So here's the next chapter. Thanks again to Captain for editing, and again I'm sorry to her for possibly giving her nightmares and causing her to worry even more for my sanity... You'll understand her concerns after reading this chapter. ;)

Disclaimer: To quote a Lunatic, "Nope"

A Moment in Time. I'll Turn Back

Chapter Four: Click, Click, Click

June 2, 2014 2:15 A.M.

His eyes shot open when someone bumped into him.

"Discúlpame," the man mumbled as he veered around Roman and continued meandering down the hallway.

"It's fine," Roman replied, still attempting to regain his bearings on the situation. He glanced around and recognized the door to the hotel room. Okay, he was back to the early morning hours in 2014 before the betrayal.

The man glanced back at the Samoan after taking a couple steps away and peered blearily at him. "I swear you weren't there a second ago, muchacho. It's like you appeared out of nowhere...but maybe I shouldn't have drank that last one. Cuídate, muchacho." He continued to wander down the hallway and away from Roman.

Roman sighed and tried to picture where he (or rather the past him?) would be now. He was either in the room or down in the lobby, waiting for Seth. Since he didn't have a room key, he would just head that way and try to stop himself.

"Roman?"

He froze when he heard Dean's raspy and sleep laden voice.

"Roman, what are you doing out here? I swear you were passed out a second ago in the room."

Roman took a deep breath and forced his expression into a grin as he turned around to face Dean. "Dean, bro, you must be out of it. I've been out here for a while. I couldn't sleep, so I'm just going for a walk."

Dean scratched his crazy curls, staring at Roman suspiciously, but instead of voicing his disbelief, he shrugged. "Eh, give me a break. I just woke up. I'm still out of it from that fucking sledgehammer. I mean I gotta be. There's no possible way you're in two places at once. I'm not that much of a lunatic." Dean let out a soft chuckle and stifled a yawn.

Roman's grin faltered slightly unsure why Dean was out here. "What are you doing awake, man?"

Dean yawned again, not hiding it this time. "My growling stomach woke me up. I just thought I'd grab something out of the vending machines and go back to bed."

Roman nodded. "Sounds good." He turned to walk down to the lobby.

"Hey wait, big dog. You want me to walk with you?"

Roman shook his head quickly. "I just need a few minutes alone."

Dean shrugged. "If you say so. I'll see you in the room then." He turned and wandered off towards the vending area in search of some form of sustenance Roman assumed.

Roman rushed off towards the lobby and saw himself sitting on one of the plush arm chairs, facing the lobby doors drumming his fingers impatiently waiting for Seth. Quickly, he strolled through the lobby as he closed the distance between them and grabbed his double's arm yanking him out of the chair.

"What the-?"

"Shut up! Trust me here!"

Roman began pulling his double to a door, which was labeled Staff Only. As he struggled to pull the door open, he froze when he saw Seth enter through the lobby doors, looking down at his Ipod. Roman's double reached out and pushed the door open. Roman felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment as he and the double practically fell into the room with the door falling shut behind them.

In the lobby, Seth looked up at the sudden slam of the door, seeing nothing, he shrugged and walked back to the Shield's shared hotel room.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Roman's double seethed out.

"I'm saving our ass here. It wasn't going to work, and I'm saving you the trouble!" Roman growled back.

"Oh my God, you're twins!"

The two Romans turned to see the hotel concierge staring at them. They looked at each other again with identical oh shit expressions. If this woman knew anything about WWE, they were so incredibly screwed.

"I love WWE! My boyfriend and I watch every Monday night!"

Yep, they were screwed.

"That's right, babygirl," the double spoke up in a velvety tone. Roman was slightly horrified at just how weird it was seeing himself try to flirt with a woman. There were some things you weren't supposed to see yourself do in life and this was probably one of them. "We're the Usos. Can you believe we're not actually identical?"

"You guys look so much bigger and stronger in real life!"

"The camera takes off like 30 pounds," Roman found himself explaining, and his double gave him a yeah-like-she'll-believe-that look.

The woman giggled. "Oh, I always thought it was the opposite way. I thought the camera added weight on."

Roman's double shrugged. "You wouldn't believe how many people think that."

"You totally reminded me of the Shield guy when you said that. So weird."

"We are cousins," Roman said, hurriedly, praying she wouldn't catch on to anything. Last thing he needed was some random fangirl realizing their were two of him, that would be disastrous for him, for the fangirl not so much.

"You're cousins with the guy with the blonde streak? I totally wouldn't have seen the resemblance if you hadn't pointed it out." She tilted her head and closely scrutinized the two Romans. "Not so much the eyes or the jaw or the lips or the noses… Oh, the cheek bones! You have the same cheeks!"

The two Romans exchanged bewildered looks before the double nodded. "We get that all the time."

After signing some paper with the hotel's name on it, the woman asked for a photo with them.

"Well, my brother will take a picture with you. I can't stand having my photo taken. You get it, right?" The double explained. Immediately, Roman understood the double didn't know what having two of them in the picture would do, maybe tear a rip in the space time continuum? Well, it was better Roman be safe than sorry on this one.

The woman frowned. "No, I don't. Why's that?"

"Samoan folklore - there's a belief that the camera will steal your soul," Roman said with a shrug immediately coming up with a lie. "My twin is very superstitious, more so than me."

"Oh," the woman said. "That makes perfect sense!" She quickly snapped a selfie with Roman. "Sorry, I've kept you so long; I should get back to the desk. Thanks!"

The girl pulled open the door and left the two Romans in the employee only lounge.

"Wow... I didn't think it would be that easy to talk our way out of that one," Roman said with a sigh.

"You got that right…" The double sighed and leaned against the counter which housed a microwave and mini fridge for the convenience of the staff. "Now you want to explain to me what the hell you're doing here? And why did you stop me from talking to Seth? I could have fixed everything, man. I could have made things the way they were! We could have gotten our little brother back!"

Roman crossed his arms and stood his ground. "I know, I know. I thought the same thing when I was in your position. I just came back from November 2, 2015 and... it wasn't good. Something we did screwed up the future."

"What do you mean screwed up the future? Wasn't the future already screwed up to begin with?" Roman's double looked concerned with his forehead furrowed in worry.

Roman ran a hand through his hair as he thought about where to start explaining, he felt even more disappointed by the failure of his mission. "Evolution reformed and destroyed us. They made Dean go insane and not just Lunatic Fringe insane either. He acted like he had the mind of a five-year-old. He didn't trust me - us; all he wanted to do was hide under someone's desk, eating snacks. They messed up Seth's wrist, and he hated me... us. Seth blamed us for everything. Our little brothers just didn't trust us; they wouldn't tag me in during a match. It wasn't better; it was worse. It seemed like instead of getting both our brothers, we lost them and their emotional trust and support in us."

"And instead of our close brotherhood, we got a superficial relationship because neither of them had a choice. To Dean, the Shield is his only family, so he couldn't leave. And when Seth declined Hunter's offer, he burned all those bridges," the double mirrored Roman's actions quickly catching on to the explanation as he idly ran a hand through his hair, too.

Roman nodded and marveled about how nice it was to have someone on the same wavelength as himself. "Exactly. It's just disappointing. I was positive it would work."

The double frowned. "Maybe, we shouldn't have tried to be so blunt."

Roman frowned. "You think so?"

The double shrugged. "I'm just going off on a limb here, but maybe we should try a different approach."

Roman rubbed his beard. "Maybe if we just...this is going to sound bad, but if we guilt him into turning Triple H down, maybe that would fix everything. Seth will decide for himself, so he won't feel like he was forced into it. He won't resent us then. Yeah...This could work!"

The double smiled. "Maybe it will! Ten minutes before we go out for that Orton match, we'll turn to Seth and tell him how much everything means to us. How much we trust him and how much he means to us, how much he means to the Shield, to Dean, to our family. Just really lay it on thick. He'll realize what a mistake he was about to make and reconsider."

Roman grinned. "That could work."

His double shrugged and smiled even larger. "I have a good feeling about this plan."

As Roman smiled, he was not just happy to have formulated a new plan. No, he was relieved by the fact he wasn't in this alone anymore. He didn't have to approach the situation as Roman versus the world or even one versus all. He had help. He could confer with someone else and get a second opinion. Yes, it was technically himself, but still, he could rely on his own support system. It felt good to know someone had his back.

Roman, still smiling, told his double, "It was really stressful being in this alone, but now that I have someone with me; I think this is really doable."

"We'll be unstoppable."

"Believe that."

Roman couldn't help the big grin from appearing on his face. Finally, someone who appreciated that catch phrase as much as he did. Well, it was technically himself but still...

The double stopped abruptly, dead in his tracks. His expression transformed from the happy-go-lucky grin to a confused grimace. His arms clutched at his abdomen.

"What's wrong?" Roman asked quickly, worried about himself.

The double shook his head and frowned. "I don't know. I feel kind of off now. It's like my torso is burning or something."

Roman immediately wrote off the use of the word "burning" as just a way to describe a muscle ache. "What can I do to help? Is it still from tonight's match? Should I find you an ice pack?"

The double opened his mouth to respond and grimaced even further. "I- I…" The double was having difficulty finding the words to describe what was happening. One of his hands drifted up to grasp at his chest.

"Hey, talk to me. I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." Roman's voice came out rushed due to his mounting panic.

"It's my-my…" The double tried to speak but he began coughing lightly. "It's like I'm being burned from the inside." His coughing turned to full out hacking. He turned away from Roman, choosing to lean against the counter for support, facing the wall.

Roman stepped closer to the double. What the hell was happening? The double began coughing even harder and an arch of blood spattered against the counter and the wall.

The double froze in mid-hack and turned to face Roman. Roman reached out a hand to give some kind of comfort or support to his double, but he paused mid-reach when his double looked him dead in the eyes, his eyes burning with anger and malice as he began speaking.

"This-this is all your f-f-fault!" The double bit out. "If y-you hadn't come back to this time, I would be being here screwed everything up!" He shouted as his body seemed to sag even more as though the internal structure, his very bones, were disintegrating inside him.

Roman stared at the double, horrified. This was his fault. Him coming back to this point resulted in too many Romans in one place, and he was canceling out his past self's actions, which made him obsolete in this time stream. Marty had even mentioned tripling up on your self in the same point of time created its own mess of problems…and he had been foolish enough to do such a thing.

As the double sent a withering glare back at Roman, the skin around his eyes began sagging, exposing the white of the skull around his eyes. The double seemed to use the last of his strength to turn away . He all but fell onto the counter, unable to support his own body weight. He continued to crumble into himself until there was nothing left but a bubbling puddle of red, pooling onto the counter, dripping slowly onto the floor.

With his arm still hovering mid-air, Roman couldn't tear his gaze away from the spot where his double had melted.

Roman half-expected to vanish, too.

As Roman stared transfixed at the puddle, it began to evaporate at a rapid pace, leaving not a single trace behind. Roman felt almost nervous to remain at this point in time; would he have the same fate as his poor double? Maybe he should just return to his own time stream and not meddle in any more events…

No, the plan he and his double formulated had been a good one. It could work. It would work. He owed it to himself and his brothers to fix things.

With shaking hands (nothing he did caused them to cease motion), he carefully turned the hour dial forward several turns. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes not wanting to rewatch the horror of seeing himself disintegrate again. He focused his thoughts on the steady clicking, clickclickclick, of the wall clock listening and feeling the seconds passing by as he traveled forward in time once again to save his family, his little brothers.

Click Click Click