Michonne and Lupe stroll through the dilapidated city surrounding the Sanctuary. They walk around with their usual fair, the rifle, the sword, Alma's gun, the slingshot, and the batons. They also carry a pair of channel locks and a crow bar. Their job within the absurdly unguarded area was to find the remnants of city water mains. They open up the small metal grates found in the streets, turn the valves off, hide the mains, and walk away. This was a second stage effort to fuck with the Sanctuary. They didn't know exactly how Negan routed the water, but it likely had to be through pipes that the city built.

"So how are things with Daryl?" Michonne asks, it's innocent and kind. She's another person who is fascinatingly caring. The world shapes people in wild ways. For someone to tame the violence so carefully is astounding.

"They're good mostly," Lupe replies, tone a bit jilted as she clacks the channel locks in her hands. "Once he was able to rest and heal, it made a difference. But he's angry and hurt, and I don't blame him. Negan is a monster."

Michonne leans in. "I want you to know I'm genuinely impressed that you survived so long. Not because I doubted you, but because we finally met him and I don't think I could have imagined someone so depraved." She shakes her head. "That man, that place, I don't know if my soul could last there."

Lupe shudders. "It wouldn't. Mine didn't. I had to leave it behind." The statement is chilling and Lupe feels it more than ever. She's scared to admit all the ways The Sanctuary ripped her to pieces. The person she used to be, even after the world ended, and the person she is now after the Sanctuary, are blistering strangers.

Michonne nods. After a beat of tight silence, she speaks. "I lost my son near the beginning."

Lupe turns to look at her with a frown, laden by the instantaneous tears in her eyes. "I'm really sorry."

Michonne nods with a small pursed smile above a quivering chin. "It still is the hardest thing I've ever been through. You don't… get over grief like that. You can't forget it. It changes you. I can't attest to what he did to you and your sister, but your loss, your grief, it's welcome here."

Lupe arcs an eye brow through her frown.

Michonne smiles, a crinkle of her beautiful face. "You don't have to hide from us. Daryl doesn't have to hide from us." Her voice is calm and sweet, "But we understand. We're waiting here. For whenever we can help."

Lupe's smile cracks through the palpable grief. "Thank you. I —," she swallows as a chill runs through her, "I feel like maybe I can grieve when this is done."

Michonne nods. "I think that's true for all of us. We'll be ready for you too."

Lupe grins and her words are soft and vulnerable, "I hope the healing can be beautiful in some way."

Michonne's smile broke through the clouds and seemed to bring the sunshine with it. "It will."

"How's Carl?" Lupe dares to ask. She has been carefully not-avoiding Rick and his family. It's mostly just been her trying to melt into walls whenever she was in the room with them. Guilt was an ugly dense thing.

Michonne chews on her lip and scoffs. "He's probably handling everything better than the rest of us. He's been delegated to helping Daryl and Rick oversee the strategies while he heals."

Her voice goes a little high and shakes, "Carl was so brave." Her head bows and her long locs block the grief trying to escape on her features. "He told Rick it wasn't him. It was just Negan trying to hurt as many people as he could." Her smile is fragile and she grips the crowbar to her chest, twisting her hands around it. "Negan made the break worse because of that bravery." She purses her lips and closes her eyes, breathing deep to tamp down the swell of complex emotions. Her tone is almost level as she continues, "The second break was severe, but thankfully clean. Denise was able to set it and Eugene," she rolls her eyes with a fond breathy smile despite the tears in her eyes, "he was able to make a cast from that 3D printer he insisted on bringing back from one of the runs."

"Fuckin' Eugene," Lupe chuckles, shaking to hold back her own emotions. She smiles, and it may be weak, but it's genuine. "Of course he did…"

Lupe has to bite back her tears thinking about how sick Negan's display must have been to witness. She'd seen so much of that bleak shadow herself. She knows. She looks at Michonne, gaze full of regret. "Negan doesn't like bravery. He likes blind allegiance and fear. He wants a cult that worships him." Her head hangs as she tries to swallow the grief tightening her throat. "God, Carl is such a strong person. He didn't deserve this."

"Hey," Michonne says, voice light as a feather, "none of us do." She stares at Lupe hard. "That includes you. You don't deserve this. You should know that." She places a hand on Lupe's cheek, "But what you're doing now will save a lot of lives. What we're doing together is saving the future."

Lupe nods, biting at her lips too hard. They didn't have much more to go in their little quest. They round the Sanctuary a few times, utilizing their practiced stealth, which wasn't needed much. There weren't many Saviors outside the Sanctuary any more.

That was due to Daryl, Rick, Abraham, Sasha, Eric, and Aaron doing their own rounds. They collected walkers in the back of big rigs and let them out into the area surrounding the compound. The dead weren't converging on the compound yet, but they made the woods a difficult place to be. If they got too loud inside the gates, for instance, someone screaming in agony as they're tortured, it drew a crowd. So people were stuck inside the walls and forced to be quieter.

"We should probably go try to meet up with Rick and everyone. You'll need to start your 'Predator' mission," Michonne chuckles.

Lupe grins with a bright enthusiasm. "Instead of shock and awe, it's more like annoy and destroy."

Michonne snorts. "Let's get back to the car. I'm tired of this city." A walker finally shambles in their direction. Despite being covered in their gore, talking usually got them riled up. Michonne trips the creature and steps on its knee before walking away with Lupe.

They get back to the car without incident. Lupe found a Missy Elliot CD a few weeks ago and puts it in. Michonne gets stoked and Lupe dances in her seat. She feels the music in her neurodivergent brain in such a way that few would understand. Good music lit her nervous system up like the Aurora Borealis.

The drive isn't long until they look in their rearview mirror and spot a big rig pulling in behind them. A hand sticks out and waves. Two more trucks pop out on the route back, completing their formation as they drive farther and farther away from their foes. Once they're at a respectable distance and in a random place, Michonne guides everyone to pull over at a ruined rest stop. They drive in and position their cars to look like they belonged in the stilled chaos of the parking lot. They find a quiet, defensible spot and greet each other properly.

Lupe gravitates towards Daryl as everyone hugs and chats. Lately, he was even quieter than before they were friends. "How'd it go?" she asks as he leans back against the wall.

"Good. They flowed right out into the woods." He nods, but it's a short, tight move. "Enid was smart thinking to put those wind chimes up. Guides them right towards the Sanctuary."

"Yeah that was a solid choice." Lupe grins. "I think we're doing a good job keeping the compound caged in. They have barely left to do collections lately."

"Negan's getting run down. We saw him on a trip a week back and he looks ragged as all hell." Daryl has a special petty grin on his face. He looks to Lupe and winks, and a sparkle of his charm peeks out through that. "Ya might have something to do with that."

"Maybe so," Lupe says with an arch in her eyebrow that would make a gothic building jealous.

Daryl shakes his head at her. "Take credit when credit's due for once."

"Yeah, fine." She rolls her eyes and gives him a pursed smile that perks up one cheek.

Sasha walks up. "You guys ready to go soon?"

"Yeah," Lupe replies. "Got our stuff stacked to go by the door. You and Abraham up for this? It's not gonna be… pretty." She cringes, but it's hopeful.

Sasha smiles at her easily. "This world ain't been pretty in years. Fuck it. If it ain't gonna be pretty, I might as well be free."

Daryl chuckles as Abraham comes up. His mustache twitches with a smile underneath. "Let's do this."

Rick, Michonne, and the others come over. Rick asks, "Where are you headed first?"

"We're gonna plant the dummy ammunition Eugene made in a road block," Sasha says. "It'll be interesting to see what happens if that comes into play."

"I can admit that I slightly fear that mulletted maniac's machinations," Abraham chuckles.

"We're gonna work on the roads tonight, see what we can stir up to make things more complicated," Daryl adds. "The roadblock is good, but we also just need to fuck their cars up. Keep'em contained and paranoid. We'll set up a perimeter after that."

"Keep watch for a few days." Rick nods, he looks to Michonne and Lupe. "I want to see what happens with their water situation."

"They'll have reserves. But for hundreds of people, for several days? It'll dry out fast," Lupe adds. "Water isn't free at the Sanctuary either. The workers will suffer first, so I don't want to prolong it to the point where someone gets hurt."

"Don't worry, we won't let it go past five days," Michonne says, "I'm sure there will be unrest faster. Especially if Eugene and Carter manage to finish their job."

Rick sighs with a grin as he looks around at the gathered group. "Alright, I suppose we all got our jobs to finish."

They left the semis at the back of the wreckage of the pit stop. It was a decent hiding spot. Michonne took Rick, Eric, and Aaron back in her truck. The remaining groups split off and found some cars to hijack for their expedition. They siphoned some of the gas from the semis and were on their way.

The truck they found was functional enough for what they needed of it. They loaded it up with the bullets and other resources. Abraham rigged all the controls and sent the metal beast careening towards the pot hole they just manufactured. When it hit the ditch, it looked like it might launch into the sky. But it just jumped, toppled over magnificently, exploded with the supplies, and screeched to a stop, blocking most of the road.

The group split up and went to establish a soft perimeter. They familiarized themselves with the area and the Savior's exterior set up. They didn't see much of anyone except the silent guards on the wall. Once the sun started setting the two groups got to work.

Their mission revolved around expanding on the natural wear and tear of the road. They widened some pot holes and busted some bigger cracks. Finding some recycled glass in a nearby dumpster, they tossed it all over one of the more traveled roads of the Saviors. They scattered it everywhere just for the chance. The thick bottles and mason jars made beautiful little shards of mass-tire-destruction, glittering on the street. A few fallen trees, a mound of corpses, or some scattered nails, the group did whatever they could to make it harder and harder on the Saviors leaving the compound. They checked in together one more time before splitting up and setting up for the night.

Daryl and Lupe found a nice little ice box truck and set themselves up on top of it. They zipped their sleeping bags together and formed a squished burrito of warmth. Every once and a while they'd flip over onto their stomachs and pull out their scope and binoculars. They'd peek into the distance and spot the lights still flickering in the Sanctuary. They couldn't see a whole bunch, but the gate had moderate visibility with the lights inside still on. The two preferred safety over surety for the moment.

They stare up at the stars together. Daryl mutters about constellations and using the North star to find his way through the woods when he was nine. "I made myself a sandwich and slept for probably like ten days or somethin'," he chuckles.

"Yikes! That's… jeez," Lupe mutters into his neck. "Glad you made it out okay. You musta been one punk ass kid."

Daryl snorts. "Compared to the rest of my family? Shit, I was basically an angel." His smile is fragile as he looks at Lupe. "That's why my brother gave me that vest with the wings. He used to tease me and call me angel." He shakes his head and a pained smile twitches his lips. "It was derogatory of course, like everything he called me. It was a shit way to go about it, but he was trying to keep me tough. He knew what was out there. He'd already been broken by it. Sometimes I was never sure if he wanted me broken too, just so he wouldn't feel alone." He nuzzles into her hair and breathes deep.

"That sounds awful, I'm sorry. But I understand it's still important, we'll get it back if it's still at the Sanctuary." She mumbles into his skin and kisses his neck with a distinct tenderness. She'd gotten over her leather phobia for the moment and appreciated its worth to him. She knew how hard it was to lose something sentimental like that.

"Thanks," he mutters into her hair. "Don't exactly mind if we burn the place down though."

Lupe snorts and kisses him beneath his chin. "Yeah, me either." She sighs. "You know, I spent probably five or so months there. Sometimes I feel like I don't remember what happened. Like there's just a big blank space where that part of my life should be." She nuzzles into Daryl's warmth. "But if I try to look too close, it's like it all comes back at once."

"Do — do you… wanna talk about it?" Daryl is trepidatious, but she knows he's trying.

"I…" Her throat closes tight and she tries to breathe. "I don't even know what to say. Negan tortured me in a way that really broke me down. It worked, I hate to say it, but it did. He fucking shattered me. I only stayed alive out of spite and for my sister. After Alma was gone, it was pretty much just spite." She scoffs. "I truly cared about some of the people in there. It's why I don't want to see them hurt. At the same time, I'm afraid some of those people, or some of our people, aren't gonna make it through this and that terrifies me. I don't want to hurt anyone, but I feel like I always have to, like there's no other choice."

"Sometimes there ain't," Daryl grumbles, but the words hit sharp like hail on a tin roof. "Sometimes there ain't no other option. You kill or you die." She shakes in his arms so he squeezes tighter. "S'like you say, some people don't deserve to live. Some people put you in situations where you don't have a choice. Sometimes keeping that spark of life alight, means extinguishing something else."

Lupe curls against him, wrapping herself up and feeling him shift and breathe against her. She nods. "I know. I'm just tired of seeing people survive that aren't deserving, and always losing the people who are."

"World ain't fair," Daryl growls, more out of bitterness than animosity towards Lupe.

She lays a hand over his chest, her palm above his beating heart. "I don't want a fair world. I want a just world. I want a world with equity and acceptance. That isn't fair, that's just basic human decency."

"People barely had that back when we were considered civil and corpses weren't tryin' to eat us," Daryl chuckles.

"I know." Lupe grins. "I just want us to be better. We should be better. If we were…" She stares up at the stars and exhales. She'd feel insignificant, but looking into the vastness of the sky was more like coming face to face with a beautiful humility. They were all so small, but it didn't mean they couldn't be great. "If we were better, then maybe so many more people would still be with us."

"You're right." He nods into her hair. "But we gotta go scorched earth on this."

Lupe stretches up to press a soft kiss on his lips. She squiggles away from him and rolls over, grabbing her scope. She stares at the distant shadow of the Sanctuary, still tinkling with a few lights. The top floor with the biggest window is bright. Lupe can't see anything past that, but she knows Negan is in there. She hopes he's suffering.

She's about to drop the scope and go back to kissing Daryl, but the entire compound goes black. The Sanctuary's power has been cut.

A genuine smile creeps on her lips as she sets down the scope. "I know, and I'm glad to find the kindling." She rolls back into Daryl's arms. "Eugene and Carter did it," she whispers. Daryl kisses her and that's the last thing either of them have to say on the matter. The groans of the dead grow as the wind tinkles through the trees.

A reckoning is coming.