It's a Wonderfox Life V (finale)
Written by BeecroftA
Artwork by pyocolaxsama
"Where's… Judy?" Clawhauser repeated.
"Yes, as in, where's my wife?" Nick asked firmly.
Clawhauser gulped loudly, suddenly looking extremely nervous. "You're really not going to like it, Nick. In fact, I was kind of hoping you'd start believing before she came up."
That was rich, considering everything else Nick had been put through that night. "What do you mean, I'm not gonna like it?" the fox asked, "Carrots never solved the missing mammals case, I get it. But she'd never just stand by and let all this happen. I have to know: is she alive, or dead?"
Clawhauser gulped again, and then spoke: "Without your help, she never found Emmitt Otterton and the other missing mammals. She never even got as far as the Mystic Springs club. After her forty-eight hours ran out Chief Bogo kept his word, and made her resign."
"So she just went back to Bunnyburrow?" Nick was almost relieved at the thought; at least she would be safe from the horrors of this Zootopia.
Clawhauser shook his head glumly. "She begged to keep her job, Nick. Pleaded. And when the chief wouldn't budge she took it up with City Hall, and Lionheart ordered Bogo to reinstate her. The chief eventually did, but he never gave her a case again."
Nick leaned in closer, his ears hanging on to every word. "Sooo… now?"
"She's an old meter maid, she never married."
Nick was almost indignant. "Old meter maid? She's not even forty!" He shook his head, "I don't believe you! Being a meter maid didn't stop Carrots from trying to solve a case before and it won't now! Especially when there are so few good cops left!"
Clawhauser's face suddenly looking grimmer than Nick had ever seen it. "It gets worse," he muttered.
Nick was taken aback. "How could it possibly get worse?"
"That cop your mom attacked, when she went savage…"
"Yeah…?" Nick asked, realization suddenly sinking in.
"Judy was that cop."
Nick felt his heart drop into his stomach. "NO…" he whispered.
"It traumatized her beyond anything," said Clawhauser, tears forming in his eyes. "She survived okay, but she was never the same after that, and she never left the city."
"My mother attacked my mate…?" Nick mouthed, his brain struggling to process the very idea. His head was spinning and his body suddenly felt very heavy; he was sure he was going into shock. "And with her fear of foxes before she met me…" he remembered Judy telling him about her childhood experiences with Gideon Grey.
After a few minutes of struggling to compose himself, he turned and faced his guide. "So where is Judy now?"
"Well, I'm not sure you should-"
Suddenly feeling a fit of rage surge over him Nick jumped onto Clawhauser's chest and grabbed him by the lapels, staring furiously into the cheetah's eyes: "Where is my mate? WHERE IS SHE!?"
"She's about to ticket a car near the 10-7 bar!" Clawhauser sputtered.
Nick released his grip, jumped to the ground and made a beeline for the van. He turned the key and zoomed off, leaving Clawhauser standing alone at the bridge for the second time that night.
In the middle of Savannah Central on Oak Street, Judy Hopps printed a ticket and slapped it on a Hogda Accorn without any pretense of enthusiasm. It was her three-hundredth of the day, but the bunny didn't care. She barely even kept track anymore. Just another 14-hour day of checking cars, they were all the same to her. It was her life now.
Nick watched Judy from across the street, stunned at what he was seeing. It was Judy alright, but it could not have been further from the rabbit he married. She was dressed in her usual police uniform along with the familiar meter maid vest and hat, but all these clothes were so worn and faded they might have never been replaced in ten years. The rabbit looked older and more tired than Nick had ever seen her; her ears drooped lifelessly, she now wore homely glasses, and her eyes… her eyes lacked all traces of that spark of life Nick knew and loved. She now limped a bit too, and the thought of his own mother attacking Judy made the fox shiver all over again. He couldn't bear to watch another second, he had to talk to her.
"Judy!" he called.
The rabbit jumped at the sound of his voice, and her ears shot up and her eyes widened with fright as she saw him.
"Judy!" Nick called again, starting to stride towards her.
But the rabbit turned tail and started running, hindered by the limp in her step.
"Judy! JUDY!" Nick caught up with her and grabbed her by the arm. "Judy, it's Nick! Don't you know me, what's happened to us!?"
"I don't know you, let me go!" Judy pleaded while struggling to free her arm. Nick frantically grabbed her other arm and stared into her face, begging her to recognize him.
"Oh no, please, not you too! Help me! Where's our kids, I NEED YOU JUDY!" He screamed in her face.
"HEEEELP!"
And the next thing Nick knew the world dissolved into blind agony as a canister of fox-away was sprayed directly into his eyes. Nick let go of Judy, clutching at his face.
Judy shrieked as she thrust him off her and retreated into the nearest open place, more frightened than any rabbit he had ever seen. Nick half-blindly pursued, and ducked under the arms of a black rhino only to realize where he was: the 10-7 bar.
The rhino bouncer grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air, and as Nick struggled he scanned around the large open room of the bar: officers, firefighters and EMTs of various sizes sat drinking and staring in his direction, some of them familiar and almost none of them predators. And to the right was the main bar, decorated with the usual flags and posters of mammals in uniform, where he saw Judy's trembling form being cradled by a familiar brown bunny with blue eyes, flanked by a painted dog with an artificial leg and a kangaroo officer holding a fancy glass of water.
"Trisha!" Nick pleaded, "Echo, Ramic, THAT'S MY WIFE!"
"SHRIEEEK!"
Judy screamed again and fainted in Trisha's arms.
"Judy!" Nick cried as he struggled against the arms of the rhino trying to force him away from his wife.
"You stay away from her!" Trisha warned.
"Somebody get a collar here!" an officer cried.
"Somebody call Cliffside!" another one ordered.
The sound of approaching sirens outside suddenly drowned Nick's ears as realization finally enveloped him.
"Benji!" He cried, "BENJI!"
But the cheetah didn't appear to him, and Nick was forcibly removed from the bar and tossed into the street, where he saw a familiar ram with an eyepatch get out of a van and stride in his direction.
"Knew the tracker in the van would lead me right to ya!" Jesse sneered.
And then in response Nick did something he had wanted to do since he first laid eyes on the buck sheep: he swung his leg up and kicked the ram between the legs as hard as he could. Jesse bleated in pain and fell to his knees, clutching his lower region.
And Nick took off running with all his might. "Stand back!" he heard Jesse's voice yell from behind him. There was a loud pshoom sound and a tranquilizer dart flew past Nick's head. And he ducked and dodged two more as he raced down the street. "Benji!" he called out.
Raw, icy horror like he had never felt before raced through Nick veins as he fled through the streets, dodging frightened prey mammals and collared predators alike. Tears that had little to do with the effects of Judy's fox-away ran down his face. It had finally sunken in: this was no dream, this was no hallucination, it was real. He truly had prevented all this from happening, and now he had ruined everything by wishing himself to be unborn. If he could just find Clawhauser, he could put it right, everything could go back to normal…
The bridge. Where it had all began, where he had left Clawhauser, that had to be the place…
He put on a further burst of speed, all but oblivious to the growing sounds of sirens behind him.
"BENJI!" Nick raced down the beaten path and onto the bridge with all the speed he could muster. Panting, he darted his head around, frantically searching for the cheetah, but there was nobody there. There were no signs anyone had been here, it might as well have been hours ago…
"Benji - CLAWHAUSER!"
But there no answer. He ran up to the edge of the bridge:
"Benji! I believe! I BELIEVE!" he screamed into the night.
But the only sound that answered him was police sirens in the nearby distance. The Cliffside guards were coming for him, he was about to be recaptured and locked away forever...
He turned back to the night sky, focusing with all his might on the stars gleaming overhead:
"Get me back, I don't care what happens to me!" Nick cried, "Please, get me back to my wife and kits! I want to live again!"
The Cliffside cavalry was imminent now, the sirens ringing in his ears. In frantic desperation, Nick threw his head back and screamed up to the heavens with all the strength he could muster: "I WANT TO LIVE AGAIN!"
And then he buried his face in paws, not noticing as the world around him begin to swirl and dissolve into a mess of colors…
"I want to live again," he sobbed, "Please, Fitwick, let me live again…"
"Nick! NICK!"
And the next thing Nick knew he was lying on a very hard floor with a large paw slapping him awake. He opened his eyes, and looked up into the concerned face of none other than the real Martin Fitwick.
"F-Fitwick…?" Nick whispered.
"You alright, Nick?" the black panther asked, "Boy, you just screamed so much you fell out of the chair!"
Nick blinked and looked over at the P.I.X.A.R. machine, its twin chairs and screen sitting there looking as innocuous as ever. His eyes flicked around, taking in the familiar machines and decorations of the arcade, which barely hours ago he had seen as a diner. "That… that wasn't real?"
"Nope!" Fitwick declared. "Boy, I've seen some strong reactions to that scenario before, but never like this! You must have made a bigger difference than you ever thought!"
The panther helped the groggy fox to his feet. Nick rubbed the back of his head for a moment, shaking the cobwebs out of his brain, and then with a sudden burst of energy he ran to the window and yanked open the blinds. There were decorations covering the lampposts and shop windows outside again. The sounds of church bells rang in the distance, and carolers and mammals of all species, sizes and classes mingled happily on the sidewalk as they went about their business, going to parties or coming from church or finishing the last of their Christmas shopping.
The corners of Nick's mouth curved upwards into a wide smile: there were no segregated crowds, no shops selling fox-away, no predators wearing collars… That simulation hadn't been real after all, but its message could not have been more clear.
Feeling his heart filling with joy and Christmas cheer, Nick turned to Fitwick.
"Fitwick, WHADDAYA KNOW ABOUT THAT!" And he jumped up and hugged the panther tightly, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
"And a Merry Christmas to you!" a smiling Fitwick called back as Nick dashed out of the arcade.
"Judy! JUDY!" Nick cried as he ran through the streets of Savannah Central, not giving a hoot about how he looked to onlookers. He was so excited and happy that he felt if he didn't run he was going to burst.
"Merry Christmas!" he shouted at a gazelle couple across the street, not knowing or caring who they were.
"Merry Christmas!" they called back in unison. Nick laughed with joy. He raced through the streets back to his apartment, his family, shouting Christmas greetings at every familiar landmark he passed along his way: Otterton's florist shop, the 10-7 bar, Finnick's van-
He raced up to Finnick's Z1 Lobos van and started rapping on the door with both paws.
"Heeeyyy, Merry Christmas, Finnick!" he yelled at the door.
"And a happy new year to you, now git!" grumbled the fennec from inside the van.
Nick laughed again and quickly left before Finnick emerged with his baseball bat. Then after running two more blocks he saw it in the distance: the ornate and beautiful building that was Precinct One. Quickly changing course Nick skipped across the courtyard and up the steps of the police station. Please let them be there, please let them be there…
Nick burst through the revolving door and there he saw him, standing at the desk: vast as ever and looking like he was packing up to go home, was the real Benjamin Clawhauser.
"Benji!" Nick cried. And before the bewildered cheetah could react Nick leapt on the desk and hugged the cheetah around the neck with all his might. "Oh, Clawhauser, I'm so glad you're alive!"
"Thanks! Uh, wait, was I dead?" Clawhauser asked in confusion.
"So I thought, but apparently it was just a dream!" Nick laughed, "I'll tell you all about it sometime, but right now I have to see-"
"Wilde?"
Nick's heart for the first time gave a leap at the sound of that familiar baritone voice. He looked to his right and saw Chief Bogo standing at the desk, carrying a stack of case files and looking like he too was leaving.
"Chief! Chief Bogo, am I happy to see you too!" And with a start he released Clawhauser and grabbed the baffled buffalo's free hoof, shaking it vigorously in his paws. "You take care of that blood pressure, ya hear?" he requested, lightly patting Bogo's chest, "Because a security guard uniform does not suit you!"
The chief looked more stunned than Nick had ever seen him. "Wilde, concerning the matter of your suspension…"
"Yeah, I know, I'm fired! Isn't it wonderful? I'm out of a job!" Without a care in the world Nick leapt off the desk and strode over to the door, "I'd love to talk about it later, but right now I gotta go see my family! Merry Christmas you two wonderful officers! And Chief, I take back every time I ever called you Chief Buffalo-Butt!"
"Uh, thank you, Wilde, that's…" And then a look of realization spread over Bogo's face as Nick left, and he turned to Clawhauser. "When has he ever called me 'Buffalo-Butt'?"
"Err…" Clawhauser started, rubbing his paw together nervously.
Judy! JUDY!" Nick burst through the door of his apartment, breathless and sweaty but exhilarated. Everything was in place – the furniture, the pictures…
"Nicky? Is that you?" a vixen in her sixties emerged from the hallway.
"MOM!" Nick shouted. And before the vixen could react Nick ran over and scooped his mother up in the tightest hug he could remember giving her. He buried his muzzle in her shoulder, breathing in her scent. She was here, she wasn't savage…
"Nicky, dear, what's come over you?" his stunned mother asked. "Are you alright? You were gone for hours!"
"I'm alright, Mom! Only just had one of the most important experiences I ever had!" Nick declared. "But never mind that, where's Judy? Where are the kits?"
"Daddy!" chanted two little voices from the hallway entrance: Ridley and Ella were running towards him, looking positively adorable in their reindeer and snowmammal-patterned holiday pajamas.
"KIDS!"
And with the speed of lightning Nick leapt over and scooped the little fox and bunny kits in his arms, hugging them tight to his chest and planting little kisses on their heads.
"Where have you been, Daddy? We've been worried!" Ella asked.
"Oh, just having little adventure!" Nick answered with a wink.
"Is it Christmas yet, Dad? Can we open our presents?" Ridley asked.
Nick chuckled. "I'm afraid it's only ten o'clock, you'll have to wait 'til morning or Santa won't come!" He embraced his children harder, not wanting to ever let them go. "Where's your mother? Is she here?"
"You looking for me?"
Nick jerked his head up and gasped: leaning up against the hallway entrance, also dressed in holiday pajamas and clearly enjoying the tender scene before her, was Judy.
"JUDY!"
And at long last Nick finally embraced his mate. His real mate. Not the frightened shell of her he had seen in the P.I.X.A.R. machine. He breathed in her scent, listened to her breathing and felt every inch he could of her back and head with his paws.
"Oh, Carrots, are you real?" he whispered.
"'Real'? That must have some P.I.X.A.R. experience you had," Judy replied.
Nick gave a little start. "Oh, you knew about that?"
Judy nodded. "I called the arcade. Fitwick didn't confirm or deny you were there, which told me you were there."
"Then wait until you hear about the experience I had!" Nick affirmed.
"I can't wait for that, but right now you have to see THIS!" Judy declared, thrusting her phone at Nick. Nick looked: it was Critter replies from the tweet Brock Blackwood had posted that day, only now they had taken on a completely different tone than Nick remembered reading at the precinct, complete with a new hashtag. Nick's eyes widened and his heart gave a rush as he read the messages:
Last year my store got robbed, and Officer Wilde and Hopps caught the thief within a day. If Wildes a dirty cop I'm a snail. #GoodFoxCop
When I got mugged, it was Officer Wilde who comforted me. He put a blanket around me and made me laugh with a few bad jokes. I believe in him. #GoodFoxCop
My son wants to be a cop b/c of Officer Wilde. The best fox role model since Robin Hood IMO #GoodFoxCop
The next one made his heart give an even bigger leap, for the account attached to it was Otterton's Florist Shop:
IF IT WASN'T FOR WILDE AND HOPPS MY HUSBAND MIGHT STILL BE SAVAGE. #GoodFoxCop.
The memory of Mrs. Otterton visiting a savage Emmitt in Cliffside overwhelmed Nick so much he couldn't read anymore and he launched his arms around his wife again, planting kisses all over her face and caressing her head and ears some more as if still trying to make sure she was real.
"One more, Nick!" Judy broke the embrace, "One more tweet, look!"
Nick stared at the screen: he recognized the profile picture as Brock Blackwood's, but the tweet attached was one he had never thought he would see:
After careful recollection I've realized I was mistaken about the identity of the fox who robbed me. It was not Officer Wilde, it might not have even been a red fox. I sincerely apologize to him and his family.
Nick couldn't believe it. "What? How did…?" he stammered at his wife, his jaw dropping.
"Well, now isn't that a Christmas miracle?" Judy asked in her most sly tone. "Oh, and I showed it to the chief, and he said you can consider your suspension… suspended."
Nick stammered a little more, and then decided the story could wait as he laughed and hugged his wife again, and this time Ellaine and a slightly confused Ella and Ridley all joined in.
Christmas morning the next day was peaceful and quiet, until roughly six am when the whoops and squeals of two little kits rushing to the tree to open their Christmas presents began.
And two hours after that, watching Ridley and Ella play with their new toys, Nick and Judy sat together in their favourite chair, Judy in Nick's lap and the pair flicking through the Critter feed on their iPad. There were still some anti-fox comments of course, even after Blackwood had posted his retraction, but the vast majority of the tweets were still singing Nick's praises, and Judy's as well. Meanwhile, Nick filled Judy in on everything he remembered of his P.I.X.A.R experience the previous night.
"Wow, that was some simulation," Judy said, "Too bad it was so unrealistic."
"In hindsight, yeah," Nick agreed, "Ghost Clawhauser, those collars, the odds Bellwether would just happen to target my mother..."
"No no no," Judy responded, "I mean, what are the chances of me actually giving up trying to make the world a better place?"
Nick smirked fondly at his wife, "About infinity minus one?"
"Give or take." Judy smiled at the answer.
Nick smiled too. "So tell me: how did you get Blackwood to change the tune on his Critter feed?"
Judy chuckled smugly, then answered: "Yesterday after you ran off, I went to Tundratown and started doing some investigating. First I went around to different casinos and asked about Blackwood with no luck, and then it hit me! Camera footage!"
A light flicked on in Nick's head. "Ahhh, so you looked at the traffic cams and found footage of him doing something incriminating?"
"Nope; the traffic cameras were too covered with snow. ButI did go back to the bank we met him at, and lo and behold, they had ATM footage of Brock Blackwood assaulting and robbing a cop. And then after looking him up in the system I visited him at his apartment, and showed it right to his face. I agreed to let him off, in exchange for a small retraction on his Critter feed."
Nick was a little skeptical. "And that belligerent badger agreed? Just like that?"
Judy flashed him an evil grin. "Oh… let's just say I showed him how scary a dumb little bunny can be."
Nick shivered a little, having been at the receiving end of scary-Judy himself more than a few times.
Then a rapping came from the front door. "Knock knock! Anyone home?" Ellaine called out as she let herself in, carrying a tin of cookies in one arm and a bag of presents in her other paw.
"Grandma!" Ridley and Ella cried in unison, and the little fox and rabbit eagerly scurried over to 'help' Ellaine with the load she was carrying.
"Morning Ellaine, Merry Christmas!" Judy greeted the vixen with a warm hug.
"Merry Christmas to you too Dear," Ellaine reciprocated.
"Great to see you, Mom," said Nick as he joined in. And the three shared a brief moment while Ridley and Ella started sampling the cookies their grandmother had brought.
"Oh! Here, Nicky," Ellaine handed Nick a white envelope, "Your doorman gave me this."
"Oh? Who sent it?" Nick asked.
"He said a black panther left it early this morning."
"Black pa—" realization hit Nick as he ripped the envelope open. There were two things inside: a folded piece of paper and a pocket flash drive. Nick flipped the paper open and read the note on it:
Dear Nick,
Just something for you in case you ever feel like you're losing your way again.
Merry Christmas to you, and Officer Hopps too!
Martin Fitwick
Nick turned the flashdrive over in his paw, realizing it was a copy of last night's simulation for him to rewatch any time he wanted. He and Judy had a collection of other drives from the arcade just like it, but he had a feeling this particular experience was going to have a special place among them.
And right then and there, surrounded by his wife and his mother and kits and not caring if they saw him or not, Nick felt his eyes begin to burn with fresh tears. He had done it, he really had made a difference.
He really did have a wonderful life.
A/N: Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and days of Auld Lang Syne? :D
To all of you readers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and hope this little story adds to your holiday spirit! It was a great pleasure to write, and I thank Cimar from the bottom of my heart for making it all possible.