Chapter Text
Monster
The Walking Dead Game Mini-Series
Parent Prompt: What if Clementine was Mentally Unstable? Prompt Submitted Knightoftristans on AO3
What if AJ was killed in the school battle?
TW: Death of a child and implied/referenced torture of separate characters
“Minerva’s gone missing.”
Lilly’s statement made everyone stop, a few days ago, Yonatan’s remains had turned up hanging in a tree, a day later, Abel’s reanimated body appeared impaled on a spike. They’d been gearing up to go back to the school when Gina vanished. Dorian had found a flayed and mutilated body with something covering its head tied to a tree while she was hunting.
“I’ve found Gina.” Michael’s voice got Lilly’s attention.
“Where?” Lilly followed Michael’s finger when he pointed at Gad, who was staring at the flayed Walker, with the sack covering its head in his hand.
“Jesus.” Swore Lilly, before a rope suddenly wrapped around Gad and dragged him into the undergrowth, “What the fuck?!”
The group grabbed their weapons and charged towards where Gad had been standing, just as he started screaming, they did their best to follow his screams, but they slowly got further and further away.
They came to a stop in the middle of a clearing, looking around, Lilly noticed that Michael and Sullene were missing.
“Where are Michael and Sullene?” Asked Lilly, looking at the others.
“Sullene was just here.” Said Armando, “Michael stayed back with the boat, in case those kids tried to steal it.”
Lilly was prevented from speaking by a large explosion back the way they came.
“Oh, fuck no.” Muttered Dorian, as the three of them ran back to the dock, where they greeted by a massive fire and the wreck of their ship sinking into the water, but what shocked Lilly was Michael, tied to a tree, burning alive. It took Lilly a moment to realise that while they were chasing after Gad, someone had gone onto the boat, overpowered Michael, tied him to a tree, set him on fire and then blow up their boat.
“Those kids are fucking psychopaths!” Exclaimed Armando, as Dorian looked sick.
“I don’t think this was done by those kids.” Said Lilly, going over to Michael, “What happened?”
Michael’s response was boarder-line gibberish, making Lilly scowl. She went to scold the man, only for Armando to start retching.
“Those fuckers cut out his tongue.” Cried Dorian, as Lilly looked sick.
“We have to get out of here.” Ordered Lilly, after swallowing some bile, “That explosion was a fucking dinner bell to the Walkers, if we don’t go now, we’re dead.”
Somewhat reluctantly, the surviving members of their group fled, just as Walkers arrived and started to devour the still alive Michael.
M
The three of them gathered around a small fire that Armando had built while Lilly and Dorian had kept watch.
“What do we do now?” Asked Dorian, looking at Lilly, “The boat’s gone, we have no supplies, and we can’t contact our home.”
“We head back there, as soon as day breaks.” Said Lilly, after a moment, “We don’t have any other choice.”
“We won’t survive the journey back,” Protested Armando, “and what do you think Xavier will do once he finds out we lost more than we gained?”
“We’ll have to wait and find out.” Answered Lilly, getting up, “Get some sleep, I’ll keep watch.”
M
Omar winced as Louis helped him walk, “So, AJ and Mitch are dead and Clementine’s vanished?”
“Minnie turned up outside the gates a couple of days ago,” Shrugged Louis, “said the Clementine had knocked her out and dragged her to that train station. She said that Clem gave her the choice of coming back to us or dying with Lilly and her group.”
“She must’ve been waiting for us to find the boat.” Said Violet, as Ruby checked Aasim over, “That horse bolted and dragged that guy away as soon as we got into position, and that fire and explosion happened after we left but before they got back.”
“At least we got the supplies.” Said Willy, before looking at the gates, “Do you think she’ll come back?”
“I hope so.” Said Louis, “We had to pull her off Tenn, not that any of us could blame her.”
“What happened?” Asked Aasim, looking between the group.
“Lilly…,” Violet looked sick, “killed AJ.”
“It took us hours to get all of him picked up enough to bury.” Said Louis, before glancing towards the school, “Tenn’s started hiding.”
“He screwed up the plan and got Mitch killed.” Scoffed Willy, “And AJ only died because Tenn screwed us all over.”
Minerva looked at Willy, before looking at two bloodstains on the ground, one must’ve been Mitch’s, making the other ‘AJ’s’.
“Burying him was hard,” Said Louis, “every time we moved him, he twitched, and his eyes… Ugh.”
“What happened to his eyes?” Asked Minerva, after a moment.
“You don’t wanna know.” Said Violet, looking sick.
M
“Armando’s gone.” Were Dorian’s first words after shaking Lilly awake.
“What?” Lilly quickly got up, spotting the mess of disturbed leaves and broken wood at the edge of their makeshift camp, “Why didn’t we hear anything?”
“I don’t know.” Said Dorian, before glaring at Lilly, “That thing, that took him, I don’t know what it is, but it sure as hell ain’t human, and it’s doing this because of you.”
“How the fuck does that work out?” Snapped Lilly, returning Dorian’s glare.
“You killed that toddler, and now whatever that girl was is hunting us!” Snarled Dorian, gripping her gun, “If you hadn’t—”
“If I hadn’t killed that boy, those kids would’ve come after us,” Spat Lilly, “Clementine would’ve pulled them together and come for their friends, by killing that brat, I broke Clementine enough so that we could get away.”
“You—” An arrow pierced Dorian’s elbow, before another went through her knee, sending the bigger woman to the ground. Looking towards the source of the shots, Lilly felt bile crawl up her throat at Amando’s flayed, mutilated and reanimated body. Without sparing Dorian a glance, Lilly turned and ran.
Dorian watched her leader flee, before a shadow fell over her, the amber eyes and the pale skin of their hunter glared down at her, before Dorian’s gaze fell on her bloodied hand, which was tightly gripping a grenade, one that Dorian was certain was salvaged from their boat.
“Please,” Begged Dorian, throwing her pride away, “don’t, don’t do this, please, I-I can help you, I-I-I can get- no, no, NO, PLEASE, N--!”
Dorian’s pleas turned into screams, screams that Lilly heard as she ran away.
M
The screams coming from the forest got the school survivors attention, with Minerva recognising Dorian’s voice.
“Do you think that’s Clementine?” Asked Violet, glancing at Louis.
“Screaming or the one making someone else scream?” Asked Louis, as James limped from the forest, “Maybe he can tell us.”
They watched as Ruby spoke with James, the man bowing his head before returning to the forest. When Ruby turned around, they all noticed that she looked sick.
“Any news on Clem?” Asked Violet, once Ruby had reached them.
“S-she’s… James thinks… She ain’t doin’ good.” Stumbled Ruby, “James has said he’s found drag marks a-and body parts, h-he thinks he found a load of skin…”
Minerva paled, suddenly realising that if she hadn’t had accepted Clementine deal, she would be amongst what the woman was doing to her group.
M
Lilly didn’t know how long she ran for, but she ran until her legs and lungs burned, before she tripped over a tree root. Landing heavily on her front, she idly noted that Dorian had stopped screaming, but that probably meant the woman was dead and Clementine was now hunting her.
She’d had to change her direction a few times, mostly to avoid Walkers, until her fall made her stop. Looking around, she saw she was outside an abandoned station, looking at it, she recognised it as the station where Abel had met Clementine and her boy. Swallowing, Lilly picked herself up and limped inside, she didn’t get any time to look around, because as soon as she reached the door, something hit her on the back of the head, knocking her unconscious.
Lilly woke, presumably, several hours later, since it was now dark again, and, around her, were the remains of all her people, Abel had been roughly tied to the door handle, while Yonaton and Sullen were cuffed to the radiator, Sullen was missing her right leg. The flayed remains Gina, Gad, Armando and Dorian were locked behind the remains of the ticket office’s door and Michael was lying on his back with his arms and legs gone.
All of them had turned.
“Y’know,” Clementine’s voice came from behind Lilly, “it’s funny, all of you were better armed that me… and, yet…” Clementine appeared in front of Lilly, “I managed to kill each, and every, one of you.”
Clementine obviously hadn’t slept, as far as Lilly could tell, she hadn’t eaten either, her skin was pale and she looked emotionally tired.
“Do you honestly think—” Lilly was cut off by Clementine back handing her.
“Think what?” Asked Clementine, her voice cold, “That the rest of your group will come here and kill me? What makes you think that survival is an option for me?”
“Your boy, died squealing like a pig!” Snarled Lilly, before Clementine striking her with a wrench, breaking her jaw, silenced her.
Through her pain, Lilly watched Clementine walk over to Yonaton and Sullene, quietly uncuffing them, masterfully avoiding their attempts to grab and bite her, then she cut the rope that restrained Abel and opened the door keeping the flayed Walkers imprisoned.
“Unfortunately,” Said Clementine, as she idly avoided the Walkers attempts to grab her, “I had put the big one down, couldn’t carry him if he was still trying to bite me.”
Clementine reached the door, as the Walkers finally noticed Lilly, “This is kinder than you deserve.”
Clementine closed the door, as Lilly started screaming as her own people tore her apart.
M
Clementine looked down at the grenade in her hand, her thoughts completely consumed by AJ and what Lilly did to him.
“Clem!” Louis’s voice jerked Clementine from her thoughts, making her turn around. Louis was a few feet away from her, with Aasim and Violet behind him. Catching sight of the grenade in Clementine’s hand, the three of them froze.
“C-clem, put that down.” Urged Louis, slowly moving forwards.
Clementine, instead of putting the grenade down, pulled the pin from it. Almost immediately, someone tackled Clementine, wrenched the armed grenade from her hand and threw it away from the small group, with it exploding after it’d rolled under a fallen tree. Clementine saw the red head that she’d kidnapped from Lilly’s boat and delivered to the school looking down at her, before the girl knocked her out.
M
Clementine grunted as she landed on Abel, she heard AJ run out the doors, just as she felt Lilly put a gun to her head. Clementine growled and went to speak, when AJ barrelled into Lilly’s legs and tried to stab her with a shiv he’d found. Cursing, Lilly kicked AJ away from her, knocking him on his back, before she hit Clementine over the head with the butt of her rifle. Dazed, Clementine could only watch as Lilly stalked over to AJ, lift her foot up and stomped on AJ’s head.
The first stomp made AJ start crying and try to cover his face. Clementine thought she heard Violet and Louis break free from the raiders holding them.
The second stomp had a sickening snap as AJ’s wrists and hands broke. AJ started squealing, Clementine compared it to a pig, his broken limbs flailing uselessly as he tried to protect his face.
The third stomp turned AJ’s screams and cries turned into gargles.
The fourth stomp was met with a sickeningly wet crunch and AJ suddenly going silent. There was a fifth, sixth, seventh, each of them making AJ twitch.
“Lilly!” Yelled one of Lilly’s people, as Walkers started to get in, “We need to go!”
Scowling, Lilly ordered her people to retreat, leaving Clementine with the twitching corpse of her boy.
M
Clementine woke with a strangled gasp, finding herself in her room at the school. Sitting up, Clementine climbed to her feet and walked towards the door, just as it swung open. Louis stared at her, before sighing, “You’re awake.”
“You’re observant.” Clementine’s voice was empty, part of her wondered if this is what Kenny felt when Duck died.
“We, er,” Louis rubbed the back of his neck, “we saw what you did to those raiders.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Asked Clementine, hollowly, “For torturing them? Making sure that all of their last moments were filled with terror? Let them know how—” her voice broke.
“We’re not gonna kill you.” Said Louis, softly, grabbing her shoulders and gently sitting her down on the bed, “We’re not going to kick you out, either. I… I don’t know what your feeling, not, not enough to understand it properly, but you have to know that we’re here for you.”
Clementine swallowed thickly, “H-he w-was all I—” her voice broke, as she pressed her face into Louis’s shoulder and sobbed into it.
The following day, Louis took Clementine to AJ’s grave, allowing her to properly say goodbye to her son.