A/N: Hello to those who got this far, thank you for following along :)

So, once I finished this update and went back to read it through, I found that I went out of character, possibly very much so. I decided to go with it just the same, so I apologize in advance. Please let me know in the comments if I've veered too much off course.

I'm putting the trigger warnings up here this time, as I think it might have come out a bit too graphic. They are:

- Violence

- Sexual assault

Evening came with Michonne and Daryl not being able to find an enclosed space for the night, so they made do with a spot in the woods, the usual rattling objects strung around the makeshift camp. They were sitting closely on the floor, facing each other so as to have the most extensive view of the area possible.

"If nothin' happens, we should be there tomorrow, day after at the latest," Daryl said.

"I just hope it doesn't turn out to be like Woodbury," Michonne said.

"Yeah, we gonna have to be careful." He chewed the side of his thumb and, seeming to gather some courage, asked, "what if it's a good place but our people ain't there?"

Michonne had been pondering that very question since they'd started off for Terminus. Back in her early days at the prison she hadn't exactly been thrilled when she'd found out they were turning her over to the Governor. She'd understood the reasoning, but it'd shown her quite clearly that she wasn't considered a part of the group. A lot had happened since, however, and she now felt like she might belong. So, would she trade in the chance of finding people she'd grown close to, and fond of, for the possibility of a somewhat stable life? She took a deep breath and said, "We've all been through a lot together… I don't think I'd be able to give up looking for them, not this soon."

Daryl let out the breath he'd been holding, seeming thoroughly relieved. If she had said she'd have chosen to stay at this new place he didn't know what he would have done.

"You?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Ain't gonna be able to stop lookin' neither. Like you said, we been through too much shit,"

"They're your family," she said with a warm smile as she reached forward to give his hand an affectionate squeeze.

"You are too," he said as he turned pink, but holding her hand and her gaze all the same. She leaned in and he met her lips with his in a slow and gentle kiss. Things soon got out of hand for their precarious surroundings, though, so they broke it off.

"Right… um… would you like to take first or second watch?" she asked.

"It don't make no difference, you choose."

"You take first, then. Wake me up when it's my turn."

Michonne had barely gotten the words out when they heard screams. They looked at each other and knew they had to check it out because, whoever it was, they sounded terrified to an extent neither of them had heard before. They made their silent way toward the noise without delay, stopping just short of the edge of the woods. The horrific scene unfolding on the pavement had them stunned, but they quickly recovered and sprang into action.

Rick was sitting on a log by the side of the road as he kept watch over the car in which Carl and Beth slept. By his calculations, they should arrive at their destination the following day, and that would be not a moment too soon. If the signs were true, that is. He would have to be extremely cautious when approaching the community, specially having Carl and Beth with him. Their best bet would be to-

"Oh, dearie me… you screwed up asshole. You hear me? You screwed up!" Rick heard as the barrel of a gun was pressed against his right temple.

Four other guys came out of the woods; two walked toward either side of the vehicle as the others stood with firearms pointed at him. He recognized one of them from the group that had gone into the house where he, Carl and Beth had first stayed after escaping the prison. This was not good.

"Today is a day of reckoning, sir! Restitution, a balancing of the whole damn universe," the one with the gun to Rick's head continued. He recognized the voice as belonging to the guy that had been out on the porch. "Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night," the thug laughed. "What do we have in that car?" He asked, and Rick's brain jumped to protective mode, pumping even more adrenaline into his veins.

"A whole lotta fun, Joe" one of the men responded with a perverted cackle as they opened the doors and yanked the teenagers out of the old GMC, causing Rick to jump up, only to be pushed back down.

"Listen, it's was me, it was just me!" Rick said desperately.

"Maybe it was just you. But you didn't just strangled Lou in the bathroom, you also left the door open for him to come after us; caused another of ours to die. So, you alone won't be enough."

The disgusting lowlifes holding Carl and Beth threw the teens on the floor and lowered themselves to restrain their prey. One of the guys in front of Rick moved toward Beth.

"But we're reasonable men, we can settle this," Joe continued. First, we'll have the girl; then, the boy; then, I'll shoot you; and then we'll be square."

The voice sounded closer to Rick's ear; he could feel his captor's head just behind his own. "Let them go!" he demanded, and Joe responded by further pushing the gun against his skin.

He was made to watch, along with everyone else, it seemed, as one guy held Beth's arms above her head while the other roughly lifted her shirt and groped her breasts before wrenching off her pants and underwear. She screamed and thrashed in absolute terror, managing to kick his face, but it just seemed to widen his sick smirk. The guy pinning her arms moved to strike her, but the other stopped him. "Don't! You'll knock her out, and she ain't no good like that. I wanna feel her squirmin'," he said, unbuckling and lowering his pants. He forced her thighs apart, positioned himself, and that's when the other guy's body crumpled on Beth's chest, pushing him sideways.

For a couple of seconds everyone seemed to freeze as they tried to understand what had happened. Then all hell broke loose.

The guy in front of Rick also collapsed, the result of an arrow to the forehead, but he barely noticed. All he could register was the revolting laughter all around, almost drowning Carl's and Beth's cries for help, and he could think of nothing other than getting to the two of them. "Let them go," he said again before he head-butted Joe with the back of his skull without any conscious thought, causing the gun to discharge close to his ear. He was disoriented, his head invaded by a high-pitched noise, but soon recovered and launched himself at his opponent, starting a fistfight.

Meanwhile, Beth, who had somewhat recovered before her attacker, tried to push away the body on top of her as she kicked her legs wildly and continued to scream at the top of her lungs. The assailant was able to dodge her, though, and proceeded to try and regain control of the situation.

At the same time, Michonne leapt from the woods and impaled the scumbag holding down Carl in much the same way she had done with the Governor, but this time she made sure her target was dead, without the possibility of returning. She helped Carl up and hugged him so tightly he found it difficult to breathe. "Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?" she asked anxiously as she moved him around to look for any injuries, rendering him a little dizzy. "I… um… I don't think I'm hurt," he said, visibly shaking.

Daryl was right behind Michonne and went for the vermin trying to straddle Beth's legs, knocking him out with his crossbow. He helped her extricate herself from the immobile corpse she was under and she immediately retreated toward the car. When Daryl approached her, she recoiled involuntarily. "It's OK, Beth. It's just me, Daryl, I ain't gonna hurt you," he said in a low, soothing voice. "Here," he added as he handed her the pants that were lying within reach. He also took off his vest and outer shirt, offering the second item to her. She took the garments slowly, regarding them as if she'd never seen anything like that before. He put his vest back on and looked around, seeing Carl and Michonne just a few feet away.

Michonne looked past Beth and spotted the piece of shit that attacked her regaining consciousness. She ushered Carl toward Daryl and left the boy to his care before making her way to the groggy scumbag. As she secured him all eyes turned to the Rick and Joe.

Daryl saw that Rick had his arms pinned to his sides and moved to help but stopped in his tracks when Rick lunged at his opponent's neck and tore a piece of it off with his teeth. Everyone seemed to freeze again as they watched copious amounts of blood squirt from Joe's jugular and Rick spit out the flesh he'd ripped from his assailant. Rick scanned the scene with a crazed look on his face and made for the only perp left alive only to have his path blocked by Michonne.

"You had yours," she said, indicating Joe's body, still twitching on the floor. "This one is mine; you can watch if you want." The rapist was looking between them with evident fear in his eyes as if trying to decide which weapon would be the least painful: the woman's sword or the guy's teeth.

Michonne and Rick stared each other down until he relented, "OK, you go ahead, but make it hurt."

"Oh, I will," she responded.

Daryl was looking worriedly between his brother and his… he was not sure what to call Michonne. In any case, their conversation didn't sound good. He turned to Carl and asked, "you think you can stay with Beth in the car and, I dunno, just be there?"

"I… I think so… yeah," Carl answered, still clearly shaken.

Daryl hesitated, but when he saw Michonne dragging the guy away, he decided he had to go after them. He gently helped Carl and Beth into the car before adding, "I'ma keep my eyes on you, don't neither of you worry," he tried to reassure them. "Also, best you don't be lookin' out there."

He closed the door and hurried over to the where Michonne and Rick had the son of a bitch on his knees. As he approached, he could hear her speaking; she sounded like she was giving a lecture, her audience being comprised of a crazy guy covered in blood and a disgusting specimen kneeling in a puddle of his own urine.

"(…) I was a firm supporter of our legal system; we had a society to maintain, after all," she was saying, anger seeping into her voice and into her signature scowl as she looked straight at the scum's eyes. "But guess what… there's no society anymore, just me on one end of my katana and you on the other."

She raised her sword, but never struck. Instead, she slowly lowered her arms as her breathing rate accelerated and her face showed signs of anticipation (maybe even excitement?) mixed in with the rage. "You know what? Cutting off your head just doesn't feel like enough. I mean, why do you get a quick death when, by your own bragging, you've lost count of how many women you've terrorized?"

She saw the confused look he gave her and answered his unasked question, "I recognize your voice, we happened to be at that clinic a couple of days ago and had the displeasure of overhearing your repulsive boasting. Which brings me back to the matter at hand: what to do with you." She gave him a twisted smirk.

"Back before the turn, after hearing so many accounts of heinous crimes, I often thought about how satisfying it would be to do to the vermin I put away the same things they did to their victims, so they could feel what it's like to have their bodies invaded. Well, it looks like the end of the world is granting me that opportunity!" There was a look of sheer terror on the scum's face as he begged her not to do it.

"Now, what should I use on you?" She scanned her surroundings until her eyes settled on her unsheathed katana. Her body arranged itself in a predatory stance and a manic smile contorted her face as she ordered, "Daryl, Rick, hold him down for me."

There was silence.

"'Chonne?" Daryl broke it as softly and calmly as he could. She didn't seem to register, just stared at the piece of shit as her chest heaved up and down. After a few seconds, he tried again, "'Chonne?"

She finally looked around to see who was talking and saw Daryl hesitating to approach her. Once her body seemed to 'unlock' itself a bit and she slightly lowered her katana, he felt it was safe to inch forward.

"I, um… I don't think this is a good idea," he said cautiously. "Maybe… maybe we don't do this?"

"What?!" she exclaimed incredulously. "Are you saying we let him go?"

"No, no, that ain't what I'm sayin'," he assured her in a placating tone of voice. "We have to kill him. We can't let him go 'round hurtin' people no more; and he's gotta pay for what he did." He took a deep breath before adding, "I just think maybe I should do it."

"What?!" She exclaimed again.

"Just… just gimme a chance to explain," he said. He felt like one of those hostage negotiators he'd seen in some movies. "Rick… maybe you go sit by the car? Keep an eye on Carl and Beth?" he addressed his brother, who seemed to have calmed down a bit; he was certainly calmer than Michonne. "Probably a good idea to wash your face too. There's water in those bags we dropped over there," he added, pointing at their gear not too far.

As Rick moved away, he turned to the pathetic form on the floor and knocked him out again.

"What the fuck?!" Michonne said.

"Just… just hear me out," he requested. "He has to pay for what he done, so he has to die, no question. But all them things you were talkin' about doin'? That's the same as what he did. And maybe he should get them back; he sure as hell deserves it. But then someone's gotta do it, and it ain't good for whoever that is. That shit sticks with you."

His words seemed to slowly register.

"Why don't I just kill him, then? Why do you think you should do it?"

"Because, if I kill him, I'm just gonna be getting' rid of a rapin', killin' piece of shit. But it's personal for you, so if you do it, it will be for revenge, and that's the shit that stays," he reasoned. "In this world, that's just how it is. It will happen with me too, and then you're the one who's gonna have to step in."

She seemed to be considering this, but remained hesitant, so he went on, "like I said, this shit stays, it chips away at you." He looked into her eyes as he pleaded, "I just found you, don't go away so soon."

Michonne was overcome with a wave of emotions and was unable to contain the tears that decided to flow. Daryl pulled her to him and held on as she cried her anger, her sadness, her frustration, her disgust, her fear, her despair. He led her back to the car while keeping an eye on their prisoner, helped her sit down next to Rick and retraced his steps. Daryl dragged the scumbag into the woods, slapped him awake and put an arrow through his head as he begged for his life.

A/N: Let me know what you think. I really appreciate your taking the time to leave comments, they are a great incentive.