Karma and Serendipity looked through an astral window. Tension seemed to pass over both of their faces as Judy zipped through Downtown Zootopia, ticketing every car she found violating its parking.
With a vehicle's screech, Judy was alerted to the presence of Nick, who nearly got hit by a truck.
"Goodness, how tightly wound these webs of fate are," Karma narrowed an eye skeptically, tossing Serendipity a brief look. "And how 'fortunate' that your exemplar didn't become a hood ornament."
Serendipity gave a guilty smile and a large shrug. "He's just lucky I guess. ...Sometimes."
"And so they will meet," Karma said with a mysterious zest in her voice as she gazed at the two. The gray bunny had just glimpsed the red fox moving about suspiciously toward an ice cream shop, and decided to follow him. "On Judy's first day on the job, no less."
"Well, uh," Serendipity wrung her paws. "Listen, I didn't have anything to do with it. Judy was racing around ticketing every car she could find to prove herself... and Nick's out on the streets every day, workin' his hustles... so I guess they were bound to meet eventually?"
"They're not even soulbound..." Karma looked at Judy trying to locate Nick in the shop. "...Yet, I suppose they are both exemplars. Judy's somewhat misplaced predisposition to be suspicious about fox activities has driven her to tail this fox."
"In her defense, Nick is being sneaky," Serendipity giggled. "He's pulling the ol' 'aw, my son who thinks he's an elephant wants a big elephant-sized pop' scam."
"Judy fell for it?" Karma huffed in amusement. "Amazing... she can be so naive."
"She called him 'articulate'? Ouch," Serendipity winced. "I mean, I know Gideon Grey wasn't 'zactly the best on words, but..."
"Judy's out twenty bucks, so she already got hers," Karma laughed as Nick and Judy separated from each other. "Well! That was fairly harmless." Karma turned tail and began to walk away from Serendipity.
"Karma, do you think Judy deserves to become a 'real cop'?" Serendipity asked Karma. The latter turned her head slowly back toward the bunny Celestial.
"Her goal is noble and her ambition is selfless enough," Karma considered, looking at the ground. "She doesn't want to become a hero... she doesn't want to become an inspiration, she just wants to serve and protect and 'make the world better'. An admirable endeavor... but the fact remains that the Zootopia Police is dominated by large animals... and Judy's strong personality will clash with theirs if she doesn't fall in line."
Serendipity blinked and mulled this over as Karma left.
As Karma approached her Territory, she blinked in surprise as she saw Serendipity zoom by her.
"Did you forget something, Serendipity?" Karma asked with dry amusement.
"Judy found Nick again!" Serendipity yelped frantically, quickly opening an astral window looking out on Sahara Square. "Look! He and Finnick don't know that Judy is watching them pull their Pawpsicle scam!"
"Huh..." Karma grimaced. "Them meeting together again and so quickly is certainly unexpected, yet isn't it about time Nick's circle came around for all of his little schemes?"
"Isn't it crazy?" Serendipity looked halfway between excited and worried. "I mean- I mean... you and I aren't doing anything, and yet..."
"Fortune and justice seem to flow between them," Karma narrowed her eyes, shaking her head subtly. "It's perplexing; as if the two forces catalyze just by their proximity."
"Judy's pretty lucky that she hasn't been noticed yet by Nick," Serendipity observed as Nick traveled from biome to biome as part of his Pawpsicle hustle.
The two waited with bated breath for Judy to approach Nick after she got all the visual evidence she needed. The bunny approached Nick and confronted him about his little scheme.
"Ugh, here we go," Karma rolled her eyes, smirking. "Bright-eyed, fresh on the force bunny meets seasoned semi-criminal. I wonder how this is going to go."
"He's got all his documentation, lucky for him," Serendipity seemed proud, her hands on her hips as she floated there. "I mean, he has been doing this for a long time."
Karma's jaw dropped as Nick delivered a scathing verbal assault upon Judy. The fox seemed to pull Judy's backstory from thin air and attack her with it, denigrating her and her dreams.
"Whoa..." Serendipity looked awed. "Sorry, Karma. Nick can be kind of a butt sometimes."
"I'd like to believe he was simply projecting his own crushed dreams onto Judy," Karma said distractedly, "but did you see that? He brought around the reality of Judy's situation to her fantasy; he completed a circle. That's pretty unsettling..."
"Mm-maybe you're right, Karma," Serendipity nibbled at her paw. "It's kind of spooky that they can tap into the concept that opposes their 'patrons' so easily."
"Well, after that barrage, I wouldn't think we have to worry about them meeting again," Karma raised an eyebrow.
"But..." Serendipity shook her head. "Nick does have a tenuous connection to that whole business with the predators going savage..."
"Please..." Karma huffed. "Do you know how many coincidences would have to line up for Judy to even get a shot at investigating that case? She's a meter maid. I don't think there's anything to worry about."
"Hey uh, Karma," Serendipity lowered her eyelids. "You have heard of this thing called 'dramatic irony', right? By saying that you basically invite all of those precise things to occur, just to prove you wrong."
"I am aware," Karma smirked. "But oftentimes that's just you messing with people. Since you know what could be at stake, I'm not concerned with you causing trouble in this case."
"I mean, if you say so," Serendipity shrugged, beginning to float off.
"Try to control yourself, Serendipity," Karma chuckled. "And see you later."
The very next day, Karma heard a commotion coming from a central area in the Celestial Realm, where a lot of Celestials had come to meet and were looking through a very large astral window.
"Go! Go after him!" Fervor shook his clawed fist, fire blazing from it. "That's the stuff, bunny! Don't let him get away! Hey, it's gettin' good now!"
Karma hurried to look into the window. She saw Judy chasing a petty thief. "Wh-what's going on here?"
"Judy has a chance to prove herself!" Fortitude boomed with conviction. "She's chasing a thief; doin' real cop stuff!"
"For Order's sake, it's only been a day!" Karma's magenta eyes darted over the wide view of Zootopia as she tried to get her bearings. "What's she... wait a minute, those plants that the thief has stolen... Serendipity!"
The bunny appeared with a poof in front of everyone, fluttering between colors rapidly as she was summoned from Karma's bellow. "What!? Yes!? I didn't do it!"
"Oh no, oh no!" Industry clamored. Industry was the mouse Order Celestial of structure, both of personnel and of buildings. "They're headed right for Little Rodentia! I can see property damage in the hundred-thousands! Maybe even millions!"
Karma swallowed nervously. "That fool bunny has become so blinded by her sense of justice that she's barely aware of what she's doing! She's like a ticking time bomb!"
"Definitely a 'bomb' when it comes to Little Rodentia!" Industry fretted, manifesting another body near Karma and rubbing at his temples. Both bodies shrieked as the weasel criminal jumped off the roofs of the rodent buildings, which nearly caused them to fall over. "There's no way those buildings' foundations have been properly constructed! This is going to be a disaster!"
"Judy's doing it!" Fortitude observed, watching Judy's physical struggle with interest. "She prevented the buildings from being damaged!"
"Now they're messing around on the rodent train line!?" Industry shouted, forming a third body near the first so the original mouse could collapse into his own arms.
"Aaand now there's a bouncing donut of doom," Serendipity blinked incredulously. "This is starting to seem like one of Phantasm's kookier stories."
Karma drew in a sharp breath as Judy's quick reaction barely spared the life of a shrieking shrew. "This... this has... this has all been way too close!"
"I'm amazed..." all three bodies of Industry said before the two extra ones vanished. "...There's been no disaster, little destruction. Plenty of panic... but all told... yeah, that was extremely fortunate..."
All four Celestial heads turned to look suspiciously at the fifth one, which belonged to Serendipity.
"Hey hey, don't look at me!" Serendipity winced, holding her paws up defensively. "I didn't do a thing! I swear!"
"Serendipity," Karma huffed. "This is all way too coincidental to be sheer chance."
"Maybe it's Nick?" Serendipity shrugged grandiosely, her colors growing pale of out fright. "I mean, he's still in the same... rough-ish area as Judy at the moment... a bit farther away..."
The Celestials all grew quiet as Judy was very nearly fired from her job, but at the last moment an otter burst in and through a contrived set of circumstances, Judy's job was saved. She was placed on a missing mammal case.
"Okay, can we all hold on a second?" Karma sighed in disdain, thrusting her muzzle in the direction of the astral window. "Look at this. The perpetrator of the savage conspiracy, the substance that makes mammals go savage, a secondary victim of the plot, and my exemplar... are all in the same room together! Does this only bother me!?"
"Uh... ummh..." Serendipity began to drip cyan-colored firework stars like sweat. "I know this seems... like, completely random... but... ngh..." Serendipity suddenly yelped. "Oh friggin' Chaos... the case file for Mr. Otterton's last known appearance has a bit of Nick on it!"
"Are you kidding me!?" Karma screamed.
"Chaos alive, this is even better than a soap opera!" Fervor chuckled. "I need me some astral popcorn!"
Things seemed to settle down as everyone left the police chief's office.
"Wait a minute, is Judy trying to get Nick's tax records?" Fervor's face scrunched in confusion, his fire going out with a hiss. He flicked a claw up dismissively, turning around. "Okay, I'm out. Have Acceleration find me if anything interesting happens." Fervor alighted and flew away, leaving Fortitude to stand there blinking.
"What could she be doing?" Fortitude wondered with narrowed eyes.
"I think she's trying to get something on Nick," Karma guessed. "She feels it unjust that Nick can continue to brazenly 'almost' break the law and is trying to get him over a technicality."
"Hey! That's a 'Karma-y' thing to do..." Serendipity squeaked in a quiet voice.
"If they meet for the third time..." Karma winced. "And it looks like they will... that's the completion, the binding. The two will have their fates tied together."
"Honestly, Karma?" Fortitude huffed. "Of all Celestial beliefs, that one's probably the most mumbo-jumbo of them all."
"You see if I'm wrong, Fortitude," Karma said lowly in warning. "I'm beginning to believe that this... this mixing of exemplars will prove to be a very, very significant event in Zootopia's history."
Karma began to walk away. Serendipity aimlessly followed her, nervously looking back at the astral window as Fortitude and Industry peered into it.
"Karma...?" Serendipity quietly called after the retreating Celestial.
"Mm?" Karma tilted her head in the bunny's direction.
"I'm getting scared," Serendipity winced. "Can I... would it be okay if I came over to your Territory tonight?"
"If you wish," Karma nodded.
"I just..." Serendipity drew in a shaky breath. "My one action was the idea of the Mammal Inclusion Initiative just to give Judy the chance to become a police officer. Now all this has come of it?" Her flight trajectory was wobbly as she nearly bumped into Karma. The wolf-like Celestial paused to look at her. "I knew Chaos theory was powerful, but... I didn't expect all this."
Karma felt like telling her some form of "I told you so", but stilled her tongue.
"...I don't want to disappear, Karma..." Serendipity said with a trembling voice.
"Nor do I want you to," Karma said gently. She leaned out with her neck and softly nudged the floating bunny's midsection with her nose. "At the end of the day, these mortals are responsible for their own actions, not you."
"Yh-you sure?" Serendipity blinked, squirming from being nudged.
"I feel like Calamity must have directly interfered with Surrender's exemplar in the past," Karma surmised. "Perhaps that is the only line we may not cross. It's that inborn instinct we all have come to respect and fear. It must have come from somewhere."
"Hoo..." Serendipity wiped some colorful firework stars from her forehead. "That... makes me feel a little better."
"Yes?" Karma smiled. "You still want to stay over at my Territory this evening?"
Serendipity brightened a few shades, both literally and figuratively, and she managed a giggle. "Well, duh."