He couldn't sleep. However hard he tried, however many times he tossed and turned, Robin couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. It wasn't until well after the sound of the officers outside his room had faded away that his mind finally felt at ease enough to let him rest.
It lasted all of an hour before he was half-awake again, eyes held shut as he tried to return to the comfort that was sleep. Yet it eluded him, his instincts tickling the back of his mind. But for the life of him, he couldn't think of why. So instead, he focused on the sounds of his home: the humming of the furnace, the creaking of the wood floor as it settled, the distant sound of his dryer running, the squeaking of a door.
Wait a minute, he thought, mind still blurry with exhaustion. His brain continued trying to connect the dots between his instincts and the unfamiliar sound of a door opening. His mind turned to the events leading up to his going to bed, the small bit of conversation he had heard before his dinner was so rudely interrupted. A single line of dialogue slipped to the forefront of his mind, demanding his attention.
"But hey, there's four of us, this should be easy either way."
Those words played again and again in his mind, waiting until something clicked.
"Hey, there's four of us, this should be easy-"
"There's four of us, this should be-"
"Four of us."
The creaking of a door sounded just outside his bedroom, and Robin was immediately alert. He had only fought three mammals; they said that there were four of them. He missed one.
His eyes adjusted to the dark of his room rather quickly, and he noticed his door handle, normally locked, beginning to turn slowly. It was pushed open as he dove off his bed, sending away his covers as he moved for his closet. There was a small thup sound, and feathers and cloth exploded from one of his pillows. Reaching into his closet he grabbed the wooden chair that normally sat at the desk he kept stashed away, yanking it out and spinning around before throwing it at the intruder. They were relatively short, about his height, clearly a canine of some kind. Black covered most of their fur and there wasn't enough lighting to properly show his target's eyes.
Wood splintered and glass broke as a trio of small thups sounded, the wood of the chair breaking just before Robin's bedroom window did. There was a grunt as the chair collided with the mammal, and Robin rushed forward, taking advantage of their stumbling to duck down and headbutt their chest. Another grunt sounded, and Robin raised his head to headbutt their chin, gritting his teeth at the pain it caused himself as he grabbed the mammal's gun arm and opposite shoulder, spinning him around and slamming him to the wall while pressing his forearm to the other's neck, shifting the shoulders he held. Another shot went out as he did this, light filling the hallway as their brief struggle flipped the switch by his bedroom door. Robin stared at the mammal he had pinned to the wall.
It had been a very, very long time since he had seen him. His red fur was still as immaculately kept as ever, the black of his ears and tail not yet tinged white, though the gray hairs on his muzzle betrayed his age. He wore a two-piece suit, fine red tie on a black shirt with a black jacket, and matching trousers, black leather gloves covering his paws. But his most distinguishing feature were his eyes – a vibrant green, glowing with age and experience that, if Robin didn't know any better, he would say belonged to a certain ex-hustler turned cop.
"Uncle Victor?" Robin asked incredulously. The other fox stared at Robin for a moment, in shock as he made connections of his own.
"Robin?" He asked after regaining his voice. Both parties fell back to being speechless again, staring at one another with a combination of regret and worry. Finally, the older of the two broke the silence. "So it's you they're after?" he muttered, taking a breath of understanding. "You're the one giving them so much trouble."
Robin stared at Victor, nodding shallowly before lowering his gaze. Victor dropped his gun, both foxes being grateful it didn't go off as a result. "You're with Phraxus?" he asked, ears and tail drooping. Victor nodded shallowly.
"Not by choice at this point, mind you," he said. Robin stepped back and let his uncle free, keeping his guard up as he stepped back.
"I know that you stayed behind on the island. What happened after we left? How did... How did you make it?" Robin asked, pursing his lips as he waited. Victor turned away, staring down the hallway.
"It was rough after what happened," Victor started. "My reputation had been, for the most part, ruined by what we did. I had to go underground to find work and stay safe."
"You promised us you wouldn't go back to that," Robin interrupted. Victor responded with a small scoff.
"It was that or be killed, Robin," he spat. "And I couldn't leave her. Not like that. So I did what I had to do, I did what jobs I could that were... Acceptable, so we could leave the island in one piece. One led to another and, eventually, I found the group you call Phraxus."
"They have more than one name?" Robin asked, confused.
Victor nodded. "Phraxus is one. Millenium, another. They even took to calling themselves the Predatory Coalition of Natural Order at one point. But, they found me, and offered me jobs I was willing to do for a good pay. Small things – thefts, distractions. Slowly, they became bigger things. Heists, armed robberies, framings. Then they moved here, to Zootopia -" the reynard paused here. He lifted an arm and flailed them slowly, as if fishing around for the right words in the space around him. "They started up an operation here. Made a foothold and slowly gained control. For the most part, it was all undetected. Bold enough to progress them, but subtle enough to not be noticed."
Robin nodded quietly, taking advantage of his uncle's turned back to pick up the gun and flick its safety on, before slipping it into the back of his pants. "And then we picked up on them," he said, crossing his arms. "We heard rumors of more Night Howler flowers being harvested and took it upon ourselves to investigate. We tracked down one of their more willing members and, just as he was getting to the good bit," Robing brought up his paw and held it like a gun, 'shooting' at Victor's leg. "Savage."
Victor nodded. "They picked up on you all, and had hoped that Jackson would've killed you in his savage state. He didn't, and you all kept getting in their way. They finally tracked down one of you, your friend at Brightwater, and-"
"I know what they did," Robin said. He looked down, a bitter taste forming in his mouth as he focused on keeping the tidal wave of anger he felt coming under control.
Victor nodded. "They used his computers to find you. Then they told us to come after you when it seemed the coast was clear. I was sent along because of experience."
They fell back into silence, an uneasy feeling in Robin's gut as he reviewed what Victor had told him. His ears perked as a list of questions formed in his mind. "You weren't normally one for wetwork. What changed?"
Victor's ears fell flat against his head as he began to walk to the living room, the younger fox following a moment after, but never letting his uncle leave his sights. "Millenium, they ah... Had evidence of me doing everything... They've held it against me. Threatened to leak it to the police if I didn't do what they asked. Normally, the jobs they demanded were simple, but over time, they made more... Dirty requests. Assassination, kidnapping, and the like."
Robin nodded, swallowing down the pity he felt. "Kidnappings... Like Lucas's girlfriend?"
Victor flinched slightly, but nodded and sat on the couch. "Like her. She's a fighter, but she's far from the only one they took. Politicians and businesses are influenced by Millenium, and because they have eyes almost everywhere, they have blackmail on enough mammals to get their way and keep their workings a secret. And because of it, no one ever comes forth with a missing mammal report."
Robin frowned at this. If Phraxus could do this level of control, how was he and his group still breathing, much less still fighting back? An idea slid into his mind, making Robin smile slightly at the idea. "Do you know where they keep them?" he asked. Victor looked up, curiousity showing in his eyes. "If we've been able to dance circles around Phraxus so far, maybe we can weaken their hold on everyone. If they have no living leverage, that leaves them with blackmail. And I'm willing to bet we can find that, too, and take that from them."
Victor opened his maw slightly, debating the idea. Ultimately, he nodded and smiled. "It's really dangerous, you know. Way more so than Outback Island was." Robin shrugged and smirked.
"Do you have any idea what I've been through in the past few weeks?" he asked. Victor shook his head, and Robin began listing off his recent injuries – each one made Victor either wince or look down in shame.
"And you're still kicking," he said with a chuckle.
Robin shook his head. "Not kicking, fighting on my own two feet with all I've got."
Victor smirked and crossed his own arms. "You take after your mom an awful lot, you know that? I can see why my brother loved her."
Robin nodded and kept the smug smile he had held, hoping his uncle didn't see his tail droop and his ears twitch as he attempted to keep them raised. Victor's eyes looked over his form for a moment, and Robin knew he had seen something.
"But that's not what we're talking about. As for the hostages, yes, I know where they're kept. The prey ones, at least."
"There's more than one group?" Robin asked. Victor nodded.
"Two main ones. Prey and predator. The prey are kept for... Various reasons," he said, looking away with an uneasy gaze. "The predators are used as test subjects, essentially."
"Test subjects for what?" Robin asked.
Victor shrugged. "I don't know. They wouldn't tell me anything, and it took a bit of eavesdropping myself to find out that they did that. They keep the prey in an abandoned apartment complex in Tundratown. But they move them around every week."
Robin looked down, thinking. "Do you know how they move them around?" he asked.
"I'm not certain, but sometimes I see a big truck with a massive container drive by the building they're kept at late at night. I'd bet you that that's what they use to move them."
Robin nodded again, looking down. "And I'm assuming you don't know where the predator group is, or how many there are?" Victor shook his head, much to the younger fox's dismay. "When do they move them?"
"Every Wednesday night." Victor replied. Robin stood up slightly straighter.
"Tomorrow?" he asked, grinning as Victor nodded. "That's perfect! Nick, Judy and I can-" he paused midsentace, his grin turning to a frown. "Nick doesn't know you're back, does he?" Victor pursed his lips and shook his head. "Alive, even?" Another shake of the fox's head. Robin looked at his uncle in light shock, before shaking his own head. "You need to tell him."
"No," was the immediate response.
"He's your son, he should know! He deserves to know!" Robin said, stepping forward.
Victor's ears laid against his head as he balled his paws into fists. "And if I tell him, then what?" he hissed. "How do I explain all these years to him? The missed birthdays and family events? How do I just jump back into his life in the middle of all of this? I can't, Robin!"
Robin stepped closer to Victor, his paws now fists as well. "What about his mother? Does she know?" Victor paused at this, before shaking his head. Robin's expression became smug as he flicked his tail. "Doesn't she deserve to know, too? Both of them?"
Victor looked down at the ground, taking a shaky breath. Robin felt his frustration with his uncle burning in his gut. He knew how it felt to have family just vanish on him, he understood the pain. And if Nick had been dealing with it since he was a kit, he couldn't imagine the size of the hole in his life. The few years he had gone without his father were torturous enough to him; Nick, and his mother, deserved to know that Victor was, in the very least, alive.
But the frustration and resentment turned to regret and sorrow once Victor raised his head again, eyes brimming with tears. "You think I don't want to tell them?" he asked. Robin released his fists, letting his paws hang at his sides – the anger and sadness in the older fox's voice had caught him off-guard. "You think I haven't wanted to find them, show up someday and try to make us whole again? To see my wife and son again? To not feel like total shit again?" The older fox took a step forward, and Robin took one back. "That's all I've wanted for the longest time. Don't you come to me and make it seem like I'm the bad guy for leaving them in the dark! I am every bit the victim as they are!" Robin took a step back again, Victor another forward as his voice raised. "I can't just run around and not worry about them because my family is well away from the city! They are here, they are vulnerable! Nick, my son, is a target now because of this! And if I cut my ties to Millenium, they'll go after him, and Vivian, in force!"
Robin took a step back for each one Victor took forward, backpedalling down the hallway as his uncle began roaring at him. "They already about killed him with that SWAT van because Lucas was impatient! And for all I know they're hunting him down right now to try and kill him in his own bed! So no, do not try to make me the bad guy in this because I haven't told them!" Robin bumped against the end of his hallway, Victor stopping well within arm's reach of him and stabbing at his chest with a finger before he stopped, voice dropping to a defeated tone.
"All I want to do is be a family with them again. To make up for lost time, but I can't. Millenium has as much dirt on me as they do anyone else, and they'll use it to get their way. Until all this is over, assuming it ever ends, I can't let them know that I'm so much as alive." He balled his paws to fists again, before looking up to Robin with determination filling his gaze. "So it's up to you. If they find out I talked to you, and didn't kill you, they're going to come after them. So I'll tell you everything I know, and then I have to go. I'll disappear for a while, until this all ends. And maybe then, I can try to fix things."
Robin swallowed his nervousness and the plethora of emotions his uncle had brought about. He stood there, bowing his head for a moment as he processed everything, before taking a deep breath and nodding. "Alright," he said, brushing past the older fox and powering up the computer in his living room. "Just, bring up a document and put everything there. I'll do what I can to help you slip away, make a call or two. I won't speak a word of this to anyone, even Nick."
Victor followed after his nephew, muttering thanks as he sat down. As soon as he was able, he began to type up information as Robin walked into the kitchen for a drink. He returned to his uncle with two shot glasses filled with a brown liqour, the smell of whiskey being brought to their noses as he did so.
"Honey whiskey," Robin said, smiling softly as his uncle took the glass after a moment's hesitation and threw the drink back. Robin followed his lead, shuddering slightly at the unique flavor and burn the liqour left, bringing both glasses to the kitchen and rinsing them out before heading to his room for his phone. He returned to the living room again and began making the first call he could to help, listening to the quiet tacking of the keyboard as he waited.
~ óÓÒò ~
"So you just happened to be able to recover this information off your copy of the hard drive, even though our tech teams haven't found so much as a trace of it?" Nick asked skeptically. Robin nodded, hoping they would buy the lie – he had decided that 'recovered data' was the best excuse for the information Victor had typed up on his computer. Nick and Judy were currently scrolling through it as he slid on his coat, being careful to button it up before turning to face the officers. The weight of his uncle's gun rested against his hip unevenly, though it was counterbalanced by the three full magazines on his opposite side.
Victor had left Robin with his gun – a black P99 with a built in compensator – and the remaining magazines he had, three in all, and a total of about 55 bullets the fox could use. He had promised to use the gun in defense only, and had insisted that his uncle remove the suppressor mechanism he had attached to it for the mission he was assigned. Robin had been careful to keep it hidden away from Nick and Judy as they investigated his home, and now hid them under his duster with the harness his uncle had left. Thankfully, he hadn't needed to adjust them very much, as both mammals had a similar build.
The information his uncle had left was much more useful than what had been recovered from the hard drive. Locations where Phraxus, or Millenium as he called them, had been frequenting, the stores of some of their Night Howler grow houses, several key members, including Lesnitsky and Esmerelda, and even a bit of information on the leader of Phraxus.
"I never once met him, but I did hear of him. He's a tough mammal, a smaller predator but big for his species. Suave and powerful, commanding. They call him 'Fangs', though no one knows why."
On top of that, Victor had explained that at least two dozen mammals were held as hostages. Some seemed to just be plucked from the streets, though, and those ones were never seen by him again. The predator hostages, too, were sometimes seen once and only once. The forces of Millenium were large, easily at least a hundred mammals, all predators, ranging from tigers and wolves to foxes and shrews. Very few prey animals were ever considered a member of the group.
The goals of the group, however, were rather unsettling. Victor made several statements about how they felt that the natural order had been destabilized, and that prey were overrunning the world. They felt that the only proper thing to do was re-establish predators as the naturally dominant force, and multiple portions of the information alluded to the "harvesting" of prey animals for all they were worth.
It all made Robin sick to his stomach, and almost made him shake with anger.
After a short time, Nick removed the small flash drive Robin had given them the other day. "And part two of your plan was what, again?" he asked.
"I need to see Lucas," Robin repeated. Judy and Nick both looked at him, slackjawed.
"Robin, that is a bad idea," Judy said. "A horribly stupid idea!"
"Since when do I do smart things?" Robin shot back, giving a small smirk. He hoped his facade of fearlessness worked – it was more likely that Lucas would shoot the fox on sight than speak with him. "Look," he said, turning around and patting himself down, brushing his fingers over the cut on his coat. "I need you guys to get him back to his apartment after I get in. If I can catch him off guard and talk to him quick enough, he won't kill me." I hope, Robin thought, shrugging off his worry. Now was not the time for that.
Nick and Judy gave the fox a skeptical, worried look. "And if he doesn't give you the chance?" Judy asked.
Robin tilted his neck to either side, popping it, followed by his knuckles. "I'm feeling a hundred percent, and wouldn't mind showing him why you don't pick a fight with me," he lied. In truth, his chest hurt an awful lot from his tangles with the intruders last night. But he had taken painkillers that had, at least, taken off the edge of the pain
Nick shook his head, standing up. "Personally, I think this idea is worse than Carrots' attempts at jokes," he said, sniggering as Judy slapped his shoulder. "But that doesn't mean I don't think it could work," he continued, folding his arms. Robin strained to not see his uncle this time, shaking his head slightly to clear his mind as he looked at the uniformed fox.
"But that also means that we need to consider alternatives," Judy said. "Do we have to get Lucas to meet you face to face?"
"Honestly," Robin said, "It's what I think is best. There's so many things that could go wrong, yeah, but there's more if we try to do a call or something. And, call me impatient, but it needs to be today. Not tonight, not tomorrow, today."
Judy and Nick looked at one another, both passing along unspoken messages before they sighed. "Alright," Judy said. "We'll get you to his apartment, and get him there after. But you need to tell us phase three of your 'master plan'."
Robin gave a single laugh. "It's simple: We loosen Phraxus' foothold on the city. We take away some of their leverage."
"And how's that?" Nick asked.
Robin grinned this time, eyes sparkling with mischief. "We're gonna steal a truck."
~ óÓÒò ~
Robin stood inside Lucas' apartment, silently looking around. He had made half the plan for the theft with Nick and Judy, before leaving the officers to talk to their chief about aiding him and, hopefully, Lucas in saving the prey held in the apartments.
The damages from his break-in were still evident, bullet holes in the carpeting and floor, though the ones on the wall at least seemed to be in the midst of being patched up. The couch had its own collection of holes, bits of white stuffing poking from the pillows. The ferret's front door had been replaced, leaving no splintered wood or other damage to see, though the cut from Robin's side still occasionally burned.
He was debating wether or not to investigate Lucas's bedroom when his phone went off, a faint buzzing emanating from his pocket. When he looked, he didn't recognize the number, and hesitated before answering. The voice on the other end was heavily distorted, sounding like two instead of just one: a high-pitched voice, like that of a kit, and a deeper growl, like something out of a horror movie. "Phoenix," it said.
Robin waited a moment, before letting his own voice fall to the subtle growl of his vigilante persona. "Ice pick."
There was a soft laugh, before the other voice started again. "Good. Didn't think I remembered your number right. Dust, we need to meet up."
Robin's mouth went dry, and he started looking down at his phone briefly with surprise. Was it Frost? "I thought you said you didn't want to meet."
"I don't," he said. "But we need to meet up. I've got your car. Meet me at the Moonlight Rose bar in Savanna Central Friday night. Corner stall, before 2100. Don't keep me waiting."
And with that, the call ended. Robin stared down at the phone in silence, processing the information. If it was indeed Frost, then this could mean he had lucked out again. If it wasn't though, and was just a setup...
The sound of the front door unlocking drew his mind from his thoughts, and Robin tucked his phone away into his pocket. He did a quick practice movement of reaching for his gun and, feeling satisfied with the speed at which he could reach it, he took a relaxed stance, leaning against the wall behind him with folded arms and legs crossed. Lucas, in his uniform but minus the vest and other gear he'd need at the station, walked in and dropped down a duffel bag to the floor. He took his white sports glasses and slid them back on his head, letting them rest against his ears as he took a sidearm from the bag and slid it into its holster on his hip. Lucas then moved into the kitchen, all the while seemingly oblivious to Robin's presence.
He reached up into a cupboard and grabbed a glass, filling it with cold water at the sink. He started taking a drink from it when Robin let his impatience get the better of him, and finally spoke.
"Real nice place you have here," he said, smirking slightly as Lucas froze mid-sip. "I think I prefer it at night, though. Much more my style."
In the time it took Lucas to set down the glass and draw his sidearm, aiming at Robin, the fox had drawn his own pistol and had it aimed squarely between the ferret's eyes. The officer stood in his training stance, both paws firmly gripping the sidearm, while Robin held a much more casual stance, holding the gun with one paw as he stood sideways to the ferret.
"Lucas," he said, smirk transforming to a grin under the mask as the ferret widened his eyes. Clearly, he hadn't expected to be staring down a gun barrel, himself. "Is that any way to greet me? I at least had the courtesy to stop by during daylight."
"What do you want, Red?" The ferret spat, gripping his gun tightly.
"Right to the chase, no beating around the bush? Aw, you're no fun anymore," Robin quipped. It seemed that Nick and Judy had rubbed off on him slightly; normally, he wouldn't even try to be a smartass while using his Dust persona. "What I want, is help. To help you, after you help me."
"After what you did? Why would I help you?" the ferret hissed. His ice blue eyes were brimming with rage, and Robin could see he was itching to pull the trigger and be done with the fox.
"Good question," Robin replied. "And so is: Why would I help you? The answer, my dear nouille, is that I can get your girlfriend back for you."
Lucas faltered at this, taking a moment before shaking his head and staring at Robin. "And how would that work out?" he asked, voice wary.
"It's simple. Tonight, she and about two dozen other mammal hostages are being moved. I happen to know where they're being held, and when to get to them. Maybe, if a certain SWAT officer could, I don't know, help set up some kind of ambush or something, we can free all these poor lost souls and get this noodle's girlfriend back." Robin tilted his head slightly, loosening his stance. He held himself in a sort of shrug, the pistol aimed at Lucas the whole time but shifting away enough to signal that he didn't want to fight. "That, and, I don't know, maybe it would help stop the guys bold enough to steal that pretty bunny away in the first place?"
Lucas hissed softly at the word 'pretty', but took in in stride. He lowered his gun slightly, staring at Robin with a testing gaze. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Ah-ah, hold on now. Much as I'd like to discuss this further, you've still, more or less, got your gun aimed at my head. So let's set these things down and talk like adults, alright? No shooting, no tricks, no bullshit." Robin's gaze became steely as he looked at Lucas, but he made his tone sincere, going so far as to hold up his paws and turn to face the ferret. "I'll even start," he offered, slowly crouching down and setting the pistol on the floor, taking care to face it away from both mammals. Lucas hesitated for a moment, before letting his paws fall to his sides, holstering his own weapon in the process.
Robin let out a silent sigh of relief. He had taken a fairly large risk in making himself so vulnerable – in such close quarters, without the cover of night to help him, he was almost certainly, probably, definitely dead if the trigger was pulled. "Now then," he said, lowering his arms. "Got anything to drink?"
~ óÓÒò ~
And so it was set. Lucas would get a small group of mammals he trusted entirely together, and bring them to a designated location close to the apartments where the hostages were held. Robin, accompanied by Nick and Judy, and transported by King, would watch from a safe distance and message the SWAT officer when it was time to spring the trap. The SWAT team would move in, followed quickly by several units of the ZPD from both that precinct and Downtown. The members of Phraxus that were present would be arrested, and the hostages brought to safety. They would be kept under police care until the remaining members of Phraxus were found, and the proper action was taken against them.
Overall, for something so hasty, it felt solid. Robin was satisfied, Lucas was strangely quiet as he practically shook in anticipation. Nick and Judy kept up their usual banter and, whenever he was near, Robin couldn't help but share in their laughter or, on several occasions, chime in and earn himself a high-four from either officer. Unlike past 'missions', nothing felt off with him; everything, in his mind, seemed... Right.
Let's hope that lasts, he thought.