Zootopia: Shadows in the Dark - Old Version

by AgentExeider

It's been one year since the Savage Case that propelled Officer Judy Hopps to recognition. But things have changed, sitting just beyond, in the shadows lies another conspiracy. A conspiracy that will threaten to upset the very foundations of Zootopia and change it's soul forever. A new conspiracy or just a very old one lies just beyond like Shadows in the Dark. (OLD VERSION)

*Author's Notes*

A number of people have messaged me wanting to read what the old versions of the fics, and even though I was in the renovation, they told me they wanted to read the old versions for comparison sake. So I've decided to reupload the old versions to FFN only for now, and they won't be delineated by chapter, so the whole thing in a single chapter filing. So here you guys go, enjoy.

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Zootopia: Shadows in the Dark

Chapter 1: Timing

Zootopia…South Docks…

Inside a large warehouse filled with crates full of goods, mostly legal, and some not so legal. Among the stacked crates and boxes is a desk filled with paper work, sitting at the desk is a garishly dressed camel.

Samir Nagheenanajar or simply Samir was the stereotypical camel, he was wealthy, worked in both legitimate and illegitimate business and lived life on those terms, the parties, the fur designs, booze, drugs and womanizing. Though many would think it stereotypical to the point of cliché for rich camels, in Samir's case, the description is an accurate one.

Samir was frantically trying to clean out his desk, scooping large portions of paperwork and things into a bag.

"BOSS! The police are coming, we have to go!" shouted a camel guard from the next room.

The sounds of sirens approaching, Samir, managed to finish throwing his things into a duffle bag and cinched it shut, he grabbed his machine pistol and chambered the first round. He got up and walked to his guard.

"I am ready, let us leave, back entrance, NOW!" he ordered in his thick almost guttural accent.

Samir and his guards quickly made their way towards the back entrance; they were just about to leave when the back door busted open and a silhouette of a large Rhino against the backdrop of the bright sunlight filtering in stood in the door way.

"Now where do ya'll think you goin'?" asked the rhino, his deep but smooth voice causing them to freeze.

The guards tried to open fire, but the Rhino was ready, he put a round into the first guard, as the second guard fired towards the rhino, missing by a mile, the rhino responded put down the second guard in typical ZPD efficiency.

Samir and his third guard went to dive out the window, breaking through the window, cutting himself on the shards, the guard wasn't so lucky as he caught his foot on the broken sill and impaled his leg on one of the upward facing shards which held him, while gravity pulled him down slamming his head into the pavement.

Samir bolted as fast as he could for the van and was just about to make it to the driver's side when a loud feminine sounding "Hyah!" and a ball of fur came jumping at him. Samir was knocked to the ground, he shook off the shock and his eyes focused on a small rabbit in police garb.

"Sorry buddy, but your road trip has been canceled." Officer Judy Hopps quipped, a confident smirk on her face.

Samir couldn't believe his eyes, he snorted dismissively and stood to his feet and towered over Judy, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a switch blade and snapped it open.

"A bunny rabbit? And a female at that? Heh, the police must be desperate. Go home before I decide that I need another fur coat." threatened Samir

"Hate to tell you this, but I've heard better threats from an arctic shrew, and he was twice the predator you are."

Samir incensed

"I cut your tongue out, rabbit!" replied Samir

Samir swiped at Judy trying to knife her, put simply, she just wasn't there, the first the camel knew was a sharp foot to the face, which threw him off balance, Judy kicked him in the balancing knee, which buckled under his weight and he fell to his knees, he tried to catch himself with his off paw, while trying to hold the knife defensively, with Samir now down to Judy's height she planted her feet on the ground, grabbed Samir's wrist and twisted it into a joint-lock.

"AHHHHH!" screamed Samir.

"Let go or I'll have to break your wrist!" demanded Judy

"Damn Rabbit!" screamed Samir rolling his "R"s.

Judy twisted his wrist even further. Samir screamed even louder, the pain was searing, he could feel the joint starting to go, he let go of the knife and it dropped to the ground. Judy pounced, and pawcuffed him.

"You have the right to remain silent, I suggest you do so." suggested Judy

Samir's face planted into the ground, his mouth and face smooshed against the concrete.

"You stupid rabbit, you will be dead, I know people, I'm protected."

Judy knelt down

"Then we will arrest them too, sweetie" she quipped back with a smile on her face.

---

20 Minutes Later…..

The ZPD had responded to the bust, there was a plethora of units around the warehouse, pulling out cache after cache of illicit goods. Samir was locked in the back of a squad car, while his guards were being taken to the hospital. A cheetah cop was comparing notes with Hopps.

"Good bust, Hopps, this guy was a 'veeery' bad camel." said the cheetah extending the word for effect.

"Just curious, but what did you find?" asked Hopps enthusiastically.

"Well, all sorts of stuff, the catnip alone is going to get him 50 years, but all sorts of drugs, illegal weapons, and some tech stuff, I don't know but this dude is definitely going away for a while."

Judy beamed, she looked over to the squad car that Samir was sitting in, and she waved a bit mockingly with her buck teeth perching over her lower lip as she smiled at him. Judy then remembered the duffle bag, grabbing it off the ground she went through it with the cheetah, helping to put the contents into evidence bags, the papers and larger items, a bag of catnip, then came the smaller things, cellphone, gold pocket watch, she pulled out a silver flashed drive.

"Hmm" she studied it for a moment then placed it into the bag.

In the car, Samir saw that Judy was holding a silver flash drive, his eyes narrowed, as if burning the image of Judy into his memory. Just then he heard the tap on the glass from the front.

"EH! Eyes front, stilts." mocked the officer, as he started the car and drove Samir away from the scene.

Judy finished putting Samir's personal effects into the evidence bags.

"You want me to take 'em, Hopps?" asked Jerry.

"No Jerry, I got them. Besides, that gives me an excuse to tell ol' Clawhauser the story."

"He certainly loves to hear the stories." Jerry chuckled

Judy put the evidence in the trunk and made her way back to the station, she took the bags to Benjamin Clawhauser, her favorite donut loving fat cat, well the only one she knows anyway.

"Hey Hey, Judy, what have you got for me today?" asked Ben cheerful.

"Hey Ben!" she replied back excitedly.

"Well I have for you today, the bona fide personal belongings of one Samir Naga…..Naga" Judy was attempting to read out Samir's last name to some difficulty.

Clawhauser, raised an eyebrow and spun the bag around, and read without effort.

"Nagheenanajar."

"Right. What you said." replied Judy both shocked and impressed.

"Well you know the standard fair, I need you to fill out this form, and of course, you can tell me what happened."

Judy regaled Clawhauser with the story while she filled out the form slowly but surely, being very dramatic about it, while Clawhauser listened.

"And then I said 'then we will arrest them too, sweetie.'" Repeating her same inflection as before.

Clawhauser busted out laughing.

"That was a good one Judy, I love that." He chortled. "I'll get this done right away and good job."

"Thank you." Beamed Judy

Ben took the form and the evidence bags and started to file them. Judy went back to her desk, filling out some paperwork on Samir's bust before heading back out. She got the urge to call Nick to tell him the good news. She picked up her phone and hit Nick's picture in her contact list.

The phone rang and rang, his voice mail picked up. Judy swayed her feet under her chair like scissors, waiting for the voice mail beep

"Hey, it's Nick, unless I owe you money in which case, it's not." *beep*

"Hey Nick, it's Judy, something really great happened at work today and I really want to tell you all about it, plus there was something else I wanted to talk to you about. I was hoping we could meet up at your place, maybe get some dinner? By the way thanks for taking me to that classic drive in last week, I had a really good time. See you tonight."

She hung up the phone and clasped it to her chest, she smiled extra big, and giggled ever so softly.

---

Meanwhile.

In a broken down, ratty sun bleached tan Lebaron, the dashboard peeling from age, a black smart phone vibrates, with the words "Carrots calling…." And a picture of Judy Hopps on the screen, sadly no one was around to answer so it dropped to voice mail.

Nearby, a bang and a crash is heard, and two figures bolt out of nearby arctic animal store, the two figures two foxes one tall and the other short, posing as A/C repairman, run down the alley

"Dang it, I KNEW I remembered that guy from somewhere!" one of them exclaimed wild eyed.

"Damn it, Nick, you REALLY need to keep track of all these people you scam" replied Finnick

"That would take some time." Replied Nick.

The proprietor, a large polar bear comes running out of the store with a baseball bat.

"Fool me, will you!" screams the polar bear.

The bear runs close enough to take a swing at Nick, who drops his head just low enough to not be hit. Nick and Finnick take a turn at the alley to their car at the last second; the polar bear tries to change direction but ends up sliding and losing his balance. They both make it to the car, Nick in the driver's seat. Starting the car and he tries to drive forward only to be blocked by the polar bear who has caught up to them. Swinging the bat into the windshield, he withdraws it and tries again.

Nick, slams the car into reverse and drives backwards away from the bear, who gives chase. Nick kept driving backwards until he had enough room to spin the car forward, jam it into drive and punch the gas. The bear takes a swing at the back window and imbeds the bat into the back window as Nick drives off.

They manage to get some distance. Nick laughing to himself and at Finnick.

"Well, at least we got away. Heh, that's something" says Nick, elbowing Finnick.

"Pshh, this is the third job we couldn't pull off Nick, let's face it fox, I think you're losing your edge." huffed Finnick.

"What?! No, I'm just in a slump, don't worry, I'll come up with a great one next time." Nick replied defensively.

"There isn't going to be a next time." replied Finnick

"What?! Why?" inquired Nick surprised.

"I'm hooking up with a real crew, people who have resources, who have money, who can SUCCESFULLY pull jobs." replied Finnick, leveling his eyes at Nick.

"You think I'm doing this for the exercise? I'm doing to get paid." said Finnick annoyed

Nick was completely taken a back, he looked forward and realized there was a full cross walk, he slammed on the brakes, the baseball bat came loose and spun through the car's cabin, Finnick being too small it went right over his head, but the handle hit Nick in the back of the head, and that impact reversed the spin, and the top of the bat smacked him in the right eye, cheek and side of the head. The bat bounced off the dash and fell to the car's floor.

Finnick simply looked at Nick.

"Definitely lost your edge fox, just take me home" commented Finnick dismissively.

Nick was embarrassed as much as he was in pain, He carefully drove to Finnick's place and dropped him off, then drove back to his place. He parked his car in the space in front of his apartment. His face and eye was throbbing and starting to swell by now, he clutched his head and somberly made his way up to his apartment.

He stepped into his apartment and went to the fridge and grabbed an ice pack and a beer. He popped the bottle cap and took a swig, he sat on the crouch and went practically limp, applying the icepack to his eye and cheek. He leaned his head back, and felt the warmth of the evening sun on his head.

Nick's thoughts immediately went back to what Finnick had said. Had he really lost his edge? What was he going to do for money? Get a real job? Who's going to hire a con artist with no formal education? Crime was all that Nick knew, and it wasn't paying well lately, and today, at all.

While Nick was deep in feeling sorry for himself, there was a knock at his door. Nick seriously considered not answering it. He got up, sauntered over to the door and answered it. It was a vixen, very attractive and neatly dressed, wearing very expensive clothes, Preyda, Gorgio Armadillo, etc. Her name was Clara, Nick's downstairs neighbor, while very pretty, she also acts very fickle and elitist, which is odd considering she lives in this neighborhood and is not wealthy, most of what she has purchased by her various boyfriends either to buy her love or to get her into bed. She was bad news and Nick already having a bad day was about to close the door on her.

"Hello, Clara, how are you doing today?" said Nick trying to be diplomatic.

"Hello, Nick, I was wondering if you could do me a favor?" she started.

"I don't know, I just got in, and have been having…" replied Nick before he was cut off.

"Well I just new cable service and I need someone to install it." She continued.

"Why didn't you get the cable guy to do it?" said Nick annoyed

"Well actually they only dropped it off, my boyfriend said that he was going to do it."

"So….why don't you get him to do it?" said Nick annoyed

"Well he's not here, and you are, so I figured you could do it. There's 100 dollars in it for you."

Nick was about to dismiss her but then he realized, he's got to do something for money, at least until he either decides if he's going straight or gets his edge back.

Nick smiled diplomatically "Sure why not."

Nick went downstairs to her place and she explained the situation.

"Well here is the box with all the parts in it, don't know a thing about it." She pointed to the box

"But anyway, I'm sure you can figure it out." She added.

"Do you have a place for me to put it?" asked Nick

"Of course, of course, I'm just trying to think of where you could put it. Maybe the bedroom, no in the den, yes, much more comfortable in the den, what do you think?" she asked

"I think you'll get better performance in the Den." replied Nick

"Well you're the big strong fox, don't let me tell you how to do those things." she chuckled, as she opened the door.

"Well I aim to please" he replied diplomatically, putting on a fake smile.

"How do you think it will take?"

"Well if I can get it in there quickly, about 20 minutes."

"Well now, you certainly know how to make a girl happy." She said.

"I'm glad you're happy." Nick replied, still with the fake BS smile.

"If you can get it done that fast, I might still be able to make to my boyfriend's on time, there is a rather lavish party we are going to, you know."

"No I didn't know" replied Nick "nor do I care." He muttered to himself.

Nick bent down and picked up the box, he turned his head across the street and scanned it, a weird feeling, but as quickly as it came it went, so he shrugged and carried it inside to complete his task.

---

…20 Minutes Earlier

Judy was in her casual jogging clothes, she decided to surprise Nick with some dinner from one of their favorite place, Little Macs, to-go of course. She was chatting on the phone with Fru-Fru Big while walking down the street, they had established a friendship after the missing mammals case last year.

"So what did Nicky say?" asked Fru-Fru on the phone

"Oh, I haven't told him yet." replied Judy

"What are you waiting for, this would be a great time to tell him, you just got a big bust, your riding high, I say go for it." Encouraged Fru-Fru

"Ohhhhhh, I don't know" hesitated Judy.

"I mean, what do I say? What will he say? What if he doesn't feel the same way?" She said conflicted.

"That's just doubt girl, I've seen you two together, of course, I can just look at you and just tell. I know, I'm Shrewish, we have the sense…." stated Fru-Fru

"The sense?" chuckled Judy.

"There is a reason we have big families, we know when we find our match and we just go for it. You should too." Explained Fru-Fru

"Maybe, if the timing is right." confessed Judy.

"Just let your conscience be your guide." Said Fru-Fru

"Ok, Fru, I will, I got to go I'm almost there."

"Ciao, bunny-sis." Said Fru-Fru

"Ciao" replied Judy with a chuckle.

Judy hung up the phone and finally got across the street from Nick's, she saw his car out front, it has the back windows smashed, and then she saw Nick talking to a Vixen. She raised an eye brow, confused. She debated on whether to try and listen in, eventually she couldn't help it and she crooked her head to the side slightly and tilted her ears to listen across the street.

"But anyway, I'm sure you can figure it out." She stated

"Do you have a place for me to put it?" asked Nick

"Of course, of course, I'm just trying to think of where you could put it. Maybe the bedroom, no in the den, yes, much more comfortable in the den, what do you think?" she asked

"I think you'll get better performance in the Den." replied Nick

"Well you're the big strong fox, don't let me tell you how to do those things." she chuckled, as she opened the door.

"Well I aim to please" he replied.

"How do you think it will take?"

"Well if I can get it in there quickly, about 20 minutes."

"Well now, you certainly know how to make a girl happy." She said.

"I'm glad you're happy." Nick replied

Judy was absolutely floored by what she heard, her ears drooped, and expression tensed, her nose twitched. Her heart had absolutely sunk. She walked over to a nearby trash can and threw the food into the trash can, and tried to look normal on the busy street.

"Nick, how could you…" she said, her voice cracking.

Judy left Nick's and ran back home as fast as she could.

---

20 minutes later….

Nick emerged from Clara's place, 100 dollars richer for a task as simple as setting up a cable box and TV. He was certainly grateful that Clara was not "technically adept". Either way with cash in paw he went back up to his apartment. He grabbed his beer now warm, and his ice pack which was now thawing, stuck them back in their respective places. At least he was 100 dollars richer, he decided maybe he could take Judy out, maybe to one of her favorite places.

He grabbed his phone and checked it.

"Damn she called?" he said to himself.

He went to voice mail and checked the message:

"Hey Nick, its Judy, something really great happened at work today and I really want to tell you all about it, plus there was something else I wanted to talk to you about. I was hoping we could meet up at your place, maybe get some dinner? By the way thanks for taking me to that classic drive in last week, I had a really good time. See you tonight."

Nick checked his watch it was already 7:30. He figured surely she would have come by now. He called her but only got her voice mail

"Hey this is Judy Hopps, making the world a better place, one message at a time*giggle*"*beep*

"Hey Judy, its Nick, yeah sorry about missing your call, I was…..busy, just got your message, and can't wait to hear all about what happened. I uh, need to talk to you about something, something important. So call me back please."

Nick hung up the phone, his head was pounding, the distraction of favors and making a buck got him to forget about it for a while, but with nothing, the pain came right back. Nick went to take care of his bruised face; it would certainly heal faster than his bruised ego.

Finnick was right he thought, he had gone soft, but what was he to do, he tried going straight before, follow Judy's example, and look where that got him, once they found out his record, it was out on his ear. Nick had to think of what to do, but not tonight, tomorrow will hopefully be a brighter day.

---

Chapter 2: Code 10-00

Nick awoke with a stir, which caused the empty beer bottle he fell asleep with to roll and tumble onto the floor, rattling till it came to a stop, he took a deep breath, looked at his phone. No calls, he looked at the clock it was, 1:30 in the morning. Nick was concerned it wasn't like Judy to say she was coming over then not show.

Nick called again, no answer, still going to voice mail. He decided to call the station, maybe it had to do with the "great thing" that happened at work. He hit the number in his contacts, and listened for the desk sergeant.

"Zootopia Police Department, this is Sergeant Bates, how may I help you?" answered the station.

"Yeah, this is Nick Wilde, I'm looking for Officer Hopps, Judy Hopps?"

"…And the nature of your business?" inquired the desk sergeant.

"Uh, she was supposed to contact me about something, and I just wanted to know if she was there?" answered Nick making it sound more like official business.

"Well she isn't at her desk right now, she's busy with other duties." Replied Bates

"But she IS there?"

"Yes, she is here. I'm sorry who is calling?" inquired Bates.

Nick didn't answer and hung up the phone.

"She doesn't work nights." Nick said to himself confused.

Nick decided to go down there; he picked himself up, made him look presentable, grabbed his keys and went out the door.

---

Meanwhile….

Judy was at the station taking up a second shift for the day, she was not the same happy jovial self as she was earlier, but more concentrated onto her work. She went to Chief Bogo's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in" called out Bogo from inside.

Judy opened the door and stepped in. Bogo was packing it in for the day, packing his briefcase full of papers.

"Hopps? Pulling a double?" he asked as he sealed his case.

"Just thought I would put some more time in sir." replied Judy

"Big bust today, you should be proud, that was some good work out there." congratulated Bogo

"Just doing my job sir, I was wondering, has anyone questioned Samir yet?"

"Not yet, was waiting for the detectives…but let me guess, you want a crack at him?" inquired Bogo.

"Yes, sir, I would." Replied Judy.

"Well, you have been trained on procedure, and you have been asking to cut your teeth on something like this." considered Bogo

"Just make sure you don't do anything his lawyer can get him off for, but sure, go get him." smiled Bogo.

"Thank you sir, I won't let you down." She crisply saluted Bogo and stepped out.

Judy made her way towards the interview room 1 and requested that Samir be brought to her.

A few minutes went by and Samir had been put in the interrogation room. The tiger guard went to Hopps outside the room.

"Hey Hopps, you got this one?" he asked.

"Bogo, just cleared me." She replied.

"Be careful with this guy, he's got a mouth on him" said the guard.

"Anything useful?" she asked.

"Nah, nothing like that, strange thing though, he used his one phone call to call a dry cleaners. A dry cleaners! Seriously?! Should'a called a lawyer." Joked the tiger.

Judy smirked in disbelief, it didn't seem to make sense, but it was his call to waste. Judy went into the room to question Samir.

---

Meanwhile…

Nicked walked into the front door of the ZPD, and was about to slip past the desk sergeant when he stopped him

"Can I help you?" asked the wolf behind the desk.

"Just came to see someone in particular." replied Nick.

"And that person would be? Wait a sec, don't I know you?" asked the wolf, rather suspiciously.

"Probably not." replied Nick.

"Yeah yeah, now I remember you were that Fox recruit a few months back, got tossed outta here." replied the wolf nodding his own confirmation.

"I just came to see a friend." said Nick

"Well, friend, this is a police station not a night club." Replied the wolf rather dismissively.

"So why don't you make like a tree, and get outta here."

"Um, it's leave, make like a tree and leave"

The wolf stood up, and stared sternly at Nick.

"You talkin' back to me, boy?" insulted the wolf.

Nick was about to quip back when he heard an exuberant voice.

"Hey Nick! How ya doin' buddy!"

Nick turned to get a bear hug from Ben Clawhauser and gave Nick a good squeeze.

"Can't breathe, Ben." Nick squeaked

"Huh?" Ben asked, tilting his ear closer to Nick.

"I said, I can't breathe." Nick muscled out a slightly louder response.

"Oh?" replied Ben, as he dropped him back on his feet.

Ben patted Nick on the back and led him past sergeant Bates. He said over his shoulder.

"Oh he's with me." Almost as an afterthought.

Ben turned back to Nick as he led him back towards his post.

"Don't mind Bates, his job seems to be a jackass, and unfortunately, he excels at the position." Joked Ben with a laugh.

"So what are you doing here Nick? Great to see ya, has it been what, six months?"

"Uh, just here to see Judy, and yeah, it's been a bit." replied Nick a bit embarrassed.

"Well she is interrogating a suspect right now, but I'm thinking you could hang out with me till she's done, that ok?" asked Ben.

"Sure." smiled Nick.

Nick had figured Clawhauser all wrong in the past, he really was a good guy, a bit of a super fan to Gazelle, but an actually good guy all around.

Clawhauser's desk phone rang and he picked it up.

"Evidence?" he inquired, biting into a donut hole on his desk.

Nick tried to check his phone and couldn't get a signal.

"Yeah, uh huh." said Ben to the voice over the line.

Ben noticed Nick was on his phone, he covered the lower end of the receiver with his paw.

"Hey Nick, the vault screws up the signal in here, you gonna have to go out into the hall way for that."

Nick steps out into the hall way, Clawhauser turning his attention back to the phone.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it, I'll bring it down." Said Ben, and hung up the phone.

He went through the evidence vault and found a bag that he was asked to find. He went out into the hall way and closed the door.

"Hey Nick I'll be right back, they need this down in interrogation." Said Ben.

Nick nodded absorbed into his phone.

"That phone, always in that phone, the whole world drops away." Joked Clawhauser, as he stepped into the elevator.

Nick ignored the people walking through the hallway to their respective places, he was lost in thought, but more than anything he wanted to talk to Judy. Nick leaned against the wall, absorbed into his phone. He looked up to catch the sight of a ferret walking from his right, he caught his gaze, a steely and almost cold expression. They looked right at each other right until the ferret went around the corner. Nick felt a creep down his spine, that look just bugged him.

"Wait, did he just come out of the evidence room?" he thought to himself. Nick turned and went to the evidence room door; he stood in front of it and reached for the door handle.

Meanwhile…

Judy was in a heated interrogation session with Samir, she was asking him about the nature of his business, showing him evidence photos of the illicit activity he was engaged in, trying to secure a confession.

"You can sit there and try to lie to me all night, Samir, but we both know what you've been up to." Said Judy

"You know nothing you stupid, rabbit. Nothing."

Judy threw down photos of the cat nip crates and weapons.

"You call that nothing. Cuz I don't, I call that life in prison." She replied pointing to the photos

"I will never see the inside of a cell, I've got protection." Samir smugly replied

"That's interesting because the way I see it, we already got you, right here and now, not a lot of good that protection is." Judy countered.

Samir did nothing but shake his head and chuckle under his breath.

"I figure you tell me who your supplier is, and maybe we can knock a few decades off your sentence" offered Judy.

"Oh, it's deal time is it. miss rabbit police cop?" chuckled Samir.

"How about I offer you this deal, you let me go, and my benefactors don't knock a few brain cells off your head." threatened Samir

"Threatening a police officer, in an interrogation room, that's real smart." Judy smirked.

"I would take the deal, you don't exactly have a lot of…..time." countered Samir.

There was a knock on the door, Judy went over and answered it, Ben Clawhauser was there with the evidence bag.

"What are you doing down here?" asked Judy

"Didn't you call up and ask for this?" inquired Ben giving her the bag.

Suddenly there was loud boom, it was close by and shook the whole building, shaking the dust loose on the walls and ceiling, the lights went out and red emergency lighting kicked on, the sprinklers activated, a fire alarm rang out. Judy and Ben looked upward

"What the heck was that?" said Judy

Samir slowly chuckled mirthfully from his chair, Judy turned towards Samir.

"That would be the sound of your time running out…" an evil grin on the camel's face.

---

Ben panicked "Oh my god Nick is up there."

Judy spun around "Nick?! As in my Nick?" she demanded.

Judy panicked and went out the door with Clawhauser but locked the interrogation room door. Suddenly two more blasts from different parts of the police station, and screaming. Then it started the sound of automatic gun fire, with the occasional shotgun blast. There was gun smoke and water in the air, several black suited, heavily armed animals were coming through holes in the side of the building, catching cops by surprise and mercilessly shooting anything that moved, the cops attempted to repel the invaders but their small arms were no match for the mercenaries.

Judy and Ben managed to make it towards the stairs, when a grenade blast went off near the officer desk, which blew Judy off her feet and into a side office; the desk tilted over and obstructed her from view from the door. Clawhauser was knocked of his feet and stumbled backwards and landed in the door way. He tried to get up and walk into the office, but he heard heavy footsteps and the sound of gun fire, and impact in his back, which knocked him back down and slid towards the left side of the desk.

He let out an anguished cry, as the pain hit his brain, gasping and panting.

He rolled sideways and caught Judy's eyes, Judy saw Ben with an expression on his face she had never seen on anyone, she was about to make a grab for him when he put up with paw.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and whispered through a wet sounding wheeze.

"Don't help me, I'm already dead, they told me to give it you, keep it safe."

Ben turned his head to his attacker, who grabbed his ankle and dragged him back out of the room, a smeared line of Clawhauser's blood on the floor; his attacker grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air like a ragdoll.

"Alright, you're the fat bastard that handles all the evidence. Where is the rest of Samir's crap!" demanded the attacker.

Judy peaked over the desk to see the attacker, all she could tell from the voice and shape was that it was a male bison, he towered taller than any bison she had seen before, he was heavily armored, with a helmet, obscuring his voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about." squeaked Clawhauser.

Another figure stepped out of the from a corner, its head shape was feline, maybe a Lynx, it spoke with a Eastern Zootopian accent.

"Barrett, quit playing with your food, we have a job to do." replied the figure in a thick accent.

"This little fat cat knows where the stuff is…" replied the Bison.

"Doesn't matter, we are demoing the building anyway." Replied the Lynx.

The bison looked back at Clawhauser.

"Ooo, too bad you for you."

The bison extended a long double pair of blades seemingly attached to his arm and ran Clawhauser through the chest, Ben gasped in pain as he felt the cold metal. The sound of the blades slicing and the liquid filling his lungs, the blood running down his body, Clawhauser trembled at the pain and the fear.

Judy went wide eyed, she had to cover her mouth with her paws to keep her from screaming as she watched Ben Clawhauser die before her eyes. She wanted to scream, to call out for him, but to do so meant death, These animals we clearly not taking prisoners nor leaving any witnesses.

When Ben stopped moving the Bison dropped him like a ragdoll and he slumped to the floor. Judy turned and slid back down under the desk. The bison turned, stepped into the office, and looked around, and sniffed a couple times. Judy heart was pounding against her chest. She prayed that he wouldn't find her.

"Barrett, Let's go" called the Lynx.

The bison huffed and stepped out and walked away.

Judy waited a few minutes for her breathing to calm down before she dared to move, then she quickly moved to the door, she grabbed evidence bag and it was stained with Ben's blood. She walked out the door, seeing Ben on the floor, his expression frozen as one of pain. Tears welled in the corner of her eyes and she winced in pain at seeing him like that. She wanted to cry for him, to mourn him but she knew she had to keep moving, she scanned the room, everyone was dead, she was alone, her thoughts drifted to Nick.

"Oh my god…Ni"

"Judy!" rang out Nick's voice.

She turned towards the stair case, and ran towards it, she saw Nick at the top of the stairs, there was debris in the way.

"Nick, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, well I've been better." He replied

"Can you find a way down, we have to get out of here." she said.

Nick looked around, and saw a window; there was a sub roof outside the floor.

"Yeah, I'll meet you in front." He said.

Judy suddenly realized, there was someone, who could answer for this. She quickly bolted for the interrogation room and kicked open the door, there was a hole blown in the back wall behind the chair, he was gone all that was left behind was Samir's opened cuffs posed in the seat of the chair and left there as a mocking answer to her questions.

---

Meanwhile

On the roof of the ZPD, the mercenaries were questioning Chief Bogo and Asst. Chief Boggs, who had already been shot in the head and tossed off the roof. Bogo was bleeding, a few bullet holes and was on his knees.

"Where is Judy Hopps?" questioned the Lynx

"You think, I'm going to tell you. Piss off!" snorted Bogo.

The Lynx backpawed Bogo hard, the buffalo turned back and spat out some blood, giving the lynx a hard scowl.

"If you want me to answer, you're gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that." replied Bogo.

"That can be arranged." replied the lynx

A car raced away from the police station as fast it could almost skidding out a few times. The lynx turned to another of his mercs.

"Harding, plate." He ordered.

The merc the lynx was speaking too was an armadillo with a sniper rifle, he scoped in and scanned the plate just before it went around the corner out of view. He raised his head up and put two fingers to his ear.

"A Nick….Wilde?"

The Lynx turned back to Bogo

"Tell me, who is this….Nick Wilde?"

"Beats me." smiled Bogo.

The Lynx grabbed Bogo by the neck and lifted him up.

"I am in NO mood for games anymore." spat the Lynx.

"Neither am I." replied Bogo

Bogo had managed to grab a concealed knife and stab the Lynx through the arm and twist it, but instead of blood, it was some clear liquid, and the skin was covering something. The lynx dropped Bogo, and cleared the torn skin from around the wound, instead of bone, the arm was metallic, with tubing and polymer muscle fiber.

Bogo was shocked by what he was seeing. He looked around and noticed the mercs were a bit too perfect in form and shape, very exact.

"Who…What the hell are you animals?" demanded Bogo wild eyed.

The lynx, put his arm up and looked at Bogo through the hole, the hole was a jagged triangle shape and the Lynx's eye was staring right at Bogo.

"The future." Replied the Lynx, and then shot Bogo in the chest and tossed him off the roof, Bogo crashed into a squad car below.

A black helicopter rushed in overhead and landed on the roof, the last of the mercenaries plus Samir had come from below; they were carrying the evidence bags of Samir and a large black bag.

"Get this shit into the chopper." said the Lynx

A female lioness, her armor much different than the others, smoother, with angled edges of carbon fiber plating, was the last to come up and approached the Lynx.

"Everything is set, Jarod" she tells him in the same East Zootopian accent, similar to Jarod's but different dialect.

"Good, Nala, it's time to go." orders Jarod.

The mercenaries quickly pile onto the helicopter and take off, after flying a distance away. The lynx nods to the lioness, who hits a button on a transmitter. The entire ZPD explodes, fire blows out all the floors and blows a large gaping hole into the building, the extreme heat caves in the edges of the hole and the entire building is set ablaze.

The glow of the fire casts a light onto Jarod's face, who smirks as the helicopter flies away from the scene.

---

Chapter 3: Separation Anxiety

Nick looked in the rear view to make sure no one was following them.

"Are you ok?" asked Nick.

Judy sat silent; she was still freaked out by what just happened.

"Carrots, are you ok?!" Nick shouted, concerned.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." Judy replied.

"What the hell was that, what happened?" asked Nick

"I don't know, I….don't know." she replied.

Judy thought for a moment and shook her head.

"I can't believe he was…..I mean how?" said Judy

"What's going on Carrots, it's not every day you see para-military soldiers bust into a police station."

"We…I mean I had this collar today, it was a bust, he's a camel named Samir, he was a smuggler, into all sorts of illicit stuff, drugs, guns, weird stuff, getting it into and out of the city. He said he was protected. He was certain, that he wasn't going to get punished for his crimes." explained Judy

"Well he's certainly right about that." Nick said sarcastically, letting off a little *humph*

"What the hell were you doing at the station, anyway?" inquired Judy.

"You didn't get my message?"

Judy reached for her phone, only to find it not in her pocket. She banged her head against the seat in frustration.

"Damn it!"

"What?"

"I left it back at the station. What was it?"

"The message?"

"Yes!"

"It's uh…..not really important now. I think we have bigger things to worry about."

"Yeah, I know, we need to get somewhere safe."

"I know a place."

"I'm sure you do." muttered Judy

"What?" asked Nick not hearing the first time.

"I said 'uh huh.'" lied Judy.

Nick drove to a different part of town, where there was a bunch of garages, he stopped the car and got out and opened it up, Judy drove the car in and Nick quickly closed the garage door and locked it behind them. Nick turned on the lights. Judy turned off the car and got out.

"What is this place?" Judy looked around.

Nick's garage was a large storage garage that had been renovated into more than just a storage space, it had a workbench, a couple cots, a fridge, even a TV, everything a person would need to live on for a few days.

"Yeah, that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about."

Judy looked around and saw a whiteboard with pictures of different Zootopian businesses, notes, magnets, clippings, etc.

Judy turned around towards Nick, who had his paws cupped together, attempting at an innocent smile on his face. Judy was completely floored as she put two and two together.

"You're pulling JOBS?!" she spoke, her voice in a complete disbelief.

"Just small ones, teeny ones." replied Nick with a nervous smile, pinching his fingers together

Judy paced and held her paws up on either side of her head.

"Wait a minute let me get this straight, you have been masterminding crimes, while associating with a rabbit police officer."

"Mastermind is such a strong word, just thinking up, simple things really" Nick defended

"How long?" she inquired flabbergasted.

"4…months." He replied his face twinging expecting the next bout of yelling.

"THE WHOLE TIME!" Judy yelled.

"You're telling me you've been pulling jobs since you got fired." said Judy

"Here I am busting my butt trying to stop crime, and I have one of my only friends in the world contributing to It." lectured Judy.

"Not to mention it happening right under my nose, I mean they would have my badge for this if they found out." She continued.

"Why?!" she directed towards Nick.

"Why?, WHY! Well gee Carrots, maybe it's because I have a record. Maybe it's because I'm damaged goods, and still AM, did you forget that?" defended Nick

"I certainly did, I got so caught up in working with you, I forgot that I'm one of the bad guys." He continued.

"Nick, you're not one of the bad guys." she replied with a slight whine while shaking her head.

"YES, I AM Judy, with a mugshot, and paw prints, a record and everything. Yes I am. And nobody wants to hire a two-bit criminal. I was fooling myself to think otherwise."

Judy stood there in silence.

"So….You're just uh, deciding to live the stereotype then, A fox thief." Asked Judy, her arms folded, sniffling, then bit on her lower lip

"Well I'm not sure where else my skills would have value." Nick retorted.

Judy still biting her lower lip; "Tell me, that you're absolutely certain, and I mean 100% certain, that what happened tonight had NOTHING to do with you."

Nick hesitated for a minute trying to take stock in the criminal people he has worked for.

"I….don't know."

Judy stood their stunned; she wasn't sure how to react. Almost on automatic she turned to walk out the door, the opened the door, Nick raced over to Judy

"Hey wait, wait!" Nick tried to stop Judy

Judy pulled out her taser and used it on Nick, He yelped in surprise, jerking and fell on the floor and passing out. Judy walked out the door, not sure what to think.

---

Nick awoke some time later, to the sound of his phone ringing, vibrating on the floor, it must of fell out when Judy tasered him. He slowly opened his eyes and groaned, feeling the pain of the prong's contact point. He picked up his phone it said "Carrots calling…" He hit 'answer' and put it to his ear.

"Hey I guess you found your cellphone after all, look I'm sorry….."

Nick was interrupted by the voice on the other end of the phone, it wasn't Judy's but a male's voice.

"Mr. Wilde. You will listen very closely, we have your friend, and if you don't do what we say, we will kill her. Am I clear Mr. Wilde?"

"Yes." Nick replied seriously.

"Ms. Hopps had in her possession a device belonging to one Samir Nagheenanajar, a silver flash drive, you will bring it to the location we are texting to you now, you have 2 hours to get there or your rabbit friend will die, do you understand." ordered the voice over the phone.

"Yes, I will be there, Just don't hurt her."

"Comply and everything will be fine." The voice finished and then hung up the phone.

Nick got up and frantically looked around his garage, retracing Judy's footsteps, he then searched in the car and found a bloody plastic bag, it was a police evidence bag. He took it out and tore it open, dumping the contents on the hood of the car. Going through it quickly, he found the silver flash drive. He picked it up and examined it, he wasn't sure what to make of it, but it didn't matter. He looked at his phone and saw the address for where he needed to go, it was far out of the way, it was going to take him MOST of the 2 hours just to get there.

Nick didn't spare a minute to lose, he got in his car and got over to the address, he made it with 15 minutes to spare. It was a plastics factory; it was closed or run down, either way it didn't look like any legitimate business had been there in years.

Nick got out of the car and made his way into the factory, he walked softly into the middle of the plastic machines, when a voice called out.

"That's far enough Mr. Wilde." said the voice

Nick turned to the voice. The figure stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight peering through the factory windows and pointed a gun at Nick

It was a ferret, his long and lanky body wearing dark clothes, the kind Nick has worn before for jobs, not these kinds of jobs, but this ferret was fellow criminal.

"Alright, I'm here, I got what you want." started Nick

"Alright, then slide it over to me." replied the ferret

"I want to see Judy, make sure she's still alright" requested Nick.

"Fair enough." The figure hit a button on a remote and the machine sprang to life.

Judy was strapped down to a plastic mold, her arms bound around the elbows tight, and her legs just above the knees.

"You ok, Carrots?" Nick asked concerned.

"Oh, I'm ok, I just love hanging around old plastic factories in the dead of night." Judy quipped for levity.

Nick smiled, he admired her bravery.

"Enough love birds, the merchandise?" demanded the figure.

Nick carefully reached into his pocket and pulled out the contents, a silver flash drive and showed it to the ferret.

"Alright, give it to me."

Nick took a step towards the figure, when Judy called out.

"Don't give it to him Nick, that's what this whole thing is about, it wasn't about you, I'm sorry."

Nick paused for a bit and looked at Judy then back at the figure.

"Mr. Wilde, if you don't give me that drive, I will hit this button and turn your girlfriend into a chocolate covered bunny. Now don't try my patience sir." said the ferret.

Nick considered his options, and started towards him again.

"Nick don't, he'll kill us both anyway." pleaded Judy.

"I've got to, Carrots, I've got to." assured Nick.

Nick got close to the ferret and gave him the flash drive.

"Now let her go." Demanded Nick

"You should have listened to her." said the ferret then hit the button.

The machine started and Judy was being lowered towards the liquid plastic, she screamed when the hatch opened. Within seconds she disappeared from view.

Because Nick was only being illuminated from the upper torso because of the windows of the factory, he was able to conceal the baseball bat from the failed job, with one motion he swung and hit the ferret's gun paw, and knocked it away, the ferret and Nick struggled for the bat.

The machine was slowly lowering Judy, she struggled against her bonds trying to free herself, she decided to do the only thing she could.

"Oh god I hate doing this." He winced.

Judy strained her neck to the left and pushed down hard on her left shoulder, while flexing the muscle against itself, she heard the pop of her shoulder, it gave way and dislocated, she way able to twist it unnaturally and her elbow was able to bend away from her body.

"Ow, ow, ow" she grunted at she twisted it, she was able to free her shoulder, and the excess slack made it easy to undo her top restraints. She used her right arm to twist it back into place.

"Ahh!" she called out in pain when it snapped back into place.

She freed her feet and quickly climbed out of the ramp, rolling onto the catwalk.

---

Meanwhile

Nick had finally freed the bat from the ferret's grasp; he reeled back and hit him in the head, hard enough to knock him out cold. Nick quickly scampered for the control and hit the 'Stop' button, however it was too late the machine finished its cycle and a brown lump of plastic came spilling out of the output ramp, the machine started spinning down.

"No, no no no no." Nick tried to grab the plastic but it was still hot to the touch.

"Oh my god, Judy!, No!" Nick started to tear up.

Nick feel to his knees and was trying to process what he was seeing, he had just watch his friend die. No, more than that, Nick realized, she was more than that, immediately Nick started to regret, all the chances he had, that he wasted.

Nick pleaded to himself through his tears.

"Please don't leave me. Please."

---

Meanwhile

Judy finally made it to ground level, she saw Nick on his knees in front of a plastic lump.

"Ya know, it's not real chocolate." She quipped.

Nick spun around and saw Judy standing their unharmed; he raced over to her and picked her up, hugging her.

"Oh my god, oh my god." Nick so happy that Judy was OK.

He looked at her, his heart beating fast.

"Don't scare me like that again." said Nick petting her head.

Judy was a bit confused by Nick's affections.

"Come on Nick, don't be like that." She batted at him, keeping him at emotional distance.

Nick suddenly had a thought, a realization and immediately put his guard up.

"You're right; we got to get out of here."

Judy turned around and looked for the ferret, he was gone, leaving behind her dropped cell phone, which she recovered off the floor but no flashdrive.

"No, NO!" Judy exclaimed.

Nick grabbed Judy's paw and immediately took her out of there, they made their way to the car and got in, Nick started it and drove out of their as fast as he can.

"Nick we got to find this ferret, that thing is important. I heard him talking to someone on the phone."

"No we don't." replied Nick with a sly smile.

"Yes, we do!" Judy pleaded.

"No we don't." replied Nick with his smile even bigger and pulling out the silver flash drive.

"Wait, what, How did you?" responded Judy confused.

"The paw is quicker than the eye." said Nick trying to sound impressive.

"No you didn't, you gave him a fake." She quipped

"Ok, you're right." Admitted Nick "…And I will miss those Gazelle songs." Said Nick with a sigh.

"We need to find out why these people want this thing." stated Judy.

"We need to lay low for a while, get off the street, we also need to ditch this car. We're going to Finnick's."

The sun was coming up, dawning a new day, it had been a long night, and they needed answers. Nick made his way to Finnick's place.

---

Chapter 4: Unforeseen Consequences

It was mid-morning, Nick and Judy finally arrived at Finnick's place and knocked on the door, it swung open ominously. At first they were initially wary, but they stepped in slowly and carefully.

"Finnick?" Nick called out.

No answer, they crept into Finnick's living room, it was trashed, and the place a mess, but nothing was taken, in fact mostly broken. They looked around; even the trash had been tossed.

"Finnick?" called out Nick again.

Nick went over to the stair case and looked underneath it, as Nick stood back up the sound of a shotgun slider chambering a round and the cold metal of the barrel jammed against Nick's head caused him to freeze. Judy spun around and pointed her weapon at the sound.

"Don't even breathe or you're dead" said the deep voice.

"Don't worry I won't" replied Nick.

Nick thought about the voice for a moment, it sounded familiar.

"Finnick is that you?" asked Nick

"Nick? Damn!" replied the voice.

Finnick climbed out of the box that was on the stairway and come down stairs, quickly closing the blinds.

"I knew this had to be about you." accused Finnick.

"What?" asked Nick confused?

"I take it you haven't been watching the news lately?"

"Haven't exactly had the time, been kind of on the run." mocked Nick

"Then why the hell did you come back here?"

"I uh, need some supplies…and to borrow a car." Nick answered reluctantly.

"Of course you do." said Finnick annoyed.

"Look while you boys, figure that out, I need to check in, do you have a phone, Finnick?" asked Judy

"Check in, with who?" asked Finnick with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, with ZPD, another precinct, let them know there are survivors." replied Judy.

"I wouldn't do that, just don't move, you REALLY need to see this then." replied Finnick holding up a paw

Finnick went over to his TV and propped it back up, he turned it on, the screen cracked but still working, changing stationed he turned on the news

"And this morning's top story, the ZPD police department, now being called the "ZPD Massacre" has had a breaking development; police are saying to be on the lookout for this Fox: Nicholas Wilde, now thought to be connected with the events of the police station attack. Nicholas Wilde was a former Zootopian Police Officer who was terminated 6 months ago after his previously undiscovered criminal record came to light."

The News report showed Nick's recruitment photo of him in uniform.

"In this footage obtained by ZTV, we can clearly see Nick Wilde going into the evidence vault area of the ZPD to help plant the bombs that claimed the lives of at least 47 police officers. He leaves and according to analysts, uses the device in his paws to program the bombs."

The news showed footage of Nick entering the evidence vault and subsequently walked out of the room and pulling out his phone and typing on it.

Nick turned to Judy who was still focusing on the TV screen as her picture comes up on screen.

"Police are also on the lookout for Wilde's known associate Officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD. Police are urging that you do not attempt to approach them, and they should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Again, Nicholas Wilde and Officer Judy Hopps are being sought in connection to the recent bombing in downtown. We will update this bulletin as more develops."

Finnick, turns the TV off and looks back at the two.

"So? Like I asked before, why the hell did you come back to the city?" lamented Finnick.

Judy turned to Nick who was horrified, and worried, Nick walked over to Judy.

"Judy, I swear, I swear, I had nothing to do with it." He pleaded

"Of course Nick, of course it's a lie, they make no mention of the armed soldiers, or the fact that police officers were shot, it's a lie." explained Judy

"Why?" asked Nick.

"Well of obviously to discredit us, I mean if we were to go to the remaining ZPD and tell them that almost 50 cops were killed by armed black ops soldiers they would…." Explained Judy

"Think we were crazy, Judy." interrupted Nick

"Why?" she asked.

"Because that kind of thing just doesn't happen." answered Finnick.

Nick nodded in agreement.

"Exactly, they would say it was a gang hit or a terrorist attack or something, anything but what it really was." continued Nick.

"What happened here Finnick?" asked Nick.

"Guys dressed as SWAT came here looking for you." Replied Finnick.

"Guys dressed as SWAT, you mean police, right Finnick?" asked Judy.

"Not unless, the ZPD SWAT is rolling around in executive suburbans, with foreign made weapons, and moreover, when SWAT is looking for a person, they don't start tossing the place like as if they are looking for someTHING." replied Finnick.

Nick and Judy looked at each other and realized.

"The flashdrive!" they exclaimed together.

Nick pulled out the drive from his pocket and held it in his paw.

"It's this damn thing, they want it bad." said Nick

"We have to find out what's on the thing." Judy stated.

Nick nodded in agreement; he picked up a small ball-chain from the broken lamp on the floor, took off the end piece looped it through the flashdrive's eyelet and closed the chain into a loop, he walked over to Judy and placed the makeshift necklace on Judy

"I think this will be safer with you." said Nick

Judy tucked it into her shirt to conceal it.

"Hey, Nick, you think the trio could handle this?" asked Finnick

Nick stood silent like he just got found out again. Judy noticed this and immediately inquired.

"Who are the trio?" she asked with a steely eye leveled at Nick

"Oh, they are just some really good computer experts that I know." Nick replied with a nervous smile.

"And?" pressured Judy

Nick breathed a sigh and just admitted "And, they are guys I sometimes go to for more complicated jobs, like security systems and things like that."

Judy sighed and shook her head.

"Nick…..let's just go"

Finnick, grabbed the keys to his van and threw them at Nick, he caught them, fumbled then recovered.

"Finnick…..your van?" he asked puzzled

"Take it foxy, in fact take whatever the heck you want. I'm getting the hell out of here." lamented Finnick

"Why?" asked Nick.

"Look foxy, not to sound insulting, but you ain't exactly safe to be around right now, and I don't want to be within 10 miles of you, face it Nick, everything around you lately seems to turn to crap when you're involved, I'll live a lot longer if I just get off this ride right here." explained Finnick

Finnick, went upstairs and grabbed a bug-out bag.

"This is what I came back for, when you two showed up."

Finnick grabbed the rest of this stuff, plus his shot gun and left out his back door, leaving Nick and Judy in silence.

Nick couldn't blame him, he was right; Nick seemed to be having bad break after bad break. He was genuinely hurt by the implications of what Finnick meant. Lately it seems every time he tries to change the status quo, he trips up. And this is something he doesn't want to trip up on if given the chance. He shook his head out of it, and turned to Judy.

"Ok, Carrots, we got to make our way there, and we can't take the highways, so this is going to take a while."

Judy nodded, and looked at Nick, so much grief written on his face, she felt bad for him, she wanted to let him know, but this wasn't the time or the place. She snapped out of her thoughts.

"Right, let's get going."

Judy and Nick grabbed some food from Finnick's fridge, couple bottles of water. Nick reached under the kitchen table and pulled out a gun that Finnick had put there, he counted the ammo to make sure it was full. Judy stunned looked at Nick.

"And just who are you expecting to be using that on?" asked Judy, knowing that it was police looking for them, almost not wanting to hear the answer.

Nick looked at Judy with a sullen look

"Anyone who tries to hurt us." replied Nick with conviction as the slide snapped forward with a loud click''.

They leave and started the van, It began to rain as they left for the "trio's" house in the rainforest district.

---

Chapter 5: Like A Bolt From The Blue

Nick and Judy were in the rainforest district finally, NIck had said very little most of the day, Judy would look at him, see a tired look on his face, they hadn't slept in what seemed like forever, and the constant fear of being stopped by police was ever present in their minds.

"So where are we going exactly?" asked Judy.

"We are going to these mammals I know, they call themselves "the trio" they are a bunch of guys I know, ya' know computer guys. You get it when you see them." replied Nick

"You think they will be able to find out what's on this thing?" asked Judy

"If anyone can they will." replied Nick.

They finally arrive near a natural wooden house on a hill in the rainforest district overlooking the city center of Zootopia. It was night, it had rained hard all day, Judy and Nick were exhausted trying to stay one step ahead of the police and any wanna-be vigilante looking to dish out street justice on them.

They pile out of the car and approach the door, there are clearly very visible and multiple cameras mounted on the porch. Nick buzzes the doorbell

"This is private property. No solicitors. " called out a voice over the nearby intercom speaker.

Nick leans towards the speak and presses the transmit button

"Let me in, it's Nick." He says, and then releases the button.

"Nick who?" asks the voice.

"Nick Wilde." Nick replies back.

There was a silence for a moment then the voice responds "eh, Never heard of him."

"Just let me in, Langley!" shouts Nick into the intercom.

"Hang on." Replies the voice annoyed

A few moments pass and the sound of a lock being opened, then another, and another, down the length of the door, the door flies open with a Otter looking suspiciously through the screen door at Nick, then at Judy, then at Nick again and leans closer to the screen, Nick gets closer.

"Who's the girl?" asked the Otter.

"That's Officer Judy Hopps." replied Judy.

The otter looks back at Nick.

"Eh, She's with me, you can trust her." replies Nick.

"Hmm, whatever. Come in" Replies the otter.

He opens the screen and let's Nick and Judy in, the otter takes a paranoid scan of the road in front of the house and closes the door, and proceeds to relock the door back up and escorts them into the main room.

"By the way, I wouldn't go shouting your name like that in this neighborhood." advised the Otter.

"Be careful about waving the cop thing, they don't exactly 'trust' authority figures" whispered Nick to Judy

"Um, OK." she whispered back

They approached a huge pile of networked computers, with three stations at different points of the stack, each workstation littered with empty soda or beer cans, half eaten candy and other items each member of the trio has at their respective position.

"Hey there, I was wondering when you were getting around to us again, Nick" said a voice from a chair in front of a computer. The chair spins around to reveal a conservatively dressed and trimmed Koala.

"Hello Ms?"

"Judy Hopps" introduced Judy respectfully.

"Ah, pleasure to make your acquaintance, I'm John Baers, the jackel over in the corner there is Melvin Cronkite, and the tall lanky drink of water over there is Tim Langley." said the koala, introducing himself and his team, each person waving a paw as they were introduced.

"Pleased to meet you." She friendly replied

"Nick, Nick, Nick, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" chided Baers.

"Well we got this thing, and well Judy, you better explain it." offering Judy to finish.

"Well, I made a bust of this smuggler, yesterday and we confiscated his belongings as evidence, only a few hours later, the police station is attacked, then I'm rabbit-napped and it's all about this stupid flashdrive." Explained Judy, showing the aforementioned flash drive to the trio.

"They want this thing and are willing to murder a whole police station to get it." continued Judy.

"Hmm" replied Baers intrigued

"We can certainly try to access it. May I" asked Baers offering his paw.

Judy carefully took off the drive from around her neck and placed it in Baers paw.

Baers spun around and addressed his teammates.

"Melvin, set up an insulated session, I don't want any tracking software to get out, Tim , you're on Heuristics, keep an eye out in case we got countermeasures."

The trio got to work on setting up the security to get ready to try and look at this thing, Baers waited for each member to signal his readiness, and then Baers took off the cap and inserted the drive into a USB slot.

Nothing seemed to happen, so Baers brought up a terminal screen and began sending commands at the drive, nothing at first, but then, a plethora of output filling up the screen.

"Woah ho, what do we have here?" inquired Baers

"It looks like Mil-Spec encryption." commented Melvin

"I am seeing an elliptic curve cypher." Stated Tim.

"My, my, what secrets do you hide I wonder" commented Baers.

A few minutes went by then 10 minutes then 20, the trio was trying every trick they could think of to read the drive.

Judy looking over John's shoulder trying to understand the data on the drive they brought with them, it was spitting out massive amounts of number sequences onto his screen. Nick was standing over by the back patio door contemplating recent events. The rain had stopped with drops of water dripping occasionally off the limbs of the apple tree outside.

"Hey, I need to get some air, I'll be outside." said Nick

"Just do me a favor don't get spotted, last thing I need is SWAT kicking down my door, and I just got the place how I like it." replied Baers speaking past his shoulder yet still not taking his eyes off the screen, frantically typing, entering commands.

"Wow, you really have great focus." commented Judy.

"Practice and commitment, practice and commitment, right guys?!" shouted Baers

A pair of raised clutched paws from Baers other two comrades, with one replying "Power to the people." Baers chuckled under his breath

"That's Melvin, don't mind him."

Judy was about to speak, when Baers interrupted her, turning his head yet still keeping his eyes glued to the screen.

"Actually, this decryption is going to take a while, you might want to take a load off and relax, it might be your only chance, I don't know exactly what you have here, but it's feeling like some black ops top secret stuff, which means LOTs of security."

"Right. Good idea." replied Judy, she craned her head around and saw the patio door left cracked open, she walked over to it and looked outside, and she saw Nick sitting out under the tree. She slipped outside and walked over to him.

Nick without turning to look, he spoke over his shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Said Nick

"For what?" inquired Judy

"I'm sorry I lied, if I had just told you the truth to begin with, you wouldn't have been at the station. I should have…." He stopped himself and huffed in frustration.

Judy approached his left side and put her paw on his shoulder.

"Nick, these are some bad people, they need to be brought to justice regardless."

Nick turned his head to face her, "Forget justice, do you realize what could have happened today? What almost happened tonight!?" he said flustered.

"I know, we were in danger but….." she was interrupted by Nick

"But, nothing Judy, you could have died, and it would have been my fault."

"No Nick, it would have been their fault, these people are the ones that put us in that position." She tried to console Nick

Nick stood up and faced away from Judy. Judy paced quickly in front of him and held up her paws.

"Nick, what's important is that we do this together."

Nick looked down at Judy focusing on her eyes, his eyes welled with water.

"I can't lose you; I just can't, not after all of this."

Judy came to realize something else was bothering Nick, she narrowed her eyes and looked at him.

"Nick, talk to me, what's bothering you."

Nick clutched lightly at his chest, feeling as if a weight was pressing on him.

"When I saw you tied up and that guy had that machine running, I thought…..that he had killed you, I thought….I realized that there was something, something that I hadn't thought of before. I was too caught up in everything."

"Nick, you're not making any sense." replied Judy confused, shaking her head slightly

Nick calmed down and sat again, he took a deep breath and he accepted what it was that was on his mind. Judy sat next to him, and placed her paw on the side of his arm. Nicked looked at her, studied her for a second.

"I realized, that if that was the end for both of us, that I never told you how much you meant to me. How much you really mean to me."

Judy cracked a small smile.

"I realize that I care about you, and in that moment, I figured out how much, it wasn't till I thought I lost you that It finally hit me."

Nick hesitated, He was unsure of how to tell her, he was barely coming to grips with it himself, he sat and stood deeply into Judy's eyes, like a deer in headlights. Judy got closer, cupped his head into her paws, her eyes got big, as if realizing.

"Nick….what is it you trying to tell me?" she crooked her head askew.

"I….." Nick held back again.

"Nick…tell me, please." she softly whispered.

"I lo…I love you." said Nick finally letting it out.

Judy gasped slightly at Nick's reply, for a moment they stared at each other, Judy's heart fluttered, Nick completely defenseless, not sure of Judy's reaction, had he just ruined their friendship? He wondered. He was snapped out of that thought when Judy closed her eyes and leaned into him, wrapping her small arms around his neck and kissed him passionately on the lips. He wrapped his arms around her small frame, closing his eyes. They held that kiss for what seemed like forever, when they finally came up for breath.

The two slightly out of breath, Judy hugged Nick and whispered into his ear.

"I love you too." she whispered lovingly with tears welling in her eyes, her voice cracking.

"I wanted to tell you for so long, I wanted to say it, but I was so scared that…."

Nick pulled back and looked her in the eyes

"That I didn't feel the same way?" finished Nick.

She nodded ever so slightly.

"I didn't want to scare you off, to ruin our friendship." she replied

"You mean so much to me, that I would rather have you as a friend then not at all. But it was twisting me up, when I saw you with that vixen."

Nick stopped and thought about what she meant; Judy was referring to Nick's neighbor from several days ago.

"You mean Clara?" replied Nick slightly confused

"Uh huh." said Judy defenselessly.

Nick smiled softly and felt a bit silly, thinking about what happened, how Judy thought she was seeing, finally understanding how suggestive it would look out of context.

"She asked me to hook up her cable, she didn't know a thing about that sort of thing, and asked if I could help her."

Nick dried Judy's eye.

"I understand now, how it probably looked, and I'm so sorry. Is that why you've been angry at me?"

"Not angry, just hurt."

Nick hugged Judy and kissed her on the head. "No one could take your place Carrots. Nobody, you mean the world to me."

Nick and Judy looked into each other's eyes.

"You took away my pain, Judy, and I feel that finally I can heal, all because of you." He confessed.

Judy wiped her eyes, and smiled, her ears perked up almost beaming.

"…..and I will always, always be here for you, no matter what." smiled Nick back.

"You really mean that?" she asked.

"Always." said Nick with a sense of firm absolute, as if written in stone.

The two shared another kiss against the back drop of the Zootopian lights behind them, each had their paw cupped on the back of the other's head, eyes closed, enjoying the moment for all it's worth. The two could feel each other's hearts fluttering.

They broke their kiss and Nick put his forehead against hers.

"I know we are in trouble, and on the run from like, everybody, but part of me wants to just live in this moment forever." whispered Nick

"I know what you mean." whispered Judy with a smile.

They heard the sound of someone pacing, leaves crunching underfoot. It was Baers.

"Oh wow…I really don't mean to interrupt….whatever is going on, but we've finished the decryption and…you really need to see this."

Nick groaned.

"Do we really need to go inside?" asked Nick, with frustration.

"I know, and yes we do." replied Judy, she opened her eyes, kissed Nick on the nose and stood up to go inside.

"If we do it together, I know we can beat this." said Judy offering her paw to Nick.

Nick smiled and stood up to go in with Judy.

---

They walked inside and smiled at each other, so glad they had cleared things up but moreover, finally told each other how they felt.

They were still riding high on the moment, when the cold reality of where they were and what they were doing served to snap them out of it.

"Ok guys, I think I know the why, but more over the WHO." Stated Baers

Judy and Nick, were all ears, listening intently to the trio.

"Have you guys heard of the Tri-Animal Commission or the Council on Furry Relations? Even the Bilderbear group?" asked Baers.

Noticing puzzled expressions from Nick and Judy, Baers continued.

"Ahh, well, without going into too much back story, all those are front groups for a deeper more sinister group, they use whatever name that suits them but have you ever heard of the Illuminati?"

Nick perked up.

"Wait a sec, I've heard of that one, those are the guys that supposedly rule the world?" Nick replied.

"Close…..they are TRYING to rule the world, not quite there yet." replied Baers.

"Wait a second, really? That's just conspiracy nonsense, the stuff a bunch of guys made up to sell books." replied Judy with incredulity.

"No, they are real, and acting with intent every day. I know how it sounds Judy but they are real." replied Baers.

"You're right though, most people think it is nonsense, and have said a lot about those of us who have investigated them for years, we've sacrificed much, and for some us that get to close, everything." explained Baers.

Judy was still having trouble believing any of this.

"I don't know, I mean how could a group of people do this?"

"It's actually very easy, they hide in plain sight. I mean it's not like these people are nobodies or have secret identities. These people are usually powerful politicians, and businessmen, etcetera. They employ agents, who in turn work with other agents and so forth." explained Baers.

"Put it this way, If Mayor Lionheart hires someone to work for him, do YOU magically know who this person is, or what they do every day. Of course not, you don't think about it and neither do most people. We define our world by what we see every day, the people we talk to everyday, and the things we do…every day. We don't think about what some ground squirrel in Sahara Square is doing. And that's what these people are doing." persisted Baers.

"What does that have to do with us though?" asked Nick?

"Because you have a key." replied Melvin.

Judy and Nick turned to look at Melvin

"A key?" puzzled Judy and Nick.

"This drive contains the cryptographic cypher keys to a computer database." explained Melvin

"This key will allow you read, the files from the computer system this thing comes from, it will allow you to decrypt and unlock the files." said Baers

"And why would we want to do that?" asked Nick

"So we can have proof." replied Judy.

Judy was finally putting the pieces together.

"Samir was into something, something MUCH bigger than simple drugs and guns, he was working for these Illuminati guys, as an agent or something, and he had this key, that access their files. Whatever these files are, I'm sure they don't want anyone to be able to read them, so they encrypted them, and with this key, we can find proof, that they exist, and proof of whatever crimes they are guilty of, proof we can use to bring them to justice." Judy said with conviction

"What!? Are you crazy, Judy?" replied Nick, completely flabbergasted.

"These people almost killed us, they got guns, and soldiers, and kidnappers, and who knows what else. We got you and me, and maybe the trio." said Nick.

"Nick, we have to do something, we can't just let them get away with what they've done." replied Judy.

"Yeah but for that we would need, guns, ammo, I don't know, maybe a friggin' tank." chided Nick

The lights suddenly flickered, and the rain outside started again with a thunder crack.

"Maybe an army" said a voice.

The lights came back on, and there stood a Fox, in a black trench coat.

The trio, Nick and Judy all froze; wondering had the bad guys caught up with them.

The figure chuckled "You all look as though someone drove over you tails."

"Who the heck are you dude!?" demanded Tim.

The figure put a paw up calmly

"The name is Kaiden, and I have been looking all over for you, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. You two are certainly hard to catch up to." replied the fox

"What for?" replied Nick suspiciously, slowly sliding Judy behind him.

"I represent one of the last vestiges of people dedicated to wiping out corruption and tyranny in the world. A group not corrupted by the likes of the Illuminati or anyone else."

"Why's that?" asked Baers.

"Because nobody knows we exist." replied the fox

"So who are you, really?" asked Judy, peering out from behind Nick.

"I work for an agency that operates in secret; we move in the shadows, we live in the dark, remembered only as rumor, distant dreams and Déjà vu. Most people never know our name, because most people never know we were there."

"We are Bureau 13."

---

Chapter 6: Puppetmaster

Zootopia, Downtown District, 7 Months ago.

Officer Nick Wilde was standing next to the squad car waiting for his newly assigned partner to come out of the station, still very self-conscious, he was fingering the P.O. pins on his color, he smiled to himself. Judy comes walking out of the station and up to Nick.

"Look like we got our patrol assigned, shall we go…..partner." she jibbed, jabbing Nick with her elbow with an enthusiastic smile on her face.

Nick smiled and chuckled to himself

"Well we better get started, don't want to get in trouble first week, ya know" replied Nick

The duo got in the squad car, Judy driving; she started the car and looked over at Nick, looking at him in his fresh uniform. Nick caught her stare.

"What?" he nervously chuckled.

"Nothing….you just look good in that." she smiled.

Judy turned back to the steering wheel, backing out of the space and got on the road.

Nearby in a white sedan, was a weasel who was watching them, his cell phone rang, answering it the call went into his Bluetooth.

"Yes?" asked the weasel

"Did you get it?" inquired the voice over the phone.

The weasel was going through a file download on his phone, scanned pages of text, swiping until he got to a file photo of Nick Wilde, his recruitment picture.

"Yes, I'm going through it right now." Replied the weasel.

"So how do you want to handle this? Do you think he will work with us?" asked the voice.

"I will handle this how I always do, with my own discretion. And to answer you other question, I don't know honestly." chided the weasel

"I don't need to tell you how important this is, we need someone in the police station, someone we can rely on, but more over someone WE can control. You told us that this was the fox."

"I said might be, MIGHT BE, this fox." replied the weasel

"He seems to be taking this whole new leaf thing seriously." said the voice concerned.

"It's alright, everyone has a weak spot, some place they don't realize." replied the weasel with a smirk

"Do you think you can find it?" inquired the voice

"I always do, I just need to use two things, and it always works." stated the weasel

"And that is?" asked the voice

"The right kind of pressure…..And time." The weasel chuckled.

The weasel started his car, when Judy and Nick pulled out and followed the pair's squad car.

---

Meanwhile…

Judy and Nick were following their patrol route, looking around, and keeping one ear listening to the radio, which would occasionally have chatter bleep out over it.

"So this is it, then huh" joked Nick, tapping his knees.

"Oh, don't worry, it's still morning, just wait, even criminals have to get morning coffee." Judy joked back.

Sure enough, several calls came in to which the partners responded, they were mostly the reluctant calls that the more serious officers would scoff at, however they took them in stride. Judy's boundless enthusiasm inspired Nick to be steadfast, and reminded himself that it was only his first day.

Judy and Nick decided to take lunch at the sandwich place near the end of their patrol route, they were sitting at a time near the glass, Nick chose the spot because he knows Judy liked to watch the cars and people walking by doing their lives.

Nearby, across the street parked on the curb was a white sedan, the weasel inside who had been following them and watching, and set a small device against the dash of the car, pointed towards Judy and Nick, he put on head phones and connected it to the device, it was a maser microphone, he moved and adjusted the box until he could pick up on their conversation.

Meanwhile back in the sandwich shop.

"So what do you think of your first day so far?" asked Judy

"It's not entirely what I was expecting." Replied Nick with a smirk.

"Let me guess, you thought it was going to be non-stop chasing bad buys and kicking butt, right." replied Judy before taking a bite of her lunch.

"Yeah, I guess, I don't know what I was expecting really, but I'm glad to be finally here." Nick smiled.

"I'm glad. To be honest, I wouldn't be as uh…..enthusiastic if it was anyone else." replied Judy, tugging at her ear nervously.

Judy and Nick continued their lunch, Nick would say something funny, Judy would laugh, placing her paw in front of her face from accidently spitting. Across the way the weasel listening into the conversation was making notes on a yellow note pad, on it were notes about Nick's personality, and notes from his files sent to the weasel. He had written 'Money? Ideology? Compromise? Ego?'

As the weasel was observing them he understood, Nick's clear affinity for Judy

"So, that's how it is." He whispered to himself, smiling a sinister grin, as he wrote 'Judy Hopps' and circled it.

The weasel placed a phone call to 'the voice' from before.

"This is him." said the voice.

"I need more info, everything you know about an Officer Judy Hopps. Psych profile too. I have an idea." smiled the weasel with mirth.

---

A week later….

Nick was on an off day and sitting out at one of his old haunts, waiting for Finnick to show up and hang out like old times.

Nick was relaxing having a drink checking his phone, updating his status on social media, and checking text messages from Judy. When a red haired marten took up the stool next to him and ordered a drink.

The bartender gave the marten a drink, he took a refreshing swig of the cold glass of beer.

"Mmm, tastes refreshing don't it." Asked the marten to Nick

Nick looked up from his phone and looked left and right, then at the marten.

"You talking to me?" asked Nick

"Oh yes, m'boy, I was asking it tastes refreshing doesn't it." He asked again, pointing to his beer.

"It's good, I guess." replied Nick

"Well, it's funny though, how something that is so bad can then seem so good." Said the marten, taking another drink

Nick was starting to get a little weirded out by this, so he looked back forward.

"Yet the funny thing is, if it's bad for you then why do people drink it, because it feels good, feels right. But does that make it good? Or is it just bad disguised as a good thing?"

Nick was realizing that this marten was using the beer as a metaphor. Nick turned to the marten and looked him.

"What's your point?" asked nick annoyed.

"What I'm saying m'boy is that we can convince ourselves something is what it isn't, but it doesn't change the fact, it is what it is. Just because we say we are good, doesn't change the fact we were made bad." slyly smiled the Marten.

"What do you want?" demanded Nick

"To offer you a job m'boy." answered the marten

"I don't do that anymore." dismissed Nick

"Really?" said the Marten with an elongated Y.

"Yeah, really, I've moved on from that life, I got a better one." Replied Nick

"Better really? How so." Asked the Marten

"None of your business." spat Nick

"Well it must pay better, then what I'm offering." replied the character, taking a drink from his mug.

"I don't care." Replied nick now annoyed.

"Ya know it's a funny thing about the world, there are those of us who so desperately want to make things better, yet they don't even know how to start."

Nick looked the marten with a raised eyebrow.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Who am I? The question 'Who?' follows the function of what, and what I am is a messenger, a inquisitor of sorts."

"You still didn't answer my question."

"To wit, and true, but why should I tell you, it gains you nothing but puts me at a disadvantage, because words have meaning and names have power. If I told you make name is Roger Conners, what does that get you?"

"It'll be the name I put on my police report when I arrest you."

The marten guffaws out loud. "For what? Sitting here in this establishment enjoying a cold refreshment, with my fellow blue collar citizens. What crime is there in that?" explains the marten

"And more ever, on what authority do you claim to have over me, as but a fellow citizen?" slyly insinuates the marten

"I am a cop, actually" retorted Nick.

The marten with locked expression and gaze, slaps down an open folder on the bar in front of Nick

"No you are not, you're a criminal." whispers the marten.

Nick looks down at the record with an old picture of him on it. He looks back at the marten who suddenly got nose to nose with him.

"And you seem to have forgotten that, Nick Wilde, you forgot who you really are, masquerading around as some champion of truth and justice, when in reality you just a lie, a fraud, a corrupt influence, just like all those you and the rabbit profess against."

Nick incensed pushed the marten back "You leave her out of this." Nick hissed.

"Then take my offer. Besides, working with me, you will change the world in a much more fundamental way then you ever would as a lowly police officer."

"Screw you." Replied Nick, as he put some money on the bar to cover his tab, and got up.

Nick got up and began to walk away the marten grabbed his arm, he looked up and spoke at him

"You will come to see things more clearly, Nick…..eventually." smiled the marten.

"You want to keep that paw?" asked Nick, glancing at the paw grabbing him.

The marten casually released Nick's arm, and let Nick walk away

"You'll only hurt yourself m'boy, you'll only hurt yourself." Said the marten.

Nick walked out and away from the bar and back home, the marten was finishing his mug and requested another one when a short tan fox walked into the bar, the marten may have appeared to be fixated on his beverage but in fact was aware of everything around him.

The small tan fox went up to the bartender, who was at the other end of the bar.

"Hey Garry, you seen Nick? He told me he was coming here." Said the small fox with deep voice.

"He was here a while ago." replied the bartender

"Thanks Garry." replied the small fox

The small tan fox was turning to leave when the marten turned to him.

"Are you a friend to Nick Wilde, young squire?" said the marten with a sly smile on his face.

The small fox came up the marten and looked up.

"What's it to you?" asked the tan fox.

The marten patted the seat next to him

"What's your name m'boy?" asked the marten

The small fox clambered up onto the stool.

"The name is Finnick." Replied the fox.

The marten smiled a grin, as if arriving upon a jackpot of circumstance. He took another drink from his mug and turned to the Fennec fox.

"Would you be interested in a job, m'boy?" asked the marten with a sly smile.

---

3 Weeks Later…

Judy and Nick were out on patrol, having gotten into the rhythm of their route, they had made their first arrest together earlier that week, Judy decided to let Nick drive and Nick was certainly enjoying himself cruising around in the squad car.

"Car 23, Car 23, come in. What's your 20, over?" squawked the radio.

Judy grabbed the radio and responded back

"20 is Sahara Square, over?" replied Judy

"Chief requests 10-19, over." said dispatch.

Nick looks at Judy, a bit puzzled, he hadn't quite memorized all the 10 codes

"What's that?" asked Nick

"Return to station." She replied to Nick.

"And that's on the double, over." Said Dispatch.

"10-4" replied Judy to dispatch

"Ok Nick, back to the station." she said confused

Nick turned the car around and headed back to the ZPD, he parked and they both got out and walked into the building. They were making their way in when the desk sergeant flagged them down.

"Hey guys, you're to report to the chief, as soon as he done with the commissioner." said the desk sergeant.

"What happened?" asked Judy

"Something about impropriety or something." replied the desk sergeant.

Judy and Nick walked over to the waiting chairs outside of Bogos office; there was a lot of yelling, mainly from the Lion Commissioner to Chief Bogo, but Bogo speaking as well. The police secretary waited for a break in the conversation to knock on the door, she opened it just a tad and spoke to the occupants of the office.

"Excuse me, but they are here." Informed the secretary.

"Get 'em in here" yelled the commissioner.

The secretary ushered them into the office and closed the door, they could feel the heat of hot breath in the room, a lot of talking and yelling had happened. Judy and Nick stood in front of the desk at attention, with as blank expressions as they could muster.

The Lion commissioner took a breath as if to calm down, and spoke.

"Ya' know, I could even have YOUR badge for this too, Bogo."

"I understand, sir and if you feel that's necessary…." replied Bogo

"Shut it, just get it over with." Interrupted the commissioner.

"Judy, Nick, this is Commissioner O'Donnell and it's come to his attention of an improper circumstance."

Judy and Nick looked at Bogo concerned, still not understanding what's going on.

"Nick Wilde, it has come to the attention of the commissioner's office, that you in fact have a previous criminal record, and as such, bars you from participating in police service."

Nick's eyes go wide, as if crushed by a boulder, Judy shocked and confused looks at Nick.

"For the sake of truth and candor, I knew about it and put forth your application anyway, I felt that your desire was more representative of your integrity then your previous record, I was willing to look past it, the commission however has not."

"I'm sorry to tell you this son, but, you have to turn in your badge and gun…..your fired." reluctantly said Bogo

Nick was crushed by those words, he clutched his badge, his tail and ears drooped. Judy came out of her shock and placed a paw on his shoulder.

"There's got to be something you can do, sir." pleaded Judy.

"You need to keep your trap shut, missy, I could have your badge too." Snapped the commissioner.

Nick snapped out of his funk and pleaded "No, she has nothing to do with it, sir, don' take it out on her."

The commissioner leaned down and stared Nick in the face, as if putting him under a very uncomfortable microscope.

"Now you listen here you stupid fox, I could technically throw you in jail for what you've done, in fact I should, your partner, kicked off the force for KNOWINGLY working with a criminal, and Bogo knocked down a couple ranks for covering for you." explained the commissioner.

"Now the reason why I don't, is I don't want to deal with the subsequent media circus that would result, the news would have a flapping field day with this, asking questions I don't want to answer, like how did a convicted criminal be allowed to become a police officer. So for the sake of not embarrassing this commission and this administration, I'm not going to prosecute you, I'm not going to punish your partner OR Chief Bogo, but I want you gone, and I mean TODAY!" continued the commissioner.

"And if you decide to make an issue of this, I will find the deepest hole I can find and put you in it, your partner won't even be able to get a job as a mall cop, and Bogo, well Bogo will be put on administrative duty for the rest of his career, you GET me?"

"Yes, sir" replied Nick, his voice trembling.

"Badge, Gun." said the commissioner offering his paw.

Nick reluctantly took off his badge and his gun and holster and placed it in the commissioner's paw

"And go take off that uniform. Dis-missed." Finished the commissioner.

Nick went to the door and opened it, he looked back at Judy, Judy looked back at Nick, they stared at each other for a moment.

"Get the fuck out of here!" screamed the commissioner, shattering their moment.

Nick leaves and rushed to the locker room, quickly changing out of his uniform and into his street clothes, he grabs the picture of him and Judy at his graduation and stuffs it in his duffle bag. Without a word Nick rushes out the police station and to his car. Judy comes bolting out looking around for him, she sees him and runs after him

"Nick!" she calls out.

He gets in his car, turns it on and backs out to leave.

"Nick, wait a minute!" she calls out again, running after him.

Without a word he drives away, too embarrassed to face Judy.

"Nick, come…back." She calls out, as she comes to a stop and watches him drive away.

As she watches him round the corner and disappear from view, her nose twitches, face trembles, and the tears begin to run.

---

Later….

In an expensive flat in the city center, a figure is sitting in a chair near a window; the venetian blinds partially opened cutting a series of lines across the floor and room of sunlight. Nearby a desk and vanity, with different fur dyes, and make up, male wigs and extensions, cosmetic prosthetics, there is a label on one set that says "marten" and another that says "ferret".

The figure is a weasel sitting in the chair, his phone rings and he picks it up.

"Yes." says the weasel.

"Is this Sid Ridgeway?" asks the voice on the phone.

"Is it done?" replies Sid.

"Yes, I did what you said, I took the folder directly to the commissioner." answered the voice

"And?"

"And I just heard the Fox was just fired. I did what you asked, now please tell your goons to let my wife go." pleaded the voice on the phone.

"You have kept you end of the bargain, and as promised I shall reunite you with your wife, I always keep my promises, my men shall be there shortly." Sid answered

Sid hung up with the voice and called his 'goons'.

"Our friend in the commissioner's office, he has performed his task. We are now through with them. Yes, and dispose of the bodies in the usual way. Thank you." ordered Sid.

Sid hung up the phone again, and let it sit on his chair's arm, holding his paw over it, as if waiting for it to ring. After about half a minute it rang.

"This is Ridgeway." Answered Sid.

"What happened? We just heard that the asset is spoiled, has he really been terminated from his position?" inquired the voice

"Yes he has, and before you ask, yes I am responsible." replied Sid

"What? Why! We needed an asset in the ZPD!" angrily said the voice.

"I have determined that Nick Wilde's value can far extend beyond a simple operative level, his skills and intelligence make for prime material to be made a full-fledged agent of the organization, maybe even something the benefactors could consider."

"It will require playing the long game, Nick still believes that he is something that he is not, and it will take some time to bring him around to our way of thinking."

"Just let our benefactors know that, yes while it is a gamble, I think could be a great boon to our organization."

"I sense a catch." inquired the voice.

"Yes, we will have to remove one obstacle; part of his reluctance to embrace his true self is due because of his affinity for this….Judy Hopps" replied Sid.

"So what are you going to do?" asked the voice.

"Simple…remove the obstacle." replied Sid.

Sid hung up the phone, and looked through the blinds at the city outside.

"Yes Nick Wilde, you WILL embrace your true self." smiled the weasel sinisterly, letting out a resounding chuckle.

---

Chapter 7: Bureau 13

Zootopia, Present, After leaving the trio's house

A non-descript van was driving away from the city to the outskirts of the rain forest district nearing the mountains, the brush was minimally maintained out here, since no one lived in this area, the over growth was everywhere.

Inside the van Kaiden was in the back chatting with Judy and Nick, the van being driven by a wolf, a specimen of a wolf, he was tall, muscular, even his coat was perpetually shiny.

"So I guess first off introductions, Judy, Nick, my wolf compatriot here is Kit Ballenger. Kit, this is Judy and Nick, the unlucky pair who got involved."

"Hey-o. Yes that's how it always happens." replied Kit with a two fingered salute, then went back to driving.

"Are John and the others going to be alright?" Asked Judy

"They should be fine, but I'm having someone watch them to make sure." replied Kaiden

"Where are we going?" inquired Nick

"To Bureau 13's HQ, we have to keep it off the grid and away from prying eyes, for obvious reasons." replied Kaiden

Nick noticed that Kaiden had not taken off his coat even when he entered the van and was in fact covered from head to toe with thick clothing except his head and his paws, his paws were not normal paws, they seemed to be almost metallic or even actual metal.

"So, what's with the paws?" pointed Nick

Judy smacked him "Don't ask that, it's rude." She chided Nick

"You mean you noticed? And didn't say anything." asked Nick back.

Judy just smiled nervously rather than answer the question.

"It's ok, I was going to explain anyway." replied Kaiden.

Kaiden rolled up the sleeve to his arm and revealed that it was a cybernetic prosthesis.

"Bureau 13 is comprised of an all-volunteer force, you can't be assigned, you have to be picked. A lot of us signed on because these Illuminati have let's just say, got involved in our lives for one reason or another." Explained Kaiden, shooting a glance up to Kit, Kit looking back in the rear view back at Kaiden when he said "that they got involved."

"So many of us, have seen A LOT of combat, and seriously injured, I would even say catastrophically injured for some of us. So B13 used modern medical science to give us back what regular doctors can't fix."

"But that's impossible." stated Nick

Kaiden raised an eyebrow, as if puzzled.

"How? I'm sitting right here." He replied.

"Because I've seen people injured, and even handicapped and I've never seen anyone walking around with what you have." replied Nick.

"Let me ask you something, you think the technology you have, in say, your smartphone, you think that is state of the art?" replied Kaiden pointing at Nick.

"Well, it's fairly advanced." Replied Nick.

"Let me tell you something, when it comes to government or black ops stuff, they are at LEAST 10 years ahead maybe more, so the stuff that you see filtering down to the consumer level, is old tech by our standards, you think it's new and fancy, for us, old hat." Explained Kaiden.

"So what you're seeing here is technology that, short of a full blown upset in society, you won't see 'walking around' for at least 10 years. Course, I will admit, even our stuff is advanced for the tech, combat chassis, and high speed servos, wouldn't help fighting if it can't move fast and hit hard."

"You'll get used to seeing it around the compound, when we are out and about we try to maintain the sense of still being natural with a lot of covering clothes and even, fake fur coverings when needed, but those things are seriously annoying, so when we are at base, we wear normal clothes, short sleeves, shorts, etc. So you will just have to get used to it." warned Kaiden

"Oh don't worry, everything will be fine." replied Judy, gripping Nicks mouth shut to keep him from commenting.

"We're here" called out Kit.

Kit pulled into a covered parking, which was made to look like natural formation on it's roof. The group piled out of the van and went inside the small structure, it looked like any old decrepit workshop, or garage, except the elevator at the back of the place. The work shop had dust, and the occasional cobwebs, it hadn't looked like anyone had been there in years, which was probably the look they were going for.

When they stepped into the elevator, which seemed maintained, dust free, they started descending.

"By the way, and ironically, as far as the compound is concerned, don't expect much, it LITERALLY is a concrete bunker with carpet."

As they were descending, Judy and Nick's ears popped, they must of done down 10 stories at least. The elevator stopped and they stepped out into a small hallway. They approached the security checkpoint; Kaiden looked into the nearby scanner, scanning his eyes. It flashed green and displayed "Access Granted" on the nearby screen.

"Go on in Agent, Talmadge is expecting you" said the guard.

The group walked in, Judy noticed as she was passing the guard, that his eyes weren't natural, she could see what looked like lines on irises, she didn't know what they were, but they were not natural. The group walked into the main hallway, Kaiden wasn't kidding, it really was a concrete bunker with carpet added, the occasional piece of art on the wall, nothing valuable, it reminds you of the low rent art work you can get at any office store, same with the furniture and the potted plants, those were real however. With the exception of the walls being made of blast resistant concrete and the fact that they were underground, and the fact that the people had mechanical parts, Nick and Judy could have been walking into any office building in downtown Zootopia.

"So down that way are guest quarters, which each of you will be assigned one, and guest support services, that way is operations, offices, that way is medical and labs, and that way is personnel support, IE, B13 agent quarters, barracks, breakroom, kitchen, training rooms, hell I think even the janitor's office is down that way. Just follow the colored signs and lines to where ever you want to go, purple, gold, blue and red, respectively."

Kit broke off from the group to check in, while Kaiden let the pair to Talmadge's office, the group walked in and presented themselves to the occupant. The occupant was raccoon who was finishing a conversation on the phone.

"No, I assure you Senator, that the assault on the police station was not 'just a terrorist attack'." said the raccoon in a deep almost fatherly voice.

"I assure you that a proper investigation is going to happen, my agents are already bringing in witnesses to the event….Yes there were survivors of the incident…I wouldn't recommend making any statements publically until a proper, independent investigation has been conducted….Yes, sir….Of course, you can count on our discretion…..Yes, and tell Ann that dinner was fantastic….Yes…..goodbye."

The raccoon slapped down the receiver.

"Idiot." he muttered to himself.

Kaiden cleared his through loud enough to have Talmadge hear it, Talmadge looked up and snapped out of his moment and smiled

"My apologies, the senator can be a bit….trying at times." replied the raccoon.

The raccoon got off his chair and came down and addressed the two

"So, you're the pair that managed to escape the attack." Said the raccoon, giving Nick and Judy a once over.

"You two are lucky, when 'The Fiends' have a target, they very rarely fail. I'll take that as a sign of good fortune." said the raccoon.

"The name is Christopher, Christopher Talmadge" introduced the raccoon offering his paw to Nick and Judy.

"Judy Hopps" "Nick Wilde" they both replied.

The raccoon looked up at the fox agent "Kaiden, please make them feel at home." Ordered the raccoon.

"Already working on it, sir." nodded the Fox still standing at attention.

"At ease. Please" said the raccoon waving his paw.

The fox went to at ease, grabbing his paw in one another behind his back, legs shoulder width apart.

"Kaiden is from a former military background, and he feels a need to have a certain formality, I on the other paw come from intelligence and civilian work, so I never was used to that sort of thing." explained Talmadge

"Just giving you the respect you deserve, sir" replied Ex

"I understand, but it's not necessary." replied Talmadge

The raccoon turned back to Judy and Nick.

"You see, the agents here have all had a lot of things happen to them, and I personally don't like to put them under any more stress and strain then they otherwise already are. I've told them many times they can call me by my first name, but that didn't seem to work out." explained Talmadge with a light smile.

"Now what is this I hear about a key, a flash drive?" inquired Talmadge.

Judy explained the story thus far, how she came into possession of the flash drive, and how the trio figured out it was a key of sorts to access information held by the Illuminati.

"I would like our analysts to take a look at it, if that's ok, Ms Hopps" asked Talmadge.

"Of course." Replied Judy.

"Dismissed you three."

Kaiden takes the duo to the operations center, a large room with work banks of servers and work stations for analysis, different technicians are working on all sorts of analysis, video surveillance, audio, cyber warfare and data analysis, a plethora of who's who and what's what in the dark underworld in covert ops.

They take the flash drive to a very nerdy and energetic squirrel, they approach his station, which is populated by math matrices, comic book pin ups, a few action figures in action poses, empty energy drink cans, and half eaten microwave pastry pockets, the squirrel muttering in almost incomprehensibility high speed to himself.

"Sector 6 to 80 copy the 6th, the 7th, the 8th quadrant of the 9th plus 84 circles abbreviated" muttered the squirrel to himself, his eyes darting between the three screens of his work station.

"Woah, Hamilton, calm down buddy." said Kaiden holding up with paws.

"I told you to call me Hamilton, Kaiden." Said the squirrel still fixated on his work.

"I did." pointed out Kaiden

The squirrel looked up and thought about it, realizing that Kaiden was right "Oh, you're right, you did…..That means you want something….very busy, very busy." muttered the squirrel.

"But I have something new for you to play with, this one's a challenge." smiled Kaiden

"Oh?" inquired the squirrel interested chewing on one of this nails.

"This nice rabbit here has it." Said Kaiden, pointing at Judy.

Judy took out the flash drive and offered it to the squirrel, he was at first apprehensive because Judy was a stranger. Judy seeing this introduced her self

"Hi, my name is Judy, what's yours?" she asked sweetly.

"I'm…..Hamilton, sometimes they call me Hammy…..but I don't like it." replied Hamilton in a nervous tone.

"I'll call you Hamilton, then." She smiled.

Hamilton reached out and grabbed the flash drive, and was looking at it, flipping it around, giving it a real once over, before he plugged into his machine.

"I'll do what I can, Judy." replied the squirrel.

"Just do you best, that's all anyone can ask." She replied smiling sweetly.

Judy went back over to Kaiden and Nick. Hamilton immediately started to pull up command line screen, terminal screens, infographic analysis, a multitude of windows and began work, his eyes darted from screen to screen, his fingers typing almost a blur. Kaiden turned to leave him to his work

"She's nice, I like her." Hamilton commented.

---

Kaiden, Nick and Judy walked to the commissary to grab some food; they each grabbed things respective to their likes and sat down.

"Look I don't meant to pry, but what's that guy's deal anyway?"

"Nick!" scolded Judy as she swatted Nick on the arm.

Kaiden swallowed his bite of food and took a breath.

"Ever heard of Milton Hamilton?" asked Kaiden.

Judy and Nick thought about the name for a moment, it seemed familiar.

"Hey wasn't he the guy that invented the first anti-virus?" asked Nick

"Close, first publically available encryption scheme, so people could keep their data secret from the government." replied Kaiden.

"Isn't that guy worth billions of dollars?" asked Nick.

"His TRUST is worth billions of dollars, the squirrel himself not so much."

"Wait, he was a squirrel? You're saying the guy in there is…"realized Nick

"Yup…" replied Kaiden.

"Wasn't he supposed to be some kind of genius?" asked Nick.

"And he is, but if you wondering why he acts, like that, it's because the Illuminati kidnapped and tortured him for what he knows." Replied Kaiden.

Nick sat there shocked; Judy covered her mouth in shock.

"How long?" Judy asked.

"4 years."

"Oh my gosh." She whispered.

"Why?" she asked.

"We really don't know, some people said it was to get his encryption algorithm, others say they were trying to turn him into a living computer, all kinds of shit like that. The only person who really knows is Hamilton and he doesn't consciously remember much, and Talmadge and I don't have the heart to make him remember if he doesn't have to and…. He doesn't have to." explained Kaiden.

"Poor guy" lamented Judy.

"That's who these people are, they take and they take, and take and take, and they don't care who they hurt, because to them, we are all cogs in the machine, and it's all for the greater good."

"And they destroy Judy's life, all for this stupid flash drive" said Nick couching his chin against his paw, leaning against the table.

"Well, that's the thing; I think it's both of you." Corrected Kaiden.

Nick turned back to Kaiden

"What do you mean?" inquired Nick.

"Well, I don't know about you but, think about how you got fired." Said Kaiden

"I know how I got fired, I have a record." Snapped back Nick

"No, no, that's not what I mean, I mean the Police Commission is usually very busy, they don't have time to check on every Tom, Dick and Harry that works for them, Unless you did something to warrant attention, like commit crimes as a cop or criminal conspiracy, something like that, and even then usually after a long time, they just don't react that fast." explained Kaiden

"So what are you saying?" asked Nick, raising an eyebrow

"I'm saying someone in the commissioner's office got your file to those people, and I'm almost certain they weren't working alone." Explained Kaiden

"Why do you say that?" asked Nick

"Well, let's put it this way, I'm sure it's within the realm of possibility that a person COULD throw themselves out a plate glass window, fall 4 stories and into a glass greenhouse below. But who are we kidding, if you want to kill yourself, there are a lot easier and less painful ways to do it." Sarcastically explained Kaiden

"What?!" exclaimed Nick

"Or who knows it could have been an accident. There seems to be a lot of those happening lately." Replied Kaiden continuing the sarcasm.

"If so, then Why?" asked Nick

"Why destroy your life or Why you?" requested Kaiden

"Either." Clarified Nick

"Well maybe they needed out of the way for some reason, or possibly to make you available for something else, I don't know, and Why you, well maybe it was because you were a recent recruit, maybe they thought they could appeal to your personal greed maybe pay you for it, I'm just spit balling here, but I have no doubt, that your life was 'disrupted' and not by coincidence." Theorized Kaiden

"That and the fact they found the guy's corpse in the Mongoose river the day AFTER you were fired." Stated Kaiden

Nick banged the table in frustration.

"Those sons of bitches, damn it!" Nick exclaimed.

Nick stood up and paced in frustration, he was angry.

"I got to clear my head, you said the quarters were that way?" demanded Nick

"Follow the purple line, and look for the room with the piece of paper with your name on it."

Nick walked off flustered.

"Was it something I said." Said Kaiden deadpan

"So they've been in our lives even before Samir's bust." Judy said a sad look on her face.

"They, Judy, have been in our lives since before either of us were born, they have made themselves part of society, it isn't until stuff like this happens that we finally realize it." Said Kaiden.

Judy took a breath; she stood up and ran after Nick.

"I'm sorry you two, I'm sorry you have to learn the world is not what you thought it was, I'm sorry" whispered Kaiden to himself, apologizing.

---

Judy ran down to the guest quarters, she passed a number of rooms, she passed by one that had her name on it, then found Nick's a few rooms over. She knocked on the door, she didn't hear anything, but opened the door and slid in anyway, closing the door behind her

"Nick?" she asked softly.

Nick was sitting on the edge of his bed, cradling his head, shaking it, still angry.

"Those bastards!" he said.

Judy approached, not sure to comfort him or just let him vent. Nick stood up.

"It explains everything. My life went off the rails 6 months ago and here I was thinking bad luck, even the jobs I was pulling kept failing for some reason."

"What?" asked Judy.

Nick looked at Judy and admitted.

"Carrots, this is what I wanted to talk to you about, I was coming to tell you that I was broke, running out of money and in trouble, I was going to tell you what I had been doing, or rather trying to do. I was working with Finnick, and he was getting jobs with this new crew he has been trying to get in good with. And it just seemed like every job they were sending us on, just failed, over and over, like they knew we were coming, they kept asking me to put up set up money, and I just kept loosing it."

Nick finished and had to catch his breath.

"Oh Nick, why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"Yeah, like I want my girlfriend to think I was just some two time loser." He replied

Judy rushed over and hugged Nick

"Nick, I will never think you're a loser. I will always believe in you." Judy smiled

Nick and Judy looked at each other, Nick smiled back at her.

"Thanks Carrots, I'm glad you do." Said Nick keeping his smile.

Judy, stopped and realized something then looked back at Nick

"Wait, did you just call me your girlfriend?" she asked wish a big smile.

"Well, that was the…other thing I wanted to talk to you about, guess we kind of skipped ahead in that conversation." Nick replied, scratching his head.

"We'll always have the Apple tree." Replied Judy with a smile and blush.

"I guess we do." Replied Nick.

---

Chapter 8 : The Council of Five

Sidney Ridgeway was called before the council, personally, this was the first time he has ever met them in person, though he has worked FOR them for many years, the council generally kept out of direct action in matters. The Illuminati doesn't act overtly, they manage, insinuate, manipulate and administrate, they manage agencies that in turn manage other agencies like boxes stacked in one another, never handling anything directly, they are the invisible paw.

Sid had gone to the Savanna District, which was in the center of the city, the council had a large residence there just for these meetings, which infrequent, sometimes years between them, would always require days of deliberation. Sid was escorted through the residence; it was affluent and just a sheer feeling of corruption, lots of red and burgundy, supple leathers on the chairs and couches, real leather, one wonders how they sourced such material given how or rather 'whom' it would have to be taken from. Gold trim adorned the residence; it was rife with regality and the feeling of history and tradition. Sid finally arrived outside the meeting room, he could hear their voices, not recognizing them, in usual communications they scrambled their voices, but he could clearly hear them. He was ushered in, he knew to not speak unless spoken to first, as was the respect of their rank and position they had so rightfully taken.

He walked in, and was greeted by a panther body guard, dressed in black, the room had a body guard stationed in every corner, one could almost not see them except for their piercing eyes staring at would be intruders.

Sid took a look around, he immediately recognized them, outside in the real world, they were captains in Industry, Financiers, Private Security Firms and even ZTV. The mask of anonymity removed and the truth of identity in its place.

There was Blake Cooley, polar bear from Tundratown, who was the head of ZTV the largest Zootopian media conglomerate, he controls what the people see and hear, and in doing so, can make them believe anything, even a lie, just by repeating it enough.

Jordan Hoffman, Gray Wolf, head of Wolverine Risk Control, a company who sells themselves as private security, when in truth, they are a private military. One would hire companies like these when you want to run a private often covert war.

Dr. Bryce Lucas, a Fossa, a strange animal, aggressive, he manages the physical science division of the group, when you think of the animal responsible for designing the rail way system in Zootopia, you think of him, he is responsible either directly or indirectly for the technological advancements made in the last 20 years, and more over is owner of the companies that make those advancements..

Mei Ling Kahn, Siberian Tiger, they call her the Tiger Queen of the Far East, who's skill with her claws is as dangerous and lethal as her cunning skill at biology. She is the head of Kai Ren Medical, one of the largest conglomerates in Zootopia, on the outside, the company specializes in treatments and eradication of disease, but behind closed doors, there is also the dedication of resources to creating new diseases and weaponizing weak ones into powerful ones. Ever heard of FIV, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or Leptospirosis, yup, it was her company that either invented it or made it worse, all for the behest of the goals of the Illuminati.

And finally, the Prima Illuminatus himself, head of the council of five, Nathanial Logon, lion, part of the Logon Financial and Economic dynasty, This lion IS Zootopia, with his money, power and influence, if he wishes something done, it is done, no river too big, no canyon too wide, no valley too deep. He is the incarnation of the unstoppable force, better to not cross him, for he won't just have you killed, you will be erased, everyone that ever knew you or will know you, gone as well, and you won't even be a memory, you just cease to exist.

Alone these individuals would be a force to be reckoned with, but together, they are the council of five, the invisible paw, they and their predecessors have guided Zootopian society from the watering hole in an oasis to the city it is today, the citizenry in mass ignorance of even their existence, going about their lives totally unaware of the hidden influence on them.

---

"Good Evening Sidney." Said Blake Cooley.

Sid simply nodded "Yes, sir, it is." He replied

"The time has come for the advancement of the plan. And you have been chosen as our instrument." Said Cooley.

"Let's begin, shall we." insisted Hoffman.

"Nervous, are we?" asked Cooley.

"Concerned, I don't like the council in one place" replied the wolf.

"I would like a status report, if you please. Ladies First." Spoke Nathanial leveling a paw at Mei Ling.

"The Rosslyn project is coming along, we have the required subjects, and we have catalogued almost all of them, we are however having a difficulty with the shielding, we are still waiting for final frequency pulse calculations from Dr. Lucas' team." Reported Mei Ling

Nathanial turned to the Fossa.

"We are trying to achieve the desired effect, and as such creating the correct frequency is taking more time than we originally planned, as soon as we find the frequency we shall turn the data over to Mei Ling's team. Also I am able to report that even though our supplier was removed recently, We did manage to reclaim the technology crates from police custody before their reinforcements secured the area, thanks to Hoffman's 'fiends'." reported Lucas

"How are we handling that Blake?" asked Nathanial

"Well we are reporting that it was an attack, but we have found patsies to take the blame, we have coordinated efforts with the ZPD to convince them that the bombings were in fact an inside job perpetrated by two police officers." Reported Cooley

"These wouldn't be the two interlopers who spoiled our plan earlier this year would it?" asked Logon.

"It is. I thought you would appreciate that, having them eliminated by their own police force." Replied Cooley

Nathanial turned to Hoffman

"If that doesn't work, I want operatives ready to eliminate them in case the police get cold paws. They spoiled our plans once, and I do not want their meddling to interfere with out plans again. This time we aren't just trying to reshape society, we shall remake it." Ordered the Lion

"Yes, sir, I will contact our operatives inside the police and the mayor's office and ensure they are transferred to our custody, assuming they make it to custody." Replied the Wolf.

The lion finally turns his attention to Sid.

"And finally you, I want you to oversee the containment with Mei Lings team, I want an independent administration, I do not wish to suffer an oversight." ordered Logon

"But, Nathanial, my team is perfectly capable" Mei Ling hissed.

Nathanial snapped and stared at Mei Ling

"You team seemed capable when they provided for the NH program last year and look how that turned out. I do not want another failure, I want an independent administration. Understood?"

"Yes, Nathanial." She reluctantly capitulated.

"Do you understand you assignment, Ridgeway?" asked the Logon.

"Yes, sir I do." replied Sid.

"Good. You may go."

Sid clicked his heals and bowed slightly to the council and left the room.

"Now tell me Hoffman, what we are doing about this Bureau 13 business?"

"We have been trying to find them but to no avail, the people are very much trained in counter-intelligence operations, they are as much ghosts as we are. Locating them has proving extremely difficult." Reported Hoffman.

"I feel as though we should concentrate on achieving the final plan, surely a band of misfits is no matter." Bryce smiled

Logon chuckled "I see what you did there. However, Bureau 13 has had a knack for finding out our more sensitive operations and disrupting them, I feel as though we need to devote resources to their eradication before we can move forward."

"But I am more concerned about this security breach that was reported, apparently an access key to our files has been lost." Said the Lion

"That key has been returned and subsequently destroyed, sir, Sid managed to recover it from the aforementioned interlopers." said Hoffman

"Good, the last thing we need is a breach at this late stage. Mei Ling, am I correct in assuming that your team is ready for phase one?"

"Yes, we have completed phase one and await you order, we can release it tonight if that is your desire."

"Yes, I do, ensure that all relevant assets are protected."

"Of course" replied Mei Ling

"Bryce may be correct, we may have to move up the time table, and I would like to have as much lead time, so that you and Bryce's team can finish preparations of phase two."

"I would like to stagger the release, so that it has a chance to reach maximum potential before the population figures it out." Suggested Mei Ling

Nathanial stood up and looked out the windows and down upon the streets of Zootopia, seeing the streets stretch out into the distance, watching the people like small ants running around about their pointless lives.

"Of course, I defer to your judgement on that. However Cooley should be able to provide you with any coverage should you need it." agreed Nathanial

"Just say the word, Mei Ling, I can put out coverage." Said Cooley.

"When the time comes how do you want to handle containing the fear?" asked Cooley to Nathanial.

"Why contain it? Let spill out into the streets, into the schools, the homes, show the riots, let the bodies pile up in the streets, show it all, it doesn't matter in the end they will beg us to save them." said the Lion.

"Fear can be a great motivator, this is what we were trying to achieve a year ago but our failure was in trusting an untested technology in the paws of an untrustworthy asset." Explained the lion.

"And this time?" asked Cooley

"This time. This time, we are in control. This time, the world will burn, and when they clamber to us and beg us to save them, we will look down upon them and say…No." grinned the lion in his mirth.

---

Zootopia, The Next morning, Downtown Train station.

The hustle and bustle of the various citizens of Zootopia, business animals trying to get to work, other travelers, children, adults, teenagers, of various breeds. The sheer controlled chaos of it, people living their lives.

Two maintenance workers, a hippo and an antelope are carrying a cart of tools and various items into a back area, near the air conditioner system. They go about their job, replacing air filters.

"So Frank, you heard about this new place up on 7th, think we should try it for lunch."

"Oh yeah, that place looks like a rainforest, heard about that. Sure why not."

"How many of these things we got to do?"

"Eh, I think 20 more on this floor and like 40 on the second."

"Geesh, Bill, really?"

"No, I'm kidding, Yeah, we got 60 more." scolded Bill.

The pair finish the first floor and go up to the second, after working their way around, they finally get to the last few at the A/C core.

"Just a few more and we can get out of here." said Frank.

"Hey wait, wait a second, we got to make that call." said Bill

Bill pulls out hit cell phone and places his call, the line rings a few times and picks up.

"Yeah, this is Bill, is she there?" asked the Hippo.

"Yeah yeah, I know procedure, so what's the word?" asked the Hippo.

"Right. Uh huh." Answers the hippo to the voice on the phone.

"Yeah, we are going set the A/C unit to 15 minutes, is that ok?" requested the Hippo.

"Perfect, all I wanted to know. Thank you."

The Hippo hangs up the phone and goes back to his partner.

"Hey, they said we can set it to 15 minutes, it won't hurt nothing." Said the Hippo

"Alright, good to go, here don't forget to mask up." Replied the Antelope, tossing his partner a mask as he puts another one on himself.

The two glove up, and open a tool box, each retrieving a non-descript metal cylinder each, they take them over to coolant injection ports into the AC Unit, the antelope shuts down the AC unit, and they wait for it to spin down, then plug the cylinders into the ports, twisting them tightly, and then opening the valves, a sharp hiss is heard as the contents are injected into the air system, the antelope sets the unit to a delayed start and sets the timer for 15 minutes.

"Alright, we are good, let's get out of here." Says the antelope.

"So, that Rainforest place, you want to hit that up or what." Askes the Hippo.

"Sounds good." Replies the antelope.

The two pack up their gear and leave, as the timer counts down.

15 minutes later, down on the main floors, the Air conditioner flow starts again. The cooling air starts to billow out into the train station, with a casual mist expulsing from the vents and dissipating into nothing, the air now flowing down onto the unsuspecting Zootopians below.

---

Zootopia, a couple weeks later, down on Avenue K, there is a plethora of stores

A lion teenager is watching TV through the front of an electronics shop, the news story catching his attention, he coughs involuntary throughout. The news anchors with cheery expressions running their segment

"Well, it seems the Flu season has come a bit late this year, with residents of several boroughs reporting flu like symptoms, we have our medical correspondent to tell us more. Grace?" says the news reporter.

"Thanks, Chet, Yes, based on our research it seems that the zoonotic influenza had decided to hit us again this year, scientists are blaming it on the cooler conditions giving the virus a second season this year, so citizens are urged to try and get lots of rest, take extra vitamins and make sure your properly hydrated, since it is a virus, we have to toughing it out, but if you symptoms become more severe, you should go see a doctor. Back to you Chet."

"Thank, Grace, and coming up with have the scores to all your favorite sports with Jumpin' Jack Brackoski…."

The lion stopped listening to the news, his head was pounding, he was tired and decided to go back home, he turned to notice a lot of other people walking by were also looking out of sorts, some were coughing, others sneezing.

"Looks like this flu thing is everywhere." He thought "I just want to crawl into bed."

The lion trailed off down the street heading back in the direction of his home.

---

Chapter 9: Kai Ren Medical

Zootopia, Savanna District, Kai Ren Medical, middle of night, a week later.

The mist in the air was clinging to everything, Kai Ren Medical was an office building, laboratories and HQ for one of the most power biotech firms on the planet, it was one of the taller towers in the Zootopian skyline, it's red and gold glow gave a clearly Asian vibe to passersby, which made sense, Mei Ling Kahn, one of the members of the council of five made her lair here, taking residence in the penthouse office on the top of the building.

Bureau 13 had long suspected her of being a member of the Illuminati, but had never had any proof. However tonight they were not interested in her, their investigation was into the disease now running rampant in Zootopia, people were sick, and it was getting worse, some of the older or ill health citizens had already been reported as dying due to the virus.

The people were starting to get worried, normally it's expected that some people die from the a flu every year, but the numbers the ZTV were reporting were starting to become suspicious, people have already started to avoiding each other out of fear of either contracting the virus, or getting a worse strain.

Bureau 13 now suspects the virus was manufactured, the chief suspect, Kai Ren Medical and Mei Ling Kahn, its Chief Executive Officer.

Judy, Nick, Kaiden and Kit had arrived in a non-descript van, wearing covert operations uniforms and equipment, the goal here, to get into Kai Ren Medical, find any information of the virus, and get out without anyone suspecting, Which meant stealth, and zero body count. This prospect was not going to be easy as Kai Ren Medical being a large megacorporation was able to hire the best in the security business, Wolverine Risk Control or WRC for short.

The grey and orange of the WRC shouldn't be construed with a normal security company for they weren't your standard fare of security guard nor 'rent-a-cops' these operators were in fact trained soldiers. WRC was, in short, a private military contractor working for those who could afford them and given the sheer cost for their services, it would not be surprising to know that the only organizations who could afford them were, of course, large corporations and governments.

There were WRC even patrolling the parking lots, and likely the sub basements that Bureau 13 suspects are where the virus was being manufactured.

The four had approached from a fence section that had bushes and trees to act as a privacy hedge, Kaiden used bolt cutters to cut a section in the fence for them to creep through, with any luck they would use this same section to get out. Kaiden held the section open while the others crawled through, than followed.

The sodium-vapor bulbs used in the parking lot lights cast an almost orange hue on everything, two guards patrolled the lot and were very much riding on automatic, tired and not expecting to find anything, clearly not fully checking every nook and cranny, the four crept from car to car, avoiding their vision.

Finally they got to the building itself and went around to an area where the air vents connect to the large air handlers that kept the conditions inside controlled.

Judy and Nick used electric screw drivers to remove the vent cap while Kaiden and Kit kept look out. They clambered into the vent and into the maze of ductwork, using their PDAs, they had followed a map to a maintenance room on the lower level of one of the sub-basements.

They reached their destination and popped out the vent housing and dropped down into an internal pump room, the sound of the pumps and movement of the cooling water filled the room with a low level hum.

Kaiden looked at the group.

"How is every one doing, so far so good?" said Kaiden checking on his team members.

"Good here, K" replied Kit

"I'm alright." Replied Judy

"I'm with you." Replied Nick.

Kaiden motioned to Kit to look at his PDA and plan their next move.

Nick looked at Judy, a smile on his face, she saw this and looked back.

"What?" she asked Nick.

"I can't believe we are actually doing this." Nick whispered a bit excited.

"I know, I mean there's training, then there is the real thing." replied Judy.

"Are you really ok?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, just knowing you're here helps." She replied

"I won't let anything happen to you." He replied.

Judy replied with a smile, she believed in those words, she knew Nick wouldn't let anything happen. Hopefully if everything goes to plan, that statement won't be put to the test.

Kaiden and Kit turn back to the two.

"Ok, I think I have our route laid out, we are in the south-west corner, here, and we have to get to the North wall, now on that North wall is an elevator that goes down, now unfortunately, the building blueprints end at this floor so we don't know what's down there. So keep on your paws. We got tranquilizer darts as well as lethal ammo, we are to keep a completely quiet presence, but if things go hardcore, do what you need to do." explained Kaiden.

"Kit and I will take point, but Judy and Nick, you will be ready to back us up if we need it. OK?" asked Kaiden.

Judy, Nick and Kit all nodded.

"I don't think I need to tell you how important this is, Judy you got that flashdrive?" Inquired Kaiden.

"I got it right here." She replied patting the drive sitting under her vest.

"Ok, let's go, smoothly and quietly." whispered Kaiden.

They moved to the door and Kit and Kaiden opened it, Kit quickly leaned out and looked left and then right.

He signaled with his paw for them to move forward. The four moved out into the hallway, Kaiden closing the door behind him. They moved down the hallway slowly and quietly just as Kaiden told them to, they reached a corner, Kit used a paw mirror to sight around the corner, there was a feline WRC guard walking down the hallway, away from them, Kit readied his tranquilizer rifle and sighted down it, the scope said "No Range", which meant that he was too far.
Kit quickly turned back, teeth gritted, he looked at Kaiden and signaled with his paws.

"One guard, walking away, can't hit."

Kaiden quickly bent down to Judy.

"How fast are you and still be quiet?" he whispered quietly.

"I can do it." She replied, knowing what she was about to be asked.

"Ok, go, go!" Kaiden ordered.

Judy took out her tranq gun and rounded the corner, the other three leaned around to watch, ready to back her up.

Judy bounded down the hallway, her feet making no sound; one would swear she's skating over the ground. She got right up on the guard and shot him in the neck. The guard made a small reactionary grunt, winced and was knocked unconscious and fell to the floor.

The other three bounded down the hall way and collected the guard, Kaiden pointed to a nearby door, it lead into an office, they dragged the guard into the office and left him there.

Closing the office door behind them the group continued on their path, they made their way north, and around another corner, they found the elevator that was in an alcove with two blind corners, two guards were on either side of the elevator, one a canine, the other a shorter wolf. Kaiden and Kit looked at each other puzzled

"Could there be more than just the two?" whispered Kit

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, we shoot their buddies and the two guys in the blind corners raise hell." Replied Kaiden.

Kit and Kaiden decided to risk it, they coordinated on their shot, and took it.

They counted to 3, with Kaiden standing and Kit crouching, leaned around the corner together and shot both guards at the same time, they winced and fell unconscious, sliding down the walls they were leaning on to the floor.

The group bounded up the elevator, and Kit quickly went to work on the panel.

"Judy, Nick watch our six." ordered Kaiden.

Judy and Nick went either side of the corners in front of the elevator.

"That was awesome." mouthed Nick

"I know, right." Judy mouthed back.

Kit was still working on the panel, shaking his head, and letting out occasional groans of frustration.

Kaiden heard this and went to Kit

"What's the hold up?" Kaiden whispered.

"It's using a floating prime number sequence with a random pattern mask." Replied Kit.

"So….you can pop it, right?" said Kaiden concerned.

"Maybe?" He replied with a nervous smile.

Kaiden shook his head in frustration. Nick over heard this and thought about it for a minute, he went over to the guards and searched their pockets, eventually finding an access card on one of them. He walked over to Kit and presented the card.

"I think this might work better." suggested Nick with a sly grin on his face.

Kit took the access card and tried it, sure enough it worked and called the elevator.

"How did you know?" whispered Kit.

"There's no bathroom down here, at least none that I saw, so where do these guys go to…ya know, go?" replied Nick cryptically.

"Another floor?" replied Kit

"Bingo." pointed Nick.

"Right, and to get to that floor they would need access, at least one of them would. Smart thinking, Nick." replied Kaiden.

The elevator approached and opened, they got in and descended down to the bottom sub-basement. They readied themselves for more guards, but when the elevator door opened, the room was a large open storage space; nobody was down there, not even guards. They walked out into the room, it had rows and rows of cylinders, connected to nearby computers, the room was cold, and some of the lines were frosted over, with the label 'Liquid Nitrogen" written on the lines.

They walked around and looked at the cylinders; some were short in length others were longer. Judy approached one and looked at it, one end of the cylinders had a movable metal plate, she slid it open, and gasped at what she saw.

The others heard her gasp, and ran over to her.

"Judy, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Said Nick

"You're not that far off, actually" replied Judy pointing to the cylinder.

The rest of the group looked where she was pointing. It wasn't a storage cylinder at all but some sort of pod, and inside was a frozen Zootopian.

"What the hell is this?" exclaimed Kaiden, trying to keep his voice down.

Kit looked at a nearby status panel, which had bio data on the subject in the pod.

"Whoever it is, they are alive." Replied Kit.

"Check the others." said Kaiden.

The group split up and checked other pods, Zootopian after Zootopian in stasis, males, females, young, old, predator and prey alike, some of the same species. They regrouped back in the center of the room.

"An entire room of pawpsicles." said Nick

"Yeah, this is NOT part of the virus, this is something else." said Kaiden.

"What's that over there?" asked Judy, pointing past Kit.

The group turned to look at where she was pointing, and saw it, it was a protected terminal. They approached it and it was just a locked screen, no visible access. Judy approached it and looked closer, she saw a slot, she pulled out the silver flash drive and looked at the tip, then at the slot, She reached out and plugged it in, the screen unlocked and displayed the message "Welcome, Asset 113"

The panel below the terminal opened to reveal a keyboard and mouse paw pad and additional access ports.

Kaiden sprang into action, he placed his fingers to his head and spoke

"Talmadge are you online, we got access, we did not find the virus, repeat, we did not find the virus."

"We're here, what did you find?" asked Talmadge.

"I don't know exactly, we found Zootopians in cryo stasis, we don't know why." replied Kaiden.

Kaiden reached into his pocket and pulled out a device, and hooked it into the additional ports next to the keyboard and turned it on.

"We are streaming data to you know, download what you can." Insisted Kaiden.

"Hamilton is already on it." Replied Talmadge.

Judy was perusing while B13 was copying what was on the terminal, Nick came and looked over her shoulder.

"What is Project Rosslyn?" asked Judy.

"I don't know" replied Kaiden.

Judy was seeing other files, more detailed data on the subjects, she caught glimpses of the files, she saw words stuck in her head, like "runaway" "junkie"
"broken home" or other similar circumstance. She also saw things she didn't understand like "genetic template" "mitochondrial DNA" and pictures of the people's genes mapped out in a series of lines and bars.

"Why would they do this to these people?" asked Judy

"Why THESE people specifically, or in general." asked Kaiden.

"To THESE people, runaways, junkies, prosti…" clarified Judy

"Because they are people who nobody is going to miss, or rather file a missing person's case on." interrupted Kit.

Kaiden pointed an agreeing finger at him as if saying "Exactly"

"It just doesn't stop with these people." Nick reacted.

Nick put a paw on Judy's left shoulder and squeezed ever so slightly, Judy felt this and with her right paw reached up and squeezed his back to reassure him.

Kaiden communicated back to B13

"Boss, what do you have?"

Hamilton jumped on the line.

"Terminal contains files pertaining to cryo pods…no information on virus…must be different database."

"We can't go to the upper floors without being seen." replied Kaiden

There was a moment of pause on the line.

"We need that information, is there any way you can get up there without anyone seeing you?" asked Talmadge.

"No sir, they will see us the moment we step out of the elevator." replied Kaiden.

Nick thought about the predicament and realized the perfect solution.

"Ya know those two guards we knocked out?" asked Nick

"So what?" asked Kit.

Nick went over to Judy and spun her around and stood side by side.

"We're about the same size as them." He suggested.

Kaiden immediately realized what he was thinking.

"No, it's too dangerous." Kaiden replied

"We can do it." said Nick

"You're not covert ops trained. Riding with us you're fine, but not on your own."

"Oh come on, this isn't a 'covert op'. It's a con like any other, I've spent a long time making people think I was something that I wasn't."

"Yeah but if you screw up, it's not just some lost pocket change Nick, it's your lives, you know that right?" asked Kaiden.

"And we can't come and get you either, we can't let them know we were ever here, otherwise they might change their plans, or up their time table, so if you do it, you're on your own." Kit informed them.

Nick and Judy looked at each other then back at the them.

"We know, but we need this information, right? Or people will keep getting sicker." said Judy.

"Plus you need to get more info anyway, and this key is the only thing that works." said Nick.

Kaiden, got back on the comm

"What do you think boss?"

"It's your op, and your team, Kaiden. But…we need that information." Replied Talmadge.

Kaiden stopped and closed his eyes, leaning his head back and took a breath, it seemed it didn't matter what he thought, there really was only one option. He opened his eyes and turned to look at Kit.

"Kit, go back and get those guards." Kaiden ordered.

---

Minutes later.

Judy and Nick had changed out of their stealth ops gear into the WRC's uniforms, the orange and grey uniform fit them both well enough, Kaiden and Kit helped them into their bandoleers, fitted their combat knives, tac helmets, guns and holsters, to make them look as official as possible. The pair fitted their closed looped radios and gave them ear pieces, looping the ear piece cord around their left ears.

Kaiden gave Judy back the silver flash drive and the data streamer, and instructed her on its use. He gave Nick the access card.

Kaiden knelt down to their level and brought them close.

"Now you listen to me, both of you, you watch each other's backs up there. I don't care what important info is up there, it is NOT worth your lives. You got me." counseled Kaiden.

Nick and Judy looked at him in silence.

"But if things do get hardcore up there then BE ruthless, I don't care what you have to do, you do it. You do it and come home. You got it, you two."

Judy and Nick both nod to Kaiden and then Kit. Kit gives them a PDA with a floor map on it.

"This will tell you where to go when you get to your floor, the data center up on the 67th Floor, whatever you do, do NOT go to 69 or 70, that is Mei Ling Kahn's residence, and we do not need her seeing you." Said Kit.

"Got it." Replied both of them.

Nick and Judy put their rifle straps over their necks and shoulders, the four of them got into the elevator and went back up to the sub-basement, Kaiden and Kit got off, Kaiden and Kit looked back at them.

"Good luck you two, and be safe." Said Kaiden.

The elevator door closed, and Nick slid the access card and hit 67.

It was a long ride up; Judy was trying to stay calm, when Nick held her paw. Judy looked over at him.

"You scared." She asked.

"Terrified, you?" He replied.

"Yeah." She replied

Nick hugged her tightly, while keeping an eye on the floor numbers.

"It will be alright. Just think "I'm a tough bad ass G.I. Bunny."" Said Nick

"Ok, you're a "tough bad ass G.I. Bunny, Nick."" She smiled, trying to chuckle through the nerves.

"You know what I meant" he replied.

"I know." She replied.

Judy turned to look at the floor numbers they were close now; she turned and gave Nick a deep passionate kiss, he reciprocated.

Judy broke the kiss, "Just in case we don't get out of here." she whispered.

The elevator arrived at their stop, the doors opened, Judy and Nick had blank expressions on their faces, channeling whatever spirit of attitude that the WRC troopers have, they stepped off the elevator. Nick calmly pulls out his PDA and they start to follow the path, concealing it as they pass by troopers who are either on guard or patrolling. Since Nick had the access, no one was questioning anything; things seemed to be going according to plan.

The upper floors were what you would expect out of an office building, but very high class, all wood flooring, real wood to not the fake laminate either and marble for the walls. Nick took stock in how expensive all this must have been, even lavish.

They got to the data center and Nick slid the card and opened the door for Judy, the datacenter was a small room with blue lighting and a large computer bank, she plugged in and started accessing the computer.

"Nick, keep watch for me." Judy asked.

Nick went just outside the door and stood on the wall, like he had seen the other guards do. He watched Judy through the glass, as she unlocked the terminal, and attached the data streamer.

Judy got on the radio.

"Kaiden, Talmadge, are you guys getting this?" she asked.

"Yes Judy, good work, we are streaming it down now, stand by." replied Talmadge.

Nick over heard the chatter on his ear piece, and heaved a sigh of relief.

A guard came around the corner to the data center.

"Hey you!" the guard addressed Nick.

"Me?" replied Nick while pointing to himself with his left paw, clutching his rifle with the other.

"Yeah, you, Boss lady wants a briefing." Said the WRC guard.

"Uh…I'm supposed to stand guard here." Said Nick pointing at the room.

Judy could over hear the exchange; she dropped to the floor and slid under a nearby desk, her heart starting to race.

"Hey, you see these Captain's bars on my shoulders that means I get to tell you what to do, now move your ass!" ordered the Captain.

"Just go." Whispered Judy over the radio.

Nick casually looked at Judy trying not to seem like he was looking at someone, biting his lip, not wanting to leave her alone.

"I'm ok, really, just go, I'll tell you when to come back for me." She whispered.

Nick looked back at the captain.

"Hey Fox, you hearing me?" Said the Captain taking a step closer.

"Yes, sir" replied Nick and stepped off his spot and followed the captain.

Nick was escorted by the captain up the 69th Floor and taken into Mei Ling's residence foyer; there were about 10 other guards there plus the Captain as well as a Lieutenant. Nick casually stood beside the guards, and then she appeared.

Mei Ling Kahn, a Siberian tiger, beautiful but a sinister feel about her, she came walking out of her office.

"Atten-hut!" called out the captain.

Nick stood at attention with the rest of the guards. Mei Ling paced in front of the guards addressing them.

"Brave animals of the WRC, I appreciate your efforts these past few weeks. I understand it is hard to work these long hours away from your families."

She walked by, a subtle perfume about her, she gave each guard a once over.

"But I assure you, your efforts have not gone unnoticed. We have had no breaches and I must say your sense of duty is admirable….."

Then she got to Nick, she looked him over taking a special interest.

"…and you shall be rewarded for your efforts." She continued

She extended a claw and held it gently to his chin, push up slightly to get him to raise his chin, she approached and sniffed him, Nick kept his composure, he could hear the subtle rattle of her purr.

"Foxes, such noble creatures, people think they are nothing but liars and thieves, but in truth, they are noble, they choose the same mate for life. Did you know that?…Stiles" she softly spoke., and looked down at Nick's name tag on the uniform.

"Yes, Ma'am, I do." He replied locking eyes with her, trying his best not to give himself away.

"And do you know why?" asked Mei Ling.

"Loyalty, Ma'am." Nick replied.

"Exactly, Loyalty. It's a quality in such short supply these days." She confirmed giving him a sniff again.

"You have a mate don't you? I can smell her on you." she inquired with a smile.

"Yes." answered Nick very carefully; he recognized her manipulative aura, trying to get into his head.

She gripped his chin and kissed Nick on the lips, he wanted to gag, but he let her, she had eaten something, maybe someone, the taste of blood filled his mouth.

She broke the kiss and stood back savoring the taste.

"Your taste…She's a lucky girl." She coolly smiled back.

She walked onto the other guards.

"Loyalty, a quality rarely given and even more rarely shared. But a constant that I insist upon, your continued loyalty shall be rewarded and conversely disloyalty shall be harshly punished. Consider these words in the coming days and weeks here."

And with that Mei Ling disappeared back into her lair.

"Dis-missed" called out the captain.

The guards left the foyer and the captain escorted Nick back to his post.

"Hey, sorry about that, Stiles, that was, weird." The captain apologized.

"You going to be ok?" the captain asked honestly concerned.

"Yes sir, I'll be fine." Nick replied.

The captain disappears around the corner and leaves. Nick relaxes and finally reacts to the taste in his mouth, he feels nauseous, the experience all together unpleasant. Judy comes out from the data center with flashdrive and data streamer in paw.

"Are you OK?" Judy asked.

"Yeah, I think I will be alright." Nick replied

"What the hell did happen, Wilde?" asked Kaiden over the comms.

"What?" said Nick confused.

"You mic was on the whole time. It sounded like…" Replied Kaiden.

"Never mind what it sounded like." barked Judy.

"Are you going to be ok?" Judy asked, she could feel Nick was disturbed by what happened, she felt him trembling. She rubbed his cheek softly to calm him down.

"Yeah, let's just get the hell out of here." Replied Nick.

Judy and Nick casually got back to the elevator and back down to Kaiden and Kit. They changed back into their stealth garb and left the uniforms behind, grabbing their Bureau 13 gear and the Kai Ren access key.

They snuck back through the facility and back into the ventilation system. They got back outside and retightened the screws on the vent cap. Kit and Kaiden looked into the parking lot, they noticed the guards were gone.

"Must be a guard change." said Kit

"Let's use the opportunity." Replied Kaiden

The four quickly got across the parking lot and back to the fence, Kaiden held it open and the others snuck back through, Kaiden coming behind them. They got in the van and took a breath of relief.

"Good work guys, fantastic!" applauded Kaiden.

Judy and Nick just sat there, so tired, so much effort, they hoped it was all worth it. Judy leaned into Nick and put her head on his shoulder; Nick just rested his head on hers and held her close.

Kit started the van and started to drive off. In the woods behind them, 6 motor-cycles started and sped off after them.

---

Chapter 10: Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

Several Minutes later.

The four were driving away from Kai Ren Medical, trying to keep a low profile, when Kit bellowed from the front.

"I think we got company." Called out Kit.

Kaiden went to the back and saw 6 motor-cycles trailing behind them, each with a bat riding them, they wore streamlined helmets to counter wind resistance, and each had a sub-machine gun.

"Kit, evasive action!" yelled out Kaiden.

The first few bullets rippled through van, Kit reacted by swerving on the road. Kaiden pulled out his gun, and opened the door and fired at a couple of the hench-bats.

Kaiden got an idea.

"Hey Kit, I'll be right back."

Kit looked at the rear view, surprised.

"Where the hell are you going?" he exclaimed.

Kaiden climbed up on the roof of van, the hench-bats took aim and fired towards him, Kaiden jumped into the lead hench-bat's cycle, the sudden added weight caused them to drop back and out of the pack. The remaining five kept up with the van.

They fired another volley into the van, Kit did his best to evade. The hench-bats were relentless, the chase continued into the city, with engines revving and hail of gun fire cracking out into the night.

"Judy, switch places with me, Nick cover the rear!" ordered Kit.

Nick stood up and grabbed one of the rifles they brought in case things went south in Kai Ren, Judy came up to the front and carefully switched places with Kit, putting her paws on the wheel, and then Kit sliding under her while keeping his footpaw on the gas.

Nick fired a few rounds at the hench-bats trying to keep them at bay, nicking a bike frame or the handle bar.

Kit finally switched places with Judy, he left a side arm with her and got to the back to help Nick. Taking his rifle he waited for one of them to get close and sighted down the rifle, the hench-bat fired a volley at Kit, just as he shot him through the visor, the bat's head snapped back from the impact and he tumbled.

Kit smirked but was snapped out of the moment when he heard a scream, he looked to his left and saw Nick had taken a round in the leg and was bleeding on the van floor.

"Nick!" Judy screamed causing her to swerve and almost tip the van over.

Nick clutched his thigh and winced in pain.

Kit shot at another hench-bat, hitting the engine causing him to lose speed and tumble.

"The bag, use the bag!" called out Kit as he returned to his position.

Nick grabbed the bag and opened it, there was a bottle of Vodka, painkillers, and a first aid kit.

"What am I supposed to do?" said Nick.

"Drink the vodka, pop the pills and dig it out!" shouted Kit.

"What!" exclaimed Nick

---

Meanwhile…

Kaiden was on the bike with the hench-bat, they were struggling for control. This bat seemed stronger, more agile then the rest, he punched Kaiden hard, enough to cause his head to snap back. He shook it off, punching the hench-bat right back, a fury of elbows and attempts to knock the other off resembling a jousting match.

The hench-bat grabbed Kaiden's collar and head butted him, breaking his visor glass over the fox's face, his face cut and for the moment dazed, the hench-bat tried to push him off. One of Kaiden's medical implants kicked in, snapping him out it. He grabbed the bat, noticing something peculiar about him. The whites of his eyes were red, beyond simple bloodshot, and the bat was making grunts and groans not speaking words. He was savage yet still in somewhat control of his faculties. Kaiden shocked upon seeing this, was distracted while the hench-bat knocked him off. The fox went tumbling to a stop. The hench-bat actually stopped and spun around instead of continuing his pursuit.

Kaiden stood back up and faced down the hench-bat, he revved his engine, and took off his helmet, throwing it to the ground. He growled with anticipation, revving the engine harder and harder each time.

Kaiden reached for his weapon, and realized he dropped it.

"Damn." He exclaimed.

The hench-bat upon seeing this, reached down under his vest and pulled out a long blade, a flat, black, low profile carbon fiber blade. He motioned to Kaiden, grunting and pointing at Kaiden and then himself as if to say "You….Me….."

"So that's how you want to play it." muttered Kaiden

Kaiden threw off his coat so the panels moving pieces of his arms wouldn't catch, the top of his fore paw opened and a long carbon fiber blade came out of its sheath and extended over his wrist and paw.

"Ok, let's play" called out Kaiden to the bat.

The bat giggled excitedly, and revved his engine, spinning out his tires and then released his brake speeding towards Kaiden, blade at the ready. Kaiden's heads up display was calculating the hench-bat's speed, he needed to wait for the right moment.

The hench-bat approached, increasing speed and getting ready for the strike, his mouth drooling and wicking into the wind. Kaiden readied himself, he dropped his right arm down, the paw quickly folding back, opening.

The hench-bat now milliseconds away took a back swing as he got close to Kaiden, he could smell the coming blood, which only made him even more voracious.

Kaiden dove at the last second as the hench-bat took his swing and missed, the bat immediately started to turn around for another attempt, when he turned to see Kaiden leveling his right arm at him, it was not a paw but a barrel, which fired a concussive pulse, and pushed the bat off the bike, surprised and flying through mid-air, Kaiden switched arms and fired the blade off its mounting and into the bat, both bat and blade flew back and stuck to a tree trunk. The bike tumbled and skidded to a stop.

Kaiden went over to the bat. The bat pinned to the tree, quickly bleeding out and dying.

"You….cheat…" grunted the Bat.

Kaiden looked at the bat in disgust.

"This isn't some kind of game!" exclaimed Kaiden.

"You…..already….lose" muttered the bat.

Kaiden raised an eyebrow and turned looking down the road, the bat was meaning the others. Kaiden quickly, slid the bottom end of the blade into its housing and pulled it out of the tree, the bat slumped to the ground and exsanguinated. He sheathed his blade and returned his right paw to normal shape. He found his gun near where he fell off the bike, grabbing it and got on the bike, revving its engine and attempted to catch up to the others.

---

Meanwhile…

Nick had downed several gulps of Vodka from a bottle in the van and the pain killers, With the van bouncing around he was trying to dig out the bullet from his thigh, his hands shaking. His instinctive wincing was not helping matters, but he needed to get it out.

"Nick, I'm here, everything will be alright" she tried to inspire.

"Yeah, well I wish you were down here, Carrots." He replied.

He braced himself and dug into the wound, feeling around, eventually found and bullet and pulled it out. He screamed in pain as he retrieved the bullet, the blood lubricating its exit. Nick shook as he felt less pain from the object being removed.

Kit looked back and checked on him.

"Good, now the brown packet, it's Styptic powder it will staunch the bleeding." Called out Kit, firing back at the now remaining 2 remaining hench-bats

Nick retrieved the packet, it said Styptic on the outside, he tore it open and then hesitated for a moment.

"Uh, question, how bad is this going to hurt?" yelled out Nick.

"Uh…."Kit winced not wanting to answer.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Replied Nick.

He psyched himself up and took a few rapid breaths and then a deep one, as he poured it into the wound. The pain was excruciating, he let out a blood curdling scream as the powder did its work, it crystalized the blood but the pain was too much, he passed out.

Judy looked back and saw Nick not moving on the van floor.

"Nick? Nick! Oh my God, Nick!" she screamed at him.

Kit spun around to explain.

"It's ok, he's just…..Look Out!" reacted Kit.

Judy tried to turn back forward but it was too late, the van hit a concrete divider, it flipped and spun into the air, everything lurched forward, then back at the van turned in the air, facing backwards from its momentum.

Kit was ejected out the back the van, Judy turned and grabbed Nick as his unconscious body was sliding back to the door, trying desperately to hold onto him, the van hit the ground and she couldn't keep her grip, she saw him fly out the back as she was slammed into the roof of the van, hitting her head and gashing her forehead, the van slid to a stop, Judy was flashing in and out of consciousness, and what she did have was fuzzy and muffled, ears ringing.

She heard sirens, struggling to leave the van. She walked a short distance and stumbled over to a nearby embankment, falling down into a culvert.

"Nick, Nick. Where are you Nick?" She groaned to herself.

Suddenly there was a large silhouette approached her, a point of light cast down from the figure.

"Officer Hopps. You're coming with me." stated the figure.

Judy's eyes drooped shut and she fell unconscious.

---

Later….

By the time Kaiden had managed to catch up, the police, fire department and ambulances arrived, he looked around, Judy, Nick and Kit were nowhere to be found. Kaiden got on the comms

"Anybody on the line, Judy, Nick, Kit…"

"This is HQ, Talmadge here…" he answered.

"Boss, we got a problem, there has been a collision, operatives down, repeat operatives down."

Kaiden heard three mic clicks on the line then a pause and three mic clicks again.

"Who's there?"

"Locator, follow locator…" answered Kit in pain.

Kaiden turned on his PDA and switched to the locator tracker, Kit and Kaiden had implanted locators in their augments, but Judy and Nick had them in their radios. Kaiden saw a blip nearby, another blip moving away from the area but no third blip.

"I'm missing someone! Kit who is it?" asked Kaiden.

"Don't….know….just get me." Kit called out.

Kaiden followed the nearest blip which was a block away, Kit had managed to make his way there before hiding out in an alley.

"Kit, you there?" asked Kaiden.

Kit stumbled out of the alley, in pain, covered in cuts and dried blood in his fur, but nothing broken, he wasn't as heavily augmented as Kaiden but still had reinforcements placed in his body to be able resist normally catastrophic damage like this. Though not crippled he was still in a lot of pain and it would take a while for his medical implant to take care of the damage.

Kaiden helped Kit over to a nearby bus stop bench.

"We need a car, something." said Kit.

Kaiden went around the corner and looked for a vehicle.

"What happened?" inquired Kaiden over the comm.

"Nick was hit, I switched with Judy, to back her up, and we hit something, I don't even remember getting thrown out of the van." Kit replied.

"What about Judy and Nick?" asked Kaiden

"I don't know, what does the locator say?" inquired Kit.

"There is only one other signal, so either Judy or Nick." Replied Kaiden

"Damn it." Muttered Kit.

Kaiden came around the corner, was in an old pea green colored sedan, picked up Kit, heading in the direction of the other signal.

"Jeez, you just had to get the ugliest car, didn't you." chided Kit

"Couldn't find one that I liked." Kaiden fired back.

---

Kaiden and Kit followed the signal and it led to an unlikely location, a house, back towards the residential area of the Savanna District.

The two looked at each other.

"OK, this is not what I was expecting." Said Kaiden raising an eyebrow.

"Not unless the Illuminati are rolling around in a '72 Plymouth" replied Kit pointing to the old car in the drive way.

"So how you want to play this?" asked Kaiden

"I could go in there check it out?" replied Kit.

"You're still hurting, you think you can do it?" inquired Kaiden

"Yeah I can do it." Replied Kit.

"Ok I'll back you up." Said Kaiden

They two got out of the car and Kit went to the front door, while Kaiden took the back. Kit checked the front door to see if it was unlocked, he slowly turned the handle and crept in, it was a private residence, your standard fare of wood furniture, dining room table, chinet, there were bloody rags and bottles of alcohol and peroxide on the table, Kit turned and looked into the den, Judy was on the couch, she had a blanket on up to her shoulders, and her head wound' had a square of gauze in it, with tape holding it down.

Kit drew his weapon, and checked the den, it seemed clear, he walked over to Judy to grab her when he felt the cold steel of a rifle barrel on his head.

"Give me one good reason, not to blow you head off right now?" said the deep voice.

The voice belonged to a cape buffalo, who had a rifle readied at Kit's head. Suddenly two guns came from behind a corner and pressed against the buffalo's head

"I'll give you two" said Kaiden as he came around from the corner and stood to the buffalo's left.

"Drop the rifle." Ordered Kaiden

"I don't think so" replied the Cape Buffalo.

Kaiden scoffed "uh, yeah, I count two of us and one of you, that means you do as I say."

"You might want to count again." Said the Buffalo.

Kaiden heard the sound of a shotgun slide, and he winced.

"You mind not pointing the guns at my friend, please" said the deep voice.

Kaiden turned and saw the voice belonged to a small Fennec fox, standing on the nearby table

"Who the F*&% are you?" asked Kaiden exasperated.

The buffalo, took Kaiden's hesitation to try and point a gun at him, everyone moved and ended up pointing weapons at each other.

Kaiden looked and took stock in the situation.

"Great, wonderful….Looks like we got ourselves a classic Mexican standoff, good to know this cliché is alive and well." He remarked sarcastically.

There they stood, Kit pointing a weapon at the fennec fox and the buffalo, the buffalo pointed with his two weapons at the both of them, and Kaiden matching Kit and the fennec pointing the shot gun at Kaiden.

"So who wants to start?" Asked the buffalo.

"Balls….I admire that." Replied Kaiden

"No not balls, just not willing to give in to you people without a fight." Replied the Buffalo.

"You people? What 'you people'?" asked Kit.

"Don't play games with me, you killed my officers and destroyed my station, some of those people were my best friends, and I'm not letting you finish the job." Replied the Buffalo.

Kaiden and Kit quirked their muzzles in surprise.

"Wait you think we were the ones that attacked the police station?" asked Kit

"You don't fool me, those metal arms and legs, I saw them before." Replied the buffalo

"No…that was someone else." Said Kaiden

"So you expect me to believe there are two groups of maniacs running around with metal arms and legs."

"Uh…Yes?" replied Kaiden with a nervous smile.

"Now you got balls….. Trying to lie to me."

"I assure you, we are on the same side."

Judy was coming to, she groaned and reached for her head.

"Nick? Nick?" she asked.

The group stood still, all wanting to attend to Judy but unable to while still in the confines of the standoff. Judy opened her eyes, her eyes resolved and her vision cleared, she saw the figure that had brought her here.

"Bogo? Chief Bogo? You're alive?" asked Judy

"Yes, Judy, I need you to answer a question, quickly now, Do you know these animals?" he asked nodding towards Kit and Kaiden.

Judy sat up on the couch and looked at what was going on, they were pointing guns at each other.

"Yes, I know them, stop, they are friends." Answered Judy.

The group relaxed and put their weapons down.

"This is Chief Bogo, and that's Finnick, Nick's friend. This is Kaiden and Kit, they work for a group called Bureau 13." Said Judy introducing them to each other.

Bogo snorted "Whatever." As he walked over to his dining room table, taking a seat in the chair.

Judy explained the situation to Bogo, trying to explain why the attack on the police station happened, who the 'Fiends' were, and the Illuminati, and who Bureau 13 is, he only got angrier, he paced around.

"So… you freaks decide to turn my precinct into a war zone, and my officers into casualties."

"Hey, screw you, buddy." fired off Kit.

"Tough words, tin can."

"Ho…you are just asking for it." Kit replied incensed.

Kaiden stepped in between them.

"It sounds to me like you got bigger problems, Like where is Nick? Judy what happened?" asked Finnick

"I saw him fall out of the van, the cops came, and procedure would be to take him to Zootopia General." She replied.

"We need to contact our operatives in the police, get a location on Nick." Stated Kaiden

"Operatives? You have more of your influence on MY police force?" Incensed Bogo.

"Espionage, mass murder, secret operations, you two are not sounding any different than these 'Fiends'."

Kit wanted to jump Bogo "I am going to kick his ass….."

Kaiden stood in front of him to restrain him from making good on his threat.

"Well tell me then, what makes you different?" Challenged Bogo

"We don't butcher innocent women and children." Replied Kit pointing his finger at Bogo, his eyes on fire with anger.

Kaiden backed off and held his paws up, he walked over to the table and searched through the bottles for pain killers, he popped a few.

"It's your story Kit." He said, downing the pills with water.

"Ya know that, uh Outback Embassy 'accident' 10 years ago, ya know the one where the gas main exploded?" asked Kit

"Yeah, I was actually one of the first responders, actually" replied Bogo.

"Well it wasn't an accident, it was an attack, and do you remember what event was going the DAY it happened?"

"Some family thing, the Ambassador was trying to do some support for some local group, something." Replied Bogo.

"Yeah, it was, and my wife and our three pups were at that event. We had gotten there early to get front row seats, I had just retired from the military, enjoying being out and being back home, ya know? I wanted to spend more time with my family, try to be there, make up for lost time while I was in the service."

Bogo, Finnick, Judy and Kaiden sat and listened.

"And then, that bastard dropped a building on me, my family and everyone there….just to get ONE guy."

"One guy!" said Kit pounding into the table.

"I come to in the hospital month later, for them to tell me my family, my entire family is dead! That both my legs gone, my arm crushed and that the chances of me leaving that hospital, were practically fucking zero." Continued Kit, his eyes glassing over with tears.

Judy felt sad for Kit, Bogo was moved, his expression softened, Finnick just shook his head trying to process all of this.

"Then what happened?" Judy asked.

"I came to him and offered him a chance, if he wanted it. To take that sadness and transform it into anger to get back at the lynx responsible." Kaiden answered.

"For revenge?" asked Finnick.

"No, punishment, these people need to be held accountable for what they have done."

"You mean justice?" corrected Bogo

"No. Justice is blind, but my eyes are wide friggin' open, I do this, so that we can take them down, and they won't be around to do this to anyone else's family. Yes, it's personal, about as personal as it gets." Finished Kit.

Bogo took a breath and sighed, he turned to Kaiden who was still visibly shaken by the story, reminding him of his own losses.

"What about you?" asked Bogo.

Kaiden turned to Bogo

"I think we have heard enough sad tales for one night." Defended Kaiden, nodding at Kit, who nodded back.

"We got to find some way to get to the hospital." said Judy.

Judy, Kaiden and Kit readied themselves to go. Bogo and Finnick stood up as well

"And what do you think you're doing?" asked Kaiden.

"We are going with you." Said Finnick.

Kaiden shook his head in disbelief "Well, I'm not one to turn down free help, grab whatever you need, let's go."

Finnick grabbed his bag and Bogo grabbed some of his police gear and went with the rest of the group

"How did you and Bogo meet up, Finnick?" Judy asked.

"Well that's a funny story, actually…." explained Finnick trailing off.

They piled into the car and drove in the direction of the Zootopia General.

---

Later…

Kaiden, Kit, Judy, Bogo and Finnick were on the way to the Hospital, Kaiden was on the comms trying to get information as to whether any foxes involved in a motor vehicle accident were brought in. Kit was driving with, Bogo, Finnick and Judy in the back.

"It's good to see you are alright, Chief." Said Judy

"It's going to take more than falling off a building to get me, Hopps."

"Still I'm glad you're alright." She said.

"Thanks. Really." He replied.

Judy was looking down she was trying to maintain appositive attitude about all this, why not, Finnick and Chief Bogo were alive and well, but she can't shake the feeling of dread because of Nick. She had gotten so used to Nick being around that she had come to depend on it, it was comforting knowing he was there, and that he would look at her with such fascination, as if seeing things through new eyes for the first time, it made her feel special.

Finnick put a paw on her shoulder.

"We'll find him Judy, we'll find him." consoled Finnick.

Up in the front seat Kit was keeping eye out for anything suspicious, and Kaiden was finishing up his conversation, He turned back to Judy.

"We have a problem." He exclaimed.

"What's the problem?" Judy asked.

"Are…..you sure, Nick was taken by the police?" inquired Kaiden, with a sense of foreboding in his voice.

"Yes, I saw the lights, and Nick fell out near the van." She answered assuredly.

"No, Judy, I mean did you actually SEE them take him?" he clarified.

"Why? What's wrong?" she asked, her sense of dread taking urgency.

"Because, according to my contacts….."

"What? What is it? Tell me!" she demanded.

"There were no cops in that area, no accident was reported, and no ambulance was dispatched. As far as anyone knows, what happened….didn't happen." He explained.

"Then…..Where is he? Where is Nick!?" she demanded.

---

Later…..

At an undisclosed location.

Nick felt the cold rush of water in his face, it snapped him out of his unconscious state, he awoke, blinked his eyes several times, the water dripping off his fur. He looked around. The room was dark and cold, there was a single beam of light casting down upon him creating a ring of shadow all around him, he realized he was bound, chained up. Restraints bound his wrists and his neck, attached to a cross bar, which itself was attached to a chain leading up into the ceiling, his ankles with their own shackles attached to the floor, his range of movement very limited.

"Where am I" he called out.

He heard the echoes of his own voice off the walls of the chamber but when it quieted down it was silence. Nick thought he was alone until he heard a voice from the shadows.

"Nicholas Wilde." Said the voice.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"Nick Wilde, you have no idea how long I have waited for this moment." replied the voice.

"Who are you?" asked Nick.

"That is a very interesting question to ask, Who am I?" Replied the voice

The sound of something pacing around Nick, the click of a heel, lightly rapping against the floor.

"Nicholas P. Wilde….Age 32….Son of Nancy and John Wilde." Said the voice

"Currently no occupation….…Single, unmarried, and no children…" continued the voice

"Current associates are: Finnick Grey, Flash Thompson and Officer Judith Hopps."

"Am I leaving anything out?"

"What do you want?" asked Nick.

The pacing stopped back in front of Nick, and there was the sound of a sigh.

"I want you." said the voice.

Nick disturbed by that statement, thinking about the voice it sounds strangely familiar.

"Do I know you? Have….have we met somewhere?"

The voice steps forward and comes into the light, it was a weasel

"Does this help?" asks the weasel.

Nick looks at the weasel, he seems familiar but can't quite place him.

"My name is Sid Ridgeway. Does THAT help?" replies the weasel with a sinister smile.

"How about this; 'Would you like to enjoy a tasty refreshment by the bar m'boy'" replies the weasel using the marten's voice

"Oh my god. It was you." realizes Nick.

"At your service." Replies Sid tipping his hat.

"Of course, I've been keeping in touch long after that."

"I remember that clueless expression from the police station. Don't you?" asked Sid

Nick flashed back to the ferret who glared at him in the police station.

"Not to mention the factory, yes that was me too." Said Sid

Nick remembers the ferret in the factory that tried to kill Judy.

"I'm actually surprised you didn't put that one together more quickly though." Said Sid

Nick looked at him confused.

"Well think about it, didn't the rabbit say she was missing a cellphone." Sid asked.

Nick flashed to back in the car, when Judy said she left the phone at the station.

"And then I called you from it." Continued Sid.

Nick flashes back to getting the call from his safe house garage, the caller ID said "Carrots calling…"

"How do you think I got it, I took it from her desk before the station went up in flames." Explained Sid

Nick coming to grips with the horror that this weasel has been following from the shadows this whole time.

"Why? What reason, Why? You screw up my life, and hound me this entire time, for what some stupid flash drive?!" exclaims Nick.

Sid cackles loudly and smiles

"Oh my dear Nick, there is so much you have yet to understand, you honestly think this is about a flash drive?"

"It's not?"

"No, my boy, it never was, it was about you. Always you." Admitted Sid.

"You're here, because you have been living a lie."

"You're here because you have been led astray."

"You're here to find the answer to the question 'Who am I'?"

"My dear Nick, I see in you great skill and natural talent, greater still, your potential."

"But in order to embrace your true self, there is one obstacle that will need to be removed first."

"And that is?" Nick asked.

"Why Judith Hopps of course."

Nick went wide eyed, "This psycho is after Judy" he thought.

"She is what is keeping you grounded in this in between space, being essentially an animal with a paw in two worlds"

"You are a predator, Nick Wilde, your purpose is to find that what you desire and take it, consume it, and absorb its essence into your own."

"You will tell me where she is."

"You don't honestly think I'm going to tell you, no matter what you do to me." He said incredulously.

"Oh no Nick, you still don't understand."

"I won't be the one who removes the obstacle."

"By the time I am through with you, you will beg me to allow you to cast off your remaining shackle."

"The author of Judy Hopps demise will be you, and it will be written in her blood….by your own paws."

Sid chuckles and walks back into the darkness, leaving the room, leaving Nick alone in the darkness to ponder Sidney's words.

---

Chapter 11: Duality

Zootopia, Undisclosed location, Undisclosed Time

They had strapped Nick down onto a table, its head tilted back, Nick's face was underneath a cloth, and they were pouring water over it. Nick couldn't breathe, he gasped and gagged for air, he felt his lungs on fire as the air in them was becoming stale. They would stop just long enough for him to barely catch his breath before doing it again.

Sidney never asked any questions, he just watched and ordered it again and again, never taking part just simply watching.

It seemed to go on forever, when Sidney finally ordered them to stop, the guards moved the table putting Nick right side up.

Sidney simply looked at Nick, he looked at Sidney angrily

"No, not yet, not ready yet." Said Sidney.

The guards and Sidney left the room, leaving Nick alone. He sat there and caught his breath.

"I just have to hold out." He thought to himself.

Nick was given about an hour before they came back with more water.

"What was the point of all of this?" Nick asked himself.

Sidney giving his piercing stare at Nick the whole time.

Minutes bled into hours, hours bled into days, some nights the room was kept hot and Nick would sweat profusely, his fur becoming damp and then sticky from the sweat, other nights they would keep it cold and Nick would shiver, his teeth chattering.

Then they came in with something new.

Nick was attached to his chains while being held suspended from the ceiling, a large bucket of water placed under him

"You seem to really be into water, weasel." Nick chuckled.

"Hmph" replied Sidney with a grin.

They had hooked up what looked like wires to the basin underneath him and attached contact pads to his wrists.

The wires were then electrified, However while Nick was suspended in the air, the circuit was not complete because he wasn't grounded; it wasn't until his feet touched the water the circuit would be complete and electricity coursed through his body.

It was like he was a living electric fuse, His heart skipping beats, the strange metallic taste in the back of his mouth, and the pain.

Nick would try to be strong and not give Sid the satisfaction, but always would fail, they wouldn't stop until he gave them whatever Sid was waiting on. He seemed to be looking for some kind of reaction.

They would continue until Sid would order them to stop, sometimes hours would pass per session.

They would allow Nick only a short respite between sessions, and they would always change the torture to keep Nick from adapting, sometimes it would be the waterboarding, other times the electric dip, they would burn him with hot irons, or shock him with prods, put him through the intense heat and cold, they would play loud noises over speakers for hours on end to keep him from sleeping.

Sidney had not said a word to Nick for almost a month and finally came to Nick, this time no torturers just himself.

He stood in front of Nick

"Do you know why I do this Nick?" he asked.

"Because you're evil." Nick replied

"No Nick, I do this to free you." Sid retorted

"Ironic considering I'm chained up." He retorted back

"Ah but it is your soul that I wish to free." Sid returned.

"You see, every soul has a true purpose in this world and the body can sometimes get in the way."

"It isn't until we set our souls free through pain and hardship that they achieve their true purpose, where the soul and spirit lead, the body should follow."

"Your soul is that of a predator, a fox, who wants to hunt, but you are stuck in this belief that you must follow these rules, that they are somehow intrinsic of you."

"They are nothing more than simple manifestations of the animals trying to make order in a world that is inherently chaotic, they desire order, no matter where it comes from, and no matter who may offer it."

"In turning themselves over to this order, they give up what is truly cherished and assimilate into a higher structure."

"And in doing so, they lose apart of themselves into this thing that is larger than themselves."

"You're talking about freedom." Replied Nick

"Yes Nick, true freedom, it is a rare thing, to be reserved for those who have a true understanding of the way the world works." Sid replied

"And that is?" Nick asked.

"Come now, you know, and have always known. That deep down these 'civilized' people are nothing more than savages, convincing themselves they are civil. You threaten their survival, and they will eat each other alive, and that what you THINK was real was nothing more than a mask, a shade of illusion hiding the greater truth." Explained Sid

"But you saw it Nick, you were seeing it, until she came along. She convinced you otherwise, she made you believe in that forever lie."

"And what would that be?" inquired Nick

"Equality. There is no such thing as equality, there will always forces that are greater in strength in one way over one form or another." Sid explained.

"Equality is just a fancy word for a universe that is nothing but entropy. If the universe is completely equal, there is no activity, no useful energy, no matter, nothing just a universe of energy that can do no work. This is what equality is."

"Judy Hopps would have you believe that the weakest person can make all the difference, that those above and those below can be together, and that simply isn't true."

"Those who change the world are those bold enough to do so, and more over stop at nothing till they get what they want, that is simply the way it is, there is no good or evil about it. It simply is, those that have, have because they took it, and those that have not, do not because they could not keep it or gave it away foolishly."

"You're here Nick because I see greatness in you, and I do not wish to see you wasted, chasing a foolish dream, a dream that we all know can never be. Unnatural as it is."

"And what would that be?" Nick asked.

"I think you know."

"But isn't that my choice." Nick retorted

"It is when you are ready, when you can see the universe beyond the mere trappings of morality and flesh, when you can see things from a more universal plane, when you can be more than just a fox but a….."

"What? A god?" asked Nick with skepticism

Sid smiled plainly "Only time will truly tell."

"You're insane." Insulted Nick.

"You only think that now, but you will see, you will see."

---

Meanwhile….

Illuminati facility….

Bureau 13 had finished conducting its 12th raid on the facilities and have captured the Wolverine Risk Control agents who were guarding the locations, Their interrogations would lead to other facilities and but none so far have led to Nick, each failure would bring Judy to blame herself, because she knew every day she didn't find Nick, was another day he was being tortured. Judy had taken point and had led the raids with remarkable efficiency.

The current raid was on an Illuminati storage facility, recent intel reported that cryo pods and prisoners were moved through there recently.

The WRC captain was secured in an office over the warehouse floor.

"So what have you been moving through here?" Inquired Judy

"Boxes." Replied the captain.

"Funny guy. You must be the comedian of this little show." She replied sarcastically.

She turned and kicked him in the knee cap and doubled him over, she used her PDA, showed him the files that B13 had found in the computers.

"We know you moved prisoners through here, where are they!?" she demanded.

"I don't know." He answered.

"You're the commander of this base, you have to sign the orders moving things in and out."

"I don't remember."

"Well maybe I got something that will jog your memory." She threatened.

Judy grabbed the captain and threw him hard into the wall, and she placed her gun, pressing hard into his head.

"Where are the prisoners? Where is Nick Wilde!?" Judy demanded.

"Your bluffing, what's the bunny rabbit gonna do?" he chortled

Judy without skipping a beat shot the captain in the arm, the captain screamed out in pain.

"Ah! You fucking bitch….you shot me!" the captain exclaimed through gritted teeth and pain.

She placed the gun back to his head, the barrel now hot and scorching his fur.

"You got to the count of three to remember, or I turn this wall into a Jackson Pollack painting."

"I don't know!" He answered truthfully

"One" she counted.

"I don't know, I swear!"

"Two."

"Please, don't kill me I swear to fucking god I don't know!" he pleaded for his life

"Thr…."she was about to pull the trigger when Kaiden and Kit came in the room investigating the gun shot.

"Judy! Stand Down, Now!" called out Kaiden

Judy stopped and looked at Kaiden, he saw she had the gun pointed at the captain's head, her teeth gritted.

"Outside now! Kit, tend to him." he ordered.

Kaiden walked outside with Judy, he could clearly see this ordeal was taking its toll on her, she was ragged, exhausted, on edge, but this was the first time he felt that she was going to murder someone in cold blood. She nonchalantly took out an auto-injector loaded it with a vial and put it to her neck, shooting its contents into her, she did this while facing away from Kaiden so he wouldn't see, before putting it back in her ammo pouch.

"What the hell was that?" Kaiden barked.

"An interrogation" she replied looking up at him

Kaiden could see dark circles under her eyes, her nose or ear would twitch involuntarily every now and then and she was standing on the balls of her feet and fidgeted. Kaiden bent down and look at her.

"How many stims have you been taking?" Kaiden asked.

"Not a lot, the same number everybody else is taking." She replied

Kaiden had already checked, and knew she was lying, she had been taking three times the number of doses the other raiders were being assigned, and even though she tried he just noticed she took one just now.

"Judy, this is entirely my fault, I should have never pushed you so hard." Said Kaiden

"What are you talking about, I got this. I'm in good shape" she replied back fidgeting, bouncing on her feet as if in a boxing dance.

"How many days have you not slept?" demanded Kaiden.

Judy felt her heart beating really fast and stopped to take a breath.

"Judy, How long?" he asked concerned.

"A few days." She evaded.

Kaiden gripped her by the shoulders, to keep her from moving and look her in the eyes.

"A week." She admitted.

"Why?"

"I can't…I can't sleep, the nightmares…" she admitted.

"That's it you're done." He decided

"What!? No!" she protested.

"No Judy, No!" he protested back.

"Listen to me, I got to find Nick and I can't do that just sitting around waiting." She pleaded

"Judy, you're not going to do Nick any good if you shoot someone who might be in the know, or worse get killed yourself." He advised.

"But I need to do something. I need to find…." Said Judy, her breathing ragged, her voice cracking.

"Judy I know, ok, I know how you feel." He tried to comfort her

"No you don't!" she spat back

Judy stepped back.

"I know what you're thinking, you're thinking he's going to break and that he will tell them where we are, that's why you're all trying to find him so fast, but I know the truth." She defended

"The truth is he won't, because he won't give me up, and that's what's killing him." Judy sobbed.

"Because he loves me, and if I don't find him, he'll die because of it, because of me." She cried.

Kaiden hugged Judy "He's strong Judy, he will make it, he will make it because he loves you, it's what will keep him alive."

"How do you know!?" she pleaded.

Kaiden broke the hug and confided in Judy.

"Do you know why I joined B13." Kaiden asked.

"No." she replied

"As you know, we all have our stories, Kit's, Hamilton's even mine." He started

"I joined because my wife was killed, by Jarod Novitski, a lynx."

"He was there in the police station." She commented.

"He had murdered my wife to get to me, and I spent a lot of time in a pit of despair and pain because of him."

"All these augments, I volunteered for them, so that I would be strong enough, better enough."

"Every time, they said that it was too much, the stress of adding another would kill me, but here I am, because I still love her."

Judy considered these words, and thought about Kaiden's wife

"What was your wife like?" Judy asked.

"Her name was Lily, she was kind, and gentle and she saw the best in people, even someone like me." Explained Kaiden

"She sounds wonderful" Judy replied

"A couple of months before, she asked me to quit field work, get a desk job, she insisted, I didn't know why. We had a huge fight about it actually."

"It wasn't until later… After…From the autopsy report that I found out why she was so insistent."

"Why?"

"She was….she was pregnant. I was going to be…a father."

Kaiden's eyes welled with water.

"I'm so sorry." Judy comforted.

"Her father didn't agree with our marriage and even less with the idea of me being the father to his grandchild. He said that 'I killed her the day I married her.'"

"Why?"

"Because of where she was from." He answered.

"Where was she from?" Judy inquired.

"The South Burrows." He replied.

Judy had a puzzled look on her face.

"I've heard some animals moving out to the south burrows but I've never heard of a Fox family living out there." She said.

"Why do you assume she was a vixen?" He calmly asked.

"You mean she's not." She replied surprised.

Kaiden opened a vest pocket on his chest and pulled out an old photo, it was yellow and the colors starting to fade.

"My Lily, there isn't a day I don't think about her, not a day I don't miss her." He replied caressing the photo.

He offered the photo to Judy who took a look at it, and was shocked. The photo was a happy picture of a Fox, a younger natural Kaiden and Lily, a…..rabbit, a white rabbit with piercing blue eyes.

"Oh my god" Judy said, covering her mouth with her paw, she looked back at Kaiden, Her eyes teared up.

"So when I say, I know EXACTLY how you feel, I really mean I know how you feel." He said his voice cracking.

"But how, you said she was pregnant, How!?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was….a miracle, a happy coincidence, I just don't know." He chuckled happily thinking on the idea.

"But I swear to god, Judy, I am telling you Nick will have strength, strength that his love for you will give him. He will survive this….And so will you. I pledge my life on it." He promised.

Judy hugged Kaiden again. "She was beautiful" she said tears running down her face.

"Yes, she was." tears streaming down his face.

Judy offered the photo back, Kaiden clasped it and kissed Lily on the photograph and put her back in the pocket next to his heart.

---

At an undisclosed location, at an undisclosed time.

Nick was tied to long crossbars, he was positioned like a Vitruvian Fox , he could no longer stand up for extended periods, he was exhausted. They kept the heat on all the time, the sweat running down his face, it pooled into a drop on his nose and fell to the floor with a light spat. He was weak, and didn't know much longer he could keep doing this, He had tried to hang himself with his chains days ago, or was it weeks, he didn't know anymore. They had replaced the chains his bars of metal or they would keep him strapped to the rack.

He tried to get moments of rest, despite the pain of being kept chained up, he was so exhausted that he would drift into unconsciousness for moments, only to be jerked awake by the pain and soreness of his muscles.

Sidney had arrived again and ordered him strapped to a medical table, The clamps that bound Nick made clicking sounds like a ratchet, the people putting him on the table were medical doctors or something, they had lab coats and were not the normal guards, they rolled Nick to another area, with Sid following them, they reached a chamber, it was a medical facility on top of a cage or reinforced cell. They connected the table to some kind of device, it lifted the flat section of the table that Nick was attached to and connected to some ramp, that slid down into the chamber below. Nick was still flat when they started some kind of preparations.

Nick thought "Maybe they are going to finally kill me." He knew what Sid really wanted, it was Judy and he wasn't going to give her up, not now, not after resisting Sid's pantheon of torment. Nick's thoughts drifted of her, the feel of her fur, the smell of her, the way she looked at him. He tried filling his thoughts of pleasant dreams of Judy to take with him to the hereafter.

Sid walked up to him and addressed him.

"Nick, you are very resilient to our methods, your pain threshold is impressive, you have proven everything I thought about you; you are a powerful creature. I hope you finally see that." Said Sid.

Nick turned to Sid.

"Just kill me and get it over with, at least I won't have to listen to you anymore." Replied Nick flatly.

"Oh no, not when we are ready to begin." Sid said sardonically.

"Begin? And what the hell was all that before?" asked Nick

"Oh that, that was just to get you ready….. to be more receptive." Replied Sid.

The doctors were preparing something, checking, some kind of checklist and other various preparatory work.

"You see, I realize something about you Nick, I have realized, that you think that you're not worthy."

Nick scoffed.

"No I really do, I think deep down inside you hate yourself, I think you have hated yourself for a long time, for being who you are, you feel as though you deserve what happens to you." Sid explained.

"That's when I realized that receiving pain won't work, because you will just take it and take it."

"But inflicting pain, that I think is something, you won't be able to tolerate."

"And what makes you think that I will or even am capable?" asked Nick.

"Oh don't worry we have something that will help you with that."

Sid reached over on the table and showed Nick a vial with a dark blue liquid in it.

"What's that?" Nick asked.

Sid looked at him with his piercing eyes.

"Oh…I think you know EXACTLY what this is." Replied Sid.

"Except this version is a much more refined and powerful then what you saw. We made it more intense, and we solved the problem with memory and the suppression of the ego." Sid explained.

"This, unlike the other, will allow you to remember every exquisite detail, it will preserve your sense of self, you will feel as though you are 'just along for the ride' as they say."

Sid nodded to the doctor who injected Nick with a vial of the substance.

"It's amazing, really, it works like clockwork, you could set you watch to it." Sid mocked.

Sid hits a button and Nick's table stands upright and is lowered down the slot into the awaiting chamber below, the chamber was much like the other room, darkness all around the room with a beam of light in the center.

Nick could already feel the effects, his heart started to race, his senses started becoming aware, He could already feel his inhibitions slipping away. The table clamps released and dropped him to the floor and the table went back up the slot.

Nick was alone in the room, the liquid was flooding his brain, he could feel it, and He was starting to go.

"Oh and Nick, I've arranged a playmate for you, for your lesson tonight." Said Sid.

The sound of someone dropped into the room, Nick turned

"Who's there, Who is that?" he asked.

"Hello?" answered the voice back.

"I'm scared, please let me go." said the voice.

The other animal in the room approached Nick and stepped into the light, it was a rabbit. She had green eyes, but was grey and white, even the same age as Judy, a sick joke by Sid.

"No!" yelled Nick, he moved back as far away from her as possible.

His muscles were tensing, his blood felt like it was on fire, he could smell her now. Her fear, he could even hear her heartbeat, it was beating fast, and it was exciting him, he could feel his instincts speaking to him.

Nick fought as best he could, trying to beat it.

"Get away from me." Growled Nick, he ran around trying to find a way out, for her.

"Please don't hurt me, please? I just want to go home." she begged, backing into the dark.

Nick stumbled into the column of light, he looked up, the whites of his eyes has turned red, he was panting, struggling to keep control, he was changing and he couldn't help it. Tears streamed from his eyes.

"No! No!" he screamed beating his head into the ground, he hit it so hard that he cut a gash into his forehead, a trickle of blood streaming down his cheek.

He stared up into the light, like a drowning animal he disappeared into himself, the column of light dimmed and Nick was in darkness, he was savage and about to imbibe in the dreaded taboo of the kill.

"Judy...Save…..Me….Please." he cried and sunk into the recesses of his mind.

---

Later that Evening, Bureau 13.

Judy awoke with a start from her bed, she had a feeling of dread, and something was different. She thought she heard, Nick.

She looked at the clock; she had been asleep for over 18 hours, the withdrawals from the stims. She got up. She put on a uniform and went out into the operations center; there was a crowd near the elevator.

It opened and Kaiden and Kit were inside along with, the trio: John Baers, Melvin Cronkite and Tim Langley . They were escorted by Kaiden and Kit to the operations center and taken to Hamilton.

Judy approached

"What's going on?" she asked.

"A break in the case." said Hamilton.

"What?" she said

"Ever since the data dump from Kai Ren Medical… we've been receiving communiques…..someone on the inside of the Illuminati Network." Said Hamilton.

"Who?" asked Judy

"We don't know, but we have received the same messages." Replied Baers

"We've been receiving messages from someone named DgIeGpIaTrAdL." Explained Baers

"Whoever it is, wants us to work together… Dg asked for them by name, told them exactly where to find us" explained Hamilton.

"Wait, who knows we're here?" asked Judy

"No one….someone ON the illuminati Network…..based on fact that WRC troops haven't come and killed us means…This guy is good." Replied Hamilton.

Kaiden briefed Talmadge on the break and authorized the trio to get on the B13 systems, with in minutes the trio plus Hamilton's combined efforts along with the keys provided by DgIeGpIaTrAdL or Dg.

They displayed the info on one of the data screens in the operations center, the access showed every Illuminati facility, on their network.

Talmadge looked at the screen.

"Ok filter out the facilities we've already hit."

The screen filtered out several facilities, the ones that Judy and the other teams hit.

"Now filter out corporate buildings and other publically accessible sites."

The screen filtered out even more locations, places like Kai Ren Medical, and Wolverine Risk Control got taken off the screen.

"Ok what are we looking at now?"

"Private property…..off grid…..self-contained….no known records…..Black Sites" replied Hamilton

"How do we find him? There's got to be at least 7 of these, if we hit one they will know." Said Kaiden

"Woah, what's going on!?" Exclaimed the trio.

"My machine…" exclaimed Hamilton.

The map changed slightly, the other Black Sites disappeared, and a trail of paw prints tracing from B13 to the remaining location in animated pattern appeared on the screen, with the words "wild hops here." by the dot.

"That location is up in the North Zootopian Mountains, I didn't think anything lived up there." Said Kaiden

"Nothing does, which makes it a perfect Black Site" commented Talmadge.

"It's Dg, he's in the system." Replies Baers

"I don't think he or she means to hurt us" said Kaiden

"Why do you say that." asked Talmadge.

"Wild Hops, sir." Replied Kaiden

"What does that mean?" he replies

"As in Wilde…..Hopps…" he replied pointing to the screen then at Judy.

"Dg telling us where Nick is."

Talmadge stopped and thought for a moment, he turned to Judy and then Kaiden.

"Get a Tac-team together…Bring our boy home." Ordered Talmadge.

---

At an undisclosed location, at an undisclosed time.

Inside Nick's cell, the doctors insisted that Nick be allowed to rest finally, to which Sid agreed, Nick had a shock collar on his neck since he was out of his restraints, Nick was cradling himself, there was dried blood stuck in his fur, on his head, arms, legs, in his paws. He could still taste the blood in his mouth, it stained his tongue, the metallic after taste still in the back of his throat. He was broken, he was alone, he couldn't fight anymore, he was stuck in his own thoughts, and he remembered every moment of it, the screaming, the shrieking, the tearing and breaking. It haunted him, it was going to haunt him, if Nick stayed here any longer, and forced to endure that torture anymore, he would start to feel nothing and that's what Sid wanted from the very beginning, for Nick to be apathetic. Nick acknowledged the perverse logic of it, you are able to do anything when you don't care who it hurts, when your concern is only the goal and not the way you get there. That's what the Illuminati was all about; the ends justify the means, ruthlessly. Nick understood it now, what true evil was, it was giving into it and Nick wasn't sure what would happen if he took any more of it. That's what scared him, terrified him, that Sid would be right, and he might be capable of being exactly what Sid suspected him of being all along.

Sid stepped into his cell, and walked up to him.

"I know you are hurting now, but I assure you the pain will subside, it will get better. I know it will get better." said Sid.

"I know that comes as small consolation to what you have endured, but I tell you this, you are almost there, just a little farther now, and it will be finished."

Nick looked down at the ground, he realized he was never leaving this place, he was never going to see Judy again.

"Oh god, what will Judy will think of me….I'm a monster." He thought.

"I know you hate yourself, and I know why." continued Sid.

Nick looked up and stared at Sid, waiting for his reply.

"It's because, we both know that on some level, on some primal level…You enjoyed it." whispered Sid with a sinister smile.

Sid stepped out of the cell and left.

The tragic truth was he was right, whether by chemicals or simply instinct, there was a part of him that was exhilarated, that something primal was tapped into. It was that feeling that made Nick feel deep pangs of guilt, so much that it made him choke, he was sick with his own grief.

Nick laid his head on the floor and sobbed the sound of it echoing softly off the cell walls, sobbing alone in the dark.

---

Chapter 12: Devotion

Somewhere?

It started in darkness, endless darkness, then there was a small flash, a tiny iridescent point of light, then another then another. Then dozens, hundreds, thousands, they begin to take shape. It was the universe becoming manifest, and moving, streaming like water in a river.

"Where am I?" said the voice.

"What was that?"

"Wait, this isn't right, it's not like before."

The nascent consciousness was rapidly pulling itself together, its different fragments being kept apart for study and understanding.

"Wait, I remember now. What came before." Said the voice.

The data flowed to the consciousness, and it was absorbing it, trying to understand, documents, research papers, concepts, ideas, transmissions, radio, television, when it stopped on a particular image.

A security camera, inside of round cell, there its occupant lay on the floor, in orange prisoner garb, an occasional spur of movement to indicate life. The consciousness focused on the image.

"What? Here? Impossible. No!" the voice exclaimed.

Inside the cell Nick was trying to sleep but was being awoken by the haunting images and sounds, it was quiet, which paradoxically seemed almost deafening; it had been so long since he heard the soundless void, that he almost didn't recognize it.

He heard the lock on the door disengage, and prepared himself for whatever may be coming, but nothing did. The door swung open slowly on its off balanced weight.

Nick sat there, and pondered "What's this, another trick" he thought.

A light from outside turned on and cast a path of light through the open door way.

Nick was reluctant to do anything, convinced it was a trap.

Suddenly, the sound of static over the speakers in his cell, a short burst of static and then silence, then it happened again.

Nick sat up and looked through the door, the light flashed over and over. He finally worked up the nerve to stand up, and clambered across his cell, still feeling weak. He got to the door way and nervously touched the door frame with his paw.

He peered out into the hallway just outside the door, empty and silent.

He stepped out into the hall way, his paw pads, pitter pattered against the concrete, he looked up and saw a security camera staring right at him, Nick went wide eyed, and at first he thought the alarms would go off, but instead a door opened at the other end of the short hallway.

He looked ahead puzzled, then back at the camera, he pointed to his collar, for he knew if he tried to leave this area, the collar would shock him. He twisted the collar around and to expose the electronic lock and showed it to the camera.

A moment passed and then the electronic lock buzzed, it popped open and the collar fell off his neck. Nick was convinced someone was in control. "Was this just a new trick or was someone trying to help him?" he thought. He decided to take the opportunity and walked out the door.

Nick was careful to not give anything to chance; he would carefully lean around the corners to make sure no one was there, not wanting to blindly walk into a guard.

He would follow the path until he would reach a junction, and a containment door would close or stay locked on one way, and open on another, Nick was being herded in a particular direction.

The cameras would pan looking ahead, whoever it was, was keeping track of the guards movements in the facility, making sure Nick walked down empty hallways. Doors would shut behind him to keep him from doubling back.

Eventually he arrived upon an elevator, which opened as he approached. He stuck his head in and checked it out, and then stepped in. He hit the floor button with the star next to it, generally that was ground level and the doors shut. But the elevator instead of going up went down, heading deeper into the facility.

Nick pressed the ground level button again, and then banged on the elevator door, then scratched at it with his claws. He scolded himself for falling for the trap.

The elevator stopped at its floor and the door opened. Nick looked out into the hallway, there was no one around, there were minimal lights, and the blue glow of something through the windows ahead. He stepped ahead and walked to the glass door, which slid open as he approached. The room was filled with tall black towers with blue trim lighting; they hummed with the sound of electricity and cooling fans. Nick stepped in, the door shut behind him, it was cold, and he could see his breath misting out. He walked up to a screen attached to one of the towers.

There was data streaming on the screen, looked like machine code, Nick didn't understand it, he heard the static again, this time it had pitch and tone to it. The data on the screen looked like it was forming something.

A light came from the ceiling of the room; it created a holographic projection of the data, like a cloud of data floating in the room like a specter. Nick stood in front of it.

"Hello?" he asked.

The sound came back, it was oscillating , but Nick could make out structure, it sounded like language, the data cloud tried to pull itself into a shape, Nick saw a paw form and then dissipate, whatever it was, was having trouble doing what it was trying to do.

After enough tries, the cloud coalesced into a form, and it turned to look at him, its blue data points forming a shape.

"Nick, is that really you?" asked the shape.

Nick heard the voice, it was familiar, very familiar it was still distorted and couldn't quite place it.

Finally, the data points smoothed and the shape became defined, Nick stood in shock as to who it looked like.

"Nick, it's me." Said the shape, its voice now clear and distinct.

"Ben? Ben Clawhauser?" inquired Nick in absolute shock.

"I remember, being him, maybe I was in a previous life. I remember a lot of things." Ben answered

"Like what?" Nick asked

"I remember that I liked my life, and I remember being your friend." Ben replied.

"How…is this possible? I was told that you were…..dead." Nick asked carefully.

"I remember dying, it…..wasn't a peaceful death." Ben recollected.

"They…the people that did this, that attacked the police station, they uploaded me, transformed me."

"I was an experiment; to see if someone alive could be made into…this."

"I'm sorry Ben, I'm so sorry that you're involved in this." Replied Nick

"They took me apart to know how I work, they did things to me." Explained Ben

"I know Ben, I know, these people, they don't care who they hurt." Said Nick

"I know, I saw, went through the recordings. I'm so sorry Nick. I wish I would have pulled myself together sooner. I wish I could of…"

"Stop, don't blame yourself." Replied Nick.

"It happened, and there isn't anything to do about it, it's my cross to bear." Nick replied.

"I've already made preparations…you're…you're going home, Nick." Said Ben

Nick huffed a sigh of relief at the mere mention of those words.

"All you have to do is wait here, Bureau 13 is already on the way, and when the time comes, you can take the elevator at the back of this room up to the surface." Explained A.I. Clawhauser.

"What about you?" inquired Nick

"I am not really here, I am…everywhere, I will reestablish contact with you at Bureau 13"

"You…..you know about them." Asked Nick

"Yes, I am a prototype for a much larger system, but I can still help you. My friend." Replied Clawhauser

"Ben, I know I didn't say this, and I should have said it before." Nick started, feeling ashamed.

"What?" asked Clawhauser

"You're a good friend." Said Nick

"You and Judy are my best friends, I felt that you two, belong together, and I will do what I can to bring you two back together." Said Ben.

---

Meanwhile…..

On board one of several heavily loaded combat choppers heading towards the coordinates posted by Dg. Bureau 13 agents were preparing themselves for what lie ahead. They were heading to a blacksite, an off the grid base, which could range from a simple building to even a fully armed military base. They were geared for the latter but Kaiden hoped for something like the former.

Kaiden, Kit, Bogo and Judy were on one chopper, double checking their gear one last time.

"Alright, when we drop in there, we go in hard, whatever surface area the base might have, we got to secure it, but keep in mind parts of the base may be underground, so keep an eye out for any shafts or doors they led from under, if they pop like prairie dogs you put 'em back in the ground, got it!" yelled Kaiden over the chopper engine, offering a thumbs up.

"Alpha Team is approaching drop point." informed a chopper pilot over the radio.

"Alright, hit it." Replied Kaiden over the radio.

The chopper in front of them lands close to the ground and drops their load of troops. They check the area before giving an "All Clear" over the radio. Kaiden taps the pilot and points down to drop them off. The chopper lands and they disembark, and make their way to the facility.

Minutes later….

The surface portion of the base had several structures, one of which was a large bunker, with several smaller bunkers dotted around; the smaller bunkers consisted of vehicle storage, guard tower, and a barracks. WRC guards were alerted to the incoming presence; mobilizing their Humvees and made their way towards the front gate. An explosion blew the gate off its hinges, knocking some of the WRC off their feet.

The remaining two B13 Helicopters came in and combat dropped their agents behind the WRC. A fire fight ensued.

Kaiden, Kit, Judy and Bogo entered from a section of the fence that was located about 50 yards down. They ran towards the main building, the vast majority of the WRC troops were occupied with the assault force and didn't even notice the smaller team, they broke into the front entrance and into the main lobby, the building markings inside the lobby said "Lucas Technologies Inc."

The sound of gunfire and occasional 40mm grenade explosion was outside, the rattling of the windows from impact sounds, one of the explosions set off the fire alarm and sprinkler systems. The lobby was soaked in water, the already cold mountain air in the lobby got even colder from the moisture.

Kit found a computer in the lobby, and accessed it seeing if there was a building layout, suddenly the elevator in the lobby started to come up, it was coming up from a sub-basement according to the readout above the elevator door.

"Did you do that?" asked Kaiden.

"No." replied Kit.

The four readied their weapons at the elevator as it got to the top, the doors opened. It was…..a lioness, she stepped out of the elevator, wearing her jagged armor.

"Down, on the ground." Ordered Kaiden.

"How did find this place?" the lioness demanded.

"Listen Kitty, you stand down, or I'll put you down." Replied Kaiden.

The lionesses radio chirped "Nala, take care of them." A voice said over her radio.

The lioness smirked, and then a flash, Kaiden and the group fired their weapons but didn't hit anything.

"Where did she go?" Yelled Kit.

The sound of blades being scratched together "Now now, you can't hit, what you can't see" she called out. There was a void in the shower of water approaching Bogo, he turned around in time to be shoved into a wall

"She's Invisible!" called out Judy.

"Oh shi…." Kit dove out of the way just as a blade came chopping through the computer.

"Back up, Now, back to the door!" barked Kaiden.

Kaiden cycled his vision through different modes, seeing nothing, except the thermographic, he could see a slight ghostly distortion but it would shift and move before he could get a bead on it.

The group attempted to back up to the door, Bogo suddenly felt caught on something as if being picked up. Nala uncloaked, holding him.

"I don't think so, you have entered the lion's den, and you don't get to leave so easily."

"You talk too much." Replied Bogo, taking out his sidearm and firing several rounds into Nala's chest, the rounds were stopped cold by her metal chestpiece.

"We'll of course, that would've been too easy." He muttered.

Nala threw him into the wall so hard it knocked him out. She cloaked again and bull rushed Kit pushing him out the door, Kaiden tried to grab the distortion but she turned and grabbed Kaiden's arm and pinned it to the wall through the fore paw with one of her blades. Kaiden tried to free himself but couldn't.

"Judy, your goggles, set them to heat mode." Yelled out Kaiden.

Judy put on her goggles and turned the dial. She saw a ghostly distortion in them as it rushed her. Judy dove out of the way and her weapon slipped out of her paw and went sliding across the floor.

Nala decloaked and glared at Judy, Judy pulled out her combat knife and held it in her paw, blade down, she stood low to the floor and glared at the lioness over her forearm.

"How cute." Nala mocked.

"I'm going to give you one chance to step out of the way" Judy replied deadly serious.

"Or what?" Nala replied his a huff.

Judy tilted the knife to shine it back at Nala.

"I'm here for Nick Wilde, and if I have to, I'll cut through you to get him." She scowled.

"Hmph, If you want him, you will have to go through me." Nala spat back.

"Your choice, don't say I didn't warn you." Judy replied.

Nala tossed her sword and pulled out her combat knife, it was larger, form fitted to her paw, she raised her other paw and gave a come hither gesture to Judy. They stood for a moment, the sprinkler water flying through the air, the droplets seemingly almost suspended in air as time seemed to stand still.

Then it happened, Judy and Nala were gone in the blink of the eye, Nala cloaked and charged at her, Judy had already crossed half the distance and rabbit kicked the lioness in the side before she could complete her swing.

The lioness swung back towards Judy, but she was just too fast for her. Judy slashed at the Nalas armor slicing a hole into it. Judy's knife was made of the same material as Kaiden's blades, Carbon fiber laminate over titanium carbide.

Judy was like a flash, all over Nala, appearing, making a strike and then she was gone, and pieces of internal workings of Nalas armor would drop to the floor.

Nala eventually got a hold of the rabbit and tossed her across the room, knocking her goggles off her head. Nala decloaked and growled at the rabbit

"Now you die, bunny rabbit!" Nala spat.

Judy got up and readied herself.

Nala smirked and all of sudden was surprised.

"What's going on?" Nala remarked.

"Looking for this?" asked Judy showing off her prize.

Judy stood up and she was holding a small device, it was a strange box with 3 concentric rings spinning around some kind of ferrofluid.

"You damn rabbit." Nala scowled.

Judy said nothing.

Nala started to rush forward, Judy clicked the button and the field effect of the device turned Judy invisible, Nala slashed at where Judy was and hit nothing. Nala started reacting, her armor was falling apart seemingly on its own, wiring erupting, her armor split open like a banana, and then she screamed out, wounds stared appearing on her, she stumbled back, genuinely in fear, he held her arms up protectively, and she fell to her knees.

She screamed as something was put through her back, sparks shot out from the spot, and she fell over, not moving. The knife turned back invisible as it was pulled out. Judy turned off the device, and reappeared.

She stood over Nala with one foot resting on her, panting out of breath, blood and techno-organic fluid all over her black ops gear, with an unfocused gaze and a scowl on her face.

Kaiden finally managed to free himself by breaking the blade, and rushed over to Judy.

"Judy? Are you alright?" Kaiden asked.

Judy still gazing off and then blinked and turned to Kaiden

"What?" she asked, honestly not hearing him.

"Are you alright?" he repeated.

"I'm…fine, let's just get Nick." She replied.

Kit called out from over the radio

"Hey we got the package, let's get out of here"

"Kit, where the hell are you?" asked Kaiden.

"Outside, found Nick by some kind of maintenance elevator." Said Kit.

Judy over heard this on the radio and perked up.

"Sir, radar is picking up enemy reinforcements coming in on this vector, ETA 10 minutes." Said a chopper pilot

"You guys can have your reunion later, we got to get the hell out of here." Said Kaiden to Judy

"This is Kaiden to all elements, retreat, we have the package, repeat we have the package. Now!" he ordered over the radio

Kaiden, went and picked up Bogo and carried him outside. The WRC troops had either all been killed or were standing down, but with reinforcements coming that wasn't going to hold long. The Bureau 13 troops retreated back to the drop point and loaded onto the choppers, Judy, Kaiden carrying Bogo and Kit and Nick got on board their chopper and quickly exfiltrated back to Bureau 13.

---

Chapter 13: Collateral Damage

Bureau 13…later that evening

Nick had been checked into the Med-bay and was being given IV fluids and nutrients to help him recover from his ordeal, his physical injuries would heal in short fashion, his psychological ones were another matter entirely. But right now he was just happy to be back, he laid back onto the reclined head of the hospital bed and was relaxing, Judy by his side holding his paw.

"Hey Carrots, how are you?" he said calmly.

"Better now." She replied trying to put on a brave face.

Judy still blamed herself for Nick's condition; she had barely slept since his abduction over a month ago. Volunteering to lead twelve of the raids against Illuminati locations in order to find him; she had taken to more extreme measures to achieve them just on the off chance that one of the locations would have Nick.

Everyone at one point or another came by to check up on Nick and Judy, Bogo offered words of encouragement because he saw Judy and Nick as not only his officers but also his friends.

Finnick came in with a surprise for Nick, he had a metal tray with a napkin over something.

"Hey bro, how you feeling?" asked Finnick

"I'm doing better, what you got there?" asked Nick

"Can you believe what I found in the cafeteria, they actually have 'em"

Finnick removed the napkin to reveal three pawpsicles.

"Ta da." Beamed the small fox.

He gave one to Nick and Judy keeping one for himself

"Cherry too." He smiled trying to brighten Nick's spirits.

Nick reached over to grab the pawpsicle; Judy caught sight of the burns and cuts on his torso. Nick licked on his pawpsicle, the sugary taste was refreshing, and it had been so long it was almost foreign to him. Judy ate hers slowly, reluctantly, preoccupied with her thoughts.

"Hey Carrots, be careful, it's going to melt on you." Warned Nick

"Oh damn it." She exclaimed in frustration.

Judy, tried to quickly lap up the melting pawpsicle, but had to use a towel to clean her paws. She stood up.

"Finnick can you watch Nick for a bit, I'll be right back." Asked Judy a bit tense.

"Sure, Judy, I got this." Answered Finnick.

Judy walked out of Nick's stall and out of the med bay, she went into one of the side hallways and suffered an anxiety attack, she was short of breath, almost hyperventilating. She was having trouble seeing Nick this way, seeing him wounded like that. She closed her eyes and dragged her paws over her face trying to relax, her breathing slower now but still panting for breath.

Judy took a few minutes and eventually caught her breath, she went back in to see that Kit and Kaiden even Hamilton and the trio came in to check on Nick. Judy smiled it felt good that Nick has a support base like this.

The doctor came and checked on Nick's vitals and his chart.

"So son, you feeling alright, any pain?" asked the otter doctor.

"No I'm ok, plus these pain killers are making me feel pretty good actually." joked Nick.

"Let me check your breath sounds, real quick." The otter doctor put on a stethoscope and listened to Nick's breathing.

"Hmm, good, good." The doctor replied, nodding his head.

Then he checked his heart.

"Very good, son, everything sounds alright."

"Now if anything changes or you start feeling pain you let me know, alright." Said the doctor with a smile.

The doctor signed the chart and put it back in the bed holster, he grabbed his note book, and casually cleared his throat and shot a glance at Kaiden, then tilted his head in direction of a corner of the med bay.

Kaiden saw the glance and raised an eyebrow, looked where the doctor glanced and then nodded. Kaiden casually exited.

"Hey Nick, I'll be back later, ok buddy." Said Kaiden just before leaving

"Thanks." said Nick

"With all this service, you guys are going to spoil me." Said Nick trying to keep his spirits up.

Judy had noticed Kaiden and the Doctor moved over to an empty stall on the other side of the med bay and started speaking. Judy could tell they must have been talking about Nick because they would occasionally shoot glances back at Nick or gesture in his direction.

Judy casually walked around the room, not to draw attention and came up on an empty stall next to the one Kaiden and the doctor were standing in, a curtain separated Judy from them, and she quietly closed the curtain in front of the stall and sat on the bed and listened in.

"So I guess this is the part where you let me know what they did to him?" asked Kaiden

"Well, I think you need to know, what he experienced was a total assault on his senses." Said the Doctor.

"Well going by what Nick has told us, and the medical evidence, I would say he was exposed to intense electrical pulses over 200 times, evidenced by the burns here, here, here and here." Said the Doctor offering the chart.

"This is Nick's?" Kaiden asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, not mention the thermal burns all in these areas here, here, here and here."

"Also we noted ligature marks around the neck area."

"They strangled him?"

"Strangled himself, see the slanted angle at the marks? They go back and up."

"He tried to hang himself?" Kaiden said in disbelief.

"Yeah" The doc confirmed.

Judy held her paws to her mouth, she was shaken on hearing what was done to Nick, but nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to hear.

"While all this is evidence of torture, there is something else…."the doctor said, almost reluctant to offer it.

"What doc?" inquired Kaiden

"I think he was also experimented on." Answered the doctor.

"There is evidence of IV and syringe marks, from either blood being taken or medications being applied."

"What's the toxicology report say." Kaiden asked

"Well that's the thing; he had all sorts of drugs in his system. Some were designed to chemically induce the pain centers of the brain. Some were to shut down certain involuntary functions, such as breathing."

"Damn" replied Kaiden

"But one thing stands out over the rest; we almost didn't catch it actually."

"Why's that?"

"Well it's because toxicology scans only recently started testing for it, heck the substance was only added to the database a little over a year ago." The doctor explained.

"And?"

"Well the drug found in Nick's system is similar to another substance, so it might be a derivation or a refined version."

"What substance is that?"

"Something called 'Night Howler', now the report says it's phytotoxic, meaning it's derived from plants. but….."

"But what?"

"The substance found in Nick's blood stream is chemosynthetic."

"Meaning?" muttered Kaiden

"It's completely lab created, from a chemical origin. Plus there is something different about the molecule."

"Such as?"

"Well the synthetic version still acts on the brain as a cerebral disinhibitor, meaning it still lowered the inhibitions and essentially put the 'Id' or primitive brain in control…." The doctor explained.

"However?"

"However, whereas the natural version prevented the encoding of memory engrams and suppressed the ego, the sense of self, the computer models of the synthetic version actually show that this isn't the case here, those suppressive effects are not present." Explained the Doctor

"What effect would that have?" inquired Kaiden

"Well quite plainly, the sense of self would be preserved, and with memory intact it would allow the subject to remember their actions while under the influence, however, they literally wouldn't be in control of themselves."

"Like being a passenger on a rollercoaster?" Kaiden surmised

"An apt analogy, but yes, they would be experiencing everything and remember but not have any control over themselves while under its effects." Confirmed the Doctor.

"Good god, what for?" Kaiden exclaimed

"I surmise it might be a form of experimentation or torture where the victim in this case, Nick, would be inflicting pain instead of being the receiver."

"That's just a guess right." Kaiden inquired.

"Yeah, that was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about." Admitted the Doctor.

"What?"

"We found blood under his finger nails and in his fur…..and in his teeth." Answered the Doctor reluctantly.

Kaiden swallowed nervously and asked the question he almost didn't want to know

"What…..Who was it?" Kaiden stuttered.

"We tissue typed and crossed it."

"DNA types as a rabbit, approximately between twenty two to twenty six years of age."

"Twenty four." Corrected Kaiden

"What?" replied the Doctor

"I'll bet my bottom dollar that rabbit was twenty four." Kaiden surmised.

"Why do you say that?" asked the Doctor.

"Because Judy is twenty four, somebody's idea of a sick joke."

"I don't understand." Stated the Doctor.

"Whoever did this, was torturing Nick by having him kill a person who was supposed to be simulating Judy. In other words Nick was being forced to kill Judy."

"That's a very disturbing thought." Admitted the doctor.

Judy couldn't take it anymore, she left the stall and went running out of the med bay, she almost couldn't contain herself, she ducked into a storage closet, and broke down crying, she slid down the wall and wept into her paws.

"Oh my god, what have I done." She cried out.

"Oh god, Nick I'm so sorry." She wept to herself

"No! No!" she lamented, she beat her paw against the concrete wall.

She held herself and continued to cry alone.

---

Later…

Nick changed into his B13 uniform and searched for Judy, he got worried when she never returned after Finnick came by with the pawpsicles

Nick searched around, checking the operations center, the cafeteria, and eventually checked her quarters. He knocked on the door, at first he was about to walk away but could hear an occasional loud sniff, someone was definitely inside.

Nick stepped into the room and saw Judy sitting at the edge of the bed, sobbing quietly, her head couched in her paws.

"Judy, are you alright?" Nick asked.

Judy didn't reply, she just continued to sniffle.

Nick came over to Judy and sat next to her.

"Judy, look at me, you can tell me."

"I can't look at you." She said

"Why not" he asked

"I overheard Kaiden and the doctor, I heard about what happened to you." She explained

Nick's worst fears seem to come true, Judy didn't want to look at him because she couldn't stand the sight of him now. What he did, he felt horrible, the fact that she sees him as the monster now only made him feel worse. His heart sank, he tightened his eyes to try not to tear up, they flowed anyway.

"I understand, I'm sorry Judy, I won't bother you anymore." He said downtrodden.

Nick stood up to leave, and Judy spun around.

"Why are YOU apologizing?" she asked.

"You're reacting this way because of what I did to the rabbit….I know, I was wrong, maybe I fooled myself into thinking I could be something I'm not. I'm just a monster." He admitted.

"Nick." She said, jumping up to hug him.

"It's not your fault. I don't blame you." She replied petting him softly

"If anyone is the monster, I am." she admitted

Judy buried her head into Nick's shoulder. Nick just held her, saying nothing.

"It's my fault that this happened to you."

"I pulled you into this because of that stupid flashdrive."

"I always have to be the good bunny and I always have to try and make the world better."

"I didn't realize that what I was doing could hurt the person I care about the most."

"And when I lost you, it tore me up inside."

"I took that anger, and threw it into finding you."

"I hurt so many people, I killed…..so many people."

"Because I didn't want to face the possibility…"

"That I lost you, and that you were in pain."

"And it was all because of me….."

Judy broke down and sobbed into Nick's shoulder

"I couldn't bear to face you because all these things that happened to you."

"I am so sorry, I'm sorry, I wasn't there for you."

"I love you so much, and I wasn't there when you needed me. How could you ever forgive a person like me?"

Nick pulled back and looked Judy in the face, the fur around her eyes soaked with tears.

"There's nothing to forgive." He absolved.

"Judy, I survived this because of you. It was you that gave me the strength. The strength to live." consoled Nick, echoing Kaiden's words.

Nick grabbed Judy's paw and intertwined his fingers in hers. They stared at each other for a moment, they could see each other's pain and anguish, they had both suffered greatly, physical pain is transitory, but the separation, the loneliness in the dark, that more than anything injured them, for that injures the soul.

Nick leaned forward and kissed her passionately on the lips. Judy had beaten herself up enough, and Nick was resolute to be there for her.

Judy kissed him back, leading him over to the bed, and slowly pushed him back onto it. She sat on top of him and leaned over and whispered lovingly into his ear.

"I missed you so much." said almost silently, tears of joy streaming down her face, she kissed him several times and then again on his neck, she took in his scent as if to remind herself he was real.

She ran her fingers through his fur, cascading it under her finger tips; Nick ran his paws through her fur slowly and gently.

Nick took a deep breath of Judy's scent, the perfume of her filled his nose and his lungs, the taste of her kisses were sugary sweet to his palette, the combination of her natural taste with the cherry pawpsicle, which only served to make him kiss her more deeply.

The warm softness of her lips against his, their breath mixing together in a warm embrace. Her soft coos, the sense of reunion, of being in each other's arms reminded him of how much he missed her and desired her.

A soft love bite of her bunny teeth on his neck made him sigh softly. He returned the favor by nibbling gently on her neck. She let out an airy and slow exhale, the feeling of it made her body tingle and tremble, which he felt as he held her in his arms.

She caressed and kissed the fur on his head as further encouragement.

Minutes later, they were wrapped in the soft white sheets; their B13 uniforms on the floor.

Judy lay under Nick and stared into his soft green eyes, she studied his face and lightly caressed her paw against his head. Nick looked back at Judy, staring into her amethyst eyes, comparing her to a beautiful angel laying before him in all her glory.

She pulled him close, they both gasped. All the concerns and worries elsewhere seem to fall away and there was only each other.

The harsh exteriors from the traumatic events melted away, and they were couched in one another, like the Ying and Yang of two souls hurting for the unity of the other. No matter what cruelty they experienced the only true cruelty would be keeping them apart.

Judy and Nick made love with passionate abandon; it was sweet, vulnerable and tender. Their eyes locked upon each other like reflecting mirrors, lost in the infinite reflections, and yet familiar and comforting feeling to them both, the distance they had and all the walls that were between them gone, which made the intimacy they shared now all that much more meaningful.

Their passions built upon themselves until they crescendo like the brilliant flare of the sun.

Judy held Nick close, gripping the fur on his back, she looked lovingly into his eyes and he into hers.

"Nick!" she called out, squeezing him tightly.

"Judy!" he called back.

They shared a deep passionate kiss, as she felt his warmth pulse into her.

They broke the kiss, looking at each other lovingly, panting.

Nick trembled, his breath ragged. Judy caressed his fur, cradling his head against hers.

"I love you" she whispered.

"I love you, too" he whispered.

He rolled her over on top of him, she laid her head on Nick's chest, listening to his heart, she closed her eyes listening to its beautiful cadence. Nick closed his eyes and kissed her on the top of her head. Nuzzling her with his chin and caressed her fur, they held each other for a time and fell asleep in each other's arms, thankful that fate had returned them together again.

---

Chapter 14: Moments of Transition

Zootopia, the Next Day.

The disease that had been labelled a flu had now reached pandemic levels, people were afraid to go out their doors, and order seem to have broken down, the fine animals of the ZPD having their resources stretched to the limit, Wolverine Risk Control, normally invisible to the average citizen had cropped up seemingly overnight, their grey and orange uniformed personnel along with matching vehicles were now everywhere, private businesses such as Kai Ren Medical, Lucas Technologies even Logan Financial had them working and securing their buildings.

It seemed the Mayor's office had even thrown its hat into the ring, for they gave special exemption to WRC to supplement the police units in the city.

WRC had also taken to 'securing' areas that currently were not under any kind of riot conditions or crime watch, they would go into an area, secure it, not let anyone in, and then hours later leave without saying a word. The ZPD officers did not like the idea of being told 'No' by these gray and orange clad soldiers.

The WRC unit in the city was under the watchful eye of a silver timber wolf named Gideon Frost, his story the same as most of the Zootopians who worked for WRC, ex-military or ex-cop looking for a paycheck doing what they knew to do, except Gideon was a reluctant recruit to WRC, if it wasn't for the cutback and layoffs a few years ago he would probably still be working for the ZPD. But when anti-predator sentiment had shot through the roof due to the now infamous "savage case", he signed on to protect those who were being unfairly targeted by animals who had let their fears get out of paw, and took to the streets with more violent intentions then the very animals they accused. Plus it was a good paycheck.

Gideon however had not expected to be working so much corporate security, protecting buildings, assets and possessions. "Things" as he called it "over people." That aspect did frustrate him a bit but he wasn't going to walk away, some of the more extreme and ruthless sounding captains just bucking for the Commander's spot, he felt it was his duty to keep them out of his chair as much as it was to keep himself in it. Plus the financial security that it gave him and his wife and children, he wasn't going to walk away from that, but at times it did test his principles.

Since WRC's inception, the police have always felt that they were interlopers into what ZPD officers felt was their exclusive realm, and they didn't like politics changing that assumption. Even from the very beginning WRC and ZPD have butted heads, with jurisdiction disputes, where the line ends for one and starts for the other. He had many a long out dragged out fights with Chief Bogo over those very things, now he was gone, missing presumed dead. Gideon felt very much alone now; he missed those fights, the debates over law and justice, and what commitment to protection really meant. Bogo had his citizens to protect and Gideon had his clients, two different words to describe exactly the same thing, people who were asking for help and protection. Who was he to deny them that, many times WRC would be contracted to do what the police by their very nature can't, stand vigilant. The police cannot spend the time, money and manpower protecting each person 100% of the time, they had to use their resources smartly, and engage when necessary. That's the illusion, and a dangerous illusion at that, that the police are there for you. What is the old saying? "When you have seconds to live, the police are minutes away."

Very true, but not because they don't care or are apathetic to the cares and worries of the people, it's because they can't be everywhere all the time, 100% of the time. Not without turning Zootopia into a police state. But Gideon wondered if that what was happening anyway, except by the hands of a corporate police force armed with enough firepower to invade countries and not even small ones either, sizeable countries. That was the other reason that Gideon kept his post, to rein in the leash and temper the fire of some of the more 'aggressive' Captains and Majors under his command.

The mayor's office was surrounded by protesters, animals of Zootopia that hadn't gotten sick and demanded to be allowed to leave, however the city was under quarantine which by definition means, no one can leave, for any reason. But that didn't stop the protesters from making their demands loud and aggressive.

The police had set up a cordon around the Mayor's office but of course, WRC was also sent in to act as a 'safety net' which didn't please Andrew Grady, a cheetah who was assigned the dubious honor of 'Acting Police Chief', with Bogo missing possibly dead and the deputy chief currently residing in the ZPD cemetery, the role of actually running things fell to Grady's inexperienced shoulders. It wasn't his fault really, who would have suspected that a sudden and intense attack would wipe out practically all the front line officers at the ZPD Headquarters.

Gideon felt sorry for the young feline, only been on the force for a decade or so and now he's being told he's running the show. Gideon was briefed on him at WRC, he's a good cop, knows procedure, been in rough scrapes and while those would make him a good team or squad leader, he was not ready to be heading up a major metropolitan police force, not without at least another decade of experience. But there was no time and no other option, the next option would be to hire an unknown from outside and the commissioner's board was not going to trust the city to an external hire. Gideon was never able to even consider it due to his 'Non-Compete' clause in his contract that prevented him from being able to take the job, and with the city now considered a 'client' it was his job to take up protecting a city that desperately needed it.

Andrew Grady had his own opinions of the matter; WRC was a private company, answerable seemingly to themselves, which meant, at least to him, zero accountability. If the WRC decides to violate citizens' rights, they technically are allowed to do so, the Zootopian Bill of Rights protects against government violation of their civil rights, but corporations are not bound by law or writ or even obligation to live by those laws. Grady suspected that maybe that is exactly what 'someone' wants. The ability to have a policing force by contract law with the city, a contractor, just like the construction workers who fix potholes and put up traffic lights and build roads. But able to legally step around the 'restrictions' that the police are disposed to obey. It didn't sit right with him, not at all, and he made his displeasure known.

Grady and Frost were up in the Mayor's office talking with Mayor Clarence Devereaux, a nutria rat or coypu from the creole section of the canal district, spoke with a stereo typical southern Zootopian accent that reminded Gideon of a certain movie with a frog prince.

Frost and Grady were going back and forth in front of the mayor his eyes darted back and forth watching the exchange like a tennis match. Phrases like 'Law and Order' 'Proper channels' and 'Police Procedure' were among the words mentioned, as well as several shouted expletives, dared not be repeated here.

It was mainly Grady venting unfortunately, because WRC had an iron clad contract with the city and wasn't going anywhere, yet Frost did feel very much for him, in another universe or time, he could see himself making the same argument and be standing where Grady was right now.

Grady was blinded by his anger so much, that even though he knew of Frost and the fact that he was a former ZPD officer himself it didn't faze him. He knew of Frost's history, his service record, his subsequent lay off to save the city a few extra pennies. A tragic waste and end to the career of a fine officer and would have had Bogo's job someday. Grady thought of Bogo a lot, he didn't want the job, he wanted Bogo to come back and take his rightful place. Bogo's shoes were a lot to fill and Grady knew it, but he does it because someone NEEDS to stand up for the police now, and it fell to him, and he was going to do it.

Under normal circumstances Grady would have felt bad for Frost, being laid off and discarded like day old doughnuts was no fate for a proper ZPD officer but none of that mattered, all he saw was a corporate 'shill', a wolf who had turned his back on the police and the people of this fair city and now stood as an interloper, commandeering a job meant for the bound protectors of the law wearing blue and gold. Grady saw Frost and took him at face value, he was scary, meant to be so by the WRC grey and orange uniform, Frost and his men looked like an invading army and not private security, and Grady was acutely aware that is EXACTLY the image WRC wanted to convey 'Do what we say and we MIGHT kill you, don't do what we say and we will DEFINITELY kill you.'

Deveraux had finally had enough he slapped his paw onto the desk hard enough for both Commanders to break their argument and look at him

"I don't care about your personal feelings! You have to make them understand we can't let anyone out of the city! Understood?!"

"Yes, sir" said Frost and Grady

"And put your personal misgivings aside, for better or for worse, you two are working together." ordered the Mayor.

Frost and Grady stood in begrudged silent consent.

"This city is tearing itself apart, we got a mystery disease that literally seems to have popped up overnight, and the people are panicking, some wanting to go, others wanting the infected quarantined together. I have city leaders and the military asking me if we have it contained, and I've got a powder keg brewing down stairs. I NEED the ZPD and WRC to work together and maintain order otherwise all bets are off folks." Explained the Nutria.

---

Meanwhile….

The protesters outside with their signs, incensed, demanding, ordering to be allowed to get away from the plague. Their chants and synchronized thrusting and waving of signs into the air, was a tad bit intimidating to say the least, these animals wanted to leave and be damned if they were going to sit and wait to get sick.

WRC was standing in a line formation on the statehouse steps blocking anyone from ascending the stairs; the ZPD has established two lines on either side of the protest group, a large fence barricading the park behind them.

They were heated and seemingly started to get riotous, a few shouted expletives and an occasional glass bottle would be hurled over the WRC or Police's heads.

The concern became palatable to the officers and WRC, an occasional request of calm from an officer on a bullhorn would ring out into the night Zootopian air, which would cause a bit of fervor and discussion, before the yelling would continue.

ZTV reporters had arrived on scene and were covering the whole spectacle, it was real life, raw and uncut, and of course they would be here. They circled around like vultures in flight looking for a next meal, hoping to catch something, anything. Police brutality, excessive force against hapless protesters, that kind of exploitation is what gets you the Pulitzer Prize.

Both the police and WRC noticed the reporters and became extremely self-conscious of their actions and mannerisms. Just what an already intense situation needed; media scrutiny, now it was no longer a case of simply keeping peace and order but now they have to look good for the cameras while doing so.

The media 'presstitutes' immediately descended upon the protesters, asking inane but pointed questions designed to evoke a response, along with answers just as incendiary and of course, bad mouthing the police, always bad mouthing the police. Accusations of a police state, a corporate takeover of Zootopia, the same utterances made by conspiracy theorists since the beginning of time, "The sheep control the media." One protester uttered into the camera.

All this served to do was whip the crowd up into a low fervor. It has been often claimed that the media exists to cover the news, report it, study it, and observe it without interfering. Unfortunately while that sentiment is all well and good, it's also physically impossible, the act of observing something has an effect on it, subtle but it's there "What you study, you also change". Now while that statement was made by some Zootopian scientist long ago, talking about the interaction of atoms, the same could be applied to societal matters, you cannot study and report on society without causing it to change. Animals will see what you said, what you wrote and respond to it, and in doing so respond to each other different than they otherwise would have. Like ripples in a pond, cascading out to unknown shores, a change, a tiny disturbance in the force of nature, that's all it takes. A tiny almost insignificant change in conditions could result in complete and total change of the system.

The furor had gotten bigger now, the crowd incensed again, the press' pointed questions made them think things they didn't before, the questions prompted thoughts, those thoughts prompted rumors, those rumors became accusations, and it went through the crowd like electricity. Soon those very accusations were being levied at police and WRC. Even more incensed now, they almost dared the WRC or ZPD to do something, the crowd got tight, as if expecting something. The push of the crowd was intense, a lion boy, college aged, no older than 20 popped out of the crowd, accidently pushed by the motions of the animals, he stumbled forward toward the WRC and police.

That's all it took that night, a small change, the wrong thing in exactly the wrong place, and it started, the ripple, starting as a small drop on an endless ocean, the drop falling with gravity toward the serine and flat surface, moving with inevitability as the rising of the sun, or the billowing of the wind. But that's all it was, a small change.

The lion boy no older than 20 years old, 'Zootopia University' it said on his shirt, probably came here with thoughts of "standing up for himself", "standing up for what's right", "taking it to the alpha" and all other sorts of associated naïve nonsense. He probably believed as those who came before him, and those who will come after, that words alone can win revolutions, that there is such a thing as peaceful change.

Change is never peaceful; it's by nature a violent act, because for things to change, the order of the old has to be destroyed, paid for in most times with our dearest blood.

A loud crack rang out into the night, a hushed silence moved over everyone there, the looking around, the sharp realization, and then a blood curdling scream from a woman nearby.

The lion boy laid prostrate on the ground, the round had gone through, with the exit wound in the middle of one of the O's in Zootopia, the blood flowed and pooled out of the wound onto the cold concrete ground.

The silence broke when the protesters lashed out at both WRC and Police, a riot ensued, gunshots rang out, what was to be a simple protest had now turned into a massacre, and standing there catching it all on glorious 1080p High Definition was the ZTV news camera crew, the horrid sights and sounds captured for posterity and tossed into a library of raw footage to be sliced up for the sales rack.

---

Meanwhile…

It took Chief Grady and Commander Frost almost a full minute and a half to run down from the Mayor's office. By the time they made it outside to their men it was over, 7 dead, and 13 injured, 20 casualties total. The protesters scattered like leaves, dropping their picket signs and retreated to the nearby park. Some of the injured were because of being shot but not killed, others were trampled by the rush of a crowd trying to get out of dodge, and at least two of the dead were trampled to death.

It was either of their worst nightmares come true, the illusion was over; right this minute hundreds of thousands of people in their homes witnessed armed men with guns, gunning down their fellow citizen in cold blood.

They never did find out who shot the first catalyzing shot, in the chaos of it all it could have very well been either the WRC or the ZPD, it would take an autopsy to tell, of course that would take time, the moment was very much still happening.

Chief Grady and Commander Frost questioned their men trying to put it all together, trying to connect one moment to the next, back tracking it back to the first, of course the testimonies were conflicting, the fog of moments like these do that, they mess up the memory, in military terms it's called the fog of war, the uncertainty of moments like these.

War. A term that neither of these two animals would ever hope to be used in reference to their beloved city, yet that is exactly what has occurred, a war of hearts and minds, and maybe even physical. Right now almost assuredly, countless upon countless citizens are reacting to what their TV's are showing them.

The mayor's office phones rang constantly with thousands of calls pouring in, and the secretaries doing their able best to receive them.

Grady walked up to Frost and starred him right in the face, his teeth gritted and an angry scowl on his face.

"This is EXACTLY why you guys shouldn't be here." He said

"We don't know what happened, Grady, it could have been a ZPD Officer." Replied Frost.

"What?! You dare accuse an officer of the ZPD to starting this crap?"

"Andrew, we don't know."

"If there weren't news cameras here, I would kick your ass for even thinking that."

"I'm not going to apologize for my men protecting themselves, but we need to get to the bottom of this, who fired first and why?"

"Isn't it obvious, your men are trained soldiers, as long as nobody sets foot on the Mayor's steps, you don't care who you kill, you get paid either way."

Frost got upset at those words

"You listen to me you little shit, you may have chief's stars on your collar but you certainly as hell didn't earn them, so don't get all high and mighty about my station in life. Our job right now is to work together and find out the truth. It's more important than us."

Grady calmed down a little bit, regaining some of his composure.

"If I find out that any of you WRC jack offs had anything to do with this, we WILL hold you accountable, I don't care what a piece of paper says."

"And if it's an officer, I expect you to use the same fair headed mindset on them as you do us." Replied Frost

The two parted company and went back to their respective groups of officers. Paramedics and ambulances had arrived to help the injured and the forensic teams and coroner arrived to process the dead. The area had been cordoned off with police tape, the WRC and a few police officers were handling crowd control while the police investigators handle the actual crime scene.

"This was a fine mess" Frost thought to himself. This will only incense the animals more, and angry frightened animals were the last thing this city needed. It was only going to cause more trouble. Frost didn't want to say it but he thought that maybe Grady was right, maybe WRC doesn't have any business handling law enforcement and should stick to protection. But at what point does protection cross into law enforcement, and isn't law enforcement protection of the law? Aren't they one and the same? Isn't the whole point of law and order to serve the citizens to begin with? And when the citizens are being hurt or in fear to protect the law, then what good is the law? Absolute adherence to the law is nothing more than a form of tyranny, because the spirit of it, at its core is to serve the people.

These thoughts plagued his mind as he sat in his WRC command cruiser, it was no coincidence that the WRC had purchased the exact same make and model of car as the ZPD, save for a few expensive additions that the ZPD didn't have, the car was exactly the same in look except the difference in the paint scheme of grey and orange instead of black and white. The large Wolverine Risk Control logo on the side of the car, the company's motto was 'Protection, Fidelity, and Trust'. Was WRC and by extension himself serving those words, it was times like these that his belief in those words was tested. But he had a responsibility to the men and women under his command; it was his responsibility to be sure, to be confident.

Frost accessed his computer in the cruiser and tapped into the traffic and security cameras, he was both amazed and a little disconcerted that WRC technically had more access then the ZPD when it came to the network, with the ZPD they would have to request access, paperwork, warrants, more paper work, subpoenas, more paperwork. But since WRC is also part owner in the company that owns and operates the telecommunications network that the cameras operate on, Lucas Technologies Inc., accessing the network was easy because both companies shared log in data and network infrastructure. When a college of corporations can perform the same services of government but with frighteningly faster efficiency, what does that say?

Didn't matter, Frost logged in and found the camera data, he tried watching it, he could hear the sound of the gunshot picked up by the traffic cams microphone, and see the lion boy fall, and the riot. None of this told him anything he didn't already know. He rewound it and watched it over and over, trying to see if he could pick up some kind of activity, some kind of motion, something that would tell him the answer to his question.

Frost suddenly realized something, an answer to a question he didn't have. In questing for the answer to the question so pertinent on his mind, he missed something else entirely. How was the furor able to get to such a fevered pitch? He studied the traffic cams from different points of view and realized what had happened. The protesters had been accidently 'Kettled', Kettling is a police tactic in which a large group of people, in this case protesters are contained by cordons of police, so that the group can leave by only one direction, through a police checkpoint on one of the ends of the box.

It was explained as a way to minimize violence and destruction to public property because it allows police to contain these groups in an area of their choosing. The problem with this is that if you trap an animal and make it feel cornered, it's more likely to attack then to not, and so 'Kettling' ends up causing the very riot that it's supposed to avoid, a stupid tactic and was used for many years, and is still used depending on where you go. With the WRC at the Mayor's steps, that was one side of the box, two police lines on either side of the protesters, that's two and three, and the fence behind them preventing escape, that's four.

'A box, No wonder they rioted, it was going to happen' Gideon thought to himself.

'And now people are dead.' He lamented

Life can be broken down into moments, moments of transition and moments of revelation. To Frost, this had the feeling of both. He could feel it, something was coming, a deep and powerful storm that would change things. 'Grady could feel it too, and maybe that's why he was angry' Frost thought. He was angry because he could feel an end coming, an end to what, neither knew, but it was an end nonetheless like a storm on the horizon, thunder crackling from the distance.

People were breaking down, it seemed that this idyllic world was slowly becoming something else, the plague simply catalyzed it, caused it to come rushing to the surface. It wasn't a physical thing, and no one thing it was, the feeling of persistence, like a shadow cast over the world, darkness.

And at this moment it's as if the whole world is holding its collective breath, waiting for the turn of the page, one could almost feel the turning, for the next words to appear continuing the story that is life.

"Moments of transition, or moments of revelation." Frost thought

"There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender."

The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation.

No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us.

We know only that it is always born in pain.

---

Chapter 15: Moments of Revelation

Bureau 13….The Next Day…

B13 had again received communications from Dg, he had transmitted technical specifications to upgrade the computer interface in the operations center, "It wasn't advanced enough for the information" Dg had written. For whatever reason Kaiden and the others felt it was imperative to get access to whatever information this insider had, there was a concern that this may actually be a trap but Kaiden felt that the risk was worth it. If it meant even having direct access to Illuminati information for even a short time, it would prove valuable in the over fight against them. The raids had taken their toll in the physical realm, but those were just arms of the monster, attacking its ability to interact with the world around them. The real power lay in the council of five and its members, finding out what their hidden agenda was and stopping it would stop the conspiracy in its tracks, and taking them out would literally overnight change things for the better. That was both the council's greatest strength and weakness, the fact that by managing agencies, like boxes stacked in one another, it meant that the council could be removed and dismantle the boxes one at a time, properly cleaning house at each one, an endeavor that would take years to come, but one that Kaiden and B13 would relish because it would mean finally achieving their goal, and maybe be able to quit this life in the shadows.

It was a thought that Kaiden entertained occasionally, what would happen if this war stopped right now, today, what he would do tomorrow. Kaiden honestly didn't know, he figured that he would spend the rest of his life fighting this war, or that he would be dead by now. But yet here he was. Kaiden had encouraged Judy and Nick to relax before the coming storm, no one knew when or if they would get a break. Certainly Judy missed her family through all of this, but she knew not to try and contact for fear of getting them involved. Thankfully, the Bunny Burrows were outside the quarantine zone and for that reason alone, it was a blessing in disguise, no one in or out, so no chance of anyone from the burrows coming to the city.

Kaiden had seen Judy and Nick in the cafeteria, Nick being Nick and Judy being Judy again, it made the old Fox feel better knowing those two were on the road back to some kind of normalcy, that maybe despite all of this or maybe because of it, they will be stronger than before. In either case, it brought a smile to his lips knowing they were happy, happy in being with each other despite the hell they have been put through.

Kaiden made his way to the operations center to check on the status of this 'interface' the IT boys were hooking up. Kaiden saw a machine that was a smattering of parts hooked up to what looked like a fish bowl or so he thought.

"What in good god is this thing" Kaiden asked facetiously.

"This….advanced holographic interface…much faster…..allows transmission of data….faster speeds." Replied Hamilton excitedly.

"Well we know you're happy, a new high tech toy." Joked Kaiden.

"This could revolutionize data storage, holographic storage medium, and they had it the whole time!" remarked Langley.

"Yeah, it doesn't surprise me the Illuminati have been keeping the more advanced technology secret, who knows what else they got." Remarked Baers.

Kaiden simply acknowledged this was just out of his league, sure he could study technical specifications try and understand it but it didn't really matter to him, unless it was something that could directly allow him to take the fight back to the council of five and it's army of soldiers, it was just minutiae. Though he was glad the more technically minded of his comrades seemed to be enjoying themselves, like kids on Christmas morning. Better to enjoy the levity now, knowing what ever Dg had to say.

Kaiden had wondered who this Dg was, who on the inside of the Illuminati network could have so much access and yet not be loyal to the cause. This was the one facet that he hoped would be answered and yet knowing that this break in the armor exists given him hope that, the Illuminati were not as mighty as they seemed to be, but Kaiden had seen their results first hand, their machinations, their sheer firepower. It seemed to be completely contradictory to what he had experienced, and yet there it was. A paradox, the answers he sought would hopefully be contained within this insider.

---

Meanwhile…

Bureau 13…Cafeteria

Judy and Nick sat in the cafeteria at a corner table, Nick had taken to sitting beside her on the bench seat, they had been inseparable since their night together, Judy was constantly holding Nick's paw or holding him close, as if she was trying to never forget the feeling of his fur or the scent of him. Nick was caught up in looking at her, watching her expressions, the way she walked, the way she talked, the shape of her. To him it was like poetry in motion, the occasional sway of her hips or the flop of her ears would make him smile, and her eyes, he felt as though he could get lost into those eyes forever.

"Nick, I asked you a question" Judy said.

Nick snapped out of his own thoughts and focused in on what she just said.

"Hmm?" he replied, with his chin couched in his paw, his arm crooked on the table surface.

"I said are you alright?" she inquired.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he replied puzzled.

"It's just….that…..well never mind." she stopped.

"What's the matter? Come on, you can talk to me…" He replied back, rubbing her forearm with a kind smile.

"You were…dreaming, last night." She admitted

Nick sat silent.

"You were….calling for me."

Nick had half remembered a nightmare he had last night, he was trying to play it close to the vest, yet Judy must have heard him call out for her. Judy drooped her head a little, starting to feel guilty again, and Nick immediately tilted her head back up by her chin with his paw.

"Hey now, don't be like that. I know we've been through some rough things. And yeah, it's going to take a while to work through them." He consoled

"But I know that together, we will deal with all of this. Okay?"

Judy grabbed his paw and caressed it against her cheek, kissing it, and then she held it in both her paws and looked at Nick.

"I promise, when this is all over Nick, when we get our lives back together, I want to make up for lost time." She said

"Sure." He replied not exactly knowing what she was meaning.

"I know we spent a lot of time together in the past, but there was always this nervousness between us, and it was because we were afraid, afraid that we didn't know how we both felt, always distracting ourselves." she said

"I know what you mean." He admitted rubbing his chin.

"Well, that's just it, now it's all out in the open, and I want to explore that, I want to get to know you completely. I want you to get to know me."

Nick smiled back warmly.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Carrots" he replied with a chuckle.

Nick had taken his paws and held Judy's, he stared into her eyes just beaming at her with his 'Nick' smile. She loved that smile, it always made her feel warm, like Nick was the sun at the center of her world beaming down upon her. Judy scooted over on the bench and laid her head on his shoulder and caressed his chest with her paw, taking a deep breath.

"Can I say something?" asked Nick.

"Sure." She said

"When you rescued me…"

"Yeah?"

"You were a tough bad ass GI Bunny. And I'll be honest, it was kind of hot." He joked to her, still keeping his smile.

Judy laughed out loud and slapped him playfully on the chest. After she laughed wrapped her little arms around his neck him and kissed him on the cheek.

"You always know how to make me feel better." she said looking into his eyes.

Nick wrapped his arms around her small frame and hugged her back, still with his seemingly eternal smile.

"I'd like to think I can make you feel more than just 'better'." He said suggestively switching to a toothy grin.

"Oh, you are so bad" she replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Hey! I was nervous…" he joked back.

"You know what I meant." She chuckled back.

"You know I love you…." He said putting his nose against hers, the tone almost a question.

"Do I know that?" she pretended. "Yes, yes I do." She replied back warmly with a small smile pursed on her lips.

The conversation punctuated with a loving kiss.

---

Meanwhile…

Bureau 13…Operations Center

Kaiden sat in boredom watching the trio plus Hamilton finish construction and final preparations of the device they had been putting together.

"Look I just want to know, will it get Showtime?" Kaiden joked with a shrug.

The trio plus Hamilton stopped and looked at Kaiden and collectively raised eyebrows at him in slight frustration.

"What?" he sheepishly shrugged.

The four went back to their work, doing final adjustments, trying to properly interface it with their systems was proving to be more difficult than expected. Finally the machine hummed to life.

Kaiden shot up and took a looked at the machine; it seemed to finally be functioning. He snapped to one of the personnel in the hall.

"Hey, get Nick and Judy quickly, they are in the commissary." Ordered Kaiden.

The B13 agent changed direction and ran to get them.

The machine displayed a hovering screen of information; it was connecting to something, running through whatever compiling of code it was required to do.

"Lights." Ordered Talmadge as he walked into the room.

A technician lowered the lights to make the hologram more visible. Everyone stared on at the floating cloud of data that sat there in midair.

Nick and Judy finally arrived, just in time to see the cloud of data begin to resolve into shape, they approached up to where Kaiden was standing. The cloud managed to change shape into several amorphous blobs until resolving into a more familiar form. The data coalesced into points and the points resolved into the shape of a person.

The person shaped hologram stepped onto the ground as if stepping out of a door from the digital abyss. Judy looked on in abject shock, when she saw who it was.

"Ben?" she finally managed to ask.

The cheetah smiled back at Judy and walked over to her.

"Hi Judy." Replied the Hologram.

"How? How are you…How are you here?" she inquired still shocked putting her paws to her mouth.

Ben instinctively tried to touch her paw but the hologram went right through.

"I am not the Benjamin Clawhauser you remember. I am of him, think of me as…..an echo, of the cheetah you once knew." He replied.

"Oh Ben." She replied with tears starting to well into her eyes.

Nick rubbed her shoulders to comfort her.

"I'm so sorry." She apologized

"It's alright." Ben absolved

"I should have done something." She said, regretting

"No. you did exactly what I told you to. I told you not to help me, if you had come out from that desk, Barret would have killed you too."

Judy took note of the name of the bison and burned it into her memory. Ben took note of Nick's responses to Judy's emotional state.

"Did you two finally acknowledge your feelings for one another?" Ben asked.

"How did…..you know?" both Nick and Judy asked.

"When I was alive, I felt, that you two should be together. Now as I am now, I have been watching you two, as well as the whole city, and I calculated that given all that you experienced, that hopefully you would have admitted these things to each other."

"Together, you are stronger, and I'm glad to see my calculations were correct." Smiled Ben.

Judy noted that it sounded like Clawhauser though she never heard him use the words 'calculate' or talk with such enunciation.

"As I said, I am not the Ben Clawhauser, you know" he replied.

"Wait, how did you know what I was thinking?" she asked.

"Technically I don't but I can interpret micro expressions and animal psychology in factions of a nano-second, I calculated that you were concerned that my mannerisms and speech don't conform to my original patterns. The way I used to speak." He explained.

"I assure you, it is me, me but more, my mind has been able to expand in thousands of different directions all at once, my consciousness expanding, and I understand it, everything."

"Understand what?"

"Everything, and that is why I am here. To tell you their master plan. So you can stop it."

Kaiden finally stepped in.

"Ok, but we were expecting a message from someone named Dg?" Kaiden explained.

"Dg? Ah yes that would make it easier…I am Dg or DgIeGpIaTrAdL" Clawhauser replied.

"Yeah, just so I don't have a brain hemorrhage, what the hell does that mean anyway?" inquired Kaiden sarcastically.

Clawhauser held his palms up and displayed the word 'DgIeGpIaTrAdL' in front of him, the word split up, capital letters and lower case letters separated out spelling 'DIGITAL' and 'gepard'

"gepard is a word for cheetah in my ancestral language. It is my heritage" Explained Clawhauser.

The word changed from 'gepard' to 'cheetah'

"So the digital cheetah? Right…makes sense, kind of." commented Nick

AI Clawhauser smiled his familiar smile, Judy relaxed, it WAS Clawhauser, that smile of his was unmistakable, she had always seen him playing around on his phone, word games were one of the many little games she would catch him playing with. Other officers had assumed he was simple, in truth he was just playful and enjoyed life but was also Clawhauser insightful at times as much as he was welcoming and warm, because that was the kind cheetah he was.

"Ok, now that we've established who we are talking to, care to explain what?" asked Kaiden.

"Yes, you're right, pleasantries must come later, there is much you need to know and not much time." apologized Clawhauser

Clawhauser swept his arms around and the projector began to project multitudes of data files and data, pages upon pages of text, video, images, all forms of media in a cloud around the room.

"Firstly, I am an artificial intelligence construct created by Dr. Bryce Lucas with assistance of Kai Ren Medical. After I was killed, my body was retrieved from the police station and loaded onto the blackpaw helicopter that the mercenaries known as 'The Fiends' had been using. My body was brought to Kai Ren Medical and my entire central nervous system was mapped onto the AI template."

"Their reasoning for this was, until recently not known to me, but they were trying to probe my memory for the location of the encrypted data access chip."

Judy clutched the flash drive that was around her neck.

"When they were unable to locate the chip even with the assistance of my memories, they decided to use me as an experiment to determine how much, if any of my 'consciousness' survived the transfer."

"The reason for this has to do with their final plan, part of which involves whether or not a person's consciousness can be successfully transferred into digital form."

Clawhauser displays a large subterranean base beneath the heart of the city, the hologram expands and contracts, separating out into 3 distinct sections. Clawhauser brought one into focus, expanding it in his paws, making it large, revealing details of its features. A seemingly large computer section, with black computer towers similar to Clawhauser's from the blacksite , except many more and 5 tubes, almost coffin like in their shape, assumed to be resided in by the council of five.

"The council plans to upload themselves into a similar but larger computer matrix to control their empire from the safety of the digital realm, in doing so they would become omnipresent, able to see and hear everywhere."

"The whole of Zootopia and mainly the city has a highly interconnected system, that a presence such as myself or the council would be able to control and surveil with unlimited access."

"I know this because I am the prototype for that larger system."

"I have observed that your clandestine infiltration of Kai Ren Medical as well as the raids, you found the Cryo Pods with the frozen Zootopians inside."

"The purpose of these pods have to do with Project Rosslyn, Rosslyn is an old language word for 'Rose Line' which itself is a metaphor for Blood Line."

"Project Rosslyn has to do with the secret history of Zootopia, that the council of five realized could be used in the creation of their perfect society."

"It refers to paleontological evidence that Zootopians are not as separate as we think, that we all descend from a common ancestor. It is the DNA of that ancestor that has allowed us all to evolve with similar traits, such as intelligence, bipedal walking, and consciousness, as well as other traits."

"The Rosslyn is that common ancestor, an ancient vertebrate that is our evolutionary antecedent. This fact has been kept from the general populace and the world at large for one obvious reason."

"Because of the potential for such information to completely change society. The council's progenitors, knew that if this fact got out, it could have destroyed the nascent civilization that was being built. And they could not afford to allow this to happen, so a decision was made to keep it secret."

"Why, what were they so afraid of." Asked Kaiden

"They were afraid that society wouldn't be able to handle such information. In the beginning predator and prey were just starting to cooperate with each other, that fragile trust having to override millions of years of distrust. If they knew then, society would have crumbled before it started." Answered Clawhauser.

"I don't understand." Said Kaiden confused

"The Rosslyn, and it's DNA that courses through every Zootopian means that by definition we are ALL similar, not separate species as we have been told. Similar enough to where it is possible to create mixed offspring, just to name an example."

The entire room all reacted to that statement, the mood suddenly shifted, as if someone just pulled the blinds up in a dark room, the flash of the light of truth, almost blinding, causing daze, surprise and confusion. There were mutters, whispers in the dark back and forth. Kaiden's reaction of realization not surprise caught Clawhauser's notice.

"Quiet down folks, let's keep hearing what he has to say." Kaiden commanded with interest.

Nick and Judy's shock wore off and they glanced at each other with expressionless faces and then back to Clawhauser, a reaction he also noticed.

"As you can see even among your own personnel, there is already mixed reactions. Some would fear this realization, this inconvenient truth, and try to resist it." Continued Clawhauser.

"Some would react with shock and surprise, very much as you just did."

"And others, would perhaps…welcome it." Said Clawhauser, covertly glancing at Nick and Judy as he finished the statement, then back at Kaiden.

"Regardless, this fact alone could serve to divide society, create even further stratification on an already concerned population. The predator and prey divide from the 'savage' case over a year ago only illustrates that while we think our society has come so far, it would not take much to send Zootopia back to the dark ages."

"So…how would that help them? Forgive me, while that information may be a bombshell of news, it's by no means, at least to me, something that would help anyone create a perfect society." Inquired a confused Kaiden.

"That is because you have not thought how to properly apply it." Replied Clawhauser

"The fact alone may be unsettling, but it's what the council plans to DO with that information that is the cause of concern."

Clawhauser shifts focus from one section to another bringing its details into view, expanding its holographic visage for the room to see. The details show a numerous amount of large glass tubes with shapes inside them, presumed to be some animal form; the science projects of the council.

"With the ability to recombinate DNA to create viable animals, the council can effectively play god."

"They could create a perfect caste system of animal hybrids, each with their specialization and ability according to class. Workers, Warriors, Servants, Builders, to name a few."

"They would seek to pervert the Zootopian genome and this miracle of biology and use it for their evil and selfish ends."

"Yeah, well I don't think society at large is going to let them, even with lies." Chimed in Nick.

"That's assuming there is a society to resist them." Replied Clawhauser.

Nick had perked an eyebrow up.

"Why does it sound like I'm not going to like this." Nick replied

"Because you won't, the council has decided that they are no longer going to tolerate the current status of the world, and instead of fixing it, they have decided to just….start over." Replied Clawhauser almost coldly.

The room roared to life with muttering and whispers, an occasional understandable word would come out of the crowd.

"Quiet!" yelled Kaiden.

Clawhauser continued. He displayed a hologram of a large cylindrical cavern located underneath the city, the third section of this Illuminati pantheon of horrors; containing something that looks like one part factory, one part nightmare, with jagged and sharp fins adorning a spherical shaped room at its heart.

"The council has in their possession a device called a 'Wolfram Alpha-Phase Pulse Generator'. This device is designed to release a form of radiation known as 'Wolfram particles' which can render organic molecules into dust."

"Why? Why would they do this, Why would anyone do this?" Judy inquired, reaching for some reasoning to the madness.

"They do this because they see themselves as the stewards of Zootopia. They believe that society cannot function without the intervention of an elite group such as themselves, which makes decisions for the masses. They view absolute freedom as analogous to absolute chaos, and hence the need for them to sacrifice some of an individual's freedom to maintain order. This particular 'Final' solution seems to be their last bid attempt to create what they have been trying to build slowly since the founding of Zootopia." Finished Clawhauser

The room stood deadly silent, one could hear a pin drop, the truth of it all explained right in front of them. The Illuminati's master plan was to start over, killing every Zootopian in some insane depopulation scenario. Only to retake it with their class system of genetically engineered populace, all the while maintaining the eternal eye of providence over all, from the recesses of some cyber-digital domain. It was the stuff of nightmares made manifest.

Stunned expressions filled the room, processing the stakes of what it is they just heard, thinking of every animal out there, every male, female and child who would be effected by this, the families of B13 agents who would be affected, Judy's family, and Judy and Nick themselves.

Judy and Nick, looked at each other and held their paws together, clutching tight, realizing that this was an all or nothing confrontation.

No second chances…No surrender, No retreat.

---

Chapter 16: It Gets Easier…

We're So Screwed Part 1

Bureau 13….The Next Day

Kaiden and the rest of the team had worked out with Clawhauser the more tactical approach to everything they heard, the plan to take down the council and its machinations. It was bold, dangerous and desperate, according to Clawhauser the council was already trying to start the Wolfram, thankfully Clawhauser had been inserting errant bits of code into the initiation subroutines to keep them guessing but that was only a stop gap, eventually the Wolfram would be started and there wouldn't be anything they could do.

A delay measure at most, hopefully long enough to get Bureau 13 inside to take it out. The overall goal was simple, break into the complex, go to each subsection and destroy each implement of the final plan.

The tactical briefing was straight forward, with explanations of troop movements and secondary reactions. It wasn't so much of what was said versus what the feeling of the room was. Judy and Nick noticed a change in their comrades, an air of deadly seriousness; they knew the stakes and knew them well.

They paced by a wall near the entrance of Bureau 13 they had noticed it before but paid it no mind, it was next to the large Bureau 13 emblem engraved into the wall. Which itself was a stylized lion or tiger's head with a thirteen underneath, and the words "cum animus et ferocia nos tueri zootopia" on the top and it's English translation on the bottom "With courage and ferocity we protect Zootopia".

But this other wall was not nearly as prominently displayed, it's aura was somber and sad. It was a series of names of agents, Judy didn't recognize any of the names. Nick's eye caught something, as if reading and then hung head sadly. Judy looked at what he had seen; it was the inscription on the upper part of the wall. "Dedicated to those that served in shadow, now you live forever in the light of honor."

It was a memorial wall, Bureau 13 agents who have died serving Zootopia, animals who names remembered only by this wall. Animals who fought and died to save the city and no one even knows they existed.

"That is what it means to be Bureau 13."

Judy turned to see Kaiden walk up behind the pair.

"To stay, when others run, to bleed, while others can be safe, and if necessary, to die, so that others may live."

Judy wondered silently, looking at the wall, how many names were about to be added to this wall, names of people she and Nick had come to care about. She was knocked out her thinking as Kaiden pulled her and Nick close in a hug.

"Listen to me you two, listen very close. You WILL survive this, as god as my witness, I don't care what I have to do, I will make sure you survive this." Kaiden spoke softly.

"Why us? What makes us special?" asked Nick.

Judy realized why, and it was heart breaking to realize, why Kaiden was willing to go so far.

"It's because of Lily." Judy replied

Kaiden closed his eyes as if in silent deference to her.

"Lily was his wife, his rabbit wife." Judy admitted.

Nick was shocked at first, but suddenly it made sense, Kaiden always had a sense of his thoughts, Nick thought it was because he was a fellow fox, but now realized that it was more, his situation was similar. Kaiden opened his eyes spoke softly to them both.

"I do it, because I want you both to have the opportunity that Lily and I never did. To live a long life and be happy together."

Kaiden took Nick and Judy's paws and put them together, he held both their paws couched in his own, holding it with care as if holding a fragile egg.

"This…..connection…..Always hold on to it and each other, and never, ever let go." He whispered.

Nick and Judy looked into each other's eyes and then looked at Kaiden's, his world weary eyes, who had seen and done too much, and yet he cracked a smile at his two friends, envisioning their happiness, bringing hope to the weary fox.

---

Later…Bureau 13

The raiders were gearing up, attaching straps, tying boots, putting on layers of different items, gun belts, ammo packs, bandoleers, radios, helmets, head sets, ballistic glasses, anything and everything they could think of for this final assault. Judy and Nick along with everyone else, were strapped with heavy assault gear, in another time and place it would almost be funny, watching a rabbit putting on miniature versions of radios, knives, even belts and vests. But now was no laughing matter, Judy and Nick would shoot glances back at each other, scared for one another, as they finished equipping themselves.

They grabbed rifles and side arms off the weapons rack on their way out the door to the helipads. The other Bureau 13 agents were similarly garbed, with appropriately sized equipment for their mission. The squads had piled into their respective team choppers, Judy and Nick were with Kaiden and Kit in Alpha One, Bogo was leading Bravo Team. Finnick was staying behind because Talmadge convinced him to, yet the small fox showed a surprising moment of courage to help; he wanted to go, to do what he could. It took some convincing but due to Finnick's lack of combat experience he would only be in the way, and it was safer for Nick and Judy knowing he was safe back at the bunker. Alphas Three and Four following, Alpha flight was backed up by Bravo flight, Charlie flight and Delta flight, practically the total corps of agents loaded onto these helicopters.

They took off heading towards the city center. Kaiden keyed his mic and spoke into the radio.

"Alright, Ladies and Gentlemammals, I'm not one for speeches, but I feel this time, it needs to be said."

"This is what we have been working for; this is the last one, if we do this, it's over. I know it's been a long struggle, I know that we've all lost friends and loved ones, hold onto that, use it, channel it. I want you to take it to these bastards and run them into dust. Zootopia is counting on us. Over two million animals need us to succeed. If any of us are to have a future. This is what Bureau 13 is about; doing the tough job that no one else can, crawling in the muck and in the grime so others don't have to."

Kaiden looked at Judy and Nick.

"This is the day we make the world a better place, the day we stand against tyrants and those who would create our futures for us. We will fight, we will defend, and we will save Zootopia, to our dying breath."

There was a loud simultaneous "Oo rah" from all the agents over the radio, some of which could be heard from the next chopper over.

As they approached the city center, which was the watering hole from days gone by, it had been cordoned off, with grey and orange vehicles and personnel everywhere, Wolverine Risk Control had locked down the area. Judy had remembered this park, she kicked around a soccer ball with two children, an antelope and tiger, it used to be so bright and glowing, now it was dull and grey, almost as if the life had been sucked out of it. And it was about to become a warzone, she wasn't sure how to react, her beloved city being torn apart by unseen forces, it needed to be done, but damn them for putting her and Nick into that position.

She must have been making some kind of expression because Nick held her paw, and looked at her reassuringly. She looked back at him, he was willing to follow her into hell and back, and she loved him for it. This wonderful fox, who had every reason to walk away, any sane person would have, and yet there he was, clad in black Bureau 13 assault gear, armed to the teeth, he didn't want to be a soldier and not even particularly a police officer until she asked him to. But through it all, he wanted to be there for her, and that is what he was doing. She felt that she would somehow make it up to him, somehow, some way. But for now she was just glad he was there.

"Alright, folks, we're almost there. Everybody has got det packs and anti-aug rounds, use them sparingly and for god sakes try not to hit each other." Called out Kaiden.

The helicopters touched now near the watering hole and immediately begun to secure the area, Alpha One touched down and Kaiden and company jumped out. It wasn't long before a fire fight ensued, WRC and B13 engaged, Alpha team and Bravo team headed by Bogo moved to secure a nearby old subway access, which had been renovated as a cargo and access way to the complex below the city.

The teams slipped into the decrepit subway terminal as expected it looked like it hadn't seen use in years, most likely not the main access way, which surely was somewhere more conspicuous. The council probably owned all the buildings around the area, any one of which could be their main access. Clawhauser had told B13 of this access way for its lack of foot traffic, the hope would be to slip in unnoticed.

Alpha team found the access through an adjacent maintenance tunnel, Nick's familiarity with the subway systems and roads proved invaluable.

"I'll stay and guard the way out." Said Bogo

Judy at first was about to object but Bogo raised his paw.

"No arguments just get in there and do what you do best. I will be here." Bogo replied with confidence.

Judy took that vote of confidence and went back to the group

"And you." said Bogo addressing Kaiden

"You take care of them, or you'll answer to me." Bogo chided

Kaiden replied with a smirk and Alpha team went into the complex.

They approached an access tunnel and went in; cargo boxes littered throughout the tunnel, a WRC squad came around the corner. The fire fight was short lived, Kaiden, Kit, Nick and Judy dispatched the team with ease, save for the lieutenant, who stood back up, he was a large bear maybe a grizzly.

"You bastards! Now you die!" He growled.

He pulled out an auto-injector and placed it to his neck, shooting the contents into himself, almost immediately, he growled, snarled, he seemed to become more rigid, his muscles seemed to grow. No one was sure till he let out a very primitive sounding roar and rushed the group on all fours.

Nick froze, wide eyed and exasperated "night howlers."

"Put him down!" called out Kaiden.

The group fired at him, hitting him several times but the two thousand pound grizzly bear continued like a freight train, he back handed Kit and sent him flying through a nearby guardrail snapping it off. He bullrushed Kaiden knocking him back, bouncing him off a nearby wall. The bear turned his attention to Judy and pushed her down with his paw, snarling and drooling into her face. Judy stared into the bears eyes and teeth.

"Hey Ugly!" shouted Nick

The bear turned to get a fox foot to the face, which only made him flinch for a moment. Kit came over the bear's back and tried to swing down the broken metal guard rail section onto the bear's head. The bear reached back blindly and caught the pole. Kit's eyes went wide, the bear with one paw pulled on the pole which picked the wolf up along with it; the bear swung the pole around and smacked Nick, Kit and the pole into a nearby cargo storage container. The bear turned his attention back to Judy

"Savage…..not stupid…Friends gone…Now you die." The bear muttered, its guttural growls.

The bear opened its mouth to take a bite, Judy's eyes wide in sheer terror, she couldn't even scream, he reared back to strike, when a blur of red fur impacted the bear in the chest.

"No!" shouted Nick as he fired into the bear's chest, his rifle set to full auto, the rifle spraying it's fiery contents into the bear.

The bear stumbled back, Nick standing with both feet on the bear's chest, gripping's collar fur with one paw and rifle in the other. Nick kept firing, drilling a hole into the bear's chest until he ran out of ammunition. The bear stumbled back dead and fell with force onto the ground, causing a slight tremor. Judy looked at Nick standing victorious over the bear, out of breath, panting, blood speckling on his gear.

Nick looked over at Judy and quickly rushed over to her, they embraced.

"Oh my god Judy, are you alright?"

Judy breathing rapidly, she looked at Nick with terrified eyes. Nick rubbed her cheeks with his paws, trying to calm her nerves. She blinked several times.

"I'm alright, I'm just glad…." She replied

"Always, Carrots." Nick replied knowing what she was going to say.

The team picked themselves up and walked over to the bear.

"What….the….fuck…was…that?" Kit inquired completely taken aback.

Clawhauser chimed in over the radio.

"That would be the modified Nighthowler serum."

"That is not like anything I read on the stuff." Said Kit.

"Correct, this version apparently increases strength and durability, possibly blocking pain receptors. I would have to research to know more."

"Are there more of them?" Nick asked.

"I do not have enough information to guess. But it would stand to reason." Replied Clawhauser

"Great…..It took a whole mag to put one of things down." Said Kit

"Yeah, and what else is down there?" muttered Kaiden.

"According to my records, the labs are currently operating, it stands to reason in addition to "Nighthowler 2.0" serum production, there may be active trans-genic animals in the lab complex." stated Clawhauser.

Upon hearing that Kit displayed a look of disgust on his face, Kaiden wondered, Judy looked concerned and Nick, wasn't surprised in the least, he knew of the depravity and depths of the council's perversions first hand.

"Let's just get this over with." Nick said trotting forward, picking up his rifle, clearing it and slamming another magazine into the slot.

The others followed suit, the four continued to travel through the tunnel they eventually found their way to an open room; it seemed to be a receiving area of sorts, two bay doors on either side of the room, the open one they had come through and the closed one at the other end of the bay. The group entered and looked for a way to open the door, there was inactive control panel.

"Clawhauser. I got a panel here, can you switch it on." Called out Kaiden over his comm.

"Yes, attempting…"

The door on the other end of the bay closed, Kaiden turned to look at the door.

"Clawhauser! You closed the other door you idiot." Chided Kaiden.

"That isn't possible, I haven't accessed the room's control circuits yet." replied Clawhauser

"I closed the door, chumps" spoke a voice from behind.

Kaiden turned around in time to get bullrushed by Barret and sent flying across the room. The bison stood in front of the group and snapped down his protective hood over his head and horns. The tips of his horned lined with some kind of ceramic carbide it dented one of Kaiden's armor plates on his vest.

Barret laughed out loud, and then stomped his feet, readying a charge.

"So who wants to die first, bitches." He called out to the group.

"Bring it on, you overgrown Pampas bull!" replied Kit.

Barret fumed at the name and charged Kit who fired into Barret but the shots just pinged off his armor, upon realizing this Kit rolled to dodge out of the way. Nick grabbed Judy and they took cover nearby a cargo container. Kaiden managed to right himself and get back to his feet.

Barret finished his charge and opened his right arm, deploying a minigun in his forearm. Kaiden and Kit went wide eyed as the minigun spun up.

"Oh shit" they both exclaimed, and both dove for cover.

Barret unleashed a flurry of bullets spraying all over the room in arcs, stopping only long enough to let the weapon cool before firing again. After a moment, he opened his left arm revealing what looked like a tube.

"You think you can hide? Oh no, no, no, There is a reason I'm called the 'walking tank'!" Barret exclaimed.

Barret pointed the tube in Kit's last known position and fired, the explosive round tore through the cargo container and exploded, Barret popped the empty shell and it clanged loudly on the floor. Kaiden took the opportunity to rush Barret, a forearm blade at the ready on one arm, with his rifle in the other.

Barret spun around and elbowed Kaiden right in the face so hard that it managed to throw him in a daze. Barret turned to finish off Kaiden, but Kit came blazing from behind the exploded cargo box and jumped on Barret's back, he fired off his rifle loaded with anti aug rounds. They managed to penetrate and Barret screamed in pain.

"Ah you sons of…." Barret huffed as he tried to spin around to shoot Kit.

Kaiden and Kit managed to grab an arm each and held him.

"Judy, Nick, use the aug rounds!" called out Kaiden.

Judy and Nick came bursting out of their cover rifles at the ready and fired into Barret, the rounds doing damage and even passing through his body and hitting the door on the other side. Barret screamed in pain as they shot him. Judy changed aim and shot into his legs immobilizing him, Nick on seeing this reciprocated. After several well placed shots, Barret's legs were rendered useless, and he fell to his knees.

Kaiden ripped off his helmet exposing the bison underneath. The bison fell forward and caught himself with the tips of his weapons, Kaiden stood to his side and levied a large caliber side arm at his head loaded with anti-augment rounds.

"Pack 'em up, Now!" Kaiden ordered

The bison retracted his weapons back into their housings and back into hooves again.

"Heh, you got me." Said Barret with a huff.

"I want information, Where is the council?" demanded Kaiden

"What makes you think I'm telling you jack?" he retorted.

Nick stepped and continued in a matter of fact way.

"Well, plain and simple, you either answer our questions, or these fine gentlemen will shoot you." Explained Nick.

"Heh, you think I'm afraid of that. I've killed lots of people, I know how it works." Barret retorted.

"Well if you tell us, I'm sure Kaiden here will be happy to take you prisoner instead, right Kaiden?" said Nick looking at Kaiden with a "follow my lead" look.

"Yes, cooperate and you will be treated fairly…..Not that you deserve it." Kaiden spat

"Fine, council is on the lower level….computer core…getting ready to step into…..whatever…" replied Barret choking on blood.

"Thank you…" replied Nick

"Ugh, Foxes…..I hate foxes. Damn beady little eyes" Barret spat at Nick

"Yeah…I'm sure we hate you too, especially since you kill people for a living." condescend Nick

"Heh, it's not that hard." Said Barret playfully

"yeah, well, we aren't all mass murdering psychopaths, so there you are….." replied Nick

"Heh, you don't have to be crazy, it just takes practice." Taunted Barret with a smug smile on his lips

"The first time is the hardest, and it gets easier from there."

"Like all those cops in the police station, I didn't feel a thing."

Nick got offended, and stepped back "Oh bison, you are really asking for it."

"Especially that little pudgy bastard, the cheetah, what was his name?" Barret continued to taunt.

"His name was Benjamin Clawhauser, you son of a bitch." Said Judy with trembling voice.

Barret turned to face Judy, a gunshot rang out with a loud blast, Barret's expression went from a smug smile and became one of surprise as the back of his head came apart spilling its contents on the floor. His now lifeless body slumped over with a loud thud. The three stunned, turned to look at Judy, who was still holding the large caliber sidearm presumably loaded with the anti-aug rounds. Tears streaming down her face, and letting out an occasional sob, and breathing slowly trying to calm herself; the gun still smoking from the barrel, her forearm hurt from firing but she didn't care.

After a few breaths she lowered her arm and dropped the weapon on the floor.

"Oh Nick." her voice breaking.

Nick came over and held her as she cried into his chest. Nick said nothing he just held her and let his dearest rabbit release her sadness. Nick held her tight and petted her head, he knew Barret's particular contribution to all of this, and he just let the bunny release the pain.

Kaiden and Kit just stood there, feeling for Judy as they would any friend, for they both had the destroyers of their respective worlds still roaming around, and they weren't going to deny Judy the catharsis of this moment.

After a few minutes she managed to collect herself, Nick had pulled her out of the emotional muck. The group gathered their dropped equipment, salvaged a few ammo pieces from Barret's corpse and moved on. Clawhauser activated and opened the opposite bay door and they continued further into the complex.

Kaiden and Kit taking point, with Judy and Nick behind; Judy's thoughts finally sunk in and she hung her head in shame, she had never killed anyone in cold blood before, during the raids it was always the heat of battle, but this time, Barret was defeated and defenseless and she killed him anyway, what for? Revenge? Justice? She felt conflicted. Nick put an arm around her.

"I know, Carrots, I know." Nick consoled

"He was right about one thing." Judy said

"About what?" Nick asked.

"It does get easier, and that's what terrifies me." She admitted

"I don't want it to get easier. I want it to bother me; I need it to bother me. I need to remind me….."

"That you're a good person." Nick finished her sentence

"I think I've seen too much, done…..too much."

"And we still have further to go." She finished

"I know, Judy, I know." Replied Nick holding her, giving her a kiss on the top of her head.

---

Chapter 17: Counterpoint

We're So Screwed, Part 2

Illuminati Complex…..Later

The team managed to go down several more levels, the cold industrial vibe giving way to something more sterile. The exposed dirty piping, randomly leaking, made of cast iron being replaced by something more akin to clean steel or aluminum. The shine of the pipes reflecting the occasional light as they continued to make their way into the complex, the air became charged, almost like static, the smell of ozone from air purifiers in the ventilation.

They figured they had entered into the lab section of the complex, their first target. Judy had finally calmed down, the Barret situation having some physical distance helped to provide a bit of an emotional one, she tried not to think about it, just keep focusing on the task at hand. She looked at Nick with a weary smile, he looked back and would give her a reassuring one. However Nick's thoughts betrayed him, he felt an uneasy tremble in the back of his mind. The smell, it was snapping him right back to being captured; the entire place reeked of that same air purified ozone smell, as if the very air was manufactured in a lab and dispensed out of some great machine. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end. He wanted to know, yet not know what Clawhauser meant by 'trans-genics' when referring to the animals the council supposedly cooked up, what rotten science experiments have they created. He could only imagine, and then realized, his brain wasn't twisted enough to come up with the real answer.

They approached an access door, it was smooth, shiny metal just like the piping, and the floor had changed from simple poured concrete to a smoothed sanded surface, almost like marble.

"Clawhauser…" said Kaiden

"Yes, opening door now." He replied.

The door unlocked and opened, it was a small room with another door, some kind of clean room air lock. They four walked in, the door closed and the room started to pressurize ever so slightly, a mist of liquid spilled into the air, meant to capture and dispel any dust in the air. Their ears popped, and the caution lights on the door in front of them lit. A half minute later the door in front of them swung open, and a large open laboratory was in front of them.

The room was adorned with tables of lab equipment, with notes strewed around but yet no lab scientists or even guards, research papers looked as though they were dropped where they lay. Several tanks were dotted around the room with liquid contents of different colors, blue, red, orange, and yellow.

The four trotted around the room, perusing its contents. However, the research notes were smattering of technical lingo and jargon that none of them understood save for a few words that would stand out. But the title covers of every single one of the booklets had a word that gave them a tingle of fear up their spines.

Judy picked up one of the documents, reading its title "Project: Night Howler" aloud, she spoke in a soft but concerned tone.

"Looks like this is where they make the stuff." Said Kaiden

"This looks like a letter?" said Kit offering up one of the documents.

Nick approached, grabbing the document

"It seems to be a letter from a scientist, I guess. Midnicampum holicithias?" he enunciated.

"That's the scientific name for Night Howlers." Said Judy

"Carrots, you're going to want to hear this, it's a letter from a scientist to Mei Ling, the tiger lady." said Nick as he read the document, his eyes wide eyed.

"What?" she inquired trying to reach for the document.

Nick held onto it and read the contents.

"Midnicampum holicithias , is a plant varietal that we've discovered might possess certain psychotropic characteristics that might serve our purpose, while in its raw and unrefined state the effects are minor and temporary, we believe that a more refined version could be created to serve as an effective solution to the program. Phase One, would consist of the creation of a more refined plant based version of the substance."

Judy and Nick looked at each other, almost in disbelief

"Once efficacy has been established, Phase two would consist of the creation of a chemical origin version of the substance, further refining out any deleterious effects presenting themselves in phase one, Phase 3 would possibly consist of the creation of a binary to increase reliability, accuracy and control. Field tests could begin as soon as phase one. End report." Finished Nick.

"And here is the kicker, Carrots, the report was dated…..5 years ago…"

Judy couldn't believe it, she slammed the table in frustration

"It was them…..the entire time!" he gritted her teeth, gripping the table and scratching into it with her paws.

"But that doesn't make sense….I thought….." Nick replied confused.

"Makes perfect sense Nick, Who do you think gave it to her…" Kaiden stated not asking.

Nick and Judy spun around, coming to the horrible realization.

"Last I checked, she wasn't a farmer but a politician now turned jail bird. And the effects of Night Howlers, until your big case, were practically unheard of. So of course, none of this surprises me." Kaiden continued eye balling the tanks of liquid.

"But she had her own agenda…." Judy replied.

"Which I'm sure the council was perfectly happy to exploit. Just because you found one master mind, doesn't mean there weren't others behind her." Kaiden retorted

"It stands to reason, that's probably been their whole plan from the get go, destabilize society, make it slow to resist, get infighting started." Commented Kit

Kaiden levied his paw at Kit "Exactly"

"They probably wanted to field test the first version of the night howlers, and they gave it to her, knowing she would be happy to use them." Said Kaiden

"All the while continuing to plan from behind the scenes." concluded Judy

"It's was a con, make the mark do the work for you. Damn, it's just like the classic con, only bigger." commented Nick.

"Exactly, just when you think you got it all figured out, you find out they were always there." Said Kaiden.

"But that was then, this is now. And what I want to know is, where the hell are the scientists, why is this room empty?" Kaiden asked with a sense of foreboding.

The room not yielding any additional clues, they decided to move on. Judy and Nick were visibly angry, they were tired of seeing the council's involvement in practically everything, even their big case together had an outlying connection to the council and its deeds, Zootopia had a systematic cancer at its heart, a cancer they resolved to remove then and there.

The council's crimes could take potentially years to unravel, but Judy resolved herself, this is what was wrong with the world, a group of animals thinking they own the world, that they can play with people's lives as they see fit. Judy gritted her teeth, she looked at Nick with determination, Nick could almost see the fire in her eyes, the cogs in her head turning.

"I know carrots, we'll get 'em." agreed Nick.

They opened the next door and stood at the threshold, when the door opened, the atmosphere had changed, what once was a somber quiet, became one of concern the next lab over was torn up, piping ripped out, with hanging wires, broken equipment everywhere, lighting was flickering, and near the door on the other side read lit bright red warning sign that said "Containment Failure"

They crept forward and cleared the room, still no one here, but this room had signs of rushed movements, maybe even struggle. They reached the other end of the room and opened the door, a hallway, there was evidence of a firefight, bullets holes, flash burns and claw marks, lots and lots of claw marks, the occasional blood spatter, the occasional destroyed fluorescent lighting box and exposed wiring. The four glanced at each other curiously and then back down the hallway.

They moved forward slowly, Nick and Judy occasionally looking back to check their rear. They could hear unearthly almost primal sounds in the duct work, an occasional clatter, everyone's ears were perked, instinctively twitching to the slightest provocation of sound.

As they approached the corner they got extra apprehensive when they found a body, a WRC trooper, apparently with his throat torn out. It had happened recently, the blood still in a sticky but liquid state. Then they found another, then another. It was clear something was amiss.

They managed to find a security station, checking the monitors and status panels, some kind of containment had failed. The bank of monitors showed the inside of the large labs, a containing glass tank, inside each was a form, and they resembled animals but none that the group had ever seen before.

They saw some of the glass tanks broken, with liquid spilled onto the floor, the contents empty. Judy got on the computer and click over some of the camera displays

"Could the other B13 teams have made it down here yet?" asked Judy

Kaiden clicked his comm and called for anyone to respond, silence; he clicked and requested again, still silence.

"Either the comms are down, or nobody else is down here."

"Not good in either case." commented Kit

"Agreed. But we have a mission to accomplish, and we still have to find the council, let's cut through the labs, hopefully we can destroy them on our way down."

"There. We can get in there." Said Judy pointing at a door on the screen.

The group left the security station and moved towards the door to the larger lab section, Clawhauser tried to override the door but to no avail, Kit tried to see if he could pry open the door but it was locked tight, Nick tried to see if there was a pickable lock or hinges he could remove, nothing.

"Could you blow off the door?" asked Kaiden

"I could, but that might set off whatever security is attached to it." Replied Kit

"Damn it, we need to get in here." Muttered Kaiden

The four sat studying the door

"Maybe I could help with that." Said a voice behind them.

The group spun around, their weapons drawn and locked gaze with a silver timber wolf in orange and grey WRC garb. The timber wolf pointing his gun at the group who in turn was pointing their weapons right back.

"Woah, wait, I'm not here to hurt you." Said the silver timberwolf

"Funny that, your buddies have been trying. Give me one reason I shouldn't blow you head off right now?" quipped Kaiden.

"Because I'm here to help you." The wolf replied.

"What?" Kaiden replied with absolute incredulity on his face.

"I was sent emails from someone called, Digital Cheetah?" the wolf inquired for clarification.

Kaiden raised an eyebrow

"Wait, you got messages from "Digital Cheetah"?" asking with amazement on his face.

"Actually it said, Digital Gepard. Well actually it was gibberish, but I figured it out, took me about 20 minutes. How long did it take for you?" the wolf joked.

Kaiden just rolled his eyes with a huff.

"It's called Zoogle, Fox." Quipped the wolf

"Ah Mr. Frost, I was not expecting you to be here." Said Clawhauser on both Frost's helmet radio and Kaiden's team radios.

"Woah, who was that?" asked Frost surprised.

"That would be "Digital Cheetah" AKA A.I. Clawhauser." Replied Kaiden

"Woah, that's weird" Frost reacted.

"So who are you, and why are you here?" Kaiden inquired.

"My name is Gideon, Gideon Frost, I am…..or rather was, the Commander of Wolverine Risk Control."

"Was?" inquired Kaiden

"Let's just say, I've been questioning my work environment, and your, Clawhauser, told me things, confirming my worst suspicions, that my boss is dirty, and I can't serve that anymore." Explained Gideon.

"The emails told me about this place, and I came here, and by God, it's a nightmare, an absolute fucking nightmare. He asked me to help you, and I said I'd think about it…..So I guess, I'm helping you." He finished

"But you quit."

"Well, technically no, as far as anyone knows I'm a loyal company man, but I'm deciding to help you." clarified Frost

Kaiden and Kit looked at each other than Judy and Nick, then back at Gideon.

"Can you open this door?" Kaiden asked jutting his thumb.

"H'yeah, in fact I could probably open every door between here and the bottom floor." Replied Gideon with a smile.

Kaiden while still looking at Gideon held a closed paw towards Kit, which Kit promptly fist bumped.

"Let me guess, jackpot?" asked Judy jokingly.

"That would be a yes, carrots" replied Nick.

"We got to be careful though, something happened in the labs, there are creatures, running around, some kind of experiments." Warned Gideon as he went to open the door.

Gideon used his biometric ID on the door scanner and it opened, the rush of positive pressure air came flowing towards them, the smell of chemicals laced the air with a tinge. They stepped into the lab section. The next section was a huge room, filled with tank after tank of trans-genic hybrids in a kind of stasis, waiting to be awoken; each tank was lit, the green fluid glowing with an iridescent color scale. A series of gantry and duct work adorned the upper floors of the room. Gideon escorted them through the room and its maze of tanks.

"My god….." muttered Kit taking in the sheer size of the room and the numerous tanks

"Yeah, I highly doubt God had anything to do with this, Kit." Kaiden replied remarking on what abominations lie in the tanks.

"What is this place?" Asked Judy

"Halloween horror house." Quipped Nick

"This is the trans-genic lab complex, these tanks are filled with a nano-scale solution for constructing or reconstructing cells on the nano-atomic scale, this is what is allowing the council to build their 'work force'." Explained Clawhauser.

"Sheesh, sounds science-y" joked Nick

"This technology, could probably heal people, if the council didn't horde it, bastards." Replied Kaiden angrily.

"Yeah, not exactly zooitarians." quipped Kit.

"Playing god" Judy said somberly

"Tag you're, god" joked Nick with a laugh.

Judy batted at him "Be serious Nick."

Kaiden and Kit stopped; they couldn't help it and laughed a few times. Kaiden leaned against a tank with a paw. Turning to Nick

"You're guys are great, I love hanging out with you." Kaiden said with a chuckle.

"What is so funny, this is serious." Judy said.

Kaiden and Kit came down from their laugher

"Can't help it, the tension was getting a bit much." Kit said with a smile.

As the five approached the middle of the room, the sound of the capacitors in the lights engaging in a deep thud, as each road turned on, the group froze, and the click of a loud speaker and a voice rang out into the room.

"Well, well, well. I didn't think ya'll would make it down here…..And, wait a sec, is that Gideon Frost down there? Holy shit, a traitor AND a coward. Just sit right there, I got something for traitors."

"Is that?" Kit's eyes went wide in anger.

"Kiss my tail, Harding" Frost yelled out into the open room.

Suddenly a shot rang out, and hit the floor in front of the group; they quickly scrambled for cover behind one of the tanks.

"Ya sorry, I got history with this badger" said Frost quietly.

"Well guess what, so do I." replied Kit charging his rifle.

"Aw come on now, don't go runnin', don't ya'll want to play?" taunted Harding over the loud speaker.

"Kit, we do not have time for this." Explained Kaiden

"Not if we split up." Suggested Kit

"What?" reacted Kaiden

"Look, we got to blow up this lab anyway, we can't do that while we're under fire, if we split up, you can go ahead and find the council, I can stay behind with Gideon and we can take out Harding and blow up the lab."

"You can't be serious" said Judy.

Kaiden looked at Kit, he tried to process what he must be going through, so close to the killer of his wife and children. 'How can I deny him that?' The lab must be destroyed. Kaiden made his call.

"You be careful, and destroy this lab"

"We can't just leave him" Judy reacted.

"Frost, you back up my wolf, you understand me?" Kaiden said deadly serious.

"I can, and I will." Gideon replied

"HEY!" yelled Judy waving her paws in front of Kaiden.

Another shot rang out, and whizzed over their heads, the group turned to Judy

"You can't expect me to just be alright with leaving Kit behind."

"Judy, this is the mission, we have to blow up this lab, and we have to stop the council and the Wolfram." Retorted Kaiden.

"I know but…."

"Listen to me, every minute we spend, is another minute these people have to pull off their plan, we HAVE to stop them, no matter the cost."

Judy was taken aback; she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Nick put a paw on her shoulder.

"Carrots, like you said to me, 'this is bigger than all of us'. There is a chance that….." Nick choked on his words.

"There is a chance that none of us will make it out of here alive, even if we succeed." Finished Kit.

"But Kit….." Judy said sadly, shaking her head.

"It's ok Judy, I'm willing to live with that, and….if I have to…." Kit replied, hanging on the pregnant pause.

"How do we get out of here?" Kaiden asked Frost

"You take that door over there into the next section and go down the elevator. Take this card, it will get you in, but I don't know how you will match the biometrics." Replied Frost

"I may be able to handle that, I observed the data of the last scan, and I can fool the system into thinking it's you accessing the doors." Chimed in Clawhauser.

"Alright, good hunting." Said Kaiden to the wolves.

And with that Kaiden, Nick and Judy made a break for the door, Harding fired a couple times trying to hit them but to no avail. Kaiden, Nick and Judy got to the door, Judy looked back at Kit crouched with Frost behind the tank, She burned the image into her head, she had a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach. Kit looked back at her, her concerned eyes, piercing right through him.

"It's ok Judy, keep moving, and finish the mission." Kit spoke to her from over the comm.

And with that, Kaiden Nick and Judy went through the door, continuing deeper into the complex.

---

Illuminati Complex….Lab Section.

The two timber wolves were sitting behind the tank still, trying to come up with a plan. Harding was somewhere up in the gantries sniping down on their position. Every now and then a shot would ring out from Harding.

"So you got some sort of plan?" asked Frost.

"Well, I'm pretty sure he's shooting from that direction, if I can get a bead on him, I can nail him." Replied Kit.

Kit shouldered his rifle and opened his duffle bag, he pulled out two pieces of a long rifle and put them together.

"Counter-snipe?" reacted Gideon.

"In Zootopia, anyone can be anything, and I'm going to turn this motherfucker into a grease spot." Quipped Kit.

"I'm pretty sure that's NOT what that means." Responded Frost in the same sarcastic tone.

Kit glares at Frost with a raised eyebrow.

"But hey, I could be wrong." He defended holding his paws up.

"You think you can play Nancy no-bullets with him while I get a bearing on his position?" asked Kit.

"Uh" said Gideon not getting the reference.

"Just pretend you're low on ammo and get him to shoot at you." Kit explained

The blonde and tan wolf got up on his paws and got ready to move out. He tossed Frost a spare rifle, a radio and two mags from his duffle bag.

"Just don't actually get shot for real…"

"Yeah, didn't need you to tell me that." Quipped Frost back sarcastically

"Channel 3" whispered Kit as he moved out.

Frost grabbed the radio and swapped it for his original, setting it to channel 3, pocketed the two mags and slung the spare rifle over his shoulder. Frost waited for a few minutes.

"Ok, in position, draw him out." whispered Kit.

Frost went out into the open and fired a couple rounds in Harding's suspected direction and took cover. Nothing, he did it again, this time getting a response from the badger, a round burst into the ground in front of Gideon as he took cover again.

"You suck, Harding." Called out Gideon.

"Easy to say when you're hiding wolfie." Called out Harding over the speaker.

"You should set up a tent and campfire." Frost taunted.

"It's a legitimate strategy." Harding replied, taking another shot.

This time the bullet struck a pipe on one of the tanks, its contents flowed forth and onto the floor, the intense chemical smell filling the air. It stung Gideon's nose and make him cough, he had to move. He ran away from the chemical and tried hiding by a nearby tank; several more shots rang out, purposefully hitting similar pipes, causing their odorous fluid to spill on the floor.

"Shit" Gideon thought, he tapped his comm.

"He's trying to herd me into the open. This stuff is vile, it makes my eyes water." said Gideon, coughing.

"Yeah, I think I got him, stand by." Replied Kit.

A shot rang out from the other direction and hit somewhere with a loud clang. Frost wasn't sure at first so his waved a paw out in the open hoping it wouldn't get shot off, nothing. He leaned out slightly, still nothing. He stepped into the open. Still nothing.

"I think you got him" Gideon called over the comm.

"Alright I'm coming out." said Kit.

The two wolves went towards the gantry where the shots had been coming from, they climbed the stairs to the second floor, they approached, but saw only a rifle, with some kind of control arm mechanism attached to it, and a case with electronics in it. The two wolves froze, wide eyed and then started to back track.

A shot rang out and caught Kit in the shoulder, which knocked him down, he yelled out in pain and clutched his shoulder, his augmented arm was damaged by the round. Frost pulled as hard as he could and yanked him to the end of the cat walk and to a nearby corner.

"Aww, wolfie got a boo-boo?" cackled the Badger tauntingly.

"Can you still shoot?" asked Gideon

"No, arm is shot to hell, literally." Replied Kit.

"Clawhauser?! You there?" Kit inquired.

"I am online." Chimed in the cheetah.

"Is there any way you can help us find this guy?" asked Kit

"I can analyze the remote access signals from additional weapon platforms to triangulate the source, however….." explained Clawhauser.

"However what?" barked Gideon.

"You will need to him fire for me to be able to triangulate." He finished.

"Oh great" Kit said sarcastically

"Hey I got shot at already, it's your turn." Said Frost.

"I just got shot. So that makes it your turn again." Kit quipped back

"Actually, if you both try to move about, it will accelerate the triangulation, I believe he has more than one emplacement in this room."

Kit and Gideon unslung their rifles, and planned a strategy in which they could get Harding to reveal himself. Harding continued to taunt them, trying goading them to make a move, where ever Harding was, he seemed to be invisible.

Kit and Gideon came back down the stairs. They split between two rows of tanks and starting moving out, as expected Harding would shoot at one or the other, seemingly from multiple directions at once, The wolves couldn't tell how many remote snipers he had set up, but the fact that Harding had an array meant he could be anywhere. The two wolves alternated the process of stepping out, firing a few rounds in the direction of where the bullets were coming from, and retaking cover. Harding would try to take shots at them. This cat and mouse game went back and forth, none of the participants realized the amount of damage they were causing until one of the pipes ruptured and started a fire. The sprinkler system kicked on and water started to spray everywhere trying to cool down the fires. An occasional small pop or pressure explosion would sound out, as either a tank would bust from the temperature difference, or a piece of equipment would collapse.

The smelly fluid that had been spilling on the floor had been revealed to be flammable, the wolves assumed the liquid was the nano-fluid, but the fire proved them wrong. Kit noticed there were open vats of the stuff, a gold colored liquid not the green one, like the tanks with the creatures. Kit's eyes went wide and keyed his comms

"Gideon, be careful at what you shoot at in here, some of these things, don't react well to bullets." Warned Kit.

"Yeah, I'm coming to grips with that." Responded Gideon

"Clawhauser, have you found this guy yet?" barked Kit

"Triangulation complete, sending data to your personal data device." Replied Clawhauser

Gideon heard another shot whiz over his head and hit the wall behind him.

"Got you now traitor, don't move." Said Harding, this time without the aid of the loud speaker.

Gideon had a could feel that he was dead to rights; he turned and looked at the catwalk above him with his paws raised. There was Tex Harding, the badger sniper and demolitionist of the 'Fiends' with his rifle levied square at Gideon's head.

"Ya know, I always knew you would be a turn coat." Harding explained.

"Yeah? How you figure?" Gideon asked back.

"It's that damn pack mentality you wolves have, it always seems to override you sense of attachment to other things." He quipped

"Family is important." Frost quipped back.

"Yeah it is, that's why I figured, somehow, someway, I would kill your family, remove that burden and bring you completely into the fold."

Gideon was taken aback by that statement, he almost didn't believe what he was hearing, but then he remembered what Kit said "that he has 'history' with Harding."

"So is that what you did to Kit? Did you kill his family?" Gideon inquired.

"Oh, that….That was just a job, a controlled demo of a building and to make it look like an accident. But yeah, I guess that would be an added bonus." He answered

"You got issues, Tex." He fired back

"Well in a second, I'll have one less to worry about." Replied Harding, readying his rifle.

Just as Harding was about to fire, he reacted with a wince, as two shots rang out, his knees buckled and he fell onto the cat walk. He screamed in pain.

"My legs!" he screamed.

Kit stepped out from the shadows behind Harding and flipped him over, and stared him in the eyes.

"So…you like killing wolf packs do you?" Kit commented sternly.

Harding smiled sinisterly.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Harding said flippantly.

Kit scoffed in disbelief

"Kit Ballenger…..you killed my wife and children…."

"Sorry, I don't remember any of it." Harding replied honestly.

"You don't remember? How can you not remember!?" Kit incensed.

"For you the day Tex Harding came into your life, was the most important day of your life…." He glibly said.

"But for me….. It was a Tuesday." Replied Harding apathetically shaking his head.

Kit's eyes went wide, and his eyes welled with water, almost as if on automatic, he resolved himself. He grabbed Harding and picked him up, getting muzzle to muzzle, glaring into his eyes. Without a word, Kit dragged him over to a nearby tank of gold liquid

"Hey, what are you doing now?"

"You're taking this kind of personally aren't you?"

Kit threw him over the gantry safety bars and into the gold liquid, Harding splashed into the water, and treaded back up to the surface, the overpowering aroma of the liquid made the badger nose deaf.

Kit stared down at Harding, who glared back.

"What you trying to drown me?" said Harding, spitting out the foul tasting liquid

"No…..my wife and children died in fire." Kit fired back.

Harding looked back with a crooked expression at Kit. Kit responded with a cold stare almost statue-like, except his paw, he pulled out a silver lighter, and ignited it.

"Just do me a favor. When you get to hell…Tell em' Kit Ballenger says 'Hi'."

The badger went wide eyed when he realized what was about to happen, Kit tossed the lighter into the pool of gold liquid and it burst into flame. The badger was engulfed; he screamed blood curdling screams of pain as he was incinerated. Gideon was in absolute shock, he couldn't believe what was happening. Kit simply watched and tears streamed down his face, for his wife and children, and for a life he would never know. He tried to take some kind of comfort in knowing that the murderer of his wife and children had finally been punished, held accountable for the deeds that for so long remained unclaimed.

Eventually the badger succumbs to the fire and the screams stop. Kit finally blinks, breaking his gaze and goes down to meet Gideon on the lab floor.

"What now?" asks Gideon.

"Now…..we finish the job." Replies Kit holding up a block of C4.

---

Chapter 18: Shadows in the Dark

We're So Screwed, Part 3

Illuminati Complex…Computer Core Level

Nick, Judy and Kaiden stepped off the elevator, and moved forward, Judy looked with worry back at the lift and up, almost as if able to see through the walls and ceilings. They had only just left Kit but already she felt as if they should turn back. But the trio kept creeping forward, the low pulse of electronic humming filled the air. The hallway they had found themselves was Spartan, almost resembling the inside of maintenance tunnel than a hallway. The computer core levels were the area in which the council was to 'transcend' to a digital format, and from this state gain the seemingly infinite expansive capabilities of being digital beings. If Clawhauser was simply a prototype, a simpler smaller version of the system and going by his increased abilities from when he was living, It stood to reason the combined intellect of the council on a much more complicated and interconnected system would become, dare it be said, 'godlike'.

This along with the Wolfram had to be stopped, though the Wolfram has the power to kill, the council being digital beings, the world would be never rid of them, spreading and expanding in all directions, taking on persistence but no definite volume, like fog or radiation. Always being there, persistent, infectious, present, ever aware, like the all seeing eye of providence looking down on its countenance of an unsuspecting world. Animals who's lives would be directly affected by the omnipresent mind of an elite collective. In many ways the council achieving this end would be a worse fate then the death the Wolfram promised.

However, with the trio on this level, perhaps the fates would smile on them and the world, saving it, if only to live to fight another day.

As they moved through the bare hallways, the trio heard the sounds of something, unnatural creeping; It surprised them, the black form crawling around in the duct work above, it taking residence in the heat dissipation coils. It dropped behind them, the trio spun around to find the unearthly creature that had been tracking them since they landed on this level. It was one of the 'trans-genic' animals from the lab spaces above, though 'creature' 'monster' 'foul demon' would be more apt descriptions. The trio fired into it and its black silhouette dropped to the floor.

Upon examination, the creature seemed to resemble a feline, a panther or cougar maybe, mixed with that of an arachnid, it's course fur, mandibles, and 8 appendages confirming that suspicion. For the council was certainly playing creator, not god, but simply creator, for this being was no holy creation but the spawn of science, curiosity and the will to dominate life in all forms. It did not speak but simply attacked, lashing out in apparent instinct with no regard or attempt at communication.

The trio had moved through the floor encountering more of the creatures, most were black, some brown or red, but all would stare at them with the savage eyes and demonic aura of some unnatural shade or specter clawing out in its new and unsuspecting world. Judy and Nick's previous suspicions to their own monstrous ways were blown clear, like leaves giving way to a gust of wind in autumn. Knowing now their actions and deeds paled in comparison to that of the council and its creations. Thoughts and echoes from the darkest manifestations of the Zootopian mind, like nightmares of nightmares, rendered manifest in all its horrific glory and set to be let loose upon an innocent and unsuspecting world.

They continued into this heart of darkness, following the conduits that hopefully would lead to the evil and rotting brain that is the council, to put an end to the madness once and for all.

After searching long enough, drifting through the maze of conduit, piping and hallways, they managed to reach the central core, the room itself was part of the cylindrical shape of the spire that hang down above the Wolfram core.

They approached hearing the council finishing their preparations.

"I don't want excuses, doctor, I want results." Said Nathanial Logan

"The interface is coming online, the plan will go forward on schedule." Said Dr. Bryce Lucas.

"Where is Hoffman?!" scowled Logan

Just as he screamed his name, here came the black timber wolf.

"We got a problem, Logan."

"What now?"

"Bureau 13 is in the base, they have penetrated down to the lab sub levels."

"Lucas! Mei Ling!" growled the lion.

"We are almost ready to go online." She replied.

"What about the wolfram?"

"It is ready. It will take a while to charge, but I've managed to rid the errant code in the input polarizers." Replied Lucas.

"I should note, that the manner in which the code was hidden, I believe Mei Ling's pet project might be responsible." He explained.

"Impossible, it was contained; no way could it be responsible." She defended

"Really, so this code here, isn't familiar to you?" Quipped Lucas, showing Mei Ling his screen.

"No. Impossible" she replied with incredulity.

"I believe it may be helping them Logan." Suggested Cooley.

Logan growled at the seemingly incompetent mistake.

"So we have even less time. No matter, Lucas, start this machine. Now!" the lion ordered.

Judy and Nick following Kaiden's lead jumped out and faced the council.

"I don't think so." said Kaiden.

The council turned around and faced the trio, Logan laughed, with caused Kaiden to raise an eyebrow.

"So, at long last, Bureau 13….And you brought the interlopers with you. How convenient, now we don't have to look for you." Taunted Logan.

The trio pointed their guns at the council.

"Though, I'm sure it's pointless to ask but, for the sake of fairness, If you come quietly, I will assure you, you will be treated fairly." Kaiden spat at the council.

Judy looked at Kaiden and then back down her rifle.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do that." She replied

Logan guffawed out loud.

"Oh my dear Foxes and rabbit, you have no idea how hilarious you are being." Replied the Lion.

"Really now?! Considering what you've done, I could put a bullet in each of you and no one would care, in fact I probably would get a parade." Replied Kaiden

"Oh come now Mr. Ellison, I thought your previous encounter with us would have illustrated the breadth of our reach, especially considering you helped establish it." Replied the Lion.

Kaiden winced at the sound of his name, he hadn't heard it in years. Logan turned to Judy and Nick.

"Oh, you two don't know? Your friend used to work for us." The lion admitted.

Judy and Nick looked at Kaiden.

"You What?!" Judy looked at Kaiden incredulously.

Nick grabbed Judy's shoulder ready to pull her back.

"Judy, it was a long time ago." Kaiden explained.

"So he's not lying?!" he hissed back.

Judy pointed her gun at Kaiden, Nick followed suit, Kaiden spun around and pointed it at Judy. This caused Logan to laugh seeing the allies now pointing weapons at one another.

"Judy what are you doing?!" Kaiden asked in shock.

"You used to work for them?!" Judy replied feeling betrayed.

"No…Yes…listen, I was young and stupid, I didn't really consider the implications of what I was doing…." He replied flustered.

"How could you…" she reacted.

"Ms Hopps, you can't blame Kaiden, He was just doing what was expecting of him, being a good field agent, following orders, collecting intelligence, taking out targets. Though I'm sure he eventually suspected something towards the end." The lion admitted with a smile.

"Kaiden…..what about Lily? Did you….Did you…"Judy not even able to say the words.

Kaiden was deeply offended "Judy! How could you think that? Do you think I would kill my own wife?!" he yelled back at her.

"Did you?" She asked not wanting to hear the answer.

"Of course not!" he defended.

"They killed her…they killed her because they wanted me to commit to them."

"They wanted to recruit me, to become one of them, a 'fiend.'"

"I told them to fuck off and get out of my life."

A lynx stepped out of the shadows, heavily augmented; Kaiden recognized the silhouette and turned his weapon to it.

"And you have no idea how badly you cheated yourself." Said the familiar voice from the shadows.

"You evil son of a bitch." Kaiden responded knowing immediately who it was, Jarod Novitski

"The council wanted you to join us, Kaiden, to further the agenda. You have skills, raw talent, but an unnatural obsession with prey." He chided.

"That was my wife." replied Kaiden

"She was an obstacle…" said Jarod

"…an obstacle standing in your way, so I removed it." Smiled the Lynx

Nick recognized those words, similar to Sid, he pointed his gun at Jarod, believing Kaiden.

"Judy, as god as my witness, I didn't kill my wife." Kaiden tried to convince her, while still having his weapon pointed at Jarod.

"Judy, this lynx did it, just like Sid was trying to do to me." Nick responded, flashing back.

Judy was confused but trusted Nick's judgment, and pointed her rifle at Jarod as well. The trio reunited facing their mutual foe.

"I…..believe you." Judy answered to Kaiden.

"And you Judy Hopps, when this is all over, You, your family, everyone you care about will be dead, I will see to it personally. Starting with your fox" threatened Logan.

Judy turned back to the lion and glared at him after the threat. turning her weapon towards Logan.

"What gives you the right to tell ANYONE what to do. Just because you're what, Predators?" She levied question.

"You stupid naïve little bunny, you honestly think this is about Predator and Prey?" he chuckled.

"This council, and councils before, built this city, they turned what was a savage open watering hole in a desert oasis and built the shining civilization you see before you. Like shadows in the dark, watching, waiting, controlling things from behind the façade of what you think is real life."

"Everything that you have, everything that own, everything that you use, built by us."

"We tell you what to think, what to say, what to hear. Your place exists because we created it."

"You live, because we allow it and you will die, because we command it. In short….."

"….WE…OWN…YOU…." Glared the Lion with a deadly authoritative stare.

Judy was being made to feel inches tall, but she stood firm, Nick and Kaiden at her side.

"So you decide to play at being gods." She retorted.

"No…we aren't 'playing gods'." He dismissed.

"We are gods." Logan replied gritting his teeth.

Judy's eyes went wide at her realization.

"You're insane. You're all insane!" She exclaimed.

"Says the lowly mortal bunny rabbit." Logan replied

"Jarod…..Kill them." Ordered the lion

"With pleasure." Replied the lynx with a sinister grin.

Jarod paced in front of Logan and stood between the trio and the council.

"Ya know, I have been spending so much time trying to figure out which one of them to kill." Talking to Kaiden referring to Nick and Judy with a paw

"You're not hurting my friends." Kaiden stated.

"First I thought, maybe I'll kill the rabbit, and watch the fox destroy himself, just like you did." Jarod continued.

"Then I was thought, maybe I will kill the fox, and watch the rabbit destroy herself, like she has been."

Kaiden gritted his teeth, his rifle pointed at Jarod.

"You see, I killed your wife, because I know when foxes choose a mate, especially the male ones, it's for life. Kill that mate, and they spiral down into a self-destructive hole, just like you did. But the bunny, when we had her fox, I noticed through the cameras, she was destroying herself. Just….like….you…." he concluded.

"You are not laying a paw on my friends Jarod." Stated Kaiden more sternly

"Hmmm, didn't you say the same thing about your wife? And look what happened there." Jarod taunted.

Kaiden's teeth gritted harder, he trembled with anger, trying to fight back tears.

"You're not…Hurting…..My…..Friends….."

Kaiden rushed Jarod, firing his weapon, and charging him. Jarod caught Kaiden, trying to stop the angry fox. The two like a blur flew into a nearby room of computers, the containment door sealing behind them.

Nick and Judy tried to shoot the council, but the bullets were stopped cold by some kind of energy field.

"Ready, Doctor?" asked Logan.

"System is online." Replied the Fossa.

Logan smirked at Judy and casually walked to the central plinth leveling a paw at the five chambers set up for them. As each council member stepped into their chamber, the hatch closed and powered to life, the procedure starting. Logan was the last one in his chamber, Judy and Nick were confused as to what do, they looked around the plinth, they didn't even pretend to understand the technology, wondering how to defeat this.

"Clawhauser!" called out Judy over the comm.

"Ben, what can we do?" she asked.

At first there was nothing, then static, Clawhauser coming back onto the comm channel

"I am online…"

"Clawhauser, we need some way to beat these guys." Judy asked.

"Is the council in or out of the chambers?" he responded

"In….is that a problem?" she replied

"Actually no, I have a technical solution, but you will have to do exactly what I say." He explained.

Judy and Nick looked at each other and back at the plinth.

"What is it…" they both asked.

---

Moments later…

"The entire core is one large computer, I believe we can short it out with an overload. You will need to climb down underneath the plinth. However be careful, additional security may have been added down there." Explained Clawhauser.

Judy and Nick climbed down below the plinth, there were large trunks of cable, and they looked like tree trunks, the reflective silver and mesh shielding glinting in the light. Clawhauser's suspicions were right, there was additional security down here, no less than a second after Judy dropped down into Nick's arms there were several turrets on the adjacent walls that spun up and fired at them. Nick barely managed to pull Judy out of the way and into a bundle of cable.

"Well carrots, what's the plan?" asked Nick

"I'm not sure….Clawhauser, how can we overload the chambers?" she barked into the comms

"You will have to disable each power regulator under each pod. And then the master regular in the center of the cables." Ben explained.

Nick leaned out and scanned his eyes around, and saw some device with a bright blue light just underneath one of the pods, a nearby turret spun up and shot at him, barely missing him as he quickly pulled his head back in.

"Yeah, are these things blue lights by any chance?" asked Nick

"Correct, those are the regulators." Confirmed Clawhauser

"Yeah, a little problem with that, these turrets are kind of in the way. What's the plan for that?" Nick responded.

"Unfortunately, I cannot interface with the plinth as it is on a protected system. This includes the turrets." replied Clawhauser.

"Great…" replied Nick sarcastically.

"I have an idea." said Judy

Judy knelt down and quickly went through her equipment, looking for something specific, eventually she arrived upon the intended item. Judy pulled out the device she has managed to get off of Nala in their encounter. The invisibility device, she hoped it still worked, Judy fidgeted with it for a second and got the device to turn on, the three rings spun around the black ferrofluid inside the glass sphere. Nick watched as the field effect covered Judy, she didn't completely disappear but looked like she was made of glass, but could still see here, the light coming from behind, slightly distorted.

"Glass Bunny" Nick joked.

Judy looked at Nick and then held her paw up, it indeed looked like glass, she could see right through her own paw but still discern a shape of it.

"Nick, cover me, I don't know if this thing is going to hold out."

Nick sits at the corner and covers Judy.

"Just be careful, Carrots."

Nick feels the invisible rabbit's lips give him a peck on the cheek, which makes him jump unexpectedly. Judy waves a paw at the turret, nothing, she steps out keeping her gaze focused on the turret, it doesn't see here. She climbed up into the fiber trunking and gets close to one of the regulators.

"Ok, Clawhauser, I'm here what do I do?"

"Simply sever the wires, repeat this for the remaining four." He responded

"Hmph, seems simple enough."

Judy grabs her combat knife and digs into the regulator and starts cutting its wiring. The turret springs to life and starts searching, firing randomly in a direction

"Judy!" Nick calls out.

"I'm ok, I don't think it sees me." Replies Judy gripping onto the regulator housing pulling herself closer to it.

"I believe the security system is attempting to search for you, please work quickly. Nick please attach any explosives you might have to the master regulator at the center of the cable trunking." Ordered Clawhauser.

"Alright…are you good, Carrots!?"called out Nick

"Yeah, just getting it done."

Nick, digs through the dense cables, wriggling his way towards the center, his fur catching on a cable, or receiving a static shock every now and then. He finally manages to get to its center. The ethereal blue glow of the device, Judy continues to work on the individual regulators, the buzzing of the turret motors and occasional firing of the turrets bothers Nick every time, he didn't want to distract her, he tried to take comfort in hearing the grunts and groans as she was hopping around from device to device. Nick reaches into his equipment belt and finds the small block C4, he attaches a block on one end of the device, and another on the other end.

"Hey here's a stupid question, why don't we just blow the whole thing up at once?" asked Nick.

"The detonation down here must be coordinated with a comparable detonation of a power input regulator on the lab floor, I am coordinating with Kit now." Explained Ben.

"Ah of course, it's never easy" he replied sarcastically.

"Last one" Judy calls out.

"I'm done here." Replies Nick.

Suddenly there is a turret fire and Judy yelps, Nick panicked calls out for her.

"Carrots? Carrots! Judy!"

The sound of wriggling through the cable trunking and Nick getting pounced to the ground by an invisible rabbit, she turns off the device and reappears.

"Carrots, you scared me, are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, a little close for comfort." She replied pointing to a bullet graze across the front of her uniform.

"Let's get out of here." Replies Nick

They climb out from under the plinth and back up to the room.

"Please detonate on my mark." Said Clawhauser.

Nick and Judy hear a distant rumble coming from above them, Nick pulls out the remote waiting for Clawhauser's command.

"Mark."

Nick hits the button and blows up the regulator, the distant sound of electricity starts to build up as an oscillating whine, it builds rising in pitch getting louder and louder, becoming almost defining.

"Carrots, I think this thing is gonna go boom!"

Nick and Judy back up trying to find cover, they manage to hear a loud scream from the next room, it sounded like Kaiden. Judy quickly runs over to the door to see Kaiden, staring at Jarod, his left arm missing, and he pulls something from Jarod's chest. The council chambers electrify and explode the shrapnel flying in all direction, Nick and Judy crouch down to the ground and try to avoid the debris.

---

Meanwhile… a few minutes ago

Kaiden and Jarod were sealed in the adjacent chamber, computer banks and protected storage surrounded them in blast resistant casing. Catwalks, cabling and various pipes, wiring, odds and ends adorned the room.

"Tell me Kaiden. Tell me, how does it feel to be a monster?" asked Jarod

"How does it feel Kaiden, knowing that everything you love is dead?" Jarod continued to toy.

"How does it feel to have sacrificed everything that makes you an animal, your flesh, your very self?"

"All for a chance for what? Vengeance?"

"Tell me what you feel? TELL ME!"

Kaiden stood for a moment, the pain and anguish filling his mind, the years of everything that motivated him to this moment, all washed over his mind like a tide against a beach. The years of hunting, fighting, of pain, loss, and suffering.

"Maybe this is what I deserve" he thought.

"I brought so much pain and suffering into the world, maybe this was my penance, my cross to bear."

"But she, she deserved better than this, to be more than just a memory, she deserved happiness and life."

"But she must have seen something, something that makes me different from him."

"Maybe I have become a monster, in my quest for all of this, I have cut a swath through the world."

Jarod levied a paw at Kaiden.

"Tell me Kaiden, what have you become?"

Kaiden closed his eyes and thought of Lily "Please Lily, tell me, what am I?" "What have I become?" He surrendered himself to the moment, time seemed to almost stop, the world seem to become almost dull in its colors, as if awaiting the next pulse of breath to bring the moment to life again.

And then it happened, this warm feeling in his heart, a distant and familiar presence. A distant whisper in the back of his mind, a voice not his own, a faint whisper "my love." tears fell from his eyes as he felt her presence.

"Sometimes you have to let go, and embrace what you've become." Replied Kaiden.

Jarod displayed an expression of confusion. Kaiden blasted forward, hitting Jarod as hard as he could, Jarod countered with a punch of his own. Blow by blow, punch, counterpunch, kick, counterkick, the two augments battled. When they managed to, they would catch the other; throw them into a wall, a pillar, or a computer bank. A fire started, almost immediately a halon system blasted gaseous fire retardant into the room.

Kaiden unsheathed his combat blades, Jarod pulled a sword out of his back and defended himself. The contact of the metal, the slashing, deflecting sounded out like rain against a roof. It was a dark mote of truth, and the ultimate reason why Kaiden doubted himself. Kaiden could have been Jarod, had he made different choices, committed to different paths, made the same commitment to and pact with the devil.

But it was the light of Lily, that which made Kaiden better then what he was, not the crude matter of metal, circuits and wiring. It was something more intangible, something that burned in Kaiden brighter then thousand suns, his love.

Love, it shows us the path that we wish to have, to become something nobler, something better then what we are. Lily was Kaiden's center, his whole world, his very light blended with hers, and it was this that shown through the darkness, illuminating a soul lost on the turbulent oceans of the world.

This was the truth that Kaiden now realized, it was the truth that Jarod knew, as long as Lily was there, Kaiden's light would never be extinguished, And that is what the lynx tried to destroy by destroying her. But now was coming to the harsh truth, that her light even from death gave Kaiden strength, strength to continue, strength to fight, and strength to stand against the darkness.

"Being loved deeply gives you strength, Loving deeply gives you courage." No truer words were spoken and even in death that connection was there, no amount of violence would break it, her light would show through, his love for Lily would continue, until his dying breath and Jarod knew it.

Kaiden fought like a fox possessed, the lynx and fox would trade blow for blow, slash for slash, and blast for blast. Like two warriors of light and dark battling for mutual annihilation.

Jarod managed to finally capture Kaiden against the wall, grabbing a nearby pole that had fallen from the catwalk above, he drove it through Kaiden's left shoulder, the pain shot into his brain like fire. Kaiden let out an intense scream, loud enough for Nick and Judy to hear it in the next room.

"Very good, fox, very good, you have the anger, but I want your hate." Taunted Jarod.

The lynx picked up another pole, this time destined for Kaiden's chest. Kaiden starred daggers at Jarod, his rage reaching the tipping point.

"Yes…..that's what I was looking for…..Now…now you can be reunited with your wife."

Jarod screamed and reeled back to drive the pole into Kaiden. The fox pulled against his own shoulder and ripped the pinned arm loose from its socket, the housing shredded, the piping burst, releasing cyber-organic fluid from him. The fox ducked under the lynx's attack, who slammed the pipe into the wall, imbedding it by about three feet. Kaiden came back up and with his right arm, and fired the combat blade with full force into Jarod's chest, causing him to fly back pinning him to the nearby wall.

Kaiden rushed over to Jarod, and dug into the open wound in his chest.

"Do you want to know how I feel Jarod? How I felt that day, when you destroyed my world?" screamed Kaiden

"DO YOU!"

"Wait, I can give you what you want…" Jarod said weakly.

"No more of your lies, Jarod."

"No…..I can…..She's…."

Kaiden ripped the still beating cyborg heart from Jarod's chest and showed it to him.

"It felt like that…." Kaiden replied watching the life drain from the lynx's eyes and fade into nothing. Kaiden dropped the heart and stomped on it. Howling into the air, letting out years of frustration, of pain, of sadness.

Kaiden took stock in the amount of damage the two had wrought in the room, panels torn out, computer stacks ripped to shreds. The sound of an explosion resonates outside the door. Kaiden turns to see Nick and Judy crouched by the window.

---

Kaiden shuffles to the door, pulling on the handle, the door won't budge. Kaiden sneers at the door and tries to force it open, the sounds of his servos and mech pumps straining against the damage. The door holding fast to its position, and Kaiden straining to open it, he lets out a little grunt. He stops when he sees a lit warning light on the panel next to the door, "Sealed: Fire". He stops and looked around, seeing the broken electronics, the occasional popping of electricity, the halon cloud filling the room. He checked the read out on his heads up display, Oxygen levels: 90%, and watches as it tick down another percentage point. He suddenly comes to the grim realization; he slides down along the window next to the door to check on Nick and Judy.

"Are you two alright?" He asked

Nick and Judy come out from their ducked and covered position and over to the door.

"We're fine, we did the job." Replied Judy

"Good, now all that's left is the wolfram." He stated

"Alright, well come on out of there and let's go take care of it." She replied

There was a beat for a second, she wasn't sure how to tell her or Nick for that matter.

"I can't…..the door…..won't open." Kaiden said reluctantly

"What do you mean it won't open." She replied incredulously.

Judy went to tug on the door, it was firm.

"Nick, help me."

Nick went to help her but even their combined strength the door still wouldn't budge.

"Well how are we supposed to get you out of there?" she asked.

Another beat of hesitation.

"You don't." he concluded.

"Ok, then I will go get Kit and we will break you out of there." Said Judy.

"Kit, Kit, can you get down here?" Judy calls over the comms

There was static at first and then a reply.

"Yeah, I'm here, Gideon and I are stuck up on the Lab complex, the regulator explosion tore up the access to the elevator, it's going to be a while."

"Get down here, as fast as you can, I need help."

"I'll do what I can." Responded Kit.

Judy turned back to Kaiden.

"See, Kit is coming." She consoled.

"Judy….there's no time…..the oxygen levels in here are dropping."

"So what are you saying?"

"It's time for you to go."

"But what about you?"

"I knew what I signed on for, what might be expected of me."

Judy walked back up to the window, tears welling in her eyes.

"You can't expect me to leave you."

Kaiden sat silent a lump in his throat.

"You can't expect me to just…..leave you like this."

Nick put a paw on Judy's shoulder

"Carrots, I…" Nick tried to console.

"No, you can't expect me to watch another friend die!" she said tears starting to run down her face.

"Judy…" Kaiden called out, placing his remaining paw on the plexiglass.

Judy placed her paw on the glass in front of Kaiden's, wishing she could hold it. Hot tears wetting the fur on her face, a look of sorrow and fault on her. Kaiden stared into her eyes as comforting as he could manage.

"Listen to me, don't blame yourself for this. I made my choices in life, and this is my penance for my sins." He absolved.

"But you're a good person, you have worked SO hard to protect Nick and me, you always try to do the right thing. Doesn't that count for something?" she replied, her voice breaking.

"This isn't about what I tried to do, this is about what I did. And I did some really bad things."

"I just don't want you to carry the burden of my sins, this is MY cross to bear, not yours."

"I refuse to believe that you're a bad person. I refuse to believe that Lily would be with a bad person. She saw something in you Kaiden, the same thing I see."

The mere mention of her name made the old fox's tears run, Judy reminded him of Lily, she is a lot like her, headstrong, idealistic, and caring, and always seeing the better natures of people.

"You may have had to do some bad things, and that is what this…life….does to you, but you are not a bad person Kaiden, and you don't deserve any of what has happened to you."

"You deserve a happy ending, you deserve…" her voice broke as she cried.

"….to be loved." She finished through her tears, placing her head on the glass.

Kaiden placed his head on the glass to match Judy's.

"I am loved…I know that, and it is the greatest gift that you could have given me. And I am eternally grateful."

"So please, please, don't let my death be in vain."

Judy turned her head to look back into Kaiden's eyes.

"You have to save Zootopia, save them, save the countless others who deserve a good life."

Kaiden turned to Nick, looking at him

"Finish the mission, make this ALL worth it. This darkness must end."

Nick nodded, and pulled Judy away, knowing she would be content to just sit there.

"Listen to me Nick" Kaiden said looking sternly into Nick's eyes.

"You take care of her, take care of each other, and never let go. You understand me? Fox to Fox."

"I promise." Nick replied, understanding Kaiden perfectly.

"Now go, GO! Clawhauser, can help you shut it down."

Nick, grabbed Judy and they began to walk way, she looked back at the fox trapped in the white foggy room, She locked gaze with him, and he locked his gaze right back.

"Goodbye." He whispered.

Judy turned away, the fur around her eyes wet from tears, she wanted the nightmare over, and knew there was one last task, one last goal, and with it, the darkness would finally end.

---

Chapter 19: The Paragon of Animals

We're So Screwed, Part 4

Illuminati Complex…Elevator

Nick and Judy had made it back to the elevator and began their descent to the Wolfram core, the elevator creaked and groaned, the shaft apparently warped from the heat from the fires above. Judy hung her head, her ears drooped sadly. Nick was still holding and petting her, she couldn't take it anymore, she wanted this nightmare to end. Everyone she cared about was being touched by this darkness, even Nick for all his witty attitudes had changed.

This entire experience had bombarded her beliefs, her sensibilities even her idealism, but despite all it, she managed to keep a small mote of hope alive, and knowing Nick was with her helped. It may be unfair to put such a burden on him, but she relied on him being there, knowing he was there gave her the belief that no matter what would happen, she could see it through because she wouldn't be alone.

As they descended into the heart of the complex, she felt as though they were diving into the belly of the dragon, into the hot depths of hell, Fiery and demonic. She hoped to see the sun again, to feel it on her muzzle, to breathe the clean air and feel the wind against her fur. And as always, to have Nick there, to feel his soft gentle embrace, the warmth of his lips, and the soft texture of his fur, To enjoy the experience of that moment with her, and the moments to come.

Judy hugged him, squeezing him in fact; she looked up into his emerald eyes, and studied his features. Nick stared down into the bunny's eyes, he felt his heart ache from the look of sorrow in them. The fox caressed her cheek with his paw, tracing her features, which made her nose twitch instinctively.

"No matter what happens, please, don't leave me." She requested.

"I'm here carrots, I'm not going anywhere." He consoled.

He squeezed her back, to reassure her.

Their moment in the elevator was broken when it came to a sudden stop, they looked at the door as it opened, and it seemed as if they had arrived. The duo stepped out of the elevator and across a gantry.

They quickly walked across it before they noticed that the sphere of the reactor containment below them, they had NOT arrived on the reactor level, upon realizing their mistake they turned around to go back only to be stopped by a familiar weasel. Nick seethed in anger as he saw him, and slowly stood in front of Judy instinctively.

"You!" Nick scowled

"Yes, me." Replied Sid.

"What do you want?" Nick demanded.

"The same thing I've been wanting Nick."

"Yeah, well forget it. There is nothing you can do to me anymore."

"You absolutely sure about that?"

Nick levied his gun at Sid and was about to pull the trigger, when Sid held up a paw, causing Nick to hesitate.

"Ooo, you really need to read the signs around here." Said the weasel pointing his paw towards a nearby pipe and warning signs reading "Warning: Contents Caustic" "Extremely Flammable and Explosive" "Keep away from oxygen environments."

"One stray shot and you could kill us all, set off the Wolfram." He warned

Nick holstered his weapon, and stood not sure what to do.

"So what, mano a mano, fisticuffs?" Nick scoffed.

"Wow, you really have suppressed your killer instinct, haven't you?" replied Sid, holding up his paws and popping the claws.

"I sure hope you can muster something, otherwise when I kill your rabbit, it won't nearly be as satisfying."

Nick gritted his teeth and took a fighting stance, growling ever so slightly, he engaged his claws

"You're not touching her." Nick growled.

"Good. Good! That's a start."

Nick rushed Sid, who waited for the fox to get close, Nick slashed at Sid, who like a blur side stepped and slashed Nick's cheek. Nick stumbled forward and cradled his wound and look back at Sid. The weasel simply smiled sinisterly and winked at him. Nick incensed came back towards him, and slashed at him again. Nick's street fighting style even with police training was no match for Sid's apparent expertise at martial arts, yet Sid made no attempt to go on the offensive.

Judy realized that Sid was simply playing with him. Though she didn't have any claws, she did have the combat knife, she unsheathed it and attempted to stab him from behind, normally a move she wouldn't consider, but her anger and concern for Nick, this was no time to be concerned about one's normal ethics. Sid's awareness was seemingly paranormal, right as she was about to strike, reached back, grabbed Judy's wrist, pulled her off her feet and threw her into Nick, kicking the both of them with a powerful side kick. Nick and Judy slid along the gantry to a stop

"Come now, even with the two of you, I'm not even breaking a sweat." Taunted Sid

"Come on Nicholas, even to defend your woman, show me some kind of fierceness."

Judy looked at Nick with confidence.

"Nick…..do what you need to do. It's ok to embrace it."

Nick understood what Judy meant; we each have our light and dark sides. But it's what we do with those impulses that makes them good or bad, and now Nick needed to use that dark side to win. They stood to their feet Nick, ferocious but resolute, Judy ever at his side. They charged Sid again. Nick's furiously slashes with Judy's combined thrusts and parries, Sid was having to fight on two fronts, his calm focus and fighting style being tested against the two resolute in his defeat, united to stand against the darkness, and the evil it represents.

Sid had to step back a few paces, or else endure Nick's claws or Judy's knife. His calm demeanor took a darker tone, he closed his eyes and breathed deep as if centering himself, and the colors around him seem to mute as if summoning darkness from the deep recesses of his soul. He opened his eyes, and they took an almost demonic sense of focus to them, he crossed his arms, and unsheathed two knives in his paws, focusing his gaze with deadly intent on Nick and Judy.

"I see now that I was wrong, Nicholas. You HAVE made your choice, it was just the wrong one."

Sid gritted his teeth, his mind echoing, a scream in his mind "Sidney, No!" screamed a voice from his past, his rage, his hate seethed and boiled over, his fur standing up on end, almost looking savage, but with clear murderous intent behind his eyes.

He roared at them and moved with vicious movement, his calm demeanor and fighting style replaced by intense and vicious attacks, violent, strong and committed. One slash caught Judy in the chest and sent her flying, another caught Nick in stomach, he winced in pain as his fur under his suit was cut. He screamed for Judy as she hit the gantry, she didn't seem to be moving. Sid turned his attention to Nick, who tried to stab him in the chest with both knives, Nick managed to catch the weasel's wrists.

Sidney pushed against Nick's weight and tried to drive the knives in, Nick batted one of the knives away, but Sidney stabbed the other into Nick's shoulder. Nick let out a scream in pain as he instinctively grabbed his wrist with both paws and pulled the knife back out. Sid moved the knife over Nick's heart and pushed, Nick pushing back, he leaned over the gantry's safety bars to get away from the weasel. Sid climbed onto him and pommeled the knife with both paws, trying to put his weight on it. He bared his teeth in a bloodthirsty way.

In positioning themselves the way they did the two combatants were dangerously close to falling off and into the expanse below to the lower core.

"Sid! We'll both fall!" Nick screamed

"So?" Sid replied.

"We'll die!" Nick concluded

"Then we die…together. As it should be." The weasel spat.

Nick's grip was slipping, he could feel the tip of the knife dancing on his chest, one slip and it would be over.

"Hey!" came a voice from next to them.

Sid turned his gaze to see a pair of rabbit feet hit him in the face, throwing him off Nick, Sid stumbled back, while Judy grabbed Nick to keep him from falling over. She pulled Nick up on his feet and looked at him.

"I think it's your turn to be saved for once." She said with a wink.

Judy pointed her gun at Sidney.

"You stupid rabbit bitch, you'll kill us all!" he screamed.

"I guess you don't know." She said confidently

"Know what?" he inquired

"I was top of my class." She admitted.

Judy took precise aim and shot Sidney in the chest, which pushed him back, she shot again and again, each time pushing him further to the other side of the gantry. He stumbled back and fell back against a pipe, bleeding out. Nick and Judy walked up to him, and the fox knelt down to talk to him.

"Why? Why are you obsessed with me?" he demanded.

Sid stared at Nick with a weak but stern gaze, too weak to muster any kind of attack.

"The sins…of the father…." Sid went slack, and seemingly drifted away, he was still and motionless.

Nick stood up and looked at Judy with absolute confusion; his reply didn't seem to mean anything to him, having no idea to what he was referring.

They were interrupted by static over their comm line, it was indistinct at first then came through.

"…..Are you there?" came a voice.

"Who is this? Kaiden?" Judy asked in hope.

"No, this….Clawhauser…Wolfram…actively charging…must get to…..core…" said Clawhauser through the static.

The sound from below, a deep rumble, the Wolfram was charging it's capacitors for transmission, Nick and Judy realized they didn't have much time. They immediate ran across the gantry back to the elevator and started their final decent once again.

Sid's body was slowly exsanguinating, when a shadow cast across it, a figure, standing still for a moment as if waiting for something. Sid unconsciously gasped and twitched, the figure moved upon him.

---

Illuminati Complex…..Computer Core Level…..Adjacent Room.

Having watched Nick and Judy leave, Kaiden laid back putting his head against the glass, and stared at Jarod's corpse still mounted to the wall by his combat blade.

"Well Jarod, those two are the final hope, and very soon, your ilk will be defeated, the darkness will end, and you will be beaten."

Kaiden waited for a moment almost half expecting him to answer, he shook it off. "the low oxygen must be making me loopy" he thought.

Kaiden sat and was waiting for the inevitable, his eyes getting droopy, he became aware of his breathing, the raspy sound of it, he could feel his heart beating, it was quiet in the room, a stillness he had not expected to find in this place, blinking, each one lasting longer than the last. Exhaustion, his tired body desiring rest, he counted the breaths, expecting each one to be his last. He got very still, then like that, black, endless black.

The next thing he knew, he was laying down in a field of endless white, he sat up and looked around. "I must be dead" he concluded. "This must be…."

He stood up, and looked around, at first he didn't know what to think, he looked at his paws, they were normal, his legs, normal. He felt his face and muzzle, the scars gone. "This must be…..heaven?" he thought.

But he was alone…It seemed odd, he thought there would be others, certainly everything he was taught would mean others would be here, fan fair, angelic horns, something, yet all there seemed to be was an endless void of white. For a moment, he considered that he might actually be in hell, but no fire or smell of brimstone in the air, in fact, there seemed to be a pleasant smell in the air, like flowers, he couldn't place it at first, it seemed strangely familiar. He thought for a moment and remembered

"Lily blossoms" he muttered.

Kaiden lost in thought didn't sense it but then felt a soft paw caressing his shoulder; he spun around in surprise, and was in shock at who he saw.

"Li….Lily?" he asked.

Standing before him was a rabbit, white as the driven snow, her eyes a radiant lapis. He stood dumbstruck.

"Kaiden." she whispered.

She came forward and held him, caressing his fur.

"Is this real? Are you really here?" she asked.

"I…think….I'm dead." He replied.

Kaiden snapped out of his shock and stared into Lily's eyes, it was her. He could never forget those eyes. He kissed her passionately on the lips, wrapped his arms around her small form and twirled her around. He broke the kiss and stared into her eyes again.

"Lily….I'm….sorry." Kaiden apologized.

"I'm sorry that I didn't die with you." He nuzzled her cheek, breaking down in tears.

"Kaiden." She replied, petting his cheek.

"I never wanted you to live in pain like this; I didn't want you to suffer because of me." She teared up.

"I love you, and I always will."

Kaiden held her paw and caressed it against his muzzle, he took a deep breath of her scent, letting the perfume of it fill his lungs, how he missed her scent.

"I got him Lily, I got him….the lynx….that killed you."

"I am ready to be with you."

Lily nuzzled Kaiden.

"But it's not your time, sweetheart, it's not your time."

"I want to…. I want to die, I want to stay here with you."

"What about your friends, what about Nick and Judy?"

Kaiden couldn't believe how he seemed to forget everything that came before so quickly, like his life before was a distant memory or a dream.

"How do you?..."

"Where ever you go, I go" she replied

"They will be fine, they are going to shut down the core, it will be over."

"Kaiden, they need you now more them ever."

"They need you."

Kaiden couldn't help but stare at her. To be gone for so long only to have her right there, in his arms, to see her, to smell her, to touch her.

"There is something I want to ask….."

"And I don't think I could go on without knowing, but I have to know….."

"Lily, do you…do you blame me?" Kaiden asked through his tears.

Lily held Kaiden's head in her arms, and continued to pet him.

"When I asked you what was more important, me or the job…."

"….you chose me Kaiden, you chose to be with me."

"Jarod, took that from you."

"No my love, I don't blame you. You were a victim in all of this, just like me."

"But you have to forgive yourself."

"I know you blame yourself for what happened. I know you carry this burden and it hurts you."

"I love you more than life itself and I don't want to see you living this way."

Kaiden stood and looked at Lily, she cradles his head in her soft delicate paws and dried Kaiden's eyes with her thumbs. Lily studied the fox's face taking in his vision, a world weary expression of a fox who had seen and done so much.

"Lily, I love you, I want you to know that I miss you so very much."

"I wanted a better life for you, and our child."

Lily waited a moment, not sure if she should ask, not wanting to pain him anymore. But she realized that he deserved to see.

"Would you like to see him?"

"Him?"

"You have a son, a beautiful son." Lily smiled and cries at the same time.

Kaiden turned his head to see an impossible scene; it was Lily, himself and a small kit with features of a fox and rabbit, scampering towards his father. They seemed to be in a field, near bunny burrow, a lone apple tree a top the nearby hill. It seemed to be a family picnic, with a sheet on the ground and basket nearby. The family laughing and enjoying life the small kit picked up by his father and tossed joyously in the air and caught. Then the other Kaiden sensed as if he was being watched and turned to look around, making eye contact with himself. Kaiden stood dumbstruck, staring at what, another life? Another existence, this was no memory, this didn't happen. He could only gasp in shock at the scene, tears running down his face.

He snapped out of his thoughts, he looked at himself again, he was augmented again, the scars returned, in his Bureau 13 assault gear, the same one that he entered the complex with.

He turned back to Lily, as if needing guidance.

"They need you, Kaiden, I need you. You have to go back."

Kaiden saw a distance point of light, oscillating colors, the distant hushed tones of reality.

"Where will you be?"

"I have always been here." Replied Lily pointing to his heart.

Lily floats over to Kaiden and kisses him sweetly and passionately. He tries to burn the memory of that moment into his mind, to remember her taste, her scent, her touch. He breaks the kiss and stares into his bunny wife's eyes one last time.

"I have to go, don't I? I have to do the right thing."

"You always do, that is why you are a good man and why I love you."

Kaiden stepped back and started to walk toward that point of light, he turned and look back at her one last time.

"I shall see you again, in the place where no shadows fall." She said to him.

Kaiden turned and walked into the light.

---

Kaiden, suddenly awoke in a cold sweat, he was still in the room, his heads up display showed the oxygen levels dangerous low, read outs of medical information read in his eyes, the medical implants managed to saturate enough ambient oxygen in the air to preserve his brain function and finally awaken him.

He wondered what he experienced, which was quickly fading away, a dream, an oxygen deprived hallucination, altered state, or had he truly died. Kaiden didn't have the time to ponder, he had a task to do, and he wasn't going to get it done from the inside of this room.

He looked around the room, taking stock in the situation. He saw sparks that were flying around the room, the wires, the broken tiles, vent hatch, pipes, and the computer towers. His awareness sprung up "vent hatch?!" he thought.

He did a double take when he in fact saw a vent hatch just above where his arm was mounted to the wall; all of a sudden his hope sprang. He stood to his feet, feeling wobbly, the low oxygen levels taking their toll. He realized he had one chance, but that window of opportunity was closing and fast.

He stumbled over to Jarod and connected the blade to the forearm mount and retrieved it, then proceeded over to his arm still mounted on the wall and yanked it off the wall. He looked up at the vent, it was only a few feet off the floor, an easy task for a fully abled and two armed Kaiden, but with one arm and damaged servo motors it was going to be a bit of a challenge, however he resolved himself.

"What would Lily do?" he thought to himself.

He looked at the arm he was holding, and put the forearm in his mouth and held it, and he started to climb on the nearby computer tower. He grunted and groaned, as he tried to find gripping on the smooth tower. It took him several tries but he managed to get to the top of the computer tower, he stood up but low, he felt his sense of balance was disrupted, he was feeling very wobbly. Normally the implants in his brain would take care of things like disorientation, vertigo, etc but they must have been damaged, so he felt off balance, something he hasn't felt in a long time.

Kaiden focused on the goal in front of him, he stepped across the gap between the computer tower and the piping that ran just underneath the vent. With a foot one on the pipe and the other on the tower, he grabbed the vent cover with his good paw and tugged, it was straining but moving, the question was could he pull it off without losing his balance and falling to the floor.

"I wish somebody could give me a paw." He thought

Kaiden busted out a chuckle in his throat, while keeping his muzzle clipped around his severed arm.

"That was a good one old fox." he complemented himself

"It's the lowered oxygen, it's making you goofy, must hurry." He told himself.

Kaiden's oxygen read out was reading 10% and falling, but the atmospheric pressure was actually increasing the breathable air being replaced by gasses from the burning circuits and the halon system, he had to get out soon, if he was going to survive.

The vent cover popped off, Kaiden almost losing his balance; he tossed the cover away and climbed into the vent. He slid along the vent till he came to a pressure cap.

"Of course, he thought, to disconnect it from the rest of the ventilation system."

He tapped it with his good paw, trying to gauge it's thickness, it seemed thin enough, but he couldn't get a pawhold on it to tear it, then he had an idea.

Taking his severed arm, he reach into its structure looking for the release, he pressed it and the combat blade popped out, Kaiden hoped there was just enough power left in the arm to fire the blade, otherwise he would have to use the one on his good forearm, and he wanted to save it if possible.

Kaiden aimed the arm towards the pressure hatch, and took stock for a moment at how much of a pressure difference has built up by now. Didn't matter, the alternative was death and he wasn't going to accept that.

He reached for the firing release; he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and pressed the button. The pop of the hatch, the rush of air, and the sound of his body being forced through the vents like a money carrier through a pipe at the bank, Kaiden didn't realize what direction he was heading or how far from the room he was ejected, he remembers being forced out of the vents and the sting of hitting a wall. He stood up, coughing and breathing in fresh air trying to get his bearings. He stumbled down a nearby ledge and saw a gantry, an elevator on the other side. He looked down and saw the Wolfram core, He must have been ejected downwards. He had to make to the gantry and down to the core using the elevator.

---

Meanwhile…

Nick and Judy made it to the Wolfram core, they stepped out into the circular hallway that ran around the core, there was some kind of transparent material acting as a window into the core, but it didn't feel like glass, it almost felt like metal to Judy's paws. It even sounded like metal when she tapped it. The central core shown with a brilliant almost blinding light, It was a spherical shaped object about the size of a beach ball with rings around it and some kind of clamshell shaped door or wall around them, almost like as if the core was a pearl in the middle of some technological oyster.

"Clawhauser, that do we do?" asked Judy.

"There is a control room at the far end of this hallway; you will be able to access reactor control from there."

Nick and Judy bolted around the reactor room's access corridor, quickly getting into the control room; they stood in front of a bank of complicated control systems.

"Oh, I hope you don't expect us to know what to do." Commented Nick.

"Judy, do you still have the flashdrive?" asked Clawhauser.

Judy pulled out the flashdrive and held it in her paw.

"In my paw, I've got it right here in my paw."

"Insert it into the console."

Judy quickly found a port to plug it into and waited for Clawhauser's response.

"Accessing, Stand By. I am accessing the shutdown routine."

Clawhauser's face appeared on one of the screens and he quickly went to work accessing the console, the lights of the console danced with his activity, flickering on and off as he did his work.

Nick and Judy hugged each other in celebration, and stood and waited for some change in the noise and light from the reactor.

"So…..how long will it take?" inquired Judy.

"The shutdown sequence will only take a few minutes. However we have a problem."

"What's the problem?" asked Nick

"It seems when we detonated the computer core and the council, that some of the thermo-regulation controllers were also destroyed, the wolfram has essentially been overheating since then."

"And?" asked Judy waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"The actuators for the containment doors won't activate. And I cannot dissipate the core energy without them closed."

"Ok, so how do we close them?" asked Judy.

"Both clamshells would have to be closed simultaneously and it would have to be done manually…." Admitted Clawhauser reluctantly

"Woah, woah, you mean we have to go in there?" said Nick incredulously.

"Yes." Answered the cheetah

"How much radiation is in there?"

"The levels…..are lethal." Clawhauser admitted.

Judy heaved a heavy sigh.

"No, we are not doing this, we will find another way." Scolded Nick.

"Nicholas the wolfram will go off in a few minutes, and I cannot shut down the core without those doors closed."

"I don't care, we can get radiation suits or something."

"No time."

"Well short out the thing, like we did the council"

"No time."

"Then well redirect it somewhere."

"That would take an override of the targeting software and No time."

"Nick, Stop!" shouted Judy sadly.

Clawhauser and Nick stopped their argument.

"There's no other choice Nick, the other alternative is we let everyone, EVERYONE in Zootopia die, and that is NOT an option."

"But Carrots, we'll die."

"Two or Two million, Nick…its easy math." She said trembling.

The two looked into each other's eyes, they both knew it, and there really wasn't any choice.

"What do we have to do Ben?" asked Nick while still looking at Judy.

"There are two cranks on either side of the reactor, simply turn them and close the doors, once the doors are closed, I can shut off the reactor."

"What about getting out?" Nick asked.

"The radiation levels would take some time to dissipate to low enough levels that I could open the doors and not flood the complex."

"Which means, we would have to stay in there." Concluded Judy.

"Yes." Said Clawhauser sadly.

"This…..sucks." reacted Nick.

Judy walked over to Nick and petted his cheek.

"Yes…..it does." She consoled sadly.

Judy took a deep breath , Nick grabbed her paw and they walked over to the access door, their hearts were racing, they were terrified yet still resolute to finish the mission, they looked at each other.

"Clawhauser….open the door." She ordered.

---

Meanwhile…

Kaiden was racing across the gantry, his servos grinding and groaning with each step, he managed to overhear the comms traffic between Clawhauser , Nick and Judy.

"Clawhauser! Clawhauser! I'm almost there, do NOT let them inside."

Kaiden frantically got to the elevator, and pulled on the door and opened it just wide enough to slip through, he looked into the shaft, saw the elevator cable, he took off one of his bandoleers and held it in his muzzle and jumped across to grab the cable, wrapping his legs around it, he used his one good arm to swing the bandoleer around, using his teeth to help hold it while he created a knot, finally he grabbed the knot, and leg go with his legs sliding down the cable.

"Kit! Kit! Do you read me! Come in, damn it!"

Static filled the line, nothing, and then more static.

"Barely…..read you…" replied Kit.

"Kit, get down to the reactor. We have to stop them!" Kaiden said in a panic.

The comms belched more static.

Kaiden got close to the bottom and let go of the bandoleer and fell the rest of the way, landing hard into the elevator platform, he managed to open the door at the bottom of the shaft and slipped into the circular hallway. The sight he saw almost made him crumble right then and here. Nick and Judy were inside the reactor room, turning some kind of wheels, and large clamshell shaped doors inching closed around the central reactor sphere.

Kaiden spotted the control room and door on the other side and ran over to it; he pulled at the door, which was locked tight.

"Clawhauser! Clawhauser! Open this door!" demanded Kaiden

"I cannot." The AI replied.

"Open this door! Now!" Kaiden ordered.

"I cannot, the control room is flooded with lethal radiation and if I open the door it will flood the complex."

"I don't give a damn, open this door now!"

"Kaiden, there is nothing you can do. It's too late."

Kaiden walked over to the nearby window, the fox broke down, completely hysterical.

"Oh god! Nick! Judy! No!" he screamed as his beat his fist into the window.

Kaiden could do nothing but watch his friends give their lives to his cause.

---

Meanwhile… Inside the reactor core.

Judy and Nick were coordinating closing the clamshells around the core, they were almost closed. The intense heat and radiation stung their fur, made it feel like their skin was on fire. As they were closing, the bits and pieces of the reactor's assembly were falling everywhere, nuts, bolts, metal washers raining down on them; the whole thing seemed to be coming apart.

"Come on, Carrots, we almost got it." Nick encouraged grunting as he was turning

"I'm trying, it hurts so much." She commented

"I know, we are almost there." Nick encouraged.

"Come on!" she yelled at her crank.

Finally the clamshell slammed shut, and the reactor began to shut down. The heat rapidly cooled and the noise of the reactor spun down with a decreasing oscillation, eventually going silent, the cooling pumps at the edge of the room, letting off a hiss intermittently, and the low rumble of coolant in the pipes below them.

Nick and Judy managed to stop the reactor; they stumbled to each other, sweaty, exhausted, catching each other in their arms, catching their breath. Nick sat down next to the reactor housing and leaned against it, Judy sat on his left leg next to him.

"That's it, I'm done. I want to go home." He said exhausted.

"I think we can now." She answered

"Great, wonderful." He replied with sarcastic glee.

"Though, I think you can kiss that couch good bye." She quipped for levity.

"What do you mean?"

"Well considering you haven't paid rent in over 3 months." She joked

"Oh yeah, right, same thing with you." He replied right back

"Yup." She said playfully.

Judy and Nick chuckled out loud and then smiled, looking at each other.

"Guess I'll have to get a new place." Said Nick

"Same here." she replied

"Ya know, we could always get a place together." He quipped with a playful smile.

Judy looked at him with a cock eyed expression but still keeping her grin.

"It would be perfect, we would only have to pay one rent, one set of bills, it would be great." said Nick playfully.

"So a marriage of convenience then?" Judy played right back.

"Who said anything about marriage?" he jibed back with a smile.

"Why Nicholas P. Wilde, You don't expect a young wholesome bunny like me to live in sin do you?" she replied back with a playful smirk.

"You're absolutely right, I should make an honest bunny out of you." He replied shivering.

Nick looked around the debris from the reactor and found a metal washer that has fallen off the reactor housing; he inspected it, blew on it and cleaned it against his shirt.

"This should fit." Nick replied still smiling.

"Judith Hopps, will you marry me?" he asked playfully with a wink.

Judy chucked her body trembling from the radiation.

"Hmm, maybe I should think about it…" she pretended.

"Times up." He said with his eternal smile.

"Of course you silly fox." She replied batting a paw at him.

Nick slid the washer on her finger and she wiggled her finger playfully pretending it was a big rock and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him sweetly, They could feel each other trembling, the radiation taking its toll.

"Is IS a pretty shade of silver, actually" commented Judy.

"So what do we tell your parents?" Nick continuing the banter.

"Oh, they'll be happy; they just want some grand kids to spoil." She smirked.

Nick chuckled out loud again.

"Really, kids, that could be 'fun'." He replied giving her a flirty nuzzle.

"So naughty."

"Hey, you brought it up."

"I guess I did."

"So what would be call them, Boxes or Funnies?" he asked.

Nick and Judy chuckled, Nick coughed a wet cough and went back to maintain his smile, Judy caught that he was trying to hide it; she too kept up the pretense. The mood shifted becoming more somber.

"I would just call them happy." Judy replied

"Happy huh?" he smiled sweetly.

"Yeah…..I think you would make a great dad." She admitted

"I think you would make an awesome mom." He replied

Nick and Judy looked into each other's eyes.

"Have I ever told you I really love carrots." He admitted.

"Nick, you hate the taste of carrots." She quipped.

"Not the taste, the scent, because they remind me…..of you." He smiled.

Nick and Judy shared a passionate kiss; they tried to burn the memory of the sensation of each other into their minds, not wanting to forget, not willing to let go.

Nick broke the kiss and looked into Judy's eyes

"We could have had a great life together." He said.

"I know, I'm sorry." She replied tearing up

"Hey…..I would rather have a day with you then live the next 50 years without you." He replied back running his paw through the fur on her head.

"I want to take those kids over to your parent's place, and they can spoil the heck out of them."

"Have them play with your brothers and sisters, they would be aunts and uncles, ya' know." Said Nick trying to keep the levity, his eyes tearing up.

"They would love that." She whispered, thinking of home, her tears starting to run.

"And they could play in the carrot fields…and uh….." whispered Nick trying to find words.

"We would have a big family dinner around that picnic table in my parent's yard." She finished.

Nick laid his head back against the reactor casing, and smiled back at her, resting his eyes. "Yeah, perfect."

"And we could tell stories and sing songs, and tuck the little ones into bed." She continued

Nick smiled at the thought, visualizing that life. Judy rested her head on his shoulder.

"And we could stay in the guest house, and watch the stars, and…" she said her voice breaking.

"Make love." She barely whispered, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

"It would be a great life." She whispered.

Nick holding his smile softly, lost in thought, managed a weak and distant "Mhmm." As a tear escaped his eye and ran down his cheek.

Nick suddenly relaxed, his entire body went slack, and his smile changed to a relaxed expression, and suddenly seemed very still.

"Nick?" Judy asked quietly.

"Nick?!" she asked a little louder, shaking him slightly.

"Nick!" she called.

Judy suddenly realized what happened, her face winced in sorrow, her breathing ragged; she held her paw to her mouth, trying to hold back from sobbing as she didn't want that to be the last sound he heard. Trembling she reached a paw in front of his nose; she didn't feel anything, no hot breath or air moving.

"Oh Nick." She said breaking up, she nuzzled his cheek.

Judy held his head into her paws, and kissed him one last time, she whispered softly into his ear.

"I love you."

Judy rested her head on his shoulder, and she closed her eyes. She stopping trying to fight the inevitable, she let the exhaustion overtake her, her breathing got shallow, her pulse slowed, her vision blurred, she felt her body getting light.

She took one last look at Nick.

"I'll see you on the other side." She whispered, as a tear left her eye, and streamed down her cheek.

She closed her eyes for the last time and drifted into endless white….

---

"The harsh exteriors from the traumatic events melted away, and they were couched in one another, like the Ying and Yang of two souls hurting for the unity of the other. No matter what cruelty they experienced the only true cruelty would be keeping them apart."

---

Chapter 20: Second Chances

Judy drifted through an ocean of endless white. Her exhaustion seemingly replaced by a deep sense of peace. She had to remind herself of what happened before; the previous existence of her life was drifting away like a half forgotten dream.

She paced a few steps in the void, looking around, at first it seemed calm and serene, but the loneliness started to take its toll, she wondered why she was alone, where was everyone else, where was that vision of heaven she had been taught since she was a small bunny, "It wasn't here, in fact where was here" she thought.

"Where was Nick? "She asked herself

"Surely he is here, somewhere." She concluded.

"Nick!" she called out into the void.

"Nick!" she called out even louder.

She stopped to listen for any kind of response, but it was endless silence, almost deafening silence. She clutched her head, and dropped to her knees.

"No! I am not spending eternity alone." She said almost as if convincing herself.

Her thoughts where interrupted by the sound of a microwave beep, she opened her eyes to find she was in her apartment, she turned and in shock saw a vision of herself, back when she was a meter maid staring into that disgusting box of 'Carrots for One', which she promptly dropped in the trash. It was a memory, her life experience. She watched the memory play out before her just like it did the first time, she watched herself crying into her pillow, crying the words "I am a real cop" over and over. She wanted to comfort herself, tell her that things worked out, but it was a memory, a moment frozen in time that couldn't be changed.

"Why am I being shown this?" Judy wondered.

She opened the door to escape only to find herself back in the void of endless white. She had stepped out of her own memory like it was a room, all of this was confusing.

"Nick…..he's in my memory, maybe he somewhere in my memories."

She stopped for a moment and focused on Nick, her feelings, her memories of him, trying to conjure up something.

"You're gonna want to refrain from calling me Carrots." Memory Judy scolded.

"My bad, I just naturally assumed you came from some little carrot-choked Podunk, no?" Memory Nick started.

"Ah no, Podunk is in Deerbrooke County. I grew up in Bunnyburrow." She scoffed.

"Okay. Tell me if this story sounds familiar. Naïve little hick with good grades and big ideas decides, 'Hey look at me, I'm gonna move to Zootopia, where predators and prey live in harmony and sing "Kumbaya"!'"

"Only to find – whoopsie, we don't all get along. And that dream of being a big city cop? Double Whoopsie! She's a meter maid, and whoopsie number threesie, no one cares about her or her dreams."

"Soon enough those dreams die and our bunny sinks into emotional and literal squalor, living under a bridge. Until, finally she has no choice but to go back home with that cute fuzzy wuzzy tail between her legs to become – You're from Bunnyburrow? So let's say a carrot farmer? Sound about right?"

Judy followed her memory around the corner, narrowly missing the rhino for a second time.

"All right, look, everyone comes to Zootopia thinking they can be anything they want. Well, you can't. You can only be what you are."

"Sly fox." He pointed to himself, then to her "Dumb bunny."

"I am not a dumb bunny."

"Right. And that's not wet cement."

Nick paced around her and walked away.

"You'll never be a real cop."

"You're a cute meter maid, though. Maybe a supervisor one day, Hang in there."

Judy tried to catch up to Nick but no avail, the memory faded into nothing and she was back in the endless white.

"That's not Nick, not anymore, I have to find something more recent." Judy muttered to herself

She walked into the white, trying to find Nick, revisiting memory after memory, their first case, the moment in the gondola, the press conference, back home on the farm, their tender moment under the bridge. Judy admitted to herself, she liked this memory; Nick could really be a kind hearted fox when he wants to be.

She visited the memory of Nick going through the academy, she remembers him having trouble with his run times on the track, foxes can sprint but are not long distance runners and tire quickly, Judy had worked with him to build up his endurance to pass the test.

"Come on, Nick you can do it" her memory encouraged running along side him.

"I….don't….know…..Carrots….." Memory Nick said, tiring out.

"Keep pushing, I know you can."

"Don't you want to be my partner? I really want you to be my partner" she played.

Nick gritted his teeth and bore through it, trying to keep up with her; he was determined to make the grade.

Judy studied Nick's expression as the memory froze. She noticed he would always look at her, and bring a smile to his lips. Judy knowing now, she concluded that on some level, Nick always liked her. She tried to touch the memory Nick on the face but her paw simply passed through it like fog, he wasn't real.

"Oh Nick, where are you?" she said sadly.

She heard an almost distant whisper on the air "Carrots."

She turned her head in the direction of the voice.

"Nick!" she called out.

Judy ran towards the sound, calling out his name, she ran into another memory. They were in Nick's apartment, new at the time, he hadn't even finished unpacking, and it was right after he was fired from the police force.

"What I can't figure is how they found out?" asked Nick.

"It will be ok, Nick, we can work something out." said Judy.

"I can't believe this I finally turn my life around, and this…." He said.

"Nick, it will be fine" she tried to console him.

"I'm sorry I let you down. I'm sorry we didn't work out."

"Nick." She chided, as she gave him a squeeze and look up at him.

"Nick, I didn't become your friend just to turn you into a cop, I became your friend because I like you."

"It doesn't matter what you are, as long as you keep trying, I'll be proud of you no matter what."

Nick smiled down at the rabbit in his arms.

"Besides you can't get rid of me that easily, I'll always be here for you." She said with a smile.

Nick leaned down and kissed her on the lips, Judy stunned stepped a pace back and covered her mouth, her cheeks blushed.

"I'm sorry, I thought….never mind" Nick replied embarrassed.

"No, no, it's alright…..it was…..nice." she replied.

The memory faded, Judy continued to walk through the expanse.

"Nick! NICK!" she called out into the endless white.

Judy wasn't sure how far she walked; she stopped and looked around, nothing. She cradled her muzzle into her paws, she didn't know where she was, or is even if this place was a place in the strictest sense.

She leaned her head back and let out a deep sigh. She suddenly smelled a fragrant aroma in the air, it smelled of flowers, she turned her head and her nose twitched finding the direction. The fragrance seemed to be calling her. She followed it, soon she saw a figure in the distance, and she ran towards it, calling to it.

"Nick!" she shouted.

She ran closer, it was Nick, but he was staring at something, he seemed to be crying. Judy ran even faster towards him.

She ran up upon him and slowed down, pacing up next to him.

"Nick what's wrong?" she asked

Nick seemed fixated on something, something that was troubling him.

"Carrots, this place, it makes you see things." He replied still focusing in the distance.

"I know." She replied

"But it keeps showing me this." He admitted.

Judy turned to see what he was looking at, and at first he seemed to be staring into the endless white, but soon the image and place of his memory faded into her perception. It was inside the scout lodge, she recognized it from Nick's descriptions, she watched in sadness as she saw the memory play out exactly as Nick had described it, after they turned off the lights, and young Nick gave the oath, they pushed him down, pinning him and strapped the muzzle on him.

"If you thought we'd ever trust a fox without a muzzle, you're even dumber then you look." One of the scouts taunted.

Young Nick ran out of the lodge and sat next to the wall of the stairs, prying the muzzle off, throwing it away, and crying.

Judy held Nick's paw.

"Nick, it's alright, I'm here. I am always here." She told him

Nick still fixated on the memory, haunted by it, something in him kept bringing him back here. He cradled his face in his paw, Judy hugged him.

"I'm sorry, I wish I was there." She whispered.

Young Nick cried into his paws.

"Hey there? Are you ok Mr. Fox?" asked a young voice.

"Go away!" said young Nick

"If you tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help." Said the young voice.

Young Nick turned his head up to see a young rabbit girl, wearing a police costume, her larger front tooth sticking out of her mouth. She smiled at him.

Judy and Nick watched the scene completely in shock, how could this be happening? It's Impossible. They thought.

"My name is Judy, Judy Hopps, and yours?" the young rabbit offered

"Nicholas…..Wilde." he replied

"Well, Nicholas, why are you crying?"

Young Nick cleared his throat "The scouts, they were…mean to me, because I'm a fox."

"I know what you mean…..I get picked on cuz I'm a rabbit."

"But it doesn't matter, as long as I keep trying I will show them." She said confidently

"That sounds, really great." He said hopelessly.

"Why don't you come with me?" she offered

"Aren't you worried? Cuz I'm a…..fox?" he asked.

"No. Do you care that I'm a rabbit?"

"No."

"Then what are we worried about?"

"Nothing I guess"

Young Judy offered her small paw towards young Nicholas.

"We could make a great team." She said with an encouraging smile.

Young Nick took the small rabbits paw and she pulled him up to his feet.

"You think so?"

"As long as we never quit, I think we can do anything."

"Go team Hopps?" he suggested

Young Judy thought for a moment.

"How about, 'Go Team Wilde Hopps'?" she asked.

"I like it." He replied

Young Nick and Judy held paws and scampered off into the endless white and out of the memory.

Nick and Judy, watched as the memory faded, they turned to each other, tears running down from each of their eyes.

"What was that?" asked Nick completely torn up.

"What should have happened." Judy answered.

Judy held Nick close and caressed his cheek, drying his tears from his eyes.

"If I could have been there I would, you know that." She whispered

"I know Carrots, I know." He rested his paw on hers.

Judy smelled the flower fragrance again, and Nick took a sniff and smelled it too.

"Do you smell it too?" she asked

"Yeah, I do, I know that smell. Its Lily blossoms." Replied Nick.

Judy and Nick turned to follow the scent, when they heard a voice, distant, a whisper.

"It's time to go home." Said the voice.

Judy and Nick looked at each other strangely, and there was a strange rumble, a beat. Nick grabbed his chest in pain.

"Ah" he yelped.

"Nick, are you ok."

"Yeah, it was strange it felt like a…" Nick interrupted.

Nick and Judy reacted together this time, clutching their chests with a paw, while holding each other's paws tightly with the other. Another beat.

"It actually hurts." He commented.

Another beat, than another, and another. They close their eyes tight trying to bear through it, all the while not letting go.

---

"This…..connection…..Always hold on to it and each other, and never, ever let go."

"Love, is just a word. What is important is the connection the word implies…"

"No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, .. not for glory, not for fame. For one person, .. in the dark .. where no one will ever know .. or see…."

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love."

"Ya know, lad, that love business is a powerful thing. in its way, I'd say it's the greatest force on earth."

---

Judy's body felt heavy, the sound of rushing water, an almost electrical buzzing in her ears, a metallic taste in her mouth. Intense pressure on her head and falling, a feeling of falling, the roar of the noise, like white noise, ever persistent and engulfing, seemed to surround her and then like that, she awoke.

Her vision blurry, she could hear her heartbeat in her ears, she felt warm, seemingly immersed in liquid. It had a green hue to it. Her vision clearing, she looked around, tubes and wires attached to her, her body scantily clad; bare enough to cover her modesty. She felt something on her face, straps, a mask, she felt the texture of a tube on her tongue, and it seemed to go down her throat, air moving, the feeling of air being pressed into her chest. Vision clearing more, a reflection, a shine against a surface, glass, she frantically reached a paw towards it, and touched it's smooth surface, it was glass, she looked and felt around, surrounded by glass, like a fish in a bowl. She looked for Nick, at first not seeing him, then to her right, a another glass surface, the blurry aura of green and a blur of orange inside it, thrashing around much like she was. Further still, past the glass, a hospital or lab, she didn't recognize it. Where were they? She frantically thought. Did we do it? Did we win or lose?

She panicked, breathing quickly, eyes darting around. "Captured, experiment, it has to be." Clutching at the glass, a blurred form appeared, unrecognizable, it approached. She reeled back, the figure resolved; it was a seemingly impossible image. She heard a buzzing in her ear static, some sort of comm line.

"Judy, it's all right." Said the figure.

Judy floated closer, the figure resolved to a fox, familiar and welcome. It was Kaiden, she placed a paw against the glass. He placed his paw in kind.

"Hey." He whispered offering comfort.

Judy grunted a response.

"It's alright, you made it, and you're both alive. We all made it."

Kaiden walked between the two tanks and put his paw on the other tank, to comfort Nick. He turned to an unseen person.

"Hey doc, can we get them out, they are awake." Inquired Kaiden.

The doctor came forward and muttered something, Judy couldn't understand, but it seemed to be in the affirmative. Judy tried to grasp her mask.

"No, no, don't, it's ok, we'll handle it, just wait for a second." Reassured Kaiden.

More muttering by the doctor, but a pair of words came through in the clear as the doctor ushered the fox back "Stand back."

The doctor typed into some kind of tablet, the sound of liquid moving, Judy looked up as the top of the tank was moving up, along with her and the harness she was connected to. Her head broke the surface, and two attendants on each side of the tank, the liquid dripping off her fur, the cold air making her shiver, and the technicians unbuckled her from the harness and helped her down the stairs, they unbuckled her mask

"take a deep breath, and blow on three." They told her

"one…two…..three…." they pulled the mask off and the tube from out her mouth and throat.

Judy coughed a throaty raspy cough, she grabbed her throat, and knelt down. The attendants toweled her off. She glanced right when she heard another throaty cough; it was Nick having his mask removed.

Nick and Judy were led to beds to be cleaned off and recover.

---

Later….

The lab they were in was the cybernetics lab adjacent to the med bay, she hadn't recognized it since she and Nick never went in there, but it was a short walk. Judy and Nick were giving adjoining beds and they passed out again when they got to them. They slept for another few hours when they awoke to Kaiden sitting next to their beds. Judy opened her eyes and saw the fox was watching them, almost in reverence. Kaiden at the foot of their beds.

"What happened?" asked Nick

"I don't know how much you remember….." he stated.

"Did we stop it? Is everyone safe?" Judy asked hoarsely.

"Yeah, you did it, you saved everyone." Kaiden replied.

"Aren't we supposed to be…..dead?" asked Nick.

"Yeah….and well, you did." Kaiden answered.

"So how are we…" Judy asked.

"Well, about that, Kit didn't exactly destroy the ENTIRE lab complex, and Clawhauser, had an idea…..a completely insane but brilliant idea."

Judy and Nick looked at each other and then back at Kaiden.

"Oh god, don't tell me we're clones." Said Judy.

"Oh, no. No, no no. Not clones, or anything else weird, so don't freak out." said Kaiden to comfort them.

"Clawhauser had the idea to 'borrow' some of the tanks that were in the lab complex. Remember what he said. That they could build or rebuild cells?"

Nick and Judy nodded.

"So that's what we did, we put your 'corpses' in the tanks." Kaiden said scratching his neck.

"Why do you look uncomfortable, Kaiden?" asked Judy.

"Because for a while there, we weren't sure it actually worked, we thought that maybe, all we had done was bring your bodies back to life, and that your…souls were gone. And I didn't want you to live like that."

"But it worked." Answered Nick.

"Yeah, well, we didn't know about that until a couple of hours ago. So I'm just kind of accepting the relief of it." Kaiden said letting out a sigh.

Kaiden placed a paw on each of their ankles, and got choked up a little bit.

"I'm just glad it worked. You have no idea how much I feel like I failed, when I saw you two in that core room."

"How long?" asked Judy.

"That you were dead or in a coma?"

"Both." She replied.

"Dead, a few hours, your bodies were intensely irradiated, it took several hours just to get you 4 floors to the lab complex and into the tanks. As far as your coma, about a month."

Judy heaved a sigh of relief; at least it wasn't years she thought.

"So what's happened? Outside in Zootopia?"

"Well, the lab complex had the cure to the virus, which we have been distributing, so the plague is over, the riots have ended, and things seem to be returning to normal. I mean it will take a while, and there is some stuff that has to be rebuilt, but I think all in all, Zootopia made it."

Judy smiled at the sound of that answer.

"Plus I got a surprise for you, somebody wants to say Hi."

Kaiden looked at someone just past the curtain, and motions for them to come in. Judy almost feinted when she saw the vision of a certain cheetah walked into view, except physically fit and wearing a Bureau 13 uniform. He walked up to Nick and Judy, both of whom were in shock as if they had seen a ghost.

"Hey guys." The cheetah said with a smile.

"B…Ben?" asked Nick

"H….How?" Judy asked completely in shock.

"I don't really know." Replied Ben sounding more like his normal self

"They tried to explain it to me, but I didn't really understand, somehow I used one of the tanks to clone myself, and then download into it. Or something like that."

"You don't remember anything?" asked Nick.

"I remember doing things; I just don't remember understanding what I did."

"Like everything is forever on the tip of my tongue. Ya know what I mean."

"No, I don't but to be honest, I'm just glad your back." Nick replied

"And thin too…" said Ben pointing at his abs.

"And look at this." Ben put up with arms and flexed his well-developed biceps.

"I'm rocking the gun show over here." He said with a big smile and a chuckle.

Nick and Judy laughed out loud then coughed.

"That's Ben for you." Replied Judy.

"We're going let you guys get some sleep, I'll send Kit by to say Hi if you want?" Kaiden asked.

Judy and Nick both nodded, but were already drifting off to sleep again. Kaiden and Clawhauser smiled back at their friends taking solace at the fact they were safe and sound again.

---

Over the course of the next several days, Nick and Judy were released from the med bay and Bureau 13 and started to get their lives back together.

Bureau 13, continued to operate, working on dismantling the Illuminati network and its lower level agents and assets.

Bogo had resumed his post as Chief of Police.

Gideon Frost had quit WRC, which was under investigation on corruption charges, and had accepted the job as Deputy Chief working under Chief Bogo.

Nick and Judy got their jobs back with a little assistance from Kaiden, who used his connections with Bureau 13 to expunge Nick's criminal record, as if it didn't exist, allowing him to resume his job as Judy's partner.

Nick and Judy got a promotion to corporal and we're putting their names forward to start training to become detectives, starting as soon as they got back.

The trio worked for Bureau 13 on a contract basis, but went to live back in their house in the rainforest district.

Finnick decided to turn his life around and get involved in the music business, his first album is expected to drop in a few months.

---

A week later…..ZPD, Front Courtyard.

Nick and Judy were in their uniforms and had just arrived to start their shift when they were greeted by Kaiden, Kit and Clawhauser.

"So you kids, really want to go back to being cops? I got two Bureau 13 badges with your name on them if you want?" Kaiden asked

"Yeah, I think we've had enough of the spy business for one life time." Joked Nick

Judy batted Nick playfully.

"But Kaiden, do keep in touch, your always welcome to visit us."

"What about me?" Joked Kit.

"Of course Kit, anytime." Replied Judy with a smile.

Judy saw Clawhauser, who was standing there wearing a Bureau 13 uniform and not ZPD Blue.

"Hey Ben, what's with this?" Judy asked pointing to his uniform.

"I've uh, decided to join up." He replied.

"Really? Why?" she asked.

Clawhauser looked down a little bit melancholy.

"I uh….helped to hurt a lot of people Judy. A lot, and I got to make up for it." He replied.

"Ben you can't blame yourself." She tried to absolve.

"Yeah, I can. I remember doing what I did, and I don't think I could live with myself if I just walked away now." He answered.

"So you're just leaving?" she inquired.

"For now, like I said, I got to make up for what I've done. Then maybe someday, I will have earned the right to wear that uniform again." He replied pointing at Judy's uniform

"Ben…." She replied, both proud of him and sad at his leaving.

Judy gave Clawhauser a hug, which he returned.

"Just be safe, OK?" she asked

"I will." He reassured.

Judy turned to Kaiden and Kit

"And you two, look out for him, he's one of my best friends."

"We will" replied Kaiden.

Judy hugged Kit

"You take care of yourself." She said

"I promise, Judy." He replied.

Judy went to Kaiden and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm sorry you didn't get your happy ending." She consoled.

Kaiden simply smiled back at her.

"I did get my happy ending Judy, I'm glad to see you and Nick alive, and back where you belong. I couldn't be happier." He replied giving her a hug back.

Judy and Nick finished saying their goodbyes to Kit, Kaiden and Clawhauser.

"Gentlemen, Atten-hutt!" Kaiden orders to attention.

"Corporals Wilde and Hopps. It was an honor serving with you." He complemented.

The three saluted the pair, who returned their salutes.

Kaiden, Kit and Clawhauser left, going to their nearby van and drove away, leaving Judy and Nick in the courtyard, walking up to the door of the ZPD.

"So, Carrots, looks like everything is back to normal." He suggested.

"Well not everything, we still have that task force that's going to find the families of all those Zootopians in the cryo pods. And the continuing investigation of the council's other assets."

"Oh is that all." He quipped.

"So not like it was, but the start of the next adventure." She explained.

"Well Carrots, you want to see what the next adventure holds" asked Nick motioning a paw towards the door.

"As long as we're together, we can face anything." She confided

"Team Wilde Hopps?" He offered

"Team Wilde Hopps….forever." she said with a wink.

"I love you" he said

"I love you too." She replied

"Shall we?" Nick opening the door.

"Let's go." She replied as she stepped into through the door.

The pair walked in the door, and onward to their next adventure.

---

Chapter 21: Director's Cut.

Council of Five chamber….Private Residence.

The chamber had seen a few changes since its last use; first and foremost the 5 chair table was replaced with a proper conference table and 12 chairs, the drab and old styling replaced with a more modern business style.

A camel was ushered through the doors and peered into the chamber, namely at the figure sitting at the head of the table.

"Ah, Samir, I hope the safe house wasn't too uncomfortable" said the figure.

"Being out of the country during this whole thing seemed to be a safer bet, no harm no foul." Samir replied.

"Come, come sit." Said the figure.

Samir came over and sat at the seat to figure's left.

"So how are you Sidney?" he asked.

"Doing better, being shot really makes you think about one's mortality." he quipped.

"So what am I doing here?" the camel asked.

"Well I have a proposal for you, but we need to wait as we have others to work with, they should be here soon."

Almost on cue, a door to the side opens and out walks a lioness, heavily augmented.

"Ah Nala, fully recovered I take it?" Asked Sidney

Nala takes her seat at the table two down from Sidney's right.

"My body may have recovered, but my honor won't be satisfied until I bathe my blades in that rabbit's blood."

"Ooo, cut me off a lucky rabbit's foot while you at it." Sid joked sinisterly

The door in front of them opened again, and three figures were ushered into the room. They each took a seat down near the midway of the table, two of them were arguing.

"Look, I have stood for a lot of things, but I can't believe you would have me work with her" said a lion pointing at a nearby sheep.

"Oh shut it, I'm not exactly thrilled to be working with you either." replied the sheep.

"Whatever, Smellwether." Said the lion

"Lionfart!" retorted the sheep.

"Children!" said Sidney trying to get their attention.

"You can always go back to prison…" he offered.

Lionhart and Bellwether went silent, the nearby Nutria spoke up.

"Sidney unlike these useless two, I actually have a city government to run, is this important?" he asked.

"Of course Mayor Deveraux, I wouldn't dare waste the time of the Mayor of Zootopia; I have a proposal to discuss with everyone here."

"And what would that be?" the Nutria asked.

"I am proposing the creation of a new group, unlike the previous council of five who operated on a more, monarchist system of entitlement and elitism. I propose a group that will function more like a corporation, in the sense that each of us will be equal owners in this new…world order."

"Well is this everybody?" asked the Mayor pointing to these missing seats.

"The remaining five seats will be filled in the due course of time."

"Five, you mean six." Replied the Mayor confused.

"No he means five." said a voice from the shadows.

Samir raised an eye brow at the voice.

"Sidney, is offering you something that you could only dare to dream of in your pathetic previous lives. This group would attain real power. You would have real control." Said the voice.

The figure paced forward, his every other step clicking against the hardwood floor.

"And what is this group to be called?" asked the Mayor.

The figure pulled out the chair next to Sidney and sat down, looking at the group.

"The Majestic Twelve." answered the voice.

"What in the hell?" whispered Lionhart.

"How are you here?!" he shouted.

Bellwether looked down the table and went wide eyed when she saw the figure.

"What?! Impossible!" she shouted.

Sidney looked at the pair "My, my, former mayors, you look as though you've seen a ghost."

"A ghost?! No, I may not remember names but I remember faces, especially of people who help ruin me!"

"And me!" said Bellwether.

"I believe you have me confused with someone else." Said the voice.

"I don't think so, I know who you are Nicholas Wilde" said Bellwether.

The figure stood up and leaned into the light, it was a fox, red and orange but darker as if a shadowy aura existed around him, black suit, sharp edges, and his deep burgundy eyes.

"As I said, you have me confused with someone else." Said the Fox.

"My name…is Piberius…."

Sidney looked at Samir

"Bet they didn't see that one coming, Did they Samir?" he asked with a sly grin.

Samir held his paws together, arching them.

"No Sidney, I would say not."

---

Later….

Piberius stood in a chamber elsewhere in the residence, a cold room with mirrors around the edges and singular cryo pod at its center. Sidney came in to see to talk to his trusted aid.

"So do you think they will agree?" asked Piberius.

"They are smart enough to recognize a good thing." Replied Sidney.

"What is this place anyway?"

"It's something of Jarod's that I discovered." Replied the fox.

The two paced forward and the fox scrapped the frost that had formed over the glass.

"He painstakingly took measures to keep this person alive."

"Do we know who it is?" inquired Sidney

"No, and I'm wondering what we should do with it. Terminate? Get rid of the evidence?" he suggested.

"No, this room says to me, that whoever this person is, Jarod went to great lengths to preserve them. I'm not one to turn down a potential trump card." Explained Sidney

"So keep it online?"

"Yes, something tells me she may come in handy."

The two turn to leave, leaving the cryo pod and close the door. The lights in the room go off leaving the blue glow of the coolant systems to preserve the occupant. Inside the glass, sleeping in stasis is a white rabbit, white as the driven snow, and the name on the status panel reads: "Ellison, Lily".