3 ;
D O U B T

= = = = =

The sun rose too early.

Ella wasn't sure if that had to do with the fact that she was still groggy and restless, or whether Kenny's company had some kind of effect on her that it sure as hell wasn't supposed to have. His back was facing her and she could tell with the way that he was folded up into himself that he was trying not to take up too much space, just like he'd told her he wouldn't before they called it a night.

Pushing herself up into a sitting position and bringing her knees up to her chest, Ella stared at the plain wall across the bed, wondering if she would have been feeling the same if she had woken up next to Hangman instead. Would there still have been a feeling of something coming to an end too abruptly, a strange kind of security,  that mainly only came from merely catching a glimpse of the curly hair cast against the pillow.

The day hadn't even begun yet and her thoughts were already leading her into enemy territory.

Kenny finally shifted beside her, taking a moment to stretch his arm out before turning on his side to face her. Once noticing that Ella was already wide awake, he raised an eyebrow, cracking a lazy smirk. "You're awake? It's a miracle!"

"Haha," Ella sarcastically retorted, leaning her head back against the wooden headboard. "You know, this emergency meeting you made us fly out for doesn't look like much of an emergency."

"Oh shit, you got me. I just wanted to share a room with you," the playfulness his eyes already held made her feel a little warm inside; she'd actually missed this man, even though they'd only been apart for a short two weeks. "How're we breaking this news to the guys?"

Ella could feel her eyes crinkle at the corners as her grin widened. "We aren't. You will, it's your fault."

"My fault, for wanting to spend time with you?" He retorted.

She simply shook her head. "You're a huge loser, Omega. Now," Ella shifted in her position slightly, wanting to face him properly. "How about you tell me what we're gonna be talking about?"

"No."

Ella rolled her eyes. "Should've seen that coming."

"But you didn't." He lifted himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the sleepiness. Ella liked his hair so much better when the curls were free to breathe at their own will; there was something beautiful about them when he left them to be their natural selves. "Do you wanna use the bathroom first? We're meeting everyone in a while."

"Yeah, I'll go first," Ella sighed, stretching out her arms in front of her before managing to pull the warm quilt off of her body.

"Wow, you're already out of bed. We're really turning a new leaf today."

"Shut it, Kenny."

"You know you don't want me to!" He called out right before she slammed the bathroom door shut behind her, grinning from ear to ear the whole way through.

Facing herself in the mirror with the faint signs of dark circles under her eyes played up by the bathroom lights, Ella could only cling onto hope that the day would end on the best of notes, if not the very same ones it had begun on.

= = = = =

They were meeting in Nick's suite, since it had enough room to fit everyone without them having to keep bumping elbows. Ella Velazquez pursed her lips into a thin line, gazing at all the scattered men around the room, Adam Cole who looked bored out of his mind stood right beside her with his arms crossed over his chest. Japan also finally meant the inclusion of Fale, Yuijiro, Chase and Tama while Kenny, Matt, and Nick stood at the front and centre of the whole thing — there was something ironically poetic about their positions, too.

Nick on his left, Matt on his right, him in the middle; no longer the Kenny she had just shared a room with. That smiling, smirking Kenny was somewhere far away and replaced by another that held an authoritative stance of a leader as his blue eyes grazed over his stablemates. It was interesting to see such a sudden shift in demeanour, to say the least.

"Careful. You might just drool." Adam leaned down slightly to mumble, and Ella's lips twitched immediately in amusement.

"I can drool if I feel like it," Ella responded challengingly, knowing not to bother taking the man's teasing too personally. She'd known Adam Cole for years now, even though he had joined Bullet Club far after she had. He was Ring of Honor's golden boy and, right now even, their trusted champion.

It made sense, Ella thought; he had all the qualities a golden boy would. Deep blue eyes, long flowing hair and an attitude that could take him right to the top of the mountain whenever he felt like he needed a good climb. A dominating personality that Ella always saw flashes of in the same moments he thought he was hiding it well.

Adam chuckled, eyes crinkling at the corners. "You're really cute. I bet you think your daydreaming goes-"

"Okay!" The sound of Kenny's hands clapping together sliced through Adam's next sentence, making his face fall and Ella cover her mouth to refrain from bursting into laughter as the moment of truth came nearer.

Marty slid into the space next to her, nudging her in greeting while Kenny's voice filled up the air around the room.

"Glad you all could be here today. Bullet Club finally get to be all together at once," a couple of cheers and woops were heard before they died down for Kenny once again. "Yes. But that's not what we're here for today. What we are here for, is to realise that..we have become a team by name. I can't see the unity, I can't see the cohesion Bullet Club used to have. And maybe that's my fault," he shrugged, and Ella squinted her eyes, studying his mannerisms through the speech even more closely now. "I'm the leader after all, I should be the one that brings us together, and I'm failing."

Within pin-drop silence, Ella heard Adam scoff under his breath.  Ignoring him, she shifted in her position slightly. Which direction was Kenny trying to steer this in?

"And now that I've acknowledged my mistakes, it's time to bring out a clean slate. A fresh start. And what is a fresh start without a fresh face?"

And as if on cue, the echo of knuckles against the wooden door could be heard, and Ella got that feeling in her chest again. The one that made it seem like someone had put a physical lock around her throat and it got harder to breathe, the anticipation and anxiousness in her body seeming to run a race with each other.

Straight out of a movie scene, time itself came to a halt, Nick walked towards the door. Ella looked to Kenny, whose eyes seemed to have been waiting for hers. Yet still, they were unreadable to her.

No matter how many times she tried, Ella was always too far away from the answers to even be able to ask the questions.

And behind the door was a man Ella Velasquez would not have been able to guess — not even if it was her hundredth one.

"Oh wow! Looks like we're late to the party huh?"

Crickets.

They couldn't be blamed, really; Cody Rhodes was someone impossible to react to, no matter how wide the smile on his face was as he stood at the door. Ella could practically see those little diamonds flash against the his lucent, white teeth. A sharp jawline, eyes that couldn't be any bluer. Another man underneath a golden halo.

Brandi Rhodes stood close behind him, certifying herself as someone that came as part of the package.

Ella didn't think anyone was taking in air anymore it was so quiet. The sounds of his dress shoes clacking against the wooden flooring of the hotel suite bounced off of walls, into their ears and then back. The surprise was resounding, she realised; not one single Bullet Club member had ever been at a loss for words for this long — or maybe even forever — before.

"Hey, it's the Cleaner! What's up Kenny?" Cody excitedly questioned, as though catching up with an old friend for a cup of coffee after a long time. "Bucks! Great to see you guys again."

Ella felt a twinge of..something. There was something in her chest for a second, bubbling and twisting itself into loose, flimsy knots. They were in the know and they left the rest out with probably not even a second thought. It wasn't hard to seed that the three members of the Elite were close, but Bullet Club was meant to be one single unit. Not a trio with a separate entourage that was always left in the dark about important decisions. Such as a new recruit — or two this time.

She ignored the feeling, wanting to say something to welcome the man and end the awkward, tense silence, but Kenny went on without another hitch. "This is a shocker, clearly. But it's for the best. This not only gets new eyes on Bullet Club, it makes us international. We all grow together, this is the cohesion we all want. Right?" That had to have been a rhetorical question. He paused for only an insignificant second before, "Right. And Cody and Brandi here are going to help up reach new heights. We're already high, and it's time to go higher."

Ella's eyes flicked from Kenny's when they attempted to meets hers once again to Tama Tonga, who cleared his throat in a way she could sense meant his mood wasn't the greatest. He was a man who judged every single one of Kenny Omega's moves and choices with the eye of experience.

"That's a lie. You brought another member into your little three man crew. Don't lie to us, man we know you. Even if you don't know us."

Ella pursed her lips together as the tension in the room rose, but Kenny only chuckled in that way he always did. The laugh that meant he knew more than you ever could. "Come on, Tama. You know me better than you're letting on. Whatever purpose I did this for helps you, doesn't it? Wherever my name is, yours is and wherever yours is, so comes mine. You know that. So don't worry, I'm not trying to leave you behind. But you're the ones who need to catch up."

She was practically sweating at this point; the two dominant personalities clashing wasn't something she wanted to see. Neither was it something she wanted Cody and Brandi to see so soon.

"How about we all calm down," the man of the hour spoke up for the second time since his arrival, wife right by his side, looking all around the faces in the room. "And I'll make this better for all of us. Hello, my name is Cody. Some of you may know me, some of you may not, but that doesn't matter. From now onwards, it's a different me, not the guy you used to see on television and thought of him as mediocre at best. It's a me that promises every single one of you that Bullet Club is more than just a name selling t-shirts. And I'll make sure everybody else understands that."

I'll make sure, Ella repeated his words in her head, I'll. Singular; not plural the way it should have been.

Adam Cole, who had kept his mouth shut for a record amount of time Ella realised, finally broke his silence. "Just to make it clear, that made nothing better. But," he smirked like a devil usually would, "welcome to the Bullet Club. It's gonna be nice having a name like you around."

Cody chuckled. "I'm glad you feel that way. I just hope everyone else does too."

"They will eventually," Kenny finalised, making it clear that this meeting was over and done with. Once more, the crowd around the room stared back at their leader, before Ella heard a collective exhale and they all dispersed.

The high of the great mood from the morning had settled like dust and Ella felt blue and gloomy. Still, she couldn't pinpoint why.

"Hey," Marty stopped her as she took a step forward, her intention being to just get the hell away from the confusion as fast as she could. "Wanna go get some ice cream or something? I'm craving."

Ella shrugged, immediately finding interest in the suggestion. "You know me, I never turn down dessert." It was a much better idea than sitting around Kenny in silence that was sure to be awkward. She had no idea what she'd say or how she'd say it if he tried to have a conversation with her about this. At least right now.

"Alright, let's go then -"

"She can't," Kenny intervened from completely out of nowhere, making both Marty and Ella's heads snap towards him questioningly. "We have a match tomorrow, we need to go over it."

Ella raised a sharp eyebrow at him. "I'm just walking you out, Ken. No big deal, we can go over it at Guerrilla."

She hoped he didn't think she couldn't keep up because if there was one person who could, it was her.

Kenny looked like he was about to protest once more, but simply shrugged. "Alright fine, go. I'll see you later?" He placed a hand onto Ella's arm, commanding reassurance.

"Yeah, later."

Ella wasn't fond of feeling doubt — no matter what kind it was. From the simplest to the most complicated of things, doubt was always her worst enemy. It planted seeds upon seeds of itself in her mind, and once it sprouted, there was no way its growth was going to be hindered.

"That was weird," Marty noted when they made their way into the elevator. He leaned over and pressed the button for the ground floor. "What's going on?"

Marty was the kind of friend who could never let anyone down; he had an itch to make everybody laugh and smile, no matter what he himself felt on the inside. Ella respected him greatly for that; his personality was one men and women should have been dying to have even a fraction of. "I have no idea. What the hell is this?" She asked, more the air and the situation than him.

"No idea. But you chill out, we'll be fine."

We'll be fine, Ella thought with a simple nod to Marty's statement. At the same moment, her phone buzzed in her back pocket, and she already knew who it was.

AJ: I promised you something, have faith in it El.
AJ: Have faith in Kenny

No matter how close to her shore the waves of doubt had come by now, Ella clutched the phone tighter in her hand as her yes grazed over the words on the screen.

ELLA: Always will

= = = = =

TWO WEEKS LATE!

I'm trying to follow a schedule here and I'm the one completely destroying it xD. And funnily enough, I wrote out the entire chapter during my most busiest week this year, while all the other days I've been too lazy and uninspired.

But hey, at least it's up now and CODY + BRANDI! I left the ending here because I have written about 20 pages, and we need some open, question raising endings.

So, what do you think is going to happen next? Is Cody the real Villain? (I mean he is but, but is really?) I don't even know the answer to that myself.

On a final note, I truly hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Leave a vote if you did of course + a comment if you have any suggestions/requests from me. Thank you SO MUCH for reading, it means more than the world.

Goodbye & goodnight & you can follow me on Twitter @ inay_ish!

(P.S, just in case you weren't aware, Kenny Omega is absolutely the most beautiful man on earth. Just in case).