Darkness into Life
Judy tugged at her ears and frowned as she looked at Nick. "Is this what it's like when her kind are around all the time? Why did you insist on bringing her here!"
Nick sighed and looked at Skye as she kept her eyes glued to the opposite wall. "I needed to keep her somewhere I can keep an eye on all the entrances and exits. Anywhere bigger than this and there's a risk he could get in without anyone knowing."
"My new apartment?! And you need to stay here why?" she glared as Nick looked at her from the chair he was sitting in.
"Carrots."
"Don't you Carrots me, Nick. You said this would never work. Now you want to stay here because it's convenient? You can take her back home with you. Look at her! She's like a zombie. Don't you dare tell me this is something I won't understand because I'm too young- again. It's hard enough for me to believe anything you've already told me without thinking you're some kind of mental patient."
Nick groaned as he rested his head against the back of the chair. "You are too young. Someone a hundred years old would still be too young. The level of naivety even in the ones you consider elderly is astonishing."
"Nick." Judy growled when he looked at her and huffed. "Why is she like that?"
He looked at Skye and leaned forward, narrowing his eyes as the vixen stared blankly. "Because I have sway over her and all others like her."
"Why? Why couldn't you do that with the rabbit in the club?"
"He is not a rabbit. And he is not of the natural world. She is." When Judy narrowed her eyes, Nick rolled his. "All these mythical creatures people of your time think are just…imaginary; They once roamed the world. That thing in the pub, and others like him corrupted them and changed them into something else. She is a soul singer; his kind could corrupt even the purest of them. Like her. Her kind were originally meant to take all the negative emotion from mortals by pulling away the dark mana and changing it back into light. They gave it back through songs that turned into positive energy that would lighten the soul in the darkest of times, feed people hope, bring them a sense of peace through and especially at the end of their lives. But when a collector of the damned would corrupt them using their voices, they called people into the darkness. People who were lost and lonely, on their last leg, desperate souls would seek out the voices that promised beauty and peace. They used what was once promised comfort to lure them in and steal what little they had left, take their souls and feed the collectors of the damned. They became known as sirens, and eventually all her kind started being perceived as evil. He said her name was Skye. But that may just be what he chooses to call her."
Judy looked at Skye and cringed. "You're not of the natural world either. Maybe I don't understand things about you and never can because you're so old, but you could at least tell me how you're so different from him, and her. And how are you keeping her frozen like that?"
Nick looked back at Judy and pinned his ears back. "I was the first of my kind. Created from a part of all others trying to protect the … mythics, there is no other word for them in your language. We protected the mythics from the collectors of the damned when they came into existence. It is what they called them because those they sought out were corrupted. They were lost to the collectors and devoured over time, once their usefulness was no more the Collectors would consume them along with many they had lured with their abilities. No one knows where his kind came from. I hold the blood of the mythics, their shapes, their powers. Because I was the first, I was always the strongest. Now I am the last. I am not keeping her frozen. I am simply keeping her from using her powers to alter any mortals around her. Sometimes if they are caught early enough after being entranced, they can revert back to their original purpose and be spared from being damned."
"How do you know she's not doing what she wants to do? And is under any trance at all? If you're all so good at finding each other, why has it taken this long for him to find you, or why didn't you go and find him? And stop talking like that."
Nick looked at Judy and frowned. "We've met before, many centuries ago. When I witnessed something I couldn't understand, and left without completing my…." Nick shook his head and Judy narrowed her eyes on him. "It doesn't matter. Collectors of the damned do not create bonds, they use all they can to gain power so they can control simple minds and consume all they call through using the mythics."
Judy knelt in front of Nick and the fox tilted his head as she dropped her eyes. "If you're forcing her to be still, not giving her a choice, without asking and invalidating everything you've heard tonight without listening, you're no better than the Collectors and are doing the same thing with the power you have."
"This is what the mythics created me for. I am not corrupting anyone; I am simply keeping her from corrupting others due to his influence and giving her time to rethink her actions while keeping you and others safe." Nick frowned as Judy looked back at him.
"An eater of the damned? Exactly what is it you do when you catch them?" Judy shook her head and glared at Nick. "You really need to put that ego on a shelf. You think you're justified because that's what you were made for, and you are so much more than that. You can be more than what you were created for. If you were that worried about hurting me, you would have explained this long before we got to this point. So far all I've figured out and what you've told me doesn't fit together and I don't know who- or what to believe right now."
Nick cringed as she left the room and slammed the door. "Blasted rabbit." He cursed as he leaned forward and sighed. "How can one so young get under my fur when I have lived for so long, I no longer feel anything!"
"YOU FEEL SOMETHING OR IT WOULDN'T BOTHER YOU! IF I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU, WHY WOULD I BE AFRAID OF THAT RABBIT, OR WHATEVER HE IS? LET HER GO NICK, OR GET THE HELL OUT OF MY APARTMENT!"
"YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID OF HIM, AND HER!" His ears pinned back as he heard the front door slam. He looked at Skye and scowled before he lifted a paw and snapped his fingers in her face. The vixen jumped and gasped as she toppled over the chair and backed into a corner. "Do I have a reason to harm you?" He narrowed his eyes as she looked around wildly.
"N-no. Where am I?"
"Somewhere safe. What is your name?"
"Skye, where's Jack? I need to get back to Jack!"
Nick tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"YOU KNOW NICK- I'M REALLY SICK OF THIS WHOLE- Judy burst back into the room and stopped as Skye cowered into the corner. "What's wrong with her?"
Nick sat up and groaned. "I took your advice and was trying to ask her what she wanted to do. But it seems her only concern is getting back to the Collector. She is too far under his grasp for me to help her."
"NO! I NEED TO GET BACK SO I CAN HELP HIM!"
Nick stood up and flattened his ears. "Helping him is the problem. You are of no consequence if you're blinded by what he wants and not what you are meant to be doing."
"I AM DOING WHAT I'M MEANT TO BE DOING! EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS A LIE! IF EVERYTHING YOU KNEW WAS THE TRUTH, HOW DID HE NOT KNOW HE WAS WALKING INTO YOUR TERRITORY!"
Nick growled and Skye buried her head in her arms as Judy stepped closer perking her ears. "Nick?" Judy asked as he curled his fists. "Don't hurt her. She's scared to death!"
"She should be. She's corrupt. If you weren't standing there, I'd already have dispatched her."
"Do you know who you sound like right now? FEAR ALWAYS WORKS! DISPATCHED HER?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU AREN'T EVEN LISTENING TO HER!" Judy gawked at Nick as she shook her head.
"I don't need to listen; I know what happens when a collector gets their paws on a mystic."
Judy sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Maybe the same thing that happens when a con artist gets pinched by a cop, or vice versa."
Nick dropped his chin and bit his lip. "That is not-
"Fair?" Judy asked as she looked back at him frowning. "Was everything you told me about the things that happened when you grew up a lie? Junior ranger scouts? Was how you felt a lie?"
Nick pinned his ears back and glanced at Skye. "No." He leaned back in the chair as her brows perked. "We are reborn every generation, in a way. It's difficult to explain, but we take on the life and the memories of another who has passed at whatever age they are when they…"
"You mean the real Nicholas Wilde is dead? Who are you then?" Judy's eyes bulged as Nick cringed.
"No. He's still here. With me. I am Nicholas Wilde."
Skye scoffed and Nick glared at her. "You have his memories, his feelings, his perceptions, his life, even his body, but you're dead in there. You feel nothing, taste nothing, hear without the inflection of the emotion behind the words. You need his soul to survive. You and Jack were made from the same thing. Why do you think you're so similar?" She looked at Judy and tried not to sob. "Why do you think he adapts so well, that he knows how to fit in so easily? It's because he eats the souls of mortals too."
Nick growled and Judy backed away as he got to his feet with the fur around his neck rising. The vixen cowered again as Judy took a step back, shaking her head. "You're not my fox?"
Nick frowned and dropped his head as Judy's eyes glazed over. "I am more your fox than I have been anything else in my entire lifetime. He knew he was sick. He asked me to make the world a better place. After he gave me what was left of his life, I became him. Quite literally. It's just that… I am so much more than that."
Judy sucked in a breath and shook her head as she stepped away again. "How long has he been gone?"
"I took his place before the academy. He was too ill to go through the training."
"You're evil! Everything you've told me, everything we've done has been a lie!"
"Carrots, I didn't hurt him and I don't eat souls. He's still here."
Skye burst into laughter that was laced with a tangent of hysteria she kept trying to fight off. "They told you the Collectors of the damned ate human souls, that they collected the mystics to steal their powers and then ate them as well. If you eat the collectors after they have fed on mystics and mortals, what do you think it is you've been eating over all these centuries?" Nick's face fell as he stepped away from Skye with an audible lurch in his stomach. The vixen laughed again as Judy's lip wobbled. "Why do you think no one ever knew where they came from? How did they know how to make a creature like you that could destroy the collectors, when nothing else could! You said you could see color again. I can tell you why. I can tell you how to end all of this, if you let me go."
Nick growled and curled his lips, moving forward until Judy stepped in front of him shaking her head. "She hasn't done anything that warrants you killing her! If there is anything of my Nick still in there, if you care at all, you have to let her go. Nick would never hurt anyone."
Nick bowed his head and closed his eyes. "I am Nick, Judy. You just don't understand." Judy looked back at Skye as the vixen giggled. "Why did you come here looking for us anyway?"
Judy set her ears as Nick frowned at Skye again. "We were looking for another fox and rabbit couple in law enforcement. Hoping you would help us find the last Eater. We never would have approached you so casually if we'd known." She looked at Nick and shook her head. "You should have killed me by now. What sway does she have over you?"
"I'll consider letting you go if you answer my questions." Nick asked as he narrowed his eyes.
Skye nodded as she kept her eyes on a very nervous Judy. "Liar. What was the first thing you saw in color?" Nick looked at Judy and turned his eyes back to Skye. "The one you possess." Nick growled and Skye flinched as Judy's ears swiveled. "She changed the way he saw the world. He is changing you from the inside."
Nick scoffed. "That's not possible."
"I can show you more." Skye whispered as she pinned her ears back and turned her gaze. "We wanted their help to find you. It was said by the Manifestor that bound by two and within four, life would be pinned by discord. In death and life forever sound, mortality for all is found."
Nick sighed as he looked at the ceiling. "I've heard it and worked through the most difficult riddles people have ever created. It has no answer and holds no truth."
"Like you saying you would let me go. I need to find Jack!"
Judy stepped closer and looked at Nick as he curled his lip. "Nick is still in there? Can I talk to him?
"I know where the Collector is. He's the only thing I can smell besides you, vixen. You are talking to him. I am Nick, Carrots. It's like…a symbiotic relationship. I can't survive without his consent to be here. He will die if I let him go."
"How was he sick?"
Nick pinned his ears back and looked away as Skye perked her ears. He closed his eyes and sighed again. "He started feeling ill after he was accepted to the academy and went to see a doctor. Plagued with a high fever, unable to eat, and barely capable of walking by the time he got there."
Judy looked around and frowned. "For a couple of days, I couldn't find him anywhere? Right after I came back to Zootopia…Finnick didn't even know where he was. It took me looking in a few places several times before I found him sitting under the bridge."
Nick nodded. "When you fell from the mountain at Cliffside, water got into his lungs. He contracted a virus common in foxes, but waited too long to seek help. There was nothing more they could do for him. He was in the hospital when I approached him and asked for his help. Finnick knew where he was. Nick asked him not to tell you. It was before I met him. By the time you found us at the bridge I was there."
Skye scoffed again and Nick glared at her. "You approach those who are on their deathbeds and offer extended life, but assume control of their bodies like the parasites they have no strength to fight off." Judy jumped as Nick shot forward and snarled in Skye's face. The vixen yelped and cringed as she covered her head.
"Give him back."
Nick looked back at Judy and stepped away from Skye. "I cannot. He doesn't have the strength to breathe and would be dead before he was able to speak a single word."
"Then why did you bother saving him, if he has no control over anything that's happening and you aren't interested in hunting them anymore? What was the first thing you saw in color; how does that matter?" She asked, looking back at Skye as the vixen peeked up between her arms.
Nick dipped his head and retook a seat. "He simply wanted to see you succeed."
"He's in love with you, but he didn't know it until it was too late." Skye sunk back again as Nick glared at her.
"You chose him? Why? What do you mean too late?" Judy asked as she cautiously watched Nick rubbing his forehead.
"I didn't see it because he didn't know. Like I said, your naivety at any age is astounding to someone my age. I didn't notice it at first, because it wasn't there. It took a few weeks for me to spot it because it was so subtle. The color in your eyes gradually shifted, until one day they were brighter than anything else I could see. Over the next few months, it was your fur, your uniform, the rest of the world caught up, but nothing is ever as brightly colored as the purple of your eyes. I chose him because my kind is driven by the moral compass of the one who carries us. It is like he is my sub conscience and drives all my actions. After seeing everything in the papers, he seemed like an obvious candidate. He was already past the point of help by the time I found him."
Skye laughed as Judy's ears set. "Such clinical explanations instead of just saying he can smell death on someone. They also chose those they believe will always be alone. Those who have no family, are not romantically involved with others, have no ties to the community. He has already broken so many of the rules his kind are meant to follow just by staying here. What he's not telling you is that the emotions of the one carrying him through this life are also his. The fox is in love with you, so is the Eater of the Damned. He's afraid of you."
When Judy looked at Nick curiously and stepped closer, he left the chair and backed away shaking his head. "The night I touched Nick on the sky tram, he didn't pull away because I made him uncomfortable, did he? It's why he-you both pull away and are annoyed when I hug you or…"
"No, it was another emotion. This is rather awkward for both of us."
Judy curled her brow. "So, it was you when we were running from Bellwether, you who went through the academy, you who moved in with me…. That's why we couldn't-
"It was both of us." Nick cringed and Judy bit her tongue as he closed his eyes. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get back to her."
Judy sighed and gave him a nod as he looked back at Skye. The vixen curled her lip and shook her head. "I will talk to her. Not you."
"Nick, can you give me a minute alone with her?"
"Carrots," he almost growled as she dropped her ears. "She cold charm you with the sound of her voice if I wasn't here."
Skye scoffed. "Are you blind, or stupid? I couldn't even do that in the pub, she backed away like I was contagious. It had nothing to do with you being around. Ok, you're just stupid. That fox is stronger than he thinks he is if he's affecting your choices and influencing your decisions. Sub conscience my –
"Hey, no need of nasty language here." Nick's ears flipped up and he looked at Judy suspiciously as she shrugged. "Where's she going to go? There are no windows in this room, she hasn't tried to hurt either of us and is afraid to move. Just let me talk to her."
"I'll wait over there, but I'm not leaving you alone with her."
Judy waited until he stepped away and approached Skye, watching her carefully as her arms fell and folded around herself. "What is it you want?"
"We wanted you to help us find him. We can't smell his kind, because he smells like all the mystics and any mortal he's inhabiting."
Judy rolled her eyes. "I get that, why did you want to find him?"
Skye dropped her eyes as she looked around. "He's the only one who can save us. We can give him something too."
Judy's ears shot up as Nick frowned. "They have nothing I want."
"If I offered you a small part of something I think you would change your mind, but please, let me go. I need to find Jack before it's too late. He doesn't want to hurt anyone and I'm the only reason he hasn't for this long."
Nick's ears set and he stepped closer looking her over again. "I smelled no death on him, no souls, at least none that weren't thousands of years old. How are you doing that?"
"The same way I have done what I've always done. I can show you if you take me to him."
Judy looked up at Nick and he rolled his eyes. "I hate when you do that. You know that guy could literally eat you?"
She gave him a flat look and he groaned before he held a finger up. "Follow me."
Judy shook her head and twisted her lips as he left. She looked back as Skye and the vixen shivered. "You can help us; all you have to do is scratch him with your blood on your claw."
Judy cringed. "Why?"
"So he can see us as we truly are. We aren't monsters. Neither is Jack. If he can't understand that, he will kill us and it's the only way to get your fox back." Judy groaned and helped her up.
They rushed out the door and followed Nick down the stairs, tipping their ears back and forth as he vanished into an alley beside the building. When he returned, he was almost dragging a striped buck he let fall in front of them. Skye pulled Jack into her chest and pet his ears as he looked up at her with his eyes fluttering. Nick narrowed his eyes as he bent his knees looking them over. "Why hasn't he killed anyone? He's almost starved to death. Why hasn't he killed you? Show me what it is you've been doing, but I warn you, if you try to harm another, I will kill you both."
When Judy got closer, she nearly jumped out of her fur as Jack hissed at her. His teeth had switched to something that looked more like they evolved for a carnivorous fish that could strip flesh in seconds and his eyes had hollowed to the point the blue looked like it was swimming in pools of muddled water. Dark rings under his eyes layered over his cheeks and his fur had started to look aged and dirty. "He won't hurt anyone. He's just trying to keep you away." Nick curled his brow as Skye pulled him to her neck. "Jack, you have to eat. I don't know if I can pull enough for you this close to the edge."
The buck opened his eyes and tried to smile, shaking his head. "If I killed you, I would lose the only reason I have to stick around."
Skye laid him back and closed her eyes as she stuck her nose in the air and howled. Nick watched her carefully as Judy cupped her paw over her mouth. It was the most heavenly thing she thought she'd ever heard. Her voice carried through the wind like a fall breeze before it was joined by thousands of others around the city. Judy watched dark cloudy ribbons drifting through the air and backed into Nick, but stopped as he simply cocked his head back and forth like he was studying. When her voice dwindled to a whisper the billowing ribbons curled around her until it looked like she was swallowing long strands of transparent hair. She never opened her eyes as cupped her muzzle around Jacks. Judy let her jaw drop as she blew her breath into the buck's mouth, watching all his color returning before the sunken pools of what were once eyes lifted back into place and started shining a bright blue.
Skye collapsed over Jack and the buck shot up gasping as he curled around her. He looked at Nick like he might tear his guts out and Judy jumped again as a pair of black wings shot up before they were both gone into the night….
"Curious." Nick said as he cocked his head at the night sky...