Chapter 17

Daryl and she talked for a good part of the night about The Harpy, he told her everything he knew about the girl, woman.

It was all hard to believe that this masked young woman who could do seemingly the impossible was secretly her daughter. It made more sense to her that she had fooled Daryl into believing she was someone he knew, but what would be the point of that?

What would a young woman who could fly and lead a group of extorting killers, want with her? Why make herself pass as Sophia?

Why Sophia? She thought in the silence of the night.

Daryl was currently asleep on her couch, his head resting on her shoulder. An uncharacteristically personal and close moment with the man that told her of how the situation had kept him in distress.

What if she is Sophia? What if it was all a mistake and I moved on without her? How many times did I fail her… Carol thought, closing her eyes in pain.

Since hearing Daryl's confession, her mind had been non-stop going back to her old life. The time she lived with Ed, the time Sophia was born, the times she wished she had been strong enough to stand up to him and take her as far away from him as she could.

The things she knew happened under her roof, not just to her, to her daughter as well. What she allowed to happen.

There was an old hate inside her, it consumed her inside every time it reared its head out from wherever she kept it in her mind. Hate for herself and what she let happen to both of them. It made her sick.

Carol stood up with haste, leaving the sleeping Daryl sleeping on her couch and walked outside trying to make as little noise as she could.

She puked as soon as she was outside, on the grass in front of her house and in the dark of the night. The effort of it left her sitting on the ground, gasping for air after her body's reaction. Tears going down her cheeks.

She thought that Sophia's death was an opportunity to leave everything behind and try to be better. She had wished that back then she had been the woman she was now, maybe then she could have saved Sophia's life.

What if she really is my daughter? What if what she became is my fault?

The thought of her daughter growing up to be some kind of corrupted monster because of her weakness, it was dreadful. It made half of her wish her daughter was dead, but her other half was on fire with the possibility of getting to hug her little girl again.

To say how sorry she was for failing her and promise her to be a better mother, getting to cook her dinner and talking about their days.

"I have to know." She concluded.

After she composed herself better, Carol walked inside and cleaned her mouth with some water, then grabbed the keys to the vehicle she kept nearby for emergency and her, then took off. Leaving the sleeping Daryl safe inside.

That night she didn't dream much, it must have been the tired state she was in when she fell asleep, but the burned arm was a constant presence in the back of her mind and it made the few moments of sleep short and sparse before she gave up and reluctantly got out of bed.

She could see through the sky window that the night was nearly gone, it's dark sky beginning to lighten before giving way to the sunrise, so Sophia slowly started her morning routine which now involved carefully treating her wounded arm and re bandaging it. By the time she was enjoying breakfast, the sun was already on the rise, and Sophia went through her head thinking about the things she wanted to accomplish that day.

The search for her mother had to continue, but she was lost for now, her only clue was that man Morgan but she had yet to find him. It was possible they were together but if he wasn't caught by the Kingdom he had to have been caught by hers.

I don't know, my gut tells me Morgan is in that area… I should just focus on the Kingdom. That whole meeting was a waste of time in the end. She thought bitterly.

If only she could have tried legilimency on the supposed Morgan the King showed her, but having no experience with it, she could have killed him or irreparably damaged his mind.

I need to find a magical way of finding her, there has to be. Something with the blood we share, I'm sure of it. She thought in frustration.

So that was a task for the day, but then there were other responsibilities, mainly her promise to improve security for Regina and that was more reading and preparing that she needed to do. She had an idea of what she could do to improve security there, even though they now had the machine gun as back up and that was more than enough to end any threat, it had occurred to her that it was the perfect time to start testing some ideas that had been floating in her head for a while.

The mark that she suspected was the source of her curse was made by her old master the day she was saved by him. It wasn't a curse at first, it was more of a tool to control her and keep tabs on where she was or what she felt, he had even marked some of the people of the Aerodrome community nearby when he recruited them to work for him.

The old bastard had a myriad of uses for a mark like that and few of them were beneficial to the marked one, but Sophia believed that she could make use of something like that and have it benefit the Saviors as well. But it would take some studying and practice, as well as convincing Regina to use some of her guys as test subjects.

For example, in the case of making her outpost a safer place, could I have some places or doors be accessible only to marked Saviors? And if I can manage that, why shouldn't all the Saviors be marked and all their guns and vehicles? Why shouldn't all the workers be given my mark as well? It would make everyone safer, as well as myself and my home.

She thought of this as she finished her breakfast, and she could already feel herself getting motivated by the prospect. There was so much to benefit from it and she didn't have to do it as her old master had, she could do it better for everyone. It would be perfect and it would keep everyone under control, it would keep everything in order.

It wouldn't be like what my old master did, I'm not some pervert ancient wizard with an over-inflated ego. It wouldn't make me like him… She thought, pushing the doubt of her mind.

Sophia glanced at the thing under the charmed sheets, waiting over there next to Glenn for her to acknowledge it. What she did to it, what she turned it into.

"Yes, who the fuck were you anyways? A piece of shit, waste of space, and resources. None of my Saviors are to be anything like what you were." She said as she stood up and walked up to it, up to the sheets.

"I'm not going to feel anything for a fuck like you. The best I can get from you now is something that could benefit the Sanctuary." Sophia concluded and pulled the sheets off slowly.

The charmed sheets fell as she pulled and slowly revealed the blank, vacant face of the man she only knew once as David. It was the first thing she saw, his eyes dead and staring ahead as he drooled by the side of his mouth which hung open loosely, on his forehead the scar she left the day she ended him. It read in clear big and red letters.

"Rapey." She worded out loud. It was his new name, she decided it right then.

This is not David. He was a pervert old man who liked to prey on little girls. She thought.

Rapey was little more than a living human now. He was just a torso sitting on a wooden box structure like a big chair, underneath it she had used catheters to let out the little amount of waste that he produced now. His only form of sustain coming from an IV connected to a bag with a nourishing potion on a drip.

Rapey made little noise other than the sparse shallow breaths he took every now and then.

I have to do something about that drooling. She thought as she analyzed the thing she had made out of a whim nights ago. She summoned the chair from her desk with her wand and her main book on the subject of Legilimency, then sat down in front of the thing.

"Lets put you to good use now, Rapey. Otherwise, what's the point? Right?" She asked, feeling a little sick, but she tried to push it down and focus on the benefit.

"Legilimens!"

She hid her car at a safe distance from the Savior's base and made the rest of the way walking. The trip to the Sanctuary had taken her enough time for the sun to start its rise, so luckily she didn't need a flashlight. On the other hand, she would have to be very careful, she suspected they had patrols around the area.

After a minute of walking, the place finally came into view of her binoculars. Sanctuary looked ominous, it was an old factory composed of a group of three large compounds and the main building, the side from which she was looking at had a fence and a good portion of the front covered with living walkers impaled or chained. There were a lot of them and in the quiet of the morning, she could hear the faint wailing of the dead while all above that area dark birds flew, hovered and descended on the dead and constantly cawing at each other.

Carol climbed a tree and found a perch in it where she sat back and watched patiently at their movements. The Saviors were all early risers, many of them seemed to move with the pace of routine, but others seemed to be clearly guards. They moved about with rifles and watched over everything from the people moving inside, to the area around the base.

Some vehicles went out, others went in, all in all, the Saviors were immensely more productive and industrious than the communities she knew. Not to mention their numbers had to be in the hundreds, although she was counting people that clearly did not look like fighters.

It was almost midday when she saw her, the tiny figure of a young woman climbing out of a small structure on the roof of the main building. She had a black pointy hat that was clearly visible from there, and her face seemed to be covered in a mask, it was just as Daryl had described her.

This was supposed to be her daughter. Carol watched her with cold sweat on her skin and a heavy heart, she didn't know what to feel and the fact that there was nothing she could see from there that gave away her identity made it harder to process the fact that…

That could be Sophia. She thought.

The young woman stood on her roof and stretched, she was wearing some dark tights, a red sleeveless, and Carol could see that she had something covering her entire right arm and shoulder, like a sleeve but it was hard to define what it was.

She observed the Harpy move about on the roof for a while as she seemed to work on what looked to be a couple of birdcages with two of the dark birds, crows most likely, that she drew from the sky with something on her hand. Carol didn't know what she was doing, but none of those birds survived her toying with them. It looked like she was interested in them even after death because she saw as she used the stick in her hand to seemingly make the feathers of the bird fall from its body for her inspection.

"Hold on, I gotta take a piss." Someone said from underneath and Carol had to make sure not to give herself up by reacting. She carefully looked down and saw as a man with a rifle approached the tree she was on.

"Come on. We have to finish this side before Arat calls for the check-up." Someone said, Carol followed the sign and saw another man nearby, he was a few steps ahead and looking away from his pissing friend.

"It's fine, we are almost done. No one's here." Answered the man, Carol took out her knife and gun and got ready.

As soon as she was done and putting it in his pants she dropped on him.

Bang! There was the loud shot of the man's rifle accidentally firing as she attacked him, but she didn't stop there, she was certain the shot missed.

She managed to get behind the man and pull him towards her as she placed the knife on his throat harshly.

"Fuck!" It was all the man could say and by the time the other armed man turned to them she was already with her gun on him.

"Drop it." She simply said.

Both Saviors dropped their rifles at once. "Bitch, you think it's just us? You are fucking dead." Threatened the man she held as a shield with a knife on his throat.

"I just want to talk." She said, making sure to keep the tree on her back and the man well in front of her.

"Then fucking talk, because when they get here you'll be too full of holes to speak."

Suddenly they heard the click of a radio turning on. "Micky, what was that?" Said a woman through the radio, she sounded pissed.

"Who is that? The Harpy?" She asked the men and immediately noticed the change in their attitude when she mentioned her. Suddenly the two Saviors turned dead serious.

"You better be careful what you say about the Harpy, I'll die before I let you get to her." Said the man in front, his face full of resolution.

"Micky?" Called the woman again.

"Pick it up, I want to talk." Carol ordered them.

The man reluctantly took out his radio and clicked it on, never taking his now dead serious eyes off of her.

"I'm sorry boss, this woman got the jump on us. She's got Bran hostage and says she wants to talk, she just mentioned the Harpy." He said on the radio.

There was another click on the radio and an annoyed sigh was heard. "Is she listening?"

"Yes." The man answered.

"Bitch, I got six well-armed fighters going your way at this moment. You have less than a minute to convince me not to have them fill you with lead. You and any other moron who's there with you." Said the woman through the Radio and then the man walked up to her and clicked the radio himself.

"Speak." He ordered.

Carol didn't need the instruction, she pushed the knife a little more on the Savior she held just in case and never took her gun away from the other.

"My name is Carol, I'm looking for my daughter." She simply said.

There was what seemed like a long silence while they waited for a response and when it came, the woman's voice had a very different tone.

"Let me guess. Short gray hair, late forties, kinda gray eyes?" She asked, it was almost like she was laughing. The accurate guess confused the others, and Carol could only guess that this 'boss' knew the Harpy was looking for her.

"Yeah." Said the Savior. "Know her?"

"Stand the fuck down, that is the Harpy's mother. Bring her to me and don't fucking touch her." Said the woman from the radio and then clicked off.

The mood shifted pretty quickly as soon as the conversation was over, the two Saviors had been left in shock, their guarded stance completely gone.

"I am so sorry. Please forget everything I said." Started the man named Micky putting his hands up and looking a little worried.

Carol let go of the other man, Bran, suspecting there was no need to hold him hostage and she was right. The man fell on his knees and apologized, going on a string of nonsense about how the Harpy gave them hope and protected them.

She was left speechless. By this time, other Saviors reached them but none of them were on guard, their guns and rifles lowered, and their faces full of curiosity.

"This way Ms." One of the Saviors, a woman said. She just gestured to the way they came and Carol followed, they all parted as she moved and followed from behind.

The woman on the radio was close by, they found her standing under a tree with a young blond girl that made Carol's heart race for the second she thought it could be her daughter. But she knew she wasn't as soon as the blonde gave her a very curious look. They were near a group of people digging out and taking down some trees, some kind of labor force they seemed to be protecting.

Arat, the one with the radio, was a tough-looking young woman clad in some kind of scaly leather jacket and was playing with a machete on her other hand.

"Jesus fuck!" Exclaimed Arat in surprise. "It's you! I'm sure now, I see it...HA!" She laughed out loud. "Of course you would end up finding her instead, I think she was underestimating you." She said surprised as she gave her a good look.

"Micky, you take charge here, Amber, and I will take Carol to the Sanctuary." She commanded and with that, she was again signaled to follow them.

The Saviors around kept giving her a mix of surprised and amazed looks as she walked off with the two women towards the Sanctuary.

"That was pretty ballsy of you, getting shot could have been the least of your worries if you were not who you are". Arat said to her as they walked.

"Are you taking me to my daughter?" Carol asked her as she followed. She still kept her gun and knife and they didn't seem to care, she didn't know what to expect but she had to find out now.

"Yup, but she's a busy girl. She's often out and about around this time of day, we'll take you to Negan and then see if she's around or if we have to reach out to her." Arat explained. Carol felt like she didn't need to bring out the fact that she had seen her just a while ago.

"Oh my god! Your daughter helped me a lot recently, she's great!" Amber told Carol happily.

"How did she help you?" Carol asked with curiosity, it wasn't just the affirmation that there was, in fact, someone here that claimed to be her lost daughter, and that it was convincing enough that could convince Daryl to come to her about it. Getting to hear details about her supposed daughter's doings was too much to pass.

"She's helping me change my life for the better, to be honest, I was ready to give up...but she came to me recently and convinced me to enlist and better myself." Amber said with pride and emotion.

"Amber is a new recruit, the Harpy asked me to train her and give her a job as a favor." Arat explained to her.

"Why the name? Why Harpy?" Asked Carol.

"Oh, you'll see. It was a name that stuck and she kind of adopted. She likes to have people call her that, except in private."

"When was the last time you saw your daughter?" Amber asked Carol as they came in sight of the Sanctuary's fences.

"I saw my daughter dead when she was around eleven." Carol just said quietly, the curt answer made the fresh-faced blond pause.

Arat visibly suppressed a laugh when she heard her say that, it wasn't like she wanted to be on bad terms with her but…

"Listen, lady." Started Arat trying to be tactful. "I don't know how she was at that age, or if she is really your daughter...but you should keep in mind this is not going to be that little girl you knew."

Carol chose to say nothing at that comment, of course, she understood that but bigger than that was her skepticism about it all being true.

"Don't listen to her, the Harpy is respected by everyone here and she does a lot for the Sanctuary and its people." Tried to reassure her Amber.

"And she is basically a lieutenant and a fighter who doesn't think twice about killing her enemies." Added Arat, trying to be straight with her.

"We all should be...ready to kill I mean." Amber retorted with conviction.

"Says someone who never killed anyone." Arat said, giving her a friendly push.

"Well no, but to defend ourselves, and our friends we need to be ready to kill." Continued the blonde.

"Is that fence her doing too?" Asked Carol looking at the fence of the Sanctuary. It was a labyrinth of chained walkers and corpses in different states of decomposition, all of them moving, rattling their chains, and groaning dry moans of despair. It was a terrible sight.

"Nah, that's more Negan's style." Answered Arat. They walked up to the corpse defense and down a set path for vehicles and people.

"They argue about it sometimes." Commented Amber distractedly as she looked at the disgusting remains of people.

"What? Really?" Askes Arat surprise about the Harpy's dislike for their fence decoration.

"Yup, she hates how it looks and keeps asking him to take it down but Negan likes it like this. I bet one day she'll just take it down." Told them Amber.

"I bet she will." Agreed Arat.

Carol felt like she needed a break at this moment, all of it was too much. Last night she set out to come and see if the rumors were true and now she was walking into the base of an enemy group while these two chatted casually and the others treated her like some kind of royalty.

"She said once she would build a big wall with lookouts and all." Commented Amber.

"Are you close with her?" Asked Carol, after taking a big shaky breath.

"Not that much, but I used to live with Negan and they are close, so I would see her sometimes." She commented.

"She's a friend of mine." Informed her Arat. "Actually she's friends with all the lieutenants." It was her impression that lieutenants were leaders within the Saviors, considering the woman named Arat had been called boss by the others, but she was clearly not Negan.

They walked up to the Saviors guarding the gates and they opened it once Arat ordered to.

"Did you see the Harpy fly out this morning?" Asked Arat to one of the guards.

"Yes boss, she just left a little while ago." They informed her.

"Thanks." She said then turned to Carol. "Look, I'll take you to Negan and try to get hold of her so she comes back."

"You have no way of contacting her?" Carol asked, confused.

"She never carries radios with herself, supposedly her magic breaks them." She said, something that she didn't really understand.

Arat took her through the Sanctuary where she was able to catch the hustle and bustle of the day as the workers moved about. The Saviors guarding the place were all heavily armed and at least looked competent, then they climbed the stairs and she walked her up to a double door in the middle of a hallway.

"Negan's here." She simply said and opened the door letting both Amber and Carol inside.

Inside Carol saw it was a lounge room filled with young good looking women all in dresses and seemingly just hanging around, in the middle, there was a table set for one man who was eating in the company of two young women.

He was a handsome man of strong build with a predatory grin and the confidence of someone who owned the place.

"Boss, bet you are not gonna guess who's this." Called Arat as she entered.

"I'll take that bet because I can make a pretty good guess as to who that is." Negan said, putting down his fork and reclining back in his chair.

"You see Arat darling, it's been a few days since Daryl escaped and I seem to remember him mentioning how he was so close to someone really important to my dear little Harpy." Negan said wisely then he stood up and walked up to Carol, getting a good look of her up close.

"Might you be the long lost mom?" He asked with a knowing look. "I can tell already you two have very similar eyes."

"I'm Carol, I came for my daughter." Carol repeated plainly, all about the man-made her uncomfortable.

"Of course you did. She left earlier to one of our outposts. Arat, call Regina, and pass the message to our dear Harpy." He said without taking his eyes from Carol.

"Yes, boss." Arat said and left the room with Amber in tow.

"We'll take this conversation somewhere more private." He offered and showed her the door.

They climbed up another floor, where Negan led her to what she thought might be his own private room, judging by the luxury it had and the little bar table.

"I hoped you would come soon, it means you and Sophia are much alike." Negan told her, he sat on an armchair placed in front of a coffee table and offered her the other one in front.

"You'll have to excuse my skepticism, but I saw my daughter, Sophia's corpse years ago...Can you show me proof that this is not some kind of misunderstanding?" Started Carol and then sat down in front of him.

"Not really, Sophia hides her face most of the time. She burned half of her face when she was twelve or thirteen." Said Negan, it seemed to Carol that the man was willing to openly talk about the Harpy, which was a tell that he too believed they were related.

"She's an awesome young woman, someone I respect a lot and not for her power but because of the way she goes about in life. Much like you, who when you found out about her, came straight here to see for yourself." Offered the man.

"I think I'll wait to make my own opinion about her. If she really is my daughter." Carol started. "I was actually thinking we could talk about Alexandria, and what is going on with them. Daryl wouldn't tell me about it when I saw him." She asked shrewdly.

Negan gave a low laugh and took a cigar from the inside of his jacket. "You were part of the whole Satellite outpost raid, were you?" He asked lighting it with a lighter.

Carol didn't answer him, he made it clear he knew everything about it.

"Well don't worry, because it's all in the past now. Alexandria is working for us now and they really are go-getters. I mean, Rick took a bit of work to get in shape but he gets it now." He said, giving her a challenging look.

"What exactly does he get?" She asked.

"The new world order, the way things work now." He explained with a smile. It seemed to Carol that the man was eager to talk about it, maybe even proud.

"And that is?" She asked again.

"As I said, they work for us, they report for us, they are going to produce for us soon too. Half of their shit is our and we own Alexandria. It's the way things are kept in working order here, we are in charge of the territory and the communities here need to pay tax for that."

"And what is Sophia's role in this new world order?" She asked trying to hide her worry for her friends from her voice.

"We are partners in this, although she likes to get involved more on the level of my lieutenants. This is all a dream we share, of bringing civilization back, uniting all the communities under one rule, and keeping order among them." Negan said leaning forward towards her.

"And with Alexandria under the fold, we are on the verge of making great things happen for this territory. Carol, when your daughter is your age she will have created a safe zone for people to live safely and protected from all the shit that is out there." He continued.

"And all we need to do is keep them under control for long enough to get used to and start seeing the benefits of it, that's why I wanted to talk to you so badly. You see, Carol, you are the perfect candidate for handling Alexandria for us." He said with an even wider and dangerous smile. "They know you and respect you, but you also have connections to us, you can be the buffer that keeps the peace between them and us." He said loudly, the smile wide and sharp.

"It's in your best interest to do it, you don't want your friends and Sophia fighting don't you? Because this is as much her wish as it is mine." He said and laughed.

She definitely never met a man like this, he was all too sharp and apparently he was steps ahead of her all the time and he knew it. He had been thinking about what to do with her when she arrived since Daryl was there, how to get the most out of her, it dawned on Carol that this was how the man managed people.

It was true that she could help protect her friends in such a position, but from what Daryl had said, a confrontation was a given sooner or later.

"You can't keep people under your thumb like that and expect them to take it." She told him, but she suspected he already knew.

"They can kick and scream all they want, it will only be worse for them, they can join the flow of civilization or fight it and be destroyed. I don't want that, and that is why I want you to save them. See? That's our job, the Saviors." Negan said more calmed and then sat down. "Besides, it was done countless times in history, it took us where we were when the old world fell."

"It's not the same, the people you are dealing with are smarter than the common folk from the past, they are more experienced in combat and they are starting to see how free they are now from the society we used to live under. They won't take it, and remember most of these people had to kill loved ones too, some more than once." She tried to argue and judging by Negan's thoughtful expression, they were good points, but then a menacing shadow covered his eyes.

"Are you saying that you would be willing to kill Sophia for your friends? Or your friends for Sophia?" He asked. He was suddenly dead serious and dangerous.

"I would never make that choice, I'm saying that some of them won't think twice about killing me if I were supporting their enemies." She tried to explain.

"That would be up to your competence at the job, if they are willing to kill you then you should be ready to deal with it, at the very least you should be capable enough to handle that. If you fail at the job it is because of your incompetence. I assure you I have plenty of willing men and women that I think could do a good job at handling them." He retorted.

"I'm just saying, if you think I don't know the fucked up shit they want to unleash on me and my people, and that there is a great chance that they'll actually attempt to do it. Then you are wrong, this is me hoping to achieve a peaceful integration. After all, people are a resource and they are fucking scarce." He finished.

"I…" She started, not sure what to say. He was actually making sense, she realized that man had a well of charisma. "I have recently decided to stay away from all of this." She tried to explain.

"Then, give it a thought, I have yet to decide who will handle Alexandria." He informed her, he had given her a lot to think about. This was not what she thought the leader of the Saviours would be like.

"Where did you find Sophia?" She asked him to change the subject.

"We found her on our way here, just east of the Mississippi, more than two years ago. She was alone and lost in every sense of the word." He started, giving her a look, but Carol remained silent hoping to hear more.

"I took her in with our group and helped her out, she had this idea that we would all die helping her, but she didn't know me. I'm a great fucking leader." Negan exclaimed pointing at his chest with a thumb.

"In time, as she got enough rest and proper meals the real Sophia started to come out, asking questions about us and about herself. What she wanted, who she wanted to be and all of that." He said thoughtfully. "She had been surviving alone for months, according to her, I think she was out of it for most of that time. We used to talk a lot on those days and she would keep close to me a lot too, now look at her, out doing shit by her own choice, independent, self-sufficient." He said, sounding proud of that.

"She pisses me off sometimes, but to be honest I can't respect someone who never challenges me. She'll do great." He finished.

"Do what?" Asked Carol very much entranced by the way the man talked about Sophia, but he never got to answer, because at that time there was a loud sound of rushing air behind her and she felt her hair shuffle with it.

Carol immediately stood up and turned around, ready to defend herself, but in front of her she found what looked to be the girl she watched on the roof earlier. She was wearing thick black tights with holes here and there, a red sleeveless that showed lean arms of which the right one looked to be covered in a silvery metallic substance, almost liquid and the left one had a big bandage covering the upper arm. The girl wore leather straps around her chest and waist that held a sword and something else, something thin and long.

She had a black and white mask depicting a sort of eagle faced female, with the harshest glare, only behind the mask she could see eyes filled with emotion. Finally on top of her head a pointy witch hat made of some tough black cloth and impossibly weathered by time, it rested on her head half-collapsed and leaning to the side.

The girl silently placed her left hand on the face of her mask and Carol could see as the feathers that covered the rest of the girl's head, retracted as if they were alive and allowed the mask to let go.

Carol saw then the much grown and weathered face of the little girl that once had been her daughter. It was unmistakable, behind the burn scars she could see what was impossible to deny, this was her Sophia, she had the same eyes and the unburn side held the same cute freckles that she loved.

Sophia had grown up and become a beautiful woman with delicate features, even with the terrible scars.

"MOM!" Sophia shouted a broken voice and tears in her eyes. Carol felt herself moving without thinking and the girl jumped the distance too.

They held each other and cried of happiness at the impossible scenario, it was suddenly all true and real, her daughter was there and everything had been a terrible nightmare. Carol thought for a second, that there was something left of her.

Her daughter, one of the people she most regretted for having failed her, for not being strong enough to save her and keep her alive. Sophia was fine. She had failed so many since her daughter had died, but now there was a miracle and they could start again, anew, stronger.

"My sweet girl." She managed to say after trying to get a hold of herself, they never let go of the tight hug, they didn't want to.

"I'm alive mom, I'm sorry. It was all fake, I couldn't do anything. I tried, I swear I tried!" Her little girl tried to explain, all teary-eyed.

"It's alright, let that in the past...I didn't want to believe it when I heard it, but I had to check." Carol said to her almost in a whisper.

They finally let go of the hug and looked at each other's faces, taking in all the changes and the familiarity that remained mainly in their eyes.

"Oh, baby." Said Carol sadly, as she caressed her burned side. "What happened?" She asked her.

Sophia huffed, amusedly annoyed. "It's an old story now, but I'd do it again." Sophia said and surprised Carol when she gave her a sweet kiss on her cheek.

"I love you, mom. I'm with you now, we'll be fine now." She said and they both started crying again, which somehow devolved into laughs from each other.

"Don't mind me, I'll just make myself a drink." Quipped Negan standing up. "Got a tight throat that needs strong booze." He commented, but they ignored him.

"Look at your hair, it's a mess!" Complained Carol, holding some locks of her hair in her hand which for some reason provoked another fit of laughter.

"Mom, where were you? I've been looking for you all around." Sophia asked, they seemed to be stuck by their arms and she felt very comfortable like that.

"I'll tell you anything, but if we are alone." Carol answered giving Negan a side glance.

"He's cool mom, just an ass sometimes but I swear he's cool. He saved my life when I had no one." Sophia tried to explain.

"We got to talk for a little bit…" Was all she chose to say and Sophia seemed to catch her mistrust.

"Let's go to my room." Sophia offered. "I'll be gone for a while, the thing at Regina's place is going steady." She informed Negan.

"Fine with me." Said Negan, then he waved at Carol. "A pleasure to meet, I hope we can meet again like today, and hold onto your lunch by the way." He warned with a charming smile.

"What does that-" Carol said, but suddenly every ounce of her body was pulled from the inside and pushed through what felt like a very tight space at dizzying speeds until her feet finally found ground and the feeling of everything inside her rushing in place a second later threatened to make her puke, but she managed to control it.

"What the hell!" She shouted in panic, then it passed as she realized they were inside a new room. It was a good-sized space with white walls and just the one ceiling window that was opened and allowed fresh air to flow, she realized this must be Sophia's place she had seen on top of the roof and they had somehow teleported.

"It's called apparition, it's like teleportation. Mom! did you know I'm a witch!?" Sophia asked her, putting down her mask and hat on a large couch resting against one of the walls.

"How did you do that?" She asked, still a little lost. "You never did that before."

"It's magic mom, I'm telling you I'm a witch I was born with it. This was advanced but, you never saw something weird happen near me? Or saw me do something odd?" She asked with curiosity.

"Not that I remember, you were always very quiet and reserved as a kid." Carol said, somehow feeling like she was letting her down.

"Oh...well it doesn't matter." Sophia said, shaking her head and dismissing it. The mild disappointment giving way to a big smile with watery eyes. Carol couldn't help but notice how the smile tugged at her scarred side and made an ugly sight.

"How come you can do...magic?" She asked her daughter.

Sophia sighed profusely and plopped down on the couch. "Because there are people with magic and people without, someone in our family must have had in the past and that's why I was born with it. They used to keep it all secret, their whole magical society, but they are mostly all dead now." Her daughter explained.

"I don't remember anyone in my family who could do that." Carol said, sitting down next to her and picking up the Harpy mask. She gave it a good look, it seemed to be made of metal but the inside was covered in a soft and fresh cloth, and there were no real feathers anywhere except the engraved ones in the face.

"You wouldn't, they would have taken me away from you and erased your mind, it was like by law or something." Sophia explained to her.

"So you are saying there are others?" She asked her.

"I only met one, the guy who saved me and taught me the basics. But I never found anyone else, and no one came here either so…" She said.

"And who saved you?" Carol asked, interested. "From what?" She asked.

"Oh, mom...it's a long story…" Sophia said huffing tiredly. "Remember the horde from that road? When I got lost?" She said and Carol nodded, egging her on.

"That day I got bit, look right here." Sophia said and showed her right shoulder which was also covered in the silvery metallic substance. It was hard to notice because it was all silvery and shiny, but now that she could see it up close, there was a gnarly bite.

"You were bitten on the other shoulder when… I saw you at that time." Carol said remembering the terrible sight.

"Yeah, I know I think he fucked up when doing the charm...Anyway, this old guy came up to me and saved me from walkers, he transfigured my shoulder and arm like this so the bite wound wouldn't kill me... and did something else…." Sophia said sadly.

"What?"

"He made me swear a bow, that I would serve him and call him master, that I would be his apprentice and all of that. He said I was a witch and that there were almost no people like us anymore." She continued, it was terrifying for Carol to listen and know where it was going, she had been so young at the time.

"He basically had me as a servant, barely taught me, beat me whenever he wanted...He was obsessed with the survival of our kind, said we were on the verge of extinction… It took me a while to understand, but he would never let me go, I was a young witch and he was a wizard obsessed with our kind's heritage...well...you can imagine." Sophia said, she sounded sick just alluding to it. Carol was sick actually, hearing the situation made her blood boil.

"Did he…" Carol asked, afraid of the answer.

"That's the thing, I don't know. He didn't as far as I remember. But he did to other, non-magical girls and they knew nothing about it because he altered their memories...When I found out I panicked, mom." Sophia sounded devastated by her memories.

"That's terrible sweetheart." Managed to tell her Carol holding her hand in support.

"What if he had already done it to me? He definitely was going to, I'm sure of that, he never straight up denied it when I confronted him. So...I tried to blow him up, I thought if I died killing him it would be alright, as long as it saved the others." Sophia said, wiping tears from her cheeks.

"Turns out, magical folk, we are tough as nails. We both survived, and the fight that followed cost me the life of everyone I held close and dear at the time. They died helping me, mom." Sophia said crying and they hugged each other.

"And not just them, there was a whole community, more than a hundred innocents. They all died because of me that night, I killed them and I couldn't stop it." She said sadly.

"You did your best, you were too young to be saving people, to live through that." Carol tried to say.

"That's how I got my face like this...the worst thing is I would do it again...there was nothing else I could do to stop him, mom a full-grown wizard, a man like him...He was almost unstoppable. I was so lucky." She explained.

"But you killed him in the end, right?" Carol asked her, smiling.

"Yeah, but...we are so different from non-magical people, I was a child, leagues behind that man. He was probably more than a hundred years old and took a bomb to the face and survived, he could read and handle people's minds like open books, he could do anything. The fact that I survived was a miracle, no maybe even destiny or something it's weird to think I got out of it alive, I feel like I shouldn't have." She tried to explain to her.

"But that's over, he's in the past." Carol tried to reassure her.

"I know, I'm just saying. What if someone else like him comes here…" Sophia thought with a shudder.

"What about you? What happened to you?" Sophia asked her, and she sighed, lost as to what to say.

"I don't know honey...we left that farm and continued to survive on the road for some time until we found a prison, we took over and turned it into the beginnings of a great community. But there was another community nearby and things got out of hand, a lot of people died, on both sides." Carol told her, thinking of everyone they lost.

"Yeah, we saw many places where people failed to sustain a community, civilization. It's always the human factor, aided by the dead factor." Sophia said huffing, as she got up and walked over to the opposite wall which had a large cabinet door integrated. Sophia opened and Carol saw that it was filled with food and bottles of water.

She took two and threw one at her.

"That's why we are the Saviors." Started Sophia, leaning on the desk in front of her.

"What do you mean?" Carol asked.

"It's always like that." Sophia said waving her question off. "They lack good leaders to keep them in check, keep the ineptitude out of the chain, make sure things work in order, as they should." Explained.

"That's why you take over communities?" Asked Carol carefully, this was a difficult subject.

"It's not easy...or pretty. But in the long run, it keeps the order, you wait and see mom, we'll do some great shit with this place." Sophia said excitedly, she sounded familiar to Carol, too similar to Negan.

"Look, if Negan had been there when I lived with my old master. I'm sure things would have ended up so much better, I know this in my heart."

Carol sighed, not really knowing what to think about the whole thing. It was like she was in the middle of it and any side she chose would mean a loss to her.

"Daryl was kept here as a prisoner?" She asked her, thinking about the conversation she had with him last night, he had been elusive when she asked him if everyone was alright.

"Yeah, we took him the night we took over Alexandria. Negan wanted him to be one of us...I think he could have done good things for Alexandria if he worked with us." Sophia said, she sounded disappointed.

"You mean like a handler?" Asked her Carol, putting the dots together.

"Yeah! I bet Negan offered you the job, I bet he did, I would offer it to you." Sophia said smiling.

Carol breathed in and out deeply, dreading the response. "What happened the night you took over Alexandria?" She asked her daughter, Sophia was caught by surprise.

"You mean you don't know?" She asked in surprise. Carol just shook her head slowly.

"Oh mom...I'm sorry but those things never go smoothly, people need to be shown that they don't stand a chance, that it's best for them to submit." Sophia said accentuating her points with sharp hand movements.

"What does that mean? What happened?" Carol asked, with tears in her eyes.

Sophia looked at her quietly, with worry in her face, then glanced to the right side of the room where some big glass containers dominated the space. Carol followed her line of sight and it took her a few moments to process what she was seeing, there was a man, suspended in the air inside what she recognized as an overly large glass jar. He was turning around in place as if frozen in time, even his hair remained unmoving.

Carol gasped in shock, covering her mouth and swearing under her breath. The man had turned around and she could see now that it was Glenn, his head bashed in and his eye popped out, he had this face of fear and sadness that was chilling.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?"