Here's Part 2. If you like dark AUs, try giving my new fiction Rain of Blue Petals a shot? Don't let the three short prologues at the start put you off.

Benjamin stopped, his ears perking. "Do you hear something?"

Woolworth stopped. "Is Wilde… laughing?"

"He probably just told a joke. He does that a lot."

Woolworth's rectangular pupils glared at him. "He's telling jokes during a high profile kidnapping case?"

"To be fair, most of the time they're so bad they're funny."

"Most of the time?"

"Well, yeah."

Woolworth wrinkled his nose at the response. "How ever did he graduate?"

Benjamin pouted. "Hey. He just tells jokes because he's Nick. That doesn't mean he's not taking this seriously."

Woolworth dropped his scowl, humbled. "You're right. I shouldn't have said that."

Benjamin huffed and started checking his weapon to pass the time, but also to let off a little steam. "You know, sometimes I think he tells jokes to make himself feel better. I know they're feeling bad about Gazelle. We did everything we could to keep her safe, but it wasn't enough."

Woolworth looked down the tunnel for signs of Nick and Judy. "Is that how you had felt? After the incident?"

Benjamin tensed.

"What?" He asked.

"You know, what happened back in the city with you and the Chief."

So much for letting off steam. "Well, they never almost got their boss blinded!"

Woolworth's radio beeped. "Woolworth here."

"This is Agent Yaxley, ZBI. Where are you?"

"We're seeing where this tunnel goes, and we've made a couple of interesting discoveries. There's a side tunnel leading into the maze. That's how the kidnapper's been getting into the estate. We also found the bodies of the guards patrolling around the house."

"Good job. We've just reached the estate and we're making preparations to quell the savage crisis and retrieve the hostage."

Benjamin grimaced and leaned towards the radio. "Her name is Gazelle!"

"Gazelle, my apologies. Anyway, stop what you're doing and get back to the mansion. We'll take over from here."

"Got it. We'll see you in the basement. That's where the main entrance is."

The fox cop's laughing could not be heard on the camera.

The Hound was sure that if it could be heard, his laughter would grated on its ears as it stared at the laptop its 'friend' had provided for it. Under the guise of rocks, the cameras watched and waited for the mammals in blue to reach the 'safe points.' What the cameras saw, the Hound saw too. And it had yet to see what it wanted to see most.

It crouched on the floor beside the altar, surrounded by flickering candles. With claws stained with the drying blood of the guards it had slaughtered prior to taking the female, it stroked the red button at its side. It didn't know what the correct term was for the safe point. Either that or it didn't remember. Either way, it didn't care. All that mattered was the moment its quarry crossed the safe point. Once he crossed it, he would far enough away that he wouldn't be killed when the Hound set its trap. A quick death was not what the Hound wanted. Not for this one.

Wait. Did the Hound even want death for its quarry? Or had it been a moment of madness that had overcome the creature the last time it had approached him? It would figure it out once it had him, it was sure.

The camera spying on the maze entrance had just caught the first pair finding the entrance, the slum-dwelling fox and the interfering bunny- the Hound growled and rubbed its chest where the bullets had struck it. The bullets had been tiny, and the layers the Hound wore were thick. Somewhere in its miasma of madness and hate, the Hound knew it was lucky none of the bullets had gone deep.

The two cops had finally put two and two together and realized how the Hound had gotten past the fence. No matter. If all went to plan, the Hound would never have to use that passage again.

It turned its eyes back to the feed displaying the second camera inside the main tunnel. The other pair would be crossing the safe point any minute now.

Then it spotted them in the camera, stopping right beside the false rock. They stood and talked, likely waiting for the other pair to meet up with them. The ram picked up his radio and listened into it. The Hound recognized him with some amusement as the ram who had shot at him in the forest. The Hound didn't remember his name. Either it had forgotten after its transformation, or it had never bothered to learn it in its past life. The Hound imagined how it must have burned at the ram that it was the tiny, cute little bunny who had caused the most damage.

The ram lowered the radio, said something to Benjamin, and they started back down the tunnel. The Hound looked to the other camera and saw that the fox and rabbit were no longer at the entrance. It looked to the third camera at the fork in the tunnel, and found the two officers there, waiting for their allies.

They were being called back to the mansion.

The Hound snarled behind the mask.

No. No, no no, no, no. No. It would not be foiled again.

The Hound pressed the button beside it. Five seconds later, the cameras quaked as the explosives detonated at the two entrances. The tunnels didn't cave in, just as it had expected, and the explosions were so far away there wasn't even any dust blocked the cameras' vision, other than the camera at the maze entrance. The Hound could clearly see the two officers stagger, with expressions of shock on their faces. They yelled silently into their radio as the ram and Benjamin finally rejoined them. The Hound checked the maze entrance. The view had cleared enough that it could see guards and ZBI agents racing onto the scene and discovering the collapsed mass of dirt and rock that had been the statue. There was no getting into that tunnel without a very big machine. The same would apply for the basement entrance. The four mammals ran off camera to check it out. The Hound waited with a smile, perfectly aware that there would be no escape there either.

Eventually, inevitably, they returned to the fork in the tunnel. They didn't bother checking the maze entrance. Even they knew there was no point. They spoke into the radio. They spoke with each other. The Hound growled and scraped its claws across the ancient stone floor, willing them to get moving. When they finally decided to continue down the main tunnel, it smiled and sat back against the altar.

Such careless, simple minded fools. They didn't even realize they were being watched. When they passed the third camera, the Hound slammed the laptop shut and made for the catacombs beneath the cathedral. It had three hours at most to get everything ready for his arrival.

Soon. Its second chance would come soon.

Judy didn't stop ranting until they stopped for their first rest, one hour into their trek down the tunnel. Benjamin was exaggerating of course, but even he was finding her frequent bouts of angry self-deprecating a little excessive.

"I can't believe this! Just how stupid can we get?" She kept going even as her friends and Woolworth sat down in the frigid earth. "How did we not realize this was a trap! How can we be so-"

"We screwed up again, we get it!" Woolworth shouted. "Just sit down and shut up!"

Judy sat down and shut up.

Benjamin sat down with her, wishing he had a few donuts right now. All this walking was making him sore and hungry.

"Maybe going down this tunnel was a bad idea. Who knows where we are now? We don't even know what's waiting for us at the end." Woolworth said.

"Well, we don't have a 'hole' lot of options, do we?" Nick asked.

Woolworth groaned. "Very funny, Wilde."

Nick groaned back. "Really?! You miss all those cold puns in the forest and you get that one?"

"What cold puns?"

Nick stopped in the middle of throwing his arms up, sighed and slowly lowered them back down. "Really, why do I bother?"

Benjamin and Judy laughed. Nick leaned against the dirt wall and rubbed his forehead. "Anyway, the reason we're continuing on is that we're at risk of being buried by a cave in if we stayed put. The farther we are from the site of the explosions, the better."

"But do we really need to be this far?" Woolworth asked.

"The longer we stay stuck down here, the more air we're possibly using." Nick said. "And the other exit can't be that far away. We find the other exit, get out, and maybe even save the day while we're at it. And it's not like we can't just go back."

"He's right." Benjamin agreed. "Besides, Gazelle could be at the other end of this tunnel, and I want to help her if I can."

Woolworth pointed a warning finger at him. "Hey, no matter what we find down there, don't go rushing in guns blazing."

"I won't. Don't you worry about that."

They got up and resumed their trek. Benjamin was glad to have had brought a watch with a luminous face, allowing him to see how long they've been walking. They'd walked an hour so far, and that equaled roughly three miles, maybe less than that. He'd learned that while training for the Police Academy.

After another half hour, Benjamin looked up at the ceiling. "We've probably gone past the fence by now."

"How do you know that?" Judy asked.

"I just figured. We've been walking for a while, now."

As they kept walking, Woolworth called for an update on the radio. There were no digging machines on site, and they were considering just using shovels to dig out an alternate exit. The ZBI were making final preparations to deal with the savage security guards. There had been no word from the kidnapper, no ransom demand, nothing.

Then the radio exploded with noise.

"DO… NOT… TELL ME… YOU ARE DOING WHAT I THINK YOU ARE DOING!"

Chief Bogo had come to retrieve the guests, just as he'd promised.

"I won't!" Nick quickly said. Woolworth held the radio away from his head as they all rubbed their ears.

"WOULD YOU MIND EXPLAINING TO ME WHY THE GODDAMN HELL YOU FOUR IDIOTS ARE BURIED ALIVE?"

"Chief Bogo, I can explain!" Judy started.

"ONE THING, HOPPS! YOU COULDN'T DO ONE THING!"

"To be fair, we were only checking out the tunnel, not attempting a rescue mission."

"AND THAT MAKES IT BETTER, DOES IT?"

"We were heading back when the entrances got blocked! We weren't planning to go all the way! I'm sorry, sir. We didn't expect the tunnel to be booby-trapped."

The radio fell ominously silent. They all stared at the device with steadily growing fear. At any moment they could hear the dread two words; 'you're fired.'

When Bogo spoke again, he was eerily calm. "Are you all alright?"

"Yes, sir." Benjamin said. "We were all far away from the explosions when they happened."

"Clawhauser, what were you thinking going in there? I thought you knew better than that."

Benjamin's heart ached. "I'm sorry, sir. I want only trying to assist."

He heard a sigh. "Look, this had been a trying weekend, for all of us. One thing after another, it's a disaster. But we can't just keep doing whatever we want, even if it is to solve a case."

"I know, sir. I can't tell you how sorry I am for meddling in their business." Judy said.

"I'm sorry, too. I should have better explained why you shouldn't do it. I was concerned it would only encourage you."

"You know, you're probably right." Nick said. Judy scowled but said nothing. Benjamin knew that she knew that Bogo was right.

"You're better not being a smartass again, Wilde."

Nick held his paws up. "No smartassery, I swear."

"I don't thing he's being a smartbutt, Chief." Benjamin said, hoping he was being helpful.

"Hmph. I've just overheard Yaxley speaking with the Head of Security. The area with the two blocked entrances is too unstable to risk digging while you're in the area, so don't bother going back there. My advice is to keep moving."

"Are you sure about that, Chief Bogo?" Woolworth asked.

"It's too dangerous down there. One wrong move could cause the entire tunnel to collapse. I hate to say this, but the safest place is the other exit."

"And if there's an axe-swinging maniac on the other size?"

"Use your own judgment. That's all I can say. Do not engage until you're sure you can do so without endangering Gazelle's life."

"I can work with that."

"Good. I'll contact you when the ZBI begins their operation. Stay safe, and remember, do not engage unless you have to."

"Yes, sir." Benjamin said.

Three hours had passed since they'd first heard from Chief Bogo. Fifteen minutes after the first call, Chief Bogo called again to inform them that the ZBI's operation had begun. The signal was poorer here, but they could make out just enough to get the gist of what was going on. At this moment they were flying across the forest to confront and tranquilize as many savage mammals as they could before storming the cathedral to rescue the angel held inside. With luck, they would have completely dealt with the situation by the time Benjamin and the rest of the team were out of the tunnel. Benjamin felt slightly disappointed at that. The fanboy part of him dearly wanted to be one of the mammals involved in saving Gazelle. Helping her to safety in the Greener Grass wasn't enough it seemed. While he listened to the radio, Benjamin reminded himself that he was a cop above all. Let the ZBI handle the case. That was all he could do for her, now that they had solved the mystery of how to kidnapper had infiltrated the estate and made sure he couldn't do it again.

"Will you be going with them, Chief?" Judy asked.

"I'm just… to get the lot of you… in Zootopia… as possible."

"Speaking of which, how're the others doing?"

"Not good. From… hearing, those kids… hell of a drama bomb… off on them."

"What about Selke?" Judy asked.

"A drunken... shut herself up in her room… talk to anyone."

"I've been thinking about something she said when I last spoke to her." Judy reached out, requesting the radio. Woolworth passed it down to her. "It was right before we realized Gazelle was missing. I found her outside in the rose garden, not too far from where Gazelle disappeared. I was about to tell her about what happened in the forest, but she seemed to guess that it was Veltro. Sir, I think she's hiding something."

Bogo was quiet for a while. "I'll… word with her. You… on getting… tunnel."

"Yes, sir. This signal is getting worse by the second." Soon they wouldn't be able to communicate at all. "We may be out of contact for a while."

"Remember… not enga… be careful. Out."

Judy was proven right roughly eight minutes later, when the radio crackled violently.

"Chief Bogo?" Judy called, having held on to the radio since the last call. "Sir, is that you?"

Benjamin thought he could hear Bogo's furious voice within all the white noise, but there were no distinguishable words. The voice got louder for a few seconds, allowing them to catch a few words. "Do… Get hi… It's Ver… Be…"

That was all they got before the signal was completely lost.

Now they were on their own.

If Benjamin's luminous watch was accurate, it was three hours and forty-eight minutes later when they reached the end of the tunnel.

Their legs were sore. The cold had penetrated deeply into their clothes and fur. Their eyes were feeling irritated from being up all night. But they had finally made it.

The exit wasn't much to look at, but there were clear signs that it had been used. It was identical to the basement entrance, and the stone door was ajar, leaking amber light into the tunnel.

"Bet ya fifty bucks we're under the cathedral." Nick said.

"Hell no." Woolworth snorted. He tried the radio one more time, but still there was nothing but static.

"So what now?" Judy asked. "Do we stay here and possibly get buried alive or freeze to death, or do we head up and catch a Hound? What do you think, Ben? Benji?"

Benjamin had moved in front of them to stand in front of the door.

"You okay?" Nick asked. "It's the ribs again, isn't it?"

"I've just got a bad feeling." Benjamin said.

"About what?"

"That we're walking into a trap."

"What the heck are you talking about, Benji? It's obviously a trap." Nick checked his watch. "We've got about two more hours until sunrise."

"We could just see what's beyond the door." Judy said. "Maybe see if Nick would have won fifty bucks or not."

"No." Woolworth glared at the three of them. "You're already in the crap house for disregarding the chief's orders to stay out of the Casels' business. We'll sit tight and wait for the ZBI the give the all-"

Another explosion, a fair distance but just close enough to make dirt fall from the ceiling.

Woolworth's ears went so flat they disappeared into his fur. "Never mind."

They pushed through the door, entering a corridor of ancient brick. Immediately they knew that this place had been inhabited recently. There were flickering wax candles all over the place, except for a clear path going all the way up to the spiral staircase visible at the far end.

"Great. Crawl out of one creepy hellhole and into another." Nick muttered. The beam of Judy's flashlight fell on a sealed stone sarcophagus right in front of them. "Called it, by the way."

"Yeah, you're still not getting fifty bucks." Woolworth said. "Now shut up and take this seriously."

With the third blast, there was no doubt that they were being watched somehow, and refusing to go any further would warrant another explosive warning. So they checked their weapons one more time and crept down the path of candles. They kept their flashlights switched to look out for anything not visible in the candlelight. There were more sarcophaguses, some open, some shut. They were definitely in the catacombs beneath the cathedral. Judy checked the radio again, but received nothing but static.

Benjamin saw the camera when he shone his flashlight upwards. It was a tiny little thing fixed to the ceiling with what looked like duct tape. There were no telling how many others were hidden in the building, diminishing their chances of taking Gazelle's kidnapper by surprise. Why did he even bring them here in the first place? The beam illuminating the camera flickered and went out. The batteries were dead. Benjamin sighed, feeling worse than ever as he put the flashlight away.

Despite the small warmth from the candles, Benjamin shivered. Nick was right. This place was creepy, way more creepy than that dark silent, corridor in the mall with the bloody rhino footprints. This place had haunted written all over it, and he didn't just mean ghosts. A monster far worse than the savage mammals lurked within this place. A monster that had crept right up to a half a dozen mammals when they weren't looking and kidnapped a pop star. A monster with an unknown, insidious agenda. It was clear now why he had kidnapped Gazelle. She was being used as bait. But bait for who? What did he want?

They reached the spiral staircase. As the smallest target, Judy scouted ahead, returning quickly with the report that there was nobody at the top. There were more candles in the alcoves surrounding the spiral staircase, dribbling wax down the walls. The air was beginning to get warmer when they came across the first window, a tiny slit in the stone that allowed them a peek outside. The forest was pitch black, but not silent. They heard growling and bellowing from unseen savages, nothing that indicated the ZBI had begun their assault. Judy tried the radio again, to no avail. But they were above ground again. Why were they still getting no signal?

They reached the stop of the stairs to receive a nasty surprise. Benjamin recoiled in horror when Judy's flashlight caught a small figure hanging from the ceiling above their heads. Another look revealed that it was nothing more than a disheveled stuffed animal. It was covered in a suspicious dark red substance, and so badly mutilated that only a blue shirt, a curved horn and one ear remained. Judy and Nick traded disturbed looks, while Benjamin just stared. Something about the poor little doll was making his skin crawl and his fur stick up.

Please be okay, Gazelle.

There was only one wooden door, a door that had been scratched to heck. Among the scratches were what looked like words; names perhaps, but there was no way to make them out. Woolworth very slowly pushed the door open.

Oh cripes.

The sheer size of the room left no doubt that they were in the main body of the cathedral. Even the beams of their flashlights were unable to reach the blackest edges and corners of the hall, or whatever the architects called it. There were more candles on the long dusty pews, on the floor, even grouped beneath that massive set of boarded up doors to one side. It would take three rhinos and a mid-sized horse to break through that, and even then they'd need a battering ram. Considering that there was something big scratching at the doors on the other side, that was a good thing.

And that wasn't the worst of it. Dozens, maybe hundreds of strings dangled from somewhere in the dark ceiling, and dangling from them were more disfigured old dolls, like a mockery of a mass execution. They were hanging low enough for Woolworth to walk face first into a doll with nothing but a short tufted tail hanging beneath it.

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers." Judy whispered. Nick edged closer to her, for his sake or hers Benjamin didn't know. He would have squeed either way if not for the current situation.

He turned back towards the door to see more scratches in the other side of the door and the wall around it. These weren't random scratches, he realized with a chill. Words had been scratched into the wood and stone, over and over and over, until it was impossible to make them out fully. All he could decipher from the door were the letters NJA, AM and INBE. He didn't bother trying to read the walls. He would save that for the crime scene investigators if they ever got out of here.

"Chief Bogo, this is Hopps. We're inside the cathedral." Judy was trying the radio again. "Sir, can you hear me? Darn it!"

"Try again when we're outside." Woolworth suggested. "I'll check the other end with Clawhauser. You two stay here and watch out for that creep."

Benjamin followed Woolworth between the pews, the only part of the floor not littered with candles. The rows of pews ended before a stone step, which they cautiously stepped over. Now in place of pews, golden candelabras stood in a line on either side of them, leading up to a red curtain that seemed to go on forever, blending into the darkness behind the candlelight. Woolworth reached the curtain first, found a parting, and pushed it open.

"Clawhauser, it's her!"

Only Woolworth's outstretched hoof stopped the cheetah from charging through the curtains. The ram peered through the parting, searching the area on the other side. "Looks clear, but we'd best be extra careful. We'll check on her once we've secured the area."

On the other side of the curtain were yet more candles surrounding a large altar on which laid Gazelle. Benjamin's heart leapt at the sight of his idol, especially when he saw no visible injuries on her. He suppressed the urge to run to her to search the area with Woolworth. A closed laptop attached to an inactive generator lay beside the altar, but Benjamin made no move to touch it. The dolls, less numerous here than in the area with the pews, looked different here. For one thing they weren't hanging from the ceiling but arranged beneath the altar and the candelabras. They also had no horns and their tails were different. Repulsed by the blood and filth that covered them, Benjamin refrained from looking at them too closely.

Other than Gazelle and the dolls, the area was empty. Benjamin checked under the altar before checking on Gazelle herself. She was breathing steadily, and appeared completely unharmed. When Benjamin spoke her name and shook her gently, Gazelle murmured and opened her eyes. "Ben?"

"Oh, thank goodness!" Benjamin helped Gazelle into a sitting position. "Are you okay?"

Whatever drug the kidnapper had given her had almost completely worn off, which made it easier for her to regain her senses. "I'm okay. I think."

Meanwhile, Woolworth called for Nick and Judy before taking a closer look at the dolls.

"Gazelle, what happened?" Benjamin asked softly.

"I… I remember Edward getting into an argument with his father. I was following you into the house, and… and…" Gazelle squeezed her eyes shut and pressed a hoof to her head. "Ugh, my head. What is this place?"

"The Casel Cathedral, I think." Benjamin said. "Come on, we're getting out of here. Can you walk?" When he helped her off the altar, she was able to stand on her own.

At that moment Nick and Judy burst though the curtain, breathing sighs of relief when they saw Gazelle alive and unharmed. "Oh, thank God she's okay!" Judy beamed. "Come on, we need to find a place to hide until the ZBI clears out. Woolworth?"

Woolworth was on one knee, staring at the dolls beneath a candelabrum. "Clawhauser…" He stood up and stared at the cheetah. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "These dolls… they're all…"

The warm, candlelit air filled with the most horrible growling laughter that had ever assailed Benjamin's ears. The laughter seemed to come from everywhere, every inch of the darkness that surrounded them, the echo giving the voice that spine-chilling edge. They tensed and aimed their weapons, searching for the source of the laughter but seeing nothing but darkness and tiny flames quivering in a nonexistent wind. Before the last echoes faded away, the unseen being spoke. The voice was harsh and tinged with glee and malice. It made Benjamin's blood freeze.

"I knew you would come for her… I knew you would…"

Something swung over Benjamin's head, striking Woolworth in the side of the head, knocking him to the floor. When Nick spun round to fire, the candelabra struck again, sending him skidding into a pile of dolls. Judy rushed to his side while Benjamin finally saw the costumed lunatic crouched on the altar where Gazelle had lain, lit from beneath by a dozen weeping candles. He rushed in front of Gazelle, arms stretched out to shield her. Woolworth pushed himself up from the floor, dazed and no longer armed. Nick groaned, wiping blood from his eyebrow while Judy stood over him with her dart gun pointed at his attacker.

The Hound of the Casels lowered the bent and twisted candelabra and slowly aimed a bloody claw at the officer and the singer.

"… Benjamin…"

All the warmth was sucked from the air as all heads turned to stare at the cheetah.

He tried to speak, but only a soft gasp came out.

Oh poop.