Chapter 122-No conflict

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl and Rick stare at Alpha as she stares up at them on top of the gate, Daryl sees Rick on edge looking at her, clearly telling as well the woman was dangerous. She paused a moment, then said "You are Daryl and Rick correct? You bring me my daughter, and nobody dies."

"You ain't getting her!" Rick called down, the two exchanged glances.

How did this woman know them? If she knew their names it's likely she knew about the other communities.

"Your people crossed into our land. There will be no conflict." This woman, Alpha warned. "Your people killed our people. There will be no conflict. Bring me my daughter, or there will be conflict."

Daryl and Rick look at Jesus as he climbs up the ladder and looks at them, silently saying. "Gabriel and Anne are still out there. We need to get rid of her before they get back. She could kill them."

"They might have them." Rick said in worry as he looks at Tara, who is talking with Connie, Yumiko, and Magna, clearly putting them in positions in case this leader tried something.

"Have you and your brother come to a decision?" Alpha called up almost mockingly.

"We're discussing it!" Daryl growls, then turns to Jesus "Ask Ezekiel if there's another way out. If she has them or we see them, we might need to send someone out to come at them from behind. Also to make sure her pack of freaks aren't surrounding us" Jesus nods reassuringly as he goes down the ladder.

"Nobody touches the girl." Rick tells the others as he climbed back down, who nodded while gathering weapons silently.

"We have enough people to light you all up. I would leave," Daryl called out to her. But then he heard it in the air, a baby crying. On the bottom, he saw Rick pausing while talking to Carol looking out the gate in confusion as well. The two traded glances as Daryl looked at a woman in the back with a baby in her arms. "You brought a baby out here?"

"We're animals, and animals live out here. Animals have babies. So we have babies out here. Now, what were you saying? Lighting us up, you seem to want conflict."

"We don't." Rick subtly getting them to put their weapons down, clearly realizing the woman was using the baby as a shield.

"Then I propose a trade." Alpha offered with a subtle smirk on her dirt-covered face as she nods towards one of her men who walk away, and a few minutes later, they come back with Gabriel and Anne to Daryl's horror, the two having gags in their mouths and hands tied behind their backs. "Two of yours for one of ours," Alpha says. "It's a good trade. That's why you're gonna take it. Now bring me my daughter."

"Dammit." Rick says as Daryl climbed down the ladder leaving Alden up top watching them. "We have to give her to them."

"I know." Daryl growled looking out at the gate, not sure what the woman was planning. "I'll go find the girl. You talk with Negan."

Negan's P.O.V

Negan looks at Rick as he walks up to him, already getting a rifle and looking out one of the slots with Jerry at the next on. "So, what's the plan here? Light up on the skin freaks?"

"They have Gabriel and Anne. We have to give her back." Rick says, shaking his head.

"Wait what? You know what will happen to that girl. I told you what her mother does to her!" Negan angrily shouted in disbelief.

"I know, but we have to protect our people, Negan. Gabriel doesn't deserve to die, and neither does Anne. Our people come, first, they always come first." Rick explained, clearly not liking it either.

"Even if we're sending a kid back to that?" Negan hisses pointing out the slot to the woman outside, who had her back turned to them at the moment, seemingly looking at the woman with the baby.

"I don't like it either, but we have to save them. Where's Lydia Negan?" Rick asks.

Negan stays silent seething for a moment, then paused and looked around. "She's with Arya."

Rick stared then said in disbelief "You left her with my granddaughter!?

But then they heard shouting and screaming, pausing as they looked outside as the woman was setting the baby down and walking away.

"What...what is she doing?" Rick asked, "Are they..."

Negan then barked through the slot "Hey HEY!"

Alpha turned with an emotionless gaze, only raising a brow to the gate as Negan continued yelling "What the fuck are you doing!?"

For a moment, he wondered if she would answer but she said in a hissing tone almost like a snake "To live among the dead is to live in silence. If the mother can't hush the child, then the dead will."

From up top, Alden shouted "Wait your- It's a baby babies don't know any better!"

Alpha seemed to smirk sadistically and just said "Natural Selection."

Alden's P.O.V

Alden watches in horror as the woman sets the baby down on the road as the walkers look at them. "Tara." He hisses down at her, making her look at him from her own post equally horrified. "They just left a baby on the road."

"I'll get it, keep her distracted." Tara says as she runs towards the exit that Ezekiel showed her.

Alden looks at Alpha soon after, almost still as a statue. Trying not to let his nerves show, he called down. "Why do you do it? Wear the masks?"

"Because that is how it is meant to be. This is their world. This is how we survive."

"It doesn't have to be. We've built something better." Alden offered, hoping to keep her talking as he saw movement in the treeline next to the road.

This notion seemed to almost disgust Alpha, looking at the place in contempt "This place will fall, just like every other place like it. This place is a joke, a shrine to a long dead world. This 'New World' you speak of? It's a joke. You are simply rebuilding the old, the true new world is to live among the wild as nature intended,"

Alden stared, more uneasy. It was clear this woman was likely studying them for a long period of time and likely learned of it from any survivors of Oceanside.

"It won't!" Alden says as he sees Tara by the edge of the woods. She runs out, and Alpha looks at her almost surprised as she grabs the baby and runs back into the woods. Two runs towards the wood after her, but then Tara shoots him in the leg. He howls in pain as the approaching walkers move toward him.

Alpha looks at him and smiles. "There still has to be no conflict, all I want is my daughter."

"Daryl and Rick are getting her," Alden says, and Alpha nods as the walkers eat the man. The screams gurgling and filling the air.

All he noticed was that these skin wearers almost callously ignored the man, not at all bothered by the loss.

Daryl's P.O.V

After a moment of running, Daryl finds Arya and Lydia in the garden, but he saw that Arya stepped in front of the girl who looked nervous seeing him. "I know you heard." Daryl tries to explain to the girls. "We gotta give her back."

"Uncle Daryl, we can't, we can help her. Dad always says we need to help people, that it's us vs the Dead!" Arya shouted at him.

"We have to Arya, look if we don't, they will kill Gabriel and Anne and I can tell that woman isn't bluffing." Daryl says as he looks at Lydia who although still clearly scared of him, was at least listening. "I know what it's like, to have a parent like that. My Dad, he used to beat me and my brother. Hit me with branches and belts, and he almost killed me once. The only reason he didn't was because my brother knocked him off. We ran that day, and we didn't come back for a month. The only reason we did was because I needed a doctor, they called my Dad, and he came and got us. We didn't have a choice. Right now, you do, you can stay here, fight us, or you can go back to your Mom. Save two good people, I wish it wasn't like that, but it's how it is."

"Oh fuck no that's bullshit! You know what it's like and you want to send a person out into that! You wanted her dead and your just getting rid of her!" Arya angrily shouts.

"Arya," Lydia says, making Arya look at her. "It's okay."

"What?"

"I can save people, let me." Lydia says.

Shaking her head, Arya said "No no Lydia please-"

Lydia just gave her a hug and cautiously walked up to Daryl, gulping but nodding at him.

"Thank you." Daryl quietly thanked her as he led her away, more gently then before, many people from around the buildings watching this, a good few uncertain about this but not having a choice.

They walk to the gate and see Negan at the side with a grim yet angry look, the expression clearly telling Daryl this wasn't over. "It's okay." Lydia says comfortingly. "I'm doing this to save your people. And...she's my Mother."

"I'm sorry kid." Negan mutters.

"You don't need to be." Lydia says. "They're my people, but thank you." She says as the gate opens, and they walk out and look at Alpha as she smiles. She nods to her men, who let Gabriel and Anne go, and Lydia walks towards her mother. "I'm sorry, Mama."

Alpha looks at her and slaps her, and then she hugs her whispering harshly into her ear. "You will call me Alpha, just like the rest."

Hearing a struggle, Daryl looked to see Rick grabbing Negan's arm, whose face was full of fire and rage.

Seeming to hear this, Alpha just looked up and looked straight towards him with a long unnerving stare, then smiled and turned, the rest of these 'Whisperers' falling without hesitation.

Never once did Lydia look back.

Carl's P.O.V

Carl walks over to Arya and sits down beside her as she sat near the gate, her arms around her knees. "I'm sorry. I know that you liked her."

"She didn't deserve that. Dad look at her, it's no different than what Jocelyn did to me."

"I wish we didn't have to do it, sweetheart." Carl explained. "But even if your Uncle Daryl and your Grandfather didn't want to do it. I would have because I couldn't let your Uncle Gabriel die. He's one of my best friends."

"We could save her. Go after Alpha." Arya shot her head up "I mean they already destroyed a community and killed Uncle Troy, I mean that shows these assholes are dangerous!"

Carl cut this train of thought off. "We don't know her numbers. We don't know enough or what else she knows about us. We could walk into a trap. I'm sorry, Arya. She's on her own,"

Arya glares at her father before she stands up and runs away, causing Carl to shout after her "Arya!"

Ezekiel's P.O.V

Ezekiel looks at Daryl as he walks up to him. "Daryl, still uneasy about this situation?"

"I wanted to apologize for how I acted when we got back. You're right, this is your community, and you gave my people a home. Sorry, I was an asshole." Daryl sighed, rubbing his forehead.

Ezekiel just layed a hand on one of his shoulder, saying softly "You had just lost one of your own. I understand your anger, but this enemy, she is smart, and she is strong and she is clearly a threat. We must control our anger if we hope to beat her."

"We'll beat her," Daryl says. "When we do, we're gonna save that girl."

Alden's P.O.V

Alden walked through the Kingdom. He looked at Connie as she sat against a wall staring at the building the cell was in. He walks up to her, and she looks at him. "You okay?" He asks her. She looks at him and nods, but pointed at the cell then at the gate.

Thankfully enough time with Arthur taught Alden to read what she meant, and it was clear Connie was upset with handing the girl, Lydia, over to the Skins.

"I don't like it either, giving that girl up." Alden says. Connie blinked, surprised he was able to understand her, as she pulls her notepad out and writes on it. She shows it to Alden.

"I don't want to live with it," She wrote.

"We have to, at least until we beat Alpha. When we do, we can save that girl and give her a better life." Alden says looking out the gate sadly. "I want her to have that life. The life my child couldn't have."

"You had a child?" Connie wrote.

"It was never born," Alden says. "My girlfriend, Luciana, she was pregnant, and then she was killed, murdered."

"I'm sorry," Connie wrote, smiling sadly.. holding out her hand.

Alden just smiled and took it, thankful for the comfort.

Tara's P.O.V

Tara held the baby in her arms inside the main hall, waiting for the meeting that was coming when they knew for sure Alpha didn't return. Hearing footsteps she looked as Maggie walked up to her. "What are you gonna do with him?" Maggie asks her.

"I'm gonna take him back to Hilltop." Tara says, causing Maggie to look at her in surprise. "Beth, she always tells me how she wants kids, but I mean, we can't have any obviously." Maggie just rolled her eyes with a smile as Tara continued. "So I figure this should work. We can raise him, give him a better home away from those freaks. I'm going to take a car and go back. We don't know what might happen here. I don't want him here until we're sure that crazy Bitch is gone."

"Take Kal with you, and be careful." Maggie says, and Tara nods as she walks away.

Negan's P.O.V

Negan walks up to Gabriel and hugs him as he was in the Medical Bay getting checked over "It's good to see you breathing, Gabey boy! You had my ass worried for a second." Negan says as he lets the man go.

"I heard that you were taking care of that girl," Gabriel says softly, brushing himself off, his one eye staring at him piercingly.

"I was." Negan shook his head, knowing Gabriel could read him almost as well as Carl could, then tried to change the subject off the frightened girl. "How'd it happen?"

"We were checking the woods to ensure we weren't being followed and we saw her coming towards us. We thought she was a regular walker, but we were wrong. She had us surrounded before we could react" Gabriel says. "Negan, I barely talked with her but that woman. She is dangerous, she may be small, but she's the devil in disguise. For Heaven's sake, she tried to feed a baby to the dead just a few hours ago."

Staring at the normally unflappable priest, Negan felt unease in his stomach "Whoa Gabe relax-"

"My friend listen to me." Gabriel put his hands on his arms as if to try to explain as best he could. "She's not like any of the others we have faced, she's different. Fighting you, I never felt fear. I was scared while she was staring at us, I don't think she's crazy, doing the right thing, or even looking for revenge."

"...Then what the fuck is she?"

"Evil."

Arya's P.O.V

That night Arya walked alongside the wall towards the back entrance, looking through the area. She took a breath and gazed around for a bit, then moved a few bushes and grinned at a small hole that she had found with Henry a year ago, sometimes sneaking out to explore "Annnd bingo was my fucking name o."

"Arya."

She shot her head up and looked around and saw her technical 'aunt' Judith walking up with Clementine following behind her with a furrowed brow "What are you doing? Carl says you missed dinner."

Clementine stared then said flatly "Arya are you going to do something stupid?"

"I'm going after Lydia." Arya growled, squaring up to Clementine, not able to hurt Judith "You guys can't stop me."

"We aren't going to." Judith shook her head with a smile.

"Fuck, really?" Arya eased down, confused.

"Arya!" Clementine hissed as Judith continued

"I'm coming with you. We could use a tracker," Judith says as she looks at Clementine with a grin.

"This is a bad idea." Clementine said in worry "Look just talk to the others, I know Rick didn't like it either. Maybe your Grandfather can convince the others to help."

"Yeah and every second they waste is another second that psycho has her and doing Fucking hell knows what to her! We have to go now before the guards come back." Arya says as they start to climb the wall, and Clementine follows with a sigh and a bad feeling in her gut.

Before she followed, she knelt in front of Judith and pointed a finger at her "You. You do Exactly what we say to the letter understand?"

The little girl just nodded and soon the three left in the Dead of night.

Thanks for reading. Arya, Judith, and Clementine have gone after Lydia. Next chapter the Kingdom realizes the trio have vanished, and the kids run into a dangerous new threat. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.