Chapter 5

That night was a live show, but everyone's concern wasn't the show, it was the weather. Blizzards were imminent across their slice of America, and it was heading to their next stop. They were all due in Hartford for RAW the following Monday, but the weather forecast was NOT looking good. Hunter was spending every five minutes glued to a weather app on his phone to try keep on top of the situation. At the start of the show, he hadn't decided on a course of action. Uneasy the stars waited for their COO to make a call. They trusted him, and Hunter didn't want to let his friends and employees down.

When Rebel finished her match against Paige that night, Dean ringside cheering her on with gusto, Hunter collared her the moment they got backstage.

"Rebel, Dean, my office now," he said. Both furrowed their brows, wondering what was going on. Rebel could feel her stomach plummet as they got closer to his office. Hunter said nothing till they were in his office for the night and shut the door.

"What have I done now?" blurted Rebel. Hunter frowned at her question. "Sorry…default response…don't ask." She said, dismissing her question.

"Ok. Situation is this. Weather is looking pretty shit, as I'm sure you are aware. There's talk of travel bans etc if it gets much worse. I need to make sure the main players in the current storylines get to Hartford for RAW next week. That means you two. You need to head up there first thing, and get a hotel till Monday. Company will cover costs."

"Well, we got a ride with Roman and Seth to the hotel and the arena today, want me to get them in too?" Rebel asked. Hunter nodded.

"Good idea. Let them know ASAP. Seth's in catering, spread the word to as many as you can. Tell them to travel up, share rooms if they have to. We need to make sure they are safely in Hartford before Monday hits." Hunter agreed.

"I'll go find Roman." Rebel said, and went off to the door.

"And Dean," he added, in a voice only just audible. "Don't let Randy Orton know where you are staying. Get twin rooms or a four sleeper if you have to."

"In other words, don't leave Rebel alone. Got it." Dean replied with a smile and nod, and hurried off to catch up to her. Hunter felt a little bad about not telling Randy up front. But then, he thought to himself, if he knew, he'd make Rebel's life hell. He would just catch him on the way to the hotel and advise of the plan then.

As Rebel walked towards the locker rooms to change, she found her way blocked by none other than Brock Lesnar. He had been right, when he'd spoken to her the day after the Rumble. She despised him for taking The Undertakers streak away. The Undertaker was someone she looked up to over everyone, even Triple H, and well H knew it.

"Excuse me," she said, trying to remain civil and polite as possible. Brock didn't move, and with a small amount of concern, she noticed Paul Heyman wasn't around.

"You look a bit sore, Rebel." He said, looking down. "That black eye won't go any time soon."

"I have a black eye? Didn't notice." She replied, with a heavy amount of sarcasm. Brock laughed a little, and looked around. No one was nearby, making Rebel feel exposed.

"Rumour is that Randy choked you out last night. If you want to stop him doing it again, and stand your ground, meet me in the ring tonight, after the show." He said.

"What, so you can break my arm, like you did to H, to Shawn…so you can end me like you did to Taker's streak?" she asked, guarded.

"No. So I can show you how to break an arm. You have guts, Rebel, and I'm not denying you probably hate me for what I did. But if you want to face me at Mania, I'm not gonna deny you the challenge, if I still hold the belt after Fast Lane. But what I do want, is for you to survive till then. And if it means teaching you every trick I know, so be it."

"How do I know you aren't trying to do me in?" she asked.

"Because I'm letting you bring The Shield and The Uso's with you. I'm strong, but I'm only one man. One against five is not going to last, even if that one is The Beast Incarnate." He held out a hand to Rebel, who shook it.

"I'll be there." She replied. "And because I'm trusting you, I'll be there alone. But you will have to give me a ride back to the hotel," she added with a smirk. "Roman's not gonna wait for me."

"Done deal. See you then." He agreed as he let her pass.

"Oh and Brock," she said, turning back to him as she did so, "Get to Hartford asap tomorrow. Weathers not looking good, and he wants us all holed up in hotels before the worst breaks." He nodded to show his acceptance, and the two parted ways.

It took everything she had to convince Roman, Dean and Seth that she would be ok, and catch a lift back to the hotel with someone after the show. She went back quickly to the ring, passing the odd star or two making their way hurriedly to the car park, concerned about the weather.

What she didn't see was Dean following her in the shadows, watching as she got to the arena, and hiding in one of the V.I.P boxes to see what was happening. He noticed, alarmed, that Brock was in the ring.

"You came alone then." He remarked as she dropped her bag to the side of the ring.

"I kept my word. You gonna keep yours?" She replied getting in to the ring. Brock wasn't without a laugh as she got in the ring, but kept her distance, staying near the walkway edge, leaning on the ropes.

"To Paul's disgust, yes. He's a sensible man, I can see why he won't want me to give away all my secrets. I get that. But this is about more than me. You want to survive to get to Wrestlemania, you are going to need help. Hunter can teach you how to fight smart. I can teach you how to fight dirty. And I mean real dirty. That claw punch you do, that's nasty. But I know how you can be nastier." Brock said with a smile.

"I like where this is headed, please, continue." She replied, gesturing to do so.

"Firstly, you get angry real quick. It's one of the things I've noticed about you. But the energy you get from being so angry, you're wasting it. You need to harness it, to use it at the right time." He said. "I'm going to show you how to harness it first, then I'm going to show you your first move. The Kimura lock." Brock explained. Rebel smiled and nodded. The pair set to work, Brock imparting every bit of wisdom he could over the next two hours. Up in the VIP box, Dean watched on alarmed. Brock Lesnar was not a man to be messed with, he wasn't a guy to be trifled with. Yet, here he was...helping Rebel to get to Mania, to hopefully face himself. Ducking down behind the divide, he dug in his pocket and rang Roman to come get him from the arena.

"Roman...you need to get H to pit you against Lesnar at Fast Lane," he said, leaning to look back around the divide to see Rebel deliver a missile drop kick to Lesnar. "And you need to win."

Rebel was awoken the next morning by her alarm. Except her alarm was then turned in to a hammering on the door, and Seth yelling her name. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she went to the door and opened it to see Seth with his bag etc outside.

"Nice pyjamas," he said, looking her Dean Ambrose t-shirt and shorts combo up and down.

"Don't say a bloody word to him. Not one," She growled.

"I won't. But you gotta dress, we gotta leave in the next 20 minutes, the weathers about to break, and there's going to be travel bans. So unless you fancy missing RAW, and incurring Hunter's wrath, I'd change in to something you don't mind Dean seeing."

Rebel opened her mouth to answer back, but the sound of Dean calling to Seth down the hallway made her slam the door in Seth's face, and rush around pulling on fresh clothes. She could hear them talking outside the door as she tried to put on some jeans while hopping over to where her other shoe was, and promptly fell over with a small shriek and a loud thud as she hit the ground. The talking stopped, and Dean called through the door.

"You ok in there, Bel?" The door handle moved slightly and the door began to inch open. "We ok to come in?" He asked.

"NO!" she yelled, throwing the shoe she was trying to reach at the door, realising she was still in his t-shirt. "I'm...not decent!" After a few more minutes scrambling to get ready, she opened the door to the guys, before turning back to shoving her things in her bag. She pulled on her leather jacket, and scooped her hair from her face, before announcing she was ready. Picking up her bag, she picked up the keys from the side, and got ready to leave.

"You dropped something," Dean said, bending down and picking up the black material from the floor by the bed. "Funny...I don't remember lending you a t-shirt of mine..."

"Oh...um...well...you see it's...um..." Rebel fumbled.

"I leant it to her, I meant to give it back to you...she spilt a drink on hers the other day," Seth interrupted.

"YES!" She said relieved, and a little too loudly. "Yes, that's totally, exactly what happened...and I should really get it washed for you..." She reached for the t-shirt, eager to get it back.

"Ah don't worry about it," Dean said, shoving the t-shirt in to his bag, as Rebel watched on helplessly. "I'll get it washed at the hotel. We should get going."

"Yes, yes we should. C'mon Rebel, Roman promised you'd get to have first pick of the music today," Seth said as Dean walked off ahead, calling to Roman.

"I fucking hate you," she grumbled.

"I know..."

"Now what am I supposed to wear to bed?" Rebel asked.

"You still have the Shield one don't you?" Seth replied.

"No, that's my gym top."

"I'll get you another one." Seth said with a grin as they reached the others. "Ready to go?"

Roman was true to his word and let Rebel pick the music, and after a pit stop to grab food to go for Rebel, and a cup of strong coffee, they were off to Hartford. It was going to be hard pressed to get there before the weather worsened. They chatted, avoiding the obvious questions about Randy Orton's attack. It was interrupted as Rebel's phone went off, and she frowned at the text message.

"It's Hunter...there's going to be a state wide travel ban at 9pm...shit!" she exclaimed, as Roman hit the brakes. Her phone flew from her hand, and slid under her seat. "My phone!"

"What happened?" Dean asked, as he massaged his shoulder.

"Some dumbass cut us up...who in their right mind does that in this weather?" Roman shook his head angrily, before looking quickly on the floor to see if the phone had slid under the driver's seat. "Can you reach it?"

"No, not unless I unbuckle. Are we safe to pull over?" Rebel asked, as she tried to scoop it out with her feet and kicked it further back. Roman shook his head and pulled to the side of the road, using the chance to ingest some more caffeine. Rebel unbuckled herself and knelt on the seat, looking over to see her phone on the floor between hers and the minivan's back seats.

"Damn it," she cursed, before reaching over and attempting to get her phone. Seth and Roman were in hysterics as Rebel's legs wiggled in the air, Rebel oblivious as she tried to reach her phone on the floor. Suddenly she lost her careful balance on the back of the seat, her legs kicked out and with a shriek she hit the floor on the back of the minivan. Unfortunately for Dean, he also got a shoe in his face, as her left foot kicked out and got him in the eye, causing Roman and Dean to laugh harder.

"Hey, watch it!" he growled, knocking her foot away and holding a hand to his eye.

"Gotcha!" she exclaimed in triumph. And then it hit her. "Um…guys…GUYS!" she yelled over the laughter of the pair in the front. "When you are quite done laughing at my ass….I'M STUCK!"

"Stuck like 'Give me a minute I'll get outta this' or stuck like 'We're going nowhere unless you pull me out' stuck?" asked Roman, managing to somewhat contain himself.

"The second one," she yelled. Cue more laughter, what sounded like muffled whispering, and the sound of a door opening. Rebel thought it was someone going to help her back in to her seat, but she was sadly mistaken. With no warning, something cold was shoved up her t-shirt, ensuring a string of curse words that had even Dean impressed.

"Gerrof you bastard you've got cold hands!" she yelled as someone hauled her back over the seats, and she turned to see Dean's door suspiciously open.

"It was Seth's idea!" he yelped as Rebel began to hammer him with her fists, Roman and Seth letting them go at it for a full minute before Roman decided they needed to be on their way again.

When they got to the hotel, and checked in, they were met by some of the other stars on their way to their rooms.

"Bad news guys," Sheamus said shaking his head. "RAW's been cancelled."

"But...RAW's never cancelled," Rebel said, surprised.

"Aye, I know. I should think Hunter will be calling yer, if he wants yer at the headquarters. May be some kinda programme from there for Monday." He said, before turning to go in to the room he was stood in front of. Rebel shrugged, and turned to go on to the room she was headed to.

When she got there and opened the door, she stepped in to find it was divided in to two separate rooms, with a middle area that held a large sofa and a TV, with tea and coffee making facilities. Through the open door way of each room, she could see beds, two per room. Roman and Seth went in to one room, while Dean headed to the other.

"I guess we're roommates!" he said with a smile.

"Guess so." She replied, going and sitting down on the bed next to his. Barely had her backside touched the bed, when her phone rang. "It's Hunter. I guess we'll be needed after all."

That Monday, Rebel was interviewed by Michael Cole about how she felt about going up against Brock Lesnar for the belt, but was interrupted half way through the interview by Paul Heyman and Lesnar himself.

"I'll take it from here, Michael." Paul said, seating himself opposite her. Rebel raised an eyebrow, before gesturing for him to continue. "Miss Wild, I hope you don't mind our intrusion."

"I don't believe I have any choice." She replied evenly. He gave her a thin smile and continued.

"Now, while I applaud what you did, because lets face it, a woman winning the Royal Rumble...the first time they even entered the Rumble...it's impressive. The first woman to ever win a Royal Rumble...and you managed to beat all three of the previous female entrant's elimination totals, racking up four eliminations...that's an impressive record to beat."

"Get to the point, Paulrus." Rebel said, flexing her hand like claws.

"My point is this. Are you even aware of what you are up against? My Client, Brock Lesnar, is bigger than you, stronger than you, taller than you...he could knock you out right now if he wanted to." He said with a gleeful look in his eye.

"I'm starting to think that YOU want him to, Paul," Rebel replied, getting to her feet. Brock and Paul did so as well.

"And if I did, well...that wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me would it?" Paul said.

"I wasn't aware you knew what being a gentleman was. Now let's get something straight here, Heyman. I'm going to Wrestlemania. I'm going to face Lesnar there, if I so choose. You forget I've not actually picked who I want to face yet. But you're giving me more and more reason to pick Lesnar every single day. But first, pummelling you in to the dirt sounds like fun." She said as Brock stepped in front of her.

"I'd suggest that doing so would be a bad idea." He said evenly.

"Really? You would, would you?" Rebel replied with a raised eyebrow.

"I would. You've got alot of guts, Wild. I'm not gonna deny that. But it would be in both our interests for you NOT to pick me for Wrestlemania. I'd hate to break such a pretty face."

"I guess it's too late for you, the damage has already been done to yours." Rebel retorted.

"See? Guts. Do me a favour. Don't waste them."

"Don't worry. I'm not going to." Rebel replied as the scene ended and the cameras cut to another scene elsewhere in the building. Chatting broke out, Rebel relaxed and chatter turned to who she really did want to pick as her opponent. Rebel admitted that at the moment, she really, really didn't know. A few names were thrown around, Rebel saying maybe to one or two. Paul Heyman asked if she was genuinely thinking of taking on Brock, to which Rebel tactfully suggested it would be what was expected of her if he won at fast lane. There was an immediate change in the atmosphere, however as Randy Orton came in at the tail end of her comment.

"I'd advise you, however, not to lay a finger on her," He said in a level voice, and inwardly Rebel groaned.

"Since when did you become a knight in shining armour, Snake?" Rebel retorted as the people in the room collectively took a step back. The tension between them was unbelievable. No one saw Brock silently put down his belt, and Paul Heyman move his chair out of the way. Both were anticipating some kind of fight.

"Since I apparently need to remind you that spot is mine, not yours, Little girl," He bit back.

"I think you will find that spot is mine, Orton. End of." She said and went to walk away. However, a hand grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back and forcing her against the wall by the throat. Randy looked furious, and Rebel could see the hatred in his eyes as she gasped for breath. People yelled at him, he didn't seem to care as she clawed at his hands, holding her to the wall as if he wanted to squeeze the life out of her, yet he wasn't actually squeezing. He was holding her to the wall by her throat, he knew exactly what he was doing. Her position was short lived, as Brock decided that that was un called for, and yanked Randy free. She gasped for breath as Randy was forced back by Brock and Paul. Blind rage overtook her, there was barely a pause before Rebel was launching herself at Randy as he threatened Lesnar. Randy was blindsided, knocked to the floor, as more yells came from everyone else. The pair scuffled on the floor, before Rebel man handled him in to a kimura lock. There was a pause of a few moments before Heyman and Lesnar made her let go, pulling her to her feet, red handprints still around her neck.

"Now is not the time, Rebel," Heyman said, trying to stop her straining against Lesnar's grasp. "You'll get your turn, you know you will...now is not the time!"

"I swear I'm going to END your CAREER!" she yelled, straining at the grip Lesnar had on her to get at Randy as he rapidly retreated out of the room. Everyone told her to calm down, to listen to Paul, that he was right for once, and once Triple H heard about this he was going to be furious. Rebel just glared at the doors, no longer fighting Lesnar's arms holding her back.

Rebel sat, cross legged on her hotel bed. The boys would have been told she had been taken back to the hotel by now. She just sat there, staring at her feet. Not really with it. Randy had tried to pretty much kill her that night. And he'd get away with it too. It was on camera. It was going to look like it was staged. She put a hand to her throat, it still hurt. What on earth did Randy have against her that he wanted her out of the picture that badly? As she sat there wondering just how long this could go on for, the guys came back. Not really wanting to speak to anyone, she just slipped under the covers, pretending to be asleep. Their low voices didn't carry very well in to the room she was in. There was a creak as the door opened, she saw the light spill in, and heard Dean say she was in there, before the door closed again. She figured she might as well try and sleep.

However, it was a long time after Dean came to bed before she could even feel tired. Too much had happened, there was too much running through her mind about her situation preventing her from getting the blissful ignorance of sleep she so desperately wanted. Long after Dean came to bed she lay there, wondering what she was going to do what was going to happen. Once she was sure he was asleep, she sat up in bed.

"What did I do to deserve all this shit?" she asked herself.

"Well, you did win the Royal Rumble," came Dean's voice, wide awake.

"Can't sleep either huh?" She asked.

"No. How's your throat?"

"How did you..."

"Word travels quick among the roster, Rebel, you know that." Dean said, before yawning.

"All I wanted was a chance to prove myself. I didn't want any of this." She said, getting out of bed to go look out the window. Snow lay everywhere, reflecting the light of the moon back at the buildings around.

"Sometimes, to get what we want, we have to go through things we'd rather not." Said Dean, coming to stand next to her. Rebel felt a comforting arm about her shoulders.

"I'm gonna have to go through Lesnar aren't I?" she said, shaking her head.

"You might not. Roman might win at Fast Lane." He replied.

"But I can't fight Roman either."

"Why not? You think you might not win?" Dean asked.

"No. Roman's my friend. I could never go against him. Not for this. I know how much he wants the win." Rebel replied. There was silence for a while between the pair, before Rebel spoke again.

"Dean..."

"Yeah?"

"You mad at me?" she asked. There was a small laugh from the man as he walked back to his bed.

"No Rebel. I told you, Rusev is who I'm mad at. I know you're minds all messed up right now, and I don't blame you. But try and sleep. We'll talk in the morning." Dean replied.

"Alright. Night Dean." Rebel replied, as she went back to her bed and lay down. What was it going to take for Randy to leave her alone? And what else, what special something would it take to beat Lesnar at Wrestlemania? And more to the point, did she, Rebel Wild, even have it?