Title: Fallen Empires (1/4)
Fandom: The Walking Dead, HDM AU
Characters/Pairings: Ensemble cast & canon pairings with a dash of Glenn/Daryl later
Word Count: ~6,613 (this part)
A/N: Takes place after 2x7. Contains speculation for future goings-on. Some elements of the Dead universe have been changed and everyone has a daemon. If you have any questions about names or forms, just ask! Thanks to the always lovely Cassie for betaing. <3 Happy New Year, everybody!
Daemons (Rick's Group):
Meiri |
Cahir |
Eliora (El) |
Kali |
Cassiel (Cass) |
Nurya |
Brooklyn |
Gazini |
Ilya |
Herhsel's Group:
Luke |
Ashling Other:
Hekate (Merle's daemon) Part One “The man has become like one of us, since he knows good and evil. He must not reach out and take the fruit from the tree of life and eat. Then he would live forever… So He drove the man out of the Garden of Eden.” -Genesis 3:22, 24
The Heart-eater
Two pairs of eyes gleam brightly in the light, and a man blinks owlishly and coughs a horrible, ragged wet cough. His lips are bloody but he doesn’t jump at them.
He’s got a cat-his daemon, has to be, he isn’t a walker thank god-in his lap, pressed close against his chest. Her eyes flash and she hisses before the man soothes the spikes out of her fur.
“Hello,” Rick says warily, slowly dropping his gun. El’s fur bristles but she doesn’t growl.
On Glenn’s shoulder, Meiri pressed close, digging her claws into his shirt. “Glenn,” she says.
The man doesn’t-or can’t, Glenn thinks, eyeing the blood flecking his lips-speak, but he blinks back in what looks like a friendly way. Or something. Whatever. He’s not trying to eat them or anything, so he’s a friend.
“Can you speak?”
The man slowly, painfully, shakes his head no, and as he does, they all see why. There are teeth marks in the side his neck. Those ones aren’t that deep, otherwise he’dve bled out already, but there’s deep enough to hurt him.
Now that Glenn looks, he can see other bites too, one deep in the man’s shoulder, and another in his arm, and another in his chest. He’s missing the last two fingers on his left hand, and blood soaks his shirt and pools around him and the fever shines in his too-bright eyes.
His daemon’s pretty, though, her fur the color of shadow, her eyes flashing warningly when El gets too close.
The man makes a sound and his daemon blinks up at him, flattening her ears. The man makes another sound that dissolves into bloody coughing and she whines, pressing her paws up against his chest.
Reluctantly she leaves him, slinking past the three survivors out into the hallway, and then she’s gone around the corner.
Glenn raises his eyebrows. “She can do that?” he asks. “It doesn’t hurt?”
The man looks okay-well, not okay because he’s clearly bleeding to death, but whatever-for a man whose daemon is pretty far away. Glenn’s only seen one person able to separate from their soul like that and that’s Rick, who’s looking at the man like he’s found a kindred spirit.
Meiri presses close, her fur soft and slippery. “Glenn,” she whispers. “Look what he’s got in his hand.”
Glenn does. The man has a piece of wood wrapped tight in blood-slicked fingers, like the pieces stuck in the mouths of the dead on the roadside.
Weird, he thinks.
The cat daemon comes back like a shadow, and this time she has something clenched in her teeth. She leaps back into her man’s lap and blinks at him, and something passes between the two of them that Glenn doesn’t understand.
She drops the thing-a pouch or something-and looks Rick in the eye.
“We’re dying,” she says, and her voice is lovely. Meiri leans toward the cat, sniffing. “We were bitten by the Specters.”
Specters? Is that another name for walkers?
“Who are you?” Rick asks. El wags her white tail, blinking peacefully. Cahir paces in the background and Daryl watches everything quietly, forehead wrinkled like he’s thinking really hard.
“Doesn’t matter,” the cat says. She’s fading, Glenn can see it. Her fur has all kinds of colors in it, like a raven’s wing, but she’s blurring at the edges, tiny streams of golden dust unraveling in her stripes. “Take this.” She nudges the pouch. She looks directly at Glenn, and her eyes are green and piercing. “One of you will learn how to use it, I think.”
When Rick doesn’t move, Glenn hesitantly reaches down and grabs the pouch. It’s soft and surprisingly heavy-he thought a little cat would have a hard time carrying it, but then daemons are always stronger than they look.
The dying man blinks at Glenn, and he imagines it’s a thanks.
The shadowy cat sighs heavily and curls in her man’s lap. The dust is leaving her faster now and she fades as the blood loss and fever kill her person. He tangles his fingers into her fur, pulling her close, tight, not letting go.
The man blinks once again, solemnly, and closes his eyes. He breathes wetly a few more times, and then he stops.
His cat shivers and bursts, golden light flaring for just a second as daemon dust breaks loose, and then what’s left of her swirls up into the air and is gone.
“Well,” Daryl says, breaking the uneasy silence. “That sucks.”
“There’s something above him,” Rick says, nodding. Glenn adjusts his flashlight and sure enough taped to the wall above the dead man is a sheet of paper.
On it, written in big, sloppy letters is the message GONE TO REP. OF HEAVEN. BURN BODIES. LOCK DOORS.
It doesn’t say anything else and the corner is smeared with blood.
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Glenn mutters, looking nervously around the dingy room. It feels small with a dead man in it. “Think we should burn him?”
Daryl shrugs. “It’s what he wants, I guess.” He goes to grab the man’s ankles like he’s gonna pull him outside and light him up right now.
“Wait,” Rick says, bending down. He checks the dead man’s pockets, looking for a wallet maybe, any clue as to who this guy was.
“Aw, c’mon,” Daryl mutters, and Glenn sees Cahir bite his fingers. Daryl mutters at his daemon and the wolf looks completely unrepentant.
Meiri laughs softly in Glenn’s ear.
“Nothing,” Rick says.
“Check his hand,” Meiri says loudly. The former cop does, pulling up the piece of wood. “What’s it say?”
Rick squints. “Kirjava, I think. Yeah, Kirjava. Nothing else.”
“The hell is a Kirjava?”
“His daemon’s name,” Glenn says suddenly, understanding. “His daemon’s name must’ve been Kirjava.”
“So, what, he carved it on a piece of wood?” Daryl looks disbelieving.
“To put in his mouth when he died,” Glenn explains. “Like the people we saw on the road. It’s like the Dark Ages when they wrote their daemons’ names on coins to bury ‘em. So the daemon goes with you into the afterlife.”
“Huh,” Daryl says, and spits. “Sounds like a bunch of superstitious shit to me.”
Rick, though, takes the piece of wood and carefully sticks it in the man’s mouth, closing it gingerly. “We better get him out of here before he wakes up. Daryl?”
Between the two of them they pick the dead guy up and drag him out the door. They probably won’t burn him now, since it’s night and they don’t want to bring in any more walkers, but there’s bound to be a baseball bat or a pickaxe around here somewhere. He’s not making it through the night intact.
“His daemon was pretty,” Meiri says, rubbing against Glenn’s ear. “Kirjava. I like it.”
“Yeah,” Glenn mutters. He bounces the pouch in his palm. “What’s in here, d’you think?”
Meiri shrugs. “Open it.”
Glenn does, carefully feeling around. Inside there’s a heavy little leather notebook, a big old silver locket, and what looks like a very dull piece of glass. Glenn grabs the notebook first, prying it open and flipping through it.
There are drawings in it, strange and crazy ones of different places and things that can’t be real. Glenn sees dragons, little tiny men riding dragonflies, and two glowing, pale forms that look kind of like ghosts and kind of like angels. On one page there’s a drawing of a little pine marten and on the next a huge polar bear wearing armor, and on the next page there’s a horde of pale, grasping things that look uncomfortably like walkers.
“Weird,” Glenn mutters, putting the notebook back. He’ll look at it later, maybe. He pulls out the locket next and it opens pretty easy, like it’s been oiled. Inside there’s a picture of a girl, maybe twelve or thirteen, with the same pine marten on her shoulder.
“His daughter?” Meiri wonders, sniffing at the locket. She wrinkles her nose. “Smells weird.”
Glenn carefully puts the locket back.
“Whatcha got there?” Daryl says, startling Glenn.
The younger man spins around and glares. Daryl leans up against the doorframe easily, eyes gleaming, and Cahir swishes his tail.
“What’d the cat give you?”
Glenn shrugs. “Just a bunch of crap. Notebook, picture of his daughter, piece of broken something.”
Daryl snorts. “Figures, right?”
“Yeah,” Glenn mutters, tucking the pouch into his pack. “Figures.” And really, what’d he expect, the pouch to have a cure in it, or some magical thing that could make all this end? This wasn’t a videogame, this was real life. When random dying guys handed over anything, it was probably just sentimental crap, not anything useful.
“Don’t be so cynical,” Meiri says, scolding, but her heart’s not in it. She’s starting to kind of think that way too.
“Place gives me the creeps,” Daryl mutters, distracting Glenn. He’s got a tight hold on his crossbow and he’s looking deep into the shadows. “You feel like you’re bein’ watched?”
“Who’s superstitious now?” Glenn says.
Daryl glares a little, and Cahir growls quietly, his ears pinned flat to his head.
“I don’t like this place,” the wolf says. “It feels wrong.”
Meiri opens her mouth to say something, but the arrival of the rest of the group drowns out what she was gonna say.
“We’ve checked it out,” Rick is saying. He and El lead the way. “The whole building’s clear now. There’s nothing in here but us. If we seal the doors, we can probably spend the night and not have to worry about walkers too much.”
“We’ll still post watch,” Shane cuts in, and Kali’s eyes are gleaming. “Better safe than sorry.”
Rick nods. “Good idea. We should all probably stick together too, not go off into separate rooms. There’s a pretty big one back here that we can use.”
Glenn and Daryl join the back of the parade and Meiri hops down to ride on Cahir’s head. Daryl blinks. “She really likes it there, huh?”
Glenn shrugs. “Daemons are weird.”
The room Rick’s picked is pretty big, big enough that they can all set up and have some room to themselves. A few tents go up, creating the illusion of privacy, and Shane drags in some of the supplies left behind by the last group.
It’s more food than they’ve seen since they left Hershel’s and everybody tears in, gulping down beans and canned fruit and spam.
“Shouldn’t we like, ration this or something?” Glenn asks when he’s on his third can, his mouth stuffed full of questionable spam. (What is spam anyway, really? Horse? Cat?)
Daryl shrugs. He’s found a pack of Slim Jims. “Why? It ain’t like we’re gonna stay long,” except it comes out wh? Iainliwergontaylung or something ridiculous.
That’s probably true. Shane’ll want to go in the morning, when it’s safe to move again. They’ve been aiming for Fort Benning and the Republic of Heaven for so long now changing course seems like a bad idea.
Glenn’s glad they found this place, though, aside from watching the guy die. It has food, space, and it’s not the outdoors-better deal that he’s seen in months.
Rick, apparently, is having similar thoughts, because once the feeding frenzy has died down, he stands up and clears his throat. He looks at El once, a question, and she nods.
“Now I know we’ve been saying that we’re going to Fort Benning,” he says. “But I’ve gotta bring up the option of staying here, in this building.”
Kali jumps to her feet, a snarl building in her throat, and Shane’s eyes flash. “You crazy, man? Thought we agreed we weren’t gonna stop, we were gonna go straight to the Republic.”
“I had to bring it up,” Rick argues. “It’s pretty well-stocked, it’s in a good spot, we can defend it. It’s an option.”
“It’s not that safe,” Shane fires back, angry now. Kali’s snowy teeth gleam. “The last group was overrun, you saw the blood in the hallways! You saw a guy die ‘cause some shit went down here. You really wanna stay and risk getting overrun?”
Rick shrugs again, pale eyes hard. “I’m not saying we should stay, I’m saying it’s an option. We don’t have to stay forever, just for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks to catch our breath.”
“We are this close to Fort Benning,” Shane says, holding his finger and thumb apart. “This close. We can probably get there tomorrow, if we make good time.”
El growls suddenly, low and deep, her fur bristling. Meiri creeps into Glenn’s lap quietly.
“That’s the thing,” Rick snaps. “We can’t make good time tomorrow. Look around, Shane! Everyone’s tired. We’re running ourselves into the ground.”
Glenn looks around and sees that Rick’s right. They’re a pathetic group of people. They’re filthy, ragged, pitifully skinny, and they’ve all got heavy, sleep-deprived shadows under their eyes that look more like bruises than anything. They’re half-dead on their feet, and Rick’s got a point.
Glenn doesn’t think any of them could make it to the Republic of Heaven in a day.
“We’ll die if we keep pushing it like this,” Rick says softly, quietly.
El pads forward carefully, her eyes gentle and calm. She stands a few feet apart from Kali and wags her tail once, a peace offering.
Shane smiles and it looks like a wolf baring its teeth. “Fine,” he says coldly. “Stay if you want. Tomorrow I’m going ahead. Anybody who wants to come is welcome to. We can all meet up again at the Republic.”
“If it’s even still there,” Rick snaps, a sudden flare of temper.
Meiri stiffens in Glenn’s lap, and across the room Cahir pricks his ears.
“You want to risk splitting up? You want to put everyone at risk by cutting down our manpower?”
“You did,” Shane fires back, eyes glittering.
“And people died, Shane. You really want a repeat of that? To come back and find all of dead?”
El growls now, soft, a warning.
Shane runs a hand over his head and Kali snarls right back.
“I’ll go with you,” Andrea says, standing up. Gazini ruffles his wings. “It’s better than staying here, just waiting for them to come down on us.”
Shane nods and flashes a smug, triumphant glance at Rick, one that says see? I can get people to follow me too.
“Me too,” Daryl says suddenly. He doesn’t stand, but he doesn’t have to because everyone turns to look at him, surprised.
“Daryl?” Rick says, a little uncertain.
Glenn stares openly, angry. So Daryl’s just gonna leave them? Up and go with Shane, who, let’s be honest, is probably more than a little crazy?
Meiri chitters angrily, burying her face in Glenn’s arm.
“It’s nothin’ personal,” Daryl mutters. Cahir’s eyes are solemn and knowing. “It’s just that this place don’t feel right. I ain’t stayin’ longer than I need to. Me ‘n Cahir’ll go with Shane tomorrow, clear the way a bit.”
Rick’s hurt, Glenn can tell, but he doesn’t say anything. El breaks her staring contest with Lori, dropping her snowy head.
“Fine,” Rick mutters. “Fine, go on. We’ll meet you at Fort Benning in a few days.”
“Rick,” Shane says, calmer now that he’s won. “C’mon, man, it’ll be okay. You can stay here for a bit, rest up with everyone, and then join us at the Republic.”
Rick waves him quiet, and he’s frustrated and angry, but he won’t say anything, of course he won’t say anything.
Dumbass, Glenn thinks, and stands up.
“We should stick together,” he says. “Always. Haven’t we learned anything by now? Whenever we split up something always goes wrong.”
“Now listen.” Shane raises a finger and Kali swings her bright, intense focus on Meiri. “I respect you, Glenn, you’re a smart kid. But you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Meiri’s fur bristles and Glenn feels shared anger roll and mingle in his chest. “Yes I do,” he snaps. “We split up in Atlanta and people died. We split up on the highway and lost Sophia. When we split up, people die.”
Kali growls thinly.
“You-” Shane starts, and then something like long, sharp teeth flash in his eyes. “You just wanna stay for the old man. That’s it, isn’t it? You’ve got yourself a woman now, and you’re bending over backwards to make her happy.”
“Leave them out of this,” Glenn says, at the same time Maggie stands up, outraged. Luke spits at the black German shepherd fearlessly.
“But that’s it, am I right?” Kali’s teeth flash. “You wanna get laid, and if the old man’s safe and happy she’s safe and happy too, and she’ll let you do whatever you want.”
“That’s enough,” Rick says, raising his hands again.
Fury curls low and hot in Glenn’s cut, and Mei bares her tiny teeth. “That’s rich, coming from you. Like you don’t try and get Andrea alone every chance you get!”
“Hey,” Andrea snaps, coming to stand beside Shane. “What’s that supposed to mean, I’m some kind of whore?”
“You think I’m a whore?” Maggie adds, glaring. “You wanna say that to my face, Shane?”
“Oh, I’ve got a lot of things to say to your face, Miss High-and-Mighty, I’ll tell you what-”
“Stay away from her,” Glenn shouts, standing in between Maggie and Shane protectively. Meiri drops to the floor and flat out snarls at Kali, her otter teeth bared and her fur so aggressively fluffed she looks twice her size.
“Shane,” Lori says, coming in between Shane and Glenn. Cass drops down, noses Kali gently. He’s a pretty wildcat, Cass, and he looks almost tame next to the snarling, bristling Kali, who’s never looked more wolf.
“Shane, stop it, just stop, calm down. Don’t start something.”
“Brother,” Rick says, coming to stand beside his wife. His hands are still raised, palms outstretched. “Brother, please.”
“Why shouldn’t I start something?” Shane snaps. Out of the corner of his eye, Glenn sees Dale grab his gun and Nurya take flight, circling the group in small, tight arcs. “All y’all do is sit around here and mope and complain and talk, instead of goin’ out to do somethin’! And her people, what do they do? They sit around and eat and bitch and take care of their crazy old man instead of puttin’ him down like the sick animal he is!”
Everyone erupts, shouting at each other, and daemons coil and flash teeth and claws. Meiri spits, wild-furred, and beside her Maggie’s Luke flexes his claws.
“Shane!” Lori hisses, eyes wide, and Cass springs, paws outstretched.
The bobcat lets loose a shocked yowl, eyes stretching wide, and tumbles back to the ground.
Instantly, everyone falls quiet.
Cass and Kali stare at each other and Cass is breathing heavily, and Lori presses a hand to her mouth.
Shane smiles.
“What just happened?” Rick asks, slow, careful, as calm as he can manage.
Oh shit, Glenn thinks, because somehow he knows, and Shane’s smile widens.
“It’s Kali,” he explains, almost singing. “She’s expecting.”
For a second, no one moves.
“Hol-ee-shit,” T-Dog finally says, breaking the silence.
Lori’s pregnant with Shane’s baby. Everyone knows it now because it’s Kali who has the dust of a baby daemon forming in her, not El.
“Mom?” Carl says nervously.
Lori looks between Rick and Shane, torn, and Cass slinks away, pressing against her heels.
“My baby,” Shane says lowly, meeting Rick’s eyes. “So I guess that means I have some say in this after all, huh? It wouldn’t be fair and right to deny a man a voice in his child’s future now would it?”
“Shane,” Lori says, anger and embarrassment blooming across her face. “Don’t.”
Glenn can’t look away. It’s kind of like walkers fighting over an animal-hideous, but morbidly fascinating.
“I think maybe it’s best if we move on tomorrow after all,” Shane continues, ignoring Lori. He only has eyes for Rick and Kali licks her teeth. “Wouldn’t want the walkers getting ahold of my bab-”
He doesn’t get to finish.
Rick lunges suddenly, eyes flashing, and pulls back his fist. He gets Shane square in the nose and the other man grunts, staggers back, and when he pulls his fingers away they’re bloody.
“Rick,” Lori tries.
He ignores her and swings again, hitting Shane’s cheekbone this time, and then it’s an all-out brawl.
Shane tackles Rick with a yell, shoving him back, and they tumble to the ground punching and kicking every inch of each other they can reach.
El and Kali circle each other like wolves, snarling and snapping, teeth long, flashing brightly. They surge together, black and white, and rip.
It’s horrible.
Lori’s screaming now, trying to get between them, and Carl’s whiter than a sheet, and El and Kali duel like wolves over their struggling men.
There’s blood on the floor.
Glenn rushes in, grabbing a fistful of shirt-Rick’s-and pulls hard, trying to separate them. T-Dog and Daryl join in, grabbing Shane and hauling him back. Glenn gets an arm around Rick’s shoulders and holds him, and Daryl puts Shane in a sleeper.
It takes both Cahir and Ilya to hold Kali back, but Meiri starts murmuring to El low and fast-the white wolf-dog calms down, a little.
“You okay?” Glenn asks, loosening his hold on Rick. He’s not going to do anything, not now that he’s been stopped.
Rick wipes his nose and he’s bleeding from a split lip and a cut above his eye, and he doesn’t say anything.
Without a word, he gets up and stalks off, disappearing down the hallway into the shadows. For a second El stays back, shaking a little, and then she lopes off after him.
Daryl and T-Dog let Shane up and he looks around the room once, wild-eyed. His nose is a mess and his knuckles drip, and Kali snarls when Ilya gets too close.
After a second Shane stalks down the hallway too, going a different direction. Within a few moments, his footsteps are gone.
The room is completely silent.
“Well,” Glenn says, half-heartedly trying to break some of the tension. Everyone turns to look at him, and Meiri creeps up onto his shoulder.
“That went well,” she says, “don’t you think?”
continued