Chapter Text
Daryl~
He held Y/N's body close, not wanting anyone to touch her. She would call out to him, just his name or mumble something he couldn't hear too well. And here they were, held at gunpoint by the group known as Terminus. Y/N mentioned how the group was a sadistic cult of people-eating motherfuckers and they had foolishly walked right into their layer. He should have remembered the train tracks from her story, but he had been so focused on getting her to safety that it barely crossed his mind.
The only good thing to come out of it was finding the rest of the survivors. Daryl counted the members of the Wolf Pack. Y/N, Shane, Glenn, Michonne, Carl, and himself were present -that meant Merle, Sophia, and Y/N's wolf companion Tekah were still out there and most likely heading for a safehouse. Rick, Bob, Maggie, Sasha, Rosita, Abraham, and Eugene....Daryl didn't know most of the other fuckers, so he kept an eye on them while holding Y/N. She'd be pissed if she woke up in Terminus train.
He remembered her face the first time she described how they slit her throat and nearly bled her dry. Flashes of the last time he saw her awake came rushing back....
Daryl looked through a greasy fringe of dark bangs at the sound of her yell. Y/N broke through the trees with blood-chilling emptiness in her eyes that he had never seen. She slit the throat of the man who tried to rape Carl, threw his body to the ground, and began to carve out his insides with an impassive expression on her face. Nothing. No emotion whatsoever lingered in her gaze. No smirk or cheeky little grin ghosted upon her lips. She was gone. The beast had taken over and it reveled in its kill.
Even then she was beautiful. Daryl barely noticed the blood on Rick's face or the distant look in Michonne's eyes. Carl scrambled across the ground to Michonne and everyone watched in terror as Y/N finally stood up. The man on the ground did not look human or anything even remotely recognizable. He feared her in that moment, trying to watch her as she worked. Only the flicker of light that came with the gunfire from the Claimers allowed them to see flashes of her movements.
Y/N clung to the shadows and took them all out. She spared no one. Shouts of fear were followed only by the sound of bodies dropping and guns clattering to the ground. Silence....too much quiet that meant death had swept through with a ferocity no one was aware existed in this realm. She was like the Keres from ancient Greek mythology. "Y/N..." he could hear her breathing, but he couldn't see her through his bruised eyes.
He crawled over to where he had seen her last and reached out to touch her...
Suddenly hands were pulling him back to reality and taking Y/N away.
You~
Cold. You were so cold....Your eyes wouldn't open as you struggled to pull through the darkness, reaching for Daryl once you couldn't feel him any longer. You needed him, he was your anchor. The only thing that kept you from floating away like a red balloon at a carnival. The coppery tinge of blood mixed with sweat and swirled all around. Finally, you were able to crack open one of you eyelids just in time to feel rusty water drip onto your naked body....where the hell is my gear?
Your Y/E/C eyes shoot open, taking in your surroundings as memories threaten to pull you under again. Terminus...Over and over you chant that name in your mind. Hot, scarlet liquid pooled between your fingers. Bright, manufactured fixtures showered you in man-made light, burning your eyes. You couldn't scream in anger. You laid on the cold ground, choking on the coppery taste of your own blood, waiting to die.
But you remember pressing your trembling hand against the cut and climbing to your feet, knees wobbling from the numbness in your legs. You remembered the taste of your mouth as you searched deep inside of your soul and called forth the beast that reign supreme. And then you fought your way out, cutting down anyone who crossed your path and taking out as many as those cannibal bastards as you could get your hands on.
Here you were...once again lying on a metal table while the men who butchered woman beside you forced the group over to the other side of the room. Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and the others were on their knees in front of the same steel tub that you recalled so vividly. Finding the strength that only came when death hovered in the air, you climb from the table silently. The bare bottoms of your feet moving swiftly across the floor as you pick up one of their tools.
You heard the labored breathing of your people as those douche-bottles who called this place home watched them struggle against their bonds. Three throats were slit before you crept up behind them, stabbing the sharp tip of the strange tool into the temple of of one of the Terminus pricks. You lowered him noiselessly to the ground, making sure that no one heard or saw you. Others would be coming to do the paperwork, so you had to move quickly.
Time slowed as you reached the one with the blade and slit his throat as he intended to do to your friends, showering blood down upon those who knelt. Rick cut through the zip-tie binding his hands just when Daryl looked up in time to notice you looking rather ill....
Daryl~
How the hell was she standing? Her beautiful Y/S/C skin was covered in blood once again. The man-made light above his head cast a phantom glow upon her body. Y/N stood before the others and he wanted to run to her as he impatiently waited for Rick to cut his binds. Once his hands were free, he swept her up in his arms a kissed her cheeks, forehead, lips, not caring about the blood that soaked through the front of his shirt. She kept whispering, "You're real. You're real."
Daryl didn't know what had gone on in that head of hers while she had been unconscious, however, he was glad it hadn't taken her almost a month to wake up this time. Y/N had extra gear at the safehouses, but he knew she hated for people to see the scars that covered her body, so he pulled off his vest and offered her some modesty. Her Y/E/C eyes stared up into his icy blue gaze and made him feel like a god among men.
"Hey guys..." a strange voice called before he stopped at the sight of the two butchers on the floor. Daryl looked up to see one of the men who brought the group here at gunpoint. The sounds of gunfire and what he assumed were walker growls came from somewhere outside of the slaughterhouse.
Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and Y/N cut the other people loose. Everyone grabbed for tools or weapons that were taken but her gear was missing. Outside of the Terminus compound, people ran screaming, and more gunshots peppered the area. Y/N would want an explanation on why everyone ended up at Terminus, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that he made a mistake that nearly got them all killed. He should have looked at his map. He should have thought like a member of the Wolf Pack, but he hadn't. All he cared about was her....
"Where's the rest of the pack?" Y/N asked.
"Carl and Michonne were taken with the others. We ain't been here for long, so they might still be alive." Daryl saw the doubt in her eyes because she wasn't the type to be hopeful about anything. He brushed his hand down the side of her face and tried to give her a little smile, but he ended up just frowning with a growl -which she appeared to like more as she chuckled at him.
"...sounded like a bomb," Glenn said.
"Sounds like a damn war," came from Daryl.
Bob asked, "What the hell are these people?"
Y/N looked over to all of them. "They aren't people."
You~
Those of you who were not bled out from the butchers moved through doorway into the corridor where the cells were. Torsos were strung from the ceilings and tables were cluttered with dismembered bodies. Now they would see what you had always warned them about. It wasn't the walkers they needed to fear in the new world, it was the humans. "Cross any of these people, you kill 'em," Rick said, "Don't hesitate. They won't."
As if you needed to be told. If anyone here knew what Terminus was capable of, it was you. Unable to stomach the sight of their sick practices, you pushed on as they searched around, hoping they would be smart enough to follow you to the exit. There was nothing here but a twisted sense of survival. Daryl came up beside you where you stood staring out the door. He held a metal pole in his hand that looked so out of place where his crossbow should be.
Walkers banged on one of the storage containers you knew held prisoners. They always held prisoners.
"We run we can get by 'em. They're distracted," Rick said trying to remain in a position of power. It made you snort bitterly.
"We gotta let those people out," Glenn responded. "That's still who we are, it's gotta be." There was a reason the two of you were friends, after all. He was a member of the Wolf Pack and one of the rare beating hearts you would die for.
Daryl looked to you for a plan as always and you suspected Rick got a little frustrated. He was running with your crew right now. The only person who didn't wear the mark of the pack was Bob and he was still an infant in your eyes.
"Shane should be with them right?" You asked, tugging Rick's belt off is pants -ignoring his girlish squeal of course- and using it to tie Daryl's vest tighter around you. "He left with Abraham at the safehouse..."
Glenn nodded eagerly and you had a feeling you were wearing your let's fuck shit up look.
"So...here's the plan...."