Chapter 12
Later, at Jack's house, Jack and his friends returned with the strange device they found in the store where Judy first found Jack and decided to inspect it. Jack's mother wasn't home at the moment so they couldn't ask her about it, leaving the three teens to try to figure out the device themselves.
Jack looked at the small metal disk closely through a magnifying glass and looking very puzzled by what he was looking at.
His friends were standing behind him as he continued to inspect it. "Well?" Lily inquired, curiously and expectantly.
Jack sighed. "I got nothing… whatever this thing I definitely don't recognize it and there seems to be no way to take it apart either," he said as he pushed the magnifying glass away.
Arnold took it next. "Hmm, almost looks like a computer disk."
"A very weird computer disk." Lily added.
"I don't get it… why would that thing be with me when I came here?" Jack wondered.
"Maybe it was by accident." Lily suggested.
"Or someone made you take it with you." The warthog pointed out.
"Take it with me?" Jack echoed. "But what for?"
"Beats me. I mean like… it could be a computer disk so…" Arnold began.
"It could go in a computer!" Lily finished, just figuring it out herself.
"Right!" Arnold nodded.
Jack took the device next. "Hmm, worth a shot. We can use Mom's computer."
"Sure we can?" Lily inquired.
"You wanna figure this out or do you wanna go looking for a permission slip?" Jack asked before briskly getting up and walking away.
"Boy… he's sure acting weird…" Arnold remarked.
"Wouldn't you? This is first clue he's gotten about who and what he is." Lily pointed out. "I just hope what we find is worth it…"
"Why wouldn't it?" The warthog pointed out before they both started to follow Jack.
Soon enough, Jack was crouched down in front of her mother's computer, being very careful not to hit too many buttons with his large finger.
"Hmm, password…" Jack mused. He thought for a second before he quickly typed something in and heard a DING.
"Cool! Access granted." Arnold observed.
"Yep."
"How'd you know the password?"
"I guessed and I was right."
"And your guess?"
"Nick." Jack answered.
"Oh! You mean your Mom's 'not boyfriend'?" Lily asked with a suggestive smirk.
"Yeah… can't believe they keep denying that after all these years…" Jack remarked. "So stubborn…"
"Don't worry, they're adults, that's how they communicate I hear." Arnold said.
"Probably." Jack shrugged. "Anyway, let's see what happens when we put this weird little thing in a computer."
Jack inserts the little disk into the computer, causing it to slide in before he starts to type on it rapidly. A series of numbers flow across and down the screen.
"What is that?" Lily wondered.
"It's a code… but it's scrambled…" Jack muttered as he started typing even faster, causing a few numbers to light up and stop.
"Whoa… how are you uh… doing that…?" Arnold asked, stunned.
"Nothing to it, really." Jack told him. "Ok, got it."
"Ok… now what?" Lily inquired.
"Hold on… these numbers… they're not a code, they're coordinates." Jack realized.
"Like… latitude and longitude?" The jaguar girl asked.
"Yep." Jack nodded. "Now… which one of you knows how to figure out latitude and longitude?"
"What!? I thought you did!" Lily gasped.
"I do." Arnold spoke up. "I think I can figure out where those coordinates are saying we should go."
"Great! One sec." Jack said before he zipped off and came back a few seconds later with a rolled up piece of paper. He put it on the kitchen table, which the others gathered around and quickly spread it out to show a map of Zootopia, showing every ecosystem in the city. "Ok, here's a map of the city. Do you thing, Ron."
Arnold adjusted his glasses as he looks at the map more closely. "Hmm…" he mumbled as his eyes scan the map.
"Well?" Lily asked, impatiently.
"Uh… there!" Arnold declared, pointing to a spot on the map. Lily and Jack both checked it and recognized the location.
"Cliffside Asylum…" Jack read.
"You sure that's right, Arnold?" Lily questioned the warthog.
"Yeah! Positive!" Arnold nodded.
"Then that's where we have to go next." Jack declared.
"But… isn't that place closed off?" Lily pointed out.
"Yeah… they made it a restricted area ever since Mayor Lionheart used it to hold the Night Howler victims back in the day." Arnold confirmed. "If we go there… we could get arrested!"
Arnold shook in fear of the thought but Jack remained stone faced. "Well… that's only if we get caught, which we won't."
"Still seems risky…" Lily told him.
"You guys don't have to come, but I'm going." Jack said as he stood up and turned to them. "I have to know…"
"Know what?" The warthog questioned.
"The truth about who I am and where I came from, how I got here… and Cliffside might be it. Sure it's a strange place that could get us in big trouble… but I can't spend the rest of my life wondering anymore." Jack stated firmly as he started to walk away before Lily called out.
"Jack."
He stopped and silently turned to her as she stepped forward.
"I'm in," she declared.
"Really?" The unknown teenage creature inquired, surprised.
Lily nodded to him. "Yeah. You've made your point… plus I think you're more likely to get arrested if you go alone."
"And uh… I'll go to." Arnold spoke up, still looking nervous. "Because uh… if I l stay behind and… they ask me where you are… I'll cave for sure and I don't wanna do that to you guys…"
Jack nodded to Arnold assuringly. "Thank you, Arnold. So, to Cliffside?"
The jaguar girl nodded in confirmation. "To Cliffside."
"To uh… Cliffside?" Arnold finished, unsure.
Jack smiled at this friends before he noticed something else on the computer that caught his attention. He quickly rushed back over to it.
"Hey… there's something else here…" The teen realized.
"What?" Lily asked.
"It's buried under a ton of data but I think… aha!" Jack declared as he typed and as the rest of the data vanished, large letters slowly appeared on the screen and read 'Edwin'. "Edwin?"
"Who's Edwin?" The warthog remarked, confused.
"Maybe it's someone you need to talk to, someone who knows who and what you are, or…" Lily began before realization dawned on her face as she looked at Jack. "What if it's your real name…?"
"Edwin… my name…" Jack mused, thoughtfully as he continued stare at the name on the screen.
Later on, after a series of bus rides and a long walk, the trio arrived at the closed down, creepy looking stone building with vines all over the front of it. The sky around it was dark and the building itself gave anyone who came near it a shiver of fear.
Together they all slowly walk over to the toll booth and check around it.
Lily sniffed the air. "Yep. No one's definitely used this place in a while…"
Arnold sniffed around as well. "I concur. Plus, it's faint, but I can still smell your folks scent here Jack."
"I'm not sure whether to be impressed or… grossed out that you are able to do that…" Jack admitted.
"Ditto." Lily added.
"What? My piggy nose is better then a wolf's, I can't help it" The warthog said, defensively.
"Anyways… the coast looks clear, no guards, no nothing… let's go." Jack said as he walked on ahead.
"Yeah, let's just hurry up and try to get of here before we end up pushing our luck." Lily voiced as she followed Jack, while Arnold tried hard to keep up.
"Wait for me guys! Wait for me!" he called out as they continued to head towards the old hospital.
The doors to the hospital open up as Jack and his friends step inside the dark building, looking around cautiously as well as creeped out.
"Man… even bats wouldn't live in this place…" Lily remarked.
Arnold walked over to a book lying on the floor and picked it up before blowing the dust off of it, causing him to cough and hack before he takes out and uses his inhaler.
"Yeah… I guess it makes sense this place would get a little dusty after being unused for twenty years…" Jack admitted. "But we can't let that stop us. The answers I'm lookin for are here."
"But… where in this place exactly?" Lily questioned.
Jack took out the chip and gazed at it. "I guess wherever there's a computer, maybe."
"Won't it just say the same thing? 'Come to Cliffside Asylum' only we'll be already there?" Lily pointed out, flatly.
"I don't think so." Jack confessed.
"You don't?"
"No…"
"Why?"
"I can't explain it… it's just a feeling I have."
"Well… Mom always said to listen to you instincts." Lily admitted before turning to the warthog. "Arnold, where would the computers be?"
Arnold noticed they were talking to him and put away his inhaler. "Oh! Uh… upstairs I think…"
"Oh! I saw a stairway back the way we came." Lily said.
"Great, let's go." Jack nodded as they turned and started walking back in the direction of the stairway they passed by.
"Uh… don't you guys watch horror movies? Whenever someone goes upstairs to either check something out or hide… they usually wind up dead." Arnold pointed out, nervously as he started to follow.
"That does not fill me with confidence." Jack stated, bluntly.
"That's why I'm pointing it out!" Arnold said.
"Oh, find a spine, warthog." Lily told him in annoyance as they continued on.
The trio soon reach the stairway and try to walk all the way up it as it twists and turns until they finally reached the next floor. Jack looks left and right before looking back to the others.
"Looks clear," he informed them.
"Well it is abandoned." Lily pointed out.
"You never know…" Arnold shivered in fear before Lily elbowed him.
"Hey! I think I see where the computers are!" Jack said as he points down one of the hallways. The others look to where he is pointing and see a room at the end of the hall that appears to be glowing for some reason.
"What's that glow?" Lily wondered.
"It… could be the screens in there or…" Arnold started to say with a shiver.
"Not a word from you." The jaguar girl stated to him, firmly.
"Sorry!" Arnold said, meekly.
"Come on." Jack told them as he walked ahead toward the glowing room while his friends followed him.
They all push open some large doors and enter a room with massively sized equipment, presumably for large animals as well as smaller computers for the smaller animals, naturally. All of which emit an eerie glow.
"What is all this?" Lily asked out loud.
"Must be left over equipment Former Mayor Lionheart and that scientist of his used during the Night Howler incident." Jack said.
"Huh… I wonder how they could forget such marvelous tech?" Arnold remarked as he gazed at all the machinery in awe. "I mean… this stuff is old but they're still cutting edge."
"Whatever, at least we've found a computer to use." Lily pointed out, gesturing to one of the smaller computers.
"Yes." Jack muttered softly as he walked over to it. As he sat down in front of it, he starts typing while his friends gather around him. He soon takes out the chip again. "Ok little guy… brought you here now… let's see what's inside of ya…"
Jack inserts the chip into the computer and as soon as he did the screen starts to become fuzzy and emit an odd noise and hurts mainly Lily and Arnold's ears. They hold them as they groan in pain.
"Guys? What's wrong?" The non-furry being inquired, confused.
"Can't you hear that!?" Lily remarked, in pain.
"Hear what?" Jack asked, even more confused.
"Oh… make it stop!" Arnold cried out, loudly.
"I'm trying! Hang on!" Jack said as he started to type faster before the screen starts to slowly clear up. "Ok… got something."
The faces of two people start to become revealed and what really surprised the trio was the fact that they both resembled Jack in a way, both didn't have any fur on their bodies aside from their head and had five fingers as well. One appeared to be a male, wearing glasses and a lab coat while the other was a woman with longer hair and blue eyes just like Jack.
"Whoa! Those things look just like you, Jack!" Arnold remarked in awe as he adjusted his glasses.
"Yeah… think they could be…?" Lily began to ask.
"No way…" Jack muttered, shocked.
"Hello son." The male in front of him said. "If your watching this message then it means you've located the spot where the signal is strongest."
"Signal…?" Jack echoed in confusion.
"You see… this message can only be played if it's activated at a certain spot in the dimension you are currently in. That spot is the barriers between our worlds are the most weakest…" The male mammal continued.
"Did he just say… 'dimension'!?" Lily questioned in disbelief.
"I-I… believe so…" Arnold nodded, shaken while Jack just stares and listens silently.
The female spoke next, with emotion in her voice that seems to be hard for her to control. "We also know that… by the time you've found the device and the location for it to work… you'll probably be all grown up… oh, how I wish we could have been there to watch…"
The male next to her put a comforting arm around her while she sobs slightly, making Jack feel a great deal of sadness within himself.
"You probably have many questions by now… though we can only record so much so we'll tell you as much as we can, Edwin." The male said.
"Edwin..." Jack repeated.
"Wow... that really is your name, Jack..." Lily remarked.
"My name is Robert Conroy and I'm your Father, Edwin." The male mammal revealed. He looked to the female that was presumably his wife. "This your mother, Tannis Conroy."
The female known as 'Tannis' waved at Jack fondly, compelling him to wave back even though he knew she couldn't see him.
"You come from the planet Earth." Jack's biological father continued. "Your mother and I are scientists, studying the possibilities of parallel dimensions and just recently, for us anyway… we not only discovered that they existed but we created a piece of technology that could potentially let us explore them."
"Ooh… that's never a good idea…" Arnold voiced.
"Movies?" Lily guessed.
"Yeah… and when it comes to other worlds they all say the same thing; don't try to go there." Arnold stated.
The screen changed to show the trio an image of a doorframe made out of metal and with pieces of tech and wires attached to it.
"Whoa…" The warthog marveled.
"Guess that must be there dimensional doorway." Jack observed.
"Must be." Lily agreed before the image changes back to Robert and Tannis.
"We were in the middle of testing it when… something went wrong…" Robert revealed, solemnly.
"The doorway… it became almost like a black hole… sucked almost everything in… including you." Jack's biological mother added, tearfully.
"What!?" Jack reacted.
"We couldn't afford a sitter that day… we didn't think anything would happen so… we brought you along and then you…" Robert began before he rubbed in-between his eyes, presumably to get rid of the tears. "To stop the doorway from increasing in size… we had to close it behind you… and we couldn't open the it again without creating chaos for all humankind."
"Humankind?" Jack echoed.
"At least we know what you are now…" Lily admitted.
"However, we were able to send this chip you have through to the dimension you arrived it by opening the doorway just a little, any larger and it would have become a massive black hole…" Robert explained.
"Oh Edwin… we're so sorry…" Tannis said, sadly. "We wish we could find a way to bring you back… we miss you so much, sweetie! And we love you! Never forget that."
"Don't worry honey." Robert comforted his wife. "If he is playing this message then it means he's alive and well, wherever he is…"
"I know… I just wish I could hold him again…!" Tannis cried as she buried her face in her husband's chest and cried while he comforted her.
"There, there… it's alright… but hurry, we don't have much time…" Robert reminded her.
Tannis sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Right…" she said before looking at Edwin again. "Edwin… you don't ever have to forgive us for what we've done… but know that you were born of a great love and we will always be with you…
"Farewell my son, I hope we meet again… if not in this life… then hopefully in a better one." His father told him.
"Goodbye…" Tannis said, with a sad smile before the screen went dark.
Silence and darkness filled the room as Jack turns away from the screen with wide but sad looking eyes as he let the information he had just learned sink into his head. He now had the answers he so desperately sought and now they were replaced with a great amount of sadness that made his heart ache.
His friends look at him sympathetically and were about to try and comfort him when they both looked towards the computer and froze up in shock and fear.
"Jack…" Lily spoke up, slowly.
"What?" The human responded without turning to her.
"I think we should leave now…" The jaguar advised him.
"Ditto…" Arnold added, nervously.
"And why?" Jack asked, expectantly.
Lily turns him around to look at the computer again and he quickly sees that the computer they put the chip into was sparking and crackling with electricity, causing them all to back up in alarm.
"That's why." Lily answered.
"What's happening?" Jack remarked, surprised.
"I don't know… but I don't think we wanna be here any longer!" Arnold stated, scared.
"Agreed, let's go!" Lily declared as she and Arnold turn and start running.
"But…" Jack began before Lily quickly comes back and pulls him out of his seat before he could say anything while electricity continued to emit from the computer.
Running like the wind, the trio made their way out of the room, down the stairs and out the front door of the asylum until they stopped in front of the building, right before they hear a small explosion and see smoke coming from one of the windows on the upper floor.
"Wow… that was a close one…" Jack panted. "Everyone ok?"
The jaguar nodded. "Yeah…" Lily said before she then turned to Arnold. "Arnold?"
"Computer… blow up… we almost died…!" Arnold panted.
"He's fine." Lily said, rolling his eyes. "I'm sorry about the video Jack…"
"Yeah… but at least it can't get any worse…" Jack voiced before they hear police sirens approaching. Before they knew it, police cars drove down the bridge and screeched to a stop right in front of them, their headlights suddenly start shining on them and all the occupants of the cars quickly got out and aimed their tranq guns at them.
"Freeze!"
"Do not move!"
"ZPD! Put your paws up! All of you!"
The three teenagers quickly put their arms up into the air with panicked looks on their faces.
"Ok… now it couldn't get any worse." Jack corrected himself before a familiar long eared cop stepped forward to get a better look at them.
"Jack?" The human's adopted mother asked, surprised upon seeing him.
"You were saying?" Lily flat asked Jack before he lowered his head and groaned in dismay.
