Jack sat with his legs crossed in an oversized hot tub in the Palm Hotel Presidential Suite. He would be checking out the next day and moving to a cheaper hotel within the city, so he may as well make use of the facilities while he still could. He actually felt a little guilty that he was still sitting in the lap of luxury. Honey was at this moment in her Sahara Square safe house under house arrest, spending the rest of her recovery working her butt off on that disk. Finnick, on Jack's recommendation, had been placed under house arrest in the Tundratown safehouse. As for Nick, he'd been placed somewhere in Savanna Central. It was too risky to place any of them in jail until their trials. He'd also requested regular updates on Benjamin and Judy, being too busy to do it himself.
Jack had found himself thinking about those mammals often, especially Alyssa. Almost two months ago, it had been Morton, the greater good, and proving his own worth as an agent that had motivated him. It had supposed to be just another ordinary mission…
Jack put the phone on speaker and lay it on the table beside the tub before dipping his paws in the bubbling water. "Miss Morton, I'm reporting in."
"I already heard." Miss Morton spoke through the phone, her tone clipped as usual. "Sedor Valentino made his comeback in the criminal underworld and confirmed Mr. Big's innocence. Let's hope this ceasefire leads to a peace treaty down the line."
"Have the desk pilots finished duplicating the church documents?" Jack took a look at the bathroom cupboard, where the first copy they'd made of the documents were being kept on his laptop in digital form. It had taken some convincing from Morton for the ZBI to let Jack become caretaker of a copy of such critical evidence.
"They've almost completed the fourth copy. You're taking good care of your copy, aren't you?" She asked.
"Yes." Jack said firmly.
"Good." She said. "Until the disk is found and unlocked, the president's administration will need that evidence when they move against Swinton and her friends. Speaking of which, I hope you are at least one step closer to find that thing."
"Not much luck, I'm afraid." Jack lied easily.
"… Has anything changed with Agent Skyefall?"
Jack felt uneasy at the slight change in tone. It had appeared that she'd believed his account of the events surrounding Dr. Slothfeld's death. She didn't say otherwise.
"She was discharged this morning. She'll be returning to Fengland with Radames in two days' time. In separate planes, as per your instruction."
Not for the first time, Jack wondered if Morton asked questions she should already know the answer to so she could test her subordinates, to see if they would slip up and reveal knowledge they shouldn't have.
"Good. We'll leave it to them how to deal with her." She said, her tone returning to normal.
"Actually, I have a request concerning Radames." Jack said quickly. He'd been waiting almost a week for this chance. A chance to diminish the harm that had been done to the predators he'd grown to care about. "I spoke with Alyssa after she was discharged. She wants to see Radames. She was her friend before this whole mess started, and this may be her last chance."
The phone fell silent. Before Jack could get worried, Morton spoke. "I will arrange a meeting for tomorrow, before Radames is moved to the airport. I'm trusting you to monitor the pair of them."
Jack released the breath he'd been holding. "Thank you, ma'am. There's one more thing I need to discuss with you, and I personally believe that it's important…"
Alyssa passed through the metal detector without issue, and showed no sign of pain or displeasure as the guard patted her down a little too thoroughly. The pig, whose nametag identified her as Park, paused when she felt something on Alyssa's upper thigh, but a quick check revealed that her underwear had rolled up into something that would have felt like rope. The false alarm was enough to satisfy the pig, who gave a nod to the donkey who had just finished patting down Jack in a similar manner. He'd been a little gentler with the rabbit, and Alyssa told herself it was due to his smaller size. A familiar and unpleasant thought crossed her mind, but she forced herself to ignore it.
A minute later she and Jack were waved through, and escorted down a short hallway to a thick metal door. Her heart beat faster with each step, anxiety shortening her breath. Jack had told her that Cheryl had already been administered the antidote, but it was too soon to tell what extent her mind had recovered. He'd said she'd shot herself with Judy's own dart gun. He'd assured her that no physical harm had come to Cheryl during her confinement.
The door opened with a beep and a clanking noise that echoed in the hallway when donkey unlocked it with a keycard that was attached to his person with a metallic cable. He entered the room first. Alyssa felt tense, and she must have looked tense with the way Jack was looking at her out the corner of his eye. The last time she had seen Cheryl, they'd been having a little contest in the shooting gallery. Alyssa had beaten the tigress by two bullets to the head area. Cheryl had been healthy back then, with a dampened but prideful smile on her face as she conceded defeat and declared a rematch upon her return. Two years of torture, experimentation and hiding had passed since that day. What did she look like now?
The donkey stepped aside within the room, and Alyssa stepped forward. She briefly stopped when she saw Cheryl. Dressed in unassuming white clothes, she sat on the metal base of a thick glass box framed with titanium and set up on wheels. Alyssa thought it would fit perfectly on a twenty-fifth century popemobile, a thought that passed fairly quickly as her eyes focused fully on Cheryl. Her fur was unkempt but clean, and she appeared more or less sane. She looked less like a torture victim than a mammal who'd spent a night in the drunk tank. Alyssa inhaled deeply and released a quivering breath as she fought back tears. She'd expected worse.
Cheryl's impartial expression shifted slightly when she saw Alyssa in the doorway, and she stood up.
"Alice. You just couldn't stay out of the rabbit hole, could you?" Her voice was quiet, and slightly tinny from whatever device was allowing her to be heard through the bullet-proof glass. She seemed surprised to see Alyssa.
Alyssa's voice was quiet as shame overruled anger as for the first time in two years, she spoke to her friend face to face. "I know I messed up. I was careless."
She felt Jack and the donkey's eyes on her, and she swallowed upon realising how her words sounded. She paused to choose her next words more carefully as she entered the room fully, stopping five feet from the cell. She'd been warned not to get any closer than that.
"So was he." Cheryl pointed briefly at Jack. "You always were an open book."
"I thought you liked that about me."
"This why I didn't contact you after I escaped. You weren't ready to face a monster like that."
There was a pause as the real message of Cheryl's words sunk in. It wasn't just Subject Zero she'd been referring to.
"We should have faced him together. Not on opposite sides." Alyssa said.
"Then you would be dead, or locked up like the rest of us were in that asylum." Cheryl said.
"Foxes do pretty well in captivity."
"Not with Slothfeld as the warden, and I need you alive."
Alyssa let some of the anger burn through. "I could have helped you get into XIBALBA sooner. Then none of this would have happened."
Cheryl closed for eyes and pressed her lips for a while. "There were things that happened to me that you had no way of preventing."
"Do you even care about all the stupid shit that you have done?" Alyssa asked, her voice almost hissing.
"I don't remember all the stupid shit I've done." Cheryl replied, her paws clasped and hanging down in front of her stomach. "But I've heard of this persona I'd lived under. This Red Queen. I think I remember a little piece of her. Her captor was almost ready to send his creation to Swinton, but he'd made one miscalculation. The collars were only one hundred percent effective so long as their function remained a mystery. The Red Queen realised the truth, and from then on, she fought, and fought. And fought. Together with her knight, who felt he owed her a debt for what he'd been forced to do to her, formed a plan. During one experiment together, they were ordered to fight each other, and boy did they fight. The queen pretended to try and break his neck during the fight, and severed the wiring that delivered the signal to the built-in tranquiliser needle. The knight returned the favour when he tried to choke her out. As they were laying waste to the asylum later that night, she understood where she had found the strength to fight back. She had to save herself and her people, and you, and destroy the false utopia the Court of Hearts had created." She chuckled suddenly. "Sorry, I appear to be suffering from an acute case of disassociation. I do not condone my actions. But I won't deny that I understand them."
Neither did Alyssa, and this partially alleviated her anger. "So, you do care. When you sent me that video, I could see you fighting Twilight. You made it clear it was a losing battle. I think, that when you realised that you would soon lose yourself to the twilight phenomenon, you came to Zootopia. You were looking for someone who could stop you."
Cheryl looked at her own reflection in the glass as she thought about this. "Someone had to stop me."
"Is that why you cured Nick and gave him to Hopps as a lead? So there was someone to stop you?"
Again, Cheryl paused to think. "Possibly. I don't remember what the other me was thinking."
Alyssa swallowed. "I wish you could have trusted me to stop you. I never stopped looking for you."
To her relief, Cheryl nodded, believing her. "I'm sorry you didn't like what you found. I don't expect you to forgive me any time soon."
Alyssa shook her head. "I'd be a total hypocrite if I didn't."
The feline paused, and breathed in through her nose. Alyssa bit her lip when she saw that her eyes now looked a little watery. Her voice remained steady when she spoke. "I have information that may make it up to you."
Jack stepped up beside Alyssa, but she kept her focus on Cheryl who was now speaking like her old self.
"I remember bits and pieces, from my time as a prisoner and posing as Wild Times's security guard. I remember something Slothfeld said to Swinton when they were standing outside my cell. He was asking her how her father's recovery was coming along."
"Recovery?" Alyssa repeated, frowning.
"A few years ago, Theodore had commissioned Slothfeld to find a cure for his illness."
"I know. He was still trying around the time they staged his death."
"He didn't try, he succeeded."
Alyssa took a sharp breath, while Jack stayed silent.
"Theodore's not dead, Alice. And when he finds out what happened here, and what has become of his daughter, he will accelerate his own plans. I don't know where he is or how long you have before his next move is played. This battle may be over, but it's up to you to win the war."
An hour later, Jack brought Alyssa into the presidential suite, under the cover of another night of heartless sex. The vixen had been quiet since they'd left that room, and she had barely sipped the brandy Jack had provided her.
"Well?" He finally asked as he sat on the coffee table before her.
"Well what?" She asked.
"Do you forgive her?"
"Yes. It wasn't her fault. I took too long to find her."
"It wasn't your fault, either. Slothfeld's base was well hidden."
"Doesn't make it any better. ZI6 will make sure she faces the consequences of her actions." Alyssa said, confirming Jack's suspicion as to what was troubling her.
"Maybe. Or maybe they'll still use her." He said.
The brandy sloshed in the glass as Alyssa looked up sharply. "What?"
"Slothfeld wouldn't have been punished because he was too useful. Perhaps Radames's situation will end the same."
"I doubt that. She betrayed both our countries."
"And she saved both our countries in the process, as she had intended. I recommend that you remind your superiors of that once you're back in Liondon."
He left Alyssa to think about this as he returned the brandy bottle to the minibar, returning to his own thoughts in the process. He had no doubt that Cheryl had spoken the truth. Theodore Swinton was still alive, and for reasons unknown had faked succumbing to his illness rather than announce the cure to the world. He'd already reported the revelation to Miss Morton, and at this moment she was arranging for Theodore's body to be exhumed and analysed. Until then, he had been forbidden from investigating the matter on his own. It wasn't an order that he'd hoped to receive, but he would trust her judgement as always.
He returned to Alyssa, and a smile formed when he saw that in the brief time he'd left her alone, she'd drained the brandy in one go. "Shall I get you another drink?"
"I'm driving later."
"Smart girl."
"Piss off."
"Apologies, I did not intend to sound patronising." He returned to his spot on the coffee table. "Now, about the other elephant in the room. The last time we were in this room alone together, we had a night of carnal passion and agreed to pretend it never happened. How are you holding up your end of the deal?"
He thought he saw a slight blush beneath Alyssa's snow-white fur as she groaned and slammed her glass on the table beside the rabbit. "Seriously, Jack? Of all the things you could have changed the subject to, you pick that?!"
"Sore subject, huh? That's disconcerting."
"Shut up." There was a hint of a smile beneath the vixen's exasperation.
"Come on, answer the question."
"No-one else knows. How about you?"
"Llater had a lucky guess."
"Sure he did."
"It's true. I threatened to kill him if he told anyone else."
Alyssa snorted sharply. Then her face fell. "I won't say it was a mistake. You were good. You were bloody good. But I can think of several reasons why we shouldn't pursue it further. Racial prejudices aside, it wouldn't work out. We've betrayed each other too much."
Jack nodded. He didn't feel disappointed by her answer, because he had come to the same conclusion himself. "Betrayal's a strong word."
"Even if we saw each other again in the near future, I don't think I'd be up to something like that." Alyssa leaned back against the plush cushion behind her, her fingers digging into the seat cushion she was sitting on. "But I would like to work to something a little healthier."
Jack smiled and gave a small nod. "I'd like that." He picked up the glass. "Are you sure you don't want another drink?"
Alyssa tilted her head, looking like the weight on her shoulders had lifted just a little. "Oh, why the hell not."
