THE GROUP FOLLOWED JESUS AND GREGORY OUTSIDE, AND WAS GREETED BY THREE PEOPLE APPROACHING THEIR LEADER,

"Nathan, what happened to everybody else? Where's Tim and Marsha?"

"They're dead." The bearded man responded,

Gregory stared at him for a moment, "Negan?"

"Yeah."

He placed his hands on his hips, his eyebrows furrowed, "We had a deal."

"He said it wasn't enough." Nathan responded, "Was the drop light?"

"No."

"They still have Craig." The woman stated,

"They said they'd keep him alive, return him to us, if I deliver a message to you." Nathan said as he shifted closer to Gregory slowly,

"So, tell me."

Nathan placed a hand on Gregory's shoulder and Marcie knew something was about to happen. She reached for her gun as the bearded man stated, "I'm sorry."

Vivian gasped as Nathan stabbed Gregory in the abdomen. Rick and Michonne jumped forward, grabbing the man and pulling him back as Maggie and Jesus helped lower Gregory to the ground.

"Get off of me!" Nathan screamed as he was pulled away, "I had to!"

He pushed Michonne away and began to attack Rick. Their leader was able to get Nathan to the ground, and began to punch him. The other man approached, pushing Rick off of Nathan. Before he could attack Rick, Abraham came to his rescue.

Rick went back to attacking Nathan while Abraham was on the ground, the other man on top of him with his hands around the redhead's neck.

Daryl jumped in, grabbing the man's arm and snapping it before pushing him to the side. The man screamed in pain and Daryl went to pin him to the dirt,

Nathan got on top of Rick, holding the stake he used to stab Gregory to his neck, and Glenn stepped forward, reaching for his knife,

"Stay back!" He screamed, " Anybody who tries to stop me is killing my brother!"

Marcie aimed her gun at the bearded man, "Drop it. Now."

While he was distracted, Rick grabbed his knife and jammed it into Nathan's throat. Blood poured over his upper body before he pushed the body to the side,

Vivian came over and helped him to his feet, "You okay?"

He nodded before glancing around, noticing all the stares coming from the people of Hilltop and Alexandria, "What?"

"Might be the fact that you're covered in blood." Vivian commented,

"Nathan!" The other man, who attacked Abraham, was crawling on the ground, holding his broken arm to his chest, "You killed him!"

"He tried to kill Gregory, then me." Rick defended,

The woman stepped forward and punched Rick, hard, and sent him to the ground. While Vivian wanted to applaud her for throwing such a hard punch, she knew she couldn't let her get away with it.

Vivian grabbed her hair and stuck out her boot, tripping the woman and throwing her to the ground, "Don't get up." She told her, 

Cal and a few others approached with their spears raised, "Drop it now!" He yelled at Rick, who was now holding his gun, 

"Nah, I don't think I will." Rick aimed his gun at him,

Daryl took out a pistol and held it to the other man's head, while Marcie aimed hers at the woman who was now crying over Nathan's body,

Jesus ran over, standing between the two groups, "Everyone, this is over! It's over. Nathan was our friend, but let's not pretend he was anything more than a coward who attacked us. He did this. And these people stopped him." Jesus told them,

Everyone hesitated, and Vivian began to think that Jesus was the more influential person of power in this community.

"What can I do?" Rick asked,

"Put the gun away." Jesus demanded, "You've done enough." Rick lowered his gun and the others followed suit, "You need to know that things aren't as simple as they might seem. Just give me some time."

Dr. Carson went over to help Gregory and they all went back inside the mansion. Rick went to clean his face and chest while the group gathered inside the office.

Vivian stared out the window, where the woman was still grieving over Nathan's body. He was going to turn soon, unless someone took care of it. And she might be his first victim.

It reminded her of the woman in the woods at the prison.

The door opened and Jesus stepped inside, "Dr. Carson was able to patch Gregory up. He's in pain, but he'll live."

"Unfortunately." Vivian muttered before turning around to face the man, 

"So, what happens now?" Rick asked him, 

"Things like that don't usually happen here, but, uh, it's settled."

Rick stood from his place against the desk, "We heard the name Negan. A while back, Daryl and Abraham had a run-in with his men. Who is he?"

"Negan's the head of a group of people he calls the Saviors. As soon as the walls were built, the Saviors showed up. They met with Gregory on behalf of their boss. They made a lot of demands, even more threats. And he killed one of us... Rory. He was 16 years old. They beat him to death right in front of us."

Vivian's heart cracked at the sound of what happened to that kid.  She couldn't imagine someone so young, so close to her siblings' age, being beaten to death right in front of her.

"Said we needed to understand, right off the bat. Gregory's not exactly good at confrontation. He's not the leader I would've chosen, but he helped make this place what it is, and the people like him."

"That's hard to believe." Marcie mumbled, sitting back on the windowsill,

"He made the deal." Maggie commented, stepping forward,

"Half of everything. Our supplies, our crops, our livestock, it goes to the Saviors." Jesus explained,

"And what do you get in return?" Glenn asked,

"They don't attack this place. They don't kill us." He answered,

"Why not just kill 'em?" Daryl asked, 

"Most of the people here don't even know how to fight, even if we had ammo."

"Well, how many people does Negan have?" Rick questioned,

"We don't know." Jesus answered, "We've seen groups as big as 20."

"Now, hold up. So, they show up, they kill a kid, and you give them half of everythin'?" Daryl raised an eyebrow, "These dicks just got a good story. The bogeyman, he ain't shit."

Daryl and Abraham were the only ones who have dealt with this group before. And they made it out alive. One of them stabbed Daryl, but he took them out with a bazooka. Doesn't mean these people can be underestimated,

"Well, how do you know?"

"A month ago, we took his guys out PDQ." Abraham explained, "Left them in pieces and puddles."

"Ya know, we'll do it." Marcie narrowed her eyes at the hunter, wondering why he wanted to step up and take these guys out so badly, "If we go get yer man back, kill Negan, take out his boys, will ya hook us up? We want food, medicine, and one of them cows."

Jesus turned his gaze to Rick, "Confrontation's never been something we've had trouble with." Rick stated,

He nodded, "I'll take it to Gregory." He stated before leaving the room,

Rick stepped out onto the balcony, with a few of the others behind him. Vivian stood next to him as she watched the community light a fire, and place a wrapped up body on top of it.

She knew it was Nathan and her heart dropped. He was doing what he had to... for his brother. 

She turned her gaze to Rick, wondering if she could kill him for her brothers.

"They have food, we don't." Rick stated, turning to Michonne, Glenn, and Maggie, "We don't have enough of anything. Except us. What we can do. This is the trade."

"It's gonna cost us something." Maggie whispered,

Before Rick could say anything, the door opened and Jesus stepped outside, "Gregory's up. He wants to talk." Rick began to walk towards the door, but he was stopped, "To Maggie. He wants to talk to Maggie."

Glenn gave his wife a nod, "You got this."

Rick stepped up to her, "Deanna was right about you."

She nodded before Jesus began to lead her inside, "I'm sorry in advance. Gregory can be a real prick."

"I know." Vivian and Maggie said at the same time before she and Jesus disappeared inside.

Maggie was able to strike a deal, and supplies were being gathered up for them. Abraham and Daryl went to find the guy with the broken arm, the one who's been dealing with Negan.

Everyone else was packing up the RV, while Maggie and Glenn went to go find the doctor, to get a check up.

"Even Negan didn't get this much up front." Jesus commented,

Marcie did feel kinda bad. They've already given supplies to Negan, and now they were taking some, too. What made them better than the Saviours?

"Jesus said you've been taking supplies to Negan since the beginning." Rick spoke to the man, "We're gonna get Craig back."

"The only way to get Craig back is to bring them Gregory's head." He stated, 

"We're gonna get Craig back." Rick insisted,

"How?"

"We need to know what you know about Negan's compound." The man hesitated, and Marcie knew he was scared, "We need your help. We need you to come."

The man nodded, "Yeah. Okay." He stated before heading over to the RV,

Marcie followed Daryl back to the RV while Vivian went to grab the last basket from the picnic table. Rick quickly came over and took it from her as Jesus followed them,

"You got room for one more, right? I mean, we're talking about righting the world here. Plus, you still have my knives." Jesus joked as he stepped inside.

Rick waited until they were alone before turning to Vivian, "Hey, you up for this?"

"It's gonna be a fight." She mumbled.

After weeks of peace, Vivian was worried they might lose more people.

"We'll win." Rick told her, "We have to."

She nodded, "We'll win."