Asha tugged her cap brim down low over her face as she followed Rick into the maze of buildings that made up Terminus. She'd sketched a rough plan of what she could recall of the complex in the dirt outside the fence - after they'd stashed the bulk of their weapons.
'Just in case,' Rick had said.
No one had disagreed with his cautious approach.
They were aiming for the large warehouse which used to function as Terminus' headquarters, and she was at Rick's shoulder in case they were diverted or directions were needed. Carl followed, Michonne and Daryl bringing up the rear.
On rapid but near silent feet they traversed concrete yards and corridors. To Asha, they felt both eerily familiar and completely foreign at the same time. She ran with the ghosts of Ren and Nash riding on her shoulder.
She shook her head, shifting her grip on Harley's bayoneted rifle as she tried to focus on their route. She touched Rick's shoulder and nodded across a small courtyard at a door that would lead them into the main warehouse. Rick nodded back, and her stomach fluttered slightly as they darted across the space and he pushed the door open.
The warehouse still functioned as the operations room. The door opened into a quiet back corner, but across the large room several desks were spread with maps and a handful of people moved purposefully about the space. A steel haired woman spoke into some sort of radio transmitter, the steady tones of her voice carrying across the room: 'Those who arrive survive. Sanctuary for all, community for all.'
Asha quickly surveyed the group, stomach sinking slightly when she didn't immediately recognise anyone, although there were a few with their backs turned concentrating on their tasks. She caught Rick's eye and shook her head slightly.
Rick acknowledged her with the briefest of nods, glanced at the rest of the group and then walked quietly out into the room. They followed.
Asha couldn't speak for the others, but her heart was threatening to pound its way out of her chest.
The room was big enough that the five of them were halfway across the floor before any of the Terminus people realised they were there.
'Hello,' Rick said, into the shocked silence that rippled through the crowd.
A slender man with dark hair turned towards them with narrowed eyes. 'Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch,' he said irritably, tossing down the clipboard and pen he'd been using to write with.
Asha started at the sound of the voice. His hair was a little longer and his face a little harder, but this was someone she knew, Gareth.
Head angled down so her face was mostly hidden by her cap, she furiously tried to recall everything she knew about him. She hadn't known him well. Her recollection was of someone who liked to talk and who had seemed clever enough, but had never really stood out. She thought he'd been friendly with Nash, but Nash had been friendly with most people.
He struck her as an unlikely leader, but the way the rest of the group watched him marked him as the man in charge.
Gareth took a few steps forward from his group.
'You here to rob us?' he asked a little warily.
'No,' Rick said, holstering his gun. 'But we wanted to see you before you saw us.'
'Makes sense.' Gareth hesitated a moment and then shrugged, spreading his arms as he walked towards them. 'Usually we do this where the tracks meet, but welcome to Terminus. I'm Gareth.' He scanned the five of them. 'Looks like you've been on the road for a good bit.'
'We have,' Rick answered.
A long moment of silence dragged.
'You're nervous,' Gareth said, smiling easily and taking another few steps forwards. He gestured at the people behind him. 'I get it. We were all the same way. We came here for sanctuary. That what you're here for?'
'Yes,' Rick replied simply.
'Good,' Gareth's smile widened. 'You've found it. Hey Alex,' he called over his shoulder and a similarly built dark haired man stepped towards them – Gareth's younger brother if Asha remembered correctly. 'This isn't as pretty as the front. We've got nothing to hide, but the welcome wagon is a whole lot nicer. Alex will take you, ask you a few questions, but first-'
He looked almost apologetic. 'We need to see everyone's weapons. If you could just lay them down in front of you.'
Rick quickly glanced down the line, nodding slightly. 'Alright.'
'I'm sure you understand,' Gareth said, easy smile still on his face.
'Yes, I do.' Rick was already kneeling, handgun – the small piece he'd kept when he'd stashed his python in the cache outside the fence - on the ground. The rest of them followed suit and held their arms out to be patted down.
Asha was between Rick and Daryl, with Carl and Michonne on the far side of Daryl. Alex moved straight to Daryl, leaving Gareth to deal with her and Rick.
'Hate to see the other guy,' Alex said, grinning as he took in Daryl's battered face.
'You would,' Rick answered flatly.
'They deserve it?' Alex asked, moving on to Carl.
'Yes,' the boy answered, voice as cold as his father's.
Gareth had finished with Rick and he moved in front of Asha. She tilted her head up to look at him from under her cap. 'Hello Gareth.'
His eyes widened and he gave a low whistle. 'Asha. I'll be damned.' His eyes quickly flickered across the group before coming back to her.
Asha shook her head, reading the unasked question.
'Damn,' he said. 'I always liked your brother.' He took in her beaten face, eyes flickering quickly to the bruises Daryl also sported. 'What happened to you?'
Asha shrugged. 'Met some unfriendly types on the road.'
'Holy shit,' Alex suddenly appeared behind Gareth's shoulder grinning. 'What are you doing sneaking in the back way Asha?'
Asha shrugged in a forcibly casual manner. 'Didn't know what we'd find, if anyone I knew would still be here.' She looked at the people still gathered behind Gareth, who – despite Gareth's relaxed manner - hadn't gone back to their tasks and continued to watch them with carefully blank expressions. 'Who else is still here?'
Gareth waved the question away. 'Enough time for that later, but Mum made it. She'll be glad to see you.'
Asha's mouth lifted in a genuine smile. 'That's great Gareth. She always was a survivor. It'll be good to see her.' Mary had been a warm presence when Terminus had been her home, and for the first time since she'd seen the sign for Terminus beside the tracks Asha thought that maybe coming back hadn't been such a bad idea.
Gareth glanced at Alex, seeing he was finished checking Michonne, and waved at them to collect their weapons.
'Just so you know,' he said as they rearmed themselves, 'we aren't the sort of people you met on the road. But we aren't stupid either, and you shouldn't be stupid enough to try anything stupid.' He left it hanging for a moment before smiling easily. 'So long as everyone's clear on that, we shouldn't have any problems. Just solutions.'
They stared at him in silence and Asha wondered if he realised how cheesy that last bit sounded.
'Alex is going take you now,' Gareth continued after a moment. 'I am going to go remind Albert how being on watch works.'
He gave them a last smile before turning away and Alex gestured for them to follow him.
Rick leant in as they followed Alex. 'Anything you can tell me about Gareth?'
Asha shrugged helplessly. 'He likes to talk,' she murmured. 'Never would have picked him to be in charge.'
Rick grunted, turning his attention back to Alex who was answering Michonne's query as to why they took people in. 'The more people who become a part of us,' he said, 'the stronger we get.' He smiled, or his lips twisted upwards at last, but there was something a little off about how his eyes gleamed.
Rick, Michonne and Daryl were wary as they followed Alex, scanning their surrounds, alert if not exactly on edge. But Asha found herself fighting a strange sense of disconnect at being in surroundings which were both familiar and alien. The corridors were the same, the same peeling paint and broken windows and she remembered the exact pattern of the oil splatter on the floor of one of the rooms they crossed through. As they reached the front courtyard it looked more or less the same, more gardens perhaps, and the addition of an outdoor grill area was new, but the space was fundamentally familiar.
It was the familiarity that hurt the most, she had the sudden feeling that Ren or Nash were somewhere just out of sight and could reappear at any moment.
She swallowed hard and had to focus on her feet for a moment as they followed Alex through a closed door into the open courtyard.
The space appeared to be the communal eating area, with picnic tables and planter boxes and the grill in the far corner. There was a handful or so people sitting around the tables, but Asha's attention focused on the middle aged woman manning the grill, a thick still mostly brown braid hanging over her shoulder.
The woman stared at her wide eyed for a moment, before putting down the tongs and rushing around the grill to wrap her arms around her.
Asha stiffened a little in shock at the unexpected contact.
'Oh Asha,' Mary said. 'You're home. It's so good to have you back with us. So few of us from the old days are still here.' Mary held her at arm's length, eyes boring into her. 'And we need more people who know what it takes to survive, strong people, and I know how strong you are.'
Shifting a little uncomfortably under the intensity of Mary's eyes, she nodded a little awkwardly. 'It's good to see you too Mary.'
'And you've brought some friends,' Mary said, smiling brightly at the others as she bustled back behind the grill. 'Heard you came in the back way. Smart. You'll fit right in here. Let's get you something to eat.'
Asha's stomach grumbled as she took in the crackling and dripping meat on the grill.
She didn't recognise the smell, but there was a time when she wouldn't have recognised the smell of grilling squirrel or snake either.
Guess the apocalypse had done strange things to all their diets.
Mary handed her a plate and held one out to Carl who took it eagerly, but before either of them could lift a piece of the charred meat Rick smashed the plate from Carl's hands, lashing an arm around Alex's throat and pressing the barrel of his gun to their host's temple.
Asha's plate slipped forgotten from her fingers as she swung up her rifle and trained it threateningly towards the strangers at the courtyard tables. She felt Daryl at her shoulder, crossbow similarly raised.
'Asha-' Mary protested.
'Don't do anything stupid,' Alex muttered on top of her.
Heart racing, and unsure what the hell was going on, Asha risked a glance over her shoulder - and saw what was clenched in Rick's hand.
A pocket watch, the long gold chain looped around Alex's belt and tangled in Rick's fingers.
Hershel's pocket watch. The one he'd given to Glen. The one Glen always carried with him.
Stunned, Asha jerked her eyes back to the group in the courtyard, finally seeing the details Rick had already seen
- the riot gear on the slightly overweight guy on the far side of the courtyard,
- the poncho on the young woman near the garden,
- the orange backpack with a dark bloody smear upended on one of the tables, a backpack she remembered Rick dropping on the ground outside the prison a lifetime ago after a run with Michonne.
Ice settled in her belly.
'Where did you get this watch?' Rick's voice was harsh as cold rolled steel.
'You want answers, you want anything else, you put down your weapons,' Alex said.
'I see your man on the roof with a sniper rifle,' Rick growled, twisting slightly to look at a nearby roof. 'How good's his aim?'
Asha sucked in a harsh breath. There hadn't been time for the sniper to get up there after Rick's surprise attack. He must have been there since they arrived.
Maybe Gareth wasn't quite a trusting as he seemed.
'Where did you get the watch?' Rick demanded.
'Don't do anything,' Alex shouted to the man on the roof. 'I have this, just put it down.' The sniper hesitated a moment before backing reluctantly away, rifle barrel receding behind the rim of the roof.
'Listen to me,' Alex continued. 'There's a lot of us-'
'Where did you get the watch?' Rick roared.
'Got it off of a dead one, didn't think he'd need it,' Alex reluctantly conceded.
Rick snarled, dragging him forwards a few steps. 'What about the riot gear? The poncho?'
Gareth answered from behind them. 'Got the riot gear off a dead cop, found the poncho on a clothesline.'
He stood calmly with his hands raised, but there was an increasing number of people behind him and in the courtyard with raised guns pointed in their direction.
Asha's teeth bared. Those items had all been at the prison when it had fallen, she would have backed her life on it. If Gareth had said they'd found a prison on a supply run then maybe – maybe - she would have been more inclined to believe him. Their people were – or had been – at Terminus.
'Gareth wait,' Alex pleaded, a real note of desperation creeping into his voice.
'Be quiet,' his brother snapped.
'You talk to me,' Rick growled at Gareth.
'What's there left to say? You don't trust us anymore.'
Something shifted in the corner of Asha's eye and she swung her rifle, eyeing Mary down the barrel.
'Put it down,' she warned, referring to the large meat cleaver Mary had pulled from under the grill.
'Asha,' Mary appealed. 'You know us. This is all a misunderstanding.'
'Just put it down and move around the grill with the rest of your people so I can see you.'
Mary's eyes hardened, and for a moment Asha thought she'd refuse.
'Don't make me pull this trigger Mary.'
'You do that and you all die,' Gareth called.
'Best she puts the knife down then,' Asha called back.
In the long moment that Mary didn't move a bed of sweat dropped and trickled between Asha's shoulder blades, but then the older woman put the knife down and sullenly moved around the grill.
Asha waited, tension rolling in palpable waves across the courtyard as she held ready for Rick's call.
'Gareth please,' Alex pleaded into the heavy silence.
'Shut up,' Gareth snapped, lifting a hand and holding it palm out. 'Rick, what do you want?'
'Where are our people?'
A shadow of something passed over Gareth's face. 'You didn't answer the question,' he said, suddenly clenching his raised hand into a fist.
Rick jerked, ducking behind Alex as the sniper bullet intended for him punched into his hostage's head.
The courtyard erupted in gunfire. it took Asha a moment to realise that most of it was coming from the surrounding rooftops before a hand - Daryl – planted between her shoulder blades and yanked her backwards.
They ran.
Through ear shattering bursts of gunfire and across pavement suddenly dancing with bouncing bullets.
Asha expected every second to feel the punch of burning pain that would accompany a bullet. Legs pumping, head down, she followed Daryl blindly, paying no attention to where they were going.
'Here,' Michonne called, and they darted into a large warehouse, pulling the door behind them.
The space was being used as a garage and the large roller door towards the end of the building was already coming down as they entered and slammed shut before they could reach it. There was another open door on the far wall, an "A" painted in white paint above it.
They raced for it, passing a handful of neatly parked cars. At least most of them ran, Daryl's feet skidded as he suddenly lurched to a stop, staring at the vehicles.
'Come on,' Asha called, before she saw what Daryl was seeing. Three vehicles parked in a line, a panel van, a pick up and a black sedan, each with a white cross painted in the back window.
Her heart paused between beats.
'Let's go,' Rick roared, and she grabbed Daryl's arm, pulling him after her.
They ran again, through open spaces and closed rooms, bullets bouncing around their feet, charging through banging doors and slamming frustrated fists on those that wouldn't yield. Gunpowder and dust thick in her throat, Asha pushed the image of the white cross aside to focus on her feet.
They had to get out, get back to their cache of weapons…and then there would be time for Beth.
There was a momentary respite from the bullets as they crashed into a mid sized room, heavy door slamming behind them.
'These people,' Michonne gasped, 'I don't think they're trying to kill us. They're aiming at our feet.'
Asha barely heard her, mind filled with the white painted words covering the walls of the candlelight room they'd just entered.
Never trust. Never again. We first, always.
The room had been vacant space when Terminus had been her home, and she instinctively knew what the words related to. On the floor, in concentric circles and interspersed with candles, were names – many, many names - most of which Asha recognised.
A jolt ran through her as Ren's name leapt out at her, then Nash's, and then her own.
Daryl's hand was suddenly firm under her elbow as he steered her across the room, forcing her into a run as they passed through another door.
She blinked furiously, batting away the sting of tears that had inexplicably filled her eyes.
Think Asha. She jerked her head furiously. You're the only one with any idea where you are, pay attention.
'No,' she hissed, when Rick veered right at the end of the building. She lead them left instead, heading for a building – disused in her day – which would give them cover most of the way to the fence. Gunshot suddenly exploded at her feet, forcing them back and around the right of the building in the direction Rick had originally been heading. The stench of something dead and rotten filled her nose, and as her companions caught the scent they all anxiously scanned the area for walkers.
It seemed clear, the stench fading as they passed the end of the building, but Asha caught a glimpse of a pile of bones as they rounded the corner.
Then she froze. Not at the fence line, tantalizingly close, across the open concrete space they'd entered, or even at the gun barrels peppering the chain link and pointed in their direction, blocking their escape.
She froze at the rail car – solid and rusty and seemingly innocuously settled at the end of the rail tracks. A large "A" was painted on its side, and she suddenly realised that every door they'd run through since leaving the so called welcome wagon had had an "A" painted nearby.
Around her, the others had come to a sudden stop as well. Faced with the line of guns at the fence and along the roofline around them them, they had nowhere left to go.
'They were herding us,' she gasped, staring in horror at the rail car. 'Here. The whole time.'
She hadn't realised her feet had started backing her up until she backed into Daryl, his arm snaking around her waist to stop her still as he warily eyed the hardware pointed in their direction.
'Drop your weapons,' Gareth called from where he'd appeared on one of the nearby roofs. 'Now,' he ordered when none of them moved.
Asha's hands were shaking so badly she couldn't force herself to loosen her grip, and Daryl had to pry her rifle from her hands. How he managed it one handed she wasn't sure, but she was relieved his other arm stayed wrapped around her waist, holding her upright.
'Ringleader. Go to your left, the train car. Go.' Gareth's voice was like iron, his casual manner discarded for the mask it was.
'No,' Asha whispered in horror.
Rick looked at Carl and then back at Gareth, silent and unmoving.
'You do what we say,' Gareth continued, 'and the boy goes with you. Anything else, he dies and you end up in there anyway.'
Asha stiffened against Daryl. 'You can't do this Gareth,' she said, know the futility of the words but unable to help saying them.
Amusement twitched briefly on Gareth's face.
She changed tack, finding some strength for her voice. 'How can you do this Gareth?' She shuddered as she glanced at the rail car. 'This…after everything that happened here. Are you out of your goddamn mind?'
She was stunned, steamrolled that someone who had survived what they had could bear the sight of a rail car, let alone put another person inside one. She felt a sudden swell of remembered pain and fought it down hard.
Gareth stared at her in silence for a moment.
'There were lessons learnt here Asha. I thought you had learnt them too, but I guess not.' His face hardened. 'It's alright though, you're gonna have the opportunity to learn them all over again.'
Asha couldn't help trembling, but the soft growl in Daryl's throat was the most the comforting sound she'd ever heard.
'Ya ain't alone,' he murmured in her ear. 'I'm with you,'
She jerked her head, sucking in a steadying breath.
It wouldn't be like last time.
'Move Rick,' Gareth said.
Rick looked at them a long moment, then, with the minutest of nods at his son, he turned towards the rail car.
'Now you Asha.'
Daryl's grip tightened slightly, and she drew a deep breath, summoning her strength in order to step away from him.
'Not her.'
The voice that rang out from ground level of one of the adjacent buildings crawled across her skin with an unwelcome familiarity. Throat thickening in disgust, she unwillingly turned towards it.
A man stood in the open door of the building, round face somehow still fleshy despite the lean times they lived in, piglike eyes glittering meanly. He had a finger raised to the side of his neck, tracing – although Asha was too far away to see it – the thin scar that she knew marked the spot she'd drawn blood.
'Gorman,' she hissed, lip lifting.
'This doesn't concern you Gorman,' Gareth said. 'What you do when you're out on a run is up to you, but what happens in this compound is my call.'
The two men stared balefully at each other.
'She owes me,' Gorman growled, still fingering his neck. 'She's made it clear who's side she's on. She's fair game.'
Gareth stared at him in silence.
Gorman looked at Asha, his tongue darting quickly across his lips, before a flicker of irritation crossed his face. He looked back at Gareth. ' That debt you owe me,' he ground out reluctantly, 'from the run to Ardglen. I get Asha and we're square.'
It hung in the air for a moment and Asha's skin crawled at being traded like a piece of meat, before Gareth's shoulders relaxed slightly.
'Sorry about this Asha,' he said in a comradely manner. 'I would have just put you in the rail car with your friends, but Gorman's right, you're not with us and that makes you fair game. But I guess you'll still learn that lesson I was talking about well enough this way.'
He looked at Gorman and nodded. 'Square.'
Gorman took a hungry step forward.
'She ain't going nowhere,' Daryl growled. His arm had tightened around her waist like a vice, near crushing her back against his chest.
Not that Asha was complaining.
'Oh I'm sorry,' Gareth said facetiously. 'What exactly was it that gave you the impression i was asking?'
'I'm not going with him Gareth,' Asha said.
'Oh you are bitch,' Gorman snapped, taking another step forwards and drawing a pistol from his hip holster. 'I never really thought you were dead.' He fingered the scar on his neck with his free hand again. 'You owe me and I've been waiting to collect for a long time.'
'I will go into the rail car,' Asha ground out still talking to Gareth. 'But I will take a bullet before I go with him.'
'Marcus,' Gareth's voice suddenly rang out to one of the nearby snipers. A rifle swung in her direction and the red dot of a laser pointer appeared on her chest. Irrationally Asha thought she could feel it generating heat.
'Not her,' Gareth said. 'The archer.'
The gun shifted slightly. A new bolt of fear tightening her belly, Asha stared over her shoulder at the red mark – steady and uncompromising – just above Daryl's eyes.
'Maybe you would take a bullet Asha,' Gareth said. 'You always have been a little bit nuts. Probably that's why Gorman's had a thing for you. Ah well, that's none of my business really. But the way to get to you has always been through other people.' His voice hardened. 'You remember Marcus right? So you know he can write his name on your boyfriend's forehead from there. Still keen on that bullet?'
Asha twisted within the confines of the arm around her waist.
Daryl's neck was corded, jaw rippling with tension, eyes blazing. She slipped a hand up to the side of his neck and caressed her thumb along his jawline, eyes filling with tears. His arm tightened against her waist, and he gave the tiniest shake of his head.
'They'll kill you,' she whispered, resting her palm against his chest. 'Don't make me carry that.' She choked on the lump in her throat. 'I can't.'
The colour drained from his face, but his arm only tightened around her.
For half an instant she wished Marcus would just take the shot and take them both out whilst they were bound together.
'Please,' she whispered brokenly. 'I'm not strong enough for that.'
She pressed back against his chest, heart breaking as his shoulders reluctantly dropped and he let her force some space between them.
For a few paces, she backed away, drinking in Daryl's features to imprint them on her mind, but then she steeled herself, flattening her face into an expressionless mask and turned towards Gorman.
He smirked triumphantly, the promise of something foul in his eyes. Asha's stomach shivered with nausea as his hand locked around her wrist.
He leered at her then glanced at Gareth. 'Kill the archer anyway,' he called.
'No!' The sound ripped from Asha's throat as a gunshot tore through the air.
She bucked, twisting under Gorman's hand and cracking him across the face with her elbow.
Her sudden flood of tears, near blinding her, weren't enough to block out the sight of Daryl hurled backwards on suddenly blood splattered ground.
'Daryl!' she screamed, vision tunneling on the red spreading beneath him as she threw herself against Gorman, against the other set of hands that grasped her as she fought desperately to get free, consumed with nothing but the need to reach him.
'Daryl!'
White light exploded in her vision and she was suddenly on her knees, head throbbing where she'd been hit and the world suddenly seemed to be made of liquid. There was a horrible noise in the air, a high pitched sound that part of her realised was shearing from her own throat in between choking sobs.
All she could see was Daryl sprawled on red ground.
Why doesn't he move?
There was so much blood.
She crawled towards him.
A thick arm wrapped around her neck, hauling her to her feet.
'Shut up bitch,' Gorman hissed, breath foul in her ear. 'Or I will give you something to really scream about.'
Her hands clawed over her shoulder, reaching for his face, hooking fingernails and tearing.
Then the wail she was making choked into pieces a Gorman tightened the arm around her neck and hauled her backwards into the building. But before her vision darkened entirely, she was sure she Daryl's body twitch.
[A/N: Thoughts? I'd love to hear them. And obviously we're going way off canon here. But has to be done if i'm ever going to finish this story]