CONQUEST • Negan

Town Reject

"No! No. I'm not going!" I yanked and pulled and struggled against the shackling grip that held me stationary.

"You sure as shit are." Negan lifted a finger and booped my nose and I tried to bite the finger from him, too far gone, drowning in my own feral haze to even realise what I was doing. "Oh, you are just adorable! Ain't that weird? Since you did just try to claw my eyes out and bite my finger off, but you're like a blonde little puppy trying to claim it's territory." He pinched my cheek and I growled, trying to shake his grip off my face. "So gosh darn cute."

He took a good few steps back, eyes shifting between Daryl and I as we both fought against the hands that held us, and a dangerous smirk that didn't quite reach Negan's eyes spread across his mouth. "Well just look at you two, aren't you both just made for eachother." He forced those last words out through a clenched jaw. "Load 'em up. She rides with me."

I tugged and managed to finally get a hand free and send my fist into the first face I saw before I was immobilised again.

"You might need to cuff her, but as long as you get her in that truck in one piece, without a scratch, and I mean it," he ran a stern eye over his men, "not a scratch, then I dont care how you get her in. Just do it gently."

The next five minutes that followed was a daze as I fought, tooth and nail to stop myself from getting packed away like some fragile possession of his. I would have walked nice and calmly to the van, maybe even with a sweet smile and a thank you if he hadn't tricked me and just let Daryl go free. But I felt like fool, and that only stoked the fires of my anger even more.

I don't even remember the moment when those cold metal cuffs snapped around my wrists, binding them to my back. Can't remember how I had somehow been on the streets of Alexandria with Rick and Michonne and Eugene and Aaron, one minute ago, but was now in the front seat of a truck, belted in, my own fists pressing into my back, shoulders aching. I was only shocked back to the present by the sound of a car door slamming shut and I jolted back into my body, into my awareness.

I looked out the window to my side, bleary eyed, and the faces of my friends stared back at me from roads of Alexandria. Rosita was there now too, Gabriel and Carl and most of the population of the town. I must have kicked up such a fuss that it had brought the whole community down to see what all the racket was. I doubt any of them were surprised to discover that it was caused by me, having another one of my meltdowns. It hadn't been the first time I had blown up and brought down an audience to watch in horror but by the looks of my luck, it was likely going to be the last. And this time, my people didn't watch me with horror but instead with sadness, as if they didn't want to see me go.

The driver's side door opened and in hopped Negan, placing Lucille down gently in the seat between us and belting her in place as if she was a helpless infant and not a piece of sports equipment. Like, I got it. My Bertha was my ride or die, but I wasn't tucking her into bed at night or spoon feeding her cereal in the morning. I was still sane enough to know that she was still just an axe.

"You're insane," I croaked, flinching at how raw and sore my throat now was from my recent calamity. The little energy I had left had been sapped from my body and my eyes were growing heavy. There was nothing left in me to keep my rage burning. I was all out of fuel, and it wasn't helped by the fact that I had hardly eaten or slept these last couple of days.

Negan let out a single, dry laugh, "After the show you just put on, I don't think you can even judge." He twisted the keys, starting up the truck and before shifting into gear, turned to me with a smile, the most genuine one I had seen from him yet, and said, "Though I'm startin' to believe that sayin'— like calls to like."

I shoved forward in my seat, a last burst of energy pushing me to seeth, "I am nothing like you."

The truck pulled out of Alexandria and I decided not to look back at what I was unwillingly leaving behind.

"No?"  Negan raised a brow and threw a quick glance at me from the corner of his eye, "I saw the looks your people were giving you. They don't look at you much different from how they look at me."

"Bullshit." I muttered.

He sighed out a chuckle, "Don't act like you haven't seen it too. I know you ain't that socially challenged." He shifted up a gear and we accelerated, bulldozing down a lone walker, the truck jolting as we ran over the corpse. "So tell me the story, Dice. Why are you the town reject?"

"Fuck you." Like hell was I talking to him about this.

"What? You don't like a good story time during a road trip?" I could hear the grin in his voice as I retired my attention to the side window. If my hands weren't bound, I would have already opened that door and leaped out the car just to escape the irritating sound of his deep voice, "We've got a good hour or so drive ahead of us before we make it to the sanctuary so we might as well use this precious, precious time to get to know each other a little better, don't ya think? Since we're new best bud's and all."

I answered him with silence.

"Fine. I'm guessin' its a sensitive subject." He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel for a long moment and I swear it must've been the longest he had ever when without speaking.

Until he had to go and ruin it with yet another question.

"Then how about you tell me why they call you Dice? I mean, surely you're parents weren't cruel enough you call you that. Not unless they were like, monopoly fanatics and even then, wouldn't it be better to go with Picadilly or Oxford or something? Hm, actually maybe not. They don't sound much better."

I had to give it to him, the man could have probably won a guinness world record before the fall for how much he talks. Put Negan in an empty room and he'd likely manage to hold a conversation with the walls.

He went on, despite not being asked to, "Like, I'm assuming your real name is Marlow since that shit just makes more sense. No offense if it isn't, obviously, but... you know... just..." the silence dragged on and I felt him glancing over at me. He sighed, "I know you're pissed at me—"

I scoffed and if I could have crossed my arms, I would have.

"But they're wasn't a chance in hell I was giving Daryl back, surely you knew that?"

Deep down, I think I did. But desperation drove people to extreme lengths, including degrading yourself by begging the man who had beat your friends to death without remorse and laughed at their suffering.

"And like hell was I going to pass up taking you back with me. I just needed a reason to justify it, being the fair man that I am."

I bit down on my tongue, refusing to take the bait.

"If you know how to play you cards right, Marlow, then you might even like it there- at the Sanctuary. I knew the day I met you that you were more suited as a saviour than one of Rick's cronies. It's just that look in your eye. The sanctuary can be more of a home to you than Alexandria ever was, you and I both know that."

"I'm not—!" There I went again, running my mouth.

"You're not what?"

"Alexandria will always be my home," I turned to him with a scowl, "And the first opening I find, the first chance I get to escape the Sanctuary— I'm gone. And you'll never see me again."

Negan gave a nonchalant shrug. "Then I'll just need to make sure you can't get away."