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The next day, the sun was shining and for once, Roxanne was able to enjoy the sunshine. She sat outside of Niklaus' trailer as she basked in the sunlight. She felt the cool earth beneath her fingers. Her mind was clear and she was relaxed. She felt safe there— wherever she was. But it wasn't because she was with Niklaus. It was because the Saviors weren't after her at that very moment, for they didn't know where she was.
It only took Niklaus a few minutes to finally join her outside. He was still processing her presence since the night before. She was still just as beautiful as he remember; however, she seemed to be dead inside. The woman he had once loved was gone. The woman that stood before him was a new woman. A woman that had broke free of her comfortable cocoon and found herself a purpose in life. Niklaus, despite having once loved her, could never be man enough for this new woman.
"What happened to you?" He finally gathered the courage to ask such an insidious question.
Roxanne twisted her head around to look at Niklaus. "Too much." She admitted quietly as bright-white flashes flickered through her mind.
Niklaus plopped himself on the grass next to her and placed a mournful kiss on her cheek— as if he were kissing her goodbye. "I have time." He told, suggesting that he wanted to hear everything that he had missed.
Roxanne sighed and nodded. She began to speak about when the apocalypse began. Then she spoke about hopping from place to place as she abandoned groups of people whom had adopted her and fed her. She spoke about landing in one community— the Saviors' community— and how she stayed with them for far too long because they were so well off. She told Niklaus about Negan, whom she had used to remain in the resourceful group. But, then the conversation darkened as she spoke about getting pregnant and fearing that she'd be permanently imprisoned with Negan and his sudden developing malice toward his own people— so, she ran away.
Then, she went on to ramble about how, after some months, she saved a man off of the side of the rode, he took her into his community— Alexandria—, and she ended up falling in love with him. With this, she told Niklaus that she ended up being mixed up with his problems— which included growing tensions with Negan's Saviors. She explain to him that because she 'was so foolishly in love with him' she remained by his side to fight the Saviors alongside him. She explicitly detailed how he ended up cheating on her, yet she remained in his community for a bit longer, which consequently led to the death of her child by the hands of Negan: Kali. Afterward, she proceeded tell Niklaus that she was still battling with Alexandria against the Saviors in order to seek revenge for her child at that very moment.
Niklaus' mouth fell agape. "I— I'm sorry?" He realized that she had been through so much shit and it was exactly the reason why the woman he used to hold to sleep at night no longer resided in that vessel.
"Shit happens." Roxanne bitterly ran her tongue over her teeth.
"I'm just glad I got to see you again. I could never sleep at night because I stayed up wondering if you and Adriana were still out there. My mind has been put to ease knowing Adri isn't suffering." Niklaus spoke, then silence overcame the two. The only thing they heard were the soft snores of the oversleeping trailer neighbors.
"You know I'm going to have to go back, right? Eventually I'm going to have to go back to kill the man that made me suffer by helplessly watching my own daughter die." Roxanne clenched her jaw as she recalled the events.
Niklaus hummed in affirmation. "I know." He spoke nonchalantly.
"Will you come with me?" Roxanne asked as she shot him pleading eyes.
Niklaus breathed in deeply, giving him a few more seconds to think. "Yes. As long as you promise me one thing." Niklaus finally agreed.
"What is that?" Roxanne probed.
"Don't leave me. I've changed, like you. But it may not be in the way that may please you." He confessed.
Roxanne turned to completely face Niklaus. "Of course." She knitted her brows together, telling him that she wouldn't dare leave him because he had changed. They both had changed. However, Roxanne didn't quite know the intensity of Niklaus' changes. He was a madman now. He was insane and bloodthirsty. He was especially violent when anyone was deemed a threat to the things he felt particularly attached to. And Roxanne was definitely something he seemed to be attached to.
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