Two Nicks made Judy's head hurt.
The real Nick was snoring on the floor, and hadn't moved so much as an inch since being thrown into Bogo's carriage. The other Nick, the one who seemed to have taken up residence in her head, had moved beyond simply being a voice nearly the instant after Bogo first spoke. She could actually see him, casually sitting on the floor and leaning against the slumbering form of the real Nick.
"Does it really matter if I'm not real?" he said; even with his newfound apparent solidity he had apparently retained his ability to understand her thoughts, "You're going to need some help getting through an interrogation."
The other Nick chuckled, brushing a paw through the thick fur of the real Nick's tail. "And he's not exactly much help right now, is he?"
Judy didn't quite have the words to describe how odd seeing that touch had been. The real Nick's fur hadn't moved, of course. There was simply no way that a hallucination—maybe brought on by some combination of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, but undeniably a hallucination—could actually touch a real object. It would be crazy to think that it could. And yet...
It was as though she had seen both possibilities, the other Nick's paw passing through strands of fur without touching them but also the other Nick's paw sweeping those strands aside. A searing wave of pain had gone through her head, like a nail was being driven into her brain, and the other Nick had pulled his paw back from the real Nick's tail. "Sorry," he said, "I won't do that again."
Before she could even begin to formulate any kind of thought, the other Nick gestured toward Bogo. "You might want to pay attention to what he's saying," he said, and he had turned his own attention toward the head of the City Guard.
"What species was your instructor in the use of quauhxicallis?" Bogo asked suddenly, very nearly the instant after she had turned her full attention back to him.
Her resulting confusion at the bizarre first question had been mixed with concern that there was something wrong with her. Crazy mammals had no part being in the City Guard, after all, and if she was hallucinating a second Nick, could everything else she saw and her be similarly unreliable? "No, it's just me," the other Nick said, interrupting her thoughts, "And you didn't miss anything. Big, tall, and serious here is trying to figure out if you're really who you say you are. Throw you off-balance. They didn't teach you how to do interrogations?"
Judy had, in fact, learned the basics, although she hadn't served long enough to get any practical experience. Her mission to escort Nick had been her first real assignment, but she realized that the other Nick was right. Bogo was trying to be an intimidating, unreadable interrogator, and to that end he was succeeding remarkably well. In her position, arms and legs bound, laying on the floor, she was forced to literally look up to him, and he was staggeringly tall. The face atop that mountain of muscle was implacable, as though he didn't particularly care one way or the other what happened to her.
"A bison," Judy answered, "Professor Rumia."
Having an idea of what Bogo was trying might have been more comforting if it hadn't been for the continued presence of the other Nick. She refused to believe that everyone who had ever said that rabbits were too fragile for service in the City Guard was right after all; there had to be a reasonable explanation rather than that she had simply cracked under the pressure. Maybe once she had the chance to get some food and water into her stomach and get a little sleep the vision would vanish. She could tell Nick about it, let him tease her about what it meant about her that she had seen a hallucination of him, and that would be that. Just an odd little thing that had happened once and would never happen again.
"I'm not sure I would count on that," the other Nick said, his voice full of the wry tone she knew so well from the real Nick, "But if it makes it easier for you..."
He shrugged, and Judy couldn't help but envy his apparent freedom of movement. His arms and legs weren't bound, and he looked perfectly at ease sitting on the floor next to himself. Unlike the real Nick, the other Nick didn't look travel worn at all; his clothes—the same outfit Nick had been wearing when they first met—were immaculately clean, and his fur seemed to all but glow in the light of the alchemical torches that lined the carriage. If Nick had been cleaner—or if the other Nick had been dirtier—Judy didn't think she would have been able to tell them apart.
"I'll take that as a compliment," the other Nick said.
It was more than a little unsettling that he didn't need her to say anything, or even just think at him hard, to be able to respond. "I am in your head, Carrots," he said, "And you probably don't want Bogo thinking you're crazy by talking to no one, right? That's why I'm sitting here."
Judy realized what he meant; if Bogo noticed her looking at the other Nick, it'd simply look as though she was looking at the real one. "Clever bunny," the other Nick said, nodding approvingly.
Judy hoped that she wasn't appearing too crazy to Bogo; he had been silent for a while, probably carefully observing her. "Is the fox Nicholas of the Middle Baronies?" Bogo asked suddenly.
"Yes sir," Judy said, doing her best to pay him close attention.
Bogo's face was still unreadable, even as he slowly stood up from behind his desk and walked over to where the real Nick was on the ground. He stood so close to him that the other Nick scooted away so that they wouldn't touch. Not that they could touch, of course, but after what seeing the other Nick interact with reality had done to her head Judy was glad that there wouldn't be a repeat.
Bogo nodded, his face a mask. The other Nick watched him, a wary expression on his face, but he didn't say anything. "Nicholas of the Middle Baronies," Bogo said, seeming to drag the words out as though he didn't believe that they were true.
Judy strained at the straps tying her limbs together, trying to position herself better to see Bogo's face. It occurred to her that if Bogo was a part of Cencerro's conspiracy, the buffalo had them completely at his mercy. As if in response to her thoughts, Bogo reached down to his waist and drew his sabre.
It was much larger than the one that Nick had made for her, and much less elaborate. But the slowly emerging blade looked wickedly sharp, gleaming mercilessly in the light. The other Nick's eyes widened in surprise, but Judy doubted he could anything else. "You've been sentenced to death for treason," Bogo said, each word hard, and he drew the blade up.
For one instant—one terrible instant—Judy couldn't get any words out. She thought she was about to watch Nick die, falling beneath her commanding officer's sword, and after him she would surely be next. It was monstrously unfair; they had barely had any time together at all, and they had fought too hard to die so easily. Judy had killed a cavern full of terrible monsters for Nick, and he had pushed himself to his breaking point to save her when it had nearly cost Judy her arm and her life. And now she was completely helpless to do anything to save him.
"Stop!" Judy cried, and her voice in her ears didn't sound like her own.
"Please, don't do it," Judy begged, not even trying to "He hasn't committed treason, he—"
"So he is asleep. I do apologize, Ensign Totchli," Bogo interrupted, and he sheathed his sword as though he hadn't been about to murder an innocent mammal, "But it's necessary for you to understand the stakes."
"I don't think I like your captain general very much," the other Nick observed, "But you must not get the top position by being soft."
The other Nick's face had resolved itself back into a familiar expression of mild disinterest, but Judy tried not to pay the vision any mind no matter how much she agreed with him in the moment. "The stakes?" she demanded of Bogo.
There was a pit of genuine anger in her stomach that surprised her at its depth, and she couldn't back down even as the other Nick tried to talk her into it. "Carrots, you're letting him get you worked up. You really need to—"
"Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Cencerro made everyone in Phoenix disappear. He's planning something and—" Judy began, cutting the voice of the other Nick off before Bogo spoke over her.
"The stakes," Bogo interrupted, "Are that someone committed treason. Perhaps not you or your companion, but someone. And if you are anything less than honest and forthcoming in your testimony, you'll be helping them get away with it. That's also treason."
Judy could feel herself trembling, and she tried to get herself back under control. The other Nick might just be a crazy hallucination born out of her tired and starved mind, feeding her own thoughts back to her, but he was right. Bogo was pushing her to get her off balance, preparing to doubt everything she said.
"That's better," the other Nick said with an encouraging tone, "And for what it's worth, you're not crazy."
"I want to hear everything. From the beginning. Every detail, no matter how unimportant it might seem," Bogo said, and Judy took a deep breath.
Judy couldn't help but feel that she might have done a better job without the other Nick offering her suggestions or reminders, but after Bogo's intimidation attempt, things went surprisingly well. Bogo had even cut her off and told her to skip past her encounter with the monsters under Phoenix before she could so much as mention her arm. "That was a lucky break," the other Nick commented at Bogo's interruption, "Although I kind of wanted to hear you tell that part of the story."
From there, the story had gotten easier to tell. She knew she still had to tell Bogo about her arm, and she fully intended to, but so long as his orders were to tell him everything he thought was relevant as quickly as possible she would do her best. By the end, Bogo even seemed to have relaxed a bit.
"Thank you, Ensign Totchli," Bogo said, with a politeness that was somewhat surprising for a mammal who had threatened Nick with a sword not too long before, "Your testimony will be invaluable. I'll want to talk to the fox once he wakes, of course."
"That'll be fun, I'm sure," the other Nick commented darkly, glancing down at the sleeping face of the real Nick, "Something tells me he's not going to go quite as easy."
Judy couldn't help but think that he was right, and as Bogo shuffled through papers on his desk she wondered if it was the right moment to bring up her arm. Bogo would learn of it eventually, of course, and maybe it would be better if he didn't get the impression that she was deliberately hiding it. Judy wanted to think that Bogo never would have gotten a job that put him so close to the princess if he hated chimeras, but maybe he considered the princess an exception. As Judy was about to speak up to get Bogo's attention, he looked up from his papers, a frown creasing his face.
"Just one more thing, Ensign Totchli, and then we can look into finding you some more suitable arrangements. There was a messenger bird that made it out of Phoenix shortly before communication stopped," Bogo said, and his eyes seemed to be boring holes through her, "There was a female shrew riding it, who might have used the name 'Fermina.' Did you see her, or see Nicholas speaking with her?"
At Bogo's words, Judy's mouth went instantly dry and any thought of mentioning her arm instantly fell from her mind. "I—" she began, "Fermina?"
She could feel her nose twitching and was powerless to stop it. If she lied, and Bogo found out, he would almost certainly go through with his threat to find her guilty of treason. And from the way Bogo had referred to Nick as "the fox" she didn't think he'd be any more lenient on him. But if she told the truth, Bogo might put Nick to death. It was impossible, each option no better than the other.
"Yes," Bogo said slowly, "Fermina. Do you recall anything that might help us find this shrew?"
He knew.
There was no doubt in Judy's mind that Bogo was reading her face like an open book; it felt as though her ears were burning like charcoals. Judy swallowed hard. "The..." she began, "The thing is..."
"Oh, Carrots," the other Nick said with a sigh, and he pushed himself to his feet.
He was standing next to the real Nick, shaking his head. "Let me save you some trouble. Wake up!" the other Nick said, and as he spoke he directed a kick at the head of the real Nick.
The moment of contact between the two of them sent an eye-watering burst of pain through Judy's head that made what she had felt before feel like nothing. It was as though red-hot spikes were being shoved through her skull, the two different visions refusing to overlap. The other Nick's foot passed through the real Nick's head even as it made contact and Nick's head snapped back. The memories warred with each other, spots of color bursting in her vision.
And then the other Nick was gone and the real Nick sat up.
Judy realized her jaw had literally dropped in surprise. It shouldn't have been possible. The other Nick shouldn't have been able to actually do anything. And yet, somehow he had. The timing made it impossible for it to be anything else; the other Nick was real.
But in the name of all the gods, Judy had no idea what that meant. Was the other Nick actually Nick, using a power she had never heard of alchemists having? Or was he something else? Judy had never before heard of a chimera being created in quite the same way as her; chimeras like the princess were created before they were born, not as adults. Had something, some piece of Nick, slipped into her head along with the copies of his internal organs and his arm? Did the real Nick even know about the other Nick that had started as a voice in her head?
Judy almost missed it when Nick spoke, but the fox had his attention firmly on Bogo. "I can tell you a lot more about Fermina than the ensign here can," he said, with a casualness that was impressive.
There was a surprising confidence in his voice, considering that he couldn't move his arms or legs at all. The only reason he had been able to sit up, so far as Judy could tell, was that the woven straps constricting his limbs were somewhat looser than her own. Otherwise, he was no freer to move than she was. "Is that so?" Bogo asked, the question so flat that it sounded more like a statement.
"It is," Nick said brightly, "Her real name is Fernanda. You might know her father. Alfonso? Tlatoani? Oh, what am I saying? You arrested him, of course you know who he is."
Nick laughed, glancing around as though he was wondering why no one was laughing with him. Judy was too stunned to say anything, and even Bogo seemed completely flummoxed by Nick's willingness to talk. "Anyway, she wanted a fake torc, so I made one and sold it to her. That's about it."
It seemed to take Bogo a moment to find his voice. "You've just confessed to a number of serious crimes," he said at last, in such a way that made Judy think that the absolute last thing he had expected was for Nick to do so.
"I don't think I have, actually," he said, "What laws did I break?"
"Counterfeiting torcs is—" Judy began automatically, but Nick cut her off.
"Counterfeiting torcs is a crime only within the boundaries of the Middle Wall," Nick said, and then he looked down at the straps preventing his arms from moving and frowned.
"Is there any chance you could loosen these? It's hard to gesture and they're really starting to chafe," he said, and then looked back up at Bogo, "I think that might be a loophole that was left there on purpose, but I don't write the laws or mass-produce torcs. I just made the one for her, and I did it in Phoenix."
He was, Judy realized, right. She had memorized Zootopia's legal code, and it had never even occurred to her that it was a loophole someone could take advantage of. "And bringing a counterfeit torc past the Middle Wall is also a crime, fox," Bogo said, and Nick nodded agreeably.
"That's true. But if Fernanda decides to do that, it's her breaking the law, not me. You wouldn't arrest a sword-maker if one of his customers bought a sword and then stabbed someone, would you?"
"You were consorting with a criminal," Bogo said, all but spitting the words, and Nick shook his head.
"Her father was arrested for his many crimes—and that was a great job on the City Guard's part, I'd applaud you if I could move my paws—but I don't remember her committing any."
"Fernanda is wanted for questioning," Bogo said, and it was either her imagination of Judy could hear his teeth grinding.
"Which doesn't make her a criminal," Nick countered, his tone smug, "You don't have—"
"Do you think this is a game, fox?" Bogo roared.
His voice was painfully loud, and his face had twisted into an expression of rage. He slammed his massive hooves into his desk, scattering papers as he stood up and stormed over to Nick. With no apparent effort, he lifted Nick with one arm, holding him inches from his face. Nick's eyes widened, his smugness suddenly gone, and he dangled helplessly. "I don't need the law to have you tried for treason, fox," he said, "I can—"
"You can't," Judy said, so quietly at first that she doubted Bogo had heard her.
"You can't," she repeated, more loudly, and she looked up at Bogo.
His chest was heaving with emotion, flecks of spittle around his blunt muzzle. He looked dangerous, a mammal not quite in control of himself. "If we start executing mammals without proof, without making sure of their guilt, we're no better than they are," Judy said, her voice firm.
"I'm trying to save the kingdom, ensign," Bogo said.
His voice had gotten low and dangerous, but he was still holding Nick by the strap that crossed the fox's chest. He shook Nick as if for emphasis. "The kingdom and everyone who lives in it," he said, but the anger seemed to be fading out of him.
"And if I had been a part of Cencerro's conspiracy," Nick said, with a gentleness that Judy found impressive, "I could have killed you just now."
He waggled his paws—which, Judy saw, he had somehow gotten free of his bonds—and kept speaking in that same even tone. "I could have transmuted your blood to acid or the air in your lungs to poison, but I didn't."
Judy realized then what Nick had done. He had deliberately antagonized the captain general, pushing him to the point where Nick would have had an opportunity an assassin couldn't possibly overlook. Nick was right; as an alchemist simply being able to touch Bogo meant that he could have killed the buffalo if he had wanted to. It was something she would have never thought of herself, to effectively weaponize the truth, and yet it seemed to have worked.
"You've proven your point, fox," Bogo said, and he lowered Nick back to the ground.
Not gently, but not roughly either. "I'm... sorry you had to see that, ensign," Bogo said as he retook his seat behind his desk.
If it bothered Nick that the apology hadn't been directed at him, he didn't show it. "We want to help, sir. Cencerro needs to be stopped before he can finish whatever it is he has planned," Judy said.
Bogo sighed, and suddenly he looked older. Weaker. He must have been pushing himself to his own breaking point, and Judy couldn't even begin to imagine the burden he had been under. "I'll still want to know everything about Fernanda," he said, "Alfonso might be involved, and he might have pulled her in."
"Of course," Nick said, nodding, and he actually managed to sound sincere.
Bogo began pulling his papers together, and Judy could practically feel the fragile trust he was putting in them. She took a deep breath. "Sir, there's something else you should know," she said.
"Judy," Nick began, shooting her a warning look, but she plunged on.
"I want you to know that I'm not hiding anything, sir. That you can trust me. It's about my arm..."
Author's Notes:
I don't really have much to say for this chapter. Revisiting a conversation from the other side was interesting as a writer, hopefully you found it interesting as a reader!
Although Bogo does probably owe Nick an apology for his threats, it's been previously noted in the story that nobles don't apologize to commoners, something that Bogo's been on the other side of before. Judy is the daughter of a noble family and an officer of the City Guard, which I imagine to be the one organization where the rigid rules of high society have some flexibility.
As always, thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you thought if you're so inclined as to leave a comment.