Rebel || Daryl Dixon

o n e

She never said much.

There wasn't much to say, really. 

The world was evolving, and in order to keep up with it, you had to evolve, too. 

She'd lived on her own before Negan found her and pulled her in. He promised her safety so long that she stayed with him and worked for him and followed the rules. 

She did just that. 

She and Negan never had any problems. She tended to stay out of his way, truthfully. She blended into the shadows amongst the group of power-hungry men. They were all just trying to survive, but she'd never seen such a brutal way of doing it.

She hadn't been around much when he took members of other groups and slaughtered them to bend the will of the people. In fact, she'd only seen it once. The sight had been too much to handle, and not because of the blood and brain matter spilled over the ground. Seeing the people break underneath his will had disturbed her more than the brain matter had. 

He broke people and made them feel helpless. He took that thin line of hope and snapped it right in two. 

That was the only night she'd truly considered leaving them behind. She knew that she would be hunted, but she also knew that she was clever enough to get away. They underestimated the girl who sat in the library and read books all day. They didn't understand the power that books had over the world, the knowledge within them.

She knew how to carve out somebody's heart without disturbing the lungs, or how to cut off each toe with only limited bleeding. She'd learned all that from books, and through that, she was far more dangerous than she appeared.

Or maybe Negan knew that. Maybe that was why he kept her so close-- to keep her from using that wisdom in real life situations. Maybe he recognized that though Aero was small, there was a lot more to that girl than they ever anticipated. 

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.