Destroyer of Worlds
Beck/Jade (AU/future fic, warning for character death)
If this was a cliche story, perhaps it would begin with 'it was a dark and stormy night'. The wind would be blowing severely; the trees would be stretching their limbs to brush the cold, wet ground; the sun would be overshadowed by the powerfully grey clouds, only allowing drops of sunlight to peek through.
But it's not, and so the sky was bright, dotted with dots of bright blue and cotton candy clouds. Not the typical day for a murder, one might think, but then again murderers don't take days off. At least not the serial types.
Because it was on this day in mid-April that Caterina Valentine was found dead.
Suffice it to say that she was a part of a close-knit group of friends. She was scarcely the smartest of the group, and most assuredly the most innocent, so it made sense that she would be the target. But they had just been out for a night on the town and thus were not on their top game. They were not thinking things through exactly, not even Jade and Beck, who were typically the most logical and street-smart of the bunch, so they allowed her to walk home alone.
"I'll be fine," Cat promised, a grin on her face, her deep red ponytail bouncing up and down in excitement. "I had such a fun night you guys! We'll have to do it again sometime, only this time Tori shouldn't vomit in the bathroom, since some got on my shoe and that's kind of gross. But oh well! Maybe next time Beck will dance with me."
Beck chuckled, glancing over at his girlfriend, who was just as amused with Cat's idea, since she was completely aware that his dancing skills were lacking, to say the least. "I don't think that's a good idea, Cat."
"Come on, Beck," Cat pleaded. "Robbie and Andre danced with me, and Robbie even stepped on my feet. The worst you could do is drop me on my head."
"Yes, and give you more brain damage," Jade replied sardonically.
"That's rude, Jade!" Cat protested with a pout. "Oh, look at the time, I've got to get home!"
"You sure you're okay with going alone?" Robbie slurred, looking as though he was apt to pass out at any given time.
"Yes, I'm a big girl now," Cat said with a smile. She pranced out the door, looking more like a pony than a young girl, smile upon her face, humming to herself. It was already nearing dawn; the light was peeking through the clouds, and it shone on her face so that she looked quite a bit like an angel, innocent in her own right. "Bye guys, love you," she called over her shoulder as she left, something that she said often to everyone, a reminder of her endearing nature. And then she was gone.
Life continued on normally for the other five. Little did they know what was to come.
Now it was typical of Cat to text one of them to let them know she'd gotten home safety. They were like her parents, her guardians, in that manner; they had always had a certain responsibility to make sure the tiny redhead was safe. So when each of them awoke in their respective homes to discover that Cat had not texted any of them, they all quickly grew worried.
"Have you heard from Cat?" Jade asked Beck, her heart pounding incessantly.
"I haven't," Beck replied, his tone sharp, "and Tori hasn't either, nor has Andre. Robbie?"
"I'm not talking to Robbie," Jade said with some disgust.
"Jade." Jade liked to pretend that she didn't speak to Robbie, but Beck of course knew that the two of them were actually quite good friends, even if Jade was reluctant to admit it.
"Fine, whatever, he hasn't heard from her either. This isn't like Cat - what could she be doing? Building a world out of candy?"
"I hope she's all right." His voice was stoic, but his words were clouded with worry, however unable he might be to show it. Cat was the weakest of the clan, sort of the weak link, except no one wanted to cut her off. "We shouldn't have let her walk alone. Gosh, we're so dumb."
"I'm sure she's fine," Jade said quickly, biting down on her lip. It was hard to think about anyone harming little Cat. But then, "Beck, if anyone's hurt her, you know I will find them, and they will regret it for a long, long time." Her voice was low, her tone dark; though many might not know it, Jade was fiercely protective of her friends, and even those friends that she might not identify as her friends.
"I know." He was quiet for a moment. "Come over? We can... go look for her. Stop by her house and all that."
"Use an algorithm, you mean," Jade said thoughtfully. "We check everywhere she would probably be, and then we'll have to find her."
"Yeah, babe. Use a... a whatever-that-word-is." He laughs into the phone, making his girlfriend scowl. Then his voice lowers. "We'll find her, Jade. I know we will."
They did, in fact, end up finding her.
The two ended up driving to her house, where her brother was perched upon the porch. Upon seeing the car, he yelped and ran into the house, and then emerged not five minutes later with a panic-stricken woman, rosy and red. Jade glanced at Beck, who immediately paled but gripped her hand with a certain ferocity as the two of them emerged from the car.
"Are you here about Caterina?" asked the worried woman. "I haven't seen her since yesterday. I assumed she was at Tori's house, but no, Tori says she hasn't seen her. She hasn't called, hasn't talked to anyone... I wonder what could be keeping her!"
"You haven't seen Cat?" Jade questioned, feeling the air leave her lungs.
"No one's spoken to her," Beck told her. "But me and Jade... Jade and I... we'll find her. Or we'll die trying."
The use of the word made Jade cringe - oh heck what if she was dead what have I gotten myself into - but she held her head high and inhaled, trying to seem stronger than she was, a perpetual thing with the girl. "We will," she said crisply, giving her boyfriend's hand a squeeze. "Now come on Beck, we can trace her trail back to Tori's house and maybe..."
"What, you think she slept in a garbage can?" The corners of Beck's mouth turned up the slightest bit.
"Well, you never know," she said hotly, but honestly, if Jade's gut feeling was true, a garbage can was their best case scenario.
They had driven about five minutes when they saw a flash of red. Both of them exchanged looks, and before anyone could so much as blink Jade was out of the car (while it was still moving, too, as if she was the hero in some dumb action movie). The hair was tucked into a garbage can lid. Jade tossed it off so that it nearly hit her boyfriend only to reveal a body inside. And not just any body, either.
She took a step back, her face hauntingly pale, a spare tear making its way down her face. Her whole body felt heavy, and she collapsed onto the ground before she could help it, but she did not faint. She only just sat there, her eyes trained on the image that seemed as if it had been copied straight out of her nightmares - the image of her friend, bruises littering her body like freckles, eyes rolled back into her petite head, the breath knocked out of her lungs. Dead.
"Jade," Beck whispered, coming up behind her, and then he caught sight of it, caught sight of her. His eyes bulged. She had never really seen Beck cry, but now he broke into silent sobs as his hand came up to cup the redhead's distorted face. He then immediately jerked his hand back - cold. Dead, she knew. Dead dead dead dead.
"No," she replied, her voice choked and strangled and unlike anything she had ever heard before. "No, no. We are so dumb. We should've never... should have protected... this isn't possible I just." More tears. She glanced at her hands, white and pale and wet now and alive, so alive, even though she was the stupid one, even though she should've paid the price. "No, Beck. No." Then his arms were encircling her, pulling her to his chest, and at first one might have thought it was an act of comfort for her except his whole body was still quaking in tears.
His voice was still unsteady when he spoke again. "What do we do, Jade?" It was a question of desperation, of pure hopelessness - they had just found their friend dead, if she could even be called that, she was Cat, their Cat, their best friend, their Cat their Cat.
"I don't know." Dead - her voice was dead. Cat was dead. "I'm calling the police, Beck."
It was a murder, but they knew that already. But aside from that, it was a serial killing. 5 girls, all around Cat's age and height and general disposition, from what the two could tell, had been murdered and left in trashcans, brutally beaten and so very dead. And the murderer was far from being discovered.
Besides that, the police had no intention of letting the two amateurs (going, of course, by the names of Jade West and Beck Oliver) in on anything that had to do with the case. They had made it clear that they were (were) Cat's best friends and that they really ought to know what was going on but still the police refused, saying it was a 'private case' and it 'really wasn't their place'. Which, honestly, were the most pathetic excuses ever, but Jade figured that the policemen were completely in over their heads.
She told Beck this as she sat on his bed, head on his chest, curled up in a ball. He glanced at her, slightly amused but also concerned for his determined girlfriend. "Jade, you know figuring out this case won't bring her back."
"I told you if anyone hurts Cat then they'll regret it," Jade retorted, gritting her teeth, "and so they will. They'll have to suffer the vengeance of Jade West."
"Just leave it for a bit before you drive yourself insane," Beck muttered, stroking her hair. "You've been asked to speak at the funeral, remember, and you should prepare a speech or whatever, because it really wouldn't be appropriate to get up there and say something vile and disturbing at Cat's funeral."
"Don't say it like that," Jade ordered, burying her face in his chest. "It makes it feel more real."
"It is real, Jade." Beck kissed her temple. "I hate it for all of us but it's real and she won't come back and it's upsetting I know but we've got to deal with it." He said it all in a rush, so fast Jade could barely decipher the words, so fast that it all ran together in her head, a collage of tears.
"That's why I need this case, Beck," Jade mutters. "I need this distraction. I need something to distract me from... from my life now."
"I'll help you as best I can, Jade, but we're just two high school kids," he pointed out, his eyes big and dark and concerned. Somehow he always managed to be concerned for her regardless of whether she was the one in danger.
"And he's just one serial killer mastermind," Jade shot back. "So we've got the advantage in numbers at least. And every mastermind slips up at some point. You don't have to be a freaking trained police officer to know that. Besides, isn't Vega's father a cop or something? Advantage number two. And besides that, we're pretty smart as well - well at least I am - and..."
"I get it," Beck cut her off, pressing a light kiss to her lips. "So I guess we're private investigators now, hm?"
"You could say that," Jade replied, sounding unamused, but she smiled just a little bit - the first time she had smiled in who-knows-how-long.
"You look like a vampire when you wear black," Jade informed her boyfriend, who was standing in front of her, clothed in a suit.
"Says the girl who's perpetually a vampire." He grinned at her, glancing her up and down, and then he noted something and, looking scandalized, he bent his face down so that his lips brushed her ear. "You brought a gun?!"
"Well," said the dark-haired girl, not looking embarrassed at all, "we might need it, since the killer might come to the funeral, as not to seem suspicious.. or better, to find his next victim. You really should think these things through, you know. And if we get in a gunfight, you know I'd win."
"Do you even know how to shoot a gun?" Beck inquired.
"Don't you?" She smiled, but not in a sweet sort of way, in a mocking, you-know-I'm-right sort of way, a smug smile that she knew irritated Beck to no end. Then, to distract him from the matter of the gun she'd brought along, she grabbed his hand and pulled him in the doors of the church.
Perhaps it was wrong of her to bring a gun to a funeral, but this was a dire situation, and desperate times call for desperate measures, after all. Holding her head high, she wondered how she'd gotten into this situation. She was at her best friend's funeral with a gun stored on her person and keeping one eye out for her possible killer all while trying to hold herself together. It didn't get much better than this, eh?
The two of them were seated in the second row, behind her weeping mother and her confused, but equally as upset, brother. Her father wasn't really an active presence in her life at any time, and Jade wasn't exactly surprised to see he hadn't shown up here either. Robbie, who had become an absolute mess, was seated on her other side, and she patted his leg lightly in an attempt to appear comforting. "I'm gonna find the killer, Robbie," she told him, her voice low, "and when I do he'll regret it."
Robbie wiped away a tear and nodded, like a child being reassured that everything was going to be fine. "I trust you," he said in a voice too solemn for the former ventriloquist. "I just... I miss her. I miss her a lot."
"Don't we all." Jade's lips were pressed into a tight line as she glanced back up at the front of the church, where Cat's coffin lay. It was, of course, a closed-coffin ceremony; the brutality of her injuries made it impossible to allow anyone to see her one last time. Despite the fact that she had already seen the body, Jade preferred to remember her as the girl with the brightly lit face who had left Tori's house that last day, and she knew that everyone else would feel the same way.
Beck's arm wrapped around her shoulder, pressing her head into his chest. She sighed audibly, glanced up at her boyfriend, and hoped that he wouldn't get too involved in this; she couldn't bear losing both him and Cat. But she... she could take care of herself, honestly.
Once it was time for her to step up to the mic and talk about Cat, about what Cat had been to her and to everyone else, she froze for a tenth of a second. All of the words she had been planning to say vanished. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes as she glanced down at the coffin - Cat's in there Cat's dead - and then she began. "Cat Valentine was my best friend. I suppose I should say is because she's still my best friend even if she's gone. You'd think that someone like her would annoy me, and of course she did at times, but she was Cat, and anyone who knows her knows what that means. She was the sweetest person ever. She cared for everyone, regardless of what they may have done to her. She wouldn't even let me beat up this guy who kept cracking on her intelligence and her brother! She was an amazing actress, singer, and dancer as well, but it was her personality that really set her apart, and I... I miss her. And I would kill anyone who harmed her. That includes, of course, her murderer." A wicked smile made its way onto her face. "Listen to me right now if you're out there. I will find you, and I will make you regret ever laying a hand on Cat Valentine." Then her face returned to its normal impassive state. "Uh, thank you, I guess."
The concerned audience clapped politely for the dark girl as she made her way back to her seat. Beck raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you really believe that the murderer is here - at her funeral?"
"Yes, I do," Jade replied, not seeming uncertain in the least, "and I have my suspicions about certain people here... especially that guy." She directed her gaze over to a guy with shades on (inside?) who seemed quite uncomfortable being there and had his gaze trained in Jade's general direction. His eyes had not moved from her since she'd started observing him, which was, of course, a telltale sign. "I didn't think an insane genius would be the type to slip up like this, but I guess you never really know about people until you..."
The man stood up, taking a cigarette with him, and Jade's eyebrows shot up so far they practically brushed the ceiling. With a nod to her boyfriend, she said, "I've got to pee," briskly, and then followed the man out the door, one hand curling around the handle of her gun.
She followed the man out the door to find him leaning against the wall, puffs of smoke billowing in the air around him. Determined still, she walked right up to him, held up her gun, and said, "Tell me why you killed Cat or I'll shoot."
"Oh sweetie, you wouldn't do that," the man said in a tone that was clearly patronizing. "And you really think I killed her? Oh no, as if he would slip up like that, lead you straight to the killer. No, I'm just here to help lead you astray. I'm the decoy, the red herring. And of course, you ran right into my... our... plan." He chuckled. "Put the gun down."
"Or else?" she retorted, clenching the handle even tighter. She couldn't have messed up; she was always right on the majority of her instincts, her gut feelings, and why had she been lead astray this time.
"Or else you'll be the next target," said the man, one corner of his disturbing mouth turning up into a sadistic smile. "And you know he'll find out. He's always watching, Jade, always watching. He already got your little friend Cat. I was there, you know. I heard her screams. She talked of you, of how you'd find her, but you never did. Aren't you just a little failure, Jade? And now he's going to crush you, just like that, just like he did your little redheaded friend, because you're weak too, and you're a freaking coward..."
With her mouth clenched, she pulled back on the trigger. I am not afraid I AM NOT A COWARD. The resounding bullet hit something, though she couldn't be certain what it was, because a huge cloud of dust exploded and pushed Jade onto her back. She lay there on the ground for a second, helpless and more confused than ever, especially once the dust clear and there was no one there. There was no blood, no dead body, nothing of the sort; there was just a pair of footprints where the man had been standing, and she was totally and completely alone.
That was, until Beck came out, talking to someone behind him and saying 'I knew she'd be out here'. But he froze once he saw the gun in her hand and rushed over to her, eyes wide. "You didn't..." he said, trailing off and staring at her, as if she was the guilty one, as if she was a killer now, and it killed her inside.
"I didn't," she said, choking on her own words. "I don't know what happened, Beck, but he's going to get me. He killed Cat first and now he's after me. I can't die, Beck... I can't..."
His strong arms enveloped her, holding her close, and soon his hand was stroking her hair in a soothing sort of motion. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head as he whispered, "I won't let them get you, Jade, I won't." The words were soothing, as was his gesture, and soon Jade felt her heartbeat relaxing, her sobs ceasing, her sanity restored.
"I could've killed a man," Jade whispered. She hadn't - that much was evident - but the mere thought of it made her shudder. "I almost did." And then, "I would do it again, though, and that's the scary part."
"Jade?" Beck inquired, peering at her weirdly. "He threatened to kill you, right, so you had every right to do what you did. No one's blaming you. And I still can't believe he threatened you like that."
"Yes, but he won't kill me. Neither of them will." Jade smiled sardonically. "Because I'm going to get there first, and I am not afraid."
A/N: This isn't my fault I swear it isn't. And I know this is weird and scary and probably really bad and inaccurate but I do hope you enjoyed it anyway and don't hate me too much for killing Cat. I felt she was the best one to affect Jade without killing off Beck (because this story is meant to center around Bade anyway).
I can't guarantee if I will ever update this but if you review and bug me it will surely both encourage and annoy me. So yeah.
Please read and review if you liked it.