Warnings: Angst. Violence.

Bamby

VPOV

As soon as the gates of Alexandria opened, I could see the look on Tobin's face. Daryl stopped the bike and let me climb off as I reached out for the two notes in the other man's grasp. One was from Maggie, and the other was from Carol.

"How bad are things?" I asked, looking up from the letters.

Tobin shook his head. "I don't know."

Sighing, I opened the first letter, the one from Maggie, and began to read.

We beat 'em, but things got complicated. Jesus took prisoners, brought 'em back home. We're holding 'em outside our gates for now, till we decide what to do. Until I decide.

"Fuck."

I could only imagine the stress she was under. Choosing to kill that many people who were now defenceless was not right. But keeping them alive was not easy. It wasn't safe. The plan had been to kill and ask no questions, to not pause, to not think, to just do. Jesus might've had good intentions, but he'd royally fucked up.

Taking a breath, I turned to Carol's letter.

We took the outpost bit by bit. We thought we'd won. We were gathered up in the open when they ambushed us. It was over in seconds. Ezekiel, Jerry, and me, we're the only ones who made it back.

I'd known no one else had made it, but that didn't make things any easier. Actually seeing the words, knowing they came from someone I trusted and cared for and not just some random Saviour, made it all the more real.

"Vickie."

I turned, seeing Michonne headed my way. Reaching into my jacket, I pulled out the letter Dad had written while the Jeep had burned.

"How's Aly?" I asked as I handed the letter over.

"She's okay," she assured me. "How's… how's Rick?"

"He's as okay as he can be."

"Mummy! Daddy!" Aly came bounding down the porch steps as Daryl and I walked down the road, nearing home.

After reading the letters, we'd gone over to pay our respects to those we'd lost and had already been buried. We'd driven through the night, not stopping until we got back, got to our people. To see how many of them had fallen broke my heart.

Seeing Aly's bright face, however, made a smile of my own tug on my lips.

Daryl leaned forward just as she jumped at him. She giggled as he caught her, holding her close. "I missed you."

"We missed you, too." Reaching forward, I tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "Michonne told me you were very good."

She gave a firm nod. "I made sure I was with her, Carl, or Rosita the whole time."

"Good girl." Stepping forward, I gave her cheek a kiss before pulling back. "Where's Houdini?"

"He's inside with Carl and Judy," she answered as Daryl set her back on the ground and took her hand. Holding onto him tightly, she led us up the porch and into the house. "Carl! Mum and Dad are back."

I looked around the corner where Carl was sitting on the ground, playing with Judith and the dog. The three of them seemed to be having a blast, and once more I felt myself smile as the sight warmed my heart. We didn't get a lot of moments to be happy and have fun these days. I didn't get a lot of time to just be a mum and a big sister.

Daryl stepped up to me. "I'm gonna see if anyone needs me to do anything. You gonna be okay here?"

Nodding, I kept my eyes on my family as Judith hurried over to join the others on the ground. "I'm good."

Leaning in, Daryl pressed a kiss to my temple. "I love you," he muttered so only I could hear him.

Without looking, I reached out to find his hand and gave it a squeeze. "I love you, too."

MPOV

Walking out of the Hilltop to where we were keeping the Saviours against the fence, I watched in bewilderment as Jesus handed out food to them. Our food.

"Jesus." Instead of turning to me, he just continued to hand out food. It seriously got on my nerves. "Jesus." I stormed over to him.

"Hi."

"You're giving away our food."

Of course he had a response. "We had a bumper crop of turnips in the root cellar. We couldn't get rid of them. Saviours left them behind after they raided us.

"That cellar is there for a reason," I countered. "We might have plenty now, but that could change. We got to look after our own."

"Paul," Gregory stepped up behind me, "this is a farce, it's gone on long enough. I mean, build a gallows already. You're handy, Margaret. Save the bullets and be done with it."

"Gregory," I warned.

While he wasn't entirely wrong, I didn't want to hear from him. It might actually be one of the reasons why I hadn't killed the Saviours yet. Knowing it's what Gregory wanted had me pausing.

Then there was also the fact the I understood Jesus, too. I got both their points of view. I knew what each choice meant, the consequences and the positives. Either way there were risks and benefits. It wasn't an easy decision to make.

Gregory wasn't listening to my warning, though. "What? I'm just saying what everybody inside there is thinking."

"Go inside. Now."

"Come on, Gregory," Enid called from a few steps behind us.

Sighing, Gregory turned to me one last time. "You know I'm right."

Once he and Enid were walking away, I looked to Jesus again. "You shouldn't have put us in this position."

"Are you seriously thinking about doing what Gregory said?"

"Every option's on the table. They have to be."

"What are we fighting for, Maggie?"

I couldn't believe he was asking me that, after everything I'd been through. After everything he knew the Saviours and Negan had put me through. Everything I'd lost because of them.

"You know."

Still, he was adamant. "Yeah, I thought I did. That's why they're here."

"We have to end this and Negan."

"We will." He nodded. "But when we do, we have to make sure what's left is worth what we lost."

Not wanting to argue with him again, I turned on my heels and walked off, not giving a single Saviour a glance.

RPOV

The Scavengers were gathered in two circles- a smaller one inside of a larger one. I was led into the middle as Jadis walked through to meet me there.

"Alone?" she asked.

I gave a short nod. "I am."

"I shot you."

"Grazed me," I corrected. If she'd shot me I would still be healing with Michonne and Rosita.

"Why back after?"

"For the same thing I wanted before. A deal."

She tilted her head, watching me carefully. "Trust you? Shot you."

"You grazed me," I corrected, again. "I woulda still been mad if you'd shot me."

"We kill your people."

"We killed some of yours, too," I countered. "But we need you, and you need us."

One of the other leaders leaned forward, looking at me with a curled lip.

"Trick."

"It's not. I coulda come with my people, taken this place. You know I have the numbers for that now. You saw it."

"Still?" Jadis wasn't looking at me with accusation. She was more curious, and a little cautious. "Alone, you. Need us to save you."

"Not anymore." I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the polaroid pictures of what my people and I had done to the Saviours. "The Saviours are finished." I lifted the photos to show them all. "We took down their outposts. Negan and his people are trapped by walkers, hundreds of them. Until they surrender or we end them. That's their choice. Now I'm giving one to you."

Did I actually trust these people? Absolutely not. But I knew, in a world like this, you don't survive on your own, and you certainly don't thrive under Negan's thumb. They might think they're fine now, but if they kept on going the way they were, and we didn't win, it would only be a matter of time before Negan took over their lives too. Joining us, banding together, it would benefit us all.

The enemy of my enemy and all that crap.

"Look, I get it. You take, don't bother. So you took Negan's deal. I'm here to offer a better one. My people will win. Your choice is to forget Negan. Switch sides again. And be a part of the next world that Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom will build together. Or we destroy you."

Another one of the leaders- Brion- stepped forward. "Threats and dreams. Dreams and threats."

"Now, my people know I'm here. And what they do next depends on what you do right now. Yes or no? What's it gonna be?"

Jadis watched me carefully before a smirk tugged on her lips. "No."

Two of her people grabbed me then, leading me away. I wasn't worried, though. I knew that if anything happened to me it wouldn't work out for them. They're only safe option was to give in, and they still had a chance… but they wouldn't have that chance forever.

MPOV

I sat in Gregory's old office… I guess it's my office now. Sitting at the desk, fiddling with Glenn's watch, I tried to weigh my options and make a decision. But as much as I wanted to figure it out in silence… Gregory would not shut up.

"People who aren't leaders always think they know better. Hmm? Always pointing the finger at the guy, or, yes, sure, gal who's sitting in the hot seat. Truth is, it's not so easy."

"I don't know." I shrugged. "It was pretty easy for me not to sell out the Hilltop to Negan."

"Go ahead. Judge me, Margaret. What I did was in the best interest of this community."

"How?"

"My approach didn't employ bullets. Connect the dots."

Leaning forward, I put the watch on the desk as I turned to him with an accusing glare. "You were scared. You tried to cut a deal to save your own hide."

"Not just my hide. My motives were pure," he insisted, and I could tell he actually believed every word coming out of his mouth. "I know, Maggie, we- we've had our differences. But I've sat in that chair. I can help. I'm already in the room."

"So I can keep an eye on you while I think," I countered.

"Keep an eye on me? Come on," he scoffed. "You need someone to tell you it's okay to follow your gut. And guess what? I'm that guy. Our hippie-dippie kung-fu-fightin' friend may try and make you feel bad about it, but at the end of the day, you're the shepherd. And you can't have wolves wandering around amongst the sheep. It's as simple as that."

Part of me flinched inside as I wondered if he wasn't all wrong.

DPOV

I stood on the porch of the infirmary, waiting outside. I knew lying to Vic had been wrong, but what I wanted to do next, what I had to do… I couldn't drag her into it. I couldn't make her do anymore than she had. I didn't want to put her in danger. Not just in danger of the Saviours, but in danger of herself.

That talk we'd had in the bedroom after she came back played in my mind several times everyday, and other than what happened between her and Negan, I remember the broken look on her face. I remembered the way she looked at me as she recalled the number of people she'd killed. She saw herself as a monster.

What I was going to do next would just chip away at her more, and I couldn't and wouldn't risk hurting her like that.

The door opened as Tara stepped out. "Hey. You just get back?"

"Yeah." I noted, pushing off the post I'd been leaning against. "I was looking for you."

"I was looking for you, too. I wanted to tell you that you were right when you didn't kill Dwight. We wouldn't have gotten this far without him. The thing is, I know what you said. But after this, I'm gonna kill him. I want it to be me."

The deal had been that I was gonna do it. After the way he'd treated me at the Sanctuary, the fact he'd tried to kill me and got others hurt in the process, and that he'd betrayed me that first time we met… I'd been given the right to end him when the time came.

But I could understand why Tara wanted to do it. He'd killed her girlfriend. He'd been aiming for me, but that didn't matter. She'd lost the girl she loved because of that asshole. Which is why I wasn't gonna take the opportunity away from her.

"Maybe it could be you and me both," I offered. "And maybe we don't got to wait so long."

VPOV

After having a shower, and a nap with Judith, I jogged down the stairs and outside where Aly was sitting on the road, drawing pictures on the asphalt with some chalk we'd found for the kids. Houdini was chasing a butterfly nearby, making my daughter giggle as she looked up from her drawing.

"Whacha doin'?" I asked, leaning on the railing with one hand as I held Judith on my hip with the other.

Looking over her shoulder at me, Aly beamed. "Look! I drew Dini, you, Daddy, and me!" She gestured to the chalk picture in front of her.

My eyes took in the drawing and quickly noticed something else. "What am I holding? Is that Judy?"

"No," she giggled. "That's my baby sister."

I froze. "Your what?"

"My baby sister. I heard you and Daddy talking about wanting to have a baby, and I thought it would be nice to have a little sister. It would be like having a tiny Judith again, only this time I could have more fun with her because we have a forever home."

Her words were just chipping away at my heart more and more, but there was no way I was going to tell her the truth. I hadn't even admitted it to Daryl yet. Seeing the hope and happiness in her eyes, I had no other option but to play along.

"What if we had a boy?"

She shrugged. "I don't mind. As long as he's nice to me. And he lets me play with him. I'm bigger now, so maybe you'll let me help you hold the baby?"

"Maybe." I gave a tight smile and short nod. "Maybe, sweetie."

Beaming still, she turned back to her drawing.

I watched a moment longer, trying to keep myself from crying as my little sister rested her head on my shoulder.

"Hey Aly?"

"Mm-hmm?" She turned to look at me again.

"Where's Carl?"

Lifting her shoulders, she shrugged. "I don't know. He left while you were sleeping. Told me not to leave the house because Michonne and Rosita went for a drive. And he said Daddy and Tara went out, too."

"What?!"

CPOV

What I was doing was probably stupid, and could definitely get me killed, but with all the killing going on I just had to do something. I wanted to do something nice.

Creeping through the forest, I'd quickly found the tracks I was looking for. It hadn't taken long considering Vickie had taught me, and Daryl had taught her. After going back to the gas station for the other day, I then followed the trail and soon found the guy Dad had scared off. The one he thought might be a spy.

I watched as he stepped up to a walker which had been lured into a trap before he killed it.

"Hey," I called out, lifting my hands in the air to show him I was unarmed and held nothing but the clear bag of food and water I wanted to give him. "It was my dad. They- they were warning shots above your head. He wasn't shooting at you," I tried to assure him, hoping he wouldn't be scared of me. "I'm Carl."

His grip on the knife was tight. Eyes darting around as he shifted nervously on the spot, he called back, "Siddiq."

"Food and water." I nodded to the bag in my hand.

"Why?"

"I guess you- you were talking about something your mum said about helping people. And my mum told me that you got to do what's right. It's hard to know what that is sometimes, but sometimes it's not."

There were times over the years when I'd done the wrong thing. I had made a lot of mistakes, terrible ones. I'd chosen pathways that had put myself and others in danger. I'd killed, and hurt, and betrayed, and lied, and cheated. I was in no way a 'good guy'.

But over the last few months, with everything that had happened, and was still happening, I'd been reminded of times before all of this. Not before walkers, but before I'd become the person I now was.

Mum had tried to keep me honest and good. She had never wanted me to use a gun, or be part of the fight. She'd protected me every chance she got. If she'd still been alive, she wouldn't agree with everything Dad was doing, and had done.

Deciding to come out here and find Siddiq, to help him, was about doing the right thing. Even if he was a spy for Negan, that was his choice, and this was mine. The right choice.

I tossed the bag towards him.

He hurried over to grab it and quickly skulled back the water. When he was done, he looked up at me, still stunned but clearly grateful. "Thanks."

"Glad I found you." I smiled.

"You were looking for me?"

"Yeah, I- I scavenged the sardines, other stuff," I explained, and then I paused.
The next thing I was going to do wasn't as black and white as giving him food and water was. What I wanted to do could put others in danger, but something in my gut was telling me to take the risk. To trust him.

"Me and my dad, we're in a community. I'm gonna ask you a few questions. I need you to answer honestly, okay?"

"Okay."

"How many walkers have you killed? I know it's hard to keep track-"

He cut me off with a surprising answer, "Two hundred and thirty-seven."

"Really?" I was impressed he knew the exact amount. I had no idea how many I'd killed.

"Give or take a couple."

"How many people have you killed?"

He paused this time, clearly feeling nervous and guilty. After a moment,

though, he answered, "One."

If only he knew how many I'd killed… "Why?"

"The dead tried to kill him, but they didn't."

Nodding, I decided to change the subject and gestured to the walker he'd just killed. "You're making walker traps. Is that how you killed so many?"

"It's-it's only part of it. My mum thought or hoped that killing them would free their souls. You know? Maybe- maybe she was right."

"Doing that, doesn't that just make things harder for you while you're trying to survive?"

"I- I don't know. I- But you gotta- you gotta honour your parents, right?"

I chuckled lightly, shaking my head. "If I was honouring my dad, we wouldn't be talking right now. And definitely wouldn't bring you back to my community."

MPOV

I'd made my mind up. I'd come to a decision. While I should, I couldn't kill all the Saviours. I wouldn't execute them. But we weren't letting them go free, either. Some of them might be nice people put into a tough situation, but the rest? I wasn't going to let them go and let them kill more people. I didn't want that blood on my hands.

Jesus and a few others led the Saviours towards me, as I stood by the newly built cell. We'd gathered some materials and sectioned off an area with barbed wire and fences to lock the prisoners up. We weren't going to kill them, but we still had to manage them.

The relief on Jesus' face was instant.

"Get them in," I ordered.

Stepping up to the door, Jesus gestured for the Saviours to walk in. "Come on. Two at a time."

"Starting now, we'll keep the prisoners here," I called out to everyone, both Hilltop and Sanctuary people alike. "We'll feed them. We won't mistreat them. But we won't stand for anything less than total cooperation."

I was not surprised when Gregory stepped forward. "Uh.. uh, Margaret, all- all due respect, uh, I'm just straight-shooting here. You can't let people we don't trust run around inside our walls."

"You're right, Gregory." I nodded. "In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about what you told me yesterday. You see, I grew up on a farm. I know all about sheep and wolves."

Just as I'd told them to do, Kal and Eduardo grabbed Gregory by the arms and began ushering him towards the lockup with the others.

"What are you doing?" He struggled against them. "What are you doing?"

"Come on, Gregory."

"Let go of me. No. Kal, are you serious? Eduardo? Wait! This- This can't-" No matter how hard he struggled, they just kept moving him. "Wait."

"Calm down."

"No, don't tell me to calm down. I am not gonna go in there. You can't! Maggie! Look, just- No, wait, stop! Just for a minute!"

"Calm down!"

"No, please, no! No! God! Oh, God. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I-"

With all his struggling, Gregory tripped and knocked his head on one of the cell's posts. That didn't stop Kay and Eduardo from then dragging him inside as he sobbed and begged.

As Dianne began to close the door and lock it up, one of the Saviours spotted her gun and made a move for it. I was watching him closely, though, and was quick to slam the back of my own gun into his face before he could even touch hers.

Now on the floor, he shook his head, clearly pissed. "Oh, honey," he looked up at me, "you're gonna get these people killed. Well, you already got some people killed, didn't you?"

Not wanting to hear another word from him, I just slammed my gun into his face again.

"Hey." One of the others stepped forward then, only his hands were raised as he tried to show me he meant no harm. "Thank you."

"Don't make me regret it. Or you will."

CPOV

I was leading Siddiq back to Alexandria when we both heard the groans of a nearby walker. Taking a detour, we decided to follow it, and ended up finding three eating a deer.

"Okay." I nodded pulling out my knife. "For your mum."

As we neared them, the walkers heard us and left the deer alone. One went straight for Siddiq, while the others moved towards me. As I killed one, I spotted more coming, drawing in by the smell of the deer and the noise we'd started to make.

"Just go!" Siddiq called to me. "You don't have to do this!"

But I did. Not only to help him, but because it was still the right thing to do. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I left him out here with these walkers. He wouldn't make it alone.

I was distracted as I'd tried to kill one of the walkers, while the others closed in on us. That's how one of them ended up wriggling and struggling so much I was pushed to the ground.

Fighting to keep it from biting me, I had to fumble to find my knife again. Before I could, though, another walker started towards us. Throwing the first off, I barely managed to catch the second as it dropped down onto me.

Still fighting to keep this new walker from biting, with no way to defend myself, I then felt the worst thing imaginable. The first walker… the one I'd thrown off me… it had crawled back and bitten my side.

Pain shot through me, but it was quickly muffled by my shock.

Fumbling for my gun, I quickly shot both walkers, finishing them off. Then I just sat there for a second or two as I realised what had just happened.

I'd been bitten. Not just that, but I'd been bitten in a spot that couldn't be cut off or removed. There was no going back from this. I… I was going to die.

"You okay?" Siddiq asked as he rose from his knees, having killed the last walker.

I chose, in that moment, to lie. "Yeah." I nodded as I fixed up my clothes to hide the bite. Thankfully my clothes were also now covered in walker blood.

"You could've left."

I just shook my head. "I'm responsible for you now. That's how it works."

"I don't want to make any trouble. Your dad didn't want anything to do with me."

"He didn't, but sometimes kids have to find their own way to show their parents the way."

DPOV

Tara and I had left Alexandria and found a truck. The plan was simple… use the truck to smash in the walls and send the walkers into the Sanctuary.

On the way, though, we heard the sound of very loud music, and decided to follow our guts. All that noise, if it got any closer, could draw the walkers away and free the Saviours. Something told me that was why it was playing.

Driving closer to where the music was coming from, I was driving down the road when a smaller truck, with a dozen or so speakers on the back of is, drove passed us. But we were going so fast none of us had the chance to stop- not that I had any plans to- before I crashed right into it.

Jumping out, Tara and I shot at the driver, making sure they were dead. As I turned away, I was surprised to see Rosita and Michonne walking down the road towards us.

"Truck full of speakers, huh? That was a Saviour." I gestured to the now very dead driver.

Michonne nodded. "Yeah, it was. They were scavenging when you guys attacked the Sanctuary. They saw all the walkers around it. It's a cache. They were gonna try and drive the walkers away. That's why they were out here."

"Why are you guys out here?" Tara asked them.

"I need to see the Sanctuary," Michonne answered.

"We both do," Rosita added before eyeing the two of us. "Why are you out here?"

I looked to the three of them, one by one. "We got a lot more work to do. All of us."

MPOV

"I keep forgetting he's gone," Aaron started, eyes cast down as he fought not to cry. "I have this weight. There's moments when I- I think I'll see him, that I'll, uh be able to talk about how I'm feeling with him. And my mind catches up, and I remember that the pain is about knowing that it will never happen."

I held Gracie in my arms as he and Enid sat across from me.

"I know that feeling," I told him, recalling how I felt, and still feel, about Glenn.

"Does it get easier?"

"No. But it helps to do something about it."

The door opened as Jesus walked in. I'd asked him to go out and check on the prisoners, but mostly to check on one in particular.

"How is he?"

"Gregory's fine. He's trying to suck up to the Saviours now." Of course he is. "I just wanted to say, I think you did the right thing. And I wanted to thank you."

"Don't." I rose from my seat and rocked Gracie on my hip as I moved to look out the window. "The Saviours in that pen might be bargaining chips. Maybe we'll have to trade them for some of our own people. They're alive 'cause we might need them. Jesus," I looked over my shoulder at him again, "if we don't… we can't let them live."

DPOV

I stopped the truck on a road a few blocks away, but it was still high enough for us to get a good view of the Sanctuary. Pulling out a spyglass, I looked out at the walkers still surrounding the building. Pleased things were where they should be, I reached over to hand Michonne the spyglass.

"Here you go. You wanted to see it."

She took a look, and took a moment, before handing it over to Rosita. They both let it all sink in, knowing we'd did as we said we would, and that it was working.

When she'd had enough, Rosita looked to me. "So what do you need us for?"

"To end this thing." I turned the truck back on. "Right now."

RPOV

After being stripped of my clothes and thrown into a storage container for a few hours, the doors were finally opened again. I stood, looking out, trying to see passed the glaring sun. Standing a few steps away was Jadis, with one of her people sitting beside her.

"It's not too late for you. My offer still stands. You can join us or you can die."

Instead of responding, she lifted a camera and took a photo of me. "Turn."

Sighing, I did as she said and turned around. The camera went off again, and once silence followed, I turned once more. Then she nodded to the two people holding the doors of the storage container, who then began to close said doors.

Before the shut, however, the man sitting down gestured for them to pause. I took that opportunity to speak up.

"Why? Why the pictures?"

As the doors began to close, Jadis answered, "Sculpt you, after."

"After what?"

"After," was all she said before I was left in darkness again.

Bamby