I know it's been a while, but I decided that today would be a good time to finally do some work on this story! A few months ago, I thought I would save the contents of this chapter for the end of the story, but then I started shuffling ideas around in my head and I decided to place it after Ewelina's debut instead. There's more where this came from! So here's the moment where a lot of questions get answers, but will we have more questions? Enjoy!

Also, the term "stand alone complex", coined by the Ghost in the Shell series, is defined as the concerted effect of unconnected actions of individuals. For example, I like and watch anime, as do others. Because of our individual interests and how we approach them, we form a community of fanatics and become a noteworthy sector of popular culture. You'll see why the stand alone complex is important later.

Chapter 13: Because of You

After Nick and Judy witnessed the reunion of their son and his foster sister, they saw to it that Lucas's friends made it home safely. After their beat, the Wilde couple clocked out at the precinct and changed into their regular clothes. They had let Lucas tag along with them to the precinct, and it was there that they presented him a choice.

"Alright, buddy, now there's someone we're going to pay a visit to and we wanna know if you want to come," Nick said to Lucas, who was brushing his thick, red bangs away from his glasses.

"Who is it? Is it Grandma Kristy?" Lucas inquired. His tail began to slowly wag, excitement over seeing his father's mother building. Nick glanced away for a second, and then his meadow green eyes met Lucas's sky blue eyes once more. The older fox reluctantly shook his head and Lucas's fading excitement was evident by the drooping of his ears.

"You see, buddy, we're going to see the ones behind your childhood home burning down…" Nick explained just as Judy was coming out of the females' locker room, wearing jeans and her pink plaid button-up shirt.

"Thanks for breaking the news, Nick," the rabbit thanked her vulpine husband as she walked over, her sharp hearing catching Nick's words clear as a bell. Turning her attention to Lucas, she reported, "As it would turn out, the ones responsible have already been incarcerated. We know it'd be painful for you to go, but…it might bring you some closure. If you don't want that, it's okay to tell us."

"…I'll go… I want to know why it had to be them… Why any mammal would have a bone to pick with my parents. We were potato farmers…" Lucas mumbled, wringing his paws. "Part of me hoped it was a freak accident, but…" Nick and Judy looked at each other like telling him was a horrible mistake. The older fox and the bunny were surprised by what came out of their adoptive son's mouth next. "Thank you… It means the world to me that you two would do so much digging around on your own time. For me…"

"Oh, of course, Lucas. We love you and care about you… And we wanted to do right by you," Judy replied, hugging the teenage fox. "You mean the world to the both of us…"

"Even though you've only known me for a short time?" Lucas asked, mildly bewildered.

"Not short enough for Carrots to put the 'mother' in 'smother'," Nick teased as he patted Lucas's head. Lucas's tail wagged delightedly at the affection he was being given, which brought a smile to Nick's face and earned a wag out of his own tail.

The Wilde family made their way over to the local prison in Savannah Central, where criminals who violated the law in Zootopia's heart and those who endangered the welfare of Zootopia as a whole were kept. Predator, prey, big, small—none of it mattered. They all broke the law and were serving their time. After the bunny and the two foxes were cleared, Judy requested to speak with the warden. The warden, an elephant, agreed to meet with Judy and they spoke in her office. Lucas tried to listen to what they were saying, but he couldn't hear through the door.

A gray rabbit with black stripes on the side of his head and the tips of his ears approached the two foxes and greeted Nick, "Hey, Wilde."

"Jack Savage, as I live and breathe," Nick gave the greeting a half-hearted return. "What's good, Savage?"

"Not much. I just broke up with Jasmine. She…didn't take it well," Jack reported. His ex-girlfriend, Jasmine, was a bunny who went rogue because no one took the time to care about her. She joined the Mad Cows, a gang brought down by the ZPD. She was then offered a position as part of a black ops unit by Mayor Lynx herself. The bunny had accepted, but due to being in a delicate psychological state, she had to make frequent visits to a court-appointed psychiatrist.

"Well, at least she didn't strangle you," Nick pointed out. "I heard that while she was on the inside, she took down a guy who said that she was a harlequin programmed for murder and he still has health issues. So why the breakup? She seems nice."

"Issues aside, I just don't love her and staying in a loveless relationship would just hurt us both. Besides, there's an arctic fox named Skye who's been hitting on me and she is just gorgeous, so I figure I might as well give it a shot," Jack explained. "I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can spread my wings and fly."

"I'm pretty sure that's a tagline for either an energy drink," Nick joked. "Or a health care product."

"I'm so confused," Lucas muttered.

"Oh, right. Lucas, this is Jack Savage. He grew up with your mother. Jack, this is my son," Nick introduced Lucas to Jack.

"How does Judy feel about you having a kid?" Jack asked curiously, arching a brow.

"Pretty good, considering we adopted him together," Nick replied coolly, wrapping an arm around Lucas. "Though he does look like he could be mine."

"Alright, who's ready?" Judy asked after taking a deep breath. The door of the warden's office was open. Lucas turned to look Judy in the eye. Judging be her ever-softening expression upon meeting his gaze, he guessed that she saw a mix of angst and anticipation. He couldn't blame her; that's what he felt inside. His parents were murdered, after all, and he was about to see where the responsibility falls. There may have even been a bit of anger in the mix. Sadness, too.

"I'm ready," Lucas answered, attempting a display of confidence.

"Do you mind if I go in first? I have a few choice words," Judy requested and received a small nod from the fourteen-year-old.

The amethyst-eyed bunny smiled slightly, but the smile quickly faded as if an old wound had begun to fester.

Judy was then taken to a cell with a big metal table in it. Sitting at the table, with one leg chained to the floor, was a former mayor and the mastermind behind the Night Howler incident. It was none other than the bespectacled, sweet-eyed, covertly-prejudicial Dawn Bellwether. Judy had thought of Bellwether as a friend and ally, but to find out that said friend had stabbed her and everyone in the back by turning the city on its head. Zootopia almost collapsed due to rising tension and fear. Chaos had reigned.

Bellwether sneered, "The high and mighty Officer Hopps, what brings you here?" The sheep made no effort to conceal the contempt in her voice. "Come here to preach about how we're all equal when it's obvious we aren't?"

"I like to think that we're all equally different," Judy replied calmly, which had surprised the rabbit herself, as she sat down in the stainless-steel seat across from the ex-mayor.

"Huh. That's a new one," Bellwether said with a shrug. "Seriously, why are you here?"

"I came to ask you about six years ago," Judy got right to the point. "I think you know what I mean. The Redd family? They were potato farmers. A mother, father and their little kit. A boy with the bluest eyes you'd ever seen."

"Cute, but I don't see where I come in," Bellwether bluntly and sourly claimed.

Judy, who had a drawstring bag with her, slung the bag onto her lap and said, "Give me a minute. I need to reach into my purse."

"That's not a purse and you know it," Bellwether pointed out, unamused.

"I like to improvise," Judy remarked as she pulled out a folder. She passed it to the sheep, who started looking through its contents. The rabbit pulled out another folder, one that Elias Badgerton had given to Nick, as she watched Bellwether look through the papers in the file. There were minute changes in the ex-mayor's expression, but no indicator in an overall change in demeanor. "Well?"

"The kid's a predator," Bellwether said flatly, no emotion residing in her voice. That was it.

Judy snapped. She was dumbstruck. She was angry. "Are you trying to tell me that you feel nothing right now?!"

"You'd be surprised what prison can do to you. At least I was with my crew before our trial. Now we only see each other every so often," Bellwether explained her lack of empathy.

"If you want sympathy from me, you're baaing up the wrong tree!" Judy exclaimed angrily, slamming the second folder onto the table. "Everything in here ties you and your posse to the deaths of that fox's parents!" Now, Bellwether looked interested. She cautiously took the folder out from under Judy's paw and opened it up to examine the papers inside.

There were several minutes of tense silence that weighed the room down like the air was a boulder. Judy watched the realization slowly hit Bellwether—the realization that there was enough evidence to nail her six times over…again. Judy craved to see one more thing from the sheep. She craved to see at least a shred of remorse.

Instead, Bellwether muttered, "Badgerton!" She then looked Judy dead in the eye and informed her, "I'm not the first to feel this way about preds and I won't be the last, Judy. I'm a copycat without an original! So is every mammal else who is rightfully frightened by what those sharp-toothed carnivores can do. That's how things have always been!"

"A stand alone complex," Judy mumbled. "Well, if that's how you're playing, then take a look at the stand alone complex I'm part of. Acts of kindness and an effort to understand each other…those are what can build the world up, save it in its darkest hour, and help us flourish as living beings. I'm not the first or last to feel that way and act on it. Odds are, neither were the founders of our great city."

"That's awfully idealistic for a stand alone complex, but since you're familiar with the terminology, you know that if someone else goes to extremes to put preds in their place, it'll have nothing to do with me. That's right, they'll be unconnected to me and you won't know how, where or when to stop it until it's too late," Bellwether pointed out.

"I hope my great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren are long gone before someone tries to pull something to the scale of your scheme," Judy growled.

"By the way, why are you doing this? You the pred's old kit sitter or something?" Bellwether smugly inquired.

"…He's my son now," Judy confessed.

Horrified by the answer, Bellwether gasped and consolingly muttered, "You poor, stupid child… He'll turn on you yet. Deep down, they're all killers."

"Based on this, you're no better. Why'd you and your 'boys', Doug, Jesse and Woolter do it?" Judy crossed her arms and demanded, ears slapping down against the back of her head.

"I had to see how far they were willing to go to escape the tyranny of predators. I knew they all had backgrounds in chemistry and a strong sense of tradition. So we plotted and targeted the remote house of a small family of foxes. I kept reminding them that the option to back out was still on the table and they kept brushing it off. They're loyal to the cause," the female sheep told the rabbit the story of the fire and why they did it. "The only reason I'm telling you this now is because I've got a life sentence and Doug, Jesse and Woolter's consecutive sentences will keep them here until they die. Even if there was anything you could do now, there'd be no point."

"That's just…that's so…evil!" Judy exclaimed. "How can you live with yourself?! Don't you get it?! He's just a kid!" At this point, tears streamed from her eyes.

"Hey, without me, you wouldn't have a kid and we wouldn't be here right now," Bellwether smugly pointed out, glancing down at Judy's wedding band. "You married him, right? That fox you debunked my plan with?"

"W-well, what if I did? I don't care if Nick's a fox and I'm a bunny. I love him, and I love Lucas, too!" Judy exclaimed defensively and called over her shoulder, "Bring him in!"

Nick and Lucas appeared from behind a corner. A guard, a squirrel, let them into the cell and Judy stood up. Nick triumphantly thanked his wife, "Thanks for doing good by us, Carrots." Judy ran up to him and hugged him. "Have a seat, Lucas. This is the mayor before Mayor Lynx."

"H-how do you do?" Lucas softly asked as he sat in where Judy was.

"…" Bellwether didn't answer.

"You know…I-I heard every word… My mom and dad… You killed them… And it was over the shape of their teeth and what our ancestors did to survive?" Lucas inquired, the very words being put together making him feel nauseous.

"Hunger is the desire for food. It's primitive, and it doesn't go away no matter how evolved a species is. I'm sorry you were neglected, violated and have a mind like broken glass, but I did what's best for the flock," Bellwether defended her position on the subject. "How can I regret that?"

"Because of you, my parents are dead. Because of you, I was left void of any love for years. All I had was obligation, empty words, pain, awful memories, night terrors, panic attacks, the desire for isolation, no mammal to hold and myself to blame for everything. Because of you, I was used and abused in ways that I couldn't have understood at the time. All I knew was that it hurt and I felt toyed with. Because of you, a sheep like yourself had part of her lower spine snapped all because she stood up for me when I didn't stand up for myself. Because of you, everyone around me thought I was a lost cause and I agreed with them. Because of you, I lived these past six years like I was as dead as my mom and dad. Burned out," Lucas told Bellwether.

"…" Again, Bellwether had no words. However, she wore a more thoughtful look on her face than she did with Judy.

"You broke me before I could understand why. However, it's also because of you that I was adopted by two mammals who love me enough to take the time to backtrack what you did all the way back to you, calling in resources and favors off the clock all the while. It's because of you that I'm in a good home and going to a big school where I met the best friends I ever had. It's because of you that I have so many opportunities available to me that I never would have had back in the sticks. You changed my life forever, leaving me scared, angry, depressed, traumatized and exhausted, but also thankful for my blessings. You helped me learn a valuable lesson and I thank you for that," Lucas calmly and confidently said.

Bellwether's jaw dropped and so did Nick's. Judy's tears were now tears of joy. Lucas quietly stood. He didn't know much about Bellwether, but he knew that her intense hatred for predator animals would leave her feeling defeated by hearing 'thank you' from him. It would make her actions seem counterintuitive. He could have said every nasty thing under the sun if he wanted to (not that he would), but he knew that anger and hatred were what she wanted from him. She would only use that to preach her separatist philosophy from her cell until she died. Instead, he would leave her struggling to keep her core value intact because her actions had benefits for the one she was trying to destroy. For the first time, Lucas felt like he was victorious in life.

"So, uh… Who wants to go for pizza and ice cream?" Nick inquired.

"Me, please," Lucas said softly, removing his glasses to wipe his eyes. Judy let go of Nick to give Lucas a tight, proud hug and a happy, teary smile.

"I'm so proud of you," Judy sniffled happily.

"I never wanna monologue like that again…" Lucas sighed in content exhaustion.

"But you will. I think you'll be the best male at Hunter's wedding, God knows when," Nick chuckled.

"Or maybe even Uncle Finnick and Aunt Amber's, and they should have an idea of when by now," Judy added. With that, the happy family left the cell and a perturbed and baffled Bellwether with it.