Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Disney, least of all Zootopia (yet)

Note: I am using [ ] to mark Dialogue which happens in Judy's head. (The words coming from her demonic sword to be precise)

[You what?!] Came an overpowering yell from the very inside of her brain, which made her feel every bit as uncomfortable as the owner of the voice probably intended.
Judy shook her head though and carried on thinking, yes I what?
What is that question even supposed to mean, asked Judy inside herself.
It was still a very strange feeling to her as the reply actually came.
[You want to be an angel?] Asked the demonic voice inside her head, this time at a more tolerable intensity.
Yes of course, that is why I need your help in order to become strong. Thought Judy just as much instinctively as wholeheartedly.
[And you seek the services of not one, but two demons for that?] The demon actually sounded desperate as he asked this and he added,"Are you mad?"
Now in his shadow Judy form and definitely directed at Nick instead of her.
Nick smirked and replied,"as a hatter. But may I inquire why the question came up?"
"You know damn well why I am asking!" Said her demonic doppelgänger as it grabbed Nick by his cloak and pulled him down towards eye level.
"You are trying to make this god damn mortal into an angelic being! And now you pulled me into this damn mess!"
Nick's smirk only grew,"you should have asked what her goal was before striking a deal brother. That is how this whole thing works you know."
Shadow Judy made a growl like sound and let go of Nick, only to angrily strike, her now free paw, into one of the of the pillars next to them.
This caused the whole thing to crumble into bits and pieces which rained down upon them as the pillar itself collapsed.
Nick was quick to block the debris with a low level magic shield and Judy knew that her doppelgänger couldn't probably have cared less.
"An Angel!" Cried the demon out in exasperation.
And it turned around towards her,"do you know how ludicrous that sounds? No I correct, how ludicrous that is?"
Judy could not help but smirk, she realized the irony of the situation. But the reaction of the demon who had been so calm and collected before just seemed too funny to her. And she had to fight herself in order for her not to laugh out loud.
But since the demon could read her mind that did not matter at all, even if she had no clue about that. Since she was still not really used to the mental connection she now shared with her newest companion.
It was Nick who took it upon himself to end this farce though, as funny as it was to both of them, it was certainly a dangerous situation. Considering that they were making fun of a powerful demon right on his home turf.
"Aww...come on now brother. See it as a challenge. And besides, this only means that we get close enough to our enemies to maybe actually get some useful information about your seal."
A sigh came from shadow Judy and her ears dropped behind her head.
"Fine, I will bite...but this means that I cannot teach her demonic magic, or take over her body too often. Which in turn limits our options significantly."
Another sigh followed as her demonic self mustered her as if it was appraising an exotic piece of food.
"This is going to be a challenge indeed. But with both of our skillsets we can probably make it work."

Nick's smirk turned into a warm smile and he patted the demonic bunny on the back.
"That's the spirit."

With this the conversation ended and they left the room.
Her doppelgänger stayed inside and she could feel that her sword started absorbing an insane amount of residue magic energy from the air around them.
Once the door closed Nick turned around and placed a spell she had never seen before.
When Judy tried to ask he curtly replied with,"just a precaution."

She tried to press him for more information but the sword interfered.
[You shouldn't worry. I sincerely doubt anything bad will ever come of this little spell.]

This in turn made her wonder even more what kind of spell it could have been.
But they soon emerged from the confines of the secret dungeon into a far larger cave.
This cave, also known as the Niarc Dungeon, was a place where magical creatures like ginormous cave spiders and ghouls as well as undead adventurers who were unfortunate enough to meet their end here, roamed around freely.

Thus it was a place which would be sought out by many adventurers, to train, for subjugations or to get lucky and scavenge the equipment of a less fortunate competitor.

And even though the strength of the local monsters was infamous around these parts, it still ended up being a deathtrap for many aspiring new adventurers.

Judy still fondly remembered her first days as a fledgling adventurer.
Back when she had been just a normal rabbit and even the great forest which bordered her home plains seemed unknown and scary to her.

Around 2 years earlier:

She felt uncertain about this whole sneaking away from home thing. She had never been admitted to school like everyone else who had a spirit since she had gotten hers late and in secret.
She had also never told her parents about Nick, at all.
This was due to the fact that her parents had voiced their concerns about adventurers pretty clearly.
No Hopps was to ever stray out of their noble tradition of carrot farming for the local Lord.
And so none of her siblings had been allowed to go, even those who actually made contracts with spirits the normal way.
Even her brothers who, by law, were allowed to leave the family once they became of age were "persuaded" into staying.

So over the last few years she had made all the preparations needed for leaving in secret.

She had secretly forked of some produce and sold it herself.

She had taken every coin she could in exchange for work on the farm itself and on the neighboring farms.

And she had even sold a kiss to a young noble rabbit by the name of Jack Savage. The poor sap seemed to have been eager to jump at the opportunity to kiss her in exchange for a real gold coin. In hindsight she knew that he had been hopelessly, head over heels in love with her. But she had never really liked the idea of settling so soon.

Besides, her dream of becoming an angel was now in full motion. She flinched, yeah, in hindsight she had been stealing from her own parents. And selling a kiss was not very angel like either.
However, it had all been for the greater good!

Once she was an adventurer she would save the lives of many! And without these negligible evil deeds she wouldn't have been able to even become one at all.

She had to do these things in order to rise above her circumstances and become the great hero, which Judy knew she could one day be.
With the money she had been able buy a cheap short sword, a coat, a bag, some crude pieces of armor and general supplies for a long journey. All things that she had determined to be the absolute bare bone minimum requirements for her plan, after she had listened to Nick about his experiences with adventurers before her.

In addition to this she had also learned some valuable survival skills, like making fire in the wild and which plants to eat and which to avoid from local retired adventurers.

One of them, an old boar who everyone just called Sven, had even insisted to show her how to craft her own bow and arrows.
A skill which she had not nearly perfected yet.

So here she was, hiding her equipment in Nick's cave while the demonic fox examined her newly crafted bow.

"Hey Carrots, was this your first try?" He asked as he pulled back the string of the bow which, in his paws, looked almost comedically small.

It was in fact her twelfth attempt at making a short bow, but Judy had no intention of letting the smug demon know this.

"Yes, why? Is there something wrong with it?" She asked innocently.

Nick shook his head as he placed the bow back to where he had found it.

"Not really, no. In fact it is pretty decent for a first attempt." His words made her feel proud, even though she did technically not deserve it. The feeling did not last long however as he added,"let's just hope that you improve a lot over the next few attempts, so that you actually get a usable result."

She was just about to retort to his rather insulting way of calling her a failure by getting her hopes up, when Nick changed the topic.
"So now that you got all of this, does that mean that we are leaving soon?" Judy was baffled by the question itself.

Yes! Screamed a voice deep inside of her. Let's pack up right away and leave right now.
But you cannot do that! Commented another part of her conscience. You haven't even though of where to go yet!
Which was a valid point in and out of itself.
You have been trying to leave for weeks now and always found a new way to postpone it!Commented the first voice.

But are you really ready yet? Asked yet another part of her. Maybe you should stay here for a few more weeks or months or even years. Spend some more time with your family before you inevitably see them for the last time.

Yeah, that seemed right too. She wanted to go, she really did. And her parents and her elder siblings were hellbent on not letting any family members go, she hated them for readily displaying such close mindedness. Even if it sprung from love. And yet she still loved her family dearly, all of them. Leaving them without saying goodbye felt wrong.

And yet she knew that it would be the only way forward for her.

The only way to achieve her dreams.

Yes, her journey could wait a little bit longer.

She faced Nick and focused on his glowing emerald eyes as she spoke.
"Not quite yet, there are still some skills that I need to learn and..."

"Judy." She flinched when she heard him utter her name.
She gulped heavily and broke eyes contact. "Yeah?"

He came closer and cupped her cheeks with both paws, forcing her to look into his eyes once more.

"I am not stupid. I know that you are distressed and I know that you are having trouble with taking the necessary leap."

Judy was surprised by the warmth of his words, normally he tried to stay neutral or his words were dripping with as much sarcasm as possible. Sometimes he was even outright insulting. But this time, this time even his eyes seemed to radiate a kind of warmth which she would have deemed impossible from a demon, at least until she had met Nick.

"You want to become an Adventurer, right? To achieve your dream and become recognized by the gods as a hero of justice."

A timid "yes" was her only reply.

"But you are still afraid of leaving everything behind. And that is completely alright. That just means that you are a good mammal Judy."

He smiled at her warmly before he went on. "And I am not saying that this is ever going to be easy for you. Especially because you are a good mammal, but do not think that one action only ever has one possible result. As an adventurer you have to be flexible and you have to take these leaps of faith whenever they present themselves to you. That is the only way to become stronger. And you want to become stronger, right?"

"Of course I want to be stronger and naturally I want to be an adventurer." She all but whispered. She was sure of what she wanted. But there was also that little bit of uncertainty on her mind which weighed her down. Her own conscience was reminding her that she was betraying everyone that had ever loved her by doing this.

"Then you shouldn't think of the price." Stated Nick firmly.

What?

But of course she would think of the price of her desires, how else was she going to achieve her dreams of becoming an angel?

Nick as if sensing her thoughts went on to explain.

"Judy, want is something that just bubbles out of you and gushes forth. Want is something that can never really be satisfied. It is something that can be a great weapon as well as a fatal weakness."

He pulled her even closer and started whispering into her ear.

"But I can tell you from experience, that not acting on your desires and penning them up can corrupt you just as much as living your life in total debauchery."

She had no idea at the time how much his words would impact her even in the future. But right now she knew that his words had been exactly what she needed.

When he let her go shortly after she wordlessly grabbed her equipment and for the first time put on her new adventurer gear.

Judy felt ready venture onward into this big and exiting world.

She left the cave without uttering a word to her companion. She feared that she would loose her new found resolve if she did. That any word, carelessly thrown into the room, could stop her in her tracks by making her reconsider.

But in the end it did not matter, Nick understood his partner even without words. And for the last time they left the cave where they had met each other, together.

Authors Note:

So I have two options as how to continue this story in the next few chapters:

A. I cut right back into the action after we get through the forest thing and we get less backstory in the past.
B. I do another flashback during the whole thing and we see how our favorite duo met.