Anyway the holidays are here! So happy holidays everyone and thanks for all the continued support. Anyway here's Chapter 4 :D

The rest of this story is going to be from Seth's POV. Enjoy!

Understanding

It had been a week since the first time I had officially met my new teammates, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. Although the three of us seemed to hit it off that first day I still had my doubts I kept to myself. We hadn't been doing any military drills yet, but I had spent a lot of time on the grounds and training facilities mostly honing my own body and mind for the days to come. There were still places I avoided like the research center, and places I wasn't allowed in like the shooting range. My mind was focused on how spent so long working by myself it never came to mind what would happen when it came to working with others. Sure, I got along with them, but this was only the first week, according to the Lieutenant Colonel the months almost year he spent training for special ops wasn't an easy task. According to him the biggest hill him and his squad had to get over was their own egos, to be the one in charge, to try and be the man that lead everyone to victory. Was Roman, Dean, and I ready for that? I had my own fears and my own ego to get over, I was raised on being told I was meant to be the best. With these thoughts swirling my head I gave a long sigh as I leaned my head back to stare up at the ceiling of my dorm.

In this last week, I had noticed the implantation had completely taken over my body. It was hard for me to look in a mirror at this point knowing that I was an Alliance attack dog now. I felt utterly disgusted that I let them do this to me, but I had no choice. I felt like I got off light compared to the other option. Was giving a former assassin the ability to completely go intangible a good idea? Roman thinks it is. I was still nervous for everything, we hadn't spoken much to one another since that first meeting mostly due to Roman being cooped up in his office, he was still needed a lot in the research facility, and I didn't really see Dean around and when I did he usually had a book in hand. I placed a hand on on my arm, causing me to shudder in disgust. I couldn't feel my fingertips on my arm, I felt disgusted as I shot my arm back from my hand. Fear shot through my body and I began to shiver slowly watching my body begin to disappear in the mirror. I backed away from the mirror and turned away from it, clenching my eyes tightly I didn't want to watch what was happening. My breathing started to speed up as it felt I was trying to grasp for air, it was felt like I was choking on nothing and was starting to feel nauseous.

I was terrified when suddenly my head snapped up and turned it's attention to the sound of knocking on my door. I looked down at my arms first and realized they were slowly turning intangible again. I had to get this invisibility under control or I was gonna driven mad from all of this. I let my breathing become steadier, as I wiped the sweat that collected on my brow. "If you hyperventilate like that, you risk both fainting or even a seizure." I heard through the door, curse Dean's incredible hearing. I rolled my eyes at his little speech, although it was annoying that he was practically an open encyclopedia of medical practices it was always nice to know that there was someone around who cared. That was hard to find here. I took his advice to heart as my breathing slowed down and stopped shaking, as I watched my arms return to normal once again. Fixing my hair a bit I finally, decided to open the door.

It was no surprise to see a grin planted on the face of the Atlean native, still was baffling to me as to why he was always smiling and grinning despite knowing that he was used as a lab rat. There was a lot of things I didn't understand about him or even Roman or even the idea of being able to work with others. But it seemed Dean was willing to entertain the idea, but knowing almost nothing about him there could have been a multitude of reasons. He was standing there in his leather jacket and white tank top complete with his dark blue jeans. I hadn't seen him wear much past that, and he probably wasn't here to talk about his choices in clothing. There was a pause between the two of us as he just stood there hands in his jacket pockets. This was the other hill to get over, who knew what he was thinking or why he came to my dorm. I watched him carefully as he took one hand and scratched the back of his head. It was pretty astonishing that someone who always looked to confident could look so nervous.

I crossed my arms over my chest just waiting for him to speak up as he stood here looking like a nervous child, but then it had hit me. He had never spoken to me one on one, in the last week Roman was always there to be like a moderator, this was something new for both of us. He tried to speak but it seemed like he couldn't get past all the "uhhs" and "umms". I raised an eyebrow at him still waiting for him to speak, this was a completely new side of Moxley, or Dean Ambrose. I raised my hand to cut him off as he tried to collect his words. "You're gonna have to get used to talking to me if we're gonna be working together, Mr. Ambrose," I spoke to him calmly.

I stared at him intently and patiently, as he collected this thoughts. I had my own doubts about him, but seeing his brows furrowed in thought meant he was trying, and I didn't blame him one bit the only thing we had in common was Roman. He sighed deeply, after he was done looking down at the ground, "Roman wants to meet us at the front gate," he started. "He didn't give me much details." I nodded in response, just carefully listening to what he had to say. He spent almost the entire time scratching the back of his head just trying to speak one sentence. My mind drifted to what Roman wanted from both of us that he'd need us at the front gate for. I guess we were about to find out.

After my encounter with Dean, I showered and got ready for whatever it was Roman had for us. Seeing Dean dressed in some casual clothing, I decided the same settling on a pair of jeans and a dark red t-shirt, I knew I'd regret the dark clothing later but it was all I really had, probably habits from my previous life. After throwing my hair up, I left my down quietly making my way out to the grounds. As I crossed the grounds my eyes fixated on the research facility. It was strange to me how things suddenly changed in one week, to be stricken with fear from an unknown and very dangerous experiment to suddenly being able to relax in comfort. Who knew how many more test subjects that were in there, and how many more different experiments was there still left to do. I'd hadn't met any other test subjects besides Dean and Roman and I still had to stomach the thought of being the first. I needed to void myself of that thought and quickly turned my back away from it to head towards the northernmost part of the base, the gate that faced Astros.

I finally made it to to the north gate, to see that Dean had been waiting leaning up against a black jeep and his jacket draped over the back seats. The door had the symbol of the Alliance military, which meant we might be in for some training was my guess. Dean had his head tilted down with one foot on rested on one of the back tires his leg bouncing in anticipation. I could see that he had to have been as clueless as I was about this whole excursion, one of the first things I learned about Roman right away was subtly wasn't his strongest point but I guess that's where I came in. I didn't dare speak up at least not yet anyway especially after how well our last conversation went, I was still overwhelmed myself.

The long minutes felt like hours as the two of us leaned on opposite sides of the jeep saying nothing to one another. How would we anyway? We both came from two different backgrounds joined together by one cause...Roman's resolve. Snapping me out of my thoughts was a very exasperated groan coming from the other man, and I understood why. I was starting to get a little annoyed myself waiting all this time in the late spring heat, I was starting to regret the dark clothing.

I looked over at Dean whose head suddenly snapped up looking in the direction of the research facility where I could barely make out the figure of a man approaching us. Dean looked over to me seeing that I was squinting to get a better look at who it was. "Not Roman," he said to save me from further straining myself. As the man came into view the first thing I noticed was his cleanly shaven head and a well trimmed neck beard. His uniform was neatly pressed, with a white dress shirt military's emblem pressed onto the short sleeves. Black slacks neatly hemmed, with beautiful gold trimming down the sides, and to complete it black shoes polished to perfection. I eyed the badge that was pinned to the right side of his chest, it took me a moment of observation to realize that this man was higher ranked than even Roman. I didn't know much about the military, but I knew enough to somewhat understand their ranks. If he was approaching us, I guess we were about to find out who he was.

He looked back and forth between the two of us, hazel eyes carefully examining the both of us. "Good afternoon, gentlemen." he greeted us with a deep almost no nonsense voice. He was much different from Roman in vocal tone alone. On the Lieutenant Colonel there was at least a sense of care behind that war like mannerisms, this guy felt to be all business it even showed straight down into his posture. His hands tucked behind his back, the way he made sure he was standing up right. Something felt completely off about this man. I looked over at Dean who looked like he was ready to listen to whatever this soldier had to say. "I am Brigadier General Desmond Lorken, I'm one of the overseers of this facility, and you two must be the successful subjects: Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose alongside Reigns," At least he knew who we were, but I guess if you're an overseer of this place you gotta know everything that goes on. I listened intently to what he had to say only looking back for a brief moment to see how Dean was reacting to all this, it was no surprise to see his annoyed posture hadn't changed. "As an overseer of this place, I thought I'd come out here personally and congratulate both of you on the success. You're both in good hands with the Lieutenant Colonel, I wish you all the luck in your training." There had to be more to this guy than just congratulating us on being lab rats. With that short speech he turned around and left back towards the office building on the other side of the facility, his hands still tucked behind his back.

Dean and I looked at one another shrugging in unison, not even understanding what just happened. I figured we'd just ask Roman about him later, but something told me we'd be seeing a lot more of him in the future. "It's about time!" I heard Dean shouting as he turned towards the office building once more. I turned to see whom he had his attentions on now, and to my delight it was Roman running towards us looking a bit out of breath. I was expecting to also be in uniform just like Lorken was wearing, but looks like he settled on something a little more casual wearing. My eyes widened seeing his arms, and the welts they were littered with. I guess I had never stopped to observe them fully since the first time I saw him because I was so tired but now that I wasn't exhausted I was able to see them clearly. I tried not to think about what kind of hell he had to endure seeing that many spots where they injected him. I looked to the side not trying to show my worry. I'm sure Roman didn't drag us out here to talk about his procedures.

The older man gave us both a sheepish smile scratching the back of his head nervously, he looked almost exactly like Dean when he came to my dorm this morning. I found it a bit entertaining how close they actually were in personality, made me feel like I was a bit of an odd man out. "Sorry I'm late, Cassandra had me sign off on a stack of paperwork for a few more successful subjects. I mentioned that you guys were waiting for me but she wouldn't let me go." I should have figured it something like that, he was still an overseer of this facility and probably had people in and out of his office all day.

I watched Dean hop up into the back seat of the jeep with almost no hesitation sprawling out his long body across the whole back seat hands behind his head. "Let's get going already!" Dean snapped his patience already ran thin. Roman sighed, and just got into the driver's seat of the jeep as I crawled into the passenger's side. "Where are we headed anyway?" asked the Atlean not realizing he actually had no idea what was going on. I had almost forgotten that Dean was just as much in the dark as I was.

"Just heading into the city. You're both recommended for rest and relaxation, and I don't think this is really the ideal place for that. I think some time into the city will do us some good." My head snapped to the side staring at Roman with an eyebrow raised. Did I just hear that correctly? This entire time I was worried about this could be something serious possibly dangerous, which would be understanding why he'd be so secretive. This Roman Reigns was certainly something, but at least his heart was in the right place. He seemed to be open about letting us in, but I wasn't sure if I was and I really couldn't speak for Dean either, especially since I knew the Atlean even less.

The short ride through the desert had been eerily quiet, with a tension hanging in the air. I looked down at my hands that were clasped together in my lap. I was just twiddling my thumbs not knowing what to say or even do, I wasn't used to having company. I cursed my own upbringing for that side of myself, since most of my life was dedicated to becoming a master assassin. It was awkward, and I felt like a child waiting for a lecture probably looked like one too with the way I was fidgeting. I looked back at Dean who was still spread out in the back seat of the jeep, hands still behind his head and head tilted down. It was hard to say what was on his mind with his sunglasses blocking his eyes, but he was probably lost in thought just as much as I was.

I looked up to see that we were approaching Astros faster than I had anticipated, I could feel my heart starting to beat a little faster as I suddenly grew nervous. It had slipped my mind before but now coming back here reminded me how exactly I ended up in the facility in the first place. As the memories started flooding into me one by one, I was starting to realize just how much everything had changed in the last month.

When I arrived to Astros originally, I had continued my work, small odd jobs here and there, no bloodshed though and I was thankful for that, but someone in the Alliance had picked up on me, and before I knew it, I had been lured and captured by the military. They had eyes and ears everywhere it turned out and they knew what I had done in Wyndmere. They knew everything, and that day I learned that the Alliance was more powerful than I had ever could have imagined. They were going to execute me, and that was gonna be the end of it. I had only one shining ray of hope left in this dark world, and that was Project: Taladen. The Alliance military and I had made an exchange: they wipe my record of any criminal activity including the assassination and I take part in the experiment. Remembering all this caused me to become light headed, my gut felt like it was twisting in all kinds of knots threatening to send back up the entirety of my breakfast.

"Seth?" I heard Dean question as he placed a hand on my shoulder, I also suddenly felt the wind through my hair die down as Roman began to pull over. I looked up from my hands my body shaking to no end, they were both looking at me with worry in their eyes. This was yet another feeling to get used to, the care of someone else. I couldn't shake the feeling of dread, but I couldn't deny that the hand on my shoulder was very comforting. I looked back down at my hands staring intently at them, I was almost expecting them to turn invisible by now, but they weren't. Why was that? Normally when I had panic attacks like this it's the first thing my body wanted to do. My mind shifted over to the comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Look we don't have to do this if you're uncomfortable, Seth." blurted out Roman, at least he was understanding. But I slowly shook my head as my nerves began to calm. Weather it happened now or later, it was eventually going to happen. Dean and Roman were my partners now and I had no choice to accept that.

The air around us was ungodly tense when finally I felt that hand on my shoulder pull back. I finally looked up from my hands to see that Dean went back to his relaxed position with his hands behind his head. "I am starving!" He exclaimed both trying to lift some of the tension and change the subject. Roman smiled leaning back into his seat turning on the jeep once again, I hadn't stopped to think about my own needs but some food did sound good. Now that he had mentioned it we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that morning, and it was starting to get late into the afternoon. Maybe some sustenance would help lift our spirits, after all Roman had brought us out here to relax. Once we were all settled in once more and relaxed, we started down the road again hitting the outer rims of the vast city.

No matter how many times I came or even the years I spent living in this city, it was still unbelievable that a city could become so grand, but I think that just reflected my upbringing. I had to get rid of these thoughts, the more I tried not to think of my home the more I thought about it. The vast differences was so astonishing that it was almost surreal at times. I sometimes couldn't understand how either man could handle it, I sometimes found myself getting dizzy at points because how tight all the skyscrapers were together. Dean maybe, he grew up in this environment, it was more or less an everyday thing for him but Roman on the other hands in the few times I talked to him he had only come to the big city to join the military but didn't spend a whole lot of time in it since he was in and out of training for special ops. It was so infuriating to me that I couldn't rid myself of these thoughts when I should be focused on getting to know my new partners. My whole body fell stiff as I felt the jeep slowing down once more the rush of wind dying down once more. I tried to relax...I needed to relax.

"So, are you eventually gonna fill us in on the details, Roman?" asked Dean as he broke the tense and awkward silence. It didn't occur to me that older man had yet to tell us where we were going other than in the city. With my thoughts all in a mess I hadn't even bothered with the details of this trip. As we all shut the doors on the jeep after stepping out Roman looked at the both of us shrugging his shoulders. Something told me he hadn't thought this out thoroughly enough. Was he just using us as an excuse to get away from the research facility? I heard from the other soldiers that on the battlefield the Lieutenant Colonel was a genius strategist which caught the attentions of the higher ups and in a short career he was already promoted to First Lieutenant, which from what I understood took most soldiers years upon years to reach, but in an everyday situation? He didn't seem to be an architect on that.

We left the jeep in a parking garage across the street from a shopping mall that was well guarded by security, after all the last thing we needed for someone to steal a military owned vehicle. We started down the street just simply following Roman who I'm sure was just going wherever his legs decided to take him. My eyes shifted to the Atlean who looked just as he did on the trip here, hands tucked behind his head not looking like he had a care in the world with his jacket just hanging off his shoulder. I looked back down at the ground in front of us, it took a lot of my willpower to not just up and run. It was too quiet still, no one would say anything.

We continued to wander aimlessly down the street when suddenly without warning I felt a hand on my wrist. I looked down to see the Atlean's arm outstretched to not only my wrist but the older man's as well. When we all halted in place I watched his brows furrow in concentration, he lifted his sunglasses to his head as he looked down the street with yet another grin planted on his face. "Hey Roman, ever stopped a moving vehicle? White van, headed this way...moving fast. Looks like a getaway vehicle." I first looked up to see that Dean was looking down the street, I saw nothing but that was his good eyesight at work again. I then shifted my gaze to see that once again the Lieutenant Colonel had that challenging grin on his face. I was afraid to think what was about to happen, but it seems the infectious charisma of Dean Ambrose struck again.

I watched with a horrified look on my face as I watched the older man walked into the middle of the street. Never in my life had I seen a man look so confident as the few cars swerved around him. I looked back at Dean who only had his arm crossed still smirking as if he was enjoying all this. All of this, bewildered me as I switched my sight back to Roman. "Any runners are yours, Seth." he said to me not turning his gray orbs away from the street. Slowly I watched him take a poised stance, legs spread apart and his body hunched slightly forward. I watched his muscles tighten as he brought a fist into the air above him. "Here it comes!" Dean shouted at him looking excited in anticipation. I wondered if this was going to work. Roman's experimentations made him strong, but his true strength hadn't been tested yet, and I certainly didn't think this was a proper way to do it. Yet, I felt myself unable to look away...could Roman actually pull this off?

It seemed almost instant, the speeding white van as Dean said came veering by to only to come to a complete halt. My eyes widened in awe as Roman brought his fist down with a loud battle cry onto the front of the van crushing it's engine and lifting the back end of it slightly off the ground from the sheer impact of the collision. My eyes wandered over to Dean whose jaw was also hung wide open. My brown eyes met with his blue ones as we both looked back at Roman who looked completely unphased. If this wasn't living proof of the success of Project: Taladen then I don't know what was. Even some of the pedestrians stopped to see the destruction of the white van. I watched when Dean tried to step into the street when I grabbed his arm trying to pull him back to me, "Shouldn't we leave the rest of this to the authorities?" As much as I'd rather not get in trouble and land myself back onto the execution list, there was already no going back, but that didn't stop me from trying to be reasonable.

"They're coming." responded the brunette, calmly. I didn't understand how he could remain calm through all this. Were we just inebriated off the energy around us? Maybe we were both still in shock from Roman's actions. Either way this was dangerous...very dangerous and yet more and more I felt like I was being pulled in by an invisible cord drawing me to the center of the chaos. I could feel something coming over me, all reasonable thoughts were beginning to make it's way from my mind. I was raised on this kind of danger, I lived for this kind of danger. This was why I continued my work after leaving Wyndmere. This rush, this momentum, everything was starting to blur together. I looked up at Dean who pulled me forward with a yank of his arm. "We'll leave them a present." I couldn't help it, even I found myself grinning now.

Dean and I approached the back of the van as Roman lifted his arm from the demolished engine. He shook his hand for a moment hissing in pain but to my surprise he was perfectly fine the only damage he sustained were a few bloody knuckles, which in of itself was another feat. Maybe the scientists knew exactly what they were doing. I watched the older man move from the engine and with one arm completely ripped the driver door off the van tossing it haphazardly behind him. The driver looked beyond terrified, his body language alone said that, and who wouldn't be. He smashed a van with very little effort! I returned my attentions to Dean who had a hand on one handle of the van and I grabbed the other together we threw open the doors.

Never had I seen such ferocity in someone. Dean immediately lept in tackling one of the masked men down to the floor of the van. The way he threw those wild punches and the sound of the impact each one made, it was hard to imagine this young man was a medic. The other masked man turned his sights on me, not wanting to suffer an end of Ambrose's beating he did the same and left for me tackling me to the ground. Rather than choosing to fight he chose to run, ducking into a nearby alley. After everything I felt compelled to run after him, feeling the rush again. "Go! Go!" I heard Dean shouting at me, with no more hesitation I chose to run after the one that got away while he and Roman dealt with the other two.

This was one definitely agile, I couldn't deny that. As I chased him down the alley he tried to shove anything into my way, trash cans, loose pieces of wood. This wasn't anything I wasn't used to already, with quick finesse and agility I was able to duck and weave through everything he threw in my way. At the end of the alley I saw a small chain link fence, I thought for sure this would be the end of the chase but I was quick to get my hopes up. He reached up and with little effort he lifted himself up and hoisted himself over the chain link fence, I wasn't about to give up. I looked up to see a loose wire from what looked like to be a broken clothesline but that was all I needed. Using one of those pieces of wood he threw in my way as a ramp, I quickened my pace reaching the top of a closed dumpster. All in one quick motion I lept off the dumpster to the clothesline and using my own forward momentum I swung quickly releasing to get myself over the fence. He was still in sight so there was a chance he was getting tired. He looked once back at me and reached up once more to a hanging ladder that lead up into a series of metal steps with a nearly rusted metal platform between each flight.

The chase led to the rooftops of the large buildings where he was easily able to leap over the a small gap in between the buildings. I needed to be able to cut him off, there was no doubt in my mind he probably knew this area better than me and knew where all the shortcuts were. With no real means of communication with Dean or Roman on me I couldn't risk getting lost in this vast city. I needed to bring this to an end now. I thought back to how I used to pray on my victims and then it hit me. I was taught the art of stealth, I made my life off of not being seen. I needed to disappear...I needed him to think I had given up the chase. I watched him leap to another building, I tried a different route, instead of leaping to the next roof I jumped down onto a nearby balcony and slowed down some to let him get ahead, I focused on trying to disappear. If there was ever a moment where I felt like disappearing now was a time. I focused everyone on trying to get control of that power, I shut my eyes for a moment and when I reopened them I looked down at my hands. I was invisible! I wasn't sure how long I could keep this but I wasn't going deny my blessings.

I sped up once again leaping to the next balcony, and reached up to lift myself onto the a window sill and back up to the rooftops. To my luck he had stopped to catch his breath which was the moment I needed. I wouldn't give him the time to recover, he couldn't see me, I lept forward to land a tightened fist to his jaw. It didn't occur to me that I had caught him off guard but he was still able to grab my shirt, I guess I wasn't completely invisible, that was another concern for Roman later. I needed to subdue this man, which wasn't all that hard. He tried to fight back but there was no way a common thief could stand against a trained specialist. With every punch he tried to land I easily blocked landing an elbow in his face breaking his nose and quick low kick to his shins sent him to one knee. I ended our little scuffle with a knee right into his temple knocking him unconscious instantly. I looked down at his body observing how still it was. No matter how long he was out, he'd feel the vicious blow I dealt to him today. I leaned down picking up the body and hauling it over my shoulder.

Carefully I made my way down more sets of stairs of the building being careful not to drop the man on the way down. It took me a moment to regain my bearings but I managed to retrace my steps back to the original scene of the van. I dropped the unconscious man in front of Dean and Roman who were just sitting in the back of the open van watching over the other two criminals whose ski masks had been removed and looked terrified beyond reasoning. One was bruised up no doubt due to Dean's excessive force. The two of them looked up at me with grins plastered on their face and I couldn't help but return one of my own.

I looked around seeing all the mixed emotions in the pedestrians. Most looked bewildered while others looked thrilled. "Ambrose, Rollins, good work." spoke up Roman, "Turns out these guys robbed the bank up ahead." he explained. I didn't even notice the stacks of money in the back of the van, the detail wasn't important at the time. Law enforcement was here, I felt there was no more reasons to stay here.

My mind was focused on the civilians that were surrounding us, and once more I could feel my mind at work again. I turned my attentions to the older man once more, "Roman." I spoke up catching his attention as I saw stormy colored eyes focused on me. "These people saw everything, they know who we are...we just exposed the experiment. What is gonna happen?"

"I honestly don't know Seth. We can only protect the people…" he paused standing up from brushing off some dust from his pants. "But we can't tell them how they should feel. Actions speak louder than words, and it's up to them to process what they just witnessed. Look around," he paused once more to point out the people, Dean looked around as well listening to what the older man had to say. "Some are scared, some are confused, but some…" he pointed to a specific woman in the crowd who looked absolutely thrilled.

"They're amazing!" she screamed.

"But some are grateful, and that's what might make this all worthwhile."

Dean and I looked at one another having some of our own thinking to do. I didn't feel like I did anything special, just a man who thought it was the right thing to do the time. I'm an ex-assassin, I killed my king and faced the heavy repercussions that followed. I'm only here because I was afraid to die, but that made me think where did that leave Dean? He came to escape the horrors of his past to rekindle his life. In this moment I felt everything catching up with me. I needed these two, to help me find what I need to do. I was still unsure, I had my doubts, but only about myself. But I too was grateful, to have them by my side to help me find that center.

Fatigue and nausea found it's way back into me. I felt myself getting light headed and my legs crumbling out from underneath me. I could have sworn I felt myself fainting from the distress of everything. The last thing I remember was being scooped up into Roman's arms and Dean mentioning that I we needed someplace cooler to rest.

I hope everyone has a happy holidays and a happy new year! I'll see you all soon :D