Mutually Assured Destruction || Yandere!Soulmates X F!Reader

Never Changes

Melanie had questions, of course. A list of questions as long as the summer days were hot, in fact. Unfortunately, for you and for her, you hadn't a single answer. Well, maybe you did. But you weren't talking.

That didn't seem to stop her, though.

As the two of you drove down a back road towards the Fort in a stolen vehicle, she seemingly couldn't help herself from falling into a loop, like some sort of faulty pre-War robot.

"What are you doing here?"

"Is this where you've been all this time?"

And, "Why did you leave?"

Once she finally caught on that you were giving her the silent treatment, she decided to speak up instead. "I thought you were dead," she said, voice cracking with emotion. "We found pieces of you in a mass grave. Kali and Uma made everyone in the gang with a strong enough stomach dig through it for days, trying to recover your body, but all of the corpses were too charred to identify."

All of that was by design, too. Your escape required the sacrifice of the raiding party you took out into the Wastes. Those men and women had trusted you, but you didn't really like any of them. So their lives were given up for the greater good. You couldn't become a better person with two devils on your back.

"Talk to me!" Melanie screamed, bringing you back to the present. "Say something! Anything!"

"I'm taking you to Fort Valiant," you told her, low and even, like she was a wild animal you were trying to calm. "It's the most secure place in this county. You'll be safe there while the Rangers clear out the vermin. Once the gang is eradicated or driven away, you'll be free to go your own way."

You hadn't taken your eyes off the road once since the two of you climbed into the car, but her expressions were easy to read, even when they were just in your periphery.

Confusion, betrayal, and incredulousness all flitted across her features. Finally, "And what if the gang refuses to retreat or die quietly, huh? Your chances of winning this war are a million to one."

You knew that. Dear God, did you know that. There would be no mutually assured destruction here, just an outright slaughter. You couldn't just lay down and die, though. You had to act, for your friends, your family, your sense of what's right. "Still a chance," you remarked, sounding more confident than you actually felt.

She let out a little shriek of frustration. "Sooner or later, the Final Ghouls will take Fort Valiant. If we're found behind enemy lines... The Twins may take you back, but I'm finished!"

"I'm not going back."

"Y/N, please! Think this through--"

"I'm not going back."

"If you come back with me, everything will--"

"Listen to me, Melanie: I'm never going back to those two psychopaths for as long as I live."

Here, she paused, looking you over with those big, brown eyes for a long while. At last, she let out a huff and sat back in her seat, crossing her arms. "Then you leave me no choice. You're going to have to kill me. Because I will escape, and, when I do, I'm going to Uma and Kali and telling them everything."

"I'm not killing you. A word of advice should you escape, however... You're stepping out into a world where everyone and everything wants you dead, from the gang to the locals and wildlife. If I were you, I'd get the hell out of this county as fast as my legs could carry me." You reached up to scratch your cheek, hard. "I'm also disassembling that sniper rifle of yours and carrying around a few key pieces in my bag, though. Good luck going anywhere without your baby!"

She turned to you with a snarl, audibly grinding her teeth. You glanced at her from the corner of your eye and gave her a mean little smirk.

"You haven't changed a bit," she said at last, which wiped the smile off your face. You certainly hoped that wasn't the case. You tried so hard to be better and thought you were making slow but palpable progress. When you asked her what she meant by that, she turned to stare out the window, wouldn't respond to you for the rest of the ride.

In several ways, Melanie hadn't changed either. You were both too stubborn to admit when you were wrong... And too repressed to admit you had missed the other.