Previously on The Walking Dead.

"Why are you doing this?" Clem desperately pleaded with a nervous Mike, inching closer and closer towards her outstretched arms and her gun.

Mike's eyes furrowed, slightly shaking his head at her. "He didn't give us any choice."

Clem looked on at them with sadness, disappointment, and betrayal, her group was tearing themselves apart at the seems. Arvo still holding the hunting rifle in his hands hawked up and spit a loogie on the snowy ground. "Он является чистым злом." He cursed in hatred towards Kenny.

"I'm sorry, Clem." Bonnie shrugged her shoulders, agreeing with Mike in his statement and just wanting to leave without anyone getting hurt. She didn't agree with the abandonment of the others, but her self preservation had already taken over.

"Just give me the gun Clem, I'm not going to hurt you." Mike assured the eleven year old at the time of his intentions. "There we go... there we go."

Clementine closed her eyes in frustration, knowing that she was outnumbered and outgunned here. She didn't necessarily want to shoot them either, so she gave up her pistol to Mike, to which he was thankful and relieved that she did so. "See? It's fine it's-!"

*BANG!*

Clem cried out in sudden burning and excruciating pain as the rifle bullet entered and exited through her shoulder. Blood began to spew out as her hand automatically tried to cover the wound and she fell to the ground.

"NO!" Mike yelped in shock and horror of the sight before him. He then turned around to see Arvo was the culprit. The Russian boy seemingly felt no qualms and hightailed it outta there, not even looking back.

"Oh my god..." Bonnie cried, abhorred by what just happened.

"Bonnie we have to go!" Mike ordered her, fearful of what Kenny and even possibly Jane would do when they saw this.

As soon as they heard Kenny, the strong black man and the redhead eventually followed Arvo's example and left the rest of them, on foot. None of this, Clem getting shot, it wasn't supposed to happen...


Episode 2: Judge With Heart- Written by Drexbann15

"Беда́ никогда́ не прихо́дит одна́"

"Trouble never come alone..."

...

Clem and Arvo continued to just stare each other down, taking their new appearances in. Arvo had his brownish blonde hair a little bit longer, and his purple windbreaker was replaced with a white t-shirt with dark purple on his sleeves and shoulders. His glasses were the same, they had taken a beating, a couple new cracks were apparent on his lenses. The Russian also had some scruff on his face to add to his age, peach fuzz on his upper lip and whiskers on his cheeks and chin. His eyes were wide like a deer in the headlights, recognizing Clementine instantly...

The scar in her shoulder began to burn... they both remembered from that night.

[GET HIM!]

[GLARE]

Clem gritted her teeth, for the first time ever or at least a very long time, her little nostrils began to flare. She clenched her fists, balling them up as tight as she could and charged. "ARVO! You... you... you shitbird!" An ode to Kenny.

The Russian stood his ground, his expression unreadable as he flinched against the incoming Clementine coming at him. "You still alive?" He spoke in his thick accent.

"Yes I'm still alive after you shot me!" Clem angrily barked at him as she got in close and started punching the young boy. However, with Clementine's scrawny arms and small hands, it was not that very effective, at least not in a way that would bruise him.

With one swift motion, Arvo pushed the little girl back. Even with his leg brace, the Russian still had the height advantage and weight class. "I had no choice!" The force was just short to almost knock Clem off her feet, but she was still standing, oh how she wish she still had her gun... but it was still in the weapons depository when she came back inside with Rupert. She glared her coldest glare at him as he continued. "You-you killed my sister, and you were going to tell crazy man we were leaving!"

[Crazy? I'll show you crazy!]

[You were okay with killing a baby?!]

[Kenny was not crazy!]

Through gritted teeth, Clem seethed at Arvo. "Kenny was NOT crazy! You tried to rob us, kill us, you tried to kill me! Was he crazy for being right about you?!"

Arvo leered down at her, condescending as hell towards her. "Where is he? If you are here is he here as well?"

Her flare was still there, she wanted to go straight back to trying to 'beat up' Arvo, or go find a gun, but she was glued to the spot. She wanted to raise a megaphone and shout for everyone to hear what this person did to her.

[Kenny's right behind you]

[He died saving AJ]

[I killed him]

"I hope you're happy..." Clem's breathe hitched. "Because Kenny died a few months ago saving AJ, saving a whole group. I will always remember him for the good man he was."

(?) Arvo will remember that.

The Russian shook his head down at her and furrowed his eyebrows. "Now you know my pain." What?! "He shoot Natasha, Burriko, and Vitali, and I am glad he is dead."

(o) Kick him.

Clementine had enough, this was the last person she ever wanted to see in her entire life. She never stole his medical supplies from him, and yet he led his group to sack her people after Parker's run. And now, he was glad he was-!?

"Ryyaa!" Clem put as much power as she could behind her right leg and aimed it right between Arvo's legs. She didn't miss...

(?) That's going to hurt.

"OOF! дерьмо!" Arvo clutched the traumatized area between his legs and nearly keeled over from the blow. As a result, his head was low enough for Clementine to grab and punch his face. So much against her character, however this was a special case, Clem reeled back a fist to land a punch only to be stopped at the last second from someone behind her. She hadn't noticed that the door behind her had opened until now.

Sophie had grabbed both of her arms and forced the little girl to step back from Arvo. "Hey hey hey hey! What are you doing Clementine?!"

Clem struggled as much as she could against Sophie, but the older girl had her restrained too well. Soon after Arvo's groans had lessened, and he was able to recover himself from the twelve-year-old's assault. "Sophie, she kicked me..." He pointed his finger at the girl.

"I know Arvo, I know. I saw." The capped blonde girl nodded, and then she addressed the squirming girl in her arms. "Clementine! Calm down right now! This ain't how we solve issues here!"

Another moment later, and Clementine had ran outta juice for another assault and instead stopped trying to pry out of Sophie's arms. When she said she was calm, she was released and meanly and rather bluntly, Clem pulled on the collar of her shirt until a distinct bullet wound scar was revealed on her shoulder. "He did this to me."

"What? That? Arvo?" She looked towards the older teenager, who only avoided her gaze, perhaps in shame? "Have you two met before?"

Clem then turned her head so that she could lock eyes with Arvo. "Of course we have!" She accused him. "He shot me, and he tried to rob me... twice."

Sophie's eyes widened like dinner plates, almost at a loss for words. "A-arvo, is what she saying true?"

It felt like a whole minute of silence had passed before the Russian boy simply responded. "Yes." But then he added. "But she took my sister from me."

"She was already dead!" Clem shouted back. "She turned and she was going to eat me!"

Arvo took a second to think about this and then retorted. "I do not believe you, she was crawling away for cover." He crossed his arms in frustration. "Crazy man was closer, she would've bit him first."

Was he? That firefight was chaos when the Russians opened fire on them. She couldn't remember who was where until it was all over. Why would the turned Natasha go straight for her and... AJ! AJ was in her arms when she attacked. Kenny said once. You never forget that smell. Did babies have a smell that drew in walkers more? Circumstantial. "Both of you, quiet! Now!" Sophie got in between them before Clem could retaliate. "I don't know exactly what happened between you too but-"

But Clementine interrupted her with a left field question, curious if they were here too. "Where're are Mike and Bonnie? Are they here too, Arvo?"

For some reason or another, Arvo looked a little sad. "The red-haired women left no so long after we left you. And other nice person... Mike." The Russian boy sighed and said simply. "He died."

So Mike was gone too? Clem mentally sighed too, she liked Mike. She wished none of them did what they did, but they're weren't thinking straight. They didn't trust Kenny like she did, and maybe if they stuck by her and him, maybe they all could've made it to Wellington. ...But that wasn't the case. "Why then..." Clem clenched her fists in anger.

"...Why then that out of everybody I knew, why do you get to live and they don't anymore!?" She declared at Arvo. "Because after what happened, it's not fair!"

"Clementine!" Sophie stated in shock towards the little girl's accusation. "How can you say that?!"

(?) They will remember this.

"You didn't know him before." Clem coldly and bitterly informed her, not budging on her stance. Sophie then turned towards Arvo to leave them alone for a bit of privacy, and the Russian nodded about to limp away.

But then he said something before he turned the near corner. "You are right, Clementine... it is not fair."

The squeaking of his brace faded away and the two girls were left alone to converse. Sophie outwardly sighed and muttered something under her breathe. "You said some pretty serious things about him."

"They're all true. I don't lie about stuff like that." Clem informed her confidently. "I can't believe he's here."

"I bet he can't either. You know he's been with us for a while and his English has gotten a lot better since I've known him." Sophie stated optimistically. "Maybe you two can talk it out?"

[I don't want to be near him]

[He wanted to kill me]

[I don't feel safe with him here]

Clem shook her head at that. "I don't feel safe with him here. I really don't." She honestly stated.

(?) Sophie will remember that.

"Really?" The capped blonde girl asked sadly. "So... he really did try to rob you, kill you, and...?"

Clem stared at her, wondering who's side she was going to take: her side or Arvo's. "Him and his people, yeah."

"Well, I just heard a good bit of it. So I'm going to get Arvo's side of this story. We're good friends, he won't lie to me." She assured her.

"I don't care. I was there, I know what happened." The little girl stated with a grimace to which Sophie rolled her eyes and ignored her.

She put on a fake smile and tried to lighten the mood. "Hey why don't I take you to your new room? Rupert says you didn't see it yet." The twelve year old simply shrugged her shoulders, but a wave of exhaustion suddenly came over her. "C'mon, room 109, right? Your baby bro's gotta be waiting for you."

Sophie placed both hands on Clementine's shoulder and practically moved her down the corridor. Was she trying to stop her from going after Arvo? Or maybe she was trying to be nice.

"I'm glad I was there when it kicked off." Sophie said after a brief moment of silence. "I wouldn't want anyone else to get caught in the middle of that. Don't want any of the community turning on you on your first day"

"I suppose it looked kinda bad to someone else." Clementine replied, frowning. Maybe she should have thought of the consequences before hurting Arvo. Then again, in that moment, she hadn't been thinking straight. All she could think about was what Arvo had done.

"I understand why you did it, I do. You have a right to be upset or angry... But violence doesn't solve anything. If Arvo really did shoot you-"

"He did" Clementine insisted.

"-Then you wouldn't want to stoop to his level, would you? If you had encountered him any other way... If you had a gun on you, for example, what would you have done?"

Clementine wasn't sure how to respond to that. She had thought about the possibility but... Could she really say something like that to Sophie? She simply settled with "I- I don't know."

"I was always told to never accept 'I don't know' as an answer"

Clem sighed "In the moment, then, yes... Maybe I would've shot him."

"I thought you might say that" Sophie responded in a calm manner. It wasn't what Clem had expected. "Sometimes good people do bad things... I know you don't see it that way, but Arvo is a good person."

"I guess he managed to fool you too, just like how he fooled some of my friends"

Sophie sighed "How well do you know him?"

"I only knew him for a few days and he didn't speak English very well, so we didn't talk much"

"Well, I on the other hand have been attending regular meetings with him. We were supposed to have one today but... This happened"

"And forgot to mention that he shot and nearly killed a little girl?" Clementine retorted. "He was probably trying to aim for my heart, but he missed"

"I thought we could be honest with each other... That we could tell each other anything... I guess not. But I can't blame him for not saying anything, who would've trusted him if he said something like that?" she questioned.

After another paused, Sophie spoke up again "Look, um... For now, I'd like to keep all this between us, okay? I don't want this being spread around the community. I might talk to Anson and Drake about it, but I think it would be best, for you and Arvo, if this was kept quiet for now."

"You want Arvo to get away with it? These people need to know what he did!" Clementine exclaimed.

"This is your first day, Clementine. If you start drawing attention to yourself then it might cause problems, not just for Arvo. People might believe his side of the story instead of yours, since he's been here longer. I need some time to figure out what to do before other people can know. Can Dusty vouch for your side of the story?"

"No... He wasn't with my group when it happened. He doesn't know about it"

"Oh... Well, I'd like to discuss this more tomorrow, if that's alright with you."

Clem's shrugged "I guess so"

After walking around the hotel a little bit longer they had passed rooms 107, 108, then... "109." Sophie turned the doorknob and opened the door for her. "Just like the rest of them. Nothing special, but you're not getting a bad deal either."

"Thanks." Clem stated flatly as she dragged her feet into the room.

Sophie nodded, trying to comfort her. "Yeah. And... uh. Today must have been a hard day on you so, you don't have to do anything for us until tomorrow morning. "You can catch up on all your beauty sleep if you want to. Lord knows I need it too but... it's a fact kids need more hours to feel more rested."

Clem looked up at the kind girl, and gratefully bobbed her head, assuring her with the slightest of smiles. "Make sure Dusty is okay too."

"I promise Clementine. Sleep tight."

Clem closed the door after another. "Thank you Sophie." And she shut and locked the door for good measure, just in case. The first thing she was surprised to find in her room was a crib next to her bed, where she could already hear a slumbering AJ in it. And next to the crib on a table were: diapers, baby food, even a couple boxes of apple juice.

God, she could go for some apple juice right now.

She picked up the green box and fiddled with the tiny little straw until she managed to taste the sweet nectar of the rare treat. "Ah..." She remembered that last one she had one of these was. She then stared somberly at Alvin Junior. "I hope you turn out just as nice as your dad... and just as tough AJ."

Clem earned a drowsy coo before the child turned over on his side, with his back towards Clem now. So the little girl finished off every single drop of apple juice that was in there, took off her shoes, and plopped onto the comfy hotel bed like it was a cloud. Her eyelids suddenly became very heavy, and like magic, she was out like a light.

When was the last time you had thirteen hours of sleep? Clem surely couldn't remember, and every minute of peaceful rest was pure bliss to her standards and to her back as well. The mattress was not that bad, not too soft, not too hard, just right.

Clem yawned as she heard a knock on her door. She put her shoes back on and answered the door while cutely rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, who is it?"

She opened the fully to find none other than Ellen, the women she met with Rupert yesterday at their daycare, standing at her door. "Morning dearie, how'd you sleep?"

"Better than I had in a while. Thanks."

"Glad to hear it. I'm here to take care of your brother just like yesterday. You can still visit him whenever you like, but I'm sure Rupert or Sophie has some work for you to do."

Clem nodded in confirmation, giving her a brief thanks and trusting her with the child. The twelve year old quickly left in a rush, and she wanted to check in with Dusty before anyone found her any work for the day. Anson had said that he could be awake sometime this morning. So she made it to Room 213, as it was since last time she met, and pulled up a chair. Waiting patiently for any sort of stir, any sign of consciousness... anything.

"Dusty..." She placed her hand in his open one, waiting for him to clutch it back. "Can you wake up now? Please?"

Suddenly a voice shattered the silence as Rupert entered the room, leaning against the door. "Thought you'd be up here." He walked up to her side and joined in with waiting with Clementine. "Maybe if you kiss him, he'll wake up?"

Now that snapped Clem out of her trance, she looked up at Rupert strangely with a quirked eyebrow. "Kiss him?"

"Yeah you know." He shrugged his shoulders. "Reverse Snow White. Uh..." He scratched his head sheepishly. "Never mind, it's not that funny."

For whatever reason though, the idea did cross her mind, maybe...? "Rupert, how long can I stay till I have to work?"

She heard Rupert sigh from beside her. "Five more minutes kid, he'll still be here later when you're done."

"Okay." Clem sadly agreed and sparred a glance at Dusty's IV bag which was nearly empty. "What about-"

"Ermm..."

...

Clem and Rupert had their full attention on the person laying in the bed in front of them now. Like they were about to watching a miracle happen.

"Hrmm... ergh." A pair of eyes opened, and they were not milky white or dead-like grey, they were brown and full of life.

"D-dusty? Dustin? Are you awake?" Clem felt her eyes begin to water as she squeezed his hand for some sort of indication that he was here with her. ...And then she felt him squeeze back.

"...hrm... wh-where am I?" Dusty weakly spoke as his eyes adjusted to the light around them, and then he turned towards Rupert and Clementine. "Who are you?"

And that's when Clementine's heart sank to rock bottom. Her smile turned to a frown at his words, and she felt terrible inside. Who are you? He didn't remember them, he didn't remember her?! How could he have amnesia at a time like this?! No, she needed him, she needed the last person she could trust for sure, she needed-!

"Hey dude, name's Rupert. Heard a lot about you." Ru innocently waved from behind Clementine.

Oh.

He meant 'who are you' directed at Rupert.

"Yeah?" He smiled weakly at him and then turned his head towards Clementine. "How long was I out? Oh hey Clementine."

[Hug Him]

Clementine practically pounced onto Dusty, wrapping her arms around him, and burying her face into the crook of his neck. It was like a big weight was lifted off her shoulders. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry this happened to you..." She sniffed while muffled in his shirt.

And Dusty returned that hug while Rupert couldn't help but grin widely and proudly at the scene. He whispered to her. "It's okay... it's okay, I'm back."