valiant|| the walking dead

twenty-four.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR,
the dixon's.

The Kingdom gates opened and Aiden and Daryl saw two little people running towards them.

"Mama!" Beth shrieked.

"Dad!" Elliot yelled. The two parents crouched down and small body's collided with them. Aiden and Daryl clung to their children like the would never see them again.

"Don't ever leave like that again." Beth said angrily to the two. Aiden rose her eyebrows at Beth's sternness. "We woke up and you weren't there!"

"I didn't know what happened until Uncle Nathaniel explained what happened." Elliot said to his parents. "Were you hurt?"

"Nah," Daryl replied but his side glance towards his wife didn't go unnoticed by either children.

"You were hurt." Beth said bluntly. And she gasped, "Mama, your face!" Her and Elliot both looked at the huge purple and blue bruise on Aiden's face.

"Got stitches too." Aiden said to the two with raised eyebrows and a smile.

"How?" Beth asked.

"Um..." she looked over at Daryl and he nodded, "a bad man hurt me."

Macy, Xavier, Nathaniel, and Vivian approached them as well. The two children let go of their parents and Aiden hugged Xavier, "it's good to see you, kid." She ruffles his hair.

He scowled and swatted her hand away. "I'm not a kid anymore."

"You're still a kid to me, munchkin." She made kissy faces at him and he laughed.

"Gather up all the leaders. We have a lot to talk about," Michonne said to Carol and Ezekiel.

»

After a couple minutes, all the leaders plus Daryl and Aiden sat or stood on the stage. With Judith, Henry, Lydia, Elliot, and Beth sitting in the auditorium chairs.

"I know I haven't seen eye-to-eye with everyone in the room. But I never stopped caring about any of you. I was just trying to protect my family and do right by my people. Alexandria's future is here. Together, with you. And we lost sight of that for a while. But... I'm here now. We're here now." Michonne said to the leaders.

"I've taken an informal vote with the other council members at the fair, and we all agree. Alexandria is wiling to grant asylum to Lydia. She's one of us now. We hope the rest of you can join us in doing the same." Gabriel said. Gabriel has grown a lot over the six years. He was on the council in Alexandria. But the most badass thing about him was his blind eye.

It terrified Aiden.

And she'd told him so.

"Thank you," Lydia said. "I'll do whatever I can to earn my keep and pay you back."

"If her mother retaliates, it's gonna be against Hilltop, not Alexandria." Tara stated.

"We have to do right by our people," Nathaniel agreed with Tara. "I thought we were on the same page."