The Big Deal 1969
James Young; I'll Be Good
Mr. Big watched as his bears left him to his own business. The tiny shrew flipped through several papers as his grandmother walked in and tilted her head. "Amata?" she huffed as he glanced at her, two bright blue eyes flipped her direction before his head dipped back into the papers he was looking over. The glossy sheen of his youth and troubled face had her heart heavy as she watched him turn his bright blue eyes back under a heavy brow. The little female slid in front of his desk and folded her paws in front of herself as he went about looking through his business again. He set the papers aside and leaned back in his chair when he felt her eyes stay on him. He pursed his lips as he gave her his attention in an aggravated voice.
"What is it Grandmama?"
The little female let her face fall as she looked over the desk and shook her head. "Amata. You can't keep burying yourself in this like you have been. You need to start a family, bring me some grandbabies I can love and-
The male shrew dropped his brow and shook his head as he glared at her. "I have no time for such nonsense. And I do not wish to take on something that would make me weak to those I deal with on a daily basis."
"Weak? You believe love and Familia are a weakness?" He deadpanned her as she narrowed her eyes. "Child. You have taken over the family business and our business is family! It cannot continue if there are none left to keep it going when you are gone."
"I have no intentions of going anywhere."
"Intentions or not, life will find you and you will be alone. This is not what I wish for our Familia." The tiny shrew sighed as she set her eyes on him in a tilt that left his suit feeling tighter and he shook his head.
"I will spend each morning with you. I will have Boris set up something in the upstairs parlor so we can share breakfast each morning so that you are kept informed on the business and do not feel so alone."
"It is not me I am worried about being alone! It is not the business I am worried about Amata! I am alone in this world without your father and proud you have taken his place. I do not want you to end up the same way."
"I am young Grandmama. I have plenty of time to go about that later if it comes into view."
"It will never come into view when you never leave the business like this! Life is not just about work or making a name for yourself. It counts for nothing if you have no one to share it with and there is no legacy to pass it on to."
He sat up and sighed as he rubbed his chin. "What is it you want Grandmama? I am very busy and this is biting into my time."
The little female snatched his ear causing him to groan as she pulled him closer. "I want you to live! If you cut yourself off from everything but this, you will never understand what life is really about! It is not just about work and power! You have those and I am very proud of how you have risen to it after the way we lost your father. But without him, I would not have you or any of this."
"This is about papa? You believe I am not as good as he was as so many others have claimed?" She let go of his ear and shook her head as he leaned back titling a brow at her.
"Amata, please. This isn't about your father and the differences between you. Do not get swept away and lose track of time. You were young when you took over and have missed so many things by burying yourself in the business trying to fill his shoes. I do not want you to miss the best things in life trying to live up to a name that most believe does fit us. You can only be as Big as your heart and an iron fist does not bode well for business. If you close love out you will never be as big as he was in this world."
The shrew in the chair rubbed his chin with a finger and nodded as he looked back at his grandmother. "You have someone in mind?"
"She is lovely Amata. I believe she would make a fine wife and mother. She comes from the Cassada family."
Mr. Big sat up smiling and she smirked as his ears set on her. "You wish to merge with our rivals through marriage?"
The little female shrugged cockily as he smiled and chuckled. "I knew it was likely the only way I could get you to meet anyone."
Mr. Big nodded as he looked off in thought. "If that worked it would expand us into the last part of Zootopia and there would only be one other left that could challenge me."
"This isn't about power Amata, and do not try to go against that family. They were here long before us and the Cassada's. Their reach is far beyond what we can hope for."
"Perhaps not Grandmama. His son came to me asking for help. Apparently, his daughter is ill and they have not been able to find her since yesterday."
The matron of the Big family stuck her finger in his face and he crossed his eyes as he looked at her pointed nail. "Do not use a family tragedy to exact a play of power! His son will be taking over for him and if the rumors are correct that child will not live another year regardless of where she is. That is not how the Big's do business!"
He dipped his head and nodded as she stood straight again. "Still Grandmama, if we could find her, it would at least be a bit of good blood between us."
"Do not involve blood when it comes to Familia and business. No matter what another has done or may do, you do not get involved in family affairs. It could start a war within the grid that would destroy us all when they are the ones running it. Even we cannot step on the toes of the ones who control the streets and can make others disappear without a trace. Our family may remove problems we have by getting rid of them, but even we cannot make someone invisible as if they had never existed."
"As you wish Grandmama. I will leave it to them then."
"And you will meet her?"
Mr. Big settled in his chair folding his paws over his chest as she raised both brows. "I will meet her."
The little female shrieked as she hopped up and down and he chuckled as she curled around him in a tight hug. "You will see, Amata! She is a lovely girl!" He watched her disappear through the small elevator and shook his head as he searched through the papers again, trying to find where he'd left off. His ear flicked as he heard a creak and he looked around. The shrew shrugged it off as he went back to his papers and his ears shot up as a low growl rolled through the room. He stood, stepping in front of the small desk he was seated at and looked around from the larger one it was sitting on.
"I fear nothing in my own home. You are either very foolish in your bravery or do not expect to leave alive. Show yourself."
His eyes scanned the room not seeing anything until a flick of darkness caught his attention from the furthest corner in the room. The small shrew's eyes grew wide as a billowing shadow swooped from the corner like a waft of smoke and he shook his head as it rose in front of the desk, a pair of pitch-black eyes void of reflection blinking at him from the wistful billows of black fur like material swirling around them. "What are you?"
"I am the thing that you catch in the corner of your eye but can never see. The thing all mammals fear."
The shrew frowned. "Why would anyone fear you?"
"You do not fear me?" a female voice asked in a low hiss as he slowly shook his head.
"There is nothing to fear from darkness. It is a friend I have used on many an occasion."
"Not even the darkness of your own mind? The secrets you hide and the regret that causes the darkness to grow within you? The darkness I can see into as you hide it from the world?"
The flowing figure in front of him settled as it took form and he tilted his head to one side as a fox took shape. "Who are you?"
"I am darkness. I am the thing that lives and dies in each breath you take. I have always been and will always be, even after the last star has died, I will remain. I see all, I know all. I am within all life and will carry you from the darkness back into the light."
"You are a God?"
The dark figure in front of him hissed and he threw his paws up shielding his face as it came closer. His fur stood on end and he could feel the coldness seeping into his bones as the voice whispered again. "I am no mammal's God. Even the Gods will bow to me for I am the thing that nothing can escape."
Mr. Big dropped his paws as the chill left him and tipped his head to one side as the figure in front of him seemed to flicker when the sun peeked through the window through the clouds. It backed further away and he watched as two black holes narrowed, until the light had dimmed in the room again. He stepped forward as it turned its hollow gaze on him again. "I know what you are, Lady."
"All know what I am. All try to catch me, all wish to make more of me or change me to something they wish me to be, all leave me behind and all move with me."
Mr. Big nodded as he tilted his head to one side. "You are long winded is what you are." The shadow growled as he threw his paws up chuckling. "Fate has many names Lady, and yet she comes to me?"
"You want for power, you strive for greatness, to be the name they all fear and want to be known for rising above the shadow you lived in, so much so that you took a life to get where you are." His blue eyed widened as the figure billowed in front of him. "I know all Alanzo Big. There are no secrets to me, not even in the loneliness of your own mind and the regret that eats at your soul. Do you wish you change it?"
He nodded as he lowered his brow. "I do, to overcome the weakness of my father, and unite all under a single name."
"I can give you what you wish for. I can make you the most ruthless of all crime lords and erase the stain on your soul."
"What would this cost me to you? I know what you give and what you take. I am not willing to do either."
She hissed as she moved closer and Mr. Big held his head high as she held out one billowing paw. The shrew tipped a brow as he held out his paw and caught a tiny piece of rounded gold. "I wish to live but once. For if I don't, I will fall back into the darkness I am and be alone again, with nothing but thoughts and memories of all who lived within me."
He narrowed his eyes as he looked back at her shaking his head. "Why?"
"I must save what brought me into existence."
"If you have always been, how can you save what brought you into existence?"
"I am darkness, I had no form, no face, no hands, no thought, no memory before a light exploded, sending life scattered over me. I must save the first light ever born."
"A star?"
"Not a star, Alonzo Big. Much more than a star. So small it would be overlooked if not known to be. The first realization of self and existence. Darkness had nothing until the light gave it shadows and life to move through."
"And what would you give as payment to save this…spark, you speak of?"
The figure lowered in front of him and he looked into the void of her eyes as his eyes grew wide. "NO! NO!" He fell back in horror, unable to look away from his own darkest secret.
"I know all, I see all. I am as big or as small as I am chosen to be. I will keep you for Eternity in the darkness of what you have become and destroy the empire you have built on the blood of your father. The blood you spilled to take his place and become greater than he was through lies and betrayal. I can reveal it to the world or give you the chance to change it, and you can still become what you wish to be by holding this for me and helping one who is in need."
"Take it away! Take it away and I will give you anything!"
Her eyes closed as he gasped several times and swallowed as he shook his head.
"I will change it for you, remove this regret and weight you wear as a burden you caused yourself to bear each day."
"You can...do that?"
"I can change it if you choose to, remove the memory and facts from you and alter history, only if you will listen when I go back. No living being can travel as I travel through others or myself. It is your own heart that must decide, for I cannot sway the power of free will. I am but a whisper on the wind and will echo in your ears. It is you who must listen and choose the path you take. Do you believe you can make another choice? It will not change the timeline of events, but the reality of them as they happened."
"YES! YES!" Mr. Big stood as he nodded.
"Then wait but for a moment, one you will not even see pass." She vanished int the shadows as Mr. Big, blinked.
Five years earlier.
The young shrew frowned heavily as he stepped around a corner, watching his father at a desk he'd grown to hate, a mammal he'd grown to hate. At each turn in his life they'd told him he'd never measure up to the mammal his father had been. Bitterness and hate flowed through him as he looked around the small area that was set inside a wall to keep it hidden from those who might be able to get to the crime lord who was known to be the tyrant feared by the others and expected to overthrow them all. Alanzo gripped the blade handle in his paw as he crept into the room and raised the knife above his head and his father's back. His ear flicked as his father slammed a paw to the papers that seemed to flutter on the desk in front of him and the shrew behind him stopped as a single word echoed in his ears. Remember….
His eyes burned as the thoughts of playing with his father when was younger rushed through his head. Familia…. A bright sunny day flashed in his mind as a much smaller version of himself giggled and looked down at the father tossing him into the air laughing. Love…. Another memory sprang into view as he clenched the blade hilt tighter and blinked. The tiny shrew in his memories laughed as his father let go of the back of the bike, his feet pedaling faster as his father laughed behind him. "GO! Alonzo! You are doing it on your own!" he sucked in a deep breath as he saw the bike fall over and felt his father paws wrap around him as he screamed and clutched his knee. "WOAH WOAH! What's this? Tsk tsk," his father chided as he rubbed a tear away and shook his head. "Don't hide your tears. You are bigger than a little scrape, aren't you?" he asked as he looked over the cut-up knee covered in gravel. The small shrew kit on his lap turned and blinked away another tear as he sniffled. His father smiled at him as he shook his head, "I will always be here, even when you cannot see me. Tears are nothing more than a bad memory and are lost as they fall away from us. That is how we get bigger than we are. By shedding the things that make us weak and holding onto the ones that make us stronger." His father wrapped his arms around him chuckling. "You are what makes me stronger."
Alonzo loosened the grip on the blade hilt as several tears fell. A thick wind blew through the room as his father scrambled to get the paper and stood, turning as he tried to catch a few flying around the room. He looked up in shock seeing his son holding a blade above him with tears running down his face. His eyes widened as Alonzo turned the blade on himself. "I am sorry Papa. I am not Big enough to destroy what makes me weak." His father screamed and jumped forward as he tried to plunge the knife into his own chest. He threw the younger shrew to the floor after wrestling the knife away and tossed it aside as he dropped to the floor with his son. Alonzo looked up at him sobbing as his father shook his head.
"Foolish child. Don't you know it is not a weakness to hold your Familia higher than the power you have?"
Alonzo looked back at him sobbing as his father smiled and shook his head. The older shrew stood and held a paw out to his son before he clutched his chest and ground his teeth together. He fell to his knees grinding out a scream through grit teeth as the younger shrew grabbed him screaming. "PAPA! PAPA!" The older shrew clutched his son's face as he huffed through each staggered breath.
"This is our true strength, Alonzo. The strength of your love, the strength of forgiveness, the strength of compassion, the strength of your heart. That is what will make you truly Big. Be a better Big than your Papa…you're already bigger than you kno…" his voice lowered to a whisper and trialed off as Alonzo clutched him in his arms screaming.
"PAPA! PAPA! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME!"
Present
Mr. Big screamed out as he fell to his knees sobbing. The dark figure appeared and lowered in front of him as he looked back at her trying to catch his breath. "This is not what I wanted!"
She nodded as she stood again, watching him cupping a paw over his face. "I told you I could not change the timeline. His death would have happened at the same moment. Whether you had plunged the blade into his back or his heart had stopped of its own accord was your choice. You chose a different path this time. Will you let his last words be nothing to you, for they were real and true."
"What is it you desire, Monster! I still have the memory of taking his life in my mind, so what use was all this?!"
"I will take it from you, if you hold what I have given you and help someone who is vital to the plan I am trying to enact."
"Help who and how will this possibly help me?!"
"You will gain all you wish for, I can take this memory from you and let you believe it was a choice you never took. Leave you with the knowledge of knowing how you would have felt if you had taken his life. It is a truth no one can escape, the choices we make and where they lead us to. But be warned, Mr. Big. You will be known as Ruthless regardless of which path you take. You will surpass your father either way, but the choice of what kind of Ruthless you choose to be will be yours if you accept this."
"Then take this knowledge from me! Wipe it from my mind so I know I did not take the life of the one I thought I could never live up to, the one I wish I still had and I will help the one you ask of me!"
She dipped lower as he wiped his face off and tipped her head. "His name is Nicholas Wilde. No matter what he says or does. Keep the name in your graces. He will lead you to a path that will make you all you wish to be."
"How can one do such a thing? Is he another like you?"
She lifted a paw and shook her head. "No, there are no others like me. He is just a fox, one and the same with like names. A fox who will start the changes that will guide others back to where they belong."
"One and the same? He is something to you?"
"Do not ask that of which you are not meant to understand. Stand Alonzo Big, so that I may change what is in your mind and erase what never was. Hold onto my talisman, it will hold the heart of all I am, guard it with the new life I give you now, even when it no longer works. It is more precious than you will ever know."
The small shrew looked at the locket she had given him, opening it and furrowed his brow as he shook his head. "A watch?"
"It is what it will be. I trust you will keep it safe. If it is not, all I have done and all you will gain will be lost."
"Yes, I will keep it safe. How may I call on you if something happens?"
"You may call me as many others have. I am Grace, but when it stops, I shall be lost to you and all others as I live." He stuck it in his pocket before she stuck a claw to his forehead, leaving him only with the knowledge that she was the reason he'd not gone through with what had once actually happened. The shrew took several deep breaths as he watched her disappear into the shadows and turned as a small female rushed onto the desk from an elevator located in one of its legs.
"Alonzo!" What is it? I heard you screaming!"
Mr. Big looked back at the corner and shook his head as he took a seat again. "Nothing Grandmama, just a ghost that startled me."
"A ghost?" she raised her brow suspiciously as he plucked a locket from his pocket and opened it, looking at the clock face shaking his head.
"At some point, one I fear may haunt me, but at the moment I owe a debt to pay for a great tragedy averted." She scowled at the nonsense he was mumbling as he stuck the watch back in his pocket. "Who is this daughter I am to meet Grandmama? The Cassada's have many."
The tiny female shrew picked up her cheeks grinning as she bit her lip. "She is lovely Amata! Her name is Ruth Ca...
Notes; Mr. Big originally killed his father to take the power he held and take over the family business due to resentment of others saying he would never be as good - or as bad as his father. This fact was changed by the dark figure that lives within, and is darkness. (Some people are afraid of the dark) Amanda told Cory in Think Like A Fox that Mr. Big was ruthless after Nick told them Mr. Big wanted to buy the popsicle idea. People in Zootopia say he's the most Ruthless of all the crime Lords. No one ever mentions his wife's name. Her name was Ruth, he's extremely... Ruthless.