Nick found himself alone in a peaceful island setting. He felt at peace, and heard the calm din of the waves crashing against a beach.
Walking toward the beach, he realized he was unclothed. Placing a hand to his forehead, he looked out upon the horizon. There was a sumptuous sunset.
The ocean was vast, and it seemed to beckon him, though he stopped at the water's lapping edge. He whistled, impressed, folding his arms.
"Lovely, isn't it?" A pleasant, though strong female voice beckoned him. Looking off to his left, he saw a beautiful female fox. Her fur was the very rare "gold platinum" pattern, a flush of white marked with a lot of light, creamy orange. Her eyes were an enchanting soft magenta. She was also lacking clothing.
"This isn't one of those sexy dreams, is it?" Nick quipped instantly after giving the lovely fox a once-over.
"It better not be," the fox returned a pleasant smile. She pointed a finger at him with a narrowed eye. "You belong to a bunny."
"Well, 'belong' is a bit of a strong word, isn't it?" Nick chuckled, holding his hands behind his head.
"Is it, though?" The fox asked. "After all you've done for her? All you've pledged to her?"
"Yeesh," Nick grumbled, holding up his paws. "My dreams usually aren't so philosophical. I get a lot of them where I'm super behind on my school courses or where my teeth fall out." He tested his teeth with a finger at the thought. "But being confronted by a nude golden platinum fox? I think this is a new one."
"That you remember, anyway," the vixen looked out to the ocean. "What does the ocean mean to you?"
"I don't know," Nick shook his head. The vixen looked to him curiously. "I seriously don't. It's the unknown. Some strange stuff lives down there. I've never... I've never been to the ocean. All my life. That's for fishermammals, for leisure, for eh-" Nick interrupted himself and trailed off, looking pensive.
"Go on?" The fox leaned her head forward, her eyes darting toward the red fox.
"For explorers..." Nick said distantly.
"This new life you've chosen," the fox said, "it's an exploration, in a way."
"Mm, maybe that's why I'm here," Nick nodded and stretched. "Just like the ocean... I don't exactly know what I want out of it."
"Do you feel that the universe has given you what you deserve, Nick?" The vixen looked out toward the water. She walked toward it and splashed at the water with her paw as she crouched down.
"What I- what I deserve?" Nick had to laugh.
The vixen turned around and stood straight up, her ankles in the water. "Do you think you deserved a chance like the one Judy gave you?"
Nick swallowed. "I sure don't think I earned it."
"What makes you say that?" The white and orange fox's eyes narrowed.
"Even with all the hardships I've been through..." Nick scanned the horizon, past the white fox, "...no. I wasn't working hard enough to earn the chance I was given. ...That's what it was, a chance." Nick balled up a fist, then let it slowly release. "I even walked out on that chance, but it came back to me. She came back."
"The lucky little bunny?" The vixen smiled.
Nick huffed in amusement. "That 'little bunny' is wild. It seems like she was tossed into Zootopia to disrupt it as much as help it."
"Well, a disruption did put her there," the female fox giggled.
"...Who are you, anyway?" Nick narrowed his eyes.
"Merely a representation of justice," the fox said. She looked out toward the horizon. "Nick, do you believe in a higher power?"
"Shoo... what a loaded question," Nick folded his arms and shrugged. "What if I say no? Are you gonna go all glowy-eyed and 'how dare you, mortal!? I am the Goddess Karma herself, and I shall smite you for your hubris! Even to your next three lives, I shall haunt you!"
"Ew, is that how people think I sound?" The fox succumbed to a fit of laughter, doubling over and collapsing, ending up sitting in the water.
"You're Karma...?" Nick looked incredulous. "You're Karma."
Karma looked up at him from the water. "Remember, this is just a dream you're having. It's an early dream too... right after you fell asleep. So it'll be short, and the chances that you'll remember it are close to nil. ...Speak your mind, Nick."
"My mother believes in God," Nick looked off to the side. "You know, the Lamb and Lion and all of that. I can't say- I can't say I was very religious. Especially with what happened to Dad and the whole- the whole bit where my wide-eyed wonder got shattered right in front of me."
"Mm..." Karma wiggled her feet in the water. "How could a loving deity ignore the plight of this poor young fox? How could they allow such suffering to go on in the world?"
"Yeah, I wrote religion off," Nick said, trying not to look at Karma. "After I met Judy, though... I began to wonder."
"She put the fear of God back into you?" Karma asked lightly.
"The fear of bunny, at least," Nick had to chuckle. "No... with all the crazy stuff that happened, and with what we survived... it almost seems like someone somewhere was looking out for us, you know? Judy and me."
"I guess it would seem that way..." Karma rose again, her fur all wet.
"So that was you?" Nick blinked. "With how important and grave all the things that happened to Zootopia were in recent times... you had a paw in it?"
"Would you believe me if I told you I didn't?" Karma shrugged. "All of this is the fault of just one bunny. The one bunny that uttered those three little words."
"Felony tax evasion?" Nick grunted in a crestfallen voice.
"Hmhmhm... well that's your bunny that changed your life with those words," Karma held a paw out, then raised it skyward. "I'm talking about the bunny who whispered 'Mammal Inclusion Initiative' into the ear of an approval-hungry mayor lion."
Nick followed the paw of Karma as it raised to the sky. Inky purples and indigos were taking over the sky, and she pointed at a vaguely-familiar constellation.
Karma drew in the sky, and somehow her claw connected a few stars. She sounded out the syllables to the word: "Serendipity".
The constellation connected, it looked vaguely like a circle with two large ears that didn't quite meet back at the base.
"Serendipity, eh?" Nick shook his head. "That bunny deity?"
"One of them," Karma winked, sketching in a cartoonish face into the constellation and dusting it with shooting stars. "The cutest one."
"Ooh, I've heard bunnies don't like it when you call them that," Nick held a finger up.
"Well, with bunnies, you never know..." Karma shrugged, her tail waving trails in the water.
"So... why all this then, Karma?" Nick swept his hand over the vista. "Why all the symbolism and fantastic sights? What use is it if I'm just going to forget it?"
Karma actually looked taken aback. Slowly, she looked down, then smiled and looked back up. "Even if it is forgotten in a large sense, some part of it will stay with you in your subconscious. This is... this is I think what it means to be a Celestial. ...We're meant to encourage you, even if we're forgotten. Even if we've largely vanished from the physical world."
"A Celestial, huh?" Nick shrugged. "That's a pretty old religion, isn't it? The worshipers of the Celestials?"
"...I should have known you were special from the moment you came from the source," Karma smiled fondly at him. "Your soul did follow Serendipity and me after all." She sighed. "Well Nick, it's been fun, but I think I should go and leave you to the rest of your nocturnal fantasy. Hopefully Phantasm will send you some nice ones."
"Um, okay," Nick looked over the pretty vixen one more time. "What- what's this all about, Karma? ...Is there anything you'd like me to do?"
Karma turned to walk deeper into the ocean. Her form began to glow magenta, but before her features became indistinct, she turned her head and winked at him.
"Surprise me."
Karma's form broke up into glowing magenta stars that scattered. Nick walked a few steps after them, but they were caught up by the wind and swooped into the sky, where the magenta stars formed a constellation of a vaguely fox-shaped head with a tail swept around it right next to Serendipity's constellation.
Staring up at his dreamscape night sky, Nick got an unusual sense that the stars were exactly where they belonged.