Zootopia part 5

The teens scope out Tundra Town and some plot finally shows up.

See the end of the chapter for notes

A horrible rattling scraping noise had Sora bolting upright before he was even properly awake. Riku was sitting up beside them, not nearly as frantic but still concerned. Sora's Keyblade had already leapt into his hand. Kairi, in between them, groaned as she propped herself up on her elbow and rubbed her eyes.

"It's just a garbage truck," Riku informed them quietly. Kairi put a hand on Sora's arm, watching his ears pivot to track the sound. His eyes were wide, scanning, until she soothed the fur under her palm.

He looked at her almost too quickly, blinking once, then twice, before his face relaxed. "Oh," he replied, "Right. Sorry," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, the first hints of sunlight making his expression hard to read. He dismissed his Keyblade, adding, "We should probably go back inside."

Riku nodded, standing too quickly to be as graceful as he was. Kairi let go of Sora's arm and dragged herself to her feet, scooping up the blanket once they were all off of it. The teenagers piled inside of the gummi ship, making a hap-hazard line of their mattresses, changing their clothes, and then falling back asleep.

The sun woke them up properly later, when it was high enough to send brilliant light through the glass ceiling of the cabin. Stabbed in the eyes by beams of sunlight, the trio stumbled around, taking turns in the bathroom and putting their mattresses away.

Sora pulled out the camp stove and a pile of cooking supplies: a griddle, glass bowls, a whisk, measuring cups and spoons, a cutting board, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and the berries and honey he'd bought the day before. One of the cabinet doors folded down to make a counter, and soon he was cutting up fruits and whisking batter and before Kairi or Riku could really comprehend what all the careful egg-cracking and intensely focused measuring meant, there were piles of tissue-thin crepes stuffed with cream and berries and drizzled with honey.

"Since when did you know how to cook like this?" Kairi asked around a mouthful of pastry.

"Little Chef taught me," Sora replied, mouth also full of food.

"Too bad he didn't teach you any manners," Riku teased, grinning. Sora mock-scowled at him until neither of them could keep a straight face. Kairi simply shook her head, but she was smiling.

They decided to patrol Tundra Town that afternoon. Kairi was immediately freezing, rubbing her hands together to warm her chilled fingers. Riku and Sora both offered her their coats, even though Sora was shivering and sulkily shaking snow out of his paw pads every few steps. His jacket was only big enough to wrap around her paws anyway, so Kairi told him to keep it, but gratefully spread Riku's over her shoulders like a cape. He seemed unbothered, silvery fur and light grey tank top blending in with the blue-tinted snow.

The streets here, like most of Zootopia, were full to bursting, with animals going about their day, popping in and out of stores and talking on their cellphones. Riku spotted a porcupine in a three piece suit trailed by two imposing snow leopards. There was a pair of wolves holding hands and sipping Snarlbucks coffee that Kairi found adorable. A polar bear in a bright red tracksuit talking animatedly with a caribou walking next to him almost shoved Sora over, before apologizing profusely. Once he was reassured that Sora was fine, he and his friend moved on their way.

The trio continued walking too, scanning the area for any hints of heartless. They'd gone about another block when Kairi suddenly stopped, ears pinned back as she searched frantically in front of them. Sora and Riku trailed ahead by a step or two before noticing. Sora looked back at Kairi, confused, while Riku stared in the same direction, eyes narrowed as he crouched. The fur around his neck stood up; Kairi's fur along her spine did the same. Sora looked between his friends, then followed their gaze. But all he could spot were normal animals, businesses, and lots of snow. There was a very faint sound that all three heroes of light noticed but could not place.

"Ow! What the-" the polar bear from earlier had stopped, paw to the back of his neck.

The caribou put a hand on his shoulder, looking concerned. "Are you ok?" they asked. "What happened?"

The polar bear groaned, closing his eyes and wrinkling his nose. He hunched over, making small noises and shaking his head. Kairi began moving, heading for the pair even as she looked around for the strange darkness she had sensed. The boys tailed after her, breaking into a jog.

They were too late.

With a sudden growl, the polar bear dropped to all fours, eyes open, pupils dilated. He lifted his lips in a snarl, exposing razor sharp canines, and began stalking towards his friend.

The caribou was backing up, looking horrified and confused. "Danny…?" they called quietly. The bear kept advancing, swiping at them with a massive paw. "Danny! No, no, this isn't happening. This can't be happening. You're not-" The polar bear reared up, bashing his paws into the caribou's chest, cutting off their words as they fell to the ground. He bit down on his friend's shoulder, then lifted his head for another blow. Sora caught the bear's teeth on the Kingdom Key, shoving back as hard as he could. Riku slammed into the maddened animal's side, and together they pushed him off.

"What is wrong with you?!" Sora shouted, staring into black, emotionless eyes. The bear simply roared, diving at the rabbit in front of him. Riku caught this one, careful to use Braveheart's blunt hilt rather than the blade.

Kairi kneeled by the injured caribou, putting a hand on their shoulder as Riku's jacket fluttered to the ground next to her. Destiny's Embrace appeared in her other hand. "Curaga!"

As flowers bloomed above the injured ungulate, heartless filled the street, chasing after civilians as they fled. Sora and Riku were still holding the rampaging polar bear off. The caribou lay on the ground, unconscious, body exhausted from the work of healing.

Kairi stood, watching the boys, "Sora! Guard them for me!"

Sora looked at her over his shoulder, then glanced at Riku. Catching his eye, Riku barked out, "Stopga!" freezing the charging polar bear in place. He nodded to Sora, who dashed over to Kairi's side.

"Thanks!" She called as she ran past him, immediately beginning the barrier spell. She wove through the crowd, trying not to trap anyone inside her line. Meanwhile, Riku pulled clumps of Shadows in with magnet spells, but his magic was soon exhausted.

Neoshadows and Hoppers converged around Sora, drawn in by the Keyblade and the prone victim on the ground. Sora made quick work of them, jumping back and forth over his charge, using his rabbit body to its full advantage. He didn't notice until after they were gone that he'd stepped in the puddle of blood by the caribou's shoulder. His right foot was soaked in it, and messy footsteps littered the snow around them. It turned his stomach, and he looked up at the bear frozen in time. Soulless black pupils stared back at him.

There was a bright flash and a bitter tang of spent magic as Kairi completed her circle, enclosing the remaining heartless inside. Right away, she and Riku stood back to back, mowing their way through the last few dark beings. By the time Sora got over to meet them, the heartless were gone.

"Sora, your foot," Kairi asked, eyebrows furrowed with worry.

Sora shook his head. "It's not mine," he replied, referring to the blood. As he spoke, there was a sound akin to grinding gears, and the polar bear was suddenly in motion again, finishing the leap it had been in the middle of. It charged towards Sora, cutting him off from Riku and Kairi. He gasped as he caught the full brunt of the bear's weight on his Keyblade.

Shoving the bear back, Sora attempted to reach out to him. "Danny," he called, having heard the caribou say that name, "snap out of it!" He was met with uncaring fury, and had to bolt as the bear careened after him.

Riku caught up, shoving his way in-between them. "I don't think he can, Sora!" he grunted, pushing the rampaging animal back.

"Why is he like this?" Sora asked, voice cracking. Kairi whipped past him, grabbing the bear with her bare hands, claws carefully sheathed, giving Riku a reprieve.

Riku caught his breath for a moment, then replied, "We don't know. Officer Hopps said no one knows, remember?"

"No cause, no cure," Sora murmured. Narrowing his eyes, he dove forward, charging at the ursus Kairi was struggling to hold back. Riku called out his name, but he didn't heed it. Racing in around Kairi, he kicked one of the animal's hind legs out from under him, and the bear toppled. Kairi backed up a few steps, but before she could do anything more, Sora yelled out, "Curaga!"

The polar bear glowed green, flowers blooming above its head as it turned and snapped at Sora's arm. He yelped, feeling teeth slice through the fur by his elbow, and back pedaled out of the way.

"Stop!" Kairi called, freezing the bear again. Sora continued to scrabble backwards, eyes fixed on the bear's, until he could regain his feet. Riku reached them and caught Sora, stopping his frantic backwards motion with a steady paw on his back. Both boys watched as three cop cars and an ambulance pulled to a stop around their circle, lights flashing.

Kairi murmured a word Riku and Sora couldn't make out, and then the barrier dropped. EMTs rushed to the caribou, who was starting to wake up. The ZPD officers approached the bear cautiously, unsure of what to make of the magic holding him in place.

"It's going to wear off soon," Kairi told them urgently. They got the muzzle on quickly after that, and one of the EMTs gave him a sedative as well. He'd barely pulled the needle out when the polar bear came thrashing back to life. Fortunately, the sedative worked quickly, and by the time the press arrived with their cameras the bear was reduced to pacing and shaking his head.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi stood clustered together, off camera, answering questions and recounting what had happened to two of the officers, a lion and a hippo.

"What's going to happen to him?" Sora asked once the officers were satisfied, peering around them at the restrained polar bear.

"He'll be taken to our secure facility, where the rest of the savage animals are," the senior officer, a lion, answered calmly.

"Oh," was the only reply Sora could manage.

"Thanks for all your help. You guys really saved the day on this one," the other officer said, tipping his snout to them.

"Of course," Riku replied.

"We're happy to help," Kairi added, tucking Riku's jacket tighter around her shoulders. She frowned as she watched the polar bear get loaded into a secure transport vehicle, which basically amounted to large box, not unlike a trailer, with a truck cab on the front end of it. Riku watched with her, while Sora tried to scrub the blood off of his foot with snow.

"It's not going to come off like that," Riku informed him as he walked over. Sora acted like he didn't hear and kept scrubbing between his toes. His hands shook, and the skin on his paw pads was bright red with the cold.

Kairi put a hand on his shoulder. "You're going to freeze." He stopped and glared down at his foot, panting breaths wreathing out around his face like smoke.

"I don't understand," he finally said, voice tense. Kairi and Riku exchanged a confused look. Riku shrugged slightly. His hand was clenched at his side.

Kairi resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him and turned her attention back to Sora. "What don't you understand?"

Sora whipped his head around to look at her, and she was surprised at the anger on his face, as well as the tears in his eyes. "What was that?" he demanded, "If it wasn't darkness, and it wasn't a sickness, why would he turn on his friend like that?" Outburst done, he took a few shaky breaths, then looked down at his hands. "Why couldn't I reach him?" he asked quietly.

"Sora…" Kairi murmured, unsure of what else to say. She looked to Riku for help, but his expression was carefully neutral. When she met his eyes, he turned away. "I… I don't know," she admitted quietly, "but if we don't get you out of the snow you're going to get frostbite."

Sora looked back up at her, then nodded. He carefully climbed to his feet, turning to walk to the nearest bus station. Kairi and Riku walked beside him in silence.

By the time they were out of Tundra Town, Sora had already perked up, ribbing Riku about a pretty wolf girl they passed and insisting on buying the three of them ice cream to celebrate saving the day. He continued pointing out cool features of the city around them and pulling stupid stunts and making the absolute worst puns through dinner, until they were all laughing and smiling like before. He didn't notice when Riku snapped a picture of him balancing on a thin fountain ledge, arms stretched out, setting sun looking like it was resting in the palm of his hand.

Safe inside the gummi ship, Sora hopped straight into the shower, while Riku and Kairi set up the beds. When Riku went to hang up the curtain, Kairi stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I don't really need that," she said, not quite meeting his eyes. He considered her for a moment, then unhooked the two sections he had already put up and folded the curtain neatly away. They pulled out the mattresses and blankets in silence.

"Do you think Sora's ok?" Kairi asked as she made up her bed.

Working on his own bed, Riku glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes, Her tail was low, ears turned in his direction as she fluffed her pillow and laid out stuffed animals, tucking the blankets around them. She very carefully avoided looking up.

"It's Sora," he said finally, moving over to start making Sora's bed. "He'll be fine. It's not like we haven't seen plenty of blood before," he added in a more subdued tone. Kairi did look at him at that, but his head was carefully down this time.

"Lea once broke his arm so bad the bone was sticking out," she said, then added, "It was my fault."

"You were training," Riku soothed, still not looking at her "it happens."

"Today doesn't just 'happen,'" she replied quietly. They both looked up, meeting each other's eyes, but before anything more could be said, the sound of rabbit feet on metal stairs echoed up to them.

"Your turn, Kairi!" Sora called as he jumped the last two steps into the cabin proper. "Thanks for making my bed, Riku," he added, walking over and flopping on it. Riku smiled and shook his head, going to lay in his own spot. Kairi grabbed her stuff and padded down the stairs.

Fiddling with his phone, Sora turned to look at Riku, "Do you care if I call Donald?"

Riku shrugged, "Fine with me."

"Thanks!" He tapped at the screen enthusiastically, muttering "c'mon, c'mon, pick up," under his breath while it rang. Finally, there was an answer in the form of an ear-splitting "SORA!" as Donald picked up the video call.

A camera adjustment later, the grand wizard immediately started cackling at the sight of his friend's new form. Sora tried to defend himself, "It's not funny, Donald! That's just how the spell works!"

"You're a bunny rabbit!" Donald just wheezed back, laughing hard enough for his eyes to water. "Goofy! C'mere! Sora's a bunny!"

"Gwarsh, Sora, you are a bunny!" Goofy exclaimed, face coming into view a little too close to the phone's camera. Donald shoved him back so he could see again.

"Guys!" Sora protested, "It's not that big of a deal!"

"It's hilarious!" Donald insisted.

"You do look pretty funny," Goofy admitted sheepishly. "But what did you call us for? Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," Sora said with a shake of his head. "But I had a question for Donald about cure magic."

"What do need to know? I taught you everything about that already," Donald quacked.

"Well what about when it doesn't work?"

"Doesn't work?" Donald squawked in surprise, "Nonsense! You're good at that spell; you've had to use it often enough," he added, smirking.

"Donald!" Sora grumbled, exasperated. It didn't help that Riku was barely trying to hide his laughter. Sora shot him a glare, then turned back to the phone. "It's not like that. It worked… it just didn't fix him."

Goofy leaned over Donald to be centered on the screen, "I think you're gonna have to explain what happened, Sora."

Sora frowned, eyebrows furrowing, "It's… it's hard to describe," he said finally, sitting up and crossing his legs. His free hand fiddled with the cuff of his pant leg, and he wasn't looking at the camera any more.

Donald and Goofy swapped a look. "Is everything ok?" Donald asked gently.

"Yeah… of course," Sora glanced up, flashing them a quick smile that didn't fool Donald, Goofy, or Riku. "There was this… well, like, we're all animals here, right? Everyone's an animal and there was this polar bear and he was walking with his friend and then Kairi and Riku sensed something weird and he was suddenly attacking his friend. But he wasn't a heartless or controlled by darkness or anything. It was really weird."

"Gwarsh," Goofy interjected quietly.

Sora just nodded and went on, "So Riku and I shoved him off his friend and Kairi healed them and there were a bunch of heartless but the bear just… he kept attacking us. His eyes were… it was really weird."

"He was trying to eat Sora," Riku said, leaning over Sora and making him jump. He'd been so engrossed in trying to describe what had happened that he hadn't noticed Riku walking over and crouching down beside him.

"Was he?" Sora asked, surprised. Riku raised an eyebrow and just looked at him. Sora's ears flicked back as he said, "Oh…" Perking up again, he went back on with his story, "Anyway, I thought maybe cure magic would fix him and the spell went off it just… didn't work."

"What happened?" Goofy asked, still concerned.

Riku clarified, "We used stop magic on him until the police arrived and muzzled him."

"Sora," Donald chimed in, "What can't you fix with cure?"

"Lifelong illnesses, like if you had bone disease or your blood doesn't clot, things like that. But this wasn't anything like that. He talked to us like five minutes before he went nuts."

Donald frowned, but prompted, "What else?"

"What else?" Sora repeated, confused.

"Illness of the mind," Riku supplied quietly. "You think that's what happened?" he asked Donald.

"Sounds like it," Donald agreed gravely. "Sorry, Sora."

"I mean… that makes sense, I guess," Sora replied, ears falling low.

"It's still good to talk to ya!" Goofy threw out, trying to cheer him up.

Sora beamed back at the two of them, "It is! I think you guys would like this place. Though you'd probably look even funnier than I do," he teased, smile turning into a smirk. Donald squawked at him, shaking the phone. Goofy just laughed.

Riku shoved Sora over, laughing, then took the phone from him. "Talk to you guys later," he said, closing out the call once they'd chimed out a finally good-bye. Sora chose that moment to tackle him, scrabbling for the phone.

They were still wrestling over it when Kairi came back upstairs. She watched them for a moment, set her stuff on the floor, and then charged into the middle of it, snatching the phone out of Sora's grip and holding it above both their heads.

"Kairi!" Sora protested, "Give it back!" Kairi just laughed, until Riku tackled her, pinning her on her side. He tried grabbing her arm, but she held it stiff, trying to kick at him with her hind legs. Meanwhile, Sora just got up and grabbed the phone, but Riku kicked his legs out from under him and Kairi pinned him down and eventually they were all in a tangled, breathless, laughing heap while the phone lay just out of their reach.

It was about then that it dawned on all of them that Sora was sprawled across Kairi's hips, that Riku had his arm wrapped around them both which meant that with the way Kairi was curled the back of his head was against her chest and that she was breathing down his back, hands just inches from his waist. They all got up very quickly, grateful for the fur on their faces hiding their blushing. Riku bolted for the shower without saying anything, and Kairi got up to put her things away, humming to herself. Sora fetched his phone, climbed under his covers and rolled onto his side, staring at the screen. What was that about?

Notes:

Chapter name comes from Emanciaptor's 2006 album, but I was specifically thinking of the song "First Snow" which is the only song from that album/that artist I knew... Somewhere I got the album name and song title crossed, but I still like this chapter title, so I left it. Also, now that I've hunted it down on YouTube the whole thing seems to work pretty well as a soundtrack for this chapter.

For reference, I'm gonna be calling Lea/Axel Lea because him suddenly switching back in KH3 drove me insane and I refuse to acknowledge it. (Quite frankly just about everything they did with his character in KH3 made me irritated and will mostly be ignored for the little he shows up in this story.)

And yes, I might be one of the five people that genuinely enjoyed the mini-games with Remy.

Thanks again everyone for reading/reviewing/kudos/commenting! I really appreciate it - you all make my week