⌜ chapter twenty-two ⌟

Things have been quiet at the prison ever since the demons took Jack. Cas managed to find and free Gabriel from the holy oil, and they've been searching ever since. But​ they haven't found anything yet.

MJ hasn't said a word. She just keeps working with her weapons and does anything that she can to keep moving. She's worried, not only about Jack and the demons, but about the next time they'll be attacked by the Governor and his people.

The ground suddenly starts to shake, and everyone in the prison looks around. MJ runs down the steps from the second floor and quickly makes her way outside. The rest of the group follows her out, and they all stop when they see a light beam shooting up out of the ground and into the sky.

"Son of a bitch." Dean mutters, knowing exactly what that is.

"What's going on?" Beth asks as they all look to the Winchesters and their friends.

MJ turns around and walks back into the prison. Sam follows her. "What are you gonna do?" He asks, and she glances at him.

"Your brother asked you a question." John says, and she nods.

"Yeah, I heard him." MJ scoffs. "What the hell do you expect me to do? In case you guys haven't noticed, we've got nothing."

"We have everything that we had before." Dean argues.

"If you say each other..." She shakes her head.

"Since when is that a bad thing?"

MJ turns around and looks at her older brother. "The last time Lucifer was on earth, he tore us apart. I mean... You and I were at each other's throats. Sam grabbed Adam and jumped into the pit. We had nothing then, and we have even less now."

"We still found a way." John says.

"We have been manipulated by the angels since we were born. We don't have a choice here. Whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, I'm just gonna wait for it to play out." She tells him.

"That's it? All this talk about how we beat the devil before and we can do it again. But now you just want to throw in the towel?"

"We were played!" She yells. "Do you remember what Gabriel told us? Nephilim become more powerful than their angelic parent. So, Jack's gonna be stronger than Lucifer, and now the friggin' devil has a way to make sure that Jack does exactly as he says. We gave Jack his grace back, Cas taught him how to use it, and then he was taken from us. We have nothing to use against Lucifer. Not to mention the problems that could come with Michael."

"And what are they gonna do, threaten to kill you if he doesn't do as they say?" Dean questions as he looks at her. "Jack knows that you would rather die than let things get any worse than they already are."

"Not me. He didn't leave because they were hurting me. Meg beat me to hell because she felt like it, it was fun for her. Jack didn't agree to leave until they threatened Dana. It was her that he was protecting, and it's her that he will continue to protect." She tells him. "As long as he cares for Dana, they'll have the upper hand. And they all know it."

Dean looks over at his daughter and sighs.

"I can't do anything about Lucifer, at least not yet." MJ says. "What I can do, is I can get ready for what's out there. The people that are coming. You focus on the angels now, and we'll all be dead before they even get here."

—

"I know you know Rick's plan." MJ says as she leans against the wall in the generator room. "I talked to Daryl."

"Yeah?" Merle looks at her. "You talk to him a lot, don't you? Yeah, I see the way you look at my brother." He chuckles.

"He says that you think we look at you like you're the devil." She smirks, ignoring his comment, his attempt at a distraction. "If I looked at you anything like I look at the devil, you wouldn't be standing in this prison right now. You'd already be six feet under."

"You got a point?"

"You're here for Daryl. You may be a dick, but you care about your brother. Now, let me ask you this... Do you wanna be welcomed into our group? Be one of us? Not standing on the outside looking in?"

"I don't care what your people think of me."

"That's fair." She nods. "But Daryl cares what we think. He is one of us. So... Do you want to be welcome here?"

"If I do?" He asks, not meeting her eyes.

"I have a plan of my own. I'm not gonna take Michonne to the Governor. That's not how I am, what's not who I am." She tells him.

"So what are you gonna do?" He looks at her, confused.

"I'm gonna kill him." She says, and he looks visibly taken aback. "What do say? You wanna come, give me a hand? No, uh... No pun intended." She smirks as she glances at the blade connected to his arm.

"You're not telling the others?"

"They'll try to stop me." She shrugs. "I don't feel like fighting with them anymore."

He looks at her skeptically. "Why do you want my help?" He asks.

"Because it's not just Michonne that he wants dead...and you know it as well as I do." The brunette says. "He'll kill her first, then he'll come for us. He'll kill Daryl right in front of you."

He looks at the machete on her left hip and the angel blade on her right. Then his eyes settle on the rifle strapped around her, resting at her back​. He nods, and she smirks.

"Who would'a thought?" She muses. "Such an unlikely alliance."

"It's strange — the things you find funny."

"It'd make more sense if you understood my past a little better." She tells him. "Let's go."

They're walking down the road hours later, and Merle looks over at her. "Why are you trusting me?" He asks. "You asked me to come, not my brother. You're walking ahead of me, not worried that your back's to me."

"No offense, but your brother's a better man than you are." She says. "Hell, he's a better person than I am. If anyone's gonna survive in this world, I want him to be one of them." She tells him.

"And the leaving your back to me?" He asks, and she glances over her shoulder.

"I said your brother's a better man, not that you're a bad one." She says. "I've seen bad, real evil — I mean, besides Lucifer and demons. I've seen men do things that would make even your skin crawl. And those people, they do it without a second thought. They kill because they don't care who they hurt. They have no conscience. From what I've seen, you do."

They find a car a little ways farther, and Merle accidentally sets off the alarm. They have to kill a few walkers, but eventually manage to make an escape and get the hell out of there.

"Can I ask you somethin'?"

"What's gonna stop you now?" MJ glances from the road ahead to him as she drives.

"You have two kids back there... Why risk your life out here?" He asks.

She takes a deep breath. "How many people have you killed since this all started?"

"Sixteen."

"And before?"

"None." He looks at her skeptically. "Why?"

MJ pauses for a second. "I haven't killed as many as you, but I have killed. And I don't regret a single one. Their deaths keep me up at night, but I don't play the... What could I have done differently?" She shrugs. "There's nothing that I wouldn't do to save the people that I love. If I don't do this, my kids could die. I already lost my son once, I won't do it again." She tells him.

"And it's that simple for you?"

"We all have people that we'd live and die for, people we'd kill for." She says. "Most don't figure out who they are until later in life, or until the moment comes where they have to make that decision. Some people never have to think about that at all... I've known since I was a kid. So, yeah. It's that simple for me. Isn't it that simple for you?"

He looks back out the windshield. Merle doesn't answer her, but he doesn't have to for her to know the answer to that question.

—

MJ and Merle watch from inside an abandoned building as the Governor's people shoot at the walkers surrounding the car that they ditched with the music blaring. Merle uses the rifle she brought and takes out one of the Governor's men. She has her hand gun that she's using.

Merle tries to shoot the Governor, but a younger boy runs in front of him and gets shot instead. M sees two guys moving toward them and she takes them both out with a single shot each. Soon enough, the Governor's​ the only one left alive.

He sees them and raises his gun, but she shoots it out of his hand as she walks out of the building. Merle follows her out, and the Governor laughs as he looks at them.

"Well, would you look at this?" He's clutching his hand to his chest. "You two teaming up against me."

"I want you to see our faces." MJ tells him. "We're two of the group that you want dead, and we're the ones who are gonna kill you."

"Is that right?" He smiles as she raises her gun, but she doesn't shoot him immediately. She wants him to think for a moment that he still has a chance. "You don't have what it takes, do you?"

MJ pulls the trigger, and the bullet lodges in his chest, piercing his heart. "You don't know anything about me." MJ says as she lowers the gun and puts it back in her waistband.

"MJ?"

She and Merle both turn and see Daryl standing there. He looks between the two of them to all of the dead men and walkers.

Someone starts clapping, and they all turn to see a blond man standing there with a teenage boy behind him. MJ pulls the angel blade from her hip as her jaw tightens. Both of the men with her raise their own weapons as soon as they see Jack.

"Lucifer." MJ's voice is barely audible; Merle hardly heard her, and she's standing right next to him. His eyes move to her face for a second and he sees more hatred there than he's ever seen on anyone before.

"You and I both know that that blade won't hurt me." Lucifer says with a smile. "Just like the Colt didn't. Though it was a valiant effort on your part. Quite a surprise too."

"What do you want?"

"I want the same thing you do."

"Really? Because I want you dead."

"He killed the demons." Jack says, and she looks at him. "Meg, all the ones who attacked us back at the prison — he killed all of them."

She narrows her eyes as she looks back at the archangel. "Why?" She questions.

"You saw me when Zachariah sent you to the future, remember? You saw what I had done — which was nothing." Lucifer says. "I didn't spread the Croatoan virus, I only killed those who came after me. You included, I suppose. I do apologize for that."

"Oh, yeah, you're a real saint." She says sarcastically. "Seeing you in a future that never actually happened doesn't mean anything. What are you here for, Lucifer?"

"I had gardens. While the rest of the world looked similar to what it does now, I lived in what was left of the beauty in my father's creation." He says. "I want that back."

"Meaning what?"

"I brought Jack here, back to you. I know you consider him your son." He smiles as he walks over to her. "Jack knows how to go back to the day that the outbreak started. He can take you there, and you can stop it. The slate will be wiped clean."

"And you'll be back in hell. Give me one good reason why I should believe anything that you have to say." She says as she looks up at him. "Why would you go back there?"

"Because much like you, this isn't a world I want to live in." He tells her. "You set the world right, I'll find my way out again some day, and the world won't look like this one."

"Why should I trust you?"

"You don't, and you won't. It doesn't matter what I say." His eyes travel her face as he looks down at her. "But what other choice do you have? My brother's already failed you thus far. I'm your only chance at the life that you want to live."

"I can do it." Jack says, regaining her attention. "It's not easy, but I can take us back. And I know where to go now too. We can do this, M. We have to try."

"Not without talking to Dean and Rick first." MJ says. "Take us back to the prison."

Lucifer nods. "Fair enough. Now, can you tell your guard dogs to lower their weapons please? They're being rude."

"Daryl. Merle." MJ glances between the two men. Daryl slings his crossbow over his shoulder as he slowly moves closer to them, and Merle lowers the gun in his hand.

"Are you ready?" He asks as he presses his fingers on one hand to MJ's forehead and his other to Merle's. Jack quickly does the same to Daryl. Both men are confused.

"Bend your knees." MJ tells them.

The five of them suddenly appear outside of the prison, and Matt sees them from where he's standing guard on the catwalk. His eyebrows pull together in confusion when he sees Lucifer standing with his friends.

"What the hell?" He mutters, and MJ looks up at him, her jaw tight, as she takes a deep breath. She knows her family won't like this.

Hell, she doesn't like this.