Sadie's POV
When we finally pulled up to the generally open vicinity that Jesus had directed us to, on our way to this so-called Kingdom of his, I scoffed audibly as I parked the car and let myself out.
"It's seriously called The Kingdom?"
Jesus just sort of shrugged. "Yeah….I didn't name it."
"Fair enough." I chuckled. "So, how much farther then?"
"Well, technically, we're already here." He explained. "I mean, we're always here, but here we are, at the Kingdom…...Well, its outer edge, anyway."
"Hey!" Daryl, who was now standing up out of the car, interjected. "what the hell we waitin' on'?"
"Waiting for them." Jesus answered, pointing to two men who were riding up on horseback toward us just then.
"Who dares to trespass on the sovereign land of the- " The first one started to declare til he noticed who was standing amongst us. "Oh, shit…...Jesus, is that you?"
"Who are all these people, Paul?" The second one asked, looking over the rest of us.
"Hi, Richard." Jesus replied. "Nice to see you."
"It's good to see you, too."
"Your friends…" The other one asked again. "...who are they?"
"This is Sadie. She's the leader of a like-minded community." He explained.
This earned him an audible scoff from Daryl, likely at the thought of someone blindly associating him with myself like that.
I just shot him a smirk in return.
"...These are some of her people." He continued. "...we would like to request an audience with King Ezekiel."
I scoffed again, somewhat more audibly.
And here I thought Alexandria was on such a high horse…...so to speak.
The second of the two men, who Jesus had addressed as Richard, stepped down off his horse after seeming to consider for a moment what Jesus had just relayed to both of them.
"Get out of the car." He ordered the others before returning his attention back to Jesus and I. "...You say they're a like-minded community. How?"
"We live, we trade, we fight the dead." Jesus answered. "...sometimes others."
Richard nodded as he began to call the others over. "Line up."
Daryl, who was clearly less amused than I was, scoffed at that. "This is a waste of time."
"Maybe so!" Richard stated. "The King is a busy man, and it's a dangerous world. We don't normally allow a pack of strangers to waltz through our door.
"On second thought, maybe Deanna should've taken some notes from this guy."
I chuckled to myself under my breath at the thought.
"Look, we're just trying to make the world a little less dangerous, if there is such a thing these days." I scoffed. "...and if you'd be so kind, maybe we can show this king of yours just how serious we are about that."
Richard nodded, clearly unamused by my phrasing, but appeared to be considering my offer nonetheless.
"The car stays outside." He finally declared. "...and you have to hand over your guns."
Gareth sighed, as he caught sight of the glare I was shooting this man.
"Sadie, just give it to him." He pleaded as even Carl reluctantly handed his own over to Richard. "...the two we have's not going to make that much of a difference anyway."
God, I hate when he's right.
"Fine." I finally agreed, taking my own gun off my belt to hand to the guy.
Richard nodded, taking another quick onceover of the group as he secured both the guns that were now in his possession.
"Okay. Follow me."
As snobby and high on its damned high horse I still stood by it being, I supposed this place could get a small pass for calling itself The Kingdom. Even if just for no other reason than that they at least had enough people to call itself that.
It must've been at least twice the size of Alexandria, maybe even The Hilltop.
Everyone else seemed just as satisfied with all this as they, too, were taking their own lookovers over the people in the surrounding vicinity.
"They got the numbers." Michonne finally said.
"Yeah, but can they fight?" I aimed it more toward Jesus.
"Ohh, they can fight." He assured with such confidence.
Daryl scoffed at the seemingly blind assumption. "Maybe."
As I took another good look around of the vicinity, trying to get my own idea of what these people might actually be capable of, I was startled out of my train of thought by a vaguely familiar voice calling my name.
"Sadie?" Her voice simultaneously filled with shock and some small glimmer of hope.
I was only met by possibly even more shock than she had when I turned around and my mind began to connect the dots as thousands of thoughts and memories from….well, just before all this, began to flood my mind at the sight of the woman now standing in front of me.
"Tyra?" I recalled out loud.
She nodded as she raced over to hug me.
"Where the hell have you been? Thought you were- " She trailed off as she looked up at Gareth, who was standing just behind me now. "I-I thought you both were- "
"It's a looong story." I chuckled. "..one that I don't have nearly enough drinks in me for now."
"Fair enough." She laughed, still sort of nervously as she went to hug Gareth just as tightly. "Hey."
"It's good to see you." He replied.
"Alright, easy on him. He's still mine." I teased.
This earned a laugh from both of them.
"How do you know each other?" Richard, who'd apparently been observing the little reunion from the sideline until now, finally asked.
"Ohh, we go way back." I answered. "...way back to the start."
He smiled briefly as he nodded. "Well, the King is ready to see you."
"We'll talk more later then." I promised Tyra as Richard started to lead us off.
"I'll hold you to that." She answered.
We followed Jesus to an auditorium that was certainly big enough to entertain an audience, as he'd previously implied….not that it would make this so-called King of theirs any less self righteous for it.
I laughed under my breath, just loud enough for Jesus to hear, when I looked up to see this high and mighty King….sitting atop a damned throne, with not only two obvious servants to his side, but a goddamned tiger chained up along his otherside.
"You have gotta be shitting me."
"Oh, right." Jesus chuckled, as if this were completely normal. "I forgot to mention the, uh- "
"Oh did you?"
He chuckled at that, but was cut off before he could say much else.
"Jesus!" The King shouted out suddenly. "It pleases me to see you, old friend!"
"It pleases him, indeed!" The man standing to his right loudly affirmed, much to the King's obvious unamusement.
"Jerry"
I chuckled a little more as Jerry quickly, ashamedly, fell back into his position.
"What news do you bring King Ezekiel?" He continued. "Are these new allies you've brought me?"
"Indeed they are, your Majesty." Jesus gestured for me to lead the rest up closer to the front with him. "This is Sadie, leader of Alexandria, and these are some of her people."
"I welcome you all to The Kingdom, good travelers. Now, what brings you to our fair land? Why do you seek an audience with The King?"
"Well, what brings The King to be so formal?" I asked instead.
He merely chuckled only slightly at the remark as he waited for me to go on.
"Shit, tough crowd." I chuckled.
He held his stare, still considerably unamused.
I cleared my throat as I just shrugged it off.
"Well, Your Majesty…" I chuckled, somewhat quieter, under my breath. "We seek this so-called audience because my people, the people of The Hilltop, and your Kingdom all have something in common. We all deal with The Saviors. Alexandria already fought them once and we won. My people even thought we took out the whole threat, but we didn't know then what we know now…...that it was only one outpost. Now, we've been told you have a deal with them, that you know them, so you know that they're just a bunch of cowards who rule with violence and fear."
Jesus briefly glanced towards me before looking back to Ezekiel, as he quickly scrambled to save his own ass.
"Your Majesty, I only told them of the- " He tried to defend before being abruptly cut off.
"Our deal with the Saviors is not known among my people, for good cause." Ezekiel explained sternly.
"We made you a party to that secret when you told us of the Hilltop's own travails,
but we did not expect you to share- "
"We can help each other- "
"Don't interrupt the King." Jerry ordered at the interruption.
Ezekiel nodded. "We brought you into our confidence. Why did you break it?"
"Because I want you to hear Sadie's plans."
This, surprisingly, seemed to intrigue The King, to some extent.
"And what plans, have you, Sadie of Alexandria?" He asked.
"We came to ask the Kingdom, to ask you to join us in fighting the Saviors, in fighting for freedom. For all of us."
"What you are asking is very serious." Ezekiel reminded us.
Gee really, Captain Obvious?
Michonne stepped forward to add her own piece before I could make any remark to that.
"Several of our people, good people were killed by The Saviors. Brutally."
"Not to mention, he took Daryl." I pointed out. "He's here with us today because I broke him out, and every second that he is, he might as well have a damned target painted on his back. Same as the rest of us, for that matter." I scoffed at the last part.
"Negan murdered Glenn and Abraham, beat 'em to death…." Sasha chimed in. "...terrorized The Hilltop, set loose walkers just to make a point."
"I used to think the deal was something we could live with." Jesus added. "A lot of us did."
"Yeah, too many of you." I scoffed.
Jesus just glanced at me before continuing.
"...but that's changing. So, let's change the world, Your Majesty."
"We want to be honest with what we're asking." I continued. "My people are strong, but there's not enough of us. We don't have enough guns, or weapons, period."
"We have people, and weapons." Richard stated. "If we strike first, together, we can beat them. Your Majesty, no more waiting for things to get worse, beyond what we can handle. We set things right. The time is now."
Ezekiel looked back at Richard, then to look the rest of us over as he appeared to consider everything before he stood.
"The hour grows late." He finally declared. "You have given The King much to ponder.
I glared back at him, chuckling to myself at how what I was about to say might otherwise get me laughed at…..actually, still might, but it was worth the shot.
"You ever see The Green Mile, Your Majesty?" I asked…...to which, he just looked at me like I was crazy.
"I beg your pardon?" He finally asked.
"Great movie, Your Majesty." Jerry chimed in, a little too eagerly for The King's liking.
"Jerry!"
I couldn't help but chuckle at the reprimand.
"Right…" I continued. "Well, I was about 12 or 13 when I first picked up the book. The one person who stood out the most to me even back then was a man, a coward, most accurately, named Percy Wetmore. Now, this Percy, if you recall, he liked to think that he was such hot shit too. Struttin around the place, wavin his little baton at any prisoner who stepped out of line…..the other guards, they didn't like it either, but what could they do, right? He had his own people, his own numbers, if you will, so even they feared him…..right up until the arrival of a prisoner who they'd call Wild Bill….the wildest of them all, if you will…...now, for a big, bad, bully like he made himself out to be, this isn't a problem, right? He should jump at the chance to put him in his place….
Ohh, you'd think so….cause that's what he wanted you to believe, what he demanded you believe." I chuckled a little at the thought. "...but the second this big, bad bully is caught off his guard, the second this new guy acts just a little bit more boldly than anyone else….bam! This man is on the floor pissing himself like the pathetic man-child he really is." I scoffed. "...And Negan is no different. You ask my people, they've seen it."
"It's true!" Carl called out, from where he'd been standing in the back.
The King looked over at Carl, and then back to me…...slightly more curiously, as he appeared to be at least somewhat amused by my analogy.
"I invite you to sup with us, stay til the morrow." He finally announced.
"...and I'm flattered by the offer.." I remarked. "...but we'll need to get back home.."
"I shall deliver my decree in the morn." He insisted, matter of factly.
"Yes, Sir." I scoffed, putting my hands up in front of me as I turned to leave with the others.
Once we were shown to where we'd be spending the night, I decided to make good on my word from earlier and seek Tyra out and catch up.
"Here goes nothin."
I sighed to myself and raised my fist to give a couple quick knocks to her door.
Knocks, which were shortly followed by her voice calling faintly from the other side of it.
"It's open."
I chuckled a little to myself as I finally made my way in.
"Probably shouldn't be, that's how you lose shit!"
She just laughed at that when she entered the living room area and saw that it was me.
"No one ever really comes around here, alright?" She tried to defend. "I mostly just keep to myself here."
"All the more reason to be more on guard." I pointed out, taking a couple bottles from the bag I'd brought with me. "Anyway, not why I'm here."
"Do tell, then." She chuckled at the sight of them.
"Don't you know by now that I'm a woman of my word?" I reminded her, cracking open the whiskey bottle. "...I told you I'd need a few drinks in me if we were gonna talk, right? If you're still up for it, I mean."
"Talking, yes." She laughed. "...the booze, all yours."
I shrugged as I took a swig from it. "Suit yourself then
"Right…...so…" She chuckled, this time a little more anxiously. "...where do you wanna start?"
With another drink in me, I proceeded to fill her in on what all had happened in the last couple years since she'd been separated from us.
What probably killed me the most about it all was that she hadn't even been at Terminus when everything went down….and how that must've given her some unfortunate glimmer of hope for who all might've made it out.
"...sometime after that, we were lucky enough…...somehow….to meet back up with Theresa, hole up in some little house she'd found for a while. That was about when Aaron found us."
She nodded quietly, taking a few more moments as she tried to process it all, before she started to reach for something in her shirt.
I took another swig from the bottle, which by now was only a little more than half full, as I watched her more curiously.
"I believe this belongs to you." She finally said, sliding the small object in question off the necklace she'd been wearing that hung down slightly into her shirt and into her cupped hand as she offered it to me.
"There's no fucking way…."
I continued to inspect the small ring a few times over before carefully sliding it onto my finger.
"How did you…?"
"...After I'd gotten back from my run to find what was left of Terminus, I spent the next year or so trying to track you guys down. Even tracked you…well, somewhat, anyway, up to that old schoolhouse, but I guess you'd already left."
I nodded. "Yeah, I think we were only there about a week, maybe two. Once we found out I was pregnant, we didn't stay anywhere that didn't have a roof over it for very long."
She nodded. "Right, well sometime after the church, I guess, I found it just a couple miles or so out from it."
"..So, you just kept it all this time then?"
She half smiled back at that. "...I guess I just never really gave up."
I smiled even more widely back at her. "I'm glad you didn't."
"Me too."
I nodded, smirking a little as I made another attempt to offer her the nearly half drank bottle a I picked it back up. "You're sure you won't have any before I go?"
"I'm still good." She chuckled. "Maybe next time."
"...then, I'll hold you to it." I teased as I started to stand back up, placing the bottle back in my bag. "Anyway, it's getting pretty late. I should probably get going."
"So I'll see you around then?"
"That's the plan." I agreed as she walked me to the door. "Later."