"I don't know how we'll manage it, but I'm sure we'll find a way."

"I certainly hope so."

"I can't wait! I can't wait!"

"Whoa, there, Nicky. Calm down for just a second, would you? Geez, you have so much energy!"

"Calm down? No!" he said, bouncing up and down.

"And why not? You're going to wear yourself out, and I'm getting dizzy just watching you."

"I get to escape! I get to run away from this city! I get to skip a few decades, and who wouldn't be excited about that?"

"Do you really know what you're getting yourself into? I mean, it's not as if you'll return to this utopian city. 2019 Zootopia has been burnt to the ground, and there's a crazy sheep on the rampage."

"I know that, and as you likely already know, I have a knack for getting out of trouble rather quickly."

"Right, but you do realize that we'll be ripping the timeline here? What if you get hurt? I don't know if that'll affect the older version of you."

"For everyone's sake, I sure hope not," Nick said. "I want to live my life, not have it cut short because of someone's foolishness."

"Here's a test," Jack said. "Marian, can you find a pin?"

"What for?"

"I'd like little Nick to prick his paw. If the older Nick doesn't feel it, well then, we know that they're not tied to each other."

"I hate pointy things. Don't make me, please."

Marian found a pin, and handed it to Jack.

"Nick, this is really important. Please, just hold out your paw."

"But I don't want to," he whined.

"Fine, then. I won't make you. But be warned, if you get hurt, it could affect the future." Then he turned to me and whispered, "Distract him, please."

"Can do," I whispered back. "Hey, Nick, what's your favorite movie?"

"Back To The Fur- Yow! I told you, don't do that!"

"I'm sorry, buddy, but it was important. I swear on my life that I won't do it again," Jack said.

"You swear?" he asked, looking at Jack and I with slit eyes, arms crossed over his chest. "If this is a trick, you'll regret it."

"I think I'm starting to see where Luke gets his fierceness from. No, it's not a trick. Nick, did you feel that?"

"Not a thing," he replied. "Well, that's a relief, I suppose. If he gets hurt, then I won't."

"Well, it's not a relief to me!" little Nick cried. "You lied to me and you stuck a pin in my paw! You're worse than a fox!"

Jack recoiled, shock evident on his face. "Whoa there, little guy. Who are you calling worse than a fox?"

"You!"

"Calm down, Nicky," John said. "You do realize how serious of an insult that is, right?"

"I do, and I don't care!"

"Look, I hate liars too, but I'm going to have to side with this rabbit-"

"Jack."

"-Jack here. It you were to get hurt, that could rip time apart. That would very likely end the world. That's not something you want, right? The world ending because a selfish kit didn't want to see whether or not his actions would have an effect on the future? You realize that you were just talking to your adult self, right? How old are you, Nick? The older Nick, I mean."

"Thirty-five. That's twenty-eight more than you, Nicky."

"You're almost as old as Dad is!"

"I know," John said, "which is why, my son, that you should listen to Jack here. And, as I've said to you time and time again, take your own advice, so quit interrupting and start listening. Got it?"

"Yes, Dad," little Nick said, his ears flattened against his head. "Sorry."

"It's alright, little one."

"Don't call me little!"

"Fine. But what did I just tell you?"

"To be quiet and start listening. Yes, Dad."

"Okay," Jack said. "To pick up where I left off, Nicky, I hate tricking people, I hate liars. But it was important, okay?"

"It's alright, Jack," little Nick said. "I forgive you."

"How can you do that so quickly? I sure as hey can't."

"My parents taught me to never hold a grudge. Though based on what I've told myself, I have a feeling that if you guys hadn't shown up, that would be changing rather soon. But it hasn't happened yet, it won't now, and I forgive you. But as you've seen, I have a penchant for being sarcastic."

"Yes, I have, and you talk like you're seventeen, rather than seven. I don't remember Nick ever being like this. I don't suppose that's exactly a positive sign if things are changing so quickly."

"In that case, we'd better hurry up, shouldn't we?"


Zootopia, 2020

New Year's Day

"No sign of them, Mayor."

"Well, that's a wonderful thing to hear, Mister Ramses. It means those pestilent mammals are out of my way, hopefully six feet under. Anyways, time to move forward with Project Firefox. We've lost our firefox, but I have another plan, and I can guarantee that it will never fail."

"You sound exactly like a mad scientist right about now, Mayor."

"Do you want to be a sheepskin rug? Hmm, I didn't think so. That pain in the tail Wilde- I have no idea when he is, and I can't catch him here. Anyways, as I was saying…"

"Wh-what is Project Firefox, Mayor?"

"Haven't you been listening at all, you indolent ten-watt buffoon? It's all I've been ranting about for the last month! Oh, looks like I am crazy, I just admitted that I was ranting. But since you obviously haven't been paying a drop of attention, I'll go through it again. What would that make this, the tenth time I've told you this?

"Anyways, here's the rundown. Do you know what time is, Mister Ramses?"

"I don't think I get your drift, Mayor."

"I wasn't expecting that you would. Most, if not all mammals believe that time is solid, impenetrable, and most of all, only traversable in one direction. Oh, they could not be more wrong! Our Precinct One duo of Hopps and Wilde are living, breathing testaments to that. You know, I heard that all of this started out rather simply- Wilde just wanted some vacation days, and he was determined to get them by whatever means possible. Well, slip some real bullets in for the blanks, bribe a few guards, and they're out of the way for good, or at least I had hoped. No such luck, Mister Ramses.

Anyways, I put a tracker in the youngest one, whatever his name is. I know where they are, just not when they are. So, where'd that darned rabbit leave his bombs?"


Okay, so here's a bit of a catch-me-up. We don't know what we're doing. My fifteenth birthday's come and gone- yes, it's been almost two years, so it's now 1993. Dad's now nine as well as forty, Mom's thirty-two, and I have a little sister on the way. Mom and Dad have agreed on the name- Holly. Holly Marian Wilde. Adorable, I have to say. Looks like there'll be another fox in the Wilde family. Now, if only we could get out of here. If you'll remember, Zootopia's a Sowviet territory right about now, and we won't regain our independence for another six years, but I wonder if they could stand another fighter. I'm taller than Dad, about 3' 6", which is incredibly tall for a fox, and I haven't even hit my growth spurt.

Anyways, those extra few inches make me quite the odd one out. I go for walks every morning for the exercise, and everywhere I go, I see heads turn in my direction. I've overheard a few mammals whispering about me, mumbling about how tall I am. I know it's rude, but I don't take any offense. What's the point, anyways? If I were to call them out on it, well, I'm a fox, so who do you think they're going to believe? In their eyes, I'm just a shifty, good-for-nothing fox. So what am I supposed to do? Ignore them and keep on walking, that's what.

As we're somewhat stuck here, Mom and Dad have decided to send me off to school. It's not as if I haven't gone, it's just that it's a bit odd, going to the same school as your dad and being older than he is- I'm in ninth grade, Dad's in fourth. In the 'normal' timeline, Dad would have flunked out by now, but with me at home helping him out, he's stayed in school, and so far, he's at the top of the class. In a few years, an optimistic rabbit by the name of Judy Hopps will transfer into the district, or at least, so I hope. I'm a science nut at heart, having two parents who took forensics in college sparked that.

But back to the topic at hand- since we're here, why not introduce them earlier? How about encouraging the Hopps family to send Judy out this way for school? Sounds great, at least on paper. Not to degrade the Hopps family in any way, but they're horribly stereotyped. Spraying a fox in the face with pepper spray when their daughter brings him home? Hah! Oh, and, following the trend of "Nothing makes any sense," yes, for the record, I know who- and what- I am. A freak, an anomaly, the creation of a desperate fox not bothering to look where he was going. In short, a genetic experiment, a clone of my father. That doesn't make me less of a fox, it doesn't mean that I don't have a history.

In real time, I'm just over three. In my time, this fox is fifteen. Fifteen, in the height of adolescence, and really hating the hormone swings. I'll be as bright as the sun one minute, the next, I'll be broody, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Also, there's this annoying tendency that seems to come with the territory- anytime I'm off, my ears start twitching, just like little radar dishes. It's awfully embarrassing, especially when my girlfriend's over for dinner.

Girlfriend? Yes, a girlfriend. Her name is Electra, and she's just a month younger than me. The question has come up (not in front of her, of course) of where our relationship will go when, and if, we manage to return to our own time. I, myself, am a proponent of bringing her with us upon our egress from the nineties. That, however, is not my call to make. She's never left the city, so who knows, really? I'm not supposed to be here, none of us are, and I feel it every day. I'm waiting to go home- I can't wait, and yet at the same time, I don't want to leave. That, and I don't want to face what I know is coming. It's inevitable, I suppose, but a fox can hope, right?


2020, City Center

A perfect location, I know it. Wilde's going down at last, I can feel it. Savage was always rather hare-brained, pun not intended. Hare-brained as he was, it just so happens that he left his time bomb diagrams in the archives. Maybe it was an accident, only Karma knows, but now this sheep has the upper hand.

Doug told me that I seemed exactly like a mad scientist earlier today. Granted, it was meant as an insult, but I am crazy, this is true. Systems proceed towards greater entropy, this is true, so why can't society?

Aside from that, can't a sheep have a little happiness in her life, after all she's gone through? Everyone wants to turn back time for one reason or another, so it would follow that I have my own, which I do. What is it? Well, you see, when your parents are killed by foxes, foxes who just so happened to be related to the Wildes, what sane mammal wouldn't want to exact revenge? I know I would.

Well, that opportunity presented itself in the form of one dumb bunny. Thank you, Mister Savage, for blowing the timeline open. I love you, Mama, Papa. I'll see you soon.

Always yours, Dawn