Summary:
John delivers the wayward ward to his guardian who has words for the coyote. Hugo's visions continue to torment him. Cheryl and Fennick listen to their two guests when a phone call interrupts them. Bogo and Deman find something that they can agree on.
Notes:
I am sorry. I wish I had a better excuse for my extended hiatus than a spectacular case of writer's block, but that is the truth. I have agonized over this chapter, both with what to tell and what to leave out. And I've struggled with the introduction of this act's main antagonist - he had been orginaly cast as a wolf, but it was simply not working. Wolves are comedic characters in Zootpia, dark and sinster, until they all get caught up in a mutual howl session and get exposed as the jackasses that they are. I wrote, and rewrote, this chapter until I began to hate it. I put it aside to take a break, maybe gain some perspective, but the days of delay stretched into weeks, and the weeks into months. It was simply too easy to procrastinate finishing it.
That all changed when I abandoned the wolf, and recast the villian as a mammal all could agree would better play a violent sociopath in this epic. Suddenly, the words started to flow again, although not as polished as I would like. That being said, it's done. I give you Visions, Chapter 5 of the The Measure of a Mission, Act II of The Legacy of Letrans.
Cliffside Sanitarium
Their quiet ride up the elevator was disturbed only by the muffled and distorted muzak that occasionally filtered down from the ceiling speakers. They spoke no word to each other, standing equidistant from each other as much as they stood apart from the mahogany panels that lined the walls. There was no need to talk, for they both knew what was coming.
The machine slowed it's rapid ascent as it neared the final floor – there was no higher that they could go. It was the pinnacle of the journey for them both, a place they were destined to arrive at while all the while wishing to be elsewhere. Anywhere else. The hum diminished until with a little jerk and a ding from those same speakers far above their heads, the car announced their arrival by slowly opening the steel doors.
John stepped lightly across the threshold, his paws silent up on the dark floor. Cloaked in black marble, shot through with veins of brilliant quartz and speckled with gold dust, the floor stretched before him another fifty feet before terminating at a pair of wide doors of frosted glass, flanked on either side with tall brass braziers with dancing flames in their bowls. The black marble motif continued up the side of the walls, oppressively closing in on them, like a tomb.
'God, this place isn't an office, it's a mausoleum.' John mused to himself. The only splash of color was the light green counter on the right side of room, just under the large golden letters that proclaimed that this was 'New Horizons'. 'Joshua's normal haunt, when he wasn't tearing up the city.' John snorted as he strode past the low slung desk hidden behind that curved Formica monstrosity, shaking his head. He looked up when he reached the doors and painted just above his head on the right hand door was a simple title 'Dr. James Bay Quickhatch – Director'.
John pushed up the door. Turning, he glanced at the elevator bay, the doors now shut in silent condemnation of their fate. There was no escape now for either of them. Flicking his ear at the sullen coyote standing in the middle of the floor, he bade the youth follow him. Joshua had done so, obediently, until he had reached the relative safety of his own desk. There he had paused as if his feet had become adhered to the marble tiles. John cocked his head as if to say 'lets get this over with'.
With a sigh of defeat, and the weight of the world heavy upon his shoulders, Joshua shuffled through the open portal. John stepped lightly behind him into the den of their mutual nemesis, Dr James Quickhatch, Director of the New Horizons Biomedical Research center.
The tall wolverine stood in the middle of the room, facing away from them, staring at the back wall. He was dressed in a dark business suit, cut in the Isles fashion, tight and trim against his muscular bulk. He stood, his legs set apart, his left paw gripping a gold shod can and in his right was a TV remote that he had aimed at the back wall.
Along that back wall was a low-set gas fireplace, the kind you would often find in trendy bars or ski resorts, wide and low with those molded concrete logs, licked with little yellow flames dancing behind the glass panes in front, set in dark wrought iron. The sort of fireplace that offered the ambiance of a fireplace without the mess of ash and smoke. Over that hung a large flat screen television, alive with the image of a dappled moose staring out at the invisible audience, his lips moving as he read the invisible text, his voice droning… "Astronaut candidate and Bunny Burrow native Sharla Klofnar was asked about her experiences in handling emergencies as a CAFN pilot, and she had this to say…"
The picture cut to a comfortable library setting, with the shelves of books in the background faded to a molted fuzzy smear, and in the foreground perched on a tall almond colored armchair sat a lean and lanky ewe, dressed in her light blue CASA jumpsuit, her dark wool cut close to her scalp. She looked off into the distance as she remenicesed for the camera, "I had taken a Buckeye out for an instrument check ride late at night. The trainer had been having electrical issues which the techies had finally sorted out, and I was assigned to run it through it's paces. The cat launch had been disconcerting, being thrown into an inky well of salt spray and silence, but the Buckeye is a docile bird even in the worst of times so I quickly rotated, pulled up the gear and climbed to my test altitude. I navigated a few racetracks by my instruments under the solid cloud cover successfully, but as I was heading back down the back-stretch for the final turn in to the carrier my instruments started getting wonky again. First the navigational aids, and then the radios, the engine gauges, everything started going nuts at once."
She motioned with her hooves, "I quickly tried to turn back to the carrier, but as I flick the mic switch on my control stick to call in the mayday, the cockpit lights shorted out. The manual instruments were still working, I could see the glowing tritium lines on the wing level and the compass moving, but every other instrument was dark. With the radios out and the fuel starting to get low, I was seriously starting considering having to ditch in the night sea."
She sat back in her seat, "I drifted the plane down in altitude, my eyes trying to adjust to the darkness as I vainly tried to make out the wave directions so I could safely ditch the plane. It was then that I realized I could see something faint in the darkness below. A ghostly trail leading into the distance. You know, that phosphorescent algae that gets stirred up in the wake of a big ship? There it was, like a great green carpet laid out before my hooves, leading me back home."
She looked back up at her interviewer, hidden off camera, and smiled, "You never know, just how events are gonna conspire to get you home."
Her face froze in the frame, the sound dying off to a soft hiss of static.
"A ewe…" the wolverine muttered, "Just a God-damn sheep…" He turned off the TV with his remote and set it down carefully on the dark oak mantle piece just under the TV, next to a small 3x5 photo set in a gold frame. He reached up to run the back of his claws down the side of the frame, gazing with melancholy eyes at the portrait of a young golden canine proudly dressed in a white pressure suit with a glass helmet in his lap, sitting between to a Commonwealth flag and a CASA flag. His finger lingered at the bottom of the frame, next to the caption that read 'Astronaut Carl Latrans'.
Resting his paw on the shelf, he spoke in nearly a whisper that their canine ears strained to pick up, "There was a time when only predators could fly to the stars. Only they had the reflexes, the senses, the strength and stamina to go the distance. They were the pioneers, the noble explorers setting out alone into the cold dark night. But now, with instruments and computers, they can send up any warm body up as long as their fuzzy ass can fit in the chair. Even a God-damned ewe. Just a stupid piece of stupid meat smiling in front of the camera for the stupid herbivore masses." He growled at the wall.
He turned his head fractionally to look back at them over his shoulder, glaring at them with just one eye. "You know what is at stake, what we are fighting against, what we are fighting for. You knew. You knew, and yet you risked it all for a bender? A teenage flight of drunken fancy?"
Joshua looked down at John, who just shrugged.
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!" The wolverine roared. Before either of them could blink, he was suddenly standing before them, his cane clattering to the tile as he delivered a punishing back paw to the side of the coyote's muzzle. Spittle and blood went flying as Joshua crashed to the floor, his arms coming up reflexively to defend himself, but it was too late for the wolverine was atop him, claws dug deep into his shirt. James hauled him up and gave him a shake.
"What were you thinking?!" The wolverine demanded. "I'll tell you! You weren't thinking!" He screamed at the younger male, who cowered beneath his rage.
"We are this close to the realization of decades of work, and I cannot afford for you…" Out the corner of the wolverine's eye, he spotted something amiss, something out of place, that gave pause to his rage. He turned his head to the side to look over at John Wylde. "Where's your tie?" He incongruously asked the fox.
John smirked a moment as he gestured at his shirt, "I was assaulted at the ZPD by a local malefactor who was having a bad day, and choose to share his misfortune with me in the most direct of fashions. Unfortunately, my tie was a victim of his ruminant rage, with blood from his shorn scalp ground in the very weft and weave of the fabric."
James slowly let go of Joshua's shirt as he stood up. "Were you hurt?" He asked the fox.
John tilted his head down and exclaimed, "Please! Not at all. I've been hit far worse on the football pitch then what that adolescent satyr was capable off. I am quite alright, I assure you."
James nodded, "Good." He turned and looked down at the coyote still at his feet, blood trickling from his nose. "Oh, babe!" He crooned as he knelt down to kiss that battered nose, "Look what you made me do…." He stroked his paw across the coyote's head furn, "You make me so angry sometimes…" He leaned down to kiss Joshua's muzzle.
"Ah hem…" John coughed politely.
James broke off the rather one sided kiss to look up at the fox in askance. "I have a flight to catch." John Wylde reminded him.
"Ah…" Agreed the wolverine. "So you do. Hum… Do you have time for tea?" He asked.
"I always have time for tea." The fox assured him.
"Good." The wolverine stood, and offered his paw to the coyote still laying on the floor, who took it. He pulled the slighter male to his feet, and used his other paw to pat the coyote on the chest. "Good." he repeated himself, as he let go of the young male's paw, and turned to walk away.
John watched the emotions play across Joshua's face as the larger wolverine walked to his desk. Burning humiliation, impotent rage, and crushing desire chased across the coyote's facial features as the golden canine stared at the retreating form. Turning his head, he caught John watching him.
John just shrugged and walked away, leaving Joshua to his thoughts.
Somewhere Else...
Hugo screamed soundlessly as he plummeted into a dark abyss, terror gripping his bones in counterpoint to his frantically clutching paws, clawing for purchase against anything thing that might arrest his fall.
There was Nothing.
He felt nothing under his pads, no light to illuminate his desperate eyes, no scent to fill his nose, no taste to wet his tongue, no air to ruffle his fur.
He drowned in darkness without a sound.
Nothing.
Except...
An Echo… An echo of memory… An echo of power… An echo of wisdom…
A voice in the dark...
It cut through his terror momentarily, and swept him along as he suddenly remembered.
This was not the first time he had fallen.
His ears twitched as he heard that rasping voice, softly calling to him, full of love and wisdom.
Gatito. Have no fear, my dear gatito. You are in His presence now. Let go, and embrace Him. Just as he embraces you.
"Abuela..." He whispered to the dark… "Please… I... I… can't… I'm… afraid..."
Don't be. You've done this before. Face your fears and in doing so gain wisdom.
"The dark… I can't..."
Then open your eyes, gatito.
He blinked, not realizing that in his terror he had clamped his eyelids closed. As his cat eyes adjusted to the new reality, he gasped in wonder, for he fell not through empty darkness but though starlight abundant, like a cascading waterfall of multi hued diamonds.
"1-3-5-7-11..."
Another voice whispered between the stars, like the rumble of distant river rapids echoing through deep canyons, more felt than heard. Hugo twisted and turned, but he could only see starlight.
"Hugo..."
"Yes?" He whispered back.
"Hugo Carlos Júnior de Mérida y Montaña..." The voice rumbled on.
" Y es?..." Hugo cowered like a little kit.
" You have s ummoned me... I HAVE COME!..."
Cheryl Faculty Office
Back in Cheryl's office at the university, Meredith finished describing the events of Tuesday morning to the two counselors. "What I didn't understand is why Jessica was being so aggressive, yet turned her back on him. And his response was… was…."
"Submissive." Fennick finished for her, nodding in understanding.
"Yes!" Meredith sat up and gestured toward the smaller fox, "That's what it was. It was almost as she was going to command him to do something, but all of a sudden it was over. I don't quite know what I saw."
"Dominance." Fennick said at the same time Cheryl said "Authority." She looked down at the smaller fox, "Not the same thing, counselor." She shook a paw pad at him.
"Ha!" He exclaimed, "Judy may not look like much, but she does know how to bend a powerful mammal to her will, I can tell you that! She's got that cat tied up around her pinkie, just like she did back in his class." He grinned back the coyote.
At the mention of that name, Miki looked confused for a moment. She asked, "Judy? Who's Judy? We were talking about a Jessica, right?"
Cheryl looked over at Fennick with a particular expression on her brow as Meredith explained, "I'm sorry, yes. Judy. She's going by Jessica, Jessica Lapine now. At least, that's the name she gave at the clinic."
"Okay, I was confused for a moment there. I've talked to Hugo before at your parties, Fennick, and the only rabbit he's ever talked about was a Judy. I never heard anything about a Jessica Lapine." She continued, "I understand about patient/counselor confidentiality, so I thought this was a new patient you were talking about, not an old one." She looked around at the other two canines, "This is Judy Hopps we're talking about, yes?"
Fennick ground his teeth together, angry at his lapse in letting that name slip his lips. Meredith saved him from having to answer, "Yes, dear: Judy Hopps."
Relieved, Miki sat back in her chair, "Ah! Well, okay then. That explains much!" She smiled at Meredith, "We named our daughter after her, you know. She was a very brave rabbit; Nick was very impressed with her. I guess she's not dead after all?" She asked Meredith. The doe shook here head and looked over at Fennick.
Fennick cleared his throat, "No, not dead. But she was lost, at least. Lost enough that Nick, Wolfard, and Hugo never managed to find her." He gestured to the outside world, "She'd been living off the grid, homeless for three years. But Monday night she literally bumped into Hugo over in Tundra Town, all while dying of hypothermia. She'd been wet and not dressed for the weather. It's miracle he manged to even save her..."
"Because she was at Death's door?" Cheryl finished for him. He nodded back to her in agreement.
Miki missed their exchanged glances as she looked down in concentration, "Wet? Wait, Monday night?" She looked up them excitedly, "Monday night we saw a rabbit, a homeless rabbit, run off down an alley while we were out for dinner. Nick said he thought it was an old friend!" Her paw flew to her muzzle as she exclaimed, "Oh! He'll be so happy to know she's still alive!" She looked over at Fennick, "He never gave up hope, you know? I thought she had to be dead from what he had told me before, but he always held out hope that he'd find her some day, out there. He said she was a survivor."
'Bullshit', Fennick thought, 'Nick thought she was dead, too!', "Really? What else did he tell you about her?"
"Well, I know that she's from Bunnyburrow, and the time she spent at Cliffside as a patient. That's where she met Hugo. And I know that she lived for some time on the West Coast training to be a pro surfer. But she moved to Zootopia for some reason, and then got mixed up in Mayor Bellwether's Prey First movement. And that she's the one that left all those laptops and documents for Nick to find. I heard the message she left him on his mother's answering machine!" She pulled out her phone excitedly, "Oh! I have to text him about this!"
"Wait!" Fennick jumped up, holding out his paw. Miki, confusion etched on her muzzle, dropped her phone to her lap. Flick his eyes over to meet Cheryl's. "Wait. Let Hugo tell him."
"What? Why?" Miki sputtered.
"Because…" Fennick was interrupted by his own phone ring tone. He took it out and with a quick look knew exactly who was calling, "Speak of the devil…" He hit the answer button.
"Yo! My Cat! What's up?" He drawled…
A voice shrieked out of the speaker, made shrill by heart felt panic.
"FENNICK, IT'S JUDY! PLEASE! I NEED YOUR HELP!"
ZPD Headquarters
Bogo stood in the empty cell, occupied only by the drying blood that lay splattered across the bars and floor, his presence filling the small space with the scent of male buffalo as if to push back the scent of gory madness. He scowled at nothing in particular, chewing on his cheek, his eyes staring unfocused at the far wall as his mind turned over and over.
"I heard a cry." ventured a quiet voice behind him.
Shaken out of his reverie, Bogo turn quickly to the doorway. He had to look down to behold the smaller rabbit addressing him. "Uh… Agent Deman. Sorry. Um… Something came up."
Deman walked into the cell, his keen rabbit nose picking through the scents available to him. "What happened here?" He asked.
"Um… ah… We had an incident."
Looking down at the stains on the floor Deman remarked, "I can see that." His eyes could see the pattern of spray, dried blood mixed with dried spittle, emanating from the door. His nose twitched as he also picked out the scent of rage mixed with abject terror overridden by the acrid odor of weasel urine. But his ears turned in the silence toward the opposite direction, listening for echos lost in the empty space. He turned toward the far corner, taking the distance in ever decreasing steps. He stretched out his paw, as if to probe the space for that which was hidden in the emptiness, only to snatch it back if burned.
His eyes wide, he turned to look back up at the much larger bovine. "Something very bad happened here." He whispered.
Bogo nodded as he swallowed. "Yes… Very bad. Let's get to the hospital." He strode out of the cell.
Deman's took a moment longer to look into the cell's dark corner, before turning to follow the chief out.
Hugo's House
Judy set down the phone, at a loss as to what to do next. Help was coming, but she had no idea what to do next. She bent her head down, and kissed Hugo upon his furrowed brow. "Hang on, Doc. Help is coming." She whispered.
Hugo twitched as if her words had startled him.
"Noooooo…. No…" Hugo whispered.
Somewhere... Else…
"Noooooo…. No…" Hugo moaned, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Oh Yes… Yes… My little Priest..." The voice rumbled on, echoing through the deep inky darkness that held Hugo tight like ebony swaddling.
"This isn't real. This can't be real." Hugo repeated to himself.
"Real?... Death is always real… Death is at the end of all that is real… You know this, little Priest..."
"Noooo! I'm not a Death Priest! I left that life behind! I'm a doctor, a healer! I restore LIFE!" Hugo protested.
"Aye, little Doctor… You may have left me behind you, that is true, but I have never abandoned you… You took MY oath and practiced MY rituals… You are as much MY Priest as you are MY Healer..."
"Your healer?" Hugo was confused. In his gut, he knew whom he was speaking to, but his mind continued to rebel. He hadn't partaken of the drugs his Abuela used to talk to Lord Jaguar, not since he was a kit, nor had he in all of the rituals he had haphazardly practiced as an adult.
"MY Healer, Little Doctor… Have you never wondered why the anguished found such reprieve in your counsel?... Why? For you spoke with MY voice!... Have you never wondered why the lost found such comfort in your embrace?... For you touched with MY paw!… Have you never wondered why the dying found such solace in your eyes? For you gazed upon them with MY eyes!… For it was through ME that you brought such healing to those that suffered!"
Bidden by those words, Hugo's memories came tumbling out. Memories of families who would seek him out for advice, doctors who begged him to help them with their cases, and the look of serenity on patients who slipped peacefully away as he kissed their brow.
Kissed… He opened his eyes, and stared out into the heavens.
"Yes, Little Doctor… Yes… It was with MY kiss that they found that final peace, for I am the Infinite Incarnate, the Gateway through which all living soul must pass to continue their journey to the great beyond..."
"All… Save one..."
"One?" Hugo asked, and the response he got was a flood of 's mind reeled as he fought to comprehend the kaleidoscope of colors that poured into him.
A young rabbit doe, thrown to the ground, three red welts gashed upon her cheek as her eyes blazed with defiance.
The same doe, years later, standing on a stage dressed all in blue, as a great lion pinned a small brass badge upon her breast.
The doe standing in snow with a gaudily dressed fox, being led away to her doom by large polar bears.
The doe, dressed in red plaid, ridding a careening train car like a surfboard through a surf of steel and shrieking sparks.
The doe moaning in time to the rapid hip thrusts of the larger male fox who lay over her, panting and sweating in their mutual heat.
The doe dying in a flash of shrieking purple energies, blasted to cinder and ash in a maelstrom of hate and rage.
A blip, and sudden she was once again a kit, pulling a large revolver from her backpack and pointing it at the gut of a well dressed male Coyote, surprise and elation etched across his features as she pulled the trigger.
The doe, clad in institutional green, racing down a hallway toward a pig in a pant suit and a small orange cat dressed in a white lab-coat and black slacks.
She danced a primal dance in flashing lights and thumping beat, swaying her hips slowly as a larger white vixen moved in time with her, her belly to Judy's back.
She rode a long tube of blue, joyfully chasing the sky at the end of a ring of crashing foam.
She sat alone atop a mountain, wreathed in white mist, as she sadly watched airplanes fly away from a hidden city.
She lay in the muscular arms of a mammal a hundred times her size, laughing and giggling as they snuggled.
She writhed in bed, a small undersized ewe between her legs grazing upon her in bright eyed lust.
She was caught in bedlam, angry mammals rioting in the street, a goat protecting her from harm.
That same ewe, screaming in savage rage, launching herself at Judy's throat, only to miss and pitch headlong over a balcony railing.
She sat on a cold concrete curb, her knees bloody and her paws stained dark blue, screaming in fear and loneliness as sanity fled into the night.
"SKKKrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…"
Hugo's mind cleared as the visions ended, the echo of that scream fading in the night. He opened his eyes, and beheld two great gold eyes gazing down at him in sad kindness. A shape stepped forth to resolved it self from the stellar chorus.
Lord Jaguar.
"Yes… One..." Lord Jaguar nodded. "One who was lost in the wilderness, alone and dying… And now at long last, found..."
Hugo, know part of the answer already, breathed a question, "What do you want me to do?"
"Do?..." the question hung in space like the breadth of a comet's tail. "Do… Do what you have always done, Little Doctor. Listen… Learn… Love… Heal… Protect… So that in time, she can become what shall BE… What must BE..."
Uncertainty bubbled up from deep inside of Hugo, "What must be? What must she be?"
Lord Jaguar gazed back down at him and prophecy fell from those terrible lips.
"When madness claims the center and all will stand in final judgment…
The circle must be drawn with love's sacrifice and wrought with heart's tears…
So that Death may once again stalk freely the path that no mortal paw may tread…
Prepare yourselves, for the time is nigh…
S eek the Queen's allies, Priest, for they will know what to do... "
"Queen?" Judy? "Allies? What allies?" He begged of the Lord of Midnight.
"You have called them, and they have answered, Little Priest…"
The Lord Jaguar responded as he reached out his ebony arm and stretched to the depths of the heavens. Hugo turned his head to look deep into the expanse of stars before him and behelda supernova as it exploded with titanic fury. From that expanding cloud of super heated gas, a figure stepped forth purposefully, clad in armor forged from the heart of a dying star as if he was a samurai from the Sunset Isles,. His eyes flashed with foxfire as he snarled and drew his katana to the ready, lightning coursing down the ancient blade.
"Tuj', the evening wind... Guardian of the storm..."
A smaller and slighter figure step out to join him on the samurai's left, all swirling snow and starlight twinkling in the heavens. She unlimbered her great bow, it's powerful staves crafted from comet's tails and it's dancing string woven from the northern lights. Holding it before her, she drew a shrieking fireball from her quiver to lay ready at the nock.
"Tzap, the dawn wind... Bearing the joy of a new day..."
To the samurai's right, another form stepped forth from the star dust, her gravid ruby frame robed in blue waters and trimmed in sea foam. She held up a great shield of interstellar winds, sweeping aside all that might dare to contest with her.
"Nu'pin, the sea... The cradle of life... She nourish us body and soul."
Below them sat a patient figure before a crackling neutron fire, lanky of limb and clad in earthy dust, her growing power smoldering just behind her eyes as she chewed upon a stalk of long grass.
"Nas, the earth... Our home and hearth... To which we must always return..."
Above, a small figure gazed down upon them with quiet gray light, clad only in a simple crimson robe, wisdom etched upon his ancient molted brow, a luminous gong in one paw and a diamond hammer in the other.
"Poy'a, the moon... The sage of truth... Showing us path of wisdom through the darkest night..."
Behind him blazed a fiery yellow light and Hugo turned to behold a great figure covered from hoof to horn in a mobile fur of erupting solar flares and twisted sunspots, the very steps of his cloven hooves creating intense waves of writhing gravity that ripped through space and time.
"Suw, the sun... Our warmth and light... The herald of truth unto the people..."
Finally, Lord Jaguar pointed far above Hugo's head. Hugo looked up, and beheld a faint star, glowing brighter with in electric indigo with every breath he took as it drew nearer and nearer to him.
"Matza', the northern star... You steadfast guide and companion in the night... She will show you the way..."
Hugo stared in wonder, his eyes watering, as the light grew before him in purple majesty, a note of gay laughter dancing in the photons.
"Go now… Go with my blessing, My little gaito…" Lord Jaguar held out his great paw, and with a gentle shove, sent Hugo flying toward the light of the approaching star.
" Go Now, while you can… For there is so little time left... "