Judy found herself on a vast, white expanse. Looking left and right in awe, she started to walk forward after only a moment's hesitation. She saw other animals doing the same, many mammals she'd never seen before, and some she had. She saw her mother and father.
"Hi, guys!" Judy smiled, waving energetically.
"Judy! How's it going?" Stu smiled at her as he walked by. He pointed at her and clicked his tongue. "Jude the dude!"
"Hiya Bun Bun," Bonnie smiled at her daughter, waving. The two continued walking, and so did Judy.
Where was she? Why did no one look confused at what was happening? Was this a dream? The sensations were so real and solid, but nothing seemed to follow reason. Curiously, she felt no existential dread, nor any looming fear, so she kept walking forward. There appeared to be no "ground" to speak of beneath her, and yet her progress was unimpeded. All traveling walked the same plane, most in different directions, and only a few spared her a glance.
She jogged across the expanse, feeling invigorated. She grinned as a familiar feeling tugged at her. He was here. She didn't know who or what "he" was, just that he was here... wherever this was.
Following an ancient instinct, a knowledge that she didn't have direct access to, she found him.
He was a red fox, just standing there with his arms crossed behind his back. Amusingly, he had not a stitch of clothing on. Judy giggled at this and the fox turned his head.
"Hi!" she greeted, her hands to her chest. "I don't know if you remember me..."
The fox looked at her with a smirk. "Never seen you before in my life, Officer Fluff."
Judy looked down at herself at the sudden nickname. She was indeed wearing a police uniform. She checked it out; it looked quite good on her. She wasn't a member of the police yet, but that was her goal! Strange that it had followed her all the way here to... to wherever she was.
"I'm Judy! Judy Hopps," Judy said proudly.
"The name's Nick Wilde," Nick offered his paw. Judy shook it, then stifled another giggle.
"Uh, why are you naked?" the corner of the gray bunny's mouth turned up in bemusement. Nick looked down at himself and blinked, his eyes widening. A set of clothes instantly manifested onto him; an ugly Pawaiian shirt and a tie. "Oh, is that how this works?"
Nick chuckled. "I don't think any of us really know how all this works, Fluff."
"Why do I feel like I know you...?" Judy pondered over the four-foot tall fox in front of her. She tapped her cheek with a finger. "Egh, nothing's coming to mind. Do you live in Bunnyburrow?"
"Zootopia," Nick replied.
"So we've probably never met," Judy frowned. She looked off into the distance. It felt like she could peer into infinity just by focusing her eyes. She shook her head; the sensation was unusual and jarring. "Where do you think we are?"
"I've got a theory, but there's no use dwelling on it," Nick adjusted his tie. "We're going to forget all this when we wake up."
"Wake up?" Judy blinked. She decisively slammed a fist down onto her palm "Ah, this must be a dream then." Nick held a finger up with his mouth open.
"Ah ah, not quite," the fox said carefully. "You can remember your dreams on occasion. From the bits I remember from my high school psychology class, they are bits of your subconscious that you might be able to have access to. This, I would guess, is the unconscious realm. A singularity of the deepest thoughts. The deepest thoughts of everyone, it would appear."
"Really..." Judy blinked. "So if that were true, you really are a person, and so are all of these other mammals. I see a few of my brothers and sisters. I saw my mom and dad."
"We must all be at the same stage of sleep right now," Nick shrugged. "I suppose it works like an event horizon; we can bring our thoughts and memories into this zone, but nothing made here can escape from it."
"Huh..." Judy pondered the ramifications of this.
"But it's just a theory," Nick shrugged.
"How did you come up with something like that?" Judy seemed impressed. "Are you studying to be a psychologist?"
"I used to have night terrors," Nick explained. "They're like nightmares, but they don't occur at the same level of sleep. Tonight, I met one of them."
"Met one? A... night terror?" Judy repeated, her eyes squinting in confusion. Nick pointed in a direction and Judy cast her gaze across plains of nothingness. She finally made out a few forms and found they weren't creatures she could readily describe with words. Teeth, mouth and eyes in unusual places, masses of limbs and claws. Colors of skin and fur she'd never seen on living things. "Oh goodness... they look like something out of a horror movie! So monsters are real, too?"
"I think they're just from another planet," Nick said. "We're probably just as much of monsters to them. Talked with a little one-eyed green one tonight by the name of Mike. Not a bad guy."
"Mike," Judy chuckled incredulously. "A creature from another world's name is 'Mike'." Nick just shrugged.
"As I said, this could all be some sort of delusion I'm having," Nick rubbed his chin. "But it is fun to look around in the expanse. And I'll do it all again tomorrow night, I suppose." He sighed with a noncommittal shrug.
"So... do you like... did you have this feeling I was coming, even though you don't know me?" Judy's smile was shy, which was odd for her. She felt somewhat embarrassed of the seeming foreknowledge of this... this fox, even though she knew nothing else about this realm.
"Believe it or not, I did," Nick looked the bunny over, perking up one of his eyebrows. "Don't know what that means. Don't know what you mean. I've likely met you many, many times by now, all for the first time."
"Sounds kind of romantic, really..." Judy smiled with a shrug. "Maybe one day we'll meet in the waking world, huh?"
"Who can say, Fluff?" Nick groaned out in fatigue, stretching. "Zootopia's a big place. Doubt you'll find a little hustler like me. Hope you won't mind a little ridicule if you actually become a bunny police officer."
"A 'hustler'... hey!" Judy folded her arms as she digested his words. "What for?"
"A bunny cop... heh. You do look rather lovely, though," Nick smirked. He winked. Judy seemed surprised at the sudden compliment.
"Listen, buster," Judy smirked wryly. "What if this time we remember everything when we wake up?"
"Yeah, this one time out of the thousands we've likely been here," Nick shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Keep dreaming, Officer Fluff. Speaking of dreaming, I think I feel one coming on. Toodles!" Nick saluted, and he was abruptly swallowed up by a colorful oval portal of a cityscape, which swiftly closed and took Nick with it.
"Huh, you handsome devil," Judy folded her arms tightly and scoffed. "I can't wait to meet you for real and put you through the wringer."
She looked far and wide for other mammals and creatures and saw many, some she could put names to, some she couldn't.
"So how does this work?" Judy said, clapping twice. "I'm ready to dream now! Or wake up? Hello? Subconscious!"
Nothing happened for several minutes, and Judy continued to explore. Suddenly, the white expanse somehow got even brighter and then when she could see again everything was filled in with color and shape. She found herself in Zootopia. Or at least, what she thought Zootopia would be like. She'd never actually been there. Not yet.
"Okay! I'm actually dreaming now I bet!" Judy grinned widely. "Now that I'm in Zootopia, maybe I should go find that... uh... that... wait, what was it..."
She looked back at where she'd come from. Roads and buildings for as long as the eye could see. There was a fragment, something important she wanted to remember, but it had slipped away, locked in an important, ornate box in her unconscious, buried under the swirling sands filling in upon it from her subconscious. As she attempted to isolate and grasp this fragment, she rapidly even forgot that she was currently dreaming. She looked forward again, confused, and saw an armadillo breaking out of a bank, sirens blaring.
"Hey! Stop in the name of the law!" Judy shouted in rich determination, beginning to chase after the armadillo. The armadillo squeaked in panic and he began to flee. Judy put on an adventurous smile as she took chase and began to gain on the suspect.
She was going to make the world a better place, and nothing was going to stop her!