Sadie's POV

"JESUS, this Gregory bastard is soo much more of an asshole…...and not to mention a coward than I gave him credit for.

If I didn't have such an urge to stab him right through his damned throat, it'd give me considerably too much amusement to think of how he was such an asshole that all glares and otherwise focus seem to be on him….and not the two cannibals standing in the mix." I thought snidely to myself as we stood around his office, watching him rant off about ooohh poor me.

"...NO, no way in HELL! That was not the deal!" He shouted. "..you people swore you could take care of The Saviors, and you failed! So, any arrangement we had is now done. Null and void. We aren't trade partners, we aren't friends, and we never met! We don't know each other."

"Gregory…" I sighed. "..you absolute COWARD of a man, as much as I wish those last two statements were true, they're not! Unfortunately for you and, well pretty much everyone else in this room, we do know each other. So, you owe us."

"I owe you nothing!" He insisted. "...matter of fact, you owe me for taking in yourself and your little refugee friends, at GREAT personal risk!"

"Oh, you were very brave, staying in here while Maggie, Sasha, and Sadie saved this place. Your courage was inspiring." Jesus interjected.

I pointed back toward him in agreement. "...and even more inspiring how quickly you would've given the three of us up!" I scoffed "...Look, asshole. We already started this- "

"You started this- "

I slammed my fist down on his desk at the interruption, clearly shaking him up as I got more in his face. "DID IT SOUND LIKE I WAS DONE?!"

Only silence in response, with the added shock of the outburst.

I cleared my throat as I went on. "...as I was saying, we started this. And we're gonna win."

"These are killers!" He finally tried to defend.

"Is that really how you wanna live?!" I scoffed. "..under their thumb, killing your people? ….You know what, don't answer that. You have made it abundantly clear you don't give a shit about these people who you're meant to protect, but while that may sit fine with you, some of us actually do fucking care about our people!"

"...Now, how many people can we spare?" Maggie added. "How many people here can fight?"

"We?" He scoffed. "I don't even know how many people we have, Margaret- "

"It's MAGGIE." I corrected abruptly, only for him to wave it off as he continued.

"...and does it even matter? I mean, what are you gonna do? Start a platoon of Sorghum farmers? Cause that's what we got. They grow things. They're not gonna wanna fight."

"You're wrong!" Tara, who'd been standing near the back, finally chimed in. "When people have the opportunity to do the right thing, they usually step up. I mean people jus-"

"Ah, let me just stop you before you break into song, okay?" Gregory interrupted. "A-and by the way, who would train all this cannon fodder?"

"We would." I answered firmly.

"Uhh Rhetoooorical, okay?" He added, amusingly sing-songy for his earlier remark.

"Oohh, are we breaking into song now?" I beamed sarcastically.

This got a chuckle out of Gareth, who was standing just behind me.

"..I don't wanna know." Gregory continued, scoffing as he ignored my remark. "...and I never wanna hear another word about it. Ever."

"WOULD we be better off without The Saviors, yes or no?!" I demanded.

"Yeah.." He scoffed again. "..sure, okay."

"So, what will you do to fix the problem?" Michonne interjected….much to Gregory's further unamusement.

"I didn't say we had a problem." He claimed. "You did. And what happens outside of my purview is outside of my purview."

"The hell, man!" Daryl added. "You're either with us or you ain't! You're sitting there talkin out of both sides of your mouth!"

"Uh… I think I've made my position very clear." Gregory replied. "...I wanna thank all of you for not being here today, and not having this meeting with me, or being seen on your way out…..in other words, go out the back."

Gareth had to pull me back, at that last cowardly statement, to stop me from lunging myself over his perfect little desk at the bastard.

"He's not worth it." He sighed. "..not yet anyway."

"I will stab that coward through his fucking throat!" I growled. "...sooner or later."

"I wanna knock the idiot's teeth out!" Sasha added on our way out.

"We don't need him anyway." Daryl scoffed.

"That's right." Gareth agreed. "...we got Maggie, Sasha, and Jesus here."

"...and Enid." Maggie added.

"Hey, umm…" Enid started to say when she entered, practically on cue.

"What's wrong?" Sasha asked, curiously.

"Nothing, just….ah, come outside."

Most of us exchanged some equally curious looks with each other before following her outside, where a small group of people were all gathered around just outside the doors.

"What's going on?" Maggie asked.

"...So, if you don't remember me, I'm Bertie." A woman explained. "...and I owe my life to you all, twice over. All of us do….Enid said you wanted to get Gregory to get us to fight The Saviors with you, is that true?"

"Yes." Maggie answered.

"...and do you think we could win?" Bertie continued. "...that we could actually beat them, us?"

"We do." I confirmed.

"Well, Enid says you can show us the way. I'm ready." She stated, followed shortly by even more agreements being stated throughout her group.

"It's a start." Michonne added. "..we'll get more."

"It still won't be enough." Sasha pointed out.

"Well, if we find the right stuff, maybe we don't need the numbers." Daryl boasted. "Blow em up, burn em to the ground."

"You said that there weren't just soldiers there." Tara reminded us. "..that there are workers, people who didn't have a choice."

"We'll get em." Daryl simply replied.

"We need more hands." I pointed out. "Another group. Negan has outposts, the geography and distance works against us…...We need to get back, if they come looking for Daryl, we need to be there."

"You don't need to get back!" Jesus raised, holding up a small radio. "It's one of theirs, long range. We can listen in, keep track of them."

"Good thinking." I praised. "...but if we aren't going back, what are we doing?"

"I think it's time we introduced you to Ezekiel." He explained with a smile. "King Ezekiel."

I scoffed a little to myself at that, trying to figure who had the higher fucking high horse now, Negan and his damned self-righteous Saviors or whoever the hell this Ezekiel guy was who would have th audacity to legitimately call himself a king.

"King?" Gareth asked, nearly echoing my own thoughts.