𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐍
actually... i can

THE RV slowed down, making Octavia stand up from her kneeling position by a sick Maggie. "What?" She questioned, walking towards the front of the RV.

"Enemy close."

They all stepped out and walked forward, excluding Maggie.

"He's someone who was with a whole lot of someones who didn't listen," One of the men spoke up, talking about the man who was laying on the ground.

"We can make a deal right here, right now," Rick told them which made Octavia sigh.

"That's right, we can. Give us all your stuff. We'll probably have to kill one of you. That's just the way it is, but then we can start moving forward on business. All you have to do is listen."

"Yeah... that deal's not gonna work for us," Octavia admitted, shaking her head. "Fact is, I was about to ask for all of your stuff, only I'm thinking I don't have to kill any of you." She smirked. "Any more of you."

One of the men stepped up, shaking a can. He crouched down and sprayed it on the man who was on the ground. "Sorry, my deal is the only deal. We don't negotiate."

Octavia made a small hand gesture in the air and started slowly backing up. "Me and my people are leaving."

"Okay, friend. Plenty of ways to get to where you're going."

Rick paused at the door of the RV, turning to face them.

"You want to make today your last day on Earth?"

"No, but that is a good thing to bring up. Think about it. What if it's the last day on Earth for you? For someone you love? What if that's true? Maybe you should be extra nice to those people in that RV, 'cause you never know..." The man snapped his fingers. "Just like that. Be kind to each other. Like you said... like it was your last day on Earth."

"You do the same," Octavia told him, pushing Rick into the RV, before doing so herself, closing the door behind her as Abraham started backing the RV up.

"HOW are we on gas?"

"Half a tank. I pulled some more cans before we left."

"Those weren't the same men who blocked the road the first time," Sasha stated and Octavia nodded. "Same outfit, different soldiers. They got numbers."

"Yeah, we keep driving, we get her there." Octavia looked back at Maggie. "We will. If we have to shove each and every one of them up their own asses."

They slowed down again and they could not believe what they saw.

"We can't go through it. Can't risk the RV." Octavia looked at Abraham. "You stay behind the wheel, just in case." She clicked her gun, looking at Rick. "We'll clear it."

They got out of the RV and approached the walkers in chains. "Putting together a red rover like that takes people. A lot of them," O acknowledged and looked closely at one of the walkers.

"That's Daryl's," she growled out, angry as she realized it was his vest. Automatic gunfire went off out of nowhere, making her jump. "Get back to the RV! Go!" She yelled at the others as Rick, Abraham and her stayed out to shoot at the Saviors.

Octavia jumped back as a bullet barely missed her and she spun around, shooting one of them in the head and that seemed to send off an alarm as everyone shot at her giving the others time to kill the walkers and make a way through it. She somehow dodged all the bullet to only be pulled back by Rick and pushed into the RV.

When everyone was in, Abraham started to drive away.

"THESE tracks..." Eugene trailed off as they looked at the cut up and perfectly placed trees that blocked their path. "It would indicate they not only have people, but some big-ass toys and capabilities."

"What it indicates is we are neck-deep up shit creek with our mouths wide open," Abraham stated and Octavia nodded, liking the way he worded it.

There was a loud ass scream which made them turn around quickly to find a man being thrown off the bridge, a chain wrapped around his neck.

"Don't," Abraham told Aaron who wants to shoot the chain.

"I can try and break the chain."

"It won't work," Octavia told him, shaking her head. "It's useless. We need the bullets, anyway."

The man stopped struggling which made Octavia sigh before there was a noise behind them, and they turned around to find the tree parts on fire.

"You're treating your people good, right?" The same man as the first time, asked. "Like it was your last day on Earth? Or maybe one of theirs? You better go. It's gonna get hot. You go get where you're going."

Octavia growled, backing up, actually getting kinda scared now. It was obvious they had all the roads blocked and by now, they probably can't go home because they most likely have that road blocked off, too. Plus, they can't drive there, knowing they are watching them. It would lead them to their home. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation, and she hated it.

"Go, go."

They all ran into the RV, Abraham backing it up.

"THANK you," Maggie spoke weakly to Eugene as they lowered her out of the RV, her laying on a little makeshift bed. Octavia let go of it as she was safely out of the RV, and told our her gun, and stood at the back, looking around for any danger.

Moments later, while they were walking in the middle of a clearing, there was whistling all around them.

Octavia looked around, panicked before glancing down at Maggie, worry seeping through her. She was pregnant, sick, out in the open, and they were surrounded by Savior's. "

"Go!" Rick shouted and they ran, as best as they could seeing as they had Maggie.

Wherever they went, there was Saviors whistling, and as they approached another clearing, lights flashed in front of them, making them stop. The whistling was louder now as about four dozen or so men surrounded them.

Their eyes zeroed in on Eugene who was kneeling on the ground.

"Good." They all turned to face the first guy who had blocked them — Simon. "You made it. Welcome to where you're going. We'll take your weapons." He pointed his gun at Carl. "Now."

"We can talk about–"

"We're done talking," the man told Rick. "Time to listen."

Men approached them, taking their weapons. They had no choice but to obey right now.

They lowered Maggie down to the ground as Octavia tried to control her anger. Abraham and Rick helped her kneel as a guy grabbed Eugene and kneeled him down closer to them.

"Gonna need you on your knees." As Rick kneeled, so did the others, but Octavia stayed standing, clenching her fists. "I said, kneel," Simon demanded her.

"I will not bow to some moron who thinks he's the shit," Octavia spat, but as she was gonna insult him more, the back of her knee was kicked, and she fell to the ground, kneeling. She went to stand up, but her hair was grabbed and a knife was placed at her throat. She looked over at Rick, seeing the defeated look on his face.

She growled, actually angry at Rick for once. She was rooting for him to be the leader of this group, but he couldn't be if he's gonna act like this. He needed to pull his shit together. They've faced worse. She's faced worse. Hell, she had died, went to hell and back, so whatever these men do to her, it won't be shit compared to what she's already been through.

"Come on. You got people to meet."

Octavia's breath picked up as she saw Daryl, who was bleeding from the shoulder, being pushed down onto the ground. Her anger rose, her chest heaving up and down in anger, and not fear like Rick's was.

Octavia was quick to launch forward, trying to get to Daryl when she was grabbed by the waist roughly, and then punched in the mouth. She fell to the ground, gasping, and spitting out blood seeing as she has bit down on her tongue.

"Don't touch her!" Daryl shouted at the top of his lungs, but got hit in the head with a butt of a gun.

Octavia was then yanked back by her hair, and forced to kneel, again.

"All right!" Simon smiled and clapped his hands together. "We got a full boat. Let's meet the man."  He turned around then and walked up to the RV, pounding on the door.

Octavia tried to ease her breathing as the door kicked open and they all looked at a man climbing down the stairs. 

"Pissing our pants yet?" He asked, his voice was rough and had a deep accent in it. He smirked like he was untouchable. His boots were shining black as if someone had just polished them, his jeans looked nice, his leather jacket even nicer. But the thing that caught their attention the most, was the bat he held on his shoulder. A wooden one wrapped in yards of barbed-wire. 

And as he stepped into the light further, Octavia gasped, not believing her eyes at the person she saw standing in front of her. "Dad?" She whispered low enough so no one heard her.

"Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close. Yep. It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon." He chuckled again and started walking down the line of everyone there before he licked his lips and asked, "Which one of you pricks is the leader?" 

"It's these two." Simon nodded down to Rick and Octavia.

"Hi. You're Rick, right?" He asked, squatting down in front of a panicked Rick Grimes and a confused Octavia Winchester. "I'm Negan and I do not appreciate you killing my men."

Octavia's eyes widened a little as she did not expect that. If this was not her dad, who was it? More specifically, what was it?

"Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool. You have no idea how not cool that shit is." Be then pushed to his feet and shook his head at them. "But I think you're gonna be up to speed shortly. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes." Negan laughed and then spun around. "Yes, you are." 

"You see, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order and the new world order is this, and it's really very simple." He shrugged, running his eyes over everyone knelt before him like he was their king. "So, even if you're stupid, which you very may well be, you can understand it. Are you ready? Here goes, so pay attention."

"What are you?" Octavia asked, not caring if she were to be killed or announce that the supernatural was real.

"Oh, that's right. You're John's girl." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Yes, that's right sweetie, I knew your daddy. Actually, I didn't know him at all since our parents decided to get rid of me. I got right back at them by killing them." Her blue eyes grew wide. "Your daddy didn't even know that he had a twin, let alone a sibling. It's probably a good thing too since I would steal the spotlight. Maybe that's why mommy and daddy couldn't keep me."

"I don't care about your fucking life story, you lunatic," Octavia spat which resulted in him grabbing her face roughly.

"Now you listen here. I don't care that you don't care because your life means nothing to me. You hear that? You are nothing. Nothing! You're just a mistake that John made. And the both of your brothers are mistakes, too. Hell, John himself was a mistake. He got what was coming to him when his wife, what was her name... Mary, was killed?"

Octavia growled and snapped her teeth at him. "Awe, still a sore subject?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Sorry I couldn't make it to his funeral." She furrowed her brows, just now registering what he was saying. "Oh, yeah, did I forget that I was keeping tabs on you guys?" He roughly let go of her face and looked at her group. "It looks like we're all family now. You have my niece and nephew's living with you, so technically I should be your next door neighbor." He smiled. "This is gonna be fun."

Negan grabbed Rick's face in his hand, and the eldest Grimes did nothing. "Give me your shit or I will kill you," he said harshly before throwing Rick's head back and standing up yet again. "Today was career day. We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do. You work for me now. You have shit, you give it to me. That's your job." 

Octavia watched him, how he spoke and who he looked at and most importantly his body language. Negan came off as a very confident guy who had little to no worries in his life.

"Now, I know that is a mighty big, nasty pill to swallow, but swallow it you most certainly will," $: said using his bat to point at them all. "You ruled the roost. You built something. You thought you were safe, I get it. But the word is out. You are not safe. Not even close," he told them with dark eyes. "In fact, you are pegged, more pegged if you don't do what I want and what I want is half your shit. And if that's too much, you can make, find, or steal more, and it'll even out sooner or later."

He chuckled with his shoulders shrugging carelessly. "This is your way of life now. The more you fight back, the harder it will be. So, if someone knocks on your door you let us in. We own that door. You try to stop us and we will knock it down. You understand?"

Rick's eyes stayed on the ground he was kneeling in and Octavia growled in anger, her jaw clenching.

"What, no answer?" Negan asked him, cocking his head before he looked over the rest of their terrified faces. "You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, now, did you?" 

With that said, Octavia rose her eyes from the ground and met Negan's that were already on her.

"I don't want to kill you people. Just want to make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you?" He asked and sighed heavily. "I'm not growing a garden but you killed my people, a whole damn lot of them. More than I'm comfortable with and for that, for that, you're gonna pay. So, now I'm gonna beat the holy hell outta one of you."

Negan then rose his bat with a prideful smile. "This — this is Lucille, and she is awesome," he told them and then motioned to the big theatrics of the lineup. "All this, all this is just so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor."  He took a step forward and met Abraham's gaze, the good soldier rose higher on his knees and locked his jaw — showing no fear which made Negan smile. "Huh," he said, rubbing his fingers over his own shaggy beard. "Ugh, I gotta shave this shit." 

He then moved passed the others and squatted down in front of Carl, causing Octavia to tighten her fists in the mud. 

"You got one of our guns," Negan said looking over the pistol they took from Carl's waistband. "Yeah. You got a lot of our guns." But Carl didn't flinch. He just stared back at Negan as if imagining his death in his own mind. "Shit, kid, lighten up," he said, chuckling. "At least cry a little."

He then slapped his thighs and moved back towards the left side and stopped at the girl groaning in pain.  "Jesus. You look shitty," He said and shook his head at her. "I should just put you out of your misery right now." 

"No!" Glenn screamed at the top of his lungs and raced forward to save her, only to have Dwight slam him to the ground. "No!" 

"Stop it!" Octavia shouted, getting up to help Glenn only to have her own body thrown down.

"Nope!" Negan shouted at the two of them and watched them being dragged back to their places. "Nope, get him back in line."

He took a deep breath and sighed.  "All right, listen. Don't any of you do that again, I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. First one's free. It's an emotional moment, I get it," he said and then wiped his mouth and turned to Rick and smirked down at him.  "Sucks, don't it? The moment you realize you don't know shit." He turned and pointed to Carl then. "This is your kid, right? This is definitely your kid." 

"Just stop this!" Rick screamed at the top of his lungs, finally acting out as soon as his son was threatened. 

"Hey! Do not make me kill the little future serial killer. Don't make it easy on me!" Negan yelled back at him and scoffed. "I gotta pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order."

"I simply cannot decide," he said and shook his head and then laughed. "I got an idea." Holding up the bat, Negan smirked as he started down the line randomly.

"Eenie...meenie.... miney ...mo ...catch a tiger ....by his toe. ....If he hollers ......let him go. ....My mother .....told me ....to pick ....the very best one.... and ..... you .... are ..... it."

Octavia felt her entire body cave inwards with anxiety and fear as Negan sighed and shrugged. "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father and then we'll start," he said and gripped onto the bat tightly with both of his hands. "You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that." He said one last time before he took the bat and swung it forward.

Octavia screamed loudly as the bat came in contact with Abraham's head.

"Ho! Ho! Look at that. Taking it like a champ!" He mused before slamming his bat down onto Abraham again and again until Abraham's head was in pieces. "Damn!"

Tears fell down Octavia's face as she looked down at Abrahams none moving body. Everything was ringing, her vision was blurry thanks to the tears, all she could hear was her panicked breathing, and the sound of her own blood pumping.

Negan chuckled as he hit Abraham's head again.

Octavia sucked in a huge breath, bending over, trying to contain all of her emotions. She wanted to make them all fit into one category: anger so she can take it all out on Negan.

"Oh, my goodness! Look at this!" He laughed. "You guys, look at my dirty girl! Sweetheart... Lay your eyes on this." He held the bat in front of Rosita. "Oh, damn. Were you — Were you together? That sucks. But if you were, you should know there was a reason for all this. Red — and hell, he was, is, and will ever be red. He just took one or six or seven for the team! So take... a damn look." He flung the bat a little, making the blood land on her face.

Daryl stood up and punched him so hard that Negan's head flew to the side.

"Daryl!" Octavia yelled out, wanting to go help her boyfriend, but someone had a good hold me as they knew she was a fighter. Two men held Daryl down and another held Daryl's own crossbow to his head.

"No!" Negan yelled, pointing his bat at them. "Oh, no. That? Oh, my! That... is a no-no. The whole thing — not one bit of that shit flies here."

"Do you want me to do it? Right here." Simon grinned, looking down at Daryl.

Octavia looked at Daryl, tears falling down her face like a waterfall.

"No. No, you don't kill them... not until you try a little." Daryl was forced back into his spot, letting O relax a little. "And anyway... that's not how it works. Now, I already told you people — first one's free, then — what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down! No exceptions. Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with... but I'm a man of my word. First impressions are important. I need you to know me. So... back to it."

It happened so fast as Octavia watched the bat slam down onto Glenn's head. She screamed again, shaking her head furiously as she wanted to believe that all of this was a dream. A really bad dream, but if it was, sandman had some explaining to do.

Octavia didn't hear anything else as her anger flailed. It was growing and growing and she felt it as it reached the top, overflowing. She growled, grabbed the guy who held her, stabbed him in the head with her hidden dagger, and stormed to Negan before anyone could say or do anything.

She went to stab him, but something hit her head pretty hard, sending her to the ground. A ringing sounded through her head and everything went black as something connected with her head again.

All that was left was the screaming members of the group, yelling and crying for their fallen friends, no one wanting to believe that three important people were dead, gone, never coming back.