"Hmm, funny, he hasn't lost it… that's weird," I hear a voice say, distant and echoing. It's bright, the light I can see through my closed eyelids is piercing… artificial...

"That's a little concerning, don't you think?" another voice asks, and my eyes snap open. What the hey?

My eyes open, I can see that there's a glass box all around me, and I'm pinned inside a glass room, or, rather, a room with glass walls, and Bellwether's pacing all around me, muttering nervously under her breath. Next to her are the two sheep that, if I had to guess, are her henchmammals. It all seems kinda cliche villainesque to me, but hey, who am I to judge?

"Hey, alfalfa-breath, what gives?" I ask, pounding on the glass. "What gives?"

"Well, I think you can figure that out just fine on your own, Mister Hopps, don't you think? You're not feeling angry at all, are you?"

"No, why would I be?" I ask, shaking my head, trying to clear the little bit of fog inside that's still clinging to my senses.

"Oh, no reason, no reason at all," Bellwether says, smiling demurely. "Why don't you tell me how you're feeling, Mister Hopps, and then I'll be willing to tell you more?"

"Oh, just tired and like I'm having a nasty panic attack, that's all, Bellwether," I say. "You know you're not going to get away with this, right?"

"How cliche of you to say that, Nick, of course I know, I'm not stupid. I may be a, oh, how to say it? A plant-muncher, is that what you preds like to call me? Yeah, that's true, I am a plant-muncher, anyways, I may be just that, but I'm not an idiot…"

"Never said you were, Miss Bellwether, never said you were."

"Well, I'm glad, because your family and friends would really hate you if I had to hurt them, and believe me, I really don't want to do that…"

"Then what do you want, Dawn? Predator subjugation? Prey supremacy? You've got that all already, you know…"

"I want my family back, tailhole!" the sheep says, her face lighting up crimson, her teeth bared in a snarl that sends everyone leaping backwards in fright. "I want my family back."

"And hurting all of us is going to help you how?" I ask, feeling my hackles rise. "What's the point of all this? What's with the Night Howlers?"

"Oh, so you know what they are, do you?"

"Yeah, of course I do, I'm a country fox, that doesn't mean that I'm an idiot…"

"Glad to know, so would you care to explain why your biological parents killed my parents, hmm?"

What?

Seeing the look of surprise on my face, Bellwether's grin just grows, and she laughs, harsh and bleating, stone cold. "Oh, I'm sorry, they didn't tell you, did they?"

"Marian, John, what does she mean? You didn't- you didn't? Did you-?"

Both of them nod, their heads bowed, and I find myself wondering how I didn't know.

"And you're just telling me this now? Why? What the hell? Who were you? What the hell did you do?"

"I swear I've told you this before," Mrs. Wilde says, frowning and fretting.

"I really don't remember…."

"They probably didn't, Nick, why would they, after all, they're just lousy predators. I'm going to make you a deal, alright? Either you help me out, leave all of them behind, or I, well, you get the picture, I don't think that I'm going to need to spell it out for you, will I?"

Gulping, I shake my head no. "No, Mayor Bellwether, you don't need to." Looking all my family in the eyes, I smile, and they all nod knowingly. Go ahead, Marian mouths, we'll be fine. Fight her.

"Good, I'm glad you're on board with my plan. Helpful, too, considering that you look like you're the most immune to the serum. You'll make a good test subject, but that'll come later. For right now, we need to do some round-up work. Come with me," Bellwether says, her smile warming as she puts a hoof on my back, sending waves of cold down my spine. "Come with me to my office, Nicholas. I need your advice, which section of this city should I go after next? There haven't been any attacks lately, not after the success we had at the latest Gazelle concert, ooh that was fun! Anyways, I feel like I'm losing my grip over this city, and as both you and I know, pal, that's never going to happen. In fact, I want you to choose. I have a system set up in the sewers to let the gas go, so just press a button and we'll be off," she says, sweeping a hoof towards a panel right in front of me.

I read the button labels, my heart pounding, feeling like it's going to jump right out of my chest. I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this, I won't do this. I won't do this. This sheep is mad, she wants me to single-pawedly wipe out potentially thousands of mammals.

"I can't make up my mind, Mayor Bellwether," I say, trying to stall, feeling my palms start to sweat, the pads getting slick.

"Well, then, let me offer you an incentive, Mister Hopps," she says, and I feel something cold press into the back of my neck. "It isn't a gun, I can tell you that much. Can you feel the prongs? I can make you hurt so much you wish you weren't still on this planet, how's that? Want to take a guess what it is?"

"A shock collar," I say, trying to keep my tone flat and dry, emotionless.

"That's right, Nicholas, so what's it going to be? It's either them or you, and I'll give you the next thirty seconds to decide. Or maybe less, who knows, my patience might run out, oh, and your time's already started, six, five, four, three, two…"

AN: For those of you who read my previous trainwreck of a fic, DEFCON 5, you might know that I was planning to rewrite it. That's been cancelled, as well as that third project that I was planning to write; I have a different idea that I'm going to roll with. More on that with the next chapter.

Hope everyone enjoys!

-Wrong Password