Chapter 44 Game of Revenge
Edited by FoxintheHenhouse & Irual
AN: Special thanks again to Bluelighthouse, Koraru-san, Ake'cheta(knoton13), OceRydia and Ziegelzeig for letting me use their characters in this story. Thank you guys! And again, thanks to my wonderful friends FoxintheHenhouse and Irual who volunteered to edit this chapter for me. Now, the reason why this chapter has taken so long is because of two things.
1. I moved.
2. I moved. XD
So I apologize for the wait, but RL comes first. But not to worry, I'm already deep into chapter 45 so that should come quickly. And with that announcement, enjoy a Game of Revenge. :)
Nick and Judy made it through the tunnels quickly, following the strongest scent of unwashed mammals. Judy had to keep her laughter to herself several times as she heard Nick gag at a particularly nasty stench he'd pick up.
"It's like they never learned how to bathe," he muttered after one particularly nasty sniff had him on all fours, dry heaving. Judy stifled her giggles, rubbing his back as his sleeve made for an inelegant neckerchief as he finished.
After that particular bout, they were off and running again, thankfully only stumbling upon a guard or two as they hastened for the cavern's exit. The first was easy to dispatch, the dingo unaware of the fox and bunny until Judy's feet connected with his muzzle, sending him crashing into the cave wall and slumping to the ground. The second, a Bengal tiger, was a little harder, though they managed. It had helped they had made a bet about whoever knocked him out could kiss the other.
Judy had accepted Nick's kiss on the lips with gusto, savoring the taste of him as they walked past the unconscious feline who lay slumped with his rear heavenward, a sandbag nearly covering his head.
Finally, as they turned a corner, the shadows began to fade and the light of their torch became unnecessary. With the cave entrance in view, they slowed their pace, sneaking forward. It would not do to be caught so close to their goal.
A sudden rumble and dull roar of an explosion came from behind them. Both scampered behind some nearby crates as the rumbling ceased, and the shouting began. Judy listened as dozens of panicked voices sounded outside the cavern's entrance, and the padding of many paws and hooves on gravel drew nigh. She was barely aware as Nick pulled her closer to him, his tail wrapping around her, concealing her almost entirely from view. She appreciated the gesture and rewarded him, nuzzling his cheek while feeling a grin appear on his face before they settled into their hiding place.
Neither knew what had caused the explosion behind them, but the hope that it had nothing to do with their fellow escapees was in the forefront of their thoughts.
In less than a minute a score of mammals was rushing into the cave, torches, guns, and swords gleaming in the glow of sunlight before succumbing to the inky depths underground. It wasn't until Judy turned her attention back to the cave's entrance that her heart skipped a beat.
There, standing as a shadow in the light, her brilliant white fur set ablaze from the sun was Skye Winters. Judy nudged Nick, nodding her head towards the entrance as the vixen strolled into the cave. Soon she had entered far enough where her shining fur became murky in the dancing firelight.
The arctic vixen turned, sniffing the air as she glared in the direction of the cells Nick and Judy had just escaped from.
"Do you think it's them?"
Nick frowned. That gravelly, deep baritone of a voice sounded oddly familiar. The fox squinted at the cave's entrance, barely seeing the outline of a large mammal standing in the sunlight outside.
Skye turned the voice and nodded. "Has this entire expedition here for our leader been a waste of time? Of course it was them!" Skye growled, flailing her arms. "Who else would it be? The dead coming back to haunt your soul?"
The mammal in the cave entrance snorted. "I'm sure our soldiers can handle them. Come, Skye. We have work to do."
The shadow disappearing until the sun enveloped it completely. Skye looked around the cave for a moment longer, her eyes seeming to settle upon the crates Judy and Nick hid behind for the briefest of time. With an angry flick of her tail, she turned and followed the other mammal until she too disappeared into the daylight.
Breathing sighs of relief, the two waited another minute until they left their hiding place, careful to make nary a sound as they crept forward until the light was no longer blinding and they finally had a view of outside.
"Oh my..."
Nick agreed with Judy's sentiment. Outside the cave entrance was an entire small town of huts, tents and ramshackle buildings. The crude designs seemed mostly held together by hopes and grit as much as lumber and adobe. Judy nudged Nick's side, nodding her head in the direction of a nearby Conestoga wagon. He nodded and the duo quickly slinked into the back of it, peering out between the canvas and sideboards at the derelict buildings before them.
"So, what should we do now?" Judy asked.
Nick shrugged and, not seeing anyone around, turned and laid in the bottom of the wagon. "For now? I'd imagine wait for sunset and find a way out. We can't really take on this many mammals at the moment."
Peeking outside at the sea of tents, Judy found herself agreeing for once. A ship filled with twenty or so bootlegging mammals they could handle, but seeing how that many mammals and more had already disappeared into the cave system behind them, who knew the true numbers of those inhabiting this place.
She knew she couldn't take them all on, however, Judy Hopps was nothing if not creative.
She hopped down into the bed of the wagon, scrounging through the many barrels and boxes.
"What are you looking for?" Nick asked, unclasping his paws from behind his head and leaning forward, resting his arms on his knees.
"Anything we can use as a diversion so we can get going."
Nick chuckled. "Patient one, no?"
"Not at all-aha!" Judy smiled as she lifted a set of flint and tinder from one of the boxes. With an even bigger smirk, she glanced at Nick. "So, which of those buildings out there do you think will burn the best?"
Grinning as well, Nick peered out from the folds of the Conestoga's cover. "I believe...that one." He turned back to Judy, only to gasp as the bunny leapt through the opening, running towards the mentioned shack. "Ay caramba..." Nick groaned, though kept a watch as she struck the flint several times at the edge of the building. In a literal flash, the building took and Judy scampered back to their hold.
"Next time, don't be so careless, Judy," Nick warned as a series of yells announced the discovery of the burning shack. The two carefully edged to the other side of the wagon, slinking out and keeping towards the cliff wall behind them as dozens of mammals rushed towards the scene, some with buckets and others with shovels, frantically tossing dirt onto the flames to keep the fire from spreading to the other ramshackle buildings. The pair made their way to the back of a rather large and fairly well-constructed building, nearly the size of Nick's casita on his villa. Peeking through a back window showed nobody within, and the duo snuck through the back door.
Nick groaned.
"We would have to wander into her room, wouldn't we..."
The smell was unmistakable.
The white fur speckled across the ground here and there confirmed what his sense of smell had already told him.
This was Skye's room.
Nick nervously glanced towards the other door that led further into the building, knowing full well it wouldn't do for them to be caught in here of all places. "Judy, check the door, see if you can hear anyone outside."
Judy crept towards the door, placing an ear against it as Nick surveyed the room for anything they could use. Seeing Judy shaking her head and returning from the door, he felt he could finally breathe again.
"So..." Judy began, glancing around the room. "Seems like Skye keeps a pretty clean bedroom for being a ruffian."
"She was always focused on cleanliness. Once, when we were together..."
Judy felt the pause in his voice more than heard it and walked towards the fox, laying a paw on his side. The slight tremor in his pulse and bristled fur had her confused to his emotions, his face a stoic mask. Knowing words couldn't fix the harm his ex-fiance had caused him, she did the only thing that could.
Nick felt Judy's hug, feeling a blissful release of pressure and tension coiled within it. He almost immediately reached out for her, pulling her close. Time passed, and the more of it that did, the more each mammal realized the time and place for the mutual embrace had come to an end. They separated and began their search of the room anew.
"Nick?" Judy said after a few moments while scouring through a dusty bookshelf.
"Yes, my love?"
The blush heating Judy's ears rose like her smile at his words. "Did Skye ever keep a journal?"
"She did," he nodded before his eyes widened. "Which means..."
"...that it could be somewhere in here!" Judy finished, ears alert and glancing quickly outside a nearby window as a shadow passed across it.
"And we could then see what and where she's been and maybe what this organization has been up to!"
The two smiled, turning to alternate sides of the room to quietly begin the search. "Hopefully she was one of those detailed mammals," Judy muttered as she looked underneath the mattress, coughing when she let it down and dust billowed out.
"If I know Skye, which, in all honesty, I don't think I do," Nick replied. "I would hope it was as detailed as it was when we were together. Emphasis on how we are never, ever, ever, getting back together."
Judy couldn't help but smile at his comment. Then, even more, when she came across a locked drawer in the desk. "Bingo."
Nick dropped the blanket he looked under. "What did you find?" Sauntering over, he saw Judy tugging at the locked drawer.
"Let me," he said with a flourishing wave of his paw. Flipping onto his back on the floor, he wiggled under the desk until his head and arms disappeared. A few grunts, an odd click or two, and a muttered curse preceded a louder click.
"I still have it!"
Judy chuckled. "You're Zorro, if you couldn't open this, I would have to revoke your sly card."
Nick peeked out from under the desk, grinning at Judy. "Still, does this earn me a prize from my lovely lady?"
Seeing the waggle of his eyebrows, Judy sauntered over to Nick's side, noticing how his eyes briefly flickered to the sway of her hips before shooting back to her eyes. "I believe so," she replied, before taking his muzzle in her paws, tipping it slightly to give him the quickest of kisses.
"Oh, you vile temptress..." he chuckled. He leaned up for another, only to duck as Judy opened the drawer, a light peal of laughter from the doe as it blocked his attempt.
"Insufferable, lovely rabbits."
"You know you love me," Judy replied, the sound of moving papers muffling her reply.
"Of course I love you," Nick said with a smile as he pushed out from under the desk and joined Judy in searching the drawer, though making sure he drew so close that the papers they searched through couldn't have slid between them. Seeing as the sought after journal was not in the lowest drawer, Nick placed his paw within, feeling around the bottom of the next drawer up until he found a lever and switched it. The drawer above came undone and it too was searched. Finally, at the bottom, they discovered it.
A pristine, reptile leather-bound book.
"This is it..."
The pair looked at one another, nodded, then cracked open the book. It only took a few seconds for Nick to pale beneath his fur, and Judy's ears to wilt behind her as they read the first entry.
July 19th, 1848
"Help me..."
"I don't know where I am...I don't know where Nicholas is. He must be worried sick. My head still hurts from...whatever happened. I don't know if I can keep this journal a secret, but hopefully, by writing this, I can remember what they are trying to get me to forget.
"Mi Amor, Nicholas."
"She...she was kidnapped."
The realization shook both fox and rabbit to their cores, and they hurried to read the following entries, each one growing more despondent with the passing days. Several of the first pages were stained with watermarks as Skye marked the passing of time, and of her fading memories.
January 27th, 1849
"They are still trying to break me? Have they? I...I don't know anymore. The pain mounts each day I undergo 'treatment'. Nothing makes sense and the only things I can remember from before are from what I've found written in here. Nicholas, if this is ever found, and I'm sure if anyone can find it that it would be you...
...please don't hate what I'm becoming."
They flipped through several more pages, the scribblings becoming more desperate and broken as well as vicious and cruel until the entries stopped, nearly a year after the first scribbles on the page. The final entry was labeled June 8th, 1849...
"I am off on my first mission to cleanse the evils from this land for my master. I know I can succeed and maybe one day...I can have my revenge upon this, Nicholas de la Wilde whom my master hates so much. Reading these pages makes me ill that I was once this weak myself.
"Now onward...onward to death and glory."
"They brainwashed her." The words seemed harsh on Judy's tongue, yet the evidence lay before them, written by the vixen's own paw. The cruel vixen they had fought, the one who'd slain Gideon and nearly killed them both, was a creation of this, Master, she spoke of.
Judy turned to her companion, only to see him trembling. His eyes were narrowed slits, his visage an image of fury and anger...
...an image of an avenging angel.
"Nick?" She placed a paw on his arm, feeling a slight dip in his tremors as he fought with his emotions. He looked back down at her, his eyes calming from savage emeralds to warm jade.
"The Skye I knew is lost forever," he finally proclaimed.
He swallowed and blinked.
"Yet, how are you up for a game of revenge? Eh, Judy?"
Her ears shot up, aimed at the outside door as she froze for an instant. A few seconds later, several voices could be heard outside.
"I smell them heading towards The Assassin's door."
"Find her and The Master! We've got them now!"
Judy sprang to the door, locking it shut as the doorknob jingled in annoyance. As soon as she stepped away, Nick was there, jamming a chair against it before they stepped back.
"Well, they seem to have found us," he jibed, his familiar Zorro facade coming through.
Judy grinned as she drew her sword. "Guess we'll just have to see what's through door numero two, eh?"
Padded paws against wood sounded outside the inner door, raised voices shouting exclamations.
"Should we greet our guests?" Judy asked, watching as Nick drew his own sword. He waved her forward with a roll of his paw.
"After you, mi amor. You go high, I go low, and we'll see just how many mammals our swords get to know."
Judy laughed in spite of the intensity of the noise of enemies growing. "You would make a pun at a time like this. The door handle jiggled on the inside door.
"Of course, how could I not as I adore that roguish smile you wear so beautifully when I do, my dear Judy."
The door shook, the sound of wood cracking following shortly after.
The pair of swordsmammals stood shoulder to shoulder, eyeing both doors as they stood near a corner, waiting to see which would break first.
The explosion that tore down the wall shattered the window and threw them into the far corner of the room was not what they had in mind.
"So, what is the plan?"
Eliot was leaning over the edge of the cliff, alongside Ake'cheta and several of his warriors, as they looked down upon the settlement below.
"We'll wait for nightfall and then attack," came the coyote's reply. "Most of the mammals below are prey, and cannot see at night like we can. My tribe specializes in night warfare. These mammals, do not."
Eliot huffed, frowning as he went back to gazing at the mess of tents and structures below. The two biggest things he saw, was the large landslide on the far side of the encampment along the river, something that could be easily climbed or descended. The second was the large dark void, most likely the entrance to the cave they'd been imprisoned in. They'd already seen a large group of mammals enter, as well as a fox and bunny scurrying out into the daylight...
Fox and bunny?
"It's Nick and Capitan Hopps!" Eliot exclaimed, pointing at the cave entrance and wagging his tail. Ake'cheta smacked his arm down.
"You want them to notice us, Pale Wolf?" Ake'cheta growled.
"Sorry..." Eliot lowered his arm, but his tail refused to end its wagging. He watched as they disappeared into a wagon, then not too long after, Hopps reappeared, running towards a nearby building.
"What is she doing?"
Eliot and Ake'cheta turned towards the new voice. The other bunny and fox couple, as Eliot had called them much to the fox's assumed annoyance and bunny's joy, though his nose could sense otherwise from the fox, had joined them on the ledge, peering down into the jumble below.
A moment later they had their answer as a pillory of smoke rose into the sky, the bunny and fox darting away into a much larger building.
"Fire..." cackled the rabbit doe. "Hey Zieg, we need to make a bonfire when we get back. Just the two of us."
"You just want a hug, Oce," he grumbled, glaring at the bunny.
"Awwww, how cute!" Eliot chimed in, ignoring the death glare from the rabbit. "You two already have nicknames for each other! Pumpkin would be so pleased to hear you two!"
"Not now!" Ake'cheta hissed, glaring at the bunny who had stood and was marching towards the wolf. "We have trouble."
"Oh yes we do," the bunny replied. "He called me cute!"
Eliot looked flummoxed. "But you and Zieg are cute together."
"No we're not!" Zieg yelled, his white ear tips turning as red as his scarf.
The bunny stomped her foot. "I just want a hug! One hug!"
"Give her a hug already, and I can sketch it!" cried Eliot.
Eliot's tail began to wag harder.
Oce's foot thumped.
Delta, one of the warriors on the other side of Eliot chimed in. "I think they are adorable as well." His partner, another painted dog they'd learned was named Atom, nodded his head vigorously.
"Am not!" Zieg said with a scowl.
"Don't make me come over there and hug you!" Oce shouted.
Eliot raised his paw. "I can just hug both of you together, would that count?"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Enough!" Growled, his temper reaching a critical point. "We have trouble below!"
The bickering mammals on the clifftop swung their attention to below, seeing a group of wolves sniffing their way around the burned building.
"Oh, that isn't good..." Zieg stated quietly as the wolves reached the cliffside wagon.
"They'll be caught for sure," Oce gasped, her foot nervously thumping again.
"Not on my watch!" Eliot exclaimed, bolting up and running back towards a haphazard canvas bag they'd pulled from the abandoned shack. Ake'cheta shook his head. Nothing was going to plan with these mammals around him. They'd all volunteered to come with him and his warriors while the others stayed behind. Even Eliot had managed to convince 'His Pumpkin' to stay with the caravan of freed mammals to keep her safe while he protected.
Now the coyote wished the thylacine had convinced her husband to stay behind.
His ears perked at the sound of a fuse being lit behind him. His eyes widened as he saw a red stick of dynamite flying over their heads, heading straight towards the camp below.
"Oh no..." he muttered as the stick bounced off the roof of one of the shacks before landing at the feet of a rhino. The large animal gave a frightened bellow, turned and ran several steps before the dynamite exploded, shattering the shack and sending a resounding roar into the area below.
"Oh! Give me one of those!"
Ake'cheta's eyes widened further as he looked to his right and spotted Oce grabbing a second stick from the wolf's paw.
"This is for imprisoning us in that dirty cave you twits!" The doe's angry shout was followed by her lobbing the dynamite towards the still burning shack. Her aim was impressively true as it fell right into the inferno, exploding a short second later, sending bits of flaming wood and debris into the surrounding mammals, their screams splitting the air.
Ake'cheta turned towards Delta and Atom, both of whom held dynamite in their paws.
"Not you too..." he groaned.
Delta shrugged. "The surprise has been lost. Might as well have some fun." With a flick of a piece of flint against the fuse, his own stick was lit. Tapping it against Atom's, in a semblance of a toast, the two tossed them below.
"Guess we're attacking now," Ake'cheta grumbled as he turned away from the chaos below. He jogged off towards the treeline where the rest of his tribe was gathered.
"Change of plans," he said, his words highlighted by dual booms shattering the quiet of the forest, as well as the cackling laughter from Oce and Eliot.
"Come on, Zieg, toss one!"
Ake'cheta sighed. "We attack now."
AN: I warned you that giving Eliot dynamite is a bad idea... Huge thank you to all my friends who've let me use their characters in this story. And also, I apologize for the very long wait on this chapter. It won't happen again.