"I keep hoping that things
are going back to the
way they were."
●Caleb, Pretty Little Liars●

■■■

RAW- NIGHT AFTER PAYBACK 2014

"Last night we showed them who runs this place and now what? They lost Batista because he knows we are on another level man. There is no one, no one who can fuck with us!" Dean grumbled while Seth and I simply shook our heads at him with a smile.

We had fought many battles together but I could proudly say that last night had been the best.

In the two years since we had debuted we had taken out legends, other factions that could not even begin to compare to us and although over the last few months we had, had a few disagreements? I liked to believe that after last night nothing could tear us apart.

"There honestly is no one if you think about it. We have brought justice on everyone who dared to step in the ring with us" Seth nodded as he slipped on his vest.

"We are sitting on a throne brotha!" I pat his chest before hopping up.

"Off to find Nicole?" I heard Dean and nodded as they hadn't been at the arena last night.

I had gotten a couple texts from her but preferred to see her in person but of course Dean's understanding was that since we were ending the show we could take the drive while the final match was on.

"Say hi to Brie for me!"

"I'll say hi to both for you!" I rolled my eyes leaving my two brothas before making my way down the hallways from our dim room.

I knew our room wasn't too far from Female talent but I smiled as I heard my name being called and as I turned I groaned as I was jumped on by Nicole while Brie soon followed.

I guess they had made their way from catering and spotted me, most likely on their way to us.

"Where's Jon?" I heard Brie as I squeezed Nicole back.

"With Colby. You should go congratulate them, I'm sure Jon will be happy that you tuned in last night"

She nodded before turning on her heel as I set Nicole down and sat down and she did the same. I knew he would be smiling like a idiot because while Seth and I were ready to just die once we got to our hotel, he wanted to go in search of her. He was so smitten and he didn't even realize it...

"How could we not tune in? That match was beautiful and we got to see some of that Samoan body!" She shoved my shoulder and I chuckled as I took her snapback off and messed up her hair causing her to glare despite being done for the night.

"Well its way off your boyfriend's hulk body but hey its improving" I shrugged knowing I was nowhere near that. I had a bit of muscle to fit the part but that was about it, no bodybuilder body...

"Oh Joe, you don't need to be ripped. You're a big guy it suits you, you would still be a stud either way" She said sweetly batting her eyelashes.

"Stop trying to sound like the shield fans! Mmmm but I would hey, might give Show a run for his money" I chuckled.

"Everybody has a chubby phase I feel like mine is kicking in the older I get." She rolled her eyes as she brought her knees to her chest and ran her fingers up her thighs.

"You are not chubby at all, more like curvy." My eyes trailed her body not sure what exactly she saw going on.

She gave a small smile as she gazed at me, "Mmmm tell that to Twitter. Kinda sucks being a twin sometimes, when you have a mirror image of what people want you to look like"

"Well fuck those people. I have barely there abs and you've got some junk in the trunk. You have John and I have Galina who love us and we love eachother." I said sternly because I got that they were twins and before they got back to the company they had looked pretty much alike. But they were older now and becoming their own so I didn't see why people wanted to confine them to the same box.

Its what I liked about being part of The Shield, yes we all wore the army gear but there was no denying each of us were different and everyone knew that. We were three different individuals with different backgrounds but yet somehow we fit to form a brotherhood that was unbreakable.

"A whole lotta love!" She screamed out allowing her voice to echo and she gave a wave to Carrano who simply shook his head with a small chuckle as he walked on.

"Whole lotta love" I chuckled and heard The Shield being blasted through the arena.

"Duty calls. I'll see you after, we'll probably be heading to the bar for some celebration drinks. We passed out last night, that match killed us."

"I'm sure it did, see you later Joe" she gave me a brief kiss before heading down the other way while I headed up the staircase to meet my brothas on top.

"Ready to give these people a show?" I squeezed both of their shoulders before opening my water bottle.

"Yeah same thing different city" I heard Seth sounding less happy than he had earlier in the night and Dean rolled his eyes.

"Its those hormones again" He shook his head showing some annoyance.

"Shut up!" Seth shoved him and he chuckled and we soon heard the familiar sound.

Sierra.
Hotel.
India.
Echo.
Lima.
Delta.

SHIELD.

"Let's go rub it in their fucking faces!" Dean smirked as we pounded our fists before making our way down through the crowd.

It was hard to believe that nearly two years ago we were one of the most hated groups around when we first brought justice upon everyone and now they loved us. For me it didn't really matter whether we were loved or hated because we were brothas so we had each other, no matter what.

Dean did the usual talking while I was filled with happiness inside as we stood beside him, victorious.

"We feel great. Sure we're bruised and beaten up but last night at Payback we finished our biggest challenge to date... We had a clean sweep over Evolution and that is domination."

We nodded in agreement knowing anyone else who tried to come at us had no ground to stand on.

Seth slowly spoke, "we were told to adapt or perish and what did we do? We adapted!"

I listened as Seth went on letting the world know how different Evolution was to the Shield and I immediately raised the mic to my lips. "Evolution aren't brothers. The three men in this ring right now are brothers..."

I trailed off before calling out Randy Orton and he didn't waste anytime in coming out accompanied by Triple H reminding us that there were only two left standing. I eyed the sledgehammer held by Hunter and soon heard the sound of steel behind me and saw Seth tossing them into the ring for back up. Not that I thought we needed it since we clearly outnumbered them but Seth was always prepared for anything.

I watched as Hunter stood smirking before speaking while all I wanted was for them to get into the ring so we could prove to the world once again who was better and then go grab some drinks with the Bella's.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, what I do better than anybody is adapt. Last night was Plan A. Tonight, it's Plan B. There's always a Plan B." I frowned as he stared at us knowingly but before I could question it I felt a collision to my back and immediately fell down.

In the corner of my eye I could see him attacking Dean and frowned as I saw Seth, I for sure thought it was Batista coming out of nowhere and ambushing us.

"YOU SOLD OUT! YOU SOLD OUT!"

I tried getting up but felt another collision to my back before feeling more and more as he took turns between Dean and I and I saw the pain radiating through my brotha's eyes. Even though I was in so much pain I knew it was betrayal that hurt the most.

I saw Dean being curb stomped onto a chair before Seth rolled out, leaving us battered and bruised in the ring but just as I thought it all ended I felt more collisions to my back. And the chair being driven into my spine as I coughed up in pain, groaning as it only became worse while I wasn't sure where exactly Dean was. My vest and t-shirt were ripped off by Orton as he continued his assault and I prayed my little angel wasn't watching.

We had been victorious last night and she had been so happy, talking to each of us as we drove over here and he laughed along with her when he knew he would be destroying us.

It finally stopped as I lost my bearings seeing the feet of all three of them standing over us.

"YOU SOLD OUT! YOU SOLD OUT!"

***

"Fuck.." I breath as I felt my back stinging .

"I'm sorry I need to do this and you threw Amann off so.." I heard her soft voice and simply nodded.

"I can't believe this shit, what the fuck happened. We fucking got them, we fucking proved we are on top and he just fucking betrays us" Dean paced up and down despite receiving several shots himself just ignored the pain.

I knew he would be feeling it later but he was filled with anger and so was I. Hence Chris Amann leaving the medic room as we pretty much destroyed it but Nicole forced me to sit down and well John helped before heading to get some work done. And as soon as I did, the pain hit me in more ways than one.

I saw the door burst open hitting Dean face first as it did.

"What the fu.." He glared but we saw Brie enter and it was safe to say it was soon gone.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry Jo.." She cringed but he shook his head cutting her off.

"Er its okay. Minor compared to everything else" he sighed and Brie wrapped her arms around him and despite several mixed emotions filling me I couldn't help but chuckle at him being silenced.

I heard my phone going off and saw my two girls letting me know it was Galina. I was happy she didn't face time me because I couldn't put on a brave face.

"Hey baby..." I whispered and I heard her let out a sigh.

"Is Jojo awake?"

"No she fell asleep, she tried staying awake to watch you but she couldn't. I'm sorry"

"Well its good she didn't. Its okay Gee, these things happen. I'll call you tomorrow okay? Give Jojo a kiss from me. I love you baby"

"I will and I love you too"

Nicole smiled, "You don't have to be strong for her. She knows you're hurting"

"I know and I know how she'll be when we get home too, Jojo's probably waking up soon like she always does and I don't want Galina upset"

She nodded, "We really should get Chris in here, I don't even know how to bandage this up and we need to.."

I stopped her hand and pulled her onto my right leg and buried my face in my neck as I held her close. I heard her sigh before resting her head on mine as I ignored the pain in my back while Dean started ranting yet again while I still struggled to make sense of it all.

I wasn't sure how we had gone from brothers united last night to being viscously beaten within minutes of telling the world that we were a true representation of it ...

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I cried while writing this chapter as I have done with most of these throwback chapters lol because well it broke my heart then and just having to go through it again. Urgh poor Ambreigns!

Some SHIELD throwbacks because I miss them