For a moment, Judy laid there completely stunned, the breath gone from her lungs. Her entire body suddenly ached, with her ribs sore and her head throbbing as if someone had just bashed her over the head with a baseball bat. Her ears were ringing; her jaw hurt; her face and knees were cut. The bunny blinked hard, trying to clear her head and make sense of the situation.

It was like a canon had gone off. A deafening bang had filled the air, a blast shook the earth, and the house seemed to crumble around the couple in an instant. One moment, Judy had been clinging on to Nick near the front door, then there was a black flash, and a roar of hot wind that slammed the tiny bunny across the room. Now, she was lying on the floor – or at least, what remained of it. With some difficulty, Judy pulled herself into a sitting position and let her eyes slowly scan the scene.

The room around her was unrecognizable.

The light around her was wrong, the air filled with a chemical fog that burned her nose and throat. A thick blanket of white dust clung to the air, coating everything in the immediate area, and the ground was littered with what she was sure were chunks of wood and plaster. Part of the ceiling had caved in, obliterating the room below it.

Judy stood, swaying on the spot as she tried to make sense of her location. The world around her seemed to be spinning at a dizzying speed.

"Nick?" Judy's voice came out as a rasp, her voice weak and ragged.

Judy forced her burning throat to swallow and took a single numb step forward. About a dozen feet in front of her, she thought that she could just make out the outline of the front door, now half gone and hanging off its hinges. The couple had just been standing in front of that door, talking, and now Judy couldn't make sense of her surroundings and Nick was nowhere in sight.

"Nick?"

Feeling as if she were dragging herself through a snow bank, Judy began to trudge forward through the surrounding debris. She hadn't gone more than a few feet when she saw movement on the ground, making her stop.

"Nick? Is that you?"

Judy waded a few steps closer, and Nick came into view. He was flat on his back, his body whitened with dust, nearly invisible in the wreckage. His hair was blown awkwardly upward, and the side of his left arm was striped with ugly burns. Above his right ear, there was a sticky black blotch of blood that stood out in contrast to the white.

"Nick," Judy coughed as she collapsed near the figure. She quickly pulled the fox into her lap, cradling his head in her arms as she did so. Judy couldn't tell where the blood on Nick's head was coming from, but the burns on his arm seemed to be the worst of his condition. The rabbit touched his face tenderly, moving his right ear carefully to examine the wound. Nick whimpered quietly at her touch.

"Nick, hey, I'm right here," Judy breathed, pulling her paw back from his face. "I got you, okay? I got you."

Her paws shaking slightly, Judy ripped the sleeve of her shirt, tearing a piece of fabric away. Balling up the fabric, she placed it on Nick's head where she believed the gash to be. Applying pressure to the actively bleeding wound, Judy readjusted Nick in her lap, still talking to him as she did so. She was now looking around at the stark room again, trying to determine where the blast had come from. Nick wiggled a little under her grasp.

"Shhh, just lay back," Judy cooed. "Just relax. You're going to be alright, Nick. I'm right here."

"Tell me, did the police training academy prepare you for this, Judy?"

The silky voice cut through the silent chaos like a knife, sending sharp shivers right up Judy's spine, paralyzing her momentarily. Judy felt her paws go stiff, slacking in pressure on Nick's wound. The deafening sound of her own heart beating filled her ears, her breathing turned ragged. It had been months since she last heard that voice.

Judy looked up just in time to see the deadly vixen saunter out of the dusted air and into sight, a small pistol in her right paw and a dangerous smile on her face. She looked much thinner than the last time Judy had seen her, almost gaunt now as her originally full seductive figure had become boney. The dark circles under her eyes betrayed her sleep deprived state.

"You know, it really is rude not to reply when someone addresses you," the fox spat after the only reply she received was an awestruck look.

Judy was unable to speak, still paralyzed at the sight of the fox who had singlehandedly scarred her emotionally and physically more than any other criminal the bunny had faced over the years. Nick once again wiggled in Judy's lap, and the rabbit was startled when she felt one of Nick's paws slip into one of her one. At his unexpected grasp, Judy quickly looked down and found the fox awake.

Their eyes met.

"Hey, Carrots," Nick said in a thick voice.

"Hey, there, sleepyhead," Judy chuckled softly. "You've got a bad cut on your head; try not to mov- ah!"

In one swift movement, Valerie snatched Judy out from underneath Nick and threw her back onto the ground, kicking more dust up from the demolished floor and into the air. Judy blinked in surprise, coughing hard as she tried to catch her breath after having the air knocked from her lungs. The room seemed to spin around her.

"I'm sorry, did you think we were done?" Valerie snapped, her pistol aimed right at Judy.

"Sorry," Judy gasped. "But my manners don't really apply to psychopaths."

"I see Nicky isn't the only one with a mouth," Valerie laughed coldly.

"Leave her alone!" Nick shouted from the floor as he struggled to stand. The blow to his head had left him dizzy and disoriented, and he struggled to focus on bringing himself to his feet.

"Oh, lay down before you give yourself a brain bleed," Valerie huffed as she forced Nick back to the ground with her foot. "You always have to play hero, Nicky, but I'm not interested in you, so do us all a favor and be quiet for once. Maybe if you opened your ears as much as your mouth, you would have known that your nagging wife was right all along."

"I knew this was you," Judy sighed, bringing the vixen's focus back to the bunny. "I've known since you broke in and tore the place apart. You just did it to put me on edge."

"You know me too well, Judy."

"You followed us around the entire trip, didn't you? Listened to all of our conversations. You bugged the house the night you broke in."

"Right again!" Valerie laughed.

"You didn't place the bomb then, though," Judy thought aloud, speaking slowly. "No, you did that when we were at the beach yesterday; helping that rabbit. We left the back door open."

"It was a wonderful opportunity," Valerie mused. "You two can't resist helping someone in danger. Even if it means putting yourself in harm's way."

"Did Culpeo do the work while you played dominatrix again?" Judy asked dryly.

A deadly expression flickered across Valerie's face.

"He's dead," the vixen snapped, flashing her sharp teeth. "I used him to get out of prison, but I didn't have any need for him after that."

"You've added 'murderer' to your resume now?" Judy said with a false expression of interest. "Didn't see that one coming… I'm assuming that was his body they found this morning."

"He's been in that river for a few days," Valerie sneered. "It'll be a while before they identify him."

"Clever," Judy remarked honestly.

"Surprised I'm not as stupid as you thought?" Valerie smirked.

"I wouldn't go that far…What do you want, Valerie?"

"It's simple really," Valerie stated as she flashed a sharp grin, circling the rabbit. "I. Want. To. Kill. You."

Each word dripped with venom, straight from the mouth of a snake. Nick watched the pair helplessly, wishing desperately he could throw himself between the two.

"Well, then," Judy snapped bitterly. "I'm all yours, Val."

Valerie's left ear twitched in agitation when she heard the nickname Nick had given her long ago, but a smile spread across her face easily.

"Oh, Judy," the vixen purred in a sickly-sweet voice. "I want to kill you, I really do, but… not just yet. I want you to suffer first."

"Job well done," Judy muttered. "Are you done yet? You've already blown the house down and ruined my honeymoon."

"On the contrary, Sweetheart, I'm just getting started," Valerie sang in a honeyed tone.

Judy opened her mouth to reply, but only a soft gasp escaped her lips as she felt her lower abdomen cramp suddenly, making her wince in discomfort. The wince didn't go unnoticed. Valerie's face faltered with a moment of confusion, and Nick forced himself upward so that he could look at Judy.

"Carrots?"

"I'm fine," Judy said in a strained voice. "I just-"

Judy paused as she felt an uncomfortable warmth in her pants. Her hair stood on end, her heart skipped a beat. She was bleeding, and bleeding badly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing fully well what had just been lost.

Valerie had been watching Judy's face carefully, at first confused, but she now let out a heartless laugh.

"Don't worry, Judy," the fox grinned. "You've still got the other four."