Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or its related characters. All is the property of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clark Spencer, and Byron Howard. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Silent Civil War

Chapter One: Whatever Happened to Judy Hopps?

The death of heroic officer Hopps hit the city, and hit it hard.

Before her, no other Savage attacks had resulted in a death. Injury, yes. Trauma, yes. But death -no.

The hero that initially cracked the case of the Missing Mammals, the first small Mammal to become an officer of the Zootopia Police Department, the first bunny to become an officer of the Zootopia Police Department... also became the first fatality of the Savage Attacks.

Or, at least, that's what witnesses claimed. When Chief Bogo had his officers pull the drooling and snarling fox out of the sunken terrarium exhibit he told them to recover Hopps' body as well. She might not have been with the department long, but in the short time that she was, she had done amazing things -especially amazing for someone so small.

But there was no body.

They subdued and muzzled Nickolas Wilde, the latest victim of the -still inexplicable- Savage epidemic that had gripped the city. Wilde's snout and teeth were covered in blood, so he must have attacked Hopps. Rabbits were, after all, a fox's natural prey (in ancient times, at least). There must be a body.

"Unless..." Began one of the officers slowly. "Unless... there's nothing left because he... ate her. All of her."

Upon hearing that suggestion, Mayor Bellwether cried out with a moan that quickly degenerated into sobs. "Oh! Oh, poor Judy!" She wailed. "I saw the whole thing. That- that monster tore into her! Tore into her like she was candy and- and- Oh, it was too terrible!"

One of the other sheep that accompanied her placed a comforting hoof on her fleecy shoulder.

"Are you done questioning her, Chief?" He asked. "Can I take Dawn home now?"

Chief Bogo shifted his attention from the diminutive mayor to her companion. "Your name's Doug Ramses? We may need to contact you with more questions later. For now, yes, you may take the mayor home."

The arm that of the hoof on her shoulder shifted positions to wrap around her instead -protective and secure. "C'mon, sweetheart, lets get you home."

"Thank you, Dougie." Bellwether continued to sob.

At least, she continued to sob until they were in Doug's car and pulling away from the scene. Then her sobs melted away, replaced by a sneer. "Call me 'sweetheart' again and you'll be the next dupe that gets dosed with the NH-formula."

He did not seem intimidated by this threat. "Good luck finding another sniper with my skill that's also willing to help you with this crazy plan of yours. Also, you're one to talk. I thought the 'Dougie' bit was a little over the top, personally."

"If I wanted your opinion, I'd have asked for it." Bellwether snapped. She had no patience for tense banter. She had no patience for amusing comrade banter either. "You saw Hopps go down the grate. Do you think she's still alive?"

Doug made a lane change and shrugged. "The fox couldn't fit. But his face did come back bloody. He might not have finished her, but he definitely wounded her. If she can't get to a hospital, she'll probably bleed out."

Wouldn't it just be phenomenally lucky if she did. "After Bogo and his uniformed flunkies clear out, send a couple of the boys down there to find out what happened. If she did bleed out, I want to see her body. If she's wounded but still alive, finish her. She knows to much and could ruin us. Right now the police think the fox already killed her, we can get away scot free." A very un-sheeplike smile. "Its the perfect murder."

"Sure thing, boss." He pulled into the driveway of her home.

Bonnie and Stu had many, many children.

But that didn't mean that they weren't as affected when they lost one. Having such a large family, it would have been statistically impossible for the couple to be strangers to infant mortality. But when they lost children in the past it was when the kits were young, in their first year of life. Very different from losing a child that you raised to adulthood.

A child who's scraped knees you kissed. Whom you sat up with late into the night because she had a nightmare. Who you forewent a day's work on the farm to stay inside and nurse her when she was sick. School plays you filmed. Graduations you attended. A child who was as much a familiar fixture in your life as your spouse.

Losing a child like that was very hard.

At first, Bonnie Hopps didn't quite understand what Chief Bogo was trying to tell her. Over the phone, using a voice that was low and somber. Respectful and sympathetic. But not apologetic. Officer Hopps died a death to be proud of -protecting the mayor from a Savage predator.

The moment the words finally sank in, and the reality of what the Zootopia police chief was trying to tell her dawned with comprehension, the phone slipped from her hand. It clattered to the floor loudly, but Bonnie seemed not to notice.

"Stu!" She shouted. Running from the kitchen, she threw open the warren door and called out to her husband. "Stuart! Stu! Come quickly, its Judy! Judy... Judy is... Her boss just called. He said our little girl..."

She managed to wait until her husband actually got to her before she fell on her knees crying, unable to finish whatever it was that Judy's commanding officer had said about her.

Stu Hopps pulled his wife up off the ground and helped her back inside. "Now, what's all this about Judy?"

But that question only produced a fresh wave of tears from her. "The-the phone. I dropped it."

"I'll take care of it." He told her, still not quite understanding what was going on. But whatever it was, it got Bonnie worked up into a state. Entering the kitchen, Stu picked up the phone from where it had been dropped and held it to his ear to see if the call had been disconnected or if there was still a very confused and impatient Mammal on the other end. "Hello? Stuart Hopps speaking."

"Mr. Hopps." The gruff baritone of a water buffalo responded in an even, and very patient sounding tone. "I'm sorry to cause you and your wife distress. No police chief ever wants to make these calls, but it has to be done." There was a pause. Then an apprehensive intake of breath. "Earlier this evening, Mayor Bellwether was cornered in the Natural History Museum by a predator that had gone Savage. Officer Hopps had been tailing the predator -apparently- and when she saw that the mayor was in danger, she intervened to protect her." Another pause. "I'm afraid she was killed during the altercation. I'm sorry for your loss."

Now it was Stu's turn to be rendered dumb with shock.

His mind called up the image of Judy walking out of her high school graduation ceremony, her diploma in one hand, her application to join the Police Academy (already filled out) in the other. All her life, all Judy ever wanted to do was be a police officer in Zootopia... and then she was... and now she wasn't.

The kitchen blurred in Stu's vision and he reached a paw up to rub his eyes. It came away wet.

He cleared his throat. "I-ah- I see. Do you... do you need Bonnie and I to come down and- and identify the body?"

"That's won't be necessary." Bogo assured him.

"Oh." Stu felt oddly numb, like he was in shock. "Alright then. When can we pick up our daughter then? Or, will the department bring her here for us? I- I'll need to star arranging the- the- I'll need to make arrangements."

Next to him, Bonnie let out another sob and he wrapped an arm around her. So long as he was in shock, he could be the strong one. He could hold and support his wife. So long as he was still in shock. The moment that wore off... it was anyone's guess.

Again, Chief Bogo cleared his throat. This one, more uncomfortable than before. "There- Mr. Hopps, I regret to inform you that we were unable to recover her body."

"Why not?" The question was out of Stu's mouth before his imagination could conjure up for him what that might mean.

"Mr. Hopps, this might be difficult for you to hear." Chief Bogo began. "Perhaps we should wait until you've had time to digest-"

"Tell me what happened to my daughter!" The rabbit snarled into the receiver.

The line was silent. Not ended. Bogo hadn't hung up. He was just quiet. Finally, after a prolonged pause, he admitted. "She was eaten. You can't burry her, because there's nothing left to be buried."

Where his wife might have dropped the phone in shock, Stu only gripped it tighter. Gripped it so tight, in fact, that it turned the skin under his fur white. "They even ate her bones?"

"Nick, please, fight it!" Judy pleaded. Shouted was really more like it. But her shouts were supposed to be pleas.

Above her, mayor Bellwether taunted. Walking a circle around the edge of the sunken exhibit they found themselves trapped in. "He can't help it, Judy. Its in his nature."

She couldn't believe that. She wouldn't believe that. Sure, he was dishonest. A con artist through and trough. But he did it in such a way that there was never anything illegal about what he did. He might be a grifter, but he was a law-abiding grifter. None of his schemes were malicious, no one was ever hurt by his cons. In fact, he gave people what they needed. A cool snack on a warm day. Lumber for construction. He might live on the fringes of society, but he was still a productive member of society. Someone like that couldn't possibly be Savage -not naturally. It just wasn't in his nature.

That didn't mean he couldn't be driven to Savagery by drugs.

Seizing from the toxin that was suddenly coursing through his bloodstream. Working its was to his brain, causing signals to misfire. Changing his brain chemistry. Making him more primal and feral. Nick did exactly what Bellwether said he would. He turned Savage. He couldn't help it. It was in his blood now. In his brain. He wasn't himself anymore.

Unbidden, the words of Mrs. Otterton sprang to Judy's mind. 'That's not my Emmett.'

This wasn't her Nick. This wasn't her friend.

Suddenly faced with a predator with no inhibitions, its vibrant emerald eyes fixed on her, pupils large and dark, Hopps' prey instincts took over and she did what all prey do when they sense a predator. She fled. Ran.

Or rather, she tried to.

Judy was quickly reminded that she was trapped. In a sunken exhibit, the wall was just a little to high for her to jump with her injured leg. Her injured leg. The smell of her blood probably wasn't doing her any favors either. Making her smell more appealing to Nick's now simpler and feral mind. Her blood and her fear. They were probably driving him crazy with want. With the need to sink his sharp canines into her. To taste her. To feed on her.

Casting her eyes around the pit, Judy searched for another way out. The wall was pointless. There was no way she was getting up on top of that. Even if she did, Bellwether would just push her back in.

Her injured leg giving out under her, Judy fell face-flat into the faux-sand of the exhibit. ...And found her nose pressed against cool metal. Opening her eyes, the frightened rabbit found that it was a ventilation grate. It was small. Meant to provide an upward draft for whomever was standing above the exhibit. It was not meant for actual Mammal access. The way it was sized, only small Mammals would be able to fit. The average Mammal would be to large.

But Judy wasn't an average Mammal. She was a small Mammal.

Ignoring the deadly fox stalking her -or rather, trying to ignore the deadly fox stalking her- Hoops began banging on the grate. Bashing the thin, weak, metal of it with a rock from the exhibit. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the bars of the grate began to bend and warp inward.

She felt Nick's hot breath on the back of her neck and rolled out of the way before he could snap at her. Before he could get his teeth in her. Before he could kill her.

Judy rolled over the faux-sand, stopping only when she collided with the exhibit wall. Concealed behind plastic ferns, her back to the wall, the fox -Nick, he was Nick!- coming toward her. Not knowing what else to do, Judy threw the rock at him. That at least was real. Real and heavy.

Her projectile didn't connect, however. At least, not with Mammal she aimed it at. It arched over his hunched shoulders and raised spine. Instead impacting on the ventilation grate she'd been banging on. She heard it impact on the metal. ...And heard it clang down the shaft. She got it open! Now, if she could just get back over there...

Nick was so close now.

Her heart was hammering against her ribs.

Blood pounding in her ears.

Adrenaline pumping.

She was going to die.

Freedom and safety was just a few feet away, but she was going to die.

Judy Hopps refused to die.

Summoning all her strength. Forcing herself to ignore the pain in her injured leg, Judy thought back to the last time she was pinned down by a hostile fox. Bringing her feet together, she kicked Nick. Kicked him hard in the face. On the side of the jaw. Sending his head to the side suddenly and at an awkward angle.

He bit his tongue. Possibly the inside of his cheek too. Judy heard the yelp of pain. But she didn't pause to look. She didn't need to appraise her handy work. She needed to get away. Hopping around the now injured and very, very angry fox, she dove for the open grate. Slipping inside just as Nick recovered. Her ears just missing his snapping teeth.

Nick tried to follow her. He stuck his head in the open hole. First his head, then his neck. But that was where he stopped. His shoulders to wide to make it through. He couldn't follow her.

That was when Judy finally paused. The strength draining out of her with the adrenaline rush that had created it. She looked at the head of the Mammal that she called friend. Snarling and snapping. Teeth and jaws bloody. His own blood. He had bitten the inside of his cheek in addition to his tongue. Head thrashing around in the narrow space. Open mouth spraying blood all over the tight enclosed walls. Splashing droplets over his nose and forehead. It was a disturbing sight.

But there was nothing Judy could do for him. She knew what made him like this, but not how to reverse it.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. He probably couldn't here her over his own snarling. Even if he did, he wouldn't understand. Words were wasted on a Savage. "I'll come back for you. I promise. I'll save you. Nick..."

Her eyes watered, but she didn't know if it was from the pain in her leg, a throbbing protest of the kick she'd delivered to his face. Or from emotions that she couldn't identify and certainly didn't have the time or opportunity to analyze right now.

"I'll save you." She said again before turning away from him. It was hard to turn around in the tight space, and her leg protested every motion. But somehow, she managed it. "Goodbye, Nick."

...

Finally hanging up the phone, Chief Bogo stared at it for a long moment. He must have been in shock himself. It didn't happen often anymore, he'd been at this job far to long to be taken so off-guard as to interfere with his critical reasoning and observation skills. Bogo couldn't believe he'd missed it there at the scene.

Nickolas Wilde -the Savage fox- was covered in blood. His face, his mouth, his teeth were covered in blood. No body was found. He was so uncharacteristically distraught from the news of Hopps' death that he hadn't questioned the fact that there was no body. The fox had eaten her. That was that.

But a fox couldn't have eaten everything.

A fox wouldn't have eaten her bones.

What had happened to her bones? What had happened to her body? What had happened to her?

If there was no body... was there even a crime?

Chief Bogo pressed a button on his desk phone. "Clawhouser, I need you to do something for me."

"Clawhouser was transferred to records, sir." Came back the polite voice of a ewe. "This is Maggie, I mean, uh, Muttonson. I keep forgetting you all use last names here. Muttonson, sir."

That was right, the department's public relations office decided that it made Mammals to uncomfortable to walk into their police station and see a predator as -not only the first thing they saw- but also the first Mammal they were required to talk to. To address that issue, Clawhouser was transferred to a different position within the department -a non-visible, non-threatening position. His desk was then given -not to another officer- but instead a receptionist that came recommended by the mayor's office.

"Would you like me to transfer you down to records?" Muttonson asked sweetly.

She really was a doll. Always so cheerful and polite. Eager to please. Bogo imagined her, hoof poised over the transfer button waiting for his confirmation that, yes, that was what he'd like her to do. But now that the Chief was over the shock he didn't know he was under, his cop-instincts were reemerging, and right now they were telling him not say anything about any of the questions he'd just been asking himself over the phone. Or an intercom. Or the radio.

It was the mayor that said Judy was killed. It was the mayor that said Judy was eaten. But if either of those things had happened there would have been some version of remains, and there were no remains. So then, did either of those things actually happen? If neither of those things had happened, then why would Mayor Bellwether lie?

"No need, Muttonson." He said. "It wasn't important."

"Yes, sir. If you need anything else just-"

He cut her off before the polite offer to continue to do the job she'd been hired for was finished. She really was a nice sheep. Always smiling. Eager to please. The perfect Mammal for public service, or clerical work... in a place like city hall. Bogo -personally- thought Muttonson lacked the steel in her spine to work in a tense (and sometimes violent) police station. She was a civilian, not an officer. She did not have the benefit of the training that an officer would have. But Muttonson came recommended by the mayor's office, so what could Bogo do. Her placement in the precent came from the powers that be.

Sitting in the quiet office now, the Chief drummed his hoof on his desk and thought about his missing officer.

If there wasn't a body, then chances are, she wasn't dead.

If she wasn't dead, then whatever happened to Officer Judy Hopps?

...