"I'm not going to do that," Michonne said, her arms crossed over her chest.
She was in Ezekiel's residence and had just been informed about her expected role in the treaty between Alexandria Safe Zone and The Kingdom. Matthew stood at her side, reporting to the man in charge and Ezekiel stared at Michonne congenially.
"Come now, Michonne," Ezekiel chided. "Think about this..."
"I don't need to," Michonne replied. "My family is here and this is my home. I don't even know this man. I'm not going to be used as some pawn in a political power play."
Ezekiel ticked his head to the side. "The fact that you refer to this as a 'power play' tells me that you suspect this is about more than a few food supplies. Why don't you tell me what you think this is about."
Michonne released a heavy breath through her nostrils. "It's not going to stop at just overtaking The Saviors and getting our food supply back," Michonne said. "You want to ally yourself to this new community so that we'll have enough people to challenge The Hilltop as well. You want to put someone else in charge over there."
Matthew looked shocked as if this were the first time he was hearing about anything like this. And it probably was. "But...we've always been on good terms with Hilltop," Matthew said to Ezekiel.
Ezekiel smiled widely, his eyes glittering as he looked at Michonne. He spread his hands in a supplicating manner and shrugged. To Matthew he said, "It's nothing personal." Her turned back to Michonne. "Is it, dear? You understand why I would do something like that, don't you?"
Michonne's brows were deeply furrowed. She didn't like being offered to someone like an object, but she did understand why Ezekiel was eager to form this alliance. She rolled her eyes and nodded. "We have forty people here," she stated. "The Hilltop has eighty. Matthew, you said Alexandria Safe Zone seemed to have upwards of sixty. From what we've heard about The Saviors, they seem to have hundreds. That makes us the most disadvantageous in terms of population."
"We wouldn't be able to fight The Saviors if they came our way. And The Hilltop refuses to fight so we wouldn't have their backing. With Alexandria Safe Zone on our side, we'd have a chance. They need supplies from The Hilltop as well so we have a common enemy."
"But why take the Hilltop as well?" Matthew asked.
"Because he's weak," Michonne said. "This situation proves it. We need someone we can count on when trouble comes knocking at either one of our doors. We can't have someone who will just roll over and accept the punches."
"But there are innocent people at the Hilltop," Matthew continued. "We can't hurt them."
"We don't have to," Michonne replied. "We won't have to go to war to take the Hilltop. If we can just get Gregory alone, and if we sees we have Alexandria Safe Zone on our side as well, he will just surrender if we simply threaten him. He won't risk his life for anything. Not even his community."
Ezekiel clapped and laughter bubbled from his lips once Michonne finished. She had basically just spoken all of his plans and reasoning without him having to tell her anything. "See?" he said with a big smile on his face as he looked at Michonne. "This is why it has to be you that goes over to ASZ. You're a leader in your own right!"
"I'm not getting married," Michonne repeated, her face still serious. "We can ally ourselves through a simple meeting and a handshake; it doesn't have to go so far."
Ezekiel sighed. "Matthew?" he said, turning to the other man. "Did this Rick Grimes seem willing to form an alliance through a simple meeting?"
"No, sir, he did not," Matthew replied. "He seemed overly cautious and careful. It would take a lot to get him to actually trust us."
"Can he be trusted?" Michonne asked. "Why do we think this man is any better than Gregory?"
"Well," Matthew said with a shrug. "He's a fighter. His community is well-guarded; I almost didn't make it inside. So he's already got Gregory beat on that front."
"And if we had someone on the inside," Ezekiel prodded. "We could see just how much he could be trusted and how far we want this treaty to go."
Michonne ignored Ezekiel and kept her focus on Matthew. "And what did he say when you put marriage on the table?"
"He said no," Matthew said, glancing at Ezekiel. "He said that there's no way he can know how valuable this woman is to us. He said she might just be some random civilian we don't care anything about, meaning the treaty wouldn't mean anything."
Ezekiel smiled. "He really is a cautious man..."
He turned to Michonne, who was now standing with her hands on her hips. Her expression was smug. With Rick Grimes' refusal, she thought she was home free. "Well," Ezekiel said. "We'll just have to arrange a meeting between the two of you, won't we?"
Michonne's smug expression fell. "I'm not marrying him," she said again, before turning on her heel and leaving the room. Ezekiel chuckled and shook his head. He hoped she would change her mind.
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A small patch of land with a solitary swing, a sandbox, and a slide was what many of the residents of The Kingdom considered a proper park. The six aged ten and under kids of The Kingdom enjoyed it so the parents did as well.
After leaving Ezekiel's place, Michonne made her way there. She knew Mike sometimes brought Andre there, and she was satisfied when she saw that today was one of those days.
Andre was sitting in the sandbox, letting grains of sand fall between his fingers and coat his legs in the cool grit.
Michonne smiled and walked nearer, stopping next to Mike's side. He was leaning against a nearby tree and watching Andre play. He noticed when Michonne approached, but he didn't immediately greet her.
"Looks like he's enjoying himself..." Michonne said.
"...He is," Mike said with a nod. "He's really starting to adjust to life without his mother." Mike paused. "We both are."
A pang of pain shot through Michonne's heart. She knew he was just saying that to hurt her. It was quite successful, but she didn't respond to it.
"...I wanted to talk to you," she said.
"About what?"
"Ezekiel learned about a new community nearby."
"Are they dangerous?"
"No, we don't think so. We're trying to form an alliance with them."
Mike turned to her. "Let me guess. You have to go talk to them to get this alliance settled. You'll be gone maybe three weeks. Four weeks?" A derisive smile crossed his face. "Well guess what, Michonne. I don't care. You don't have to report to me about how long you're gonna be gone anymore. I've stopped expecting you to stay around anyway."
Michonne's brows furrowed. She could no longer ignore his digs at her. Not when he was making it seem that all of this was her fault. "You wanted me gone," she said fiercely. "Didn't you?"
Mike turned away from her again. "Just tell me why you came here."
Michonne sighed. "I want to see Andre," she said. "Before I go."
"I think it's best if you just catch up with him again when you come back. You're only gonna upset him if you go and talk to him just to say goodbye again."
"...I don't know if I'll be able to come back for a while," Michonne said.
Mike froze and then he turned over his shoulder to look at Michonne. "What are you talking about? Aren't you the one who always says 'I always come back?' That's what you tell Andre."
Michonne nodded. "I usually do," she said. "But I don't know if I can this time."
"Why not?"
"To ensure an alliance right from the start..." Michonne took a deep breath and continued. "Ezekiel wants me to marry this other guy. The leader of this new community I told you about."
There was a long, pregnant pause. Michonne could feel the tension in the atmosphere. She forced herself to keep holding Mike's gaze. It flashed anger as he turned to face her fully. "...What?" he asked.
"I'm fighting it, but...an alliance with these people is important..."
"So that's it. You're just going to marry some stranger."
"I don't want to-"
"Wow...if I had any delusions about what this family meant to you..."
"Andre means everything to me."
"But I don't."
"What are we, Mike? I don't even know what we are. We haven't been together in a long time!"
"And whose fault is that?!"
"Mike-"
Michonne stepped back in shock when Mike turned around and struck his fist, hard, against the trunk of the tree behind him. "You know what?" he said, turning back around to face her. "You go ahead and do whatever the hell you want to do. That's all you do anyway. Go talk to Andre. Say your goodbyes. But don't expect to come lookin' for him at all after this. You go off to that other community, you stay away from this family forever. You're not a part of it anymore."
Mike stormed away, caressing his bruised knuckles.
Michonne shook her head despondently and smoothed her brow with her hand. She didn't know how things had gotten to be so bad between them. It had happened slowly and then all at once.
With heavy steps, Michonne walked over to her son in the sandbox. When he looked up to see who was visiting him, his face split into a smile. "Momma!"
"Hey, Andre," she said, scooping him up into her arms when he held out his arms to her.
"Oof!" she said. "You've gotten heavy! What has your daddy been feeding you, hmm? Have you missed mama?"
"Yeah," Andre said, clinging his arms around Michonne's neck.
Michonne pushed back tears. "Do you hate mama for being away?"
"No."
"You know that even though I'm away from you, I'm always thinking about you, right?"
"Really?" Andre asked. He pulled away to see his mother's face.
"Yep. I don't go a second without thinking about you?"
"Not one second?"
"Not one second."
"You coming home?"
Sadness swelled in the pit of Michonne's stomach. "Come here. Let me talk to you." She stood Andre on his feet and kneeled before him so that they were face-to-face. She looked into his wide eyes and though she hated the time spent away from him, she couldn't regret all that she had done to keep him alive. To find a safe place for him. "I can't come back home just yet," she said quickly, like ripping off a bandaid. "And I may have to go somewhere for a while..."
"Where?" Andre asked, his eyes wide. Sadness shone in them.
"Somewhere away from here..."
"For how long?"
Michonne shrugged. It broke her heart to break Andre's. "I don't know," she said.
"Why do you have to go?"
"Because I'm trying to keep you safe," Michonne explained simply. "You are the most important thing in the world to me, and everything I do is for you. Do you understand?"
Andre nodded.
"So will you be okay while I'm gone?" Michonne asked.
Andre's face crumpled. "No," he said, tears coming suddenly. "I want to go with you."
Surprised at Andre's sudden tears, Michonne pulled him into a hug. "Shh," she said, patting his back consolingly. "Shh shh shh...I love you so much. Never doubt that, okay?"
She felt him nod, but she wished there was a way that she could stay with him.
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A week later, Michonne rode with Ezekiel and her guard to meet Rick Grimes. Her goal was to come away from the meeting with another refusal on both ends. Surely, an alliance could be made without such drastic measures.
They came to a halt in a clearing in the forest that separated both communities. It was a halfway point. Rick had decided the meeting place. Apparently he didn't trust them to step foot in his community again.
Michonne brought her horse to a stop beside Ezekiel's. Five men flanked them, bringing up the rear.
Michonne looked up into the surrounding trees, straining her eyes to see if there were people hidden there. She had a strange, foreboding feeling and that was never good. She would feel foolish if they were just walking into a trap.
"Are you sure we should have come out like this?" Michonne asked Ezekiel. This would be the third time she was asking him.
He looked over at her, a gentle smile on his lips. "Relax. Everything's going to be fine." He looked her over. "You look very nice today, by the way."
Michonne breathed an annoyed sigh. If Ezekiel weren't such a good leader, she'd think he was just an old fool. But past experiences and the way he led his community had given her much to respect and admire about the older man. Since he said relax...she tried to relax. But her eyes grazed the trees again. Just in case.
Her long dreadlocks grazed her back as she looked around. They were pulled up into a ponytail and she was dressed simply in a form-fitting black short-sleeve t-shirt and white pants that ran down to black boots. Her sword was slung across her back. Ezekiel had told her to dress up, but this was all she was willing to do as a way to show him that she still wasn't into this marriage.
They sat on their own in the clearing for a while until they heard the rustling of leaves. Michonne sat up straighter.
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Rick traveled with Glenn, Abraham, Daryl, and three others to go and meet the people of The Kingdom. When he emerged into the clearing, his eyes took them all in. They landed especially on the woman sitting up front with who he assumed to be the leader.
He stopped in front of them and everyone else stopped along with him.
Michonne studied the leader of the group closely. The first thing she noticed was his eyes, not only were they piercing blue but they were also sharp and alert. He took note of every weapon that was in view before his horse even took three steps into the clearing. He also wore a halfway smirk; he seemed a little too relaxed to be meeting a group of strangers. Michonne scanned the trees again.
"So..." Rick said, his voice gruff. "We're here to talk peace. Is that it?"
Ezekiel smiled one of his genial smiles and slid from his horse to stand before Rick on his two feet. He offered his hand for a handshake. "We sure are."
Rick glanced at the two men to the right and left of him and then slid off of his horse as well. He met Ezekiel halfway and grasped his hand in a handshake. They measured each other for a second and then released their grips.
"I'm going to get straight to the point," Ezekiel said. "We have a common enemy. They're going to come knocking on both of our doors eventually. We need to ally ourselves so that we can beat them."
"I've never even heard of these...Saviors...'till now," Rick said. "How many people do they have?"
"More than you and me combined," Ezekiel replied.
"And I'm s'posed to just take your word for it?" Rick asked.
Ezekiel shrugged. "My word is a good one."
Rick studied the man for a moment and then his eyes slid to Michonne again. She was focused intently on the men who had come with him. He glanced over his shoulder and then back to her. If he didn't know any better, he would think that she was mentally gauging who she could take if things were to suddenly go south.
"I'm assuming this is my bride-to-be," Rick said, pointing his chin towards Michonne.
"You refused the offer," Michonne said, her eyes sliding to him. "I'm a free woman."
One side of Rick's lips lifted. He realized that she was making a joke, which was an amazing feat since her face spoke volumes about how much she didn't want to be in the situation she was in. He nodded and spoke to Ezekiel again. "How do I know that I can continue to trust you after you get what you want out of this deal?"
"The marriage would be a symbol of the unity of our two communities," Ezekiel said. "As long as one of ours is bound to you and marriage and lives in your community unharmed, I will not bring any ill will against you."
Michonne rolled her eyes. Rick saw her.
"You don't seem too thrilled by the idea," he said to her.
Michonne opened her mouth to respond, but a sound caught her ear. "Shh!" she demanded.
There was a few moments of silence and confused faces but then a slight buzz began to form and it could be heard by all. The noise steadily grew louder. It sounded like a hoarde of flies until the sound grew closer. Then it was distinct.
"Motorcycles," the man with the crossbow said from behind Rick.
The sound grew overwhelming until the source of the sound became visible. Ten motorcycles came out of the trees and into the clearing. Men manned each one and on a few, there were two men to a seat. They whooped and hollered and formed a circle around the gathering of people. The horses neighed and shifted their feet anxiously.
Michonne kept one hand on her horse's rein and held the handle of her sword with the other.
The motorcycles finally slowed down until they were circling the members of the two communities in a slow crawl. The loud revving of engines were produced intermittently as an attempted means to intimidate.
"Well..." one of the men said. He stopped his motorcycle and stepped off. A long length of chain was coiled over his shoulder. "This looks like a party. Why weren't we invited?"
Rick cocked his head to the side and stared at the man. His hand was on the weapon at his hip. "'Cause we don't know you," Rick answered.
The man gave a theatrical show of surprise. "You- you don't know us?" He looked around at the men behind him and laughed. "Did you hear that? There are people around here who don't know us." There were some chuckles from the other men.
Rick squinted around at all of the men. With all the leather and studs, they looked like wannabe thugs.
"Well, let me introduce myself," the man said to Rick. He held his hands out wide to indicate all of the men. "We...are The Saviors."
Rick nodded. So these were the people who were interfering with his food supply.
"And from the looks of all of you," the man said. "You're set up somewhere good. So...why don't you just tell us about it. And we can maybe...strike up some kind of deal to help you protect yourselves."
"Is that why you call yourselves The Saviors?" Rick asked with a squint and sarcasm dripping from his voice. "'Cause you go out of your way to reach out and help people?"
"Exactly!" the man said. "You scratch our backs, we scratch yours. And in this case...in exchange for our protection, we would want...your weapons."
"Well, we don't need protection," Rick said. "So you can just go on along and we'll take care of ourselves."
The man laughed again. "No see...you don't really have a choice. You either take our deal as we presented it. Or we just take your stuff. And you're on your own."
Michonne watched as Rick stared the man down. He didn't move an inch, but there was something that told her things were about to escalate. She tensed.
"Sasha!" Rick called. His voice reverberated off the trees and before anyone could react a bullet pierced the man who had been speaking right in the throat and he fell to the ground with an almost comical shocked expression frozen on his face.
Michonne was the first to recover from the shock of the moment. She pulled her sword from its sheath and jumped from her horse.
"Sniper!" One of The Saviors said, after they realized what had just happened.
Michonne ran quickly and beheaded two of the men before the group could fully recover.
The Saviors quickly began to fire shots. Michonne rolled behind the abandoned motorcycle of her victims and hid behind it.
Rick killed one man with a headshot and Daryl took out another with his crossbow. Sasha, the sniper, took out two more men from her unseen vantage point.
Ezekiel, who had gotten back onto his horse and now gripped a machete in his hand looked around for Michonne. He had seen her abandoned horse dart off into the forest. "Michonne!" he called as he galloped by and sliced one of The Savior's throats.
"I'm right here, Ezekiel," Michonne called. She ducked back down when a shot came her way again.
"Guys, let's go!" one of The Saviors called. They were retreating. A smart thing, too, since their numbers had dwindled dramatically since the start of the altercation.
The men turned and began to ride off into the woods again, kicking up dust as they went. A blonde with fire in his eyes, however, turned around one last time and aimed his gun at Rick Grimes. Michonne assumed he must not have seen her because he had stopped right next to her. She rushed him and brought the blade of her sword down on his wrist, severing his hand in one blow. His gun let out a wayward bullet, missing Rick by a long shot. Michonne finished him off by stabbing him in the heart before he could recover from the shock of losing his hand.
When Michonne pulled her sword free, and wiped the blade clean on the man's shirt, Rick nodded at her – aware that she had saved his life. Michonne nodded back.
Rick turned to survey the damage. They had obviously won the battle but there were two ASZ residents lying dead and two dead from The Kingdom as well – one injured. Rick blew a breath out through his nose and went to Ezekiel. He held his hand out to the other man. "We have a deal," he said.
"Allies?" Ezekiel questioned.
Rick nodded. "Allies."
Everyone began to gather their dead, lying them on the backs of horses to take them home and bury them and they began to rally up to go their separate ways. Michonne replaced her sword on her back and went over to Ezekiel to get on the horse behind him so that they could go home.
"Hey," Rick's gruff voice said, interrupting them. Michonne looked over at him and he nodded to her. "Where are you going?" He held his hand out to her and Michonne realized that he was accepting the whole deal, marriage and all. Her heart dropped to her stomach. "Unity of two communities," Rick said.
Ezekiel nodded. "Unity of two communities." He looked down at Michonne who was looking up at him. "Go over there," he said. "If anyone can hold all of us together, it's you."
It was all too sudden. Everything in Michonne's body was trying to keep her from moving, but she sighed and stalked over to the ASZ community. She stared at Rick's hand and then looked back over to the people of The Kingdom. The Kingdom had been the first real home she found after this whole hell on earth had started. It was where her family was now. Her son.
She tore her eyes away, swallowed her emotions, and took Rick's hand. He pulled her up onto the horse behind himself. She sighed and forced herself not to cry as he turned his horse around and took her away from everything she had known for nearly two years.
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