M: So, here it is, the final part of the Cop and the Robber. I've had a lot of fun writing this and it makes me proud to have finished it after all this time. Thank you all for your support. Special thanks to SilverWolf and CyberWolf for letting me use their characters Silvex, Shadex and Xeno.
And now, for the last time: I do not own PAW-Patrol
Chapter 23: The end of it all (Epilogue)
"In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate." – Isaac Asimov
When Silvex opened his eyes, all he saw was blackness. At first, he thought that he had gone blind. But then he recognized the blackness for what it was, an endless black fog. He then knew exactly where he was, for he had been here before. He crawled up from where he was lying and indeed, he was in the very same plane of darkness as before. He could vaguely see the shadowy forms of what he knew to be ruins and he could hear the endless silence. But what was different this time, was that he wasn't alone. In front of the husky sat another husky, whore bore the same face. The other husky waited patiently for Silvex to study his surroundings.
The angelic husky was wearing his reddish-purple cloak again, but his head wasn't covered this time. He had his wings carefully folded behind him and his face bore a solemn expression.
Silvex had repressed everything about his earlier visit to this place, of which all the memories were now flooding back into him. He remembered about how he somehow survived a lethal wound to the heart that didn't even leave a scar. He remembered about what the husky had said, about detective Silvex being only a fragment of the Original Silvex. And lastly, Silvex remembered that the other had predicted a reunion, which would shake the Multi-verse to its very core.
"So this is it?" Silvex asked the other, finally breaking the silence between the two.
"I'm afraid so." The Original Silvex replied. Despite his nonchalant demeanour during Silvex' last visit, the angelic husky now looked both sad and solemn. "As of today, you'll be treading upon a path where no one could follow."
"What about my friends?" Silvex asked. Even in the face of his own demise, the husky still acted like the calm detective that Chase had grown to admire so much.
"Your friends will not experience anything of what our future holds." The angelic Silvex replied. "They will live their own lives, together or alone. They will follow paths of light or darkness. It will all be their own choice."
"I suppose you can't tell me any specifics?" Silvex asked hopefully, to which the angelic husky shook his head. After a brief moment to contemplate, detective Silvex spoke his very last words. "Then let's see what the future holds."
- Thursday, noon –
It was the day of Silvex' funeral. Everyone was in attendance, even the Ace of Spades. Axel may have been heavily disguised and hidden away in the back, but he was there. As were the others, from Chase, Marshall, Rocky and Zuma, to Callum, Hunter and Shadow. Even Sergeant Brooks was there, accompanied by almost every cop in the city. Every last one of them was dressed in their formal uniforms and each of them had a black stripe across their badges out of respect to Silvex.
Whether they personally knew the husky or not, Detective Silvex Knyght was a legend within the CCPD. He was admired by some, and respected by all.
Seeing as he was Silvex' partner at the time of his death, Chase was asked to give a eulogy. The shepherd had attempted to create one for days now, but nothing he wrote even came close to doing Silvex justice. In the end, Chase simply decided to speak from the heart. Which is why he walked up to the altar empty-handed. Once he climbed up and looked upon all the faces that were staring at him, Chase was at a loss for words. But then his eyes glanced over to the portrait of Silvex that was standing next to the coffin. And suddenly, inspiration hit him.
"As most of you would know, Silvex was a lone wolf." Chase started. During his attempted writing of the eulogy, he did a lot of research into Silvex' background, research on which he now based his speech. "He never had the same partner for longer than a month. He was also single, unmarried and he had no family. Most of this, I only learned in the past few days while I was researching him. What I'm trying to say is that Silvex was closed off. He was very private and didn't open up very easily. But that didn't mean that he didn't care about us. To Silvex, nothing was more sacred than the badge and he would've gladly given his life for it. Which is exactly what he did. Silvex died, protecting the very soul of the CCPD, which was corrupted by Andreas Xavier and Rachel Candela. They ushered in some of the darkest days in CCPD history, but Silvex never gave in. He always kept fighting corruption and he never believed that this city was without salvation."
Chase then took a deep breath, which build up suspense with everyone present. Looking through the crowd, Chase saw all the familiar faces that he had grown to know over the years. He saw Zuma, Rocky and Marshall sitting in the front row. He spotted Callum, Shadow and Hunter hidden throughout the crowd. Chase saw Shadex and Axel sitting in the back, both completely disguised. But Chase's eye fell mostly on Sergeant Brooks, who was sitting with many of the CCPD's police officers. Chase knew that at least some of those officers were corrupt, be it loyal to Bloodrazor or someone else.
"That's why, in honour of my late partner Silvex, I hereby vow to continue his fight!" Chase said, his volume raised almost to the point of screaming. "Silvex believed that this city could be returned to what it was before Blackstreet, before Bloodrazor. Silvex believed it could be returned to a time when the people felt safe and the cops were noble and honest. I want to make that vision a reality and I will welcome anyone who wants to help. For Silvex!"
Chase had yelled the last part of his speech, putting emphasis on the last two words. Chase bowed his head out of respect to Silvex, before he turned and exited the podium. But before he made it very far, he heard a voice echo his words. "For Silvex!" Chase's head snapped towards the crowd, but he couldn't determine where the voice came from, until another shouted it as well. And then another and another. Before long, everyone at the funeral was chanting Silvex's name.
After the funeral, there was a memorial service at a local bar that Silvex used to frequent. While there were hundreds of people at the funeral, only the people who really knew Silvex were invited to the memorial. Chase, of course, was one of them. As were many older detectives, some of them already retired. Chase relished listening to their stories of Silvex. Some stories were proof that Silvex was one of the greatest detectives that ever lived. Others made Chase cringe from embarrassment.
When the memorial service started to come to a close, Chase was approached by none other than Sergeant Brooks. Although, the Sergeant was currently serving as acting Captain.
"Hey, Chase." The Sergeant addressed Chase. "Could I speak to you for a moment?"
"Of course, Sergeant." Chase said on instinct, before correcting himself. "Sorry, I should be saying Captain, now."
"Don't worry about it, I'm still getting used to the title." The acting Captain replied. "Look, about what you said during your eulogy, that you would continue his fight. Did you mean it?"
"Yes." Chase answered without hesitation. The shepherd had meant every single word of the eulogy.
"Then I'm going reassign you. I'm moving you out of homicide." Acting-Captain Brooks said. Upon seeing Chase's shocked face, Brooks quickly continued. "It will only be for a short while, because I'm assigning you lead detective to a new taskforce that I'm creating. It will be dedicated to rooting out the corruption that Captain Xavier created. Are you in?"
"Of course, sir!" Chase reacted a little too enthusiastically for a funeral. At a softer volume, he continued. "This is the perfect way to continue Silvex' mission, just like I vowed. Thank you, sir."
"You're the best detective for the job. And I know that I can trust you." The acting-Captain replied. "There's also another thing, your Medal of Valour. I'm afraid I need to recall it."
Chase's mood instantly dropped. Even though the Medal of Valour had been given to him by a scumbag, it was still the highest honour any cop could receive.
"Instead, I'll nominate you for the same achievement: taking down the PtP-killer. This way, your medal would be free of corruption." Brooks continued, which changed Chase's mood again, this time making the shepherd quite happy. "In addition, I'll also be nominating both you and Silvex for your investigation into Bloodrazor. On that, you two truly went way beyond the line of duty and for that, you have my thanks." The acting-Captain said as he took a bow. Chase didn't know how to react, so the shepherd simply nodded before Brooks walked off. Chase was then approached by Shadex.
"Hey, Chase? I wanted to say goodbye." The husky said to the shepherd, which turned Chase's mood way down again. The shepherd had never gotten particularly close with the husky, but he was still Silvex' brother. Chase was still only processing Shadex' sentence when the husky continued talking. "Later tonight, the Ace of Spades will be leaving Coastal City. He asked me if I wanted to join him and I agreed. I just figured I'd come over and say goodbye."
Chase looked at the husky for what he hoped wouldn't be the last time, and he pulled him into a hug. Shadex, after spending months in Bloodrazor's dungeon, wasn't used to the feeling of a hug. But when Chase hugged him, Shadex felt warm again, for the first time in what seemed like forever.
- Thursday, 9 pm -
The Ace of Spades and his group, now including Shadex, were preparing to leave. One of Hunter's informants had informed him of possible Bastion activity in New York, so the group would be heading towards the big apple. Hunter, Shadow and Shadex were taking down the safehouse, which meant that they had to clean everything with bleach and remove anything that the group had used in their operation.
Axel, meanwhile, was sitting at a park bench. It wasn't the one where Axel had spied on Xavier making a phone call, but it was in the same park. The shepherd was absentmindedly staring into the distance, before his thoughts were disturbed by someone jumping onto the bench, landing right next to him. After looking over, Axel was met by Callum's concerned eyes.
"Are you okay, boss?" Callum asked, his voice rife with concern.
"I hate that Silvex is dead. And I do feel sad, but there is no room for grieving in wartime." Axel replied honestly. The Ace of Spades then paused for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice seemed different. "He proposed to me at this bench." Axel said, smiling sadly. "I immediately said yes, even though it was directly against protocol. I loved him. I really did."
"I'm sorry for your loss, sir." Callum said solemnly.
What followed was a brief silence in which the Ace of Spades reversed back into his normal self, rather than Silvex' emotional grieving ex-fiancé. Once again, Axel turned to face Callum.
"Do you have it?" Axel asked.
"Yeah, most of it." Callum replied. The Labrador then took a big file out of his bag, as well as a flash drive. He handed both over to the Ace of Spades, who accepted both items and opened the file. The first page read 'Project Homicidam Donari'. Unlike the version of the file they already had, none of this was redacted. "Turns out, the semi-redacted personnel file got misplaced, which is why Shadex found it. It was quite ironic, while he was planning and preparing for his heist, he gave me the perfect opportunity to pull off mine."
"Such is life, it's just full of irony." The Ace of Spades replied. He then closed the file and held the flash drive, as to weigh its contents. "Did Inferno's researchers get as far as we had hoped?"
"Further, even." Callum replied. In the semi-darkness of the night, it was very difficult to see. But Axel was sure that Callum's eyes were twinkling. "If we combine our research with theirs, I'm pretty sure that we'll finally have the finished product."
"Finally." Axel echoed Callum. "After four long years, we finally have it. Taking down Bastion will only be the beginning, Callum. With this weapon in our hands, we can finally dare aim at our true goal. Let's have some fun!"