Chapter 10

She heard another door opening from somewhere inside the closed room.

"They are gone" Said Jesus with a somber mood.

"Was Negan with them?" She heard, to her surprise, a female voice say.

"What about the Harpy?" Yet another female asked. There seemed to be two females along with Jesus, and she would bet they were hiding.

"No, he wasn't here, and I didn't see the Harpy." Jesus responded she heard the familiar sound of an old mattress coil suddenly squeak.

"I'm going to f-" Started one of the females, but was interrupted by Jesus.

"Sasha!" He said with an uncharacteristic tone for the Jesus she knew. He sounded tired, but stronger somehow, harsher maybe.

"What? Jesus, we need to-" She tried to argue.

"Just shut up!" Jesus commanded, there was a silence of a couple of seconds and then she heard the sound of footsteps moving inside.

"What's going on? Jesus, what's wrong?" Asked the woman whose name must be Sasha.

"You have to be smart...you can't just say stuff like that. Especially not now." He said frustrated, the comment seemed to have left the other too in confused silence.

"I used to have a little sister, Ally...she must have been around her age when she died." He continued quietly, almost to himself. "It's in the way she carries herself, I think sometimes...in a way she reminded me of my little sister Ally."

"What?" Asked Sasha confused.

"I used to underestimate the Harpy. I used to think of her as a kid, a teenager playing games way over her head, some young girl being manipulated by older people, by Negan…" He continued.

"What are you trying to say?" Asked the other female voice.

"I'm trying to say that you two need to get a better grasp of what she can do and how far she is willing to go. For example, I know she can become invisible, Maggie. I'm saying she could be here right now looking down on us and we would have no way of knowing. What if she could read minds? It's only a matter of time before she finds out you two are hiding here, I should have told Simon, I just hope no one else pays for my mistakes..." The voice of the man was filled with stress and regret.

Maggie?...hmm… Sophia thought.

"We just need to learn more about her." Tried to reassure Sasha.

"You are saying we should go?" Asked Maggie.

"No, I can't kick you two out. I won't." Jesus said, trying to amend his comment.

"Who's Simon?" Asked him, Maggie.

"Simon is the man that used to lead the Saviors from the Satellite Outpost, I think he is high on their ranks. He might be inner-circle if we go by the way he talks about Negan."

"What did he say?"

"That Negan ordered him to supervise the Hilltop, that he was someone who we could work with and trust...he said a lot of stuff like that while disguising threats. You know, the typical Savior spiel."

Someone started to move inside the room and she had to quickly move out of the way when the door opened and a young black woman walked out with purpose.

"Sasha, don't forget what I said." Warned her Jesus, she let the woman go without following since she could now see that the second female was in fact, Maggie. Who, despite Rick's lies, was very much alive and healthy.

"You need to keep Sasha in place, Maggie before something bad happens." Jesus urged to Maggie and it hit her at that moment, that behind the resentment in his voice, there was the clear tones of defeat and hopelessness.

Maggie left the room without responding to him and Sophia followed behind, they walked out of the mansion and to the side towards the back of one of the trailers parked inside the walls of the Hilltop. Once there, she saw Maggie come across Enid, who was sitting beside two apparently shallow graves with improvised crosses, in company of Sasha.

"You are here!" Said Maggie in surprise, Enid stood up and fell on Maggie with a tight hug.

"Are you ok?" Enid asked her, Sophia noticed that she had what looked to be a pocket watch in her hand.

"I'm not…" She answered honestly, looking at the two graves and then back and Enid. "But I will be." She finished.

Enid got suddenly excited and grabbing one of Maggie's hands, she placed the pocket watch on it. "Maggie! The Harpy said Glenn is alive!" She told her with a wide smile.

This caught both women by surprise. Maggie was left speechless, seemingly lost inside her thoughts, but Sasha suddenly fell on Enid with an intense look on her face.

"How do you know? Where did you see her? Was she at Alexandria?" She asked desperately, her eyes wide with fear but also a lot of resolve.

"No I...I mean yes they were there yesterday, but she told me today while we were coming here..." replied Enid with a certain innocence.

"You what!?" Maggie came out of her stupor at the news of Enid traveling with the witch, then caught up to what she had just said. "Is everyone ok at Alexandria? Did they...kill someone?" She asked in fear.

"Everyone's fine but...Maggie she...she scares me, please, we all need to be very careful… She…" Enid tried to warn the young woman but her throat was getting tight and she had to hold her tears back, Maggie just nodded and hugged Enid again, trying to get her to calm down.

"Enid, you said she came here with you. Where is the Harpy now?" Asked Sasha with haste.

"She came inside before I did, while the Saviors were still here. Did you not see her?" Enid said a bit confused. Maggie and Sasha shared a worried look that seemed to convey a silent conversation.

"I have to check on Jesus!" Decided Sasha, but that was her cue to take control, Sophia wouldn't let her run off, she paralyzed her in place with a quick flick of her wand and then ended her disillusionment charm, watching as the magical camouflage dissipated like a coat of paint.

"No need to bother Jesus, I wanted to talk to him but he looks like shit so I let him rest." She said casually as if she had been part of the conversation the entire time.

Maggie and Enid jumped in fear at the sight of her charm dissipating and bringing her into sight, but Sophia ignored them and turned to Sasha.

"Sasha right? I'll let you free but please stay here, I want to tell you two something important, Ok?" She said as friendly as possible, searching for some kind of acknowledgment from her panicked eyes.

"You…" Hissed Maggie with barely contained rage, giving her a murdering stare, and moving to position herself in front of Enid. Sophia barely spared her a look and proceeded to finite the body binding curse on Sasha, who suddenly getting back her ability to move, dropped down to her knees in exhaustion.

"Let's not do something stupid Ok? We can be reasonable girls and have a nice chat, instead of turning this day into an ordeal." She argued giving Maggie and Sasha each a glance.

"You were here all along, you heard us inside didn't you?" Asked Maggie in equal contempt as before.

"Whatever." She just said vaguely, looking for something inside one of her pockets. "Aha!" it was still on her back pocket from the day before, the black and white image of Maggie's pregnant belly.

"Congratulations on your pregnancy, Maggie!" She told her cheerfully and handed the image to the woman, who snapped it out of her hand in a much more defensive stance, suddenly a hint of fear on her features.

"What did you do to Glenn? Is it true what Enid said?" She asked her witch barely concealed hope and a little of desperation.

"Glenn is just as you saw him last time. I just suspended him in time, so he won't die unless I drop the charm." She told the woman. Besides her, Sasha stood up breathing heavily. Giving her a pair of mad dog eyes, she could tell that the woman had a pair of blades in her hands.

"Sasha, you know what will happen if you don't stop that, do you?" She asked the menacing woman, casually pointing her wand at the fuming Sasha.

"No! Stop! Both of you, please!" It was Enid the one who broke them out of their staring duel. She sounded very scared and desperate, then quickly grabbed Sasha by the arm and pulled the woman towards her.

She couldn't say she was surprised by her brave reaction, after all, the girl had seen her lose her mind and do some fuck up shit.

"Anyway…" She said trying to move on. "I'll keep it short."

"First. You people can't be moving between the communities as you please. It will get you in trouble with my people, they are going to see you and might not trust you." She started.

"Second. You three will now live here permanently and will make yourselves known to Simon the next time he comes, because he will be expecting you to, don't disappoint him."

"Third and last. Those pretty little revenge eyes that Sasha had going on right there?" She said waving her fingers at the angry woman. "That shit does not fly with Simon. He is not a bad man, but he does tend to go overboard when pushed, and if I'm honest, I think he is worse than me when it comes to punishments. So whatever you are thinking right now in regards to what happened that night, let it go, get over it and move on. That's my advice."

She finished and watched the three women stare at her with different expressions, it seemed Sasaha could not yet fully hold her anger towards her, Maggie was giving her a hard look with as much dignity as she could, and Enid looked to be nervously looking between her two friends and the Harpy.

"If that is all you have to say, then please leave." Ordered Maggie, who was by far the most composed of the three.

"Reall? Don't you want to talk about Glenn?" Sophia asked her casually, almost playfully.

"I don't care what you have to say to me about him, you have my husband's life and you want to hold it against me for compliance, is that it?" She answered coldly. That surprised her, the woman hadn't seemed too competent the first time they had met. Then again, that night must have been rough for her.

"Rick was more than willing to hear me out about it, we agreed that if I concluded that things are working out with everyone, then I could focus on saving his life. After all, it's not like I can heal that injury with just my wand."

"And you think I'll buy whatever you say because you put on a friendly act? You don't have the right to bargain with the life of my husband." Maggie argued fiercely.

Gods! What the hell is wrong with this people? Can't they catch a hint?... No disposition to play, so boring. Sophia thought. She was finding the woman's reaction similar to Carl's and it was a little frustrating.

Like trying to play with a dog who does not care.

"It's about trust, Maggie. We put a measure of trust in all of you too, you know? Besides he is not just your husband, he is the father of your baby. Right? You would risk leaving your baby without a father, only for your pride?" She chastised.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Glenn's life is on you and Negan. Not on me." Maggie snarled back at her, Enid was nervously pressing on her arm to hold her back and Sasha seemed to be getting more and more incentivized by Maggie's arguments.

"Ok, keep telling yourself that if you want. I saved Glenn's life! " She said putting a shiny finger on her chest. "You two were going around killing strangers by the dozen, and when you get what you deserve you blame it on others. Believe whatever you want Maggie, but the bottom line is, if Alexandria and the Hilltop keep in line then maybe I'll be able to focus on other shit that will allow me to save Glenn." She fought back at the woman who was managing to get her blood flowing.

"Look at that, behind you." Maggie said pointing at the two mildly shallow graves.

"One of those is Glenns, I had already begun to mourn him. I'm not going to let you extort me with his life, Glenn would agree with me. Our child is not going to grow with parents who kneel to others like that, in servitude."

"Wow, you sure gave up on him easy…" She joked, a bit shocked by the woman's decision.

Smack! Her whole face was turned sideways by the force of Maggie's strike. She had slapped her so hard, her magically secured mask now felt ever so slightly out of place. Yet again someone slapped her in the face and she had to close her fist to make sure her arm didn't respond in kind before she could think better of it.

"Maggie no!" Screamed Enid and despite her apparent fear, she managed to position herself in front of the woman to shield her of whatever retaliation she expected from the Harpy

Sigh… "I see...Maybe..." She started, white hate already filling her "Maybe when I save Glenn I'll wipe you entirely out of his fucking mind!" She said now with cold anger at the slight.

"Maybe I'll make him my devote slave and have him worship me on his knees, kiss my fucking feet!. Maybe I'll have him hate you for the rest of his life!." She spat angrily, the three women were taken aback by the threats she was dishing out.

"There is so much that I can do that would be worse than death, Maggie." She snarled. "You think you can be some kind of hero to your kid because you stood up to the man? Wake the fuck up, the new world is not like that. What if I do that shit with your kid instead of Glenn? Wouldn't it all be for nothing then? But you can all have a happy family if you forget about that defiance you are showing right now, before your kid ends up growing in the ruins of what could have been, all alone." Sophia finished with barely contained anger, only the thought of the woman being pregnant holding her back now as she grew more and more hateful.

Maggie swallowed hard and managed to reign on her fear, placing a hand on Enid's shoulder and moving up front again, closer to Sophia. Her face was now a mix of pity and concern.

"How old are you?" She asked her looking down on her, searching for something on her eyes. Sophia held her eyes on her and stood straight, her chin high.

"I'm fifteen fucking years old and I'm one bitch of a witch, I can do shit that you can't imagine...These lands are my home, all of this here is mine and you are all mine too. I'll live to be two hundred fucking years old or more and I promise, I'm not going anywhere. We will fucking save you, even if we have to do some pruning." She said defiantly.

Maggie seemed to become more concerned for some reason, "I'm sorry for what you must have gone through to become like this, but there is always another way and it's always the right time to change. You may have the power, but it doesn't mean that you should do things like that, you are too young for all of this." She told her, looking straight at her eyes, then she placed a soft hand on her shoulder. Something that made Sophia bristle at the touch.

"You are just a kid, you'll live so long but you will only be a kid once, and you'll have so much time to regret your mistakes. I'm sorry you had to grow up in this new cruel world, but please think about the path you are taking." Maggie urged her with sad concern and slightly wet eyes.

Pity...really? Who the fuck does she think she is?. She thought with frustration, then slowly moved the woman's hand off her shoulder, holding it between her fingers as if it was dirty.

"Just stay in fucking line and don't make me come back here to teach you a lesson." She said curtly and without a warning she disapparated from there, making sure she did so with the loudest way possible, to outside the walls near the trees where she had sat down to calm herself that night.

Fucking bitch, thinks she knows better than me. Talks to me like I'm a kid. I swear if she wasn't pregnant I would've made her puke her guts... She fumed, while with her left hand called her broom from where she had left it high in the air.


Instead of going back to the Sanctuary, Sophia chose to give the territory a fly around and allow herself to recover her good mood. Giving the Kingdom a flyby, and watching the movement inside, the people working on different things or training. By far the Kingdom was her favorite place besides the Sanctuary, even if they looked quite different on the outside, on the inside, there was a buzz of people working and living happily. In an orderly fashion and without much problems, in comparison, Alexandria and the Hilltop felt to her like a badly prepared potion on the verge of blowing up on their faces.

Add a resentful woman, a teen and a hormonal woman with the makes of a leader… Now it's really unstable, but how would it react to the weathered down Jesus as a reluctant leader…

She mused, while gliding through the air and turned west towards the Sanctuary, the day was still early and she thought she could get some more work on her preparation to tackle legilimency.

When she arrived at the Sanctuary, she was surprised to see a couple of dead Saviors being carried over to where she knew some bodies were disposed of by fire, at least the ones that were not deemed low enough to end up on the fence.

"What happened here?" She asked one of the men on guard duty as soon as she landed inside. The man turned around in surprise at hearing her voice and looked at her with a hint of fear.

"Ah...Ms. Harpy, it was some kid with a rifle. He snuck on the last truck coming from the Hilltop and shot up a few of us, killed two, the little psycho. The big man took him inside." He answered fast, almost like a report.

Sigh, why am I not surprised…

"I anyone badly wounded? Is there something I can do to help?" She asked at the man and a couple of others who had come close once they noted her.

"No, a new kid just got grazed but he is fine." Said one of the other men. "But if it's not much trouble, would you take this to Negan?" He said, holding Lucille on his hand, she noticed he was being extra careful with the bat.

"Oh wow, he left Lucille just laying here?" She asked in disbelief, the man never left it out of sight.

"Yes Ms. Harpy, I was gonna send fat Joey but I thought that you would like to check the kid." The comment brought a bit of a worry to her.

"Did he get shot or something?

"No Ms., but I guess he doesn't have much time. You know?" He finished and handed her the bat before going back to his duty.

She walked inside and searched for any familiar face she could find, until she caught sight of Regina going up a level towards the infirmary.

"Regina!" She called and jogged towards the woman, who waited for her patiently.

"I just heard what happened. You ok?" She asked her.

"I wasn't even close. But you know that kid that you sent my way?"

"Yeah, what about him?" She asked with mild interest, she barely remembered his face.

"I started him on guard duty thinking it would be safer and closer to his mom, but he went and got shot anyway." Said Regine a bit pissed and resumed her walking.

"But he's fine?"

"Yup, took it like a champ. Only a flesh wound anyway." Regina told her smiling and winked at her.

"Was Negan too pissed about what happened?" She asked the woman, returning to a little more serious subject.

"Nah, you know how he is with kids. Dwight is setting up the furnace though, I don't know for whom."

"Oh…" fucking shit, Carl...

"I think I'll go check on him, if you need me I'll be at Negan's" She told Regina and parted from the woman resting Lucille on her shoulder.

She quickly walked first to his lounge room and saw that he wasn't there, but catching Sherry heading over to the prisoner's side, which was weird but she ignored since there were more pressing matters. The next option was his own very luxurious bedroom, she came up to the door and rapped on the door with Lucille.

"Come in Sophia" She heard the deep voice of Negan say and she opened the door, walking in without delay.

Inside she found Negan sitting on one of his sofa chairs, with a very subdued Carl in front of him and a small table in between. She noticed that Carl didn't have his bandage on, but his long hair covered his scar, just like she used to do with hers.

"What the fuck, Carl? Are you trying to get killed?" She started, she knew it was him but it still was amazing to think how stupid he had to be to do something like that.

"Don't get mad at Carl, all he has are his massive balls. He just can't help it." Joked Negan barking out a loud laugh.

"I heard Dwight is warming up the furnace, is that true?" She asked him a bit brashly and handed Lucille back at him.

"Yeah, but that's for Mark. I haven't decided what I'll do about this bad ass here." He said standing up and grabbing Lucille. "What the fuck? I actually forgot about Lucille?" He asked in disbelief.

"Getting in those years old man." She joked. "Who's Mark?"

"He's Amber's ex." He said as if she knew who the fuck was Amber.

"What?... Aahg, forget it." She waved him off, a little bit pissed. Then turned to Carl.

"Yes! Who cares about Mark! Why don't we get to the good stuff and you take off your mask" Negan exclaimed all too happy.

Sigh… "I already told him who I am earlier today." She said tiredly as she pressed her left hand over the face of her mask and felt the feathers give in, then retract into the Mask's design.

She removed her mask along with her pointy hat and tried to give some order to her hair. These days she wore her hair past shoulder length and kept the scarred right side shaven since it grew very badly and all patchy on that side anyway, throwing the rest of her hair to the side on the left. It left the whole scarred side exposed, but she liked how it looked as a hairstyle, and besides, she avoided covering her scarred face with her hair like she used to do.

Carl turned towards her and gawked at her ugly and scarred face with an opened mouth, not saying anything.

"Not much left of what I used to look like as kids right?" She asked him a bit disappointed at his lack of response. The feeling of vulnerability coming to her, she already missed the mask.

"No...I can tell, it's you. I remember your freckles, and the shape of your chin. You have Carol's eyes…" Carl said, he was blushing slightly. It was all very sweet to Sophia, his words and the way he reddened.

"Oh shit! How in the holy fuck did I miss the fact that you have freckles?" Said Negan, happily surprised. "Would you look at those cute little things"

"Don't you have some ironing to do?" Exasperated, she asked the man.

"Not before Carl shows you his, and I don't mean his big ass balls." He answered crudely in his usual manner.

They both looked at Carl expecting, and the boy slowly moved his hand over his face and pushed the hair back and over his ear, showing the angry red and half swollen wound that was still in the process of healing.

As far as she knew, Carl had been shot, and it looked like the bullet had taken a small chunk of his side along with his whole right eye. Leaving an open socket and a bunch of flesh that was yet to completely seal, everything looked dark and red.

He looked at her with a lot more sympathy than he had done since their reunion and they shared a few seconds of silence in which she thought of those days of old, when they were just kids who didn't know anything.

Sophia sighed. "Dude, will you let me heal your wound now? It will save you a lot of pain and risk of infection." She offered honestly, picking up her hat from where she had left it. Carl barely nodded, not that he really had much of a choice in this place.

"Great, I'll let you two lovebirds to have some alone time while I go see about an asshole and an iron." He joked and walked out of the room giving her a teasing wink.

Prick. She thought, letting out a half-smile at his crude joke.

She walked over to the boy and sat down over the small table right in front of him, so that she had a good access to his face, and placed her pointy hat on her lap keeping the inner side up for easy access.

"Stay still, the first part will sting like shit but the last part might tickle." She assured him as she rummaged through the inside of her hat and recovered two glass bottles with copper spray heads.

"What's that?" He asked nervously at the sight of the strange bottles.

"This." She said holding the one with the purple liquid inside. "Will clean your wound as best as possible. And this." She held the second bottle with a light brown fluid sloshing inside. "This one will heal you completely. I can't give you an eye sadly." She finished and without much preamble, she held Carl's face by his chin and cleared the wounded side of any hair.

"But what is it?" He asked again.

"Potions, they are not meant to be used like this. But I have adapted them, this way I conserve more." She held the purple one to the wound and sprayed a full layer of purple liquid over it, then after a second it started to bubble and emit a dark smoke and acrid smell.

"Uhg!" Managed Carl and instinctively tried to clean the burning wound, but she stopped him before he could reach him.

"Don't touch it, I'll leave it for a minute or two." She ordered him. "Just hold tight, you can take it." She assured him.

Carl tried to relax despite the burning feeling and the eerie noise his eye socket was making.

"Did he do this to you?" He asked, nodding to her scarred side.

"Negan? Gods no, believe it or not, he is actually really good with kids. I did it to myself." She finished, not feeling like explaining everything.

"Why?" Asked Carl, unsurprisingly.

"Because...well it's like this...you came here to kill Negan right? maybe even myself too?" She asked him, but he only gave her a look she couldn't decipher.

"You must have known that you were going to die right? More so if you actually managed to kill him. You came here expecting to die." She told him and after a couple of seconds, he nodded.

"Well...I expected to die too back then, when this happened." She finished, gently touching her fucked up face. "So maybe we are more alike than you think, these days." She added, and proceed to vanish the rest of the cleaning potion from his face.

"Ok this is the one that will blow your mind." She told him with a smile and proceeded to spray the liquid over it trying to cover everything. "Here." She added, and from her hat, she recovered a small mirror that she handed to him.

The wounded eye had begun to let out a green smoke that billowed upwards, and the hurt tissue moved on its own slowly covering everything with a new layer of skin.

"Wooow." She couldn't help but smile and feel warm as Carl saw with awe his eye become completely healed in minutes.

"Can't you use it to heal your face? It doesn't look that old." He looked in a considerably better mood now.

"It's over two years old now, and it won't heal with this stuff. It's a magical scar, and on top of that I really fucked up at the moment, when I tried to heal it. Lucky for you, I know better now."

"Sorry…" Was all he managed to say and handed her the small mirror back.

"Where did you learn to do this stuff?" He asked her, seemingly wanting to change the subject.

"Mostly I taught myself, with books I either took from my old master or found by myself." She just said, as she calmly placed everything back inside her pointy hat.

"Old master?" He asked a bit worried.

Sophia sighed. "He found me when I got lost, and told me about my magic, gave me my first wand and taught me the basics." She said quietly, focusing on the old fabric of the hat.

"And he asked you to call him master?"

"He was an ass." She said and looking up at him smiling, but he had a serious expression on his face, something that made her feel uncomfortable.

"Your little sister is a fucking angel, by the way. I really liked her...What...happened to your mom?" She asked him, hoping not to intrude.

"Oh...mom died giving birth to Judith…" He said sadly, it seemed that it was him the one focusing on something else now, apparently just noticing her saber sword.

"I'm sorry Carl…"

"I… I had to…" He managed to try to sound strong, but she could hear the strain in his voice.

"I get it… It sucks, man. You don't have to say it, I get it." She offered her old friend, really feeling for what he had to live through.

"You know, when I discovered my magic, it was like I found a half of myself I didn't know I'd lost. And at first, all I ever dreamed of was to go back to the group and help you all with my magic, help my mom, you...I wanted to be useful and keep you all safe…"

"Did you ever look for us? We looked for you until we had to leave the farm." Asked her Carl, sounding a little bit wounded.

"I couldn't...for the longest time, I couldn't even if I wanted to, even if I knew where you guys were after you left the farm. And then after finding Negan, and I started to...recover myself, I never thought I would see any of you alive again." She tried to explain, but Carl seemed to be either lost in thought or didn't have anything to say to her.

"It's a fucking miracle that we found each other, Carl. It really fucking is, the fact that we survived these years and now we are here, after all those deaths...That night I didn't understand why I saved Glenn, I didn't know why I did it, it was like a knee jerk reaction or something but it must have been that I understood on some level what a rare thing it was." She was rambling, and she knew it, but all the nostalgia was getting to her and she felt her throat tight and her eyes burn.

"Remember Morales?" She asked the boy.

"Yeah, Eliza's dad. They left early on." He remembered, the weir question taking him out of his head.

"He is a Savior, did you know?"

Carl gave her another look but still kept quiet. It was now apparent to Sophia that he was thinking hard about something, she hoped she was getting somewhere with him.

"Eliza died, Carl, not long after they left. Morales lost everyone in his family, his wife, and two kids, he was so lost when he found the Sanctuary. But you should see him now, he adopted a baby, he is much better now… I sometimes check on him, but he doesn't know who I am, and he rarely ever talks about the past." She continued and carefully moved her hand towards his, placing his hand between hers and holding tight.

"I can save all of you, Carl." She said intensely. "Let me protect you all, be part of my dream, part of something great that is brewing here. I'm talking about a new seat of civilization, progress! And for it we need rules, order, you can-" but her inspired speech was abruptly cut when Carl blurted out those world-shattering four words.

"Your mom is alive."