KEZZ 1: As always, thank you for the reviews!
tanya20060905: Thank you! I'm happy you are still enjoying the story!
Sorry it's taking a little longer to get the chapters out. I have no excuse. I've been trying to play Death Stranding, and if any of you are fans, yeah, the BTs are fucking terrifying! T.T
Ani woke up with a content sigh in the morning, snuggling back deeper into the unique heat and scent that was Daryl. That one gentle kiss had turned into two, which turned into more and more until they'd held each other tightly while fulfilling a different kind of need. They'd fallen asleep in a tangle of limbs, the kittens happily purring as they draped themselves over their legs. For the first time since they'd been taken to the Sanctuary, they both slept through the night. The warmth and comfort of having the other laying next to them had made them both relax entirely. Ani was thankful that Daryl was still asleep as she turned in his arms. Looking up at his sleeping face, she could see just how exhausted he really was. He was snoring softly, his jaw slack, as he slept half on his stomach, half on top of her, pulling her in closer when she moved in his arms. She was so comfortable that Ani ended up falling back to sleep with her cheek pressed against his chest, his heartbeat lulling her back to the land of dreams.
A knock on the door sometime later brought both of them to a startled sense of wakefulness. Rick called out that Richard was there, making them both groan as they tried to rouse from their rested state. Daryl leaned down and captured Ani's lips for a moment before throwing the covers back and grabbing his clothes. Ani was quick to follow suit, though only after she'd stretched and cracked her back. Before they left the room, Ani turned around and wrapped her arms around Daryl's neck, pulling him down for a devouring kiss he was all too happy to return. They left the room afterwards, Abraham and Sasha being the last to follow as Abraham looked a bit miffed and Sasha was desperately trying to get her hair righted.
"Get interrupted?" Ani asked with a smirk, Sasha's blush making her laugh even as Abraham grumbled under his breath.
"The King is ready to see you," Richard informed them all. "I'll take you to him."
They followed along the man as they traveled through the Kingdom. Even though the sun was barely risen above the buildings, there were many people already up and working. Some were running laps, others were practicing with bows and arrows, others still were working the plots. Ani had to give it to the King, he knew how to keep his people safe. Even the young children were practicing with the bow, taking turns in aiming at the hay bale targets they were using. It had Ani wondering how young a child could start learning to defend themselves as she walked hand in hand with Daryl, her other hand coming to rest on her stomach again. She was so fascinated by the movements she felt there regularly now as the small bump grew day by day. However, looking at the instructors, she could tell that the Kingdom had come at quite the cost as several were missing limbs.
"This is life here," Ezekiel said as their group walked up to the target area he was supervising. "Every day. But it came at a cost. And I wanted more of this. I wanted to expand. Create more places like this. Men and women lost their limbs, children lost their parents because I sent them into a battle against the wasted when I did not need to."
"This is different," Rick told him, taking a few steps closer.
"It isn't," the King countered.
"It is," Rick insisted. "The dead don't rule us. The world doesn't look like this outside your walls. People don't have it as good. Some people don't have it good at all."
"I have to worry about my people," Ezekiel told him softly.
"You call yourself a damn king," Daryl growled out. "You sure as hell don't act like one."
"All of this," Ezekiel said as he walked up to Daryl and looked him square in the eye, "came at a cost. It was lives, arms, legs," he said pointing to his people before walking back over to Rick. "The peace we have with the Saviors is uneasy. But it is peace. I have to hold onto it. I have to try. Although the Kingdom cannot offer you the aid you desire," he said loud enough for everyone to hear, "the King is sympathetic to your plight. I offer our friends Daryl and Ani asylum for as long as they require it. They will be safe here. The Saviors do not set foot inside our walls."
"How long you think that's gonna last?" Daryl asked him before pulling Ania away, the others following behind.
Ani looked back at the King who was watching them with a look of contemplation. Sasha tried to start a conversation with Rosita only for the woman to walk off snidely, leaving Abraham to come up and drape an arm over her shoulders. Sophia was following Ani with Carl standing beside her, making Ani think about how they had both been to the Sanctuary. She already knew that she and Daryl had to stay here in the Kingdom, at least for a while, but if the Saviors went back to Alexandria and saw Sophia there, she would be in a lot of trouble herself. On top of that, Ani didn't want Sophia fighting in this war. The little girl was already too much of a soldier, and Ani wanted to save her from whatever darkness would grow in her from fighting like she and Carol had. At the same time, she worried that if Sophia was exposed to that much fighting and killing, she would end up running like her mother. She would rather protect the girl from that than see her fight in the coming war.
"How many people do we have?" Richard asked Rick. "To fight? I'll come with you."
"We don't even have enough to take on one outpost face-to-face yet," Rick informed him.
"So the Kingdom has to get in charge or the Saviors will always be in charge," Richard surmised as they came to a stop in front of the gate. "It isn't about soldiers. We're making them stronger. The more food we give them, the more arms, every day any of us give them something, they become harder and harder to beat."
"Hey, open it up," Daryl told the guard. "We're gone."
"We're not," Ani said as the others started walking through. "Phia, ya stayin' too."
"What?" Daryl and Sophia asked at the same time.
"Phia was at the Sanctuary. Arat and Laura saw her. She goes back ta Alexandria, she'll only get everyone in trouble. Same goes for us."
"She's right," Rick said.
"I ain't stayin' here," Daryl told them.
"You have to," Rick told him. "It's the smartest play. The safest for Ani, too, for your child. Besides, we need you here. Try to talk to Ezekiel. Or stare him into submission," he quipped as Daryl stared him down before looking over to Ania who was looking down. "Whatever it takes. We'll be back soon," he told him, putting his hand on his shoulder before leaving, the gate closing behind him as Daryl and Ani both looked on.
"Why the hell you got us stayin' here?" he turned on Ani as soon as the gate closed.
"'Cause I ain' takin' the risk. Neitha a ya. Not me or the baby. Ain' perfect, and don' gotta stay foreva, but ya know they're gonna be checkin' the Hilltop and Alexandria the next couple a days. Please, baby," she begged as she walked up to him and put one hand on his forearm, the other on his cheek. "Trust me and jus' stay 'ere 'til the day afta tamorrow. We can go ta the Hilltop for Maggie afta that."
"You sure know how they think," he accused.
"Did ya forget I used ta be a forensic psychologist? I talked ta Negan a lot. He wanted ta get ta know me, but I learned more 'bout 'im than he did me," she admitted. "I ain' proud or happy ta say it, but I know 'nough 'bout the way Negan thinks ta keep a step ahead a him for now. Can' promise foreva, but when it comes ta hidin' us? They ain' gonna expend resources lookin' for us if they don' know where we went. It ain' worth the effort ta Negan. That's why we only gotta stay for a couple days. But this...ya know it's the safest route we can go, for ya, for Phia, for the baby."
Daryl looked at and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out through his nose. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck here in the Kingdom when everyone else they knew were fighting. He needed to be there, in the thick of it, to make sure Negan died. Yet Ania seemed to actually understand the way the man thought. His face grew dark as his mind raced back to what Dwight had said about Negan taking a liking to her. Just what had they talked about when she was alone? How much time had they spent together so that she understood how Negan thought? He was scowling at her when both her hands were on his face and she stood on her tiptoes.
"Don' think like that," she whispered against his lips before pressing a kiss to them, knowing the Saviors, Dwight in particular, had filled his head with nonsense. "Ya know I can be quick on the uptake. Ya know I can learn fast. He was an open book. He thought 'e hid 'imself well, but not ta me. Neva was anythin' more'n that."
"He took a likin' to you."
"He took a likin' ta ya, too," she countered, putting her heels down before her legs began to cramp. "If 'e took a likin' ta me, it's 'cause a what I can do. The fightin', the medicine, the psych help I could a offa'd. If it were more'n that, who fuckin' cares? I can' control what anotha man thinks a me. All I can control is the fact that I neva wanna be with anotha man besides ya for the rest a me life. Don' eva doubt it, don' doubt us," she whispered.
Daryl sighed and put his hands on her hips before leaning his forehead down onto hers, "I'm tryin'."
"What do ya need me ta do?" she asked him, closing her eyes and wrapping her hands around his neck.
"I don't know," Daryl admitted after another sigh. "Come on, let's go get some breakfast."
Ani stayed under his arm the entire walk to the cafeteria. She was given generous portion of cobbler this morning, but the staff skimped her on the meat. Ani was a bit miffed at it until she tried a piece and her stomach soured immediately. Sophia laughed and mentioned how she had no problem eating squirrel, or possum or skunk or rabbit or deer, but now that she had pork, she was couldn't eat it. Ani just scowled and dumped the meat onto Daryl's plate, taking his strawberries in the process. When they were done, they went back to the same common room they'd been in before, though Sophia had gone off to join in on target practice with the other kids her age. Daryl and Ani sat in the commons talking, Ani telling Daryl everything she had talked about with Negan, everything she had learned about him, what she had done when he was in the room, admitting everything and laying it out on the line so he knew exactly what happened to her and what she'd been thinking. She told him about Regina and Laura, about her experience at the market, and how she'd been treated and what she'd said to Negan to get her face cut up. She left nothing unsaid as she almost could feel the clouds of doubt in his mind dissipating.
"Does it help? Knowin' all that?" she asked him when she was done.
"Yeah," Daryl said, taking it all in and realizing she never once doubted him or wavered in her loyalty. "I'm sorry, Ania."
"Don't be. I get it. If it had been the otha way 'round and ya'd spent a lot a time one on one with anotha gal, I'd be pissed and questionin' it too. Ya don' gotta apologize. Ya didn' ask me ta tell ya it all. I did ta ease ya mind. I'd wanna know, too."
Daryl stayed silent, just holding her in his arms as she sat on his lap, bringing his palm up to her lips and pressing a kiss into it. They stayed like that until they heard something happening outside, looking out the window and seeing a couple large trucks preparing to leave. Both she and Daryl left the room to investigate, learning that the King had taken Morgan, Jerry, and a few others had gone on one of their sweeps. The thing was, Ani and Daryl had seen them load a bunch of stuff into one of the trucks before they'd taken off. Ani's lips turned up in disgust as they walked around, Daryl managing to snag a pack of cigarettes from somewhere in the facility and lighting one up. It was nearly an hour later when the trucks finally came back.
Ani and Daryl walked up as Ezekiel left with Jerry, leaving Morgan and the kid that had been in the 'throne room' standing beside the trucks. "Hey," Daryl called out, making the man notice them standing there. "Where'd you go in them trucks?"
"I need to speak to Daryl and Ani alone. Is that okay?" Morgan asked the kid.
"Yeah, I'll get you something for that cut," the boy said before walking off, looking a bit worried for Morgan as Daryl angrily stalked up to him, Ani deciding it was probably for the best that she hung back a bit for now.
"Yeah," Morgan told him.
"You went to see them, right?" Daryl accused, Morgan immediately agreeing. "Part of your deal? What the hell's wrong with you?" he growled at him, taking a step forward. "You're bleedin'. They did that to you. You know what they are."
"I do," Morgan agreed.
"You know, if Carol were here, she saw all that..." Daryl said, Ani tensing behind him. "If she knew about Glenn, what they made Ani do, she'd be leadin' us right to them, ready to kill 'em all."
"She would," Morgan agreed. "And that's why she left, man."
Daryl stared at him before scoffing and walking back to Ania, pulling her under his arm as he walked away. The last thing he needed right now was to try to talk to a man who had no will to fight. Morgan was just like the King, capable, but unwilling to take any chances. He couldn't help but think about how Ania had said she wasn't taking any chances either, but how far to the extreme her way of thinking that was compared to Morgan and Ezekiel's. Ania was willing to kill anyone and anything that threatened them and theirs while the men who were looked up to as leaders in the Kingdom weren't willing to risk any of their own people to deal with the threat. Even if he understood Ezekiel's standpoint to an extent, it was absolute bullshit that these men weren't willing to deal with the problem.
"I hate sayin' it," Ani said, breaking the silence as they started towards the area they'd left Sophia earlier, finding her talking and laughing with some of the kids still. "But 'e's right. And I get it now. Why she neva could adjust ta the killin'. Why she's always runnin' off. Ya gotta be born ta somethin' like that for it not ta change ya. She wasn'. It was dropped on 'er by Ed, then by this world. She wasn' born a fighta like ya and me."
"What are you sayin'?"
"I'm sayin' we may not like it, we might neva be the same 'cause a how our views have changed, but we've been fightin' all our lives jus' ta live. Even if ya weren' killin' people, ya been killin' animals, huntin', savivin', fightin'. Killin' somethin' else ta savive is somethin' we've been doin' all our lives. Carol didn' do any a that 'fore Ed died, 'fore I made 'er start takin' lessons. I...I helped turn 'er inta a killa, D. I can' be mad at 'er for not wantin' ta fight no more. I..." Ani sighed as Sophia saw them and waved, motioning she was going to stay with the group a while longer. Ani smile at her and gave her a thumbs up before turning back to Daryl, "I don' want Phia ta fight. I don' want 'er ta do any more killin' than she's already had ta, than she will have ta at some point. I don' want ta be responsible for what she becomes like I am for Cars."
"You didn't make her leave," Daryl offered.
"Nah, but I trained 'er ta kill. That's bad 'nough."
"She made her own choices with Karen and David. You didn't force anythin' on her that wouldn't keep her alive. She's livin' now, out there somewhere, 'cause a you."
"Maybe," was all Ani answered before sighing and leaning her head against Daryl's shoulder.
"C'mon," he said, pulling her away from the gazebo Sophia and the kids were hanging in and over to the firing range
Richard was standing there with a bow, shooting and missing the target completely, causing Ani to tell him, "Ya gotta stop droopin' ya neck. Stand up straighta and draw back all the way 'till ya thumb's on ya cheek, the loose."
"I'm practicing," he told her.
"I can see that. And based on how me brotha trained me girl and she trained 'er best friend. That's what she told 'im when 'e couldn' hit the target," Ani said with a shrug.
"Thank you."
"Why you practicin'?" Daryl asked him as he got closer, seeing just how far off the target the man truly was.
"I'm gonna have to start using this more," he informed them. "The Saviors are smart enough to know I shouldn't have a gun around them. Morgan said you were a bowman?" he asked, walking closer to where Daryl stood with Ani under his arm and handed over the crossbow that was sitting on the table next to him.
Daryl stood and stared at him for a moment, wondering what it was going to cost him. Everything had a price now, and that had been a lesson both he and Ania had learned the hard way. Nothing in this world came without some kind of cost being paid. Richard just held the bow out, not at all perturbed nor surprised by Daryl's hesitation. After learning that he and his wife had both been abducted by the Saviors and what they had had to endure over the past several days, he could understand the man's hesitation and even more so the woman's calculative gaze. Neither expected this offering to be freely handed over.
After a minute, Daryl moved away from Ania and took the bow from the man, asking, "Why?"
"'Cause we want the same things," Richard told them. "I need your help."
"I'm gonna tell Phia ta stay in town. I'll meet ya back 'ere in five," Ani told Daryl.
"You should stay, too" he said in reply.
"Hell nah, I'm helpin'. Ya got somethin' planned ta get the Kingdom in motion, right? That's why ya need our help?" she asked Richard.
"Yes. We need something to move Ezekiel. I have an idea on how to do that, but I need your help, both of you," he told them.
"Give me five."
"Why you need her?" Daryl asked as he watched her walk away.
"I heard you talking last night, how she can fight, how she can predict the way they think. We'll need that if we're going to pull this off," Richard reasoned.
"You know she's pregnant, right? She can't keep doin' all this damn fightin'. Don't need her comin' along."
"We do. She won't be in any danger. With her help, none of us will even have to go face to face with the Saviors."
"Anythin' happens to her, anythin' at all, I'll have your head."
"Understood," Richard said. "I wouldn't ask her to come along if I thought it would put her in danger."
"But it does," Daryl pointed out, watching Ania pull Sophia aside to talk to her, the girl obviously arguing with Ania about being left in the Kingdom while she and Daryl went with Richard. "Puts her in danger just bein' out there."
"We need her," Richard told him. "There's only one other person I know who could help us wants nothing to do with this war. We don't have any other option at this point."
"Anythin' happens to her, I mean it. I won't hesitate," Daryl warned him as Ani gave Sophia a hug. "You'll be dead before you can even try to say sorry."
Ani walked up to the gazebo the kids were at and cleared her throat, "Hey guys, ya mind if I borrow Phia for a moment?"
The chorus of nos that followed, smiles and happy comments about Sophia had her smiling as the girl came over to her and asked, "What's up?"
"Me and Daryl are headin' out with Richard, but we want ya ta stay 'ere with the kids ya age," Ani told her honestly. "Mingle. Have fun. Stay outta trouble."
"You want me to stay here?!" Sophia cried in anger.
"Phia," Ani said seriously. "I don' want ya fightin' in whateva comes next. I want ya ta stay out of it as much as possible."
"I can figh-"
"Neva said ya couldn', Phia. I know, betta than anyone else, that ya can fight. Ya know damn well I know how well ya can fight. But jus' 'cause ya can don' mean ya should. I don' want ya fightin' unless ya have ta. I don' want ya ta have ta kill the livin' if ya don' have ta."
"Why? What's wrong with fighting to protect what's important? What I want to protect?"
"Ya fight ta protect them, sure, but, hun, ya still a kid. So be a kid," Ani told her. "Mingle with ya peers. We don' have anyone otha than Carl back home, so go have fun with the people ya age taday. There'll be plenty a time ta help lata on."
"I can help now!"
"I know ya can, but Phia, why do ya think ya momma ran away?"
"'Cause she doesn't ca-"
"'Cause she can' do any more killin'," Ani told her, correcting her before she could even finish her sentence. "I helped make 'er what she was, by trainin' 'er, teachin' 'er. I helped 'er become what she became, and she couldn' handle it."
"I'm not my mom!"
"I know ya not. Neva said ya were. But Phia, I don' want ya ta fight any more'n ya have ta. I'm not sayin' neva fight, I'm jus' sayin' that, for now, while ya still a kid, let me fight for ya, okay? Me and Daryl. We'll fight for ya so ya can stay a kid for as long as ya can. I...I don' want ya ta become like me," Ani admitted. "I don' eva want ya ta be used ta the killin'. So ya stay 'ere taday. Okay?"
"Why is everyone allowed to protect me, but I can't fight for anyone else?!" Sophia asked petulantly.
"Ya will," Ani assured her. "One day, ya gonna save someone's ass, and then ya'll realize that killin' like I've done, killin' like what we're plannin' with this war, it ain' the way we should do things."
"Then why are you?"
"'Cause the Saviors gotta be stopped. I ain' lettin' this baby be born in a world where Negan fuckin' rules."
"Won't you stay with me?" Sophia asked. "With the baby and-"
"I can'," Ani said sorrowfully. "I can' leave Daryl right now. I don' wanna. Phia, I don' know if or when I'll lash out right now. I need ta be 'round 'im ta keep me head on straight and ta keep me from makin' a stupid mistake. Whole reason I came 'ere 'stead a stayed at the Hilltop was 'cause I'd a killed Gregory if I stayed. No questions asked. Jus' got rid a the problem. I don' trust meself right now, Phia. And I don' trust ya ta stop me if I fly off the handle. I wouldn' want ya ta try in case ya get hurt. But Daryl? He's strong 'nough, fast 'nough. He's kept me from hurtin' othas before, he'll do it now. I...I really don' trust meself right now."
Sophia gave Ani a hug, Ani returning it with a sigh as the girl said, "I trust you. You'll be back by tonight, right?"
"At some point, yeah. And Morgan'll be here. And Nabila. I can even leave the twins with ya if ya want. Be the cool kid with the cool cats," Ani said with a smile.
"Can I have Catty? Bobby should go with you in case you get into trouble," Sophia suggested, knowing that Bobby would come for Catty if Ani got into any trouble.
"A course," Ani told her.
On her way back to Daryl, she signaled to the kittens, Catty running off to Sophia while Bobby ran forwards to Daryl. She was happy with how well the cats had been learning and especially happy with their sizes. The things were almost as big as they were going to get and knew how to attack, defend, hunt, hide, climb, and a slew of other things. According to Daryl, Bobby was damn near as good as a hunting dog and Catty, well, Catty was Catty. She still hadn't quite gotten the hang of hunting anything bigger than a squirrel and regularly ran from any big noises. Neither acted much like the bobcats they were, according to Merle, both behaving more like regular dogs than cats in general. Ani didn't particularly care how they acted or the fact that they were both trained to attack. She was just happy they were both alive and doing well.
Upon reaching Daryl, Richard brought them outside of the Kingdom to an old RV that was hidden by vines and a road sign. The gist of it was that he had weapons, gas, and a variety of other things that would make for a good amount of weapons. He pulled chemicals out of one the cupboards and started pouring them into bottles, making molotov cocktails as he did so. Ani had to admit that it was and impressive little cache the man had, but questioned why he had so much stuff hidden away.
"We need something to move Ezekiel," he told them as he handed them gear. "This is it. Alexandria, the Kingdom, and the Hilltop. Hitting first, hitting hard. Then we wipe the Saviors from the Earth."
"I like the sound a that," Ani told him, sniffing one of the bottles only scrunch up her nose at the intense smell.
"We'll be keeping dozens and dozens and dozens of good people...keeping them safe," he said. "We do this, hit them now, hit them hard, we can make things right."
"So, what's the plan?" Daryl asked. "Why do you need us?"
"Follow me," he told them, heading out of the RV and leading them through the woods.
Daryl took the pack the man had handed to Ani, only letting her carry the gun and her knives while he carried two packs, his new crossbow, and a gun himself. To his credit, Richard had given them the lighter packs and taken the heaviest one for himself. They walked along a road, Richard looking back every once in a while, almost as if he expected them to be followed. It had Ani's nerves on edge to the point that she snapped at him when he did it again, making even Daryl question whether or not they were being followed.
"Why the hell ya keep doin' that?!" Ani growled in frustration.
"They ride this road," Richard told them as he lead them around a couple fallen trailers. "If we see cars, it's the Saviors. They've been coming in packs of two or three lately," he informed them, setting down the better part of his gear, Daryl following suit. "That's why I need the two of you. I can't take them alone. We're gonna hit them with the guns first, then the Molotovs, then back to the guns until they're dead."
"Why the fire?" Daryl asked, even Ani wasn't entirely sure what the point of fire was if they were just going to kill them all anyway.
"Needs to look bad," was what was offered. "The Saviors who discover what's left...we want them to be angry."
"They're gonna be angry anyway," Ani pointed out. "What's the point a settin' 'em on fire?"
"We have to get Ezekiel specifically involved," Richard said. "I left a trail from here to the weapons cache I planted, to the cabin of someone Ezekiel cares about."
"Who's that?" Daryl asked.
"It's just some loner he met," Richard told them offhandedly as Ani stilled in her movements. "Sometimes he brings food to them."
"Why don't they live in the Kingdom?" Daryl pushed.
"I don't know," he said. "She lives out there, she'll die out there."
"She?" Ani asked, her hand going to Daryl's forearm as her body tensed.
"It's a woman?" Daryl asked.
"What does that matter?" Richard said, trying to provoke Daryl with his next words. "She's got more balls than you and me. She's gonna die either way. When the Saviors come and find their buddies dead, if they know their elbow from their asshole, they can follow an obvious spoor, they're gonna go to the weapons cache, then to the cabin, and they're gonna attack this woman."
"What's her name?" Ani asked, her voice dark as she ready herself to attack.
"Maybe they kill her, maybe they don't," Richard said, continuing his train of thought as if Ani hadn't spoken. "But it's going to show Ezekiel what he needs to do."
"Her name," Daryl said just as darkly as Ani had, though stepping in front of the woman as she dropped her hand from his arm. "What is it?"
"She's tough," Richard tried. "Maybe she'll live."
"Say her damn name!" Daryl yelled, making Richard sigh.
"Carol," he told them. "I hoped you didn't know her. But I didn't think you'd care, either of you. 'Cause you know what needs to happen."
"Hell nah!" Ani yelled, storming past both Daryl and Richard to grab the pack she'd originally been given up.
"No," Daryl agreed, going to do the same.
"Maybe she'll live," Richard tried to reason.
"And maybe she'll die!" Ani yelled back. "She's one a ours! Hell nah!"
"Look," Richard said. "This is how...this is how this could happen! This is how we can get rid of the Saviors, how we all can have a future!"
"Fuck ya!"
"She's living out there alone, just waiting to die!"
"Naw!" Daryl said, both he and Ani storming their way towards the woods.
"If we don't do anything, a hell of a lot more people are gonna die, people who want to live!"
"Who says she doesn' wanna live, huh?" Ani growled at him, throwing her bag and the gun down as both she and Daryl turned. "Who says she wants ta die?! That ain' Cars! Jus' 'cause she don' wanna fight doesn' mean she don' wanna live! Fuck ya straight ta hell!"
Daryl threw his new bow down as Ani talked, stepping in front of her and getting right in Richard's face as he threatened him, "You stay the hell away from Carol, you hear me?"
Vehicles approaching had both he and Ani bending down to pick up their weapons as Richard edged closer to the back of the trailer before looking at them and warning, "It's them. Look, we could wait for things to go bad and lose people...or we can do the hard thing...and choose our fate for ourselves."
Ani thought about it for all of a second. The truth of the matter was that they could very easily end the Saviors with the Kingdom's help. She wasn't willing to take risks that would lead to more of her people getting killed, but Carol was her people. Even if the woman ran away a lot, even if she wanted to be away from everyone and everything, she was still one of the few people they had left from the original group. It was just Carol, the Dixons, and the Grimes' left, three groups of people out of the several families that had once camped together at the quarry. Even if Ani wasn't willing to take risks, she wasn't willing to sacrifice Carol for what Richard considered to be the greater good. It was like when Shane wanted to cut her and Sophia loose when they'd gotten lost in the woods; there was always a cost and it always seemed to involve her and their people, not anyone else.
"Hell nah!" she told Richard.
"No!" Daryl agreed.
"Sorry," Richard said, turning to make his attack.
"No, Ania!" Daryl said, as he moved, grabbing Richard by the shoulders and pinning him to the ground.
He straddled the man, using his weight and strength to overpower him for a little while. When Richard, who wasn't exactly weak himself, began to struggle more than Daryl could handle by just holding, Daryl punched him. He landed three good blows after the first, using both fists to land the haymakers right to the man's face. Ani was seething and wanted to just shoot the man, but Daryl was right that that would lead to the Saviors finding them there. She didn't have any of her knives on her at the moment either. If it weren't for the fact that Daryl was already fighting the man, Ani wouldn't have let any chances be taken and would have simply snapped the man's neck. Instead, she watched as the man managed to grab hold of the canteen that had fallen when Daryl tossed his pack and smacked Daryl upside the head with it. Both men scrambled for their dropped weapons as Ani took aim at Richard, stopping him in his tracks even as Daryl managed to grab his crossbow and stand up.
"There'll be more," Richard said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Or those—they're gonna ride back this way later. We'll have another chance. But we're running out of time. If you and your people want to move against the saviors, you need to do it soon, and you need the Kingdom. What we have to do requires sacrifice one way or another."
"Then sacrifice yaself, why don' ya?!" Ani seethed.
"People like us, we've lost so much," Richard tried to plead.
"You don't know us," Daryl told him.
"I know that Carol, living on her own like that, she might as well be dead right now."
Ani roared at that and gave the man a punch of her own, knocking him down to the ground as he held his hanging jaw, "She ain' fuckin' dead. She ain' gonna die!"
"She gets hurt, she dies, she catches a fever, she gets taken out by a walker, she gets hit by lightening- anything happens to her, I'll kill you," Daryl told the man as he stood back up.
"I woud die thor the Kingthom," he mumbled past his dislocated, if not broken, jaw.
"Why don't you?" Daryl asked him, grabbing his things and Ania's before taking her hand and walking off. After a few minutes of silent walking, he turned to Ania, bringing her under his shoulder and kissing her hair, "See, don't need to kill."
"I wanted ta. I will. If 'e eva brings up hurtin' Cars again. I ain' losin' anyone else, D. I ain' makin' any more sacrifices for othas who don' even care ta step up on their own."
"I know, baby girl."
"I wanna see Cars. I wanna see that she's alright."
"He mentioned a cabin, leaving a trail. We can find her."
It wasn't long before they found the trail Richard had been talking about. Ani was surprised when she saw the King and his troupe walking away from the place, a nice little cabin out in the middle of no where. Both she and Daryl were a little cautious to approach, looking at each other with the same amount of fear and trepidation. Ani had said her piece, how she didn't want Carol to know everything that happened, how it might set the woman off even worse. She explained how Carol was most likely suffering from PTSD or was in the early stages of it. Neither even knew if Carol would want to see them, Morgan's words of her wanting to just be gone echoing in both of their heads as they walked up to the door and Daryl gently knocked on it. When Carol opened the door with an annoyed look, both of them froze up until her face morphed into that of surprise.
In tears, she came out of the house and hugged Daryl for a good moment before he pushed her away. Ani didn't want to be touched, she didn't want anything pressed against her skin if it wasn't Daryl or the cats, but when Carol wrapped her up in a hug, Ani's reaction wasn't to push her away. She latched hold of Carol, holding the woman as tightly as she was holding her, trying to keep the tears from running down her face. Daryl watched on and knew what Ania was thinking, how she'd killed her mom and the closest thing to a proper mom she'd gotten was standing there, holding her as they both fought not to cry.
"Wha-How?" Carol asked as she and Ani broke apart.
"Jesus took us to the kingdom," Daryl informed her. "Morgan said you just left. We were out here. I saw you. Why'd you go?"
"I had to," she whispered as the tears ran down her face.
"Why?" Ani asked.
"I couldn't...I couldn't..." Carol tried to explain, but couldn't find the words.
"Ya left Phia again," Ani accused.
"She had you and Merle and Daryl. She had everything she needed," Carol cried while shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders. "She didn't need me."
"Maybe, maybe not, but we needed ya, Cars! Everyone back home! We needed ya! And ya ran off! I nee...I...I..." Ani tried to calm herself down, instead turning to Daryl and burying herself in his arms.
"What happened?" Carol asked.
"Some shit went down back home," Daryl told her.
Carol breathed in deeply before inviting them inside. She watched as Daryl pulled Ani to sit on his lap while she started a fire. Both hunters were looking around the place, though Ani ended up just leaning her head on Daryl's shoulder and closing her eyes. Silent tears were still falling down her face as Daryl rubbed circles on her back. Her hand was on her stomach, the small bump there now obvious when she was sitting. Carol watched them both as the three sat in silence, getting to work on making some stew from the vegetables Ezekiel had given her and a rabbit she'd caught herself. When Daryl's other hand moved from her thigh to her stomach after she whispered something in his ear, Carol couldn't help but smile softly at the look of pure love Daryl had on his face as he held his hand there.
"How far along are you now?" Carol asked.
"'Bout twenny four weeks, I think?" Ani answered quietly.
"And everything's going well?"
"Could be betta. I don' know what the fuck is pregnancy or me or what happened. Could use ya bein' around ta help with it," Ani suggested.
"I can't."
"Why the hell not?" Daryl asked.
"I can't...kill...anymore," Carol cried. "I couldn't lose anymore. I couldn't lose any of them. I couldn't lose either of you. I couldn't kill them. I could. I would. If they hurt anymore of our people, any more of them, that's what I would do. And there wouldn't be anything left of me after that."
"It's okay, ma," Ani slipped. "Ya don' gotta fight no more. It's okay."
"You're callin' me ma again?" Carol chuckled. "I thought you were never gonna do that again."
"Changed me mind."
"The Saviors, did they come?" she asked.
"Yeah," Daryl said, his arms going around Ania as she tightened her grip on him.
Carol moved to face the two of them, trying her hardest not to cry, "Did anyone get hurt? Is everybody ok? Why's Ani so upset? Did the Saviors-?" she cried, holding her hand to her mouth before catching her breath. "Is everybody back home okay? Daryl...Ani...just tell me."
"They came," Daryl told her. "We got 'em all. Made a deal with the rest of them, like Ezekiel. Everyone's alright."
"Why's Ani...?"
"Me parents were with 'em," Ani told her. "They...Negan...he found out they lied ta him. He...He..."
"She was forced to kill her parents. He made her beat her dad to death, stab her mom, as part of the deal," Daryl finished for her.
"Oh God, Ani, I'm sorry," Carol said.
"I'll be alright," she mumbled before her stomach growled loudly, making Daryl clap his hand on the table behind her.
"We gonna eat or—or we gotta be a king or somethin' to get some food around here?" he joked dryly, though it did make Carol chuckle and stop crying.
"Shut up," she said before bringing the stew to the table, Ani moving to sit across from Carol with Daryl sitting at the head of the table.
"Ezekiel," Daryl said as Carol started serving up the food. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah, I think he is," Carol answered, offering Ani a bowl.
No one spoke as they ate, Carol calming down and drying her tears as Ani just stared off into space thinking about how she wanted to protect this woman as much as she wanted to protect her daughter. It wasn't just that she'd been the one to teach her how to do what she could now, it was that Carol had been a mom to her at one point. She knew that she would never fully recover that bond, the trust she'd once had for Carol, but she couldn't help that her heart remembered all those moments Carol had been loving towards her. Those moments brought a warmth that momentarily covered up the pain of what she'd done to her father.
When the meal was finished, Daryl let Carol know that they had to get back. Both he and Ani grabbed their gear and left the little cabin, fully intending to just head back to the Kingdom. However, they both only got a few steps off the porch before stopping and turning back. Ani crushed Carol into her, holding her as tightly as she could and told her to be careful before stepping back and wiping her eyes. Daryl was the next to hug her, holding her for a moment before telling her to watch out for herself. He held Ania under his arm for as long as he could when they walked away after that, watching as the girl silently wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"It'll be alright, baby girl," he assured her. "We'll win this and get 'er to come back."
"Yeah," Ani said, wiping her face dry before standing up straighter. "We will."