sheenianni: (Mozzie)
[personal profile] sheenianni
Title: Bloody Loot
Author‘s Name: Sheenianni
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: PG - 13
Spoilers: Episode 3.09 On the Fence
Characters/Pairings: Mozzie, reference to Neal, Keller and Peter
Warnings/Triggers: Character Death
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Mozzie stares at the treasure. It's time to wrap things up. AU

 
Mozzie stares at the Nazi plunder in front of him.

Oh, he doesn’t speak about it this way. Aloud, it’s always been “the treasure”, “the biggest score”, or the best one, “our art”. Mozzie knew that even if Neal didn’t really care for the money or the island, he would have a hard time resisting anything labeled “art”.

The cold, hard truth is that all the stuff is stolen bloody loot, robbed from museums and people during one of the most violent periods in human history. Another cold, hard truth is that Moz simply doesn’t care.

It’s one of the things that set him and Neal apart, Moz thinks. When he first met Neal Caffrey, the boy was almost like an overgrown kid. He thought the world belonged to him, and when Neal robbed banks and people, he genuinely believed he had the right to take all the priceless shiny things if he was clever enough to get away with it. Mozzie knew that wasn’t true, he knew they were just two criminals making their way through the world. However, he became fond of Neal because of his innocence and his bold daring nature, despite the fact that it often put both of them in danger.

But Moz has never lost the true perspective about the two of them; two conmen and thieves on their way for the grand prize, almost certainly bound to fail, but never about to give up anyway.

With a shake of his head, Moz opens the small case he has brought with him and takes out a gun. He carefully disassembles it before he picks up the cleaning cloth and starts working on the barrel.

First, it all went down when Neal was arrested. He never should have told his friend about Kate – but then Mozzie knew that if Neal found out that he had known Kate’s location and kept it from him, their friendship could have easily been over. So he took the calculated risk and made Neal promise to be careful – not that it did either of them any good.

Eventually though, it would have been okay, if only Neal hadn’t tried to escape and hadn’t got caught again. What’s worse – Moz knows Neal could have survived another four years in prison, thought it would have probably hardened him and made him cynical. No, the real problem was Neal’s deal with the FBI, or more exactly, one Agent Peter Burke.

Mozzie loads the bullets into the magazine and then puts it back into the gun. It has been a while since he last held one – seven years, to be exact. Unlike Neal, he isn’t an expert marksman, but he can do the necessary thing to protect the people he cares about. Still, he knows Neal could never find out how far he went once or twice to cover both of their asses.

It was Peter Burke who changed everything. He robbed Neal of a lot of his carefree attitude; first by putting him in prison, then by trying to turn him into his pet-suit lapdog. While Mozzie genuinely likes El, he could really, really do without the Suit – though for Neal’s sake, he pretended to get along with him. Now he wonders why he bothered.

The Suit should have taught Neal to be more careful, something Mozzie has unfortunately failed to do in all their years together. Instead, to Mozzie’s horror, he started filling Neal with morals – the useless kind of morals, not those that are necessary if one wanted to keep the hit men off his back. A conman shouldn’t care about the mark, he should care about not getting caught. Still, Mozzie tolerated it, because he knew he would get Neal back to normal once he cut the tracker, or in the worse case, once his sentence was finally over. Moz was patient. He could wait.

He puts on the silencer and mentally goes over the process again before he confirms everything is indeed in perfect order. Good.

The Nazi plunder sits there packed in the crates, looking perfectly innocent, almost as if it’s making fun of him. It’s dirty, stained money, and Mozzie has never cared. He is still going to grab it and use it, even now that it has cost him his best – and sometimes only – friend.

It’s all the Suit’s fault, thinks Moz viciously. If only he didn’t snoop so much, if he didn’t infest Neal with stupid boundaries, they could have been long ago away on the island and none of this would have happened. Keller never would have found out about the loot, he never would have killed Hale and Mozzie wouldn’t have ordered the hit men to kill him. Without Keller, Raquel Laroque would have no reason to shoot in Neal’s direction.

It’s all the Suit’s fault that Neal bled out from the gaping wound to his chest.

Mozzie has already sold another few paintings, together worth about twenty million. He doesn’t care about the FBI anymore; that was always mostly Neal’s concern. He knows that with enough money, he can buy silence, and silence means that he will never be found or extradited once he leaves the US forever. He has already put the prize on Raquel’s head and doubled the amount for Keller – though he doesn’t trust the shooters to do a proper job anymore, hence his own gun. Today, he’s taking revenge on Keller, and then he’s gone to the island and life of luxury.

Mozzie stares at the Nazi loot in front of him.

The Nazi plunder sits there in the crates, looking completely harmless and innocent.

It’s covered with Neal’s blood, and it almost looks like it’s mocking him.

Mozzie conceals the gun and steps out of the plane to settle his score in New York before disappearing forever.
                                        

A/N: This story has been betaed GrayWolf84 from fanfiction.net. She has helped immensely with the improvement of this story – it’s completely thanks to her that Mozzie’s assembling of the gun is at least somewhat realistic; as she explained, my first version would have ended with Mozzie shooting himself in about the tenth line of the story – ups! If she ever reads this entry here – thanks again, my friend!

Date: 2011-12-09 01:09 am (UTC)
elrhiarhodan: (S3 Promo - Neal Caffrey (Seated))
From: [personal profile] elrhiarhodan
Welcome to LiveJournal! And what a way to start! This is a terrific, terrific character assessment (even if you did "kill" Neal).

I was almost terrified that Moz was going to go after someone else.

Brava! Can't wait to read more of your work.

Date: 2011-12-09 05:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheenianni.livejournal.com
Well, I don't think I'm about to "kill" Neal again anytime soon. I rarely let my characters die - it is much more fun to play with them alive.

I think if Moz went after someone else, it would be crossing the lines that make Moz Moz. Though the possibilities are endless here, hmmm...

Thank you for your review :)

Date: 2011-12-10 05:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pipilj.livejournal.com
The chapter is very intense. I thought u got Mozzie character out well. Wonder if he ends up killing Keller though.

Date: 2011-12-10 06:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheenianni.livejournal.com
Thank you!
Hmm... I don't know about the confrontation between Keller and Mozzie. They are both very capable in their own ways. My bets would very reluctantly be on Keller, though I can totally see Mozzie killing him as well.

Date: 2011-12-10 11:11 am (UTC)
ext_38134: (white collar-shadow)
From: [identity profile] neu111.livejournal.com
If White Collar wasn't White Collar, this would be an acutely realistic view of Mozzie. Loved how while painting him as cold and ruthless, the undercurrent is his love for Neal.

Date: 2011-12-10 12:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheenianni.livejournal.com
Well, I think Mozzie is perfectly capable of making ruthless decisions. I like his character, but the first part of Season 3 definitely showed us a darker side of him. And there is no doubt that Mozzie loves Neal, even if their friendship sometimes does Neal more harm than good.
Thank you for your review :)

Date: 2011-12-10 01:01 pm (UTC)
ext_38134: (white collar-shadow)
From: [identity profile] neu111.livejournal.com
You're absolutely right, and your Mozzie is spot-on for Season 3 Mozzie. What I meant with If White Collar wasn't White Collar is that I doubt that the show will linger more on Mozzie's dark side, they'll probably have his character bounce back on a lighter side.

Date: 2011-12-10 01:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheenianni.livejournal.com
I agree. Actually, I think if they want to keep Moz in the show, they have no other choice, and White Collar without Mozzie would be strange and and somehow emptier.

Of course, they could always make Moz the main villain of Season 4, but I really don't think the authors are quite that devious - not to mention the fans might eat them alive for it :D

Date: 2015-10-31 12:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sandy79.livejournal.com
Wow, wow, wow! As the others already said in their reviews, your characterization of Mozzie is absolutely spot on for early Season 3. And I like to think that the darker side of Moz stems somehow from his time in the orphanage. Which is, on the other side, also the main reason for Neal and him to work as a team and as friends. As Mozzie explains it in "Forging Bonds", he's the man in background, the planner, the chess player who can think ahead and anticipate his opponent's next moves, even alternating his own plans should the need arise. And I totally see him doing that what you wrote here, if White Collar would have been on a different TV channel.

Great story, and even though he might not be the marksman like Neal (and Keller, for that matter), my money is on Mozzie - revenge, paired with actually having nothing to lose, is probably not the best, but a good motivator anyway. Thanks for sharing!


PS: found the way to this story thanks to wcredux!

Date: 2015-10-31 11:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheenianni.livejournal.com
Thank you so much for your lovely review!!! :)

I love Neal&Mozzie's friendship and I simply adore Moz as a character, but he absolutely has a darker side to himself, even if we don't see it often.

You're right that Mozzie has nothing to lose here. I really wouldn't want to be in Keller's shoes when he finally finds him.

Once again, thank you for your wonderful review and I'm glad you enjoyed the fic :)

Date: 2015-12-15 01:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] treonb.livejournal.com
Got to this browsing your fic list.

Amazing fic. Mozzie is cold here and it's shocking to meet him like this, but he really is, especially when his family's attacked. And I did not see Neal's death coming. I was sure Peter's going to be the one dead by the end of the fic.

Date: 2015-12-15 02:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sheenianni.livejournal.com
Awww, thank you!

I don't write this ruthless side of Mozzie often, but he does have it and it came across quite strongly in parts of season 3. I'm glad you liked this :)

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