It's easy to forget, sometimes. Fall into a routine and never think back to the days when Bray Wyatt tormented him, had him chained up backstage and scrawled LIAR over his chest and he had hung there, unconscious and lifeless until Tamina and AJ had found him and saved him. Even to forget the much more recent time when The Fiend had targetted the kids, Maryse's horror still fresh in his mind. Then he says something in the middle of one of his infamous rants and feels that familiar stab of fear down his chest and- oh shit.
Of course. Of course it gains Bray's ire and he makes it known in another utterly random Firefly Funhouse that his focus is once more back on Miz, and the next thing Mike knows is he's scheduled to wrestle Bray later and dammit, it's not supposed to be this way, he has the Money in the Bank briefcase, he should be able to focus thoroughly on Drew and Orton's match later, but no. Of course not.
"It's gonna be fine," John says, but John's never really interacted that much with either Bray Wyatt or The Fiend, and Miz thinks he's experienced as much screwed up shit in Lucha Underground, but this is different because everyone was otherworldly and weird in that temple, but here, in WWE, most are normal, unless they came from NXT in that period of time when everyone seemed to have abilities and some strange aura about them.
"I don't know," he mutters, clinging to his briefcase. "I just don't know."
John looks sympathetic, even if he doesn't fully understand, and his hand on Mike's back is warm and comforting as he strokes up and down in slow, lazy circles.
Mike walks into the match with Bray with as much strength and bravery as he can show, and John looks his usual calm self, but Mike is a bundle of nerves beneath and when Alexa comes out first, then Nikki, and Bray arrives just to stare the woman down, Miz waits for something to happen- but all that he notices is the abrupt shift as Bray turns to Alexa, growing giggly and happy, offering her his arm as they make their way down the ramp together, Nikki immediately ignored.
It's weird, he'll never understand it, but he has no time to consider Alexa Bliss' place in all of this, trying his hardest to get something in on Bray, but nothing matters, it all backfires, Bray is too powerful, even in his non-Fiend wear. Mike had no chance when it was protecting his kids or Maryse's children, and he has even less now. John tries to help, bless that man, but when Mike glances out and sees the flash of fear on his face as Bray glowers down at him, some smothering sort of power infusing the arena, making it seem darker for a split second, Mike knows it's all but over.
Then Alexa flies out of nowhere and tackles John over the barricade wall, and Mike doesn't seem him again. Bray wins not long afterwards, and Mike watches groggily from the ring as Bray goes to check on Alexa, just for her to pop up and grin at him, pretending to be a tight rope walker on the barricade wall until she reaches him. Mike thinks he sees the Fiend, hears the Fiend, senses the Fiend, but it's brief, and the lights come back on, and silence prevails and when he looks up again, a referee is trying to talk to him, but he ignores him. John. He scrambles, rolls wearily out of the ring and collapses to the mat below, before shifting upright and struggling to drape himself over the barricade. "John!"
He's laying there, curled in on himself, unmoving, and when Mike finally touches him, he gasps shallowly and leans into Mike's warmth, his skin abnormally cold. "Shit," he mutters. "What did Alexa do to you?" He wishes he had one of John's obnoxiously thick coats, but all he has is himself, and he makes due to pull John into a sitting position and cradle his face in his hands, relieved when his eyes focus on Mike, groggy but there.
"Ow," he mutters.
"Are you ok?"
"I... I think so," John sighs. "God, what a couple of lunatics."
"Yeah. Come on, let's get up, get out of here." Mike just wants to disappear into their locker room and try to regroup, get some warmth back into John's skin. It's not easy for John, he can tell by how he moves slowly, almost painfully, and Mike watches him with a frown, wondering just what Alexa did while they were out of sight.
"It's ok," he murmurs when John's step falters and he pauses to take a breath. "Just... go slow, we're ok."
And they are, for now. Drew beats Orton later, which changes Miz's plans, but not by too substantial a margin. Anything thrown at him- be it the Fiend, Orton, Drew, or some ridiculous combination of all three changes nothing in Mike's mind. Soon, very soon, he will be World Champion again.