We return to our group - Siddiq, Michonne, Princess, Yumiko, Eugene, and Magna. They are met with armed men, all dressed in police riot gear. Eugene tries to demand to speak with Stephanie, but the soldiers refuse to answer, saying that Stephanie was not authorized to set up a meeting. Our group is marched to another location, where we meet Lance Hornsby. Lance asks the group a series of questions, but Eugene refuses to answer, demanding to speak with Stephanie. When Lance asks Michonne if Eugen We return to our group - Siddiq, Michonne, Princess, Yumiko, Eugene, and Magna. They are met with armed men, all dressed in police riot gear. Eugene tries to demand to speak with Stephanie, but the soldiers refuse to answer, saying that Stephanie was not authorized to set up a meeting. Our group is marched to another location, where we meet Lance Hornsby. Lance asks the group a series of questions, but Eugene refuses to answer, demanding to speak with Stephanie. When Lance asks Michonne if Eugene speaks for them all, Michonne says yes - they are a team. Eventually, the team agrees to answer some of Lance's questions. After writing down these answers, Lance gathers his troops and they move, heading out towards the Commonwealth. On the way, the group is attacked by a hoard, but Lance urges the driver to move on, confident that the soldiers will deal with the zombies. As they continue, the group comes upon a wall, covered in photographs. It is from survivors at the Commonwealth, looking for loved ones. The photographs are old and new. Eugene calls Michonne over and points out a picture ... of her. The message scribbled across it asks that anyone who sees Michonne contact Eloide at the bakery on 6th St. Michonne demands that Lance take her there. Lance refuses, but comforts Michonne by saying that they will go after the go to their destination. They pass through a very busy marketplace. As they pass, Stephanie bursts from the crowd, hailing Eugene. She makes a cryptic comment - "This place has its flaws" - before Lance grabs her and shames her into silence. Michonne is stunned by his behavior. They get to a bank (?) and are greeted by Maxwell Hawkins. Maxwell asks who made contact first and Eugene speaks up. Maxwell asks what Eugene's profession was before the fall and is unhappy with his answer of "school teacher". Princess's previous profession of barista is likewise unacceptable. When Michonne says she was a lawyer, he asks if she was a public defender, but is satisfied when she says she worked in "private practice, I had just made partner." While the rest of the group waits in the hall, he leads her away and we meet the Commonwealth's Governor. Not THE Governor, but a Governor, Pamela Milton. Pamela introduces herself with a catty little speak: "We're what you've been dreaming of - what you hoped still existed. Simply put - we're civilizations. It's back. You're welcome." Michonne is not amused.Pamela gives some quasi-fascist speech about how she and Michonne are machines who keep society running and casually refers to her own guards as brutes. Michonne finally snaps, fed up with Pamela's little speech and demands to see her daughter. If her daughter trusts the Commonwealth, that will go further than anything Pamela can say. Pamela is (finally) stunned into silence and expresses sympathy for Michonne. She strides out, leading Michonne to the bakery. Michonne enters and, as Pamela asks for Eloide, Eloide comes out from the back and sees Michonne. They tearfully embrace.Meanwhile, back the ranch, Rick sits with a kid named Mikey as Mikey reads a poem. Rick encourages Mikey's work and Mikey says how helpful it was to write stuff out. He says Rick should try, even if he never shares it, but Rick gets gloomy. At the fence, Eduardo switches shifts with another man and goes to take his spear back to repair, since it has a nick. He opens the armory door to discover Maggie and Dante almost naked and intending to go further. Eduardo runs off and Maggie is horrified. Dante tries to comfort her, but she quickly leaves. Later, Dante and Maggie are fooling around when Sophie walks in and sees them. Sophie is furious and concerned that, if Maggie no longer loves Glenn, was her love ever real and, if it wasn't, will Maggie stop loving and caring for Sophie. Maggie comforts Sophie. Later, Karl talks with Sophie, who admits the rumors about Maggie and Dante are true. Sophie asks if Karl approved of Rick matching up with Andrea and Karl admits he did. He just wanted Rick to be happy. They laugh.Cut back to Sebastian, the Governor's son, and his date, Kayla. They, too, start getting busy and, in the background, we see some zombies approach. Just as they reach Sebastian, who is totally oblivious, a hatchet flies into the shot and takes down both zombies. Mercer, a Commonwealth soldier emerges. Sebastian shouts at Mercer for allowing zombies to get so close. Kayla is shocked that Mercer was out of sight, guarding Sebastian, but still possibly seeing them undress and runs. Behind Mercer, we see a trail of dead zombies that he had been dispatching.We return to Michonne and Eloide at Eloide's apartment. They are both so overwhelmed at seeing each other again. They each have a dark moment, wondering if they are still good people after everything that has happened. Michonne asks after her other daughter, Colette, and Eloide tearfully tells how they were taken in by another group who demanded sexual favors in return for their safety. Colette refused and they raped/attacked/killed her. Whatever they did, it was terrible. Eloide admits to killing them all after that, admitting that that is what haunts her the most. Later, we see them talking and Eloide admits that she had this big fantasy about how she'd see her mother again. She'd scream and hit Michonne: "Tell you how much I hated you for leaving us, for sending us to live with dad ... for abandoning us." But now, that doesn't seem like what she wants. She says that it may take time, "I might still hate you ... I might not want to be around you ... I might not be able to talk to you." Michonne says that she'll wait until Eloide will. "I'm your mother. Now that I have you ... I'm never letting go ever again."Sebastian returns to the Governor's office, fuming about his sexual escapes being interrupted and snaps at his mother, Pamela. Mercer follows and admits that he was overwhelmed fighting zombies, but there's only so much he can do when Sebastian insists on being so far out with just Mercer as a guard. Pamela wont' hear it and is still upset. In the changing room, Mercer and George (possibly?) blow off steam about Sebastian and Pamela. George indicates that there is a rebellion brewing, just waiting for Mercer's command. Mercer makes an off-hand comment that they can just wait for "these fucking dumbasses [to] get themselves killed" when they are interrupted by the arrival of Siddiq. Siddiq insists that he was just looking for the bathroom and didn't hear anything. Mercer says they were just blowing off steam and they are actually supportive of the Governor.Michonne returns to everyone. Eugene asks to speak with Stephanie and Pamela sense Lance off to fetch her. Pamela says that she would like to accompany them back to Alexandria to see it for herself. Everyone gets their weapons back, including Michonne and her sword. Stephanie and Eugene meet for the first time. Stephanie admits that Pamela was right that she shouldn't have arranged a meeting. Pamela says she has rooms set up for the group, but assumes Michonne will be staying with her daughter. Michonne comments how it's odd that Pamela didn't ask them many questions and Stephanie says that that is just how things work there. Sebastian approaches and begins to hit on Yumiko, who resoundingly rejects him. Sebastian grabs her and Magna steps in. Sebastian shoves her away. Princess pulls her spear and threatens Sebastian. The armed guards surround Princess, who easily dispatches them all. Mercer shows up at the last minute and disarms Princess. Sebastian demands Mercer arrests them, but Mercer refuses. Sebastian denies any wrongdoing. When Eloide steps in to help him up, he slaps her. Michonne prepares to annihilate Sebastian, but Eloide stops her, saying that they know their place. Michonne demands to know what that means, but Eloide won't elaborate. Sebastian says that they owe everything to his family.He turns and slaps Mercer, saying he did it to make a point, but, after Mercer's death stare, Sebastian flees. Mercer turns to Siddiq and makes a comment about blowing off steam.The group ... regroups and Michonne asks Siddiq what Mercer meant by that comment. Siddiq explains. Stephanie and Eloide explain how the Commonwealth works: classes have returned. If you were wealthy, well off, or had an important job before the fall, you were given special privileges in the Commonwealth. Everyone else had to work at their level. There were opportunities to move up, but everything relied on a class system. Michonne thinks it might be a good idea. Princess sees this system as a game. Eugene and Siddiq aren't too bothered, but comment how their society never got big enough for such a system to develop. Magna is furious and is eager to return to Hilltop. We see the group in the Commonwealth's society, buying bread, eating ice cream, watching football. There are clearly good parts to this society. Later, we see Lance and Michonne talking. Lance asks Michonne to not return with her group to Hilltop, but to stay in the Commonwealth, stating that a lawyer with Michonne's talents could live quite comfortably there. As everyone prepares to go - with Pamela stepping into a carriage - Michonne passes her sword to Eugene, saying that Rick will understand that this place is safe. We see everyone talking, including Yumiko commenting that Pamela is sleeping in an enormous tent, Pamela and Mercer talking about how smart Eugene is and how resourceful he might be, and Eugene pressing forward to leave Pamela's troops behind. As the approach Alexandria, Pamela comments that it looks like a shithole. We see Michonne settling into her very nice new home with Eloide. We see Dwight speaking with the woman from the previous volume. He apologizes to her and says that he is trying to move past his feelings towards Rick, but wants her help to speak with him face-to-face. As they leave, they see Pamela and her group pull up. Dwight runs off to gather up the army, just in case. Pamela dismounts, pointing out to Eugene that she knew he was pushing ahead to leave her troops behind. Rick is initially horrified to see the sword in Eugene's possession, but Eugene explains Michonne's logic and that Michonne was reunited with her daughter. Rick goes out to meet Pamela. Princess excitedly dismounts and greets Rick. Pamela and Rick get to talking. It turns out that Pamela has no war stories. As they talk, Dwight come sup behind Rick, fully armed and ready to fight. Rick yells at him to stand down. Pamela agrees to send Mercer back to her troops to tell them to wait. Rick takes Pamela on a tour. They stop by the bakery, the mill, the orchard. Pamela is shocked to see that Rick's house is the same was everyone else's. Pamela insists that her way is fair, it's the new world order, the way it always has been and works best. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuun!(But, for real, Pamela seems insufferable.)
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