Chapter 1: Of Detectives and realizations
"I passed my Detective Exam!" Zoe ran in happily. It had been nine months since Eden died. The twins looked two, Felix had started puberty, Marinette was gonna pop any day now, Kelly and Emilie were married, Jared and Camille had basically adopted Joselyn, Dausi had had a kid with Connor named Amren, Adrien had finished college early by some fucking miracle and got a degree in teaching, Notre Dame had burned down in a fire, Plagg was adjusting to being not-eternal…yeah. A lot had happened.
At this moment, Zoe had decided to get a job. Ever since she found out the love of her life had been raped by Douglas, she decided that she was going to go into Law Enforcement so nobody else suffered like he did.
Today was also Adrien's first day as a physics teachers. Jay—the girl one—had also changed her name to Ariana to avoid confusion. Anyway, Ariana was the PE and Health teacher, so Adrien had someone to help him around.
Marinette couldn't walk. She was very heavily pregnant with triplets—yeah, Adrien had fainted and Ariana had laughed, having warned him that Fae have multiples—and she was huge, much bigger than Zoe had been with twins. Tikki had been helping and Eli too.
Eli kissed her, "I'm so proud of you. What was your score?
"100%. I didn't even cheat!" She looked at her watch, "I need to be at the station in a half hour."
"Am I the only one who finds it ironic that Zoe is gonna be a cop?" Gabriel leaned in the doorway. Zoe shrugged,
"Meh."
Adrien came through, wearing a sweater vest, jeans, and somehow he still looked really hot. Plagg was walking by his side,
"Adrien, for the love of camembert, go to work."
"You're still sick!"
"Adrien, kitten, I love ya, but it's just allergies and I've been putting up with your mother hen shit for three weeks. Go. To. Fucking. Work."
Zoe giggled, "I can drive you two. I gotta go meet my new partner at the station." Eli smirked,
"Don't get too friendly."
"I thought I was the Queen." She pouted and he looked like a kicked puppy, so she smiled, "I'll bring 'em over for dinner so you can interrogate."
"You know me so well." Marinette waddled over to Adrien, pushing him out the door,
"Adrien, Plagg will be fine, I will be fine, so calm your tits and go to work. You've been dreaming of this job for years." She was less patient with her husband's crap while extremely pregnant.
"Okay, I'm going. Both of you will call me if you feel even the slightest thing wrong. Just give the call and I'll drop everything." Zoe grabbed him by the Fae ear and shoved him into the car as he put on his glasses. Eli had taken to wearing his glasses all the time—or most of the time because reasons—but Adrien got a laser pointer to the eye via Aelin and now needed reading glasses.
They arrived at the school and Adrien hesitated.
"Kitty, sometime this year would be great." Adrien turned,
"You and I both know Marinette and Plagg won't call if they need help. Can you check on them later?" Zoe shrugged,
"Fine. Bye Adrien. Are you walking home or do I need to pick you up?" Adrien shrugged and walked into the same school he had been attending a mere year prior.
Zoe hit the pedal on her blue Toyota Echo, making her way to the station. Brushing down her cherry-blossom-pink pantsuit that her stepmother had lent her. She still had her hair in a braided ponytail though, which was again long.
She came in and was met with a ginger woman a little taller than her with tan skin and brown hair.
"Um, excuse me…I'm looking for Chief Abigail Vick."
"That's me. Mrs. Sommers?" Zoe nodded, and Chief Vick brightened,
"You're right on time."
"I was worried I'd be late. I had to drop my mother hen of a brother off at his first day of work. I do wonder if my kids are gonna get to school on time."
Chief Vick smiled and Zoe was glad as they sat in the office, "You have kids?" Zoe nodded,
"Yeah. I accidentally adopted an eight year old three years ago and I had twins two years ago." The twins weren't even a year old, but they looked two.
"Young mother?"
"Yeah. But I technically finished school at thirteen and just did some redo." Chief Vick was taking notes,
"Other than the fact you have kids, you are the perfect match for our head detective." She got up, "McNab! Go grab Singer!" A man ran off and another man came in,
"Vick?" He was an attractive man, probably in his early thirties, with brown hair and grey eyes. He was in a casual suit and very clearly had a gun at his hip.
Chief Vick nodded her acknowledgment, "Matthew, this is Detective Sommers, your new partner. Sommers, meet Detective Singer."
"Singer?" Zoe looked up, "Like Bobby Singer?" Matthew narrowed his eyes,
"Nope. This isn't gonna work. I can't put up with this shit. It's like that's all that's worth knowing about me!" Zoe giggled,
"I'm sorry. I live with Jared Brock, so those references come every three seconds."
"So…" Chief Vick gave Zoe her badge, "You two go get coffee, and I expect you back in two hours." Zoe grinned, grabbing Matthew,
"To the donut shop!"
And so, she was eating like ten donuts while Matthew read a file.
"What's that file?"
"Nothing for you to worry about." She got up and sat down on his side of the booth, frowning.
"Chat Blanc?" Matthew huffed, before nodding,
"Yeah."
"Are there any pictures? Because how would one know the White Cat otherwise? And why have I never heard about this?"
"Because we haven't disclosed it to fucking Nadja Chamack."
"You hate her too?"
"Who doesn't?"
"This is true. I think the moment I realized I might be in love with my now-husband is when he stole her memory card." That actually got a chuckle out of the other detective.
"Wait, how old are you!?"
"Eighteen."
"What?! Have you had any training?!" Zoe shrugged,
"I've been trained for combat since birth, and I got a perfect score on my test. And I saved the universe while heavily pregnant. And I killed a supervillain at age fourteen." Matthew groaned,
"Oh god. Something tells me this is gonna be a long partnership."
"Only if you have that attitude." She checked her phone,
E (Eli): Hey Zoe, I hate to disturb you, but I can't find the baby food.
Z: Make some
E: ? Help. AH SHIT ROXAS PHASED INTO A VAT AGAIN FUCK! GTG LOVE YOU
She groaned and checked her texts from Adrien
A: First period went well, but I could barely focus. Marinette called and confirmed she's fine and is gonna be working with Dad today, who I know would call me. But can you check on Plagg?
Z: I'm a little busy
A: Please? *sad emoji*
Z: Fine.
"Who are you texting?"
"My husband and by brother. And now I am gonna wait five minutes and make Adrien think I called Plagg so he will calm the fuck down." She sat up, "So tell me about Chat Blanc."
"That's the problem." He flipped through, "There isn't much to tell. She has been described as a little girl no older than ten, she kills criminals. But the police have never seen her. There is only one account, and it was a woman saved by this child from a rapist. They always are murdered, some cleaner than others. She's been around for months and it's getting on my nerves."
"Hm…wanna head to the station now?"
"Yeah."
OoOoO
Plagg was not fine.
For months now, he had felt like absolute shit. That elusive bottle of cold medicine that everyone was looking for was currently being downed faster than Zoe drank vodka. His lungs had been tight had he'd have moments where he couldn't breathe…he'd managed to hide it for the most part, but he had coughed a few times and Adrien was treating it like the end of the world.
So here he was, sitting naked in the shower, breathing in the hot steam, and coughing his lungs out. Occasionally he would hack up a glob of brown phlegm, but more often than not it was blood.
Eight months he had been hiding it. Adrien would kill him if he found out, but this couldn't be serious. Humans get sick all the time. He had to keep reminding himself that he wasn't human, but he felt human, now that he could get injured by things that didn't involve FaeBane or Ashwood.
But seriously, he knew back in the early 1900's that parents gave their kids nasty medicine as punishment, but times had changed, so why the hell should it taste so foul now?
He coughed and wheezed until the blood clot in the back of his throat came up and slithered down the drain.
Then he just curled up in a ball and fell asleep on the shower floor surrounded by hot steam.
OoOoO
Zoe came home around ten that night. Eli had dinner ready for her—or rather, he ordered Taco Bell because poor sweet boy could barely cook, which was odd as he took care of himself for twelve years in poverty, but he could make an amazing soup.
"Hey Hero!" She skipped in, kissing him happily.
"How was your first day?"
"It was awesome! My partner is Matthew Singer, the Head Detective. Little closed off, but I think I can work my way in. And now we're researching a serial killer! I'm not supposed to tell anyone because this is supposedly a secret killer, but I'm not keeping anything from you." She dug into the food,
"They call the killer Chat Blanc, because the one person who saw her claimed to see her wearing a white dress and a cat mask. People are thinking she has a Miraculous, but the Cat Miraculous is just a ring as Plagg is…you know…"
"You think there might be another Cat?" Zoe shrugged,
"There are hundreds globally. But the issue is, the PPD doesn't know what to do because she only kills criminals, which has made crime drop more since Ladybug took leave. Because Chat Blanc is killing the criminals, it's counted as vigilantism, but there is a pattern in method and the victims, so it can also be counted as a serial killer. That's why they haven't said anything to the press. If you're not a nightly criminal or a victim that was right there, you wouldn't know she even exists." Eli seemed quite invested,
"That sounds really cool. Think you're gonna get her?" Zoe shrugged,
"Hopefully." She winked, "So how was your day?"
"I forgot to wake Felix to take him to school, so I had to sign him in, still wearing flannel pants. Took Aelin and Roxas to 2's preschool, made sure to give Roxas his cuff to limit his phasing lest he phase into a vat again. Aelin is already quite the social butterfly, though apparently when I went to pick them up, she'd punched a kid who picked on her brother."
"They're two!" Zoe said in exasperation, "Why in the name of sanity should bullying already be a thing?!" Eli just shrugged, "Though I am proud of Aelin."
"Who isn't? She's definitely your daughter."
"Not even a year old, looks two, already protective of her brother. Yup, my kid." She looked up from her food, "What about the others?"
"Your Dad and Emilie still in Tibet doing research with my Mom and Dad." Kelly, Emilie, Harrison and Amelia were in Tibet looked for a way to bring Eden back, safely, by looking through the ruins. "Plagg fell asleep in the shower, and Adrien panicked. Turns out Plagg has a fever, but we managed to convince poor Adrien that it's from exposure to the steam for hours. Marinette is overdue and crabby, Gabriel is working on his newest design with Natalie and Elaine in the kitchen, Dausi and Connor are in Cluj-Napoca for a meeting to sell some of their underwater technology. Amren is sleeping…Camille dragged Jared to the movies, and now they too are asleep and we both know Joselyn is with them."
"What about Felix and Gavin, Melanie and Colin?"
"Felix is at a friend's house for a sleepover because they need to work on a school project. Melanie and Colin have made good progress in moving to Japan. All they need to do is sign the forms. Gavin is reading in the observatory as usual."
"You've done good today, Love." Zoe grinned, before sighing, "I hope Dad has some luck."
"Me too, my Queen, me too."
OoOoO
Something had been going on with Joselyn for a while. Jared knew it had been going on for at least four months.
At first when he woke up because he heard a noise, he saw Joselyn getting up and just assumed she had to use the restroom. Then it happened every night for a week. Okay…maybe she was at that age? Once it was happening constantly, he then hoped she was growing out of sleeping in the same bed as him. But then he went to check when she didn't come back for an hour and didn't see her in her bed.
Then he started hearing the showers. Around three in the morning, he would hear the shower in Joselyn's bathroom, hours after she left.
And so, he decided he was going to find out what exactly was happening. He had tried asking about it, and she said she was hungry and needed a snack. But he didn't accept that as an answer, though he made it seem like he'd dropped it.
So he pretended to be asleep, having taken a voice memo of his sleep pattern so she would think he was asleep. But once she left the room, he got up and followed her quietly, noticing her go into Eden's room—the one room the housekeepers didn't go into, coming out with a tiny…thing. Then she shifted into her other form, creeping out the front door.
He put a jacket on and continued to follow her, realizing he had slipped on Eli's boots in the dark as they were uncomfortably small.
Jared finally caught up with her and saw she had put her mask on and was killing someone. The thing turned out to be a scalpel. There were four men tied up and she was killing the first.
He wanted to intervene, but then he noticed the bags of cocaine in the corner of the dark alley. Oh. Then he had another reason to intervene. He stepped into view. The drug dealers looked excited like they had been saved, but Jared just crossed his arms,
"No no no, Joselyn." He said, "That is not how you kill someone properly." The men deflated visibly. Joselyn turned and even though she had the mask, he could tell she had blanched.
"J-Jared?!"
"The one and only—actually that's not true, there is another version of me somewhere…but you know what I mean." He kicked one of the men, "I'll ask questions later. But that tiny thing isn't gonna help you. Here," he pulled out the dirk he kept with him, "Try this." Joselyn took the knife, before killing the men much faster.
"And try going for the heart instead of the jugular. Less blood that way." Joselyn blinked at him, before killing the last man. Jared nodded approvingly, "I've taught you so well."
"You've taught me two things."
"And look how much faster and cleaner that was." She shifted from her other form back into everyday Joselyn, whose arms and face were covered in blood.
"Okay, now I'm gonna ask why you're out killing people at night." Joselyn bit her lip, before cupping the face of each of her victims, eating the souls.
"As I said, I was hungry."
"Well yeah, but when I'm hungry, I go get something from the fridge." Joselyn brushed a strand of hair away as he led her to the fountain the the park, dipping a rag in the water and cleaning off her face.
"It's not…that kind of hungry." She explained, "Ever since the war, animal souls don't sustain me anymore. I don't eat normal food for sustenance. And lately, it's been more and more…I already ate all the pedophiles in the area and a couple burglars and the occasional rapist."
"That makes sense. You are growing. And you could always go to places with Mob bosses." Joselyn shrugged,
"Haven't found one yet. The police know I exist, otherwise I would ask to feed on those on death row." Jared pursed his lips,
"Okay. Are you satisfied with your feeding tonight?" Joselyn nodded, and Jared took her hand, "Where do you want to go?"
"You know it's my birthday?" He looked down, shocked, and she blushed, "Oh! I thought you knew because you asked me…um…"
"Happy birthday, kid. Nine, right?" Joselyn nodded,
"How old are you?"
"Eighteen. Anyway, where do you want to go?"
"I've only been to McDonald's once, with you right before the war. Can we go again." He grinned,
"Sure. Then tomorrow, pack your bags and we're leaving with Cam."
"Where and why?"
"We're going to my world." He replied, "There are plenty of bad guys for you to feast on. Oh shit…" he laughed, "I just realized the president thought I would call him. That was last year." He shrugged, "At least I called Gina and Kagami to tell them I'm okay."
"You'd do that for me?" Jared nodded,
"Yeah. I'll help you if you promise me something." She looked up curiously, "Promise me, Joselyn. No innocents, no children." She nodded, hugging him—though she was very small compared to him, so she barely wrapped her arms around his waist,
"I promise. Thank you!"
"No problem. First order of business when we arrive is to get you a) some more combat-friendly clothes, b) your own weapons so you don't use that scalpel, and c) your own stash of metal music."
"Are we going to your world now instead of waiting so Zoe doesn't stop you from teaching me your ways?"
"I'm not gonna even try denying that."
A/N: That is chapter 1. So obviously this one will be much longer, because there are so many characters and their own situations. Remember to review to feed the author kwami, and if you want to see Joselyn's adventure or more on Zoe, or even Plagg.