Summary:

Judy calls for help, and Fennick responds. Nick and Wolfard confront an apparition of hell. Miki's grandfather drops by for a visit.


Cheryl's University Office

"FENNICK, IT'S JUDY! PLEASE! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

Fennick almost dropped the phone in shock. "Whoa!" He cried, "Hang on there, Doe! What's going on?" He asked her.

A quick couple of gasping breaths on the other end as Judy calmed down at bit before she continued, "It's Hugo. He's collapsed, and I can't wake him! I mean, he was having convulsions a little bit ago, but he's just lying there now…"

"Convulsions?! WHAT?!" Fennick almost yelled back, "What happened?" He demanded to know.

"We were doing a ritual, and we were talking, and he, he kinda cried out and fell over, and, and…"

Confused, his brow furrowed as he looked up to catch the concern shining in Cheryl's amber eyes, "What ritual?" He asked.

"Hugo called it the Ritual of a Thousand Tears." Judy explained over the speaker.

Fennick looked up at Cheryl who simply nodded in understanding. She sat back in her chair, chewing on her lip, before turning around and opening a drawer in the credenza behind her. She reached in, still nodding, and pulled out a lizard skin bag, decorated with beads of many hues. She put the bag back on the desk and looked back at Fennick.

"Do you know what she's talk about?" He asked the canine.

"Yes," Cheryl answered softly. "The drugs that are typically consumed with that ritual can sometimes cause convulsions and unconsciousness, and it can be frightening for the uninitiated. He should come out of it okay, as long as he got the dosage right."

"And if he didn't?" Fennick breathed.

"Then he'll need help," she said as she patted her bag.

"Fennick?" Judy's voice crackled across the phone line.

He turned his attention back to the phone, "It's okay, Judy. He should be okay, but I'm gonna come out there any way. I've got Meredith with me, and uh…" He looked up at Cheryl, "A friend who says she can help." He moved to hang up the phone, "We're on the way. Hang in there, kit. We'll be there soon." He promised her as he stabbed at the disconnect button.

Behind him, Meredith had her paw to her muzzle, "Oh, no…" She whispered. She turned to Miki, who leaned over and place her red paw upon Meredith snow coat, "Go." She said, "I'll cover for you at the hospital."

Already on the floor, Fennick was making a beeline for the door, but Cheryl beat him there. She held the door open for him and stood aside as Meredith moved through. She looked up at Miki, "Hey, sorry to run. Could you please make sure to lock the door when you leave?"

"Oh, I'm leaving too." Miki told her as she slid down from her chair. She reached for the door as Cheryl let go of it. She nodded to the taller golden canine, who took her leave to follow the rapidly departing Fennick as he ran down the hallway, Meredith thumping along behind him.

Left by herself, Miki slipped out the door, letting it lock shut behind her. As she stepped down the hall to follow the trio of retreating mammals, her own phone began to ring. She pulled it out, thinking that perhaps her husband was calling her, but that was not the case.

Thumbing it on, she answered first.

"Grandfather?"


Tundra Town Central Hospital

"BBBBBBLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAA!"

The cry echoed down the hallway, a screech of pain, anger, and madness.

"What in the world…?" Wolfard exclaimed.

Nick noticed that the nursing station at the middle of the hall was empty. "Where are all the nurses?" He queried his taller partner.

Wolfard shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, how many mammals do you need for one teenage sheep, even if they're strung out on Night-howler?"

As if to answer, a hospital security guard came stumbling down a side hallway. A heavy set hairy rhino dressed in a white and blue security uniform, he tripped on his own feet and fell heavily against security station on the far wall. He shook his head as if dazed, and turned to look down the hall he come from. He quickly held up his paw in denial of fate, a scream tearing from his throat as a white blur bounded down the hallway, bouncing once from the sterile tiles and rammed straight into his jaw.

The rhinos head snapped back, crashing into the system's lighting panel, his horn penetrating further into the steel and plastic in a shower of sparks and smoke. The hallway lights that Nick and Wolfard stood immediately winked out as darkness crashed about them abruptly. As their canine eyes expanded to compensate for the sudden gloom, they became aware that there was still light leaking our from under the patient room doors, flashing under the doorjambs like a string of broken winter festival lights strobing in time to some horrible holiday carol.

Here and there, emergency lights flickered on as if uncommitted to their operation, their reddish glow failing to completely penetrate the smoky depths that now consumed the hallway. The smoke jerked along the ceiling as the HVAC systems wheezed their last sighing breaths, until the air itself was stilled.

The two officers watched as the creature rose from between the sprawled rhino's legs, an apparition of crimson and ivory, like some mythological creature, half ram, half screaming harpy. They traded just one quick look, just a quick jerk of their heads, but the motion was enough to attract the attention of the hyper-aware demon. It scream in challenge to their intrusion.

"BLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Wolfard stepped forward, his paw held out to hold nick back. "I got this, Slick. You stay here." If I let another ram knock out his lights, Miki will have my ears!

He reminded himself as he pulled out his tranquilizer pistol and started down the hallway in an easy lope.

Nick scowled at the breach of protocol, and the total lack tactical situational awareness. Stop trying to show me what the big bad wolf can do, you stupid mutt! Nick grumbled to himself as he pulled his own pistol and tried moving to the side of the hall to get into a better angle of fire on the screaming mammal.

FWWWWIIIIISSSSSSHHHHHHHH…...

With a snap and a hiss, the fire sprinklers cracked open, adding their spray to the bedlam. Oh, great! Snarled Nick, Now, I can't see shit! He yelled at Wolfard, already halfway down the hall, "I don't have the target!"

Wolfard's voice called back from the mist, "I got em!" and then nothing else was said.

Nick strained his ears to pick up the sounds of two mammals struggling, the soft rabbit sneeze of a tranq gun going off, and a meaty thunk that vibrated down the wall that Nick was leaning on.

"Yo, you old mangy wolf. You get him?" Nick called out. Nothing.

As Nick was waiting a tense few more seconds for verification from, a tranquilizer gun skidded down the wet hallway tiles to stop at Nick's feet, the dart missing.

Oh Shit! He's down! Nick realized, his free paw snapping up to where his ZPD radio mic would be, except that it wasn't. It wasn't there, because he wasn't in uniform. He was still dressed in his civvies. No uniform, no vest, no radio, and all he had to arm himself with was his single shot tranq and a compact hand held taser. Not much going for you right now, right Wilde? I gotta call this in, but will the mammal who knocked out my partner give me enough time call out on my pawphone?

And as if to answer that unspoken question two glowing red eyes, like two wandering will-o-wisps, appeared before him.

Oh, Shit! Too Late...


Hugo's Tundra Town Home In the Snowy Hills

"Damn it, where does the Cat hide his spare key?" Fennick searched around Hugo's front porch, "There's like no flower pots or anything here!"

Cheryl snorted, "Fenn, it's Tundra Town. Any self respecting flowering plant would still be in hibernation."

Meredith shouldered between them and simply twisted the door knob, pushing the door open. As she stepped through the threshold, she explained, "Hugo doesn't lock the door when he's home, just in case neighbors like us come calling. He doesn't want anybody to stand out in the cold."

"Fine!" Fennick growled as he jumped in the door. "YO! Judy! We're here!" He called out.

Cheryl stepped in carrying her bag. She shut the door behind her, and shook snow off her feet. She looked expectantly at Meredith.

Meredith nodded, "I do believe that Hugo has his ritual space down stairs. I seem to recall that he has symbol drawn on the floor there."

Cheryl agreed, "That's what I'm feeling, too."

Fennick looked up the two taller females, and exclaimed, "Wha?! What ever! We're wasting time, and the Cat is in trouble!" He ran over to the stairs leading to the basement and began hopping down the steps. "Yo! Rabbit! We're coming."

Meredith looked over at Cheryl who just shook her head, and moved to follow the smaller fox. The large hare shrugged her shoulders and followed behind.

Sitting at Hugo's side inside the ring of candles, Judy looked up and called out, "We're in here, Fennick!"

Fennick appeared in the doorway and quickly strode toward her, demanding to know, "Okay, what did he take?"

Turning back to her unconscious charge, she replied, "Nothing, he didn't take anything! He just…"

"STOP!"

Fennick skidded to a stop, just before the circle of candles, and stood upon the symbol of X'ti – the present. He and Judy both turned their heads to look at the tall coyote walking slowly into the room.

"Stop." Cheryl reiterated. "Fenn, you can't break a sacred circle uninvited. Bad things will happen."

He closed one eye as he looked back at her incredulously, "Bad things? What? What will happen?" He gestured with his paw at Judy.

Kneeling down just outside the circle, careful to stay off the symbols she emphasized, "Bad. Things." She poked a claw into Fennick's chest.

She turned back to face the rabbit, who returned her gaze without fear or trepidation. Judy simply gazed back at her, emotions playing across her bony face. Hope, despair, concern. And one other emotion.

Courage. For a moment, Cheryl was most struck by that particular feeling. The rabbit looked so small, tucked in next to Hugo's muscular bulk. Yet she cradled his head in her lap as if she would protect him against all that might to seek to harm him.

Such strength, she mused to herself. Such authority, she realized. The rabbit had what Cheryl's adopted wolf father liked to call "Command Authority." Even in her weakened state, she sat without fear staring down a larger predator. Cheryl could see what Meredith had seen, what she came to ask for help understanding.

Where does that come from? Cheryl wondered. It wasn't there when we met back west all those years ago.

"Agggheem!"

Fennick cleared his throat. Cheryl looked over at him, and he gestured emphatically at the unconscious feline. Cheryl nodded, and turned back to face Judy.

"We can't cross the unbroken circle unbidden, Judy. You have invite us in." She held her paw out, palm side up, pointing at the nearest candle.

"Oh?" Judy paused, "OH!" as realization dawned. She carefully set Hugo's head down on wooden floor, and scooted over to that candle, the candle that stood upon the symbol for Nas. The symbol for Earth. Reaching out to cup her paw behind the flame, she blew it out with a short wheezy breath.

A cool breeze suddenly swirled out of the circle, blowing between Cheryl and Fennick, and was quickly gone. He jumped, and shivering involuntarily, he gritted out between set teeth, "Oh, that was creepy."

A small smile flashed down Cheryl's muzzle as she watched him stroke his paws down his arms. She inhaled as she turned back to the circle, but all she could smell now was the scent of beeswax. The power she had been sensing was gone now. She opened her eyes, and watched as Judy went back to Hugo's still form.

The rabbit seemed to be compressing in on herself, becoming smaller, more plaintive, as her authority evaporated. "Please," She seemed to beg, "Help him."

Cheryl nodded and asked her, "What did he drink before he collapsed?"

Judy just shook her head, "He didn't drink anything, I don't think." She pointed to the over turned teapot and the stain of dried tea upon the floor. "At least I don't think he did? He ran up stairs for a bit in the middle of ceremony to bring down his laptop and his phone. He might of drunk something upstairs. I don't know." She shook her head as tears started to gather at her eyes.

Cheryl frowned as she considered the implication. Fennick watched the byplay between the two females, and his trained counselor's eye didn't miss the change in Judy's demeanor. He waved his paw at the laptop and then over at Hugo's supine body, "I'm guessing that might be one of those bad things?"

Cheryl nodded, "Yes. He shouldn't have left the circle once he invoked the ritual, not without sundering the circle. They're communication devices, conduits to other realms of existence. They could have allowed something inside the circle." She looked over at Judy, "But if that happened, if it was something malicious, then they should have attacked you, not Hugo."

"Why Hugo?", Judy asked her.

"Because he's the conduit. The source of power for the ritual. If it was something that intruded, it should have gone for the weaker party." She answered.

Cheryl look down at the ritual markings inside the circle. The dual sided circle where Hugo lay, that was the priest side. And on the other side was where Judy, as the petitioner, would have sat. Those symbols...

"Did you paint those, or did he?" Cheryl pointed at the symbols.

Judy nodded, "I painted most of it." She pointed at each symbol in turn. "The ears are from my family's crest, the surfboard is from my car, and the rays are from the morning light. He painted the boxes underneath them. Said they represented a throne."

Comprehension dawned in Cheryl. "OH! He named you royalty! Authority…. Power… That's why…" She trailed off.

"That's why what?" Fennick demanded.

Cheryl scooted around to face Fennick where he still stood, "That's why what ever got in went for him, and not her. He wasn't powering the circle." She pointed at Judy, "She was!"

Judy sputtered in denial, "Nooo No No!"

Fennick barked, "What the… Okay, not that I believe any of this mumbo gumbo bullshit anyway, but she's just some rabbit, right?! Like, I know who she was, yah know! Nick's told me, and Hugo's told me, and Hell even I've been with her for a day! I know what she is!"

An idea popped into Cheryl's mind, "Was…. Is…" She looked at the symbols on the floor, "Will be…"

Fennick and Judy began to speak over each other, but fell silent as a third voice began slowly speaking, rattling hoarsly like gravel poured over a cliff into a deep canyon below.

"Wassss…." Hugo breathed, "She was ZPD Officer Judy Hopps, top of her class, the youngest small mammal on the force to make Detective…"

Judy, completely frightened by what he had just said, dropped her ears. She glanced over at Cheryl to find that the coyote was watching her with her head cocked to one side, her eyes filled with a new found appreciation of the rabbit, as if some great mystery was finally revealed. She nodded slowly, just once, before turning her attention back to Hugo.

"CAT!" Fennick exclaimed, rushing to Hugo's side. "You gave me a scare, you crazy feline." The fox patted the cat's chest, "The shit you pull, I swear. You need to be careful drinking your grandma's brew. I know that shit is bad for you, and you should too!"

Hugo blinked his eyes, as he stared up at the ceiling, "I didn't drink anything."

"What?" That word was fast becoming Fennick's default response to the madness that he found himself, "Then why did you collapse? Why were you unconscious. Judy was freaking out, and she called us…"

"Judy…." Hugo struggled to sit upright. Fennick helped him up, into a sitting position.

Judy moved to help, but thought better of it. She sat back, her eyes downcast, as she tried to make herself appear smaller.

Hugo caught her in her retreat before she got too distant, and drew her gently into his lap with his long arms. Enfolding her to his chest with his broad margay paws, he murmured in her ear, "My queen…"


Meredith had been hanging back, afraid of what she might find down in Hugo's space, afraid that death might once again visit itself upon those that she loved. That he still breathed was a good sign, but the female coyote's presence deterred her from entering further, as if somehow she was actively working to keep foreign presences at bay.

When Hugo finally spoke, it was as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and she let out a ragged sob, muffled against the back of her paw. He's not dead… she whispered to herself in relief.

That fact drowned out the rest of the conversation they seemed to be having, a conversation she was having trouble following even with her long hare ears straining. It was if there was some sound interfering with their sensitivity, some sound that was distracting them.

Some strange sound just behind her.

Scrrrrrraaa…...

It was the sound of stone being scraped upon stone.

She turned around, and in the darkness behind her she beheld a shape, resolving itself out of the inky well. A pale form sat hunched over a stone bowl, grinding on a powder inside with a stone rod.

Scrrraaaa, scrrrrraaaa….

The form tapped the rod against the bowl with a dusty paw, knocking the powder off it and back into the bowl. Sitting back, the form wiped it's brow.

"Whewww…" the form whispered, "Grinding medicine is hard work, wouldn't you agree, Grandmother Moon?" She just stared at him, her jaw on the floor.

Coyote chuckled at her shock. Standing with an "Ooof", he stood and stretched. The stalk of grass in his mouth quivered as he spoke, but never seemed to fall out as he talked. "Well," he remarked, "It seems My work here is done, don't ya think?" He pointed at the tableau behind her.

Meredith chanced a quick glance behind her, loath to take her eyes off a specter that filled her with such fear. But everything was alright in there, Judy being held firmly upon Hugo's lap.

She quickly yanked her head back around, but who every he was had disappeared, taking his mortar and pestle with him.

Meredith stood there for a time, her heart pounding in the dark.


Zootopia International Airport, a Private International Terminal

Arriving at the parking lot, Miki was waved through the gate by an alert attendant who pointed her to an available parking slot close to the front doors. She parked her humble family mini-van there carefully, feeling very much out of place, especially between the two cars on either side of her. They were sleek and low slung sports cars, their wax and polish jobs shining in the morning sun. Their monthly payments alone were more than what she made in a year, she was sure.

Why am I here? She wondered to herself. She rested her head on the steering wheel as she struggled to gather her wits after the experience at Hugo's home. She felt uneasy, a sense that her carefully planned and tightly controlled life was starting to go off the rails. Miki didn't like surprises all that much, perhaps a legacy of her father's bad habits visited upon her family or maybe echos of her own chaotic teenage years.

Why is he here, now? That was even more of a mystery to her. Grandfather was not a fox given to surprise visits to his far flung relatives. His life was even more tightly controlled than hers, the demands on his time mapped out by the minute. As a result, he never did anything on the spur of the moment, every action planned well in advance, every movement serving a purpose.

She startled at a tap on her driver side window. Turning quickly, she saw a middle aged fox attendant in the terminal's blue livery standing quietly at her door. She rolled down her window.

"Miss Kitsune?" The fox asked her politely.

"Mrs. Wilde-Kitsune, actually." She corrected him.

He nodded, "Yes ma'am. I though you should know that the plane has just landed, and will be at the terminal in just a few moments."

She nodded back, shutting her window. Getting out, the attendant shut her door for her. She fumbled with the key remote to lock the doors, but he held his paw over hers. "You don't need to do that here. It'll be perfectly fine. This way." He swept his paw back not toward the terminal doors, but to a gate at the fence on the side of the building. He lead her through the gate, and out onto the jet-way apron before the build, joining a small gaggle of other very professionally dressed foxes standing out on the concrete, huddled against in the wind blowing across the tarmac.

Miki walked up behind them, once again feeling out of place dressed as she was in her green hospital scrubs. The other foxes were dressed in business suits and professional uniforms, but the moment they saw her approach, they immediately parted to let her through to the front, closing behind her once she had passed them by.

Confused, Miki just stood there, her face fur rippling in the breeze as she struggle to understand why they were honoring her so. Yes, she was a Kitsune, but she wasn't involved in her grandfather's company. She had never met any of these other foxes, and she certainly didn't know what they did for him. Lawyers, executives, maybe? She wondered.

Her nose twitched, disturbed by the scent of jet fuel and the wafting fox musk being blown in the wind. They're as nervous as I am. Why?

Her ears perked up at the sound of a rising scream. Turning her head to the right, she saw a sleek delta perched upon long spindly legs approaching their group, it's three engines howling in defiance of their grounded imprisonment. They yearned to be free of their earthly shackles, screaming their joy across the azure sky.

As the airplane grew closer, her ears quickly turned to tuck up against her head, trying in vain to hold out the din. But even in the pain of the grating noise, she let slip a small smile as a thought danced unbidden through her mind. Judy would love this. She loves anything loud or fast, and that is definitely both. Maybe, if he's staying longer than a day, I can ask if she can have a ride? He'd probably do it – he's sucker for his little great-grand kits, always spoiling them.

The howling typhoon died with a gasp as the plane coasted to a stop before the skulk of foxes. Miki's eyes rose up to behold the gleaming fuselage, the words 'Kitsune Sangyo International' emblazoned in electric blue on the sides. The cabin door in the side of the plane's nose popped open, and as it started to swing down, the spindly landing gear began to compress, lowering the aircraft at the same time. That's a neat trick. She had wondered how they were going to get down from the plane with it standing up twelve feet high up in the air without a jet way stair set.

The crew had clearly practiced the procedure many times, because by the time the door with it's build in staircase had full extended, the landing gear had compressed to their fullest, leaving the bottom step an easy reach for short fox's stride to tread upon. Inside the door, a fox in a pilot's white shirt and black cap stepped down the stairs, testing the railing as he went to make sure it was snapped properly into place.

Standing behind that fox was her grandfather.

He was ancient to her young eyes, but his back unbent by the weight of years of responsibility. His white muzzle contrasted sharply with the black traditional male kimono he wore. She cocked her head for a moment in puzzlement, No suit? Why so formal today? Nobody had died that she knew of. Her cousins would have been sure to tell her if that had happened. As he step to the top of the stairs and gripped the railing in his right paw, she realized he was carrying something in his left paw.

He walked carefully down the stairs, the wind whipping his pant legs around his ankles, pausing for a moment at the bottom of the stairs to bow deeply before the pilot who returned his bow. They spook briefly before her grandfather turned and strode toward her. As he did so, he transferred the object in his left paw to his right, and she suddenly realized that he was carrying a katana.

Why is he bringing a sword to a business meeting? She asked herself frantically, as the gathered foxes behind here began whispering quickly among themselves, their noises random and indistinct to her ears. The babble died almost as fast as it had begun as he came to a stop before her.

He smiled as he bowed deeply to her, and she returned the bow. She could hear all the executives behind her also bowing, but as she stood up she could feel that they waited a beat after her before standing again.

"Sofu-sama, you honor me with your presence." She greeted him.

He sighed happily, "Ah, Mieko-san, my favorite granddaughter, it is good to see you again!"

The smile on his muzzle, the light in his eyes, and the informality of his greeting were totally out of place with the formal attire he wore and the well dressed skulk of foxes that stood behind her. She struggled to figure out what to say next.

She looked down at the night black katana he carried at his side, the deep ebony scabbard gripped firmly in his right paw, it's bright lacquer undimmed by the passage of time. It was an ancient blade by all accounts but still one easily known even to her. It was her family's legacy, passed down from Kitsune father to Kitsune son. But why it was here of all places was a mystery to her. It never left the family shrine, save for funerals and weddings back in the Sunset islands.

Yet here it was in his paw, the golden silk tassel hanging at the end of the grip glinting in the sun as it swayed in the cool sea breeze blowing up over the tarmac.

With disbelief cast into her muzzle, she reached out her paw and pointed at it.

She blurted out, "Is that Kitsunebi*? (*Foxfire)

Her grandfather nodded sharply, and barked out a single word as he smoothly raised up the sword and presented it before her.

"Hai!" (Yes!)