A/N: Hello again!

So here we have the finale of this tale, and I have already anticipated some flack for this one but I'm ready for it. I'll warn you now…some of you are going to love this and some of you are going to want to garrote me when it's all said and done. This is already anticipated and I welcome you all to throw comments my way. I'm ready for them!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing affiliated with The Walking Dead

WDWDWDWDWDWDWD

Carol finally stopped, her feet too tired to carry her any further. They had made it to the river's edge and it wove its way through the forest and down into the tiny brook that had fed the water supply for the prison. It was a beautiful place…and perfect for what she had to do.

"Let's stop here and take a rest." She said, sitting on the edge of a large stone pillar. "I'm sure you're tired too."

"I'm okay." Lizzie shrugged, but she sat down anyway. "Are we near the prison again?"

"We're a bit further down, but not too far." She looked over. "Why?"

"I remember coming this way when we were with dad." Lizzie remarked, looking around. "I always thought it was so pretty here, but he said we couldn't stay because it was too dangerous."

"He was probably right." Carol frowned; sadness filling her heart. "Have I ever told you about my daughter?"

"Not really. I just know that you had a one, but that she died."

Carol nodded. "Her name was Sophia. She was just a little bit older than you the last time I saw her. She would have been fourteen this year. "

Lizzie looked back at her, intrigued. "What happened to her?"

She sighed. "A walker chased her into the woods just off of I 85 and we lost her. Around the same time, Carl accidentally got shot and we all ended up at Herschel's farm. It was there that we found Sophia again. She had been bitten and she came back as a walker."

"What did you do to her?"

"We did what we always do when there's a threat. We took care of it."

"You killed her?"

"I didn't personally kill her." Carol looked out over the river; her eyes misting at the memory of that day. "I tried to run to her but Daryl held me back. Everyone else stood there…they were too scared to do what had to be done. Eventually Rick stepped up and took care of it before she could harm anybody."

Lizzie looked down at the ground in front of her. "Why do you say that…that he did what had to be done?"

Carol wiped her eyes and looked back over at her. "Because he did…it was what we had to do to move on and survive. We didn't have fences to keep them out like at the prison. It wasn't really Sophia anymore. It was a monster and it would have hurt someone if we hadn't done something."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do." She could feel her emotions closing off. "Lizzie…walkers aren't people anymore. They aren't going to just magically come back to life and be the people you loved again. That's not how it works."

Lizzie's face hardened, her anger beginning to seep through. "Why does everyone keep saying that? How do you know they can't come back? Do you have any proof?"

"I do, but that's not the point." Carol got up, walking towards the edge of the trees. "I don't need scientific facts because I know in my heart that—that thing that came out of the barn—that wasn't my daughter. My Sophia was gone. She was safe…finally."

"But that 'thing' was still something." Lizzie pushed. "Even if it wasn't your daughter anymore, it was still a living creature."

"So are sharks, but you don't keep them as pets." Carol snapped, turning back to her. "You really don't understand at all do you? This isn't some type of joke. What you did…what I helped you do…it was beyond wrong. You never should have been in there. You can't treat two living, breathing humans like a goddamn carving station and then turn around and tell me that something that hurts us should be allowed to stay alive!"

"I only did it because I wanted to help!" The girl rose to her feet. "I wanted to prove to you that I was strong and I could do what needed to be done."

"Lizzie…they were still alive. I never told you to kill the living. Ever."

"No." She stared back, her face resolved. "You just told me that I was weak."

Carol's eyes flew open, her resolve crumbling. Dear God…is this truly what it had come down to? In a moment of anguish…of utter frustration at the situation she was in, she had turned an innocent child into a heartless tyrant. One word had set off a series of events that had led to her not only losing a home, but her family as well. They had been there for her in some of the most difficult times of her life, and now they all thought she was a killer. Sadly, they were right. They just didn't know it hadn't actually happened yet.

"I'm sorry Lizzie." She reached down into the band of her pants, pulling out her gun. "I can't take you back to that camp. I can't have you around the others. You're not weak, but you are dangerous."

Lizzie's face fell, her anger moving aside to make way for fear. "But…I only did what I thought you wanted me to!"

"Did I tell you to smother Judith too?"

She looked up, her eyes filled with confusion. "I didn't want to hurt her."

"But you almost did." She walked closer, her finger resting on the trigger. "She's just a baby. She can't communicate the way we do. If you had hurt her and I wasn't there, I don't know what Tyreese would have done to you."

"But I didn't!" Lizzie yelled, her eyes filling with tears. "I didn't hurt her!"

"Because I stopped you this time!" Carol could quickly feel herself losing control. "I can't do this again with you. I can't give you the help that you need. No one can."

Lizzie's body crumbled to the ground in front of her; the child wracked with sobs as tears streamed down her face. Carol knew that this time the cries were real, and their effect on her senses was making it harder and harder to pull the trigger. She needed to get a grip and take control of the situation.

"Lizzie…get up."

"Please…" Lizzie cried harder. "Please don't do this…you love me, I know you do…"

"I can't love a killer Lizzie."

"But you can't kill me! Think about Sophia!"

"DON'T SAY HER NAME!" Carol could feel the tears rolling down her face as she screamed. "You need to stand up now!"

"Please don't….please…."

She steadied herself, putting both hands on the gun to keep it from shaking. She had to do it and it needed to be now. She tried to steady herself enough to get her target in sight, but just as she'd finally gotten up the guts to pull the trigger, she heard a twig snap, followed by a voice…it was a voice she honestly never thought she'd hear again.

"Carol…stop."

No. It wasn't real. It had to be a figment of her imagination. It wasn't until Lizzie looked up at the sound that she realized she wasn't the only one who had heard it. It was really him. Daryl was standing ten feet away at the edge of the clearing. His crossbow was strapped to his back and he had his hand up like he was there to surrender. He crept up closer, making sure to take his time not to startle anyone. Carol stared at him momentarily, her brain trying to take in the situation. She had seen this set up before on crime dramas. He was the hostage negotiator, and she was the serial killer.

"Daryl…" She breathed, her heart breaking at knowing what he was about to witness. "This isn't what it looks like."

"I know exactly what it is." He said; his eyes never leaving hers. "I get it…but I need you to put the gun down."

"I know what you must be thinking about me right now." She wept, her willpower crumbling at the notion of it. "How much you must hate me for this."

He shook his head. "I don't hate you. I just need you to think about what you're about to do."

"I have to do it. I can't leave this up to anybody else. It's all my fault and I need to fix it."

He walked forward again, now half the distance away. "You can't do this on your own. Takin' on this kinda burden. It'll kill ya."

"I'm already dead." She realized as the words came out. "When the others find out, they'll kill me too."

"Not if ya don't do it."

"They already think I did!" She cried, her heart breaking at the realization of the mess she'd made. "Why not let them keep thinking it?"

"Because you didn't." He said, stepping a little closer. "You ain't a killer."

"Turn away." She ignored him, her eyes back on Lizzie. "You shouldn't have to see this."

His voice was solid. "I ain't goin' nowhere…I know you don't wanna do this."

"Then what do I do?" Carol was nearly beyond help. "I can't let her go back. She tried to hurt Judith. She killed two grown people!"

"I know. I believe you."

She could tell by his voice that he wasn't lying. He really believed her. She wasn't going crazy after all. In that moment, somehow despite everything, he'd given her hope again. As she turned back towards him, she realized he was right behind her; his features exactly the same as she had remembered. He had come for her after all…the one person in the world who still knew who she was at her core.

"What do I do?" She whispered, her eyes never leaving his.

He didn't even hesitate. "You give me the gun. You walk away."

"I can't."

"Yes you can."

Before she'd even made the decision to hand the gun over, he was reaching to take it from her. She let it fall out of her hands and along with it came the weight of everything she'd tried so hard to bury over the last few weeks. Carol felt like she might crumble to the ground in that very moment, but for the first time in a long time she felt safe again. It wasn't until she saw Daryl's head move to the side and his eyes go wide that she knew something was wrong.

"NO!"

Carol barely had time to register what was happening, but in that instant the gun fell out of Daryl's hands and hit the ground. His arm wrapped around her waist as he tried to pull her behind him, shielding her from whatever was happening. Carol saw the flash of something metallic but was blocked by Daryl's body as he lunged for Lizzie, who had come up from behind her. He managed to tackle her to the ground but there was a struggle and she saw blood trickle out onto the dirt below them. In a moment of panic, Carol lunged for the gun again, her hands barely reaching it just before Lizzie's. She pulled it away from the child's hands, tripping over a rock and falling backwards. She heard the gun fire a shot and her head hit something hard as she tumbled back down to the ground.

Everything went dark.

A/N: Okay…everybody take a deep breath…and blow it out.

For those of you waiting for me to pop up and be like 'Hahaha just kidding! That's totally not the ending'…sadly you're going to be disappointed. This is it. Now you're asking me why right? Well it's pretty simple…on top of being a cruel, cruel human being (hehe) I also feel that in this case, all the answers shouldn't just be served up on a little silver platter with a pretty little doily spelling out who did what. I guess you could consider this story sort of a test of faith. I'm not honestly sure that I even know what happened, but if I've learned anything from this show in the past few seasons, it's that not everything gets an explanation. Sometimes, we don't even get closure and it's just something we have to deal with. These characters all have decisions to make, and those decisions depict who they are and who they will become. Some go wrong and some don't.

So as, I've said, I am fully expecting a mix of good and bad reviews, and I welcome you to write me and let me know what you thought was going to happen and why. Now before you start giving me the whole 'well obviously Lizzie died but Carol and Daryl are unharmed' theory, think a little deeper than that. Consider all the scenarios that could have come out of this and really think about which one would fit the situation. Use your imaginations…think about it like you're a detective going over a crime scene. Don't think about what you wanted to happen, but what the most likely outcome was. I am hoping to get some really interesting theories here…in fact, I'll do you one better. If I get a particular theory that I really like or enough of the same type of theory from different people, I might just write another part to this depicting that scene. So put on your thinking caps folks…let's see if we can do a better job at telling a story than the writers on the show.

Let's make the cast proud…I know we can do it!