In a sparkling white evening gown, Judy made her way past rows of slot machines, roulette wheels, and card tables to find the lounge. She had never found herself in any of the Sahara Square's casinos before, but she was finding the noise wasn't as deafening as she had feared. Perhaps it was because the casino was rabbit-themed and went by "The Lucky Rabbit"; the ambient noise wasn't too bad. She made her way to the lounge and gave a small huff at a debonair-looking white rabbit dressed in a classic black suit. He had prominent black stripes on his ear and face, and crystalline blue eyes. Judy had already made his acquaintance.

His name was Jack Savage; he was a member of the Zootopia Bureau of Investigation.

"Ah, Miss Hopps, good of you to come," Jack greeted. Judy nodded politely, though she was already not looking forward to this. Jack's voice was pleasant, almost refined, but it carried a sort of condescending tone, almost a disdain. Judy sat down across the table from him.

"Good evening, Mister Savage," Judy said. "Just so we're clear, this is not a date."

"Of course not," Jack grinned, motioning over a waitress. Judy saw a young-looking tri-color rabbit in a black bustier and netted leggings approach. "The usual wine for me, Sierra, and for the lovely bunny..."

Judy gave a terse huff. "Just a soda water with lime, please."

"Coming up," Sierra nodded and was off.

"Yeesh, those outfits are so-" Judy started, but Jack held up a finger to cut her off.

"Now now, I know that bunny," Jack said. "She has quite a story to tell, just as we all do."

"Uh huh, and I'm sure you charmed it right out of her," Judy narrowed her eyes.

"My, you think me so crass," Jack grinned, and Sierra brought back their drinks. After she left, Jack started again. "As I said, I know her. When I introduce my companion, if I call them 'lovely', Sierra is to leave me alone for the remainder of my evening."

"Okay, so can you explain to me why you wanted me here in the first place?" Judy said, squeezing her lime into her water. Jack swirled his white wine in his glass and had a sip. "As it is, I can't believe I couldn't talk Nick into not being okay with me going out to meet you like this."

"He trusts you; that's good, essential even, for partners," Jack said, suddenly serious, but then he lightened up again. "Part of the reason I asked you here is I want your ears alone for the matters we'll discuss. There are enemy ears everywhere, but there's nothing suspicious about two attractive bunnies out for a good time together." Jack offered his glass in a bit of a toast, but Judy wasn't playing along.

"Don't push your luck, Mister Savage," Judy warned.

"Hm, feisty," Jack laughed. "And no, I wouldn't dare. Luck and I have a very amicable relationship at the moment and I wouldn't want to jeopardize it."

"So, I'm guessing this is about the mayor," Judy said. "Vince Mousawitz."

"Of course," Jack nodded. "The ZBI needs the ZPD's help, as it's election season and he'll need extra protection at all of his events."

"Right, and of course I'll do whatever is necessary to protect him," Judy nodded, having a sip of her water.

"I need you on the case more than anything," Jack said, again suddenly serious.

"Working with you, I imagine?" Judy looked skeptical. Jack shook his head.

"No, you just need to be on the scene," Jack said, giving a small sigh. "I've spoken to Bogo, but I just need your cooperation."

"What are you planning?" Judy was suspicious and looked it.

"Nothing in particular, it's just..." Jack looked off to the side. "My beliefs. A feeling I have. Let's take a step back for a moment. What about you and I makes us special?"

"Uh... that we're both doing our best to uphold the law, as bunnies?" Judy blinked, running a hand through her ears. "Our drive? Tenacity? Gumption?"

"Drive, tenacity, gumption?" Jack shook his head. "Ha, all wrong. Any mammal can have those. And any mammal can have more of all of that than the both of us combined. We're not the swiftest animals, though close; a cheetah on a bad day would still catch either of us. We're certainly not the biggest or strongest. But we are... the luckiest."

"Luck?" Judy made a face. "Luck is not something you can count on."

"Isn't it?" Jack took a sip of his wine and kicked back in his chair, making a grand, sweeping gesture of the area they were in. "There's a reason I've made this place like my second home. Rabbits. Fortune. One of the Lapine Goddesses is Serendipity. She is my Goddess. The Goddess of all Lapine whims."

"I'm sorry?" Judy looked a bit confused. "I didn't exactly take you for the religious type."

"I'm not, really, and I definitely wasn't before," Jack gave a soft chuckle and looked into his drink as if it held his next words. "Let me tell you my story. I was a bunny much like I imagine you were growing up. Different, driven for something we bunnies weren't known for. When I made the ZBI, I was elated, but I was also serious. I had something to prove, as a bunny. I had to prove I could do it. I became something like a walking stereotype of all those agents you see in the action movies. My inflexible nature and sticking to the rules doggedly earned me many enemies, not the least of which in my own department. My superiors were getting sick of me. It was time to finish me off."

"Obviously that didn't happen," Judy smirked.

"We'll get there, we'll get there," Jack mirrored her smirk. "As it is classified information, I'll omit the details of the mission. But it was a big one, a challenging one. I knew I was meant to fail, and I wanted to prove them wrong. Worse yet, they had deployed one of my fellow agents, an arctic fox, alongside me, as a sort of game. They wanted to see which of us would complete the mission, or die trying."

Judy gave a bit of a gasp. "They wanted you gone that badly? Or the fox?"

"All of the smart money was on her," Jack continued. "Skye... heh." The white rabbit looked wistfully up at the ceiling. "She's the fire to my ice."

"A bit ironic, given she's an arctic fox," Judy quipped.

"Believe me, that's not lost on me," Jack chuckled. "We got in each others way. Infuriated each other. She seemed so frivolous. She treated the mission like the game it was supposed to be. I thought she made a mockery of the ZBI. But..." Jack looked a bit pensive, as if he didn't want to continue.

Judy gave him a marveled look. "You fell in love, didn't you?"

"Too right, love, too right," Jack nodded, giving a small smile. "And just as ice cannot keep its form against fire, I was forced to change. We completed that mission, and every one of them hence, together, and with each other. And she... she helped me. Skye showed me the world as it is. I saw it as an opponent, something to be defied, something I had to prove myself to. She showed me that this world... well, it's full of lovely people working for lovely goals. Some people that aren't even aware that mammals like you or I have to protect them, and that is the way it should remain. She showed me... what it was to be thankful for the world, and the Skye upon it."

Judy smiled, but sucked her teeth. "How cheesy."

"Call it what you will," Jack grinned. "But! Had even a detail been different in that one mission, she or I would be dead. And if I was still alive, I certainly wouldn't be the charming rabbit you see before you." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Spare me," Judy laughed. "Just because things happened as they did in that one instance, you praise Serendipity?"

"No, I praise her because... well, that I'm still here right now," Jack said, looking contemplative. "So many dangerous missions I've been on with Skye. We've been outclassed many times. But somehow, something always goes right, or goes wrong for our foes. I can count on it; almost feel when it's about to happen." Jack shut his eyes intensely. "I feel something like a greater paw at work in all of this. Haven't you ever felt that way?"

"Uh, not specifically?" Judy shrugged her shoulders. "I've just always given it my best."

"But understand this!" Jack pounded the table with one fist, making Judy jump. "Our best is not enough! It never will be. The likes of the worst mammals in Zootopia alone could will us dead in an instant! That's why... there has to be something... there has to be. Way too many coincidences have kept me, and this city, safe. And it's due to bunnies like us. There's a reason Serendipity is a Lapine Goddess. Else she'd be something else, am I right?"

"Well," Judy twisted her mouth, looking a bit discouraged. "I don't like the sound of that. It sounds like all I've worked for is just part of some cosmic scheme."

"I don't believe that," Jack shook his head. "I believe instead that Serendipity is looking out for we bunnies. Fortune will always guide our best efforts, and as long as there are more bunnies working on the side of good than evil, righteousness will prevail." Jack looked over Judy, grinning. "I've read your dossier; it's quite a page-turner. You were valedictorian of your class, yes?"

"That's right!" Judy said with a determined look. "I became a police officer through my hard work and-"

"Hold on a second now," Jack gave a grin, holding a finger up to interrupt her. "You became a police officer because of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, and to become a feather in Mayor Lionheart's cap."

"Ha," Judy glared at him. "It's not like that worked out for him, though."

"It didn't," Jack nodded. "Because luck was on your side, not his. But the MII is boring; mere busy work. Let's get to the good part, when the case broke wide open."

"When I figured out the Night Howlers were flowers?" Judy cocked her head, putting a curled finger on her lip.

"No, no!" Jack shook both of his hands vigorously. "The linchpin to all of this! Your fox!"

"Nick...?" Judy pondered over him for a moment, and remembered the first time she met him. She gave a terse gasp.

"Yes! Do you see now?" Jack clenched both of his fists and his face became bright with passion. "Do you see!? What delicious irony that your profiling of a fox was what ultimately led to a predator-hating sheep's downfall! The sheer whimsy and chance involved! Brilliant!" Jack shook both of his fists.

"Um, to be fair, Nick was up to something that day..." Judy offered weakly.

"Besides the point," Jack slashed his hands dismissively. "If one detail, one moment was wrong in that whole ordeal, Zootopia would not be the place it is today. Reading that case was like a blessing to me; it only reaffirmed my beliefs. Zootopia needs bunnies like us... bunnies blessed by Serendipity."

"I've never once spared the Goddesses a thought," Judy shrugged. "Do you think I'm angering her?"

"I can be grateful to her for you," Jack said, clasping his hands together and then bringing them out slowly, his fingers curled. "But her grand tapestry of whim, chance, and fortune. Can you at least see part of it now? Whenever I'm on a mission, I'm terrified that my opponent will be a bunny. It never has been so far, but at that moment, I'll have to play my hand versus another.

"You're only scared of other bunnies?" Judy gave a polite smile. "With all due respect, I think you're crazy."

"I've had that thought before," Jack chuckled. "But I will be crazy if I must to protect this city; this world. That brings me back to Mousawitz. Do you have any idea how someone as small as him has stayed in office?"

"Well, he is very charismatic," Judy smiled. "And his voice is so deep and powerful! I'm not sure how he does it, as a mouse, to be honest."

"Right, but he is safe because of the combined efforts of all of us looking out for him," Jack counted on his fingers. "His personal security, the ZBI, the ZPD... he has his enemies. And as much as I'd like to say my reasons for wanting to protect him were entirely noble... both you and I stand to gain from his safety."

"How so?" Judy narrowed her eyes.

"Have you ever entertained the thought of marriage to your fox?" Jack posed this question suddenly. Judy felt opened up, as if the query was a slash from a sword. Jack grinned. "So, yes?"

"I... have..." Judy said carefully.

"And the agency of that, the timing... you'd like that to be your own, I assume," Jack continued. Judy nodded. "Because there are those that would see Mayor Mousawitz removed, by force if necessary. And instead, it would be Pearline Swinton. I suppose you know how much that swine is against inter-species marriage."

"Yes..." Judy nodded. "But could she really make that illegal...?"

"With the right balance of power, yes," Jack said seriously, finishing his drink at last, slamming the glass down. "That's why I just need to know you and I are on the same page."

"I'll be at every event of Mousawitz's that I can make," Judy nodded.

"Splendid!" Jack clapped twice. "Then I think we're done here. Zootopia can thank its lucky stars for us."

Judy motioned her head towards the rest of the casino. "Since you feel Serendipity has blessed you so, have you ever tried your fortune out on these machines?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't dare test her like that," Jack closed his eyes and held up a hand halfway. "I've already hit the 'Jack'pot, as it were." Jack grinned even larger. "And you know what they say, when it comes to betting, the 'Skye' is the limit."

"Oh sweet heavens," Judy squinted her eyes shut as if she was dealt pain from those jokes. "You're as bad as Nick. I should shut you both in a room and see which of you can charm the lock off the door first."

Jack gave a pleasant laugh. "That sounds like an interesting challenge, love!" Sierra made her way over to the table and handed him a receipt.

"Your check, sir," Sierra said quickly, moving back away.

"I thought you said that she wouldn't-" Judy started, but stopped herself when she saw Jack's serious expression.

"Ah, got to run, love," Jack started scrambling to his feet.

"And leaving me with the check?" Judy smirked. "What a gentle-mammal."

"Amusing," Jack rolled his eyes, bringing out a small amount of bills. "Here, tip what you like. I'll be seeing you, Miss Hopps." Jack adjusted his coat and swiftly left.

Curious, Judy looked at the receipt. At the bottom was written: "THE SKY IS CALLING."

"Oh, of course," Judy smiled, looking at the money and blinking in shock at how much he had left. She decided to leave it all for Sierra's tip; after all, it seemed like she was doing her part, too. Judy waved at the other bunny as she headed off, and was rewarded with a large smile.

Perhaps Serendipity would repay her kindness. Or was that Karma?

Nick had told Judy that Karma was a fickle Goddess. She was a female canine, after all.