Here you go, an early chapter for once. As promised!

55 Hours Before The Dive Bar.

-Mikey-

"Hilltop is covered— the roads and then some. They are out there somewhere, so let's get balls deep in every nook and cranny they might hole up in. Nooks, crannies, and holes, people! All that shit outside the box."

Negan signals for Simon to come in and close the door halfway through his orders into the walkie-talkie. Simon goes to stand at the far end of the long wooden table placed in the middle of the meeting room. Negan, who has his boots comfortably up and to the side at the head of the table, has me sitting by his other side. I haven't left his side since we got back to Sanctuary.

When he's done with it, Negan tosses the walkie-talkie onto the table in front of me. It tumbles into Lucille, who is lying silently on the wooden surface.

Negan watches Simon as he paces and shakes up and down like he's desperate to pee.

"Appears our friends at Alexandria had themselves an escape plan," Negan says, scratching his chin and holding back a smile. "This sad little orphan and Rick's little one-eyed pride and joy played me."

Simon turns to look out a window, apparently not interested. Negan smirks, turning to me and continuing.

"Damn. I mean, you surprised me... standing up on that tall wall of yours and throwing the shade you did." He shakes his head, craning his neck to look up at the ceiling. "But that kid— Carl is built for this shit. Luring my men onto the road and having his people gun them down like ugly dogs... fuck."

"The kid still not said anything?" Simon asks, turning back around to glare my way.

"Not since you smacked the shit out of him after we got back," Negan groans, glaring back almost on my behalf. "Fuck, Si."

"I got him to spill about the roadblock, didn't I? How the one-eyed freak was running the escape?" Simon barks back. "If you'd given me another twenty minutes alone with him, I coulda—"

"That..." Negan sneers, sitting up and taking his boots off the table, "is not how we do things. You know that."

Simon swirls his moustache angrily before changing topics.

"Let me go out and close this thing."

Negan shakes his head. "Arat's got it for now."

They go back and forth on what's happened in the last twenty-four hours. I zone out, already having heard most of it from other Saviors around the place. When I was sent to the clinic, Doctor Carson told me that apparently the Saviors sent to kill the King haven't checked back in and that there's a chance the Kingdom hasn't fallen. Hilltop was left standing, but apparently they killed someone for show. Carson said treating most of the injured Saviors makes his office somewhat of a hub for gossip.

I look up when Negan points to me again, putting his feet back up. "How's that arm feelin'?"

I glance down at the tightly bandaged arm on my left side, white gauze wrapped from just above my wrist to just below my armpit. It still feels hot from where the fire burnt my skin. Carson told me it shouldn't affect my mobility but will leave a nasty scar. That was right before Simon burst into the clinic and laid on the aforementioned beating.

Pretty sure he knocked one of my teeth loose, but I'm avoiding checking it with my tongue for now.

Negan keeps staring until I acknowledge his question.

I shrug.

Simon clears his throat. "If I'm not running down Rick and company, where do you want me?"

Negan points to the chair by his feet.

Simon sits in it.

And again, they go back and forth.

Simon wants to kill the Scavengers for double-crossing their double-cross.

Negan wants him to only kill one — the standard message.

Simon stares at me and tells him they should kill us all — scrape the plates into the trash.

Negan's face is a Picasso after that. Twisting and shifting from colour to colour until his rage is swallowed and he can speak.

"Oh, I am doing my best to hold it together right now. You wanna cut your losses, take your own advice, Simon. Killing everybody to solve the problem? That is the easy way... not our way. What we do... saving people, it is hard. But it damn well works."

"Not lately," Simon says coldly.

Negan smiles a cold and dead smile. "Once I clip Rick, everything is aces again, Simon."

Then there's a knock.

"Yeah," Negan calls.

The door opens, and a bald guy, who I think I heard Simon call Gary, walks in. He hands Negan a walkie-talkie.

Negan squints at him.

"Someone asking for you on the forward channels... It's the kid that killed Paula."

Simon's face is the one twisting now.

I sit up a little as Negan takes the talkie and waits for Gary to leave.

Once he's gone, Negan holds the radio up to his mouth and grins into it.

"Rhysie! What the hell are you doin' calling me up? You know, I think I played it pretty cool back at Alexandria... but I was impressed as shit with your speech. Simon's still talkin' about it! And introducing yourself like a badass too! I can't wait to—"

"Mikey's dead..."

Negan purses his lips, going silent as a serpent as his eyes slither over to me, lingering for a while as he lets out a low and gravelly chuckle, obviously enjoying the card he just got dealt. He lifts the walkie again.

"Excuse me?"

Rhys doesn't speak. I bow my head, feeling it spin at the thought of the other end of that radio.

Negan looks me up and down before speaking again.

"Shit, kid, and whose fault would that be?"

"Yours," the radio sizzles back. Rhys' voice is fire and ice and steam and wrath. All that mixed with the static of the radio, and I can still hear his voice break a little in a way I don't think Negan or Simon do.

"Kid—" Negan sighs, shrugging at me and pulling a face at Simon.

"He wanted to stop it! Mikey wanted to find a way to end this. Just like Carl does. And you killed him."

"And what do you want, Rhys?"

There's no response.

"You want peace?" Negan asks.

There's a crackle, like he's about to respond, but then there's nothing.

Negan goes on. "You want us to pick tomatoes together and make trade like a bunch of hillbilly farmers?"

When Rhys responds, it's little more than a whisper of static electricity. "No..."

Negan groans a slow and croaky laugh into the radio. "I had a feelin' you didn't want that."

"You're gonna die."

Negan shakes his head at me, pointing his finger at the radio and rolling his eyes.

"Jesus, you sound like Rick," he sighs back to Rhys. "See, me, Carl, and Mikey... we looked to the future. We know what matters. You put the kid up on that tower... he was bound to get burnt a little."

Negan looks at my arm and gives me a face as if to say, 'sorry, I couldn't resist.'

Negan grins as he continues. "Just 'cause he bit the bullet doesn't mean there still can't be a future for you people."

"The only future is one where you're dead," Rhys barks back.

Negan lets go of the button and giggles, biting on his fist, shaking his head at Simon and me and telling us, "This is just too damn fun."

He speaks back to the radio. "What about poor Mikey? You just gonna piss on his memory like that?"

"Please," I finally speak. "Please stop."

"Come now." Negan pouts. "Don't spoil it. We're just busting each other's balls. Let the men speak."

"He knew you needed to die," Rhys mutters low through the talkie. "Mikey died giving you a chance. And your chance died with him. I don't care what Carl wants. I don't care what Mikey wanted. You killed him. You killed Glenn. Abraham. Tried to kill Sasha in front of me..."

Negan sits up, pulling his shoulders into a hunch, his hand reaching across the table until his fingers brush against Lucillie's grip.

Negan holds the button down again and starts to monologue into the radio.

"Fuck... you really know how to send a fuckin' chill down my spine!

I swear it, kid!

I have goddamn goosebumps under this leather."

He starts to whistle.

"But you've lost.

Lost your friends, your home.

You've all lost the shit that you gave a shit about.

But it's not enough.

No, sir.

See, we save people.

We're gonna save you.

But first, I'm gonna take it all."

The radio suddenly wines and hisses before going silent.

Negan waits. We all do. But Rhys is gone.

Negan laughs then, shaking his head.

"You didn't have to—" I start, my voice mouse-like.

"You know where you're sitting?" Negan asks, his voice rough and loud.

I stay quiet.

"I told Rhys Paula was one of my top gals, and I wasn't bullshitting him." He points at me. "She used to sit right there in our little meetings. So yeah, I think I did have to fuck with the kid just a bit. Only fair."

There's another knock.

Negan responds the same way he did the last time.

This time, though, Garry walks in with two other Saviors. They're carrying a wooden box that looks terrifyingly like a coffin. It's growling.

Simon jumps up like he recognises it.

Negan leans back a little. "What the hell is that?"

"A delivery from the Hilltop," Gary tells him, setting a nail gun down atop the box. "I brought you something to deal with it. It's charged."

Negan stands, so I get up, too, craning my neck to read some writing on the coffin's lid:

WE HAVE 38 MORE.

STANDDOWN.

"Out," Negan tells the three Saviors, picking up the nail gun as they leave and gesturing for Simon and me to open it.

I watch Simon pry up the nails with his knife, not seeing any other options as I help lift the lid.

A pale hand claws at my face, but Negan puts several nails through its face.

The walker goes still.

"That's Dean!" Simon growls, frowning down at the recently reanimated Savior, his stink already filling the room. "That means the other thirty-eight that the Hilltop are holding are from the Satelite outpost. Those are my people. I'm gonna kill every last one of those farmers!"

"You will do exactly what I asked," Negan tells him, picking up Lucille, her fangs scraping across the table surface.

"We can't let 'em get away with this shit!" Simon barks.

Then Lucille comes crashing down onto the mahogany, making Simon and me jump back a few steps as she pounds against the varnished top.

"YOU WILL DO YOUR JOB!" Negan roars.

55 Minutes After The Dive Bar.

Sanctuary always feels cold.

I'm pretty free here. As long as I don't leave, I'm allowed to go wherever I want. Though, I usually just stay in Carson's clinic. Gabriel was captured when we first led the horde to the Sanctuary and came down with a sickness from using the guts trick we did back when walkers got into Alexandria. He had been staying in the clinic when I arrived, and I spent most of my time close to him despite not actually knowing him very well. But then they tried to escape. Gabriel broke out with Carson, trying to get him back to Hilltop and Maggie. He asked me to come. To help. But something in me... the way Negan's whistle echos down these halls and through your bones, something wouldn't let me dare go.

They didn't last long.

Gabriel was brought back by a patrol and stuffed into the darkest cell Negan could find. When I asked Gary about Carson, he told me someone fucked up and shot him.

That was a bad day.

But I still stay in the clinic.

It somehow feels safer than the rest of Sanctuary.

Negan went to force Hilltop to surrender the same day Rhys called. Same day Carson died. When the Saviors came back defeated, I was relieved. I heard through Gary that Negan died on the road. He told me Simon was in charge now. I wasn't quite sure why he warned me to keep my head down. Why he cared. But I did. I wanted to leave the clinic even less, praying that Simon would have too much on his plate to come looking for me and tie off loose ends. And it worked for the most part. Though, without Negan's looming presence darkening the Sanctuary halls, Saviors were less scared to mess with me. Knocking my food to the floor in the mess hall at meals or cornering me in the halls on my way back to the clinic. But that stopped pretty quick. Gary stood up for me a lot. Arat, too. I still didn't really get why. Still don't. Most of the Saviors were almost nice to me after those two stepped in and beat the hell out of two guys that tried to hold me down and shave my head because they thought it would look funny.

Simon's reign didn't last very long.

Negan didn't die on the road.

I didn't want to admit it, but I felt safer when he got back.

Simon seemed to like the taste of power he got, though. He plotted to overthrow Negan only a few hours after he got back. Met with a group of Saviour that didn't like Negan for some reason or another. Gary was one of them.

It didn't last either.

Negan killed Simon, Gary and the others, too. He fought Simon one on one in front of the whole Sanctuary. Crushed his windpipe to make a point — the point being that he's still in charge and going to kill everyone at Hilltop now. Everyone still alive from Alexandria or Kingdom.

But, yeah... Sanctuary always feels cold.

I'm sitting in the clinic now, wrapped in three blankets and staring down at a book I haven't read a word of in over an hour. I've been thinking. Thinking about how just after the fight with Simon, Negan somehow found out that Dwight was helping Rick and the rest of the militia. Now Dwight's probably in one of those cells Gabriel was thrown in.

I wonder when it will be my turn.

That's when the man walks in.

Towering over me with Lucille in his hand and a grin on his face.

I look up from the book.

"Miss me?" Negan crows.

I just keep staring at the zipper on his jacket, not daring to raise my eyes any higher.

Negan doesn't seem to notice.

"I know you heard what I told everyone back there after I crushed that backstabbing piece of shit's throat... about having to kill Rick and the rest of the piss patrol."

"Did you mean it?" I ask quietly, keeping my eyes on his chest. "You think you can beat Hilltop? Win?"

His face goes dark then. I don't need to look. The way his whole body tenses tells me enough.

"They didn't leave me a choice."

I look away.

Negan suddenly chuckles.

"Lighten up, kid," he sighs. "Tell you what... you got a girl back home? At the Hilltop? I can always put someone on the no-kill list for you... since you've been so agreeable here."

"No," I whisper, grimacing and keeping my eyes on the tiny window that looks out over the factory courtyard.

"No to the girlfriend, or no to the offer?" he asks all whimsically.

My face goes red, and I shake my head. "Just stop."

"Christ, kid," Negan laughs. "You need to lighten the fuck up at some point."

"We can all start over," I say softly. "We don't have to fight."

That's when the walkie-talkie on his belt lights up again.

"Negan?"

I recognise him immediately, my eyes darting to Negan's belt. I guess he left an impression because Negan looks down at it like he recognises him too. I guess it could be the accent.

"Negan, it's Rhys."

My heart somehow drops through my gut and jumps into my throat at the same time.

"I know you're there. I know you can hear me, and I know you'll answer. So just pick up, asshole."

Negan doesn't look at me. He takes a breath to wipe the scowl from his face before answering Rhys.

"Rhysie!" he cheers. "I. Have. Missed. These chats. Rick or Carl there with you? Why don't you put one of them on?"

"This isn't about them. It's about me. I've got a message for you."

Negan smirks. "Well, I can't promise not to kill the messenger."

I watch Negan walk over to Carson's old cluttered desk and drag the small wooden chair over to where I'm sitting on one of the sick beds. I cringe at the sound of the legs scraping against the tile floor.

Rhys' voice is cold when he comes back.

"I've already sent the message. Your thirty-eight men are dead."

I can't help but let the air get sucked from my chest. Negan doesn't miss a beat responding. His offence filling the small room. Eyebrows, grinding together.

"What?"

"You killed most of them... with your arrows and the walkers. Some of them stayed and joined us. The rest... I killed them."

"You killed them?" Negan hisses, the sound of leather squeaking as he grips the walkie tighter.

"I was there. Got two of them."

There's a pang of guilt in my gut.

"That make you feel good about yourself, does it?"

"It's what you did. You killed Mikey! Burnt our home! People I care about are infected because of last night."

Negan lowers the radio for a moment, rubbing his face against his glove and grimacing. His eyes unlit and sunken. Maybe even upset.

"You're wrong," Negan sighs into the receiver. "Last night... I wasn't there. Simon took things too far, and I swear on my sack that he has been dealt with."

"I don't care."

Negan nods slowly, even if he can't see it. He goes to speak, but Rhys does first.

"I think they're right..."

"Who's that?"

"Carl and Mikey. Carl still wants peace. Mikey wanted it."

I can hear that he's crying. I feel the tears on my own cheeks start to run.

"You want peace?" Negan asks, his tone serious. Like he really wants to know his answer.

"I really want to want it. But... I can't. I don't know how. I don't know how to forgive you for what you did to Glenn and Abraham. I want to let it go... I can't do it."

Negan scratches the rough dark stubble on his chin, pulling a face like he suddenly hates this conversation. His hazel eyes swirling with loathing.

"Then don't," he tells him. "That's why I like you, kid." A vicious smile spreads across his face from ear to ear. "You're a damn spitfire, Rhysie. That flame, I don't want it to burn out. It's too damn fun."

Rhys is the one not to miss a beat this time.

"I know what I have to do."

"What's that?"

"I'm going to trust them. Mikey and Glenn... they would have wanted to find peace. I'm going to honour that now, even if I don't believe it. I'm going to go back to Carl, and I am going to honour them and him."

Negan laughs. "What about what you want?"

"It doesn't matter what I want. I know what I did was wrong today. I'm lucky that I have Carl. I guess I'm sorry you don't have that."

"A boyfriend?" Negan snorts, pouting at me in confusion.

"No, asshole. Someone that stops you from going too far."

"Don't you think killing my men was already too far?"

"No... I think it just happened. Killing you would be too far."

I watch Negan grimace. "So you're pulling out of this fight?"

"I'm not doing it my way anymore. I'm going to follow their lead."

Negan takes a moment to think about that. It's almost fascinating. Watching him slip his mask on and off as he separates what he says from what he feels.

He laughs at Rhys.

"Nah... I saw your eyes that day. When I had your people lined up in Alexandria, and you came at me... no guns, no knife, just your giant, swingin' balls. I saw it in your eyes, Rhys. That fire in your belly. That killer in your gut. You don't put that shit on a leash. And I'm gonna prove it to you... right now. Go ahead, kid."

He lets go of the button and tosses the radio into my lap.

I jump, quickly holding it to my face and squeezing the button. Nothing much comes to me, so I just say the first thing in my head.

"Rhys?"

He doesn't respond. Negan rolls his eyes after a few seconds and snatches the radio back.

"Missed his chance."

I know he's gone, but I whisper it again.

"Rhys..."

I manage to look at Negan after. Right into his eyes. Maybe for the first time. And something's different in him. The way he stares at me with a rage so quiet it makes me want to vomit.

He lifts the walkie one more time, speaking into it without looking away from me. And this time, I can't look away either.

"You better hope you don't change," Negan growls into the radio, "because after all this... there is no getting out of it now. I wouldn't accept your surrender if you came to me on your knees. See, winning isn't about beating you. Winning is about killing every last one of you. That is starting over. I never wanted this. Rick made this happen. You tell him that. No more talk."

He drops the radio to the floor and stomps his boot down on it until it's destroyed.

A/N

Two more chapters left of the war, and subsequently season 8! Then we're onto season 9. I know season 9 was strangely not the best received season, but I loved it, and I'm very excited to share the season 9 chapters because I really think it's the best of the whole fic so far. Not to hype it up too much or anything, aha. I think season 8 just burnt me out a little bit, because the continuity of the season is really confusing with it all taking place over only a few days. But season 9 was really inspiring and different to write for.

See you next monday for season eight's penaltimate chapter!