DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of The Walking Dead. This is for entertainment purposes only.

A/N: There were so many ways I could or should have went with this and believe me, it was hard to choose. I can't say I chose the right path but oh well. It's written, it's posted, you've read it, and now I gotta stick with it. I'm going to go hide in my corner now. Can that be my official warning for this chapter?

Monster.

It took five men in order to restrain Daryl. They just barely managed to get him into some poorly lit room, let alone secured to a chair. With his arms and ankles bound to the damn piece of furniture, all he could do was glare.

Baseball Cap walked into the room just in time to see Daryl trapped like a wounded animal, grinning at the sight. He stopped right in front of Daryl, pausing momentarily before he pulled his fist back and punched him in the face.

"Payback's a bitch." He turned to walk away, the other five following his lead. The door slammed shut behind them leaving Daryl completely alone in the silence.

"Asshole…" Daryl muttered. He tried to pull his limbs free but gave up shortly after. Duct tape was one hell of a bitch. As he glanced around the room he noticed what looked like his knife was sitting on the table a few feet away. But knowing he was defeated, having no way to get it, all he could do was wait—the one thing that would drive him crazy. He didn't even know if Glenn and Maggie got away. It looked like they did but that didn't give him any proof. What if they had been captured as well? What about the group back at the motel? Would Rick get everyone out of there? And Leah and Skyler…

A few minutes later and the door opened. Daryl stared as the man with the eye patch entered the room and shut the door behind him. "I apologize for any inconvenience. Martinez can be a little hostile."

Daryl kept his mouth shut as he watched this man approach the table. He pulled the spare chair away and set it a few feet in front of Daryl. "May i?" He motioned towards the chair as Daryl only stared through narrowed eyes in response. The man took a seat anyway. "I have to admit. Sometimes it just feels good to sit down at the end of the day. I would say it's been a rather long day, wouldn't you?"

"My name's Philip, but my people here call me the Governor. I guess the name just sort of stuck," the man continued. "There, now I've introduced myself. This is the part where you introduce yourself."

Daryl still refused to even open his mouth. He had nothing to say to this guy unless he wanted to be a smartass and ask if he ever got tired of listening to his own voice.

The Governor chuckled, casting his glance towards the wall before returning to Daryl. "I see you're not a big talker but a man of action. I admire that." He nodded to himself, "You tried to kill me."

"Yeah, and I would've too if that dumbass hadn't stepped forward when I pulled the trigger," Daryl retorted.

"Ah, you do speak. Normally I wouldn't even bother to come see you face to face. I have a particular assistant that usually fulfills this job but for some reason or another, I found it unfit. So needless to say I think he'll be out of commission for this one."

"That's a shame. I was really hoping to meet another condescending prick," Daryl muttered.

The Governor smiled, leaning forward. "By my understanding, you're the one that my men found out in the woods. Care to explain what happened?" When Daryl remained silent, the smile only tightened on the Governor's face. He was clearly beginning to get fed up with the same antics.

"You said it yourself; I'm a man of action. Don't have much of anything to say to you," Daryl clarified.

"'Man of action'…" The Governor repeated, nodding. He got back to his feet and took a few steps towards the door before he stopped and turned back. He closed the gap between him and Daryl, towering over him since he was bound to the chair. The Governor removed what appeared to be a wedding band from his ring finger and shoved it in his pocket before he rolled his shoulders a couple times.

Daryl already knew what was coming way before he landed the first punch, hitting him in the face exactly where Martinez had minutes before. Three more punches followed, each impact jerking Daryl's head to the right no matter how much he tried to stay still.

"It's because of you. You've destroyed everything I've built here in Woodbury. You attacked my people and now they feel like their lives are threatened—the one safe place that they can call home."

"Good," Daryl spat. "You had it coming. You're the one that started all this. If your so-called people would have minded their own damn business, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

The Governor gritted his teeth as he punched Daryl in the face once again before grabbing him by the chin and forcing him to look at him. "My people were out scouting for supplies. And it is also my understanding that, thanks to you, we've lost two newcomers who could have been very beneficial to Woodbury."

"Ain't my problem." Daryl jerked his head back and out of the Governor's grasp. He spit to the side, the taste of blood becoming all too familiar and nauseating. Catching a glance at the Governor's knuckles only furthered his discomfort. He felt lucky that he could still breathe out of his damn nose and see out of his left eye.

The Governor walked back towards the door and opened it, ushering someone in. Daryl quickly realized that it was yet a different man as he shoved someone forward—Olivia. She was alive after all, though that wasn't saying much. She appeared traumatized, trembling and bloody. The Governor kept a hold of her, pushing her further into the room with him once the door was shut.

"This one… Well, this one put up quite a fight. Still hasn't told us anything either. She's tough," he nodded as if agreeing with himself. "But even the strongest people crack." The Governor locked eyes with Daryl in that moment, a grin slowly spreading across his face. Just because he was able to reduce Olivia down to tears didn't mean anything to Daryl—he wasn't going to comply no matter what.

The Governor released Olivia, slightly pushing her towards the ground as she fell to her knees, quickly pulling herself into a sitting position with her knees pulled to her chest. He then grabbed Daryl's knife from the table, throwing the sheath back as he circled around Daryl.

"So what will it take to break you?" His voice hummed as he disappeared behind Daryl and out of his sight.

Daryl scoffed, "Nothing you could ever do."

It fell silent as Daryl was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable with the unknowing. He looked to Olivia in hopes of reading her face, to try and guess what was or wasn't coming. Even though it was driving him crazy not knowing, he refused to try and turn his head to look. He could at least keep his dignity.

Daryl felt a sharp tug at his scalp as the Governor grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head back. He did so with enough force that he had actually tipped the entire chair back on its hind legs as he brought the knife up to his throat. Daryl's immediate reaction was to kick out, to pull the knife away, but he was stuck.

"No, God—please don't! No!" Olivia screamed. She was now sitting with her legs pulled under her and off to the side practically sobbing.

"So we have two people who aren't willing to share any information. And those two people are too… heroic to cave when it comes to their own life. But at the risk of another's?" The Governor pulled Daryl back even farther and pressed the blade down harder.

Olivia covered her mouth as she tried to cry quietly into her hands, "Please don't…"

"Don't you say a damn word!—" Daryl warned, hating the feel of his own knife pressed against his throat.

But the Governor released him as he fell forward, the chair landing back on all fours. Daryl had a funny feeling that he wasn't done—something about this man screamed psychotic.

Olivia cried out just as Daryl felt an agonizingly sharp pain in his right shoulder. He immediately tensed up, which was his first mistake, hands gripping onto the arms of the chair and gritting his teeth. The Governor had driven the knife into his right shoulder, the handle of the blade visible from the corner of Daryl's eye. The Governor then wrenched the knife upward, receiving an involuntary gasp of pain from Daryl as he clamped his eyes shut.

In no time at all, the Governor had hauled the knife out of Daryl's shoulder and started heading for Olivia. She shook her head and started to crawl backwards just as he caught her by an ankle and drug her closer. She kicked him, nailing him square in the chest, before she started to try and throw punches only to be caught by the wrists. The Governor shoved her flat to the ground, almost straddling her back as he pulled her up by her hair and whispered softly while staring at Daryl, running a hand along Olivia's jaw. "You shouldn't have come here. You won't leave here alive."

He tossed Olivia back to the ground and retreated to the exit, leaving the room with a smug grin on his face and Daryl's knife still in his hand. Olivia quickly clambered to her feet and threw herself at the door, only to find it locked. She slowly slid down the door, wrapping her arms around herself.

"I'm so sorry…" Olivia whispered, her voice cracking. She forced herself back to her feet a moment later, making her way over to Daryl's side. She bit her lip as she tried to tear the duct tape binding his arms.

"S'not your fault they grabbed you." Daryl was doing his best to ignore his shoulder and look anywhere but there. He wasn't ready to admit to himself that he had just been stabbed with his own damn knife.

Olivia shook her head, "You really shouldn't have come here though."

"Had to get you and Glenn back."

"Did… did the others make it out?" Olivia questioned, looking him in the face.

Daryl cringed, "Maggie and T came with me. We got Glenn out but T-Dog didn't make it…"

"Why didn't you just leave with them?"

"Because you're a part of the group and I wasn't about to leave you behind. I know enough about how that feels and you at least deserved a chance." Sure it was also because he was too stubborn to just give up that easily, but he was also sick and tired of losing more and more people.

Olivia gave up on trying to tear the duct tape and wiped her face. She and Daryl both knew it was a lost cause before she even tried.

"What'd he do to you?—He didn't…?" Daryl stared at her now. Her reaction said it all as she lowered her head and bit her lip, more tears forming in her eyes. Daryl cursed under his breath. "…Fucking sick bastard."

The Governor returned, making sure the door shut behind him. He stabbed the knife into the table and instantly made his way over towards Olivia. "Play time's over," he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

"Daryl—" Olivia gasped before she clamped a hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. She tried to pull free from his grasp but failed as he drew his sidearm from his holster. And just like that, before either of them could truly register what was happening, the Governor pointed the pistol directly at her chest and pulled the trigger.

Daryl immediately turned his head away, his stomach doing flips at this point while his heart hammered away in his chest. This guy was beyond psychotic, there was no stopping him.

"Daryl, huh?"

Daryl kept his mouth shut and refused to look anywhere near the Governor or Olivia's body. If he was being honest with himself, he felt like he could throw up. He couldn't move, his shoulder was killing him, and Olivia was now another checkmark on the list of people that had been killed in this world. Odds weren't looking to be in his favor either.

"Interesting…" the Governor paused long enough to grin. He continued, "Your people killed three of my people. And since you've taken one of my hostages, I'm still down by one."

Daryl swallowed whatever it was he felt was about to come up, "So what, you gonna kill me? That your big plan—to break even?"

"In the long run, yes." The Governor still wore that same malicious grin as he walked towards the table. His eye was on Daryl's knife that he had brought back into the room with him. As soon as his hand wrapped around the handle, pulling it free from the wood table, Daryl felt a cold chill run down his spine.

You can take it. Be a man. You're gonna get out of this.

Daryl tried to calm his breathing as the Governor started to move back towards him now. He found himself looking over at Olivia's body, a glimmer of hope that she was still breathing. But she didn't move, her chest didn't rise and fall, she was dead.

Daryl caught of glimpse of the Governor from the corner of his eye just as he brought the knife down. The blade went straight through his left hand and had even managed to dig a little into the arm of the chair as Daryl could hear—he could feel—the knife lodge itself further. He bit down on his lip which in turn drew even more blood as he clenched his eyes shut.

You're gonna get out of this… Don't be a pussy...

Daryl tried to open his eyes afterward but his vision felt like he was swimming. He told himself to breathe, that no matter what happened, the others back at the motel would be safe. He could count on Rick to keep Leah and Skyler safe if worse came to worse, though he wasn't sure how much worse it could really get at this point.

The Governor left the knife embedded in Daryl's hand as Daryl could vaguely make out his figure heading back for the door. He could have sworn he heard the word brother pass his lips but that didn't make a lick of sense.

And before Daryl could really even give it much thought, he blacked out.