Or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Some learn this lesson the hard way.
AN: I do not own Zootopia or any of its characters. It belongs to Disney. And the very famous quote 'You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain' is not mine either, but from the Dark Knight trilogy by Christopher Nolan.
Chapter Two: The Deer and the Lion
In general, finding a long lost parent was a long and arduous process. You had to have enough money to hire a detective, said detective would have to be competent enough to find leads and those leads may lead to a dead end or to another lead and so on and so forth.
But when you're a hero cop at the ZPD who gets to pull a few strings because some mammals owe him favors, well, the process is a little less grating and quicker but no less difficult. So, during their simple patrol to Happytown, Nick and Judy took the opportunity to visit Nick's old neighborhood and asked around, expecting to find out a little more about Nick's little mysterious past.
The result?
Dead ends, dead ends, dead ends.
Nothing but vague memories. People said he was a nice fella, seemed very smart and well-spoken and was handsome enough to charm the prettiest girl in all of Happytown. All anyone knew was that the very intelligent Wendy Wilde actually had an offer to go to Foxford University in Londog, she wasn't exactly swimming in cash so instead, she worked as a modest pharmacist. She wanted to major in Chemistry and it was the closest thing she could find at the time.
In fact, Judy felt like she found out more about Wendy than she did Nick's father. A name. That's all they needed, really, a name. Just one name and they could match up the species and they could find him easily.
But as it turns out, even the name felt impossible to find. It was as if Nick's father was every bit of a hustler as he was, changing names like he changed shirts: Nick's neighbor swore his name was Philip, then his mother's former boss could have sworn it was Victor then the local doctor said his name was Bob. In short, if Nick's father didn't want to be found, it was like he couldn't have done a better job. A part of Judy secretly wanted to chastise the little town for not even bothering to question something as simple as a name.
"This is Happytown, Carrots, they don't care about your name as much as they do about whatever you can do to bring cash." Nick reminded her.
She wasn't happy about it, but that didn't make him wrong.
"There's gotta be some official record we can find off him! Are you sure you've never heard a name?" she asked.
Nick shook his head, "Let's try Philip. I'm pretty sure his name starts with a 'fff' sound."
Judy sighed. They were grasping at straws here, but they didn't have much of a choice here.
Some cop you are...you can uncover conspiracy theories and political plots but you can't even find your best friend's family.
"I'm sorry, Nick. I didn't think it would be so hard..." Judy apologized.
Nick shook his head, "Hey, Carrots, this isn't your fault. You're a lot more upset about this than I am."
"I know, it's just that...well, I really thought we were going somewhere." Her ears drooped.
"Yeah, but these things take time, even for cops." Nick reminded her. Judy's ears were down and her lips were still pursed as they always were when she was displeased about something. If anything, it was kind of cute how she worried so much over something that was more for him than anything.
Unable to handle himself, he put an arm around her shoulders and held her close in a semi-hug, "Aw, come on, Carrots, cheer up! Tomorrow, patrol'll probably be somewhere else. We could check there."
"You know, I'm starting to think your dad wasn't actually from Happytown. Maybe he..." But before Judy could enter that 'think-and-talk-out-loud' phase, she stopped when she noticed that Nick's footsteps slowed down until he was finally in front of a certain building and stared at it, jaw slightly dropping, eyes wide and ears falling.
"...Nick?"
Nick immediately shut his mouth, but try as he might, he couldn't answer her. It was like the mere sight of the door had him paralyzed. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear a young fox crying.
'No! What did I do wrong, you guys?! Please! Tell me what did I do wrong?'
"Nick!" Judy said, squeezing his arm and snapping him right back to reality. "What is it?"
Her voice had been full of concern for him, but whether she realized it or not, her paw was ghosting over gun. It suddenly occurred to Nick that that simple action wasn't unfamiliar to him. She did it very often. Anytime she felt like danger was near or she needed to protect someone or something, she would reach for her tranquilizer gun and was prepared to defend anyone.
Despite himself, a chuckle escaped him. The first noise he made since he saw that damned door.
As Nick would say, 'the gears in Judy's mind' started running, until she made a connection: Nick only looked like that when he was scared. A quiet Nick was a serious Nick. There were few things Nick could ever be serious about and one of them was that despicable event that happened when he was younger.
And given how they were in Happytown, where he spent most of his childhood...
"Oh, Nick..." she said softly, "Is this-?"
"It's okay..." Nick immediately said. Then he found himself pleasantly surprised, "Huh...it really is okay."
And weirdly enough, Judy believed it. The closer she looked, the more Nick almost seemed...amused by the whole thing, evidenced by that smirk that slowly quirked on the corner of his lips. Nick looked back at her and noticed how she may have believed him, but was still demanding an explanation.
"It's funny." Nick said, "I've never felt so low in my entire life as I have when I was here before."
It was a sad story. But there was no sadness in his voice. It was almost as if he was filled with mirth, in fact, like he was seconds away from delivering the punchline to a joke.
And if anything, it confused Judy.
"And that's funny because...?"
"Because how do you feel everytime you see Gideon Grey and that jerk weasel and your former classmates and all of those mammals who told you that you were never going to be a cop now?" Nick began, waving his hand, waiting for her to finish the punchline.
And Judy imagined it. All those times she was told she was crazy. In elementary, how patronizing the adults were. High school, the snickers of other classmates when they talked about the 'delusional Hopps girl'. Even when she first came to Zootopia, those who claimed she was just some token bunny, not a real cop.
But now look at her: first bunny cop. Face of the ZPD. Has solved twelve great cases in the past two years. Saved Zootopia and in some cases, the world, many times. Now she's an idol for many, and it's thanks to her that many bunnies, including her own brothers and sisters, that they're all willing to try everything to be who they want to be.
And now she imagined it from Nick's point of view: once upon a time, he wanted to help people. He wanted to be part of a pack. And they told him that no one would ever trust a pred.
...And the very same little boy grew up to be ZPD's first fox cop, saved Zootopia countless times, even inspired a few of his fellow criminals to go straight, proved that you can change if you try hard enough and was now a hero to both prey and predator.
So did she find it funny in an ironic way? Yes. Yes, she did.
And so, a smile slowly crept in her face and before she knew it, a laugh burst out. She put her paws on her mouth in some attempt to keep her laughter in, but the more it thought about it, the sillier it seemed. Words and experiences that once haunted them now seemed like a bad dream. A movie starring a bunch of silly kids who never knew what they were talking about.
But it was when Nick himself started laughing hard that Judy's laugher followed immediately right after.
And around them, they got stares and glances. What could have been so funny that it had a fox and a bunny laughing so hard that one of them was wiping tears from their eyes and the other leaned against the wall, leaning as he clutched his stomach? Of course, some thought they were just insane. Others recognized the faces of the ZPD and were suddenly curious as to what had them laughing so.
If anyone asked either one, they couldn't really tell you. It's not even one of those 'you had to be there' kind of things. It was a 'you had to have lived it' kind of thing. There was a delicious irony as they proved their childhood demons wrong. But look closer, and you'll notice there was even some kind of tears of joy there. Both of them knew they had changed, but it is only now, as Nick Wilde stumbled onto the place where he lost all hope, that he realized to what extent how different he was now.
So, what exactly inspired the laugh? They were just happy, insanely happy, because they realized their dreams came true. No, no, that wasn't enough. Their dreams came true and they received so much more than they even knew they wanted. And really, how many mammals could say the same?
After the laughter had died down, they still found some strength to walk back to their car. Before Judy started the engine, they just sat and stared into the streets of Happytown, not really thinking of anything in particular. Just enjoying the moment after a huge spike in euphoria.
"You know, I can hear the gossip blogs now: ZPD's hero cops now insane!" Nick finally said after a while.
Judy giggled, "If Bogo asks, we'll just tell him that it's an old picture taken from when we got hit with that crazy laughing gas from the Jackal Napier case."
"Hmm. Sly bunny." Nick praised.
"Dumb fox." Judy joked.
All they did was drive for twenty feet when the sound of a desperate scream shocked them into their cop mode. When they turned their heads, they saw a lion desperately chasing after a car.
"Stop that car! They took my son!"
Both Nick and Judy sprung into action. Judy stepped on it and pursued the black car, driving frantically enough to almost hit a few pedestrians. Thankfully, this was right before rush hour, so the streets were relatively deserted and safe.
Nick squinted, and he could see a young fawn screaming at the backseat window and pounding against the glass. In a split second, the fawn fell down, disappearing from his view. Nick thought he saw another figure other than the fawn...either way, he feared the worst and quickly grabbed his communicator to call it in.
"Vehicle pursuit in Happytown headed for Tundra Town! Car is a black Afura with the license, suspect seems to have kidnapped a young fawn but the car has no license plate, I repeat, no license plate!" Nick quickly called, but fell backwards as Judy swerved right. This was bad. They were heading towards Tundra Town and the icy roads were no place for a car chase!
"Shoot the tires!" Judy yelled. Nick took out his none-tranquilizer gun and tried to aim as he sat on the car's window. Now, Nick was fairly good at aiming but as they head further into Tundra Town's territory, the icy roads were making it difficult to drive at this speed, causing him to have to alternate between maintaining his balance, not falling off the car, and shooting the quick tires.
They were never going to make it this way.
Unless...
Nick quickly looked at his surroundings. They were quickly headed to the center of Tundra Town. Only one of those exits led away from Tundra Town other than the one they just came out of and the criminals would, of course, never think to go back. But Nick recognized this place. Knew it like the back of his hand. Heck, he even knew places officials didn't thanks to...
"Carrots! Go left after that stoplight!" he said.
"Left? And lose them?!" Judy yelled.
"Just trust me, go left!" Nick said, sliding back inside. Unsurprisingly, Judy swerved left as he requested, with the criminals going right to the only exit away from Tundra Town.
"Alright, Slick, what's the plan?" Judy asked.
He didn't say a word yet, but just as Judy was going to demand an answer, his paw reached out to hers on the wheel, "Stop here! We need to get out!"
"What?" Judy said, but obeyed nonetheless. Even after two years, she still found herself questioning her partner's oddball plans. But if she had to guess, she knew that he probably knew something no one else did.
They both jumped out of the car and Judy followed as Nick began to run to an alley. It was a seemingly dead end, just an alley with a dumpster. "Help me push this away!"
Judy wanted to ask 'why' and say that they were losing precious time! But complaining would probably lose more time, so she followed him and pushed the dumpster away, revealing a sewer hole, which Nick quickly opened, "Get in!"
So Judy climbed down, Nick following her and closing the sewer hole. As soon as they got down, Nick began to run and Judy quickly followed, this time, he finally revealed his thoughts, "There's a shortcut in these sewers that lead to the tunnel right after Tundra Town's exit! We should get there before them!"
"And how exactly do you know about this place?" Judy couldn't help but question, although she had a hunch that she probably knew how.
"This was one of uh...Mr Big's ways of getting around without being caught." Nick explained sheepishly.
"Of course it was." Judy rolled her eyes, though she can't deny how handy this new knowledge was.
"Any ideas about how we stop them from there?" Nick asked.
"What?! I thought you had a plan?" Judy asked.
"Hey, I got us this far!" Nick defended, making Judy groan. Instead of chastising him, she began to think. How could they stop the car without hurting the fawn? She thought about what she had with her: her tranq gun and her normal gun, a police baton, a handcuffs and-
"Spikes! The strip spikes!" she cried, opening one of the larger pockets of her belt and grabbing metal strips with blades attached to them, "This should slow them down!"
"See? I had total fate in you, Carrots!" Nick grinned, which only resulted in Judy rolling her eyes once again, but even she couldn't help her smile.
"We really need to work on this 'me finishing your unfinished plan' thing because I swear, one day I won't have any ideas!" Judy called out as they finally reached the ladder to the tunnel.
"Oh, please, like that's ever going to happen!"
As soon as they climbed out the sewer hole, Judy's keen ears could already hear a car on its way. Judging by the frantic tire noises and the quick speed, it had to be the kidnappers.
She quickly put the strip down and rolled it until it reached the other end of the tunnel. Nick stood on the other side and they gave each other a thumbs up, grabbing their guns and getting ready to save the kid.
Just as predicted, the black Afura was drivingly quickly. So quick that even if the driver had the time to see the spikes, he couldn't have reacted. The tires rolled over the spikes and quickly slowed down, but not without driving frantically before crashing into the wall.
Nick and Judy quickly ran to it and held their guns high. As Judy was closer, she reached to the front of the car while Nick waited in the back.
Now, this sort of situation alternated: sometimes Nick would check out these things first, othertimes like now it was Judy. But whoever it was, they always somehow fought to be the one to verify, because the one who had to be left behind always had this nervous and skittish feeling when they saw their partner tiptoe around uncertain danger. Even now, Nick's fear caused him to grip his hold tightly, ready to shoot if need be.
"ZPD! Come out slowly with your paws up!" Judy yelled. A second passed. And another. And another. It was impossible to see through the dark tinted windows, so Judy decided she had to check in for herself.
Slowly and cautiously, she opened the car's door, but what she saw shocked her.
"What?" Judy breathed, putting her gun down and diving right into the car.
"Carrots, wait!" Nick yelled after her, immediately following her into the car.
No one. Not the two odd figures Nick saw before, just a tiny little fawn, not one scratch on him body, seemingly unharmed, nothing wrong with him except the fear in his eyes. "Please help..."
Judy quickly jumped and took the shivering fawn in her arms, "Shh, it's okay, it's alright...we're the police. We're here to protect you."
The fawn kept shivering and snuggled closer to Judy, who looked at Nick, both filled with pity on their faces. But Nick's fights began to light up with red and blue, indicating the presence of one of their own here.
A while later, the young fawn was wrapped in a red blanket and given a warm cup of tea, Judy still sitting close to the young fawn as Nick, aswell as Fangmeyer and Delgato, both investigated the car for paw prints or any DNA sample that could be taken.
The fawn's been pretty quiet so far, but Judy thought it would be best to keep the fawn talking, if not to distract him for a while. "So, can you tell me your name?"
"R-Ronno.." the fawn answered.
"So, who are your parents?" Judy asked.
"..." the fawn remained silent again, cuddling with his own blanket.
She didn't want to press, but this was a rather bizarre kidnapping. If she wanted to solve it, she needed to have all the facts. "Ronno, could you tell me who your mommy and daddy are?"
"Jane Doe." the fawn answered, "That's my mommy. John Kingsley is my daddy."
"Oh..." Judy nodded, understandingly. She remembered seeing a lion claim his son had been kidnapped. He must have been a step-father, or perhaps little Ronno here was adopted.
Here comes the painful question: "Ronno, I know this is hard, and you've been a brave little boy throughout this whole ordeal. But I have to ask...can you identify the mammals who took you?"
"No." Ronno answered quickly. Too quickly. "I can't."
"Really? Not even what species they were?" Judy asked skeptically.
"...I'm not sure what species they were." Ronno answered, this time a little softer.
Judy wanted to ask more questions. Like does he know why they'd kidnap him? Were they friends of family's? Or enemies? Did they even know him? Or were they complete strangers?
But judging from Ronno's still shivering body, Judy thinks those two questions alone pushed him a bit far. She figured she could be patient about this. After all, he wasn't harmed. He seemed relatively okay, except perhaps for the little scare, but that may be expected, after all.
Still...it didn't make sense. Did they suddenly change their minds about kidnapping him or something? That's what it seemed like. She made a mental note to check the cameras around here. But why this fawn? Or rather, why was Ronno so quick to say he couldn't identify his kidnappers? He wasn't blindfolded, not as far as Judy could tell. In fact, he seemed perfectly in tact, physically. There was no signs of struggle. No claw marks, no bruises, no scratches. Heck, why kidnap him in broad daylight? What were they trying to prove, if anything?
That car is too big to be that of a small-sized mammal, but not big enough to fit, say, a rhino or a giraffe. The kidnappers had to have been the size of either a medium-sized dog or a large lion. Or at least, the driver was. But that being said, where was the driver? Where was the second person Nick said he saw, for that matter?
"Mommy! Daddy!" said Ronno, who completely broke Judy's train of thought. She looked up to see the young fawn forget about his fear and run up to his parents. His father, John Kingsley, she presumed, picked him up and hugged him, and Jane Doe quickly wrapped her own arms around little Ronno.
The sight warmed Judy's heart. It reminded her why she was doing all this. To make sure that good mammals like them could be protected and happy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nick sit beside her, "And Wildehopps saves a life and reunites a family all before lunchtime."
Judy chuckled, "What do you think happened? To the kidnappers, I mean?"
"Hard to tell. But I'm guessing that it wasn't our scary demeanor that made them give up and turn away from a life of crime."
"Hmm..." Judy thought out loud, "For now, let's just be happy that the family's safe."
"Agreed." Nick nods.
They both stared at the oddball family with fascination and a curious feeling in their chests. A lion and a deer. Now, there's something you don't see everyday. Interspecies couples weren't exactly as repressed as they were twenty years ago, but they always remained a minority. Predator/prey relationships were practically non-existent. Yet here they were, a young couple just happy to have their son back, enjoying a tender moment.
"Hey, Wildehopps, nice work." Fangmeyer complimented as she and Delgato walked towards them.
"What this? Pff, this is an off day for us. Really, usually, the criminals don't get away." Nick said, half-sarcastically and half-serious.
"Ah, don't sweat it, Wilde. You guys did good. The kid's safe, the family's happy...This particular family could use a little happiness." Delgato commented.
"Oh? You know them?" Judy asked.
"Know them? They've been coming to the ZPD for weeks, asking for protection against threats. Some anti-interspecies group." Delgato explained.
Just like that, a knot formed in Nick's stomach. It was a taboo subject, but even though Zootopia preached tolerance and acceptance, they knew that interspecies couples today still can't kiss in public without the usual look of disgust or disapproval, even though 'normal' couples did worse on a daily basis. In fact, any couple that wasn't an intraspecies and heterosexual couple always encountered problems and threats. Sometimes they were empty, othertimes they weren't. Every officer on the force has encountered their fair share of hate crimes, each more grizzly and horrible than the last.
Nick's eyes wandered to Judy, then found himself staring at his feet. He let out a heavy sigh that was, unsurprisingly, covered by Judy's outburst.
"What?!" Judy exclaimed, "And we've been doing nothing?"
"We can't, Hopps, you know that..." Fangmeyer said.
"Right..."Judy said, but the disapproval laced in her voice had been obvious and loud, "Unless there's a physical occurrence, we can't do anything about anonymous threats. I still think there's something wrong about that rule, by the way."
"You and everybody else." Fangmeyer said, "But it's a sad truth: if the ZPD investigated and protected every civilian who was threatened, then we'd have to protect sixty percent of Zootopia alone."
"Well, this has gotta count as a physical occurrence, right?" Nick asked, "I mean, the kid was kidnapped, what more do you want?"
"Oh, this is going to be investigated, no doubt about that." Delgato agreed, "You two'll probably be the ones on the case."
"We're already on the Night Howler case, though." Judy reminded them.
"Yeah, but there's something really off about this kidnapping. Something just doesn't feel right. And you know anytime there's an oddball case, Bogo's gonna give them to you guys. Besides, the Night Howler busts are probably just the work of copycats." Fangmeyer argued.
Before Judy could argue, Nick remembered the family, "Hey guys, think you can handle the car and the perimeter? I think Ca-Officer Hopps and I should take the family home. Maybe talk to the parents a while, see if they have any leads."
"No problem." Delgato nodded, "You will have to explain this to Bogo, though."
"Thanks, pal! We owe you!" Nick grinned as he and Judy went over to talk to the family.
"Um...Mrs Doe? Mr Kingsley?" Judy began, uncertain of how she should refer to them, "I'm Officer Judy Hopps and this is-"
"Officer Nick Wilde, yes, we know you two, we're big fans." Jane Doe grinned, "And obviously, we cannot thank you enough for saving our little boy."
Jane gave her son a little squeeze on his shoulders, causing him to giggle. The first happy noise Judy's heard out of the kid.
"Well, that's what we do at the ZPD." Nick said kindly, "If you wouldn't mind, we would like to talk to you about who you think would have any motivations behind this, but we figured it'd be better to take you home first."
"Oh, certainly, that would be very helpful, especially since we rode here with your fellow officers." John thanked, "Actually, you two haven't had lunch, right? Why don't you come have lunch at our restaurant? Our little way of thanking you. Our treat, of course."
Nick and Judy laughed, but accepted. They still needed to eat, after all, and what's the harm of regaining a little energy and talking to the parents while they're at it? A free meal and a few leads. Sounded like a great deal to them.
Behind them, Delgato stared at the family and his friends with curiosity. He recognized John Kingsley, being one of his playmates when they were cubs. He would have never figured him to be an interspecies kind of guy, but hey, if it made the guy happy, more power to him. He remember Kingsley being a nice guy, always standing up even for the little guys. With a big heart like his, it shouldn't come as no surprise that he'd be open to interspecies relationships.
Which, speaking of...
"You know why Wilde's been so quiet, don't you?" Delgato asked Fangmeyer, who immediately snorted. "Wilde? Quiet? No such thing. Then again, neither is Hopps."
"No, seriously." Delgato said, "Think about it: this is basically a hate crime against an interspecies couple."
Fangmeyer rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I got that, what's got to do with Wilde and-Oh."
"Yeah, dumbass. Oh." Delgato nodded, shaking his head.
Fangmeyer blinked for a second, watching as Wilde opened the door for the family to get in first before going into the front seat. She sighed, shaking her head, too. "They're good folks, David. Really, they don't deserve this."
"Do any of us?" David Delgato questioned Fiona Fangmeyer.
She didn't answer. Only stared in pity as their friends drove off to uncertainty. Everybody liked Nick and Judy. They only wanted what was best for them. Sometimes, though, it does happen that Fiona wonders what 'best' meant. Her cousin in Japawn thought that getting involved with a panda would be what was 'best' for her, and apparently they're kind of heroes in their own right over there, but even in Japawn, her sister and her boyfriend got stares and hushed whispers everywhere they went.
But then she remembers how the sister she once thought to be cold and stoic cared so much for her panda, and how her panda cared so much for her. In the end, Fangmeyer figured that it didn't matter what she thought was best. It wasn't her life to live, after all.
Besides, if there was ever a pair who could go against the world and live to tell the tale, Fangmeyer would easily put her money on those two.
Which she technically did ever since Clawhauser started that betting pool.
"Meh. I'm still rooting for them." Fangmeyer decided, turning back to the car.
At that, Delgato chuckled, "Yeah, you and everyone else. Although you know what, speaking of, you know those Night Howler busts? I think Hopps was onto something when she was all suspicious about it."
"How so?" Fangmeyer questioned.
"I heard some agent from the ZBI's coming to help Nick and Judy on the Night Howler case." Delgato said.
"What?! ZBI?!" Fangmeyer screeched, "Jeez, just how big is the Night Howler thing? I thought they were just copycats?"
"First of all, that term: offensive."
"Sorry." Fangmeyer said sheepishly.
"It's alright. Anyway, to answer your question, I've got no idea what's going on. But if they're bringing ZBI into this, I'd say we need to worry." Delgato said.
"Wow..." Fangmeyer whispered, more in horror than fascination, "Well, hey, we don't need to worry, right? This is Hopps and Wilde we're talking about. There ain't no case they couldn't crack."
Delgato bit his lips. He didn't answer, but he honestly hoped that Fangmeyer was right. But realistically? Two years. It's been two years and Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde have cracked some tough cases, have had perfect and pristine records and their hospital bills never exactly required surgery or anything life-threatening. That was lucky. Too lucky. And no matter how good of a cop you are, there's no way your entire career can stay that perfect.
Two years is a long time to have a winning streak. Truth is, David Delgato was just a little worried that the 'Wildehopps' streak would end and when it does, they would lose when Zootopia would need them the most.
AN: OK, so in this chapter, three not-so-subtle references: one to Tim Burton's Batman movies (yes because this fic is SO light on Batman references), the second one to Kung Fu Panda (and this reference is impossible to miss, by the way) and the third, well, less of a reference and more than a hint.
For those deep into the Zootopia fandom, at the mention of an agent, you're probably thinking: OH GOD IT'S ONE OF THOSE STORIES. And to that I say...yes and no. Let's just say I delight in twisting the expected. And oooh, I can hear the conspiracy theorists thinking of what I mean by that. What I mean is: look underneath the underneath. Which is a pretty fancy way of saying it's not what you think.
So. What's up with Ronno, that little weirdo? Who were those kidnappers? What's their deal? Why does EVERY Zootopia fanfiction have that cliché angle of Clawhauser starting a betting pool on Wildehopps? Because it's a freaking hilarious concept, that's why. Next chapter, we get a little more insight with the Does and Kingsley and as we've established Wildehopps' friendship, now it's time to dive into deeper territory.
And honestly, the next chapter has one little scene I'm particularly excited to write, so stay tuned!