Poker Face

Chapter 25 - The New World Order

A/N A lot here is taken from the show. Rick's intro to Negan is too good as is, but I wanted to go through it with Aven's perspective.

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Aven pulled on the leather angel-winged vest over her jacket. Even over the jacket, it was huge on her, draped down to her thighs, but she didn't care. It symbolized something for her and she knew Negan liked it. She followed him out of the RV and stayed back, leaning against the door with her hands in her vest pockets while Negan sauntered over to Rick, Lucille high on his shoulder.

The Alexandrians looked like broken people. Rick, shaking uncontrollably with tears in his eyes, looked like he'd died a thousand deaths since she'd last seen him. And his son looked like he'd been forced to do all his growing up in that time.

"Hi, you're Rick, right? I'm Negan." Negan spoke down softly, gently to Rick, standing directly over him. "And I do not appreciate you killing my men." In the cold night air, Negan's steady breaths were illuminated in the glaring headlights of the Saviors' cars as he maintained his smooth, controlled demeanor. The Alexandrians' breaths, on the other hand, could be seen puffing from their lips in shallow gasps.

"You have no fucking idea how not fucking cool that shit is," Negan continued. He sighed, looking almost disappointed, almost sad. "You are so gonna regret crossing me in a minute." His demeanor morphed gently as he spoke, a grin starting to bloom on his face. "Fuck yeah, you are." Aven smiled to herself as she watched the control in his facial expressions, each one perfectly tailored to the fear he was trying to instill; each one entirely purposeful.

"Rick, I'm gonna explain the new world order," he continued. "It's really very simple. Even if you're fuckin' stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand." Aven rolled her eyes inwardly, remembering Rick's aversion to cooperation and understanding reason. His mouth hung open incredulously, lost for both words and hope as Negan spoke. "You thought you were safe but you're not safe, not even fucking close. You are fucked." With that, Negan laid forth the Alexandrians' new way of life, the debt to the Saviors they'd be paying eternally, half of their supplies no matter what.

"We come knocking on your door, you fucking let us in," Negan boomed. "We own that fucking door. You fucking try to stop us, we will fucking knock that fucker down." He paced back and forth in front of the Alexandrians, being sure to speak to each and every one directly through his speech.

Aven observed them all from her spot, her gaze lingering on the sickly looking woman. She looked familiar and Aven figured she must have been at the prison. That's when she remembered the message Dwight had intercepted: save the baby. Aven's eyes darted around looking for a baby with the group and when she didn't see one, she realized the sick woman, the one being carried through the woods to the Hilltop, must be pregnant. She sucked in a breath, a phantom pain searing in her stomach as she pushed a memory away.

"I don't want to kill you but you killed a whole fuckin' damn shit load of my people. And you gotta fuckin' pay. I am gonna beat the holy fuck fucking fuckity fuck out of one of you." Aven couldn't help but laugh a little at his excessive cursing; that was him savoring the moment. He heard and turned slightly to glance at her, his eyes twinkling when he saw the continued proud look on her face. He turned back to the group, swinging Lucille in a circle with so much force that Aven could hear the whoosh from ten feet away.

"This is Lucille, and she is awesome," he said gruffly. "All this is so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor." He stopped in front of the sick woman. "You look fuckin' shitty," he sneered. "I should just put you out of your misery right now." Aven's face dropped as Negan made another quick move with Lucille, but before she could react a man lurched forward, shouting at Negan. Dwight was immediately on the man, throwing him to the ground and kicking him, the sick woman screaming and crying for him to stop. When Aven got a good look at the man's face, she recognized him from the prison too and put together their relationship.