Chapter 26: At All Costs

Saturday 1120.

Four months and three weeks after F.B.

The Vale City Central Morgue was a plain gray building for depressing purposes. It had no business to display cheery or hopeful colors, so it did not even try. The interior was no better: just a series of sterile looking waiting rooms and cooled medical rooms that would remind anybody of freezers if the implications of that would not be so cruel. But the worst of all was the smell. Chemicals were needed to preserve the deceased for at least a little while and the scent these produced was barely tolerable for everyone experiencing it for the first time.

Coco, unfortunately, felt herself getting used to that odor. She had already spent too much time in this building, waiting for the families of fallen comrades and friends. She had to force herself to keep her eyes open. Otherwise, images and sounds of weeping families flooded her mind. Too much bad memories were made in this place, and it likely would not stop anytime soon.

All of that did not seem to bother Blake at all. If the faunus' heightened senses made it difficult for her to stand the scent, Blake did not show it. Right now the cat faunus was moving from corpse to corpse with her scroll in hand and a professional demeanor that, in Coco's mind, might as well be borderline boredom. Coco stood idly by as Blake identified the dead White Fang members. Honestly, she had no intentions to spent time with dead terrorists, so she let Blake do the work while she served as glorified entrance key and authentication.

"I think I got it." Coco looked up to see Blake putting the shroud back over a deer faunus' face. "Between this and the videotape, I think I found all the folks the Fang recruited from Menagerie. Damn, they really got them all killed right away." Blake walked towards the biggest table in the room. Even as a corpse that elephant faunus still looked impressive. She removed the shroud from his face to see the broken off tusk driven through his skull. Blake stroke almost gently along the bloodied tip of the tusk. "Even for what he did to those poor souls, that is an unnecessarily brutal way to go."

Coco had to convince herself to stay calm at the unfortunate wording. "This was at least fast and relatively painless. He deserved way worse. You saw what he did to Yang, didn't you?"

That drew no reaction what so ever from Blake and Coco raised her eyebrows in shock. She even went out of her way to make it personal by using Yang's real name, and Blake still did not react.

"Did you hear me, Blake?"

Blake turned her head slightly to answer over her shoulder. "Of course I did."

Not receiving any more than that Coco decided to pry. "And?"

"And what?" Blake put the shroud back over the Fang Captain's face and started to walk past Coco. "We should discuss how we proceed further. I suggest outside though; this odor is taxing."

Coco was momentarily stunned at that exchange and had to hurry to catch back up to Blake. Once they were out of the room and in a corridor, she grabbed Blake's arm and forced her to turn around.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Belladonna?" Coco could barely contain her rage at this point. "How can you be so calm after what you saw today? This bastard almost burned them alive!"

"And what do you want me to do about that?" Again, Coco was shocked by the cold response. "What exactly would me fussing over this whole situation accomplish? I could yell and cry all I want; it would serve no purpose because it would not change anything. I can't face her, not yet, not before I am finished and know she will be safe. I told you why I made this decision and nothing has changed. It is unfortunate that she got hurt, but there is nothing I can do now, is there?"

Coco frowned. "Yang's wounds run deeper than for what she is hospitalized for. If you would just visit her, I am sure that …"

"You sure that what, Shades?" Blake freed her arm with force and glared at Coco. "You think this is easy for me? Do you think I am not worried about her? That I don't feel bad? Because I am worried! I do feel bad! But it doesn't matter! I can go to her and talk, and maybe she understands and forgives me, but in the end, I'd have to leave again because he is out there and he won't hesitate to hurt her again, and I can't allow that! Because of me, she will never be safe as long as he is not beaten, and I refuse to be the cause of more of her pain!"

Coco crossed her arms and frowned. "After the Fall, when you first came to me, I understood where you were coming from. To an extent, I can still understand it. But having spent more time with Yang … did you ever consider that you leaving without a word causes her more pain than the loss of her arm?"

Blake huffed, turned away and started to walk. "The next time he comes after her to hurt me, he will take more than just her arm. Even if I cause her more pain, I'd rather have that than seeing her get killed."

"But are you sure that this would be Yang's choice too?"

"I know what her choice would be. I knew it before, and she proved it that day when she charged in blindly just to protect me. I know exactly what she would choose. That's why I don't let her choose. Not until I've dealt with him myself."

Coco stayed silent all the way out of the building. It was clear that Blake would not change her mind no matter what Coco would say to her. And in a way, Coco could understand her. Giving up one's own wants and needs to protect others, that, Coco could get behind. But there was this deep-rooted fear Blake carried; that forces her into these decisions. The fear of that man; Coco could not understand it. Then again, when was fear ever logical.

The street around them was empty, unsurprisingly so, things were depressing enough without hanging around the morgue.

"Come on, Shades. We still have to schedule the transport of the bodies back to Menagerie."

Wait … What?

Coco could only stare at Blake. "Excuse me?"

Blake turned around again and put on a neutral face. "The bodies of the dead White Fang recruits. We need to have them prepped for transport so we can return them to their families."

Coco had a hard time believing what she was hearing. "Like hell, we will! They're terrorists! After we're done with the autopsies, we'll incinerate them in the next best fire and leave them there."

Blake let out a low growl. "They're good citizens that were led astray. They have the right to get a proper burial. Or do you want to tell me that this is the way Vale treats all of their war enemies?"

"War? We're not at war with the faunus! We're at war with Atlas! These are no honorable combatants; these are terrorists! They butchered civilians in cold blood. They deserve no respect what so ever!"

"They are victims!" Blake was shouting at Coco now; barely a few inches between their faces. "Idealists who wanted to fight for their people, to protect their rights and who were tricked!"

"Led astray? Tricked? They massacred civilians!"

"They only wanted to punish humans for their crimes against our race!"

"Punish humans? I have dead faunus civilians in this morgue!"

"Then it was unfortunate they came into the line of fire! The White Fang doesn't kill Faunus!"

"Are you insane? There were only a dozen human civilians at the club! Junior's is equally popular between humans and faunus, heck half of his men these days are faunus! You saw the damned tape! They went there to kill everybody so don't give me that righteous, race war bullshit!"

Blake and Coco were glaring daggers at each other. Their noses were almost touching by now. Blake lowered her voice into a dangerous growl. "Why do you pretend to care? You're human after all. This is none of your business."

"No, it's none of yours! I was in this building the day after the attack. I talked to the families of the dead civilians that died on my watch, in one of my districts. I failed every single one of those faunus and humans, and you better believe that I care about that. I own every one of those deaths. Twenty-seven faunus civilians, thirteen human civilians, eleven of Junior's men, five of which faunus. I know all of their names, and I personally talked to all of their families and friends. Because that was my duty, because I failed my responsibility and I stood my ground and owned up to my mistakes."

Coco held Blake's stare and had to control herself from beating the faunus to a pulp.

"You are the one who has no right to be here, Belladonna. Do you think I am stupid? That I wouldn't see what you are doing here? You have a damned list of everyone who attacked the club, and you had that before we went to Junior. The whole reason you can identify every one of them is that you already knew who left that island of yours! And if you knew that, why didn't you and your folks stop them, Blake, huh? I tell you why, because you didn't want to. Because you used them as bait, you trailed them and hoped they would lead you to Taurus. But they didn't. They just went to attack a club and what did you do? Did you warn me or the others? Did you step in and help? No, because that would mean your precious bait would be lost. So you did nothing and waited for the Fang to win and lead you to their base afterward. But we managed to kill them all, and you lost your precious trail."

Coco took a step back; her eyes still fixed on Blake who now had her hand under her coat, clearly grasping her weapon.

"That's why you came to me. You needed me and my access to check if every one of your oh so precious good kids was accounted for or if one slipped out, so you could find that one and have him lead you to the other Fang in the City. But they all died, and you got nothing for it, so now you want to be noble and bring these terrorists home to ease your conscience. You're right, they are victims, but not of the Fang, they're victims of your obsession with Taurus!"

Blake didn't respond. Instead, she drew her sword with an angry snarl, but by the time her sword was pointed at Coco she was looking into the barrel of Coco's sidearm.

"You're useful to us, Blake. Always have been and this here won't change that fact. We need you and your contacts to Menagerie the same way you and Menagerie need Vale and me. It wasn't Goodwitch or your dear daddy that initiated the talks between Vale and Menagerie. It was you and me because we both needed something from each other and had way too much political ambitions to not draw profit from it all. We were the ones who convinced our superiors to make that dust deal because, in times of crisis and chaos, ranks and administrations mean jack shit. The ones with the balls and arrogance to take things into their own hands are the ones calling the shots."

"So because of that you know that this is not an idle threat: This is my city. My responsibility. So if you pull that shit again, well, I told you how this would go down."

Coco stared at Blake, as she slowly drew the hammer of her gun back, sending an unmistakable message.