Disclaimer: I own nothing.

– – –

"Stay here." Daryl grabbed his gun and crossbow from the dresser.

"You honestly expect me to stay put when crazies are inside our home?" Carol hissed in a low tone as to not draw attention their way.

"Yes." He whirled around. "You are carrying our child. I don't want anything to happen to either of you, so stay put. Hide, if you need to. These people will shoot first and ask questions later."

"How do you know that?"

"It's Pentaghast. She's the trouble I ran into on the road. You were right. She's dangerous and nuts. I won't let her hurt you."

She nodded. "Go. I'll stay here."

He shouldered his weapon and glanced back at her before placing a rough, quick kiss to her lips and bolting out of the house. He found the streets in chaos. People were fighting, but the people with Pentaghast weren't killing them. It was as though that first aflame man was a warning to let them know they were here. Like ringing a door. They were gathering people up. The kids were being shoved in one direction, the adults in the other. It would seem the kids were a bargaining chip to force the parents to do what they wanted. Daryl was glad Carol had stayed hidden like he'd asked. If anything happened to any of these kids, he didn't want her to see it.

The flaming sticks were stabbed into the ground, the kids each held by one of Pentaghast's people, and Daryl saw Rick and Michonne were standing with the other adults. He didn't understand why until he saw her. All dolled up in a black crop top, heavy cargo pants and an unbuttoned winter coat. She was holding Judith in her arms, and behind her was Carl struggling against the weight of a man who held him at gunpoint.

Pentaghast stroked Judith's darkening hair as snowflakes caught in her own red strands, and she looked around her new home. "How cozy." She snuggled Judith closer. "But this weather is no place for a child. Sal!"

A woman came marching over to the redhead, fully clothed for the cold and armed to the teeth. "Yes?"

"Take them to that house over there. Chain them." She was pointing to the house they were using as a "jail". "Take the kids and put them into the truck."

They chained the adults together with actual chains, Rick struggled and so did Michonne until Pentaghast's cold eyes landed on them, her hand no longer stroking Judith's hair but her little neck. Her eyes were empty, revealing no soul behind them, and they knew she would snap her neck without a second thought.

"I don't like insubordination," Pentaghast informed them. "You're mine now. You'll do as I say. I'll see you in the morning, and so will this adorable child if you behave. If I so much as think you're going to overthrow me, I'll break her neck and leave her corpse to devour you."

Rick bit down on his tongue to keep from spewing threats he completely intended to keep. He would make her pay for this and then some.

The kids were loaded into the truck they had used to bring back their equipment from the hospital, and Pentaghast was "kind" enough to thrown in some blankets as it would sit out in the cold. She waved with Judith's little hand to Carl, knowing that was her brother, and she earned the same look his father gave him, only it was half as effective. The loss of the eye really did sour that look.

"Oh, my sweet." Pentaghast held Judith under her coat as she began to fuss. "You must be tired. Let's get you back to bed." Stealing her out of it was no way to wake a child, but oh well. She wouldn't live long enough to complain with actual words.

"Pentaghast." A woman approached her, giving a slight bow of the head. "We didn't find her. The ones we rounded up, she wasn't among them."

Pentaghast looked over her shoulder at the woman. "Find her." She bounded Judith on her hip gently. "And if you can't, slit the throat of every woman here, even the little women." She traced a line over Judith's throat.

"Yes, ma'am."

Daryl couldn't breathe. Carol. She was looking for Carol. Fuck. She was showing now too. It wouldn't be hard to find her if they searched every house. He had to do something. He had to get back to Carol and get her out of Alexandria. He had to take her someplace safe and come back to try and free Rick and the kids. He had to save her first, because it wasn't just her. He'd take her back to that cabin they were trapped in with the walkers with some supplies then come back here. He had some canned goods in the new house and come preserves she could snack on. She would be fine there, safe, and then he could get to Rick. He would formulate a plan. He just needed to—

"If the she you're referring to is me then look no futher." Carol stood in the road, no weapons, no protection, utterly vulnerable.

Daryl nearly dropped dead.

Pentaghast turned to fully face the woman before her, adjusting the child in her arms. She drank her in, studying her soft silver curls, the roundness to her belly, the beauty in her pale motherly face. She was beautiful, a light about her, and Pentaghast was drawn toward her. It was no wonder she was carrying life in this world with that glow. That precious, angelic glow. "Carol?"

"No." Daryl bolted out of his hiding place and flung himself in front of Carol, one hand on her hip to keep her from moving. "This is Michonne. She's Judith's mom. She just wants her kid."

Pentaghast's smiled at him. "My, my, look who it is. Hello, lover."

He repressed a sneer.

Carol hadn't expected to hear that, but she kept her face guarded. She had one goal here and one only. She would have kept hidden, but she couldn't with Judith being used as a bargaining chip. She'd rather it be her. She could defend herself and Judy. She could get her out of the arms of that bitch. "I am Carol." She walked out from behind Daryl after loosening his grip on her. He wouldn't hold her too tight. He was afraid he might hurt the baby, and she knew that, so she used it against him. I'm sorry, she whispered with her eyes as she passed him, but I have to do this. "And I'll do whatever you want, just let Judith go."

"Judith." Pentaghast studied the child in her arms then her eyes sliced back to Carol. "You can have her," she told the woman. "You just have to come take her from me. No tricks, from either of us, understood?"

"Carol, don't." Daryl grasped her arm. "Please, you don't know what you're doing. What she's gonna do. There's so much you don't know, what really happened on that run. Carol, please."

"It's late for please and don'ts, Daryl." Pentaghast has seen her, and she wouldn't let go now, so she might as well comply. Perhaps it would benefit her in the end. She could play the powerless pregnant woman for Judith's sake, for her family's sake. Carol pulled her arm free. "I can't let her hurt Judith." She'd seen from the window how she'd used Judith to subdue Rick and Michonne. She'd see how she'd thrown the kids into the truck to freeze to death. She'd seen how her people chained her family. She couldn't sit back and let this happen. Pregnant or not. She was not helpless. She had a plan.

Daryl watched the woman he loved approached the woman he loathed, and Pentaghast handed over Judith like she'd said she would. Daryl was about to reach for his gun as she was now an open target, but he was attacked by four of her people. Two of them grabbed his arms and restrained him while the others took his weapons, and he felt that all too familiar sting of a needle in his neck.

Pentaghast pulled a gun on Carol, and that was the last sight he saw.

– – –

When Daryl came to, he was chained with Glenn and Aaron away from the others, and he felt the effects of the drug still in his system. He couldn't ask what became of Carol and Judith. He could hardly keep his head up, and he could tell Glenn and Aaron had been drugged as well. He could see the concern in Maggie's eyes as she stared at her husband, and he could see Eric desperately trying to see past the people between him and Aaron. He didn't know why they were away from the others, but he had a feeling he wasn't going to like it.

The men and women were chained up separately, most of Daryl's immediate family were in the same room, save for Sasha, Rosita, Michonne and Francine. He couldn't see Tara or Denise either. Abraham and Rick were nowhere in sight, but they had them all throughout the house, so it was likely they were in another room. There were a lot of them, so it was no surprise they had to use different rooms. He just hoped the different rooms didn't mean something.

A woman in cargo pants and a turtle neck sweater patrolled the room with nothing more than brass knuckles, but she was buff, her aura reeked of soullessness and the desire for insubordination so she could kill. Her head was shaved as well, the light dusting of blonde all they could see, as well as hollow blue eyes. She had scars on her face and neck, and Daryl could make out nail marks. Likely one of her victims fighting for their life. He had a feeling it had been in vein, so he didn't linger on those scars.

A man stood guard in the hall with a semi-automatic, and he stood like a toy solider. He was older, but younger than Daryl. He had his hair grown out, tied back, and his steel gray eyes were locked on the woman walking the room. He was underneath her, and he was ready for any command she gave—both verbal and silent. Daryl would have to ensure no signals to kill came from her, or if they did, that he stopped them before anyone could complete that order. He'd try anyway. He was pretty fucked up.

The woman turned to face the group under her charge. "Pentaghast will be with you shortly. You'll learn the rules, and I suggest you take them to heart. There are no second chances."

"Now, now, Flissa." Pentaghast strolled into the room. "Don't get ahead of yourself. We haven't decided yet."

"Ma'am." She bowed her head slightly.

Pentaghast stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips, and she scanned the people chained there. "I'll have Rodrick come for the trio there in a few minutes. I have one of the boys there already. He's a fighter, but that oughta to make it worth it."

"Ma'am?" She tilted her head to the side, confused.

"My dear, sweet Flissa." She clasped her cheeks and smiled. "It's your turn."

"You mean...?"

Her hands moved down so that her fingertips brushed Flissa's lower torso, and she nodded. "I know any child of you will be bathed in purity, and you have stood by my side through so much. It's time for your reward. You'll have the first pick."

"I don't know what to say, but I am honored."

She walked around Flissa and put her hands on her own stomachy as she did. "Soon, new life will be upon us." She spun around once she was at the end of the room. "I have four ready for the knife and soon four will be ready to give seed. We also have one of theirs. She'll provide us with a beautifully pure babe. I can feel that she will, and I will let Rod have her."

"Won't we need five then?" Flissa questioned.

She shook her head. "We'll kill the unborn for her."

Daryl's heart stopped. His baby!

Pentaghast's eyes rolled to the side where Daryl lied limp, and she smirked, knowing what was going through his head, and she bent down, caressing his cheek. "Do not worry," she combed her fingers through his hair to see his face, "you will be busy when this happens. Quite busy."

He glowered at her.

She lightly smacked his cheeks and straightened. "Be good, my dears, because if you're not, you'll die. You might think you're stronger or smarter or better. That heroes win in the end. But don't be foolish. We have you outnumbered. We have your weapons and your children. I will not hesitate to slaughter the babes, and I will burn this prison of yours with you inside to the ground if I feel I must. Do not trifle with me."

"What'll you do to us?" Maggie spat. "If we don't fight? If we obey? You'll kill us anyway."

"Some of us, yes. But some of you, I like. The dark haired one? I'll keep her. The silver haired one? I'll keep her, too. But you? Open your damned mouth again, and I will cut out that tongue and feed it to your husband."

Maggie growled at her.

Pentaghast smiled darkly as Rod entered the room with two others to take the trio to the clinic. "Don't worry. If I keep you around, you may be around the children your husband will help bring into the world."

Maggie paled, her eyes moving to her husband. "Glenn!"

"Maggie," he strained.

She tried to stand but the man who had hardly even blinked was on her instantly, his handgun on her throat, her head jerked back so it was even more exposed. He would kill her and leave her to turn, to kill her family. She turned the most lethal look on Pentaghast that said she was going to kill her.

Pentaghast blew her a kiss and followed her men out of the room to the clinic. She had the three of them restrained against the beds in the room with several beds, and she had them striped of their shirts and pants, but their undergarments were left in place. She ensured they couldn't move, and she checked their pulses, satisfied with the strength she found there.

"Once the slaughter is finished, your flowers shall bloom into a glorious garden. This place will became a new home for new life, and it will be marvelous. If you obey and don't fight, you will see your children. You may even be allowed to hold them." She crossed her arms. "If you are naughty and don't follow the rules, I will kill the person who means most to you. Carol, Maggie, Eric. And if that isn't threat enough, I will remove your limbs. If you continue to fight then I'll bring in the hungry corpse of the one you love so she or he may devour whatever is left of you. That will be the last sight you see."

"You bitch," Daryl hissed, unable to move his head due to the leather straps that held him against the bed.

"Good girls don't last long in this world," she retorted then turned to her doctor. "Make sure the feeding tubes are in place. We'll need them strong. Drug them if you must, but try not to. It...makes arousal difficult."

"Of course, Pentaghast."

"I'll be in my room with the babes, preparing. Keep an eye on the long-haired one."

Daryl heard her leave, and the doctor approached them. She was a small woman with wavy brown hair, and her hands shook as she checked his pulse. He could see scars on her neck too, but they weren't from fighting. They were wounds inflicted on her. She was pale and hardly had any weight to her. She wasn't one of Pentaghast's people. She was a slave to fear and abuse. If he could convince her he'd protect her, he might be able to get out of here.

"Tell Nyla to begin making the broth," the doctor instructed of the solider.

"I am not to leave this room," was all he said.

"Do as I say. I must tend to them. Do you truly want Pentaghast's offerings to be weak or sickened before they offer their seed?"

He huffed and departed from the room.

She sighed softly and moved over to Glenn, finding a tan line where his wedding ring once rested, and she clasped his hand for a moment before searching for his pulse. Glenn looked at the woman with hazy pleading eyes, and it brought tears to her own, but she knew better than to have a sympathetic heart. The scar on her throat told her she oughta to know better.

She left his side for Aaron's, and she avoided his eyes altogether.

––

Rick tested the strength of the irons clapped around his wrists, and he groaned softly. He didn't want to draw attention to himself. He knew the women on either side of the room were well armed, and he'd seen their leader. The way she held Judith, using her as a shield, grasping her neck to threaten killing her as though it were nothing. He knew she had no conscious. He knew she would do whatever she pleased if it fit her goals. Which was why he had to get the hell out of there and get to his daughter and Carol. He wouldn't let that bitch hurt Carol and her baby. Or any of their people. If he could get out and make it to the armory.

Michonne was across the room, sitting still and observing the women keeping guard over them. She had already moved so she was sitting on her chains, and all she had to do was slip her legs through so her arms would be in front of her, but it would rattle and cause Denise and Francine's chains to pull. It would probably hurt them, but she couldn't sit idle. She had moved inch by inch the last few hours, and she knew breaking free would require perfect timing, but she had to give it a shot. Her kids were in danger, her family, they were out of sight, but they were never out of mind. She would get to them and make Pentaghast pay for this.

"If you want to attempt an escape," the woman said to seemingly no one in particular, "just do it. I am sick of hearing your chains rattling. You're not being sneaky, dreads."

"Neither are you," the other chimed in at Rick. "Just sit still. I'd rather not kill you before the slaughter, okay?"

"You expect us to just sit here?" Denise lifted her head. "You hold us hostage in our own home, you tossed the kids into the cold, and you're planning to slaughter some of us? How can we sit still and wait?"

"You can't change those facts. You especially can't change those facts." The one who address Rick spat at Denise.

Tara sent the woman a foul glare. "You don't know us, what we're capable of—"

"You've killed and lied and stolen. You're not better than us, but we have rules. We have a way of preserving life in this decaying world. We bring purity. You only offer bloodshed and vengeance and terror." She shook her head. "You could never understand our endgame. You simply wish to live in this world. We seek to purify it."

Michonne exchanged a glance with Tara and Rick, and Rick wasn't even tempted to ask what the hell that meant.

"Okay, so we know you're fucking insane. Good to check that box," Tara murmured.

"If you're lucky," she said in a lethally vemonous tone, "you'll see just how pure we can make this world. But if you keep it up, I'll slice that sarcastic tongue out of your mouth, you rug munching fuck."

Tara's face went red, and she jerked against her chains. Her mouth opened, but she was hit in the face with the butt of the woman's gun before she could say anything. She felt her tooth crack from the force, blood pooled on the left side of her mouth, and she cried out.

"Tara." Denise couldn't reach her as she was at the other end of the line. "Don't!" She sat up. "Don't, please."

The woman who'd struck Tara was holding her handgun on her now, finger on the trigger, and her icy eyes sliced over to the blonde. "She's impure. She's flith. We cannot allow such...trash to exist in our world."

"No!" Denise begged. "Please! Please, don't hurt her!"

"We cannot let the unclean thing live." That was the last thing she said before she put pressure on the trigger.

Michonne instantly moved to block Denise's view, clenching her jaw, and Denise's eyes filled with tears. Rick tightened his grip on the chains, and the sound of a single bullet rang out in the building followed by Denise screaming. Those sounds sent every heart on the bottom floor racing, and ignited a flame inside of the hearts of those in the room. Not a single one of her people would survive, Rick vowed. Not a single fucking one.

––

The kids were huddled together in the back of the truck, Enid had given the blankets to the smaller kids who were placed into the laps of the bigger kids so they could share warmth, and Enid was trying to figure out how to escape the truck. She hadn't been trapped inside of one before, but there had to be a way. Some emergency lever in case some mover got stuck in the back of the truck alone. There had to be something. Anything! She would not freeze to dead inside this truck. She refused to go out like this. She had to save them. Somehow. She just had to think.

"You should just sit down and get warm," Ashley urged Enid.

"No way. If I sit down and get warm, I might as well sign our death warrants."

The blonde shuddered. "We can't get out of here. It only opens from the outside."

"That doesn't mean we can't find some way to escape." Enid whirled around. "There has to be some way. I will find that way."

"How?" The dark-hair boy shivered in Ashley's lap. His name was Todd. He was about ten.

"I just will," Enid swore and turned to face the door. "We found those glow sticks, didn't we? We have light, and we'll use it to find an exit. Worse comes to worse, I'll make them open the door. I'll...do what I have to...to get you all out, okay?"

"I don't like the sound of that." Ashley held Todd closer as the color in his face dropped another shade. "You don't have to sacrafice yourself for us. We can work as a team."

"I hope so." She met the blonde's eyes. "Because it's us against them the second we get out of here."

Ashley paled, but she nodded and handed Todd over to another girl who was younger than her. "You guys stay warm, conserve your energy. We'll...we'll get us out of here."

Enid and Ashley stood side by side, looking over the interior of the truck, and Enid was losing feeling in her fingers as time went on; Ashley's had gone numb long before due to poor circulation. They had no way of knowing if it was day or night, but by the hunger growing in their bellies, they could guess. They had to get out soon, before hunger made them too weak to even move, before one of them starved to death and became another enemy. That wasn't even adding in dehydration and the elements. It was the middle of winter in a metal truck. One of them could easily freeze to death, especially one of the little ones, and Enid didn't want that blood on her hands. Or her boots, as she had no weapon.

– – –

Pentaghast entered the room she'd made into her chamber, finding Carol where she'd left her with the babe named Judith. She removed her coat and gloves, stretching her arms to the ceiling, and she moaned softly. It had been a long, hard trip, and she was glad to be home. She knew it wouldn't be too far off, and she was grateful for that. She hated the cold, but it made for perfect pure babes. She knew that for a fact.

She neared the cage where Carol and Judith were. "Don't you look just comfy cozy?"

Carol didn't acknowledge her.

"Not so talkative now, are we?" She put her hands on her hips. "Do you want to know what I intend to do your people? To your men? To your women? To the children?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"There's always a choice." She patted her flat belly that her cropped sweater exposed lightly with her fingertips, admiring Carol's plump belly. "You have a beautiful bump. I'm sure you would have had a beautiful boy."

Carol held Judith closer.

"I know it'll be a boy. He would have had your eyes." She sat on the bed. "His daddy's hair and skin tone. Oh, he would have been beautiful, just...the more precious son anyone could have asked for."

Tears brimmed in her eyes. "Stop talking about someone you know nothing about."

"Fine then I'll talk about something I know everything about." She rose off the bed, her entire body language changed. "Glenn, Daryl, Aaron, Rosita will be offered to my people to aid and produce pure children. The ones I have selected will give the world innocence like it has never known before. They will cleanse this world of its scum and its undead. They will be pure of heart and pure of thought. They will be the new human race."

Carol stared at the young woman.

"I will raise them to be an army of perfect virtue. They will have a level of integrity like none of us have. They will be...amazing and joyous and dangerous. They will be...all that came before never could even dream to achieve. I will ensure that."

"But their existence will be unpure," Carol stated, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You're going to violate their fathers and mother."

"Sometimes things born of darkness...are really bathed in light." She snapped her fingers and in came one of her people. A biracial woman with light curls and a happy smile, holding a child about the same age as Judith in her arms. She had the same complexion as Pentaghast, the same red hair, but her green eyes and cheeks bones belonged to another.

"It's your mommy," the woman cheered to the child.

Pentaghast smiled at the child and took her gently from the woman. "Be sure to tend to her body. Burn it. Outside of town, I hate that scent."

She nodded and departed as quickly as she came.

What her? Carol wondered with panic choking her. Who were they burning?

"This is Ellie." She lowered herself down in front of the cage to display the child. "She's precious and good and truly a blessing." She placed her in her lap. "She was a product of darkness but her eyes shine with light. Her smile, her laugh, her...little hands. She is tender and pure. More pure than anything I've ever beheld in this world and the last. She will bring the world around. She will make it whole and healed again. She and her siblings."

"And Judith won't? My baby won't?"

Her eyes moved to Judith. "Her father was dark. Her mother wishy-washy. It is in her eyes. She will not produce light." Those orbs lowered to Carol's belly. "I don't know what to make of your spawn, so I will not allow it to exist. I am sorry, but it is what I must do."

"And you must have Glenn, Aaron and Rosita raped? Have Daryl raped?"

She smoothed down her daughter's hair. "Don't do to other what you yourself cannot handle. I handled it well, and so will they. They should considered themselves lucky. A part of them will help to cleanse this world."

"You're deranged."

"No, but I will carry new life soon." She stroked her belly. "The boy will become a man when the moon is full, and I will carry his child. An unadulterated baby. Can you imagine? They will be gorgeous."

"The boy?" Carol then felt sick to her stomach at realizing who she meant. "Don't. Don't do that to him. Carl's—"

"—a virgin," she finished. "And I didn't get Daryl's seed, so I will take his. No one else has gotten there first. That child will lead alongside my Ellie. It'll be a union to go down in history."

"Daryl's...?"

"I tried," she explained. "I had him right where I needed him to be, but there was no contact. That short-haired bitch got loose before I could harvest his sperm. It fell in my favor. I will carry Carl's child to term and give birth to a leader."

Carol wanted to throw up, but her stomach was in knots. She couldn't even swallow. Lori's baby boy would be violated in such a way that Carol knew all too well from a godless man, and he would have his first child with that violator. Carl would try to kill her, and it might get him killed or worse. He'd been through so much, and it was about to get worse. Lori's son... Carol's family... Rick's boy... Oh, God. The full moon...was only a few days away.