Pain, holy hell, pain, thumping head in brain, wait, that's backwards- ow, yeah, stop thinking, Nick, this hurts too much… I crack my eyes open only to have searingly bright light catch me right in the dam face. "Ow, gods dam it, come on… and a dam concussion too...
"Oh, good, you're both awake, I was getting kinda worried, you two," a voice says from behind me, and I force my eyes open to see a gray-furred vixen standing in front of me, eyes piercingly blue and cold like ice. "Look, I'm sorry about the wall, but look, there was no other way to get you two out of there…"
"You're supposed to be dead," is all I can manage to say, and the vixen laughs. Not cold-heartedly like I was expecting, but a full laugh. "And you're what, forty-five, fifty by now?"
"One, Nicholas, never ask a vixen- or any female, for that matter- her age, but yes, I'm getting up there, like your parents, for that matter. "The collar's dead, by the way, yours?"
"Same- where the flocking hell am I? And where's Jack?"
As soon as I ask that, a frown rents her face, and oh scat, I'm gonna make her cry, shit!
"He's dead, Nick, been dead for years… for real. Saved my life so I could run, and let me go…"
"That- oh, my god… Skye, are you okay? And it's nice to finally meet you, by the way, what the hell, weren't you, um, weren't you thrown in the slammer right after us?"
She sighs and smiles. "There's a lot of blood on these paws, Nick, don't ask me more. And before you ask, no, Skye's not my real name, and this," she says, gesturing to herself, is my real fur color. Damn it, I'm sick of white dye."
"What, um, uh- what is your real name…?" I ask, struggling to sit up from the cot I got plunked down on and having my head give a vicious throb, leaving my ears ringing.
"Mason, and yeah, it sounds like a tod's name, but I promise you that I'm a freaking hell of a lot tougher than most any tod you'll ever meet. Except for maybe yourself, alright? But we need to be careful…"
"H- how d- do I know I can trust you?" I manage to say, trying to force myself up to sit before my head gives a vicious throb again and leaves me dizzy and breathless… it really freaking sucks, lemme just say that, holy hell ow!
"Truth be told, Nick, you don't, alright? But you're just going to have to… you have to if you want to get the rest of your family back…"
"Ha," I laugh, the pain overwhelming again (I have to fight it, I can't pass out again, I can't, I can't, I can't, I won't). "So you're just gonna expect me to trust you and then we'll be all like buddy buddy and you can help me find my family and my friends… is that how this is supposed to work, huh?"
Suddenly realizing that there's something really interesting to look at on the floor, the fox standing in front of me frowns. "I wish it was that simple, alright… but like… it's really not, Nick… I wish I could just snap my fingers and have everything be fixed, but there's only one mammal who can do that, and they're not even corporeal, if you get what I mean…"
Right, only a certain Celestial can fix this, right… which means that we have to do this all on our own… and we can and will…
"Yeah, Nick, except for you and I, take matters into our own paws, right? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Prove to me that I can trust you and then maybe I'll think about it, but yes, I think we are… how did you meet the Wildes?"
"You mean your mom and dad?"
"Well, yes, and then no… Nick Hopps, not Nick Wilde… you know what happened to me, right?"
"Yeah, I do… look, I'm really sorry about everything… I wish I could've gotten to know you sooner, before, well, before you got into this mess…"
"Don't blame yourself, hell, I got myself into it… all I really need to know is how the hell we're supposed to, well, not get ourselves killed dead, you know?"
"You know, that's honestly a great question that I hate to admit that I have no dam answer to… do you even know where we are, Nicholas?"
"I'm just Nick, if you don't mind, and um, no, I have no idea, sorry," I mutter, the floor suddenly becoming really attractive to me too… gods, what a loser I am…
"Nick, sorry, and we're, well, we're in your home, take a look around… and no, we're not being watched, I can promise you that much, at the very least. But first, I need to know, what do I need to do for you to prove you can trust me- I swear to the Celestials you can trust me…"
"Well, how about we start with some intros, yeah? I'm Nick… Nick Hopps. My mom is Bonnie Hopps, don't think you've ever met her, you should, she's a wonderful mammal. Left behind, found, you know the drill…."
"Oh, do I," the vixen says, smiling at me, teeth gleaming white in the beam of sunlight that's coming through the kitchen window. "I'm Mason Carillon… most people would know me as, well-"
"Skye?" I ask, and she nods.
"Yeah, that was me… Jack- that was his real name- was your mom's- Bonnie's brother. I'm Marian's sister… small world, huh…?"
"Yeah, it really is," I say, feeling a smile come to my muzzle, despite all of the mess that I've been going through, all of the stress and all of the pain and heartbreak. "So square with me here, what's the plan?"
"Well, it has a whole bunch of kinks in it, but, um- yeah, we're gonna get your friends and family back.. It might involve a whole bunch of protests, are you okay with that?"
"As long as I don't have to hurt anyone…"
"I think I can manage that… come on, Nick, we have a plan to fix up…"