Sadie's POV

"...Kiiiiid.." The bastard proclaimed with a sigh, as if he genuinely meant what he was about to say, as I approached…..seemingly unnoticed, amongst all the commotion.

"...I thought we had something!"

He jumped at the tip of my knife abruptly poking at the back of his neck, as I gripped the collar of his jacket again.

"Call her off him, or the next thing you'll have is my knife through your throat!"

I growled in his ear.

"Sadie!" He declared, suddenly, to the crowd as he tried to appear unphased. "...Look, everybody! It's Sadie- "

I jerked him back, even harder, as he tried to move away from my grip.

"DID I SAY YOU COULD MOVE, ASSHOLE?!"

The surrounding crowd watched on in shock, much like before, as the previously big, bad Savior leader was slowly losing the battle with himself of keeping up his precious little facade.

"Call her off the boy, NOW." I ordered once again.

He looked cautiously back at me and then to Arat, who looked right back at him.

Her knife, still held closely to the boy's neck as she awaited further orders from the bastard.

"...Arat…..before you do as the lady says…" He smirked briefly back at me before glancing around the immediate area at the onlookers. "...remind these two of how we can be just as serious as they claim to be…..kill someone."

I just about threw the bastard out of my grip at the order, grabbing at Arat as she waved her gun to pick out someone random from the crowd.

Quick as I moved, though, it wasn't before she set her sights on Deanna….who was still in clear shock over her son's bloody corpse, and shot the gun off at her…..killing her instantly.

As soon as she did, however….and before Negan could return to his boastful, cocky self, I grabbed the gun Theresa had handed over to me and shot it immediately at Arat…..who also immediately fell to her own death.

I turned to stare the bastard, dead in the eye, as I slowly aimed the gun toward him.

"Two can play at that game!" I reminded him sternly, nodding briefly toward the front gate. "...you wanna take your shit out of here, now? Or would you like me to prove it again?"

He took some very cautious steps back, looking down at Arat's lifeless corpse before turning again to address his little goons.

"...You heard the lady…." He spoke slightly more hesitantly. "...let's move out!"

They all, collectively, looked in shock toward their previously fearless appearing leader, glancing briefly at myself and the scene before them as they all followed him out to their vehicles by the front gate.

"Smart choice, gentlemen…" I announced, glancing over the crowd as I watched to see that they all followed suit. "...and ladies…"

As I shook my head to myself, returning Theresa's gun to its spot on my belt, I looked down to see that Carl still remained on the ground. His face, still in apparent shock and somewhat horror at what had just gone down…...over what he, himself caused, no less.

I scoffed at the thought of it. "Get off your ass, Kid. Show's over!"

He looked on, cautiously still, at me as he finally picked himself up back onto his feet.

I looked back at him then turned briefly to take another onceover at the area as only a few of the residents remained standing by.

"...He was right about one thing, someone really should clean this shit up."

I glanced back to see him still watching me, nearly as confused as before, as I left the scene to start attending to my own shit.

When Aaron eventually came to find me again, I was standing toward the center of Deanna's office, looking over what she'd written down during our last meeting…...and, once again, trying to make sense of what all she was thinking when she came to the decision she had.

I didn't even notice him standing in the doorway, let alone how long he'd been there, til his soft knocks against the open door broke my train of thought.

"...I uhh..hope this isn't a bad time…" He said, somewhat nervously, when I jumped at the sound of it.

I chuckled as I did a brief onceover at the state he was currently in.

His normally perfectly clean attire looked more worse for wear than I'd seen it….probably since even our first encounter with him, and his face in particular was all dirty and bloodied up, as if he'd just gotten the shit thoroughly kicked out of him before stumbling over here.

"For me or for you?" I scoffed. "...you look like shit! The hell happened to you?"

"Right…" He chuckled nervously, seeming to fumble for words. "...ah, yeah it's a long story. It looks worse than it is."

"I'm sure it does…."

He nodded, still standing in place as if he needed an invitation.

"You can come sit, I'm not gonna bite." I teased.

"Right, thanks." He chuckled, making his way to sit down on the couch as I skimmed over some more papers. "...so, I take it she told you then."

"...Not that I understand much….if anything of it. I scoffed. "...but yeah, it came up. Is that what you hobbled over here to talk to me about?"

He chuckled at the remark. "Right…..well, I just figured you'd probably be skeptical about it, given that- "

"Yeah, skeptical's not really the word for it." I corrected before he could finish.

"...if anything, I'm fairly confident that you'll need a leader a little more like myself, if the leader she was is the kind that would just hand over a power such as hers over to someone she barely knows….sorry, no offense." The last part of that, spoken a little more gently as I realized how that probably sounde, give the circumstances.

He nodded quietly before finally speaking again. "...so, what else did she tell you?"

"Thaaat it wasn't just her decision." I sighed. "...and that she'd already talked it over with some of the people who apparently didn't contest the suggestion."

He nodded again. "...well, you can watch it on some of her tapes, if you don't believe it. I think she said she was keeping them in a drawer in her desk, or something. Separate from the interview tapes."

I glanced, curiously, at him before making my way over to the desk in question.

Sure enough, in the bottom drawer which had considerably more room than the top one, were a small stack of tapes that each had someone's name on it.

Most of which, I recognized right away.

Jessie, Olivia, Carl, Eric, Aaron, Gabriel, Spencer, Enid

"Spencer…" I muttered under my breath. "..that should be a fun one."

And a couple others that I only recognized vaguely, if at all.

Tara, Denise, and Michonne.

"...I think she mentioned starting with anyone who was…..well, considerably less agreeable to the deal with the Saviors than the rest of us."

I scoffed at that as I held up the decently sized stack. "...looks like a loooot of you weren't totally on board with it, then."

He chuckled nervously as he shrugged. "...I mean, she may have just gotten to a few more people than I'm remembering."

"...Riiiight…." I glanced down at the stack in my hands before holding some back up again. "...you mind if I just take these back to my place to look over tonight, then?"

"Be my guest." He agreed. "...like Deanna, herself, would've said….full transparency, right?"

I nodded. "...right…...well, I should probably get going then, see how Alex is doing."

"I understand." He replied, half smiling back at me. "I'll walk with you."

"Are you asking me if you can or telling me?" I chuckled.

"Oh uh, I mean- well, my house is just a few houses down from- "

"Relax, I'm just screwing with you." I laughed, walking just ahead of him to the door.

"Right." He chuckled, still nervously.