Charter
-Rhys-
Kingdom was a Christmas tree when they pulled up through their gates. Buildings decorated in bunting bursting with every colour, and fairy lights running up and down streets from lampposts wrapped in blooming flowers.
Henry leapt off the carriage before it stopped and crashed into Carol's arms, Ezekiel wrapping them both in his and laughing merrily to the sky.
"You can't ever run away like that," Carol sobbed into his shoulder. "Not ever again."
Henry pulled away gently, smiling at his mom. "Okay, I won't. I promise."
Rhys noticed Lydia standing off to the side, trying to smother herself in her own grip in an attempt to remain unseen. He recognised that move too well.
He bumped her elbow as he pulled his backpack from the back of the carriage. She glanced at him nervously, and he chuckled.
"Pull it together, sport," he whispered.
She pinched her lips together and smiled at the ground, nodding.
Connie rushed over to Kelly and Magna who were quick behind the King and Queen, the three crashing into a mess of tears and wails on the road.
Carol left Ezekiel to pinch Henry's cheeks and subtly ask him about his adventure. She walked straight up to Daryl, hugging him next.
Rhys threw out warnings of violence when he saw Ezekiel striding up to him with a cosmic sized grin.
"Oh no! No, no, no... Ezekiel—"
But his words were muffled by the King's enormous and swathing coat as he enveloped Rhys in his arms and lifted him from the floor.
"Thank you, my boy," he laughed. "Thank you for keeping my son safe."
Rhys waited to be put down before he responded, rubbing his wrists against his neck awkwardly as Henry, Judith, and Carl laughed at his bright red face. Even Lydia cracked a smile.
"No problem, your majesty."
Then the King and Queen took a moment to notice who they arrived with.
"Michonne?" Ezekiel stuttered, looking dumbfounded as the last two climbed out the wagon. "Carl Grimes?"
"We were in the neighbourhood," Michonne smirked, shrugging. "So..."
The two clasped hands for a moment, Carl grinning at the interaction like he'd been waiting years.
Carol hugged Carl, laughing about how his hair was a sensible length now. She stopped when she saw the little girl behind him, still wearing Carl's dusty brown stetson.
"Judith?" Carol asked quietly, glancing at Michonne who nodded.
Judith was looking at them all curiously.
"Do you remember us? Carol asked.
Judith nodded. "I've been drawing pictures of you since I was little. You're Carol, and you're the King."
They looked at each other, mouths agape and speechless. They laughed.
Judith giggled, too. "Your hair got really long."
"It did!" Carol said.
Tara appeared next, turning the corner with a cone of cotton candy in her grip. Sasha was with her.
Sasha barged her way past everyone first, locking Rhys' head in her strong arms and squeezing until he thought he might pass out. He realised this might be from a mix of being glad to see him and anger from him leaving without telling her.
When she let go of him, she was crying just a little, but only enough for just him to see before she wiped it away on her leather sleeve.
Tara hugged him next, slapping his back way too hard.
"I know why you went," she mumbled into his shoulder. "But as your leader, I need to be seen setting an example. No cotton candy today."
Rhys laughed as they pulled away, but Tara's face was serious as stone.
"Nope," she said. "No, I mean it. This is no laughing matter."
Rhys swallowed and nodded. "Yes, boss."
"Good to see you again, bud," she said, bumping his chin with her fist.
Sasha was glaring at Michonne; Tara at Lydia.
"The plan was to bring Henry," Tara hissed at Daryl. "Just Henry."
Suddenly everyone was noticing Lydia.
"Gather up all the leaders," Michonne said then. "We have a lot to talk about."
It only took twenty minutes before all the community leaders were gathered on the stage of the auditorium where Ezekiel and Carol normally housed their thrones, standing around a large table with a map spread across the smooth mahogany. Carl and Rhys sat in the first row, fingers intertwined on the armrest between them. Judith was next to her brother, then Lydia and Henry beside her.
It was nice to relax for a second before...
"Carl," Michonne said sharply, pointing to her side at the table.
Carl rolled his eye at Rhys and stood up.
Rhys was snickering at him until...
"Get your scrawny ass up here," Tara hissed at him.
Carl and Rhys climbed the steps to the stage and joined the others. Tara, Sasha, Michonne, Carol, Ezekiel, Mikey, Rachel, Gabriel, and Siddiq all waited for them to take their places. Daryl watched from the edge of the stage where he had perched.
Michonne kicked it off with a deep and penetrating sigh.
"I know I haven't always seen eye to eye with everyone in this room. But I never stopped caring about any of you."
Her eyes lingered on Rhys for a brief moment. That regret he hadn't seen in Alexandria slipped out maybe a little. He wondered what had changed her mind.
Michonne looked into the audience, toward Judith. Then she glanced at Carl beside her. "I was just trying to protect my family and do right by my people."
Carl took her hand, squeezing it gently.
Michonne nodded, taking another deep breath. "Alexandria's future is here. Together, with you."
"We lost sight of that for a while," Carl said.
"But I'm here now..." Michonne said it with a shaky smile — a smile that was vulnerable and scared. Maybe a plea for them to accept that because it was all she had. To accept her. "We're here now."
Everyone was quiet. Somehow in all that silence, Rhys was the quietest — then Tara and Sasha. The three people Michonne seemed to have cut the deepest over the years.
"Siddiq and I have taken an informal vote with the other council members at the fair, and we all agree," Gabriel announced then. "Alexandria is willing to grant asylum to Lydia. She's one of us now. We hope the rest of you can join us in doing the same."
Rhys grinned, watching Henry grip her hand excitedly down in the audience.
"Thank you," Lydia said. "I'll do whatever I can to earn my keep and pay you back."
"That's all good for the kid," Sasha said in a clipped voice. "But Alexandria isn't who's at risk here."
Tara nodded. "If her mother retaliates, it's gonna be against Hilltop, not Alexandria. We have to do right by our people."
"Thought we could count on you to be on the same page as us..." Sasha grimaced at Michonne. "Of all people."
"We were," Michonne said. "And look, when she came to my gates, I asked her to run away. And when she didn't, I was angry."
"Then you know why we're not okay with this," Tara said, her tone deeply pissed.
"I do," Michonne said. "I also know why Rick didn't trust me when I showed up at the gates of the prison. And how people didn't trust you after seeing you on the other side of the Governor's firing line."
"I was gonna kill you on sight when you washed up on Oceanside's shores," Rachel added.
"Okay, okay," Tara said gently after a moment of thought. "That's fair."
"Lydia didn't choose where she came from, but she chose where she wanted to be. Just like everybody in this room."
"Save herself, Sasha left some of our best fighters back at the Hilltop," Tara said. "But if Daryl's right about these skin jobs numbers..."
"Won't be close to enough," Sasha finished, scoffing. "I'm gonna head back. Take who little we brought with us back to keep home safe."
"Nah," Daryl said. "We should send more if we want to keep Hilltop safe."
"That's a good idea," Carol said. "I'll take some from Kingdom."
"Oceanside can spare some fighters," Rachel added.
"Alexandria can, too," Mikey said.
Sasha still looked like she was trying to get through a particularly sour lemon, but she nodded gratefully all the same.
"So we head out in the morning?" Rachel asked.
"Every second we're stood here talking, that bitch could be making moves," Sasha said. "No. I'm taking people tonight."
"She's right," Carol said. "They can take advantage if we wait. We should go today."
"Agreed," Gabriel said. "But sending more people is only a short-term solution."
"It has to be all of us," Mikey said, tapping a finger against the table. "Together, we're strong. Always have been."
"All of us..." Michonne nodded, smiling at him. "All four communities presenting a united front. Which is why I'm proposing a mutual protection pact. An attack against one community is an attack against all of us."
Rhys bit down on his lip to hide the smile when he saw Sasha's face soften for the first time since entering the auditorium.
"Together, we can make these people think twice before moving against the Hilltop," Gabriel told them.
Ezekiel and Carol were grinning at each other.
"The leadership of the Kingdom is very amenable to this idea," the King announced.
Rachel nodded. "Oceanside's down."
Tara was actually smiling now. Sasha nodded along in that way Abraham used to when shit started coming together.
"Okay, so how do we seal it?" Tara chuckled. "Spit and shake, blood oath?"
Ezekiel was staring at her with a sly grin.
Tara stopped. "Wait, what? I was joking about the blood oath."
He shook his head and walked off to the wings of the stage, telling everyone, "I have just the thing."
Everyone looked confused. Carol was smiling. Rhys even caught Henry smirking to himself in the audience. Then Ezekiel popped open what looked like a movie poster case and came back holding a large sheet of parchment. Rhys saw Carl grinning then.
Michonne's eyes went wide. "What? How did you.."
"Well, He's magic, obviously," Tara laughed at her.
Rhys finally got a look at the scroll. He finally recognised it from so many years ago. All the communities were listed in Michonne's cursive handwriting with a space beside them for their respective leaders to sign. It was old enough that even Sanctuary had a spot. The chartered contract of rights and freedoms they had all so nearly agreed on before they lost Rick.
"I may have taken a few things with me when I left Alexandria," Tara said, meeting Michonne in the middle of the stage. "I did what I thought was right. I'm sorry for the way it went down."
"Me, too," Michonne said. "And thank you. You were right."
She glanced over at Sasha. "You both were."
Sasha walked up to them, gripping Michonne's forearm tightly and nodding. "And you weren't wrong."
Rhys and Carl were grinning like idiots.
"Never doubted it for a moment," Ezekiel said. "Anyone got a pen?"
Rhys reached into his boot and pulled out a sharpie, tossing it to him.
"John Hancock..." Ezekiel said, tongue between his teeth as he signed in giant writing by the Kingdom's title, "...eat your heart out."
King Ezekiel
He handed the pen to Carol who signed more modestly under his name.
Queen Carol
She passed it along to Oceanside.
Rachel Ward
They passed it to Tara, who looked at Rhys nervously and raised the pen to him.
"Wouldn't Rhee look better on it?"
He grinned at her and shoved her hand in the direction of the table.
"Dream on, Chambler," he laughed.
She glanced at Sasha.
"Maggie's been gone," Sasha said with a smirk. "You've been right here."
Tara took a breath. Then her face was infected with giddy excitement.
Tara Chambler
The sharpie got to Michonne's fingers then. She rolled it between them and smiled over at Carl. He grinned back and nodded at whatever they had just shared telepathically. She passed it to Gabriel.
"It should be the head of the council."
Gabriel frowned at first, but then he realised she meant it. Mikey and Siddiq were grinning at him. Gabriel took the pen like an honour. An honour he didn't know he was up for. Humble and quiet, he signed his name.
Gabriel Stokes
Gabriel placed the pen gently down beside the charter, but Michonne picked it up again. She did the same thing, rolling it between her fingers for a moment. Everyone was watching her.
"You know we wouldn't be here right now... not on this stage... not in this room... maybe not at all if it wasn't for your mom." She raised the pen to Mikey. "She'd be proud. I know she would. Everything you do for Alexandria."
Mikey didn't get nearly as excited as anyone thought he might. He was quite stoic, actually. Stoic and thoughtful as he took the pen.
Mikey Monroe
Rhys and Carl were the last to leave the theatre. They couldn't take their eyes off the charter. The names decorating its worn paper.
They realised Michonne was still here, too.
"Can I speak with you both?" she asked quietly.
They followed her and sat on the edge of the stage, Carl's hand on Rhys' leg as it bounced nervously.
Michonne's lip was quivering, tears suddenly filling her wide eyes.
"When Rick went," she sniffed, watching Rhys, "you were there for us."
"I didn't—" Rhys tried.
"Quiet," Michonne shushed him. "You were there for both of us when we found it so hard to be there for each other."
She took Rhys hand.
"I'm so grateful," she sobbed. "And I'm so sorry."
Maybe that was all Rhys needed to hear to crack his walls and crumble his defences. He was crying now.
"I'm sorry I took us away from you. You've both missed so many years together. So many important ones." She took a second for her voice to stop shaking. "Everything you did for Judith, Rhys, and you didn't get to see her grow up. She doesn't know you like she should."
Carl was crying more than either of them.
"All I can ask is that you forgive me," Michonne said. "I don't deserve that... but I have to ask you because I need to know you don't hate me."
Rhys dipped his head, nodding, his whole body shaking. Michonne was holding him then. Crying into his hair and squeezing him tightly as he held her back, dreadlocks tangled in his own hair as she pulled away.
"After you both left yesterday," she started. "Judith ran away to try and help you."
Rhys felt Carl go rigid beside him.
"She put herself in danger, and I realised that was on me. She told me she remembered that day at the school with Jocelyn and her kids. She remembered me covered in blood. I asked her why she would run away if she understood why I made the decisions I did. She told me loving someone means doing whatever it takes to keep them safe. And she asked me when we stopped loving you and Maggie. And Daryl. Kingdom, and the rest of Hilltop." Michonne took a long breath, smiling down at the floor. "I'm so sorry that I made her feel that way. That I made you both feel that way."
Michonne put her hand against Carl's cheek, and he put his over it.
"When we lost your dad, I made a promise to never lose another one of my family." She held his face tight. "And you've stood by me... my decisions. But I nearly lost your sister today. Nearly lost you. Worse than that, I nearly let you lose yourself."
Carl nodded as Michonne took her hand away from his cheek and instead took both of their hands. "We have to protect our family. And that's all of us here. That's why I'm here. I promise I won't forget that again."