By Monday, Alberto's face feels mostly better, though he can still see some discoloration if he looks closely enough at himself in the mirror. Sighing tiredly, he stares at the match board for Raw and winces, turning away sharply and marching back to his locker room, needing some time to himself to prepare mentally and physically before his match against RVD... which means not only having to see Ricardo in RVD's corner for the first time, but actually against him, cheering on his opponent and...
He groans, closing his eyes as he tapes his wrists up automatically, biting his lips. "I can get through this, it's nothing," he mutters. "Van Dam is nothing..." He's on his way to gorilla to make his entrance when he stops short, coming across RVD and Ricardo in the midst of an interview, Ricardo talking about how he's teaching RVD Espanol. He sneers at the prospect as RVD speaks some of their language, stopping short when he hears Rob say that Ricardo is his hermano, seeing red for a moment. Biting down the impulse to storm over there and beat his opponent down right then and there, he takes a few steadying breaths and continues walking, swallowing down his anger as best as he can, teeth gritting.
As if that's not bad enough, he overlooks just how much hearing Ricardo being announced as RVD's personal ring announcer for the first time would hurt, standing a ways from gorilla as Justin Roberts says just that, his whole body freezing as his best friend goes out and begins to announce RVD, Del Rio's face twisted bitterly when the other man walks through next, the two of them making their way to the ring as Alberto watches the nearest monitor in disgust.
He makes his entrance last, all focus drawn away from him when Ricardo peels off the dress jacket that he'd worn for years as Del Rio's announcer, slinging it thoughtlessly to the mat below to show off the RVD shirt he's wearing, a grin on his face as he points at it, then turns and shows off the back of the shirt to Alberto as well. Trying to ignore the buzzing in his ears at this sight, he continues on to the ring and looks over as Ricardo slips out to the floor and the match begins. It goes back and forth a minute or two, Del Rio grimacing as Ricardo seems to take glee in mocking him with RVD's ridiculous thumb motions after he'd fallen out of the ring and landed heavily by the commentary table, Rob standing overhead on the turnbuckle, doing the same.
Alberto's finally slipping into the zone, however, close to locking in the armbar, when he sees a flash of red in his peripheral vision, looking over to find Ricardo standing on the commentary table. The unsturdy commentary table that seems like it could topple over at an angry look on any given day, the younger man balancing precariously on it while he stubbornly continues doing the thumb motions for RVD, staring right at him. Alberto forgets all about RVD, fear seizing him as he stumbles over to the ropes, gaping down at him. "Bajar ahora!" he yells at him, watching closely for a moment or two longer, worried what might happen if the table gave, and he fell. Especially with his history of ankle and neck injuries...
When he ignores him, still motioning to himself wildly, Alberto swallows and turns, determined to finish this before Ricardo thinks of something else risky to do in an attempt to assist RVD, but when he attempts the armbar anyway, RVD is ready and snags him up with his legs, twisting him into a pin that Alberto can't get out of, staring out of the ring upside down even as he struggles to get free while the ring announcer leaps off of the table, watching closely as the three count is achieved and Van Dam wins. He scrambles, struggling against the referee but unable to do anything but gape as his best friend runs up the ramp, grinning alongside his opponent as they celebrate the victory. "No, no, no," he breathes, clinging to his title. "Por favor, no..."
Ricardo is already with his current enemy, should the title be taken from him too... He winces and rocks against the second rope as the two men continue up the ramp, all grins from the victory. Alberto's still holding onto the gold belt, his nightmare from after Smackdown almost coming true before his very eyes. Finally recollecting himself, he storms through the halls back to his locker room, slamming the door behind him so strongly that it rattles in the frame. "He is not your hermano!" he screams at the walls, tossing a table over and scattering the few things atop it in his anger. "This will not be your title!"
Sliding to his knees on the cool, hard floor, he groans and shakes his head, remembering the look in Ricardo's eyes when he'd first called him hermano on TV back in January. It took me two and a half years, he thinks, viciously hating himself yet again for overlooking the ring announcer for as long as he had. This perro, this peasant dares to lay claim to such a title for him within a week? He closes his eyes. "Mine... they're mine... no matter what," he whispers, pressing the title to his chest.
He's still kneeling like that when there's a sharp knock at his door and he looks up, glowering at it for a minute, daring it to be a camera crew wanting an interview. "Who is it?!" he snaps, growing only more annoyed when no one responds, surging to his feet and storming over to the door. "Who-?" He comes to a stop, snarling down at the tech who's looking back up at him, uncomfortable. "What is it?"
"HHH has requested every superstar be on the stage for Daniel Bryan vs The Shield. That includes you, er, uh, sir," the young man says, growing more and more anxious under the weight of Del Rio's glare. Without waiting for an answer, he rushes off to continue spreading the message to those who might've missed it or attempted to ignore the edict.
Del Rio snarls and stares down at his title for a moment before leaving his locker room, slamming the door behind him forcefully. He is uncaring who's watching, ranting to himself in Spanish as he makes his way through the halls. He doesn't care at all about this whole Bryan nonsense, nor HHH's power plays, but he'd also rather stay under the radar, not risk being stripped of the title or worse, when he's so focused on what's happening with Ricardo and RVD. He slows abruptly when he comes upon the group of superstars waiting to go out for the main event, finding Miz, Riley, RVD and his former ring announcer standing together near the curtain, his lips thinning as he looks at them.
RVD notices him a second later, however, and pulls Ricardo back, standing protectively in front of him so, between he and Miz and everyone else scattered around, Del Rio can barely catch a glimpse of his friend, much less anything else. He snarls and rushes past, glaring at both Rob and Miz viciously before walking out to the ramp since he doesn't want to wait any longer. As Renee Young wanders around, trying to interview the various superstars HHH had selected, Del Rio finds his gaze shifting over to the other side of the ramp, where Ricardo and RVD are standing side by side, overwhelming anxiety on the ring announcer's face visible as Mike starts to talk, just to cut himself off without really saying anything of importance.
Despite his anger, somewhere deep inside, Del Rio is relieved himself that common sense somehow had prevailed for the loudmouthed superstar, the look on Ricardo's face all the proof he needs that, should Miz get himself fired, it'd only add to the younger man's problems. He sighs when the rest of the segment goes according to HHH's visible plans, Daniel left laying after none of the superstars come to his aid.
He for whatever reason has no match scheduled for Smackdown that week, which is something of a relief to him. He feels disgusted by everything: the Mexican flags he'd requested on the ring posts, his own gear, his futile attempts to get the crowd to accept him, nothing feels right anymore. He would ordinarily leave but RVD has a match, which means Ricardo will be present, so he swallows down his misgivings and stays, venturing out to the gorilla position after Ricardo announces his Night of Champions opponent- putting his own spin on saying the man's name in a way that only adds to Alberto's bitterness. He watches from the curtain as the two men walk to the ring, Ricardo all grins as he motions again to his shirt, saying something to the other man about it.
Del Rio takes a deep breath, lips twitching as Damien Sandow makes his way to the ring. Alberto, deep in thought throughout the relatively short match, ponders over the past few weeks, aware that his plans are slipping through his fingers. Ricardo working for RVD against him had been the last thing he'd expected, though he wasn't entirely sure where exactly the younger man would go after that horrible Monday three weeks ago. He feels like his control over the situation is failing, thanks to first Miz confronting him at the bar, and then the whole RVD situation, Ricardo guiding the man into the number one contendership. Despite how good of an actor he can be, he's aware of how he'd been failing the past couple of weeks, showing more true emotions than he cared to whenever Ricardo had confronted him alongside RVD. Much more of that and the truth could come out... he'd already slipped once in an interview and called the ring announcer his friend, during Summerslam week... I have to get this back on track, he thinks grimly as the match ends, RVD the victor. "Forgive me."
He makes his way on stage, smirking as he breaks up their little celebration in the ring, all joy quickly fading from Ricardo's face as RVD turns back to the younger man, arms raised in disbelief at the interruption. He's as dismissive, insulting, as he possibly can be, not even saying Ricardo's name, instead labeling him as "that thing" and a traitor, claiming that he'd turned his back on their people, the Latino people, watching as the ring announcer grows angry instead of sad, yelling at him from the apron. Right, get angry, Ricardo, he thinks, eyes gleaming darkly as he says something about dogs and fleas, only half-focused on what he's saying now. This was intended to help you become stronger, not break you. He alternates between insulting and mocking them in Spanish and English before finally running out of things to say and simply smirking from the top of the ramp, holding his title proudly, before leaving the two annoyed men behind.
Still unable to leave the arena for whatever reason, he allows himself to wander for awhile, his title back in his locker room, the key to which is safely in his slacks pocket. He stops short upon turning a corner, finding RVD doing his ridiculous split stretches between two chairs, eyes closed as if he's meditating. Ducking back behind the wall, he peeks down the hallway once more, swallowing when he spots Ricardo sitting calmly on a trunk a few feet away, that horrible red shirt still adorning his upperbody.
WWE film crew spots him at about the same time, asking for a quick word for Tout. Ricardo agrees easily and Del Rio listens, his chest aching, as the younger man starts off by saying simply that he had never left Alberto, Alberto had left him. He closes his eyes as Ricardo continues on, saying that he'd then decided to surround himself with good people, Del Rio looking up in time to see him motion over to the still meditating RVD, a smile on his face.
Forgetting why he'd originally come this way to begin with, Alberto stumbles back towards his locker room and unlocks it with a shaking hand, letting himself inside. He drops onto his couch and scoops up the title belt, resting his head against the leather back of the furniture. "Ay," he groans, Ricardo's words echoing in his head. "It had to be done... it had to be..." He swallows. "Correcto...?"