FALLEN ANGELS.

chapter seventeen, a time to live and
a time to die.
[ season three, episode fifteen ]

T"MOM!" SCREAMED THEO BLAKE. "Mom!" He shouted again. "No!" He cried out.

His eyes were wide as a biter ripped his mother straight from his arms. Its teeth tore into her neck. She screamed. Theo couldn't move even as a biter advanced towards him.

His just watched as his mother was taken down as three more biters joined in on the feast his mom provided for the monsters. 

At only seventeen years old he had to watch as the woman who gave him life was devoured. She never did anything but love him and Penny. And now she was dead. Gone forever.

"Come on, son!" His father snatched him by the arm and away from the biters. Theo stumbled over his own feet as his father dragged him and a sobbing Penny away from the scene.

Their mother gone. Torn apart right in front of their eyes.

When Theo woke up, he didn't make a sound. His eyes peeled open and he blinked heavily. Confused, disoriented. That's what he was when he woke from his unconsciousness.

He blinked away the grogginess. What happened? Why was he asleep? How long had he been asleep?

Then he remembered.

The attack on the prison. His own father shot him. He remembered Odessa kneeled overing him, telling him to keep his fucking eyes open. He didn't remembered anything past that.

He went to sit up but pain shot through this body. He gasped and reached down to his stomach. He pulled up his shirt and saw the bandage on his stomach. He quickly removed it and saw the bullet wound.

He winced as he poked at it.

"What the fuck?" A voice came. His eyes shot up to see Odessa standing in the doorway with her jaw gaping. "When did you wake up?"

"Uh," he voice came out scratchy and quiet after days of not talking or drinking anything. "Like a minute ago. How long have I been out?"

"Like four days," she answered. "Hershel! He's awake!"

Hershel hurried to the cell as fast as he could with one leg and crutches. Theo watched the man as he sat on the stool. "May I?" He motioned to Theo's stomach.

Theo nodded and allowed Hershel to e ain't the wound. "The good news is it's not infected." Hershel said after checking him.

"There's bad news?" Theo questioned, his brows furrowed.

Hershel looked at Odessa and she told him. "We're going to war with your dad."

Theo sucked in a breath. They were going to war with his dad. With Woodbury. With Cole. With Angela.

"Okay," he whispered. "That's something to spring on someone as soon as they wake up, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Odessa scoffed. She eyed Theo before saying, "you scared the shit out of us, Thee."

His lips quirked. "Thee?"

"Yeah, it's a nickname. Do you have the brain cells to know what that is?" Odessa asked sarcastically.

But Theo's response was even better. "Probably not. I bet my dad beat all of 'em outta me."

Hershel didn't know whether to laugh or not but when Theo did, he let out a small scoff of amusement. Odessa couldn't help but laugh either.

"That was really twisted," she said.

Not long later, Theo was walking around the prison. When he entered the common area he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Merle.

"Uh," he started. Merle eyed the boy with an expecting facial expression.

"Cat got yer tongue?" Merle asked him.

"What're you doing here?" Theo asked the older man.

"Came back the day you got shot," Merle answered.

"Oh," Theo nodded. "Okay."

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Odessa slammed the palm of her hand into the bottom of a magazine. It clicked into place. Carl stood beside his big sister.

"Are you gonna fight?" He looked at her.

"If Dad lets me," she responded. "I want to."

"What'd he do to you? The Governor." Carl questioned.

When she didn't respond right away he shifted and spoke, "sorry."

"No," she shook her head. "Don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry for asking questions, Carl."

He nodded before Odessa continued. "Well you know Merle beat me with my own brass knuckles but the Governor what he did—"

"You don't have to tell me," Carl cut her off, getting the idea.

She nodded. "Thank you for understanding, Carl."

They lapsed into a silence before Carl's small and quiet voice asked. "He didn't... he didn't rape you, did he?"

Odessa stopped what she was doing. She stole a quick glance at her brother before going back to the task at hand. "No," she shook her head, hair sticking to the back of her sweaty neck. "He didn't rape me."

"Des, Carl!" Glenn called out to them suddenly.

"Yeah?" The siblings turned to look at the man.

"We need y'all's help with something." He told the two.

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"Do you ever stop talking?" Theo grumbled as he and Michonne were led in front of Merle. The asshole had hit both of them over the head and was taking them to Theo's father.

He had offered Rick a deal. Give him his son and Michonne and there would be peace.

As Merle killed a walker with Michonne's sword both shared a look. "Is he really this dumb?" Theo whispered to the woman.

"Yeah," she sighed. "He is."

Once Merle turned back to the two he spoke, "ah! You know? I figured you two woulda run!"

"Wanted my sword back before I get away," Michonne replied.

"And I'm not going anywhere without her," Theo told the redneck. "Plus I hurts every time I take a step, I'm not running anytime soon."

Merle laughed sarcastically. "I may go down that way. But if I were you two, I wouldn't get my hopes up." He rejoined the two and grabbed the wire that he used to lead the two. "Move.

The three continued to walk and Theo grew more and more irritable with Merle as he never stopped talking.

"I wanna be with my brother. My brother, he wants to be in the prison. This little trip.. maybe it'll keep that place standin'. If I pull it off, maybe all is forgiven." Merle spoke.

"That's a whole lot of maybe's." Theo sent him a look.

"You gotta play the hand you're dealt." Merle replied. "I only got one."

Merle checked an old van parked at an old wooden house before shutting the door. Michonne looked at him before saying, "you talk about the weight of what you have to do, how you can handle it. A bad man, someone truly evil, they're light as a feather. They don't feel a thing."

"I've killed sixteen men since all this went down. Let's go." Merle looked down before walking off. Theo glanced back at the wood line where he herd the snarls.

Sixteen men in almost a year.

That was a lot.

Theo didn't wanna make it seventeen.

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Odessa sat on her bed with Judith napping in her crib beside her. She glanced over and into the crib to admire her baby sister.

She was beautiful.

She was a miracle.

She was the sun and the moon and the stars.

Odessa gently brushed her finger down Judith's chubby cheek. "Sweet Jude," Odessa whispered. "You have no idea how important or special you are."

"Hey," a voice said softly.

Odessa turned to look at the doorway and saw her father standing there. "Hi."

He walked into the cell and sat down on her bed. "How're you, Dessa?" His question came as a shock. No one ever bothered to just straight up as how anyone was.

"I'm okay, Dad," she nodded. She examined him for a moment before asking. "You're seein' things, aren't you? People?"

Rick slowly nodded. "Yeah."

"I do, too." She said and Rick's eyes snapped to her. "I see Dale mostly. And... sometimes Shane."

"Des—"

"No, it's okay." She shook her head, her brows furrowing. "I'm okay."

"No, you aren't." Rick tried again.

"I'm trying, Dad. I'm trying to get better." She whispered and looked back at Judith. "I just can't keep losing people."

"It's inevitable, Dessa." He told her quietly.

"I know. I just don't know how much more I can take." She looked back at him, her eyes full of tears. "I don't know much longer I can keep losing the people I love without trying to kill myself."

Her confession shocked her father. He was fast to hug his daughter. She buried her head in his chest and wiped her eyes.

"Let's go outside, yeah? I have to tell you all somethin'."

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After Merle shockingly let him and Michonne go, the two started to make their way back to the prison.

As Theo grabbed a walker shirt and stabbed it under the chin, the two heard a voice. "Hey!"

Both he and Michonne looked up to see Daryl walking towards them.

"Where's my brother?" He asked the duo. When they didn't respond, he asked, "either of you kill him?"

"He let us go." Michonne finally answered.

"Don't let anyone come after me," Daryl said before he took off running.

Theo looked back at the running brother. "Think he's gonna try to kill Philip?" He asked Michonne.

"I hope."

As the two made their way back to the prison, the group gathered outside in the courtyard.

Odessa sat beside Carl, holding her baby sister.

"When I met with the Governor," Rick started, "he offered me a deal. He said— he said he would leave us alone if I have him Theo and Michonne. And I was gonna do that... to keep us safe."

Odessa worked her jaw at her dad's words.

"I changed my mind. But now Merle took them both to fulfill the deal and Daryl went to stop and I don't know if it's too late. I was wrong not to tell you. And I'm sorry." His eyes locked with his daughter's.

"What I said last year, that first night after the farm... it can't be like that. It can't. What we do, what we're willin' to do, who we are, it's not my call. It can't be. I couldn't sacrifice one of us for the greater good because we are the greater good. We're the reason we're still here, not me. This is like and dead. How you live... how you die. It isn't up to me. I'm not your Governor. We choose to go. We choose to stay. We stick together. We vote. We can stay and we can fight or we can go."

After his speech, Rick turned on his heel and walked away.

Michonne and Theo returned not long later. Both were alive and okay, with the expedition of Theo's stitches being pulled from a fight with walkers. Hershel stitched him back up quickly.

And after that, Daryl returned.

He didn't have to say a word to let everyone know what happened.

His big brother was dead.

And it was time.

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word count: 1,832

yk tbh i don't really like this chapter. it's jumpy and there's too much going on.

but theo is awake!! finally, man. took him long enough. how did y'all opening to this chapter? kinda gruesome. also ik it's canon in the show that the governor's wife died in an accident but i changed it.

we got so many different interactions this chapter. i love love love theo and michonne, they're already mother and son and i love it sm. and that rick and dessa scene :(((. my baby deserves better.

carl's all up in everyone's business. but in his defense, he asked THAT question because he was 100% ready to kill the governor if he did that to his sister.

anyway, merle's dead. odessa understands daryl's pain and she sympathizes with him. she's not sad over merle, not even a little bit but she's sad for daryl.

next chapter y'all!! it's the final chapter of act one and then we're finally onto act two. but be prepared, the next chapter is DEVASTATING!!