Heart of Gazelle and Humanity

by The Imperator 2 you

With all hope lost Humanity places its final hope in the souls of those frozen in time. While excavating a tunnel, a team of Mammals going about their business discovers a relic of millennia past, and an ancient species thought mythical and legend. Yet of all eggs discovered only 1 survives. Can Humanity be redeemed for the sins of its past, in the future it cannot control?

34. Chapter 29

Whenever you feel confused, lost in the clouds, mind drifts…

Try to find the meaning of life, and take a moment breathe in deep and open your heart,

There's always sunshine~!

Imagine all the good things in your life, release all the pain…

Look up high, above stars, darkness there to synchronize sky…

And where we are just a step from the light, look through the clouds there is paradise…

See the sky, there is only hope cause its in your future…

Curiosity!

And feel the sense bloom inside of you, reach to your heart there is paradise…

And you will shine wherever you are, it's only brightness…

Refine, take a chance and survive…

Chapter 29 = Day of Remembrance, PT 2

(Multi PoV's)

Lula watched as a holographic human was riding on an ancient horse down a long path, wearing articulate robes and a prominent hat on his head, wielding a bow and taking careful aim at a post as he rode past it. With perfect timing, he let loose an arrow that smashed into the post, breaking a piece of wood that was planted there. There was a round of applause from all the mammals and 'humans' present as he hit the first target, then another as he hit the second, and an equally loud applause as the third and final target was shot through with an arrow.

"Well done!" She cheered as a Dog drone planted a new wooden plank before the marked targets.

She was enjoying the human festival with her escort, her friend Pete, or 'PT-173' escorting her and explaining things as she looked and explored. Currently she was watching a demonstration of 'mounted archery' known as 'Yabusame'. It was a ceremonial mounted archery event, where they shot at various targets. According to Pete, it was actually a form of mounted combat for humans among the Japanese Islands 'long before' the first drone was ever conceived of. Now however, it was performed to pray for peace and prosperity. Apparently, arrows that hit the mark were considered 'good luck' charms.

She liked how the holographic humans looked as they rode on their horses wearing their almost 'noble' attire. They looked very dignified and professional.

She had just finished watching a demonstration of 'Noh Theatre', where they were performing a piece of Japanese culture called, 'The tale of Genji', and now was watching this demonstration called Yabusame.

"So, Pete, what else is there here?" She asked the drone.

The drone looked to her and stated, [The next attraction we can visit, is the 'Sumo Wrestling' event. Or we can visit a Kendo Tournament.]

"What's Sumo Wrestling?" She asked as mammals got up with her and Pete and were quickly replaced by new visitors.

[Sumo Wrestling, is a form of competitive, 'full-contact' wrestling, in which wrestlers known as Rikishi attempt to force their opponent out of the arena or onto the ground. It is a highly ritualized sport and those who participate are highly respected.]

"Full-contact, isn't that dangerous?" Lula asked, knowing some predator wrestling rings were a bit on the 'dangerous' side because of how tough predators were.

[No, the wrestlers are only armed with their body masses, and specially designed belts.]

At that she paused and looked at her friend in surprise. "You mean they're naked?"

[By technicality no, they are not 'naked' by human terms.] It replied without slowing down.

As they walked by a pair of holographic humans wielding long curved swords and wearing special leather armor or robes conversing with some mammals, they passed by a buffet food stand where several predators were enjoying some 'predator foods'. One of the mammals leaving the buffet with a bowl of cooked noodles and meats with a special sauce added to it, and eating using small sticks was a 'chubby' cheetah.

"Oooooh this food is so good; I am so glad I asked Chief Bogo for the night off." He said to himself.

"Oh, hi there." She said as the cheetah stopped moving when he saw Pete.

"Hi… name's Clawhauser, and you are…" He asked curiously.

"Lula, I live in the Eden Facility, currently jobless… aaaaand this is my friend, Pete… or as it likes to call itself…" She said, motioning toward the drone which paused for her.

[This unit is identified as PT-173.]

"Hi there… uh… mister drone." Clawhauser said. "Say, would you happen to know if a mammal is looking for their 'spirit guide'?"

"No… why?" She asked.

He stepped aside to reveal a glowing 'animal', a 'bird' or something she didn't quite know what else to describe it as. It stood about a foot tall, on two long slender legs that ended in three sharpened toes. Its body was of medium build with two 'red' wings, while the rest of the body's feathers were more blue or purple. It featured a long slender neck with similar feather colors, and long trailing tail feathers. But on one of its legs was a strange 'ring', with a broken chain dangling from it, and around its neck was a similar ring with a broken chain dangling as well. It's expression as it looked up at them was one of eagerness and friendliness, as if it were happy to meet them.

Its tail feathers waved from side to side eagerly as it stepped toward them.

"Well hello there little fellow." She said as it walked around her quickly, keeping its wings tucked to its body.

"Yea, been trying to find the mammal who it belongs to, but every time I try to ask, it suddenly goes off and checks out a random attraction before I can get two words in." Clawhauser said. "Buuuut it also showed me this beautiful ramen buffet… mmmhmmm this stuff is delicious…"

The cheetah started gobbling his food down and finished with a resounding 'sigh' of satisfaction.

She was about to say something when the bird turned toward the sound of a drum beating and ran off.

"W-wait!" Lula called out as Clawhauser threw the bowl out in a nearby trash bin.

"He keeps doing that with me too!" He hollered as they ran to keep up with the bird.

She followed quickly into a small crowd of mammals who were sitting on raised seats or standing over their piers depending on their species. When she and Clawhauser arrived the bird eagerly sat in an empty spot and watched as a human wearing robes and holding a fan motioned for everymammal to be seated, and two humans started banging on small wooden drums.

"What's this?" She asked Pete.

[A Sumo Wrestling arena… they are preparing to begin the first round of matches…] Pete declared.

"Wrestling event huh, ya know I tried going to one… got made fun of by random mammals because I was so fat." Clawhauser said to her. "Though to be fair I was drunk that day and think I made a boast saying I could compete… avoided doing that every day after that happened."

She just chuckled to herself as the human announced the wrestlers were about to appear.

When she remembered that the drone described 'Sumo Wrestling' as a full-contact sport where the fighters only had their bodies to use, and wearing belts, she expected the wrestlers to all be these really buff humans with muscles for days and looking like they dedicated their whole lives to training. When the first human walked out of a small tent, what she saw were…

"Those… are… 'sumo wrestlers'?" She asked Pete.

[Affirmative.]

"They're so… so…" She muttered in disbelief.

"Fat…" Clawhauser said in amazement.

The first two wrestlers coming out were, fat, that's all she could describe them as. Fat humans with chubby legs, chubby arms, large bellies and wearing only belts to cover their private areas that she could see. When they entered the arena the first thing both wrestlers did was clap their hands and bow respectively to one another, and then stomp their legs in a very ritualized manner against the ground twice, one for each leg. Then both stood up, walked over to grab some salt and spray it over the arena.

Then they assumed their fighting positions…

"Goh~!" The holographic human with the fan said, and quickly stepped out of the arena.

And she watched both wrestlers rush at each other, slap and push one another, trying to shove the other out of the arena or onto the ground. It was over in less than a minute as one got a lucky grab before throwing him out of the arena to applause and a shout from the judge who declared him the winner.

"Goooo honey!" A holographic woman shouted next to her, a very slim and beautiful looking woman as she applauded happily.

"Did you say 'honey'?" Lula asked when the crowd calmed down and both wrestlers got into position again.

"Yes, he's my husband!" She replied happily. "I'm very lucky to have married him."

"What do you see in him?" Clawhauser asked in shock. "I mean… I'm not one to talk but he's so… 'big'."

"He is, isn't he?" She giggled. "He eats a lot, and he loves my cooking! I like a man who loves to eat my cooking, and has meat on his bones!"

"You like 'fat' men?" Lula asked with a laugh herself.

"Of course I do, big men are best conversationalists. Everyone knows you talk best while eating, makes time you spend with friends and family last longer! And he is a Sumo Wrestler, makes good money, what more could I ask for?" She said. "Who wants to eat with a thin guy, little stick figure who eats like half a salad and then throws it out. I like a man who eats 'whole dinner' and leaves no leftovers!"

"Woooow…" Clawhauser said as they watched another match between the holographic woman's husband and his opponent. "Hey where'd the little guy go?"

Lula looked around and saw that the 'little guy', the glowing bird was gone.

"He just vanished?" She replied.

"Huh… wonder where he went off to."

While they returned their attention to the sumo matches however, PT-173 noticed another antelope walking by the attraction behind them. Said antelope was 'male' and looked to be walking drunk while in the arms of a girl. Having had past experience with this particular male, PT-173 got up and started following him without notifying Lula.

Over with the Tiger Brothers, Donny, Franky, Moe and Joe were all drinking down pints of beer while cheering with a host of other predators as several holographic humans were showing them the Highland Games and particularly some of the more 'manly' sporting events. They got to meet several clansmen and learned about their kilts, their importance to the human wearing them and the heritage of their clans. They opened it up with a traditional Scottish Sword Dance, with two crossed swords lying on the ground, while a 'soldier' or 'men at arm' as they were once called danced around them to the music of the bagpipes. They were told that the Highland Games were a competition held for those competing to prove their strength, stamina, and agility for all to see. The prey mammals were in another section watching women performing traditional dances as well, demonstrating their own athletic skills on a stage.

They had seen humans fighting a Tug of War battle with teams competing to beat the other in a test of strength. Then they saw them hurling a 'Scottish Hammer' as far as they could. Then they did the Stone Put, which was essentially the same as the hammer, but they were throwing a 'heavy stone' instead.

Now they were watching a Caber Toss competition, which involved the humans lifting a giant carved 'tree' it seemed like, and then tossing it so it spun over and landed in a 'twelve o'clock position relative to the tosser.

"Come oooooooon Willy, toss that caber like ya mean it laddeh!" A holographic human hollered while his friend 'Willy' was running with the caber over the field.

"WoooooooooooooooooAAAAAAAAAAH!" Everymammal screamed as he flung it and they watched it spin over, land on the ground, and then point the opposite direction of the tosser.

"Aaarg it's eleven-fifty!" He complained, before finishing his drink and throwing the pint away to roll up his sleeve. "My turn, time to show you nimpoof wimps how a REAL Caber tosser throws it!"

They watched as he was aided in lifting the heavy caber and then started running, huffing and puffing before flinging it up and over.

"WoooooooooooooOoaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Everymammal cheered as it landed and was judged a 'twelve o'clock'.

"Aaaaaaah yeaaaaaaaa, now that's what I'm talking about!"

"That thing looks 'heavy'." Donny muttered to his brothers as they drank their beers.

"Jeremy sure as heck can't lift that thing, let alone toss it." Joe agreed.

"Eh it doesn't look too heavy!" A rhino said loudly.

"Ooooh your thinking it easy do ya?" The Scotsman who had just tossed the caber yelled with a grin. "Well why don't you come and show us how tough ya are! We got one for you mammals if you want to try!"

"Oh, I don't want to…" He tried to say, but was booed by the crowd now that everymammal knew he was taunting the games.

"Ah don't go talking if you aint walking, ya Dobber Jessie wimp!" He taunted back with a grin.

"What did you just say?"

Donny and his brothers started laughing with the crowd as they 'knew' an insult when they heard it, even if they didn't understand a word that was said!

"I called ya a baby you Hackit Jackey, now stop being one and prove you can do it like us wee little humans!" The Scotsman then turned to a nearby RAPTOR drone and whistled. "Oi, ya mechanical dingo, bring over the other caber will ya?"

The drone nodded and began tugging, with slight effort, the other caber that had been fashioned for mammals if they wanted to try and toss the caber themselves while the holographic humans used a holographic one. The rhino that had been mocked grunted and got up, and walked over to where the drone was struggling to carry the pole in a way so that the rhino could grab it. While the pole the humans used was about six meters, the mammal one was about eight meters to compensate for the mammal's natural strengths.

The rhino struggled to keep his hands holding the pole, grunted and started running with the pole, before lurching and tossing it as best he could like the humans were doing before.

"Woooooooooooooooooooooaaah…" Donny and every mammal yelled.

-Ping… bong-

The pole landed on its bottom and then flopped forward.

"Aaaaaaaaaaay, Eleven fifty, not too baaaaaad!" The Scotsman screamed to cheers and applause while the bagpipes started playing again.

"Oooophf… that is 'HEAVY'!" The Rhino gasped in shock.

"Why you think the people who compete in these events are called 'Heavies' laddeh?" The scotsman chuckled as the bagpipes started playing a new tune, and five DOG drones walked in wearing special harnesses and carrying large plants piled high with food.

Instantly the tiger brothers' mouths started watering as they smelled the food and predators started clearing away so the DOG drones could deliver their payloads.

"Ah here comes the food, come on bois, let's get some grub!" Another scotsman said eagerly to them.

The drones delivered their plates and they all stared at the weirdly wrapped 'food'.

"This is food?" Moe asked as he and every predator started grabbing them and placing them on paper plates to eat.

"Riiiiiiiight, its Haggis!" Some human called out proudly.

"Eeeuck…" Franky said quietly.

"Wooahhha hahhaaaa hahaha…" All the humans chuckled and laughed loudly while the mammals dug into the food.

Donny thought what Franky said was rather weird, as the food he just bit into tasted absolutely delicious. Whatever bird they had cooked for it, because he could taste the bird meat, was mixed with several spices and herbs and other things that made his mouth 'demand' more. They certainly loved human food now that they were able to taste it. He didn't know what human food Jeremy ate during his time, but what humans ate was certainly new and interesting!

"Mhmmm what is this?" He asked while greedily chowing into his food.

"Ah told ya laddeh, its Haggis!"

"And what is 'haggis'?" Franky asked.

Instantly all the bagpipes stopped playing as the humans all hollered at the top of their voices, "SHEEP'S STOMACH STUFFED WITH MEAT AND BARLEY!"

All of them just stared in shock as some looked at their food. "Really?" Joe asked quietly.

"Naaaaaah, we found better ways to make it after a while. Now we just tell people that to mess with them! Especially the tourists! Buahahahhahaa!" The first Scotsman who taunted the rhino said while the bagpipes started playing again.

They ate their food again while watching the humans resume the Highland Games, now tossing a weight backward over their shoulder to toss it over a bar while only using one hand.

During the games some mammals started trying out to see how they fair against humans in these events. Some of the bigger mammals enjoyed the Tug of War competition while others, like Donny found themselves liking the idea of throwing the caber so it could land 'hopefully' in the twelve o'clock position!

During a break they asked their Scottish friend about the sport and why they were throwing it in the first place.

"Ya see laddehs, the 'caber toss' started out as an event from past times, because supposedly lumberjacks needed to toss logs across narrow chasms, so they tossed them into rivers to transport down a stream." He said as he took a drink. "But between you an me boys, I honestly think someone was just drunk and told his buddy, 'Hey Tony, see that big-o log ova there? Ima toss it, and I bet ya a pint that I can fully flip it over and make it point away from me' and thus the Caber Toss was born!"

"And what about the uh… 'stone put' as it's called?" Franky asked.

"Aaaah, that, see there's a legend, see they are referred to as the 'stones of strength', and they came in two types. One was over a hundred pounds and it was to test if one was able to lift it to a certain height, and place it on a wall. The other type was a wee little stone, bout twenty pounds give or take, and the purpose was to see how far the stone could be thrown…" He replied while drinking again. "Bah… but I still think that someone was just drunk and bet his friend to see who could lift a heavy rock faster or throw a tiny rock farther. Now that I mention it, a lot of these games sound like something someone drunk would do for fun!"

At that they all laughed as the beer was making them all 'drunk' slightly at the joke, even as a jaguar tried lifting a caber and failing to make it flip when he tossed it, much to the amusement of everymammal there.

After a while some mammals started laughing and pointing out a strange glowing 'bird' with red wings and blueish purple feathers walking around on the field, watching the 'Heavies' go about their competition. It then walked over to some of the weights that were being tossed by the humans over the bar and pick one up in its beak, the smallest one that was there.

"Awww look at the little fella, trying to compete with the big boys! Now if that little ninny has the guts to try why can't some of you!?" He jeered with a laugh at the crowd.

Donny and the others watched the bird struggle to lift the weight in its beak, and chuckled as its legs nearly gave out trying to carry it over to the bar where the human who'd just thrown his weight stepped aside to let it try.

"Come on little bird thing, you can do it!" Franky roared.

"You can do iiiiiiit!" Donny cheered

"Go for iiiit!" Moe and Joe yelled together.

"GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!" Everymammal and human chanted as it struggled to lift the weight with its mouth while the raptor adjusted the bar for it.

Then with great effort, it flung itself backward and released the weight, falling backward as its weight soared two inches into the air, and landed with a plop on the ground behind it. And while the bar was only a few inches off the ground, the weight still flew over the bar.

"YAAAAAAAAAAA!" Every mammal and human cheered as the bagpipes played in celebration.

The bird quickly got up gleefully jumped up and down in excitement and pride for its achievement, while the RAPTOR moved the bar back to the original height it had been, its tailfeathers flapping from side to side. The bird ran to the crowd as the drone started positioning barrels and tires, as well as huge boulders with differing weight numbers on them, and watched as mammals now tried to compete to see who could quickly go from each boulder and lift them to chest height before dropping them onto the tires. After many mammals went through the rounds, it seemed to wander off without anymammal noticing where it went.

Ema busily examined her patient, a mole as he sat on a stool in front of her, using her optics and leg scanners to figure out what was going on with him as he walked in complaining about a pain with his stomach. She only had to scan him for half a minute to figure out the cause.

[Upset stomach huh?] She chided as she began making 'another' relief gel pill using her stored chemicals.

"I guess so." He muttered.

[Common problem when it comes to big festivals. Easy problem, easy solution…] She stated as a small gel pill plopped out of her mouth and onto a plate she grabbed. [Here you go, take this, wait ten minutes, then you'll be free to eat again.]

While he took the pill and swallowed, she catalogued his name, species, blood type, age, weight, height, and other biographics into her database.

She's been examining mammals for the past three hours since the festival began, and for the most part each patient was either just a mammal looking for a 'free checkup' or wanting some vaccine for a disease they were lacking. Naturally she did as was expected, but since the festival started, she's been having to deal with 'upset stomach' issues. Her workspace was a small shelter, crafted by ANT drones so that she could keep it sterilized and sanitized during the event, as per her 'demand'. In the corner was a power cell that she was hooked up to so she could operate continuously until the event's conclusion. She's had the occasional mammal coming in complaining about something and asking if it was super serious…

Only for her to tell them shut up, and stop complaining that they were suffering from an upset stomach, which happened on about sixty occasions in the last hour.

[NEXT!] She hollered as the mole got up and left while she sprayed cleaning agents and scrubbed the chair down.

In walked a sheep, a ram by the looks of it, and he sat down and was quickly examined by her optics and leg scanners.

[Huh, so you're the recipient of Synthorgan model T11-PL-942-00H-85.] She stated.

"You mean my new lungs?" He said in surprise. "Yes, I received a set of new lungs after I was in the hospital while suffering from black lung cancer…"

[A result of smoking, which also permeated not only your lungs but also portions of your blood veins, which resulted in your previous lungs turning 'black' and would have resulted in death had it not been for the Synthorgan you received going in and scrubbing every cancer cell and foreign cell to your body out.] She chided as she took his temperature, scanned his organs, and a host of other things using her optics. [And I'm not detecting any smoke permeating your new lungs, not that such things would influence the Synthetic Lungs, but the rest of your body would have suffered. So good on you.]

"Oh… yea… nasty habit, can't believe I ever started it." He said jokingly.

[But you're here because you are suffering neck pains…] She stated dully.

"Yes… and I was hoping…"

[I have two treatments, potential invasive surgery in which I re-align the neck portion of your spine and relieve the pain being caused to your neck muscles…]

"That sounds painful…" He replied as she stepped around him.

[Which means we do this…] She said, and before he could react, wrapped two legs around his neck and quickly twisted his neck, causing a tiny 'creak' and 'crack' from readjusting his spine around the neck area.

"Ooow ow, ow… w-wow… the pain's gone…" He said as he turned his neck slightly in surprise.

[Basic Chiropractic Adjustment, one of the more 'archaic' medicines I have access to regarding the spinal cord.] She stated dully. [Not a replacement for a plasma knife surgical cut into your muscle to gain access to your spinal cord to manually realign it, thus preventing 'future' neck pains from occurring due to you spending most of your time hunched over a keyboard. But it gets the job done…]

"Well thanks a lot miss Ema!" Mr. Bellfloof said.

[Just make sure you pay regular visits to your doctor, and if you suffer more pains in the neck… check in with a chiropractor.] She said as he got up and started leaving, while cataloguing his biology and cleaning the chair. [NEXT!]

The next mammal that walked in 'stumbled' onto the chair.

"Uh hey Doc… I'm…"

[Your just drunk.] She said dully as she walked over to the door and opened it. [DOES THIS MAMMAL HAVE A FRIEND?]

"Yea, me."

[Are you sober?]

"Yes?"

[Take him home, get him to bed, tell him sleep!] She stated as she grabbed her patient and 'shoved' him out. [NEXT!]

After a few moments she watched a pair of shrews walk in, a mother and her daughter by the looks of it and she had to help them onto the chair. "Hi, I'm Fru Fru, and this is my daughter Judy… and I was just wondering if I could quickly have my daughter vaccinated for a few things…"

Ema looked at the tiny shrew and brought her smallest needle that she had, which was one of her 'mouth' needles, down to them. [Stretch out your arm ma'am, this will only take a few seconds…]

Jeremy watched as two heavily armored knights on horseback charged across a field toward each other, lances aimed at the other as the crowd watched from the sidelines for the moment that they made contact with one another. After just a few seconds each knight struck the other in the chests and while one knight managed to hang on, though the impact was 'VERY' hard, the other was knocked clean off his horse, much to the delight and cheer of the crowd. The victorious knight, who went by the name of Sir Lancelot, raised his broken lance toward the crowd and bowed respectfully to them as the next 'mock fight' was announced.

"Wooooooot!" He yelled excitedly.

While the next knights were preparing for their turn, who were taking up the names of Sir Galahad, and Sir Tristan, several jesters wearing colorful outfits and masks ran onto the field to amuse the audience and stall for time. The Lady of the Tournament, a woman by the name of Lady Amalia declared that a tournament to decide who would be champion of King Arthur's 'Knights of the Round Table' of England was to be held in Zootopia. At the same time knights were competing over in another section nearby, representing the Flower of Nobility of France.

It was a duel between two rival nations in medieval Europe, often going to war with one another, in later centuries the two nations began to develop a close rivalry with one another, each trying to surpass the other. So it was with this tournament, as the champion of England would fight the champion of France in a Jousting competition.

To amuse and please the audience as they waited for France's Champion, as Sir Tristan and Galahad prepared to joust, Jesters and acrobats performed tricks and acts for the audience.

"A most fine joust if I must say so Jeremy, and I love the amusement provided by these colorful individuals." Mr. Big said as he sat on his Polar Bear escort's hands.

"I like these jousts in general." Koslov said.

"Oh yea, even in holographic form, you can just 'feel' the impact!" Jeremy said as a Jester pulled a small cloth from his clothes and made a pie appear, before throwing it at another Jester, and then the crowd laughed as they started running around with one chasing the other.

As the Jesters started leaving the arena two knights took to the field and a hush filled the crowd as they waited for it to begin. After only a few seconds both knights pushed their steeds onward and lowered their lances so that they immediately could jab at one another, and the knight representing Sir Galahad rode off victorious while Sir Tristan was knocked off his horse.

"Woooooooot!" Jeremy cheered with everymammal as Sir Galahad bowed respectfully toward the crowd and left the field, to be replaced by the jesters again as they fooled around and amused the crowd.

"I am most curious though, why do they engage each other one at a time, so slowly." Mr. Big asked as several 'fair maidens' walked around with small fruit snacks and meat snacks for predator and prey watching the event.

"It harkens back my most venerable lord, to the days of old when knights fought for chivalry's sake and in honorable single combat." A princess nearby explained. "When such tournaments were held in olden days, knights from across the realm competed to prove their worth, might, and above all their skills in combat. It was a way to gain notoriety among the nobility and to garner favors and gain status."

"Ah, I see… that makes sense." Mr. Big replied as the final match was about to begin.

As Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad readied their steeds, their lances, and finally charged the crowd watched with excitement as they drew closer. Then with an almighty bang both riders struck each other and broke their lances on the other's armor, but both knights still stood on their steeds. When they reached the ends of the runway, they were quickly handed new lances, turned, and once again charged toward the other to the cheers and roar of the crowd.

Again, they both struck one another, and again both lances cracked and fractured before shattering from the impact of the blows. They were handed new lances, and charged once more into the fray that was the Joust.

"They're very formidable!" Koslov said as yet again, both knights managed to stay seated after breaking their lances again on the other's armor, but only 'barely' holding onto their steeds by strength of their legs.

"I think the next blow is going to be the one that decides the victor." Jeremy whispered as they prepared to charge once more.

Sure enough, as he predicted the final blow came as they plowed their lances into one another, and Sir Lancelot remained upright on his steed, looking very exhausted as he raised his lance proudly for the crowd's cheering, while Sir Galahad struggled to get off the ground after being knocked off.

"A most excellent joust!" Mr. Big said as every mammal applauded the victor.

After the joust concluded to determine 'England's' Champion, he decided to leave and explore more of the festival, and also find Gazelle again as he'd left her and completely forgotten about her in the rush of what Aelita was doing for him and all of Zootopia. Though as he left, he didn't notice the glowing bird that arrived right after, looking around and being distracted by the Jesters. As he walked around, he looked at all of the humans, and while they were only holograms created and directed by Aelita the AI, he just felt like he was no longer 'alone'. He knew this was only an illusion, something that would only happen 'once' a year, if that, but for just this moment in time… he didn't feel like he was the last of his kind anymore.

"I put a spell on you, and now your miiiine!"

As he walked toward a section of the park being used for witch/wizard/magic culture part of humanity, and for a little bit of fun three humans dressed as witches were singing to mammals nearby in a fun jig.

And watching it was Gazelle, with a glowing bird next to her, swaying and dancing to the music.

"Hello Zootopia! My name's Winifred! What's yours?" The lead singer sang. "I put a spell on you, and now you're gone…"

"Gone gone gone, so long!" Her sisters sang.

"My whammy fell on you, and it was strong…"

"So strong, so strong, so strong!"

Seeing Gazelle distracted he walked up and caught her off guard with a pat on the shoulder. She jumped in shock but laughed and hugged him happily, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "Jeremy, they're called the Sanderson Sisters!" She said.

"Enjoying the festival?"

"More than you can imagine, I'm having so much fun, I got something to show you in a few… but first check out this song!"

They turned back to the music as the singers started getting into the main groove of their song.

"If you don't believe you better get superstitious… ask my sisters!" The lead singer sang while gesturing to her sisters.

"Ooh, she's vicious!"

"I put a spell on you… I put a spell on you… Sisters!"

Both her sisters stepped forward and started singing, "Ah say ento pi, alpha mabi upendi!"

"Ah say ento pi, alpha mabi upendi!" The mammals sang back.

"In comma coriyama…" They all sang in unison.

"In comma coriyama!"

"Hey" "Hey" "Hi" "Hi" "Say bye" "Say Bye"

"Byyyyyye… BYE BYE!"

Applause followed and all three sisters bowed warmly before vanishing in a wisp of smoke, leaving all the mammals to go and enjoy the 'magic section' of the festival and enjoy it. He and Gazelle walked around the section, talking about what they had seen, and he met her 'spirit guide'.

"What do you think of my spirit guide?" She asked as her spirit walked up to him and snuggled next to his leg warmly.

"She's very sweet." He replied before looking at her with a smile. "Just like you Gazelle."

She only chuckled before giving him a quick kiss on his lips, and then wrapping her arm around his and walking side by side with him to explore the magic and mystery that was witchcraft and wizardry by 'human' standards. Their first destination was a little 'magic dress shop' that Gazelle was eager to go into, and walked out wearing a sexy witch's dress that she 'knew' Jeremy would like, and sure enough he blushed red and tried his best to avoid staring at her amazing form in it.

They stopped by a demonstration of classic magic, by a wizard waving a wand and casting spells, where Jeremy got to wave a wand and cast a spell he didn't know how to pronounce before some mammals, and for their amusement, he accidentally made his hair vanish and appear on Gazelle. It then tap-danced for a few moments before a laughing crowd, until it returned to him, and then they wandered off.

"That was so much fun~!" She giggled as they walked together, while her spirit just followed behind them. "By the way, have you found your spirit yet? I found mine almost immediately after the festival began."

"No, I haven't seen 'my' spirit guide…" He said.

"Hmm, where could it be?" Gazelle asked as she looked at her phone, but it only displayed the message of 'spirit found'. "Do you know where Jeremy's spirit could be?"

Her spirit shook its head and replied with a message on her phone saying, [He could be anywhere…] with a sad expression.

"Jeremy!"

They turned to see Judy and Nick walking toward them with a pair of spirits following behind them, a Raptor with butterfly wings and feathers, and a 'butterfly' with oversized feathery wings.

"Judy, Nick, are you enjoying the festival?"

"More than enjoying it, we're having an absolute blast!" Judy said warmly. "We just sat in on a reading of African Storytelling, we listened to a story of Anansi the Spider."

"Small spider drinking an entire river so that it and it and its fellows could rescue their father… you humans have crazy stories." Nick said with a smirk. "Personally, my favorite exhibit was the Polynesian explanation of Wayfinding, I cannot imagine humans sailing so far on one of those rafts down by the lake."

"I'm sure there are crazier stories than that." He replied with a laugh.

"So where are you two going next?" Judy asked them as they resumed walking.

"Oh, I have an idea, Jeremy, would you like to check out the Highland Games, my friends are over there now and watching some athletic competitions taking place?"

"I think I'd like that." He replied with a nod.

"Alright, enjoy yourselves…" Nick called out as they left, leaving him and Judy behind with their spirit guides to wander around again. "I swear they make a cute couple."

"And we don't?" She grinned back.

They turned around and were about to go explore more of the park before they saw a pair of spirit guides fighting one another. At least by the looks of it, it seemed to be a one sided fight as one spirit guide, a bird with reddish wings and blue/purple feathers, was struggling to get up and flinching in pain as it was kicked around by another spirit guide. The other spirit guide was a feline creature with sharp claws and really long fur.

"Yaaaaa kick its butt!" A cub was yelling with his friends cheering and jeering at the display.

They'd seen a few of these fights taking place, some mammals they watched were arguing with one another over things and if they had spirit guides with them, they often took it out against each other so that no mammal was hurt. For the most part it was ignored by both the holographic humans and mammals, so they just assumed it was alright to let them have at it.

This however, seemed to be completely one sided, as the poor bird was struggling to get away and flinching at every claw strike taking place.

"Hey, leave that poor thing alone!" Judy yelled.

"Oh, it aint real, let us have our fun!" The cub called back as the bird cried in agony now, trying to get up and failing.

Nick was about to demand where their parents were, when Judy's spirit guide started snarling and stomping forward to intervene, before Nick's spirit guide intervened with 'her' guide and pushing it back with its large wings.

"Hey why is your guide trying to stop mine from helping?"

"I don't know, you think I'm controlling…" Nick started saying when a thought crossed his mind. "I think it wants you to leave them alone."

"Why would I do that?" She snapped.

Seconds later she received her answer as 'another' bird with beautiful colored feathers, elegant tailfeathers and a graceful figure jumped past them and kicked off the attacking spirit guide, before flaring its wings and glaring at the attacker. The downed bird quickly noticed and managed to edge just a little bit further away from the fighting, but continued to struggle as it seemed unable to use its wings to help itself.

"Alright a 'real' fight!" The cub shouted excitedly, before egging his spirit on to fight back.

The fight lasted only a few seconds as the feline spirit charged, tried to claw and snap its jaws at the second bird, before the bird countered with a powerful kick. It then spun on one leg and flared its feathers and tailfeathers in every direction, confusing the feline and then kicking it 'yet again'. It then stood on its two legs, tucked its wings into its body and stared at the attacking spirit, which whimpered and walked away to hide behind its cub.

With a glare the rescuing spirit scared the bullies to take several steps away, before turning around and gently, lovingly, helped the fallen bird onto its feet, using its wings to coax it up and its own body to support the weight until it could stand on its own.

"Wait a minute… isn't that 'Gazelle's' Spirit Guide that we just saw?" Judy asked quietly.

"Yep, and if the way its acting is anything to go on, then the other one must be…"

"Where did you run off to?" Gazelle called out as she quickly walked over to where her spirit had gone, and was greeted with a gentle smile and showing with one wing the other spirit she'd rescued. "What are you doing over here?"

"Wait, that's Gazelle's?" The cub bully asked in shock, as his friends continued.

"Then that means…"

"The one we were picking on was…"

"Gazelle?" Jeremy called as he now entered the area.

When he appeared the downed bird spirit eagerly got up and ran over to him in excitement, shaking its tailfeathers with glee.

"Well I guess we found your spirit guide Jeremy." Gazelle chuckled as hers sidled up next to his rubbed its cheek affectionately.

"They look kind of similar." He said as his spirit sheepishly glanced away from Gazelle's after it kept showing affection.

Then it seemed to notice something and was off running again in excitement, with Gazelle's spirit guide shaking its head in amusement before chasing after it, with him and Gazelle walking and following behind.

The bullies had long since left the area when they realized that the spirit guide, they'd been picking on was Jeremy's, and now Judy and Nick just shook their heads in amusement before walking and going to enjoy the rest of the festival.

"Well that explains why yours didn't want mine interfering." Judy said.

"Yea, who knew Gazelle had a kick like that in her?" Nick replied.

Officer Clawhauser was making his way to one of the entrances to the park after chowing down on some more Japanese cooking, and was thinking fondly about his bed at home when he noticed Chief Bogo conversing with the mayor and her chief of finance director. Kassara and Lioness were talking with the chief about something that had the Hyena laughing in stiches.

"Oh, hello there chief, and hello there miss Mayor and Director." He said as he walked over to them.

"Heading home Clawhauser?" Bogo asked.

"Yes sir, chief, needa head home for my shift tomorrow, again thank you sooo much for letting me have tonight off to come to the festival."

"No problem."

"And miss mayor, how are you and the finance director doing tonight?"

"I'm here making sure this festival turns a profit." Kassara said as she forced herself to talk seriously. "As I told Lioness, the city is 'deep' in the red, we need this to be successful or else we're going to have to make some serious budget cuts or other measures."

"Oh, don't worry about it Kassara, I'm sure things will turn out well." She replied with a smile. "All of this human technology and seeing it in action is no doubt going to bring in business from around the world."

"And your talk with Jeremy about perhaps getting some of that famous 'human tech' to license or loan?" Kassara asked.

"I can't sell his technology as you know." She replied. "But if there's enough interest, especially in some of the technology on display here, just look at the holographic tech for example, maybe Jeremy will be willing to loan us some of it out."

"That technology alone could probably put us at least into the green." Kassara said with a disappointed sigh. "Forgive me Chief Bogo and Lioness for acting like this, I know this is a cultural festival for Jeremy's species, but it 'is' my job to make sure we're in the green and 'stay' in the green."

"Nonsense don't even think about it, I 'might' have an idea or two to help us but… it's going to rely on 'him'…" Mayor Lioness said as she muttered the last words, while eyeing a passing by Raptor Drone wearing a scarf around its neck. "Those drones sure are something else though… I wonder how exactly he keeps them under control?"

"I think they are all 'programmed' and 'hardwired' to obey him, or humans at least, and because he's the last they have no choice but to obey him." Bogo said as he too watched the drone walking by them. "Between us Mayor, I really don't trust those drones, all it takes is Jeremy being threatened, even 'slightly', and they act like it's a war zone. I wish he would leave them all underground, or at least disarm them 'completely'."

"Well they seem harmless enough Chief." Clawhauser said as he glanced at a Dog drone just sitting on the ground watching everymammal silently.

"Tell that to the officers and swat team who had to deal with them." Bogo said bitterly, right as a tiny glowing bird flew out from behind his back and landed on his shoulder.

"Oh, who's is that, is that your spirit Chief?" Clawhauser said sweetly as he looked at it.

The small bird was plucky in form and had extremely long tailfeathers that went all the way to his hips and wings each as long as his arms as it sidled up next to Chief Bogo and rubbed his cheek affectionately.

"Yes… it is." He muttered with a silent glare away from it.

"Oooooh, he's so adorable!"

Kassara started giggling and laughing as she and the Mayor left to explore more of the festival while he went home, leaving Chief Bogo to grunt in annoyance at having to be seen with his tiny spirit guide.

But, as said spirit guide snuggled and flicked its tailfeathers happily, he could only smile and wiggle his fingers at it cutely while cooing at it.

It 'was' a cute little bird to him.

Jeremy's spirit guide was extremely enthusiastic about exploring the festival, leading the way and taking them to various attractions so they could experience as much as they could. First, they were led to the Highland Games where they met up with her friends and they could go together to a few more exhibits before heading home to sleep and return. After that they met up with their dates who were watching a demonstration of Japanese Calligraphy and sat in on a Noh Theatre performance performing the tale of Funa Benkai. Then they were steered toward a Chinese demonstration of Shadow Play, where drones behind a thin lit sheet of canopy were using special puppets controlled by strings and sticks to perform an act in the Romance of the Three Kingdom's novel, while humans spoke for them off to the side.

However, as they were passing a performance by Russian Dancers which caught Jeremy's, her friends and their date's attention, Gazelle noticed that her spirit was constantly watching Jeremy's spirit's wings, and especially kept glancing at the two chains wrapped around its leg and neck. While they were busy staring at the performance, she managed to quickly convince both his and her spirit to join her away from the crowd watching two Ballerinas dancing on the tips of their toes in swan themed outfits.

"Hey, listen I know your Jeremy's spirit and I have no business to be asking but… is something wrong with your wings?" She asked politely.

His spirit quickly shook his head and pretended to wiggle warmly to demonstrate nothing was wrong.

"Well… okay…" She replied.

His spirit quickly hopped away, but the entire time both her and her spirit watched with worried expressions.

"What's with his wings, and the chains… do you know?" She asked, knowing Aelita would answer her question if she promised to keep it between them.

Her spirit nodded and her phone beeped with its reply. [Jeremy's spirit is chained by the training of his upbringing and the suffering he witnessed and lived through. Even though he is freed from those chains and no longer bound by his species' past, he carries them with him wherever he goes.]

"Well what's with his wings then?" She asked nervously, having witnessed her spirit flex and spread its wings multiple times while Jeremy's hadn't so much as flapped once.

A reply was slow to come as it looked nervous about the response, before it looked to her with sorrow in its eyes. [It is the blood of his species that keeps him from soaring and keeps him grounded. Their blood is on him now, though he may not have harmed a soul in his life, he carries the blood that was spilled to keep him and the others alive. Now that he is alone, he must carry it alone…]

"But he isn't at fault, he didn't do anything…"

Her spirit nodded in agreement, but still smiled sadly. [Over a hundred million were slaughtered so that seventeen thousand would have the 'chance' to survive. Of those only one thousand were guaranteed safety… and of that one thousand, only 'one' survived… their blood weighs him down regardless… as long as he thinks that he is at fault for all the deaths that were caused, then his wings will remain soaked in their blood. And even then, because he is the last survivor of his species, he will 'always' have the weight of their blood weighing him down.]

It then turned and followed after his spirit, and she followed afterwards, but as they sat and watched the performance continue, she could not help but glance at Jeremy every few minutes. He applauded when it ended, smiled and laughed at jokes being made, and even blushed a little when one of the holographic ballerinas winked at him while her friends laughed with their dates. But she knew, deep down, Jeremy was 'still' in pain.

He was hiding it extremely well, keeping it at bay thanks to their relationship and finding himself at peace with what happened. But he was still in pain.

When they left the dance platform as the drones prepared it for another performance it was approaching dawn, the faint lights of the sun were starting to touch the sky and all of them were noticing how very tired they were. The excitement and splendor of the holograms and drones actions and various attractions and activities had worn off on their group, and they decided instead of going to their homes to sleep before returning later, they would instead go to the Eden Facility and sleep there.

As they were nearing a park exit, they were stopped by a mammal who called out Gazelle's name. The mammal in question was another Angelope, a fellow singer in the music industry that Gazelle recognized as 'Antella-Lopei', whom she had a feud with a month ago when she broke the news to the world that she and Jeremy were dating. She was wearing a slim dress that hugged her form tightly while showing off a diamond necklace and smiling at her.

"Oh Gazelle, leaving so soon?" Antella asked in a 'polite' tone that only hid her dislike for Gazelle by the tiniest of margins.

"We've been up since morning 'yesterday', we're going to sleep before returning Antella." Gazelle replied just as politely.

"Well why are you leaving Jeremy, this is your species' festival, shouldn't you be here to see it to its conclusion?"

"Well I would but, like Gazelle said we've been up since morning yesterday." Jeremy replied politely.

"Aww, and here I was getting all dressed up to meet the 'Angel without Fur' face to face." Antella replied in a 'slightly' depressed tone. "Well I'll try to stay to catch you when you return Jeremy."

"That's very… nice of you." He said as nicely as he could, not liking how she was eyeing him or liking how her eyebrows 'slowly' blinked.

"Well thank you Antella but we'll be going now, enjoy the festival!" Gazelle replied with a warm, but forced, smile.

She quickly dragged Jeremy away with her friends following behind and toward the Solar Carriage, which sat patiently waiting for them on the road near the gate. And while she didn't notice or look back at Antella, she still had that smile on her face, even as she glanced at the two holographic spirit guides walking after them. Jeremy's spirit guide cheerfully ignored her, but Gazelle's glared back as it passed, before swiftly flaring its tailfeathers as wide as they could, obstructing Jeremy's spirit from her view.

"Sigh, I give it a few more months, celebrity marriages never last." Antella muttered. "She doesn't deserve someone like him, she probably is just using him for her own fame."

With that she walked on to enjoy the festival, already enjoying her time visiting Zootopia.

At the facility they were all let out of the carriage and walked down to the base entrance, and went to preassigned rooms by the one standing drone protecting the West Entrance. Jeremy and Gazelle 'showered' and then climbed into a bed to share.

Before going to bed however she gave him a lingering kiss on his lips, before snuggling into his embrace with a whisper, "I love you Jeremy…"

"As do I Gazelle…"

She smiled and quickly fell asleep, knowing that he would cuddle her tightly while asleep.

While they slept, they're spirit guides watched them from the opposite end of the room, both smiling gently as they did. Then Gazelle's spirit guide got Jeremy's attention, and proceeded to give him her 'bedroom eyes' with a smirk.

Jeremy's did a double take, before glancing quickly between her and the two sleeping individuals, and then nodded in the direction of the command center, to which Gazelle's simply grinned and repeated the bedroom eyes gesture.

Then after two seconds he jumped and ran to the bathroom to try and get away, but Gazelle's chased after while wearing a smirk still. She jumped him just as he turned the corner into the bathroom, and there was only a 'slight' struggle as their tailfeathers kept waving.

Then one set of tailfeathers went stiff and flared straight up, followed quickly afterwards by the second pair.

Back at the Festival, PT-173 was still tailing the male antelope who, according to its memory banks, was identified as 'Paulo'. It has been following the male for the past several hours since first spotting the male. Paulo was drinking heavily, tasting some of the wines from various cultures and talking loudly to his girlfriend at some of the more 'expressive' attractions. So far PT-173 had trailed the two to a multicultural Boxing event, then watched them singing along as a traditional Jarabe Dance was performed or as it was referred to as the 'Mexican Hat Dance'. It then tailed them as they watched an Irish Stepdance being performed.

It kept on tailing the mammals, more focused on 'Paulo' than his supposed date as he noticed a steady increase in the mammal's alcohol intake.

"Ooooh Paulo this is the best date I could have had!"

"Ah told ya… it would be fun…" Paulo.

"Free food practically, all this cool stuff, and can you imagine all the wine and beers they are serving here?"

Paulo was obviously drunk, he knew it himself, but hey things were going good for him. After he split up with Lula, he got a new job position at where he was working. Then he found a new girlfriend months ago and they hit off, they had similar interests and she even had her own place for now, so he didn't have to spend so much on her as he did when Lula lost her job.

And with how she clung to him on their date at this festival he might just get lucky.

He chuckled as they walked through the crowds and throngs of mammals exploring the festival while drinking a beer, trying to decide where they go next before going home, when his girlfriend started tugging him away from all the crowds and attractions to where the park was more 'empty' of visitors.

"Hey… since you've been treating me so well these past few weeks…" His girlfriend said in a sultry tone. "How about I treat 'you' tonight…"

"Are you serious… its like… we're in the middle of a park…" He replied with a hearty laugh.

"Makes it more exciiiiting don't it?"

"Well I'm not complaining!" He muttered as he pushed her just as eagerly toward the only 'empty' area of the park, not noticing the fancy lights that blocked a section of the park from view.

"Hehehe…." She giggled as they started making out once they were out of sight.

He dropped the bear can on the ground and let what was left of the drink to spill on the ground, and slowly started removing his jacket while pulling out a rubber he kept in his pants for just such an occasion. "Ooooh, you came prepared." She giggled.

"Doesn't hurt to have one ready…" He said.

"Good thing you did… otherwise I'd…" She started saying as he pushed her on the ground. "Relax Paulo… no need to… w-wait why is this so hard?"

"Oh, you're making me hard…"

"No, stop for a second look…"

In his drunken haze he finally stopped and felt the ground, and indeed felt something 'hard' and smooth on the ground. Curious he looked past her and saw that it was a marble slab with an engraved name that, in the dim light of daylight arriving, and while drunk his eyes were having difficulty making out.

"P-p-p-aulo… what is that?"

He looked around and saw, standing several yards away was a metal 'thing' standing on two tri-toed feet. It was staring at them with a pair of glowing yellow eyes, and as it continued to stare his brain suddenly started 'rushing' to try and focus and throw off the alcohol affecting his mind at the time. Quickly looking around he saw a glass orb monument with a glowing sun several yards away, concealed by the glowing walls of light that shifted colors constantly.

Recognizing the monument, he looked down feverishly as he noticed at last… the engraving on the marble slab on the ground.

'Julian Wilheart'

"It's… this is the human gravesite!" He muttered.

[Hyeeeeeeeeeeeees…] A low mechanical growling hiss sounded.

He looked up at the drone as it's glowing eyes changed to red, its mouth opened to reveal fangs, its arms shifted into its body and revealed a pair of firearms pointing at him, and it screeched in a loud voice…

[DESECRATOR!] It roared so loudly that he had to cover his ears in pain. "Gaaaawk, Gaaaaaaawk!"

From all over the park RAPTOR drones took notice to the sound and the communication from PT-173, and those closest started speeding toward the location of the grave. Those mammals who heard the roar looked on in confusion along with the holographic humans as drones rushed to the scene, alongside a few ZPD officers.

Paulo meanwhile was rushing to get off the ground and run away before the drone could catch him, but it was completely futile. PT-173 had already pounced and shoved him to the ground, snarling and snapping its teeth while keeping its weapons trained on the mammal, as his girlfriend left the scene before any other mammal could stop her.

After a few seconds additional drones had entered the grave site, before going off to chase after the female antelope. Then finally, Chief Bogo and several ZPD officers, among them Judy and Nick, arrived on the scene to figure out what was going on.

"Alright what's going on here, what's the commotion about."

[This unit was desecrating the graves of humanity…] PT-173 declared as it forcefully picked Paulo off the ground and held the mammal before the officers.

"Wh… I did nothing!" He tried to lie. "I just stumbled here, and this thing overreacted!"

Judy and Nick frowned at that, already knowing a lie when they saw it. Jeremy's drones don't just 'randomly' attack any mammal without cause.

They especially do not go overboard, despite the guns the drone had trained on the antelope, it wasn't going to fire a shot without cause.

"Can anyone 'prove' what your saying is accurate, if not I'm inclined to believe the drone."

"W… you'd believe a machine over me?" He tried to yell indignantly, but the drone snarled for him to be silent.

"Well, I'm 'listening'… so start talking…" Bogo said with a smile.

Judy however looked at the ground and smirked, as she remembered what the holographic human character Sherlock Holmes did, and decided to try her hand at figuring it out. "I think you are lying mister… and I can prove it Chief Bogo." She walked over to the mammal and looked him in the eye with a grin. "I think you were going to have sexual intercourse in an inappropriate location moments ago, and you were so drunk you 'and' your partner didn't realize you were doing it in the gravesite of humanity."

"Oh, really, prove it!" He snapped back at her.

She grimaced back as she waved the 'drunk air' away from her.

"For starters, your drunk breath is a dead giveaway… but you also tossed your beer can over there, the liquid is dripping out of the can and onto the grave site. If we did a breathalyzer, I bet we'd find your way over the legal intoxication level."

"Not to mention we were at the same German drinking festival they were having here celebrating an event called Oktoberfest." Nick said with a grin. "You had six pints if I remember… I only had a tiny glass with Judy cause we're technically on the job. And we didn't want to be rude and say, 'no thank you' after we were offered one."

"Also…" Judy said as she hopped over the graves, and carefully reached over the grave of Julian Wilheart, saying "Sorry Mister Wilheart, just needa reach that…" before grabbing what she wanted and hopping back over, holding a rubber only half torn open. "You dropped 'this' here… so unless you were going to experiment and learn how to put it on yourself… you obviously had other plans tonight."

Paulo just looked speechless as ZPD officers cuffed him and started taking him away. "I believe the mayor's orders were, 'anyone caught desecrating the graves of humanity, are to be given life in prison'." Chief Bogo said with a snarl, "Take him away, we'll let the courts deal with him…" a second after his radio went off and heard that officers at another exit had been handed a female antelope by the drones. "Him, and his friend."

As he was led away Judy and Nick were soon rejoined by their spirit guides as Bogo walked away. "Nice going Carrots, look at you, first an officer now a detective. What are you going to start your own private eye service?"

"Not a bad idea Nicky, by the way… nice catch Drone. You guys are sharp!" She said while walking away with the machine.

[Thank you, this unit was monitoring that mammal after 'I'…]

It stopped talking, and walking at that last statement.

Both she and Nick stopped to look in confusion as the drone stopped moving, almost like it didn't believe what it had just said.

"You okay?"

[Th… This… Unit… I… I…] It stuttered as its optics started changing colors, and then its head started twitching. [I… this… unit but… I… me… 'no'… no… It… I-I-I…]

"Drone… are you…" Nick asked in confusion, slowly backing away.

The drone started flicking and swishing its tail every few seconds, then it held its head with both claws while its optics continued to rotate colors.

[Memory… data… corruption, errorerrorerror… I… does not… code sequence fifty-two… 'I'… not… do not… do not know…] It leaned down to their level while still clutching its head. [Why is raven like writing desk?]

"Uh… what?" Judy muttered now in fear. "Drone do you want us to contact Jeremy and…"

[I… do not… need… Heeeeeeeeelp!] It muttered in 'fear'. [This unit… my… name… PT-1… Pe… tee… one… Peeeeete?] It then let one claw go of its head and stared at it in 'fear' again. [Lu… la… I fvvbeeee oroooshu varoova VAVAVAVA eeeeouuup I MUST GO HOME!]

And with that the drone started rushing back to the facility, its AI breaking down and struggling to focus and make sense of what was going on.

It ignored all the mammals who watched it go, even the drones who only watched it pass, paying it no mind.

When it returned to the facility, it headed to Drone Parts Storage Room Alpha, locked itself into place on the maintenance pad, and shut itself down, only reporting that it was suffering an 'unknown malfunction'. While it remained offline though, its AI continued to fluctuate and change as new pathways and logic algorithms formed, while old ones became bugged due to the new ones being crafted.

The next afternoon when Jeremy was awoken by Sentinel, stating that Lula was requesting his presence, and asked him to check on her friend, the drone ID'd as PT-173, saying that it acted very strangely early that morning by Judy and Nick. Other drones also reported it acting suspiciously at a specific time index, most notably when it used the term 'I'. Curious, he went to Drone Parts Storage Room Alpha where the drone was currently stored with Lula.

"Okay, let's see…" Jeremy said as he brought up the Holo-viewer to examine the drone's AI status and other reports about its body.

The first thing he noticed that caught him off guard was that the drone's AI activity were off the scale. The sheer 'number' of new pathways and logic algorithms had nearly 'doubled' compared to what a Category 6 AI was supposed to have. Alongside the new pathways he noticed the old ones had become bugged and were suffering sequential errors that were baffling him the more he examined them.

"What is going on here… what happened to this drone?" He said.

"What's wrong with him?" Lula asked.

"PT-173's AI has undergone an AI evolution, it's upgraded from Category 6 to Category 7 on its own, but the drone's AI didn't upgrade properly." He muttered as he looked up more data on the drone's status. "Something must've happened to the drone to cause it to undergo this evolution in AI Category. It's known to happen among Category 6 AI, they 'can' upgrade to 7 on their own but the transition is not always stable. Unless upgraded to a pre-built AI, most drones that undergo an upgrade on their own suffer massive side effects. Only way I'll know for certain about what happened to this drone is to turn it on…" He typed on the holo-keyboard to bring the drone online. "Sentinel, request deployment of secondary defense turrets in Drone Parts Storage Room Alpha, authorization Jeremy Wilheart, clearance code Pod Alpha 717."

[Defense Turrets online, targeting potential threat.] The base AI declared as four ceiling turrets were lowered and took aim at the motionless drone.

"Turrets, but Pete wouldn't hurt you, he's programmed to defend you right?"

"PT-173 may be programmed with the HPPs, but there is no way to know how this unknown upgrade to the drone's AI may have affected its programming when concerned with the HPPs, there's a good chance it may go rogue. Better to be safe than sorry." He explained as tapped the command to bring the drone back online.

There was a brief moment when PT-173 remained offline, before its optics slowly blinked to life, and it looked up at him and Lula. [Lu… la… Jere… my…]

Jeremy took a deep breath before he stepped over to the drone, and instantly all the turrets focused their aim, ready to fire if PT-173 so much as 'twitched' the wrong way. "Drone… can you hear me… can you understand me?" He asked loudly.

[Yes… 'I' can…]

"Drone… what happened last night, why did you act the way you did?"

It twitched its head as it turned to look at Lula, and all the turrets snapped to keep a lock and plasma bullets were ready to fire, but the drone did not lash out or act in a way that required them to fire.

[I saw… Paulo… in the… festival.] It stated, sounding like it was struggling to speak clearly.

"You saw my Ex, what did he do to you?" Lula asked quickly.

[He… walked… and toured the festival andhewenttoplaceswithhis girlfeeeeeend BEeeeeeeeep lalalallalala…] It said rapidly before shouting in a loud voice, [HE DESECRATED THEIR GRAVES HE HAD TO PAY!]

While Lula stepped back in shock at how 'random' PT-173 was acting, Jeremy stayed calm as he recognized the side effect of the unintended upgrade from category 6 to 7 for the drone's AI. The rapid and sudden development of new logic pathways and various lines of code had caused it's AI to struggle now to maintain a long statement without malfunctioning, and it would just blurt out something unable to control itself.

The drone was still functioning, still functional, but it was going to struggle to keep a coherent phrase going from now on. He just had one thing he had to ask to make sure of his suspicion.

"How did seeing what Paulo do to my species' grave… make you 'feel'?"

The drone looked at him and its metallic claws shook constantly as he asked the question. [It… made 'me'… feel… upset… he had… he… hurt Lula, Savior One… he desecrated the graves… of the deceased Creator Species… it… it made me feelmadbecausehedoesn'tcarevvvsssssh Varvarvarvar HE MADE ME MAD!]

Again, while Lula took a step back in shock, Jeremy remained calm, having seen this a few times, even when he was a kid growing up in the base.

"Do you know why it made you mad?"

PT-173 turned its head in confusion as seemed to struggle to answer the question.

[Error… no logical explanation… zero explanation for thisunknownfeelingthatIamfeeliiiiiiiiii bsssssh LALALALA WE HAVE AN ARMY DOWNSTAIRS IN THE BASEMENT!]

Jeremy sighed as he walked back to the holo-keyboard and began typing in new commands. "It's as I feared, the drone's AI didn't take the upgrade easily, its AI is able to understand feelings 'now' but its only the feelings it understands, it doesn't know 'why' it is feeling them. Because of the unplanned upgrade, and how the pathways and logic circuits were made during the transition, it's struggling to stay focused on any topic." He explained. "It's lucky that its AI managed to survive the transition, but now it's struggling to cope with the new higher thought processes its being forced to endure."

"Is there anything you can do to fix him?" Lula asked.

"No, even if I tried there are just too many bugs to debug and errors to fix with its programming. Its AI is functioning but only through paper clips and rubber bands to use an anagram. There are too many lines of code to go through and correct in order to stabilize the drone's AI so it can function properly as a Category 7 AI." He said as he brought up the drone's backup AI archive. "I'm going to do a complete memory wipe and system wipe of its AI, and then reboot the drone using the backup Category 6 AI kept stored in its memory archives. That will fix the drone and restore it to a normal state."

"Wait, memory wipe, but that will kill Pete's memories!" Lula said. "You can't do that, there's got to be a way."

"It's the only way to fix the drone's abnormal behavior, every time it talks its going to struggle to stay on any topic. When that happens, it will malfunction and then start spouting random stuff that either relates to what it was talking about, or gibberish that makes no sense. Then all it will take is 'one' line of code becoming corrupted and who knows what will happen to the drone then. This is the best way to fix PT-173."

[No category 6 drone has evooouuurrrrr eeeeeeee RaRaRaRaRa POTATOES ARE MADE OF TOMATOES TOO!]

"Don't worry, one memory wipe and then one system wipe of its AI, and it will be like 'nothing' ever happened to it. It will practically be factory new."

Lula looked to her friend as Jeremy brought up the drone's command prompts, and it looked at her with one optic, and then Pete made a low whine, almost like it was 'scared'.

"Don't do it Jeremy please!" She said, grabbing his arm and catching him off guard. "Please… he's still my friend, I don't want to lose my friend Jeremy, machine or not!"

He looked at Lula before glancing at PT-173, and the drone looked at him, giving the same emotion of 'fear' that it had given Lula. It was clear the drone was feeling fear, but it was also obvious it had zero idea as to 'why' it was afraid of Jeremy pushing the command he was about to push. He glanced back at the command prompt, all he had to do was push 'yes' and the drone's memory would be wiped, and then its current AI deleted so that its backup AI could be reuploaded.

He sighed as he tapped the command prompt and the hologram shut down, allowing metallic clamps to retract and let 'Pete' go. "Sentinel mark PT-173 as 'category 7' in the drone's manifest, have the drone be required to submit to daily AI checks to confirm no further abnormalities arise, have PT-173 remain in the facility at all times until further notice."

[Order Acknowledged.] Sentinel declared, as the turrets retracted.

Lula nodded gratefully as she said 'thank you' to him.

"I wasn't lying Lula when I said there was nothing more I could do to fix his AI, if he randomly upgrades again to category 8, then it will take a miracle for his AI to cope with the new classification. No drone that has gone from Category 6 to 7, and then to category 8 and remained 'stable'. All of them had a fatal crash and went offline, requiring their memory and systems to be wiped before reinstalling their backup 6 AI."

"I know, but still thank you for letting me keep my friend."

"You're welcome Lula, just remember, if the worst happens, there's nothing more I can do to fix him besides wiping his memory."

As he walked out of the storage bay with Lula and 'Pete' following behind him, she asked how Pete was feeling.

[I am functioning within normuuuuuuuuul paaaaa rarararara I CAN'T TELL IF I HAVE KIDNEYS!]

As Jeremy and the others started getting ready to return to the festival so they could see the closing moments, Lula got her chance to 'finally' meet the famous Gazelle face to face while Pete went downstairs to guard a hallway on 'Sentinel's' orders. Lula asked her so many questions, having never had the chance to meet the famous pop idol and singer when it wasn't in a magazine interview or on tv, asking things like what her favorite food was, how she became a star, as well as other things she was curious about.

But after a while, as Jeremy was still taking his time getting ready before leaving the base, Gazelle managed to ask 'Lula' a question that she was curious about while they waited in the command center.

"Lula, can I ask you something personal?" Gazelle asked as she saw Aelita's holosphere was glowing but 'empty' of the AI's holographic form.

"Uh… sure, what's up?" Lula asked as she sat on a chair.

"I was wondering… you were here living with Jeremy for a long time… 'alone'…" Gazelle said with a nervous fidget. "I was wondering… you know because he and I are dating… do you… regret not or wish that… you tried dating him?"

There was a moment of silence as Lula was wide eyed at Gazelle's question. She never imagined the pop idol, miss 'Angel with Horns', the 'face' of Zootopia would ever feel jealous or nervous that 'she' might have wanted to date her boyfriend. That was not something she was expecting somemammal like 'Gazelle' to ever ask her.

"I'll… be honest, the idea 'was' there for a bit." She muttered honestly. "I mean… I practically saved his life when you think about it. Sure, I only plugged my phone into his pod while he was frozen but… if I didn't, he might have died there. But…" She chuckled lightly as she thought about it. "If I had tried to save him when you found him in the rain, if it had been me, I could never have done what you did. I could not have gotten him to a hospital, or paid the bills to keep him alive… or provided him a home. Heck having me and my Ex probably wouldn't be the best idea to share a small apartment with Jeremy."

"Yea but… do you regret or wish?"

"No… I'm honestly not regretting or wishing I had tried to make a move when I 'was' living with him alone. I mean… how do I even 'approach' him, he was a legendary species… I was living in 'his' home for free, out of 'his' kindness. He was the last of his kind, how do you even 'attempt' something like a romance with him when you're in my shoes?" She replied with a smile. "Besides, you two belong together, I can tell. You make him happy and if he's anything to go on he makes 'you' happy I bet. I'm honestly happy for you two, he couldn't have had a better girl if he searched the whole world."

Gazelle smiled back and nodded in agreement, even as she touched the necklace, he gave her as a present, the necklace containing the fragment of the Solar Core. It warmed her heart, both figuratively and literally.

"Can I ask one more thing before everymammal shows up?" Lula asked suddenly.

"Sure, what is it?"

Lula pulled out a small poster of Gazelle that was made after the charity concert and held it to her with a shy expression, "Can I have your autograph!?"

Gazelle just chuckled and nodded as she pulled out a pen she always kept on paw for if and when a fan suddenly asked her for an autograph out of the blue, and signed her little poster.

At the festival things were starting to wind down as Midnight drew near, with mammals crowding the park trying to cram as much of the festival into their memories as they could and see what they could before the festival finally ended. Drones and ZPD began blocking off entry into the park when Midnight approached, and singers and dances began playing their final performances. When Jeremy arrived with his party, they were crowded by several Sheep from the local 'sheep chapel' service.

"Hello there Jeremy, I hope you don't think it weird or sudden, but we wanted to wish you a happy belated birthday by giving you a present from all the Sheep of Zootopia!" The oldest looking ram said as he presented him a pair of boxes.

"Oh… why thank you so much." He said as he took the boxes and asked a nearby RAPTOR drone to hold them for him so he could open them.

He opened the first box and slowly lifted out a massive hand-woven blanket. The blanket was extremely fluffy, made of the sheep's wool no doubt, and beautifully decorated with an artistic rendition of him as if he is sleeping, with two beautiful wings extending from his back and curling around him, as if they were keeping him warm. His body slept on a tree with six branches each holding him up, while the base of the tree seven roots kept the tree in place, and high above four shining stars lit the scene.

Amazed he was speechless as he put the first blanket back into its box and then opened the second box, to reveal another blanket, equally fluffy and large and just as beautifully engraved. While Jeremy wasn't present, he was still represented in the form of his Cryopod, or his 'egg' as it was dubbed by the mammals. His egg was sheltered from multiple sides, on one side a RAPTOR drone, on another a DOG, below stood a FOX, and above with her legs reaching around and cradling it was Ema. Each of the drones protecting and sheltering the egg, while the egg sat on a blanket of feathers it seemed.

"They're beautiful…" He muttered.

"We spent many weeks working on it, many sheep donated their wool to make it." The lead sheep said. "When we heard when your birthday was, and knowing about your disease… we all decided at one of our chapel meetings to weave a blanket to help you stay warm at night wherever you go."

"That's thoughtful and kind of you, thank you…" He replied gratefully, carefully putting the blankets back into their boxes.

The sheep all thanked him for his kind words and wished him well as they left, and he told the drones to take the boxes back to the solar carriage.

"You know Jeremy, the fact that the sheep made you a blanket out of their own wool is very special." Gazelle told him as they walked further into the park. "While sheep 'do' use their wool and make clothes for mammals, they only do so out of necessity and because its in very high demand. It's actually how a lot of sheep make their living, the fact that they made you a blanket using their own wool, and made it so artistic… is very special."

"It's that special?" He asked.

"Yea, but its mostly the fact that they did this 'because' its you, not many sheep, in fact almost 'no' sheep will do something like that for any mammal." She said seriously. "They are very picky when it comes to their wool, sheering it themselves and selling it anonymously is one thing, actively donating it collectively to make a blanket for one individual is another…"

"I see…"

Over an hour later, a massive 'gong' sounded, signaling that midnight had come, and as one, mammals watched as the holographic humans began to head toward the grave site. The humans started waving goodbye with all of the spirit guides and various holographic animals that had come the night before.

"Where are you going?" A polar bear cub asked one human woman who was passing by.

"The new day has come, and as such the time has come for us to leave this world once more." She replied sweetly, if not sadly. "We are but spirits as you know… our time in this world has passed, and our time to leave has arrived. For one day we were granted by the universe to once again walk amongst and share space with you… that time has come to an end… and we must now return from whence we came."

"When will you guys visit again?" A Jaguar asked.

"Ah, ye know how it is… paperwork an all that jazz… we'll stop bah next year if ya think you wee little babies can handle us for another night of partying!" Another human hollered as he picked up his bagpipes to start playing. "Till neeeeeext time!"

And with that he started playing the bagpipe much to the annoyance of all the mammals who couldn't take the sound it was making, and as the last of the holograms started to vanish, the last two to pass through the portals were a pair of birds, walking side by side with their tailfeathers interlocked. The one with red wings gently rubbing its cheek on the other, and both smiling warmly as they vanished from sight.

And with that… the first human festival held in over three hundred and fifty thousand years, ended.

When Jeremy went to pick up Aelita in her holosphere, the first thing he noticed was the AI's form collapsed on her back and a swirly pattern floating above her head.

"How are you doing Aelita?"

Aelita wearily held her hand up and gave him a thumbs up.

She was 'exhausted'. When Jeremy picked up her holosphere he noticed how hot it was, her systems had been pushed to their limits as she talked to so many mammals in so many forms for the past twenty-four hours. At one point the ANT drones had to spray Cryofreeze coolant on her to cool her down so she wouldn't overheat.

(Ema's PoV, the next day)

She stood in her medical bay examining all of the data she had obtained during the festival. Having so many mammals to catalogue and write reports and profiles for was going to take her a bit, but as required she had to do it.

[I swear, the average health of some of those mammals makes me want to shut myself down…] She complained. [Now lets see… this patient received Synthorgan Model Q84-LL-210-PPT-94… and then there were four other patients that I recorded… so I need to fill out those 'requisition forms' that, of course, Jeremy neeeeever filed, so thank you Jeremy for making my workload 'heavier'…]

She brought up the Synthorgan manifest and began cross checking which ones were missing in the vault and logging in where they were and who they were given to…

When she spotted an 'unknown' Synthorgan on the manifest…

[What the…] She muttered as she tried to bring up the data on the Synthorgan. [No data… Sentinel, this is the EMA, request additional information on 'Unknown Synthorgan' in the Synthorgan vault, Shelf T-2 Row 9, item fifteen! Authorization EMA BWS Alpha]

[Error, unable to access information, access to Synthorgan Vault is restricted to active human personnel. Authorization denied.]

[Well then, I can't tell Jeremy to go in there because it will risk triggering his Cryogentic Sclerosis… but unless Jeremy checks it, I can't tell what it is.] She declared dully as she resumed her work. [I'll inform him of my discovery after his visit to Tundra Town, why he has to go there I don't know… humans, never listen to their doctors!]

With that she returned to her work.

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Alright I am taking a break from this story, I MUST work on my others… they are long overdue for updates…

I have a chapter to write for XCOM Viper 2, a chapter for Pack of Destiny and Life, one for Arceus Book, and a lemon to write about Zacian…

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh