Chapter 25 Wheeling and Dealing

Edited by KungFuFreak07

Five days. It had been nearly a week of near total humiliation for Capitán Judy Hopps.

More like errand bunny at this point… Judy grumbled mentally. The doe had learned that Bellwether had taken a nasty spill into the cabode in the fort and had, for some insane reason, blamed Judy for it even though the bunny was 'wrapped up' in other activities at the time. So, for the past days Magistrate Bellwether had gleefully made her life as horrible as she could.

"Oh, Dust Bunny! Stop here! There's a lovely shop I want to go into."

Speak of the devil...

Judy slowed to a stop, panting heavily as the ewe jumped out of the rickshaw the bunny was pulling. Already a massive pile of boxes of clothes and knickknacks were tied onto the back of the cart and even with her considerable training, it now took a while for Judy to get the blasted cart even moving after it came to a stop.

"Madam, are you sure you-"

"Oh, hush you," Bellwether snapped in a singsong voice. "Servants of Califurnia shouldn't backtalk their bosses, okay?"

"But-"

"Tut-tut-tut!" Bellwether giggled, booping Judy on her nose with her hoof, causing it to tremble once before Judy's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Now I'm going to go in here and buy some more lovely dresses that would look lovely on me and," the ewe looked Judy up once before giggling, "well, they might make you look passable for a tramp, hehe. See you in an hour Dust Bunny!"

Judy grit her teeth in annoyance as the ewe disappeared into the store. Judy leaned against the rickshaw, grateful for the break as she began muttering.

"Stupid sheep with her stupid position..."

Judy wasn't one to normally voice her frustrations aloud. Most things she could typically handle on any given day. But this ewe had so far managed to press every single one of her buttons continually for the past week.

"I can't even do my job anymore," Judy sighed, raising her eyes to glance at the mammals passing by. Most of those who had seen the conversation between the bunny and the ewe gave her pitiable glances and shakes of their heads, while a few others snickered and pointed at her.

I should arrest them for loitering... Judy thought, bringing the barest hint of a smile to her face.

"Psst..."

Judy's right ear shot up, nearly flicking her bolero off her head with how quickly it raised. She turned her head, following the sound of the whisper, her ears now turning in case she heard it again.

"Psst… Capitán Hopps…"

Judy craned her neck up, wincing as she looked directly up into the sunlight shining down on her. As quickly as the sunlight blinded her, a shadow passed over her, shielding her eyes from the harsh light.

When she finally managed to get the blurriness from her vision, her eyes narrowed.

"You."

Zorro stood atop a nearby building, his trademark grin plastered across his face. "Miss me, Capitán?"

"About as much as I miss rancid turnips," Judy shot back with a smirk. "Have you come to turn yourself in yet?"

The fox laughed, gaining the attention of several of the other mammals along the street. "Oh no, no, no, no, Capitán. I've simply come to have some fun. I've missed you this past week and figured you'd want to do something more, invigorating, no?"

"Beating you isn't invigorating," Judy quipped back with a grin. "I get a better workout in my morning jog than I do fencing you."

"Why, Capitán!" The fox gasped at the slight, even though his smile only widened. "Then I guess it won't take long to get this back then, will it?"

The fox lifted his paw to show one of the packages that Bellwether had bought that should have been sitting on the cart next to her. Judy's eyes darted to the cart, then to the package in the vigilante's paw.

"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers." Judy gasped in horror. Two days before Bellwether had claimed Judy had stolen a gift from the cart and had made her pull her around for an additional three hours. "Give that back! You have no idea what will happen if that isn't there when she returns."

The most annoying and infuriating smirk came across the vulpine's muzzle. "Then I guess you'll just have to catch me to get it back?" With a swish of his cape, the fox vanished from the lip of the rooftop.

"Oh, no you don't!" Judy growled. Running to a nearby alley, she leapt up and onto the side of the building. Coiling her legs, she pushed off the wall and flew towards the building on the opposite side of the alley. Repeating the maneuver two more times, crossing the alley several times, she appeared on the top of the roof, rolling to a stop as she looked around for the fox. Spotting him a few roofs away waving at her, Judy growled and sprinted towards him.

The cackling canine took off like an arrow, though not in quite so much a straight a path as that projectile might have taken. As Judy launched after him, The Fox took to leaping from building to building at angles, and in one instance, when Judy was near enough to touch his billowing cape, he grabbed hold of a flagpole and spun in a half circle, grinning as he spun past a bewildered and annoyed Judy.

Nearly twenty minutes later, and halfway across town, Judy was beginning to feel the effects of pulling Bellwether around for nearly a week. Her breaths were becoming more and more ragged. Several times the bunny had tripped and nearly spiraled downwards into an alley below. Each time she had managed to catch herself before meeting a grisly end, only to hear the taunting voice of Zorro asking where she went.

Pulling herself up with a grunt, she placed her elbow on top of the ledge of the roof she was climbing back onto from her latest drop, panting and feeling the heat radiating off her ears in such copious amounts she could have probably heated the farm back home from them alone. Just as she looked up, she nearly went cross eyed as the pointy tip of a blade was placed against her nose.

"Guess you lose again, eh, Carrots?"

The voice of The Fox had never sounded more annoying and more smug to her at that point, than at any other time she had met him.

"Go suck on a cabbage," Judy huffed. Her elbow slipped off the ledge, leaving her hanging just by her fingers. She pushed her hindpaws into the adobe, hoping her tiny claws could find some grip, but found them only slipping against the hardened clay. Taking a glance down, she gulped at the nearly four stories she would fall if she slipped.

He led me straight to the tallest buildings in the city… she mentally groaned. Clever fox…

"I don't suppose you could speed things up?" The Fox chided, looking down at her as one paw slipped. Letting out a muffled gasp, Judy quickly swung her body enough so that she could regrip the wall with both paws.

"Would it hurt you to be quiet so I could concentrate?" Judy growled, attempting to pull herself up again. Her arms were burning and before her ears had even cleared the tip of the roof, she fell back with a huff, her muscles completely spent.

Zorro shrugged. "Possibly, but who knows what I'm waiting around here for." His eyes took on a mischievous glint. "Maybe I'm just waiting for you to get up here so I can eat you."

"The only thing you'll be eating," Judy grunted, pulling herself up so that her elbow was again lying on the roof. Huffing and puffing, she glared up at the fox. "...is my fist."

The fox's eyes lost a bit of their mirth. "That does dampen our relationship a tad bit, no?"

"Is that what this is?" Judy replied, groaning as she struggled to bring her other elbow atop the roof. Finally after a few agonizing seconds, both elbows were resting atop the roof again and she breathed out a sigh of relief. "Because if it is, it's the most inconceivable relationship I've ever had."

Zorro let out a bark of laughter. "Ah, Capitán Hopps," he chuckled as he put his sword back in his sheath and leaned down. "This is why I am keeping you around. Your charm knows no bounds, and your witticisms are endless. Though I do not think you used that word correctly and do not quite understand what it means. Now, would you allow me to be the gentlemammal I am and help you up?"

Judy let out a snort as she tried, and failed to push herself up onto the roof, before going back to breathing heavily as her armed began to burn even more.

Zorro let out an annoyed huff as he tapped his foot against the wooden roof. "I hate waiting..."

Judy suddenly found herself being pulled up into the air as Zorro grabbed a hold of the back of her shirt.

"Hey!" she shouted, struggling in the air. "Put me down!"

"And risk the wrath of an angered bun?" The Fox stated in surprise. "Not on your cute fuzzy little tail-"

Zorro's comments were cut off as he pulled his head back as a small grey fist went whirling in the air right where his muzzle had just been. "Oh, feisty little rabbit. Good, good… as that is exactly what this town needs."

Again, Judy found herself moving without her consent. This time, falling unceremoniously to the floor of the roof. A cloud of dust billowed up around her as she coughed, waving her paw in front of her. Struggling to see through the haze and feeling her legs now trembling from the chase, she watched as Zorro began pacing several feet away from her.

"You see," he began, his paw scratching his muzzle. "I've come across a predicament recently. That predicament being you, of course." He smiled in her direction before continuing. "Before you came, I was able to gallivant around town fighting off all sorts of malevolency in all its forms. Troops, villains, rogues… titles didn't matter to me."

Zorro stopped pacing and eyed the bunny curiously, as if she was an object he couldn't comprehend. Judy, to her credit, glared back at him while sitting on the roof and supported by her left arm, hoping she'd soon have enough strength to take on the rogue monologuing before her.

"However, you've destroyed all that."

Judy blinked. "What?"

Zorro grinned. "You've destroyed that balance this town has had. For several years now the only thing that anyone living in Zootopia has been able to count on is corruption at all levels of city government. From Capitanes all the way down to tax collectors." The fox grimaced at those words, a shudder making its way down his spine before he continued. "It has only changed one other time, and this… this is why I need your help in exchange for a deal."

For a second time, Judy found herself blinking in a stupor of thought. "A… deal?"

"Yes, a deal," Zorro stated. "When two mammals get together and decide upon a mutually beneficial plan to-"

"I know what a deal is," Judy huffed. "I'm not a dumb bunny."

"Again, you said it, not me," the fox laughed. "So, would you be interested?"

To be sure, Judy's curiosity was peaked. What kind of deal would a vigilante try and strike with a Capitán? Especially, one who's already stated goal was to capture that same vigilante? Her eyes narrowed as she folded her arms across her chest. "What kind of deal?"

"Ah, now we are getting somewhere!" Zorro said with a laugh and clap of his gloved paws. He rubbed them together with a smug grin on his face. "So, if you would follow me, I'll let you in on a dirty little secret about Zootopia's military presence."

With a flick of his cape that brushed Judy's ears, causing her to swipe at the offending object, Zorro was off at a leisurely gait across the rooftops once more. Groaning, Judy pushed herself up, her curiosity giving her a second wind as she jogged after him.

"This is a good enough spot to talk."

Judy looked around at the secluded glen Zorro had led her to. She couldn't guess how far out of the city they were, but it couldn't have been more than a mile or two as they had barely left the last houses behind a half hour before. And judging by the position of the sun, it was still barely past two o'clock in the afternoon.

"So," Judy started, glaring at the fox who had taken a seat on a nearby boulder, leaning up against the tree that stood behind it, with his arms folded behind his head. "Why did you bring me out here? And it better be a good enough reason for me not to arrest you this moment."

"Oh, I assure you, it very much is worth it," Zorro hummed, closing his eyes as if there was no reason for him to fear the perturbed rabbit standing mere feet away from him. "You see, Capitán Hopps, you've probably noticed that I have been very good at making Capitanes pack and head back home, no?"

"Ten, since I've heard you began," Judy stated bluntly. In her research of the previous rulers over Fort Zootopia, she had seen just how quickly they had gone through them in the past three years.

"Nine," the fox huffed, his eyes opening and narrowing. "You over-counted by one."

Judy glared at the fox. "I'm a rabbit, so I'm pretty sure I'm good with numbers."

"And I'm fairly certain you are wrong, madam," the fox growled, baring his teeth for a moment before he recomposed himself at the sight of Judy's paw going for her sword. Zorro sighed. "Sorry, I apologize profusely as I do not want this meeting to get off on the wrong paw. You see, I've chased away nine Capitanes from Fort Zootopia while one has disappeared."

That was new information to her. "What do you mean?" Judy asked. "At the academy when they mentioned you, they stated you had killed one, Koslov, while chasing the other nine out with grievous wounds." She raised a paw to silence him as he was about to protest. "Now I know from watching you, Zorro, that I highly doubt you would have killed Koslov like I was told, as all the times I've seen you fight, you have yet to even draw blood with your sword, though other objects seem to be fair game..."

She watched as the fox's eyes flickered up to the rabbit's head where both knew a small scar now lay beneath the grey fur.

"So," Judy continued. "What is your side of the story?"

"Why, Carrots!" Zorro gasped, gaining a frown from the rabbit. "I thought you'd never ask." Chuckling at the annoyed look he had garnered, Zorro sat forward on his rocky perch. "You see, I only began my sojourn into the realm of swashbuckling due to-"

"Foxton Glen," Judy interrupted. Zorro's ears perked up.

"Who told you-" he began to ask, only to shake his head. "Never mind, it's not important who let you know about that, but only that you understand why I do what I do." His eyes turned to gaze into her own, the obsidian blackness of his fur making them appear a dark forest green. For the briefest of moments, Judy felt herself lost in those eyes, until a snapping of fingers brought her from her trance.

"Capitán, your attention, please?" Zorro asked, snapping his fingers in front of her face. As she shook from her trance, The Fox laughed. "Do you often get lost in a fox's gaze, Capitán?"

Apparently more than I should… Judy groaned mentally. She hid that thought deep within her mind, locked it inside a box, then that box inside a chest and then tossed it into a closet hidden within the furthest recesses of her mind. "No," she lied instead.

"Alright then, back to the story," Zorro continued. "You see, Koslov was the first that decided this job wasn't fit for a mammal of his character and thusly departed with a good thwack of my sword to his posterior. Blastmoot was next, and boy, was that one worse than the first. It was then that I wondered what was going on, as up until those two, Zootopia had always had wonderful leadership. Capitanes Grizzoli, Simba and Gazelle all come to mind immediately."

The Fox sighed heavily, his eyes falling to the dusty ground. "Then she came."

The silence that fell between them seemed impenetrable as Zorro simply stopped talking. Deciding she hated this build up, and deciding the risk was worth it, Judy walked over to Zorro's side and sat down next to him. Zorro flinched when he noticed her sitting next to him, so deeply was he lost inside his mind.

Judy kept the snickering to herself as she noticed for the first time the pained look in the vigilante's eyes.

"Who was she?"

"Capitán Skye."

Oh...

Oh...

"I've heard of her," Judy replied. "She seems to have been a good leader from what I've heard."

The fox nodded. "She was the best," he began, kindness filling every word he spoke. "The epitome of what a Capitán should stand for." He let the silence draw itself out for a moment as a smile crept upon his face. "Naturally at first I did what I had previously done and tried to force her out yet she persisted, eventually winning over the citizens who grew to love la buena zorra." Suddenly his eyes grew again grew cold, and his words no longer contained the warmth from earlier. Even his eyes grew darker as an aura of anger flooded the region around him. His gaze turned to match her own, and for the briefest of moments, Judy felt the primal instincts to flee from the terrifying predator sitting inches away from her.

"Then Bellwether came and within a month everything changed. Skye was no longer the Capitán we knew her to be. She had became forlorn, despondent, withdrawing into herself until the soldiers she had commanded acted more like brigands than servants of the people. Then, at a month's time after Bellwether's arrival, six months into her rule, she disappeared without a trace."

Judy started with a gasp when both of Zorro's paws grabbed her shoulders, his eyes glaring into her own. Instinctively her nose began to twitch before she could bring it under control, her right paw already reaching for her sword when the gravelly voice of The Fox cut off all her thoughts.

"This is my deal. I need you to promise me and the citizens of Zootopia that you will not allow that venomous ewe to destroy the last vestiges of hope you have begun to give them again. There is something foul she is planning, and if you help me in finding out what that is, and bringing her to justice for her crimes… I will turn myself in the very next day."

Too stunned for words, Judy slowly began to nod, only for it to be cut off with a growl from the fox.

"I need words!" he shouted, though she could detect a hint of pleading in his voice, as they were no longer barbed with toxicity, but with a tremulous tone that was laced with worry.

"I promise on the lands of my father's farm that I will bring justice to those who seek to destroy it. Such was my oath at the military academy, and such is my oath now."

Keeping his eyes focused on her own, Judy felt the fox studying her… taking her mind apart adobe brick by brick as if to uncover any vestiges of deception in her words.

"You may have heard the legends that a fox has the ability to tell whether any mammal is lying, simply by looking into their eyes. That even the slightest bit of deception can be told through the stories a mammal's eyes hold."

"Then what do my eyes tell you?" Judy demanded.

Smiling, Zorro released his hold on her shoulders. "They tell me you are telling the truth. That I have no need to worry that you'll always seek justice no matter who, or what, may stand in your way."

Pushing himself off the boulder, The Fox took several steps away from the rabbit before speaking over his shoulder. "I believe that you have an ewe to look after, do you not?"

Judy blinked, then groaned as she remembered about the Magistrate. Casting an annoyed glance at the fox, she gathered herself together before sliding off the boulder. "For every hour she makes me pull that cart extra, I'll have another of the brigands you beat put in a cell with you for another day."

She saw Zorro turn his head and give her a smile. "I would expect no less from you, Capitán Hopps."

For the first time since their meeting that afternoon, Judy smiled. "As I would expect you to find some way to charm them into not assaulting you as well."

Laughing, Zorro waved her goodbye as the bunny dashed off the way they had come. His eyes and ears followed her until he could neither see nor hear her anymore.

Nick let out a huge breath of air as he went back to sit on the rock. "I'm sorry I had to do that to you Judy," he began, speaking to nobody but himself. "...but I had to know where you stand before I can give you any more of my heart."

"It's a dangerous game you are playing," a voice suddenly sounded from behind him. "And you seem to be tossing yourself into the deepest part of the ocean where monsters dare not to swim and even Davy Jones fears to sail."

"Those are waters we both seem to enjoy treading..." Nick turned to see Admiral Wilde walking out from behind a nearby tree. "...father."

AN: It's back! :D Now that I've finished up with Always, I can put my full attention back upon this story. And with my attention not being split between two stories, hopefully that will mean an even higher quality of writing for this tale.

Also, as an update for those who follow "Always", you guys have been phenominal in your support and we've already reached 92 reviews on chapter 42! Seriously, this is absolutely amazing! This also means that the first two bonus chapters will be coming up in the following weeks. If we get 8 more reviews on chapter 42, then I'll randomly chose one reviewer (have to be signed in when you leave a review so I can message you, sorry guests... :( ) and allow them to chose the final bonus chapter's contents. :)

Again, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and see you next week! :D