The great moment hasn't ended! But after it does, everything gets worse.

Enjoy the chapter.

...

et they were speechless, in a random corridor in one of the currently most important bases in the word with suits they had never worn making them look like in a costume party, Judy and Nick were alive and they were together.

For each of them, many thoughts came at the same moment.

"Why are you here?"

"How are you here?"

"What happened?"

"Are you okay?"

It was Judy, who made the first move coming towards him almost running with Nick copying her movement and her pace and ending in the most passionate and tight hug they ever had.

Even better than the one under that bridge over six months ago.

"You're alive!" said Judy in almost a whisper.

The first thought that came to Nick's mind was "so are you" but the fact that she was alive was too much for him so he just embraced the hug.

"Why-? How are you here?" she said with her voice still not being able to properly say words.

Nick broke the hug hoping to question but after a few more seconds of -unbelievable- eye contact Judy hugged him again.

"Why are you here?" Nick finally said still hugging her while being able to see a very confused Cotton.

"I… I work here…" Judy replied trying to come up with something that made sense without saying a complete lie, but this wasn't the time to make up stories "As a soldier…" she finished.

Nick was taken by surprise by the fact that she was working in a remote base for the enemy… with doctor outfit.

"And why are you-? Who's your squad and did you got in here?"

"Oh, this is… actually a disguise".

"You've infiltrated the base? But how?" she said very confusedly.

Nick did not reply which confirmed Judy's first question but the bunny brushed this off before giving another hug, this one now shorter than the previous ones.

"Nick we have to get out of here and fast," she began to explain slowly "This place is not safe".

"I know that… carrots, but- Are you her squad leader?" he said pointing at Cotton.

The two bunnies nodded.

"And why are you wearing a coat?"

"It's a disguise," she said smiling "But c'mon we have to leave".

"Wait!" he said after Judy had already picked a direction.

"What?"

"I'm… not sure if I'm ready to leave".

Judy got pretty confused by this with her ears perking up.

"Nick… what are you doing here? And how did you got here?" she asked very suspiciously.

"Look, I don't know if what I'm supposed to do has already been done or if I still need to do it".

Judy was pretty confused but she came to a possible theory.

"You came with someone?"

"Well…"

Unfortunately, Nick was not able to finish his sentence because he noticed how Judy's expression changed from confusion to shock so quickly with Cotton hiding behind her, when Nick turned around he faced an 'old' foe, one that was mentally torturing him since they left Zootopia.

"Looks like someone's lost," said the commander Vosch with soldiers behind them targeting the two intruders.

I should've come up with a better plan. He thought.

Also, crawling in the ventilation ducts jumping from one room to another wasn't a comfortable position, especially when you have a rifle with you to carry along the way.

Also, sending Nick in a 'just go' situation was pretty stupid now that he was thinking about it and the reason why he did it was based on the slim chance that what he wanted Nick to see was seen if for some reason that thing was not there then the fox could be in great danger for no reason at all.

All of this brought him painfully back to Savanna Central where he casually let Finnick go without any backup plan or any last words during an alien invasion only to lose him days later.

That was not going to happen with Nick.

The plan may have been dumb, yes, but at least he gave all the information he heard in the forest from the soldiers including a system called Wonderland, also, this time he had something stored for the aliens, something that he wasn't sure to use it since the results could be unimaginable but if it meant saving Nick and Judy along with taking revenge on the invaders it was worth it.

The last time he was afraid of the aliens he killed an innocent man who probably only needed help.

Zachary Lyon was not afraid anymore.

Two soldiers stood beside Nick and Judy with another one behind them carrying Cotton by the hand, in front of everyone Vosch was escorting the group to who-knows-where.

Meanwhile, Nick and Judy could do nothing but follow them and exchange a few words.

"Is he your commander?" Nick whispered very lowly but hearable.

"He was, not anymore" Judy replied whispering back.

"Do you know he's… evil?"

"I do… but I learned about it like 6 hours ago- Wait, do you know him?"

"Turns out I survived a mass shooting that. Was. Orchestrated. By. Him".

Judy looked at him in disbelief for a few seconds until she realized that manipulating children were also part of Vosch's resume. But she was more shocked at the fact that Nick survived a shooting.

The two of them continued walking until they reached the same "investigation room" that they had both been through, where Judy experienced the Wonderland technology and where Nick knocked out the doctor Pam.

They were forced to sit down in two chairs facing the mirror with Judy panicking silently after discovering that the soldier that was with Cotton had disappeared.

Now, the two soldiers blocked the exit leaving Vosch to handle the situation.

"Do you know why we're going to win this war?" asked Vosch "Because we know all of you".

"I didn't expect you to start a villain monologue," said Nick.

"We've been analyzing you for ages and centuries," the bear continued ignoring Nick "When you animals evolved and developed your entire civilization, the construction of Zootopia and where you, little bunny, destroyed it and brought it together in less than a week".

"You… you knew about it?" asked Judy surprised by it.

"Why did you think I allowed you on that bus?"

"I got on that bus myself" she replied very firmly.

"Really? Didn't the soldier have to make a call? Wasn't he hesitating to let you in? You must be very naïve Judy if you think that no one in a military base knows the difference between an adult and a teenager bunny".

This gave her a little moment to remember the moment where she faked being a minor to get on the bus where the wolf that let her in did call through radio before fully letting her in.

"I let you in Judy because I was thinking that you could be a great asset to our team that you were going to be amazing in our squad".

"So that's why you played the 'father figure' on me? To trick me into this… slaughter? Because I had a father and now he's gone because of you!"

Vosch looked at Judy with a neutral expression before picking up the remote control with only one button from a nearby table.

"It can't be helped, Hopps… This is how life has always been, prey versus predator".

Suddenly, the mirror turned into glass again and the scene that Judy experienced one week ago was repeating itself only that this time the victim in the chair was not Finnick but Cotton… and only that this time she was not in control of the button.

"Wait!" she called with a different tone now "You don't need to do this! If there's anything you want to know you can just plug me into Wonderland! That should give you things away!"

"But Judy, he would kill her anyway," said Nick in a whisper but audible.

"You should listen to him Hopps," Vosch replied pointing with the button "I think he has shown more courage in twenty-four hours than you in an entire week. I'm gonna do something, I'll plug you both to Wonderland, I'll kill you after and probably spare the little bunny… if the fox tells me who he came with".

Judy looked at Nick surprised with the fox also being surprised that Vosch knew about it.

"What are you talking about?" he said.

"You may be sly but I'm not stupid. First, we receive the message that one of our squads was dead in the forest, second, another one saying that we have an infiltration of a fox and a hyena in the base, and then another one telling us about the death of the doctor Pam".

"What? I never killed her!" Nick replied defensively.

"Implying that you have a second partner… besides the bunny here. And if you want to make her happy then I would suggest for you to tell me where that hyena is".

Nick looked at Judy with her being worried that Nick was going to pull out another lie or a trick of his but Nick's look insinuated that he was about, to tell the truth.

"Look, he just told me to head inside while he stayed in the bus we came from; right now he could be anywhere!"

The bear looked at Nick and his soldiers without saying anything.

"Very well," he said emotionless pressing the button.

"That should've done the trick!" said Zachy "Without me, Nick would've already been dead… but I'm the one that puts him in these situations anyway".

And the chapter will end here for now! What has Zachy made right now? And what about Vosch? Is Cotton okay?

As the climax is getting closer I get excited…! Okay, that sounded bad.

See you soon!