Sami grumbled in frustration before seeing Bayley walk into the hotel room.
"Can't reach her?" Bayley asked after she sat down.
"Something ain't right… I know she's devastated about Daniel having to retire but… I feel like something else…" Sami explained before both heard frantic footsteps and saw Dean. "Dean, what's going on?"
"Have either of you seen John?!" Dean asked.
"What happened, where's Mandy?!" Bayley responded as she and Sami stood up.
"She's in the hospital, something about a burn wound and concussion!" Dean answered.
Sami called John as the three left the hotel.
"Sami, what's going on?!" John asked.
"Are you outside the hotel?!" Sami replied.
"Yeah." John responded.
"Meet us by the car, you and Nikki!" Sami said before hanging up, John turning to Nikki.
"Brie's not answering her phone…" Nikki responded, John knowing that she was worried… but before he could say anything, he and Nikki were being dragged to the Equinox by the others.
When they reached the hospital, Nikki and Brie hugged tightly as John found Amanda and held her close to him after seeing her injuries.
"Where the hell were you all when this happened?" John asked after they let go.
"A museum… one minute, I was near something and the next thing I knew…" Amanda responded, trailing off and John seeing the bruises that had formed on the back of her neck…
And when his hands rested on her shoulders, he could feel that with the exception of Amanda's burned arm, the rest of her body felt cold… John pulled the blanket closer to Amanda to try to keep her warm as Alena walked in.
"I… guess I made the wrong assumption when I thought he was her brother, you two look a lot alike." Alena responded, motioning to Amanda and John.
"It's alright… with those two, most people assume that they're sleeping together." John replied, Amanda lightly nudging him.
"Slightly less innocent then. Me and my brother and cousin once got mistaken for gods mind you, so I suppose it's not that bad." Alena responded, laughing a bit towards the end.
Amanda managed to stretch back out when she once again heard her phone ring and answered it, Liara breathing a relieved sigh.
"You had me scared to death!" Liara responded.
"It's on the news…" Amanda replied.
"Well the accident is, someone filmed that part… how are you feeling?" Liara questioned.
"Just burned my arm and got a concussion and a few bruises." Amanda explained, leaving it at that.
"You were standing pretty close to… whatever that thing is. I guess that discharge it made doesn't like skin." Liara responded.
'You don't know how right you are, Li.' Amanda thought. "Yeah… it doesn't. I think the museum might close the exhibit down for a while after what happened." She said.
"Probably until they work out what the hell it was and how to control it if it happens again." Liara replied.
"Yeah." Amanda responded before she heard Ty in the background.
"Okay, okay, keep your pants on!" Liara said before handing the phone to him.
"I'm okay… just hoping to get out of here soon." Amanda explained.
"I'd fucking shout at you and then kiss you if I wasn't engaged!" Ty responded, laughing after Liara shoved him on his arm in response to his joke.
"You better behave yourself, Ty." Amanda replied.
"I'll try. Stay safe." Ty said before they hung up and Amanda nudged Finn before John and Alena let them be.
"Hey. Why no laugh at Ty's joke?" Amanda questioned as Finn moved closer and wrapped his arms around her.
"He'll be a married man in a few months." Finn responded as they moved back… but Amanda could tell that it was something completely different.
"He wouldn't do anything to hurt Liara." Amanda replied quietly, absentmindedly resting her bandaged arm on him and Finn carefully resting his right hand on her left one. "You know, I'd say you're just being protective… but you're even more shaken than I am after what happened earlier."
"You almost died today, Mandy… I almost lost you. That's something I just… can't even bare thinking about." Finn answered.
"No one… ever likes to think about losing someone they care deeply about. If I ever lose you, I'd… I'd feel like I'd lose myself too." Amanda responded quietly as they held each other, Finn lightly running his fingers through her hair.
John watched them for a while until he turned to Nikki and pulled her into his arms, the two holding each other as Brie and Daniel were hugging too.
The longer Alena stood there, the happier she was for them all to be so close… and yet the more she wanted to get out. It only took one glance down at the shiny device on her belt to turn it and make her dart away, heading for the now darkened outdoors.
As John quietly stepped towards her, he heard her whisper something. A small word, a name he assumed… then she heard him and turned around like a shot and raised the shiny device, which sprang open into a Z shape and the way she held it made it instantly obvious that it was a gun of some kind.
"Damn, I… sorry." Alena apologised, quickly lowering the weapon and clicking it back into a folded form.
"It's alright… but you should sit down and try to relax." John responded, Alena doing so.
Once at the house, Amanda had gotten cleaned off and changed before cleaning the wound and bandaging it. She walked into the room, fleece camo pants slightly falling off her as Finn got her to sit down.
"I forget how tiny you are at times." Finn replied.
"I hate how tiny I am at times. Can't reach things… was always getting shoved down in school and then my hair would get pulled." Amanda responded, Finn seeing a faded scar at the base of her scalp. "You notice it too?"
"Someone yanked the hair right from your scalp?" Finn questioned.
"Yes and that's why I hate it when my hair gets pulled in the ring… back of my head hit the stone steps that day." Amanda answered, Finn cringing at that thought.
"Big ouch… we all take tumbles at some point, I suppose." Finn replied.
"Yes we do… and she went crashing down with me." Amanda responded as she snuggled closer to him.
"Then that's the best thing about it. She can push you down, as long as you can drag her down with you." Finn joked in response as his arms went around her more fully.
Amanda nodded and fell into sleep, Finn kissing her on her forehead… before feeling the bed jolt slightly and seeing Josie looking at him curiously before she walked over and whined slightly after seeing Amanda's bandaged arm.
"She'll be okay, Josie…" Finn whispered, Josie curling up next to them before Finn drifted off into sleep as Amanda's right foot twitched slightly.
Josie couldn't see who was standing by the curtain as it fluttered but she knew someone was there.
November 13th 2006, 4 hours before Raw…
Amanda was outside in the Manchester snow, clearing her mind… it had been a year since Eddie's death and it was hitting her hard. But as she was letting her tears fall, she heard a slight humming sound and her head snapped up to see a girl about her age.
"Please don't do that again, do you get some sort of thrill out of sneaking up on people?" Amanda responded as she stood up… but the girl was unsympathetic and narrowed her eyes at the brunette as she observed her.
"Well something got you crying, what is it, lost a boyfriend?" The girl replied.
"Something ain't right with you." Amanda muttered before she turned to leave… only for the girl to turn angry and grab her by her hair, turning the small brunette to her.
"Says you, balling in the open! Now how about you spit it, or you can spit the broken tooth out of your gums when I'm done swinging you round the street like a mace by these locks here?!" The girl growled in response.
Amanda punched her, the two tumbling down the steps as they fought… until the fight was broken up by Randy.
"Hey, no fighting out here, this is too damn dangerous!" Randy responded, pressing a washcloth to Amanda's wound. "Mandy, drop it, babe!" He said, Amanda dropping the bloodstained rock as the girl stood up, bruised and bleeding.
"Go before you'll be choking on your teeth, bitch!" Amanda growled threateningly, the girl storming off and Randy leading Amanda into the arena.
"Sometimes you've gotta get out and let it all out…" Randy said quietly.
"And sometimes you can't." Amanda responded as the secret lovers kissed…
Present time…
Alena knew this was risky but she had to do so.
Waiting outside Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, she had used Amanda's phone to text Seth before putting the phone back and taking the car keys and a Balor Club hoodie as well as some of Amanda's clothes that she had borrowed earlier… she had the hood up to hide her hair and with her luck, Seth had gotten in the backseat.
"Flight went okay?" Alena questioned, emphasising her accent a bit more than usual to sound more like Amanda.
"As okay as it can… you seem rather tired." Seth responded.
"Haven't been sleeping much." Alena replied before shifting the car into drive and pulling away from the curb. "Your knee healing okay?" She asked after turning the radio on, If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot playing.
"Yeah… should be back in the ring in a few months." Seth answered.
"Well, good… just no more tension and anger around me and him when you come back, okay? It's not fair to anyone." Alena replied, Seth rolling his eyes a bit. "Don't think that I don't see that. I'm just being honest, you dick. Finn didn't do anything wrong, never did anything to provoke any of this." She said, Seth startled by the sharpness of her voice but chalked it up to a natural reaction.
He jumped a bit as she inadvertently stopped too suddenly at a red light and shifted the car into stop.
"I'm starting to think you should retake your driving course." Seth muttered.
"There's never been anything wrong with my driving, I've always been a good driver!" Alena responded.
"Yeah, until today it seems." Seth said in response.
"Yeah, we'll maybe you causing havoc around me and Finn is wearing on my nerves, think of it that way! Think of my driving as running parallel with how stable my patience with you is holding, because it's less than a mile from running into a ditch!" Alena replied.
"Maybe you need to see that neurologist again." Seth responded.
"Ain't happening, ain't nothing wrong neurologically… and never has been anything wrong, Seth." Alena replied before putting the car back in drive and driving… and the last part of what she said really confused Seth.
"Pull over!" Seth responded.
"Why? I ain't switching, you can't drive with a bad knee!" Alena snapped at him… but Seth forced her to pull over and put the car in park before pulling the hood down.
"You're not Mandy! The hell's going on here, who are you?!" Seth replied.
"Name's Alena… look, I need help digging something out of a sand dune, don't want Mandy risking further damage to her arm and Finn's not gonna let her out of his sight anytime soon so I texted you." Alena explained. "You should've seen how terrified he was when he thought he was losing her, she means the world to him." She said.
"Yeah, she goes and he's got nothing but his own hand to spend the night with." Seth muttered in response, jolting back as Alena's hand cracked across his face.
"Finn is a much more honest friend to her than you ever were, and you do not say anything like that to anyone, forget about saying it to him! Now… we're going to a museum, and we're gonna see just how important your little world really is." Alena responded, at first in an angry growl.
Seth nodded as Alena drove again, reaching the museum and the two getting out and walking into it.
"Why is that part cordoned off?" Seth asked after seeing the exhibit cut off by crime scene tape.
"I'll explain it later." Alena responded as they reached the one that her and her family had emerged from. "Here we go." She said as she grabbed onto him and he followed her into the exhibit, as the ring began to turn and the chevrons lit up one by one. "No, stay back a minute." She said, quickly blocking Seth from stepping closer as the 8th chevron locked, that being the top keystone… then the gate formed, and Alena had stopped Seth just far back enough to be clear of the unstable vortex as it erupted out and then returned back into the portal, which was again a calm field of a fluidic substance. "You learn the safe distance simply by looking at it after enough experience… hopefully, you'll never have to."
"This thing, how stabilized is it?" Seth asked.
"If they haven't picked the ring apart, the portal will stay open for a good hour or so. But I'll disable it once we're through, just keeping it linked so we can get back quickly." Alena explained.
Following her, Seth looked around and began to think back.