"We're going to start," Deanna says to the mix of Alexandrians and Rick's group that had gathered for the meeting. She stands next to a fire pit, burning bright in the void. It's the only illumination, flickering shadows to play upon grim faces. Night had fallen and the moon is nowhere to be seen. Lupe overslept on accident and they had to wait for her to arrive. It was unfortunate. She was cranky about having to be conscious and functional.

Deanna continues, "We're going to talk about what has happened to our community." She looks around the group, scattered with fear and distrust on both sides. "Not just the fight or what precipitated it. Not just the run that went bad and how it all occurred. We need to be an involved community, and I want you to know what happens from me and from direct sources. I don't want rumors to fly. I want us to make well-informed decisions, together."

She sighs and strolls around the fire pit like the lawyer she once was. "We need more information about what happened on that run. I have two separate accounts and to be honest, I don't know which to trust." Deanna glances at Glenn who looks stricken. Then at Nicholas who appears to be completely zoned out while his knee bounces fast.

"Noah lost one of his legs and we are hopeful he will heal and be able to adapt with our support. Tara is still unconscious, her head injury is a severity we cannot ignore, but we cannot help much either." Deanna swallows, trying to conceal the grief in her voice. "Aiden is irredeemably injured. We cleaned his burns, but he hasn't woken up since he lost consciousness from shock. He wasn't cogent enough to tell us what happened while he was awake and in indescribable pain. But we await his recovery with open hearts and minds."

She freezes in the center of the group and scowls. "However, this distrust? The possible irresponsibility? It needs to be remedied. Until then, I'm halting all supply trips. None of the run group is allowed out of the gates, no weapons of any kind either." Her eyes narrow on Glenn. He nods, jaw working, but he doesn't seem bothered by her decree. Maggie sits next to him, upset with the decision for more than the obvious reasons.

"How're we supposed to get what we need?" Nicholas whines. "You don't have to trust those people, but there's plenty of us -,"

Deanna's glare snaps to him and he shuts his mouth. "It is decided and you will be quiet about it. We have more to discuss and it's getting late. I want to see my son before the night ends." Her tone lowers to a hiss, "So be silent and appreciate that it's not you in the infirmary." Nicholas withers in his seat and glares at the ground.

Deanna clears her throat and tries to blink away her blatant rage over her son's needless suffering. She breathes, careful and slow, and looks back at the gathered throng. "We're going to talk about one of the new members of our community, Lupe. We're going to talk about how she fought in the streets. Brandishing a knife without regard for others, and injured our surgeon. We're going to talk about her issues with authority and lack of teamwork. How she caused friction in the run group before she got reassigned."

"We going to talk about your kid torturing walkers? Or the homophobic wife beater who tackled me into the street face first? Or his little rat of a son that attacked two innocent girls for no good reason? No mention of him leaving bruises on their neck and cheek?" Lupe snarls.

Deanna exhales through her nose. "Pete was treated by Denise and he's been sentenced to house arrest, separated from his family in an empty home. He's currently being guarded by our people and he is no longer a threat. There will be a chance for you to speak, but it's not now."

Lupe guffaws, leaning back in her chair. "Oh good. That doesn't sound like a miscarriage of justice at all…"

Deanna tries to continue, "Lupe has already been in two fights -,"

Sasha chimes in, "Both started by other people!"

Michonne steps in before Deanna can react. "Lupe has saved our lives more times than I can possibly be grateful for." Her eyes glance at Lupe and a careful smile forms on Michonne's lips. "She didn't even know us. Her sister got taken captive. And still, she stopped when it was almost dark and gave food and shelter to a bunch of strangers. To Rick. To me. To Carl, a child in need. She helped us take out men who would have killed Rick and done much worse to me and Carl. She is honest and she is clear-headed despite the fear she feels. She hasn't let it destroy her as we all have. She's never stopped trying to keep goodness and righteousness alive."

Glenn stands too, clearing his throat. "Our group got taken by cannibals. We were gonna be bled, hung, skinned, and eaten." The crowd collectively gasps in horror and disbelief. Glen sniffs hard and nods. "We saw'em do it to others, right in front of us. But Lupe escaped." A smile almost forms on his lips and he shakes his head. "She escaped an armed compound with at least twenty people shooting at her. Probably more chased her through the woods."

He looks around at the stunned faces. "They were gunning for her, intent on killing her. You want to know what she did? She immediately came back for the rest of us and saved Rick's infant daughter in the process." Glenn scoffs. "These people, these cannibals? They lured unsuspecting, desperate survivors with the promise of paradise. Then they slaughtered them and ate them without a single shred of remorse. That horror? She stopped it. She didn't just save our lives that day, she saved an entire future that's now free of those people." His lips clamp shut and he shifts a little, looking over at Lupe. He nods to her and sits down.

Carol talks next, her voice taking on the meek tone. "There's terrifying people out there." Her eyes are wide and wet with unshed tears. "And Lupe rescued me from them." She sniffles, looking around with big puppy dog eyes, innocent enough to make an angel swoon. "People like me? people like us?" She motions to the Alexandrians. "We need people like her. I know what happened the other day was scary. And I'm sure she's sorry for that. But maybe we should question things more. Maybe we should talk and listen to each other. Maybe we shouldn't condone abuse and hide things from each other." Carol says that a little pointedly, looking at Deanna.

Abraham grumbles, "There is a vast ocean of shit you people don't know shit about. Lupe? She knows every molecule of said shit and more. She is aggressive about the truth and she won't let no one get hurt for the sake of a lie. I made that mistake myself and she set me straight." He shakes his head. It's all he needs to say on the matter. These cowards should figure out the rest themselves.

"Lupe saved my sister's life," Maggie adds. "Beth got taken with Alma. Lupe saved them both, saved others, even when she didn't have to. She's an older sister. She values family. She knew exactly what I was going through. It broke me for a while. She understood that fear in a visceral way, but she didn't stop caring about those girls one second. Our sisters got put through hell and worse and she stopped it. She kept my sister alive and saved her from a fate worse than death."

Maggie's chin trembles. She pushes on, "Lupe is a person with a good heart. She never fails to think through the things she does, the things she has to do. She never takes a moment for granted and she appreciates this world for exactly what it is." She glances around. "And all of us who were together before this place, no matter when we found each other, we're family now. Rick started that and you won't stop it." She looks back at Deanna, determined. "You can't. And you don't want to. Rick listens to us, even when he doesn't want to hear it, he does. Lupe has set us all right a time or two. She's got an invaluable sense of integrity and takes everything to heart. This community, you people, you should appreciate exactly who she is." There's a resounding silence as Maggie takes her seat. Glenn wraps his arm around her.

Lupe sits stunned to the side. Her anger has dissipated, replaced by a vacuous confusion. The things the group are saying, it doesn't even sound like her.

Someone clears their throat, a tight agitated sound. "Before we hear from anyone else..." Father Gabriel says as he stands, "I'd like to say something and my only regret is that I did not say it sooner." He looks around at Rick's group, licking his lips with his eyes widened in fear. Lupe scowls at him with a severe disdain and it chills him to the bone.

Gabriel clears his throat again as he looks at Deanna. "Satan? He disguises himself as the angel of light. I'm afraid that false light is here, inside these walls. Your community, you say it's not a paradise, but it is." His smile squints up his face, but Gabriel radiates insecurity and fear. "I'm grateful to be here, I am. But you made a mistake letting in the others." His eyes flicker around, noticing everyone's stances change. "Rick and his group, they're not good people. They've done things. They've done unspeakable things."

Reg interjects, "To make it out there as long as they did? They must have done things. Everyone has said as much." He watches Gabriel with an introspective stare. "They survived. That's what makes them assets."

"You're wrong," Gabriel snaps. He shivers underneath the anger radiating off Rick's group. "They can't be trusted. They're dangerous. You may believe that they did what they had to do. That they were afraid and so they -," he chokes on the fear jamming his throat shut. "These people are not who they seem to be!" He turns and points at Lupe with a stiff, straight arm. "She and her sister killed police officers back at Grady Memorial Hospital. Without a moment's hesitation! Gunned down peacekeepers in the beat of a heart! Every single one shot in the head before any violence on their part occurred."

His eyes flare as he stares around at the people of Alexandria. "It was chilling. It was vicious. It was unholy. She values only her sister's life and nothing else. She is just like the others, a product of their violence. The day will come when this group will put their own lives before yours, and everyone else's." His jaw rolls. "They will destroy everything you have here, everything you're working so hard to build!"

Gabriel pants. "Satan? He disguises himself as the angel of light. His servants are the false apostles of righteousness." He spreads his arms towards some of Rick's group standing to the side. "They don't deserve this. They don't deserve paradise!"

Tyrese steps forward, his voice deep and harrowing. "And you do? A man of God that willfully killed his parishioners?" His eyes burn with fury as he glares at Gabriel, daring him to look away. Sasha puts a hand on Tyreese's arm, not to stop him, not to calm him, but to reassure him that she's on his side. He growls, teeth bared, "Why don't you tell Deanna about that? How you locked them out of your chapel and let them claw at the siding like desperate animals as they got torn apart!?"

There's another gasp that rolls through the gathering. Deanna stands gaping. Her eyes flutter between Tyreese and Gabriel. She blinks back tears and looks to Maggie.

"Gabriel told Rick himself when we first found him," Maggie confirms. "Tyreese, Lupe, Rick, and Carl found the evidence on the outside of his church. There were pry marks on all the windows and 'You'll burn for this' was carved into the siding."

Deanna turns her glare onto Gabriel and he immediately sits down. His face drops into his hands and he starts to sob. A muffled murmur leaks out of his fingers, "They died. They all died because of me."

Daryl steps out from his spot, gnawing on his lip. "Being on the outside ain't no picnic in a gazebo," he starts, voice hard despite his nerves. He hates attention, but he'd weather anything for his family. He's not gonna let her down anymore. "Lupe's been to hell and back and she's protected her sister the entire time. When I met up with her? She was worried I was a threat to Maggie's little sister. She took me down and made sure that girl was safe. After those girls got taken and I lost my way? She kicked my ass back into gear and kept me going, even though I didn't deserve an ounce of her trust or kindness."

He shuffles and scoffs. "And those cops? They ran people down with cars. They went out mowing down strangers they found trying to survive. Would take them back to their hospital and fix them up, but it came with a debt." Anger storms in his chest. He can't pin a single reason for it, but he lets it come out in his tone, "Cops forced the wards into servitude. With no rights to nothin'. Those cops killed people who would cause them trouble or fight back. They'd kill people they didn't deem useful."

He glares at Deanna who stares at him with distrust. "They beat on and raped their goddamn captives, some of which were kids and the elderly!" He points at Gabriel, snarling with severe disdain, "This coward? He don't tell you that every single one of those people thanked them sisters on the way out. Lupe saved their lives because she didn't hesitate. She saved the lives of me and my family more than once now. She's saved the lives of the people in here already too."

He points toward the darkness around them that hides the truth they are desperate to ignore. "Outside those gates, there are no goddamn remnants left of the world you knew. The one y'all cling to like damn children. If any of you had any goddamn sense, you'd see that to survive, you'd want to become just like her."

He scoffs at them. His eyes finally meet Lupe's and it's like his nerves take the reins. She's staring up at him slack-jawed. A few errant tears escape her watery eyes and slide down her bruised cheek. His voice shakes as he continues, looking right at her, "And you'd be lucky to - at your goddamn best - be even half a what she's worth."

Footsteps sound behind Deanna and she turns. The whole meeting gets distracted when Rick comes through the garden entrance. He's covered in blood and gore and has a walker corpse on his shoulder. He stomps past Deanna and throws the body on the ground with a wet thump. He turns to Deanna and his voice is thin and furious, "There wasn't a guard on the gate. It was open."

Spencer gapes and his mom turns to him with a severe scowl. "I asked Gabriel to close it," he explains, looking over at the priest, still muttering and crying.

Deanna glares at her son. "Go!"

After Spencer sprints off, Rick looks to Deanna first. She's glaring at the corpse so he turns to the community. "I didn't bring it in. It got inside on its own." He shakes his head as regret and rage tense and weigh down his shoulders. "They always will. The dead and the living. Because we're in here and the ones out there want what we have. They'll hunt us. They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us." He gazes around at the terrified Alexandrians and his brows bend into a stern frown. "But we'll stop them. We'll survive. I'll show you how," he waves around at his people, "we'll show you how."

He sighs, walking closer to Deanna. She looks up at him, dazed with anger and concern. "You know, I was thinking - I was thinking how many of you have to die until you'll actually face reality?" He scoffs, looking back at the appalled faces. "But there aren't gonna be any more people dying. You're gonna change." He grits his teeth and the statement is a promise and an omen all at once. "You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now. You have to be," he implores.

"Luck runs out. You can't coddle each other anymore. You can't keep looking away in the name of propriety. You can't let people abuse this world and the people in it. They're not to be trusted, they're not to be welcomed. If you want to rebuild this world, you need a strong foundation. You want people with surety. You want people who can see past the bullshit." He shakes his head and smiles, half grim. "You want us here. You want Lupe here." He wipes a hand down his face and the smile is still there, tainted by disbelief. "She stopped a child abuser from hurting more kids, for shit's sake! And we're gonna reprimand her? What kind of society are we even trying to build here?"

Another set of footsteps sound on the brick. Everyone turns, expecting Spencer, but it's the wrong shade of blonde. Pete comes stumbling through the open gate. There's a knife in his hand he likely stole from the person guarding him. Judging by the blood on the blade, no one thinks that the other person is currently living.

Pete shambles forward, much like a maldito and just as hungry for something. He glares at Lupe, slurring, "You're not one of us. You're not one of us!"

Reg starts walking forward to block him, his hands raised in supplication. "Pete, you don't want to do this."

Lupe rises to her feet, keeping her eyes glued to that knife. Daryl moves to the side of her, a step or two in front. She stares at his back for a blink. Seeing the wings makes her wonder if this is what having a guardian angel might feel like. She didn't know if she liked it. It caused her stomach to feel funny, and not in an IBS way.

"Get the hell away from me, Reg!" Pete wails.

"Pete, just stop," Reg replies, getting a few steps closer.

"Get away from me!" Pete bellows, swinging his non-knife hand.

Deanna steps after her husband, eyes too wide and urgent with her begging, "Reg… Reg… Stop, Reg!"

"Get away! Get away!" Pete yells. Jessie is in the crowd, held by her friends and trying to yell at him through her sobs.

"Now, Pete, stop -," Reg finally gets too close.

Pete starts to charge with a roar, swinging the knife around, unwieldy. Reg stands right in the blade's path, frozen in fear. Lupe barrels past Daryl and leaps for Reg, hoping to keep him from getting stuck like a pig. She reaches forward, trying to get the old man out of the blade's range. If not, then at least she could shield him. She rams into his side at the same time the long and violent slash of fire-lit steel tears through skin.

"No, no! Oh, no, no! Oh, God!" Deanna screams as she catches her husband. His eyes glaze over in shock. "Oh, my love. My love…"

There's blood. There's a lot of blood. And a lot of screaming.

Chaos explodes in the small space. Pete gets tackled by Abraham and his face gets to meet the pavement again. Lupe stumbles back in a breathless agony. Reg ended up getting the tail end of the slash across his shoulder. Lupe thinks she caught the majority of it. Her side and back sting with that specific horrible, aching burn that comes with a knife wound. Pete screams through the blood on his face. Everyone is screaming.

"This is her fault!" Pete wails as he writhes beneath the Ginger Behemoth.

"Shut up!" Abraham grumbles.

"This is her! She made me do this!" Pete slurs, eyes rolling in his head. He tries to turn towards Deanna, shouting, "It's them! This is them! They ruined everything when they came!"

Lupe stands dazed. The fire pit roars behind her, casting her shadow on the crowd of terrified Alexandrians. Her eyes flicker through the faces and capture the honest fear in them. They never confronted the ugliness of the world before, but they had to now. There was no other choice.

Her eyes settle in the breadth of her shadow and her head tilts at the way its center seems to move. She realizes Nicholas stands there in the darkness. He gleams with sweat, covering his face and neck. His eyes are wide and glowing white in the form she casts by the firelight. Within the contained chaos, he starts to raise an arm. Gripped in his hand is a small pistol. Lupe has a feeling she already knows where he intends to aim. Her eyes follow the line of Nicholas' murderous stare. Glenn stands holding Maggie tight, watching the drama with Pete unfold, completely unaware.

Lupe moves so fast, she doesn't have time to blink.

A gunshot fires.

Sparks light against the bricks, stretching between the shooter and his targets. Everyone jumps at the sight and sound. Another scream tears through the night.

Nicholas keels over with Lupe's KA-Bar sticking out of the side of his head. It's not aimed well and the blade sits a little janky, but it landed true. She only had his profile to aim at, so she threw on instinct. It was good enough.

More screams echo and ring like bells in Lupe's ears. Her hands raise up to cover her ears from the onslaught. A pain so sharp it burns shoots through her, it feels like she's the tree when lightning struck. Her knees go weak and she collapses in the whirlwind of screams, movement, and blood.

Lupe's eyes blink through the darkness for a long time. She's warm and then cold. There's a breeze. Her body aches. And though she doesn't have the ability to move, it's a bumpy ride to wherever she's going. Lupe sees lights and then more darkness. For probably the first time in her life, she doesn't fight it.