Chapter Sixteen: A New Beginning

A/N: Two years and three months (not counting side stories) and I've finally reached the end!!...Sorta, I got so addicted to writing chapter 16 that I wrote most of it before I published 15.

As you can tell, the twist ending to this was planned all the way back at the beginning of "Sacrifices" two years ago.

I decided to make Duke go back to his more crooked ways a little bit. He was getting too "goody goody" for the kind of character he is. He's still basically a good guy, but he has his cons too. You'll see a big one in the epilogues.

Early Afternoon Wednesday in Little Rodentia

Duke was kicking back on a beach chair in the middle of Little Rodentia's park as he watched Rico, his men and his now personal assistant, Victor the puma tear apart and dismantle the dome they built yesterday. "Yer doin' a great job guys!" Duke said as he was sipping some lemonade.

Rico was upset. "Why don't you come over here and help then?!"

"I am helpin'! I'm 'da superviser, so I'm supervisin'! You need 'ta be more like Victor, Rico. Ya don't hear him complainin'!"

"No sir!" Victor said with a smile. The puma was working hard and was happy to have a job. "I don't even care if all this work reopens my stitches! I'm happy to help!"

"Good man!" Duke replied while putting on some shades.

It was then that a small mouse ran up to Duke. "Mr. Weaselton! Mr. Weaselton!"

"What's up mac? Ya want an autograph 'er somethin'?"

"No sir! Mayor Wilde offered the citizens of Little Rodentia to name their favorite for assistant mayor and he said he'll hire him or her. We chose YOU Mr. Weaselton!"

"Wh-Wha?! I can't be 'da mayor's assistant! I got a full time job right here! I got a lot more work after 'dis! I just don't have 'da time! What? You think I wanna go around sayin' 'yes sir, no sir' 'ta Nick while getting his coffee and makin' sure it's got the right amount of cream? Screw 'dat!"

Other citizens came out and pleaded. "Please Mr. Weaselton! You wouldn't let us down now, right? Especially since we're erecting a statue in your honor."

Duke looked over at the statue being made right next to Nick's statue. "Errr...well...umm.."

"Please Mr. Weaselton! Mr. Wilde could use a great assistant like you! Like the new one you have!"

Duke thought about it for a moment. "The new one I have...Yeah! Alright guys! Tell Nick Wilde I'm in!"

The mice were happy. "Wonderful! Let's go tell him right away! This will be all over the news tonight!"

Duke smiled a wicked grin. "Heh!-Heh! Suckers! I'll work for Wilde alright, but Victor will be doing all the assisting while I tend to my jobs! I'm so happy to have that patsy in my life!"

Meanwhile, in front of James Wolford's old home...

James just stood there on the front lawn. He looked over and saw his house. His half-burnt house His home that he had grown up in since he could remember and half of it was almost ashes. What's worse is that it was the bedrooms. Everything he owned was basically gone. His new father Tim, patted him on the shoulders. "I checked with yer mom's insurance and you guys were still covered so we're good 'dere. Part of 'da roof is gone, but 'da fire department said it's structurally sound enough 'ta go in. If ya want to."

James touched his dad's paw. "It's okay dad. I'm fine. Let's see what we can salvage."

Tim and Auburn looked through the kitchen and the living room. "'Dis stuff's pretty intact! Luckily, 'da stuff we put in storage will be okay. Let's check the living room."

Meanwhile, James looked around the remains of his old room. His bed was almost ash. The dresser with his clothes was half gone and what was left was soaking wet. "My old vinyl records are all melted. I was expecting that...Aww man! My video games! Even my systems are gone!" He then looked in his closet. "Well there's some irony. My comic books are intact! How on earth did that happen? Thank God for mylar bags and boards."

He then looked in his mother's room. He wept a little. The atmosphere was very somber. The room was almost mostly ash. James looked at his mother's bed. It was burnt right through the center. Only the headboard with the silver trim remained.

Then James looked behind him. Through all of the wreckage, a tiny beam of sunlight shone through the broken roof. It shined upon a necklace. His mother's necklace. It was a silver cross with a jewel in the middle. A neutral enough design that a male or female could wear it. James saw it as a sign. He picked up the necklace and put it over his head. Tears ran down the cougars cheeks. "For you mom. I'll wear it for you."

Moments later, Tim and Auburn met up with James outside. "Hey James..." Tim said. " 'Dere's some good news. All 'da kitchenware is intact, 'da DVD player in 'da living room didn't get wet and neither did yer Pawstation 2! 'Dat's good hunh?!"

"It's an old system." James replied. "And the games for it melted in my room."

"I'm sorry son. I wuz just tryin' 'ta cheer you up."

"Actually? I'm fine! It's fine."

"It's fine like yer okay or it's fine like 'dat meme where 'da dog is sitting in 'dat room 'dats on fire?"

James gestured his paws towards the house. "This right here? This is my past. It's where I grew up. But it's also where I saw my mother slowly get sicker and sicker until she died."

He then turned around and put a paw on each of his new parents. "But my future? My future is standing right in front of me. A new mom and a father I never had before. Not only that, we'll be staying at the Clawhauser's! They agreed to let us stay in that huge closet right?"

"Yeah! We're gonna have Duke's guys build us some stairs and then have other contractors come in and make some rooms upstairs. Ben and Terry said we can stay with 'dem forever if we want."

"Awesome! I love uncle Ben. I love Aunt Terry. I love my baby sister Sarah and my big little sister Suzie! I love my hot hyena girlfriend! I went from just me and my mom to this huge, wonderful family! And I'm gonna have even more siblings because Burnie's gonna have puppies soon! So look, I'm not sad. I'm happy! I'm putting my past behind me and looking into a wonderful future with you guys."

Tim and Auburn hugged James close. Tim got a little teary-eyed. "SNIFF! What you said was wonderful son! I'm so happy!"

"Are you crying?!" James asked.

"No! SNIFF! M-Maybe you're cryin', but I-I'm fine! Where'd you get 'dat necklace?"

"Oh this? It was my mom's. A beam of light was shining on it and I saw it as a sign that my mother wanted me to take it. I'm gonna wear it for the rest of my life. Now let's go to the furniture store and get some new beds!"

James got into the car. Auburn was teary-eyed herself. "I'm so proud of him!"

"Yeah." Tim replied.

"He's so mature!"

"Yeah...Should I tell him 'dat's my necklace and I left it 'dere overnight?"

"Not in a million years."

"Okay 'den."

Meanwhile, in the chiefs office at the ZPD...

Bogo sat in his office behind his desk...on the floor. "I forgot that my old desk was taken out." He had a stack of papers and was ready for his meeting.

One minute later, there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" Bogo shouted. "There will be one more person with us in a little bit, but I needed to speak with you first."

Swinton cautiously came in. "Sit." Bogo said.

Swinton climbed up onto a chair. "Feels weird being on this side of my own desk."

"I'll bet..."

"..."

"...Sssoooo...What now?"

"For the past two weeks, you've been conspiring with the mayor behind my back to get rid of me."

"That's not true."

"Bullshit."

"I was having an affair with the mayor. That's true. Wasn't the first time he had one. He's had so many his wife just allowed it...SNIFF!...D-Despite what you think, I did love him. And I complained to him about how you were handling things just as I complained straight to YOU about how you were handling things! That's one thing you always get from me. I don't hide my feelings...and you were screwing up royally!"

"You kept throwing your damn suggestions in my face and frankly, harassing me if I'm being honest."

"You're a big enough man to take it. And you're far from perfect."

"True...I have screwed up a bit. But so did you. You and the mayor tried to make me resign, so I took the day off and let you me chief for a day. I wanted to see if you could sink or swim."

"And?..."

"Let's see how you did. You decided to let the cadets have a day of on the job training to help cover the amount of men we needed out on the streets. An idea you nagged me about over and over."

"It was a good idea."

"...It...It was."

"...Say what?"

"Don't get me wrong. One cadet is currently on life support..."

"For disobeying orders to save a family."

"I'M NOT FINISHED! Another cadet almost shot one of my 'Preds for Peace' men. A tiger who saved a woman and child He was obeying the orders of the cadet, but just because he was scared of him, he almost shot him. I fired him from the academy. That said, we really were stretched thin and having those men out on the streets allowed us to group together and take down the control station."

"YAY! Point for me!"

"I'M FAR FROM DONE HERE! You also dished out live ammo to our officers. This caused several injuries and the near death of the tiger Not to mention our traitorous guards got a hold of them and we temporarily lost control of the prison!"

"...I'm sensing a 'but' here."

"BUT...In situations like our raid, they proved invaluable."

"Thank you."

"...I want to talk about the raid in a moment, because to be honest, you were outstanding there. However, we first have to discuss that you had all of our SWAThogs raid the tech building that provided the camouflage for the blimp. Only for the garage to explode with C4 and bring down the entire building, killing them all! District one now has no SWAThogs and ten widows looking for answers!"

"We had no intel that anything like that would happen! Even the CEO admitted he had no idea about that! Are you telling me under the same circumstances you wouldn't have them charge in?! It was my first day as chief and I was doing the best I could with the intel I had!"

Swinton was in tears. "If you were so concerned, then where the fuck were you?! Hosting a little club?! Giving speeches?! Deputizing citizens which, let's be honest, is WAY worse than having trained cadets on the street! You...fucking asshole! You shoved me into the deep end of the pool to see if I'd sink or swim and then left me to drown!...But I swam dammit! I swam!"

Tears were pouring down Swinton's face. To her surprise, Bogo was a little teary-eyed too. "You're right...You're right. I took off because I felt I wasn't wanted there...But doing so meant that I abandoned my men. I abandoned you on your first day. Swinton, in case you haven't figured it out by now, you're not fired."

"You should be." she said through gritted teeth.

"That won't be an issue."

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's go to the raid on the control tower. When you told me you stopped at the first floor and gave up, I was furious. I was ready to fire you during this review. But then we did the raid and you...you threw yourself at that bloody grenade."

"...Chief?"

"That's when I realized everything I thought about you was wrong. You weren't self-serving. You were self-sacrificing! It wasn't just that grenade, you came up with a better plan than mine. You also nearly sacrificed yourself again knowing full well there was a bag of dynamite the enemies would be shooting at just a few feet below you."

"And you almost got us all killed not mentioning the C4 on the next floor."

"You're right. That night, you not only did an outstanding job on that raid...you were better than me."

"WOW! Where did this come from?!"

"It's the truth. I was also wrong about Zeke the hawk. Arresting him would have created a ton of problems and he did save a lot of lives. I overreacted. I'm not..."

There was a knock on the door. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Don't enter yet Higgins!" Bogo yelled.

"Why is Higgins here?" Swinton asked.

"You'll know very soon. As I was saying...I'm not perfect. Neither are you. But you're a damn better chief than I gave you credit for. I admire that you stand up for yourself and are willing to talk back even when your job is at risk."

"Like when I was so upset, I told you to go fuck yourself?"

"Ha. Ha. Right...I was wrong. I not only abandoned you in your hour of need, my actions with Batrov when I lost my temper are part of what caused these riots in the first place. You probably saw these notes as you walked in. I want you to look at the bottom one."

"...A resignation slip?! I thought you weren't firing me?!"

"I'm not. It's mine from yesterday."

"D-Does that mean I'm going to be chief of police?!"

"Not exactly! That's where a new program I just put into place comes in. Come in Higgins!"

Higgins walked in and sat down. Bogo explained. "Police co-chief Swinton, meet your co-chief, Higgins."

Swinton was a bit upset. "Wait. 'Co-Chief''? There's no precedent for that!"

"Actually, there is. It happened back in 1972 when then Zootopia police chief Hooftrotter was charged with corruption, but was not found guilty. The citizens of the city rioted and a new rule was set in place for a co-chief until Hooftrotter worked out his tenure. The new co-chief kept Hooftrotter from making any decisions without his say and vice-versa. It made for a more honest. Albeit, slow-moving department during that time and it's still in the book that I have the power to enlist that, so I did."

"So what? You don't want to be chief anymore but you don't have enough faith in me to do my job without a babysitter?!"

"No Swinton. I have a lot of faith in you. You proved me wrong and made me look into myself and realize what I was doing wrong. But you're still green. From what I've heard, Higgins was giving you a fair amount of advice yesterday and was the cooler head. He's been a lieutenant even longer than you. Also, he's only your co-chief for one year. Then he goes back to lieutenant and you are fully in charge."

"I think it sounds reasonable." Higgins replied. "Think of me as your Jimminey Cricket."

Swinton thought it over. "That's...okay, that's actually fair considering all of the circumstances. Thank you Bogo."

"Call me Bill. Because once I sign these papers, I won't be your boss...I won't be anyone's boss. I would like to be everyone's friend tho...I'm going to miss this place."

Higgins didn't want him to leave. "I don't understand! The ZPD still loves you! Why not be co-chief yourself instead of me?!"

"Because the people of this city have lost their faith in me and I don't blame them. It's one thing for Swinton to make mistakes, she's brand new at this. I have no excuse for what I've done. I've been with the department too bloody long to make mistakes like this. She's right...I...I abandoned her in her time of need, in the city's time of need just to spite her and Trunk and that was incredibly wrong. It's time I retired and made a difference my own way. Nick Wilde wants me to stay on with 'Preds for Peace' and that's what I plan on doing. By the way, your first challenge is waiting by the door. Police officer Brie wants a mouse jail in Little Rodentia and wants two mice who have been...somewhat model prisoners put on house arrest. I told her to wait until I was done with you."

Swinton thought about it. "I'm more than okay with the mouse jail. How about you Higgins?"

"Sounds good to me! We could make one quick out of Lego. Ha-Ha! I'm not a hundred percent sure about having those two under house arrest tho. From what I know on their file, they were kidnappers."

"Let's interview them and decide from there."

Bogo smiled. "See? See?! This is working wonderfully!" He took his resignation paper and singed on the bottom with big swipes. "That's the news and I...am...outta here!"

Swinton and Higgins looked confused. "O...Kaaay?"

"...You don't get it? David Mooler? Back in the early 90's? SNL?"

"Well that's a dated reference." Higgins replied.

Swinton smiled. "Well here's one that's not. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE! Wow! That felt good!"

"Yes ma'am! See you guys for bowling on Friday!" Bogo smiled at Higgins. "Later Jerry."

"Later Bill!" Higgins replied back.

As Bogo walked out, he almost stepped on Brie. "Oops! Sorry officer Brie! They're ready for you now."

Brie was confused. "Who is chief?!"

"I'm not chief anymore. Swinton and Higgins are co-chiefs. They seem to have already approved the jail, You just have to convince them about...those two."

"I'm gonna miss you chief."

"Really? We've barely interacted at work."

"Good point. See ya around!"

Bogo walked over to the reception desk and kissed Francine on the lips.

She was quite surprised. "Wow! Well someone's in the mood! But you can't kiss me at work! That's fraternizing!"

"Not anymore. I resigned."

"WHAT! WHY?!"

"The citizens of this city have lost their faith in me and I lost faith in myself to do this job properly."

"So your leaving it to that bitch?!"

"Hey! Hey now! She's actually not that bad. She did a much better job as chief yesterday than I gave her credit for. Besides, I left a bit of a failsafe. Higgins will be her co-chief for the next year. They can't fire each other and they can't make a big decision without the others approval."

"I dunno. Sounds slow-going."

"I think it will work out."

"So what will you do now?"

"Well, once Nick rents me a space, I'll be the head of the 'Preds for Peace' Non-profit movement. Helping predators and prey learn to get along and help protect their community."

"I hope 'non-profit' doesn't mean 'non-salary' if you're going to keep living with me."

"There's a salary. Besides, I'll also have a pension coming in. I'll be fine."

One week later. Around 4pm.

Bogo was sitting alone in an empty room designed for the "Preds for Peace" campaign. He had stacks of flyers on tables and posters on the walls. The second ever meeting was in a week and barely anyone came by to pick up flyers or to talk.

Bill Bogo was bored out of his skull. "This is not fine!"

Just then, Judy Wilde came in with a stack of papers and a laptop computer under one arm and a cane in the other. "Hi Bill! Can you clean off that desk next to you? I'm gonna use it as my P.I. headquarters."

Bogo smiled. "Sure! It's nice to have some company. Thank you for calling me 'Bill' by the way."

"It took awhile to get used to. This missing child case has been racking my brain. I have ZERO leads to where the father is. It's like he went completely off the grid!"

"Can I help?"

"Well...I kinda wanted to do this on my own. To prove that..."

Bogo got down on his hooves and knees. "Oh please! PLEASE let me help you! I'm so bored! This is the exact kind of thing I need right now!"

"Wow! Okay Bill! Okay! You can be my assistant. As much as I'd like to do this own my own and prove myself, I could really use the help."

"Thank you so much! Now, let's get a cork board and map out any locations he might have been and then I'll get us coffee!"

"Good idea."

"Things sure have reversed haven't they? I used to be your boss shouting orders at you. Now you and Wilde are my boss."

"I'm not your boss Bill. I'm your friend."

Bill got a bit misty-eyed. "Thank you Judy."

"You're welcome...OH! I haven't told you about the CRAZY day me and Nick had this morning. I almost killed him!"

"Why?"

That morning. Wednesday, November 11th

Nick was sitting on the couch. Resting from his injuries from what happened to what the news called "The failed purge". Petey was on the phone to his boyfriend Wiggly and giggling happily as he found out they would be fully moved in the next day. Michael and Cindy were playing "pro wrestling" and rough housing quite a bit which they loved to do. Cotton was drawing with a stylus and tablet on the living room floor as Judy was getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. She was currently two days pregnant with Jessie and Luann's kits. Spots was on "Instalamb" sharing a video with James.

Michael went over and looked at Cotton's drawing while Cindy had him in a choke hold that wasn't quite working. "That's not another 'bad future' drawing is it?"

Cotton smiled. "No! I'm drawing us with our new baby brother! Isn't he cute?"

Nick ears perked up. "That can't be right! Mom's not due with our kits for another five or six weeks! I only impregnated my mother two days ago! That feels REALLY wrong to say out loud. I mean, it's Judy's egg and my sperm, but still..."

Michael agreed. "Dad's right! That must be a LONG way off! The fox in that picture is about five years old!"

Nick was a bit disturbed. "Fox?! We're having rabbits! May be he's a hybrid?"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "He's here!" said Cotton.

There definitely was a child at the door and he was crying. "No mommy! Don't leave me! Don't go!"

Nick got up and rushed to the door. It hurt his chest to get up so fast, but he had to. Judy had her earbuds on while she was cooking and didn't hear the knock.

Nick rushed over and pushed open the door. He knocked over the little fox whose paws were tied to the door handle with a rope.

The little fox was crying. "No mommy don't go! Please!"

Nick caught a glimpse of the vixen in the elevator about to go down. "There's your daddy! Be a good boy! Mommy loves you!"

As Nick started untying the boy, he yelled for his daughter. "SPOTS!"

"What?!" The hyena shouted. She then looked over and saw the small fox. "What the?! Who's he?!"

"I don't know! His mother's trying to abandon him and is going down the elevator! Catch her!"

"I'm on it!" Spots then started to run down the stairs as fast as she could. To Nick's surprise, her metal foot never slowed her down.

Nick consoled the crying boy fox. "It's okay kiddo. Spots will catch your mommy and bring her back. Why did she leave you here?"

"M-Mommy said daddy got her pregnant with me a long time ago when he was drunk and wouldn't call her back! She...SNIFF!...She said she gave me his name so she could remember him when she finally found him!"

Nick took a good look at the boy. He looked exactly like Nick did at his age. "Wh-What is your name?"

"Nicholas. I'm five years old."

Nick remembered back to his talk with Judy on the train to Bunnyburrow three weeks ago. "It was a vixen according to Finn. My own kind for a change. But I was too drunk to remember any of it! It was six years ago on the anniversary of my father dying in jail. He told me all about it the next day."

"Six years...Are you five and a half?"

"Yeah! How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess."

He then remembered his talk with Judy and Finnick on the train to Zootopia the night of the purge.

"You slept with that stripper girl about six years ago. What was her name? Candy?"

Judy looked upset. "What's this now?"

Nick explained. "I told you on the train to Bunnyburrow last week. Remember? It didn't count because I was too damn drunk to even remember."

Finnick laughed. "HA! Well, it counted to her."

"What do you mean?"

"She kept trying to call you on my cell phone. You didn't have one at the time. Had to block her like, five times. Ha-Ha! She reeeeally liked you!"

"...Why are you telling me this now?!"

"Relax! It's all in the past. Besides. You don't wanna date a stripper. They ain't nothin' but trouble."

"Finnick blocked her calls!" Nick said. He looked at the fox boy. He rubbed the boy's cheeks with his paws. "I swear! I-I didn't know! Oh my God...You're my son!"

He hugged the boy tight as tears rained down his face. "You're my biological son!"

Judy hadn't heard yet. But the kids were all watching Nick hug the new fox boy. Cotton was excited and happy, Cindy was confused but Michael and Petey were worried.

"I don't like this Mike." said Petey. "I don't like this one FUCKING! bit."

THE END (of the Big Cheese saga) Stay tuned for a butt-ton of epilogues

Coming Soon (After I write my novel)

Wilde Times (Episode One) Nick Junior

Nick finds out he has a biological son. But before he can celebrate, Junior's mother Candy gets kidnapped by a mobster that she owes money to. Spots is kidnapped too! With Nick and Judy too injured to pursue, it's up to Ben Clawhauser and Delgato to stop the crooks. Meanwhile, Petey isn't too happy with the new addition to the family and feel that Nick will abandon the foster bunny for his fur and blood son..

Judy Wilde, Private Eye (Episode One) Case of the Crazy Kidnappers

Judy's now a private investigator. She and her new partner Bill Bogo are looking for a missing child. But things take a turn for the worse when the kidnapper they've been searching for isn't who they've been looking for at all!