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."
