Hey Everyone!
As you might've guessed by the state of this pre-chapter author's note, I have yet another music suggestion for those interested. You need not listen to it if you don't want to, of course, but I have personally found this particular piece to go very well with the scene where Nick/Judy enter the discovered tomb.
Here it is: Dragon Ball super soundtrack: Dark days are coming
I also have one for the hospital scene at the very end of the chapter: The End- Bowser's Inside Story
Without any further ado, let's jump right in to the 86th chapter of 'When Instinct Falls', and the finale of the sixth arc!
Do enjoy...
"You can't move ahead until you bury the past." - Danielle Steel
10:33 P.M
So this was how she was going to die.
Judy Hopps had always heralded the concept of death with a full expectancy of dignity and honor: Being a police officer of the ZPD, she knew from day one that her very own life was on the line with practically every excursion that she experiences. Even the most simple and innocent of traffic stops could turn deadly. Whenever she took part in a raid, or stopped a petty criminal, there was always a chance that something could go wrong. Go deadly. It's what made being a police officer such a dedicated job; It took courage to know that any day could be your last. As such, she walked through life knowing that it could end at any moment, though, it didn't stop her from enjoying the little things, of course: There was a pleasure to them that even the cold, cruel hands of death itself couldn't take away, and perhaps, that was what made them so memorable.
But she hadn't expected to go out like this.
Hog-tied in a prison of rope, back against her partner, all the while being dragged through the grimy dirt and sharp little pebbles of a cavern floor deep underground. Here, far from the light and safety of the surface, there would be no help coming anytime soon. Judging from what she had single-handedly managed to detect from that earlier conversation between the marsupials as she and Nick were vacated from the dig-site, the ZPD had found another route into The Painted Labyrinth, and were on their way to its heart, though with how long it took the two tiny officers themselves to maneuver the deep, treacherous caverns, a full-fledged raid team with multiple mammals likely wouldn't have it quite so easy, especially with the abundance of gear that they carried. They came prepared to finish what they had started with those marsupial criminals!
Alas, fate seemed to have other plans for Nick and Judy, respectively: Radios cut. Gear confiscated. Hope nearly lost. It appeared as though there was no escape nor help in sight for the lapin and the vulpine, despite all that they had been through over the past few hours; With the lava tube collapsing from earlier, the fight with the marsupials, and being dragged into the middle of a cavern raving with criminals, it was a miracle that the two of them had gotten this far without dying, or perhaps at least without being seriously injured or hurt. But now, there was nothing that they could do but wait. Before Ramic had begun to take Nick and Judy away and into the caverns, no doubt so that their deaths wouldn't interfere with the marsupial's excavation job, Iluka Rombahe had ordered the aforementioned kangaroo to permanently dispose of his two hostages.
Both Nick and Judy's very lives were on the line.
The former of the two, meanwhile, recognizing their current situation as one that would require smooth-talking and fast words to get out of, begun to devise a plan to try and bolster he and his mate's chances of survival against such overwhelming odds. Having learnt his lesson from his earlier conversation with Iluka himself, Nick made the mental choice of not bringing up anything very touchy, or speaking in too much of a joking manner with his old con partner, Ramic Roofiss, in the hopes of keeping his own temper in check. From what little they had worked together on in the past, the fox understandably hadn't gathered much characteristically important information on the kangaroo, since he seemed an all-around stoic, careful and somewhat quiet kind of mammal, but at the very least, he didn't appear to be the the kind that lost his cool very easily. That's a plus.
Nick hoped that he could manage to at least pull something positive off when dealing with Ramic, though.
Steeling his nerves and his resolve, Nick figured that there was no better time than now to test out that hope.
"Hey, Ramic, buddy... " The fox started with calm words. "You think that we can talk for just a minute?"
"No." The kangaroo muttered flatly and without any detectable hesitation nor emotion to his tone of voice.
So far so good.
"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that! It's been years!" Nick continued. "Think we can't just even take a second to catch up, huh? Just a bit?"
"No." Ramic repeated, this time with a much stronger firmness to his tone.
This was going to be harder than Nick thought. Realizing that it would take a whole lot more than that to get his old con partner to crack, the fox began to think up some other ways to perhaps exploit the current situation and to come out on top. With his flashlight pointed up ahead, Ramic momentarily stopped before picking up the two tiny officers in his muscular arms like a sack of laundry, and leaping over a decently sized crevice that must have been preventing the kangaroo from dragging his two hostages any further. While briefly off of the ground, Judy felt a rush of cold air swish past her long ears; The stream of air created when Ramic had jumped nearly five feet forward, and the rush of his body suddenly accelerating. The rabbit momentarily felt as though she were leaning her head out of an open car window, enjoying the whirling winds of an afternoon ride through time. The moment was short lived, however, as soon enough, the smell and the claustrophobic feeling of the cave began to return to her. She sighed.
Virtually anyplace underground was definitely not high on her list of favored environments. Having grown up in rural Bunny-Burrow, a sunny, warm, and expansive farming community, being shoved beneath the earth only served to make her anxious, even if a lot of bunny homes were built underground. She just didn't like the watery smell, the chilling air, nor the confined spaces, most of all. Her brief little trip to the Nocturnal-District with her partner, Nick, certainly didn't help, either; If anything, it just reaffirmed her belief in the superiority of the surface world in comparison to what lied beneath it.
Personal opinions aside, she believed it safe to say that being murdered down here wasn't exactly on her list of high priorities, either.
As Ramic set a tied-up Nick and Judy back onto the cold cavern floor, the fox officer squirmed around a bit and whispered as quietly as he could into his partner's long ears;
"Got any ideas, Carrots?" He questioned in a minute pitch.
Knowing that her husband's ears probably weren't as sensitive as her own, Judy decided to play it safe and just shake her head from side to side instead of replying vocally. She heard Nick grumble a slight growl of seeming disappointment beneath his breath. The rabbit figured that he must've been trying to figure out some way to get them out of their current situation and to safety, but judging by the previous noises that he had produced, she reasoned that his plan was not going as well as he could have hoped for.
Without a word, the movement of their captor came to a sudden and unexpected halt. Another seismic tremor had trembled the caves, and the sound of crunching stone and flying flames echoed down the length of the lava-tube from somewhere far behind them. Iluka and his gang must have finally blown up that big wall of bedrock that had been restricting their excavation into deeper depths of The Painted Labyrinth. Nick, Judy, and Ramic were far enough away that the explosion had no effect on them, but still close enough in that they felt the shaking of the earth and heard the sound of the whirling explosion as it ripped through the confined space of the cave system before fading away.
"Boss must 'ave finally blown up that stupid wall." The kangaroo muttered to no one in particular as he dropped the officers to the ground. "About bloody time it went down."
Judy found herself growing frustrated once more. "Why are you doing this? Those explosions could kill us all!" She exclaimed, causing Ramic to turn around and eye her over.
"Didn't you hear what Iluka told you earlier? This whole shindig 'ere is just one big high-risk, high-reward mission." He told her.
"But are the aftereffects even worth it? It just seems so stupid to me! How could you possibly work with such a reckless plan?"
"Whiskers, let's not get too accusatory, here..." Nick added carefully, a nervous smile pulling at his lips. "You do know that he could easily kill us, right?"
"Yes, Nick, I know, but-"
"Like, really easily. No effort at all."
The two bantering officers both trailed off as Ramic himself barked a loud and crackling laugh of amusement, silencing them effectively.
"You two dipsticks crack me up!" He claimed, leaning forward as he placed his palms on his kneecaps and held up the weight of his upper body.
"It's a pleasure." Nick grumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Now, I just gotta ask, Wilde..." Ramic began, still smiling to himself from earlier. "How did a riffin' no-hoper like yourself ever end up on the ZPD?"
"That is actually a really good question." The fox stated.
"Why do you care? Aren't you here to kill us?" Judy called out huffily.
Ramic didn't answer. Instead, he lowered his gaze to the cavern floor and away from Judy's eyes.
"I s'pose I am." Was all that he said before he pulled out a thick bush knife from a pocket in his pants, and flipped open the blade.
The rabbit swallowed nervously, sensing trouble. She closed her eyes shut and braced herself for a knife to the chest, but after a few seconds of nothingness, she reopened her eyelids to the sight of Ramic casually picking at his pointed fingernails with the knife. Due to the digging that he must've been doing with Iluka and the other marsupials back at the dig site, his nails were caked with specks of dirt, sand, and dried mud. Judy watched silently as tiny flakes fell from wherever the knife scraped beneath his nails.
She cleared her throat and sighed in relief, thankful that she wasn't dead just yet. She only hoped that she'd stay that way.
"You two shouldn't have come down here." Ramic told them. "You're lucky that you're even still alive."
Tell me about it... Judy thought to herself.
"Fate must be watchin' over you, Wilde. Thirteen years we followed our own paths through life and now you're tied up on the ground at me feet."
"Long time no see, too, buddy." Nick grumbled.
The kangaroo's facial expression softened. "I never did think I'd see you again." He claimed calmly. "How did you know we were in the labyrinth?"
"You're kidding, right? The Deciduous-District is practically falling apart up there thanks to your little mining adventure!" Judy yelled at him.
"Don't you come the raw prawn with me, rabbit. I've been stuck down here with all those jumped up drongos for nearly a week! The only ones down here that have seen the surface in all this time are the ones that routinely went to go get food for us. To point, we haven't exactly been up to date on all the happenings in the world, so mind you."
Not wanting Judy to get into an argument with Ramic, Nick seized the opportunity to answer the kangaroo's question, if only to keep him from killing them early;
"That platypus that the ZPD managed to arrest in the aftermath of the Beaverdam incident. He confessed to a lot of stuff during interrogation."
Although Judy glared at him with frustration, due to him having revealed information to Ramic, the fox ignored his rabbit partner for the moment, quietly thinking up a plan.
"Aye, Oliver ain't exactly the full quid, so it doesn't surprise me that he ended up gettin' nabbed, not to mention spillin' the beans on us." The kangaroo muttered.
Nick thought back to how informal and ridiculous the platypus had spoke, and the various ways that he threatened, belittled, and frustrated the officers around him during his interrogation. Though he had cracked eventually, his stubbornness and defiance was perhaps his most admirable quality, at least in Nick's own eyes. He chuckled to himself.
"I remember that guy... Tough one minute, too emotionally unstable to talk the next." The fox quipped with a smug grin. "The miracles of high-profile police interrogation."
Ramic grinned. "Look at you, then. Back when I knew ya, you woulda washed out your own mouth with soap for praisin' the ZPD!" He exclaimed with amusement.
"Times change, buddy. I work with the ZPD now, sure, but I admit, those jobs of ours were pretty darn fun." Nick claimed.
"Ripper good income, too." Ramic added. "Outback-Island's ravin' with con-mammals, but you were always the best, Wilde, even if you lived off on the mainland."
"You flatter me. Those skills weren't so easy to give up, but I'd call this a better life than I ever had." The fox concluded as he grabbed a hold of one of Judy's smaller paws.
"I don't know how you ended up getting your lot thrown in with Iluka's gang, but..." Nick hesitated. "You should've used your strength for something better."
There was a moment of tense silence.
"Though there were fun moments, deep down, I knew that being a full-fledged con-artist was too risky to stick with forever. Joining the ZPD gave me a second chance, and the opportunity to use my abilities for something far greater than myself. It allowed me to do and experience amazing things that I never could have even imagined, before."
Nick paused, thinking back to the very first moment that Judy had pinned the badge onto his chest. The shining glow of the pride in her eyes, the cheering of the crowd, and the sensation of feeling truly useful for once in his life made that reception an unforgettable experience. He recalled how Judy's paw had lingered just a little too long on his chest; Long enough to suggest that there was something even more powerful radiating behind her amethyst-colored irises than just pride and pride alone. Something more.
"It was one of the best things to ever happen to me." He concluded, clearing his throat upon uttering the final word.
"Nick..." Judy murmured, trailing off as her husband continued his explanation.
"So you can go ahead and kill us if you want to, Ramic. Carrots and I always knew that there was a risk in the field, and that there's no sense in trying to win a fight that can't be won. But hey, I'd say it was a good run so far... Just know that if you kill us, for as long as you live, until the day that you die, the ZPD will be hunting you down."
Another period of uneasy silence followed upon the conclusion of Nick's speech.
"I've never wanted to kill anyone, Wilde, especially you." Ramic claimed quietly. "You always 'ad a ripper way with words."
The kangaroo stood up slowly, rising to his full height. He twirled the blade in his paw around a single time before sliding it back into one of his pockets. He then reached into another, and pulled out some kind of shiny wrapper. Upon closer inspection, Nick soon deduced it to be the opened wrapping paper of a half-eaten granola bar. Ramic leaned forward and placed the item directly on the ground, right in front of Judy's twitching nose. The kangaroo then sighed and started to carefully explain himself to the officers;
"If I can speak me own mind, then I think that this whole operation is gonna end in failure. Iluka has been off his rocker for days, ever since we came down here. He thinks we're close, and although I do too, there are too many darn gears in this machine, and soon enough, it'll fizzle out like a glowbug on a porchlight's beam. I was against the idea of searchin' for the tomb of that bloody Elktic king, and I'm against the idea of killing you two. I've never, ever taken a life before, and I won't start with an old buddy."
"W-What?" Judy stammered, clearly surprised at her captor's sudden change of mind and tone. The kangaroo continued;
"You ain't dying by my hand, but I ain't lettin' you go, either! This is the part where I leave you here to let you work your own magic. You could make it out all on your own without a scratch to show, or you can sit here in this cave, all alone, until you starve to death. That's not my problem. Neither of those scenarios are. Die if you will, but at least that way, I ain't spillin' blood. Once I'm done here, I'm headed right back where we came from like nothin' happened. I'm sparin' you, but I'm doing this for me. Got it?"
Blinking a few times in disbelief, Nick and Judy both promptly found themselves and shook their heads together in unison, solidifying the pact with the kangaroo, whom had already lumbered off and down the very same path that they had used to get all the way out here. He took his tiny flashlight with him, but eventually, his movements halted.
Ramic glanced over his broad shoulders and stared down at the considerably smaller pair of officers tied up on the ground.
"Half your luck, mates." He claimed one last time before gazing back ahead and disappearing behind a corner of a nearby cave wall.
Judy watched as the light from Ramic's flashlight that was reflecting off of the sides of the lava tube slowly faded away until none remained, and her world was enveloped in total and complete darkness. The kangaroo's heavy footsteps went just as fast. A stunned and deafening sense of quietude was instilled in that moment. The cave was cold, silent, and without light. Judy was worried. She hated being underground, especially when there wasn't any light sources to properly see with. Nick, on the other hand, with his night vision, was doing a bit decently better. Both mammals could smell the cold, watery earthen scent of the caves, and even the granola bar that Ramic had left them.
Of all the times that working on con jobs had come back to bite him in the tail at later points in his life, he could safely say that this was the very first time that one had come back to help him. If he had never met Ramic before, the sympathy and mercy that the kangaroo had displayed might have been nonexistent. This was an ironic first for him. The nature of it nearly made him chuckle to himself, but for the moment, he suppressed his inner thoughts in favor of analyzing his current situation and assessing damage.
Filled with darkness, there was very little that the fox could effectively see, even with his night vision. Here, there was no light source at all; Just an empty, cavernous void of shadowy rocks and inky blackness. Recalling how frightened Judy had become in the lightless depths of Vladzotz's manor all those months ago, he could only imagine how she was holding up now. Squirming around uncomfortably, he felt his back press against Judy's, and after fondling around for a bit, he managed to grab one of her tiny paws.
"Hey, you alright there, Carrot-Cake?" Nick asked quietly.
Silence for a few brief seconds.
Judy sighed audibly. "Could be better." She muttered aloud.
Together the two of them sat there in the dark cave for a few short minutes of silence, the only sounds filling the void being that of their own shaky breaths and bodies.
"Whelp, this stinks." He concluded flatly.
From the behind of him, the fox detected his partner sigh out loud in frustration.
"Nick, we need to work together on this!" Judy insisted promptly. "If we don't, we're going to die here!"
"My night-vision abilities only work so far, Whiskers... At night, the moon still gives off a small amount of light reflected from the sun, but here, it's completely black! There's no light at all! I can still see, but only barely. If we're going to get out of this rut in one piece, it's gonna take time. Bear with me, and let's try to stand up together, okay?"
"That's a workable start, I guess." The rabbit agreed. "Alright, come on, sit up with me."
Both Nick and Judy grunted slightly in unison as they used their combined weight to sit upright upon the cold cavern floor. With his long and bushy tail pushed up against his body, the fox couldn't help but shift his weight around a bit to try and offload the discomforting pressure on his tail. Brushing it against the ground like a paint brush, he felt a few pebbles clitter away as they were pushed aside, and took a moment to listen to them. With his sense of sight nullified, even with his enhanced night vision (He could only imagine the stress that his partner must have been going through right then and there), he took whatever chance he had to get a sense of his surroundings, however small.
Sniffing the air around him, the fox detected a slight scent of something almost sour nearby; Perhaps a puddle of mineral water. He tried focusing his vision to the best of his abilities, and although he could just barely make out the outline of his very own body, he certainly had a lot of room for improvement as well. To escape this big pickle, Nick would have to utilize his other senses in order to assist in he and Judy's escape. Clearing his throat out loud, he shifted his neck and tried staring in Judy's general direction.
"Whiskers, let's stand up now." He told her.
"Alright, on three!" The rabbit replied swiftly. "One..."
"Two..." Nick continued.
"Three!" They both cried out in unison, using their legs together as they stood up, nearly tipping over and falling before carefully balancing themselves out.
Steadying out and giving some equilibrium to their combined weight, the two tiny officers slowly shifted around a bit on their feet, feeling out the area around them.
"Okay, t-this way!"
"No no, the exit is that way!"
"Ugh, come on, ow!"
"Huh?"
"You stepped on my tail!"
"I'm sorry! I can't see in here!"
Nick sighed. "There's no way that we'll be able to do this, fluff-butt. We need to get out of these stupid ropes!" He claimed.
"But how?" Judy squirmed her bound arms around, testing the strength of the ropes. "These things are too tight!"
The fox pursed his lips in thought. The only thing that Ramic had left to them was a half-eaten granola bar, and even that would not last long between them, if they so decided to eat it. If they were going to survive and escape, their best chance was to get free from the ropes, but for the moment, Nick was at a loss for ideas. He shuffled forward a little bit, one tiny inch at a time, pulling Judy along with him for a few short feet until he stepped down on something sharp, likely a rock or chunk of tone, causing him to yelp out.
"What is it? The bunny questioned, concern lacing her voice.
"Agh, just stepped on a rock, or something. Pretty sharp... I think my foot might be bleeding..."
"Are you okay?"
"Don't worry about me, Carrots." Nick calmly reassured his partner. "I'm fine, I promise."
A sudden thought registered in the fox's mind.
Pretty sharp... His conscious repeated to him.
"I think I have an idea." He then announced before feeling around for that sharp object once again, although much more carefully this time around, so as to not get cut.
"Really? And what would that be?" Judy inquired curiously.
Not answering right away, Nick bent down as best he could, causing Judy to be lifted slightly into the air from the behind of him. He heard her call out in surprise at the sudden action, but quickly calmed down as she was set back on the ground from Nick straightening himself out again. In his right paw, he held a small, almost oval-shaped object, however, its point had been sharpened as though it were hit with a strong stone many times over. Smiling to himself, the fox realized that he had found an arrowhead.
"Let's just say that we're getting a little help from a slice of history." He finally told his partner, whom furrowed her brow in confusion.
"Huh?"
"Bear with me here." Nick finalized as he squatted down and turned the arrowhead around in the palm of his paw, so that one of the sharp sides was against the ropes.
From there, he began moving his wrist back and forth like a saw as fast and fortified as he could, the arrowhead's razor point beginning to cut through the base of the ropes. It was a slow process, but soon enough, the first three ropes were split, and another three remained, though Nick only needed to saw through one more until they were able to manually remove the remaining ropes due to the slack that had been administered from the loss of the others. Free at last, the two officer then stretched their arms out.
"Oh, it feels good to be out of those!" The fox exclaimed, rubbing his aching wrist, and cracking his neck slightly with an audible popping noise that caused Judy to cringe.
"No kidding." She agreed, ignoring the sounds of Nick's joints being pulled. "So, now what? I still can't see down here, you know."
Nick stroked his scruffy chin in thought. "Hmm... Well, we can't stay here, obviously, yet at the same time, maneuvering back to civilization would be pretty dangerous."
"What other choice do we have? It's like Ramic said; We can stay here and die, or we can forge our own path to victory." Judy stated proudly.
"Yeah, you're right. I guess this was a pretty one-sided choice after all, eh? Okay then, let's get going. Take my paw. I'll lead the way with my night-vision."
"Nick..." The rabbit started slowly.
"Yes?"
"I can't see your paw."
"Oh, right!" Nick stifled. "My bad. Heh."
"Dumb fox, as always." Judy teased, smiling to herself.
"Hey now, you do know that I can just leave you here all alone, right?"
"We both know you wouldn't do that."
The fox shrugged. "Guilty." He muttered out loud.
"Don't we have a job to do?" The bunny reminded her partner, whom nodded silently before reaching out and taking hold of one of his mate's paws.
They started to walk through and into the darkness, but Nick suddenly straightened out and turned tail. He bent down and promptly plucked the arrowhead that had saved their lives off of the stone-cold ground of the cavern floor. He flipped it a single time before slipping it into one of his pockets. Unable to see, Judy asked what was going on;
"What's the hold-up?"
"Just gettin' a souvenir." The fox replied.
At that, the vulpine and lapin officers began their journey back to safety. After what felt like full hours of being underground, the idea of seeing the sun and feeling the fresh, breezy winds of the Deciduous-District whirling past their ears sounded like a dream come true, especially to the rabbit herself, whom despised underground locations very much, indeed. Together, they slowly but surely made their way back in the direction they came from as best they could, with Nick leading the way thanks to his enhanced darkness-oriented eyesight, while Judy followed shortly behind, tethered to him hand-in-hand so as to prevent from getting horridly lost in these inky and confusing caverns.
It took time, but eventually, a very soft light begun to illuminate the way forward, and the two officers quickly realized that they must have been approaching Iluka's dig-site. Despite the close proximity to it, they heard no sounds whatsoever: No humming machinery, no chatting mammals, and no dynamite explosions. Just what had happened?
Soon turning around the corner of the same lava-tube that Ramic had dragged them through earlier, Nick and Judy then came to the sight of the marsupial excavation sight, completely abandoned. Vast amounts of materials had been removed from the full vicinity, and much of the dingy camp had been broken down or destroyed, either from the marsupial's own intentions or the rubble made from the tremors. Creeping around, they managed to find their old gear, and promptly redressed themselves up for a battle.
However, there were no foes to battle there. It was just the two of them in that giant cave, their only source of light being a few weak oil lamps strewn throughout the area.
"Where did they all go?" Judy asked aloud to no one in particular.
"Gees, this is like that time Manches was nabbed by those timber wolves all over again." Nick grumbled lowly. "There one minute, gone the next."
"Do you think that they fled back to Outback-Island?" The bunny asked, remembering how that dingo criminal had told Iluka of the ZPD's entrance into the cave system.
"I dunno. Probably." The fox replied.
Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Judy crept along the outskirts of the camp, along the edge of the giant wall of bedrock until she came across something that made her gasp.
"What's wrong?" Nick found himself asking as he ran over and joined her side. The bunny then pointed towards a giant hole in the wall of stone.
"That!" She cried out.
Apparently, the marsupials really did manage to puncture through the wall of bedrock, even at the expense of the cave structure itself. The gaping hole in the wall was lined with a few small chunks of rubble, but otherwise looked pretty clean. Farther on in, another system of caves opened up and led down deeper into the depths of the labyrinth.
"That must be where they went!" Judy exclaimed.
"It makes sense. Instead of leaving, they just moved on to the next cave after breaking through the wall." Nick added. "I can see it." He said.
The bunny officer then gestured towards the lamps that had been set up inside the hole "Look at this! This has gotta be it!"
"You're not thinking that we should, ya know, go in there, are you?" The fox asked, chuckling nervously to himself as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"We have our gear back, don't we? Besides, if Iluka really is down there, our best bet at stopping him is to catch up and spy on him." Judy claimed.
"Perhaps, but there's probably a bunch of bad guys down there! The kind with guns. It's only you and me, Carrots."
"Has that ever stopped us before?" The rabbit questioned with a smirk. The fox simply sighed before answering;
"Well, no, but, wouldn't it at least be better for us to just wait for the others to arrive? I mean, I'm certain that the ZPD will come back any minute."
Judy nodded, pursing her lips as she thought over her partner's previous statement. She told him;
"True, true. You're right on that, yet I still think that it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of investigation. You and I are fast and light on our feet; We'll be in and out without a sweat! Just a quick peak in to make sure the marsupials are really there, judge their numbers, power, and progress, before running back here undetected and informing the ZPD."
Nick sighed again, murmuring lowly as he reasoned out Judy's argument. To him, it made good sense, and he eventually replied;
"Oh, alright, fine. You have a point. But we have to be careful, and we're just going in and out, alright?"
"Precisely." Judy agreed as she unbuckled her tranquilizer gun from her newly recovered utility belt. "Let's get going, shall we?"
Once readied and prepared for their next endeavor, Nick and Judy continued exploring the remains of the cavern in front of them with their intentions just and both their own minds and their bodies ready for action. This new cave was one that they hadn't explored before; Triangular shaped, roughly, and much more narrow and crooked. It would be difficult to fit a large gathering of mammals with equipment and weapons down here, so it meant troubles for both the ZPD and the marsupials alike. As the two officers reached deeper depths inside their new environment, of which was illuminated by a few lamps that had been set up, alongside their own night-vision goggles, they began to notice the cave slowly changing before their very eyes. The gooey-looking rocks of the lava-tubes seemed to solidify into true stone, almost brick-like in structure and shape.
Sparing glances at the setting of their adventure, the rocks began to change color too, as well as texture: A dark, almost blue-ish shade of rock and sediment, complete with the occasional crack undoubtedly left over from the dynamite explosions that had shook the earth earlier, fracturing the rock. Soon enough, the passage widened out and spread into a larger cavern, though not nearly as big as the one which held the dig-site. This one was no bigger than half of a soccer field, Nick reasoned within his own mind.
Here, it looked like a secondary camp had been set up, with a slew of equipment, and a small burning campfire positioned in the center of the cavern. Around it, only a few marsupials, no more than six, in fact, sat and spoke quietly to one another, each too distracted by their own squabbling to notice Nick and Judy as they snuck by, slipping behind boulders and eyeing over the scene before them. Looking around, the two officers silently concluded that Iluka and Ramic must have been deeper into the caves still.
Around the small campfire, one of the marsupials, that same wombat that had body-slammed Judy from earlier, was talking amongst the other marsupials;
"Say, do you think it was a good idea for boss to dismiss the rest of the workers an' mobsters an' all that? I mean, not counting the three big cheeses, it's just us five here!"
Judy bit her lip, thinking silently to herself. So Iluka, likely thinking that he was close to his goals and no longer in need of so many mammals, sent most of them back home.
"Yeah, of course it's a good idea, ya bloke." Another marsupial responded to the wombat's question. "We're here to stand guard, while Iluka and his two besties explore."
"That's all he needs right now, so quit complaining and just suck it up, mate." Another added.
"I wasn't complaining!" The wombat retorted.
The bantering marsupials continued bickering amongst themselves as Nick and Judy slipped past and into the cave channel on the opposing side of where they both had first originally came from. Continuing deeper into the depths of the cave, they soon came across another wide open space, though this one had more features to it than the last.
Half the size of what they had seen before, this cavern was considerably smaller than the others, and although it was made of the same material, looked much more ancient than anything that Nick and Judy had seen thus far. Ruinous walls of blocky stones had toppled over like dominoes, filling the room with rubble, but sprouting from a small hill of rock that protruded above the rest of the cavern, an ominous structure loomed with a presence that seemed as though it could fill a thousand minds with fascination.
The structure was a small brick building embedded into the very rock of the cave. Dilapidated stones made up the walls that held ancient pillars and crumbling ruins of rock up like columns. It was an unmistakable tomb, built right here under the surface of the earth, hidden and buried beneath a thousand years of history and conflict, yet it had stood the test of time to this present day, and was open and ready to share its secrets to the world that had long forgotten of its very existence. The fox then swallowed nervously.
"Okay, this is it, we've seen enough. Iluka is in there, and I am not in the mood to see him again, so let's go!" Nick told Judy quietly, though with a frantic tone of voice.
Judy turned around and eyed her partner with a look of disappointment. She told him;
"Not yet! We have our tranquilizers, and more than enough darts to take down three mammals, even if one of them is a big, buff kangaroo. It'll work, trust me."
"Alright, fine, but if I die, I'm gonna come back as a ghost and haunt you for all eternity." Nick grumbled, locking and loading his tranquilizer gun for use.
Picking up the pace, Nick and Judy both ran up to the entrance of the tomb with haste, and stood back against the massive stone doors, one of which had been unsealed and opened, splitting the design of a pair of large antlers that had been carved into the set of doors in half. Jerking her head in a silent gesture to enter the tomb, Judy waited as Nick quickly slipped before following suit, making sure to watch her footing in the ancient structure, as she wasn't sure if it was very safe. She kept an eye out for activity, though the inside of the tomb looked as abandoned as ever. Cobwebs, dust, and rubble had gathered over the centuries of isolation down here, and deeper still, she spotted a hallway sticking out, one that likely led deeper into the actual heart of the tomb, rather than this dusty old mudroom. She gestured towards it before approaching it slowly.
Following the length of the hallway, it eventually opened up into a large room just up ahead, though in it, Judy saw the forms of Ramic, Iluka, and another marsupial, a male dingo, standing before what looked like a large pillar backed up against the very center of the farthest wall. Flanking each side, a row of supporting columns held up the great weight of the roof, and after entering the room without a sound, Nick and Judy both hid behind the same column as they carefully watched and listened to the conversation.
"Alastrine Brockernos' tomb." The tasmanian-devil muttered with awe.
"This sarcophagus was built for a giant, nearly prehistoric elk species that is now currently extinct." The dingo started. "How can we possibly hope to move this thing?"
"We move it together." Iluka replied as he walked up to the massive stone coffin and set both of his paws against one side of the lid. "Now help me with this, you two!"
"Aye, sir." Ramic murmured softly, clearly not in the best of moods, it seemed.
Once the kangaroo and the dingo had joined Iluka at the side of the coffin and begun to push, it gave Nick and Judy a perfect view of the object in question. Staring at the curved surface, it was indeed a clearly built sarcophagus, with some ancient designs carved into the surface, including the shape of a large sword right down the middle of the lower half. With all three mammals pushing on it as hard as they could, their combined strength shifted the lid over, and then it fell over on its side, crumbling to little bits.
Staring into what laid within, Judy's amethyst-colored eyes widened at the sight of one of Zootopian history's greatest relics.
Inside the sarcophagus was a gigantic skeleton coated in thick plates of what looked liked armor pieces, standing vertically along the length of its final resting place. Staring in awe at the white skull of the long-dead creature, the overall shape and cube-like teeth made it very clear that its owner was once a member of the elk mammal family, but perhaps most impressive of all were the massive, bony horns, branching out from the skull's cranium like tree branches; Each one decorated with dust-covered jewels and wrapped in embroidered cloth lines with ancient Elktic art designs. Judging from the slightly hunched over position of the skeleton, and its undoubtedly old age, Nick figured that the only thing holding it together was the set of armor, albeit loosely. The armor set itself was cracked, rusted, and barely held together, but may have once been truly beautiful. Iluka Rombahe and the other mammals soon stepped forward and eyed over the sight of Alastrine's gigantic skeleton and everything held within his ancient coffin.
Grasped in the hoofed fingertips of the skeleton, a humongous pole-looking object was just barely obstructed by Iluka's back, from Nick and Judy's current angle of sight.
Retracting his arm from the old stone sarcophagus, Iluka Rombahe slowly pulled out a comparatively massive sword, or at least, that's what Nick assumed it to be; The thing was coated with dust, flakes of rust, dirt particles, and entire centuries worth of cobwebs. It looked more like a rusted iron pipe than an actual sword, yet Iluka stared at it as if it were the most priceless thing in the world. His orange eyes were wide with disbelief and utter awe, and his maw hung slightly agape at the sight of his new discovery.
"This is it... Elkscalibur... Is real!" Iluka exclaimed, squealing in excitement. "Is mine!"
He then brought the sword up to his nose and sniffed along the length of the grimy object.
"After all these years trapped deep underground, sheltered from the elements of the surface world, it is in a pristine condition!" The tasmanian devil nearly shouted aloud.
One of the other marsupials, the dingo, it seemed, begun to interject with a single comment of his own;
"Sir, we should probably be getting out of here... With the ZPD on its way, and the cavern as fragile as it is-"
Another slight rumble gave case to the mammal's point.
Blinking a few times, Iluka cleared his throat audibly before recomposing himself. He turned around and locked eyes with Ramic and the dingo that were standing behind him.
"There's no time to properly bag this right now." He told them swiftly. "We take what we came for, break down the excavation site, and leave. Give the workers ten minutes."
"Aye, boss. Let's get to it, then." Ramic muttered in agreement.
The kangaroo opened his mouth as if he were going to say something else as well, but once again, a seismic event, this one being more powerful than the last, began to begin its rounds; The cavern shook, the ground trembled, and cracks started to appear in the brickwork of the ancient tomb. Dust and other powdery sediment fell from the ceiling. Iluka glanced down between his two feet and stifled a disgruntled cry of surprise at the sight of a large crevice beginning to open up below him. He quickly jumped back, tripping over himself and falling directly beside Ramic's big feet. Meanwhile, the dingo pointed up towards something above them all before yelling out a clear warning;
"Look out!"
Iluka Rombahe shrieked aloud in a mixture of both surprise and pain as a decently-sized chunk of rock fell down from the crumbling ceiling and then struck him directly upon his paw, causing him to instinctively release his hold on the handle of the age-old blade. The grimy artifact flew from his grip and clattered upon the stony floor of the tomb, clanking loudly a few times before being buried by another few heavy rocks and a mound of sediment that had dropped from somewhere up above, completely covering it.
"No!" The tasmanian-devil called out, sorrow and anger lacing the undertone of his words. "The sword!"
One look around at the current atmosphere was all that Ramic needed to know. "We're leaving, right now!" He demanded before scooping up his smaller-sized boss.
Carrying the tasmanian-devil slung over his shoulder like a big bundle of rags, the kangaroo charged out of the collapsing room, rushing past Nick and Judy without a second thought. Sparing a brief glance at the ceiling directly up above, the fox gasped in disbelief as he witnessed a stringing web of cracks appear along the grimy roof of the tomb.
"This place is falling apart!" Nick shouted aloud in fear.
From there, the fox then whirled around and pressed his paws against Judy's back, steering her towards the nearby exit, all the while scampering along as fast as he could, trying not to loose his footing as he weaved his way around blocks of stone and rock that had fallen from the ceiling and landed upon the floor of the old tomb, creating tons of messy obstacles that only served to provide even more hazards to be on the lookout for. Soon enough, the two officers lept from the tomb's entrance just in time, as the ancient structure finally gave way and fell beneath the overbearing weight of a thousand pounds of rock, rubble, and time. The whole entire tomb site was seemingly razed.
Choking and coughing noises emanated from a few dozen or so feet away, undoubtedly the sounds of Iluka, Ramic, and that dingo recovering from the traumatizing event.
"Ack!" The voice of Iluka gagged. "T-The tomb... Is it...?"
"It's gone!" Ramic thundered. "And is it really of any surprise?"
"What?!" The tasmanian-devil growled.
"Aye, you heard me. This mission's scrubbed! We need to leave before the ZPD gets here!"
"And abandon years worth of work? No, we can't!" Iluka spat back. The dingo mobster was looking back and forth between his two superiors, unable to choose who to support.
"Look at the tomb, boss!" Ramic ordered. "It's gone! It's in pieces!" He roared.
Iluka's fists began to ball into tight and rigid spheres of muscle and claws.
"This is all your fault..." He muttered with a deadly soft tone of voice.
"I just saved your life! Don't waste it trying to scrounge up a broken goal, far less a broken tomb" The kangaroo told him, gesturing to the ruins of the ancient structure.
Biting his teeth together in frustration, Iluka threw his paws up in the air and screamed his head off, flailing around and kicking a few small stones before falling to his knees and then supporting the weight of his upper body with his arms. From a distance, both Nick and Judy could see shiny tears trickling down his snout and plipping onto the soil.
"Everything we've been working towards for the past five years has just gone up in smoke."
Ramic sighed. "Not true, mate. We have other trades, and we can always come back here to dig the rubble out and see if we can find anything." He calmly stated to his boss.
"You're right..." Iluka agreed, sniffing. "We can work out the details later. Now, we need to leave." He hauled himself to his feet before beginning to stumble towards the exit.
"Wait a minute, what caused those tremors, anyways?" The kangaroo found himself asking. "It's just us three and the others down the shaft a few dozen yards."
The tasmanian-devil snarled beneath his breath. "Either one of the lava-tubes collapsed from stressed, or the ZPD has made themselves a shortcut." He muttered out loud.
"What? Would they really blow up this place too, just to reach us?"
"I don't know. Whatever the case, we need to leave."
Another rumble suddenly shook the world, this one lighter and less powerful than the last, but still enough to blur the vision of everyone within its radius. A few small stones slipped down from the mountain of rubble that had buried the ancient tomb, and from the pile, a single, white, and disfigured-looking stone rolled down and landed next to Judy. Staring down at it, she had to resist the urge to scream: It was no rock, but instead the skull of that skeleton from inside the sarcophagus, albeit missing its huge horns along with a few teeth. A large crack had formed along the edge of its jaw. The fractured skull seemed to be smiling up at Judy, as if it were happy to have rolled beside her.
How it had survived the collapse of the building was beyond Judy's imagination. She was more worried about how the rattling of the skull as it landed beside her had finally caused Iluka and Ramic to notice the likes of Nick and Judy sitting in the dirt just a few yards away from them. One of Iluka's eyes twitched, and then he screamed in anger;
"Why are they still alive?!" He roared before turning to Ramic. "I thought I told you to kill them both?!"
"I must have misheard you." The kangaroo lied, picking at one of his thin ears nonchalantly.
Snarling loudly, Iluka ignored his second in command as he jabbed a single pointed claw towards Nick and Judy.
"You did this! You blew up the tomb!" He roared in accusation.
"No no, you got the wrong mammals, buddy!" Nick said in his defense. "It looks like the ZPD must have finally caught up with us."
Judging by the tasmanian-devil's bared teeth, he clearly wasn't too happy to hear that. Farther down the hallway where the small camp had been erected, Judy's sensitive ears detected the sounds of mammals shouting and a few gunshots; The ZPD really had arrived! Whether or not they had used explosives to reach this place was unknown, but a question for sometime later. Suddenly and without warning, Iluka dashed off towards the entrance of a separate lava-tube. Having experienced the bewildering layout of the Painted Labyrinth, Judy knew that if he managed to get away, that there might not be any hopes of finding him, at least not easily, of course. She shouted out to him;
"Stop, you!"
Pointing her tranquilizer gun in his direction, she pulled the trigger a single time, however, the dingo had thrown himself forward and purposefully taken the dart for Iluka. Must have been a loyal associate. Taking aim once again, the rabbit fired once more, this time just barely grazing her target as he disappeared behind the side of the cave and vanished, no doubt running off somewhere into the deeper parts of the system. Judy refused to let him get away. Turning towards Ramic, she shot him in the chest with another dart, if only to keep him from trying anything. She had had enough, and wasn't taking any more chances. The kangaroo gurgled wearily before falling over with a hard thud.
"What the...?" Nick stifled. "Why did you dart him? He wasn't even doing anything."
"He might've, and we need to leave him here for the other officers to find! Right now, our job is to catch Iluka before he gets away!" Judy yelled back at him as she took off.
Following shortly behind, the two mammals sprinted off in the direction that the tasmanian-devil had fled to. After entering the nearby lava-tube, they ran for a ways before reaching a fork in the structure. Using his keen sense of smell, Nick was able to help direct Judy in the proper direction, due to Iluka having left a distinct musk behind him as he ran away, which wasn't very surprising, given the fact that he had been holed up underground for the past few days. Eventually, the lava-tube poured out into another big cave, this one with a huge crevice split down the middle, creating a hazardous obstacle in which there was no way around. For as far as they could tell, Iluka was trapped.
With both his whip and boomerang unbuckled from his belt, the tasmanian-devil stood fortified in the middle of the space, glaring at Nick and Judy as they approached him.
"It's over, Iluka. Give up. We don't want to fight you." Judy assured him carefully yet sternly.
"Yeah, there's no way out. Come clean, and we can put all this behind us." The fox added.
"It's too late for that!" Iluka roared.
"Just come clean! The ZPD is coming right now, so it's not like you can get away. Not this time." Nick pressed.
The tasmanian-devil huffed heaving breaths of frustration, and his orange eyes were wide with anger and disbelief. From across the space, he opened his maw to respond.
"Then I'll just stop wasting my time and kill you right now!" He shrieked.
Iluka fought with viscous fury, his ears and lips having turned the color of blood and his large teeth bared in anger. He growled between clenched fangs as he threw one arm forward and lashed out with his whip, just barely missing Nick, causing him to yip aloud in surprise and scurry back a few feet, not willing to to get within striking distance of that rope. Throwing his boomerang at Judy, Iluka's rage was so great that his aim was effected, and the curved item simply sailed past a few feet to Judy's right, shattering against the side of the cave in a shower of splinters and sawdust. The tasmanian-devil roared angrily, his luck having run out. He clearly wasn't a very able-bodied fighter.
He turned around to flee, but there was no where left to run: The cave that they currently fought in had a massive, gorge-like crevice running right through it, after all.
Trapped at last.
Snarling, Iluka whirled back around and faced down his two opponents. His wild orange eyes were simmering with a feeling beyond rage. It was pure, unfettered hate.
Recognizing the fact that Iluka didn't seem to have a firearm with him, Judy had refrained from firing her tranquilizer gun just yet. She watched as Iluka backed himself up against the edge of the pit, his fists clenched and teeth bared in unrestricted rage. Past the fire in his eyes, the rabbit saw a trove of pain and disbelief: Everything that he had worked for had gone up in smoke, and here he was, cornered against a cliff and facing capture at the hands of the ZPD. Judy almost felt sorry for him, but everything that he had done, from the killing of that watch-guard at the museum, to the near-destruction of the Painted Labyrinth, was too unforgivable of a record to pass by so easily.
"This... This isn't right!" The tasmanian-devil started, letting go of his whip and dropping it to the ground. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!"
"You have the right to remain silent, Iluka." Judy sternly told him, to which he growled lowly in response.
"No!" He spat back, clenching his clawed fists. "I'm not going back to jail!"
Nick stepped forward a single time. "Don't make this hard on us, buddy." He stated calmly. "Just come clean, please, and we won't have to dart you."
The fox spoke honest words. Due to Iluka's proximity to the edge of that crevice, he worried that if he darted the tasmanian-devil, that he would slump over and fall, perhaps to his death. One look at Judy and Nick could tell that she was thinking the very same thing. Iluka didn't seem to recognize this, as he continued to rant and fume with rage;
"Five years of work all for this! This... This failure! You are the reason behind it! If it weren't for your stickybeak meddling, I'd be home-free right now! It's all your fault!"
Judy could tell that he was starting to lose it. His jet-black fur was standing on end, his eyes were filled with hate, and he was visibly shaking. He reminded the bunny of what Vladzotz had looked like moments before his manor had collapsed on top of him, all those months ago. He looked like the kind of mammal that had nothing left to lose, and wasn't afraid to bite back at the instigators to his current situation. That made him as dangerous as any weapon, both to himself and to Nick and Judy, respectively. He growled;
"The sword is g-gone, and it's all because of you two! You, you riffing blue heelers!"
"Please, calm down, and get on your hands and knees." Judy called out to him.
"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Iluka hissed, raising his forearms and staring at the ground. "For years, all I've wanted was to find that sword! It was my ticket to freedom!"
"Iluka-" Nick called out in warning, having noticed the tasmanian-devil take a small step backwards unknowingly.
"And you ruined it!" He continued, ignoring the fox's call of caution. "You ruined it all!"
Nick took another big step forward. "Stop!" He shouted towards the tasmanian-devil one last time.
It was far too late, though.
Iluka stepped backwards in apprehension, but there was nowhere else to go: His heel slipped, the edge of the cliff crumbled, and the crime-lord of Outback-Island fell. In the last moments before disappearing over the edge of the cliff, Judy saw no more anger in his eyes. Only fear. Cursing, the fox ran forward and approached the edge of the cliff.
Staring down, Nick took in the sight of the pit's bottom, some thirty feet down or so. There, Iluka Rombahe lay in a crumpled heap, and was visibly bleeding from the back of his head. He wasn't moving. Shaking his head from side to side and pinching at the bridge of his nose, Nick turned around and faced his mate, Judy, who stared back at him.
"That fall was at least thirty feet, Carrots. We need to regroup with the rest of the ZPD and tell them about what happened here."
Judy blinked a single time before swallowing hard and nodding her head in agreement.
"Right."
From there, the two officers dashed off and back towards the direction in which they had came from, with both of them thinking high on the hopes of their latest endeavor.
One Week Later ; 11:29 A.M
As it turned out, curiosity didn't always kill the cat.
After regrouping with the other officers and filling them in on what had happened, Nick and Judy aided in the clean-up and restoration of the area, which included the arrests of all the remaining marsupials (Including Ramic, who Nick had made a silent promise to himself to visit in jail, one day soon) in the Painted Labyrinth, and the recovery of Iluka Rombahe, whom was promptly taken to a hospital in the nearby district of Tundra-Town. He was in a pretty bad shape from his fall, with one of his arms twisted at an odd angle, but otherwise was alive all the way up until Nick and Judy last saw him, so that was a good sign, if there ever was one. He had caused much pain, but they didn't think him worthy of death In the hours that followed, despite growing very tired due to the laborious work that they had been doing with the other officers, both the lapin and vulpine aided in the clearing out of the rubble that had buried Alastrine's tomb, and took part in the salvaging of all that they could find, before leaving the labyrinth at last.
They had indeed managed to find the sword of Elkscalibur in one piece, and promptly took it with them back to Precinct Seven for filing and analyzing. The age-old weapon was cataloged, cleaned up, and was then sent to the very same museum that Iluka Rombahe and his cronies had vandalized as compensation for their losses. The owner was quite shocked to find herself the sole owner of the Deciduous-District's most valuable relic, least to say, and properly thanked the ZPD for their kind work and consideration. Alongside the sword, the broken pieces of Alastrine's coffin, and even his skeleton and armor were donated to various museums across the forest district, all for safekeeping.
More days passed by without much thought, and soon enough, it became time for Nick and Judy to leave the Deciduous-District and return to Precinct One, and their home in Savannah-Central. They knew not what awaited them in the coming future, near or far, but whatever came upon them, they intended on jumping into it hand-in-hand. Before leaving, they had said their goodbyes to all of the officers at Precinct Seven, many of which had grown fond of Nick and Judy, which only made the goodbyes all the more painful, though, there was at least one soul that assured them that they would see him again: Chief Tom Urzo, who personally thanked them for their help and work there.
Embracing the paw of the superior that had both laughed with them and tormented them the past few weeks in a stable and friendly handshake, Nick and Judy then left the woodlands by car and promptly drove south towards Tundra-Town, where the towering trees of the Deciduous-District were soon replaced with thick, sloping glaciers and fluffy fields of snow. More and more buildings began to pop up as they entered the downtown area, and soon enough, they were homeward bound for the first time in weeks.
The woodlands may have had its moments and its memories, but to them, it was good to be home, where they truly belonged.
After settling in, the two tiny mammals were promptly met by their true superior, Chief Bogo, the following day in his office, where he explained his own recent happenings.
Thankfully for them, Bogo had managed to convince the mayor of Zootopia, Blair Lyncoln, to give them a pass for their past involvement with Ratsputin and his schemes. It had been one of the primary reasons that they were sent to the Deciduous-District, after all: To straighten up a little bit and give Bogo time to deal with the mayor efficiently. With the central city government calmed down at last, no one was on Nick and Judy's back for the first time in months, and what felt like years. For some time, they resumed their regular police work at Precinct One, until one day, it was decided that they would pay a visit to the very same mammal that they had battled against: Iluka Rombahe.
From what news they had gathered in recent days, the tasmanian-devil was doing pretty well with his healing, despite the fact that he had broken both an arm and a leg, not to mention lost a few teeth and suffered a pretty bad concussion from the fall. Now, in the present moment, Nick and Judy stood in a simple, silvery elevator as it whirred up to one of the higher floors of the hospital building, where they knew that Iluka Rombahe himself was being held under tight watch while he recovered from his many injuries.
Soon enough, the elevator doors glided open, and the two mammals, both dressed in their casual clothes, stepped out and approached the tasmanian-devil's personal room.
Letting themselves in, they saw that their old enemy had been bandaged up around his head and ankle, and his left leg and right arm were both slung up in full casts that dangled from the ceiling, restricting movement. He wore a simple blue hospital gown, and appeared to have lost some weight, too. Approaching his bedside, Judy cleared her throat audibly, effectively causing the tasmanian-devil's eyes to open up and lock with those of his guests, whom stood across from him with a big bouquet of colorful flowers.
"W-What... Is this?" Iluka muttered weakly, clearly having not used his own voice in a while.
"Hi there." Judy spoke softly, holding out the bundle of flowers. "We just thought that it'd be nice of us to visit you."
"Yeah, we figured that after taking a three story fall, you could use a little bit of company." Nick added.
The tasmanian-devil blinked wearily a single time, softly growling beneath his breath as he watched the rabbit officer set the flowers down on the table beside his bed.
"No! I don't want them!" He claimed bitterly and with volume, trying to sit up, but ultimately giving up and leaning back into the mound of pillows that supported his upper-body.
"Hold on now, before you get upset, just hear us out, okay? That isn't the only thing we came here to show you." Judy reassured him, raising her palms in a peace gesture.
From there, the rabbit reached into one of the pockets on her jeans before pulling out a single folded photograph. Upon unfolding the picture, she walked over to the closer side of Iluka's bed and handed it to him carefully. The tasmanian-devil's paw trembled slightly, hanging in the air for a few brief moments in hesitation before finally giving in and taking hold of the item. Iluka brought the photo to his face, and squinted down at the sight of Elkscalibur, labeled and cleaned, sitting behind a glass case in a museum.
"Nick and I wanted to let you know that the sword was put in a safe place, along with much of what was recovered from the tomb down in the Painted Labyrinth." Judy said.
The fox nodded in agreement. "Right. When we donated it to the museum, they asked us who had discovered it, you see..." He continued slowly.
"So that credit could be given to the proper archaeologist who first found it after nearly two thousand years." Judy finalized.
"Huh?" Iluka stifled, confused at the notion behind the officer's claims. His voice was free of bitterness for the first time in days.
"Well, since we weren't archaeologist ourselves, we decided to give the credit to someone who actually deserved it." Nick stated calmly.
Narrowing his eyes in disbelief, Iluka Rombahe then glanced down at the photograph that he held between two of his whittled claws. He took a closer look down at the plaque that had been displayed alongside the sword, and his jaw opened slightly as he registered and read over his very own name, quoted and credited as the original discoverer.
The tasmanian-devil swallowed hard a single time, thinking back to all the work and effort that he had put into finding that relic. Tears began to build up in his eyes.
"It's... All I've ever wanted. Thank you." He managed as salted droplets began leaking down his black-furred cheeks, leaving streams of moisture along their pathways.
"Least that we could do, really." Nick told him.
After all that they had been through, Judy herself was quite surprised that she and Nick were having such a casual conversation with one of the most wanted and prolific criminals in the city of Zootopia. She shivered thinking about it, and so, divert her attention back to the current moment so as not to let her thoughts get the better of her. Somewhere to the behind of her, the doorknob to the hospital room opened, and the door swung out, revealing a female tasmanian-devil in a nurse's outfit leaning into the doorway. She had pretty blue eyes and smooth, clean fur around her head and neck, and the nurse's outfit clung tightly to her body, showing off its overall healthy structure.
"Hello! I hope I'm not interrupting, anything, but I'm the nurse scheduled for this patient's care, and it's lunch time for him on the schedule." She stated out loud.
"Ah, yes, of course." Nick mumbled. "Have at it."
"Get well soon!" Judy called out cheerily to Iluka before following Nick out of the hospital room and closing the door behind them on their way out.
"I think he'll be alright, here." Nick claimed as they meandered down the white-colored hallway and towards the elevators. "It's the very least that he deserves."
Upon registering the fox's words, Judy then spared a brief glance back at the two tasmanian-devils through the window in the wall of the hospital room. She watched as the nurse spoon-fed Iluka his yogurt with a warm smile on her face, all the while giggling at his futile attempts to chew the creamy substance as though it were solid. The male tasmanian-devil, however, despite seemingly looking a little bit embarrassed, if not almost angry, in fact, soon calmed down and started smiling along with his pretty nurse.
"I think so too." The rabbit replied out loud, nodding her head in approval all the while. "I think so too." She repeated.
Turning around she picked up her pace and caught up with Nick, whom had already entered one of the elevators and pressed the button that led them back to the first floor.
"So, what now?" Judy found herself asking toward her partner, whom rubbed at his chin in contemplation at her inquiry.
"Good question. I'm thinking some lunch at Snarlbucks." Nick suggested casually. "I love their iced tea."
"Sure! Don't see why not." The rabbit responded cheerily.
As the words left her very mouth, Judy took hold of Nick's paw right as the elevator doors closed shut, ending their journey for good, and bringing them to the next.
They knew that whatever awaited them, it would certainly be a true adventure to behold.
Hey Everyone!
Here at last, the final chapter of the 6th arc! Wow, that was a neat ride, I'd say: We saw all kinds of cool places, met new characters, experiences new things, and all around had a fun time, methinks. I hope you all think the same as well! Feel free to tell me what you thought of this particular chapter in a review, and perhaps even to let me know what your favorite part of the 6th arc was! For me personally, I enjoyed the action scene that took place in Beaverdam, at chapter 81. That was a lot of fun to write. A lot happened over the past few months, with new chapter updates and old minor rewrites, but I enjoyed myself very much, and I hope that you all did as well.
Thank you all so much for sticking with me thus far. I appreciate your interest and dedication in the likes of my work more than you could ever know.
With all of that out of the way, I'd like to quickly take the time to address some concerns over the coming chapters of WIF, and what I have planned for the near future. To start, I do indeed have a 7th arc plotted out (Mostly) by now, and am proud to say that it does involve plenty more exploration, action, fluff, adventure, and yes, even some more romance. The next few chapters are going to be more laid back and descriptive, with some exploration to enjoy. It's got a lot to it, and I can't wait to release it! We'll see how that goes when the time arrives, but for now, you can expect the next chapter to arrive soon enough, and with it, the start of the 7th arc, which will follow in the aftermath of the 6th, and bring to light all sorts of new and fun adventures for our favorite duo to embark on.
I do so hope that you all stay with me for what's to come, near and far. :)
Once again, I thank you all for delving into this latest chapter of ours, and I do look forward to hearing what you thought of it! Do feel free to leave a review detailing your thoughts on what's happened, and if you haven't already, you are all more than welcome to favorite and/or follow this story of ours. I would greatly appreciate that, as each and every individual one is fantastically cherished, yet regardless, I thank you all for your time, consideration, and interest.
Last up for announcements, I just wanted to quickly make mention of the fact that I just recently went back and did some pretty major editing on even more of those earlier chapters from the beginning of the story. Looking back at what I wrote all those months ago, I can't help but cringe, honestly, but I suppose that's a good thing, as it means that improvement has been found, and that I have achieved personal satisfaction with the current state of my work, and if anything, that counts as a huge win, I say. Still, it didn't stop me from going in and making a few revamps to the old scenes to make them read and flow better. Hopefully this will make the beginning few chapters come off as more appealing to those just getting started on the story. It was a neat experience, and I'll definitely be going back to add more revisions in the future. Just thought you should know.
Anyhow, that's pretty much all that I have to say for now. Thanks for reading, and do stay tuned for chapter 87, the start of the 7th arc, coming soon!
'Till next time...
Peace!