Newly Revised
"How you holdin' up?" Daryl asked Ani after she tended to the wounded.
"Fine," she responded while watching Rick walk around taking Polaroids of the battlefield.
He left out the fact that they'd lost seven of their own, Eric included while another six were wounded, two rather badly that would require further treatment from the Kingdom's doctors than Ani could give. Rick didn't take a picture of Aaron, who sat looking at Eric's covered body, or Merle, who stood staring down at Francine's. She looked down at her shirt, covered in Eric's blood and back up to Daryl with a haunted expression, who motioned with his head for her to come over to him but she just shook her head. She couldn't take comfort from him while both Aaron and Merle were mourning right in front of her but he moved over to crouch down in front of her anyway, pulling out his canteen and pouring water on your hands.
"Ain't your fault. You know that, right?"
"I know. There was nothin'...nothin' I could do. From the smell, the blood...his intestines, the artery, they both got hit. There was nothin' that could a been done. Even in the old times, that kind a wound..." Ani pulled in a deep breath and sighed out as fresh tears formed in her eyes, swallowing breathing slowly out again to regain her composure. "There was nothin' I could do."
"You tried. And Patricia? Dominic? They're gonna make it to the Kingdom 'cause you were here. The others too. We knew we'd lose people," he said as they both stood and looked over at Aaron, now staring at his own bloodied hands.
"Yeah," she said quietly, finally stepping up to him and just putting her forehead on his shoulder and sighing. "Jus' didn' expect it ta be 'im."
"I know, baby girl," Daryl told her, putting one hand loosely on her hip.
"The guns aren't here!" Scott informed the remaining group. "We gotta go now, people. They're gonna pull away the herd, but we aren't taking any chances!"
The sound of a baby crying pulled away the attention of the entire group as they fell silent at the sight of Rick walking out of the building with a baby in his arms. Ani was in shock as were most of them but the hard look on his face telling her that he had not expected her to be there either. It was easy to look at the Saviors as enemies and even easier to look at them as monsters, but that baby? It felt like a punch to the gut to Ani as realization dawned on her for the first time that they were just people who were trying to protect their families just like she did. People who were trying to build a better world for their children just like she was, people with families and friends and lives that were parallel to her own. Her hands went to her stomach while drawing in a shuttered breath and slowly blowing it out when Rick walked up to Tobin. The infant couldn't be much more than six months old with how big she was, if that; Ani really wasn't sure how big a baby was supposed to be at a lot of the stages. She couldn't imagine her baby losing his family like that child had just lost hers and it made the pain in her heart from losing Eric grow exponentially. Their choice to fight this war really was killing more people than it was helping in the moment and every second they spent fighting only meant more people would die. They needed to end this war as soon as possible, Rick's plan be damned if they could find a better way to get the job done.
"She was inside?" Tobin asked.
"She was," he affirmed. "I have—I have a stop to make and Daryl's got his bike. Ani's on the quad. Maybe she can go back with you or Scott."
"She can go with me," Aaron's broken voice called out. "I can, uh, take her to the Hilltop. She'll be safe there."
"Aaron," Rick said as he walked over to the man. "Are you sure?"
"Eric and I were gonna go up..." he cried. "We were gonna go there after and update Maggie. So, that's what I'm gonna do," he told him while nodding before breaking down and crying again. "Please? I have to."
"Rick, she'll be in good hands," Ani said, barely able to keep the sadness from her own voice.
"Yeah, she will be," Rick agreed, carefully handing the baby over to Aaron, who gave her a proper welcome as Ani walked away. "Her name's Gracie."
"Ani, wait," Aaron said, turning to her. "What you did...for Eric...for me...thank you for staying with him. For not letting him turn."
"I would a neva let 'im," she told him, both of them taking deep breaths in as Sasha walked up.
"Let us drive you to the Hilltop. We were heading that way ourselves," she suggested to Aaron.
"Yeah, okay," he said, looking back at the baby in his arms before walking away.
"You should go with him, make sure he's okay," Daryl told her quietly.
"I...I can'...Not yet. I got ta see this through. Ya said I could go with ya for the next part. Jus' headin' back ta Alexandria, right?"
"Not anymore," he told her as they walked over to Rick. "We gotta find them guns."
"Rick thinks we're headin' ta Alexandria while 'e goes afta the Scavengas again," she told him, not bothering to hide the contempt in her voice. "Stupid waste a time, if ya ask me."
"Well, I didn't," Rick said. "I'll see you back home."
"Sure you wanna talk to them assholes alone?" Daryl asked him while he and Ani went to their vehicles, Rick standing next to his.
"Yeah. That's how it gets done."
"If you're gone too long, I'm gonna come lookin' for you."
"And I'll be sendin' Merle and Abe out with 'im," Ani warned.
"That's the plan," Rick told them with a nod right before a shot was fired into the hood of his car barely a foot away from him.
The bullet had clearly been intended as a warning as they had all been standing in easy lines of fire, but Ani still immediately ducked down behind a concrete block. Merle came running around the building from helping Scott load the dead into his truck while Daryl and Rick pulled their weapons and took cover themselves. Ani could see Rick tell Daryl to hold on and gave him a nod while she drew her own gun only for her husband to hunker down keeping her between the concrete and him. She understood his action and faced him while sitting on the ground, fully prepared to stay there unless she needed to cover for Daryl. Even then, she would stay knelt down behind her own cover to mitigate the chances of her getting shot once again; that was the last thing she needed. It wasn't just because of the risk of her getting hurt or the baby getting hurt, but the risk of the plans being destroyed just because she got hurt was too great. And the plans would be completely destroyed if she got hurt because neither Daryl nor Merle, especially Merle now that he'd lost Francine, would be able to concentrate.
"Hey! Hey! You're alone! You gotta be!" Rick called out. "There's not enough room for two of you behind that tree! And there's a herd comin'! I'm just sayin'. Hey, I tell you what, we'll make you a deal. You drop your gun and come on out, you tell us what we need to know! You do that, you can take a car. You go. You live. How 'bout it?!"
"Why should I trust you?" a young-sounding, frightened voice called out.
"'Cause I'm giving you my word," Rick said. "There's not a lot that's worth much these days, but a man's word has gotta mean somethin', right?"
"O-okay," the voice said, Ani moving to take the position Daryl had been in while he and Rick stood while the man came from behind the tree, a gunshot to the leg. "W-what do you wanna know?"
"Were there ever any M2 Browning .50-caliber guns here?" Rick asked him.
"We did, for a while," he admitted.
"What happened to 'em?!" Daryl growled out.
"They got sent to another outpost yesterday," the man told him quickly while cowering.
"Which one?" Rick asked.
"It was Gavin's. West of here," he said. "Can I, uh, can I—can I go now?"
Without hesitation, Daryl shot the man in the head, causing both Rick and Ani to look at him, though Rick was clearly wondering what the hell had gotten into the man. Ani, on the other hand, agreed whole-heartedly with his decision because they always came back. She couldn't handle losing anyone else to the Saviors when the guy could have easily ran right to Negan and warned him of their plans. Gavin was the outpost the Kingdom dealt with and was supposedly an easy going guy, but if they had the guns, that meant that whoever went there was going to be in a lot of trouble. Depending on just how high up the building those guns could be placed, those guns were meant to cut through enemy armor, to mow down large numbers of forces. Hell, the damn things could be used as anti-aircraft weapons from the ground and be mounted onto helicopters for added firepower. They were similar to the weapon the Governor had used to destroy their guard tower during his first attack, the one she'd stolen the firing pin from. If they didn't get to those guns quickly, the entire group at Gavin's would be taken out rather easily, Ani scowling as she remembered who was in that group.
Daryl didn't care about Rick's look as he asked, "Which team's at Gavin's?"
"Cars and the Kingdom!" Ani answered, running for the quad.
"Hey, you ain't goin'!" Merle shouted. "Daryl, tell her she ain't goin'!"
"I can swing through the woods, wait for ya ta get closa and 'em take out from the side. They won' know I was there."
"Naw, might need you with us. Stay behind Rick and keep up," Daryl told her, getting on his motorcycle and taking off behind Rick, Ani quick to follow while leaving a cursing Merle behind. "Stay behind Rick! Try to shoot out their tires!" he shouted at her as he gunned forward, Ani falling back behind Rick as they raced to the chemical outpost.
When they finally caught up to the truck, Ani could hardly see it as she stayed hidden behind Rick's vehicle, close enough to be in the enemy's blind sight, but just far enough away that she could swerve if he had to hit his breaks. She did, however, hear the rapid fire and see Daryl crash, slowing down only for him to motion for her to keep going while he ran and picked his bike up. Ani couldn't help but be thankful that Merle had grabbed a leather jacket for the man when they'd gone on their little scavenger hunt because it surely saved him from road rash. He caught up to her relatively easily, both pulling out their guns as Rick swerved to the right, Daryl firing at the Savior manning the gun while Ani managed to blow out the back tire. Hanging back as Rick brought his truck up to the other one and jumped into it, they watched as Rick dropped the man driving the truck a few moments later just before it hit a guard rail and careened down a hill. Daryl was quick to bring his bike up to the guard rail, not even bothering with the kickstand and instead just throwing it against the railing as he got off and ran over to where it had been broken, hopping over and looking at the truck. Ani pulled up closer to the break, getting off and coming to stand behind him just as they saw Rick climbing like a little kid back up the embankment.
"Hey." Daryl grabbed his hand, both men panting as they stood looking down at the truck and obtusely stated, "We got the guns."
"Nah shite, Sherlock," Ani told him with a goofy smile.
She snorted out a laugh a moment later when Daryl told Rick, "You look like shit."
The laugh had been involuntary, but the look of offense that crossed Rick's face as he looked at himself was just too comical, even as he looked away and said, "Let's go see if this asshole's alive."
Slowly, they walked up to the man that Rick had fought for the truck over, all three having their guns drawn even though Ani stayed further back. Even if she'd come on a whim, she wasn't taking any chances with the man reaching for the rock. It didn't help any that she was still shaking with silent laughter at how Rick had reacted; she couldn't hold her gun steady at the moment and was glad she had put the safety back on. The sad thing was, the look he'd given hadn't even been that funny, but it was just so out of place for the man she'd grown to know and think of as a brother that she couldn't help her laughter. She managed to get it under control as Rick started speaking to the dying man on the ground, walking up to Daryl and standing just behind his shoulder as she watched the man roll over.
"Your people back at the chemical plant," Rick stated, "did you win?"
The groaned and looked at Rick before stating, "No one did."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Daryl asked, the man turning even further onto his back as he coughed up blood from the stab wound to the abdomen Rick had given him. He chuckled before Daryl put his foot on the man and brought his gun up to his forehead and repeated, "What the hell's that mean?!"
"Everyone's dead."
"Can' be true," Ani said with a shake of her head before making to go to her four wheeler. "I'm goin' back. Goin' ta double check."
"No, Ani. We need you here, for the next part of the plan," Rick told her before looking at the man on the ground. "There's no one left? Only you?"
"Me," the man answered. "The King. The Axe Man. And this short-haired psycho lady. You did this," the guy stated. "Your people. My people. They're all gone."
Ani blew out a sigh of relief as she looked to her husband, the relief on his face plain as day after hearing that Carol had made it. There was no way he could lose his friend now that they were in the midst of a war that could take even more lives of the people they knew. She followed Daryl back across the road while Rick stood with the guy, both of them moving down the hill toward the wrecked truck. They were both cautious going down the steep incline as Daryl reaching the bottom first with a grunt as he hadn't realized there was a bit of a drop right at the bottom. He turned around and extended his hand to Ani, who took it and accepted his help in stepping down off the embankment. She took note of how damaged the truck was before heading over to where Daryl was, Rick coming up behind her. It was turned on its side and leaking gas, but it looked like the cargo was still in good shape. None of them could complain about that since the truck wasn't the prize they'd been after to begin with.
"Hey," Daryl told Rick after telling Ani to step back. "Give me a hand with this. Too heavy for her."
"Ya might want ta move that fartha away," she told them as they brought the heavy crate down. "Truck's leakin' gas."
"Let's just see what's in it first," Rick commented, kneeling down and opening the crate to find a decent amount of dynamite inside.
Daryl walked back grabbed several bundles, shoving them in a bag before zipping it up, telling Rick and Ani, "We can use these now."
"Huh?" Ani asked in confusion before realization dawned on her face. "Brilliant!"
"What?" Rick asked, Daryl shifting his eyes from Ani's face to Rick.
"Well, think about it," he told him. "There ain't no Kingdom no more."
"Yeah."
"We know what we gotta do. We blow open the Sanctuary, let the walkers flood in. They'll surrender. It'll be done. Hell, we could end this by sundown," Daryl said.
"Hell, it could be done within the hour!" Ani said excitedly.
"They have workers in there, right?" Rick asked. "Families, too. Are there?"
"Yeah," Ani said while looking down in slight shame, feeling almost as if she was being scolded. "But we could end it."
"We'll hit the south side of the main building," Daryl suggested. "The workers live in the north side. They'll be up the stairs before the walkers can even get in."
"What if they don't?" Rick asked. "There are people in there who aren't fighters. Doing this could change that."
"It won'," Ani protested. "Those people are more scared a Negan than anythin' we're doin'. They're scared a the soldias. They're ready ta fight back against Negan if only they had the means. But the man keeps 'em weak. Fed 'nough ta work and live, not 'nough ta fight. Kept without arms ta fight their own battles. Maybe this'll wake 'em up. Show 'em they don' need Negan or that Negan can' protect 'em like they thought. Might even push 'em ta start fightin' back from the inside, ratha than fightin' us. Eitha way, there's too much at stake ta pass this up."
"Or it could make them pick up guns and stand by the Saviors," Rick countered. "And if the Saviors don't surrender, maybe everybody fights us. And we don't have the Kingdom anymore," he reasoned, giving them both a hard look, Ani quickly weighing the pros and cons in her mind. "We're not doin' this."
Daryl looked at Ani, who just scrunched up her nose and scowled, telling him that she didn't agree with Rick's choice any more than he did. It wasn't even just about killing Negan, it was about getting the job done and making sure it stayed done. It was about getting the Saviors to end this fight as quickly as possible without losing any more of their people. They'd lost the better part of the Kingdom's fighters; a few guards for medics were no where near enough to even form a proper party to fight back against the Saviors in full. Aaron had lost Eric., Merle had lost Francine; she was bound and determined that they weren't going to lose anyone or anything else. Whatever Rick's intentions, he was just going to have to swallow it because it wasn't his choice to make anymore than it had been to let Jim die way back in the beginning. It was hers and Daryl's choice and they were both in agreement of what needed to be done, what had to be done. She moved to walk away, brushing a hand against Daryl's arm as she did so in an act of encouragement and solidarity as she did so.
"Naw," Daryl said after shaking his head, reaching out and smacking Rick's chest. "You ain't doin' this."
"There's a plan," he told him after grabbing his arm and make him whip around, "and everyone's stickin' to it."
"Not everyone. There's a lot of our people that are dead, Rick," Daryl told him.
"And even more could die if we don' do somethin' now," Ani added. "Sometimes shite changes."
"Negan and that other group," Daryl said. "This is on them. If people die, it's their fault, not ours."
"Daryl, we can't do this. Ani, I know you don't want to do this," Rick tried as they started walking away again.
"Ya don' know shite 'bout what I want!"
"And we got our own people to look after," Daryl countered.
"And I ain' riskin' anythin' else. I already lost both my best friends in this war! I ain' losin' anyone else," Ani responded, both Dixons turning to walk away.
"You're not doin' this," Rick said, Ani and Daryl both hearing him storming up behind them. "Hey! I'm not lettin' you do this!"
"Back off, Rick," Ani warned.
"This ain't your choice," Daryl told him after landing a haymaker to the right side of the man's face, walking back over to the bag.
"Daryl!" she yelled, jumping out of the way just as Rick tackled Daryl to the ground.
This was why she had tried to protest the violence, because it was going to be one hell of a fight between the two men, neither of which were weak. Between Daryl's temper being on a rampage and Rick's Blind Rage syndrome, she simply sighed and sat down next to the bag as they began trying to pummel each other. She glanced down at the bag momentarily before going back to watching the fight with a yawn, wondering how long it was going to take. It didn't take long for Daryl to get the upper hand, the man obviously stronger than Rick in bulk and body; Ani admiring the way his body moved even though she knew she shouldn't. He damn near managed to get another good punch in to Rick's face before Rick dodged and threw Daryl off of him. Rick had been a cop, so Ani should've been able to guess that he could at least fight on par with Daryl, but he hadn't even tried to retaliate against him. Instead, Rick's sole point of focus was to grab the bag from next to Ani and toss it onto the truck right before Daryl grabbed Rick and put him in a choke hold. He managed to get him all the way to the ground, Rick laying there trying to get Daryl's arm off while Daryl was down on one knee keeping up the pressure. Ani would have found it comical if she hadn't noticed something flickering out of the corner of her eye, turning to see the truck catching fire.
"Guys," she tried warning, the flames starting to get higher. "Daryl!" she yelled, pushing at his shoulder with one hand after he seemingly ignored her.
Looking up, both he and Rick saw the flames at the same time, Ani already running in the opposite direction as fast as she could. She made a beeline into the woods to hide behind a copse, hearing Daryl yelling at Rick. She didn't even stop to check if the guys were actually running or not, not having the capability to even risk getting caught in the explosion or the force it would surely give off. If she was thrown, the baby would get hurt, she could even miscarry, and the force of the blast itself could do damage if she wasn't under proper cover. Her triumphant smile, however, had little to do with getting to cover and protecting Lou as the truck exploded and she moved to go to the guys. The guys had been thrown to the ground after running as fast as they could and she could tell that neither of them were happy with the other. She couldn't care less as Rick and Daryl sit up, looking at the truck as secondary explosions went off from all the ammo and other weaponry that were currently on fire.
"Come on," she told them after a couple minutes of the three of them watching the fire in frustration. "We got places ta go."
Daryl wasn't too thrilled with Ani for not grabbing the bag herself as he climbed the embankment, but he helped her up nonetheless. It wasn't her fault the truck had caught on fire and it wasn't her fault Rick had been a complete and utter asshole. He went after his bike as she climbed onto her four wheeler, Rick going further down the road to his vehicle as she waited for him to start the bike up. When Daryl looked at Ani though, she had a smirk and glimmer in her eye that told him she was either up to no good or she was feeling a particular way. He couldn't find a reason to understand at the moment and that look only served to drive him further into the annoyance towards her he was already feeling. With a sigh, he motioned over to Rick's vehicle, revving his engine and heading towards it with Ani hot on his heels. Daryl and Rick refused to look at each other as Rick grabbed his automatic from the back of the ruined truck he'd arrived in. She knew that Rick couldn't understand why she and Daryl were so up in arms about finishing this fight, but he hadn't lost a single damn thing yet, not like her and Daryl, not like Maggie. Maggie lost her husband and the father of her child, she and Daryl were taken and he was tortured while there was a permanent mental scar in Ani's mind from what Negan made her do. It still twisted her stomach and haunted her dreams to the point that she regularly would wake up in a panic, thanking the gods that Daryl was starting to sleep through it. With how things were going with the war and Rick being a difficult asshole at the moment, the last thing Daryl needed was a lack of sleep.
"There's a plan," Rick told them, making Ani roll her eyes as she looked away, readjusting her bag. "We gotta see it through."
"We gotta win," Daryl countered.
"Yeah, we gotta," Rick admitted. "Choke holdin's illegal, asshole."
Ani couldn't help the chortle that escaped her, Daryl's words from back at the quarry echoing out of Rick's mouth before full on laughing when Daryl answered, "Mm-hmm. Yes it is."
"Looks like I'm walkin'," Rick told them.
"Yep," Daryl said, starting his bike back up.
"I'll meet you when I'm done with the last play," Rick told them.
"You sure about doin' it?" Daryl asked.
"Yeah, I am," he said as he started walking away, Daryl revving his engine.
"D, wait. Ya can take my quad, Rick. I'll ride back with Daryl," Ani said, hopping off and coming over to Daryl, putting a hand on his thigh and whispering, "Wait."
"Thanks, Ani. I'll see you back home," he told them, getting on the ATV and driving off.
"Why the hell didn't you grab the bag?" Daryl asked, the anger and annoyance getting the better of him.
"'Cause we don' need the bag," she said with a giant, shit eating grin plastered to her face, pulling her bag off and opening it to reveal her stolen treasure.
"Sneaky little fox, ain't ya?" he said, a grin of his own replacing his scowl, grabbing her hip and pulling her into him.
"Ya sneaky little fox," she agreed, leaning in and kissing him for all it was worth before pulling back and climbing on the bike behind him. "Ain' mad at me nah more, are ya?"
"Wasn't mad at you to begin with. Come on. Got a stop to make before we get this thing started."
She put her bag back on her back and climbed on behind him, sitting back rather than holding him this time. The heat that built up between them was beginning to be suffocating rather than comfortable as the baby grew, her body heat rising to the point that they'd been only sleeping with a sheet covering them at night since they'd come back. Hell, even then, they'd both been sleeping naked rather than in clothes when they'd finally returned to their home. There were even times she had to move away from Daryl because she was sweating buckets worse than anything she had at the prison. It was nice riding with him again, though, moving forward and pressing her chest against his back after a little while since she started getting cold. They barely could make it to the fence before the damn thing was opening, an angry Merle and Sophia greeting them as they passed through while Carl closing the gate behind them.
"Where the hell did you go?" Merle demanded. "What happened?"
"Rick and D killed the men, then got in a fight, then blew up the truck with the weapons," Ani answered with a shrug while climbing off the bike.
"Blew up a...What the hell happened?!" he asked once again, rounding on Daryl this time to get a more accurate answer, both Sophia and Carl listening intently.
"Exactly what she said. Had enough explosives to blow the Sanctuary wide open. Rick wouldn't go for it. But we don't got the Kingdom no more. We ain't got the numbers. Gotta do somethin'. Asshole threw the whole damn bag on the truck. Caught on fire and went off."
"Dammit, boy! We coulda used those guns!"
"You think I don't know that?!" Daryl yelled back at him, pushing Merle's shoulder roughly. "Blame Rick for this shit! Could've ended this, right now, but he has to go by the plan he made. Shit changes, but he don't wanna hear it."
"Don' matta anyway. We got what we need. Ya comin' or stayin'?" she asked Merle.
"What?"
"Rick threw the bag inta the fire. Don' mean 'e got all the sticks," Ani smiled triumphantly as she pulled the single bundle of dynamite from her pack.