Jack Savage

My team's gonna come for me.

I mean granted, there's a good chance that once I'm taken back to the Twilight Cathedral Rufinius is gonna spirit me away. Just drug me up, pack me into a crate, and ship me off to whatever remote mansion he has out in the country.

But still, I need to believe my team's coming for me.

The facts don't matter in this sorta situation. The actual odds of escape are irrelevant. The only truth you need for survival is that you're dead the moment you start trying to do a risk assessment. When the odds inevitably look bad you lose confidence, and you stop looking for solutions. Instead you start thinking about the thorough soundproofing of the chamber, the drain in the middle of the floor, the rust-red swirls staining the concrete... that's when it's all over. You fail before you even truly begin.

So the first step in living through what's about to happen to me: have faith in the team.

We're somewhere in the Docks, that much I know. Even deep in this concrete basement and its thick walls I can still faintly smell the ocean air, the hint of salty brine that'd soaked into the mortar. I can almost hear the crash of waves against the shore. It's ice cold down here, especially after the Smiler had sliced off my jacket and shirt, leaving me bare to the waist.

Thick layers of self-adhesive tape bind my wrists behind my back. My ankles are chained to two pegs in the floor. A metal hook dangling from the ceiling had been looped through my wrist-bonds, and a winch had hoisted my arms up behind me, lifting me until my upper body is bent forward and my shoulders strain in their sockets. The pleather cuffs cut into my ankles as I tremble, perched on my toes.

Standard stress position, I tell myself, shivering. It's fine. I've trained for this.

Wilde is just staring at me from across the room, his arms crossed over his chest. He stares at me with a flat, level gaze. What's going on in his head, I wonder? Probably satisfaction at seeing me like this. Agent Savage, taken down a peg by a fox. He's almost made a hobby out of humiliating me.

I should've killed him long ago. There'd been so many opportunities, so many ways it could've been done. Poison in his food, a knife in the dark, a bullet threaded through the right window. Quick and clean and easy... but no. I'd had to try and use him to get to Rufinius, feed the old bastard misinformation.

Trying to outsmart a Frisk turned out to be a risky gambit, one I'd just lost. It would've been so much cleaner to have put him down like a rabid beast instead.

I gasp when the Smiler upends the bucket of cold water on my head. Reflexively I double over, curling forward at the sudden chill soaking into my fur, the taste of salt on my mouth as icy trickles crawl down my face. My shoulders creak as I writhe, the bonds press hard into my wrists until I can feel my flesh bruising.

"It really is rare for me to get a bunny in my parlor, I'm sure you can imagine," the Smiler says, his tone warm as can be. "Most of the bunnies I encounter have learned to obey long before my approach becomes necessary. And those who haven't rarely pursue careers where they end up crossing my path. I do wonder... how well will you endure compared to the other mammals I've known?"

Did Mom ever suffer what I'm about to go through? Did Andy? Mom had been kidnapped from Bunnyburrow... the Prince needed her genetic material, something to keep the bloodlines of his breeds from getting too stagnant. She would've had to be softened up for her new life at the Farm. Andy had disobeyed, helped me escape that terrible night, so long ago. He had faced the Smiler too. I'd seen what this Arctic bastard had done to him with my own eyes, hiding in that damp little hole in the log.

My thoughts drift to the little room I'd been raised in... the creaky bed, the bars on the windows, the cassette player in the corner. It'd been a prison but still... I can't help but have some sweet memories of it, with the two bunnies I'd once known as my only family.

No, I have to push that memory aside. Scrubbing my mind blank I slump into my bonds, letting my vision go unfocused. Don't give them what they want, but don't resist either. That's it, Jack. Blank out every trace of who and what you are.

Go gray. You're neutral. Mute. Silent. Drink in the hot ache in your joints, the cuffs biting into your ankles. The pain is a part of you... it can't hurt you any more than your own paw of ear or tail can.

The snap of rubber gloves is a distant thing.

"I know that for a little while at least this will be a one-sided conversation," the Smiler says cheerfully. Cupping my chin in one gloved paw, he presses the bar gag against my mouth. For a moment I hesitate, but the thought of him using force to wedge it in gets me to accept it without any complaint.

Don't fight it. He wants to make it a struggle, so if I don't give him one he can't win on that front at least. Still, the thought that I'm being gagged by this sick fuck is almost more than I can bear.

"I've dealt with enough spies to know how they try to resist," he continues, clipping the straps of the bar gag behind my head. My tongue probes idly at the latex surface, and I feel old teeth marks... small pointed holes from fangs, perhaps from a weasel. I wonder what'd happened to him. "Normally I would be very gentle at first... keep things mild to assuage their pride. A broken finger or two, maybe just a few needles in the right spots. You know, provide a little gimme, just so you can tell yourself that you put up a good fight at least. I do try to establish a positive relationship before the screaming begins, you see."

They're coming for you, Jack. Your team won't let you down.

The Smiler circles behind me. Despite myself, the thought that I can't see him sends a shiver through my body. Yet I do as I'd been trained to do... let myself feel the fear for a few seconds, sharp and prickly like the brush of nettles, before letting it go.

That's it. You're a void, Jack. You feel nothing.

"Unfortunately," he continues, and I hear the squeak of ungreased wheels. The Smiler pushes a cart up beside me, and out of the corner of my eye I notice the big block of a car battery. "We're rather pressed for time, and the Prince would like you a bit more docile before we take you to the Twilight Cathedral. The supply of tranquilizers and muscle relaxants I used to keep here have expired long ago, so we'll have to resort to more cumbersome measures to soften you up. Not that I'm complaining of course."

His paws are strangely gentle when he cups my head, fingers encircling the base of my ear. In his other paw he holds an alligator clip. It pinches down hard on the tip of one ear, then the other. My stomach clenches as copper fangs bite into tender flesh. The pink insides of my ears are particularly sensitive... Skye always loved running her tongue along them when we made love, leaving a wet trail cooling as she breathed against them. That always set my foot thumping.

The pinpricks of pain are just fluttering on the edge of being akin to a lover's bite, but with the wires attached to the clips and hanging down my back there's no way I can mistake what the Smiler is doing to me for that.

My body is tense. A cold shudder runs through me.

Doused in salt water to increase conductivity. Gagged so I don't bite through my tongue...

"We really did a disservice to you, letting you roam free all these years... letting you believe you were something more than a dumb bunny. 'Jack Savage...' an unacceptable name for a pet," the Smiler's grin widens in amusement. "Did you pick that name yourself? Well, if so that's even worse. Such willfulness is unbecoming in a rabbit. You should've remembered that only a fox can give you a proper name once you come of age. Only a fox can tell you who you are and shape your destiny."

My skin crawls when he leans in close and presses his cheek to mine. "Cute little thing. Misguided, but cute. I'd tell you now that it would be so much easier if you just accept what is about to happen to you, and embrace your new name right now. 'Tiger Lily,' as the Prince commanded. But I know you'll want to put up some resistance. Well, we can spare a few minutes I suppose. I'll administer some gentle torture, just so you can get it out of your system."

"Oh, and one more thing," the Smiler says, selecting a muzzle from a selection that hangs on the wall. Even the smallest sized one fits awkwardly when he holds it against my face to test it out, but he shrugs, as if it'd have to do. Taking out a white pawkerchief from his pocket he gives it a couple sprays from a small bottle. When he looks up at me a playful grin spreads across his face. "This I do happen to have, coincidentally. The musk of a vixen's heat. Part of my personal stock for certain... intimate encounters. And I hear you had quite the thing for a particularly lovely fox before she was killed."

He straps the muzzle to my face, and a warm, delicious scent that reminds me of Skye fills my nostrils. I used to drink it in whenever I went down on her, the carnal scent of her arousal. I could get intoxicated on it, especially when it mingled with the sweetness of the peach body wash she used.

I try to shake it off, to ignore the warm scent that reminds me of the hours we'd spend in each other's arms, naked save for the sweat cooling on our fur. The scent reminds me of warm beaches and Mediterranean sunsets, or in front of a smoldering fireplace in a winter cabin, the hint of wood smoke adding a certain savory quality to the musk of our lovemaking.

Oh no. No, please...

"Scent is quite tightly connected to memory, you know..." Sebastian grins. "Pleasant ones especially. The smell of a mother's pillow brings up warm, comforting nostalgia. The smell of old piss would immediately conjure the fear of dim alleys in run-down neighborhoods. The true challenge in my craft is rewiring those connections... dissociating scents from their old memories, and reattaching them to new experiences."

He gives the patch of cloth over my nose a playful poke, smiling down at me. His teeth are needle-sharp, his gums blood-red. That and his laughing blue eyes are the only bits of color on his otherwise snow-white face. "Now... it's time for Jack Savage to die, and for the Tiger Lily to be reborn."

My eyes dart down to the controller he holds in his paw. I need to blank my mind, retreat deep into myself the way I'd been trained to. But the scent of a vixen's heat fills my nostrils, stirring old memories and feelings I'd kept fenced off for the sake of professional boundaries. My heartbeat quickens, not simply out of fear, but for something else entirely. Involuntarily I clench my thighs, as a warm sense of need tingles down there.

Skye... I think to myself. I can almost feel the warmth of her paws, the taste of her mouth, the playful flick of her tongue when she'd lick my forehead in lieu of a kiss.

"I'm starting to like the taste of bunny..."

I don't even hear the flick of the switch. All I feel is pain.

.


.

Judy Hopps

I lay sprawled over Danny's thigh, and his heavy paw is patting me on the shoulder. It's warm, covering me from my neck down to the middle of my waist like a big thick blanket. A half-eaten slice of carrot cake sits on the table alongside an empty glass that'd held a rum and Coke, though Danny had been nice enough to go easy on the Coke.

The slice of cake has all the frosting scraped off of it and eaten on its own. After the terrifying day I'd had I'd needed some comfort food, though I didn't quite have the appetite to get it all in me.

When Elkredge ordered me released from interrogation I was relieved at first. Once I was told the reason why though I was even more worried and horrified than before. Jack Savage had been abducted, Nick was 'at large,' as if he were some criminal, suspected of either killing or kidnapping their star Agent. The ZIA tried to keep the details hush-hush around the ZPD officers, but around me they let their guard down a bit. I did, after all, know more than anyone else did. Hearing the whispers about what Nick might've done to poor Jack, a fox and a bunny together... it made me sick. I'd thought we were past these stereotypes.

With this being a city-wide emergency they needed all paws on deck, and that included the only bunny officer on the force. I was on the team analyzing the recording they'd captured of Jack's mic before it was cut off. By tracking Jack's cellphone location, best we could tell was they fell into the Manchacori River that flowed through the middle of the slums, but since we didn't have as active a force on the water we lost them at that point.

I'd done my duty with as much conviction and focus as anyone else, keeping my stress and fear from overwhelming me. But still, most of the ZIA Agents who knew all the details were looking at me like I couldn't be trusted, while the ZPD Officers who only knew that Nick was mixed up in something dangerous were treating me with kid gloves, like I was gonna fall apart emotionally. That made me really mad, that they thought I was some fragile, emotional bunny who couldn't keep it together on the job, even if it did involve my boyfriend. Though in a weird way I was thankful for it at the time... being angry about mammals still underestimating me was better than being terrified about the whole situation.

It was only after I'd clocked out for the day that I began to let myself freak out and vomit in the bathroom toilet.

Everyone had put in several hours of overtime for the search, and the Officers taking the night shift will likely be doing the same. Benjy was nice enough to let me stay over at his place... he knew that I probably shouldn't be alone right now. But the moment we entered his apartment he'd just packed up some clothes and left.

It didn't take much to know what was going on.

So here I am now, spending another night with the Kaplans after another tragedy. Danny and Luke are half-watching a whole season of Spongebob on Zoolu, their plates of curry polished clean. It'd probably be best for me to just drown out my worries in cartoons like these two, but even with a load of rum in me my mind's buzzing.

My paw reaches up and grips Danny's shorts. He glances down at me, and I look up at him. He's only just been able to take of his bandages. The patch of tummy where the doctors had to shave off his fur for surgery still shows a hint of naked pink skin, along with a half-healed scar. Poor Danny, I think to myself. With him still recovering, should I even be here? With how big everything is for tigers there's only so much I can do to help around the house.

And with the size difference between us, it's kinda hard to cuddle Danny. I really need to cuddle something right now... it's a bunny thing, really. But all my stuffed animals are back home, including that plush fox I'd gotten to love so much. I'd first bought it in the middle of the Night Howler crisis because it'd reminded me of Nick. My first real friend in Zootopia. I'd kept that crumpled police badge sticker he'd thrown on the ground that day, unfolded it and stuck it to the plushie's nylon fur, holding it close to myself and trying not to drown in the helpless self-loathing for what was happening. At time time I'd pretended that it was Nick, and even practiced several apologies to him.

What would I say to it now?

Danny's paw tightens on my body, and he gives me a little squeeze.

"So, um... me and Luke are totally cool with you staying the night," he says. "Like, really. We love having guests over."

"And you're totally safe around us," Luke grins, his eyes pink and bleary from his recent dose of nip. "Since y'know, we're super gay and everything."

"Dude, be cool!" Danny huffs. "But well... you okay, Judy?"

"No," I murmur, his shorts stirring a little when I sigh against his leg. "No, I don't think I'm okay."

"Jack Savage is missing, huh?" Danny says. That much had been made public knowledge, at least.

"Well, it's... more about Nick."

Danny blinks. "Nick?"

I can't help it. The whole day a small part of me had been locked up deep down inside, screaming and screaming while the rest of me had been focused on trying to find our two missing mammals. I'd felt so alone, even more alone than I'd ever been even during the Night Howler crisis, because at least then all the ZPD officers were on the same page. But with all this sensitive information and need-to-know stuff slicing apart my professional circles I had no one else to turn to except Benjy, and he'd left long ago. Without anyone to talk to I feel like I might just explode.

So it all spills out. Everything. Spongebob goes on pause as I tell Danny and Luke all the stuff that'd happened, my voice kinda slurred from the alcohol I'd been downing this whole evening. From Shepsfield attacking Tommy, to Nick pulling a hustle to put him in jail. I tell them about how I'd released the surveillance footage, about how he was probably assassinated by the same mobsters that Nick was supposedly caught up in. And oh yeah, Nick's somehow involved with mobsters, this time directly rather than just selling them rugs of questionable origin. And how he's now a suspect in the disappearance of Jack Savage, and how he's gone totally off the grid.

I just kind of barf it all out in one long rapid-fire run-on sentence the way us bunnies are prone to do. When I finally finish in what feels like an age later Danny and Luke are just staring at me, and all of a sudden I'm hoping that the two of them are both too drunk or too high to have really processed it all.

"That..." Danny says blankly. "That is a lot to unpack there."

I push myself off of his leg with a groan and curl into a ball on the couch. "Tell me about it. I barely had more time than you did to take it all in."

For a long while Danny just stares past the still image on the TV, of Squidward with his mouth half-open. It's almost funny, how jarring that is when I put it up against what I'd just said. Maybe it's also the alcohol thrown into the mix, but the story barely makes sense to me now. It's like I'd just woken up from one long nightmare that's only just beginning to fade from memory.

"So..." Danny says slowly. "Basically, Nick is some kinda mobster...?"

"NO. No he isn't!" I sit up, surprised at the conviction in my own voice. "I know Nick! Even at his worst he was only just some small-time hustler!"

Though really, if he were here he'd be pretty annoyed with that description.

"I mean, maybe the lab got the DNA mixed up!" I insist. "Or he's doing some undercover job for Bogo! Or they threatened to kill him or something! Or... well..."

I trail off. All I had to go on was the ZIA's word that Nick was a suspect. It's not like I've seen the evidence myself. There's no real proof that Nick had done anything to anyone, really.

After all, we've been down this road before, haven't we? When Nick started getting more withdrawn, and Officer Swinton told me that she saw him in a compromising position with another vixen, I knew he'd gotten himself into some trouble and was going behind my back with something dangerous. I'd taken the leap of faith then, and when he finally explained it all it turned out that trusting him was the right thing to do.

Not that I was any less pissed off that he'd left me in the dark, of course. But... he really had been the Nick I'd grown to trust all along.

This time, with him somehow getting mired in a drug and mammalian trafficking ring... I just can't believe he'd go into it willingly. There had to be something else going on here, just like there'd been something other than a hustle when it came to Shepsfield. Frankly, if he'd gone into this of his own accord it wouldn't have haunted him so much these past few weeks. He wouldn't have been so depressed.

But could it just be my stupid optimism talking? Nick always did tease me over that, told me I needed to be more of a realist. There's this little voice in the back of my head, nagging at me to just accept the fact that deep down inside he's broken enough to be seduced by the opportunity. There's a small part of me that still believes in those old stereotypes of what foxes are really looking for when they accost a bunny.

No. No, I can't let myself go down that road. I've worked so hard to control those predophobic thoughts. It's so backwards. So wrong. So totally not Nick.

I shake off the grim doubts that try to invade my mind, and that's when I look up at Danny again. And I mean I really look. Danny's lost quite a bit of weight, and he looks thinner than before, more haggard. I feel like a real jerk now. I've been so busy with the day's insane events I hadn't even taken two seconds to ask Danny how he was doing, even after he'd invited me into his home.

"I'm sorry," I sigh, "Are... are you and Benjy all right?"

"Heh, honestly... what we've got going on here totally pales in comparison," Danny grins.

I stir the couch cushion with my paw. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to impose... I should just call a Zuber and get back home..."

"No, please! We want you to stay, really!" Luke insists. "After all you've been through today you really shouldn't be alone."

"We're friends, right?" Danny adds, and there's nothing forced about the warmth in his voice. "I mean, look... having you here, it's honestly really nice having someone sleep over. It's been pretty empty ever since..."

Danny trails off.

"Danny..." I ask carefully. "Danny, where'd Benjy go off to?"

"He's been staying at the ZPD, I think," Danny sighs, "From what I hear he's been sleeping on the couch in the break room, using the showers in the gym."

"He just comes in once every few days to make our meals," Luke adds.

"Like we're too dumb to dial up and order takeout," Danny says with a snort. "It's just... ever since that night with Lionheart, things have gotten real weird."

For a while Danny just sits there silently, his face lit in a haze of blue and gray from the TV screen.

"It's true, y'know. About me and Benjy."

I can feel my ears getting hot. "I- I'm sorry, Danny. I- we... didn't mean to overhear that part."

"Well, I always imagined it'd have to come out sooner or later," Danny sighs. "We've been messing around since we were kids. Lost our big V's to each other once we hit our mid-late teens. Don't know if that really counts though... I don't even remember ever feeling like a virgin. It was like we'd given ourselves to each other the moment we were born, y'know?"

I mean okay a little experimentation and exploration in the family isn't that unheard of among bunnies, especially when you go across litters. But it's always something that everyone whispers about as a thing kits from the neighboring burrow did. Not us, nope. And even then, it was just a phase, something the parents had to be on the lookout for as their kits grow up. But it was still hardly something you talked about in polite company!

"I didn't know what it was about our relationship, but I felt so close to him," Danny continues, scrubbing a giant paw over his equally massive head, "But when we were twelve I could feel him just starting to drift away from me. And that's when I remembered... being a tigress. And meeting a fisher tiger on the Baagh river..."

He trails off for a moment, eyes going misty like he's seeing snatches of some half-remembered dream. Luke slumps in his chair giving Danny a placating half-smile, like he's heard this story loads of times before.

Danny blinks then, and looks down to me with an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, I know this all sounds like bullshit. I'm not a believer or anything myself, it's just... I was twelve, man. It made so much sense at the time."

"Well," I say, scooting over and laying more of my body over Danny's thigh, "It's kinda nice to know I'm not the only one worrying. Besides, at least you've got Luke."

"Yeah he does," Luke grins.

"Sorry, Judy. I didn't mean to steal your thunder, you've got way more to deal with," Danny sighs. "I just wish Benjy would open up more."

"Trying to get Nick to talk about his feelings can be like pulling teeth," I huff. "But sometimes he does let himself relax a little around me. He'll go all misty-eyed and talk about something that hurt him long ago, but the moment I try to comfort him he'll just pull away and change the subject, or he'll brush things off with a lame joke."

We'd kind of have one of those moments in the sky-tram during the Night Howler case. I can still remember him glancing down at the paw I'd put on his arm, feel him pulling away.

It wasn't fair. I'd always been faster than him on the track, but when it comes to our relationship it sometimes feels like I'm chasing after him in a long, dark hallway and desperately trying to catch up.

"You're lucky you've got that, at least. Whenever Benjy has any feelings he's uncomfortable with he just heads out and crushes it at the gym."

"Given how huge he is he has a lot of suppressed feelings, apparently."

I hadn't meant it as a joke really, but despite the situation Danny chuckles.

"Uh, you guys?" Luke says, looking at his cellphone, "It's well past one in the morning. We should probably get to bed. Well, Judy should at least. You probably got a long day tomorrow."

I don't wanna think about it. This whole afternoon and evening I've had to keep such a tight lid on my fear and stress and worry, and now after a couple of rum-and-Cokes I'm just feeling drained and tipsy. I take a glance at the lonely, oversized pillow and pile of blankets, and Danny must've noticed my mood.

"Hey Judy? If you, uh... wanna bunk with us tonight we'd be cool with it. We'll be total gentlemen too, promise. We'll wear our jammy pants and everything."

"No naughty stuff, for realsies," Luke says.

"And if you wanna head back to the couch whenever you're totally free to do it, y'know," Danny insists. It's almost cute how nervous he is. "We're just putting the offer out there since... well... we know bunnies are into cuddling when they get upset, so... we just... we're here for you. Right?"

If I were sober I would've turned down the offer politely, maybe even been a little annoyed about a tiger being a bit presumptuous about what "bunnies are into" (which okay is technically true since if Cory and Stacey and Dixie and Clover and Buster were here I wouldn't think twice about curling up in a fluffle with them, but still). Danny and Luke are my friends though. I trust them. And they've just been so sweet and supportive right when I need them.

And I'm also still pretty drunk.

"Okay..." I sigh, smiling up at them, "Okay sure."

Turns out that even though the two had promised to put on their pajama pants they were nonetheless really really casual about stripping down to the fur in front of me to change into them. I turn around just to be polite, though it's not like it's the first time I've seen their fuzzy plums bouncing free. They'd done much the same that night of the Lone Digger when me and Nick had spent our first night here together. Danny and Luke had extended the offer for me to bunk with them that night too, but back then we'd only just met each other.

When the two tigers snuggle up together on the bed Danny reaches out with his paw, an inviting smile on his face. For a moment I hesitate... yet given how unreal the rest of the day had been, this kind of unreal situation at least promises to be comforting. Frankly, the thought of crying myself to sleep on that lone pillow and cold blanket just seems worse.

Danny lies down on his back, while Luke drapes one arm over his tummy, keeping his paw well above the beltline of his boyfriend's pajama pants and covering the patch of pink skin where Danny's surgical scar is. I nestle myself onto the tiger's broad chest, in a heavy bed of fur that smells like wild berry body wash.

With the alcohol buzzing in my head drowning out everything else, I nod off to a soft purring sound in my ears, and the rise and fall of Danny's breaths rocking me to sleep.