Act III: Verbrechen und Bestrafung

(Crime and Punishment)

Hell and Schatten find themselves at a standstill as both factions lose one member of their team to the other. With Rai imprisoned, Jinwoon is at wit’s end trying to retrieve their Turm, while Nichkhun is much more focused on finding the whereabouts of the escaped Fortuna leaders.

Upon the Captain Lee Changmin’s unfortunate demise, Detective-Inspector Jay Park takes on a fallen team. Taecyeon, Seulong, and Fuu are all mourning the loss of their beloved friend and captain, while Mai remains unconscious in the hospital. What is the new unit leader to do, now that Junho’s loyalty is seemingly becoming more and more unstable?

In these streets stained with greed, only the wind heads to the heavens

Love is trampled on and torn to shreds

Tears remain in open hands

Our souls writhe in pain and sorrow.

Must I sacrifice my own happiness in order to live?

- Velvet Underworld, Weiss Kreuz

CHAPTER 29: ☖ | ☗

A dark, heavy cloud of despair hovered menacingly low over Schatten’s office as Jay Park entered the desolate room. Though well lit and well ventilated, Jay found that he had difficulty seeing and breathing inside the usually cheery office. The remaining members, Taecyeon, Seulong, and Fuu were still in their formal uniforms- none of them had wanted to go back to their respective homes after Captain Lee Changmin’s burial ceremony. It had only been a few days since the unfortunate event at the Black Tortoise, but to what remained of Changmin’s team, it felt much longer than that.

Jay didn’t know how to begin, he felt compelled to speak, say something, anything. While he knew there was no way for him to brighten the atmosphere, he at least wanted to draw away the tension that draped over the happiest people he knew.

“Hey,” he began, uncertainty heavy in his voice, “We’ll get back at them. I’ll personally make sure they’ll pay for what they did.”

The truth was, Jay was scared. He didn’t know whether they could really face these assassins and Fortuna at the same time. With Warheit wiped out, and General Yang dead, NeoSeoul PD had no one else but Schatten dedicated to this assignment. He doubted he would get any support from the international police- especially not when neither he nor Conny had been able to bring home any tangible evidence to support Fortuna’s existence.

Disheartenment gripped at him. If Changmin were here, he would know what to do. Changmin had always been his pillar of strength, and Jay never had the chance to even tell him that. Not even once had Jay showed their fallen leader just how much he learned from him. If it weren’t for Changmin’s constant looking out for him, Jay knew there was no way he would have ever been promoted. Now he was gone, and Jay felt hopeless.

Wooyoung was missing again, and Taecyeon and Seulong mirrored each other’s expressions. They looked like the world had come crashing down on their shoulders, but Jay knew it was worse than that. Next to them, Fuu’s eyes were still red and puffy- the way they had been ever since the news had arrived. Jay knew there was nothing he could do or say to lift their spirits. Everything he would say would come out patronizing and insincere.

“Sir?”

By the door, stood Sohee with a box in her hands. Jay walked towards her even though he didn’t know if she was even referring to him.

“This is all the Captain’s stuff from his office, the family wanted Schatten to have it,” she said, nervously looking around the room.

“Thanks,” Jay muttered, taking the box that felt heavier than it should have been.

Sohee left without another word, and Jay found himself sitting on what had been Changmin’s desk inside their meeting room. Had been? Jay wondered if that was how it would be from then on. Would they be referring to Changmin in the past tense?

He pulled out a folder from the box, and Jay’s brows furrowed as he read the name. Why did Changmin have Lee Junho’s file? Not only Junho’s but June, Wooyoung and Nichkhun’s as well. What had been Changmin doing in his free time?

He pulled out three files at the same time- three of his friends, three of Changmin’s friends. Had Changmin always known that Nichkhun was still alive? If Nichkhun was still alive, did that somehow imply that there was a chance that June was still alive too?

“I need to say something.” Fuu’s broken voice brought him away from the folder in his hands. “I’m being transferred to the Weather Station. Effective immediately.”

Taecyeon’s head snapped up- he could not believe his ears. How could Fuu be transferred now? Now that they had just lost Changmin, now that Mai was still unconscious, now that there was so much Schatten needed to do.

“You can’t,” Taecyeon croaked. He felt crippled, more now that his other source of strength had just been robbed from him. He felt betrayed. “Why did you say yes?!”

“It wasn’t my choice,” Fuu answered, keeping her voice calm. She didn’t want to leave. She had refused the transfer, but the Assistant Chief heard none of it. The decision had been finalized, and she had no more say in the matter.

“You can’t go,” Taecyeon’s hand reached out for hers, but it stopped midway, not knowing if he should or not. “I-we, the team needs you.”

“And I want to stay, Taec.” Fuu found Taecyeon’s eyes, but she turned away quickly. “Maybe some things are just not meant to be.”

…

The constant beeping of the machine next to him was the only thing that kept Junho sane throughout this whole experience. On both his sides, on hospital cots, were Mai and Rai, both still unconscious from their last encounter. The former had been in this current state from the sheer strain and injuries she had received from that night, while the latter was kept on tranquilizers. He eyed the metal handcuffs on her wrists and ankles, even asleep, not one of the doctor’s trusted Rai.

Junho’s mind kept flashing back to that one moment. One crucial moment that he knew determined the lives of the two females next to him. On one hand, should he had chosen to tranq either one of them, he was not assured that the other wouldn’t kill whoever he targeted. It was a no-win situation, and Junho knew that the only way to save both of them, both from the other and from themselves was to take both of them down.

Knowing that, however, did not lessen the guilt in his heart. He felt sick of himself having to shoot them. It wasn’t what his bolts were designed to do, it was the mere fact that he was able to do it that disgusted him. It was the idea of allowing himself to go against his own nature that struck the ghastly feelings inside of him.

He was afraid.

…

“So what do we know?”

Kwon’s voice sliced through the heavy, suffocating atmosphere inside the backroom. The conclusion of the latest mission had left everyone on edge and just a hair’s width from going out on an all-out, unattended killing spree. The tension was beyond palpable, and should this brew for even just a few minutes more, hell would break loose.

Jinwoon took a deep breath through his nose to calm himself. “The three Fortuna generals have escaped and Rai has been captured by Schatten, but we do have Bulatov’s data.” The last part did nothing to console the young hacker. His attention was elsewhere- what he wanted to do now was devise a plan to retrieve Rai as soon as possible.

“We have three leads straight to Fortuna,” Jia stated, drawing the room’s attention to the projection in front. “We still don’t know where the main lab is, but I think we might be able to find a way to Park Yoochun, Kim Junsu, and Kim Jaejoong.”

Fei stepped next to Jia. “We have an interesting pattern.” Three points on their map lighted up in red,.“Park Yoochun funding White Tiger Laboratories, Kim Junsu’s benefit at the Black Tortoise, and Kim Jaejoong’s label, Pheonix Records. Sense a pattern?”

“Where’s the Azure Dragon?” Chansung asked, his eyes lighting up with recognition.

“He should come out soon enough,” Jia answered, eyeing Nichkhun squarely in the eye. “I know you know something about this. I am not going to play nice. Dr. Aybarra’s notes have everything we need, give me time to decipher the code and I will.”

Nichkhun’s jaw tightened at the mention of June’s notes. How Jia even knew about the code made him clench his teeth even more. His back burned itself on the wall he was leaning on as he took his time to answer her. “You have one day.”

“One day is all I need.”

…

Leaving was never her forte, the same went for saying goodbye. So when Fuu received the transfer from JYP, she quickly, and subtly packed all her belongings from her office at the computer labs and left them at a corner for easy pick-up. What she didn’t realize immediately, was the amount of items she needed to move to her new office.

She didn’t want to leave. If Fuu had a choice she would never leave. She remembered the only reason that kept her sane from leaving the university was the fact that everyone was still keeping contact- that most of her batch were advancing in the same direction as she was. Taecyeon and Seulong being in the same precinct made adapting easier.

Now she was being forced away from what was now home to her.

Gingerly, her fingers caressed the long ears of the Mokona doll Taecyeon had given her for her birthday three years ago. She never knew if Taecyeon knew how much she treasured the plush animal, and she questioned herself if she would ever let him know about it.

Of course not, she would answer. She found no need to.

The door to her office creaked open, and she held her breath as a tall shadow fell across the door gap. Taecyeon slowly slid into the room, not fully coming in, but just hanging by the ledge of the door.

“Seulong says we should at least go drinking. Like some going-away party. Changmin would want to.”

“You know I don’t like going-away parties.”

“Then, I don’t know. Don’t think of it as such. Let’s just go.”

“Taec, I-”

“Fuu, let’s just go.”