Previously on Love In The Open…

The mask was completely ripped off the warrior now, who clutched the lifeless blur in one

muscular hand. Just then, he heard some kind of galloping from behind him. Gazelle got there

just in time to see the ninja clutching her friend ever-so-tightly. "Alright you coward, you've

had your violence for today. Now hand me my friend back!" she said, with the fury evident in

her tone. The ninja turned around to glare at her with a grin that resonated pure evil. "Oh, you

mean this...weak...friend?!" he growled, putting hate and malice into each of the final three

words. Anger and sadness washed over her face as she got one good look at the villain. The

villain who went by the dreaded Kyman Klaw. The villain, whose name was…

Love In The Open

Chapter 25: A Time to Fall…

At the same time as the archvillain stared Gazelle down, Judy was asking Silver some

questions. First the questions were subtle fun ones for her to write/record to better know her

faithful companion. Silver's arms were currently in casts and his shoulders were in shambles

from the attack he had to pull off, but his heart was better off now knowing that the two loved

each other, as in really loved each other now. They could have cared less whether it was

romantic, friendly or that of a brother and sister. They were really glad to see their friendship

progressed. "So Silver, does this mean you're staying here or are you heading back to

Mobius?" Judy asked. She was officially off-duty for the day, but figured it would be the perfect

time to ask her friend that question. Silver thought hard about her question. "Well, I don't know

how long I'll stay, but what is guaranteed is that…" As if a bolt of lightning struck him on the

head, he remembered something from his last battle with the Kyman Klaw. "Silver, what's

wrong?" Judy asked, rather concerned by Silver's reaction. "Was Tails carrying a book of any

kind when he first came here?" Silver asked. Judy thought for a moment. "Yeah, it was called

'Worlds Beyond' or something like that…" "Worlds Beyond: Planets and What You Need To

Know!" Silver shouted in realization, but the pain came back to him rather quickly. The bunny

was quick to calm him down. "Yeah, that's it." Judy replied. "Did somebody steal it from him?"

Silver asked, rather agitated. "No, in fact right before he left, he wanted to give the book to a

prisoner to help them reform through education. I must've really inspired the guy." Judy quipped.

Silver, this time, was not in a quipping mood. "Do you remember who the prisoner was?" He

asked the bunny rather frantically. "No I didn't, Silver calm down, ok. The Klaw's dead,

nothing's gonna hurt us now, you killed him." but Judy's attempt to calm him down was met with

failure. "I only wounded him enough to weaken him, I wanted the ZPD to make the arrest so that

nobody would think we're murderers." "I didn't make the kill, you did." Judy reminded him, rather

shocked at that type of language coming so harshly at her. "We as in Mobians. What do you

think we are, a bunch of savages?!" At that word, Judy had a mental flashback to the

confrontation she had with Nick and Tails at the press conference. Then she remembered all

the other times she flopped with Silver. Because she reacted. This time, she not only learned

from her mistakes, but took action to not fall into them again. She breathed deeply to calm

down, closed her eyes and mentally counted to 10. When she was done, she saw Silver now

have guilt and shame on his face as he closed his eyes and let his head drop to the floor. He

was now breathing profusely as if he was about to cry. "I'm sorry." Judy looked at her friend

with a saddened perplexion. "If you want to leave," Silver started before gasping for air, as if he

was going to cry "If you want me to leave Zootopia, that's fine by me. I don't want to do

anymore damage to them." Judy then asked Silver something else in a sympathetic tone. "Is

that the only reason you're worried? Because you felt like you damaged the city?" Silver now

had tears strolling down his face as he shook his head no. "I don't want to do damage to us."

Silver couldn't resist the sadness coming from his heart and Judy couldn't resist the sympathy

from hers. "How do you think we've been damaged?" Judy asked. Silver took a breath before

responding. "How do you feel about knowing a failure? The one that let the bad guy get away?"

Silver asked to no one in particular. Ahem, to no one in… Oh yeah, never mind. No 4th-wall

stuff here. But Judy was much more stronger this time than she normally was in emotional

situations like this. Because she needed to be strong for her friend, her love. Someone, for him

to lean on. "Then I'd know someone who's just like me. Silver, I let Bellwether divide the city

from under my nose, called my friends savages because I was too concerned about my own

reputation and was even caught off-guard about the Ring coming to attack." Judy then asked

Silver the nail in the coffin questions that made him defeat his self-doubt. "Do you see me as a

failure?" Silver was quick to answer this question. "Of course not. Because you learned from

your mistakes." "Are you?" Judy asked. Silver then thought long and hard about the answer.

Sure he let his comedic side get in the way the first time they met, but he made it up to her and

only continued to get better. Despite the failures and the breakdowns, he always got better.

Sometimes Judy helped him get better, other times it was on his own. He then understood that

his "failures" were only things to learn from and improve upon. Silver then smirked at the bunny,

which made her start giggling a bit. "What's so funny?" Silver asked his bunny friend. She

stifled her laughter. "I don't know, what were you smirking at?" She asked, with the joy of seeing

her friend happy remain on her face. Silver smiled at her again. "Well, I'd hug you right now

Judy, but my shoulders are strapped." Judy just gave his friend a soft hug anyway, knowing full

well he was hugging back in his heart. After that, both refocused on the case at hand.

"Right, so do you have any way to contact the

ZPD. So we can ask them who Tails gave the book to?" Judy checked her phone, but

unfortunately saw that the battery was at 3%. "Oh great, what a time for tech to work." Judy

spoke disappointedly and sarcastically into the phone. "It's ok, even if the phone was charged

and you made the call, I still would've known who it was." Judy shot him a look that said,

"Really? You knew all this time and you choose now to tell me?!" "So," Silver started, "the

creature holding the book was about my height. I fatally wounded him and knocked him out of

the same window I tossed you out of." As if she was finally putting the pieces together, her ears

perked up at this realization. "Wait a minute. Before I saw you, I took a picture of the ninja. I

took off the mask, and it was a wolf. Good thing I sent those pics to him before the phone died."

Judy said. "So think about it for a second…" Silver stated. "What wolf is my height?" "Reformed,

but is still gullible?" Judy contributed to the onslaught of questions. Followed by Silver's, "Is

able to sweep enough Zootopians off of their feet to follow him? Including Gazelle… " which was

followed by Judy's "...who would trick her into breaking her promise to Sonic so that he would

give in to despair…" "...so that he would be successful in snatching the Chaos Emeralds!" The

duo exclaimed at the exact same time. The 7 chaos emeralds are the most powerful artifacts

known in the universe. They have both positive and negative energy from within them and

can bring out the very worst or very best in an individual. These emeralds (which in appearance

look more like diamonds) can be used mentally, meaning they read the thoughts of the person

using them and converted those thoughts into power. However, it takes practice to get thoughts

in tuned with the emeralds in order for this somewhat symbiotic relationship to work.

One emerald individually can be used to control time and space, but if one person

wielded all 7 emeralds, then their power makes the person practically invincible. However, after

some period of time, the power leaves them because although they make the individual more

powerful, they also drain the individual's natural strength as well. So as not to cause harm to

their user, the power leaves when it needs to and the emeralds scatter to various locations until

called upon again or somebody collects them all. "So Justin must have been the Kyman Klaw

the whole time." Judy remarked. Silver had one last concern to get off of his chest, but this

time, it wasn't about himself.

"I almost died fighting him instead of while blowing his base up. If he's as

formidable as he was without the emeralds…" he didn't need to say anymore as they both knew

what he would've said next. "Silver, it's fine. It's why I wanted to be a cop. To make the

world a better place." Judy told Silver, who was satisfied with the final part of the "Judy Hopps

Case" being solved. She rapidly hopped out of the hospital to the scene of the crime while

Silver waited until Brooke (the moose nurse mentioned in Chapter 22) was ready to take over

for taking care of him again.

A few minutes later, in the woods.

A broken-hearted, confused, scared and hurt Gazelle stood staring at the now darkened, violent

and malevolent toothy scowl on his face. She thought that Justin had reformed, that he was

actually her friend again. But the silver tongue in his mouth was forked and his heart was now

purely corroded. "You wanna know what the best kinda lies are Gazelle?" Justin asked in a dark

and condescending tone. This time, Gazelle was more angry than scared. Angry at her friend's

betrayal, angry that Sonic was killed by such a beast but above all, angry at herself for not

having the discernment to figure out who Justin really was or the will to not give in to his

tempting deceptions. "The one's with a little bit of truth." Justin laughed a vile laugh as he

answered his own question. He shook Sonic like a rag doll trying to get something out of the

scratched-up and lifeless corpse. Gazelle had enough and tried ramming into Justin with her

horns. But even though the attack was noble, Justin was too fast for her as he snatched her in

his other paw. "It's not you I want fool!" Justin snarled, looking at Gazelle. He finally seen

7 gem-like objects fall onto the ground. The 7 Chaos Emeralds. He threw Gazelle onto the

ground, but she recovered with catlike reflexes. It was then that Judy saw Justin with the

emeralds, so she rapidly hopped next to Gazelle. She stared at the nightmarish sight. Sonic

the Hedgehog, Mobius's hero. Dead. And the emeralds within Justin's grasp. Tails, Nick, KZ

and Chief Bogo all arrived to witness tragedy. Still knowing that he had to do something, Chief

Bogo bellowed out, "Justin, hand over the chaos emeralds or face certain death!" Gazelle

looked shocked and anxious at the chief. "No, not death please. There has been enough deaths

today." she begged him. Chief Bogo looked at the pop star confused and rather mad. "What do

you mean?" He asked, as if he was ready to charge at her for interrupting his attack. Justin just

smirked evilly at the confused company starring at him, then started to put Sonic's body in the

form as if it were a spin-dash. "THIS is what she meant." he growled as he hurled Sonic like a

baseball straight towards Gazelle, who caught him even though careening backwards a few feet

from the effect of the throw. "You know Gazelle, I was never wanting to kill you that night I first

attacked." He said, referring to when Sonic first came to Zootopia after the Night Howler case.

"Oh no no no. You were supposed to be held for ransom for the space station so I could attack

Mobius, but I'll have to admit, Sonic coming here unannounced is better. Now that I think about

it." Justin finished. Gazelle said nothing, as she lay down by Sonic's side, angered at the

murderous, bloodlusting wolf who betrayed her and tricked her into betraying who might have

been her best friend. With Sonic dead, she would never know now. Justin then tossed the

emeralds in the air and then spoke in "Now let me show you a little something called… CHAOS

CONTROL!" at those words, his fur became as black as the midnight sky. The irises of his

eyes were scarlet red, his pupils were as black as his fur and his sceleras (or what would be

known as "the whites of his eyes.") were now yellow. His teeth now had the sharpness of

swords, his claws were that of knives and his body began to grow in size, muscle and height,

until he had become a giant. The Chaos Giant, if you will, for that's what the energy of the

emeralds made him into. He then shoved some of the trees down as if they were a stack of

toothpicks, which luckily did not fall onto our heroes as he jumped over the forest like he would a

hurdle for a track meet, then set off to conquer Zootopia. The heroes were left with no idea how

to stop the impending chaos, until a bold Spanish voice spoke up. "Get as much Zootopians

evacuated as you can." Gazelle said, fiercely gazing at them with the authority of a true general.

A true leader. "But where can we put them?" Judy asked. Tails then spoke up. "I modified my

portable portal device to fit up to 10 now. If we can get as much of them towards the woods, I

can transport enough away from Justin." Gazelle then had to object. "Justin would want

prisoners, he needs somebody to show how powerful he is." Chief Bogo then reassumed

command. "Hopps: take some cops and lead City Central and Bunnyborrow citizens out. Tails:

you have Little Rodentia and Rainforest District. Wilde: You have Tundratown and Sahara

Square. KZ: You'll be our eyes, make sure everything's going smoothly and don't let Justin

catch you. There will be some ZPD and S.W.E.A.T. stalling him so that the citizens can escape.

Is that clear?" the chief ordered in a no-nonsense tone. All of them saluted, said "Yes sir!" then

went to their designated area. Bogo turned towards Gazelle but she stopped him by raising up

her hoof. "Your cops are going to need someone to lead them." Bogo thought carefully about

the singer's words. "Justin would come back to try and get you." Gazelle looked down at Sonic

again when tears started to form, then back to Bogo. "One good animal is nowhere near as

important as many lives." she showed the chief Sonic's body to prove her point. "Sonic

sacrificed himself to try and prevent many more lives from being taken. I would rather it be me

than my city that is destroyed today." Bogo then understood where Gazelle was coming from.

The example of the blue blur's nobility impacted them all, and now, two prominent figures in

Zootopia saw it first-hand. "Very well. Stay safe Gazelle." the chief warned as he ran to catch

up with his cops. Gazelle lowered her horned head and she resumed her mourning. Mourning

for the stranger she hardly known. Mourning for one that treated her with compassion, dignity

and respect. Mourning for the one who saw her as more than a superstar pop artist. Mourning

for the only one she could ever love. "Oh Sonic," she spoke in gasps that were choked by sobs.

"If only I could've loved you better."