Nick had spent four days stuck in the quarantine department of a Zootopian hospital, and the fifth day onwards drifting from one solitary cell to another as he awaited the news of his trial date. Yet he was in high spirits when Judy came to visit him. She was dressed in a blue shirt with a black tank top underneath, positioned perfectly behind the glass like a photograph, her big purple eyes wide with emotion as she set them on the fox.

"Nick." She breathed and placed her small, fluffy white paw on the glass. "They finally let me see you."

"I figured." Nick said dryly. He saw Judy smile when he put his paw on the glass against hers. "How're you doing?"

"Great. This goat visited me every day, asking me the same questions about what happened on Founder's Mountain, but I think I've seen the last of him now. What about you?"

"Same. I just kept telling him that I'd never ran into Subject Zero or went anywhere near Swinetown. Which was the honest-to-god truth, but I'm pretty sure he didn't wanna take my word for it."

"Don't worry about it, Nick. Agent Savage says they're more concerned about making sure we don't bring it up in court." Judy looked down at Nick's hip. "Is your leg okay?"
"Oh, pish. Physical scars, mental scars, nothing I'm not used to."

"I'm so sorry, Nick. This is all so wrong."

Nick sighed and shook his head. "No, Carrots. I created Wild Times and escaped custody. It's only fair that I face those charges at least."

"Nick, foxes get the maximum sentence in here!"

"No duh. And about that, there's something I have to talk to you about."

"What is it?" She asked.

He felt a pang of anxiety as he anticipated her reaction. "Agent Savage came to visit yesterday, and he had some pretty big news."

"They're dropping all charges?" Judy's ears perked.

"Nah, I'm still getting booked for all the charges related Wild Times." Her ears dropped again. "When he realised that it was likely that I wouldn't last long in jail, what with being a key witness in the upcoming case against City Hall, he convinced his boss to pull some strings. They've already arranged it with the judge presiding over my trial. I will be found guilty and sentenced to house arrest."

Judy pondered this for a moment. "Did they say how long?"

"Twenty years, but there's more. For ulterior motives I have yet to ascertain, the president himself has taken a special interest in my case. After I serve a small portion of my sentence, he's going to give me a full pardon."

Judy gasped. "What? Are you serious?!"

"As serious as an inauguration."

"Oh, Nick, that's fantastic!" Judy was so happy that she might have hugged him if it wasn't for the glass between them, and Nick couldn't help but smile along with her. "How long will you have to wait?"

"After I start my sentence… two years."

Judy deflated just a little. "Two years?"

"One for Wild Times and one for escaping custody. That seems like a fair deal."

"And it'll give them some time to build up enough evidence to justify the pardon." Judy pressed the upper end of the phone to her temple. "Do you think he's doing this to save face? The Swinton family had pretty strong ties with the government."

"Once the government starts bringing up charges against Bisoniing and the other survivors of the conspiracy, a lot of mammals are going to find out the truth about the collars and those savage attacks. The pro-predator activists are gonna gain a lot of ground in the coming months. They're going to start demanding that certain changes start happening now. And this time government will be forced to listen." Nick squeezed the phone in his paw and felt his chest start to swell. "Oh jeez…"

"Nick?" Judy lowered her paw, looking worried for him.

Nick's other paw slid down from the glass onto the table. He'd cried once or twice while in the hospital or jail while processing everything that he'd gone through, but this was different. Different in a terrifying, but incredible sort of way. "It's just starting to hit me. We did it. All this time I thought that we would never make a change, but we did it. We struck a fatal blow. Cheryl and Sedor did most of the work, but still…"

"In the end, they got what they wanted." Judy spoke quietly. "We all did. The banning of the TAME Collars is just a question of time, but…"

"Yeah. We've still got a long way to go." Nick said.

"Banning the collars won't change how predators are seen." Judy looked downcast.

Nick thought about how to respond, and then he thought about what he'd wanted to say to her since they'd been separated City Hall. She was right, in a way. It was too soon. He couldn't tell her how he felt about her. Not yet. Not yet.

But he could wait. They both could.

"No…" He finally said. "… but it's a start."


A shrill cry pierced the air.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" Sherry had leapt to her feet on the wide green cushion she'd been sitting on, one little paw pointing furiously at the chess board that lay between her, and the other little paw pointing furiously at her opponent. "No way! You cheated!"

Elba laughed. "I did not cheat and you know it."

Sherry crossed her arms and dropped back down on the cushion. "I know…" She muttered.

Elba put the white king to one side. "Let that be a lesson to you, sweetheart. The queen is important, that is true, but never, ever leave your king unprotected."

The little cub sullenly looked away, leaving Elba to reset the board. Now that he'd gotten the lesson in humility out of the way, he'd go a little easier on her, perhaps give her an opening every now and then and see if she was precocious enough to notice. In the adjacent dining room, he spied Starlight and Gabriel standing by the table. Starlight was holding little Lance, and her husband was picking out items from the small buffet Elba had set out after failing to decide what to prepare for the dinner.

Starlight had clearly stopped by the shower before coming. Her purple tunic dress concealed the bandages she'd accumulated during her ordeal on Founder's Mountain, and her golden ponytail caught hints of light from the chandelier above the dining table. Lance looked beautiful in the blue cloud-patterned onesie Elba had picked out for him. He didn't want her and her family to leave Zootopia, not so soon, but he knew it was necessary. It was a great comfort to him that she had promised on her mother's grave that they would return once things in Zootopia had settled down. After all, someone had to watch the children while their parents were away on missions, but Gabe and Starlight had discussed the possibility of taking turns, or retiring altogether.

The chessboard was fully reset by the time Starlight and her small family entered the living room. Keeping Lance in her arms, Starlight sat on the cushion beside Sherry, regarding the child with a look that made Elba's heart swell. When she'd first met Sherry and learned about Gabriel's role in saving her, Starlight had advocated returning her to her parents. Subsequently discovering that Sherry's parents were dead had understandably left the vixen conflicted, but Elba had a strong hunch as to what choice she would make in the end.

"Everything okay, Sherry?" She asked.

"He took my king." Sherry grumbled.

"What? But you barely started."

"He says I left my king unprotected."

"Ah. First time he beat me, he said it was because I didn't use my rooks enough." Starlight tapped one of the pieces. Lance gurgled in her other arm. "Don't feel bad. He's been playing this game before you were born."

Gabriel sat on another chair and immediately starting attacking the pile of food on his lap. Elba imagined that it had been his first large meal in a very long time, so he didn't question how he would expect to eat that much. "I don't play chess with him at all."

"Wuss." Sherry said.

"Now, now…" Elba chuckled and hover his hoof over the board. "What will it be this time? White, or black?"

"White." Sherry said instantly.

"Don't forget about your king this time."

"Okay." Sherry moved the leftmost pawn first.

Before Elba could make his first move, his cellphone rang. "Excuse me." He took out his phone and answered, at the same time getting up from his favourite chair and moving to a quieter corner of the room.

Fifteen seconds into the conversation, his heart sank like a stone. When the call ended, he didn't return to the others. Instead he stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at the phone in his hooves until one by one, they saw the look on his face. Starlight passed Lance to Gabe and asked him to show Sherry the back garden while she spoke with Elba alone. When they were gone, she made her way over to Elba.

Before she could ask what was wrong, he spoke numbly. "Tilda passed away five minutes ago."

He finally lowered his phone. Starlight stayed silent, a paw gently caressing his good leg. He didn't blame her for not being upset at the news, but beneath the shock he appreciated her sensitivity.

"I'm sorry. I know that she… deserved this… to an extent. But I need some time alone."

"Morgan, it's okay." She said. "Go take a walk. I'll tell Sherry you're getting more pizza. Gabe just took the last of it."

"… What sort of toys does she like?"

"I don't know. I don't think she really had access to toys."

"I'm thinking I might stop by that store a few blocks from here. Find something she'd like. Take the long way back."

Starlight grinned. "That is a great idea."

Twenty minutes of walking later, Elba still couldn't believe that Swinton was dead. Intelligent, pragmatic, well-meaning Tilda Swinton, who had learned from her father and grandfather's mistakes and used those lessons to make Zootopia a better place than Roarcadia could ever have hoped to become. If only Theodore, that bastard, hadn't forced that conspiracy upon her, and all the pressures that came with it. For decades he had filled her head with poison, and in the end that poison had turned out to be lethal.

In some ways, this was Elba's fault, too. He'd known her since she was a girl. He could have done more to protect her from her father's corruption…

He bought the pizza first, putting his card in the wrong part of his wallet after making the purchase, before walking the rest of the way to the toy store. Inside the store, he saw a basket packed to the brim with stuffed rabbits of all colours, slightly smaller than the real thing. Sat at the very top, like an omen, was a pure white rabbit in the spitting image of the toy that little porcine girl had carried with her all those years ago. All that was missing was a red collar with a heart-shaped ruby, but a stop by the plastic jewellery section soon remedied that.

He remembered her hugging that little rabbit tight enough to pop that one summer day in the garden of the Swintons' mansion in Roarcadia. A teenager back then, always eager to please his seniors, he'd been asked to watch over her while their parents took their business into the mansion itself to discuss something confidential.

Tilda, Tilda, Tilda. It shouldn't have come to this. You had so many chances to do the right thing.

Another half-hour later he was back at home, presenting the rabbit to a monumentally delighted Sherry. Then he was commencing their rematch, moving a pawn two spaces while Gabe graciously offered to cook the pizza for him. Gabe had looked satisfied even before receiving the pizza. Of course, Starlight has told him, and he was quietly rejoicing at the news. He had never seen the side of Tilda that Elba had seen nearly all his life. He would never understand why Elba was mourning her, but Elba was okay with that. She'd done terrible, unforgivable things, and they were right to hate her for it.

While he waited for Sherry to make her next move, he thought about how much there was still to do. Tilda Swinton was dead, killed by her father's venomous ideology, and Zootopia needed someone who could care for it in her place. Elba would do all he could to help Wilde during his incarceration. Hopps deserved a reward, a promotion perhaps, for her part in defeating Cheryl. Bogo needed emotional support after having to take down his own treacherous chief. McHorn was still in hospital. The missing predators needed to be given a fair trial. Sedor was still on the run, and Subject Zero, too. Koslov and Mr. Big were still at war. And Benjamin, who had lost everything because of the Triumvirate's actions, would need taking care of most of all. Elba would start with the cheetah.

I've got it from here, Tilda. Rest in peace.


To be Concluded...