Chapter Eleven
Grimes gave him a pleasant smile, as if they were old friends.
"Currently hidden and aiming a sniper at your head." He replied.
The governor's lips twisted into a vicious snarl, visible eye searching until they met storm cloud blue.
He smirked.
"Hello, Daryl."
How unexpected.
Rick Grimes and his ragtag family had managed to travel back in time and outsmart him again.
He was seething, inwardly glaring at Grimes with everything he had in him, even as he smiled pleasantly on the outside, cold gaze linked with that of his beloved hunter's.
Fear and hatred danced in those beautiful storm colored eyes forming a chaotic mixture, and the gun aimed at his head didn't waver, even as his lover trembled at his voice.
In front of him, Grimes gave a grin full of teeth, the predator hidden in his deceptively calm gaze on full display.
"He doesn't want to speak to you." The man commented airily. "He wants to kill you. To crush your skull beneath his boots like he does a random walker. No special deaths for you."
The Governor snorted and Grimes Jr. bared his teeth at him.
"But we're so close." He taunted, his men behind him tensing as Grimes' eyes darkened.
"I will have him back." He continued.
The former cop flicked the safety of his gun, expression so cold it even startled a few of the people in the man's "family". People he'd never seen before.
For a moment, no one moves.
Then chaos erupted around them, a bullet soaring through the air and clipping his shoulder.
He hissed in pain, dodging another round and another all from the same direction. Around him, his men are dying, mercilessly slaughtered by the faces of grimes' camp that he does know, and a few he doesn't. (A tall dark skinned man. A broad-shouldered dark-haired man, that stays awfully close to Grimes. Former lover, perhaps?)
Grimes is slashing and snarling at foe and Walker alike, the mindless beasts having been attracted by the noise and converging heavily on them.
He smirks and aims the tank at the main building of the prison then fires.
It bursts into flames, debris flying through the air.
An angry roar follows.
He aims again, and fires.
Another roar, louder and angrier than the first. Grimes' fighters shudder fearfully and he grins savagely.
"Come and play, sweetheart."
He's here.
He's here and alive and Daryl is so angry so scared he can barely remember to breathe. He wants to kill, wants to hunt. He wants and wants and wants.
Michonne is beside him, silent and furious, her keen dark eyes focused on every movement around them and Merle is on his other side, steel colored eyes full hate and fury, both hands- both - holding his semi-automatic like it's the only thing grounding him.
"Hello, Daryl."
The greeting is coy and smug, full of lust and other things he never wanted in the man's voice when associated with him. His finger twitches on the trigger and he is thankful when Rick draws the man's attention away from him, his husband's voice grounding him as it always did when he was dancing on the precipice of his sanity.
He listened with half an ear as the two played a word game, taunting each other, and when they finally fell silent, he fired.
A bullet entered his shoulder at the same moment ad he snarled angrily when it caused him to veer of course and cursing guns in general.
He wished he'd used his crossbow. It never failed him.
He fired again, cursing when his wound caused him to miss a second time, the third missing when the man dodged. Frustrated, he started picking off the Walkers closing in on the ground fighters, a small smile crossing his lips as Merle fired away beside him. Then the take aimed at his home and fired.
No.
NO!
The prison was the only home he'd ever had, his childhood non-withstanding and to see it going up in flames for the second time was heart wrenching. He had yearned to return to it since landing in this time of ghosts and if they lost it now, so soon after finding it again he wouldn't be able to take it.
The prison was his home. His children's home.
His family's home.
He felt the darkness inside him surge, melding with his mind, and he let out an angry, anguish filled roar.
He felt more than saw the Governor's smug smirk before the bastard fired on his home again.
His second roar was darker, full of all the rage and hatred he held for that single human. Michonne and Merle stilled beside him, their heartbeats pounding like hummingbird wing's in his ears. He paid them no mind.
Storm blue eyes bled into black abysses and he knew no more.
Rick's head shot up from where he had been fighting back to back with Shane as a deafening roar sounded around them. His brother tensed as well, fear in his gaze.
"What the hell was that?" He hissed and Rick swallowed thickly, another roar piercing the air around them, the prison in flames behind them.
"Daryl."
Shane paled, stabbing another walker before turning to his best friend/brother incredulously.
"You're joking right?"
A blue and black blur shot passed them, heading in the direction of the Governor's tank and Rick cursed.
"Fuck! No. C'mon." He ran after his husband praying that he made it in time to prevent his lover from doing something monumentally stupid.
He knew how much Daryl liked the prison, how much it felt like home to his husband who had never had a true home in the first place.
If it fell, he knew Daryl would take down whoever destroyed it, no matter the cost to himself.
Merle was fucking terrified.
His little brother had changed drastically in the future it seemed. More so than even the other time-travelers knew if the katana chick's face was any indication.
Watching Daryl's eyes change from their normal blue to a demonic black that bled into his sclera was horrific. The only thing scarier than that was the thin two inch fangs that followed, a black liquid beading on the tip of one before his brother vanished.
"What the fuck?" He breathed, and Michonne swallowed beside him, her hand trembling slightly.
"I have no clue…but I'm kicking Rick's ass for this."
Merle barked out a laugh and collapsed, focusing on trying to return his heartbeat to normal.
"Lemme go, ya fucker!" Judith yelled angrily, fighting against the iron grip on her arm as the Governor dragged her over toward his tank. She had no clue when he'd left it and it had cost her.
Before the man could get all the way there, a blur tackled him, forcing him to let go of her.
She scrambled back, tightening her grip on her crossbow, even as the blur took a familiar form.
Her mama sat atop the Governor snarling like a walker and teeth bared, a black liquid dripping from his fangs.
Fear flashed in the monster's eyes as he looked upon his creation before an unholy smirk lit his face.
"Ready to play?"
Her mama snarled and stood, yanking him to his feet then slamming him face first in the ground.
He stood and shook it off, chuckling when he saw Judy. He raised his gun.
"I don't play with children."
A shot was fired and the sound that left her mother's lips was something hellish. Something she never wanted to hear again. He lunged and she closed her eyes, waiting for it to be over.
She wanted her mama back.
TBC…