Fire And Ice

Chapter 4: Strange Bedfellows

06/15/2015, The Night After MITB

Completely banged up, but his pride and ego glowing in full force, Seth Rollins made his way through the hallways of the arena, unable to contain the huge smile that was on his face. He had finally defeated Dean Ambrose in a Ladder match to retain his WWE World Heavyweight Championship. For his sake, he had hoped he had finally vanquished his former Shield brother so that he could finally get on with his life.

He rubbed his victory in the face of his Authority cohorts Kane as well as his security team, the oft-injured J&J Security, and there was no stopping there. Sooner or later, the Architect was bound to request a statue at some point; there was truly no limit to the ego power that Seth had amassed. But for now, he wanted a championship celebration tonight, commemorating his defeat of the Lunatic Fringe.

The Authority gave him just that, but at the end of the night, Seth wasn't doing celebrating of any sort at all. Rather, he was cowering in fear over the fact that he had completely soiled himself over his next number one contender for the championship, the Beast Incarnate himself Brock Lesnar. The same man Seth had stolen the championship from at WrestleMania, was finally back and ready to make mince meat of him.

The champ stormed down the hall with his belt over his shoulder, pissed off and in a completely sour mood. He marched straight towards the office of the Authority, already intent to register yet another complaint on behalf of himself. "Hunter, Stephanie what the fuck was that?! You seriously bring Brock Lesnar back from suspension without having the nerve to tell me?! What kind of outfit do you guys think you're running here huh? Answer me!" Seth shouted, slamming his fists on the desk with angry force.

Much to the champ's surprise, the chair spun around to reveal the last person he was expecting to be there. One of the WWE's executive vice presidents, and right hand man to the now deceased Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn sat in his seat, smoking a cigar and twiddling his thumbs together as he arched a curious eyebrow at Dunn. "Sit your ass down champ, let's have a discussion," he finally spoke, pointing Seth towards a chair in the far right corner of the room.

Out of the corner of his eye, Seth caught sight of a picture of one of Paige's recent photo shoots, making the champ get riled up just a bit. That was his ex-girlfriend now, after all. But that didn't give Dunn any right to have pictures like those sitting on the home screen of his laptop. "Where the hell are Hunter and Stephanie? Why the fuck are you here?" the Architect mouthed off. He tightly readjusted the belt over his shoulder as one of the higher ups in the company stared him down, with icy black eyes.

Dunn quickly reached out and nailed Rollins in the jaw with a nasty right hook. "Don't you fucking talk to your superiors like that. You need to learn some respect now that you're the champion, but by the looks of things, you've got a lot of growing pangs to get through," he readjusted his cigar. "Hunter and Steph already left the building for the night. They're headed home to get ready for their next vacation while you're stuck here trying to fend for your life against Brock Lesnar," he grinned, not shy at showing Seth the humor he found in his dire situation.

"I appreciate you taking the time to laugh at me and the pain I'm suffering right now, but I can assure you Dunn, that Hunter and Steph surely wouldn't. I mean, after all there's a reason they rose up to power to take over Vince's place and not you, am I right?" Rollins did his best to try and get under Dunn's skin, but his poker face was strong.

"Petty little insults like that won't get you far in this business Mr. Rollins. And as many accomplishments as you have accomplished so far in your young career, it's no hidden secret that you're still in the shadows of your former Shield brothers right?" Dunn questioned, not taking his eyes away from Seth. As he expected, Seth got a bit hot under the collar.

"Do you know just who the hell you're talking to Dunn? I'm the WWE World Heavyweight Champion! I won Money in the Bank last year, and I was the first ever NXT Champion! I am the future! I created and destroyed the Shield! Not Roman, not Dean, screw the both of them!" he hissed as spit flew everywhere and Dunn wiped it out of the way.

"Watch where you're spitting Sylvester. Anyway, you're so fucking predictable and easy to read that it's pathetic. You let people get into your head way too easily and press your buttons way too quickly. It's sad really, but I'd be lying if I said that you weren't an important asset to the future of this company. After all, you're not afraid to do what has to be done to move ahead in this company, no matter how many broken bodies you have to step over. And no matter how much success you achieve, you always remember to give thanks to the people that got you those opportunities in the first place."

Seth nodded his head, not sure exactly where Dunn was going with this, but he perked his ears up and continued to listen. "Unlike this fucker right here," Dunn spat, spinning his laptop around to show Seth a picture of the current NXT champion, Kevin Owens. For reasons unbeknownst to Seth, Dunn harbored an intense hatred for the hard headed Canadian, but after the recent hell Owens had put Seth himself through, it was easy to understand why.

"I hate this piece of hamburger meat more than anyone else on the fucking earth. I don't know what the hell was going on through Hunter and the Board of Directors' minds when they signed this slow and out of shape slob. Good God, I want to just take his face and take a hot shit on it. And fuck his ex-wife while I'm at it too," Dunn threw out his cigar, trashing papers all over the office like a madman.

"Look, I can see why the guy gets you so worked up. He destroyed my car the other day and walked off with my wallet like a common thief, so why don't we broker some kind of deal here huh? How about I help you embarrass Owens and in exchange, you protect me from Brock Lesnar and help me hold onto my championship huh? Sounds like a fair deal to me, then we'd both get rid of Owens too," Seth offered.

Kevin Dunn pondered Seth's deal for a moment. The Architect was definitely becoming a master at playing mind games, so he didn't want to fall victim to Seth's game plan, but at the same time, he needed to do whatever he could to try and get Owens out of the WWE ASAP. He saw what Owens had done to other authority figures in his wrestling past, and he'd be damned if Owens added his name to the list as well.

"Alright you've got yourself a deal Rollins. But if this thing goes south, all the blame is falling onto your shoulders, not mine. So don't say I didn't warn you," Dunn whispered in a hushed tone, but Seth was already grinning like a goblin from ear to ear. "What's life without a few risks, eh Dunn?" Seth cracked a joke as both black hearted men laughed together like they had just experienced the ultimate triumph.

"By the way, if you're gonna be the champ, you gotta live like one too Rollins. Ladies?" Dunn called out, and the door opened up to reveal both Eva Marie and Tough Enough contestant Amanda, who Dunn had secretly signed in a backdoor deal in the event that she didn't win Tough Enough. The executive truly was despicable. "Make sure you ladies show the Architect here the night of his life. Make him forget all about pasty Paige and focus all of his attention on you two beautiful women," he retorted, a devilish smile on his face.

"Oh don't worry Mr. Dunn, we'll take good care of Rollins for you," Eva said, as she and Amanda escorted Seth out of the office with Amanda already reaching into the inside of the champ's pants, eager to get a move on.

Dunn smiled to himself. This was just one small action that would hopefully set in motion the destruction of both Hunter and his entire faction. This wasn't a game anymore, this was an all-out war. One where only he would walk out the last man standing.

07/14/2015, 6:55pm

Becky sat outside of her hotel door, chilling on the floor while drinking plenty of alcohol without a care in the world. She was fresh off of a successful main roster debut the previous day, when she debuted alongside her friend Charlotte. The two of them had aligned themselves with fellow NXT alumni Paige, in an attempt to put an end to the Bella Twins' reign of terror over the WWE Divas' division. Paige had been at it for months, and when Paige had gotten word from Stephanie that the two of them were getting called up, she couldn't help but call on her old friend Becky as well as Charlotte to help her put a stop to the Bellas' reign.

The debut was a rousing success; they ripped apart Team Bella and left a lasting memorable image of her, Charlotte, and the freshly returned and called up Sasha Banks, locking Team Bella in submissions and making them tap. This truly was the start of the Divas Revolution.

So why was she drinking away the night outside of her hotel room? Certainly the main roster road life took some time to get adjusted to, but it wasn't anything that she couldn't handle. Maybe she needed her own place finally? Not necessarily, she didn't exactly have the time to be looking for a new place, and Kevin did tell her that she could stay as long as she liked.

Or perhaps it was what she had heard last night at the RAW arena behind closed doors, when Stephanie McMahon was having a private conversation with her very own best friend, Paige. She had no idea what exactly Paige and Stephanie were collaborating about, but the fact that quite a few laughs and chuckles were thrown around in there, made the Steampunk Diva's stomach churn a bit.

Then, she heard Stephanie quote that "at SummerSlam, there will be the Reckoning." What in the green Irish hell was that supposed to mean exactly? The Reckoning? Was somebody about to get their comeuppance or were there worse things to come in the very near future? The Irish diva sighed to herself. No one had told her being a WWE performer came with all of this…unnecessary drama and baggage to bear.

As she downed another bottle of alcohol, her best friend Charlotte came down the hall, sitting to join her on the floor, as she picked up one of the bottles and eyed Becky. "Really Bex? One day on the road and you're already sweatin'?" the genetically superior woman commented, shaking her head with a wry laugh on her face. "We're gonna handle this revolution just fine, I promise," Charlotte said with confidence.

Becky laughed along with her friend before settling down. "It's not the Revolution I'm worried about right now. We're gonna bust some Bella heads and booty for sure. I'm just worried about what I heard after the show from Steph's office. Paige was in there for some reason and they were talking about some sort of reckoning," Becky scratched her head in confusion.

"What the hell? Why did Paige go to Stephanie without us? We're supposed to be a team now," Charlotte crossed her arms, not taking Paige's actions very well. "And what the hell is the Reckoning?"

"Believe me Char, if I knew I'd be telling ye right now, but the fact is I don't, and we need to find out. But I'm not sure if we can trust Paige to help us with it. For all we know, she might be the one helping the Authority create it," Becky said, trying to grab the last bottle of alcohol she had but Charlotte had already swiped it and downed it instantly.

"Let's just ride it out for now Bex. I mean, we are the 4 Horsewomen for a reason. Even if only two of us are on the same page for now. I've got a plan that just might work and help us get to the bottom of things, but it's gonna require a lot of luck and patience. You with me on this?" Charlotte asked.

"Of course Nature Girl, down to the sweet, bitter and juicy ending," Becky quipped, laughing with her friend as they did some sort of pinky handshake, as they headed into their hotel room for the evening.

All of this was to the dismay of the third member of the team, Paige, who heard the whole conversation just outside of her door across the hallway. Her fists clenched, and her eyes watered, as she sat down on her bed, feeling betrayed. Couldn't they just trust her? This was exactly why she had turned on her friends in the past; they didn't trust her, and as a result, she couldn't trust them.

She was going to make sure that it'd be a long road to hell for all of them before it was all said and done.

07/19/2015, Battleground, 11:25pm, Cold Blues Bar

Kevin Owens sat in silence in his own booth, as he quietly threw down on a medium rare steak with fries, pondering his recent string of bad luck he was going through. He lost his NXT championship to Finn Balor all the way in Japan on the 4th of July, and after losing to Cena at Money In the Bank, he had a chance to redeem himself tonight at Battleground and take away Cena's prized US Championship.

Unfortunately for Owens, not only did he fail in taking Cena's title, but the Face of the WWE also forced Owens to tap out in the middle of the ring.

Cena made him submit. In front of the entire world. How embarrassing.

Now that exact moment would be on replay in the back of his mind forever. He had gone from beating Cena clean to submitting to the WWE's resident superhero and unfortunately for him, everybody was already beginning to bombard him with insults on social media. He quickly turned his phone off, turning his attention back to his meal, finishing it off and drinking down his beer.

He only wanted to go home and just relax, turn himself away from the world. It was far more easy having an icy heart and not giving a single fuck about anything, but sometimes it was easier said than done. As he downed some more of his beer, an uninvited guest made his presence known in his booth.

"Hello friend! I entered the bar ready to throw down on some grub and I couldn't help but sense a lonely soul in here, and it led me to you!" came the sheer, cracked voice of Bo Dallas. Owens groaned at the sight of Bo invading his privacy, but decided to do his best to ignore him.

"Don't feel down, we've all tapped out to our problems before. John Cena is a tough guy, but don't let that take away from the fact that you did your absolute best, alright? All you have to do is—"

"Don't you fucking say it!" Kevin yelled, but it was too late by then. "BOLIEVE!" Bo screamed at the top of his lungs and at that point, Owens snapped. He quickly kicked Bo in the gut, climbing onto the table and delivering a devastating banned move in the Package Piledriver, breaking the Inspirational One physically. The Canadian tossed Bo into the bar hard, slamming stools onto the back of Bo.

"Do you Bolieve now Bo? Do you?!" Owens bellowed, picking Bo up once more and tossing him through the bar window. By that time, the bar owners had already called the police, and the boys in blue stormed the bar, adorned with the "A" symbol on their badges, ready to take down Owens. But the cold blooded Canadian was caught on a wrong day, as he smashed two of the cops' heads into each other, and delivered a Pop Up Powerbomb to a third over the counter.

Just as it seemed Owens wasn't going to be stopped in his rampage of fury, three shots of tasers all fired out at the same time, instantly dizzying the brawler and after a swift punt kick to the head, made him black out completely. And before his eyes closed fully shut, Kevin could have sworn that he saw the slimy, smug face of Kevin Dunn grinning like the devil himself.

And that's a wrap on chapter 4 folks! Be sure to fave, follow, and leave a review, they're always much appreciated and keep us motivated! Be sure to stay up to date with the other stories in the series as well in our Seven Deadly Sins Universe!

Temptation: Escape Me by EloquentAngel90 (Sasha Banks)

Fatal Attraction by MellyxBrooks (Dean Ambrose)

Pride: Watch the Throne by myself (Roman Reigns)

Welcome to the Future by xxPikaSixJoyxx (Seth Rollins)