Author's Note: A companion piece of sorts to the end of "The Celestials", the story version, not the chapters in this collection. Confusing, I know. If you haven't read that story, this will make much less sense.

Nick found himself on a blank, misty expanse. He whipped around back and forth, momentarily confused.

Ah, a dream, he thought. It was odd, however, because he wasn't used to lucid dreaming. The control he tried to exercise over his life translated to a lack of control in the dream world, but he found himself able to move as he desired, petting his own arm to feel his paw on it.

Odd...

Before long, the fur on Nick's neck tingled. In the distance approached a deep purple figure who stood in front of Nick. The fox's jaw dropped. The figure was a male hyena, but unlike any had ever seen. The creature was about one and a half times the size of Nick, and loomed over him to darken the fox with his shadow, which seemed to extend in too many directions. The outline of his fur seemed indistinct and hazy. Similarly, the blazing orange pupils in the hyena's eyes jittered unnervingly. The hyena burst into a menacing, toothy smile, and Nick felt a wave of intense dread crash into him.

So, he screamed. He screamed shrilly and loudly, trying to eject himself from this nightmarish vision. It was to no avail.

"Hello," the hyena greeted. His voice was incongruously calm, yet it still felt like it clutched Nick by his throat.

"Hey," Nick managed to whine out as he stopped screaming, attempting to regain his composure.

"I am Calamity," the hyena went on, stretching his arms outward. "The Celestial time forgot."

"Ah, cute, this is quite a creative dream," the fox laughed nervously, holding up a perfunctory finger.

Calamity simply grinned wider and took a step forward. Nick cowered, falling back on his haunches, unable to stand due to the intense feelings of terror.

"Eh- am I dead...?" Nick wondered. He felt as though he should be having a heart attack, but his panicked breaths kept coming.

"Oh no, no..." Calamity shook his head, which began to vibrate in an unnatural way before "settling" to its periodic twitching. "Death is terribly boring to me. Life is much more exciting; it's only in life that the living can fear death, and thus the only plane where terror and suffering have meaning."

"Hh-how poetic!" Nick squeaked out.

"I'm here to punish you... for interfering with my plans," Calamity smiled.

"Pardon me?" Nick trembled. "As far as I know, the 'Celestials' have never interfered with modern mammals. You know, they only messed with them back in the days of old; the days of holy books... far back enough that no one can prove they exist."

"And that is what faith is for, dear boy! Kyaaaghahahahahagh!" Calamity suddenly laughed, his jaw distending to do so, and his entire form seemed to fluctuate in the paroxysms of his mirth. Nick coughed and heaved; he felt like throwing up, but even his gut couldn't relieve itself in the terrifying presence.

"Hmhmhmhmhmmmgh!" Calamity's form seemed to settle. "Yes, my clever child. 'As far as you know'. Mortals are nothing if not an endlessly vast repository of ignorance. I'm sure you've encountered this in your life with that bunny."

"Hey, she can learn," Nick's hand thrust out, trembling involuntarily. "I can. We all can."

"Ah yessss... hnhnhnhn..." Calamity smiled a too-wide smile. "Learning... knowledge that leads to everlasting suffering. I can give you this."

"Wh-what do you have against me?" Nick shuddered.

Calamity's form became black, his eyes white crescents. There was an unearthly shriek.

"NIGHT HOWLERS." The words seemed to boom from all directions. Nick barely managed to keep from curling into a ball. Instead, he shakily got back to his feet.

"Belwether's plot was my idea," Calamity returned to "normal". "It was a perfect plan. I had managed to suppress my very existence from the Celestials themselves, and inhabit the body of an exemplar. An exemplar of Order, even, my opposite, Surrender."

"I'm not too sure of anything you just said," Nick tried to grin.

"Being thwarted by mortals is so vexing," Calamity smiled. "At least if it was a Celestial, I'd feel as though an equal had stymied my efforts. But mortals? Yuck. Hrrghhahahah..."

Nick tried to channel all of his courage, closing his fists and opening them to find the strength to stand tall.

"So, how shall I punish you?" Calamity tittered, opening his hand as if he would touch Nick, which caused him nearly to fall over. "There are so many ways for you to suffer. I know how Fervor might do it." He extended three fingers, which grew wickedly long claws. "Three words. Judy is dead."

"Hnhh... nh-no," Nick collapsed to his knees. "If you hhhh-have a quarrel with me, leave her out of it."

"Oh how melodramatic," Calamity's eyes rolled all the way around. "That comes right from 'desperate lovers quips 101'. I know you'll just become a grump for ages if your precious bunny was taken from you. Like I said, death is boring. I should punish her too, anyway. Death is too good for either of you."

Nick couldn't help tears from welling up in his eyes. Futility and helplessness weighed upon his soul.

"I could take away your health," Calamity considered, tilting his head, which sickeningly cracked at a ninety degree angle. "You wouldn't be able to work as a police officer, and Judy would be out her favorite fox as a partner. How delightful!"

The fox nodded. "If that's what you wish."

"Or her health, that might be much more frustrating for her..." the hyena smiled again.

"Hrgh..." Nick wiped the moisture from his eyes, blinking rapidly.

"Oh you're too easy Nick, buck up," Calamity invited Nick to stand, and he defiantly stayed on the ground. "Anyway... I learned a great deal from lurking in the soul of a mortal of my opposite. I think I've come across the perfect solution. As I said, knowledge causes misery. And... I think the greatest calamity of all..." the hyena couldn't help a peal of disturbing laughter. "Is peace!"

Nick was blinded by a flash of light.

Nick woke up in bed, stretching. He yawned and lumbered over to his cracked mirror, which showed an exhausted fox.

"Welp, time to get myself presentable..."

He scratched at his side and entered the shower. After cleaning and drying himself, he put on his usual tacky shirt mixed with one of his father's ties to evoke some semblance of professionalism. He practiced his trademark sly smile in his slightly-cracked mirror. That smile made many mammals weak in their knees, and especially their wallets. Nick chuckled to himself after getting a small bite to eat from his small fridge.

"Another day, another hustle."

The fox was brushing his teeth to a gleaming shine when he lurched, coughing out the foam and spitting haphazardly. He felt like he was hit with a truck. He rubbed his head with one hand and stared blankly in the mirror, his pupils changing sizes.

"Guh... what...?" Nick suddenly gasped for breath. "Wh-... Judy!?"

He had a sickening feeling like he had gained a few years worth of erroneous memories. Memories of fighting a sinister sheep with an optimistic, naive bunny. What day was it...? Nick checked the calendar on his phone. Okay, it was the right day, the right month. Right year.

"Haha..." Nick squeaked out a nervous laugh before laughing a little louder. "Crazy. I must have had a wicked dream."

A sense of panic flooding over him, he looked back at his phone and searched the net for a phrase he'd never even heard of before.

"Night Howlers."

They were a kind of plant, scientific name midnicampum holicithias, a name meaning something like "the shepherd between the fields". It was a blue flowering plant that could be used as a pesticide, but recently there was also a warning put out by the FDA that it was a controlled substance. It was known to make mammals lose their higher functions and become "savage" if ingested. This could last for large periods of time if untreated.

"Huh, kind of like what happened in the dream," Nick said, sifting through his false memories. "Bellwether and her minions weaponized the flower... hm."

Nick then looked Bellwether up. Assistant Mayor Bellwether.

"Bellwether approval rating high," Nick blinked, reading his phone aloud as if to confirm things he was starting to doubt. "Bellwether's work on parks and recreation given accolades. Lionheart honors Bellwether with ceremony over renovation of Mezzo Park."

Bellwether wasn't evil. What a weird dream he had. And all those intense memories he had with that bunny, Judy Hopps? He didn't know a Judy Hopps. But the name did sound slightly familiar.

With an odd sense of nervousness, he looked her up online.

"Judy Hopps becomes first bunny cop on the ZPD," he read. Nothing else about her seemed notable or interesting.

"Calling off the hustle for today, Finnick," Nick leaned against the fennec fox's van. "Feeling a bit off today."

"Suits me," Finnick grumbled, plucking a slip off of the dash of his van and sliding down. "I can't believe I got a parking ticket. I was like four minutes over! That freakin' meter maid they got is like some kinda ninja!"

"Really? Did you see where she went?"

Finnick pointed vaguely west.

"Maybe I can hustle you out of your fee," Nick held his hand out for the ticket.

"Eh, don't go to the trouble," Finnick grumbled. "I'll fight it in traffic court. Can claim discrimination against short foxes or somethin'. They hate it when marginalized preds make a fuss. Hear the maid's a real hard-tail anyway."

Nick nodded, bidding him farewell and walking in the direction Finnick indicated. A few streets down, he saw a gray bunny in a meter maid outfit slamming a ticket on an expensive-looking mid-size car. Her expression did not look happy.

The fox jogged over to meet her. He didn't know why, but he had a burning desire to talk to her. Definitely not about the dream, though. That would be extremely creepy.

"Officer Hopps?" Nick asked. The bunny's drooped ears twitched and perked up, and she cautiously moved to look at him.

"That's me," she said. "Judy Hopps. And you are...?"

"Nick, Nick Wilde," he offered a handsome grin.

"Do you have a car, Mr. Wilde?" Judy's eyelids fell. "Is that what this is about?"

"Pardon?" Nick blinked. "No, no I do not."

"Well," Judy smiled a fake, annoyed smile. "As you can see, I'm a meter maid. I write parking tickets. I'm the ZPD's token bunny, the progressive symbol of how 'accepting' the force is. So if you have no business with me, I'd suggest you kindly move along."

"H-huh," Nick felt a strange sense of hopelessness, "that's not really what you signed on for, is it?"

Judy glared dangerously at Nick. "Of course it isn't. I've been at this menial busywork for three years, hoping I'd get some sort of break. Hoping I could prove myself as a cop. But you know what? The reality is that it just doesn't work that way. No one needs a bunny cop. What they need is a mascot. I think about quitting every day on this stupid job. But I'm just too stubborn for that."

"Oh! Well..." Nick tried to chuckle, but it came out strained, "maybe I could help with that? You catch me in a 'crime', arrest me, and get some accolades that way?"

Judy raised an eyebrow and darted a paw to her belt. She held out a tube that struck Nick with a strange sense of familiarity. Of course he had seen a can of Fox Away pepper spray before, but he also felt like he had seen Judy with it before. Nick was starting to realize how strange his proposition had sounded.

"Listen, buster," Judy said in a haggard voice. "I don't know who you are or what you want, but if you don't let me be you're going to get two nostrils full of this." She indicated the spray with her eyes. "I'm not in the mood to be toyed with."

"Uh- of course not," Nick held up his paws close to his face in surrender, taking a step back.

"Have a nice day," Judy said acidly, turning on her heel and walking away from him.

Nick was bewildered; he felt like he had missed some sort of opportunity. Confusion gripped him as he felt like he should follow her to see what she was up to, then quickly dismissed that. He didn't actually want to get arrested, but even if he did, he doubted it would further the bunny's career if he got busted for stalking her.

But why would he even care about that?

The fox brushed a paw through his muzzle as he walked forward, shaking his head. Maybe he should see a therapist. He had wanted to get out of hustling for some time, but it was what he was good at. If he was suddenly having dreams of entire lives he could be living that would be more fulfilling than this one, then he probably had much bigger mental problems then he thought.

He laughed scornfully, despite himself.

"Hey," an unfamiliar voice called out to him from the alley. Nick looked to the left and saw a female cream-colored bunny with fiery orange eyes.

"Yes?" Nick looked at her, sizing her up. She looked like an easy mark for a hustle; most bunnies were pretty stupid. He had a feeling Judy wasn't, just fatigued- and maybe he should stop thinking about her.

"Don't worry," the bunny smiled gently, "we're gonna fix this."

"Uh, fix what, what's broken?" Nick's brow furrowed.

"Someone did something really surprising that they shouldn't have," the bunny shook her head, folding her arms. "But when you do something, you're not supposed to undo it. No backsies!"

"Right..." Nick said, then decided he should be somewhere else. He left the strange bunny and walked at a slightly accelerated pace to another block. He saw an attractive vixen leave an eatery half a block down. Struck by curiosity, Nick hurried up to meet her. The vixen had unusual, but not unheard of colors; it was a gold-platinum morph. She was very eye-catching, with soft reds and whites all over her.

Before he could say anything, the vixen looked at him. Nick felt a strange chill.

"Everything must be set right," she said. "Even if what's right is wrong. That's justice."

Nick nodded with determination as if he understood, and walked past her hurriedly, struck again with discomfort. He suddenly felt very, very far from home, and decided to hail a taxi to get home. He had the feeling he needed some rest.

The taxi that came to get him was enormous, meant for the tallest mammals. Nick shrugged; any port in a storm.

"Where are you going?" A feminine voice asked him. Nick looked up; it belonged to a giraffe.

"1955 Cypress Lane," Nick replied. "And make it quick. I don't feel well."

"You poor soul," the scratchy but soothing voice of the cab driver came.

Nick felt tense, and shrieked when the cab nearly hit another car.

"Okay, I didn't mean it so literally!" Nick huffed, breathlessly.

"It's okay," the cab driver said. "You can't escape fate, one way or another."

Nick felt an overwhelming sense of dread. When the car stopped near his place, his paw was trembling as he offered payment to the cab driver. The fare seemed anomalously high.

"Consider this one on me," the giraffe said with a calm, lazy smile. "We've got a debt to repay you."

Without a word, Nick scurried into his place, and into bed. He shivered, but not from the temperature. What was going on?

He knew he'd never be able to sleep with his thoughts scattered all over the place.

But just a few minutes later, oblivion claimed him.

Nick woke up in bed, stretching. He yawned and lumbered over to his cracked mirror, which showed an exhausted fox.

"Welp, time to get myself presentable..."

He scratched at his side and entered the shower. After cleaning and drying himself, he put on his ZPD uniform. He practiced his trademark sly smile in his slightly-cracked mirror. It'd made him many friends and enemies in the police department, but many more friends. Who could resist this charming fox? Nick grabbed a bite to eat from his small fridge.

"Gotta move out of this dump soon," Nick shook his head self-reprovingly.

As he brushed his teeth, he spat out the foam and smiled widely. Wiggling his eyebrows, he made his way to work.

He really didn't like waking up early, but he had gotten accustomed to it. As usual, Judy was waiting outside the office to greet him.

"Well if it isn't Ms. Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed," Nick grinned at Judy as the two met, heading up the long set of steps to the ZPD.

"First thing in the morning and you're already looking at my tail?" Judy chirped, rolling her eyes. "You scoundrel."

"Only always," Nick said to both accusations. Past the first set of steps, he stopped. Judy stopped at the first step of the second set, looking back at him.

"Seriously though," she looked back at him reprovingly. "There's a time and a place."

"Yeah, huh," Nick's shoulders jumped up distractedly. He had a strange, wistful feeling. "Hey, Judy?"

Judy blinked at the use of her first name, turning around. "What's up, Nick?"

"Could you c'mere a sec?"

Judy approached Nick, and squeaked out a sudden "oh!" as Nick hugged her tightly, lifting her up.

"H-hey!" Judy chuckled. "What's this for?"

"Beats me," Nick returned the laugh, though his was uneasy. The hug gave him an incredible sense of relief, though he had no idea why. "Felt like I don't hug you enough."

"Of course you don't," Judy bapped him softly on the nose as she got put down. "You can never get enough hugs."

Nick rolled his eyes. "You know, for a bunny of justice, you sure are a softy."

"Look who's talking," Judy teased, "just when I think I've got you figured out, you give me a surprise hug."

"Just part of my charm I suppose, Carrots," Nick got the door for Judy into the ZPD.

"Yeah, don't push it," Judy narrowed an eye as she strolled through the door.

"But I had to push to open the door for you!"

"Nick..."

Later that day, the two were patrolling in Sahara Square when they saw police lights flashing. The two got out of their cruiser; Judy began shouting into her radio.

"Officers Hopps and Wilde, inquiring about incident on Sandy Ridge!"

"Officer Ferrum, we've got everything under control," a commanding voice came back.

"Huh, does that kind of sound like Patrick Warbearton to you?" Nick wondered as they rushed over.

Judy peeked around the corner and saw a rhino and wolverine police officer slamming a male hyena onto the hood of their car.

"Finally caught ya, pal," the rhino said in the same voice from the radio. The rhino held one hand against the back of the hyena, pinning him easily on the hood of the car.

"Been runnin' a long time, haven'tcha?" The wolverine grinned.

"Not long enough, apparently," the hyena shared the grin as the wolverine leaped up to cuff him. "Oh I wish you weren't taking me back to that wretched place..."

"You've been gettin' out of doin' your time for a long 'time', buster," the rhino grinned.

"I'll never understand you boys," the hyena chuckled as the wolverine opened the door on his cruiser for the hyena. "You should be on my side."

"Uh?" Judy tilted her head.

"For the balance of power to be restored," the rhino said. "There needs to be equal parts of both from each side. You've been shirking your responsibility long enough."

"Heck is he talking about?" Nick wondered. The two shoved the hyena into the cruiser and started to get into it themselves. The wolverine noticed the two and waved.

"Hey! Don't worry, officers," the wolverine flashed his badge. "Everything's gonna be fine now. Balance is restored n' all that!"

The cruiser sped off.

"Well that was weird," Judy said as the two headed back to their own cruiser. "Was that weird?"

"Very weird," Nick agreed, nodding. "I didn't hear a call over the radio about that incident."

"Wonder what the hyena did," Judy smirked as the two shut the doors on the cruiser. "Male hyenas have so little testosterone, it's kind of strange to see one getting into trouble.

"Hey, that's kind of a stereotype, Carrots," Nick looked at her with half-scorn. "Just because you don't have a heaping load of testosterone doesn't mean you can't be a criminal mastermind."

"Ahuh, how small of me," Judy teased sarcastically. As the two began to drive back, Judy subtly wiggled her head. "Hey uh, did I ever tell you I once had a weird dream about a flying bunny? I just now kind of remember it. Bits and pieces. There were fireworks, I think."

"Uh, no?" Nick laughed. "Did you have a pizza right before bed or something? I hear that can give you strange dreams." The fox got a thousand-yard stare. "I don't remember my dreams very often. Now that you mention it, though... I did have this weird dream once about a pretty, nude vixen on a beach."

"How is that weird?" Judy's brow lowered, growing a teasing smirk. "Seems like a typical hornball fox dream to have. Was it winter when you had it?"

"It's weird because I've never been to a beach," Nick shrugged.

"Still seems low-key on the 'weird' scale to me," Judy rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you wanna grab a coffee once we get back to Savanna Central?"

"Sure thing, Fluff," Nick nodded. A minute passed in silence when Nick felt a burst of unease. "...And Judy, I'm really glad I'm your partner."

Judy blinked. "There you go with the sudden sappiness again." She waited till a traffic light to smile at him. "But I'm happy to be your partner too, you silly fox."

"Graduated from 'dumb', huh?" Nick smirked.

"Yeah," Judy mirrored his expression fondly. "A little."