Scatter

The prison was a fortress, but that didn't mean it was safe. We'd learned by now that nowhere ever truly was. The Governor and his people were coming, and we all knew it. But fear wasn't a luxury anymore; survival was.

We'd had to consider fleeing. As much as Rick was opposed to letting Woodbury take the prison, we'd loaded the cars with supplies anyway. We were going to fight, but if the situation required it, we would run. We'd have to.

We knew today would be the day. The Governor would know by now that Rick wasn't taking his deal, and he wouldn't have any more patience. There was a tautness to the air that was like a sixth sense - we just knew our time had run out.

I watched Daryl from across the yard as he secured a crossbow bolt into place, his expression carved from stone. The tension in his shoulders matched the air around us. He was always like this before a fight: quiet, sharp, dangerous. The man I had come to care for was an enigma, but he'd let me close enough to see the cracks in his armor.

He noticed me staring, his sharp blue eyes locking on mine. He nodded, a small acknowledgement that somehow carried more weight than a hundred words.

"You ready for this?" I asked, stepping closer. My voice was steadier than I felt.

"Gotta be." he replied. His voice was gruff, clipped, but there was warmth hidden beneath. He leaned against the crossbow like it was an extension of himself, the kind of weapon a man like him was born to wield.

The plan was set: we'd divide, scatter, and let the Governor's people walk into a ghost town, only revealing those of us staying to battle at the last moment. Fight smart. Fight hard. Fight together.

~

When the Governor's attack came, it wasn't quiet or covert - it was brash and meant to announce his arrival. Grenade launchers were used to destroy the prison's towers, sending masses of concrete into the air and crashing back to the ground ablaze. Beth, Hershel, and Carl hid with Judith in the trees outside of the prison grounds. I couldn't see them, but I could imagine them looking out at the scene exploding in horror.

Thank God Daryl had demanded that nobody be situated in the towers. He must have pre-empted The Governor's first move. I was on my roof, my body pressed to the cold floor to keep me concealed. I gripped my gun but kept it down beside me. It wasn't time yet.

The walker-filled yard didn't hold Woodbury's army back for more than a minute. They had 50. caliber machine guns mounted to their vehicles, and they obliterated the roaming rotbags with ease. They exited their vehicles and made for the main building, but they wouldn't find us there. I was up here, Daryl and Michonne were on different sections of the roof. Glenn, Maggie Merle and Rick were hidden on the ground behind the cellblock and a now-very-badass Carol was planted in the tunnels, readying to set off the prison's alarm system in order to disorient the onslaught when they inevitably made it down there.

As they stormed the building, so did I, knowing Daryl would be doing the same from another entry point. Carol was a force to be reckoned with now, but still neither of us were happy about her being alone in the tunnels - despite the alarm being a great plan - so we'd agreed to meet down there as they advanced.

Gunfire echoed through the halls, and smoke blurred the line between friend and foe as I reached the dank underbelly of the prison. I trusted Daryl to hold his own, but the knot in my stomach only grew tighter the longer I didn't see him.

I moved through the tombs, as we called them, the dark maze of corridors that could easily swallow you whole. My gun stayed steady in my hand, though my heart raced with every step. And then I heard it - his voice.

"C'mon, you son of a bitch!"

Daryl.

I followed the sound, my boots pounding against the cement floor, until I found him. He was crouched low, a Woodbury soldier pinned beneath his boot as he drove his knife through his skull. Blood smeared his hands, his face, but his eyes burned with purpose.

I hadn't seen Daryl kill a person before.

"You okay?" I asked, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

He wiped the blade on his jeans. "Better now." he muttered, glancing at me. He didn't have to say the words - I knew he was glad to have eyes on me.

Carol triggered the alarm and we heard panicked movements in the connecting corridors.

"Stand your ground!" I heard Pirate Bastard bellow above the high pitched blaring, but I could tell his people were retreating. Stray walkers were filing into the smoke-bombed chaos now and it was pandemonium.

Carol appeared, looking very pleased with herself and the three of us made our exit. We knew they were retreating and it would be easier to take them down effectively in a more open space.

As we reached the doors, Glenn, Michonne, Rick, Merle and Maggie were already opening fire. We joined them, shooting at anybody who got close enough. My gun clicked, running out of bullets, but Daryl instantaneously threw his to me, swinging his crossbow off his shoulder instead and beginning to fire bolts.

Most of the remaining Woodbury soldiers began fleeing, but one did the opposite, he made straight for me, fury in his eyes.

Eyes that I recognised.

"You fucking bitch!" he roared, tackling me to the ground, wrapping his hand around my throat as my back hit the asphalt painfully. "You murderous little whore!"

I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. I could feel my face burning red as air failed to reach my lungs. I'd dropped my gun in the shock of realising my attacker's identity and I couldn't see where it had landed.

Oxygen suddenly made its way into my lungs again as the man was pulled off me violently, Daryl's face seething with rage as he threw him to the ground and delivered blow after blow with his fists. I scrambled for my gun and joined the attack, putting my weapon straight to his forehead as the man lay dazed.

"Sorry." I told him as I squeezed the trigger, rendering him lifeless.

I fell back to my knees, breathing hard as I tried to steady myself. Daryl grabbed my elbow with his bloodied hands and pulled me with him, away from the grisly scene as the last handful of enemies drove away.

We'd done it. For now.

We stopped one of the prison walls, out of sight of the rest of the group. Daryl let go of my hands and I rested against the wall, sliding my body down until I was sitting.

"Who was that?" Daryl asked as he joined me on the floor, his back also pressed against the concrete building.

"Mark's brother." I told him plainly.

Recognition dawned on him as he realised that we'd just been fighting the sibling of the man who murdered my sister.

"The fuck?" Daryl breathed out, "You okay?"

I nodded, meeting his concerned eyes as tears pricked at my own. I felt guilty at the life I'd just taken. He had every right to want to kill me. I'd ended his brother's life before the undead even started walking; but that brother had murdered my sister. A whole tangled web of bloodshed now unleashed by the actions of one deranged man.

"What the hell was he doin' with em'?" Daryl asked, reaching for my hand and holding it tightly.

"No idea." I confessed. "Guess he got caught up with Woodbury. I never saw him when we were there that night, though."

"Ya' think he saw ya'?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe today was the first time he'd realised who I was. I suppose it doesn't matter either way."

"Nah. It doesn't."

We say beside each other for a while, taking in the whirlwind that was this afternoon. The Governor had attacked as expected, but we'd fought him off. We were still alive. He'd regroup of course, but we'd be ready for him. Then, the blast from my past had appeared and attacked.

"Ath..." Daryl said softly as he rubbed my hand with his thumb. "I said before that ya' don't have to tell me nothin', and ya' don't... It's just..." he trailed off.

I looked up at him, knowing he craved the knowledge of what had happened before we met; more information of the events that had me screaming out in the night and closing myself off from everyone not long ago. I'd told him about Selene, and I knew that he knew I had in fact been the one to kill Mark, but he wanted more, and I could tell it wasn't from a place of judgement; it was from needing to understand my past, only because he cared.

"You want the gory details?" I asked, looking directly at him.

He didn't answer, but I knew that meant yes. I took a deep breath and readied myself to reveal all to the man I knew I could trust with my secrets.

"After Selene died and the case was thrown out of court." I began, "I was in so much pain. I tried to numb it with alcohol and partying, forming friendships with people I never would have before."

He held my hand tighter. A gesture meant to tell me I safe, that it was okay to continue.

"I was spending time with this guy, a real delinquent. He was into some dodgy shit and carried a gun. He was bad news, but getting fucked up on whisky with him helped me ignore the hurt..."

Daryl tensed as I mentioned spending time with another man, but held on to my hand, still stroking his thumb against it.

"I just wanted it all to be over, and one day I snapped. I took his gun while he was sleeping. I'd planned to use it on myself." I admitted. "But first, I wanted to make sure the disgusting piece of shit who murdered my sister saw justice."

I laughed a little at the irony of the word. There could be no justice. My beautiful, brilliant sister was gone, her life stolen by somebody who didn't even check to see if she was the right person before putting a bullet in the back if her head...

"I'd planned to threaten him, force him to admit what he'd done while I recorded it. He could only be retried if the police received new evidence and I was going to make sure I gave it to them by any means possible. I took the key that the moron still kept under his mat and I let myself into his apartment. He wasn't there, so I waited, getting more and more angry with how he was still going about his pathetic life as if nothing had happened."

Daryl's eyed stayed fixed on me, listening intently.

"When he finally did return, I was ready for him. I hit record on the cheap dictaphone I'd brought as soon as I heard his keys scraping against the door. He'll have known something was amiss because I hadn't bothered to lock the door again after me, I didn't care that he knew I was here though. I wanted him to see me. The cretin smirked as he walked into his lounge and saw me standing by a bookcase. Can you believe that? He smirked at me. That's how much he didn't give a fuck about what he'd done. I think he was actually glad he'd hurt Moon instead of me because now he still got to watch me suffer..."

Daryl raised my hand to his lips now and pressed them to my skin for a few seconds, another gesture of support as I poured my soul out to him.

"I wasn't afraid of him - I would be ending my pain on my own terms once I'd got what I needed and handed it over, and that gave me a sense of fearlessness. The asshole told me he'd been hoping to see me, and he was surprised I hadn't come sooner. He licked his fucking lips at me and I was done, I saw red.

I took a deep breath. I'd never relayed these events fully to anyone, not even my legal team.

"I pointed the gun at him. I'd never used one before and I was surprised by how much it weighed with my arms outstretched. I was shaking but I kept it raised and I asked him why he'd done it - why he'd taken my sister's life? And you know what he did? He laughed. He fucking laughed. There was no remorse, no sympathy, nothing. So I lost it. I shot him."

I closed my eyes as I remembered squeezing the trigger and watching as the bullet hit Mark's shoulder in slow motion, my arms recoiling backwards painfully from the force of the gun, before he lunged at me and I shot again, and again, until he hit the floor.

"Then I just left." I continued. "I didn't call anyone, I didn't bother trying to clean up, I just left. I put the recorder next to his body and went to the roof of his building. I put the barrel of the gun against my head and I tried my hardest to pull the trigger, end my pain, but I couldn't. All I could see was my parent's distraught faces. They'd lost one daughter - could I really take their other away from them in the same way? I sat on that roof all night. I cried until I lost my voice. I kept waiting to hear sirens, expecting somebody to have called in hearing the gunshots, but they never came. So I went home."

Daryl pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me and placing a kiss to the top of my head. I'd told him what he needed to know, but now I'd started I just couldn't stop talking - the release of letting it out feeling like therapy.

"It wasn't for another two days that they found him." I carried on. "I knew they would eventually and it would be an open and shut case against me, I hadn't even bothered to go back for the recorder that documented all of it. I just spent those days organising my affairs, preparing for the day they'd come for me. And they did. It broke my parents' hearts when I called them from the station and confessed what I'd done. I never tried to deny it to anyone. I'd take my punishment. They put their house up against my bail after a couple of months of me being in custody even though I hadn't asked them to. Jail was no picnic, but I was already so numb that my time there was just a blur of grief and anger. When they came to collect me I felt like a completely different person. Dead inside."

I turned my head back in the direction of the yard as I heard metal clanging noisily - no doubt the others trying to make reparations to the fences - but I still didn't stop blabbering.

"I knew it was my last bout of freedom. Once my day in court came there was going to be no chance of me being acquitted. I planned to plead guilty, but my lawyer was fighting for them to lessen my sentence due to mitigating circumstances. I went along with it purely for my parents. I'd been back home with them for two weeks when the infection hit. The three of us had tried to make it out of Atlanta, but walkers surrounded the car.

A tear slipped from my eye now, and I caught it with the back of my hand.

"The windows were smashed in by the bastards and my dad was bitten first, then my mum as she tried to save him. It was too late for them and she was begging me to run, but there was no escape. I climbed through the backseats into the trunk and I hid in there for what seemed like forever. When I braved opening it, the herd had passed and my parents... well, there was nothing left. So I made for the woods and hid, grieving my entire family, while I figured out what the hell to do. It was a couple of days later when I was out trying to find food that I came across a dead cop walker. Somebody had killed him already, but they hadn't thought to take his gun - so I did."

I paused, wondering if I'd should actually admit what I was about say next.

"Holding a gun in my hand again - I felt powerful. I'd literally got away with murdering someone who should never have been allowed to continuing living anyway, after what he'd done. Nobody was going to be calling me in for trial when the legal system didn't exist anymore and it was like I'd been given another chance. My family was gone, but I was still here, and I was going to try my damn hardest to survive."

I still lay in Daryl's lap, but I looked up at him now, my eyes focusing straight into his. I didn't want to leave any room for misunderstanding. I wanted him to know how I felt about my crime, to see who I really was - that I was glad I'd done it.

"I'm not proud of what I did Daryl..." I told him honestly, "...but I don't regret it."

His eyes bore into my soul now, but there was no judgement, no disgust. They stayed soft, gentle.

"You're a warrior." He told me, a knowing look in his eyes.

Was his choice of words a coincidence? Was Daryl freakin' Dixon really the type to know the origins of my name? That Athena was the goddess of war?

"Why are you calling me that?" I asked, eyeing him in mock suspicion.

"Ath, you told me yur sister was named after Selene the Moon Deity. Yur called Athena. It ain't hard to work out that yur named after a goddess too." He smirked, and I couldn't help but giggle.

"Well Mr Dixon, you continue to surprise me." I teased.

"Had to do it in history class once. Always stuck in ma head. Prob'ly the one thing I remembered from school."

"Maybe it was a sign that you were meant to meet me..?" I posed, half-joking but also wondering if the way this man could make my soul feel was because we'd been destined for each other - however woo-woo the notion was.

"Maybe." He smiled, before his face returned to seriousness. "Ya' are a goddess though, and ya' a warrior too."

Did Daryl Dixon just refer to me as a goddess? Excuse me while I try and shrink my swelling ego back down to normal size...

He paused before continuing, "Thanks for tellin' me everythin'."

"Surprised you didn't fall asleep, I rambled on forever!" I laughed, wondering how long we'd actually been sat here as I delivered my monologue. Daryl just shook his head, smiling in response.

Deep down, I hoped that Daryl would feel more inclined to open up to me now I'd revealed my inner world, but I knew it was unlikely. He'd guarded his pain for much longer than I had, and I wouldn't push him to reveal it before he was ready.

"So... you feel any different about me?" I asked him.

He didn't answer. Instead, he showed me I needn't worry about my revelations changing anything.

He leaned in and kissed me. One arm stayed wrapped around my back as he cradled me in his lap, the other stroked my cheek lightly as the words he didn't need to say transmitted to me through his touch.

He kissed me so gently, his rough lips moving delicately over my own. The gentleness of the moment seemed so at odds with the man himself. Daryl was the most physically powerful man I'd ever met, but there was another side to him too. I'd always known it was there, it's what had drawn me to him back at the quarry despite the surly front he put on, but now he was letting me in more I could see clearly what a wonderfully layered human he really was.

The tough, harsh side of him made me want to climb on top of him, rip his clothes off, beg him to take me - whereas his softer side made me want to confess my love for him, hold him forever and make damn sure nobody ever hurt him again.

As we eventually made our way to go and help the futile clean up operation that The Governor's attack had warranted, I felt like I was breathing real air into my lungs for the first time in years. The world had gone to shit, we were constantly in danger, but I realised as I looked at the man walking by my side that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world other than with him.

Wow, Athena talks a lot! 😂

I wanted to give her space to explain her past to Daryl properly. Hopefully, you didn't fall asleep...

Thank you so much for your votes and comments. ❤️