A sharp pain awakens Nick from the pleasant dream he had been having.

He gasps and sits up in his bed, trying to regain the rest of his consciousness. The room around him is almost entirely dark. The only light comes from the small window next to his night stand, where the glow of the night life of Zootopia is shining through brilliantly.

He's alone in his bed.

So it was just a dream…

Nick feels a shiver passing through his body. Just seconds ago, he had been so ready. Judy's nervous but loving eyes were locked together with his own as he held out his arm for her. She tried to go slow but his terrified trembling was impeding her work. The two had talked for so long before the final decision had been made.

Then she finally brought her zombie rabbit teeth down into his flesh.

Nick pants a bit, his body feeling overheated for some reason. Outside his bedroom door, he can hear his mother, Corduroy and Judy chatting calmly. Finnick is surprisingly still here. Usually he would have left by now.

Another voice joins the muffled conversation that they're having; one that Nick does not recognize. It's feminine and very gentle in nature. She speaks clearly, but her tone is so soft that she's almost whispering.

Is this...Finnick's new mate?

When had she arrived?

Maybe Finn wanted his surrogate mother to meet her, since he no longer carried the misconception that he was nothing but a rotten kit.

A small smile reaches Nick's muzzle. He is quite excited to meet her as well. A vixen who can bite off such an important part of his brother's body and still draw affection from him must be someone special.

The russet tod goes to sit up but a sharp pain in his arm makes him falter.

"Ow!" he hisses and tries to look down. The room is too dark for him to see his body so he reaches over to the nightstand and clicks on the light.

He looks down.

He's greeted by the sight of a small bite mark, blood flowing freely from it and staining his fur.

Nick's eyes shoot wide open and suddenly he's fully awake. His body moves on autopilot as he stumbles up from his bed and over to the bathroom, clicking more lights on as he goes. Once he can see where he is going, he slams the faucet lever up and dunks his wounded limb into the cool jet of water.

Pain shoots up his shoulder from the blast of freezing water running over the puncture marks. Nick's heart beats faster than it ever has before as he lets the blood wash off. He wants to believe that he's dreaming so badly, but the continuing pain convinces him of the truth.

He pulls his arm out of the water and brings it close to his face for a closer look.

His heart skips a beat.

It's a bite.

It's definitely a bite.

He can plainly see the pattern of the teeth that dug into his skin.

Nick's legs fall out from under him and his back slams into the wall as he collapses backwards. His eyes are still locked to the cursed shape of oozing puncture holes. The room around him loses some of its color as the gravity of the situation starts to sink in.

He's been bitten.

Someone snuck into his room and sunk their teeth into him.

A shudder wracks his body and jumpstarts his screams of horror. He can't even tell what noises he's making. All that he can hear is a high-pitched ringing is his head, overwhelming any kind of rational thought.

The blood trickles lower down his elbow and drips onto the bathroom tile.

He feels sick. Is this what the infection feels like? Is it already starting?

The screams echoing around him grow louder. Warm tears begin to soak his muzzle, followed by a violent shaking that spreads down his chest and to every one of his limbs.

More voices join the scream but he can't understand what they're saying. An urgent pounding on wood joins the chorus of sounds. But Nick can't focus on anything other than the death sentence turning his fur an even deeper red.

This is it.

He's going to die.

The infection is going to spread throughout his body, shut it down, and bring him back as something much darker.

It's not a tender moment like the one that happened in his dream. He doesn't have Judy with him to guide him to the light and back. He didn't choose this.

Instead of being a meaningful moment, this is just a random act of spite.

Who bit him? The marks are definitely fresh. It couldn't have been Judy or anyone else in the other room, or he would have heard the door open or shut.

But does it really matter who did it?

It won't change his fate.

With a violent heave, Nick leans forward and spews out a torrent of stomach acid. The foul bile splatters onto the tile and pools around him. A few pained coughs escape his throat and the room around him begins to spin.

The banging on the door turns into a quiet series of clicks.

Within seconds, the door swings open and numerous other bodies enter his once peaceful domain of rest. Shadows rush up the very edge of the fox's vision but he doesn't dare look up at them. The ringing in his ears grows so loud that he can't even hear his own pulse anymore.

"Nick, what is-?!" comes the voice of the one he loves so dearly. A smaller set of steps scamper up to him and he feels a pair of paws pulling him back into a sitting position. Once the marks on his arm are exposed to the recent arrivals, a series of gasps ring out.

Nick's eyes are still glued to the bite. Such a small little injury. But he knows that he has no hope now. He's turning and there's nothing left to be said in the matter. He wanted to keep fighting. But someone took that decision away from him.

"...Oh, man. Nick…" comes the deep voice of his brother, the contrasting pitch able to break through the incessant ringing. Nick finally manages to tear his eyes away from the bite, turning them to the mammals standing around him. His gaze is empty but terrified.

Judy has her paws held over her mouth as she glances between her fox and his arm. A furious tremble starts to spread through her body. She knows how much he wanted to keep living. And without a clear target to focus her spite, she has to simply let her anger boil inside her.

Finn is giving the floor a grim expression, trying to hide his emotions in the presence of the others. The smell of the bloody meat doesn't phase him in the slightest.

His mother is facing the wrong way with Corduroy in her arms. The older fox tries to see what's going on, but he's just a head. He has little to no control over which direction he's facing.

Luckily, an unfamiliar vixen turns his mother so that she's facing the right way. True to Finn's word, she's quite tall for an arctic; she's probably as tall as Nick himself. And she has a forlorn look on her face. It seems that she, like Finnick, is already immune to the influence of the infection. Maybe finding another like minded fox is what convinced him to give her another chance.

Nick gives the crowd a tired scoff, which only concerns them more.

"Welcome to the family, I guess...right…?" the tod mumbles.

"Nicky? Nicky, what's goin on? I can't see! What's-?" his mother's voice breaks through to him. Nick's tears begin flowing heavily. The dam bursts and his mask crumbles into microscopic pieces.

He can't stand the sight of his mother worried over him, even if she no longer has eyes to look at him with. Judy's fuming is a bit better of a reaction but the combined sympathy is causing a feeling inside of him that he doesn't know how to process.

Finnick's fist slams into the tile next to him.

"DAMN IT! WHO DID IT?!" his deep voice bellows as he spins to the rest of the family.

"Who did what?! What's happening?!" his mother demands again. Finnick goes to answer her with a rant, but is cut off by Judy's cold, maliciously dark voice.

"Someone bit Nick," she mumbles. Her eyes no longer carry the warmth they had. Instead, her gaze is icy and piercing. Marian lets out a sharp gasp and her paw shoots to her cheek. Without saying anything else, the blind vixen stumbles forward and falls to her knees with Corduroy in her grip. She sets the severed head next to her so that she can throw her arms around her only son.

Even to his undead mother, Nick's body feels cold to the touch. What concerns her even more is the deadened expression in his eyes and his refusal to reciprocate the hug.

"Oh, my sweet kit...who did this…?" Marian asks desperately. From the floor, Corduroy gives Nick a look of knowing pity. The feeling of helplessness in the face of the affection is one that every other mammal had gone through, though some had to deal with it for longer than others.

"Dunno…" Nick mumbles weakly. His eyes remain unfocused as he starts to fade in and out of clarity. Marian finds that she has to work harder to support his weight. Finnick turns just as his brother blacks out.

"SOMEONE! WHO DID-?! ONE OF YOU BIT HIM!" he belts out, losing himself to the temper he has struggled with his entire time in the world. The unfamiliar vixen steps down and quickly wraps the bundle of piss and teeth in a fluffy hug. Finnick calms down uncharacteristically quickly while pressed into the chest of his mate.

Marian leans her son against her shoulder and rocks him side to side, a gentle lullaby falling out of her lips. The wound on Nick's arm had stopped bleeding now, a fact that doesn't escape Judy's attentive oversight.

The bunny squats down next to the mother and her kit, picking up Nick's arm to examine it.

She gives the wound a quick sniff before her eyes shoot open and her ears go rigid. The injured limb of her love falls gently back onto his lap and she jumps to her feet.

The others watch her storm out of the bathroom. None of them seem to know what she's doing or what to say to her, until she begins tearing Nick's bedroom to shreds in search of something. Finnick leaves Corduroy and his mother to watch over Nick's unconscious body and runs after the firestorm that is Judy. The vixen watches from the doorway, unsure of how to react to such sudden and destructive behavior.

"BUNNY COP! What is goin' on?! What're you doin'?!" the fennec demands as he dodges the bits of mattress and stuffing flying out behind her. Judy works tirelessly, following her nose towards whatever it is she's so desperate to find.

"The one who bit him is still in the room! They're in the bed somewhere!" she screams back at him. The moment Finnick hears this, a terrible growl begins to rumble in his throat. The diminutive fox has the least amount of hunting experience as a husk, but he can feel the infection combining with his anger to drive him into a state of enhanced violence.

He takes his first whiff of the room.

True to Judy's word, there's a scent that doesn't belong. Someone is in here with them and their scent is strangely...appetizing to him.

The vixen takes another step back into the bathroom, not wanting to see her mate lose himself again. And under the effects of the infection, Finnick's demeanor changes to that of a demon.

With a voice as deep as Finnick's, his growl is absolutely ground-shaking. As it grows in volume and rattles the floors and windows around the room, Judy takes her first look back to see what's going on.

What she sees almost scares her away from her task.

The small fennec is hunched over with his ears splayed back, half of his body covered in shadows. She flinches as his eyes turn up to meet hers. Somehow, against what she believes to be possibly for even the infection, Finnick's eyes glow bright red.

The snarl on his face promises nothing but agony and destruction for whoever he finds.

Before Judy can see what the rest of him looks like, the fox leaps under the bed and loses himself to his feral instincts. The rabbit's ears pick up the sounds of tearing fabric and snapping metal. Despite her own fury against the one who hurt her fox, she can't help feeling a pang of sympathy for the creature.

Seeing Finnick like that was almost enough to make her bolt back to the bathroom.

With a shake of her head and a flop of her ears, she gets back to work. The smell grows stronger the deeper she cuts into the mattress, so she digs in more and more. Up ahead of her, she sees something moving to get away from her.

"GET BACK HERE!" she commands as her claws pull the mattress apart at lightning speed. The smell of Nick's assailant is so strong now that she can taste it. Why does it smell so delicious? Something panics in front of her and scrambles madly.

Just as she's about to wrap her claws around the unknown intruder, a paw bursts up through the bottom of the mattress, latches onto the stranger's body and yanks him back out. A terrified squeal meets her ears as some of the light from the bathroom becomes visible. Judy pushes forward and crawls out of the hole in the bottom of the bed.

Outside, the rabbit is treated to the sight of Finn's mate holding her smaller partner back as he fights to get at the dark figure curled into the corner. His cursing and feral barking fill the air of the room with a murderous intent unlike anything Judy has ever been around for.

And she went toe-to-toe with Marian.

Finn's eyes glow bright red still, but with every comforting stroke of the ears his mate gives him, the color fades a little more. Before long, he's looking closer to his usual self and is left panting with exhaustion. The effects of the infection seem to be leaving his system again, and his body is not handling it well.

The fennec eventually has just enough energy left in him to give the intruder a continuous death glare.

Mrs. Wilde's eyeless face peeks out from the bathroom, Nick's head resting on her lap now. Corduroy tries to roll himself out of the bathroom to take a closer look at what's been going on, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it.

Judy turns her attention to the trembling form of the soon-to-be-mulched mammal cowering against the wall. His smell reaches her nose again and makes it twitch. Why does this animal smell so tantalizingly good?

She moves closer and finally gets a good look at him.

A bolt of recognition passes through her as her eyes gaze over the body of a certain weasel that she's come to know from her time as a cop.

Of course it would be him.

Seeing him nearly every week wasn't enough?

He had to come in and ruin Nick's life?

"Duke," Judy growls. She almost lets herself tell Finn's mate to let him go, but stops herself at the last second. There's something strange about the weasel.

It's not just the nervous smile he's trying to give her.

It's the fact that he's still breathing.

His heart is just beating.

This sneaky, conniving rat of a crook is alive.

A string of drool leaks from Judy's lip. The weasel sees this and drops his smile in favor of pressing himself even deeper into the corner.

"H-hey...Cottontail…" he murmurs. Judy takes another step towards him. He shrinks even further. A deep, righteous sense of fury longs to make the rabbit tear into the weasel like he's a late-night snack and nothing more. But as she feels her hunger rising, she realizes that it's just the infection trying to take control of her again.

It almost did, too. With her emotions out of whack, she was so ready to just devolve into her old self. But if she did, who says she would stop at Weaselton? What if she decided to go after Nick next?

"It's Judy, Duke. Don't call me that. Explain yourself."

Duke swallows wetly and peeks to either side of him. On one side is the demonic fennec fox and his much taller arctic fox girlfriend. To the other side is a partially opened door.

Weaselton looks like he might bolt for the door. That is until he sees a maniacal looking severed fox head rolling its way in front of his only escape. The head stops rolling and just stares at him with a hungry glint in its eye.

Duke realizes that no matter what he does at this point, he's doomed. His unkempt head hangs low and he lets himself lay down in preparation for the pain to come.

"I…"

"You what?" Judy demands.

"I couldn't wake him up. He was having a dream or something and I tried shoving him and slapping him and all that. But he kept snoozing. So...I bit him."

Judy blinks, an important little detail finally connecting in her mind.

"I saw you two on TV. Hugging and smooching and whatever. I thought I was the only one still alive...but there you two were, acting all cozy with each other even though you're dead and he's alive. So I figured that you guys must have figured out something that I hadn't. Been alone this whole time, hiding when I can. It's been hard, you know, trying to-!"

"Shhhhut up!" Judy barks and holds up a paw for some silence.

The weasel gulps and complies, afraid of how many ways she could destroy him if he annoys her any more than he already has.

"You're alive."

Duke looks confused but nods.

"You're not infected."

Duek shakes his head.

"So you biting Nick...he's not infected then?" Judy finally asks, a spark of hope igniting in her icy blue heart. The weasel opens his mouth like he's about to crack some sort of joke about Judy infecting him herself through alternative means, but wisely decides to stay quiet.

Another shake of the head.

Finnick finally manages to go limp in his mate's grasp at these words. The sense of relief spreading throughout the room is so thick that even Duke feels some of his anxiety fading away.

"What's going on out there?" Marian calls from the bathroom.

"The bite was from a living mammal. Nick's not infected!" Judy allows herself a chirp of happiness as she runs over to her fox and gives him the biggest hug she can manage. She stays away from the open wound on his arm, though, so that none of her infected fluids can enter his body that way.

"Oh! Thank goodness!" Marian cheers right into Judy's ear. The rabbit cringes a bit but doesn't dare let go of her love.

"...So what do we do with the weasel?" Finn calls from the bedroom. Without even turning away from her fox, she calls back the one response she feels will frighten some damned sense into the crook.

"Ice 'em!" she replies.

A sharp intake of air reaches her ears, satisfying at least a tiny fraction of her lust for vengeance against Weaselton.

"How?"

"Nick has a freezer. Just shove him in there!"

"NOOO! WAIT, I CAN-ulk!"

Judy smiles as she watches the vixen stomp out of the bedroom with the struggling pest dangling from her grip by his neck. Finnick follows behind her proudly, though he may just be staring up at her posterior-yep. That's definitely what he's doing.

Judy ignores everything else around her and gives her fox a warm nuzzle.

For a moment, she lost herself.

But everything turned out okay once again.

Nick's safe.

So she's happy!

B-bmp!