Chapter 1

*Backstage at WWE Raw, Iowa*

"I don't know, it's a big risk to take, I mean those two are our best superstars right now" the man in the power suit exclaimed, pacing up and down the office. "I know that, but if we could get rid of them, even temporarily, we can make room for the return of one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era!" she says excited. "Think about it, most of our top stars are injured right now, Seth, Randy, John, Cesaro, Nikki, this is the perfect time to return and dominate, to do what's best for business!" Stopping, he turns to her and pacing closer, "And who's this you have in mind to dominate the WWE? Anyone I know?" he asks, with a smile, leaning in close to the woman. "Oh I think you know who I'm talking about, Mr. King of Kings!" she purred, putting her hand on his chest, to prevent him getting closer, they were at work after all. Hunter paused, thinking it over, beginning to pace again. Stephanie waited, knowing that the lure of holding the WWE Heavyweight Championship would convince him to agree to get rid of what was left of the Shield. Roman Reigns and especially Dean Ambrose are a constant thorn in the side of the Authority, and now, they would be dealt with. Removing the last vestiges of the Shield would remove the last bits of resistance to the Authority's rule and that sounded good to Stephanie. "Well? What do you think? Do you want to become world heavyweight champion again? To be the face of the company? All we have to do is get rid of Reigns and Ambrose and there will a clear run for the title!" she says, sitting behind the desk while her husband paced. "What do we do about Rollins though? Do we keep him on or cut him loose? He could be an asset, with his skills." Steph muses, looking out the window. "I think we should cut him loose, he's no further use to us, he's just a cripple right now" Hunter said with a sigh. Stephanie had a different opinion, though. "We can use him Hunter, once he's healed. He can be an enforcer for us, he isolated the rest of our enforcers before he was injured, we need some new ones. We can offer him a title shot when he proves himself, but just don't tell him that yet, leave him sweat. He has no one else to turn to, he pissed off just about everybody" she said, a sick smile on her face. "Let me guess, he never proves himself, right?" Hunter chuckles out. "Right! How did you know?" Steph says, grinning, her arms around HHH. They were both laughing when there was knock on the door. "Come in" Hunter says, a bit puzzled, there was no appointments scheduled today, so who could it be? When no one entered, he crossed to the door and pulled it open. Waiting outside, balancing on crutches, was none other than the Architect, Seth Rollins. "Hey Hunter, Steph" he says quietly. The beanie, black rimmed glasses and slumped posture, he doesn't look like the former face of the company, thank god he won't be for a long while, if ever. Steph thought. "Seth, you're not supposed to be here. What about physical therapy?" she said, inviting him in. "The trainers said I was pushing myself too hard, risked re-blowing my knee, so I took a break for a couple of days. Since you're in my home state, I thought I'd drop by" He said getting comfortable on the couch. "Seth you're progressing faster than a normal person would, you can't ruin that by pushing yourself too hard" Hunter replied, moving to sit behind the desk. "I'm glad you're here actually, we wanted to talk to you. I know the plan was to have you challenge Roman for and win the WWE title when you returned." At this, Seth froze, the blood draining from his face and he knew, he knew! where this was going before HHH spoke again. "Wait hold on! Please don't tell me you're not going to give me a title shot when I get back?!" He studied Hunter and Stephanie's face from the couch, looking back and forth between the two of them "You're not going to, are you? What the hell, Hunter?!" At Seth's tone, HHH glared at the smaller man until he squirmed and dropped his gaze to his lap. "I am your boss, not one of your pathetic former brothers or J&J security, do not raise your voice to me Rollins! Steph and I are the ones in charge here! If we want to change who gets a title shot, we will! Understand?" he thundered, hands flat on the desk. "No Hunter I don't! I did what you asked and gave up everything to be here, to hold the title and I deserve to be the World Heavyweight Champion again! I never lost the title, you fucking stripped me of it and now you're telling me that I won't get a title shot when I come back?! Are you fucking serious Hunter?!" "That is exactly what we are telling you Seth! We stripped you of the title because you made a stupid mistake and got injured! You aren't fit to be the World Heavy Weight Champion anymore, you lost it and now you don't deserve it! You were ever only a temporary champion!" Hunter cursed, looking like he had just left a major secret slip while Seth was dumbfounded "What do you mean I was a temporary Champion? I was chosen from the Shield to become The Man, the greatest WWE Champion ever!"

"We needed the Shield gone, they were a major threat to us, but I couldn't do it, even Evolution couldn't do it. So Steph here realised that the only way that the Shield could be destroyed was from within, so we chose you, Seth Rollins, to turn on your brothers and join us, destroying the Shield in the process. We decided which one of you was weakest and simply dangled a championship in front of you, and you did it, nearly killing one of your brothers in the process" "No, no this can't be happening" Seth thought "Do you really think we could work with a Shield member? Let alone let him become a champion for real?! You know for The Architect, you aren't that smart Seth" Hunter chuckles, observing every little flicker of emotion flashing across his face, looking like he was enjoying the pain of the younger man. "We only needed you to fill the role of champion for a couple of months, so we could convince the higher ups that Hunter getting the title is what's best for business. You getting injured just sped up the plan. Once we get rid of your former brothers, I will be champion again!" Seth felt sick. Sitting there, he could feel his life imploding around him. He had bet everything that he would have been champion for a long time and he just lost big time. He lost his family, his brothers hated him, most of the locker room hated him, the fans hated him and now the only thing he had left, The Authority, was telling him they tricked him into destroying everything he loved and turning their backs on him. I've lost everything, I've nothing left, they took it from me. How could I have let them do this to me? To the Shield? "Since you are injured, we have no use for you right now, so just go home, rest and re-habilitate and get back into condition, alright?" Seth, however didn't hear what he said. I should have expected this, he thought bitterly to himself, The Authority looks after the Authority, everyone else was replaceable. He had sacrificed everything to be the man of this company, his brothers, the fans, even his family! And they just decided to give the title to themselves?! "So since you aren't going to be in the championship picture any time soon, we decided to keep you on as an enforcer for the Authority." Seth was in shock "An enforcer?! They want to keep me on as a fucking enforcer, when I was the WWE champion and never lost the belt for months and kept it in the Authority? They have to be joking! I sacrificed everything I had! I turned my back on my brothers, Oh god I hurt them so badly, the fans hate me and for what?! To be a fucking enforcer?!" He flashed back to that night in the ring, Roman laid out on his front, Dean just staring at him, not wanting to believe what his eyes were telling him. That one of his brothers, the one he was was supposed to count on and trust, had betrayed him. "What have I done? I put my brother's head through cinder blocks to please these two fuckers! He could have died or been paralysed! I have to find him and R- " Hunter snapped his fingers in front of Seth's face, snapping him out of his daze. "Well? What do you say? Will you be our enforcer or will you quit?" Hunter was right in Rollins's space, looking dead into his eyes. Seth felt intimidated, pushed right back into the couch, he had nowhere to go. "What can I do? If I quit, I can go back to the Indies. But, I don't want to, and besides the fans hate me anyway, the death threats showed me that. If I stay here, I'll basically be Hunter and Steph's bitch. I have nowhere else to go. No one else will have me." "Can I have some time to think about it? I'm nearly healed, can I give my answer when I come back?" Seth asks, voice shaking, keeping his eyes on the floor, not wanting either of them to see the tears threatening to fall. "If I was still in the Shield I would never had to ask or beg for anything, I had the two best friends I have ever had, now fucking look at me! How did I become so power hungry that I turned on the two people who would have always had my back?" Steph, who had kept back, watching the emotions crossing the face of the Architect, stepped forward and crossed her arms and said "Of course we will give you some time Seth, we care about you, we still want you in the Authority, you're just not championship material. We hope you will make the right choice. I would hate to have to ruin your career when you're so young, you know?" Seth stiffened and looked up into her smug face and had to resist smashing his fist into it. Steph saw his hand twitch and smiled. "You ok there Seth?" He nodded, looking back down, unable to speak without screaming. "Good, when you return to the WWE, you will give us your answer. Make sure it's the right one" "You can leave now Seth, go home" Hunter says, smirking when he sees that the younger man is in shock. "See you in a couple of weeks Seth" Stephanie says, her voice sugar sweet.

Seth jumps, grabs his crutches and limps for the door. "I don't want to be here anymore, I want to go home and forget this ever happened. After what I did to my brothers I don't deserve to be in the same building as them." he thought as the tears he fought so hard against finally started to fall down his cheeks once he was out the door. He headed down the hallway, towards the car park, not realising or caring, that people were staring at him as he hobbled along. As he leant against the wall for a break, wiping the tears that were still falling, he heard an instantly recognisable gravel voice behind him: "Ooooh what do we have here? The Authority's golden boy has finally returned to the WWE! A little more banged up, but hey who's complaining? What's up scumbag? "Seth froze, heart stuttering, his head hanging low to cover his puffy, tear stained face with a curtain of hair "Not now, please I can't deal with this, I don't deserve to be here with him" he thought. He felt humiliated that the Authority had tricked him into agreeing to destroy the Shield, even though joining them had been his decision, he still had blame in this: "I still beat Dean and Roman with that chair, I stole the Money in the Bank match from Roman and put Dean's head through cinderblocks! That wasn't the Authority, that was me! I decided to do that! How could I have done that? TO MY OWN BROTHERS?)" Seth was freaking out, it was starting to dawn on him what he had really done. His heart was banging in his chest, breathing was increasing by the second. He felt like he was going to faint. Ignoring that familiar voice ("I'd forgotten how much I miss him") he started moving to the escape route of the car park, raising his hood as he went. "Hey Princess I'm talking to ya, get back here!" Dean shouts keeping pace with Seth who could move surprisingly quick on those things.

"Not now Ambrose! Please." Seth sobs, his voice breaking. He was just trying to leave before something else bad happens. He heard Dean pause beside him, he just kept going, trying to get away from this place. Dean paused for a second, shock in his face "What the hell? Ever since that little shit stabbed me n' Rome in the back, I haven't heard that note of pleading from him. Where's the ruthless Seth that is so fun to fight? What the hell happened to him?!" He caught up to Seth, looking sideways at the two toned man carefully. Seth was hunched in on himself, looking like the crutches were the only thing keeping him upright. He was breathing fast, with little stutters showing on each exhale and it sounded like he was crying. Dean had no idea what to do "Damn it, where's Rome when you need him?" Dean, having no idea how to handle the situation, just went back to his default setting of being a dick. "Why don't ya make me, traitor?" Dean says, trying to get a look under the hood and hair at Seth's face. "You sound upset, why? Did Hunter and Stephanie throw you out just at the good part? You couldn't get it up could ya? Ah, don't worry, happens to the best of us, ya know? I remember this one time- "As Dean went off into a crazy nonsensical story, Dean studied Seth. Even though Dean hated him and wanted to pound his face in, which is what he was gonna do anyway when he saw him in the hallway, the way Seth was acting was worrying Dean. The slumped posture and the defeated and puffy, tear stained glimpse he got of his face was a far cry from the cocky, arrogant asshole his little brother used to act like, even he was better than this Seth. Cocky Seth was fun to fight with, he could really go all out on him. This guy is no fun to beat up. Seeing him like this was..depressing. Thankfully for Seth, he had just reached the car park, he hopped into the car before he killed Dean with his crutch and gave the driver his address. Just before the driver took off, he heard through the open window: "See ya later, traitor". He didn't realise that Dean had heard Seth give the driver his new address and had memorised it.