MICHAELA'S POV
The cuffs above my elbows dug into my skin, my entire body ached, but I was ready to get this over with. Gabriel and Rosita came and got me from my cell, Negan was silent. I was taken to what used to be the church, which still looked like a church, but instead of a podium, there was a long table. Behind the table sat Rick, Michonne, Aaron, Ezekiel, and two empty chairs. Gabriel and Rosita sat me down in a chair behind my own table and went off to their seats; Rosita sat behind me, Gabriel took one of the empty chairs behind the table. "What's with the empty chair?" I asked.
"Maggie." Aaron answered. "She had went into labor after we left the Sanctuary."
"Oh...and the baby?"
"He's healthy."
"He..." I couldn't help but to smile. All those nightmares I had about Maggie losing her baby had been wrong; I could finally feel myself relax.
"Hershel Rhee. He looks just like Glenn."
"Well, be sure to pass along my best wishes." Aaron gave me a gentle nod.
"Michaela, I'm sure ya can guess why you're here?" Rick spoke up.
"Because I killed Patrick."
"The council is here to decide whether or not you're an endangerment to the communities." Michonne added. "We will hear statements from witnesses and anyone who has something to say, and then your side of the story. Afterwards, we will have you taken back to your cell and we will deliberate. Any questions before we start?"
"Can ya remove the cuffs from my arms? They're hurtin' somethin' awful."
"No."
"Then loosen 'em? They're cuttin' me up." Michonne looked over at Rosita and gave her a nod. Rosita stood up and grabbed me tight by my arms, and loosened the cuffs.
"Better?"
"Much, thank you."
"Michaela." Gabriel spoke. "You stand accused of overkill, what say you?"
"I say it was a successful execution."
"Do you deny your blatant disrespect for a corpse?"
"Oh, no, I don't deny that."
"So, you plead guilty?"
"Define guilty. Did I kill a man? Yes. Did I torture 'em? Definitely."
"Did you or did you not put his corpse on display?"
"Like decoratin' a Christmas tree." The room fell silent.
"Michaela, admitting guilt isn't really helping your case." Aaron added.
"No, but I can't plead not guilty, can I? I mean, name one fucktard out there you know that would do that? Go on." Aaron didn't respond. "See? Ain't no point in lyin' when I'm obviously guilty."
"I motion to find the defendant guilty." Michonne sighed. "All those in favor—"
"Whoa!" I interrupted. "Ya didn't even give me a chance to defend myself."
"Defend yourself?" Rick asked. "Ya openly admit what ya did and show no remorse for it. What can ya even say to defend yourself?"
"I did it, yes, but not once did I say that I plead guilty."
"Then how do you plea?
"I plea insanity." The room filled with sighs of frustration. They were hoping for an open-closed case, but I was gonna make them work for it. This wasn't just my life, it was my children's lives, too, and I wasn't gonna go down without a fight. "I believe it's time to call your first witness." I playfully whispered.
"The council calls Daryl to speak." Michonne spoke. One of the chairs behind me squeaked and heavy footsteps echoed through the room; I looked up at him without emotion as he passed and took a seat in the adjacent chair, wondering when he even came into the room. "Daryl, can you please describe your marriage to Michaela?"
"It ain't the best, but it ain't the worst."
"Can you elaborate?"
"We've had our arguments, but we always seem to be alright in the end."
"You were the first one to see Patrick, is that correct?" Ezekiel asked.
"As far as I know."
"Can you describe what you saw?"
"He was dead, but not dead."
"He had turned?"
"Yeah."
"Anything else?"
"He was in pieces and strung from the ceilin'."
"Any important details about the corpse?"
"It seemed like a lot less than what should've been there."
"What do you mean? Like he was missing pieces of him?" Daryl nodded.
"And how did Michaela act when she showed you the body?"
"Calm."
"That'll be all." Michonne sighed. "Please, take your seat."
"Ain't I supposed to ask questions?" I asked. Michonne looked over at me and reluctantly nodded. "Daryl, what else did ya see strung from the ceilin'?"
"A folder." Daryl answered.
"What was in that folder?"
"I dunno, I didn't look."
"We took the folder as evidence." Rick informed and handed Daryl the folder.
"Please read the folder out loud." I ordered. Daryl opened the bloodstained folder and began to read.
"Hicks, Patrick R. DOB: March 9th 1982. Richmond, Virginia. Offense..." Daryl fell silent for a moment.
"Daryl, please continue."
"Offense: posession of child pornography, child molestation, sexual assault, and possession of schedule 1 drugs—"
"Which was?"
"Rohypnol."
"Was he ever sentenced?"
"No...it says it was pendin'."
"Now, it took me forever to glue the pieces back together, but I managed. If you'd wish to see the photo in the back of the folder, go ahead and look."
"I'd rather not." Rick stood up and took the folder from Daryl and opened it to the back of the folder. His face contorted with disgust before passing it down the line. Everyone had to look, and everyone turned away.
"Anyone wanna tell Daryl what the photo was?" The room was silent. "No? Okay then." I turned to Daryl. "It was Elijah, your nephew. MJ let him babysit 'em before he was old enough to help clean the Sanctuary, well before I showed up. I'll let your imagination guess what the photo consisted of. Now, if it'd please the council, I'd like to have this folder and all its contents marked as exibit one and marked into evidence." The room fell silent. "I didn't get to watch movies a lot as a child, but my mom's husband watched a lot of it; Law & Order bein' one of his favorite."
"Evidence is admitted." Michonne nodded. "If you have no further questions, we will call our next witness."
"Nope, I think that covered it."
"Daryl, you may be seated." Daryl stood up in silence and walked back to his seat. "The council would like to call Rick to speak." Rick stood up and sat in the chair behind the table next to mine, which I have now deemed the witness stand. "Rick, what can you tell us about Michaela?"
"She's a great asset to the community, always put 'er people's needs before 'er own." Rick answered. "She was open from the beginnin' that she had killed two people prior to the turn."
"She killed two people before?"
"Yes. If I remember correctly, it was her adoptive father, who admitted to 'er that he abused and killed the children he adopted, and a nun."
"A nun?" Aaron asked. "Why?"
"Because she was never adopted, nor were the other children. Accordin' to Michaela, she and the others were sold to the man because the orphanage needed money."
"Was anyone able to validate her claim?" Ezekiel asked.
"No."
"Then her word means nothing with no proof."
"Well, I dunno if he'll have the same story, but Gabriel was the priest over the orphanage." Everyone turned and looked at Gabriel, who closed his eyes in dismay.
"Gabriel, speak." Michonne ordered.
"I indeed was the priest over St. Mary's, but I can't confirm her statement." Gabriel responded.
"See?" Ezekiel smiled.
"But I can't deny it, either." Gabriel continued. "I was aware of the low funding for the orphanage; we often took in donations of food and items to be auctioned off, we even had bake sales and allowed the older children to get jobs."
"What about the supposed sold children?" Michonne asked.
"I never heard from them again...but now that you mention it, I do recall seeing the man who adopted Michaela a few times prior to her departure from the orphanage and he always left with a child."
"Did you have any questions for Rick, Michaela?"
"A few, actually." I answered and turned my attention to Rick. "When you heard about what I did to Patrick, what did you think?"
"I thought you lost your mind." Rick answered.
"And what about when I cut Paula's face off?"
"Again, I thought you lost your mind."
"And what did you say when I tortured and castrated Randall on the farm in Georgia?"
"She's done this before?" Ezekiel asked.
"I will admit, Paula was just to make her suffer, but Randall, well, he was just like Patrick. We needed answers, and he wasn't givin' 'em, so Rick had Daryl and I interrogate 'em. Rick heard the screams, but he never stepped in and made us stop; he knew exactly what we were doin' and he just let it happen. So, Rick, I'll ask again: what did you say when I tortured and castrated Randall?"
"Nothin'...I just told people that no one was allowed around 'em. We were gonna execute 'em, but ya wouldn't let us."
"Why not?" Michonne asked.
"He was no longer a threat, accordin' to her. That and she said that she didn't want us to make the same mistake she did, said ya never stop cravin' the feelin' to do it again."
"If there's no more questions, then Rick, you may be seated."
"No, I've got one more." I butted in. "Ya convinced me to see Denise about my problem, what was her diagnosis?"
"She's not a licensed doctor."
"Who is anymore?" I argued. "What was her diagnosis?"
"Stress induced psychosis."
"As someone who worked in the infirmary, I can inform the council that psychosis is a mental disorder that can cause aggression, agitation, disorganized behavior, hostility, lack of restraint, hallucinations, hearing voices, manic episodes, nightmares, apathy, and a whole bunch of other things that makes one large cocktail of mental fuckery. That bein' said, can you, Rick Grimes, say that I am solely responsible for my actions?"
"Physically, yes."
"Mentally?"
"No, not completely. I've seen ya struggle with your mental health since before we got to Alexandria. When we started medicatin' ya, it seemed to help, but with ya bein' pregnant, we haven't been able to give ya medicine."
"So, what you're sayin' is with medication, ya believe that I wouldn't have done what I did?"
"Honestly...no. The Michaela I remember didn't want us to kill anyone because she was afraid that we'd end up like her. She showed mercy where it was needed, and showed none when it wasn't deserved...but even then, she didn't torture to this extent. Ya told me the medicine didn't help, but everyone on the outside noticed a big difference. If ya stuck to it, allowed it to build up in your system, then ya would've noticed the difference, too."
"Anything else?" Michonne asked. I gently shook my head. "You may be seated, Rick." Rick silently rose to his feet and took his seat at the council table. "I think we've heard enough witness statements. Michaela, we're gonna interview you now, okay?" I gave her a nod.
"When you castrated Randall, how did you feel?" Rick asked.
"I felt like I saved a bunch of women from gettin' raped, so...good, I guess."
"Did ya feel bad for doin' it?"
"Dale made me feel a little bad about it, but he survived, so no. I just prevented 'em from rapin' another woman, and that was what I was set out to do."
"What about when you cut off Paula's face?" Michonne asked.
"I felt...nothin'. She begged me to kill 'er, and that's what I did."
"You cut her face off."
"And I didn't get to keep it, neither. Ya wanted to know how I felt, and I told ya."
"And Patrick?" I leaned forward and gave Michonne a smile.
"Pleasure. Hearin' that fuckin' pedophile scream and beg for mercy gave me more pleasure than a thousand orgasms at once." Gabriel instantly cringed. "And I'd do it again. If another person we met was a pedophile, I'd kill 'em just as ugly."
"How did you kill him?" Aaron asked. "What was the process?"
"I interrogated 'em, lopped off pieces of 'em until he broke. I needed 'em broken to get answers. So, I did the only thing that I could think of that would break the toughest people...I made 'em eat himself. After that, he was a blubberin' mess, confessed to everythin'. I made sure he stayed alive the entire time. Afterwards, I cut 'em up and put 'em on display as an example for everyone to see. I wanted everyone to see what I do to pedophiles and rapists."
"How did you even get him in the cell?"
"Eugene, of course." Everyone looked at eachother with confusion. "Oh, no, he didn't do any of the slicin'; I had 'em drug 'em with roofies that I got from Siddiq."
"Did he know why he was givin' you the pills?" Rick asked.
"Pill, just needed one. And no, he just said 'I hope they've got what's comin' to 'em'. I think he just thought I was gonna use it to sedate someone and interrogate 'em, not what I actually did."
"And Eugene?"
"He knew the entire time what I was doin'."
"And he didn't stop ya?"
"No, but I think it's because he knew nothin' would've stopped me."
"What about Harlow at New Haven?" Gabriel asked.
"I don't know what you're talkin' about."
"You killed her."
"Well, yeah, I kinda had to." Everyone on the council looked at each other with confusion. "Okay, so I had to get intimate with 'er, but I had my reasons. She had two guards posted outside her door and the only weapon I had was in my boot. If I grabbed for my boot right then and there, she would've sounded the alarm, so I had to make sure she was distracted. Last time I checked, when people orgasmed, that's the only way that I could think of."
"Michaela...you mutilated her."
"No, I didn't. I stabbed 'er in the throat." Everyone remained silent. "This is bullshit. I killed 'er and started the signal fire, as instructed. One of the guards outside the door killed the other, he entered the room and kept me safe, not long after, the enemy was dead."
"Michaela..." Rick sighed. "The shootin' lasted over five minutes. While everyone was loadin' up, I saw Harlow's body."
"Then ya can tell everyone that the only injury to 'er was her throat and skull." Rick gently shook his head. "This is fuckin' ridiculous! I'd know if I cut the bitch up."
"You said it yourself that psychosis causes hallucinations, is it possible that you only hallucinated what you thought happened?" Michonne asked.
"Of course not! I mean...no...no, I know what happened to her." Aaron stood up, slowly made his way over to me, and placed a photo on the table. "What the..."
"They had a camera and let us take some photos." Aaron explained. "We thought that maybe one of her people did this, but when we saw what happened to Patrick, we couldn't ignore this."
"N-No, no! No, I didn't do this!" The photo made my gut wrench. Her entire abdomen had been cut open and all of her organs had spilled onto the desk. Her skin had slash marks all over, I couldn't even count how many. Worst of all, her eyeballs had been plucked out and nothing remained but bloody holes in her skull. I didn't do this, I couldn't have done it...could I?
"Michaela, the evidence is stacked against ya." Rick sighed.
"NO! I snarled and rose to my feet. "I didn't fuckin' do this! I dunno what kind of sick fuckin' joke y'all are tryin' to pull, but it ain't fuckin' right! I didn't fuckin' do this!" Rosita grabbed my arm, but I yanked myself out of her reach. "¡NO ME TOQUES, USTED PERRA ESTÚPIDA!" (DON'T TOUCH ME, YOU STUPID BITCH)
"Get her out of here, now!" Michonne ordered. Rosita roughly grabbed me by my my right arm and Aaron grabbed my left and began to drag me towards the exit.
"I DIDN'T DO THIS! I KILLED RANDALL, I KILLED PAULA, I KILLED PATRICK, BUT I DIDN'T FUCKIN' DO THIS! I DIDN'T DO IT!"