The sun was falling quickly and the sky ran from a dark blue to the brightest shades of a fiery red, an intense colour that was matched by the burning building below it. Several fire trucks circled the once white building and were trying desperately to contain the blaze. The warehouse was soon to crumble down upon itself. Animals were limping, carrying and being dragged out from within. Some of Chief Bogo's squad were running in and out from the safety of outdoors and back into the blaze repeatedly to rescue animals, who were just half an hour ago trying to kill them.

Sue the lioness, with the aid of another from their squad; emerged from the building coughing and carrying their unconscious chief. He had lost a lot of blood, but knowing him as the fighter he was she knew he would pull through. Leaving Bogo in the capable hands of paramedics she turned and looked at the destructive chaos before her. With Bogo incapacitated she knew it was up to her to lead the squad as she was seen as the second in command. Nick and Judy were still in there and needed to be rescued. Calling over some fellow squad members who looked as exhausted as she felt; Sue lead them back into the searing heat and hellish fires of what could have been the start of a deadly empire.

X walked slowly and slouched over to the side, compensating for the annoyance of being shot twice. It was taking every ounce of himself to remain calm in the consuming flames of the warehouse. It took him a good fifteen minutes after the explosion had occurred to regain his senses fully and another fifteen after that to muster up the mental will power to leave the small room and seek an exit beyond the flames. He took a moment to assess the world around him and did his best to channel out the fear of impending doom.

And he located a crumbled wall in the back of the building that has yet to have been discovered by any opposition.

Seizing the opportunity; X began moving towards it, but was stopped dead in his tracks by the sounds of moaning and screams of pain.

Carefully avoiding red hot debris as he found himself wondering very close to the origin point of the explosion; X saw Laurence, rolling upon the ground while screaming and clutching his left side as best he could. Crouching so that his head was below the hovering layer of smoke ; X could see the cause of Laurence's discomfort.

Laurence's entire left arm, the left side of his waist and his left leg were completely burnt. There was almost no fur on that side of his body and X could only marvel for a moment at how fantastic the pain must be.

Reaching down slowly; X grabbed Laurence by the neck of what remained of his black shirt and began to drag him along to the exit, when he was forced to stop again. Turning his head and leaving Laurence where he lay, X moved towards a new and much softer moaning. And upon locating the source, he couldn't help but stop and smile; a grin split his face from ear to ear. Laying on the ground before him, pinned underneath a large wooden beam was a semi-concussed fox, who was drifting in and out of consciousness and going from fits of pain to moments of numbness. "Nicolas Wilde… Fate is good." X spoke to no one as he crouched and used his legs more than his one good arm, he lifted the wooden beam and carefully set it aside.

Crouching down by Nick he could see the fox had gained several minor burns, but most noticeable was how the beam that had collapsed on him had clearly dislocated his right arm.

Kneeling so that one of his knees rested on the fox's chest, X used his good arm to pull hard on Nick's dislocated limb and it popped back into place. The Fox yelped for only a moment and was quickly out cold. Grabbing Nick in the same way he grabbed Laurence he began to drag the unconscious fox and stopped to grab the injured jaguar as well. Gripping and tugging on Laurence with his injured shoulder sent a shock of pain through the mixed creature as the bullets buried in him ground against bone and he was forced to breathe deeply and suppress a loud laugh. While walking out and dragging the two animals behind him he made a mental note to give the pain right back to his captives.

It was as though X was in a totally different universe; dragging off the two animals into the forest and the calm of the night as the warehouse crumbled down upon itself. And Laurence's empire came to an abrupt end.

Judy awoke in a bed the following day. Her entire body ached.

Unable to open her eyes for a moment she let the sound and smell of her surroundings flood into her system and she knew exactly where she was, the Zootopia Central Hospital. Through the haze of her now opening eyes she could see a figure stand from a sitting place in the right corner of the room and walk towards her, blinking a couple of times helped clear up her vision and she could see clearly now that it was Sharp Sue.

"Damn Hopps… You have got to be the luckiest animal I have ever met." Sue stated while sitting gently on the end of the bed. And Judy was shocked at how quickly she her pain was subsiding now that she was fully awake. Her energetic bunny legs suddenly felt full of energy and her feet were twitching under the covers. Looking curiously at the all too quickly healing bunny, Sue added "To take the full blast of an explosion that brought the entire warehouse down, without any signs of damage to yourself… And you're already awake and well. Something happened in there Judy." The little bunny knew the lioness was being serious, because Sue rarely ever used something as personal as first names with her fellow officers.

"I… I don't know…" Judy replied while sitting up in her bed, her voice as uncertain as Sue's as she found herself now feeling no pain at all. "I mean let's not beat around the bush." The bunny looked the lioness right in the eyes as she concluded, "I should be dead." Judy could see that Sue had her doubts and given the circumstances of the theft Judy performed and the terrible outcome of the rescue operation she did not blame the sharp shooter. Feeling her long ears twitch as she thought of what to say next Judy noticed the heavy weight on her one ear and found the branding ring still attached. Seeing it opened a void in her soul that she had never felt before and immediately a million thoughts and questions ran into her head.

Trying to show a lack of interest but clearly revealing concern she asked, "Nick?"

Sue hung her head low and shook it slowly. "No sign of him, alive or…" the lioness let her words trail off, everyone on the force had a rough idea of the banter-fill relationship that was very slowly blooming between the fox and the bunny. To some it was disgusting, the thought of two animals of different species mixing, and to others it was cute in the most humorous way, watching them carefully dance around their obvious affection for each other. And for the most part everyone ignored it. With things in its current state, Sue really didn't want to have to break any bad news to Judy.

"And, Chief Bogo?" Judy asked again quickly changing the topic while clearing a lump in her throat. She hated Nick right now, despised him, time and time again she had been used and lied to, but she still cared.

"Both bullets were successfully removed and he is stable." Sue responded with a half-hearted smile, knowing that Judy's mind was in a totally different space, but it didn't stop her from catching a glance at the thick, metal ring in her ear. Taking a deep breath, Sharp Sue asked with a heavy heart; knowing that she would not like the answer from one of her closest friends on the force, "What happened at the warehouse?"

Without making eye contact with Sue; Judy glanced at the ring that caused her ear to bob slightly in front of her, clutching her sides with her arms and bringing her knees to her chest she began to retell the tale of the last twenty-four-ish hours.

For about two hours the bunny sat there telling her friend and colleague the events of her time as a tool and captive of Laurence and his crew. She went into deep detail on the machine and their motives and she glossed over her torture and Nick's betrayal and hidden life. Sue knew better than to pry; only asking questions on the important things, such as Laurence's motives.

"So what do you think happened? When you removed the data box from the machine that is…" Sue asked finally once Judy had wrapped up her retelling.

"I really don't know. None of the animals with the blue bands seemed to have gotten any stronger or powerful so I can only assume that I stopped it from happening. But…"

"But at the same time…" Sue interrupted her, "You have literally recovered from what should have been certain death."

Judy looked at the lioness curiously, "You don't think…"

"What? That you might have gotten the 'fix' that they were all supposed to get?" Sue responded while shifting her sitting position on the end of the bed. "If it's true what you say about the machine transferring the biological data to anything biological that was linked to the machine. How can you be sure that it did not go right into your body? I mean you did remove the date box as it hit 100 percent. The chances of it working that way are microscopic. But it's the only explanation for why you are still here."

Taking a deep breath, Judy composed herself as she began to respond to Sue's statement, but was interrupted as her ears flicked to the sound of a voice.

Softly in the background, a TV had been running and playing through its shows on a specific channel while the two animals had been speaking. Although abruptly it had been stopped for an emergency broadcast and Judy had caught the sound of Mayor Lionheart addressing the public in regards to what had transpired with a hidden warehouse being burnt down, an underground militia being foiled and the Chief of police being shot.

Judy remembered Laurence's talk of Lionheart's deception and her eyebrows furrowed as she and Sue sat there listening to the lies come out of this mammal's mouth. He stated that everything was fine, no important data had been compromised, that they were investigating the matter further and that Zootopia would return to normal within a day or two.

And while he stood there giving his speech, something caught Judy's eye, something she was sure she shouldn't and wouldn't have noticed in any other circumstance. "Did you see that?" She suddenly blurted out to Sue who stared blankly at the bunny without a clue to what she was referring. And then the broadcast ended. "Damn!" Judy shouted as she snapped her fingers while thinking of how to get confirmation on what she just saw. "That broadcast will have been streamed and uploaded to news websites right?" She asked, more so rhetorically than seeking an answer.

"Yes…" responded the lioness still confused and now getting a little irritated as Judy seemed to be rambling on to herself.

"Can I borrow your phone?" The bunny asked her friend and she was soon given what she required. Opening a news station's website she let out a sigh of satisfaction as she saw a video of Mayor Lionheart's public address that had just occurred and she started skipping through the video until she found the part she was looking for. "That's it!" She shouted and her body jerked in agreement of satisfaction and her tail end lifted from the bed for a moment. Judy had far too much energy. "Do you see it?" She asked the lioness while handing her phone back to her, on screen was a paused video shot of the mayor with outstretched hands.

Sue's eyes went wide with disbelief as she could faintly detect under the mayors right jacket sleeve, a blue band poking out; the same blue band that all the militia had worn.

"So Mayor Lionheart…" Sue started while looking at Judy with genuine horror.

"We need to leave now. It's not safe for any of us here, including the chief." And with that the bunny threw back the covers and jumped out of bed.

Judy splashed her face with water from the bathroom sink, she had gotten changed in the bathroom that was attached to her hospital room. Sue had been kind enough to bring some of Judy's clothes earlier in the event that she would wake up soon if at all and it was a thought that Judy was grateful for. Sporting black tights, a white vest and navy blue hoodie, she looked up and the ring that weighed down her ear stared at her. And in that moment a thousand thoughts and doubts ran through her head. Nick, X, lies, deceit… And that pit seemed to come back to her for a moment and bigger this time. She felt self-doubt and worthlessness as though she had never experienced it before. It came over her like waves and her fur stood on ends. All she could see when she looked at herself in the mirror was the branding, her mark as some wild and savage number among many others. Her horror was replaced by a sudden burst of rage that she had never had before and she punched the mirror hard, causing it to crack and break.

Staring at the now broken mirrors reflection made her feel more comfortable than the whole reflection, and that worried her. Because it now showed her how she felt she truly looked.

Broken.

She shyly tucked her ears into the hood of her jacket so as to hide the branding, and opened the bathroom door.

Sue had been waiting in the passage way for Judy, and seeing the bunny walk out and down the passage; she stood from a bench and quickly fell into line alongside the small animal.

"So what's the plan?" Sue asked in a hushed tone as they walked and weaved between many of the other animals making their way up and down the passage.

"We get the chief and we get out of here." Was all Judy said, letting Sue lead the way they made it to his room.

Judy was about to open the door to his room before her nose kicked up twitching and she caught a familiar smell. Raising a hand for Sue to wait, Judy hopped lightly up and grabbed onto a window frame that was high up on the door to the chief's room. Peering in she saw three tigers around the unconscious buffalo talking deeply about something. And all three of them were holding pistols, the small bunny was sure she could see the all had rifles secreted on their backs; under their jackets.

Knowing Sue for her superior aim, Judy turned around and asked her, "You wouldn't happen to have a gun on you?"

Raising an eyebrow and throwing her arms out Sue responded, "Hell Judy, we're in a hospital."

Biting her lower lip with her big bunny teeth and letting her left foot flick about in the air as she thought, an idea came to Judy.

Dropping down and walking up to Sue the bunny stated, "You're a pretty animal, and a…"

"Predator?" Interrupted the lioness, throwing her hip out and crossing her arms as she already didn't like the way this was going.

"I… was going to say tall. But in any case those animals probably know to avoid me or to attack me, you on the other hand; are a little less known to this bunch. You wouldn't mind acting a little more… Innocent, and 'distracting' those animals in there would you?"

The handle on the door wiggled for a few seconds and the three tigers from within quickly secreted their pistols. Sue fumbled into the room clumsily. "Oh, my bad." She said while giggling as she faked regaining her composure. 'Judy I am going to kill you.' She thought to herself as she went on with her act.

"Can… Can we help you?" Asked one of the three tigers curiously.

"Oh yes pleeeease!" Sue went on while walking further into the room; walking one foot in front of the other to ensure her hips swayed from side to side and she let her tail snake behind her. She had changed out of her uniform and was wearing nothing special, just some jeans and a shirt. But it beat walking into a room of criminals dressed as a cop.

Coming up to the bed and leaning over the frame she smiled at the three tigers who had quickly gone from feeling uneasy around her to all too comfortable. Her tail swished behind her as she went on, "I'm desperately looking for a friend of mine but I just can't seem to find her room." A tiger who was standing right next to her suddenly received a light flick on the face from her tail and his face split into a grin as he winked at his companions.

"Well then, what can we do for you?" The tiger asked while moving behind her and leaning forward himself with his arms over where hers were placed on the frame and his head came over her shoulder.

"Ooh." She started while giggling and removing her hands from the bed frame and running them along her thighs. "Well for starters." She said with a sudden change in tone as though she had just gone super serious, which she had.

Turning around fast, relieving him from his holstered pistol and pressing it up against his chin; she walked him back till he was against a wall and said, "You could learn some manners around ladies."

And while the two other tigers walked forward to pull Sue off of their companion, Judy burst into the room and jumped high and forward fast; kicking one of the two tigers square in the face. He then slumped on the floor; out cold. Landing in a crouch, she shot up straight with more instinct than aim and jammed two closed fists into the chin of the second tiger. He staggered back. Judy hopped up onto the metal bed frame and balanced herself as she readied for the tiger to come again, and after regaining his wits he blindly threw a punch at the bunny. Easily jumping up as fast as she could she turned in the air so her feet pressed against the ceiling and pushed down hard; landing elbow first into the head of the tiger who then knocked the front of his head on the bed frame. The clank of bone on metal actually made Judy cringe for him as she landed deftly. Hopefully for his sake her elbow was enough to knock him out before he felt that blow. Either way, she nodded in approval as he slumped at the foot of the bed.

The restricted tiger began to beg and plea from where he was held in place, just to be smacked in the temple with the butt of his own gun and he too fell to the ground unconscious.

"Never again Hopps." Stated Sue while glaring down at the bunny.

Judy who was removing all of the unessential medical equipment from Chief Bogo responded slyly, "Oh come on, don't act like you didn't enjoy the attention while it lasted."

Grumbling; Sue stepped forward and helped Judy. Clearing the room was one thing, but getting the Chief out of this hospital was going to be an entirely different mission.

Judy walked with haste, behind her followed Sue who was pushing their unconscious chief on his hospital bed. Judy had to fight hard to ignore all the questioning looks that the two civilian looking animals were receiving as they hurried along with a hospital patient.

Seeing an elevator open; Judy reached back and grabbed the bed frame and started to run forward, thus prompting for Sue to pick up her pace as well. Slipping past a queue of waiting animals who had been waiting for who knows how long; Judy cringed as she looked at all their disgusted faces as the elevator door closed behind her and sue with Chief Bogo on the bed. "Sorry." She whispered as the elevator began its decent to the ground floor.

Racing back out of the elevator as soon as it hit ground level, they headed straight for where the medical vehicles were parked. A Hippo Doctor saw caught sight of their suspicious activity and called for them to halt, but there was no stopping them now. They headed right passed reception and out to the front parking where they found a series of ambulances waiting.

Hopping up and opening the driver's door; Judy saw keys sitting in the ignition and reached under the chair to unlatch the back door. Working her way through the back of the vehicle she soon found herself opening the rear door and sliding out a ramp for Sue to load Chief Bogo into the ambulance. The Hippo Doctor had just then burst out through the front of the hospital and was shouting for them to stop. Judy didn't have time for this. Hopping down from the vehicle as Sue shut the back door and ran around to the driver's seat, Judy pulled out a pistol that she had relieved one of the tigers of and aimed it at the Hippo. "Stay back Doc!" She shouted. And the Hippo froze where he stood and slowly raised his hands. Realising who she was he asked nervously, "Officer Hopps?"

Bullet fire rang through the air, a single shot that made Judy jump where she stood. The Hippo's white coat flooded with red around his chest and his eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed right in front of her. Dead.

Judy went pale with horror for a moment thinking that she had fired by accident, but quickly snapped out of it as the sound of another shot came and she jumped hard to her right as she saw a bullet strike the ground next to her on her left. Turning around she saw another two tigers come running towards them from a distance with guns at the ready. "Let's go Hopps!" Sue shouted from the driver's seat of the ambulance.

Judy was stuck staring at the dead doctor for only a moment before she heard Sue shout, "Now!" And she scrambled to her feet and hopped in the vehicle.

Sue turned the ambulance hard and drove in an opposite direction to that of those they were being shot at by.

Judy stared out of the front of the ambulance with a vacant stare as she thought to herself. 'Yes, we have gotten away. But at what costs…'

A VERY BIG THANKS TO:

DIRTKID123

TIMECE02

DANNY-171984

RAINBOW USERNAME

ZENITH88

FOR YOUR AWESOME REVIEWS AND THANKS TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO IS STILL FOLLOWING AND FAVORITING THIS... Y'ALL AMAZING!

NEXT CHAPTER WILL SWITCH OVER TO NICK FOR THE MOST PART. SO GET STOKED FOR THAT! AND I WILL SEE YOU ALL ON THE FLIP SIDE...

With love and happiness

Un4gottenSOUL