AFTER SEEING SASHA was dead, everyone turned on Jadis's people. The battle had begun. Ella whipped her gun out, swinging around and shooting the man who held her and Rosita at gunpoint in the face. Ella searched for Negan in the spot he fell in with Sasha. She locked eyes on him immediately, shooting rounds at some of the Saviors. "Go!" she heard Daryl call out, firing at Saviors with Rosita, Gerard, and Tara. She looked at Daryl to make sure she heard him correctly. He gave her a stern nod.
Immediately, Ella jumped behind a car positioned outside the gate, gasping for air as she landed too harshly on her once fractured ribs. She shook her head, pressing her fingers into her rib. It wasn't broken. She crawled on her knees toward Negan, gunfire firing from both sides above her. A couple bullets ricocheted off the wall and into the car, missing her by inches every time. Despite almost being killed a few times, she kept on going toward Negan. She did not want to lose the one chance.
Luck was on her side today. It was a message, a sign even. Negan was going to die today. Karma finally caught up with him.
As she was only a few steps away, after having killed any Savior getting too close to save their leader as they pushed in on Alexandria, Negan pushed Sasha into the truck toward Ella, probably to try to slow her down or to kill her. Ella reacted quickly by sidestepping Sasha and tackling him down to the ground. They tussled for a moment, one trying to get on top of the other, until finally, Ella got on top of him just as Sasha got up from eating the flesh of one of the Saviors and walked toward her and Negan. "You're going to die motherfucker." she lowly growled, wrapping her hands around his throat to subdue him long enough for Sasha to eat him alive.
She put every ounce of her strength onto him. He was not going to slip from her grasps. She was going to kill him, not Rick. He promised the evil man he would kill him. That was a broken promise now. She was going to kill him today. Not tomorrow. Or any other day after tomorrow. It would be today. It could only be today. There were no second chances to kill him after this for he would come back twice as powerful if he got away alive.
Staring into his eyes made her remember that night — the lineup. The agony she felt. Her husband's death. Brandon's death. Abraham's death. The pain and sadness she felt that night washed over her. She could almost hear his taunting voice as clear as day from that night when Maggie was on the brink of death. She resonated his face with those feelings, with death. She breathed heavily, her grip tightening. Her fingernails, all ten of them, pressed deeply into his skin and it resulted in her making a deep puncture the longer she pushed. It wasn't deep enough to kill him outright though.
She hated him so much it pained her.
For Brandon. For Abraham.
To stop herself from killing him herself, to let Sasha take the honor of his kill and to do her justice, Ella's gaze flickered between Negan and Sasha. Excitement blossomed in her chest as Sasha drew near. She wasn't going to let him go even while Sasha ripped him apart. She wanted to watch him suffer as he made her suffer. If there was anything left of him after Sasha was done with him, she would send his head back to the Sanctuary.
For Yasmin. For Olivia. For Spencer.
With her eyes set on Sasha, and Sasha about to drop on top of them, Negan managed to get a punch in. "Not today!" Negan yelled, scrambling away. Ella gasped out of surprise, moving out of Sasha's way in the process. She wiped at her nose and smeared the blood trinkling down, down her lips. She looked up at Sasha, then to a retreating Negan. Ella smiled. Even as he ran away, he still wouldn't be getting away.
For Sasha.
Ella shoved her arm into Sasha's mouth. Sasha closed her mouth down hard into Ella's arm, Sasha's teeth sinking into the tender skin on her arm. Ella flinched. She grabbed Sasha's jaw, keeping it shut closed against her flesh. She dragged Sasha over to Negan. As Negan rounded the truck, he stumbled to the ground, Ella ripped Sasha from her arm and threw her at Negan.
For Glenn.
She watched in bliss as he struggled against the walker set upon him. Blood dripped down her arm to the tips of her fingers. She didn't care. If the loss of blood killed her then so be it. As long as Negan died with her. A wistful smile spread across her face when Sasha's teeth snapped so close to his face her teeth might have snipped him. He screamed for help like a pig being slaughtered.
His death wouldn't happen today though.
One of his Saviors shot Sasha dead.
The bliss was gone in a blink of an eye. It was replaced by her undying hatred for Negan. Blood rushed to her ears. "No!" she roared, knife in hand. She came so close to ending it, but it was for naught. It was never going to end so long as he was alive. Him breathing simply meant another day of fighting.
Negan scowled. "Kill her." he locked eye contact with Ella, still on the ground.
As she tried to attack Negan, a Savior grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm upwards. He forced her to shove the knife deep inside her abdomen. Her fingers curled around his arm, a small gasp leaving her mouth. The Savior threw her off of him. She looked down at her wound to watch the blood seep through the fabric like there was nothing holding it back. This was it for her.
He was about to finish the job when Negan waved him off. Negan walked up to Ella. "Oh. Almost got me. Too bad you'll die before I do," Negan taunted. Ella was unable to steer her gaze away from her wound. "I think Rick ought to see you die." he smiled the way he usually did.
The battle had not lasted long. They were overpowered within minutes it seemed. Most were dead. A few were injured and on their knees. Some were deep within Alexandria still fighting. But they lost. Unfortunately.
The Saviors took her to a field and forced her down to her knees next to Carl. With her shoulders slumped in defeat, Ella stared ahead to see Jadis marched Rick through the streets. He was injured near his hip. She felt absolutely hopeless seeing him like that. Her eyes shone with worry for him. Jadis pushed Rick down to his knees on the other side of Carl.
"Well, shit, Rick. You just couldn't stick with us, huh? You had to go with these filthy garbage people?" Jadis was now offended by his choice of words. "No offense," he shrugged.
"Deal is for twelve, yes?" Jadis asked.
Ella put pressure on her wounds. It was worse than she thought it was. Sasha quite literally took a chunk with her when she was pulled away from Ella's arm. And the one given to her by the Savior wasn't looking or feeling good either. If Negan didn't finish the job, blood loss certainly would.
"Ten. People are a resource." Negan replied.
"Twelve." Jadis whispered. Negan didn't say anything. He stared at her. She sighed in defeat. "Ten."
Negan chuckled, putting his attention back on Rick, Carl, and Ella. "Rick," he rubbed his shaved chin. "This is just gonna make you sad. Broken. You're gonna wish you were dead," he sighed. He moved from Rick to Ella. "I like having fun. I do. But maybe you think that the guy that did what he did to your friends wasn't me, like that was some sort of a put-on, like I'm not the guy with the bat — I'm just the guy that made your kids spaghetti," he put his hand on his forehead. "Oh. Oh, shit. Maybe this is on me. Maybe this is all on me. I gotta make it right. I guess I gotta start all over again," he pointed at Carl briefly. "I gotta tell you, Rick, if I had a kid, I'd want him to be just like your kid, just like," he put his hands on his knees, looking into Ella's eyes. "What, is she your niece? She don't look a damn thing like you," he cleared his throat. She gazed at him with such intensity he thought she would rip out his tongue. "I guess it don't matter now. Her time is running short," he picked up her bloody arm to show it off to Rick. She winced. Rick's fell deeper into despair upon seeing just how bad of a state she was in. "But that, me wanting my hypothetical child to be like them, is why it makes this so hard."
Carl was glaring at him. "You're not gonna win."
"Carl," he leaned in. "It is over. For you. For Ella, in time. Whenever that bite kills her," he leaned in even closer. Ella had to bite down hard on her tongue to not laugh in his face. If he knew, she would be dying a very different way. "Why don't you point your one ball up the street there and take it all in?"
Ella took the chance to look for Daryl, Rosita, and Tara. She couldn't find them. They were probably pinned down in one of the houses. She closed her eyes, she should have killed Negan when she had the chance instead of waiting for Sasha to do it so he would suffer.
A scream pulled Ella from her thoughts. She opened her eyes and watched a figure fall from the very building Michonne was positioned on.
Ella looked through the people again in search for Michonne. She wasn't there. She couldn't see her. Ella looked to the ground. Michonne wouldn't let herself die that way. She was alive. She was.
"Oh," Negan let out a howl of laughter. "Wow. You just lost somebody important to you right now — like, just now. Jesus. That is timing," Negan got down to Rick's level. "Well, Rick. . . you chose this. I truly don't knlw what more I could have done to warn you. And this isn't a warning. This is punishment. I'm gonna kill Carl now. I'm gonna make it one nice, hard swing, try to do it in one because I like him. Then you're going to watch Ella turn into one of those flesh-eating monsters. Maybe I'll throw you both into a pit so you have to kill her yourself. I'm not sure yet, but I want you to put that into your brain and let it roll around for a minute. After I'm done killing Carl here, Lucille here, she's gonna take your hands. Now imagine fighting a walker with no hands. That'd be quite the show."
Rick squinted his eyes, more likely to force the tears back to remain strong in front of Negan. "You can do it right in front of me. You can take my hands. You can make me kill Ella," he spat in Negan's face. Ella's eyes widened. What? "I told you already — I'm gonna kill you. All of you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. . . but nothing is going to change that — nothing. You're all already dead."
Negan shot daggers at Rick. He forced himself to chuckle. "Damn. Wow, Rick. Okay." he plucked Carl's hat off. Ella watched in horror. Her throat closed in on her, making her mute. Carl straightened himself up. "You said I could do it!"
A loud animalistic roar made Ella jolt in surprise. She whipped her head around to see a tiger pouncing on one of the Saviors. A tiger. The Kingdom came to help. Negan stumbled backwards into his right hand man, Simon, who led Negan to safety from the ambush.
The shock of surprise made her pause momentarily. People on horses rode through. That was when gunfire erupted around her. She ducked her head low to the ground, a pained groan emitting from her mouth. The sudden movement made her bleed surprisingly more. She pressed a hand to her abdomen, right below her belly button. She made her peace with death minutes ago when Negan's men carried her to the field to be put down on her knees.
A hand touched her back. "Ella?" Carl's voice panicked. "Ella?" he repeated. How was it they were alive? Why didn't the Saviors just take the three of them out when Alexandria's allies jumped out of nowhere?
"I'm alive." she replied, drawing air into her lungs. It felt like she couldn't breathe, like the air was being sucked from her. She was dying. The air leaving her body was part of the death cycle, or well, that's what she thought anyway. She was glad it was nothing like the time Merle Dixon broke her ribs, she lost all oxygen for a good minute.
"You look horrible. . ." he got down on his knees. He put her arm around his neck. "Come on. We gotta get you out of the open." he tried to hoist her up into the air, she didn't budge.
"It doesn't matter. I'm gonna die anyway," she yelled out, noticing the smear of blood on the grass. "Just let me sit here awhile."
"Shut up and get up!" he shouted above the gunfire.
Ella finally met his eyes through the smoky haze. "Rude."
Nonetheless, it got her up. She took a Saviors gun into her hands to try and protect her and Carl as he led them to safety. She pulled the trigger relentlessly, not stopping until she watched the tiger maul another Savior, fear washing over her once again. What if the tiger decided they were its next meal? They would be done for.
She looked over her shoulder. She could see Carol riding through on a horse in the midst of battle. She hadn't seen Carol in a few weeks, not since Glenn passed away, from what she could remember. Wading through the grass directly next to Carol was Maggie with the people of Hilltop.
Ella didn't think they would come.
There was no way Negan would make it out Alexandria alive now.
____________________________
"IS HE DEAD?" Ella's head felt heavy since she relaxed into the bed cot. She looked at Rick, Maggie, Carl, and Gerard sitting in the room -- the ones who lived. They all didn't meet her eyes. They were too ashamed to tell her they failed to capture him, that she was the only one who got so close to killing him, that the wounds that might have killed her if they were a second too late to treat them happened for nothing. "Did you go after him and end it?" her throat was dry now. She almost choked on her own saliva when Rick shook his head. She caught the awkward expression on his face. "You let him get away. You stood there, I'm sure, and you didn't even try when he was driving down the road."
A pang of sadness hit her square in the chest. It wasn't sadness for the ones they lost. It was sadness for Negan still having his head. Sasha gave her life up to try to help end an impending war, between the Saviors and the communities he tried to rule over, in that coffin. It wasn't right to do her like that. When the time came again, she hoped they wouldn't watch him escape for the second time, and that they'd do something about it.
"Ella, we're going to finish it. Just because we didn't go after him doesn't mean it's over." Rick tried his best to clean up her stab wound. "There will be another time."
"There will be, yeah, I'm sure. But will you hesitate to pull the trigger? If you do, if you ever hesitate ever again, there will never be another chance after that because he will have gathered his strength and he will hit us with quadruple the power we already have," she moved his hand away. "The best time to have struck him would have been when he was fleeing."
Rick stayed silent. Maggie cracked her fingers anxiously. "Ella, I'm sorry, but even if we did follow him while he went down that road back to the Sanctuary, we never would have been able to kill him because not only was he in a truck and we were on our feet or on a horse. . . his people at the Sanctuary would have just killed us after he led us there."
Ella picked up the hand mirror to look at herself and to see how much she changed since she looked in the mirror three weeks ago. In one of her eyes, all of her blood vessels popped from that punch she took from a Savior. Her hair was matted with blood and dirt. Sasha's blood. Her own blood, too. Her eyes were sunken from during her time grieving their losses with little to no food. "How are Rosita and Michonne?" she changed the subject. She didn't want to hear any more of Negan than she had to unless it was news of his death.
"Good," Carl rubbed her shoulder. "They're both healing up nicely. Rosita's been milking the bed rest as much as she can. And Michonne can't wait to get out of bed. Her eye is still healing, of course. . . too bad yours isn't." Carl chuckled.
Weakly, Ella smiled. And you don't have one, she thought. Rick spoke up again. "Rosita has been asking about you lately, she keeps trying to get out of bedrest to visit you. She worries like we all do," he paused, his eyes flickering over to the wound she took from Sasha. "It's weird to see you talking."
Ella shrugged. "We had been caught up with other things, we never had time to talk."
Everyone nodded.
Ella ran her fingers through her dirty hair. "Does this mean the war has officially began?" she asked.
"Yeah," Rick told her. "The war has begun."