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Seth sat with his elbows resting on his knees with his head in his hands. He stared down at the thick carpeted floor, his long two toned hair shielding his face from the view of others.
"Did you hear me, Rollins?" Snapped Stephanie who stood broadly behind her desk, her dark curls framing her face.
Seth's head snapped up and his brown eyes found Stephanie before falling to Hunter who sat in a leather chair opposite Steph's desk. Randy Orton leaned against the wall to the left of the leather sofa that Seth was perched on.
"Sorry. What did you say?" Seth grumbled.
Stephanie let out a loud sigh. "I said you'll be in a match tonight," she paused and looked between Hunter and Randy. "And you better show us we invested in the right Shield member."
Seth nodded silently before slowly scratching his beard.
Stephanie narrowed her twinkling blue eyes in on Seth before throwing her hands up in exasperation. "You're not going to say anything?"
"Steph wait," Hunter said, holding a hand up to silence her. "What's the problem Rollin's? You weren't this quiet after you turned your back on your brothers," he smirked. "So why the silence now? I hope you're not regretting your decision-"
"No!" Seth interrupted, finally having some passion in his voice. "I don't regret anything."
Hunter shrugged his shoulders. "Then what's the problem?"
Randy spoke before Seth had a chance to open his mouth. "He's scared that Ambrose and Reigns are going to come after him," he smirked as he pushed himself off the wall and slipped into the chair next to Hunter's smoothly.
Seth stared angrily at Randy, his mouth hanging open empty of words.
"Is that what it is?" Hunter spoke as Steph sniggered. "Listen, Reigns and Ambrose aren't here tonight. They're banned from the building. But you know yourself that they're not going to let this go."
"You think I don't know that?" Seth snapped in response.
"Finally some fire," Steph said with a sickening smile.
"They will come after you," Hunter continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "But they'll get bored and move on. Ambrose is an unstable lunatic; I promise you he won't focus his attention on you for more than one show before he runs off chasing butterflies or something," Randy and Steph immediately laughed at Hunter's joke. Seth stared on before jumping in on the laughter at the last minute. "And Orton here is going to keep the real threat busy."
"Reigns will want to get his grubby hands on me so bad, he won't even know the name Rollin's."
Seth nodded as Hunter and Randy stood. He stood quickly after them as they began to file out of the room one by one. "Hey Steph," Seth said as she closed the door. "I know Hunter said Dean and Roman aren't here, but is Athena?"
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Athena kept her hood up as she walked through the cold hallways of the arena. She kept her head down and her blue wide eyes were glued to her boots as she walked quickly; she could hear the loud clanging of crew members dragging equipment through the halls.
She rushed ahead her eyes still downcast, desperate not to be seen. She'd successfully avoided seeing Seth at the previous Smackdown taping and planned to continue to avoid him during that night's Raw. In fact, she planned on successfully avoiding him for the rest of her career- scratch that- the rest of her life.
It wasn't just Seth she was trying to avoid either. She knew that with the two remaining Shield members not being at the Smackdown taping, that they would definitely be at Raw, and they would be declaring war. The last thing she needed was bumping into an angry Dean and Roman.
They had proved that the week before.
She slipped into the Diva's locker room, shrugging her hood down as she smiled at Nattie and Naomi who sat in their ring gear watching the television screen intently.
"You guys look serious," Athena said before her smile dropped as she realised Raw had started and Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose were making their way to the ring, both with sour expressions. "Turn it up," Athena spoke as she slipped onto the bench next to Naomi.
Dean took the mic as Roman paced cockily behind him.
"The Shield was untouchable," Dean's gravelly voice began as he held the mic with both of his taped hands. "And we will go down in the history books as one of the greatest groups in sport's entertainment. Ever," he punched Roman in the chest lightly. "We dominated WWE, we beat everybody." He smiled. "Even Evolution. But we weren't healthy," he tapped the mic as his face dropped. "We had a cancer inside of us, little did we know, and that cancer's name was," he huffed looking angrier by the second. "That cancer's name was Seth Rollins." Dean's breathing became more erratic and he kept clenching and unclenching his jaw. "History is full of people like you Seth, everyone in this building knows someone like you. The kind of guy who would stab his brothers in the back."
Athena winced as he spoke.
"A suck up," Dean continued. "Who'd sell out to the Authority." He scrunched his face as he stared angrily down at the camera.
Naomi fell back. "That man is crazy."
"Now when I get the opportunity to rearrange your face, which I will, your nose isn't going to be here anymore, it's going to be over here by your ear." he gripped his ear loosely. "I say ear because you're only going to have one left." Dean gripped his own hair roughly. "I'm going to rip your dirty stinking hair out by the roots and I'm going to stuff it in your mouth, there'll be plenty of room where your teeth used to be-"
Athena stood suddenly and strode across the room to her bag as the other two Diva's eyes flicked between Athena and the screen. Athena dug in her bag quickly and shoved her headphones into her ears as soon as she grabbed them, desperate to block out the broken voices of the Shield.
She kept her back to them and tapped her foot along to her music as she desperately tried to clear her head before her match. She was so angry and had a churning sickly feeling in her stomach since Seth had betrayed them all. He'd betrayed his brothers but he'd betrayed her too.
She jumped at the sudden light touch on her shoulder. Athena turned quickly to find Nattie's sympathetic eyes watching down on her. "Hey, it's over." Athena nodded quietly pulling her ear phones out. "Your match is up next, you better get going."
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Smiling widely Athena turned and waved one last time to the crowd as her music boomed through the arena before disappearing behind the curtain. Her eyes were wide and her smile wider as she thought how good her match had been. Maybe her anger at Seth had been put to good use, maybe Seth had done her a favour by betraying her.
She felt like jumping up and down and clapping her match had gone so well.
Her euphoria didn't last long.
Seth appeared in front of her suddenly, his two toned hair pulled back and he wore a dark black suit. His brows were furrowed and he grabbed her arm roughly and began pulling her to the side of the hall.
"Seth let me go," she said bravely trying to pull her arm from his grasp.
He looked back and forth checking the hallway before bending to her height.
"Your match was great, Attie." She ignored him. "Will you just talk to me please?" He spoke calmly and his brown eyes were wide.
"I don't want to talk to you," she said forcing herself to look into his chocolaty orbs.
"Just let me explain?"
She clenched her jaw and tried once again to pull her arm free from his grasp.
"I did this for us-" He began though Athena interrupted him.
"I didn't ask for this!" She yelled as her blue eyes began to fill with salty tears. "I didn't ask you to stab your brothers in the back."
He finally let go of her arm but as she was about to move he settled both his hands on either side of her face forcing her back against the wall. He squeezed her cheeks roughly as he looked into her eyes.
"Look, I won't apologise for what I did." he began and she rolled her eyes. "But I will apologising for upsetting you. Maybe if I'd told you and you knew it was coming you'd understand why I did this."
"Maybe if you'd told your brothers you wanted out instead of hitting them over and over with a steel chair, they'd be a little less upset too."
He stared into her eyes angrily.
"Since when do you talk back to me, huh?" He squeezed her cheeks tightly with one hand whilst he let the other drop to her hip to hold her in place. She raised her hands and began desperately trying to pull his hand away from her face.
She felt her tears spill over her eyes as he glared down at her. The same look he'd given Dean's broken and battered body the week before.
Athena felt nauseous with fear.
"Please, just let me go," she whispered.
"You're coming back to the hotel with me!" He growled.
She shook her head wildly, her red hair moving with the motion. "No. I don't want to," she begged. "Just let me go."
Before Seth could reply a voice rumble into her ears. "I think the lady said let her go," Seth instantly let go of Athena and bolted in the opposite direction down the hall.
Athena shakily looked down at Roman nervously. She wiped away her tears quickly, feeling that her make-up was smudged she pulled her hair forward.
"Thanks," she mumbled pushing herself forward and began walking in the opposite direction to Seth. Roman turned and walked with her slowing down his step to match hers. "I'm sorry I messed up your chance to get him."
"Say what, baby girl?" she could hear the smile in his voice.
"If you hadn't told him to get away from me, he wouldn't have known that you were there and you would have got him."
He chuckled deeply. "Don't worry about it, I'll get him later."
"Good," she said quickly.
He continued laughing as he placed a hand on her shoulder gently and guided her towards a locker room. "In here," she followed him deciding they could clear the air and she could explain fully that she had no idea what Seth was planning.
Roman opened the door and she shuffled in quietly after him.
Athena heard his voice before she saw him.
"What the fuck is she doing here?" Dean snarled.
Athena peeked around Roman's hulking frame. Dean was pacing back and forth, dressed head to foot in his ring gear, his hair was wet and he puffed deeply on a cigarette. A snarky comment about smoking inside popped into Athena's head but she thought better of saying anything.
He continued pacing as his icy eyes locked onto Athena's nervous body.
"Attie's not with him," Roman said calmly.
"How the fuck do we know she's not working with him?!" Athena's mouth opened in horror. "You ever think that maybe this is exactly what she wants."
"I-" Roman interrupted before Athena could stutter out a response.
Roman placed his large hands on his hips. "I just seen him ambush her, believe me brother, she's not with him."
"I hate him," she squeaked out. "I really really hate him," she could feel the tears brimming again as she staggered backwards and sat on one of the benches. She ran a hand through her auburn hair before wiping her eyes quickly not wanting to cry in front of Dean.
Roman sat quickly beside her and handed her a Kleenex. She smiled in thanks as the tears spilled over without her permission; she buried her head in her hands desperate for them to stop.
She heard Dean's footsteps stop and she didn't need to be looking to know he was glaring at her.
"He's been texting and ringing me all week and," she sucked in a sharp breath of air as Roman placed his arm around her and pulled her into a hug. "He just won't leave me alone and I just don't want anything to do with him." Wiping her eyes she looked up and locked with Dean's for a second before he took a quick puff of his cigarette and continued his pacing. "I'm so embarrassed I hooked up with him. I thought he was a completely different person to who he really is."
The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes before Dean checked his phone. "We've got to go Rome, that scumbag will be out there any minute," he stormed through the door without even looking at Athena.
"We've got to go baby girl, stay here and watch," he smiled nodding to the Television screen that showed Michael Cole introducing former Shield member Seth Rollins down to the ring. "I'm sure it'll make you feel better. Stay, I'll be back I promise."
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