Within this chapter, things are revealed. I really have few things to say aside from the fact that I am very happy about those of you who seemed to have been reading and enjoying this so far. I hope you can continue to enjoy it as well. Now, in this chapter, some things may start to seem a little more farfetched. I hope you enjoy it all though.

I remain your obedient servant,

Thrash Evaine Lovelocke

It was much easier than usual to get out of bed this morning. Granted, she could have made it a bit easier by keeping herself on a more disciplined schedule but it was all well so long as she was never late to work. Either way, this morning made her feel like she was going to have a great time in the near future. Making her way to the bathroom, she removed her pajamas and folded them onto the sink cabinet. She took a look at herself in the mirror and grimaced. Talk about your unruly bed fur. She had a few minutes to spare, so she grabbed her brush and began a thorough taming process on her face, head, chest and arms. She tried to run it along her back too but even using a handheld mirror to reflect off of the mirror on her wall proved to be difficult. After making sure her fangs were clean and her tail was brushed, she put her pajamas on her bed and equipped her uniform.

Public transportation was never something she trusted in, so she always opted to drive. Her car was not incredible, but it was serviceable. The little silver vehicle had been good to her and was not often in need of a mechanic. Her apartment was good too. The third floor patio was nice and, thankfully, the entrance from the patio had thick curtains that she could employ to keep strangers from looking in if they ever wanted to try and come in from out there. Just as she prepared to leave, she checked her window locks one last time and looked at her calendar as she was walking out the door. Thursday, normal day at work. Friday, normal day at work but it was her day to bring donuts to the records department. She would have to be careful to avoid The Secretary, also known as Benjamin Clawhauser. Saturday. Oh, yeah! That's why she felt so energetic this morning. Maybe she could fit in some dress shopping over the next days during her break or after work and have something pretty to wear. The Mirehouse may not have been five star but it was a great restaurant in the locale of Savanna Central. Sunday, she would finally rest.

Her schedule seemed exciting for the first time since she moved to Zootopia and it was a grand feeling. Her drive to Precinct One was longer than most of the other employees, at least on average. The longest drive was the drive that her friend John Wolfenstein took from his place. They often arrived close to the same time but she was early today. She could likely enjoy a little bit of quiet before he came in. John, or Arctic as he was often referred to, was always very nice. He generally liked it in records as there were not many people and people made him uncomfortable. Those that he liked, he could easily talk with. Anyone else, he would sometimes come off as frightened or standoffish.

Surely enough, as she entered the department Ben Clawhauser was ready to greet her and waved in her direction with a bubbly smile. She gave him their signature salute which he returned as she walked past. She walked down to records and opened the door to the main office and came face to face with her boss. "Aah! Oh! Good morning, Lisa."

Lisa McAllister, head of the ZPD Precinct One records department, was a tough woman and a sort of immigrant. She is a rhea, a decently sized flightless bird, who came to Zootopia from Spire Zenith to live with her husband. The two had met while he was on a business trip discussing a contract for making a Zootopia-focused advertisement for a Zenithite hotel. She was known for being perhaps the best superior to have in the entire department. She was strict and demanded assignments be taken care of, but that aside was very kind to her employees and often had friendly relationships with them. "Proserpina, will you please explain why it is that a heap of records was left in the filing room last night?"

Not exactly the happy wishes for the day she was hoping to get. "It was very late before I finally got around to them. I was trying to make sure I got through all the stuff on my desk yesterday. I thought I left a note on the boxes saying I intended to finish putting away the files first thing today," she said with a sort of questioning tone, "Did you not see it?" Truly, there was no note and she knew that. However, saying unabashedly that you just did not think to leave one was more damaging than any other alternative.

"No, Proserpina. I did not see any note," Lisa folded her wings. It was always hard to tell whether or not she was buying the story you were feeding her.

Giving a look like she was confused, Proserpina sighed. "Well, that's weird. I would have sworn I had left one there. Either way, though, I do intend to get them put away. Do you want me to go ahead and get it done now?" She asked, gesturing to the door.

Lisa nodded. "Put down your purse and go. Make sure it is all put away properly," she said as she strode to her desk. Proserpina turned around and hit the wall. She grimaced in pain. "Mind your step, Proserpina. We can't afford to lose you to a day of injury."

With her notable levels of personality, Proserpina turned to the rest of the people in the records office and shrugged. "Would you guys really miss me so badly?" A series of sarcastic scoffs and comments came from the others in the room and Proserpina huffed humorously. "Well, fine. I can read a room. I know when I'm not wanted!" Then she stomped towards the door dramatically, laughing with the other workers as she went. This environment beat the snot out of her old workplace in the end. After she closed the door behind her, she stretched and sighed.

Once she was satisfied with her five second break, she began walking towards the basement area where the filing cabinets were. As she neared the door, a kind voice reached her ears. "Proserpina!" It called.

Raising an ear and turning around, she came face to face with "Arctic Wolfenstein. Are we a little late getting in this morning?" She asked humorously as she unlocked the door and began her descent down the stairs.

"In my defense," Arctic whined slightly, "I was called to Sahara Square last night to help my cousin settle into his new house. It wasn't my fault."

Proserpina laughed as she picked up one of the last boxes of records of the previous day. "Help a girl out, Flurry?"

"Sure."

"Thanks. Now, this cousin of yours. What is she doing moving to a place like Sahara Square? Seems like an odd place to want to live for an arctic wolf," she commented as she searched carefully for the correct place to put the file she had grabbed out of the box admittedly at random.

Arctic chuckled a bit. "Well, he is not really my cousin, per se. He's really just a family friend. A hyena by name of Zerua. He lived in Savanna Central for a long time but has since gotten up enough funds to buy the house of his dreams in Kalahari Heights. It's not the finest place and it's not my cup of iced tea, but he seems to like it. Way too hot out there for me, though. Not for me."

Smiling as she continued to organize her last records, Proserpina took a moment to respond. "Did you even think to go into the records room to tell Lisa you're here? She won't be happy if you're late."

Quickly looking at his watch, Arctic nearly panicked before getting a good look at it. "It's only 7:30. I'll be fine. I don't have to report until 8:00, remember?"

"Okay, yeah. But, you are the only one now who hasn't. Everybody else arrived earlier. Being the last one in every day doesn't exactly look good in The Big Booty Bison's eyes," Proserpina laughed and folded her arms at him. "Nobody ever really wants to be on his worse side. I'm not sure if there's necessarily a good side to be on, but you don't want to be on the worst one."

Arctic laughed and shrugged in agreement. He stretched a little and sighed, leaning against the filing cabinet. "Hey, Proserpina," he said, trying to make conversation, "so since you've been here, have you found anyone who catches your eye?"

Proserpina looked up in contemplation and shook her head haltingly. "No, I don't really think so… Oh!" She snapped her fingers suddenly. "Well, I did start talking to that officer, Nick Wilde. He is a lovely man so far and a great conversationalist. I'm going to meet him on Saturday, at The Mirehouse, for dinner."

Silence fell over the room for an awkwardly long time and Proserpina turned around, making sure Arctic was still there. He seemed to be lost for a moment. He finally snapped out of his short trance. "You have started talking to Nick Wilde?"

"Well… yeah," Proserpina responded cautiously.

With a deep sigh, Arctic smiled. "Oh, cool! That's really… Yeah, not bad. He's pretty cool. He's really cool, actually. In fact, the coolest! I kind of wanted to, y'know, approach him an…"

"Arctic!" Proserpina interrupted. "So, you look up to Nick Wilde?"

Shaking his head, Arctic sputtered. "No! No, I'm not. I don't! I mean... no?"

Proserpina laughed. "Oh, I see," she smirked.

"It's not like that!" Arctic shuddered. A nod was all he received in return. "It isn't! I just think he's cool!"

She nodded vigorously. "Oh, don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

Her reaction came as a little surprising to Arctic. "Well, even if that was true, would you not be jealous?"

"What do I have to be jealous about?" Proserpina asked with a confused tone.

Arctic raised an eyebrow at her like she was insane. "Aren't you, like, talking to him or something?"

Proserpina laughed. "Well, sort of. I mean, we only just met. I think he and I can get along, though," she said as she rubbed her cheek with her paw.

Suddenly, Arctic's eyes widened and his mouth dropped slightly. "Pro- Proserpina… your… your cheek! What happened?"

"What are you talking about? I brushed my fur this morning! You should see yours!" She chuckled.

Arctic shook his head. "No! Proserpina, your cheek is- it's turning black!"

Carefully, Proserpina brushed her cheek again where she had before and her eyes widened for just a brief second. She quickly laughed. "Oh! I must have hit an inkwell or a pen on my way in here. It'll come out. I just need to run to the restroom," she said whiled covering her cheek. "Do you think you can put the rest of these files away? There's only a very few left."

Arctic nodded quickly. "Of course!" He said, "go take care of that."

Thanking Arctic and walking up the stairs, Proserpina was more than aware that he did not think what she had said was true. In fact, she was lucky he even let her go without asking any further questions. She ran up the stairs and back to the records room, grabbing her bag quickly from her desk and running to the restroom. She gave hasty responses to any questions she was asked and held her cheek the entire time. Thankfully, nobody seemed to take note of it. When she made it to the restroom, she searched desperately through her bag. She pulled out several things that were severely disorganized and began to breathe heavily as she looked around. Nobody else was in there, thank goodness.

Finally, at the bottom of her bag, she reached it. Her orange fur paint. Until she could get home to apply another layer of the more permanent dye, this would have to do. She reached for the small paint brush she kept in her bag and leaned over the sink. She then dropped a few drops of the fur dye on her cheek where the black mark was and began to thoroughly rub it into her fur. The shade was not perfect but it would likely be hard to notice. For now, she had to get back to work. It was almost 8:00, the real day was about to begin.

With guns in holster and tasers too, Nick and Judy approached the building and walked in to find absolutely nothing. Well, nobody, at least. There was no doorman, no visitors, no lights on. In fact, there was no sign that anyone had inhabited the building in what Judy would have estimated to be years. What furniture was still in the place was coated with cobwebs and dulled to different shades of dusty grays and light browns. The floor felt very uncomfortable. It was cold, like many tiled surfaces were, but the dust rubbed against Nick and Judy's feet and felt like the tangible version of claws on a chalkboard. Judy took out her flashlight and aimed it around as Nick shut the door. "Hello?" She called.

The responding silence made them uneasy. Nick knew something was suspicious about the whole deal regarding that kid. He walked slowly to the front desk and hit the eject on the cash register. "Carrots? There's still money in here. I'd say about two-to-three hundred bucks. The newest year I can see on them is…" he paused for a minute as he filtered through a few of the currency notes, "2011?"

"You mean to tell me that this building has been abandoned for a decade? And the owners didn't think to check the front register for any leftover buck notes? That doesn't sound right. Surely, whoever had this place would have taken all the stuff that belonged to them," she reasoned.

As that sentence sank in, Nick's eyes widened. "Wait. Carrots. Say that one more time."

Judy was familiar with this operation. It was one she and Nick performed many times whenever they noticed a flaw in the facts or an inconsistency in their situation. It was their doubtless trust in each other's judgment that made it a sort of unspoken rule between the two of them to immediately repeat the sentence they were asked to repeat with no question. "They would have taken all the stuff that belonged to them?" She said, trying to make sure she was right.

"No, yeah! You're right. They would have taken anything that belonged to them. I don't think these buck notes belonged to the owners of this building. And, of course, if they didn't that means…"

"Somebody has been here since then," Judy concluded. As she said it, she suddenly became much more aware. It felt like the walls were watching her and she looked very closely under the doors down the hallway, watching for them to be either open or for the cracks under the doors to be dimly lit as if by candlelight. She ran her flashlight along the walls in search of a light switch. She found one next to the front desk and flipped it up and down a few times. They did not turn on, of course.

Nick walked down the hallway only a few feet before he stopped. "Ya know, I don't see anything. Maybe we should just go back to the car and call it quits," he suggested sheepishly.

Quickly, Judy shut him down. "No, we won't. We're going to check each and every room in this building to make sure we know what's going on here. You check the left rooms and the few upstairs. I'll take the right side, back hallway and the kitchen," she suggested. Even though it was with some clear reluctance, Nick agreed. The two of them went down the main hallway with Nick opening one door and looking around carefully and Judy doing the same on the other side. When they had determined nothing suspicious to be around, they moved to the second doors and then the third. Nick went upstairs afterwards and Judy went to the back. A second hallway ran along the back of the building with only two rooms: one at the end of each side. The upstairs had four more rooms which Nick looked through very systematically. Judy looked through both of the end rooms and found nothing noteworthy.

Satisfied that the back hallway was clear, Judy came back to the front and entered the door that led to the kitchen. As she entered, a gentle hum met her ears. She looked around carefully and determined the sound was coming from an alcove towards the back of the room. She padded, slowly and gently, in the alcove's direction. She ran her flashlight along the walls and observed the tearing wallpaper. The color looked to be almost like it was once a fine red color. Now, it was dusty and with very little if anything was majestic about it. As she carefully looked around the corner, she did not know exactly what she expected to see as it was in that moment that she suddenly remembered that there had been no sign of the electricity working in this place. However, in that alcove was something that erased her belief that could be possible. There was a refrigerator working away too keep whatever was inside from spoiling. What on Earth could have been inside? She felt her curiosity getting the better of her and opened up the large metal box. Inside were meats galore. The drawers, shelves and door were all filled with different meats. However, there had been no missing person cases or murder cases filed within these past weeks. "These meats didn't come from Zootopian animals," she reasoned pragmatically. Knowing better than to not take any hints of evidence, she switched quickly to her phone camera and snapped a couple of shots.

Now becoming greatly unsettled by the appearance of the meats in the fridge, Judy shook her head in disgust and closed the door. She then made her way with some swiftness back to the kitchen entrance. She suddenly felt much more in danger here. As she opened the door, she yelped in fright at the figure before her. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! It's just me!" The familiar voice of Nick made her calm down a bit.

Judy sighed and punched him in the arm. "Damn you, Nick! Don't scare me like that!" She groaned with relief in her voice.

Whether it was because he was relieved to see his partner again or because of his confusion at her reaction to him, it took Nick a few minutes to answer. "Hey, I was going back through the doors downstairs one last time and I happened to see something strange."

"I saw something too!" Judy said with sudden interest, "In the kitchen! There's a fridge in there and it's working. I thought there was no electricity but…"

With urgency, Nick interrupted. "Show me the fridge later! I found something that may be a bit more important!"

Judy frowned a bit. "But, Nick, there's something in the fridge that you need to see."

"Please, trust me. Just come to this room over here," Nick responded as he went down the hallway to the second door on the left. Confused but trusting in his word, Judy followed him and looked in to see Nick standing next to a very large hole in the wall. The wardrobe to the other side is what Judy decided must have been covering it in the first place. She stared at the large hole with fright and approached it with her flashlight on her phone. She approached the hole and looked around. The hole went straight down a short distance before it apparently went in a different direction under the building. Nick said from behind her, "I thought you might want to see it, what with your natural curiosity and all."

Nodding, Judy decided the fridge part of this ordeal could wait. "Well, we aren't backing out now. Come on, Wilde. Let's go see what's down there."

Chuckling nervously, Nick winced. "Are you absolutely positive we need to go down there? I mean, we could always just go back and report to the station. I really don't think we should go down there without backup. It seems like this could be a problem place!"

As she was more than aware of Nick's intuition when it came to shady situations, Judy became more apprehensive about going further into the secrets of this place. However, she also knew that unless she pushed this to the exact limit, whoever was here may come back while they were gone and cover everything up. It would take only a little bit of complacency to screw up an investigation like this. Judy sighed. "Come on, Nick. Let's go."

With a sigh of frustration, Nick followed Judy as she jumped down the hole and went into the small tunnel. It took only a few seconds before Judy noticed that the tunnel was taking a downward angle. She followed it carefully, looking back on occasion to make sure Nick was still behind her. She took a few turns which seemed to become greater in number as she moved. After what Judy would have taken to be several minutes, she noticed the turns had stopped. The distance suddenly seemed to have a faint light in it. Judy shut off her flashlight and looked ahead. Nick, who had been uncharacteristically quiet for this whole time, finally spoke. "Would it be too much to call this an underground meeting?"

Thankful that Nick was finally making light of something again, Judy sighed and chuckled. "Not sure yet. We should make sure we know what exactly is going on first."

"I don't know. I think that we can at least confirm something is going on down here. Maybe we should go back upstairs now. I have a very bad feeling about this," Nick said in an almost pleading tone.

Shaking her head, Judy continued forward. "No. Come on. We have to see what's down there."

After a few more moments of walking, Judy began to hear a sound. In fact, she began to hear several sounds. Voices were chattering in a way that almost made them sound like they were speaking through water. The talking was mixed with the sounds of hissing. Hissing? Animals in Zootopia did not hiss. Perhaps some felines when they were mad, but this hissing sounded different. Turning the corner, Judy saw a massive chamber with dark walls and luminescent blue bulbs hanging from the ceiling and walls. Corals and seashells were scattered throughout the walls and some of them contained more of the pearl-like lights. Looking down, Judy saw the floor was very strangely designed. Patterns of simple but almost threatening appearance were placed into the otherwise solid concrete foundation. Great stone pillars arranged carefully throughout held up the city that would otherwise have crashed in on the chamber. Lastly, there were the ones making the hissing sounds. It was obvious that some were male and some were female, but they all had two things in common: their scaly-lizard like hides and the tales which made up the lower halves of their bodies. These things were snakes! At least, they were partially snakes. It was hard to make sure exactly what they were. Judy had never seen anything like this. Their scales were either blue, purple, green or grey and it was obvious to tell which were the males and which were the females. The males were all massive and burly with great arms and large snouts. They almost appeared to be slightly hunched and their tails had a single long fin running along them. The females were much less powerful and wore little armor compared to their male counterparts who were dressed up in spiky shells and possessed stone swords. Some of the females had a bow and a quiver of arrows. A smaller number of others possessed elegant staffs made from wood with a shell on the end. Most notable were the females with they sprawling and almost wiggling hair. It was hard for Judy to make out, but at least one of the females with the wiggling hair almost seemed to have other snakes attached to her head.

"Nick…" Judy whispered quietly, "Have you ever seen something like…?"

From beside her, Nick shook his head. "No. Not once."

Judy's attention was suddenly drawn to a slightly raised stage as a male with a massive and long shell running up his arm shouted out, "Secura Barken, nis'zhala ken nagi!"

Every single one of the snake things immediately lined up like the rank and file of a military. On the far side of the room, the females were arranged from the ones with the spiraling hair back to the ones who possessed bows. On the nearer side were the males. They were arranged seemingly by height, with the largest ones having the most decorative armor shells. Once everyone was where they were meant to be, they all shouted unanimously, "Ssashala morne to priemia!"

Confused at the sounds they were making, Judy looked over to Nick. "What sort of language is that?"

Once he snapped out of his stupor, Nick looked at Judy as if he had not totally heard her but finally shook his head in a shrugging way. "I have absolutely no idea."

They waited in silence as the creature continued to speak. After he delivered a long-winded speech, which Judy did not think to record, he suddenly began speaking Universal. "Now, all shall salute in genuflection as Her Imperial Majesty prepares to address you. Bow down your heads and present your weapons in honor. Lend your attention to… Priemia Zavanie!"

The great, dark purple curtain opened and a creature with a seemingly beautiful face but clad in dark, gray scales through her whole body appeared. She slithered on three tentacle-like tails and possessed a massive staff with what looked like a small ball of lightning held in the end of it. Judy marveled at that. She then went back to analyzing the creature. She wore a sort of corset that looked to be made out of tough leather. The red of it contrasted against her gray scales. Even more striking were her yellow eyes with red irises. They seemed to almost be able to stare through the thick pillars that were present along the edges of the room and down the middle. Her height, however, was what intimidated Judy most. She was extremely tall. Not counting the excess of her tails that were holding her up, Judy estimated that she could easily almost size up a giraffe. The snake things were all bowed and in silence. Then, the tall creature made a gesture for them to look up at her and they obeyed. "Welcome," she said in a smooth but very reverberating voice, "to Zshamazai!"