were looking at him in a way he never, ever wanted to see again. They stung with hurt at what he was about to do, they pleaded with him not to do it. But he did and he had never been able to look into those eyes the same way again.

Seth's own eyes, which like his very soul held nothing but self-loathing, were trained on his phone at this point, the video of the disgusting eulogy he gave playing quietly. As if the curb stomp wasn't enough, he had to go and do that. He had to go and delight in the fact that he took Dean out of commission, possibly permanently.

Reflecting on all of that, Seth wondered, had he ever really felt that guilty? Because a person who had felt that guilty, that heartwrenchingly sick and disgusted with themselves, never would have done it in the first place. They sure as hell never would have eulogized the man's career and mocked the incident every chance they had. They wouldn't have used it to their advantage.

Seth hated himself, he absolutely hated himself. He hated what he did and more so he hated who he did it too. He may not have fully understood that then but he sure as hell did now. Without the Authority, without their influence, Seth had done what Triple H wanted him to do all along. He had come to stand on his own two feet. And that meant realizing he had already been doing that all along with the Shield, just in a different way.

He wished every minute of every day that he could go back, but it was too late. Battle lines had been drawn. Triple H had now convinced Roman to turn on Dean as well, and Seth, well, he had done the unthinkable, the unforgiveable, and the unimaginable with those damn cinderblocks.

Consumed in his regrets, Seth heard the door begin to creak open. He did his best to compose himself but there was no real way of that happening. He knew whoever was about to walk in that door would have instantly seen it on his face.

Fortunately for him, it was someone who honestly couldn't have cared less.

"Forgot one of my bags," Dean said as he walked past Seth, not even bothering to look at him. Seth too, didn't utter a word.

"See you next week," Dean added. He had his hand grasped on the knob when Seth finally spoke, his first words in close to half an hour.

"Dean, wait," he said, his voiced pained and heavy.

To his surprise, Dean turned back and looked at him. For the first time in a long time, the two pairs of eyes met. The gaze was steely but trapped behind it were the memories of that day and both of them knew it.

"We need to talk about, about the cinderblocks," Seth said.

Dean didn't say a word. He didn't know what to do. But his instinct took over. Taking a deep breath and convincing himself he was making the right decision, Dean shut the door and took a seat on the same bench Seth was sitting on. The two didn't make eye contact, both of them staring at the ground, at the walls, at anything but each other.

"Talk," Dean simply said.

And that was it. There was no going back.

Thanks to all of you who supported this little story. It started as a one-shot, became a two-shot because, I seem to not miss an opportunity to get into Seth's head, and well, I can't possibly leave you all here waiting with bated breath for the conversation of a lifetime, can I? … No, I can't. See you soon for part three!