Disclaimer I:Zootopia and it's characters belong to the wonderful people over at Disney. This is fanfiction meant to be entirely non-profit.

Disclaimer II:There is graphic violence in this story.

=8=

The meeting with the Council had been a short affair. Nick and Judy had come in, presented their case and their plea for help and asked to leave. That had been it. There had been no questions asked, nor any real reaction from the Council that indicated how they felt about the two Marshalls request.

Nick was nervous because of the Council's lack of a reaction and because the meeting had concluded nearly seven hours ago. Even Jerome had been asked to leave because of his close relation to Nick and to make sure the fox didn't try to go snooping and listen in on the Council's deliberation.

He had woken up panting like a mad mammal to disperse the heat his body had generated and accumulated with his mind running like a bat out of hell. To say the dream hadn't been pleasant would be an understatement. In it, the fox had been made to endure another thrashing from a cat o nine tails then made to watch as his friends and Judy were forced to endure the same thrashing. All the while Harold, devil damn his soul, had laughed and taunted Nick from somewhere out of sight.

The dream burned at him and he had scrambled out of the tent and Judy's embrace without thought. He hadn't made it far, however, having tripped over his front paws as ran on all fours with an abandon that meant he didn't see the tree root. His panicked run had quickly come to a stop then as his head smashed against the ground and he went tumbling for a another few feet. When he woke up again he was being cradled by a concerned rabbit whose smell and eyes he remembered. He couldn't hear anything either. After shaking his head violently he found he could hear and his mind began working again.

Judy had been woken by way of being tossed in the air by Nick as the tod made an attempt to break the world record for 'fastest fox'. She had landed, immediately noticed the tent was distinctly empty and set off after her panicked fox.

When she reached him Judy had wrapped herself around Nick's head, stroking his ears and singing to try and calm him. The lullaby was one that had been taught to her by her nurse Tracy. She'd learned it on her twelfth birthday. When Nick had calmed down enough that he could talk coherently Judy asked what had gotten him in such a state. Upon hearing it was a dream she had begun chirring in his ear to help keep him calm as he worked his way through the explanation. When all was said Judy had thought that his reaction was rather mild.

Jerome had begun to come over but had stopped upon seeing Judy shake her head no. Upon seeing how Nick looked, the coyote understood enough to leave the two alone for a bit. So the two sat looking east just as the sun breached the horizon. They didn't leave until the sun became too bright to look at. As they were walking back to their tent Jerome caught up to them and let them know that the council would convene once they were ready.

Inside the tent, Judy managed to get some food and coffee inside Nick which brought the fox out of the daze he had been in. After a few minutes of actually being awake instead of the half-conscious state he'd been in, Nick was able to realise he needed to get himself sorted. Judy had already begun doing so and teased him for being a slow old fox. He thought about pointing out the fact that she was only five years older than him but decided that silence was the better part of valor. Instead, he decided to tease her with his tail, or rather the fact that it was matted and tangled and likely had drool in it that could have been the result of a certain bunny cuddling it. He stopped upon mentioning the drool because the look she gave him promised immediate death should he continue. Nick finished preparing in silence.

Now Nick, Judy, and Jerome were waiting inside the coyote's tent waiting for the council to finish in their deliberations. Judy and Jerome were relaxed, certain that the council would be more than willing to help.

"Nick, would you please stop pacing a hole into the rug? I'm going to have to replace it if you wear it down any more than you already have." Jerome asked of the obviously nervous fox.

Nick huffed before spinning about on his toes theatrically and flopping onto his side, causing Jerome to roll his eyes and Judy to giggle. He lay still for a few moments before his tail began twitching which slowly became more active until said tail was practically wagging and beating against the ground in an obvious effort to get a reaction.

"Nick if you could stop with the fanning the tent with that broom you call a tail I would appreciate it." Jerome rolled his eyes again at the fox. He didn't really mind Nick's antics as he had seen the state the fox had been in this morning but he felt obligated to tease the fox.

"You're just jealous of this beautiful thing aren't you Jerry?" Nick raised his head to look over his body at his companion who simply raised an eyebrow.

"I can't imagine being jealous of a cleaning utensil." Came the deadpan reply from the coyote.

"If you don't want to be honest with yourself that's not my problem." Nick shrugged and his tail went back to twitching every so often.

Judy found that she couldn't resist and moved closer to Nick before grabbing the fluffy appendage and wrapping it around herself. The top half of Judy's head and her ears were peeking above Nick's tail which looked like a fluffy wicker basket as it was wrapped around the rabbit. Judy made the mistake of leaving the tip of his tail near her nose however and Nick was quick to capitalize off of that mistake. He began teasing Judy's nose causing it to wiggle and Judy herself struggle to free a paw to bat away the offense. The scene was too much for Jerome who began laughing so hard that he actually fell over. The two Marshalls looked over at the Coyote and paused briefly before resuming their paw v. tail battle.

The battle continued for another minute or so until Judy caught the offender and began cuddling it as well, causing Nick to huff before he stood and simply wrapped his body around the rabbit. Jerome recovered from his fit of laughter only to look up, see the two Marshall's current state, and resume his laughing. Eventually, Jerome fully recovered and the three began waiting in peace again.

Judy and Nick separated themselves fairly quickly when the three were called to come back to the tent where the Council had been deliberating. Jerome didn't know why they did as the entire camp knew about the two being a couple since it really wasn't a secret. Their scents were so blended and mixed together that it was near impossible to distinguish the two if one were going by scent alone.

Walking into the Council's tent saw Nick calm down as he focused on the task at paw and Judy become nervous as she stood in front of so many mammals on display. Jerome was as cool as he could be since he felt completely at ease in this tent. He had lived amongst these mammals all his life after all.

Once the three were inside and standing together an older coyote stood in front of them and began to speak in even measured tones. "Nicholas Wilde. You came to this tribe and this Council seeking aid for a matter that does not involve this tribe nor this Council. We have talked of your request for many hours. We are willing to grant it under some conditions. You must swear that you will measure your judgement with the judgement of others and seek to return as many as possible home from this endeavor. Do you swear that?"

Nick nodded. "I do."

The coyote continued. "Your government has been asking us to settle on pieces of land unsuitable for life for years. We fear there may come a day when they force us to. Should you return alive, you must act on our behalf as a negotiator, so that we may seek to live one land which can sustain life. Do you agree?"

"I would like to propose something else. My family... The last of my family passed on and left me their ranch. Some thousand or so acres that used to be prime for turkey ranching. I'm willing to grant that land to the tribe… In exchange for a place at the tribe's hearth." Nick said.

The old coyote looked surprised before nodding. "That is agreeable. Very well, we leave the rest to your paws. Try not to take the entire tribe with you, Nicholas Wilde."

The three left with their clear dismissal. As they left Jerome simply waited for the inevitable question. If he'd been a betting mammal he would have wagered for Judy to ask first. Naturally, he was shown why he wasn't a betting mammal as Nick was the one to ask the question. "That's it? I know the Council resolves quickly but they spent seven hours debating and that's the result? Ten minutes of conversation and some trade and we have their backing?"

Jerome simply chuckled at the two Marshall's bewilderment before responding, "You really think they were debating for seven hours? After the time you've spent with the tribe? They probably decided to help you after thirty minutes. And before you get upset they had other things to deal with, which is why it took so long for them to call us back."

Nick and Judy mulled this over for a few moments as they walked and found that it made sense. Nick still felt the need to question it, however. "Makes sense. Just feels anti-climatic is all."

There was a slight scuffle to Jerome's left which caused him to turn and see an upset rabbit holding a somewhat fearful fox by the collar and whispering into the foxes ear, "Don't. Jinx. It."

As fast as she had grabbed Nick, Judy went back to being her usual happy self and even skipped past Jerome. Nick looked a little dumbstruck by both the speed at which she moved and by how she immediately acted like nothing had happened. Jerome couldn't help but laugh at his brother. The fox just raised an eyebrow at the coyote in response. "Would you want her angry at you?"

Jerome stopped laughing.

They began the task of organizing the party by gathering volunteers. Nick had thought that the Council mammal had been joking when he had asked the three to not drag the entire tribe with them. That theory was proven wrong within half an hour as they quickly had to resort to turning mammals away. Which also meant they needed to finalize the numbers of the party. Fangmeyer was not hard to find. Mostly because of the smell that seemed to permeate every surface within a five-meter radius of the tent he had snuck off to. Nick and Jerome found themselves needing to stand outside of that radius due to the sensitivity of their noses. Judy had not been happy about having to interrupt Fangmeyer's obvious activities and Nick and Jerome swore they would have been able to hear Judy's yelling from the other side of the Mizzo River. Once the big cat had reluctantly shown his face they had their final number. Forty-seven mammals would be taking on the Hopps. Forty-seven mammals against the largest crime family on the continent.

It didn't matter in the end. They were all determined to succeed and they all had the knowledge, skills, and leadership to do so. The biggest problem they faced was that of supplies. They could haul their own supplies self-sufficiently thanks to numerous, easily built travois available. Obtaining those supplies once they left the camp would be an issue, however. They could steal supplies from the various Hopps Outposts along the Western Range. That required knowledge of where those posts were, which they would hopefully find at the first post. It also required that the posts were all within two weeks travel of each other. That was unlikely to happen as well, the Western Range was made of sheer granite cliffs and routes around hazards could take days to find.

The supplies were packed onto travois by way of small but sturdy cloth pouches that held anything the party would need except ammunition. That was packed into spare bandoliers and the three Marshalls eventually gave up trying to organize the ammunition with Nick swearing that every caliber used by mammals was used by the coyotes. The tribe even had six-pound artillery piece that Nick could have sworn had seen use as a hoof cannon by an elephant. They decided to take it, despite how unwieldy it might have turned out to be because as Fangmeyer had eloquently put it. "There is going to be very little that isn't solved by a bigger boom with what we're doing."

Regardless of the chaotic ammunition situation the part was prepared to move in under two hours, with two hours until dinner. They decided that there was no point in leaving immediately and so they stayed though Fangmeyer wasn't released from Judy's gaze of imminent doom until she made it clear that his tail would make a nice rug should he show up late the next morning. Despite the rabbit's warning no one was surprised to see 'sneak' back into the tent he had been found in a few hours ago.

Dinner was an extravagant affair. Judy had thought that previous night's meal had been a feast. Tonight she was learning the truth. All who had sat near her couldn't help but be both amazed and amused by the amount of food the little rabbit was packing away. Amusement turned to concern when they realised she and Nick were having an eating contest and they were both packing away amounts of food that seemed to defy the laws of physics. No one was surprised when they saw the two slowly get up and slowly walk back to their tent shortly after they were done. The two Marshalls would later agree that that night was the best they had ever slept thanks to the presence of the other and the food they had gorged themselves on.

The next morning was painful with the wake-up time being well before the sun would rise. Neither of the Marshalls wanted to rise as early as they had said to, but coffee existed for a reason. Breakfast was communal due to the number of mammals leaving and was comprised of the leftovers from the previous few nights before they spoiled. Goodbyes were plentiful and tearful. Nick left slightly earlier than the rest of the group claiming that he wanted to scout for the first stint of the journey and Judy joined him. Fangmeyer had shown up when he was supposed to and between the big cat and Jerome the smaller Marshall's figured the party was in good paws to get them moving. Not long after they left Judy looked to her right and saw that Nick had water in his eyes though he had a smile on his face.

"You really like them, don't you?" She asked.

"I do. They're a wonderful people as I'm sure you've noticed. I've always felt at home there, and that's not something I could even say of the ranch." Nick said. Judy noticed that his mood was in a peaceful state so she simply nodded and left the conversation there. It was a rare moment for the tod to have peace and she would not deprive him of it.

Light had begun to shine nearly an hour ago and the sun was just beginning to slip over the horizon. And when it did Nick felt his blood cool a few degrees and his moment of peace evaporate. The sunrise was blood red with a lone cloud shaped like a scythe piercing the fiery orbs heart. He felt himself freeze for a moment before he shook his head. He refused to not believe in Omens. Between his dreams and what he believed to be conversations with Death, Omens simply weren't an impossibility. He had heard about mammals feeling their blood freeze at what they perceived to an ill tiding but now Nick knew the feeling himself. He refused to let this one deter him and pressed on, deciding to take the sun rise as a warning. One that meant to look beyond what he might normally accept.

The two Marshalls dropped back and rejoined the main group to see others in the party looking ill at ease thanks to the sunrise as well. So Nick simply ignored the feeling and acted as though the Omen in the sky was one to be laughed at. Much to his relief, it worked. The others began to relax and even make jokes. The feeling fed on itself and before long the entire group was once again in high spirits and Nick decided to start a list in his head. 'Morale crisis on day one-averted.'

The group soon fell into a routine as they made the week long journey towards the first outpost. Wake up, eat breakfast, scream at whoever had inevitably not woken up on time, and move out. They saw no other mammals as they made the journey but they were not concerned. The forest was as full of life as ever and not once did the birds stops singing or crickets chirping.

That changed the closer they got to their goal. By the time they did reach their goal everyone had long since gone up to their hinds legs and drawn their weapons. The group paused and Judy, Nick, Jerome, and Fangmeyer crept ahead of the group. Twenty meters through the trees and fifty meters across a clearing sat the Hopps outpost. There were no birds here and likely no crickets. There was a faint smell that made all four mammals tense that they couldn't identify. The compound itself could have rivaled many military constructions in terms of fortification.

The fifty-meter clearing was mammal made and it extended around the entirety of the compound. The compound itself had a palisade that was roughly ten meters high, though it didn't look like it could have been very thick. There were also guard stations along the wall at various intervals and the whole thing was shaped like a pentagon. The scouts took their time and circled the little fort slowly and began to see weaknesses. Unless many of the mammals and facilities were underground the attackers outnumbered the defenders by nearly two to one. Many of the trees in the area varied in height but there were enough taller trees standing to call into question how sound the construction might have been.

The may problem was the fact that the outpost had a palisade. Where the only real options were to break through the gate, storm the guard towers, or break through the wall. The four were feeling quite happy they had brought the cannon until they returned. Once they did and began to inspect the travois that was supposed to have the supplies for the cannon the three Marshalls noticed a distinct lack of cannonballs. Which meant they had no choice but to get creative.

They secured their supplies and hid them somewhat further back in the woods and decided to wait for the day to see if there were any patrols or parts of the outpost's defenses that would reveal themselves come night time. Fortunately, there were none. The plan became that they would make grappling lines in order to get over the palisade and onto the guard post. From there they would fire into and storm the outpost. They would do it the next night. The idea for getting close to the wall was to take advantage of the prairie grass and the cover of darkness. The dark was a double-edged sword, however. If the predators in their group could see then so would any predators working for the Hopps. Which meant there was still a risk of being caught in the open with no cover. It was the only plan anyone in the group could think of that was viable and so it was the plan they went with.

=8=

"Nervous?" The question caught Judy off guard and she jumped a bit even though she recognized Nick's voice. She went to reply when she realised that her words were getting caught in her throat so she simply nodded yes.

Nick chuckled a bit at that. "Scared?"

Again, another nod. This time Nick nodded before he held her close for a bit and at an angle so that the limited moonlight shone off his face. He saw her eyes widen a bit and realised that his eyes likely looked as if they were glowing so he gave her smile before he spoke. "I would tell you to not be nervous, but that would be foolish seeing as how you can barely see. Stick as close to any of the other mammals here and you'll be fine. I'm going to be honest, I'm not nervous, but I can see in this light pretty damn well. You can't. I'm not stupid enough to say I'm not scared though. There are a lot of ways this can go tonight and a lot of them are not good. I know you know that. But I want to do something. Take those nerves and that fear and use it. You're a good Marshall Judy. We both know it. You've never had problems with gun fights before, so don't let the light throw you off, okay?"

Judy nodded again and found she could speak again. "Okay."

Nick gave her a quick smile before slinking off to another group of mammals to make sure they were okay. All around her preparations were being made. Mammals were checking gear, talking to each other, praying. The last activity got to her. She wished she knew a prayer, any prayer, to any god. She wasn't concerned with herself. But she felt as though she needed to pray because of her desire to not let the mammals around her down. The grapples had been made during the day by scavenging cord from the travois and were made out of whittled wood. Everyone hoped they would be strong enough to hold. A low bird call was issued and every mammal in the group fell silent. It was time.

They formed up at the edge of the treeline and Judy found herself situated between two coyotes. She couldn't remember their names at the moment having only spoken to them in earnest two days ago and this morning. There were eight groups. After another bird call was issued the groups began to slowly and quietly crawl to the base of the palisade. The guards were silhouetted against the night sky and the waning moon, but there was enough light for both parties to see. It was now a matter of how attentive the Hopps' guards were.

Judy felt herself burn with the desire to move faster, but held herself in check. Fast movement would draw unwanted attention and the element of surprise would only last as long as the attackers could remain stealthy. She also had problems with her ears. Though they were tipped with black they were mostly grey and would stand out against the prairie grass. She wanted to have her ears up so she could hear everything, but again the rabbit restrained herself, remembering her impromptu lesson from earlier.

Jerome had pointed out that Judy was prey and likely wouldn't know how to stalk and she didn't. Stalking was necessary to the plan however and so Nick, Jerome, and Fangmeyer had spent the late morning and early afternoon teaching her how to do so. She was already better at finding any mammal hunting her thanks to her ears, but stalking was something entirely new. She had asked why the three knew that and Nick and Fangmeyer looked slightly embarrassed. Jerome had looked at them and shrugged. He had never much interaction outside the tribe with the exception of Nick. Nick and Fangmeyer had explained that predator families still taught their children how to hunt and stalk and by extension how to avoid behavior that resembled hunting and stalking. Judy had never realised how many instincts the two had likely been suppressing around her.

The rabbit shook her head and refocused on the present. The tension was palpable and they were still fifteen meters away from the wall. Their quiet creep forward was ended when they heard the ringing notes of an alarm bell and the sharp crack of a rifle. This was followed shortly by more alarm bells and the howling of the coyotes both throughout the clearing and next to her. These sounds were followed by a rapid cascade of gunshots that rang through the cool night's air.

In a flash Judy was on her paws screaming, "Group three to the wall! Get to the wall!"

She began running as fast as she could, stepping from side to side so she wouldn't be an easy target, the coyotes with her following suite. One of her group stopped crouched and fired. She saw blood fly from the mammal on the wall in front of her and the mammal fall over the palisade to land on the ground in front her. The coyote carrying the grapple in her group threw it over as they reached the wall and the moment he pulled the makeshift rope taught Judy began scaling the wall. The moment she was over she drew her pistol and fired three rounds into the chest of the wolf who had been charging up the stairs to replace his comrade. On top of the guard tower she could see the rest of the small fort and she realised that there more mammals here than they had thought. Seeing that two of the buildings were essentially small barracks and had mammals trying to break out of them.

She began firing at the mammals emerging from the barracks with the small rifle she had been given by the coyotes and downed three of them before they realised the fire was coming from their own guard tower. They quickly returned fire forcing Judy to duck her head down. She turned and saw that the last her group was over the palisade and began issuing orders. "You two, stay up here and keep this tower out of the Hopps' paws! You two get the grapple and drop it down the side of the tower! We can't get down the stairs and we need to get into the actual fort so we can help our comrades!"

The Coyotes nodded and went about the tasks they had been ordered to do efficiently. She and the rest of her group began peeking out from their limited cover to fire shots at the Hopps' mammals who could be seen. Once the Coyotes had dropped the grapple down the side they went over and immediately came under fire from the group of Hopps' who been keeping them in the tower. Judy and most of the mammals in her group found cover from the withering fire but one didn't. She saw the blood spurt out of his chest as he stumbled back before falling to the ground. She saw one of the coyote's drop his rifle and have to be held back by his comrade. Another of her group had her arm grazed though she quickly stood up and shot the mammal who tried to shoot her. Judy stepped out from behind her cover and fired taking the head off the rabbit who had shot the male coyote.

The Hopps' Judy's group was fighting began taking fire from a different group and were quickly dispatched. No longer being fired at Judy stepped out and assessed what was going that she could see. The two barracks were currently being stormed by different groups and her group was right next to what she could only see as being the storeroom and led her group into the building.

They went through the maze of boxes, barrels, and packages as quickly as they could. They didn't check the contents of the containers being more worried about any Hopps who might be hiding in the building. There were none. Coming out of the storeroom they were found by a runner and asked to come to the command post. Once there they saw the rest of the groups each of which was on guard but no longer in a fighting stance.

It was over.

Quickly as it had begun and been, it was over.

Judy began to process what she had seen and felt the tears well up. She felt her legs collapse and she felt herself being caught by a pair of familiar russet arms. She felt those arms cradle her head and hold her close and she issued heart-wrenching sobs to the night's sky. She had been in gunfights before. She thought she had. Now she realised that the gunfights she had been in before had been mockeries of the real thing in which no one shot to really kill. The only time she had killed before this was when mammals had been wounded by her and refused to surrender. She had now killed outright. The difference between the two felt like night and day and she didn't know why. So Judy let herself be held by Nick as she sobbed into his arms.

=8=

A/N: Four months is a relatively short time on the cosmic scale. I'm sorry. Really, I am. You all deserve continuous updates, which I can not provide. Not yet. This is the last chapter that I'll be able to put out for a while as I'm going on a mandatory hiatus. Yes, mandatory. In May of last year I enlisted in the U.S. Army. I ship out tomorrow and today is the last day I have access to my PC. I will lose access to my phone tomorrow once I arrive at Basic which lasts ten weeks. I'll try to write or least brainstorm, but I make no promises. That said, THIS STORY WILL BE FINISHED (eventually)(and so will my other story but that'll likely come after this one). I'm not leaving this story unfinished or untold. To everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed during my scummy absence, Thank You. It is more than I deserve.