"I was an intern at Julie Rollins' lab and she saw a bright future in me." AJ explained nervously. "This is how I learned about the formula, but I was not part of any of that."
They were at Finn's house. Dean couldn't take it anymore. He went straight to AJ but Finn stopped him.
"This guy may be shit, but he... he's the only one who can help us save Roman."
Dean bit his knuckles trying to contain his anger.
"AJ, you work for Orton, he and the DX murdered Seth's parents to get that formula, and thanks to that Roman is a murderer! Don't pretend to be innocent now, your hands are stained with the blood of the people who raised me. And you are the cause of the misfortune of the man I love."
AJ nodded, accepting for the first time his responsibility for all these events.
"The D-X also killed my father." Dean closed his eyes in anger. "You are all going to pay dearly for all this, but first I'm going to save Roman."
"I can get him out of that trance, I just need time," AJ gulped and several tears welled up in his eyes. "But it's you, Ambrose, who can really save him."
Dean looked at him with hellfire in his blue eyes. "But no one is going to save you, I'm going to kill you myself."
"We must calm down." Finn chimed in. "We need to expose Orton and the D-X because that will also help clear Roman's name."
"But it's not going to clear his conscience." Dean said angrily still. "I know Roman, I don't know what he will be able to do when he remembers that he killed all those people and... Elias."
"Are you the one who has been sending the evidence, AJ?" Finn scratched his head.
AJ nodded. "You already have some of the material to expose that Roman is not working for Randy. I'm going to wake Roman up when I have the correct formula, I just hope everyone knows by then that Roman was manipulated by Orton."
The scientist gave Finn a new folder and several CDs.
"Where will the next attack be?" Finn asked.
"Randy is obsessed with Seth Rollins, that's why he destroyed the Rollins Industries building, and he wants to use you, Mr. Balor, as bait. Randy thinks Seth loves you."
Dean and Finn didn't know what had happened to the building. They had been locked up all day.
"We have to get out now." Dean pursed his lips. "I guess if they haven't come for you yet, Randy's next goal is..."
"Seth!" Finn said alarmed.
Anger, pain and helplessness were reflected in Seth's brown eyes, as he watched the implosion of the Rollins Industries building on his cell phone.
"All my parents' hard work... my hard work, everything is in rubble." A tear rolled down his cheek.
Seth started calling all of his employees. He gathered them all at the entrance of the mansion.
"Everyone already knows who I am and because of that... my enemies are destroying everything I love. This place is not safe for you, you must go now." There was pain in his voice. "I am going to send money in compensation to your accounts, I thank you for everything, after all, you are the closest thing I have to a family."
The employees looked at him sadly and said goodbye in an emotional way. They started leaving the place one by one. Seth was hyperventilating. He was going to walk back to the mansion and there he found himself facing Dean and Finn.
"I'm sorry about all this." Dean whispered.
Seth looked at Dean with wide eyes, unable to answer. Then he set his eyes on Finn. Seth approached the reporter.
"This place is dangerous and you..." Seth looked nervous.
"Randy found out about us." Finn whispered.
Dean chimed in. "Balor will be a dead man if we leave him alone, and since I'm not an indolent bastard, I'm not going to let the man you love get killed."
Dean returned to the mansion. Seth and Finn looked at each other.
"I... I don't love you." Seth seemed to be trying to convince himself.
"But I love you." Finn said sadly and followed Dean.
"What he does here?" AJ paled, seeing Brock Lesnar through the laboratory glass.
"You didn't think you were the only scientist here, did you Allen?" Randy smirked. "When you perfected the serum and decided that you would run away with Roman, I started expanding the project with the rest of my lab staff. And when we had to make Roman the first super-soldier, I knew that the serum needed to be further modified, that I had to create more super soldiers. Since as long as Roman is the only and the best super soldier, I would depend on you. And the only thing I am sure about now, is that I no longer trust you, so you can't be the only one here with that knowledge. Roman will be just the beginning of a huge army, of better and stronger supersoldiers."
AJ was scared. "And when you have these better super soldiers... you won't need Roman anymore."
"Not at all. So, if you don't want me to get rid of him, you need to start being more respectful. Your attitude has been unbearable lately." Randy had it under control now.
Brock Lesnar was standing in the waiting room. Randy made a sign for him to come inside. Unlike Roman, Lesnar was there of his own free will.
"I saw Reigns in a video that is circulating on social networks, the damn bastard killed 26 people like they were toys, I want to be just as powerful." Lesnar said as soon as he entered the lab.
AJ walked up to Randy and spoke to him privately. "This idiot doesn't know that Roman is just a puppet and that he himself will become one."
Randy smiled. "No. He, like the rest of the city, thinks that Reigns is in all his mental faculties. Everyone thinks that Reigns works for me. From now on you are relieved of your position as head of the laboratory. Take our new puppet with Tozawa, he's the new head of the project and he will take care of everything related to the serum. Meanwhile I will send Roman and the DXs on a very important mission."
At that point the full weight of his mistakes fell on AJ. The scientist felt disgusted with himself. And he felt even more cornered, he had to wake up Roman before Randy completely relegated him from the experiment and before he got rid of Roman by having more and better super soldiers. And despite that, AJ had no choice but to obey Randy's orders.
Dean, Seth, and Finn were in an office inside the mansion.
"From here you can send the information you have collected, send it to all those who can expose it." Dean told Finn.
"The truth is always bought by whoever has more power." Seth whispered.
"No Seth, the truth will spread." Finn turned on a computer. "It will spread as it always does, among the inhabitants of this city, through social networks and comments. This truth will be an open secret, like all the truths in this damn city, and in the end that is the only justice we will see."
Dean nodded. "This will have to be it, then."
Dean left the office. This situation was driving him crazy. Seth stood there, the heir gulped and walked over to Finn.
"You shouldn't have fallen in love with me..." Seth's voice no longer had that dismissive tone that characterized him. There was even some warmth there.
Finn sighed. "You said it, I like difficult things. Dean is trying to save Roman even with everything against him, your situation is not so screwed up, why don't you let me save you?"
Seth closed his eyes. "What Dean doesn't understand is that we are beyond good and evil. He clung to Roman, trying to find a light at the end of the tunnel and see how it all ended. Neither saved the other, they both condemned the other and Dean is going to lose Roman anyway. The love that he believed would save him will only cause him pain and misery."
Seth paused. Finn was finally able to see how Seth's shield broke, falling to pieces. He wondered if anyone could see Seth open up like this.
"The same thing will happen to us, Finn. You cannot save me, on the contrary, I am going to destroy you. I am going to destroy you at the end of all this and you know it. I am too damaged to change, your love will not be able to save me and when you realize this, you are going to hate me deeply."
Finn walked over to Seth, taking his hands and intertwining their fingers. And for the first time, Seth didn't reject him.
"Maybe you're right, maybe Roman and I will end up just as screwed up because we've fallen in love with the Hounds of Justice but... I can't change how I feel, and I really don't want to."
"Although in the end the only thing you get is that your head has a price, that I break your heart and that I become your worst enemy." Seth sighed looking Finn in the eye.
"My head already has a price, you've already broken my heart and I'm still here." Finn brought their faces closer and they both breathed the same air. "I need to prevent you from becoming my enemy. That is why I must save you from yourself. Even if you think not, I know I can do it."
"No one can save me." Seth whispered. "And you will suffer a lot when you finally accept it."
They both kissed. In his way Seth was admitting his feelings and for Finn that was enough.
"Anyway, I'm going to try." Finn said watching Seth leave the room.
Seth appeared in his Hound of Justice outfit but without the mask. He threw a suit at Dean.
"What are we going to do now?" Seth asked.
"We must stop Roman, I won't let him kill more people. Even if I have to hurt him, we must prevent him from committing more atrocities." Dean replied.
At least until that AJ son of a bitch gets Roman back to himself.
"Roman is a threat, he will not hesitate to kill us and I won't take any risks." Seth snorted. "But I will only do such a thing if necessary."
Dean went to put on his suit. When he returned, he saw Seth alarmed. "He is here?"
"No. The news just announced that Roman and the D-Xs are at the Foundation, fortunately no one is there, because I evacuated all my buildings."
They both immediately went to the Foundation.
When they arrived, it was already night. A light rain fell on the city dispelling the dust. The D-Xs had destroyed the Foundation building. There were ambulances helping bystanders and injured policemen.
The police served Kane and Orton so they didn't really try to do justice. The few honest cops who tried to do their job had been neutralized by the D-Xs. Two of them had Roman pointing to either side.
That's when Seth and Dean saw Roman. He didn't seem afraid of the police pointing their guns at him since he was smiling.
"I must admit that now I understand your obsession with Roman." Seth looked intently at the Samoan. "He must be the sexiest villain that ever lived."
Dean narrowed his eyes. "Now you have a sense of humor."
"I'm just trying to see the bright side, we're finally going to face an enemy worthy of us, in every way." Seth whispered. "But first we must save those policemen."
"We are two and he is only one." Dean grunted. "There is no way he can defeat us, we are going to teach him a lesson."
The policemen were going to shoot, however, with superhuman speed, Roman grabbed one of them and kicked the other causing him to lose his weapon. Roman broke the policeman's gun and grabbed him by the neck.
But before Roman could hurt him, Dean kicked the Samoan in the ribs, causing him to release the cop.
"When you wake up from this horrible trance, you will thank me for the beating that I am going to give you." Dean told Roman.
The police and the D-Xs left the scene leaving Roman, Dean and Seth alone there.
Seth was standing next to Dean, they were both going to face Roman. The Samoan stood up holding his ribs and endless anger flashed in his eyes.
Seth and Dean lunged at Roman, but the mma fighter seemed to be faster than them because he dodged them both and grabbed Seth by the hair, slamming his fist into the handsome heir's face. Dean got closer and Roman threw Seth at him, Roman immediately gave a flying kick to both of them sending them to the ground in a pool of blood.
"I'm supposed to be the flying kicker!" Seth wiped the blood from him. "Roman is too big for that."
"Roman is an improved version of us, he is stronger, more agile and faster." Dean said in pain.
"But he's not indestructible, he can't be." Seth stood up angrily and went back to Roman.
Roman tried the same kick, but this time Dean and Seth grabbed him by both legs and threw him to the ground. Both Hounds began to kick their fallen rival, trying not to give him a chance to get up.
Roman was bleeding while Seth and Dean punished him fiercely. Roman grabbed Dean by one of his legs and slammed him back against Seth. In that short span of time, Roman stood up and spear them both, crashing into the rubble of the Foundation building.
There he grabbed Seth by the neck and threw him against the rubble over and over again making him bleed. Seth was screaming in pain. He then left Seth beaten on the ground and went after Dean. The auburn haired man was stunned, Roman was a destruction machine and at this point he didn't know if they could defeat him.
Anyway, Roman punched him and Dean started punching back. They were both hitting non-stop but Roman slammed his fist into Dean's face and the auburn haired man fell to the ground somewhat dizzy.
Then Roman took an iron bar from the rubble and quickly buried it in Dean's shoulder, with such force that he pierced the younger man's skin.
Dean screamed in pain. Roman grinned and grabbed the iron bar, wiggling it and further injuring the wound, then grabbed a huge chunk of concrete to smash it against Dean's head. But before that happens, with what little strength he had left, Seth kicked Roman from behind and sent him to the ground, leaving Roman under the concrete.
All three were injured and bleeding, but Dean had the worst of it. He was bleeding a lot and the wound was horrible.
The rain increased its intensity and mixed with his blood.
Seth removed the iron bar from Dean's shoulder. The auburn haired man screamed in pain. Seth picked him up off the ground and started walking with him.
"We have to go before your boyfriend recovers and finishes the damn job, we have to make a plan because this is not how we are going to defeat him." Seth said taking Dean away.
Roman was hurt and he couldn't stop them either.
Upon reaching the vicinity of the mansion, Seth saw with horror how the firemen had put out a huge fire.
"Orton burned your house down." Dean said horrified.
"Finn!" Seth was desperate.
On one hand, Dean was too hurt to be left alone. On the other, Seth had to go for Finn.
"It was all a trap, Randy took us out of the mansion knowing that we would go for Roman, that's why the D-X never intervened in the fight, they were here." Dean closed his eyes realizing the situation.
"No no no!" Seth screamed in despair.
Seth left Dean leaning against a tree and ran towards the firemen. They were all grouped together watching a video feed. Kane was making an announcement.
"We have entered a new regime, Mr. Randy Orton and the D-Xs have taken control of the city and both the police and the authorities of this city are backing the new regime." Kane smirked. "Those who reveal themselves will be considered traitors and will be imprisoned. We are offering a huge reward for information on Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, both enemies of this regime and anyone who helps them will be punished."
Kane stepped aside and Triple H was carrying a badly beaten Finn Balor.
"This is the destiny of all who associate with those who call themselves Hounds of Justice, we are in a new era that will be one of prosperity for this city and we look forward to your collaboration. The whole city is under curfew. No one can leave or enter the city."
The transmission ended.
All the firefighters looked at Seth. The Brigade Captain stood before all of them.
"No one here has seen Mr. Rollins, we are not going to be accomplices of this barbarism."
The firemen nodded. One of them gave Seth a huge box.
"Here are medical supplies, you are injured, you are going to need them."
Seth took the box and saw the firemen leave and for the first time Seth lost control and fell to the ground while he cried and screamed in despair.