Chapter 36: Dishonest But Not Disloyal

February 21st, 2017, the day during the interviews with Z

"Mr. Finnick Elgo Masto, that's your full name right?" Z asked, as Finnick was walking in through the door.

"Someone seems to be a little snoopy of other's privacy." Finnick replied, as he took a seat close to Z. "Now I'm going to cut to the chase here and ask where Danny, Judy, Nick and Clawhauser are?"

"Well you see Mr. Masto, most interviews are meant to be between one mammal, and not five of you altogether otherwise it'd just make it more complicated." Z replied. "I mean there's that, and it's known to most animals they'd prefer to tell their little secrets in private. But don't worry, I'm already aware of your little secrets."

Finnick began to get a little nervous when he heard that sentence. "W-what sort of secrets do you think you're referring to?"

"The fact that you robbed multiple convenience stores ever since your teen years." Z answered. "Wait don't tell me, was it money troubles?"

"I-" Finnick said pausing for a moment to think about it. "There's no proof on me that I was responsible for those."

"Yes, well funny you should mention it because some of my mammals did actually come across some interesting materials at your mother and father's old house." Z informed. "By the way, my condolences to your mother's death, I never meant for anything like sickness to happen to her but you know…"

"Just quit making this harder than it needs to be Z." Finnick requested.

"Right sorry, um back to the materials." Z said while pulling out a bag from his briefcase. "Oh and Richard, it's time to get it out." He called out.

"Get what out?" Finnick asked.

Richard then came over to where Z and Finnick were sitting and placed the machine on the table.

"This is a lie detector." Z answered.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Finnick said.

"Hey, it's the best way to prove whether or not you're screwing with us when I'm asking you about something, which may most likely be from your past or general information itself." Z replied. "Now then, do you recognize this knife?" He said sliding over a knife towards Finnick, as the wires for the lie detector were place on him.

"I-I… can't say that I have."

"He's lying." Richard said.

Finnick gave Richard a dirty look. "Up yours Richard-"

"Now now Finnick, there's no need to have a hissy fit about the truth you're not willing to spit out." Z said. "But on the contrary, those machines were built to detect lies and it's telling me you're lying."

Finnick got a little frustrated from having him pinned to the corner especially from Z, but he wasn't able to deny the fact from Z. "Okay fine, so I may have seen it before big deal." Finnick confessed. "What does that prove about anything? For all you know, it could just be something used to cut up tomatoes."

"He's still lying." Richard pointed out.

Finnick began to get agitated with Richard as he hit his paw hard on the table. "PUT A SOCK IN IT ALREADY YOU SPOTTED-"

"ENOUGH FINNICK." Z said loudly. "Now as I said before, this thing never lies. But it doesn't matter, we printed a few photos off the internet before we went snooping at your old house. We saw the culprit had a certain blue striped knife from the company Sharpeez, and sure enough it was the same knife we found stuck to the bottom end of an old bed."

"You really went through that much trouble just to look at a knife I had?" Finnick asked, as Z nodded in return. "Oh so what is this then, some kind of a blackmail technique you're planning to pull on me or something?"

"No, no, no of course not… even though I never actually thought of it like that yet." Z replied. "This is just proof to understand more of what kind of a mammal you really are under that fur of yours."

"So I hit a few stores back in my day, big deal mammals have done more than that for less."

"Funny you should mention that." Z said, as he pulled out a file from his suitcase. "Because I've got one case here where the same knife was used for a robbery from the otter owner where he refused to give the money to you. So what happens? You bash his teeth in against a pipe and take the money anyways without making sure he's okay."

"Okay, that time is totally justifiable." Finnick said. "He just… he wouldn't give it up, so I ended up threatening him a bit more with the knife until he took a bat out from behind his desk and tried to knock me out cold with it."

"So you thought hitting his face it with a pipe you busted until all his teeth were out was a good idea to you?"

"Listen, you don't know what sort of a fight it was between me and him so don't go making the wrong assumptions here."

Z shrugged. "Fair enough. But you know what, enough about your past, I'd like to know more about your opinions on all of this."

"I know it sounds pretty specific to you, but you're going to have to give me a more definite question than that."

"Hmm, why don't we start off with the main ones then?" Z suggested. "Like say… animals. What are your thoughts on your other four companions, or friends or whatever you'd call them."

"You really want my honest opinion on them?" Finnick asked. "Alright, I don't trust them."

Z cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? What gave you that opinion on all of them?"

Finnick thought about it for a moment to put that thought together in his head. "Hmm, well let me put it this way. They're too afraid to do what sometimes would be referred to as 'the right thing to do'."

"Hmm interesting…" Z said, as he was writing some notes down about what Finnick was saying. "But, can you please explain to me what is it mainly that you feel the right thing to do is?"

"Sometimes during one of those 'it's either him or me sort of moments'." Finnick replied. "I know one day all four, well I suppose excluding Clawhauser of my companions as you say, are going to get a choice on having to take a life if they want to save another. It's exactly what I did with that lion on Claw Street, Danny would have been beaten to death if I didn't kill him."

"And let me guess, you think that when the time actually does come for them, they won't be able to pull the trigger?"

"It doesn't take a genius to assume that." Finnick said. "But if that day ever does come, I will hate to know and understand they won't have my backs. That time with Danny was one thing. But if it ever happens again and I see then standing there and not doing what should be done, then maybe I'll just have to do the same. That is, unless if I'm only trying to save myself."

June 15th, 2017, three days after the incident at the abandoned business building, present time

Nick didn't want this day to come for another long, long time, but today was sadly that day. The day of Finnick's funeral was thankfully a sunny one, but it's not like Nick really cared about the weather in the first place. This ended up being a private funeral for only mammals who knew him personally, due to most of the animals in Zootopia thinking of him as filth due to his suspected work among the criminal weapons organization lurking in the city.

Judy and Danny did show up as well, but they were still as depressed as Nick was when they walked into the cemetery. They sat beside each other as the other few rows of mammals began to come to say a few prayers. The priest said a few of them, but no one volunteered to go up to say anything about Finnick. Nick assumed it was because it would most likely be looked down upon to share anything good about a murderer, so he also kept his thoughts to himself.

Another hour or two went by and the coffin was soon lowered into the ground, along with the dirt put on top of it. Most of the mammals had already left by then, but Judy and Danny couldn't help but notice Nick standing over his grave.

"It's hard on all of us to take it all in Nick." Judy said, as she and Danny were walking over to Nick.

"Yea, I know." Nick said. "But no it's just that… Finnick now lost that bet we made to each other."

"What was the bet?" Danny asked.

"That I'd go before him."

Both Judy and Danny looked at him curious. "What got you two to come up with that bet?" Judy asked.

Nick shrugged. "Well to put it in short, we had a lot to drink that night."

All three laughed. "Yea I'm sure you did." Judy said. "But hey, at least he was put beside his father."

"Edward Portilamo Masto, 1951-1987…" Nick said, as he read Finnick's father's tombstone.

"I read his file the other day just to see if Finnick was telling the truth about his dad's cause of death, and sure enough it was the real deal." Judy brought up. "Edward Masto was involved in a road accident in Savanna central on the Bristol Mack Bridge. Apparently he was in a hurry to get home since he got surprise baseball tickets for his son that night, but one of his tires popped unexpectedly due to the speed he was going, and due to a late check-up for his car. He tried to stable his car to go back on the road, but the car was already going so fast it broke the cement fence put on the bridge and he ended up falling 250 feet to the large rocks at the very bottom."

"Damn, that sounds pretty tragic…" Danny said.

"We should have done something like this for Clawhauser as well." Nick said. "I mean, just the thought of losing someone and seeing their body get dragged away to some desert at a random hole in the ground..."

"We will find him and make it right for him when the time comes Nick." Judy said trying to cheer him up. "But as of now, we need to focus on making this all right."

"All right?" Danny asked. "How in any way are we going to correct any of what we've had to go through this who time? It's just us three now Judy, Finnick and Clawhauser won't be coming back to save our tails this time."

"Fixing mistakes take time Danny." Judy said. "And especially with a mammal like Z, this is not going to be like turning on the kitchen light."

"Z is most likely going to be the least of our worries for the next week or so as it is." Nick said. "He must be taking it hard right now after the loss of his ex- wife."

"Well no matter what, Z will always have the upper paw on us." Danny said. "We thought he'd never find out about the things we've done behind his back, but sure enough he did. Not just that, he was able to figure out something from all of us very few have figured out already by now about our pasts."

"Hey that reminds me, don't you two think it's time you told me and the other mammal beside you what their secret was which Z ended up finding out about?" Judy asked Nick and Danny.

"What makes you so interested in it?" Danny asked.

"Why do you not want to share it Danny?" Judy asked. "You really think we'll tell someone else about it? How do we know it's not something that may be connected to our current problems?"

"Trust me, it isn't." Danny replied.

"But it isn't fair if you know my secret and you are refusing to say your own-"

"Alright, alright fine, I'll tell you!" Danny shouted. "But you two better promise you don't say a word of this to anyone else, otherwise I'll never trust you two with anything again."

"We promise." Nick said.

It took Danny a moment to tell his secret before exhaling deeply and saying it. "I… Paralyzed the lower half of a mammals body."

Both Judy and Nick's eyes widened as they both stared at him in shock. "You-you did what Danny?" Judy asked.

"Look I was young, I didn't know anything back then!" Danny shouted in defense. "I'll just start from the top. So me and my brother loved to hit targets when we were young. First we went to leap biting with some sacks, then we threw sharp sticks as if they were spears at the trees and bushes, then we soon made our own slingshots and ended up firing a few at some cans and bottles."

"Maybe that's why officer Wolford joined the ZPD, because he was always good at getting his targets." Nick said to Judy, as they giggled a little.

Danny rolled his eyes and continued with the story. "So on our birthday, our dad gave us our own BB rifle seeing as how he always saw us playing with targets, but not with an actual weapon. And WOW, that thing was fun to use on our targets since it always made it a hell of a lot easier for us to hit them at a very far distance. Sometimes we could even hit a bull's eye five times in a row at least seven metres away."

"Wow." Nick said impressed. "So you two must have been quite the aimers back then, then."

"Yea, we sure were…" Danny said. "But now that we had that rifle, just shooting at cardboard didn't really feel… like much of a way of entertaining ourselves with. So one day, I went up to my brother and threw him a pitch that said something like, 'hey, do you want to make target shooting a little more interesting?' Naturally he said yes, but when I told him the part about doing it on real animals, he immediately bailed out on the idea. Looking back on that day, I couldn't blame him for saying no."

"Woah hang on a second." Judy interrupted. "You actually thought shooting with a BB rifle at someone was a good idea?"

"I was a teenager Judy, I didn't know what the hell I was thinking for at least a quarter of the time!" Danny shouted. "Anyways, so even if my brother said no, it didn't stop me from doing it solo. On a sunny afternoon, I went on a roof of a tall building which was a pretty good place to go to since no one could see you very well, and it gave me more room to shoot at. But even as a stupid teen, I knew my boundaries so I decided to aim torso to the bottom. But let me tell you, every time I took a shot it never missed. I'll admit, it was pretty funny seeing some of the reactions from most of the mammals down below, especially the times I got them right on the tail."

"You are so sick Danny." Judy said.

Danny decided to ignore what she just said. "So the evening came around and I thought I should get one more mammal before I called it a night. So I saw this doe mother and daughter walking by and I thought it'd be a little funny to see the girl yelp right in front of her mother. But I didn't want to seriously hurt her, so I just shot the small little ball at her leg. But she seemed to get a bigger reaction to it than I thought because before I knew it, she was screaming and yelling to her mother while running around aimlessly. At first I thought it was funny, but then I saw her running onto the road… then another car nearby came driving on the same road and, and… it was too late for her to stop the car in time."

"What is wrong with you?" Judy asked.

"I was a bloody teenager Judy, teenagers make dumb decisions all the time, this just happened to be one of those times!" Danny shouted back.

"Did you ever turn yourself in?" Nick asked.

"I was never willing to face what was most likely going to be down the road if I did." Danny answered. "I would rather take my gun Z's crew gave me and lodge it in my brain, than spend ten years or more in prison."

"Is there anyone else you spoke to about this Danny?" Judy asked.

"Just my brother Matthew." Danny replied. "I didn't know who else to go to about it and I would've went completely loco if I never told at least somebody about it. At that time he was planning to be a police officer, so he knew a few techniques from the TV he watched on how to get away with it, but not before yelling at me for a whole hour on stuff I already knew I shouldn't have done. We ended up getting my dad's hammer from his tool kit, busted the BB rifle into pieces and burnt it into ashes so no one would trace it back to me. When my father asked about its disappearance, we made up a story saying that it was stolen by some mammal we were ambushed by in an alleyway when we wanted to shoot at some trash cans."

"Did you ever even go to that girl to I don't know, cheer her up?" Nick asked.

"I've tried before, I don't know how many times because I lost count when I hit seven." Danny believed. "But I've learned the hard way that it isn't easy to start a chat with someone you accidentally paralyzed. Don't get the wrong idea of me though, yes I'll admit dishonesty may be one of my problems sometimes, but I am definitely not disloyal."

"Sometimes loyalty isn't going to be the same matter at stake compared to honesty Danny." Judy said. "You can say you're loyal to a company, but when you end up doing things without informing any of your higher ranks and especially when they find out about it, they'll say you can shove that loyalty right up your tail and walk out of the doors never coming back inside."

"But for Z's case, it's a matter of life or death." Nick said. "We saw what he would do to one of us if we don't end up being the most loyal out of the group, you can believe it when you remember how Clawhauser ended up because of that."

Danny sighed. "You're right, I understand the issues. But you know, no mammal out there is going to be born perfect. Sometimes we are who we are whether we like it or not."

"We get your drift Danny don't worry, we just need you to work out your problems for the time being, that's all." Judy said.

Just then, Nick's phone started ringing. He didn't seem too surprised to see who was phoning him. "I'm sorry guys but I got to take this." He said walking away. "It's just something I got to take care of at my place.

"Well what's the problem?" Judy asked.

"Nothing, it's just that Amber seems to have caught something in the past couple days and she's apparently too weak to get out of bed to retrieve some pills and a glass of water." Nick replied.

"I totally think he's fibbing." Danny whispered to Judy.

Judy shrugged. "Could be. But then again, he may really be but just not for that reason."

"What do you mean?"

Judy chuckled. "It's nothing. But still, I think you're sick." She said, while walking away as well.

"I TOLD YOU, I WAS JUST A DUMB TEENAGER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Danny shouted to Judy.

June 29th, 2017, two weeks later

Zoe still hadn't seen her father come out of the kitchen for quite some time after he would come home from work. She wanted to comfort him, but she feared it would only make his attitude worse. Nevertheless, she couldn't blame him seeing as how his wife who was also her own mother had passed away. She herself was also in a pretty bad state after hearing the news about her mother, but after a while she got a little more worried on her own father after seeing him drink non-stop for the past few weeks now.

"He's got to run out of alcohol eventually Zoe…" Zoe thought. "But I still can't believe it about mom. Maybe he's still in denial as well. It's been a couple weeks already and he still hasn't been acting the same as usual, it's like he's all of a sudden showing his dark side around the house…"

Sometimes she would go into the kitchen since she eventually got hungry only to see him lying face down on the table. But then the time came around to when they ran out of food to eat in the house. Zoe did ask her father about getting more groceries for the house, only to be yelled at by him and nearly forced to leave the kitchen soon after. She ended up getting money from her father's wallet and always ended up ordering pizza or going to a nearby fast food restaurant for meals now.

Before her mother died, she would always get a drive from her since her school was far from where she lived. But without even bothering to ask his father or no matter how early she woke up to go, she was always more than thirty minutes late. She hated it considering exams were just around the corner and all she had on her mind instead of studying was her parents.

Time after time and it was the same ordeal she had to deal with every day until finally, she decided she's had enough of it. It was morning time when she went out of her room and really saw what the house had become in the past couple weeks without any cleaning whatsoever from her father. Out of anger, she stormed into the kitchen and approached him.

"Okay, this has gone far enough dad!" Zoe shouted. "I haven't seen you go anywhere else other than this kitchen and your 'claim' of going to work whenever you go out. This needs to stop!"

"…." Z moaned, as he still seemed to be recovering from the drinks he had last night.

"My god, you should hear yourself right now if you weren't so into intoxicated." Zoe said, but with her father's face still lying on the table still. Zoe knew she had to go to extreme measures now, as she went over to her dad's ear and screamed. "WAKE UP!"

Her father's head then shot straight up so fast, he lost stability of the chair he was sitting on and fell to the ground. He quickly jumped back to reality as he saw his daughter standing in front of him while he was still on the floor.

"Zoe, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Z asked, angered she yelled in his ear.

"You drank yourself until you went unconscious again, it was the only way to get your attention." Zoe replied. "Listen dad, I get how much mom meant to you and trust me, I couldn't stop crying about it for the whole week ever since we learned the news that night. BUT YOU'RE DRINKING YOURSELF TO DEATH."

Z sighed as he slowly got back up. "Zoe, you obviously don't seem to understand anything about losing-"

"DON'T YOU DARE PULL THAT 'YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND' CRAP ON ME!" Zoe yelled. "I understand it perfectly dad. I understand how much mom meant to me and you, I understand your pain and my own, and I understand perfectly that I'm now going to have to live out the rest of my life without a mother. But maybe it's you who doesn't seem to understand the slightest bit of what I've been feeling from all of this!"

Z began to see his daughter's emotions from all of this after having ignored her for so long. "Look Zoe I'm having trouble with taking this in. I knew your mother for more than twenty years and I've never stopped loving her. But hearing about her passing, it's almost as if I'm hearing someone stole my heart, and I just can't live without my heart…"

"I know dad, but at the same time you seem to be forgetting what you still have, which also happens to be right in front of you."

Z looked up at her daughter's eyes and realized what he still had this entire time, family. He then slowly walked over to her and hugged her tightly, as a tear began to roll down his eye.

"I'm sorry sweetie…" Z said, trying to sound stabled. "I know I've been a horrible father to you. I was never there when you most likely needed it, and I probably don't even deserve to have someone as special as you in my life."

"Dad…" Zoe said silently with her father's arms still wrapped around her.

"I knew it straight from the start." Z confessed. "Ever since your mother told me we were going to have you, I… I didn't think I could do it! I knew who I was and what kind of a mammal I am, so I didn't want my own child growing up with a father like that!"

"… Is that why you two divorced?"

Z was a little surprised from that question at first, but figured for the greater good of his daughter, it was necessary to go along with that and not get too much into details. Because of that, he looked into Zoe's eyes and lightly nodded.

"We both thought it was the best for you." Z said. "During the time when we met, it was mostly just talk and cuddles."

"Too much information." Zoe said sliding her hoof in front of her father's face.

Z shook that thought off and continued. "But after we were married and started to share more about each other's life, she didn't take some of those… opinions very lightly. We then started to get into an argument about some of our personal problems from the past, and then said we were through the next day while taking you to your grandmother's place for the time being until she was able to get her own house."

"Well, I vaguely remember memories of that since it happened when I was so young." Zoe said. "What could you have argued about that was so bad she wanted to leave you?"

Z sighed as he placed his hoof on Zoe's shoulder. "Zoe, I'm only telling you this for your own good, and because I love you. My history in the past is best left not known about. I fear it is something you would never be able to comprehend."

Zoe felt a bit of a chilling vibe from what her father just told her. "W-what could possibly have happened to you in the past you would want to keep from me?" She asked.

"Too many things to count." Z thought. "Zoe…" He said, knowing his daughter was still wanting to know.

Zoe sighed. "Alright fine, if that's what it will take to get you back up on your feet again. But just for assurance dad, can you at least let me know if the day will ever come when you will tell me?"

Z thought about it for a moment. "… If that day ever does come Zoe, I will be sure to let you know about it immediately."

Zoe put her hoofs around her waist while still trying to accept that thought. She then nodded to her her father. "Okay, fine."

Z smiled as he went over to Zoe to hug her again. "Oh honey, I knew you'd understand."

"Yea yea, no need to keep getting all sappy about it now dad." Zoe said. "But on another note, I just wanted to know if you ever bothered to take a look at your living room?"

"You mean our living room now?" Z asked, implying to Zoe that she could stay here if she wanted to.

Zoe chuckled. "I guess so."

"Why, what's it look like?"

"You mean you don't even know?" Zoe asked. "It's filled with nothing but beer bottles and wrappers all over the place."

Z then walked over to the living room, only to realize when Zoe said they were all over the place, she didn't mean it figuratively. "Hey wait a minute, if you knew this place was such a big dump why didn't you clean it up yourself?"

"Exams take lots of time to study in my grade if you plan on getting an 'A' in every one of them." Zoe replied.

"Oh, well good for you then, I think."

"He seems to still have a lot to learn about raising a teenager…" Zoe thought.

"Wait, judging by the wrappers and plates here, how much food do we still have left?"

"None."

"None?!" Z shrieked. "Oh my god, have I been starving you this whole time?"

"You're lucky there's enough places close to here to keep my stomach going for two weeks."

"Oh thank heavens, because if you hadn't eaten in all those days I would've-" Z said, while realizing something. "Hold on a second, if you had to go to places around here to get food, then where exactly did you end up getting the money to pay for them?"

"Darn it, I hoped I wouldn't have to have a conversation about this when he became conscious again…" Zoe thought. "Oh that reminds me dad, you may have to go to the bank to get a bit more money for your wallet…"

Z was a bit angered from what Zoe informed about his with his money, but knew he couldn't be mad at her right now. "Oh it's alright." Z chuckled. "And frankly I'm actually glad you used my money for it considering it would've made me feel even worse about myself if you had to use all of yours."

But as he continued talking with Zoe, his phone started to ring. When he checked to see who it was, he knew this was another private call he had to take.

"Who is it?" Zoe asked.

"Nobody, it's just some clients of mine I haven't spoken to in a couple weeks." Z replied. "I-I'm sorry honey but I got to take this one. But hey don't worry, as soon as I'm finished we're heading straight to the nearest supermarket."

Zoe giggled. "Alright sure!"

Z then walked into his bedroom again and closed the door, making sure Zoe couldn't overhear the conversation. "Grant for the third time now, I thought I told you not to contact me unless I say you can contact me again."

"I understood that perfectly sir, don't get me wrong on that." Grant said. "Listen I know I should have informed you about this a couple days back but… somethings come up."

Biggy seemed to feel like just another one of those lonely animals out there in Zootopia. His wife left him as well, along with his two boys, and surprisingly it only seemed like things were going to get worse for him the more he stayed with Z and his criminal work. It was just another reason he wanted to stop Z from doing his crimes before his last breath came.

He thought when his family moved out, the bright side was that he would have less to worry about in his life. But he was wrong. Two days after she left him and took the kids, Biggy phoned her to discuss the financial and visiting parts of a divorce so he could at least continue to see them. Every day now, he worries something bad might happen to them if what the news says is true about fennecs shooting zebras in the head. But every day and still, he sucked it up and did what he had to do so there wouldn't be any further problems. It was necessary, but it didn't mean he still continued to like what he did.

It was night time and he had nothing better to do since he had no shift with Z that day, so he just ordered a box of pizza and laid on the couch while enjoying the ride of whatever was on TV at the moment. But right when he thought he would be staying on his comfortable position for the rest of the night, the doorbell rang.

Biggy groaned. "Now of all times do I get someone ringing on my doorbell?" He thought.

He slowly got back up from the couch and walked over to the door. But just for a safety precaution, he checked the blinds to see who was waiting by the door on the other side. However when he looked, he couldn't even believe it himself when he saw who the mammal was. He then went over to his door to unlock and open to confirm it really was him, and sure enough it was.

"I hope I'm not interrupting." The mammal said.

Biggy then began to laugh. "I always wondered when the day would come when you'd be appearing in front of my doorstep again." He said. "But I assume you didn't come here just for a quick beer, right?"

The mammal shook his head. "You're the only mammal now I can go to so Z won't find out about me. He's already mad at me as it is, but when he finds out what I did he'll want every sniffer he's got in the city on me."

"I wouldn't disagree with you on that one." Biggy agreed. "Come on inside then, the air is cool in here."

The mammal exhaled in relief. "Thanks, you really have no idea how much this means to me that you're doing this."

Biggy smiled. "Hey, no biggy Chip."

Next week: Chapter 37, Always Prepared