(Skillet's "Back From the Dead" plays…)
("I'm ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-back, I'm ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-back…")
What's up guys? Miss me? Awe now, come on, don't give me that look, I had to step away for
longer than expected because I was really sick lately and also, have you guys ever done a
science fair project before at a pre-college level? Alright though. If this is the first time you've
read this fanfic or you have a tough time remembering, here's what happened.
(Music pauses….") Alright, so Sonic is having a tough time finding his purpose as a hero after
he feels like he doesn't know why he should continue heroic escapades, so his pal Tails sends
him on a vacation to the urban jungle of Zootopia where he first met officers Judy Hopps and
Nick Wilde at a concert for their beloved singer Gazelle. What the cops don't know and what
Sonic did is that there were 4 wolf/ninja/assassins hiding on the spotlight frame, which Sonic
licked in record time. After taking an interest in this mysterious stranger, Gazelle invites Sonic to
her desert mansion to stay for a while. After struggling with vulnerabilities for a bit, she took
Sonic to the Phoenicia Shopping Center to unwind for a bit when they ran into Silver and Tails.
Some time later, Judy and Nick invited the gang for bowling where Sonic and Gazelle bumped
into her old crush, Justin Timberwolf while Silver found a new friend on his own with Judy. After
bowling, the gang went out to the Cash Cow restaurant before Sonic got food poison and
realized that this was the work of a century-old cult known as The Ring. Although Sonic was up
and ready to go, Police Chief William Bogo warned him not to return to action until he was
mentally healed, which Sonic reluctantly agreed to. However, things spiral downhill when
Gazelle finally realizes her feelings for the blur, which lead Justin to advise her to let Sonic go off
on his own despite the fact she promised to help. However, before she could break the news,
Sonic left her a little video on his phone revealing he heard and seen the whole conversation.
Meanwhile, in Judy's hometown of Bunnyborrow, a celebration in her honor was interrupted by
an attack by the Ring that destroyed the Hopps Family Farm. But thanks to Silver and Sonic,
the approaching army was destroyed and the rest of the town was saved in record time.
After this, the blue blur went to see renown psychologist Molly Mongoose for advice and took
her tip and went camping in the woods for a vacation. On the opposite side of said woods, Judy
and Silver were inching closer to the Ring's HQ. Worried about their safety when he saw
bat-spies flying above them, he fought them off himself getting all the way to a battle royale with
the leader of the Ring, the Kyman Klaw, leaving his partner alone to be captured and knocked
out by the Ring's associates. When she came too, it was revealed that Silver was killed in the
battle royale.
Ok, now let's get back to our story. Enjoy.
Love In The Open
Chapter 21: Heartbreak
"This can't be…" Judy stuttered, shedding tears, still trying to get used to the reality of the idea
that her friend, the one she loved, had died. "Hahahahahaha… it's called reality sweetheart."
the Klaw reverberated in a darker more condescending tone than before, "and I know that you
will eventually succumb to it, but to help you out…" he motioned towards the same contingent
that helped capture her earlier. "Take her to Chamber 147!" he said, with an evil chuckle that
told Judy that Chamber 147 was not exactly the best place in the prison.
Scene Change… Chamber 147
"Alright then oh sister of mine," Dirk stated, as he took Judy to the dark, isolated prison that
was very small, even for a rabbit. "Let me show you how this works," he said, pointing to the
collar on her neck. "This fancy little gizmo is called a T.A.M.E. collar. It was made illegal when
predator and prey first made peace, but stronger animals who wanted to rule with fear worked
undercover to make such designs possible for keeping our weak prisoners in check." He then
proceeded to tighten the collar around Judy tight enough, but not to the point of choking, around
her neck. "Try to break out, zap. Try to take the collar off, zap. Find some random way to call
for help even though we removed the equipment, zap. Try to fight any one of us," "Zap, I get it."
Judy said, rather annoyed that Dick had to state the obvious. "Yeah well, we know who isn't
going to come and save you from this place." Dick taunted, reminding his sister about Silver's
death as he left. So after realizing there was no way out until somebody could come rescue her,
she simply waited for something to happen. And waited. And waited. Although only 30 minutes
passed by, it seemed to be at least a year. She definitely had a lot more time to think. Her mind
started to sink lower and lower in a drowning state of hopelessness as the despair of her friend
really soaked into her. This was the first time that any friend of hers passed away, but never
had she anticipated that it would be when she was responsible for it. If only she would've
actually realized the fact that Silver was starting to head out on his own that night and convinced
him to head out together. At least she would've actually witnessed a victory from her friend.
Then she realized something else. Who did she do all of this for? The case, Silver, everything.
Was it for them or was it for her? Was this really to prove to herself she can do something to
make her life great? Although there was no mirror in the prison, she started crying with her face
in her paws well knowing the answer to that question. Yes. Yes it was. More "what if's"
drowned into her mind. What if she actually been honest about her feelings at the fair? What if
she made it more evident that he would meet his needs and not just her own. Oh she did the
day before he wandered off, but still though, why did he run away? Probably to get his mind off
the creature that was clawing at him day and night, whether they were aware of it or not. She
then stopped crying and thought about a memory with her old friend Whirley.
Flashback… Whirley's house … 9 years earlier
"Well now Judy, you worked so hard, I wasn't even given a chance to pull these up." The old
rabbit complemented. The 15-year-old Judy was working out in a garden pulling weeds for her
old friend Whirley's carrot garden for three reasons. The first because Whirley offered her a
part-time job helping him out in the garden once a week, the second being that she enjoyed
seeing her old friend anyway and the third was a bit more of a personal reason. Something she
was planning on asking the older, more experienced rabbit. "Well, that's what you asked me
here for, remember?" Whirley smiled. Her enthusiasm about even the most tedious thing
always seemed to put a smile on his face for one reason or another. The old rabbit laughed.
"Well, either way, I think it's time to come inside for some ice-cold lemonade." Judy nodded in
agreement, wiping the sweat from her brow with one of her long ears. They both went inside to
the quaint country cottage where the old hare poured them some cups up lemonade. Whirley
took the opportunity to ask Judy a question he knew was on both for their minds. "So Judy, met
any interesting young bucks lately?" (A buck is a male rabbit, just like a male deer. Why? I don't
know, look it up.) Judy wasn't exactly embarrassed by this question because she was actually
planning on asking a question about it anyway. "Well, I've been asked by a couple of these
young bucks that go to school with me, but it didn't really work out." Whirley looked at her with
question and curiosity his brown eyes. "Why not?" he asked. "Were they nice bucks?" "Oh yea
they were nice bucks," Judy spoke sarcastically, "nice bucks that wanted to fight over me like a
trophy." Judy added. "If they wanna just show off the physique and the tricks all day, they
should join the circus, not potential dates." She finished up her lemonade as Judy confirmed
something to the old rabbit. "If I'm gonna be seeing anymore bucks, then they better like me for
me and if they don't like it, then they either need to either quit trying to compete or buck up!"
young Judy spoke with determination. "And you'll like them for who they are too, right?" Whirley
asked, making sure the young doe wasn't putting everything out of perspective when
contemplating her ideal lover. "Oh of course, of course." she rapidly blurbed out, as if she knew
the answer all the time, but forgot in all the rambling. Whirley understood what her heart's
content was though, because when you're friends with somebody long enough, you tend to
know a lot more about them. "That's good. Because there's never gonna be such thing as the
perfect buck. There's no such thing as the perfect friend either." Whirley stated matter-of-factly.
"Well, you've done a pretty good job." Judy said, offering a back-handed compliment, which was
also true. The old rabbit laughed for a bit in response. "Well, all I can do is try, the best we can
all do is try. And speaking of trying…" Judy's ears perked up at this because this
serious-but-kind tone meant she better be paying attention. "I know we're rabbits and we really
thrive off of moving very fast and being very quick thinkers. But any romantic relationship of any
kind. Predator, prey, mixed, it doesn't matter, none of it matters if nobody puts the time and
effort into their partners and how to continually improve the relationship." Judy continued to
absorb this useful information that was to be used for future purposes. "Things from knowing the
other animal in the relationship, putting their needs before yours, knowing how to work as a
team, how to deal with them when they're off, getting to know them better as a whole so that
you know how they function, knowing the little things about them, what makes them tick and
why." Whirley paused to take a breath before speaking again. "This isn't the quick way or the
easy way, but if you commit yourself to this then it's always gonna be the better way." Whirley
affirmed, putting his emphasis on the word "better." Judy nodded and then hugged the old rabbit
who then returned the embrace. "Don't worry, I'll try hard to live by all this." Judy stated with no
small amount of enthusiasm. Whirley gave a light chuckle. "Oh I know you will Judy, I know you
will."
Flashback ends
Judy looked back at that moment at the words Whirley taught relating to what to put into a
relationship. She looked down with a dejected frown and realized that she wasn't necessarily
willing to put in the amount of time or effort required to make such a relationship effective. Oh
she may have fulfilled part of what the old rabbit wanted, she was looking out for Silver's needs,
she was starting to get to know him a little, but she never took the time to make sure everything
else was working for their friendship or their relationship to function. She put her head down in
her paws, sighing deeply knew she messed up tonight. But then she raised her head up in
determination knowing that when next time rolls around (if there's even gonna be a next time)
she'll remember to control those rabbit urges, take her time and actually learn how to make a
relationship not just right, but better. Just then, the cell door opened and believe it or not, the
Kyman Klaw showed up. What's even more strange is that he used his metallic claws to
actually dig under her neck where the shock collar was, then used his brute strength to rip the
collar in two, destroying its ability to function. Judy was rather "shocked" if you will at the fact of
this happening; but before she could speak, the Klaw raised his sharp paw to silence her, then
he spoke. "I heard from your brother, the adopted one, that you got the best grades out of
everybody in your cop classes." Judy quickly nodded. "He also told me that you were one of the
best fighters on the ZPD, am I correct?" Judy didn't necessarily want to brag or lie, but with
self-confidence being one of the few assets she had with her right now. Plus, it wouldn't be a
lie. In the brief days after the Night Howler case, the fellow cops have shown her a lot of
respect once she proved herself to them. So, she smiled and saluted as a sign of approval to
the wolf. The Klaw folded his arms in return. "That's what I thought." he then turned his back
towards Judy as he continued. "I suppose Mr. Big told you about the ancient ritual of combat,
which we have annually between leaders of our 7 contingents to see who would be strong and
powerful enough to be worthy of running the Ring." he then turned back towards Judy to speak
yet again. "I need someone to train on, someone to hunt for sport in my labyrinth, which is
where this year's challenge will be." He said, getting closer to Judy eventually coming inces
within her space. "Here's how the game works. One hour of pure mayhem. Everyone grabs
whatever weapon they got. It's like paintball, but it's with murder weapons and the stakes could
potentially be life-and-death." he started. He then got into detail about how he'll be weaponized
for this "game" while (since she was a prisoner) Judy would be wearing an old orange t-shirt,
obviously deframing her cop personality. Judy agreed to the challenge, shaking the Klaw's
klawed… er, I mean… clawed paw and just as he he was about to leave, he called for Judy
again. She turned to the terrorist. "Your 'friend' gave me a fair fight and lost everything. Don't
make the same mistake with me." Dick then came out to escort her sister to the battle labyrinth
as certain death or a glorious upset awaited the young doe.
Transition… The Labyrinth
Next Level by LZ7 and Family Force 5 plays.
Elevate, elevate, elevate, Next Level
Music continues.
Judy, now wearing a lightweight orange t-shirt, walked into the beginning of one end of the
spooky labyrinth, where she set out with courage to find her opponent, who was undoubtedly
waiting for her at the other end. Little did she know that as she started working her way towards
the middle of the maze, the real chaos was set to begin.
Next Level Baby.
Hey, you know I'm the bomb-I'm the bomb. Yeah, that's why you sounded the alarm, right? (2x)
Song still continues.
She heard random scratching along the walls of the labyrinth. No doubt the "predator" wanting
to scare the prey out of hiding. She remained calm and then proceeded to try and find the Klaw.
Little did she know, that the Klaw was closer than she thought. He was sneaking up on her
coming closer and closer than ever because he was pulling himself up onto the walls, walking
on top of them and using his vision to try and track down Hopps. The Kyman Klaw now had the
mindset of a vicious hunter. He threw a bomb where he guessed Judy would have been hiding.
He was right. Judy spotted some kind of smoke bomb that made her cough profusely, revealing
her location to the Klaw.
Jump! Jump! Jump! Elevate!
Jump! Jump! Jump! Next Level!
LZ7, LZ7, FF5, FF-FF-FF-5 (2x)
Next, he grabbed some hoverboard he seemed to be flying up in the sky as he grabbed an uzi
rapidly and randomly firing it throughout the whole labyrinth almost as if randomly shooting for
Hopps. Luckily, none of the bullets hit her as she ducked under the smoke. She wasn't as lucky
When she turned around and was face-to-face with the Klaw who rapidly started trying to slash
Judy with a knife. She was able to evade the Klaw's attempts to quickly end her despite the
surprising speed and agility from her opponent. How to get out of her vulnerable position in the
corner was another thing entirely.
Next Level!
See Imma Elevate, Elevate, System Links, Bounce Bounce Like a Fresh New Pair of Kicks.
See I'm a New Kid, I'm Relentless, I'm from the U.K., Bring the London Twist to This…
Song continues
She was able to successfully able to juke out her would-be assassin and also delivered a
crushing hit to his right leg, tripping him up allowing her to make an escape of some kind as she
attempted to run towards the next path to the end to survive. The Kyman Klaw tried to throw a
ninja star at Judy to try and nail her before pulling himself up onto the wall. Judy saw the
maneuver and made a mental note to use this to her advantage next time as well, but also paid
enough attention to evade the stars coming towards her. Now knowing that the Klaw could be
knowing her every move before she made it (and correctly assumed that the guns and the
bombs were to try and reveal her location, she decided that the best thing to do was make a
mad-dash for the end instead of hiding in isolation. However, the predator was prepared as well
as the prey. Thinking several steps ahead of Judy, he knew that by launching another bomb or
shooting another round of bullets, this would obviously cause her to go quicker to find the end.
Unless of course, she already knew where it was. His next move was to find Judy, then just
land in front of wherever she was at to determine how close to the end she was then try to drive
her farther back enough to cause her to be even more lost. Confident in his plan, he jumped in
front of the "hopeless" prey.
Jump! Jump! Jump! Elevate!
Jump! Jump! Jump! Next Level!
Jump! Jump! Jump! Bass, Treble!
Jump! Jump! Jump! Next Level!
Song ends.
What Judy didn't know was that the Klaw had another trick up his sleeve. She was about 50
feet from the end when he stealthily lept behind her pushing a button on the remote control
which sent down a robot with a built-in chainsaws for arms. With a robot blocking a rather
straight-shot towards the end and a ruthless assassin behind her, she knew she had to make a
move and quick. She could try going past the robot and let the assassin deal with it, but he had
the remote to turn it off easily. Assuming Judy would die either which way (but still wanting to
finish her off for the sport of it) he decided to shoot at Judy anyway and come closer and closer
towards her to finish it off, however, fate had other plans. Although the robot was very tactical,
very big and very powerful, it wasn't built for speed. He incorrectly assumed that since Judy
was very small and that the robot was a very tall obstacle, this would mean an easy win for him
because of size. Boy was he wrong. And being wrong would cost him. As the rabbit easily
hopped through the robot's legs, the robot (taking a while to work) naturally sliced the next thing
it saw. The Klaw's pectorals (or his shoulder blades). Judy was coming closer and closer to
finding the end. She was literally one step towards finding the finish line when all of the sudden,
she heard screaming coming from the part of the maze where she last left the Klaw. She turned
back around to see the robot's blades come close to embedding its blades all the way into his
muscles so that it would render his arms completely useless. She had to make a choice and
quick. Sprint to the finish and win the game, play it safe, she'll be fine. Or take the 50-50
chance of trying to free the Klaw, knowing he'd probably kill her at the next chance he got, and
either come back with a 50-50 chance of living out the night. Now, I'm not the smartest writer in
the world, but I'm pretty sure none of you would choose Option 2. In fact, some of you would
think it's pretty crazy, I mean, there's no way Judy out of anybody would do that, right? But she
did. She saw the remote control her opponent dropped and used it to turn off the robot. The
robot's blades were obviously still embedded in the shoulder blades of the Klaw and when she
took them out, she discovered that he was writhing in pain and losing blood rapidly. Quickly and
carefully, she assisted the fatally injured Klaw to the finish line. The race for life-and-death
ended in a draw, but it was the Klaw that came closest to death. Judy saw Dick and Sasha
(who were watching the contest from elevated seating) and told (more like demanded, but
whatever) them to get medical supplies immediately. They complied, and before Judy left, she
heard something "Wait!" she heard the wounded phrase being spoken by the Klaw. She
wondered what other trick that her opponent had up her sleeve. There were no tricks this time
though. He just had a simple question to ask. "You know I could've been able to kill you, right?"
Judy nodded in answer to that question. "You know that it would've been a quicker win for you if
you crossed the line and let me be, right?" She nodded again. "Then why did you bother saving
me at all, knowing that it was going to be futile?" This time, Judy knelt down, using part of the
t-shirt (the part she didn't cut off prior to the fight/race to use as string as to not get lost) to put
pressure on the Klaw's wounds as to not let any more blood get lost and looked him straight in
the mask and said, tenderly, "Because I have honor inside of me. And honor wouldn't let
anyone else get killed, no matter who it was." Her opponent's countenance didn't seem as grim
as it once was, but she did feel him toss her hard like a baseball out of the hole of a broken
window that the loser of the duel between Silver and the Kyman Klaw got pushed out of left for
dead when the battle ended. She fell down the rabbit hole (Ok, it was the window hole. Man,
am I feeling punny tonight.) where she landed right next to the dead body of a warrior. She lifted
the mask of the dead warrior, surprisingly, not seeing Silver's face, but that of a wolf with a star
over his right eye, as if there was some sort of makeup/paint that covered the star. She gasped
in realization. "But that could only mean…" She saw some kind of familiar energy animating
from the main building. She used a grappling hook that Silver neglected to take out of the Klaw
when they fought and used it to climb up where the energy was coming from. She took a glance
to see a majority of the Ring's contingent running out of the building because of the energy. She
quickly made some deductions. The energy was focusing on the maze, which seemed to be
some kind of power grid. She then made the correct assumption that the power grid actually
powered the Ring's main HQ. (That and the fact that the lights were going off and on whenever
the energy increased gave that a good guess too.) She then saw the figure briefly turn towards
her. The amount of energy he was using was also increasing the rate of blood coming out of his
wounds, but he still gave his powers one last gigantic boost. She was shocked and surprised to
see Silver putting all of his life force practically into destroying the Ring. The last-ditch effort
worked, causing the Ring's HQ to explode. The impact sent Judy careening in the air, but her
mind processed something else in slow motion. Her friend, weakened, vulnerable, yet noble;
falling to his wounds, his back being smacked against a nearby tree causing more blood to fall
out, and landing to the ground with a thud.
Watching for Comets by Skillet plays
"You burn so bright, I see stars. The way you laugh, it's like a heavenly choir."
"You made me feel invincible; When you're with me, I could take on the world."
Chorus:
"You were a comet, and I lost it."
"Watching for comets, will I see you again?"
"You burn so bright, you burn me up tonight."
Song continues…
As Judy's mind refocused into real time, she saw her friend's back bleeding next to the HQ he
destroyed. She quickly hopped over to him in a panicked frenzy, caring less that an army of
ZPD, S.W.E.A.T. officers and Dick's contingent, who turned against the Ring, marching near the
destroyed HQ to take on the rest of the Ring that assembled. She looked at Silver for a
split-second seeing no pain in his eyes at all, but comfort. "Do you want to know why I did it?"
Silver asked his friend weakly. She nodded, with tears streaming down her eyes. "I always do
stupid things like this for the ones I love." he spoke, weakly, but with confidence. Then his
countenance went weak as his grip loosened. "No, no!" she shrieked out to no one in
particular. She practically had to be torn away from Silver by Nick, KZ and Tails as she watched
in heartbreak as her friend being taken away by a medical helicopter.
"Everybody needs someone, but they can't feel like this."
"How can I breathe with this burning in my chest?
"You were gone so fast, I want you ba-a-a-ack."
Song continues…
She now knew why it was important to take the time to truly know others like Whirley said.
Because you never know when that time can be stripped away. She could care less that Nick
and KZ were taking her to a police chopper that was also en route to the hospital to visit Silver.
She could care less that Tails and his forces were quickly vanquishing the Ring. She could even
care less that she even survived the whole ordeal. All that she cared about was that her friend
could be lost again. This time, for real. This time, for forever.
"You burn so bright, you burn me up tonight."
Song ends.
Whoa. What a surprise huh? It turns out the Klaw was defeated the whole time and Silver
disguised as the Klaw to gain access to the power grid and the duo of Judy and Silver both
saved each other's lives in that chapter. But the life of one, could cost the life of another. Is
Silver gonna be ok? Will Judy make it through this whole ordeal? Will all be set right? To find
out (and I know you're gonna hate this.) Wait 'til next time. Watching for Comets and Back
From the Dead are both owned by Skillet and the song Next Level was written by LZ7 and
Family Force 5. Also, if you noticed Dick and Judy's encounter in the prison, I hid a little
Captain America: Civil War pun in there where Dick's telling her if she messes with the collar
"zap" (Just to remind everyone...Any and all unoriginal content is used for entertainment and
educational purposes only) Don't forget to review and follow. Send me a review real quick,
what would you have done in Judy's situation? The one in the maze. Save yourself or go back
and take that 50-50 chance of saving someone else? Until then guys, Keep Loving, Keep
Edifying, Keep LoveandEdifying. Peace out.