Honor the Dead

Cora saw that Mitsuo winced and sighed.
"You are an idiot you know that!", she whispered, "When we are back at the city then I will help you."

Suddenly Alan started talking. Oh no...why was he thinking like that? That could never end well.
"Shit happens Alan. I'll be honest-", she stopped, "No I won't. Technically seen: I took the wolf's life not you. And everyone has to die. No matter what. Either you take their life or someone or something else does. It's simple. Die or die. You can choose between now or later. Doesn't matter in the end."
Cora wasn't sure if that wasn't too much. Vex didn't think so. Nec wasn't sure.
"If you want to fight for justice you need to take risks. For example: You go through the streets at night and see a girl wanting to kill a man. After you hear them out why that happened you find out that the girl wants to kill the man because he killed her family and let her fight until someone died against other children when she was smaller. The man is a husband and has five kids. Two are twins and ten years old. One is 15. And the other ones are two and four years old. You decide now: let the girl kill the man or not. Tell me.", Cora's voice was monotonous and not very loud. She didn't know why but she didn't like his question just now.

She put her hands around Mitsuo's waist again and her head on his shoulder. Cora closed her eyes and waited for Alan's answer. Vex was constantly talking and that really got on her nerves.

OOC://Dangit Cornix, you beat me to the punch XD OOC://

Connor rose a brow, wondering if Alan's regret was justifiable. Following Cora's moral question, he spoke. "Alan, for all we know what we did was the best move." He began. "Don't pity the wolf because we had to kill him to survive, pity the wolves because they have to eat each other to survive." "

"Survival is meant to allow one to live another day, but if you live to survive you are not living."

"That is why mankind is not beyond redemption, because despite our destructive nature we have the mental and spiritual capacity to know what it means to be. The Titans will never have that...they have one singular goal, and once that's done they will have nothing. And all that remains in the law of the world is the cruelty of kill or be killed. This is why it is up to soldiers like us to defend that last little light humanity has to offer, because in the end, Justice is good overcoming evil, no matter the cost."

"So I ask you, Alan, is your cause truly false? You are human, so you have the power to decide."

Cora listened to him. She didn't say anything at first. But that didn't mean that she agreed.
As he said he would punish the man she laughed quietly and cold.
"The right punishment would be to force him to kill his family. And then torture him to death. Redemption is useless. Most of the time. My justice also offers hope. Not redemption but hope. A better hope than yours. If you want to offer the same rays to those in need...then you should first stop the coruption in the inner districts. And maybe you should stop people from-", she stopped and sighed, "Whatever. That is impossible. Do what you want but in my opinion is your justice not justice but weakness."
She closed her eyes again and felt the sun and wind on her face. Normally she wouldn't have reacted like that. Just Vex and the wolves. It all got a bit on her nerves

Mitsuo kept his focus on were the group was heading. "Justice is justice, " he sighed, "be it cruel or weak." He didn't like the conversation his friends just had so he thought it would be a good idea to speak his opinion. "For those who care about it shouldn't care on how it is gained. Of course being in the Scouts means I don't have to worry about justice, I just have to keep humanity from dying. Justice has nothing to do with the hope the scouts give. The Scouts have hope that Humanity will survive whereas the cowards we risk our lives for hope that they will survive." After letting his thoughts loose Mitsuo kept quiet. He had nothing else to say. He kicked the horse, keeping it's pace. He knew he didn't have he life experiences of his friends but then they didn't have his life experiences either.

Cora smiled as Mitsuo gave his opinion.
"I think if people want their justice and noone cares about them they should make their own justice. Just in that case. It would be a chaos if everyone just did it like that."
She looked at her friends. It was weird. They were all so different from her and still liked her. Since she had joined the military there were suddenly people who accepted her.

Cora still didn't really get why though.

Connor gave Cora a shocked stare. He never would have imagined just how whipped Cora was. He thought he had it bad with the Zeus Squad, but it was clear to him that the Pack was something far more cruel. At yet, at the same time, what she said seemed to make sense to him, to a degree, but he had only one thing to counter Cora's view with. "What you describe is retribution, Cora. And retribution is far colder, and admittedly simpler, than Justice. And what is simple isn't always good."

Cora wrinkeled her forehead.
"It is? I don't think so. I think...you know the case I described before. The girl? It is like...imagine if you would cut 4 of my fingers off. I would cut 4 of your fingers off. That is justice. The girl was forced to kill her friends and her family got killed. In exchange she wanted to kill the man who did that all. I think that is justice too. It's the same as cutting off your and my fingers. The only difference is that you cut off 5 of my fingers and I only 3 of yours.", she layed her head back on Mitsuo's shoulder.
Cora was tired. She had been up too late and got up too early. And it also hadn't been in her intention to fight wolves.

Connor nodded. "But like you said, if it were to always work like that it would be chaos. Everything would be in an endless cycle of blood and vengeance. It takes greater strength to let go of your inner demons than to give into them and spread their misery to others. Make no mistake, in the situation of your story, I would kill the man without question. But at the same time, I wouldn't kill his family too. If anything, I would make sure they could stay on their feet. Because if we commit the same sin as the devil, then we too are the devil."

Cora closed her eyes again.
Inner demons, uh? She smiled as she thought about her two inner demons. Nec was sleeping but Vex was awake and annoyed her. If she could she would have kicked him out of her head. But sadly that wasn't possible.
For Cora it was not possible to not give into her demons. It was not as easy as Connor described it. Definitly not.
She would have killed the man's family too. In her eyes that was justice. Being the devil didn't really matter to her.

Cora opened her eyes and saw the doors leading into the city. In about one minute they would be inside again.
Question now was what would they do then?
"Hey guys...just one simple question: what are we going to do the rest of the day? Oh yeah I forgot. I will first need to help Mitsuo and his back. Let's see how long this takes...but what after that?"

Alan looked at the approaching gates. He then looked at Cora and Mitsuo, and his eyes narrowed.
"You're... going to help... Mitsuo.... huh." he said, looking down at his clothing then back up.
"I think I had enough adventures for today. I'll probably be off somewhere right now, after I find someone to take care of my still bleeding wounds." He nudged his head in the direction of his blood-soaked shirt. "Do you guys happen to know where Dr. Geist resides? The guys in the Military Police aren't people I'd trust to handle a wound."
His horse walked through the gates. As always, the guards were missing. Alan sighed. It's because of this that his job was all the more hard. Still, he enjoyed returning to his city in one piece.

Cora flinched as he mentioned Dr. Geist. She jumped off her horse as they entered the city and went to Alan.
"Say something dammit! I will take care of you too! I have time the whole day!", she gestured Alan to get of his horse and follow her. The inn where Mitsuo and Cora stayed last night wasn't far away.
"Mitsuo, you come too. I can get everything I need there!", she said. Cora was not angry at anyone. But Alan could have mentioned it earlier. She definitly didn't want him to go to Dr. Geist.

She went inside the inn and looked at her friend whom it belonged to.
"Sorry to bother you again...I have to injured friends. Can I have a spare room?"
He laughed, nodded and pointed to a door.
"Take that one!"
Cora went inside. There were one long table and two beds . Perfectly!
She took the sewing kit that always was in her boots out and put it on the table.

Alan got of the horse and hesitantly followed Cora. While he trusted she would have some knowledge of taking care of wounds, he wasn't certain she was as highly trained at Dr. Geist. Perhaps she just didn't want him to pay a visit to someone who was going to put her on trial.
Alan looked at the two beds in the room. They looked cozy enough. Alan wished he would've brought some tea, but then again he didn't know he was going to be attacked by wolves either.
He sat on the bed on the right, and looked out the window. People outside were quieter than usual, but still cheerful, probably recovering from last night's celebration.
Alan took of his shirt and scarf, and examined his wounds. He appeared to have rather small cuts and bruises covering his arms and chest, but he felt a big mess on his back. He couldn't look at it, but he knew it couldn't look too good. He decided that for now he'll keep sitting up, as to not strain his back further. That fall at the beginning of his training must have really taken its toll on him.
He threw his ruined and bloodstained white shirt into the rubbish bin in the room, but he held onto his black scarf with a clenched hand.

Mitsuo sighed, got off of the horse and followed Cora into the inn and into the room. "I'm fine, " he leaned in the doorway, "it's nothing big like you said earlier." It wasn't that Mitsuo didn't like help, it was that if his injury was major, Cora would most likely stop him from his project. He walked over to the bed and laid down on it, closing his eyes. "I think you're just worrying too much," he spoke softly, "but I haven't slept in a while so a rest would be nice." He took off his shirt and rolled ontoshis stomach before acting like he was asleep.

Cora looked at Mitsuo.
"It's your turn later. I will first look at Alan."

Cora inspected Alan. She brought some alcohol to desinfect the wounds.
She first poured some alcohol on her hands and then washed them with water.
Without saying anything she cleaned the wounds he had on his arms and stomach. Nothing lethal here.
She then sat behind him. His back looked not as good. There were alot of wounds. Some were quite deep. Cora took some alcohol and desinfected it quickly.
"I will stitch your back up. Ok?", she asked while she desinfected the thread and needle.

//OOC: just a short question: should we let the festival continue for about three nights or so? Just if you want.

//OOC: While festivals generally tend to go for a few days, I doubt the Military would give over a day to honor the scouts. I don't think so, but maybe.

Alan nodded solemnly. He wasn't really afraid of the pain, and already lost quite a bit of sensation in his back area. He lay on his belly on the bed, still trying to look out the window at the people coming and going.
Alan found Cora to be quite skillful in her ways, and was glad that in the end she convinced him to stay with her and not go to Dr. Geist. The serious doctor would probably tell him that his training is dangerous, and that he has to stop or whatever. While Alan had great respect to the professional, he wasn't going to let advice from a doctor stand in the way of his dreams.

//OOC: Just so you know the festival doesn't just honor the Scouts, it honors all those who perished as a result of Wall Maria's loss. OOC//

Connor, out of a force of habit, leaned next to the door inside, keeping an ear metaphorically to the wall to listen for anything suspicious outside the room. It still felt different, going into a medical situation and not hearing the sizzle of hot blades against flesh, and the grunts and yells of the patients in question. Which made it all the better that Cora was the camp doctor in this situation, she at least had the means to disinfect and stitch the wounds without need of cauterization.

Connor was silent for most of the time in that room, staring intently at the door.

Cora kneeled next to Alan and started stitching his back up. She first stitched the smaller wounds up and then went on to the bigger wounds.
She stopped sometimes to desinfect the wounds again or to get the blood away.
The whole prodecure took about thirty minutes to an hour and at the end Cora was exhausted. She put the needle and thread into her shoes again. Her whole body was trembling.
"You are okay again Alan. Don't move to much now until the wounds have closed at least abit. By the end of the day you should be able to walk again.", she sat down.

Alan tried to nod, but found that doing so while laying down on his bare chest was a bit of a challenge. His back felt strange. Not really in pain as much as it felt like a lump of dead skin and fat. He was growing a little bit hungry, but he could wait if it meant he would recover faster. He looked at Mitsuo, who seemed to be suffering from his injury a little more than him. He felt pretty sorry for him. The Mitsuo he knew was quick and powerful, with tough hands that could bend iron with a good swing of the hammer. He didn't like seeing him laying upon the bed like some dying person.
"Thank you, Cora." he said. His voice was flat and dry, but his intention was sincere.

Cora went out of the room and got some towels she had drained into warm water. She went to Mitsuo and placed the warm towels on his back.
"Warmth should help you a bit.", she said quietly and sat next to him.
Cora just sat there her eyes were closing from time to time but she started up from her sleep really quickly again.
"Dammit...", she whispered and layed down on the floor.
"Connor. Tell the others I will hit them if they get out of their bed to make some space for me.", she whispered and within half a minute she fell asleep on the floor.

Connor rose a brow at Cora. "Yeah....sure." Then again he shouldn't have been the one to raise a brow. He had rented a room for the previous night only to sleep on the floor with nothing but the blanket. And hell, Cora didn't even use a blanket.

He scratched his haired chin a bit before turning his head towards the door again. He didn't know why but he never felt comfortable being in rooms like this. Not enough places to slip away from. Maybe he was paranoid, but this happened all too often back when he was with Zeus squad. All sorts of unsavory characters swiping away hotel guests to take them to God knows where. Luckily, he was rarely an intended victim, the thugs knowing better most of the time.

Once again he was quiet, short spoken. This was definitely a farcry from the Connor that was drinking like a merry man just the night before.