Disclaimer The wrestlers are not mine, they belong to the WWE. The words I used aren't mine, they belong to the world at large. How the words are put together in particular order? That is mine. In other words, the story is mine, I've just borrowed characters and settings. But it's still an original work.

Original characters are the children of my own imagination. Any resemblance to any real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

United We Stand

Battleground 7-17-16

The Night Before

"So, let me guess, the big surprise tomorrow is that we'll hear, 'Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta' coming over the loudspeakers and the Shield will be coming down the entrance?"

Roman looked up at Jessica, who was standing by the foot of the bed he was stretched out on. She was wearing one of his Roman Reigns T-shirts, and likely, nothing else. The shirt was way too large for her and fell off of one shoulder. It hung low enough past her waist that she could have worn it as a dress, and while she would have looked strange, it would have been perfectly legal on the streets. "Maybe," he said, eying her carefully. The shirt concealed her fantastic figure, but he knew it well enough that he was imagining it. "Maybe not."

"Oh, c'mon," She knelt at the foot of the bed, smiling at him in a way that made Roman pretty sure she wasn't wearing panties under that shirt and made him determined to find out if that was a fact or not. "That's got to be the plan, right? We hear the words, the music starts, you three guys all in black, making your way to the ring, a million girls swoon! C'mon, you can tell me."

"And what if I don't?" Roman grinned. Leah was in the other room, sound asleep, he knew he should probably be getting some sleep himself, but if Jessica wanted to keep him up a little longer, he had no objections at all. In the old days, they told athletes that "intimate relationships" before a big event would drain your energy. Thank God nobody believed that anymore, but if they had? Roman would have known that was bullshit. Sex, especially good sex, which it pretty much always was with Jessica, recharged him. It helped him sleep better the night before and wake up more refreshed and energized.

"Then I might have to... punish you." She smiled, a look on her face that told Roman exactly what she had in mind and it wasn't punishment.

"Oh?" His brows arched. "And how are you going to punish me?" He was longing to reach for her, wrap his arms around her, but the game she was playing was amusing. "Tie me to the bed, perhaps?"

"That's not a punishment, that's a gift," she retorted. "I was thinking more on the lines of tit for tat. You withhold information from me? I withhold something from you." As she spoke, she moved up the bed, stretching herself out, her long hair falling over her shoulders, spilling over her shoulders, into her face.

"Think about that for a moment, baby girl," he said, the smile on his face deepening. "We see each other, how often? I mean, I ain't one to brag, but wouldn't that be punishing yourself, too?"

She glared at him for a moment, then, unable to hold it, she burst out laughing and fell on him. He saw it coming and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into him, moving her so they were face to face, and then kissing her deeply. No one can kiss like Jessica, he thought, as his arms tightened around her shoulders. It's like that first sip of water, when you've been doing a heavy work out and you've been sweating up a storm, it's like it's 104 degrees outside and you've been out in the hot sun, and you feel like you're cooking your insides, and you're handed this ice cream cone and the ice cream is so cold that there is vapor rising from it, and you can see little ice crystals on the edges, and you take that first lick. It's like that, but it's better. It's the first spring day after a long winter, it's the first fall day after a hot summer, it's everything in itself and the promise of everything good to come. He moved, rolling so she was under him. Automatically, she moved her legs apart so he could fit between them, their stomachs pressed together. She shifted, wrapping her legs around his butt, and they kept kissing.

She wasn't wearing any panties under that T-shirt and that suited Roman just fine.

The Morning Of Battleground

Despite the lack of sleep he'd was suffering from, and the promise that he didn't have to report to the arena until One in the afternoon for Battlegrounds, Seth found himself still waking up very early that Sunday morning. He debated if she should wake Kayla up, but she was flat on her back, mouth slightly open, snoring just a little bit and she looked so deeply asleep, he decided against that. Besides, they'd had some wonderful "adult time" when Payton had finally gone to sleep last night, so he felt fine about just letting her sleep. Soon enough they'd have more time to be together. He wished he could tell her that part, but he, Dean and Roman agreed, at this point, they were keeping that card close to the vest, so-to-speak.

"If one of them finds out, the others will, then the kids will overhear and no one will get a moment of peace. We need to spring this on them at the last moment," Dean had told them and they all agreed. Even Hunter and Stephanie and anyone else in on the surprise agreed to keep quiet if they ran into any of the family, back stage.

Seth pulled on a pair of sweat pants and even though it was summer, he didn't feel too hot in them, he liked to keep the room cool at night, cold even. Kayla liked it cold too, when she slept, and fortunately, this was one of those great hotel suites where the bedrooms and the main quarters had their own separate thermostats, so everyone could enjoy whatever temperature they wanted for sleeping. He knew that Payton liked things a little on the warm side herself.

He left the room, quietly pulling the door shut and walked into the main area, which had a couch and a TV area, and a kitchenette area that had a small refrigerator, stove, coffee maker, stove top, and a small, round table that could seat no more than four people comfortably. To his surprise, Payton was sitting at the table, carefully peeling an orange and pulling off the little white strings that gathered. She had a small bowl in front of her where she was discarding the peels. The expression on her face was so serious that one might have thought she was attempting to deactivate a bomb, but when she heard the door to the bedroom open, she looked up and smiled at him.

"Morning," He more mouthed than said out loud, not wanting to wake Kayla.

"Morning, Da," she said, her own voice soft.

He walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. It wasn't full, but Kayla had picked up a few essentials for the short time they'd be there, including juice for Payton, bottled water, fruit and a few other things. There was a pitcher of iced tea, which he took and poured himself a glass from, then put both pitcher and glass on the table and sat down across from Payton. "Morning, Pay-pay, did you sleep well?"

She shrugged, not indicating a horrific night, but not indicating the most restful night ever. "I guess," she finally said.

How non-committal of you, he thought, but decided not to say. Instead he took a sip of the iced tea. It was a mint and green tea blend, which told him that Kayla had made it up herself, probably yesterday when she got there, and stashed away for them both. He smiled, reminding himself to thank her for that. She was good at that, coming up with small, subtle ways of letting him know that even when they were traveling together, they were still a family and if they couldn't be at their house, she would do what she could to make this temporary room a home. "Are you looking forward to Battleground?" he asked, deciding to steer off the subject of sleep.

"I guess," she said, thoughtfully pulling off a string of the orange and discarding it. Then she she abruptly put the orange in the bowl, on top of the peels and looked at him. "No," she said firmly, "No, I'm not."

He had been about to take another sip of iced tea, but her proclamation surprised him so much, he stopped and put the glass down instead. "Why not?"

She frowned. "It's all turned into Beat Up on my Da, and I don't like it," she said, her voice firm.

He swallowed, but forced himself to shrug too. "Pay, it's the business, you know that. Sometimes you're on top, sometimes you're at the bottom. You've known that since...well, since before we knew you."

"Yes," she said, the word almost coming out like a sigh instead of normal speech. "I know that, but lately, it's been one excuse after another to beat you up, and I don't like it!"

He was surprised at how high her voice rose for those last four words. He knew Leah and Neil didn't like it when their dads were the victims of the wrath of another wrestler or of the authority, or another faction, but at least from what Roman and Dean said, they seemed to accept it as part of the game that had to be played. He thought Payton understood that too, but now he wondered. "I'm okay though," he reminded her, spreading out his arms so she could see his chest. "See? Hardly a bruise on me. Your Da is made of tough stuff!"

She smiled at that, then frowned, still ignoring her carefully peeled orange. "But I don't like all this stuff with Kevin Owens," she made Kevin Owens sound like the most foul of swear words. "And Rhyno. And all this… stuff about you being wrong because you hang out with Uncle Dean and Uncle Roman." Her scowl deepened, cutting furrows into her brow. "You three saved that family and that was a good thing, so why do they have to be such… dicks about it?"

"Dicks?" Seth raised his brows.

"Jerks," Payton quickly corrected. "Why do they have to be such jerks?"

Seth tried not to grin, knowing she wouldn't find this situation humorous. "Pay, remember when we met? You said you liked bad guys better than good guys."

Payton frowned and gave him a look that clearly said she suspected she was being tricked. "Yes," she finally admitted, "But that's before you became my Da and before the bad guys started picking on you."

"Honey, that's just the way it is with bad guys," Seth explained. "They want to do anything to get ahead. Kevin Owens doesn't like that I was the authority's favorite guy for so long. He wants to be their favorite guy. He wants to be me. So he figures that by destroying me, he will be their favorite. I know, it's not very nice, but that's the way it is."

"Yeah?" She looked down at the bowl with the orange and the peels and refused to meet his eyes. "I don't like it. I only get to see you on TV for days on end, because you're sometimes too busy to Skype, then when I do see you, they're beating you up, like lots of them and one of you and I don't like it. I wanna see you happy. I wanna see you win once in awhile, and you don't win anymore."

He smiled and pushed himself and the chair away from the table. "C'mer, Pay."

She slipped from her seat and went over to him, where he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap. He knew the day was coming, way too soon for his liking, that he wouldn't be able to do this, but for now, he was going to cherish the time they had. She cuddled up to him, leaning her head against his arm and chest.

"It's story telling, Payton," he explained. "Just like any other TV show or book, we're telling a story. And in this case, the story is, is Seth Rollins really a bad guy? Sure, he's been a bad guy for awhile now, but is he seeing the truth? Did something happen to show him that being a bad guy isn't really all that great? Is he wondering if losing his friends, his brothers, two guys would would risk their lives for him, really worth what he got? Sure, he got the gold briefcase, he got the Championship. But now he's lost those things, and what does he have? It's pretty obvious that he has no loyalty going for him. No one in the Authority seems to care about Seth, in fact, one of the members of The Authority would like nothing more than for Seth to be kicked out of the Authority."

"It's weird hearing you talk about yourself like you're someone else," Payton commented, looking at him, her eyes round and yet solemn.

"Yeah, I know," Seth agreed, "But I'm not story Seth, I'm your da, Seth. Story Seth is just someone I play. See the difference?"

"I guess," she shrugged, not looking convinced. "But, Da, I just have the feeling something really bad will happen today." She snuggled close. "That even though it's five on three, which is bad enough, that won't be all, it will get even worse."

Now his own eyes were the ones that were widening, but he swallowed and hugged her, giving himself a moment to change expressions. "I can't tell you if that's true or not," he said. "I'm not allowed to give out spoilers." He drew away from the hug and looked down at her. "But I can promise you this, that next week at this time you'll be very happy with what's going on."

"I will?"

He was amazed at how distrustful she could look when she wanted to, and this was probably her most skeptical. "Yes," he assured her. "Next week at this time, if not sooner, you are going to be thrilled with how everything worked out. Not just you, but your mother and your Uncle Dean and his family and your Uncle Roman and his family too."

"So the Shield is reuniting?" she asked, pointedly.

"I can't answer that," he said. "But again, no matter what happens today, know that first, I am all right. Your da is a tough guy and tough guys always find a way to get by. And know that at this time next week, you'll think everything is great. Will you do that for me? Remember that?"

She looked at him, studying his face as if trying to see if there was any trace of deceit he was hiding. She obviously saw none, because she finally nodded. "Okay," she added, "I'll remember."

"That's all I can ask, Pay-pay." He hugged her again.

Battleground

The week leading up to Battlegrounds had been a wild week for the crowd who got their news and information about wrestling from the internet. The cheat sheets had a fine old time speculating, the discussion boards even more fun. The usual leaks seemed to have been plugged up, but there were plenty of sock puppets willing to step forward and claim to have secret knowledge. And the general consensus was the Shield was going to reunite for this Pay-Per-View. The Smarks bemoaned this, claiming that this was just the WWE's way of pandering to the newcomers to wrestlers, the folks who were only watching because of the fire, the folks that would stop watching as soon as they got bored. The more causal fans and the true and loyal Shield fans were thrilled that this was happening. It seemed like almost everyone coming to the event had a sign expressing happiness or annoyance at Shield being together again, even though nothing had been said about it. Yes, the three former members of Shield were in a match against the Authority, but nobody said that meant Shield was fighting.

The battle between Roman, Dean, and Seth versus Kane, Big Show, Owens, Rhyno and Sheamus was set for the main event. It was rather odd, because there was so much talent riding in one event, but Stan and the creative staff had taken that into account too, and had built up other storylines that could carry the Pay Per View. There would be no battle for the US championship, because Owens still had that, but the IC was fought for and won by Neville, who looked so happy when he got it, that even his few detractors rose from their seats and cheered for him. After a long time and some tough going, Jimmy and Jey Uso took the tag team championships from The Prime Time Players, much to the dismay of New Day, who were still convinced that the titles had somehow been stolen from them, after having lost them at least twice to clean victories.

Cesaro retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against a battle with Dolph Ziggler. It was supposed to be a second rate match, just a warm up to the real match which would take place between Cesaro and Lesnar at Summer Slam, but Cesaro and Dolph didn't look at it that way, and put on a fantastic match that would have been well worthy of the main event if it had been in that spot.

The Woman's Tag Team division, along with newly designed Championship belts was reinstated, the first winners Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, who put up a fantastic match with Sasha Banks and Natalia, who had only recently formed a tag team. The diva's division had been doing so well lately, that the Divas and the WWE universe were rather adamant that there needed to be more than one belt for them to compete for. Tag team champion belts seemed to be a good start.

Despite all of this excitement, it was still obvious that everyone was waiting for the main event. Through everything else, the announcers kept teasing at it too, reminding everyone that this would be a five against three handicap match, no DQ. Jerry Lawler reminded everyone too, that it might actually be seven against three, because of J&J. Even though JBL tried to pass that off as something the Authority would never do, no one quite believed him.

Between fights, they often showed Roman, Dean and Seth talking, but there was music played over it, and nothing specific was being said. From the body language, it was obvious that Seth was uncomfortable, but trying his best not to show it. Dean and Roman seemed to be trying to assure him that they had this, that they wouldn't let him down, if he agreed to work with them.

There was a fund raising drive, sponsored by the WWE for the Make-A-Wish foundation, and through out the program, different spots were played for it, encouraging people to donate ten dollars by texting to a special number. John Cena, unable to wrestle due to a knee injury, came out and encourage the audience both at the arena and at home to buy a particular T-shirt, that celebrated both WWE and Make-A-Wish, telling them that 100% of the profits would go to Make-A-Wish.

Before the main event, the cameras focused on back stage, where Roman and Dean were heading down a hall, looking in high spirits. Seth was nowhere to be seen. Dean was taking fake punches, giving the air a terrific beating.

"Do we got this?" Roman asked.

"We got this!" Dean agreed, giving the air a ferocious jab.

"Damned straight we do!" Roman said. "C'mon, let's get Seth and get ready."

As they rounded the corner, Alicia Fox almost ran into them, coming from the opposite direction. When she saw them, she became even more agitated. "Oh, thank god! You have to help me, come quick!"

"Why?" Dean frowned.

"What's going on?" Roman asked.

"It's Brie!" Alicia exclaimed, looking as if she might cry. "She was getting something for Stephanie and something fell on her! She can't move and it's too heavy for me to lift!"

Roman and Dean followed after her, as she raced up the hall, pointing to an open door. "She's in there!" Alicia explained, then added, "Hurry, I think her leg is broken!"

They rushed into the room, which in their haste, and belief of the story, neither Dean nor Roman seemed to notice that the lights weren't on. The moment they were inside, Alicia slammed the door and looked behind her.

Stephanie and Brie were standing there, wearing identical, devious little smiles. "Good work," Stephanie said, nodding to Alicia.

"I told you I could do it," Alicia said, with a smug grin. "And there is no back way out of that room, I double checked. They're stuck in there until we let them out."

"Good," Stephanie said, nodding again, with that smug look only someone who has just seen an evil plan come together could have. "Seth didn't like five against three odds? Let's see how he'll like five against one."

Brie and Alicia giggled as if Stephanie had just told the funniest joke they ever heard. As they walked away, you could hear the sounds of banging coming from the door along with muffled cries of distress.

When the cameras broke away from that, they started playing a very long promo for Make-A-Wish, the longest one to be played all night. In this one, various superstars and various kid from the Make-A-Wish foundation spoke and told how much the program meant to them. Parents of some of these children were shown too, talking about how much it had meant to their child that a Superstar had taken time out of their busy schedule to spend a day with them. It was heartwarming, touching, and slightly on the sappy side, but the whole five minutes it played, donations to Make-A-Wish skyrocketed in ten dollar texted increments.

When the promo was finished and they focused on the ring, one by one they began announcing Team Authority, starting with Keven Owens and Rhyno, who came out together to Kevin's music and a lot of booing by the crowd. Rhyno paused and waved to everyone, as if he was convinced that the booing wasn't meant to be taken seriously. There was something so endearing about him, that some folks did begin to cheer. A young girl, a toddler really, who was being held by her father right by the barricade, opened and closed her fingers in a childish wave. Rhyno went up and patted the girl on the head, which made her grin and then hide her face in her father's shirt. Kevin scowled at Rhyno, as if he had done the unforgivable, and pulled him by his shirt towards the ring. Rhyno shrugged as if he realized this was another one of life's great mysteries that he would never solve and cheerfully went to the ring.

Big show was next, coming to the ring among cries of, "Please retire!" and lots of booing. He glared at the audience as if he would like nothing more than to sit his huge ass on each and every one of them. Sheamus was next, his arrival heralded by a chorus of audience members reminding him that he looked stupid. This did not seem to put him in a good mood.

The last to be announced was Kane. And when his music began to play, the entire stadium went pitch black, throwing everyone in an inky silence as well as darkness. People had been buzzing about the costume he had worn in SmackDown, wanting to see it again, wanting to see if it really was as black and seemingly alive as it had been the other night. The darkness disappointed them and they strained their eyes trying to see if they could make him out.

Then came a popping noise, and the glow of flame could be seen on either side of the ramp. In the dim glow from the faintly orange, tiny fires, was the figure of a man, but the glow from the small flames wasn't enough to make him recognizable to anyone. He started walking down the ramp, and with each footstep, another small fire lit on either side of him, as if his very act of putting his feet on the ground caused the fires to light. Almost as slowly and definitely as deliberately as the Undertaker, Kane walked to the ring. Even as he walked up the stairs, the fires continue to light on either side of him, until he made it into the ring. Then, he raised his hands and brought them down quickly, which caused fire to spout from all four of the ring posts. But unlike the usual fires Kane produced, the ones with the sparks and the wild shoot flames, these were eerie flames of green and purple, edged with yellow and orange, as if they weren't exactly flames, but the souls of the damned that were burning in hell, brought forth to do the bidding of their master. They danced around for a few seconds, the only light in the stadium, then burned out with a slow flicker. As they burned out, the lights came back on.

Indeed Kane was wearing the new outfit, primarily black, the red looking more like claw marks made into some alien life form than designs. The outfit made him look younger and more fit than he had for years. If you had put a picture of this Kane and Corporate Kane together, you would have a hard time believing they were one and the same, and indeed the internet was full of speculation that perhaps the old Kane had retired and was being replaced by a younger, fitter man. His own teammates were certainly not treating him like Corporate Kane, standing apart from him as he made his way over to them, as if they didn't want to get too close. Even Rhyno seemed cautious of this Kane and hovered closer to Kevin.

"Kane has sure changed," Jerry remarked. "I wonder what happened?"

"Some are saying that isn't the Kane we know, that a new Kane is taking his place." Cole remarked.

"People say the stupidest things," JBL said with a snort. "That's why I never trust them."

Then, Seth's music began and Seth made his way down to the ring, refusing to look to either side of him, heading straight for the ring as if it were a dentist's office and he had a swollen tooth.

"Seth doesn't look too happy!" JBL sounded positively delighted as if Seth's misery was a wellspring of happiness on which JBL could draw.

"Do you blame him?" Jerry asked. "The Authority has Roman and Dean locked away! This means Seth is alone out there."

"They should call the match," Cole said.

"They should do no such thing," JBL retorted. "Seth needs to learn his lesson."

"And what lesson is that?" asked Cole.

"Not to mess with the Authority," came out of JBL sounding like something he said so often, that he probably mumbled it in his sleep.

When Seth got into the ring, he kept to his corner, staring mostly at the floor, looking occasionally at the opposing team, especially at Kane who seemed to stare back. Kane's new mask only had eye holes, which gave the impression that his mouth and nose had disappeared, that whatever alien life form was pretending to be his suit, it had no need for Kane to breathe or eat, all it needed were his eyes and his body.

Then Roman's music started and people rose in their seats, looking around frantically, hoping beyond hope that somehow, Dean and Roman had made it out of the locked room and were on their way. The spotlights went to the usual door Roman came through the crowd by, then over to the other door, just in case. They waved around the audience as if perhaps, someone was hiding him.

No Roman.

A close up of Seth's face showed sweat popping out on his brow.

Next, Dean's music played and everyone looked to the top of the ramp hoping Dean would appear, perhaps with Roman by his side.

No Dean.

There was an uncomfortable silence as people waited to see what would happen. Then the Authority's music began to play and Stephanie and Hunter came from around the corner, smiling the smile of a cat who knows he drank all the cream. People began to boo.

"Gee, Seth," Hunter said. "It looks like your friends have decided not to show up tonight."

Seth bit his lip and stared at them.

"I don't know what happened!" Stephanie said, but there was a trace of merriment in her voice as if she wanted to burst out laughing.

"Now, normally, we might call this match," Hunter said, still smiling. "But you know, Seth, you've always loved the numbers game."

"That's true," Stephanie said, her nose wrinkling again as if she were stifling an amused laugh. "You have to admit, Seth, you've always loved playing the numbers."

"Now let's see how much you love it, when the numbers don't favor you." Hunter said, his voice suddenly becoming much colder. He looked to Kevin, Kane, and the rest of Team Authority and gave them a curt nod. "Destroy him," he said, then turned and arm and arm with Stephanie, they walked back stage looking like a King and Queen who had just turned over an enemy of the state to the executioners.

To be fair, the match started out with Team Authority taking turns against Seth, even tagging each other in and out. And at the beginning, Seth seemed to have taken the attitude that while he was sure he would lose, he would at least go down fighting. He pulled every trick he could out of his arsenal, landing punches and kicks as fast as he could. But after awhile, Team Authority got tired of playing by the rules and started going after him, two on one, then three on one, then four on one. Seth found himself constantly being held while others beat on him, not giving him a chance to fight back.

Kane had barely done anything for this match, more than content to stand on the sidelines and watch as if this was nothing but a minor amusement holding no particular significance.

Eventually, even the announcers were reduced to merely talking how unfair this was, how it was nothing but a slaughter. JBL tried to talk up the Authority, but after awhile, even he became strangely silent as if he had just run out of clever ways to defend them. He stuck to merely talking about various moves.

Then, as if on cue, Kane calmly got into the ring. The referee was close by, trying to establish some form of order, but failing. Without a word, Kane walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned, Kane grabbed him and threw him out of the ring.

As if this were a signal, the other four members of Team Authority stopped and looked at Kane. Seth tried to use this opportunity to get away, but Sheamus had him held firm in an arm lock across his back. He struggled weakly, but it was obvious he wasn't going anywhere.

Kevin frowned for a moment, looking as if he was expecting something from Kane he wasn't sure he wanted to do. Kane fixed him with a look, and suddenly Kevin's eyes widened and he went back to Seth.

Kane slowly made his way to the center of the ring while Sheamus, Kevin, and Big Show each grabbed an arm or a leg of Seth. Rhyno stood there, staring at them for a moment, puzzled until Kevin pointed to Seth's left leg. Then Rhyno grinned, nodded and went over to take his leg.

The four men lifted Seth off the ground and slowly, as if this were a well rehearsed ritual, started bringing Seth over to Kane.

"What are they doing?" Lawler asked, sounding bewildered.

"I have no idea," Cole admitted.

"Whatever it is, it won't be good for Seth!" JBL declared, managing to sound slightly enthusiastic about whatever fate awaited Seth.

The audience was strangely quiet, as if they too, might be feeling whatever was going to Seth was taking things too far. Even though Kane had no weapons, the eerie costume that seemed almost to be not a costume, but an entity that had taken him over seemed to make him capable of almost anything. Wrestling was all about the physical punishment, but some folks were wondering if there was some things worse than physical punishment.

They had almost reached Kane when the cheering broke out, confusing people who only kept their eyes on the ring, then as the cheering got louder, the cameras panned out and moved to the ramp, where it looked like most of the locker room was pouring out and down the ramp, running as fast as they could. They piled into the ring, using the stairs, sliding in through the bottom, every way possible.

Kane stepped back calmly, as if this interruption was none of his concern. The other four members of Team authority dropped Seth and started attacking the other wrestlers that had entered the ring.

Last to come down were Roman and Dean, running as fast as they could. They both slid into the ring and joined the fray, Roman first making sure to pull Seth out of the ring and lean him carefully against the barricade, taking him out of the action. Seth leaned against the barricade, nodding weakly to Roman and motioning to the ring. Roman nodded and slid into the ring, where he punched Big Show in the back of his head before Big Show could hit Dean in the chest.

The battle was nothing but chaos, with so much to see that no one seemed to notice Kane calmly jumping off the ring apron and walking slowly, deliberately towards Seth. Then, as if it were an afterthought, a camera caught him, and then focused in.

Kane walked over to Seth and stood in front of him, staring at him. Seth looked up, looking at his face, his own covered in sweat. Their gazes locked and the color seemed to drain out of Seth's face, as if he was seeing something beyond horrifying.

Kane seemed to draw in a huge breath, although it still seemed to be questionable if he even had to breathe when he was wearing his costume, but his shoulders straightened and he started to reach down, his fingers moving in the direction of Seth's throat. Seth's eyes widened and he began coughing as if he were already being choked.

Slowly, Kane bent over and even slower, put his fingers around Seth's neck. He straightened up, pulling Seth up with him. Seth rose to his feet as if pulled by strings, his face twisted in terror that they showed on the titantrons, moving as if he had lost control of his body and all movement was now subject to the whims of whatever Kane had become.

Kane threw him into the ring, where most of the fighting between Team Authority and the members of the locker room, had fallen outside of the ring, little tussles happening all over the floor. The only ones left in the ring were Roman and Dean with Kevin and Sheamus. Both men were so intent on the fights they were in, that they didn't seem to notice Seth lying in the center of the ring.

Kane walked over slowly, in that deliberate way he seemed to have developed. As people watched, he reached down and grabbed Seth by the throat and again, pulled him to his feet, moving him so he was face to face with Kane. Seth was staring into his eyes, with a look on his face as if he were seeing his future and the future was filled with horror.

Then the lights went out, which stopped everything. It wasn't for long, barely ten seconds, but when they went back on, Seth was crumpled on the floor. Kane was still standing there, but now he was looking into someone else's eyes, Finn Balor's eyes, but Finn was not Finn, he was the demon. A shocked "Ooh" went through the crowd as the two men who claimed the title of Demon stood, toe to toe, eye to eye.

In the commotion, Sheamus and Kevin had rolled from the ring, so only Dean, Roman and Seth were in there with Finn and Kane. They both stared at the two men, as if not quite sure what they were seeing. Then Finn, not taking his eyes off of Kane, waved his hand in the air, making a gesture indicating that Roman and Dean really needed to think about leaving the ring. Roman looked at Dean and the two men nodded. Then they ran over to Seth, grabbing him and helping him out of the ring. They helped him out, then over the barricade and started half carrying him through the crowd.

The cameras were split between showing Seth, Roman and Dean running from the ring, running from the stadium, and showing Finn Balor and Kane, still having a stare down in the middle of the ring.

End of Chapter Seven