Chapter 12: Crossroads
The black was empty for a while, a void, endless and silent. Kaiden felt light, floating on an abyss. In a way, this was better. It was finally quiet, the pain gone, the worry and care of existence faded away. Facing potential eternity with only what he brought with him. Alone on an endless sea, bound no longer by time or space, at last it was over.
The void filled up with thoughts, images, feelings, memories both pleasant and horrible. Kaiden began walking through the events of his life, wondering if this was what mammals had always meant by 'lives flashing before their eyes.' Yet he had always known that to come before death, not after. As the disjointed images and sounds passed him by he started to feel very heavy, his body aching and feeling very tired. The images had a surreal quality to them, becoming distorted and faded like aged sepia-toned film on its last legs before burning and breaking.
Feeling very hot, Kaiden felt the void filling up with flames all around him, coming from seemingly nowhere. The familiar terror gripped his heart. Lily's screams seemed to resonate in the void around him, calling for him, begging for him. The claws of demons pawing at him, scratching him with their claws. They appeared as black shadows swirling around him, screaming as if they were right in his ear. Screams that blended into a sheer tone, solid and boring straight into the inner recesses of his head. The flames licked at his fur, the pain of the heat, the crisping of his skin. He cried out, but his mouth made no sound. Closing his eyes, he emphatically prayed for it to end.
Suddenly, Kaiden's eyes opened. The silence resumed save for a faint repetitive beeping. His blurry vision told him he was in a room, and that he was lying in a bed. Slowly it resolved, more things coming into focus. It was a hospital room, and a number of machines were dotted around the head of the bed. Feeling a presence to his right, he turned his head to see it. White, with two blue eyes, blue as river stones. For a moment, Kaiden thought it was her, his dear Lily. He tried to speak, but all he could manage was a groan due to the tube that was lodged deep in his throat. The image resolved, it wasn't even a rabbit but a white tigress nurse checking on him.
"I know you still feel woozy, but we have to take the tube out of your throat."
Kaiden reacted to the word 'we' with unease. She turned away and an otter doctor climbed up on a stool that was close to the bed.
"Mr. Ellison, my name is Doctor Boyd. You're at Bunnyburrow County Hospital. You were severely injured during a fire."
Kaiden grunted.
"Mr. Ellison, please don't try to speak until we get the tube out of your throat," Dr. Boyd urged.
The otter nodded to the nurse, who released the saline that kept the tube in place.
"On the count of three, I want you to blow out as hard as you can."
She counted, and on three Kaiden blew as the nurse extracted the tube, coughing and sputtering. He took a deep breath of the cool dry air of the hospital, his throat stinging with agitation. The top of the bed was inclined so he could sit up slightly.
His deep and slow breathing had an airy, almost haunting quality to it, but he was able to breath on his own. Kaiden noticed that he couldn't see the left side of the room. Holding his paw up to his left eye, all he could see what blackness. He turned back to the doctor confused.
"Mr. Ellison, you need to understand that when you were brought in, you were barely alive. And honestly, I don't quite understand how you are either. You have a very powerful will to live sir."
"But, you also need to understand what you suffered was the definition of catastrophic injury, so while we did keep you from perishing you are still very much critically injured," Boyd said, trying to inform with as best a bedside manner as possible.
"How long?" Kaiden whispered.
"You've been in a coma for a month," the doctor answered.
"My injuries?"
"Massive blood loss due to internal injuries. Your limbs were shredded, and I don't know if reconstructive surgery is even an option given the level of damage and your weakened state. The gunshot actually went between the hemispheres of your brain. Miraculous really. Also, a hematoma and brain swelling is why you are blind in your left eye," Boyd calmly explained.
Kaiden looked down to see that his arms were bandaged up from his paws to his shoulders. Faint and dry spots of leaking fluid had stained the gauze, and given that it was still doing this after a month of being comatose was not a good sign. His body was trying to fight and heal before the scar tissue would die and decay. Kaiden tilted the sheet up and looked down at his legs. Heavily bandaged as well, with fluid stains on the gauze. He knew what this meant: infection, sepsis, and a very painful death.
"How long doc?" Kaiden asked.
The otter doctor took a deep breath, not wanting to deliver the bad news.
"Doc?" Kaiden asked again.
"Days…a week, maybe two as most," Dr. Boyd answered as if delivering a death sentence.
Kaiden breathed heavy on hearing the news.
"I'm sorry Mr. Ellison. I've contacted Zootopia General, and perhaps they may have specialists that can help you," Dr. Boyd consoled.
Kaiden sat back on the bed looking up at the ceiling.
"If you need anything…If the pain…"
"I know the drill doc. I'll holler if I need something," Kaiden interrupted.
The nurse fitted Kaiden with a nasal cannula and adjusted a few of the machines that he was hooked up to. Both saddened, the doctor and nurse left, realizing that sometimes the best thing to do is leave the patient to come to grips with things on their own.
Kaiden sat in silence for a long time. He didn't know how long he sat there, the IV drip making him fall asleep several times only to jerk awake as discomforting dreams would find him. He inclined the bed enough to look across the room to the nearby mirror mounted on the wall. For the first time he saw the reality of his situation. Like his arms and legs, his head was wrapped up with thick bandages. A small tube filled with red fluid, presumably blood, was coming out of his head and into a nearby bag to drain the hematoma and keep his brain from swelling.
"So this is how it ends," he quietly muttered.
Kaiden took a moment to really consider those words, the finality of them.
"Really? I've never known you to be one for giving up," said a voice.
Kaiden craned his head towards the voice. It was a raccoon dressed in a sharp suit looking at Kaiden concerned.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"My name is Christopher Talmadge, and little do you know, I have been following you practically your entire life."
"What?!"
"I know… I mean, I knew… your parents," the raccoon answered.
Talmadge stepped out of the doorway and entered, closing the door behind him on his way in. He walked over to the bed and climbed up on the stool that the doctor used. He gave Kaiden a once over.
"I'm so sorry," he apologized.
"What for?"
"For not coming for you sooner."
"Who are you?" Kaiden asked again.
"I told you, my name is–"
"No, I mean who are you?" Kaiden asked, indicating he was meaning something else.
Talmadge looked down almost in shame, taking a sharp inhale as if in grief.
"You remember 'The Pit' don't you?" Talmadge asked as he cast his gaze back at Kaiden.
Kaiden huffed in amazement.
"Remember? I've been doing everything in my power to forget that place," he replied.
"Remember the final test, and the administrators that were behind the mirror?" Talmadge asked.
Kaiden didn't answer, just waiting for the raccoon's answer.
"I was one of the administrators of that program."
"So you're MIA. Come to finish the job?" Kaiden concluded.
Talmadge gave an almost defeated laugh.
"I guess I deserve that. I was MIA. In fact I was a lot of things, and it took a very wise mammal to show me how wrong I was."
"So what are you here for?" Kaiden asked, almost annoyed.
"To start a long journey towards making things right," Talmadge answered.
"You think your apology means anything to me. You think anything means anything to me?" Kaiden asked insultingly.
"I know about your current condition Kaiden. I know you're dying, and I'm here to make you an offer."
"Not interested," Kaiden said coldly, sitting back.
Talmadge looked behind him to see if anyone was there. After doing so, he leaned towards the fox's ear, grabbing him by the shoulder.
"Listen god damn it, this is bigger than you know. You think what happened to you was because Jarod was taking out revenge? This is so much larger than you. A group is doing this, a group that's been around a long time. Been part of every government, every law enforcement and intelligence organization. And they seem to have been around since the dawn of Zootopia. That has got to mean something to you."
Kaiden glared at Talmadge, gritting his teeth.
"Not my problem anymore. None of this is my problem, and I never wanted any of this. They took everything from me already."
Kaiden's anger gave way to tears. "Please, just let me die in peace."
Talmadge paused for a few moments. There was so much that needed saying, and the fox was seemingly in no mood to hear any of it.
"They took from you more than you know," Talmadge said cryptically.
"You don't want me to frame this in terms of the world and everyone else, fine. Then let me tell you the personal cost of what it was they took from you."
Kaiden looked at Talmadge with his good eye.
"Your parents. They weren't who they appeared to be. Robert and Kathleen were MIA agents."
"That's a fucking lie," Kaiden vehemently denied the accusation.
"It's the truth. Your parents were ex-MIA agents. They were my best friends, and when they wanted out, I did everything I could to get them out."
"Why? Why'd they quit then?"
"You of course. When Kathleen found out she was pregnant with you, she wanted out then and there, but Robert and I convinced her that if she and her husband were to leave so suddenly, it would look too suspicious. It took me ten fucking years to get them out of deep cover work and into lesser classified work," Talmadge explained.
"Import/Export?" Kaiden asked.
"Yes, by putting them there it gave enough time for the MIA to not consider them critical assets anymore, and it gave me the opportunity to have them quit without the MIA concerned about what they knew. And of course, as soon they got out, they packed up everything and got the hell out of Zootopia."
"To the burrows," Kaiden whispered.
"Yes, as far away from the big city and the MIA as possible. To get out of the way of history and out of 'that' world," Talmadge answered.
Kaiden huffed in disbelief. He had become accustomed to lies so much that while this new revelation surprised him, it made sense in a strange sort of way. There were many times he would ask his parents about what life was like before him and in the big city, but they generally steered the conversation away from the topic, phrasing that life there was frantic and stressful and that life in the burrows was 'better' and 'safer'. They had been trying to protect him from that world since he was born, trying to give their son a better life than what they endured.
Even knowing that they lied to him about their past, they did so because they loved their son, which make Kaiden love them that much more. Despite their efforts however, destiny had its own plans, and he felt sad that his parents' sacrifice seemed to be in vain.
"Thank you for telling me about my parents. It answers a lot of questions. Now please, just leave me alone," Kaiden replied, turning away from Talmadge and lying on his side.
Talmadge didn't try to continue. After a brief moment of tense silence, he stood up and pulled out a card, leaving it on the nearby rolling table that patients use to eat off of. The business card was white card stock with a phone number printed on it, as well as a black lion's head logo that simply had the number 13 written below it.
"If you change your mind, call this number."
"I assure you, I won't," Kaiden muttered.
"Just in case," Talmadge replied before stepping down from the stool to leave.
Kaiden waited for the raccoon to exit the room, hearing the click of the door latch. Now knowing the truth about his parents, he could finally grieve. The silence of the room filled with the soft whimpering and sobbing of the damaged fox.
Several Days Later…
Dr. Boyd appeared intermittently to supervise the nurses replacing Kaiden's bandages with fresh ones. Even though the surgery when they brought him in had removed the thousands of pieces of shrapnel and foreign objects, the sheer physical damage was enough for anything to occur, from opportunistic infection to scar tissue. The prognosis was clearly not good by the worried faces on the staff. It was simply management at this point, and there was really nothing that could be done to save the dying fox.
After dealing with the interesting humility of being given a sponge bath, the room was quiet again. Kaiden started to notice a routine of periodic activity; it would be quiet, then busy, then quiet again. Much like his life, he wondered if perhaps that's what life was in general: a series of moments, some quiet, others frenetic. He had his time to ponder on these kinds of thoughts at least until the final hours when all there would be was pain. But that time was seemingly distant, and for now, the peace and quiet of a solitary hospital room became his existence, and listening to the sound of his own breathing became the rhythm of life for him.
There was a tap at the door, interrupting the quiet of the room.
"Mr. Ellison?" The voice was Dr. Boyd, muffled from the other side of the door.
"Come in doc," Kaiden beckoned.
The otter opened the door and climbed up on the stool, sitting down on it.
"More bad news doc?" Kaiden asked.
"No, no. This I confess is more of a personal visit," he admitted.
Kaiden's eyebrow perked up.
"I knew your wife, Mr. Ellison."
"She did say she knew people at the hospital, colleagues," Kaiden remarked.
"Yes, we were colleagues. We worked on several research projects together. We were also friends, and we talked about each other's lives and the mammals in it," Dr. Boyd said.
"Thank you for being her friend, doc, I know she needed friends all the time I was away," Kaiden thanked.
"Call me Joseph," the otter replied with a smile.
"Well, Joseph, what can I do for you?" Kaiden asked, cutting to the point.
"I was not sure how I would tell you this, or if I even should. I reasoned you had enough grief to deal with, and the fact that in the end it doesn't matter anymore. But I figure if I was in your position, I would want to know."
"What are you getting at?"
"Did Lily manage to tell you why she saw me that morning? Why she was 'sick'?" Dr. Boyd inquired.
"No, she didn't even tell me that she saw you."
"Lily came to me with symptoms of nausea and what seemed to be a stomach virus, or so I thought, and I told her it would clear up in a couple days and that there was no problem. But the symptoms persisted, so I ran some blood work, and it was the morning of the fire that I found out what was making her 'sick'."
"Aw crap, don't tell me she had cancer or something," Kaiden shook his head.
Dr. Boyd snickered.
"No actually, something much more wonderful. Well at least, it was."
The otter wrested his paws and smacked his lips trying to work up the nerve to say it. Finally, after a moment of silence, he took a deep breath and looked the fox square in the eye.
"Lily was pregnant," he said softly.
Kaiden flashed back to that moment on the couch, to what Lily was wanting to tell him. 'That must have been it,' he thought.
"How is that possible?" Kaiden whispered.
"I don't know," Dr. Boyd replied.
"It shouldn't be, but her blood showed levels of mCG and other pregnancy hormones, so there was no mistake," Dr. Boyd continued. "She was pregnant, and I know that Lily loved you very much. She had always said that if she could she would find a way."
"I don't know what she did, or how, but she was brilliant, and if anyone could have figured it out, it was her. She loved you that much."
Kaiden took the news like a kick to the chest, feeling the wind knocked out of him. He teared up, wincing with physical and emotional pain. He started to sob softly, staring up at the ceiling and willing the suffering to go away. Even Dr. Boyd was caught up in the heat of the moment and teared up a bit.
"What happened to you and her was unfair. I don't pretend to know what business it is that you do. But what happened was an injustice, and I wish more than anything I could do something, anything to help you. Because I can't stand the thought of the mammals who attacked you getting away with it. I'm deeply sorry. I know I'm supposed to remain professionally detached, but she was my dear friend," the otter said, choking up on a few words. He cupped a paw over his mouth and started to shed a few tears.
Kaiden looked out the nearby window with misty eyes. He saw the moon staring down at him through the glass. He would often think back to those nights he sat in his cot during training, wondering if Lily was looking up at the moon as the same moment. It seemed Kaiden was faced with a choice, yet again brought before the crossroads to consider the options and possibilities. Death, or a fate worse than death. Lily was gone, the last light in his heart taken from him. The mammals who did this might as well have pierced his heart and forced the love to flow from the wound. All there was now was sadness, and sheer pain. They couldn't be allowed to get away with this. They couldn't be allowed to drive this pain onto others, and to create whatever horrors they have planned. This wasn't about altruism, about doing the right thing. No, this was about Lily, and not seeing this repeat itself the world over. To watch from the eternal rest as others lament over their lost loves and lost families, knowing that he could have done something, that he should have done something, anything to prevent it, filled him with a renewed sense of determination.
In his heart of hearts, if Lily could speak to him now, he knew what she would say. "Do what you need to, to survive."
"I love you Lily…I love you so much," he thought to the moon, that in some time, some place, she would hear it.
Kaiden turned back to Dr. Boyd.
"Hey doc, you can do something for me."
"What is it, what can I do?" the otter asked.
Kaiden motioned towards the nearby table, with the small business card on it.
"Call the number…Tell them, I changed my mind."
Sometime later…
The offer that Talmadge had made was something of a mystery, and for good reason too. Had he said anything more during the time of his visit Kaiden likely would have scoffed or rejected it outright as abominable. But after listening to his heart and the reality of his situation, his mindset changed. It didn't matter what it was, nor what was being asked of him. As long as he could bring Lily's killers to justice, they could carve out a piece of his soul if necessary. And perhaps in many ways, that's exactly what they did.
Cybernetic Augmentation, the wave of the future and the first step to self-controlled biological evolution, or so the futurists say. Going by how they would phrase it, one would think it almost a blessing, and maybe on some level it would be. The ability to surpass normal biological limitation, to correct a defect granted by genetics, or even bypass death all together. However, one would be foolish to not take into account the societal changes such technology would bring. But philosophy class was not what was on Kaiden's mind. Even saving his own life was not important to him anymore. As far as he was concerned, his life was lost the moment Lily died, but there was some part of her calling out to him, something from the hereafter. He understood and accepted the level of augmentation that would be required. Even for this organization that Talmadge worked for, other agents had an arm or a leg replaced. Even two appendages was within the realm of possibility. But Kaiden's case was one that, if successful, would be one for the record books.
Kaiden didn't remember much after they transported him to the underground bunker, a place called 'Bureau 13'. He couldn't help but think that it was a fittingly cryptic name for a cryptic group. It was created many years ago by a small corps of agents from various groups, mainly the MIA. The signing of a federal executive order, officially called 'Executive Order 60659', also known as the 'Bureau 13 Creation Order' or the 'Double Blind Contingency', was what officially started the clandestine organization. The idea in short was that an agency operated separately from the government that employs it. The agency's existence is even kept secret, and only known by a select few. This obfuscation would prevent such a group from being infiltrated, and moreover, make it capable of acting against any kind of infiltration into the government and other organizations in Zootopia. While given a high degree of latitude, their responsibilities are explicit: to find threats to Zootopia and its interests, and prevent such threats from carrying out their plans. However, Bureau 13's ability to depend on other segments of Zootopian government is limited, hence the use of more stealthy solutions where possible.
Kaiden underwent several surgeries to stop his body from killing itself. The first and rather obvious one was the removal of his now dying limbs, which at this point were decaying and thus toxifying the remaining living tissue. A quadruple amputation, the removal of both arms at the shoulders and both legs at the hips, leaving the remaining torso and head. In any other circumstance, one would wonder what quality of life a mammal would have, but these were extraordinary circumstances. The joints were capped off, and metal attachment points were anchored to the joint bone, additional reinforcement added both above and below the tissue. The limbs themselves were made of made of metal, polymers and carbon fiber laminate over the metal structure. The augmentations were not limited to the external either. His internal organs were heavily modified as well. His lungs were revamped with an implanted rebreather to filter out toxins and even be exposed to zero oxygen environments for a short time. Angiogenic protein stimulation for accelerated healing, electrochemical conversion to allow food energy to be able to power the mechanisms, retinal prosthesis for enhanced and augmented vision modes, and much more. There wasn't a part of his body that hadn't been augmented in some way. Even his brain was augmented with a brain-machine interface chip that joined the organic to the synthetic, bonding electrodes to his central nervous system to allow the augments to not be simple prosthetics, but an extension of his very being.
It was quite literally brain surgery, which unearthed his memories and dreams. While the surgeons worked to fix his body, his mind drifted to her, the way she felt, the way she laughed, her scent, her taste, all the memories of days and nights gone by. The passion, the fire, sadness that dwelled within him that she alone could cure. The rage and frustration burning, he could feel his teeth grit and his fists clench. Desiring to kill Jarod for what he had done, for whom he had taken.
Kaiden opened his eyes, the grogginess of the whole ordeal still making his eyes feel heavy. He was in a lone hospital bed, the room dim with no light save for the fluorescent lamp softly buzzing above the bed, casting its diffuse light and barely illuminating the entirety of the room. There was an eerie quiet about the place. The twenty-four hour clock showed that it was past midnight. It would make sense to have such clocks due to the absence of windows, at least none that Kaiden could see. There would have to be some way to tell day from night. The feeling he got from the place was that it was underground. He wasn't quite sure how, but he could almost feel the mountain of dirt above and around him just outside the concrete walls.
He looked around. He was hooked up to an IV and heart monitor, but gone were the plethora of machines from his old room. There was a slight pain everywhere, and his whole body ached. Feeling stiff and stretched like taffy in a pulling machine, even breathing caused a slight twinge.
"I assure you it will get better," said a familiar voice from the nearby doorway.
Kaiden craned his head and looked at the figure, recognizing him immediately from his silhouette.
"You of all people would be the last I would expect here," Kaiden replied.
"I suffered from my own hubris, and what happened to me was not to be expected," said the voice.
The figure stepped out of the doorway and came over to Kaiden's bed. It was a large grizzly bear. He had been injured some time ago, bearing his own set of scars and disfigurements, the most obvious of which was the fact that his arms had been replaced with cybernetic augments. Scarring was visible on his face, neck and chest, at least going by what little that peeked from above the collar of the shirt he was wearing.
"So…what are you doing here Kerberos?" Kaiden asked.
"I came to see you. When I heard that you had been injured and that you had decided to join up, I just had to see you," Kerberos answered.
"I'm touched," Kaiden replied sarcastically.
"I deserve that. Actually I deserve a lot more than that. After what I put your children through, I don't deserve a second chance," the bear said plainly.
Kaiden's eyebrow perked up. He had known Humphrey Kerberos as many things. A hard ass, a cruel taskmaster, and even a downright aggressive son of a bitch, but never once had he seen the expression that was on the bear's face right now: regret. Regret with a side helping of humility. Kaiden was a bit more receptive, that and the fact that he was in a hospital bed.
"I guess one of the reasons I wanted to see you was, I wanted to say… I'm sorry," Kerberos apologized.
Kaiden was shocked. He apologized, he actually apologized for something. Admitting wrongdoing was also not something Kaiden had known the bear to ever do, not in all the years during his time in 'the Pit'.
"Why?" Kaiden asked.
"Because of what I did," Kerberos replied matter of factly.
"No, not that, I mean why do you even feel bad about it now?" Kaiden clarified.
"Because sometimes blind faith can make you rationalize things that you shouldn't, and I was a patriot Kaiden, zealous even. I did what I did because I believed in what they were selling, that what I was doing was in the service of Zootopia. That even as sins go, it would make all the difference later. I believed, even when they asked me to do even worse things for them later."
"Worse than child abuse? Worse than turning children into weapons, weapons that would then be pointed at innocent people to make room for what, some kind of new world order?" Kaiden scoffed.
"In short, yes. Because while what I did to you in many ways made you stronger, at least it produced something for that effort. Every single one of you became stronger as a result. I'm not saying that excuses me, but it created something, and that at least is something productive. All the years after were spent destroying something," Kerberos explained.
"And that is?"
"The world, the structure of it. The small little places of peace and tranquility, because we were told that our way was the best and the only way. I believed in the lie just like you. I knew on some level it was wrong, but I ignored it same as you."
"So what changed?"
"Same as you. I awoke. Opened my eyes one day and realized the truth of what I was doing. I lost the zeal, the commitment, and eventually the focus, which caught up with me rather quickly," Kerberos replied, holding up his cybernetic paws as proof.
"So what made you join this outfit?"
"We all have the same motivations here. We joined up to do many things, but ultimately, because we wanted to serve and protect, to make the world a better place. And we realize now that we broke it. WE broke it, not any one of us, but a group effort of many people, across multiple disciplines, all running blindly towards it. Why are we here you ask? Because we all realize our part in this, even you. And just like you, we want to work at helping to fix it," Kerberos said.
Kaiden weakly reached up with his paw to grab the side rail to his bed and was stunned, seeing the prosthesis for the first time. Flexing the fingers and rotating his wrist, it felt like his paw. It moved like it, but it was made of metal and polymer. His pawpads had a rough feel to them to replicate his old ones. Touching the metal rail felt cold, it actually felt cold. The fact that he could feel anything at all was a shock, but whatever process that was allowing him to feel was able to do so pretty accurately compared to before.
Kerberos saw the expression on the fox's face.
"That was the other reason I wanted to be here."
"What, to see me marvel?"
"No, to help you through this."
"Through what?"
"Using them, training with them. Simply walking is going to be harder than you think," The bear informed.
"You offering to train me again? Is that it?" Kaiden asked.
"Kaiden, despite what you think about me, training the next generation is what I do. Imparting my knowledge and experience to allow others to achieve. I can't make up for the past, and I can apologize a thousand times, and it won't change what I did or what happened. But if you let me, we can change how it goes from here."
"It's not like I have a choice anyway," Kaiden muttered.
"No, I guess you don't. But I would rather you be a willing participant this time, especially since willpower will be a major factor here."
Kaiden heaved a sigh, noticing the clear irony and seemingly cyclical nature of the universe. How the crossroads of our lives seem to come right back at us again and again, each time a new chance at the road. Does one go right or left, forward or back, and how attitudes and beliefs can make all the difference in the world. At the very least he would work with the old bear to learn his new capabilities. It's not like they left him with an owner's manual.
Three months later…
Training with Humphrey Kerberos wasn't exactly what Kaiden expected, not just because part of it felt more like physical therapy than military training. Learning to walk again, to grasp things gently without crushing them, etc. The power of the augmentations was nothing that could be denied, but finer control, things like picking up a fork and using it to eat, or drinking from a glass without shattering it in a paw, that was something else.
But despite all of that, there was something different about Kaiden's training regimen than the content: patience. Kerberos was patient with Kaiden, and in fact all of the recruited agents that were in various states of augmentation were patient with him. Where in the past Kerberos was cold and hard, even cruel, none of that existed here. He was kind, patient, even compassionate. Kaiden wondered exactly what caused such a complete inversion of his personality. He concluded something bad must have happened, something that shook the bear to his core.
During their training, Kaiden had slowly but surely tried to get him to talk about it, but the bear would always change the subject and even sometimes tell Kaiden to drop it. Kerberos knew what the fox was digging for, and Kaiden considered the bear would give him an answer eventually.
The pair had been paged to Director Talmadge's office. Walking through the halls past the command center, they arrived at the raccoon's office, standing 'at ease' in front of the mahogany desk. The raccoon had flipped through the last few pages of a file.
"These are your copies," the raccoon gestured toward the more appropriately sized copies of the file on his desk.
The pair picked them up and began to review them. A picture of a red-furred squirrel caught their attention.
"Do you know a mammal named Milton Hamilton?" Talmadge asked Kaiden.
"Isn't he some big time tech mogul?" the fox replied.
"Was," Talmadge replied.
"Was?"
"Lucas Technologies purchased Hamilton Industries, a hostile takeover. Milton Hamilton Sr. had died a year earlier and left the company to his son. Milton Hamilton Jr. had been working an incredibly brilliant bit of programming. Basically, it's a publicly available encryption scheme that, and here's the kicker, doesn't have any kind of government back door into it. Apparently Junior doesn't trust the system any more than we do."
"Ok, so what does that have to do with us? Didn't that happen like, I don't know, two, three years ago?" Kaiden asked.
"Four," Talmadge corrected.
"Ok, four. Point is the company was bought, and Junior here, didn't he just go off into obscurity? Probably enjoying his fat bank account," Kaiden said.
"Actually, the director and I believe that Milton Hamilton was abducted, and the story of his 'riding off into the sunset' planted for the sake of explaining his disappearance," Kerberos clarified.
Kaiden nodded and looked back at the file.
"What the hell does Lucas Technologies want with a twenty-one year old kid?" Kaiden asked.
"Not Lucas Technologies, but rather the mammals behind the corporation," Talmadge put rather delicately.
"Kaiden, perhaps there is something that needs a bit of explaining. We've discovered that there is a group of mammals, across many areas and disciplines of influence, who are working together for some kind of goal that as of yet we haven't figured out," Kerberos explained.
"Have you ever heard of a group called the 'Council of Five'? Or perhaps by their more colloquial name, the Illuminati?" Talmadge asked.
Kaiden's head snapped to match his gaze with the raccoon, displaying a stern expression.
"I take it from your reaction, you have," Talmadge replied, answering his own question.
"You could say that. Just before Jarod, that bastard, shot me in the head, he said that's who he worked for. In fact, he said that's who we've always been working for, that they ran the MIA. Hell, by his reckoning they run all of Zootopia."
There was a thick pause in the room. Kaiden waited for at least one of them to set him straight. He shot a glance back and forth between Kerberos and Talmadge, neither taking the opportunity.
"Well, he's not far off," Talmadge said, breaking the silence.
Kaiden's brow perked in surprise.
"We have known for some time now that there is a group of powerful mammals who have been trying to manipulate society from behind the scenes. We aren't sure when they established themselves. In fact, there is a very concerning notion they may have actually been in their position since Zootopia's founding. In either case, they have been attempting to elicit more and more control over everyday forces that run not just the city, but the entire planet. And we have come to the conclusion that such a position is not in our best interests," Talmadge explained.
"So, they're literally the invisible paw, the power behind the throne, the um…masters of the world or something to that effect?" Kaiden asked flippantly.
"Correct."
"Ok…Well let's let that nightmare sink in for a second. What are we supposed to do about it?"
"They're not invincible, Mr. Ellison. They are just mammals made of flesh and blood. Powerful yes, and with a wide range of resources, but that hasn't stopped us before, nor has it even stopped you when you worked for the MIA. It requires the smart use of tactics and resources, but there is an answer to find. The question is can we be smart, strong and fast enough to find and use it?" Talmadge said confidently.
"And luck, luck helps too," Kerberos added.
"Well I think we'll need plenty of that," the raccoon nodded.
"Well I knew the other paw was going to drop at some point, just didn't realize how big of a drop it would be," Kaiden remarked.
"This isn't just about you Kaiden. It's about Zootopia. It's about all of us. We rise or fall together. You need to understand that nothing is more important than the security and safety of Zootopia and its citizens. Not you, not me, not any of us. I think deep down you believe that too," Kerberos said.
Talmadge pulled a patch out of his desk and slid it across to Kaiden. The patch would become the symbol that would define his life from this moment on.
The patch had a stylized white-furred lion head on it with a mane of black, the number '13' embroidered below it, and words written in a circular alignment along the edge.
"Cum Animus Et Ferocia Nos Tueri Zootopia"
"With Courage and Ferocity We Protect Zootopia"
Kaiden took the patch from the desk and studied it for a moment. Feeling the sensation of the patch in his newly minted mechanical arm, it seemed purpose found him again right when he needed it.
"OK…Let's get started."