Notes: So, after reading the reviews for the previous version of this chapter, and after chatting with the awesome Cimar-WildeHopps, whom I'll never be able to thank enough for all the support and help he has given me, I decidednto rewrite the chapter, changing some bits here and there.
Hooe you'll like this version better, as I do.

EPISODE 7: WELCOME TO ZYSTOPIA

PERMIAN HILLS, 240 MILLIONS YEARS AGO

Nick slowly came back to his senses.
At first, it was hard to keep his eyes open: the bright sun blinded him, his head felt like it was about to explode and a sense of nausea was menacing to make him loose his breakfast.
He just wanted to go back to sleep.

'Why is it so hot here?' He wondered; his last memories were a haze, and trying to remember only made the pounding in his head worse.
The fox managed to get to his paws and knees, and turned his head to the left.

His gaze fell upon Koslov's lifeless body, and the events of the last hours flooded his brain, overwhelming him: Nick emptied the content of his stomach on the ground.
When his body ceased to shake and the gagging was over, he tried to get back on his feet: the fox crawled to a nearby tree and, leaning against it, managed to stand.

Nick took a few deep breath, then, still holding on the trunk, he looked around: the anomaly was really gone, it had been a bad dream.
He was trapped, marooned millions of years away from his home.

Panic began to grow inside him: what was he supposed to do now?
He closed his eyes, fighting back the urge to curl into a ball and cry; instead, he grabbed one of the lowest branch and pulled it.
Using that as cane, Nick began to head in the general direction Skye had walked off: if he could not go back to he present, he would have at least ensured that the vixen didn't make it to the future.

But once he got to the ridge of the hill, Nick realized he couldn't do that either: his forwmer wife was nowhere to be seen, and hadn't left any clue about where she had gone.

Nick sighed forlorn and turned back.
His gaze once again returned to the deceased bear: Koslov deserved better than to rotten under the sun and serve as buffet for the local fauna.
So he slowly began to collect every rock he could find and used them cover the body: in the end, he was looking at what resembled a rudimental burial mound.
Judging by the position of the sun, Nick estimated about three hours had passed since he had crossed through the anomaly.

He sat there, near the grave of his friend: Nick was thirsty and hungry, but no water nor food seemed to available nearby, and Nick wasn't sure how far he could walk in his condition.

'Beside, my best shot at getting back home is for the anomaly to reopen.' Nick thought.
'Yeah, because you've been that lucky lately, haven't you?' A far more pessimistic voice replied in his head.
Right then, with a flash of light an anomaly showed up 50 meters away from him.
Nick's jaws hung open, the fox incredulous he was really seeing that: without further hesitation, he gathered his remaining strength to reach it.

Those few meters felt like he had been running for miles: he staggered the whole way, afraid the glowing portal might close at any time, but eventually, he managed to cross the anomaly, or ,to be more precise, he fell through it.

The soft soil of the Forest of Dean welcomed his face, the taste of mud mixing with the acrid flavor of the vomit and the metallic one of the blood, but for Nick it was the best thing he had ever tasted.
'Maybe not exactly the best. Surely in the top ten.' He admitted to himself, spitting out some dirt.

He got back on unsteady legs and took a few steps forward, putting some distance between him and the anomaly.
He looked around, but no one was there except for him.

"A couple hours? Really!?" he shouted out loud to no one in particular
"Is that all it takes to give up on me?"

He felt some movement in the brushes behind him, but before he could turn around, something hit him on his nape: a tingling sensation spread all over his body, and all his muscles suddenly went limp, causing him to fell once again face-first into the ground.

Before blacking out, he heard a familiar female voice shouting his name, then cursing at someone else.

"LITTLE MALL ON THE PRAIRIE", MEADOWLANDS, 8:30 PM

Contrary to what the name suggested, Jacob's workplace was the second largest mall in Zootopia.
The security guard pushed a hoof against the door in front of him, confirming it was locked.

The goat turned around, to proceed in his usual inspection after the closure of the mall.
Everything had been normal, so far, like every single night before that one.
'Boringly normal' He mentally lamented.

He kept walking down the empty hallway, stopping abruptly as he heard noises coming from the door identified as toilets by a plaque on it.
"Damn kits!" He groaned under his breath.
it wouldn't be the first time some teen thought it'd be fun to hide and spend he night in the mall.
Understanding the reasoning behind that conclusion, though, was beyond him.
Sighing annoyed, Jacob opened the toilets room.

"Come on, come out! I know you are in he…"
Jacob froze as he saw the wall of scales, fangs and claws standing before him.
In his last moments of life, Jacob bitterly regretted it hadn't been another one of those boring night.

Nick was welcomed back to consciousness by the beeping noise of some kind of machinery.
He still felt dizzy, but he wasn't hurting anymore.
'Painkillers.' He realized.
The fox slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times to clear his vision, and smacking his dry mouth a couple times.

He was laying in a bed, in a hospital room.
Nick rolled his head on one side, and there she was: Judy was sitting in a chair next to him, looking away from him.

"I knew I had heard you, Carrots." He managed to say weakly.
Her ears perked up as she turned to face him.

"Nick!" A relieved smile spread on the doe's face.
She extended one paw toward him, but she stopped a few inches away, as if she was afraid he might disintegrate upon touch: when Nick tried to reach back, however, he found out he couldn't move.

Nick frowned confused, and shifted his gaze from Judy to his body, seeing that his limbs were strapped to the railings on the sides of the bed.
He also perceived something circular around his neck, like some kind of collar.
"Uhhh… Isn't this a little too kinky for a first date?" Nick asked, trying to hide his nervousness.

"I'm sorry, I tried to tell them this wasn't necessary, but…" Judy trailed off, clearly uneasy.
"Many things have changed, while you were gone."

Nick tilted his head, confused. "What do you mean?"
"Wait… Have I been in a coma?"

"No, you've slept only a couple of hours." She reassured him.
"Still…" She trailed off once again, fixing her eyes on him.

"What?"
Nick felt that something was off, but he couldn't really figure out what it was, his mind still a bit clouded by the painkillers.

"Nothing, it's… you look good." She stated.
Then, seeing the smug expression on his face, she quickly added: "That's not… I mean… for someone who has spent such a long time trapped in the Permian."

"Don't exaggerate… It has been… what? A few hours?" Nick said, shrugging.

"W-what do you mean by that?" She inquired, raising her brow.

"I've been gone for three hours. Four top. Not a big deal." He explained.

"Oh… sweet cheese and crackers…" Judy muttered, covering her mouth apparently shocked by the revelations.

"Judy… what is going on?" Nick asked, feeling that something was really wrong.
Then, he noticed a detail of her look that he had missed before: the doe had now two small earrings on her left ear, while the last time Nick had seen her, Judy didn't even had a hole in it.
Nick gulped nervously, a dreadful sensation beginning to fill him.
"Judy… how long has it passed since the day I've left?" Nick struggled to look calm, but he was getting harder to breath slowly each passing seconds.

"I… Nick…" She began, but Nick tuned her out when his eyes fell onto a calendar hanging on the wall: it read April 24th, 2018.

"2018" The fox mouthed, utterly stunned and shocked.
"It was 2016 when…t-two…two years?!" He almost screamed."Nonononono, this isn't right!"
Nick began to panic, trashing around and trying to free himself from the straps.
He had to go back, back to the past.
He had to fix this.

"Nick, please, calm down!" Judy begged him. "You'll only end up hurting yourself!"

But Nick barely registered her words, instead intensifying his struggles; he didn't even notice that the collar around his neck began beeping.
He noticed, however, when it released a small electric charge in his body, which made Nick yelp in pain.
The light shock helped him clear his mind a bit, and he relaxed a bit, ceasing his fight against the binding.

"Why do I have this?! It's Mr. Big's doing?!" Nick demanded, pointing at his neck with his finger the best way he could, given his restrains.

The doe slowly shook her head.
"We no longer work with Big. And that is a 'tame collar'." Judy explained to him with a sad sigh.
"Every predator wears one."

Nick was speechless.
How was such a thing possible?

As if reading his thought, Judy added: "As I was saying, many things have changed."

"LITTLE MALL ON THE PRAIRIE", MEADOWLANDS, 9:00 PM

"STOP!"

The car skidded to a halt right before the front door of the mall.
Connor got out in the chilly air of the night, double checking the screen of his device: there was no doubt, the anomaly was there.

"Thankfully it's closed." Abby noted beside him.

"Thankfully?! How are we supposed to get inside ?" Finnick grunted.

"Don't worry." Came a fourth, female voice as the mammal at which it belonged produced a smartphone from a pocket of her jacket. "I'm sure Wolfster can get us in with a couple of phone calls."

ZOOTOPIA GENERAL HOSPITAL, DOWNTOWN, 9:02 PM

Judy looked at the distraught fox laying in the bed before her: the left side of his skull had been bandaged to cover a bad wound, a couple of needles in his arms connected him to a drip to rehydrate the tod and many electrodes were attached to his chest to monitor his vitals.

The doe was still trying to wrap her head about the recent development: what for her had been years, for Nick had only been a few hours.
Yet another unwanted gift by the anomalies.
But he was still alive and ,for Judy, that much was enough.

"Tell me."
Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Nick's voice.
"Tell me what has happened since I've left." The fox repeated, almost pleading.

"Very well." Judy nodded.
"After the anomaly closed, we kept working with Mr. Big to contain the anomalies, but the shrew had lost trust in us; all his best mammals were dead or crippled for life, so he started limiting his aid to cover up our stunts. Beside that, we were on our own.
"On the bright side, Connor managed to built an Anomaly Detector, thanks to your hunch about anomaly generating interference, thus making our response time much shorter."

That news seemed to cheer up a bit the fox.
"That is how you were so quick to reach the anomaly when I came back." Nick guessed, and Judy confirmed by nodding again.

"Anyway, without any backup from Big, fighting the creature's incursion had become a full-time job, to the point where on month two after your disappearance, I quit my job at the ZPD.
Whenever we could, we would go back to the Forest of Dean, hoping you or Koslov would come back.
"Everything stayed that way for about six more months, when an anomaly opened and a stegosaur wreaked havoc in the city hall: we managed to send it back, but Mayor Lionheart had found out our secret."

"Now the existence of anomalies is public knowledge?" Nick interrupted, surpised.

"Thankfully, no. It happened late in the evening, when most of the personnel had already left and in a part of the City Hall that was being refurbished, so we managed to keep the number of witnesses at a minimum.
One of said witnesses being Lionheart himself, we were forced to explain him what was going on: luckily, he too was concerned about the mass panic that something like that would have caused, since a few other creature sighting from previous incursion we had handle a bit… sloppily had began to find their way on the web, arousing a few questions and concerns.
So, not wanting to throw more gasoline on the already big fire that was the predator-induced panic, he decided instead to created an organization dedicated to the study of the anomaly and the containment of the creature: the Anomaly Research Center, A.R.C. for short."
To prove what she was saying, Judy pulled out a badge from her jacket, which had her photo on it as well as the circular logo of the organization.

"You turned your hobby into a job." Nick summed up, smiling weakly.

"That I did." She replied nodding. "And the others too. A few other mammals joined us as well: James Wolfster has been appointed as the administrator of the organization. He is a bit cold and strict, but I think he cares for the team in the end.
Then, we have Dawn Bellwether, former assistant mayor, she is now our liaison with City Hall.
And finally, Katy Hopps."

"Hopps? Is she a parent of yours?" Nick asked, incredulous.

"Yep, she's one of my siblings, from my very same litter." She confirmed.
"She graduated in paleontology a few months after we found out about the anomaly; Lionheart wanted an expert on these creature we could trust, so I proposed her."

"Well, at least you found a proper replacement for me." Nick grumbled.

"LITTLE MALL ON THE PRAIRIE", MEADOWLANDS, 9:15 PM

Katy watched as Finnick picked the lock of the mall's main entrance.
As Wolfster had assured her, no alarm went off, as the wolf had contacted the agency providing that service to the mall and made them turn off the security system of the building remotely.

The bunny walked in first, her weapon ready in her firm paws.
She was mentally going over the training Judy had put her through: this was her first mission leading the team without her sister.
The main hall was clear.

"Guys, come in." Katy said as she ventured deeper into the mall.
"Connor, where now?"

"Keep going straight, the anomaly should be somewhere ahead of us." The red panda replied checking the pawheld anomaly detector he was carrying.

Katy nodded and went forward, only to stop a few steps later.

"What?" Finnick asked, annoyed.
It was clear that the fennec didn't want to be there, probably preferring to stay at the hospital with Judy; still, the had a job to do, and the fox would still be in that bed once the mission was be over.

The bunny pointed to the ceiling, were a surveillance camera could be seen.
"We can use the video surveillance to track down whatever got out of the anomaly." She replied; Katy knew better than to pick a fight with the grumpy fennec.
"Abby, Connor, you go to the security office, guide us from there. Finnick , you and I will head for the anomaly."

Abby and Connor nodded, and Finnick seemed to like the plan as well, thankfully.
The red panda gave Katy the pawheld detector, then went with the otter toward the security office.

ZOOTOPIA GENERAL HOSPITAL, DOWNTOWN, 9:20 PM

Nick remained quiet for a while, taking in what Judy had told him.
"Okay, but nothing of that explains why every predator in the whole city has to wear these!" Nick said, once again pointing at the tame collar around his neck.

"I suppose you remember what the situation was like when you left, after Happytown." Judy told him.
Nick nodded silently to confirm.
"Well, from there, the situation only grew worse: many aggressions, lethal ones, against prey happened, and that only increased the tensions between the two factions."

"Wait a second!" Nick interrupted her "The Happytown accident had been caused by a creature. Couldn't it have been the same case for the other aggressions?"

"At first, we thought the same." Judy replied gravely.
"In fact, we were convinced that creatures we weren't able to track down in time were to blame for the killings. When Connor finally managed to put together the first anomaly detection device, we actually hoped we might be able to put an end to the bloodshed."

"Let me guess: you weren't." Nick interjected snarky.

Judy slowly shook her head.
"The streak of killings kept happening, and the detector didn't pick up any anomaly opening when they happened…"
Nick opened his mouth to say something, but Judy was quicker.
"…AND no, we have no reason to doubt the accuracy of Connor's device. It has never missed an anomaly, when they did open up."

"In how many cases the culprit of the aggression has been arrested and proven guilty?" Nick inquired.

"Very few, actually." Judy admitted.
"But that doesn't change the fact that we have no reason to believe creatures were responsible of them: we investigated and searched the area of many of the aggression, but we never found any clue of an incursion.
"Anyway, many prey began to claim that predator where returning to a more… savage state, calling in some biological issues…"

"Pfft, that's ridiculous." Nick blurted out.

"… so, being a predator himself, Lionheart lost the elections one year ago. The new mayor, Dennis Hornwell, a ram, proposed a law to keep predator under control: the tame collars.
"They activate whenever a predator is experiencing a particularly strong emotion, whether positive or negative."

"And he has been allowed to do something like that!?" Nick exclaimed, baffled.

"A city-wide voting was held: seventy percent of the population voted in favor of it, and so the law passed."She said, clearly uneasy about the subject.

"I can't believe it! What kind of sadistic bastards would ever vote…"

"I almost did it myself." Judy muttered.

Nick almost missed it.
"I… f-for a moment there, I-I thought you said…" Nick stammered, refusing to believe to what the doe had just said.

"I wanted to vote to pass the law about the tame collars." Judy repeated louder, shaking a little.

Nick froze.
It was like being hit by Skye all over again, only this time the target had been his stomach.

"Why?" He finally managed to say in a hushed, flat tone.

"I kept thinking 'what if this is the beginning?'" Judy replied.

Nick frowned, confused.
"The beginning of what?"

"Of the Future Predators. You said it yourself: they were like bats regressed to a more 'savage, primitive lifeform'." Judy explained.
Nick recognized those last few words as being his own.

"Everything I've ever done, joining the ZPD, and then the ARC , I have done it with the belief I was helping other mammals. Knowing what the world might turn into, could I just stand there and watch it end?" She said somewhat somberly, her head hanging low.
"Eventually, though, I decided against it: if I was going to change the future, I was going to do it my way, without forcing other mammals to live terrible lives in the name of some 'greater good'."

"Damn dumb bunny, you used my words against me. Now I can't really blame you for thinking that, can I?" Nick finally said, after musing a little on Judy's speech, a soft smile slowly crept on his muzzle.

"It doesn't matter anyway: the law still passed, and now predators have to live in terrible condition, probably only because we are still missing some piece of the puzzle." She replied.

"Tell me one last thing: has the number of aggression decreased after the introduction of tame collars?" He asked her after a brief pause.

"Yes, it did."

"Then, something good did come out from the collars, even though I agree with you: there's still something fishy about this whole thing and you can bet I'm going to find out what is going on." Nick told her, confident.

Finally, the hint of a smile appeared on Judy's muzzle as well.
"I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this, together."

"LITTLE MALL ON THE PRAIRIE", MEADOWLANDS, 9:25 PM

Following the indications of the anomaly detector, Katy entered inside an arcade named 'Beep-Beep-I'm-a-Sheep'.
Strolling behind her, Finnick decided to ignore the stupid name of the establishment, or the fact that a sign on the door read 'NO PREDATOR ALLOWED INSIDE'.

As soon as they got in, however, Finnick focused is attention on the various destroyed items scattered all over the place.
He raised his left paw to his ear, activating the intercom, while simultaneously holding his gun in his right paw, ready to shoot at any sign of movement.
"Connor, Abby, do you copy? We have a confirmed incursion."

"Y-yeah, we just found the night watchmammal, or what's left of him." Abby stammered through his earpiece.

"Okay, keep moving toward the security office, we need to locate the creature." Katy interjected; looking over at her, Finn saw that she as well had her weapon drawn.
"Any clue on what it could be?"

"No, the body is too damaged to make out any sign of bites or claw marks useful to identify the creature. But it is definitively carnivorous." Connor filled them in.

"Of course. It's never something fluffy and docile." Finnick complained aloud.

"Then be careful. Let us know if anything else happens." Katy said, ending the conversation.

The bunny and the fennec fox kept following the signal of the anomaly, finally finding it in the back of a bowling alley.
"Well, looks like the creature is not here." Katy noted, relaxing a bit and lowering her gun.

"Then let's not waste any more time, we have to search this whole place." Finnick bluntly replied.
He wanted to get over with that mission as soon as possible, to get to the hospital where Nick was.
He had to ask a few question to the fox that, according to what Skye had told him, had been torn apart by a Future Predator.

He and Katy left the arcade, and began to sweep the ground floor of the mall, which was a painfully slow procedure, as the had to check every single shop and bar they came across.
They had almost searched the whole floor, only a few more establishment left, when hey came across the door leading to the locker room for the employees of the mall.

Finn and Katy exchanged a quick glance and a nod, then he kicked the door, storming in with his gun raised.
With the corner of his eye, the fennec saw something moving behind a bench, and began shooting: from his gun, instead of normal bullets, a series of small, white, glowing orbs erupted, leaving behind only some scorch marks on impact.

Finnick ceased to fire, though, as his target began screaming and begging him to stop.

ZOOTOPIA GENERAL HOSPITAL, DOWNTOWN, 9:35 PM

"EMDs?" Nick interjected to ask her.

"Electro Muscular Disruption weapons." Judy explained.
"They are a new kind of firearm we use at the ARC. Finnick and Connor came up with the project."
The doe noticed what looked like an angry twich on the fox's muzzle at the mention of the fennec fox, but it was just for a moment, so she wrote it off as a pain twich instead.

"How do they work?" Nick asked curious.

"I won't even try to pretend the science behind it" the doe admitted.
"Basically, they are powered by a battery and shoot some kind of 'bolts' of electricity, and have various settings, with the higher one of the most powerful version theoretically able to knock a T-Rex out cold.
"We use them as the chances of killing the creatures are lower, even if they can be lethal: they interfere with the muscular coordination of the creature and can nock them out, as you have experienced when an overzealous ARC soldier shot you when you came back from the anomaly."

"Yeah, that wasn't pleasant." The fox confirmed
"Well, looks like you've improved a lot in these two years." Nick commented.

Now that Judy had finally finished filling Nick in about almost everything that had happened in his absence, it was her turn to question the fox.
"Nick, what happened in the Permian?"

The fox hung his head, and sighed.
"Apparently, Mr. Big was right about Skye all along: she used us only so she could get to see the future. The last time I saw her, she was leaving with the Future Predator cubs, right after she had tried to crack my skull open."

Judy clenched her fists in anger.
That vixen was going to pay, sooner or later, and she would make sure of that.
"And… what about Koslov?"

"He died to protect us." Nick simply replied, and Judy knew better than ask him for more details right know.
He wasn't ready yet to talk about it.

"LITTLE MALL ON THE PRAIRIE", MEADOWLANDS, 9:40 PM

Abby cautiously opened the door to the security office of the mall; no one was inside, so he gestured to Connor to follow her in.

The room was small and thinly furnished, with only a chair in the middle facing a wall of screen and a small console.
"May I…?" Connor asked, pointing at the console.

"Be my guest." She made some room to let him pass, bowing jockingly.

Connor jumped into the chair and began looking at the monitors, immediately finding Katy and Finnick on one of them: they appeared to be in the locker room, and the bunny was helping a ram back to his feet.
While the red panda began pushing bottom and pulling levers to look through the tapes in search of any footage of the creature, Abby activated her intercom.
"Katy, Finnick, we reached the security room. Who's the guy with you?"

"A janitor, Doug Ramses." Katy voice came through her earpiece. "Finnick just shoot at him."

"Oh, shut up! I didn't even hit him!" Finnick's voice protested.

"Yeah, whatever." Abby could almost hear her eye-roll. "Any news about our creature?"

"Actually yes."
Abby turned her attention to the red panda, who was pointing a slightly shaking finger toward one of the screen.
The otter got closer to better see the still: it showed a big reptile, standing on two legs at almost two meters and long almost seven, as Abby estimated by comparing its size to the object near it.
The back of its neck, as well as the tip of its tail and its forelimbs were covered with brown feathers, while on the second finger of each foot it possessed a sharp, sickle-shaped claw.

"I-Is that what I think it is?" Abby stammered, horror and awe mixing at the sight of the creature.

Connor slowly nodded.

"Are you going the sbunny what you found out with us too, or we have to wait until that thing jumps out from behind a corner screaming 'SURPRISE!' ?" Finn asked impatiently.

"It's a raptor." Abby told them.

"And not even your average raptor: it looks like a Utahraptor, the biggest of them all." Connor added.

"One of the deadliest predator to ever walk this planet." Katy said aloud, worry creeping in her voice.

"Great!" Finnick groaned sarcastically.
"This was the right day to leave the backups behind at the ARC!"

"May I remember you it was you're idea to do such a thing so they wouldn't 'get in your way'?" Katy remarked.
Before the fennec fox could retort, the bunny added: "We must take this ram to a safe place. We are going to drop him at your location and then we'll deal with the creature. Can you guide us to you without us running into the raptor?"

"Yeah, I think so." Abby replied, gesturing to Connor to go back to locating the dinosaur.
After a couple of seconds, the red panda gave her a thumbs up.
"Okay, all clear."

The duo followed the bunny and the fennec as they disappeared from the screen where they had previously been and reappeared a moments later on the next one, now outside the locker room.

"Okay, go to the left: the security office is on the first floor, but you can't take the escalators, as the raptor is right in front of them."

"Then how do we get up there?" Finnick growled.

"You must reach he elevator." Abby replied, trying to sound as calm as possible, while actually her heart was racing: if she and Connor failed to guide them, they would end right in the jaws of the raptor.
"Keep moving forward: at the end of the hallway, turn left." She instructed them.

"WAIT, DON'T!" Connor contradicted her.

"Why? What's wrong?" Abby asked.
The red panda pointed his finger at one screen on the right corner, showing that now the raptor was exactly on the path Abby had told Katy and Finnick to follow.

"How did it get there so fast?!" Abby wondered out loud.

"It didn't." Connor replied, moving his index to a second screen.
When she looked at it, dread began to fill her.

"Connor, Abby, what's going on?" Katy asked through the intercom.

Abby gulped nervously.
"There's two of them."

Katy skidded to a halt.
'Of course there's two of them.' The bunny mentally scolded herself 'Raptors hunted in pack.'
"Okay, where are them?" The bunny asked.

"They are coming your way." Came Abby's panicked answer from Katy's earpiece.

The doe lowered her head, pondering on their options, her eyes darting from one point of the floor to the other, as if the way to get out of that situation could have been written on those tiles.
"Finnick, we are too exposed here; let's fall back into the locker room, it has only one entry point, it'll be easier to defend. " She finally decided.

"Agreed." The fennec replied, tugging along the ram.

"Would you please tell me what's going on?! And why is this pred is dragging me around?!" Doug demanded, speaking the slang word for 'predator' as if it had a disgusting taste.

Finnick turned around, furious.
"Listen here, I'm trying to save your life, you worthless piece of-" He was cut off by a sudden roar, coming from one end of the hallway.

The three mammals turned their head to look at the source of the sudden noise: one of the raptor had found them.
It threw its head back and let out a different vocalization, more high pitched.

"Keep slowly moving toward the locker room." Katy ordered with a whisper, and this time the ram complied without questions.
As the trio began to back away from it, the Utahraptor kept repeating that sound several time, until it finally got an answer.

'It called its partner!' Katy realized both with horror and fascination as she saw a second raptor appearing on the opposite end of the hallway, cutting them off from the locker room.
All she needed to do was a slight nod, and Finn understood what she wanted him to do: the bunny and the fennec raised their weapons, each of them keeping one of the raptors in their sight, while also putting themselves between the creatures and the ram.

"What now?" Finnick barked.

"I'm thinking about it." Katy replied sharply. "For now, let's stick close to each other: they'll probaly try to isolate us before attacking."

The two dinosaurs were approaching them, tentatively at first, but growing more and more confident as they grew closer to the three mammals.

"Abby, Connor, any suggestions?"

"We are coming your way: if you can resist for a couple of minutes, we can take them out from the first floor balcony." Connor replied in the intercom

"We don't have a couple of minutes!" Finnick hissed back.
Katy knew he was right: their version of EMD was the smallest, thought to be handled by mammals of their relatively small size, so it might take a few hits to take down an animal of the size of those Utahraptors.

"Can I shoot them?" Finnick asked

"Yes, do that!" The ram begged, as a stain began to form on his crotch.

"No!" Katy retorted.
"You would only entice an aggressive behavior on their part, and at that point they would attack us without hesitation: fire only if they attack first."

The raptors, in the meanwhile, kept closing in, now only a few meters away from them: Katy could smell the stench of rotten meat in the creature's breath every time it exhaled.
The raptors growled, and squatted on their hind legs, ready to pounce on the mammals.

That was when everything went south: Katy only heard a scream, and before she could stop him, Doug was running toward the door of one of the shops on the side of the hallway, probably hoping to find shelter in it.
Two things didn't work out in the ram's plan: first, the door was locked.
Second, now that he had separated himself fro the rest of the group, the raptor identified him as the easiest target to take down, and in the blink of an eye, the dinosaurs were on him.

The bunny's sensitive ears were filled with the terrible screams of the ram being eaten alive and the revolting sound of the flesh of the mammal being torn apart from the sharp teeth and claws of the raptors.

But she had no time now to feel sorry for the ram: she and Finnick took advantage of the creatures' distraction and ran for the end of the hallway, where they were met by a T junction.
A quick look at the signs let them know the elevators were on the left.

"New plan: regroup with Connor and Abby." Katy quickly stated as the pair headed for the lift.
A roar warned them that the raptors had noticed their absence ad that they were going after them.
The two mammals ran for their life, the ticking sound of the dinosaurs' claws on the floor growing louder behind them as the creatures began to gain ground.

When a few meters away from the elevator, Katy jumped toward it, turning in mid-air and pressing the button with a foot, then bouncing away from the wall and landing back onto her feet facing the raptors, EMD ready in her hands, as she began to fire.

Finnick crouched at her side and began shooting as well, but firing and hitting their target were two very different things: the raptors were remarkably agile, zigzagging and hopping to avoid the EMDs' projectiles.

Finally, Katy managed to hit on of them on its leg, and it fell snout-first onto the ground, blacking out.
The second one, however, managed to avoid every single hit, and leaped in their direction.
Katy rolled sideways, and the raptor ended up flying right through the opening doors of the lift.

The bunny quickly got up and pressed the button to close the elevator's doors, trapping the dinosaur in it.
Only then she realized Finnick was no longer beside her.

A few seconds earlier, as the raptor was leaping toward him, Finnick had took a few steps back, ending with his back against the door of the lift: when it had opened, he had fell through it, the raptor flying just inches above his head.

Then, the door had shut, trapping him in the elevator with a killer dinosaur.
Fortunately, the elevator had been built for bigger animals than himself, so there was room enough for him and the big dinosaur, even if barely.

Finnick felt around the floor for his EMD, but it was nowhere to be found: he realized it must have fallen on the ground outside of the lift.
He was unarmed, and the raptor had just noticed it wasn't alone.

Finn backed into the farthest corner from the creature; the raptor lunged for him and, in doing so, pressed the first floor button with its tail.
The fennec fox jumped to dodge the assault, landing on top of the creature's muzzle.

The dinosaur roared enraged and began to shake his head, trying to get rid of the unwanted passenger, but Finnick was holding on with all his might.
With a PING the door of the elevator opened at the first floor, where Connor and Abby were waiting with their weapons drawn.

"Finnick, move!" Abby shouted.

"I wish I could!" was Finnick snarky retort.

In the meanwhile, in its struggle to take the fennec off his snout, the raptor had pressed the button to the ground floor, and the door once again closed as the elevator began descending.

Finnick climbed on top of the dinosaur's head, barely avoiding its claws.
As the prehistoric rodeo went on, the elevator reached its destination and opened it doors before a stunned Katy.
"Finnick, why the hell are you riding an Utahraptor?!"

"I was getting bored." He barked. "Will you please SHOOT THIS DAMN THING?!"

Katy did so, but the raptor moved at the last second, the electric bolt form the EMD instead hitting the elevator's control panel, which exploded in a cascade of sparks.
The lift operating system short-circuited, and the cabin began to move up and down randomly, the door opening and closing as if it had a mind of his own.
"This isn't really happening." Finnick complained internally. "It's like the worst Zisneyland ride ever made."

The whole display went on for some time, with Abby, Connor and Katy watching it baffled and helpless until Finnick, in his attempts to avoid the raptor's slashes, pierced one eye of the dinosaur with one of his claws.

The creature let out a pained roar and jerked his head strongly up and down several time, until finally Finn lost his grip on the creature's snout and was thrown forward by the momentum, right when the door of the elevator opened on the first floor.

The enraged raptor lunged for him, his sharp teeth mere inches from the fennec, but luckily the door of the short-circuited lift abruptly closed around the neck of the dinosaur, which snapped with a loud CRACK.

The fennec breathed a sigh of relief as the body of the creature fell lifeless into the elevator.
"Okay guys" Finnick panted. "Let's clean up this mess and send back that other raptor to his damn era, so we can all go back home."

ZOOTOPIA GENERAL HOSPITAL, DOWNTOWN, 10:00 PM

"Really? I don't believe this." Nick said.

"And yet, that's the truth." Judy replied, shrugging.

"Connor and Abby are still just friends. Unbelievable." Nick laughed softly.
"Speaking of couples… what happened between us before-"

"Forget what has happened before." Judy sharply interrupted.
Nick gave her an interrogative look, and Judy seemed to realize how sudden her outburst had been.
"I'm sorry." She apologized. "It's just that…"
Nick could clearly see her struggle to find the words in her sad eyes.

"What? There's a law against predator and prey being together?" Nick joked chuckling, trying to lighten the mood.
His laugh died, however, when Judy somberly nodded.
"Seriously?!"

"Yes, unfortunately. But that's not the reason why I'm… holding back." She explained.

"Then what? Are you telling me what we hav… what we had wasn't real?" Nick asked, hurt and confused.

"No! What I felt for you… What I still feel for you, I've never had it with any other mammals. That's why I don't know if I could bear loosing that again." She told him with watering eyes.

"Every time an anomaly opens, it could spit out the creature that we'll kill one of us. Six months ago, my heart stopped for a full minute after I got poisoned by a creature; Finnick almost got bitten in half twice; Abby almost bled to death after getting pierced by a dinosaur claw, and I could go on with more." She explained, now openly sobbing.

"For two years I kept going back in that forest, hoping that one day I'd find you there waiting for me, with that insufferable smile on your face. And now that you finally made it back, I'm afraid I couldn't handle if something like this, or even worse, happened again to the mammal I love." Judy admitted, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm not ready to go back to what we had. Not yet."

Nick stared at the bunny before him, musing on her words. Then he smiled kindly.

"Oh, you sweet, emotional bunny." The fox said in a soft, soothing voice. "You warned me not to go, but I didn't listen to you and look at what happened.
"You've been waiting for me for two years, so I guess it's only fair if I have to wait for you; take your time. But I promise you one thing: I will never leave your side again. We'll get through this together." Nick offered Judy his paw and, this time, she took it without hesitation.

A few powerful knocks on the door brought the two mammals back to reality, Judy quickly removing her paw from Nick's.
"Can I come in?" A female voice asked.
Not caring to wait for an answer, the owner of the voice let herself in: it was a beautiful female bunny, around Judy's age, with brown fur and deep blue eyes.

"Hello, you must be Nick! Judy talks about you a lot! I am Katy!" She told him.
Nick repressed the urge to yell at her for interrupting his moment with Judy, and instead put up a kind smile.

"Nice to meet you, Katy. I'd shake your paw, but…" Nick lifted his wrists a bit to show his restrains.

"Oh, I can fix that." She replied, producing a small key from the pocket of her jeans. "The doctor says you can send you home, as long as you rest."

"Really? That's it?" Nick asked suspicious while Katy began to free him.

"Yeah… they are not too keen on keeping predators around for too long if they can avoid that." She replied with contempt. "Stupid specists."

"You'll also need a new place where to stay!" Judy realized.

"Why?" Nick asked, before catching up. "Oh, of course. Dead mammals don't need houses. I can stay at my mom's place."

"She thinks you are dead as well." Judy retorted. "Probably showing up at her door out of the blue wouldn't be the best idea."

"You're not wrong, Carrots." Nick admitted.

"Well, he could stay at our place for a few days, the couch is comfy after all." Katy said to Judy.

"I don't know…" Judy replied, clearly uneasy after the conversation they had just had.

"Come on, sis. He can sleep on the couch!" Katy retorted.

'I like this doe more with every passing second.' Nick thought, not daring to express the feeling in front of Judy.

"Fine…" Judy finally agreed.

"Great! Get ready, I'll fetch the paper for your discharge." Katy said, leaving the room.
She stopped right outside of the door.
"Oh, the others sends their regards. They had to report to the ARC and couldn't come." She added, then disappeared.

After that, Nick slowly got up from the bed, with Judy helping him out after he had almost fallen from it the first time he had tried to do so by himself.

"Before going home, I have a request." Nick told Judy as he put some clothes Katy had dropped for him.

"Sure, anything you need." The doe replied with no hesitation.

"I must visit a person."

RESTAURANT 'KOSLOV'S PLACE', TUNDRATOWN, 10:30 PM

Nick opened the door of the car and got out.
He shivered in the cold air of the night.
The restaurant had still the same sign of went he had left: seeing that something familiar in a world completely stranger was somewhat relieving for the fox.

He walked down to the door of the closed restaurant: he raised a finger to rang the bell, but all of a sudden all his solace vanished.
The fox dreaded what he had to do more than any creature.
Finally, he pushed the doorbell.

He had to wait a few minutes, but finally someone opened the door: a young polar bear greeted him.
"Hi Morris." Nick said.
When Nick had last saw him, Morris was as a little taller than Finnick: now, the bear could watch the fox in the eyes.
"Do you remember me?"

"Yeah, you are Mr. Wilde, on of my father's friend." He replied, looking at Nick suspiciously.
"What happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" Nick replied, pointing at the bandage on his head. "I'm just going to say one word: ladies."
Morris chuckled at that, and Nick smiled softly.
"Morris, I have a message. From you father."

Every trace of smile vanished from the bear's muzzle.
"I was there when your father…" Nick trailed off, unable to find the strength to say those words.
But hw knew he had to it: he had promised it to Koslov, and his son deserved it.
Judy had told him that the ARC had forbidden crossing anomalies after learning what had happened to him and Koslov, so they didn't recover the bears body.

Nick was the only one who could give some sort of closure to Morris.
He took a deep breath and force himself to went on, looking the bear into the eyes.

"When your father died, I was by his side. He saved my life.
Before passing away, he asked me to tell you he loved you." Nick managed to say, then braced himself for the bear's reaction.

The fox was expecting Morris to punch him, or at least shut the door in his face.
Instead, he hug him and began sobbing.
"Thank you." The bear whispered.

Nick hugged Morris back, and before he knew it, tears began to roll down his own muzzle as well.

NEXT TIME: as Nick tries to adjust to his new life, an anomaly opens at the Palm Hotel and a thick fog began pouring from it, bring deadly creatures along with it.