AN: Greetings! Hope you all had a happy Easter. Let's get right to it.

Chapter 25

„Score! Looks like Mathilda's saving our butts even though she offed herself," Nick whispered with a smile, almost shaking from the thrill. As he shyly opened their cell door, making sure to try to prevent the metal from screeching as much as possible, he said to his partner: "I-I'm not hallucinating again, am I?"

"If you are, then I am, too," Judy answered, hardly able to keep herself from crying out in joy. But, immediately, she came to a more reasonable realization. "But what if it's a trap?"

The fox turned his head, taking a moment to ponder. Then, he confidently responded:

"And what if it's not a trap?"

Judy had to agree with him. There was no other option for them but to at least try to run away from their dungeon, no matter what. And they were ready to take all the risks involved rather than stay and wait for the reptiles to make their lives even more of a nightmare.

"Do you know the way?" asked the rabbit, who had not spent nearly as much time in the sewers as Nick.

"I think so," he answered her with a shaky voice. "C'mon, but be careful. And keep those ears pricked up!"

Following his instructions obediently, she exited the cell right behind the fox's back, moving as silently as she could, listening intently for any sound as they moved on.

The stone underground halls were dark, yet silent. Judy did not pick up any noise which she would recognize as belonging to the carnivores. But she did hear something else- a faint animal sound which made her hesitate.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. The desperate cry was making her heart break. Biting her lip, she grabbed Nick by the elbow, stopping him.

"What is it?" the fox immediately stiffened, holding his breath.

Judy moved closer to him, and awkwardly whispered.

"Don't worry. It's just that… Over there, in the other cells… I can hear the rest of the prisoners. Nick, we… we've got to help them!"

He turned around, giving her a stern look. Obviously, he thought that she was talking crazy. It was best to slip out of there as soon as possible, and then contact the police so they could free the others later than risk a more widespread breakout. But when Nick saw the look in Judy's eyes, he understood that, if they didn't act immediately, someone else might lose their life before they would be able to return…

Though reluctant, the fox waved his paw at his partner, indicating he wanted her to follow.

They entered a side tunnel which led to another cell. Its metal bars reached from the ceiling all the way down to the floor. It was from there that the sound Judy heard was coming.

As soon as Nick stood before the bars, a loud cry reached his ears. On the other side, he saw a whole band of frightened, dirty lambs, bunched up in a flock in their utter despair.

The terrified animals caused quite an uproar when they noticed the predator. Running to her partner's side, Judy immediately tried to calm them.

"Shhh! It's okay! We're from the ZPD, we're here to get you out!" she whispered.

"Please, stay quiet!" Nick also encouraged them. "Hold on a second. I've got the key."

But the lambs kept moaning no matter how hard they encouraged them, their eyes hollow and numb from the fear…

Finally, when the fox unlocked the cell with the key which Allastor had dropped, Judy forced a smile and enticed the prey animals to come with them.

But the lambs just stood there, bleating.

"What's the matter with you?" the bedazzled female officer observed that in exasperation. Running into the cell, she attempted to pull one of the animals out. "C'mon, you're free! Let's get out of here before the reptiles hear us!"

Unfortunately, it was all for nothing.

Sighing in disappointment, Nick looked at his partner sadly.

"It's no use, Carrots," he told her. "They're in shock. Completely enthralled. We're gonna have to leave them here."

"No!" she snapped at him angrily, though she had tears in her eyes. "We've got to help them!"

Grabbing one of the lambs' fleece, she attempted to force it to move. But the animal was way too heavy.

"Carrots, let's get out of here…" the fox insisted, now seriously worried about the noise they were making and their obvious lack of time.

Eventually, Judy also realized the same thing. The lambs, having been prisoners for days, have also given in to their primitive instincts. And those ordered them to stay put, bunched up together no matter what.

There was nothing they could do but relock the cell door and, with a heavy heart, be on their way.

Again the two police officers entered the damp passages through which Nick was leading them toward where he remembered the exit was. And although they were able to leave the dungeons successfully and without interference, Judy had to touch the fox's arm yet again after a couple of minutes…

"There's someone coming from the opposite direction," she informed him, whispering so silently that he barely understood what she said. "Oh, I hope they didn't hear us…"

Although his heart pounded like a mallet, Nick reacted instantly.

"Quick," he said, grabbing his partner's paw and forcefully pulling her into the nearest adjacent chamber before she was even able to resist. He could already hear the reptile guards coming himself.

Judy gasped out of pain when the fox dragged her into the room, although she managed to hold her tongue. But when they both saw what was inside the chamber…

"Ah!" yelped the rabbit, her eyes instantly filled with the expression of true horror.

"Quiet!" Nick ordered her in a whisper, grabbing the bewitched female in his grasp and forcing her to sit down on the floor together with him, their backs against the wall, covering her mouth with his paw and turning her head away from the gruesome sight. "We've got to be quiet!"

They had unwittingly slipped into the reptiles' trophy room, where Judy, unlike Nick, had never been before. He could only imagine the effect all the tanned hides and stuffed severed heads displayed on the walls, which gazed at them with their glass eyes, had on the rabbit…

Judy shook like a leaf in her partner's arms, putting much effort into keeping herself from sobbing so loudly that she would attract all the carnivores around with her cries of horror. The only thing that made that possible was Nick's closeness, and the resolution she made that the devilish practices underneath Zootopia needed to end.

Only a minute or two had passed, but to the duo of cops it seemed like an eternity. Finally, Judy lifted her eyes at Nick, pulling her nose and wiping the tears away.

"They're gone. They didn't hear anything. Let's get out of here," she said in a broken voice.

The fox only looked at her compassionately, and nodded.

They ran out without turning back. The predator, who had walked these halls for the past days, could now recognize that they were getting closer to the exit which led to the sewers. He knew that when they passed by a large underground pond.

"What's this?" Judy asked him, slowing down a bit to take a look around and listen if the coast was clear.

"It's the carnivores' water supply," Nick informed her.

"Uh, I wish I could poison it…" the angered female whispered back to him. Straining her ears, not hearing any sounds carrying over the surface of the water, she then indicated that they could move on.

After taking a few more steps, however, this time Nick was the one to stop her.

"Hold it," he said, sniffing the air around. "I can feel the scent of some carnie mammal nearby. It might be Rufus. I'm sure they made someone watch the exit."

"So what're we gonna do?" the rabbit asked him, realizing that what he said was true.

Nick rubbed his temples, trying to focus. And then he noticed where they were.

"That chamber over there," he pointed at one of the corridors. "That's where they keep everything they steal from their victims. They call it the wardrobe… Anyway, that's where they probably put our guns. I think we should get them."

"Yes!" Judy reacted to his idea with a large amount of enthusiasm. "We might even pick up some clothes before returning to the streets…"

In great anticipation, both officers entered the room, noticing that it was indeed filled with piles of clothes and racks with all sorts of items and equipment.

"There's my uniform!" exclaimed the rabbit, noticing it lying on top of one of the heaps, instantly rushing to get it.

But Nick was a bit less hasty. Halting at the chamber's entrance, he lifted his nose again and began to sniff.

"Carrots, wait a minute. Something's not right here…" he warned her.

And he was absolutely right.

The sound of laughter quickly filled the room, making both the cops flinch. And it was not just one person laughing.

The duo of officers realized that they had fallen into an ambush.

First, a middle-aged male cheetah, naked, ferocious, much slimmer and way more muscular than officer Clawhauser, pounced Judy's way, ejecting from the top of one of the tall racks. When he landed not more than two yards away from her, the rabbit hopped back with a terrified shriek, rushing to her partner's side.

Before she even got there, another nude and muscular predator, a young lioness, stood atop a heap of clothes, causing a small avalanche.

The cheetah and the lioness eyed the run-away prisoners victoriously, continuing to chuckle. Now Nick and Judy clearly understood that this indeed had all been nothing but a trap. The fox gnashed his fangs as he embraced the female, trying to calm her.

"Run. I'll slow them down," he said to her, getting ready for a very uneven fight.

"No! Are you crazy?!" the rabbit staunchly protested, refusing to move a muscle.

The two carnivorous felines then both took a step toward them, standing side by side.

"Well, isn't this perfect?" the cheetah addressed the lioness, not taking his eyes off Nick and Judy.

"Yeah, right where we wanted them!" the other feline spoke, her sharp fangs glistening in the dark.

To their shock, the Zootopian police officers easily recognized the couple of predators, as they were well-known celebrities from the city. The cheetah's name was James P. Hunt, and he was the host of a popular ZNN talk-show, aptly named the 'Jimmy Hunt Show'. There, talking with other popular Zootopians on Saturday evenings, he often discussed issues like the 'persecution of the predator minority'.

The lioness, on the other hand, was one of those people who were 'famous for being famous', but still Nick and Judy also recognized Kiara Bytes in an instant. She was the daughter of an influential Z-town councilor, a fashion designer, and an outspoken predator rights activist. Plus, a self-declared pacifist.

Both of the felines were known to have vigorously fought the 'prejudice' of predators being dangerous, expressed by many prey animals in the city. And now, seeing them here and in such circumstances, the two police officers found out that the two celebs were nothing more than master liars, and complete hypocrites. They remembered what Oscar Fangley had told them long ago, about carnivorism having reached 'the highest echelons of Zootopia'. It must have indeed been true, as Jimmy Hunt and Kiara Bytes were members of Z-town's aristocracy.

They had hidden themselves well. But now, down in the Dragon's lair, they no longer needed to do that.

"Should we have a little race?" Jimmy suggested with a smug grin, completely ignoring how frightened the two animals standing before them were.

"What, you think you can win?" Kiara puffed up her chest, responding cockily.

"Well, I am faster than you, sweetheart."

"Yeah, but I'm stronger, darling!"

Completely outraged with their ridiculous argument, as well as with the fact that the two carnivores did not pay them any attention, Nick decided to speak.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he screamed, shaking with both anger and fear at the same time.

The cheetah and the lioness redirected their eyes at him and Judy, as if just now noticing their presence.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the male said, though he clearly wasn't sorry. "We forgot to introduce ourselves, Mr. Wilde. My name is…"

"We know who you are!" Judy yelled back at them, angered by the fact that Jimmy, like most carnivores, did not speak to her only because she was a prey animal.

The cheetah stammered a bit awkwardly, so the lioness continued for him.

"Yes, obviously, you know us from TV," she said with a proud smile. "No wonder. We never had the pleasure to personally meet each other back at Butcher's Den. But better late than never, right?"

The carnivores continued to smile, eyeing Nick and Judy in a very nasty way… Both of the officers felt their stomachs turn.

"What… are you… gonna do?" the rabbit issued the question to which both her and her partner already knew the answer.

"Hahaha!" the cheetah and the lioness responded to that with a burst of laughter.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" said Jimmy. "We're gonna hunt you! It's been ages since Kiara and I did that back at good ol' 537 Parrot Street in Ferndale, Horne County. Before you two idiots had the place raided, that is!"

The idea of being hunted was not particularly pleasant to both the rabbit, and the fox… Judy could still remember how terrible she felt back at Butcher's Den, where her own partner had pretended to do that, even though she did not know at the time that it was only a hustle. The old bite marks he left on her neck that day suddenly started to itch.

But, surprisingly, Nick was experiencing this even worse than she did. He may have been a predator, but he was only a secondary predator. He had never been a target of a hunt before in his life… and the perspective of being hunted, now so horribly tangible, almost made him lose his breath.

Redirecting his eyes, which pupils were as wide as quarters, at his partner, he then whispered but one word.

"Run."

Clearly, Jimmy and Kiara were taken by surprise when their prey fled the chamber. But that was rather predictable, generally speaking, and only made the couple of carnivores roll their eyes.

"Uhhh… yiff the police!" cussed the exasperated female.

"No. Catch the police!" the cheetah retorted with a smile, already rushing into pursuit, getting ahead of her, what made the lioness even more angry.

"Hey! Hold up, you cheater!" she yelled, joining the hunt herself.

In the meantime, taking advantage of the head start they managed to obtain over the two savage felines, Nick and Judy were speeding down the stone tunnel like their lives depended on it. And, of course, their lives did depend on it.

Tired, hungry and sore from their injuries, they weren't able to run as fast as they wanted, however. After a couple hundred yards, they were already completely winded.

The fox was more tired than the rabbit, and also not as fast generally. Eventually, he noticed that Judy was running slower than she was capable of, so as to stay by her partner's side.

"Ca-rrots! You… go on! Don't… wait… for me!" he huffed, the stub of his tail waving in the air behind him.

His friend didn't listen to him, however, instead clasping his hand more tightly, pulling him with her.

Nick's lungs burned like acid… until he heard a lioness' roar right behind his back, that is.

It appeared that Kiara had overtaken Jimmy on the course of their pursuit, and was now almost on Nick and Judy's tails.

"Oh shiiiiiit!" the fox yelped in utter terror after he looked over his shoulder, noticing the furious female feline charging straight at them.

He then reacted instinctively, falling to his front and hind legs. Noticing that, just like in Butcher's Den, that made her partner run faster, Judy soon followed suit.

The distance between the hunters and the prey increased. Nick knew that they were almost where he remembered the entrance to be…

But, in the end, the merciless laws of physics and nature prevailed over their longing for freedom. It was simply impossible for a rabbit and a fox to outrun a pair of predators from the top of the food chain, especially in their miserable state.

Too tired to keep up the pace, Nick started falling behind. Almost panicking when she saw that, Judy remained by his side, trying to encourage him not to give up…

But he just smiled to her, and whispered:

"G-go. Don't… worry about me…"

He then halted completely.

"Nick!" Judy screamed, noticing that she left him way behind her back. She knew he wanted her to keep running… but she just couldn't.

Trying to suddenly stop while galloping full-speed made her slip and slide on the moist pavement of the tunnel. Before she was even able to regain her balance and see what's going on, she felt a cheetah's fangs piercing the skin on her nape, reopening her old wounds.

Jimmy jerked his head a few times, trying to force her to yield. But all Judy could think of right now was not breaking free from the hunter's grasp, but seeing what had happened to her friend.

Unfortunately, when the feline lifted her up from the ground, she could see that Nick had already been knocked to the floor behind her, and crushed with the weight of Kiara's body.

A shiver ran down Judy's neck.

"I've… got… the fox!" bragged the tired lioness, holding her catch tightly between her paws.

The cheetah dropped Judy right by her side, immediately putting his clawed paw on the herbivore's chest.

"And I've… got… the rabbit," Jimmy also panted. "She was the faster one, so… I guess we can call it… a tie?"

"Yeah, sure. Seems fair," the lioness responded joyfully, as if all this was a game of checkers.

In the meantime, the completely frightened Judy quivered under the crushing weight of her hunter's paw, defeated and anxious. Fearing that her partner may have already been dead, straining to lift her head, she gazed his way…

Nick was just lying there with his eyes open, injured, but alive. He also looked at his friend sadly.

"Well, no time to lose," continued the cheetah, redirecting his sight at the prey in his grasp, the reward of a successful hunt, licking his lips hungrily.

The lioness, however, was a bit less eager to eat than him.

"Err… Jimmy?" she addressed her fellow carnivore uneasily after taking a closer look at the exhausted fox between her paws. "Do you really think I should… you know… eat him?"

"Yeah. What's wrong with that?" the cheetah asked a question which, to the ears of Nick and Judy, sounded particularly disgusting.

Kiara continued to wince, though it was not because she suddenly grew a conscience.

"It's just that… I've never eaten another meat-eater. Seems kinda… weird, doesn't it?"

"Heh, so that's what it is?" Jimmy jeered at her hesitation. "You females! So sensitive. Don't worry, Mr. Wilde's just a secondary consumer. You're the apex predator. That places you above him on the food chain, no matter how you wanna look at it. But, if you're still having second thoughts, tell you what- why don't we switch? I'm up for that, as long as you're fine with eating rabbit. Plus, I'm kinda curious to find out if the meat of another carnivore tastes better than that of a herbie."

That conversation was making both the defeated officers sick. Was this really how their end was to look? Were they to become the content of the picky stomachs of a couple of stupid celebrities?

"Fine!" to their shock, Kiara responded to Jimmy's proposition joyfully.

"Alright," the cheetah said to her. "Just make sure to strangle your prey before we switch. We wouldn't want them to slip away while we're arguing…"

Both the felines then readied to do just that. Nick and Judy's lives flashed before their eyes…

Until they heard a powerful voice booming through the halls.

"DO NOT KILL!"

Visibly astounded, the cheetah and the lioness froze with their mouths agape. Both of their victims also stiffened on the ground, completely paralyzed, now too stunned to comprehend what was going on.

It appeared that the hunt had spectator all along.

From the adjacent chambers and corridors, there came the reptiles- Gnarlathotep the Sentinel, Ra the Snake, and Allastor the Grand Lizard. Rufus Lynx came along with them, grinning. The group was led by the Dragon, from whom the order came. It was also him who made the carnivores gather in a circle around the hunters. The cheetah and the lioness bowed their heads before him humbly as he pierced them with a stern glare, at once losing all of their glee.

"What have I told you? The time of the feast is not now, but later!" the mighty monitor rebuked his underlings.

"W-we do remember, Master…" Kiara tried to deliver an explanation for both her and the male, yet not daring to look the Dragon in the eyes.

He then came up to the young huntress, testing the air with his tongue as he did so. Redirecting his eyes at the petrified prey in her grasp, he snorted, and spoke more calmly.

"You both did well. Now give me room."

Realizing that they were not about to be punished, both her and the cheetah breathed with relief. The same could not be said for Nick and Judy, however.

The Dragon came up to the trembling officers, and bit each of them on the arm, piercing their skin and allowing his poisonous saliva to contaminate their blood.

A moment later, Kiara and Jimmy could stand up without fear that the fox and the rabbit would escape. As they were now completely paralyzed.

A new, even darker wave of terror flooded their hearts when they saw the circle of carnivores stooping down to gaze at the defenseless animals, who to them were nothing but playthings…

"Your hour has not yet come, but the time is short," the Dragon bellowed at them. "This is where all your nightmares come true. We know what you're afraid of most, and we assure you- the worst is yet to come."

He knew that he was robbing them of the last bits of hope. He could see that clearly by the way both of the desperate creatures sobbed, not even able to wipe off the tears that were now running down their faces in streams.

And he seemed to be enjoying that sensation.

Rufus the bobcat also crouched to look at their victims closely, constantly bearing a scoffing smirk. It appeared he wished to add even more weight to their suffering.

"I've been up to Zootopia today," he informed them. "The ZPD are as busy as bees searching for you. Too bad they're looking in all the wrong places… They've scoured the bayous in the Canal District, and introduced curfew all around the city. There's a cop on every corner wherever you go, day and night. But only two down here, in the sewers!"

Not long ago, Nick and Judy thought that they still had a chance. But now, all they could feel was despair. What the reptiles did to them was torture. Pure torture.

The Dragon stood over both of them one last time, and said:

"If you still think that this has a happy ending… you haven't been paying attention."

He then ordered his minions to drag the paralyzed couple back to their cell.

AN: (flinches) Ooh, Nick and Judy just got Ramsay Bolton-ed! Anyone for pork sausage?

Sorry. I know this isn't funny…