Hi! Here's the final chapter of the story! Originally, the finale consisted of two chapters, but after a quick evaluation, I realised that the stuff that I wanted to write was what wound up here as this final chapter, and anything else would have been filler. There is still an 'after-credits' chapter to come, though, so this story isn't finished with this chapter.

As always, thanks to the fine folks who have reviewed this story over on various platforms: PJSam, SapperJoe85, hk201, 93PenguinImperator, John Foxfire, Slatepaws, Yoshifan30, DancouMaryuu, Cimar-WildeHopps, Tinbuzzard11, TheJokerman

And thanks to the beta readers: J Shute

Anyway, let's get on with the show!

PAST THE FUTURE

It looked like everything had been resolved; all the loose ends tied up with a little bow. The Subjugats were gone, the Commissar was locked up and Carrots and I were going to continue on as cops of Precinct One.

But that's not how it felt to me. There were still things that needed to be done. We couldn't leave Juliah in the care of Badge forever, but who could we trust to take care of her? She acted like a child in many ways, even if she had the same form as Carrots. Amazingly, Bogo gave us a whole two weeks off, saying we had earned it, and Carrots and I decided we would use that week to find a home for Juliah. We both agreed that the best thing for her was to be with other rabbits and, since Carrots wasn't exactly the best mammal for the job considering how much time she spent away from home, it meant we had to look elsewhere. There was really only one place Carrots and I could think of.

After all, her parents had plenty of experience raising kits, and Juliah was almost one in mind after being released from the shackles of her subjugation.

It also meant we had to come up with a plausible story.

We settled on her being a kidnap victim. Since she was a little kit, she was being held prisoner, and when we cracked the case regarding the terrorist incident in Precinct One, we found and rescued her from the perps who had orchestrated the attack. She only knew her first name, and she was rather naïve. There was no record of her having gone missing, so it would be next-to-impossible to trace the parents. The implant on the back of her head was actually an advanced hearing aid, since during her time as a prisoner her hearing had been impaired. Since she was unaware of rabbit customs, we thought it best she lived with her own kind for a while to rehabilitate her back into society.

It just went to show how amazing Carrots' family had to be, because they agreed. I knew they were something else: I had met them after my graduation ceremony and they were decent folks. They had raised Carrots right. They both approved of me being Carrots' partner after the glowing stories she had told them, but I didn't expect them to be so friendly towards me.

"So, here's the deal," Nick said, turning to Juliah in the train seat opposite him. He and Judy were on the train to Bunnyburrow with Juliah, having persuaded Bonnie and Stu to take in the former Subjugat. She had dressed in some of Judy's clothes, so visually, it was difficult to tell the two apart beyond the innocent staring and the implant visibly protruding from her head.

"We're going to take you to my parents," Judy explained. "They'll look after you, and help you figure out who you are and what you want to be."

"Carrots, didn't they try to help you realise you wanted to be a carrot farmer after all?" Nick raised an eyebrow.

"Har, har," Judy responded, rolling her eyes and digging her good elbow into Nick's side.

"You know you love me," Nick grinned.

"Do I know that?" Judy raised an eyebrow. She let a brief silence elapse before she added with a smile: "Of course I do."

Juliah watched their banter like a little kit.

"What Nick meant to say is you can be whoever you want to be," Judy turned back to Juliah.

"Next station: Bunnyburrow." Came the voice of the train announcer.

"That's us," Nick remarked as the train started to slow to a crawl.

"Are you going back?" Juliah asked.

"We have a few days off, so we'll be staying." Judy answered.

The train stopped, and Nick and Judy got up, picking up their bags. Juliah followed them off the train, right into a group of waiting rabbits.

"Judy!" Bonnie Hopps, matriarch of the Hopps family, waded her way over. Her eyes caught Judy's arm in a sling. "Oh, my goodness! Your arm!"

"Hi, Mom," Judy grinned. "My arm's fine. Bit of a break, but I've done worse."

"Nick, it's been a while!" Stu lumbered over, offering a paw, which Nick shook.

"How's business?" Nick grinned back.

"Doing great!" Stu beamed. "Ever since Gid opened up that pastry shop in the heart of Bunnyburrow, our fruits have been flying off the racks! Nice to know that they'll be put to good use!"

"Got any blueberries left?" Nick asked.

"Of course! Saved a punnet just in case!" Stu answered.

"Oh!" Bonnie remarked, turning her attention to Juliah, who had hung back, as if unsure of the crowd that had gathered to greet them. "You must be Juliah! Well now…" Bonnie stopped to study the former Subjugat. "Gosh, Stu, doesn't she look the spitting image of Judy?"

"She does!" Stu agreed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say somebody dumped our Jude into a copying machine!"

Nick and Judy exchanged knowing glances.

"Um… hi…" Juliah raised a paw in a wave, unsure how to respond.

We headed for the Hopps Household, where Bonnie showed Juliah to the room she would be staying in. Carrots and I went out onto the front porch.

"Nice afternoon," Nick remarked, staring into the clear blue sky.

"Yeah," Judy agreed.

"Might go and walk through the blueberry fields," Nick said.

"You just want to try and poach more blueberries," Judy shook her head, a slight smile creeping onto her face.

"Carrots, you know me too well," Nick answered with a grin of his own, but his grin fell.

"What's wrong?" Judy asked.

"Carrots… Judy…" Nick said, turning to her and staring straight into her eyes. "Now it's all over… I just wanted to say that I didn't want to lie to you."

"Nick, it's okay," Judy replied. "I know why you had to. I'm not some dumb bunny from the country."

Nick gave Judy a brief shocked look, before darting his head around.

"Har, har," Judy deadpanned.

"I mean it, though," Nick continued. "There are plenty of times I thought we could just… live a normal life as…" Nick hesitated briefly, as if deciding whether to say what was on his mind, "best friends."

"Nick, we're still best friends," Judy stepped closer to Nick. "Past, present, future… I don't care where you came from. I care that you're here, now… with me."

Nick's ears perked up as his eyes widened. His jaw gaped as he tried to find something to say.

"Carrots, I…" Nick began. Judy raised a finger to his muzzle to quiet him.

"It did sting when I first found out," Judy nodded. "But… I guess, beneath it all, I knew you were still you, even if you didn't come from 'here'… if that makes sense?"

"Yeah, guess so…" Nick placed a paw awkwardly behind his head.

"What happens now?" Judy asked. "You've done what you came here to do. You've stopped your future from happening."

"I didn't join the ZPD to that end," Nick shrugged. "I honestly thought that, when we caught Bellwether, it might be over. I thought that becoming the first fox cop might see to it that the future wouldn't become what I came from."

His eyes met Judy.

"It's no secret that I didn't think highly of you when we first met," Nick confessed, "but once I got to know you for you, and not some silly recording in some distant archive, I knew there was more to you, and I wanted to get to know you more. Sounds silly when I put it that way, doesn't it?" Nick leaned back against a nearby rail.

"No, it doesn't," Judy shook her head as she stood close to him, facing outward towards the fields.

"You know something, Nick?" Judy asked. "I think the future is going to be bright. One of my old uncles used to say 'yesterday might be dark, and today could be worse, but tomorrow is going to be good, because tomorrow is the start of the rest of your life'."

"Today wasn't worse for me," Nick answered, "but I'll take tomorrow." He turned his head to Judy. She stared back at him, placing her good paw on his arm.

"Nick, can I tell you something?" Judy asked. "And will you promise not to laugh, or joke, or… just… would you hear me out?"

Nick cast Judy a curious glare. He almost looked like a kit to her.

"It hurt… when you walked away after the press conference," Judy confessed, "but it wasn't because of you. I did that. And when I found you again, under that bridge, I knew you might walk away…" a tear started to bead up in Judy's eye, "and you had every right to. And when you tried to, it felt like my heart had been torn out. I've hurt myself plenty of times before, growing up, training for the ZPD, but I've never felt hurt before. You don't know how much of a relief it was when you forgave me, and I didn't know just how much that meant to me. When we arrested… the other me… I honestly thought I was going to lose you. I saw in her the same thing when I look in the mirror. But it was twisted, and it wanted to take away the things I care about. The things I love."

Judy had leaned closer to Nick. His eyebrows had risen, giving him a much more surprised look.

"I was confused about myself, because I had never come across it before, but… I knew why it hurt so much when you left. I knew why it hurt so much when I found out what you had kept from me."

The gap between Nick and Judy had closed further.

"I knew then that I wasn't joking when you said 'you know you love me', and I said 'do I know that? Yes, yes, I do', Nick, because that's the truth… I love you… I'm in love with you."

"I know," Nick replied. His eyes were his usual half-lidded eyes, but there was no trace of snark in them.

He closed the gap and his lips touched Judy's.

Don't interfere. Don't damage the timeline. The hurt cop and the time traveller who had to hide the truth from her – it'll never work.

To hell with all of that, because this was all that mattered to me in that moment. I had grown up a predator in the hell of a dystopian future. Shunned just for being born the way I was. I had lost my parents. I had to leave my Brothers behind for this mission. A part of me had debated whether I was worthy of being loved, or if Judy could ever love me.

Now I know the truth.

Judy was right: the future was bright. And it was ours to choose.

FUTURES PAST

Don't go just yet! There's one more 'post-story' chapter to come!