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Mansa drifted in and out of sleep as he was carried onto the stretcher and ambulance. He could hear the first aiders talking to each other in a muffled voice as they worked on Adira,

'Blood pressure critically low!'

'Heartbeat stopped! Initiate defibrillation!'

'Don't give up, you can make it...'

'Sir, you need to stay in bed!'

Mansa fought the tranquilizers they used on him for the surgeries. He grunted in pain as the surgeons pulled bullets out of him one by one. The moment he woke up in bed he kicked the sheets off him and landed on the floor. Shockwaves of pain pulsed through his whole body, but he gritted his teeth tightly and limped forward. He had to know, Adira...

'Where's the cheetah that got send here?' He hammered the glass at the reception.

'Surgery room 6.' the nurse was intimidated.

Mansa dragged himself to the room the nurse told him. He was panting heavily and he saw through the stars in his head that the lights to the surgery room were already off.

The doctors were walking out shaking their head.

Mansa did not want to over think this, 'The cheetah, she survived?'

A doctor sighed, 'We did our best, but she lost it due to blood loss.'

'All the others are fine and only she's...' Mansa couldn't say the word. He coughed and spat his mouthful of blood on the floor.

'I'm sorry for your loss, but she's the smallest among all of you. No offence here but she bleeds out the fastest. That's just how it is. Now would you excuse me, sir, I have another surgery coming up.'

Mansa's heart pounded in his ears as he struggled into a lift. No, he would not accept that. He needed someone to blame, someone to unleash his rage on and hurt without remorse.

He opened the door to a taxi and climbed in, panting shallowly,

'ZPD headquarters.'

The hippo in the driver's seat turned his head back in concern, 'Are you alright?' Mansa was still wearing hospital clothes and wheezing in his seat painfully.

'NOW!' Mansa's bellowed angrily, his eyes flashing red.

The hippo gulped and pushed the lever to D for 'driving'. He decided that the buffalo in his car was not one to be reasoned with.

Mansa took the lift to the chief's office, the first time in his whole career. He pushed the door and saw the lion sitting in his chair in defeat.

'Where were you the whole time?' Mansa grabbed the chief by the collar and winced, giving in to the pain in his chest.

'I was fighting their reinforcements on the way to the warehouse.' Chief Lionheart looked at Mansa with bloodshot eyes, 'What happened in there? Nobody else can tell me.'

Mansa saw he had injuries of his own. He slid onto the floor slowly and began talking.

Lionheart's eyes widened with fear as he heard Mansa repeat what happened at the warehouse.

'And Ben murdered them all, each and every one of them. I tried to stop him from killing the bear too, and he stopped. He wasn't himself at that time. It was until the last moment that he reverted back to himself.'

'Has Benjamin awoken yet?' Lionheart asked.

'I haven't checked.' Mansa was now worried about the mental state of Benjamin, 'But he mustn't know about what he did to the criminals. He had already lost his sister...'

'No!' the chief groaned and covered his face with his paws, 'Why her?'

Mansa said nothing as the lion sobbed. He was too hurt to care anymore.

Lionheart stopped crying rather quickly. It was not the first time he encountered this.

'The public cannot know about this public mauling from one of our officers. We must keep the collateral damage at minimum, both for Benjamin and for the ZPD.' The chief dried his eyes with a napkin.

Lionheart heaved a sigh, 'There's only one way to do this, and I need your help, Bogo.'

Mansa looked up upon his words.

'We need a hero in this incident, to explain how we defeated the gangs. It'll have to be you in place of Benjamin. I must resign. Your job is to blame everything bad that happened on me.'

'No, I can't do that.' Mansa was horrified by the idea.

'You don't understand. I have to put a D notice on this incident to stop this from spreading to the public. But they will be asking for a mammal to take responsibility for Adira's death, and a news headline tomorrow. I have to be out there, taking the blame. I'm entrusting the ZPD to you, Bogo. Can you be the chief after I'm gone?'

'I...' Mansa was overcome by the information, 'I... don't know.'

'Please, if you want to save Benjamin and all of us, this is the only way.' Lionheart squatted down in front of Bogo, 'I know you don't lie. But this is for Adira, and the whole ZPD.'

Mansa thought of how Adira would react to this. She always hated dishonesty, but now he had no choice.

'I have to try.' Adira would forgive him. It's all for Ben.

'Thank you.' The lion patted his shoulder lightly and stood up, 'I'm going downstairs to the armory for your new uniform. You need to rest, Bogo. When morning comes we'll have to face the press.'

Mansa was left in the room all by himself. It would be his office soon. Loneliness loomed over him and warm liquid finally trickled down from his eyes.

He couldn't control his emotions anymore, now that he was all alone in a dark room. He bawled, crying all his sorrow and frustration out. His screams reverberated in the spacey office. It hurt a lot to yell, but Mansa didn't care. He cried himself to sleep.

Lionheart could hear Mansa's hollering as he walked along the corridor, but moved on forward regardless. There's nothing he could do to lessen the buffalo's pain, only time could heal his wounds.

Lionheart knew it too well, so he must focus on the task at hand. Mansa was in no condition to properly answer the reporters' questions. He would have to do it for the new chief, so nobody else would know what happened last night.