Hello my wonderful readers. Here we have a new story. 238-ish pages at the time of creation and before I started doing edits, breaking into chapters, etc… Obviously posting this as an independent story in its own thing, as it is far too long to be posted in the Brain Droppings. I mean, it is a Brain Dropping to be sure, but are not all stories the Brain Droppings of a given author?

Anyway, this is an offshoot from my other two universes, and there are even some references to it and a bit of 4th wall breaking. Because, why the hell not? I sure hope you enjoy.

Note, it starts right off with a bang, or rather, the bang… of a medium mammal shotgun. Keep with it, I think you'll like the ending. I hope you will, anyway.

So, on with the show!

I do not own and thus can claim no rights to Zootopia or its characters. They belong to Disney.

Chapter 1

How it Begins

Endings are just the beginnings of other stories.

Nick WildeHopps awoke to heat and discomfort. His lungs and nose burned as he breathed in. It was not just hot, but like he was inside a literal oven. Like being in Sahara Square and right up next to the climate wall. Opening his mouth to pant he tasted sulfur and gagged. Eyes snapping open, he tried to make sense of what he was seeing only to have to blink away tears from the stinging heat, the overpowering sulfur, and a baleful yet bright yellowish red light.

Once he blinked the tears away, still gagging on the overpowering stench, he was able to look around. He found himself on a small ledge of what was clearly a basaltic cliff face. Looking down, he felt his heart stop. He was at least a hundred meters above a massive lava pool.

That fact however was not what did it. No, it was the fact that the lava was full of mammals, screaming as they seemed to burn, their flesh and fur aflame yet never burning away. That was not the worst of what graced his eyes, however. It was the other mammals he could see. No, not mammals. Creatures. Demons, if he were honest with himself, strode without concern through the lava, occasionally pushing a mammal deeper into the lava, or pulling back those that managed to get near an edge to pull themselves out, dragging them mercilessly back into the middle of the pool.

Watching with horrified fascination, Nick realized where he was as he saw another mammal fall, seemingly just popping into existence above the pool, landing off to the side, only to be dragged screaming into the pool, their screams tripling and melding with the rest as their flesh ignited. Then he noticed that beyond the pool directly below him, into the infinite distance, were more pools of different sizes.

This was hell. He, Nick WildeHopps, was in hell. Capital H, Hell. Wedging himself against the cliff wall and making sure no part of him was visible below. Nick then looked inside, trying to figure out how he ended up there. How had he died? A tear of fear and pain unrelated to the stinging sulfur stench ran down his cheek as he thought about his bunny. "Judy… I'm so sorry. I seem to have failed in my promise."

xXx

After an unknown amount of time, and letting himself cry, the memory of what happened came back to him. They were on a raid, full bomb squad, TUSK and SWAT teams. Just about the entirety of Precinct one including Lizz, Mike, Bruinson, and others. They had located and were looking to take down the last of the specist scum that were behind Dawn and other similar groups. They had already kicked in all the doors and were working their way through the warehouse, he and Judy were cleaning an area.

He had smelled something, they'd investigated, found several of the group setting up enough explosives to level the warehouse and the surrounding twenty city blocks. They'd radioed it in, then after one of their usual silent conversations. That ability had proven beyond useful to be able to do that, he'd reached out to Mike, Judy to Lizz, shared what they knew, then opened fire. They knew they couldn't give these mammals a chance to arm the bomb they were still building. Coordinating their fire, lethals were authorized and were pit to use. He took out three larger mammals, Judy the four smaller that were hooking up wires.

They were clearing and securing the rest of the room when it happened. Herald, Judy's brother, appeared from around the back of the explosives. Nick recognized him as he remembered what happened. It was clear to him now that Herald didn't know who had killed his compatriots, he just leveled the medium mammal shotgun at them because they were cops, just seeing the uniforms, and pulled the trigger. This shock and horror on his face after was clear as anything, clearly realizing too late what he had done.

With a gasp, Nick remembered the sound, like a dragon's enraged roar as he placed himself between Judy and the blast, his tail wrapped around her like a constrictor, holding her safe behind him. The impact. You do actually feel it, it seems, when something goes through you like that. He felt the pellets punch through his vest, himself, and get stopped by the back of his vest. He felt one pass through his eye and into his head, out behind his ear, the world going dark on that side. Another pair tore through his throat, most going through his chest, abdomen, and a few through his legs.

Nick remembered falling to what was left of his knees and falling to the side, his tail sliding from around Judy. Seeing her weapon up and putting 2 rounds into Herald. Recognizing the shots were not lethal. Then hearing her screams. The last thing he saw was her tears splashing on his ruined, bloody muzzle. Lizz physically lifted her away, checking her for injuries, as paramedics appeared and things went black.

Sobbing, Nick curled in on himself. He'd saved her, but left her alone as well. Left her to carry their kits alone. He recognized now what he'd been smelling as a change in her scent the previous week, what he'd seen as things started to glow before the darkness overtook him. She was pregnant. As impossible as it seemed, it was true.

xXx

An unknown, immeasurable time later, Nick pulled himself together. "Okay Nick. You're dead, and in hell, but you're not burning, so. Time to figure something out. Judy would never forgive you if you just gave up."

With a deep breath, Nick wiped his eyes and looked down over the edge again. The pool hadn't really changed, just the position of the demons. Looking closer, he had to stifle a laugh. The demon's really did look like massive, elephant sized, foxes. It seems Judy's PopPop wasn't quite so wrong after all.

As he looked, he noticed smaller creatures moving around between the pools. They looked like foxes, weasels, and just about any other mammal. Most of them were also chained and bound as they appeared to perform various tasks. He could see no exits or pathways other than those between the various pools. Looking up however, he could barely see the cavern-like ceiling, which reminded him of the Nocturnal District. But there were pillars, like the one he found himself on, and between them were what looked to maybe be natural bridges.

With no clear options down, Nick decided that up was to be his way. Thanking Judy for getting him into free climbing, Nick took stock of the cliff in front of himself, made his path in his head, and started climbing.

xXx

Nick didn't know how long he climbed, he let his mind wander as he was taught. He was in hell, but other than the horror of knowledge that Judy was alone, he wasn't being tortured, yet. He wondered how long that would last. If he had anything to say about it, never, but that was also a long time.

He considered the fact that Judy was pregnant with his kits. This lit a fire in him he'd never felt before. He had to find a way back. It wouldn't matter if he was just a spirit, he would get back and look after them. As that conviction overtook him, he managed to scramble to the top of his spire.

Looking around, what Nick found shocked him. He had not landed on a spire, but more of a mesa, upon which a massive citadel rested, or so he assumed based on the massive wall of blocks bigger than he was. It came right up to the cliff edge, leaving enough room for someone his size to be there comfortably, but even someone like Mike or Lizz would have to stand with their back or face to the wall.

To his left and right were the bridges from actual spires, the nearest with what he assumed was a guard post. At least a dozen bridges connecting to that spire. Flipping a mental coin, he moved along the wall to the right. Once he rounded enough of the wall, he could see that the bridge connected high up the wall.

As he got closer, he found the ledge getting smaller and narrower, until he could go no further. He would have to climb, horizontally, using his claws in the gaps between the wall stones, or go up the same way. Deciding to explore more first, Nick turned back and headed left. Finding the same problem as he got closer to the bridge, and although this one connected only a few meters higher than the ledge, it was just as inaccessible without a horizontal shimmy.

Returning to the point, almost exactly the middle between the bridges, that he had climbed up at, he sat to think. Looking up the wall, it was so tall he couldn't be sure just how far it was to the top, and definitely not what he'd find there.

There were guards he'd seen at both gates. He was stuck. Trapped as surely as the ledge he woke up on. Up seemed to be the best option. He did notice that despite the climb, glancing down and seeing just how high he was. He was at least five hundred meters above the pool, now, he could barely make out the demons save their movement. Yet, he was not tired, not hungry. Reminding himself that he was dead and likely doesn't have a body, at least not like before. Climbing up was likely no more dangerous than anything else. Still, he could hear the guards talking, just couldn't quite make out what they were saying, assuming he would understand it at all.

Finally making a decision, Nick faced the wall. He could tell that the stones got smaller after a good thirty rows up, which would make the climbing easier from there, it was just that the stones, the blocks here at the base, were easily 1.5 to 2 meters tall. As he tried to map a path, he cocked his head to the side with a smirk. Looking back and taking a very careful backwards step to the edge. He looked again and smiled, stepping forward again to a safer position. He then began to move right, following a line with his eyes, a paw on the wall and regular glances down, going slow. Confirming what he thought he saw, he followed the line back the other direction.

Chuckling, he went back to the right, found the line, and then moved farther right, finding it ended and switched back left just before he would be visible to the guards on the wall, only the guards in the distant post where the bridges converged would see him, or someone walking the bridge, and their focus was out. Still, he knew patience was needed, and he needed a way to tell time.

Sitting down, Nick let himself unfocus and just watched. Like looking for a mark, he simply observed, waiting for something rhythmic and regular to happen. So he watched and waited. Waiting for something rhythmic to make itself known.

Finally, a time he couldn't measure later, Nick saw his first indicator. Things dimmed significantly, going from quite bright, almost daylight, to dim and twilight-like. It took some time, but the glow from the lava pools far below created an evil permeating glow. So there was a night of sorts. With the dimmer light he watched as an army of demons moved out from within the walls, across the bridges, to spread out across hell. He observed as the spires appeared to shift, gaining stairs, which the demons used to descend, those already below relieved and moving up, tromping back. Once the returning horde passed, the guards were relieved.

This cycle happened again an unknown time later. As he waited for the next shift change, he noticed a beacon, he wasn't sure what it was, but it cycled in a clean rhythmic cycle of about once a second. So he called that a second. Counting 100 seconds based on that got him a pulse of light from above, and every 100 seconds, the roof would have this flash roll across it. He remembered seeing that before when it was day. He called that a minute. Then he found that every tenth was a sickly blue instead of the baleful reddish yellow. He called that an hour.

He watched and couldn't find any longer pattern, so he watched, and started counting at the start of the next shift change. Scratching a tic into the dirt each hour. Shifts lasted 100 hours. Shift change took 2 hours, then another 100 hours. Day and night were each 1000 hours. Now knowing how long he had, Nick prepared to climb. He moved to the left and waited, once the shift change was finished, he began his climb, following the line he found. The stones were set in a repeating pattern that created a line of stones offset by a quarter their height, allowing him a slower, but easier climb. Over two, up a quarter, over, up, over, up. The hard part would be the shift going left to right, to right to left. It was a stack of four, meter high stones. It took him fifty two hours to get there, putting him about thirty meters above the ledge.

To negotiate the shift, he needed to go up the full set of blocks. He could go farther left, but that would put him visible to the guards on the right. Instead, he used the climbing skills he learned with Judy, wedging his fingers and toes in the seam, flexing the paw, and paw over paw slowly going up.

Once up, he returned to his slow progress. He had to stop, holding himself flat to the wall, tail wrapped around his waist, watching and hoping to go unnoticed during the shift change. As far as he could tell, he was. He hoped he was. The longer he went without being noticed, the better he felt things would be for him. Once shift change finished, he continued on.

Nick climbed and climbed. After a fourth switch back, he reached where the stones were such that he could just climb.

Glancing down, he could not see the base of the wall, nor the top. The bridges were small, distant things and he no longer bothered waiting out the shift change. He kept climbing, hour after hour, after hour. Finally he found a window, a hole in the wall. Peaking in, he found himself looking at a bedroom, a simply gorgeous vixen stretched out on the bed, without a thing on but her crimson fur.

Looking up, she smiled warmly at Nick. "Well hello there. How did a soul get all the way up here?" Getting up, she walked over slowly, in a way Nick could only describe as sensual. Looking out as he shifted away along the wall. "Don't be afraid, little soul. I mean you no harm. What's your name?"

Nick looked at her, almost captured by her ice blue eyes. "Nothing personal, but something tells me that telling you my name is a bad idea."

Grinning seductively. "Hmmm. Perhaps. Perhaps not. What is the point of your climb? Why not take your punishment?"

"While I may deserve it. I know I was no saint, my mate was left without me to raise our kits alone. Even if I can do nothing, I will find a way back to them. I don't understand how she could become pregnant, but she was, and I will get back to her."

She nodded. "Well, that explains why you can resist me. You pledged the old way, didn't you?"

Nick smiled. "Resist you? Must be a succubus. Yes. The oldest. Both our families had a version of it, and we made it our own. No matter what I do, I will return to her. To them."

Nodding with a genuine smile. "You have a long way to go then. I give you this much in honor of your promise to your mate. There are many ways out of hell. The way you are going does lead to one, none are lesser than the others. The guards will not stop you, nor will they help you. Fall in a pool, and you will burn. Keep faith in your promise and you may find your way. Your heart will lead you." Looking down at herself. If this is how you see me, she is one lucky vixen."

Turning back to his climb, Nick chuckled. "Doe, not vixen. The strangest, most beautiful mammal in all creation."

She chuckled. "A doe? Oh my! I am Ferrecia. If you fall, call my name and I will save you, but know, I will demand a price you may not be able, or willing, to pay."

Pausing, Nick looked down, as he was now a few meters above the window. "I expect that price may be an increasing cost, either in number of saves, or severity of the save."

Chuckling as she looked up. "This is true. Though, for you, I think I will ask only a kiss for your first. If you'll let me keep this body. It is truly a work of art, and if this is your vision of beauty for your own species, yet one of another holds such sway over you. I think the exchange is more than fair."

Nick nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

With that, Nick continued his climb. Days and nights passed without rest until eventually, a number of days for which he lost count, Nick arrived at the top of the wall. As he climbed, he passed dozens of windows just like the first, most empty, others occupied by all manner of infernal creature. Some he could not think of without feeling queasy. Undulating, quivering masses of flesh with eyes, months, even patches of fur, randomly across an amorphous body, with tentacles reaching and grasping. True eldritch horrors in the vein of the noir horror novels Judy loves so much. He could still feel with revulsion the sensation as it had wrapped one horrific appendage, part paw, part tentacle, around his ankle as he climbed away. Thankful that his claws had worked to force its release, with a scream that still echoed in his ears. Like a thousand mammals screaming in some horrific, echoing, harmony.

xXx

Sitting on the top of the wall, seeing it was meters thick there at the top, it could only be thicker the lower you went, thus explaining the size of the stones at the base when he started his climb. From his new vantage, he could see the ever so slight slope to it. It really wasn't perfectly vertical, but tall enough that the fraction or two of a degree from the true vertical was all but meaningless. Looking beyond the wall, he took in the section of hell he knew, but here he could see a great and massive wall to his left and right. Walls that provided a separation between sections. Like the climate walls, only so much more massive.

Where he had found himself was the vision of hell most know for burning, torture by fire, and physical agony. Far to his right as he looked out across hell, was a wall, and beyond it appeared to be snow and ice. To the left, beyond that wall, there was no light, just darkness. A void.

Moving to the inside edge, he found that this was not the wall of a citadel as he had first assumed, but a massive city. Spires rising into the air taller than the city walls, the streets lost far, far below, but with massive raised roads and pathways as well, connecting the buildings and walls. There was one such pathway only a dozen meters below him as he looked down. He watched as all manner of creature passed along that road, demons as he had seen below at the pools and as guards, more undulating masses, leaving slimy trails like slugs, creatures that seemed like normal mammals, at least he thought that until one yawned, and their head split down to the middle of their chest, vertically, showing a massive maw taking up their entire person.

Deciding that the best course of action was knowledge, he walked along the top of the wall until he reached the border with the darkness. Once there, he could actually see structures, cages hanging, with mammals within, some laying on the floor of their cage, others raging, screaming, pounding at their cages. Those screams lost into the void of darkness that surrounded them. A few with a small light just enough to illuminate them and hold the darkness back enough to know just how alone they were. It was here that he saw the undulating masses, crawling up poles that supported some of the cages, or down the chains from which others hung. There they would lash at those in the cages, wrapping their horrific appendages around the occupant. Nick could also hear their whispers. Promises, threats, entreaties. Give in. Welcome us. Let us in.

Yet, as he watched with fascination and horror, even those that accepted, that begged, were promised that soon they would be freed, only to be left there, crying, begging. Then he saw it, one cage resident, their screams changing as madness truly overtook them, their form as a mammal collapsing as they turned into another one of the creatures, slipping through the bars and crawling away, then led away by more of them. Nick nodded in understanding. That was the answer here. Give into the madness, embrace the horror, and become a horror yourself. Losing yourself to it. It shook him as he continued to walk along the top of the city wall. This was hell, after all.

As he walked, he swore he could hear, just on the edge of his hearing, voices calling out to him. Whispering promises. "Nick… Come to us. Embrace us. We will welcome you. Give in. There is no need to struggle. Resistance is futile. You will give in to us. Nick… Nick…"

This in fact hurried him along. He felt a pull, a draw towards the darkness. Almost comforting, and that scared the crap out of him. Almost running, he made his way to the next wall and away from that darkness as quickly as he could.

xXx

A/N - I don't really have anything for you other than, if you have not already, go check out my Wilde Cards - Savage Territory and A Friendly Hustle, stories. As well as my Brain Droppings and other works.