Hi Everyone! This is my first fanfic I have ever written, so please bear with me if the prologue gets a little slow.

MAJOR UPDATE: As of 8/23/2016, the prologue has been rewritten.

Prologue

ZPD Precinct One; 5:13 PM

"This is not the Zootopia I know," Gazelle said to the ZNN interviewer on the television, "The Zootopia I know is better than this..."

Judy was sitting in her cubicle, writing her report on yet another anti-predator protest and a pred pride counterprotest that would've descended into a riot had it not been for a police intervention. She heaved a depressed sigh as if an anchor were hanging from her chest. She knew she had to focus when writing reports, but she simply couldn't. He saved my job. He was there for me when I had no one else. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. And look at what I've done. She remembered the look on Nick's face at the press conference when he scared her into reaching for her fox repellant. It was that look of disappointment, not the one immediately before that made her reach for the aerosol can, that was going to haunt her. Gazelle continued on the television.

"...We cannot allow fear to divide us. Give me back the Zootopia I know."

Judy let the pop star's tearful plea sink in as she stared at the blank page on her screen. I can't do this anymore. She stood up on her desk and looked around over the cubicle walls. Half of them were empty, as most of the current shift have already clocked out for dinner. The remaining animals were typing furiously on their keyboards, wishing to finish their reports so they could do the same as the rest of their shift. A box of doughnuts from this morning sat at the front of the room, but nobody was in the mood for sweets.

Besides the clattering of typing, the room was silent in collective thought. Judy could sense the tension radiating from everyone in the room. The predators and prey of Zootopia's finest trusted each other with their lives, regardless of species. Yet, any predator on the force could turn on their comrades in blue at any time. If an officer wasn't worried about the latter in any way, their family most certainly would.

A door at the back of the office slammed open, and Judy could feel the ground shake with every step made by a familiar cape buffalo. She immediately leaped back into her chair and tried her best to remember more details of the protest for her report. The earthquakes got closer as Chief Bogo strode up the aisle towards her cubicle. Judy had no idea why the chief wanted to see her. Her past experiences told her that it probably won't be good. She immediately started typing at a mild pace to seem busy, pretending to not notice the approaching buffalo.

Suddenly, a voice several cubicles behind her broke the room's tense silence.

"Uh, Chief Bogo, sir?"

Judy couldn't help but turn around. The earthquakes stopped as the cape buffalo turned towards the cubicle next to him. Judy couldn't see, but she knew the black bear who was in the said cubicle.

"Not now, Halberd!" the chief thundered.

"But sir, it's urgent!" replied the bear.

Judy moved her chair closer to her cubicle entrance and stuck out an ear to listen in.

"Fine, then. This better be good."

"I did not write this report for the AM-8 case."

"What are you talking about! Of course you did! You were the one in charge of this case!"

Judy heard an noise coming from the cubicle that sounded like a rustling of papers.

"The official case report is completely different from the one I wrote four months ago. See for yourself. The file says no witnesses, but I can clearly remember questioning Mayor Lionheart at the crime scene. The evidence list is also amiss. There is some evidence mentioned that doesn't exist, and I couldn't find any mention of the security camera data at all!"

"Why are you even looking at old case files? AM-8 went cold after three weeks and I marked it unsolved."

"Now that Lionheart is in custody, I want to question him again."

"Until you bring me some new evidence, I am not going to waste department resources and reopen that case on a hunch! This city is tearing itself apart, Halberd! And we need all hands on deck!"

"O-o-of course, sir."

The ground began to shake again. Judy immediately moved her chair back to her desk and pretended to work as Chief Bogo reached her cubicle. The cape buffalo turned towards the entrance and knocked on the wall of her workspace. Judy froze in anticipation of another rant.

"Hopps, the new mayor wants to see you," he said.

"New mayor…?" inquired the bunny.

"It seems you have arrived."

And without another word, the chief strode towards the door to the reception room, bunny tagging closely behind.

The reception room was pristine and spacious as usual. The room was mostly empty, as most of the officers have clocked out for the day. The sun hung low outside, casting long shadows over the furniture through the room's many windows. As Judy turned her head left, she noticed a familiar pudgy cheetah, but did not look his usual cheerful self.

"Clawhauser…? What are you doing?" asked Judy as the cheetah folded up his laptop

"Um… They thought it would be better, if, a predator such as myself, weren't the first face that you see, when you walk into the ZPD," He sullenly replied

"What…?"

"They're, gonna move me to records. It's downstairs. It's by the boiler."

Judy watched as without another word, the cheetah packed up the last of his belongings into a box, picked it up, turned around, and quietly shuffled towards the elevator, leaving the treasured desk at which he worked for so long.

I hope you liked how I'm starting off this fanfic. I will do my best to post chapters as quickly as possible!

Also, second opinions will be heartily considered and deeply appreciated, so please leave a review!

By the way, I highly recommend "Zootopia: A Tail of Two," by 1tT4k3sTwo. His fic got me into writing.