VILLAINESS [TWD]

➴96

Ellie didn't like the look on Brandon's face when they returned. 

They put another man in a separate cage from Daryl. But, then came the bad news.

Ellie anticipated hearing something about Anna, but Josh didn't look sad enough for it to be her. He looked.. distant.

Instead, they informed the other Reapers that they found one of their group- Bossie. But, Turner had sadly not made it through his injuries.

No word on Anna. No idea. No leads. Nothing. 

As the rest of the Reapers grieved Turner, Pope pulled ELlie aside.

"Do you feel God's wrath?" Pope wonders.

"I am God's wrath," Ellie answers.

"I trust your word more than anyone else's. Your word is the only other word I trust than His."

Ellie glances over to Pope.

"So, I want to hear you speak."

"About?" Ellie asks.

"What your plan is now. Was the man brought in useful to you? Shaw says he was."

"Shaw," Ellie scoffs.

"She spoke with him while we were saying goodbye to our fallen brother. She got things out of him."

"You gonna tell me?"

"Of course I am. I wouldn't dare not telling you."

Pope sits down in the chair to the table Ellie was sitting on. She crosses her legs and scoots so she's closer to him. This way, she was sitting on the table, looking down at him. She liked the sight. She liked the power.

"Shaw says that he told her he met those people on the road. That their true leaders include a woman, a man that never shuts up, and a priest with a shotgun."

Michonne. Rick. Gabriel.

Ellie loved playing all sides.

She rests her elbows on her knees and leans closer down to Pope. "Shaw is a loose cannon."

"How so?"

"She knew this man from years ago. She says that she met him right after I met her. I think she's attempting to play both sides."

"Shaw is loyal to the family."

"Shaw just wants to feel like she belongs to a family," Ellie disagrees. "She's an attention whore."

"Are you losing faith in her?"

"She's not giving the faith back. Give respect to earn respect, right?"

Pope nods once, carefully taking in the young woman's words. "How should we figure this out? Shall I call a meeting?"

Ellie shakes her head in denial.

"You have an idea?"

"It is His idea," Ellie remarks.

Pope's eyes brighten. He hopes and prays that his prodigy is returning to her faith.

"'Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord'," Ellie quotes a Bible verse.

Pope couldn't be more proud. He'd worried for so long that Ellie had lost God. That she didn't hear Him anymore. She couldn't feel Him. 

And here she was.. accepting Him back into her life and practices.

"How do you propose we test Shaw's faith, then?"

Ellie bends down even further, putting her beside Pope's ear so she could whisper. For the older man, it was like Ellie had returned to being that dutiful little angel on his shoulder that he loved and treasured.