It felt familiar, Alice thought to herself. It amused her, that one of her first works as a guardian was to...

"Hey, keep up!" Judy Hopps called back at her.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Alice said, quickening her footsteps. Mickey was setting up a stellar portal for them to visit Judy's home realm of Zootopia, and it really wouldn't do to be late.

Mickey nodded to the both of them as they arrived. "Are you two ready?" he asked with his customary cheerful voice. "Are you sure about the hat, Alice?"

"She'll be fine," Judy said. "They're not actually rabbit ears, after all." She paused. "Are they?"

Alice giggled, "No, they're not. Just a memory of a few old friends."
"Oh boy," Mickey said, "Well, if they're not a problem, head on in!"

"Thanks, Mickey," Judy said, leaping through the portal.

Alice calmly nodded her thanks, and stepped through after the rabbit.

Zootopia was a colorful, busy place. It called to mind London, if painted with the colors of Wonderland. But Judy was already racing ahead of her, and it was all Alice could do to try to keep up. "I haven't been back here in quite a while. Mickey has kept me busy," Judy explained. "But I got a call from Officer Clawhauser about my partner, and my best friend. She crossed the street at the appropriate time, leading Alice to an apartment building. Judy opened the door into a lobby, consulted a list of residents, and pressed a button.

"Nick Wilde?" Alice asked.

Judy nodded.

A few seconds later, a deep gruff voice came from the speaker, interspersed with crackles to make it only slightly comprehensible to Alice. Judy apparently understood it, however, "It's Judy." Another burst of static, and a loud buzzing noise emitted from the speaker. Judy took the cue to open the glass door that separated them from the rest of the building.

"Have you ever seen an elevator before?" Judy asked, punching a button set into a metal plate.

"I have," Alice confirmed. "One of the first things Mickey had me do upon my recruitment was work with Mr. Scrooge McDuck over all the technological aspects of being a guardian."

"Oh, that's good," Judy said. "I wasn't sure how I was going to explain it."

"Maybe you could explain the music instead?" Alice asked.

"Nobody can explain elevator music," Judy said, laughing.

A ding heralded the arrival, as Judy led the way down the hallway to an open door. Alice paused at the threshold, ever since her encounter with stellar magic, she'd been made acutely aware of the presence of the dreams of others. In this apartment was someone having a rather powerful dream.

Curious.

In the room, looking slightly cramped, was a large buffalo, standing on its back legs, wearing a very similar uniform to Judy's. He gave a very brief smile as Judy entered the room. "Welcome back, Officer Hops," he said. "Good to see you," he glanced towards a back room of the apartment. "And guest," he said even more gruffly at Alice.

"This is Alice," Judy introduced her, "What are you doing here, Chief?"

The Chief looked from Judy to Alice and back to Judy. "Officer Wilde is one of us. Someone's been standing on duty here since he went comatose, in case he's been poisoned and someone comes back to finish the job. But... well, here, I'll let the doctor tell you."

The Chief motioned them into a comfortable looking bedroom, albeit one too small for him. A bipedal Lynx dressed in white clothing sat on a stool, monitoring some impressive technological, beeping, medical equipment that Alice didn't recognize.

On the bed itself was brown furred fox, still dressed in a police uniform, much like the buffalo's. His eyes were closed, and his breathing seemed deep, but rapid, almost as if he was gasping.

Curiouser.

Her attention returned to the conversation between the Zootopians.

"When the doctor didn't recognize what was happening, I thought it might come from the spooky side of the street," the Chief made a disgusted looking face. "So I contacted you, as Zootopia's liason with Mickey's guardians."
"And as you said he was comatose, Mickey sent along Alice. Mickey calls her a 'Dream Weaver'," Judy explained. "What do you think, Alice?"

"I think I can help him," Alice said. "He is absolutely caught in some kind of dream, perhaps an actual nightmare. I think he needs help waking up."

The chief rolled his eyes, but nodded at her. "Do what you can." He paused. "Please."

"Can I join you?" Judy asked.

"Dreams are strange places, especially other people's dre..."
"Nick saved my job on my first assignment," Judy said, insistently. "He's more than my friend, he's my partner."

There was something so desperate in that statement that Alice reconsidered. "If you're willing to stay close to me, then we can do it together. Just promise me you won't run off ahead of me."

"I promise," Judy told her, and it felt sincere.

"Okay," Alice said, "Let's just sit down over here, and close your eyes please."

It wasn't casting a spell, like Belle or Mickey would have done. It was just feeling for the right... frequency, as it were, and then stepping into it.

Alice was never quite sure what she'd see when she looked into someone else's dream. In this case, it struck her as weird, as it appeared initially like she was still sitting in Nick's apartment. But it was quickly apparent that it was empty, except for Judy sitting beside her, the Chief and the doctor lynx was no longer there. She took that back, she could still see Nick, laying comatose in the bed, confirming it was his dream.

The real difference, however, was that everything seemed gray, and washed out. It was almost the inverse of what her dreams had done to London. What kind of dream was this. She reached over and tapped the rabbit sitting next to her. "We're here," she said.

"Where's here?" Judy asked. "Nick's... oh..." She looked around, taking in her surroundings. "Wait... do you hear that?" Judy asked, she stood, hurrying over to the window. "Fractured!"

"Fractured?" Alice thought, feeling her heart start to sink. Was she destined to be forever cleaning up the messes of her fractured counterpart? "There shouldn't be fractured here, there's no fractured mirror in a dream." She stood, walking over to the window to see for herself. But, there it was, groups of fractured goons in the street.

"There's someone fighting with them," Judy said, pointing down the street. "We should go to help her."

It made sense, any activity in a dream would most likely be centered on the dreamer. "Yes, we should," Alice told her. She let Judy lead her back the way they'd come to the street. Once outside, it looked even more bleak and torn.

"We don't need to engage every fractured we come across," Alice told Judy quietly. "Not if you want to reach whoever it is that's fighting down there," she added when Judy looked about to protest. Judy looked a bit put out, but nodded. They crept towards to where they'd seen the combat, past a fractured Oogie-Boogie and a few goons armed with bows.

"There. It's..." Judy stopped... "Nick?"

"His dream-self," Alice confirmed. She conjured her wonderland wand as Judy cracked her knuckles, and both headed to support the overwhelmed fox.

Nick was armed with what looked like a pair of police batons, slapping them together to make a loud wooden thunk, then dashed toward a fractured Cruella, dodging under a blast from her energy weapon. His one-two strike didn't cause the fracture to crack, but it didn't look like she took it that well. That wasn't the only enemy he faced, however.

"Judy?" he asked, shocked, as carrots rained down on a large, armored, fractured goon, locking it in place. "What are you doing here? I mean... I'm glad to see you!"

"Fractured first, catch up later," Judy called, throwing explosive carrots toward a fractured Captain Hook, and catching a wand toting goon in the crossfire.

After the last of the fractured immediately around them had been reduced to crystal splinters, Alice produced a table of refreshments while Judy and Nick caught their breath.

"Where did that come from," Nick asked, amazed.

"Wonderland," Alice said, curtsying, and beginning to pour tea. "All dreams are connected to Wonderland," she explained. "Even yours."

"Even mi- but this isn't a dream," Nick said, though he didn't sound sure of himself.

"It is," Judy said, "You're really lying in comatose in your apartment."

"Does..." Nick began, sounding even less sure, "does this mean you're not really here, either?"

"No," Alice said, passing him a crumpet and a cup of tea. "We're here. Your police chief contacted Mickey when you went into the coma. So he asked me to find you in your dreams. Judy came to show me the way."

"You came for me?" he said, looking at Judy.

"Of course I did. You're still my partner, Nick. But people are worried about you, you need to wake up. All of ZPD is worried about you."

"If this is a dream," Nick said, "How do I... uh... wake up?"

"We bring you to back to your sleeping real self," Alice said. "Honestly, this shouldn't be..."

The stuttering roar of a fractured Scar alerted them that another wave of fractured was about to crash down upon them. "Do you know where that is?" Nick shouted.

"Yes! Your apartment!" Judy yelled, this way.

While it was a bit of a slog as fractured upon fractured tried to prevent them from reaching the apartment, Alice never felt herself in real danger. Even the fractured Zurg that had set up a turret position right in front of the door felt less deadly than it could have been.

But it was the being that met them in the lobby, a tall thin figure, wearing a long purple cloak decorated with skulls that made Alice shiver. This was a real person. She had no idea who he was, either. He simply looked at Nick, as if disappointed, snapped his fingers, and vanished from the dream.

"Was that someone from Zootopia?" Alice asked.

"No... I think it looked human," Judy said.

"I think... I recognize that person," Nick said. "But I have no idea from where."

The elevator never actually arrived back in the lobby, so they took the stairs back up. "Will I remember any of this?" Nick asked, as he opened the door to his apartment.

"Maybe. Dreams are strange places, you know. Sometimes you remember them, and sometimes you do not. But now, it is time to wake up."

Nick opened the door. "Thank you for rescuing me," he said, as the dream dissolved around them.

Alice opened her eyes, somewhat disoriented, as she always did when returning from a dreamscape. Even before she reclaimed her bearings, she was amused to see the now awake fox hanging around the body of the very surprised looking bunny.

"Carrots! You're here! You really are here!"

"Officer Wilde," the captain said, "A little decorum, if you please." But he spoke in a much smoother voice than he was using before. "It is good to see you return from the land of nod, though."

"Oh, uh, heh heh," Nick said, releasing Judy and standing up. "Thanks, Chief Bogo."

"Do you know what happened to you?" the chief asked.

"The last thing I remember, we were out celebrating Clawhauser's birthday. Someone – I don't remember who – asked me how I was handling things since Judy had been assigned as liaison. I admitted I missed her, and wasn't used to flying solo. Then someone else asked if I really wanted to join her in fighting the fractured. I said yes... and someone shook my paw."

"That's all you remember?" Chief Bogo said, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"We'd been drinking," Nick said apologetically, "and more than just carrot juice."

The buffalo shook his head. "Oh well. I'm going to step out and call the station, tell everyone you're awake. They'll be glad to hear you're back with us." He nodded to the three of them, then headed out to the hallway.

"Did you really get stuck in a coma because... you missed me?" Judy asked.

"I think I did," Nick said. "I mean... I miss having you around, Carrots. Without you, I'm probably still some two-bit con artist. Without me, you might still be a meter maid... probably a supervisor, but... still."

Judy's ears slowly drooped. "I do miss you, sly fox." She turned to Alice, "Why don't you let Mickey know I'll be taking some time off to stay in Zootopia for a while. I don't think I realized I'd been gone this long. And Alice... thank you. Thank you very much."

"Was this Maleficent?" Mickey asked her, after she'd returned to the stellar castle.

"No," Alice replied, thoughtful. "I think it was too subtle for Maleficent. And I don't think we've seen the last of this person... whoever it is."

(An author's note: I'm horrible at writing fight scenes. Just imagine you've played a few encounters in the actual game...

And thanks for reading)