She had her thumbs hooked into her belt, her shoulders hunched forward a little, where she leaned against the wall.  She didn’t look happy.

Yeah, she seems to have been hit hard by the guilt here. But is it hard enough that she’ll want to do something about it personally?

When she met my eyes, she gave a little shake of her head.

Apparently not.

“Coil’s not stupid,” Tattletale told me, “He knows what he just did, he had every reason to suspect that one or two people in our group might find his methods distasteful.  He calculated this.  He’s testing us, making sure we’ll stick around when it’s time to make the hard calls.”

Hm. Sounds like all the more reason to leave, honestly.

But the problem is that other than morals, the Undersiders have nothing to gain from leaving, and several things to lose.

“If this is a test,” I spoke, feeling my heart sink, “I think I fail.”

“Don’t say that,” Tattletale spoke.  “Grue’s right, we need to discuss this as a team.”

Damn. Taylor just suggested leaving the team over this. This schism could be interesting.

Also, isn’t discussing this as a team what you’re already doing?

“Discuss what?  Whether to stay with Coil?”

“Yeah,” the word was a half-sigh coming out of her mouth.

Grue for one has made his position clear.

“That you guys even think it’s negotiable is pretty fucked up,” I replied.  The anger and betrayal I was feeling made my tone harsher, harder.

Taylor’s beginning to slide back towards her opinions of the Undersiders from Insinuation.

Regent shrugged, “I’ve told you where I come from, how I grew up.  I’ve seen similar stuff before, only it was my dad’s powers, not drugs.  I’ve got a high tolerance for that shit.”

Hm. Sounds like it kinda backfired, huh. Instead of relating especially much to Dinah, he instead sees her more like one of his father’s other victims, something he got used to while growing up.

I tried to convince him, “Didn’t you leave Heartbreaker because of stuff like that?  Aren’t you just getting back into the same situation with Coil?”

Hmm.

“I left my father because he was trying to control me and force me to be someone and something I wasn’t.  It wasn’t even remotely interesting or fun any more.  The day that happens with Coil, I’ll leave him too.  For now, it’s a good gig.”

Eh, fair enough.

Coil is doing the same with Dinah, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

These are the people I’ve been associating with?  I looked to my last hope for a backup and support.  Tattletale.

I don’t know, Taylor. They seem like good people.

“We’re not to blame for what Coil did,” Grue told me.

“We sure helped it happen.”

Hm. Starting off strong with two opposing opinions. Taylor thinks that because the Undersiders blindly took money to do something that helped their boss do something they didn’t know about, that something is on them. I’m inclined to agree, but only partially – most of the blame is on Coil, but the Undersiders have some culpability as willing henchpeople.

“There was no way we could know what he was really doing.”

“Because we were complacent, not paying attention.  Because of that, and because we assisted Coil in distracting the capes, Dinah has been held captive for what, three weeks?  Almost a month?”

The only reason they didn’t know is that they didn’t try to know. They were content with taking their reward without thinking of what kind of consequences they were enabling.

“Almost a month,” Tattletale echoed me.

I looked at Tattletale, noted how she was refusing to look anyone in the eye, and I had an uncomfortable thought.  “Did you know about this?”

I don’t think she did. Her behavior since she paled in the last chapter has seemed surprised and disgusted, even before it became clear to her that Taylor figured it out.

“I-” She stopped to give a little sigh and briefly make eye contact with me before staring back down at the ground.  “I had an idea, sort of.  I didn’t think it would be this ugly.  It’s hard to explain.”

Ah, I see.

“Try,” I spoke, my voice hard.

“She disappeared from the middle school near Arcadia the same day we robbed the bank.  Obviously, Coil wanted to ensure the Wards weren’t close enough to interfere, probably why he was so keen on us doing the bank job, after I suggested it.  I made the connection, after.  I just didn’t think – Nothing he said or did led me to think it would be a serious kidnapping.”

She figured out they had enabled the kidnapping, but wasn’t prepared to see Dinah being drugged and abused like we saw in Coil’s basement.

“What else could it be?” Grue asked her.

“Her uncle’s one of the mayoral candidates in the election this Summer, you know that?  I knew Coil was putting a lot of value on getting hold of her, I thought maybe he was kidnapping her to use her to ransom for the uncle’s campaign funds, or to get the uncle to drop out of the race in a more direct play.

I wouldn’t characterize this as a “non-serious” kidnapping, but it does seem less… permanent and abusive.