"So, you really had no knowledge of any plans to siege the mall and make the ones inside of it hostage?" Marceli asked, looking at the two tigers that were sitting before him.
"No clue." Tyrell said, looking at the fox.
"Seriously, do you actually think that we had anything to do with that?" He asked, looking at the two foxes that stood before him and his brother. "I mean, the guys took me hostage as well, right?"
"It could have been a ruse." Emilia said, "A smokescreen to hide the fact that you were helping them."
"I was not!" Tyrell said; feeling a bit offended that they actually could suggest something like that.
"None of us had anything to do with that." Tyson said, as he and Tyrell both looked at the others. "We would never put Gazelle in risk. She is our friend."
"Yes, we know that." Marceli said, and he looked at the two tigers. "Still, you must understand that this is something that we have to ask." He said, and looked at the two, and Tyson and Tyrell both had to agree that the tod did had a point.
It was not as if he came to question them out of his own initiative, by the way. They knew that the Association had asked them to question the mages in the mall, for that was what the foxes said as soon as they told that they wanted to question them.
Therefore, the tigers went without hesitation, and they soon were answering their questions.
It started with things that were basic, like what they were doing on that morning, and why they specifically decided to go to the mall on that specific morning. Of course, no problem answering to these questions, once they were perfectly natural to be ask in a situation like that.
The questions were gradually becoming more direct with time, as they asked if they had knowledge of something that would happen on that day, or if they had been contact by anyone to talk about anything on the matter.
Their specific focus was:
"And has your cousin really not contacted you before?" Marceli asked, as both he and Emilia looked at the two tigers.
Of course, that in particular was a matter of interest. Zane Tigereye was a member of the Tigereye clan, and he was a relative to the tigers. Of course, it was to be expect that they would be asking if they had any contact with him in the days before the sieging of the mall, in which he was already confirm of having a direct participation.
"We haven't had any contact with him in years." Tyson said, as both he and Tyrell continued to answer the questions. Marceli looked at them with evaluating eyes, but there was no mistrust in them, unlike in the eyes of his niece, who seemed to be more suspicious of these two than her uncle was.
After a while of questioning, in which the tigers answered to the best of their skills, they finally were let out, and were told to ask the other two to come.
The tigers got up and walked to the door.
In the living room, Gazelle was sitting in a table. Tyler and Tyrone in there with her, and the two cops were also in there, sitting in a chair on the same table.
All eyes turned to the two as they walked out of the door.
"Yeah, they are pretty much done with us." Tyrell said, "They said that now is your turn."
Gazelle looked at the other two tigers, while Tyler and Tyrone simply nodded, and they both got up, walking to the door as their brothers walked out. The four passed by each other, as Tyler and Tyrone walked in, and Tyson and Tyrell both walked to the table, to sit by Gazelle's side.
They had been spending the day with Gazelle, once they all believed that they could not leave her alone after what she had been through on the previous day. They had been surprised when the enforcers and the cops came knocking on their door. Even more when they said that they had to question them.
Gazelle, of course, was as surprised as they were, and somewhat more outraged.
They actually through that the boys had anything to do with that? How ludicrous!
Still, she soon saw herself made to accept that this was happening, as well as her tigers. They knew that it was orders from the Association, and so, there was no going around this. The enforcers were only doing their job. They had also questioned others before they went in there, and this somehow relieved the tigers. As if it let them know that they were not the main suspects, and neither that the enforcers or the Association suspected of any of them specifically.
So, the four tigers all agreed to be questioned over the events of the mall.
Now, for questioning the tigers, the enforcers chose for a different approach, as they would question them two at a time. They would start with the ones that were already on the mall when it was siege, and then they would question the other two, who entered later on to help the others.
Probably to avoid them combining their story... Nick thought to himself as he and Judy heard this strategy of the enforcers.
So, they started with questioning Tyson and Tyrell first in one of the bedrooms, while Tyler and Tyrone waited in the living room, with Gazelle and the two cops.
It had been a torturous twenty minutes as they waited for the interrogation to end, and as soon as the first two came out, the other two knew that it was their cue to go in and be question themselves.
Now, as the enforcers questioned Tyler and Tyrone, Tyson and Tyrell were sitting on the table with the other three, all of them in a heavy silence. One that was starting to unnerve the cops.
"So, mages truly are all over society, right?" Nick asked, trying to break the silence. This caused everyone in the table to look at him. "I mean, four of them working with a popstar as her dancers/bodyguards, right? Seriously, I would never have guessed that you guys are mages."
The tigers looked at him, and the one who would shrug and talk was Tyson. "Well, that was kind of the point, you know?" He said, as he looked at the fox, "The point of being a mage is kind of keeping yourself under the radar and not having anyone suspect that you are a user of magecraft... Even the ones that are closer to you."
Nick noticed that as he spoke that, he cast a look at Gazelle, and he knew what this means. Judy also noticed that, and she was the one who asked.
"So... you didn't knew about it, Miss Gazelle?"
Normally, Judy would be excited to talk with Gazelle, once she had always admired the singer, as she was a source of inspiration for her. She was still a bit excited, but she knew that she had to keep professional, for she was there in duty. Still, she could not help but ask a question when it came to her mind.
Gazelle looked at the bunny as she answered.
"I only found out on the day that the interview of Zillah Ferron came on air." The popstar said to the bunny, "Tyson and I were watching the interview, when all of sudden Tyson turned the tv off and said that he needed to talk to me."
She cast a glance at the tiger sitting by her side.
"That was when he told me everything."
"I see..." Judy said, still looking at the gazelle on the table. "It must have been... quite a surprise."
"It was." Gazelle confirmed, "At first I even thought that he was kidding, but then I saw that he was serious. I must confess, for a while. I didn't knew what to think."
"I even thought that she would want to cut ties with us." Tyson said, and it was obvious that they thought saddened him. Gazelle looked at him, and placed a hoof on his paw.
"I would never do it, Tyson." She said, and the tiger looked at her. "Not after all that you guys did for me. Not after all we went through together."
The cops looked at this, and Nick spoke next:
"So, you guys looked for a job as dancers for a popstar, right?" He said, causing the eyes to turn to him once more. "What? The Association was not paying your bills anymore?"
"Yeah, we are not exactly a famous clan." Tyrell said, "We were never really that influent or important, and we didn't made any contribution that would make us gain money with some patents. So, we had to find some jobs."
"It turned out that the four of us really loved to dance, and we wanted to work with something of the like." Tyson said, "We've known Gazelle ever since we all were teenagers, and we've been friends ever since. We were becoming professional dancers at the same time that she was starting her career, so when she called us to be her dancers we accepted right away. Our careers took off along with hers'."
"Now we are the famous 'Gazelle tiger dancers'." Tyrell said, and he smiled at this, "Known by everyone as the handsome and skilled dancers that are always with her. Of course, this does not stop the other mages of thinking of us as a laughing stock, for 'denigrate our image' by putting these shorts and dancing for a crowd at the sound of music."
The tiger had a bit of a resentment on his voice as he spoke that, and Nick was the one who answered to that.
"Oh... so, they are not great fans of dancers?" The fox asked.
"They are not fan of anything that has to do with exposition." Tyson said, "Just like they are not fan of anything that could be considered a distraction from the duties and works of a mage. They think that we are wasting our times by making fools of ourselves by dancing on a stage, and that we could better use this time by dedicating ourselves to studies and perfecting our craft, like a good mage would."
Nick and Judy shared a look at this, as they could understand, kind of, what he meant. They were learning a lot of how mages thought and behaved.
"So, you guys are not like these traditional, career oriented mage families, right?" Nick asked, and Tyrell was the one who answered:
"The Tigereye clan was never considered as one of those." He said, looking at the two cops. "Honestly, I don't even know why they care if we become dancers or not. I mean, is not like they ever have any contact with us unless they want cubs, anyway."
"What?" Judy asked, looking at the tigers, and the one who explained was Tyson:
"The Tigereye clan is a family of tigers that work mostly as reproductive providers." He said, looking at the two cops, "You see, mage families are very careful with their breeding, as they want the ones siring their cubs to be mages with good pedigree, capable of giving them better mage cubs. They have been doing that for a while, and the older ones can be quite demanding with who will sire the cubs. So much that, sometimes, inbreeding might become a problem."
"To solve this, they have some special families around." He continued, "Families like the Tigereye. We are not families who get directly involved in political dances or are known for our achievements, but we are kept around by other families of mages with the purpose of adding new blood to their clans when needed."
"We are basically sperm donors." Tyrell said, "Only you take the product right from the source."
"Oh..." Judy said, and she only... stared at them.
"I had a similar reaction when they told me that part." Gazelle admitted, seeing how the bunny was trying to process what she just heard.
"So, basically a mage woman wants to have cubs and she calls one of you guys to knock her up?" Nick asked, as he too was trying to get a grip on what they were telling.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Tyrell confirmed, "They pay us good money for it. I don't complain, although sometimes it does makes me feel like a gigolo."
Nick was silent after that, and the next question was ask by Judy.
"But, wait." She said, looking at the tigers, "This meant, you have cubs out there?"
"Tyrell has." Tyson said, gesturing to his brother. "And so does Tyson. The 'jobs', if you can call them that way, do not appear very frequently, it is only when a clan really need heirs and don't want to go through a marriage."
"And, you talk to them?" She asked, looking at them, "To your cubs, I mean?"
"Not really." Tyrell said, "We only act as reproductive partners, and after that, our job is pretty much done. They don't need us to help raise the cubs, and they don't really want alimony or anything. We just get the money and go our separate ways."
"So... you basically never see your own cubs again?" Judy said, finding the concept to be a hard to grasp one. She could not understand how they could be okay with having cubs out there and never even talking to them.
"Only if the family allows." Tyrell said, "Or when the family is not satisfied and gives the cub to us."
"Say what now?" Nick asked, looking at them, and Tyson sighed, before saying:
"The goal is to have an heir that is fitting in the eyes of the family." The tiger explained, "Sometimes the family is not satisfied with the cub, and so, they give the cub back to us. Of course, sometimes this means we have to try again, or return their money."
"They just give the cub away to you?" Judy asked, "This is so cold!"
"Hey, that was how we were born." Tyrell said, to her, "Dad had to knock up some tigress from a really important clan, and he did a good job. Maybe too good."
"She gave birth to a litter of five cubs." Tyson said, "A really big litter for a tiger, and more than her family was expecting. They decided to keep only one of the cubs and give the other four back to our dad. This way, our brother became the heir of that clan, while the rest of us became the next generation of the Tigereye clan."
"Wow..." Nick said, as he and Judy continued to stare at the tigers. Tyrell then said:
"This also happened to Tyler." He spoke, speaking about his brother, "That is how he got Marshall."
"Who?" Nick asked.
"Marshall." Gazelle said, looking at the cops, "He is Tyler's son... Well, one of them."
The popstar sighed, as she looked at the side, and she caught sight of the little tiger cub that was in a corner, playing with some crayons. Tyler had brought him when he come, for despite being worried with his friend he knew that he could not leave his cub alone. The cub was around four or five years old and, as most cubs of that age, he was not very attentive to what happened around him. He noticed when the new mammals came, but he was more focus on his drawings than on what the adults on the room were talking about. It seemed that he didn't even knew what they were talking about.
"I remember when he came along. It was five years ago. Tyler had to go away for a while. He had to take care of a business, was what he told me, and none of the others would tell where he was or what was this 'business' he was taking care off. He came back a few months later, with a newly born cub."
"He said he met a tigress in there and that she had gotten pregnant, but gave the boy to her because she couldn't afford to take care of him. I never questioned. They only told me the whole story a few months ago." Gazelle said.
"Tyler had been hired to sire an heir for a family." Tyson explained, "He knocked her up, and she ended up giving birth to twins. The family was rather new, and they didn't had a lot of resources, they could only afford to take care of one cub, not two, even because it would be more convenient in the time of passing down their magic crest."
"So, they kept one of the cubs and gave the other to Tyler, for him to raise as his son." Tyrell said.
"'To raise as his son'?" Just asked, looking at them, "But… the boy is his son!"
"Yeah, he indeed is." Tyson said, "He is Marshall Tigereye, of the Tigereye clan, while his twin now is exclusively a member of that other clan, to be their heir and to have nearly no contact to the Tigereye clan, possibly even looking down on us, like most mage families do."
Judy blinked, as she and Nick looked at the tigers.
This what they had just presented to them sounded like... something. And there was the fact that the tigers spoke of it with a lot of neutrality. It let them understand that, to them, this was consider perfectly normal.
"I reacted like that when they told me too." Gazelle said, seeing the expressions of the two cops, and after that, there was a brief silence in the room.
"That's... wow." Nick said, once more being the one to break the silence.
"I mean... I don't think I would be able to do that. I mean, if I know that there is a kit of mine around, I'd like to be part of their lives."
"You're not the only one, Wilde." Tyrell said, and he had a hint of sadness in his voice, "But, things are the way they are."
Nick and Judy remained in a respectful silence as they looked at the other tiger, and now, it was Tyson who broke the silence.
"Yeah, we do have our things." Tyson said, "Being mages and having this kind of life. Luckily Gazelle really accepted us the way we are." He said, as he patted the popstar on the shoulder, and Gazelle smiled back at him.
"I always will." She said to her tiger friend. "I'll always support you guys, no matter what. After all, it is not like you stopped being the kind tigers I've always known only for being mages."
Tyson smiled back at her, and Tyrell said:
"Yeah, if at least the other guys thought like you..." He said that, and everyone turned to him, the cops in particular.
"Yeah... the rest of the team having been acting a bit... different since they found out we are mages." Tyson said, looking at the cops, "The stage crew, the guys on the backstage, Gazelle's manager."
"They need some time to get used." Gazelle said, "I'm sure that they will all understand in time. The boys never give any of us reason to mistrust them."
"Gazelle keeps telling them that they have nothing to worry about." Tyrell said, "But, they still act as if they had very good reasons to fear us."
"So I'll continue telling them they have no reason to until they realize it themselves." Gazelle said, and the expression on her face said that she truly was serious on that.
Judy and Nick both shared a look, and they nodded.
As if on cue, the door opened, and the two enforcers got out, followed by the other two tigers.
"Well, we already asked them all that we needed." Marceli said, looking at the cops. "I guess we can leave now. Thank you all for your time." He said to Gazelle and to the tigers, and soon, the four mammals were walking out the door, leaving the popstar with her tigers, as well as the little cub in there, which waved bye-bye at them as they left.
As they walked away, the cops and enforcers talked to each other.
"Did you guys knew that the Tigereye boys are paid to get tigresses knocked up?" Nick asked, and Emilia looked back at him.
"Of course we do." She said to him, as if it was something obvious. "They are quite known for being a family with whom you can rely if you want to have quality offspring."
"So, are things like that accepted among mages?" Judy asked, and Marceli nodded.
"It is not that uncommon, both in our world and in yours." He said, looking at the bunny as they walked into the elevator.
"You don't have to look too hard to find cases where single parents raise their children without any help of the other parent. In some cases, things like that might even be wanted. The amount of reproductive clinics around is somewhat of a proof of that."
"But still, that men would go around leaving their cubs out there and never seeing them again..." Judy said, and Emilia looked at her.
"You kidding? That's like, their greatest fantasy!" The vixen said, looking at her, "They get laid, get paid for it, and they don't have any responsibility later on."
"You know, she's got a point." Nick said, causing Judy to look at her. "Some guys would really love to do that... not me, of course."
"Well, some guys do." She said, "And some gals as well. Yeah, because the men also need heirs and sometimes they don't want to get married."
"Either way, it is considered a common practice to keep such families around to introduce new blood in ancient clans when needed." Marceli said, "It is a practice that started in the middle ages, and is still kept by some clans. Families like the Tigereye are considered important in this aspect, once they make sure that other lineages will continue strong."
"Even though some do consider them jokes for having become dancers for a popstar." Emilia said, and Nick and Judy both took on this news.
They now had a better idea on what Zane Tigereye meant when he said that his cousins were "disgraces". He was talking about their choice on careers, on which some mages clearly looked down.
"Okay then... so, what now?" Nick asked, as he reflected on all of the ones that they went to see in the past hours.
They started with Bucky, and then moved to Mrs. Hopps, then to Nick's own mother, and now they had just interviewed the dancers.
However, before coming to see the tigers, they had stopped at the Rainforest District.
They had stopped in there because there was another mage that they needed to see, and that one was no one else than Chloe Fanghanel, the wife of Eliot Fanghanel.
They arrived at her home right at the time that she was at the phone with her husband, and it seemed that Eliot had heard at least part of what they said to her while she answered the door. He had heard enough to know that they were questioning his wife.
He sounded a bit frantic as his wife talked to him on the phone, before she hung up and turned her full attention to the mammals in her room.
She understood very well that they needed to ask her questions, and that they were only doing their job. She was nice to them and even offered a snack, in case they wanted.
The questions proceeded much like the previous ones.
However, the questioning only lasted for around ten minutes, before the door burst open and Eliot walked inside.
The wolf looked at the enforcers, asking them why they were treating his wife like a criminal, questioning her without his presence.
It took a while for Chloe to calm him down enough so he was not hostile towards the enforcers, as all of the four mammals looked at the wolf, who was glaring daggers at the enforcers.
Soon, the questioning resumed, and this time Eliot stood by his wife's side all along, supporting her and glaring at the enforcers each time the questions they asked went to a direction, as if they suggested that Chloe had anything to do with that.
Still, the questioning was pretty uneventful, and in a matter of minutes the enforcers had got all the answers that they needed from Chloe Fanghanel.
Soon, they were on their way out, but not before the cops had a final word with Chloe and with Eliot. The wolf was still a bit hostile towards the enforcers, for considering his wife a suspect, but he relaxed after the two cops explained to him that it had been orders of the Association, and that it was merely a protocol.
This was enough to make the wolf relax. Also, he seemed to forget a bit from the enforcers as he saw how well along Judy and Chloe were getting. It seemed that the gals were really getting along, even though they had just met.
"I knew that you two would get along!" Eliot said, happy all of sudden. "This is so great! Maybe now we can go in a double date! Me and my Pumpkin with you and Nick! We can share stories, talk, eat! Maybe I can even give you and Nick some tips for when you are in bed! I know that Pumpkin and I have a lot of suggestions!"
Judy and Nick didn't even had time to be embarrassed, for immediately after Eliot said these words, something flew and hit the wolf in the head, sending him to the ground.
It was a fork.
"Sorry about that." Chloe said, apologizing to the two, as they looked at the wolf on the ground, who looked dazed with the fork stuck on his forehead and already starting to bleed.
These two were really something. Eliot way more than Chloe, but still...
Right after that, they went to see the tigers, and now, there they were.
"Maybe we could try contacting Lana Bellwether and the Orphans." Judy suggested, "I mean; they were there as well, right?"
"It would be too hard." Marceli said to her, "The Orphans are famous for their ability of staying out of sight, even from the Association. The proof of it is that we weren't aware of their inner scission until Lana Bellwether herself came and told us that. If she hadn't, we would probably have taken months to find out about this."
"The guys only appear when they want to." Emilia concluded, looking at the two cops.
"What about her sister?" Nick suggested, causing the eyes to turn to him. "I mean, she was in there as well, right?"
Yes, it was true. Dawn Bellwether was in there as well, that much they knew.
"Yes, perhaps." Marceli said, "We'll be going there to talk to her later."
"Why not now?" Nick asked, and the two enforcers looked at the two cops, and after a while, Nick and Judy started to understand what it was.
"Because we are still with you guys." Nick said, looking at the two, and, after a brief silence, Marceli was walking.
"After the events of New Den Plaza, Dawn Bellwether was moved into a safe location, where she is going to be held until this all is shorted out and we'll be able to carry on with our original mission." He explained to them, and the cops looked back at him.
"And, we can't know where this 'safe location' is?" Nick asked, as both he and Judy looked at the other two foxes.
"It is a property of a certain mage." Emilia said, looking at them. "He is is oout of the city to take care of business and agreed to let the ewe stay in there as a favor, as long as we didn't informed anyone of that."
"And this mage is..." Judy asked, not being able to help but ask the question that was coming to her mind.
"Someone who values his privacy." Marceli answered, "So much that he wants to make sure that no one other than the necessary know that he is housing Bellwether. This, of course, means that we can't share this information with the ZPD. Even because, he doesn't wants his property to become target to vandalism for others learning that he is a mage."
"The guy is kind of a public figure." Emilia said to them, "He is planning on revealing himself as a mage publicly, but not now. Until then, he really want his status to remain a secret. Hope you guys understand."
The two shared a look among themselves. They didn't liked the fact that the Enforcers were once more hiding things from them, but still, they could understand that a mage would still want to keep their identity a secret. Still, they both would at least be able to know where Bellwether was being kept, as if to be sure that she wouldn't escape.
"Don't worry." Emilia said to them, as if she sensed their little worry. "She won't be going anywhere; Krys got an eye on her. He won't let her escape or anything."
Nick and Judy once more shared a look, just as the elevator stopped on the first floor.
"So, no talking to the Orphans, no talking with Bellwether, no talking to this mage in whose's property she is hiding... This means we talked to everyone we could?" Nick asked, and Marceli was the one who answered:
"There is someone else with who we can talk." The black tod said, looking at them. "According to our sources, she is still in the city, making her perfectly accessible."
The others looked at him.
"As a matter of fact, I might even know where she is right now."
"...and then I said 'you can swallow that scroll'!" Zillah Ferron said, and this caused the vixen that was sitting with her to let out a laugh.
"You really said that to that guy?" Vicky asked, as she looked back at the ferret.
"Hey, he just insulted my mother! What did you expected me to say?" Zillah said, looking at the vixen. "Well, I left the room very quickly right after saying that, but I still had enough nerve to say it! I bet my father would have been impressed with me."
"Yeah, I bet." Vicky said, as they continued to eat their food as they chatted there.
Vicky had been a bit surprise as Zillah had reached out for her, asking how she was, if she was okay. Of course, the vixen was fine, considering all that had happened, and she was sure to let the ferret know that.
Zillah was glad to hear that, and she even invited Vicky for a snack in a place near the hotel where she was staying. Vicky accepted.
She met the ferret in a street in the Palm District. A block in Zootopia that was in the border between Savannah Central and Sahara Square, a place that reminded a tropical beach, and was complete with a lot of palm trees to give it to look of a tropical or semi-tropical paradise for the mammals.
It was a nice place to stay. Just one of the many minor biomes that existed in Zootopia, to cater for all kinds of mammals.
Zillah came to her meeting in there, and soon they were going into a café nearby, one that Zillah found out on the last time that she was on Zootopia and that she came to like. It was a nice place, with big windows, a good outdoor space, and some definitely nice food catering for both predators and prey.
In there, the vixen and the ferret took a seat on the outside space, on a table, and soon, they were eating and chatting.
The talk was nice, as well as the food, and Vicky soon found herself greatly enjoying the company of the ferret in that café. The ferret did had a lot of interesting subjects to talk about and Vicky found out that it was very easy to talk with her. They both were soon bonding as if they were old friends that had been away for a while, even though the ferret was younger than her by a few years.
"Zillah, your life was surely interesting." Vicky said to the ferret, and she looked back at her.
"Yeah, I guess so. Being a mage is hard, but it does have some interesting moments." Zillah said to her, "Besides, it is not like your life was not interesting on its own way. I mean, all that you had to go through to be able to become a reporter, it surely was hard."
"Not as hard as what you went through by being a ferret mage." Vicky said, "I guess speciest jerks can be found anywhere, even among mages."
"Yeah, these guys surely look like they are everywhere." Zillah said.
"Hey, pelts." Someone said, and Zillah sighed.
"Speaking of which..."
The one who spoke was some big rhino, who had a zebra friend coming with him, and he looked down at the smaller mammals.
"Both of you beat it." He said, being quite rude as he spoke that.
"Excuse me?" Vicky said, and the rhino looked down at her.
"You heard me, pelt. Beat it. Get lost." He said again, sounding a bit aggressive. "I want to stay in here."
"What, do you want this table?" Zillah asked, looking up at the rhino. "A little small for you and your friend, ain't it?"
"I don't want the table." The rhino said, "I want you two to leave the place so we can sit in peace."
"I'm sorry; our presence in here bothers you?" The vixen said, looking at him. The rhino looked back at her.
"Of course it does! This is my favorite café, and I have the right to be able to sit in here and have a snack in peace without having two filthy pelts in the place." He looked at both of them. "I don't want to have to tolerate a weasel and a fox near my favorite table."
"Ferret." Zillah said, and the rhino looked at her.
"What?"
"I'm a ferret, not a weasel." Zillah said, calmly taking a bite of her food.
"Ferret, weasel, there is no difference." The rhino said, and Zillah looked at him, before she said.
"There is a great difference between weasels and ferrets, starting with the size." Zillah said, and she looked at the rhino. "They are both distinct species, despite being both of the mustelid family. Of course, anyone who is not smart enough to know this will surely assume they are the same thing. These are usually the ignorant ones."
The rhino glared at her.
"What was that, pelt?"
"Oh, you weren't smart enough to get it?" Zillah asked, "I'm calling you stupid."
The rhino was pretty much fuming now, and Vicky was starting to get worried.
"Let's go, Zillah." She said to the ferret. "We can sit in another table."
"You can sit in another restaurant." The rhino said, looking at them, "Maybe one near the ghettos, were you pelts belong."
"That's not happening." The ferret said, looking at the rhino. "We are not leaving."
"Oh, you are." The rhino said, looking at her, "There are thousands of other places that can serve food for pelts like you."
"I'm waiting for someone." Zillah said, looking at him with a cold expression, her fingers flexing as she was getting ready for anything.
"What, more pelts? Not on my watch! Leave now or I'll make you!" The rhino was getting a bit loud, and this was calling the attention of some mammals in the surrounding tables.
"They will be arriving soon, and then we'll be leaving." She said, "If you could wait just a few more minutes..."
"I'm not waiting! You pelts must get out of here now!" He was practically fuming as he leaned over the ferret, nearly in a threatening way, and the ferret looked back at him.
"Just get lost!"
Zillah lowered her glasses to look at him, and for a moment, it seemed that her eyes had changed color.
Zillah looked at him for a few moments, her eyes changed, as they returned to their normal color, but her glasses were still down.
"You get lost." She said to him, and the rhino looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" He said, and Zillah continued to look at him in the eyes.
"You don't want to have to eat in the same place as two filthy pelts like us, right?" She said, asking him, "And it is clear that we are not leaving willingly, no?"
Vicky looked at her as she said that to the rhino.
What was she doing?
"You have the right not to want to sit near pelts like us." She said to the rhino, who looked back at her, the proximity as he leaned over her made sure that only he and Vicky could hear the ferret's words.
"You have the right to want to eat away from pelts like us, and you are a good enough mammal to know that you should not make a scene." Zillah continued to say, as she looked on his eyes. "After all, pelts like us are not worth you getting stressed over, you don't need to eat on the same place as us, you can just go to another place."
She continued to look at the rhino, who blinked as he looked at the ferret. All of sudden, he felt a little lightheaded.
"There are lots of other restaurants where you can go." She said to him, "Places that won't have pelts like us around to bother you. You should stop wasting your time with us and go to some place where you and your friend can eat in peace."
"You should leave so you won't have to tolerate us anymore." Zillah said, looking him in the eyes, "Just leave and let us to our own business. We are not worth you ruining your evening."
The rhino looked at her for a few more moments, before his expression changed. There was still contempt in there, but part of the hostility was gone.
"Let's go." He said to his zebra friend as he turned around. "Let's eat somewhere else."
"What?" The zebra said, looking at him, "But, you said this place had the best food of Palm District. That it had an awesome fruit salad."
"There are other places to eat." He said, "Places that don't have pelts in them."
"B-but..." The zebra said, looking at his friend, who suddenly seemed like he had a change of mind. "But you said that this was your favorite place."
"I can eat somewhere else." The rhino said, and cast a glance back at the fox and ferret. "I'm not ruining my evening because of two pelts. They aren't worth it."
The zebra looked like he wanted to protest, but the rhino was already leaving the place, and the zebra was forced to go right after him to keep up. Many looked as the rhino left, and many of them felt glad that he had left, as it looked like he had been ready to make a big scene in there.
They all went back to their food, giving no attention to the ferret and vixen on the table. Zillah was placing her glasses back on her face, and she was resuming what she was doing, but Vicky was now looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What was that?" Vicky couldn't help but asking, and Zillah looked back at her, before saying very casually.
"Just some basic mental interference. You know; hypnosis."
"Oh." Vicky said. Of course. All mages knew how to hypnotize, Zillah had told her that herself during the interview. Still, it was quite surprising to see hypnosis actually being use. It was a bit different from what Vicky had expected. Still, she was not sure of what she expected.
"That was... something." Vicky said, looking at the ferret. "So, it is just looking in someone's eyes and telling them what to do, just like that?"
"Well, it cannot be anything flashy." Zillah said, "The point of hypnosis is it being subtle, many times, you need to hypnotize someone without them even suspecting that you are doing so, like that rhino."
"I chose to give him a suggestion that matched his own bigotry." She said, "If the suggestion went too much against his own beliefs it would require a lot more effort, and there was a chance that it could fail. Instead, I just went along with his own nature and I gave him a suggestion that sounded more reasonable. Besides, it did sounded more within the realistic things that he would normally do."
"After all, for guys like that, deciding to ignore someone they don't like and focus on themselves is surely more realistic than suddenly deciding to be reasonable and be nice to someone else, right?" Zillah asked, and Vicky had to admit that it did sounded more realistic for the case of bigoted jerks like that, unfortunately. It even seemed that the rhino believed that it had been his own idea, as he simply turned around and got ready to leave.
As she thought of that, suddenly, a thought came to Vicky, making she look back at the ferret.
"Wait, it's okay for you to use it like that?" The vixen asked, as the ferret looked back at her. "I mean, there isn't some kind of law about controlling others like that?"
"Not if it is on self-defense." She said to the vixen, "Or if you are using it for some other perfectly justified reason, like making a jerk who is bothering you for no reason to go away."
Vicky looked at her, and she nodded. Still...
"If you say so... but, using hypnosis like that on anyone... I mean, couldn't it be a problem later on?"
"He was not going to leave." Zillah said to her. "He was going to keep harassing us, and if we refused to leave he would have become violent. I had to make him leave." She looked back at the vixen, who was looking back at her.
"It was completely justified, and I'm sure that most other mages would agree with me."
Vicky nodded, as she mentally repassed all that happened. Indeed, it did seemed that the rhino was starting to become more hostile, as soon as Zillah said that they wouldn't be leaving. Because she was waiting for someone.
"Did you set a date with someone?" She asked, and the ferret looked back at her.
"They will be meeting me here." She said, and she looked at a nearby digital clock that was on the street. "Very soon, by the way."
"Oh..." Vicky said, "So, you plan to introduce me to them?"
Zillah looked at her, and now she was blushing a little. "Actually, when they arrive, they will probably want to speak with me privately. It is kind of a confidential matter."
"Oh." She said, and she looked back at the ferret, as she seemed to be unsure of what to think of this.
"They are going to meet me, and I didn't felt like waiting on my own." Zillah said, as if she knew what the vixen was thinking. "I decided that, if I had to wait for them, I might as well wait in some good company."
Vicky looked at her, and she was actually able to smile back.
"Well, I glad that you consider me a good company." She said, and the ferret was able to smile back at her.
The two chatted for a few more minutes, some casual talk between two females, before the ferret stood on her seat and looked over Vicky's shoulder.
"Well, it seems that they are here." Zillah said, and Vicky looked at her, before looking back at what she had just saw.
A police cruiser had just parked in there, and from it were coming out two officers. Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. Not only the, but two other foxes jumped out of the vehicle. Vicky recognized the enforcers almost immediately, and she looked back at Zillah, who seemed to be very calm.
"I guess that now this is my cue." She said, reaching for her wallet, and removing some money from it. She left it in the table to pay for the food, and she bid farewell to Vicky. The vixen nodded at her, and looked at the ferret as she walked in direction to the four mammals that were waiting near the cruiser.
As she looked at the ferret going in direction to the authorities, she could not help but think:
Hope she is not in trouble.
Zillah was soon making her way to the four mammals.
"Ah, Mrs. Ferron." Marceli said, "There you are."
"Yeah, and right on time too." Zillah said to them, as she looked at the digital clock on the street. "It would be better if we met at the right time."
Nick looked at her.
"What, were you expecting for us?" He asked, and the ferret, to his surprise, nodded.
"Yes, I actually was." She said to them, "I hoped you guys would meet me here."
"Was that why you told one of my contacts to tell me to meet you here by the late afternoon?" Marceli asked to her, and Zillah looked back at him.
"Yes, that's right." She said, and looked at the two enforcers. "I knew that you two would need to question the mages present at the mall, that's why I decided to stay so you could easily reach me."
Marceli raised an eyebrow at her, and Emilia looked with a tilted head. Meanwhile, the cops shared a look, before Nick asked:
"Okay...? And how exactly did you knew that?" He was looking at her as he asked that. "Are you a psychic or something?"
Zillah looked at him, and she smiled, lowering her glasses.
"I'm 'something'." She said, as the four mammals could very clearly see her eyes changing color, from blue to neon-green.
The mammals looked at it with interest. The enforcers in particular.
"Hey, you have mystic eyes!" Emilia said to her, and Zillah nodded, before fixing the glasses on her face.
"Well, that would explain a few things." Marceli looked at her, and he asked:
"So, precognition?" He asked, and the ferret shrugged.
"They are, in a way, but they are more than just that." She said, and she looked at him, "I call the mystic eyes of path."
"Really?" Emilia asked, "How do they work?"
"They allow me to see both the past and the possible futures." She said to the enforcers, and the cops were listening as well. "It is like looking forward and backwards. Looking backwards, I can 'see the path already travelled'; it allows me to see the past, like retrocognition. I can also 'look at the path ahead', and it lets me see what's going to happen before it happens."
"That'd rather cool." Emilia admitted, and the cops could only look in amazement.
To be able to see both the past and the future? That was mind-blowing!
"Yeah, it is rather useful sometimes." She said, "I mean; they did helped me know that you would need me at the mall, and that you would need to question me." She spoke to it very casually, and Nick couldn't help but making a commentary on it.
"Yeah, it could also help you win the lottery." Nick said, and the ferret looked at her, "Seriously, if I had eyes like that I would make a hell of a party."
She looked at him for a few moments.
"Yeah, they are not very much the kind that you can use to party." Zillah said to him. "They can be really taxing sometimes."
"How so?" Judy asked, and the ferret said:
"Well, they are hard to keep under control, and I get glimpses of the past and future at the same time, it is like I'm trying to looking at one different direction with each eye."
"Oh, that's really hard." Nick said, "Unless you are a chameleon."
"Yeah, it makes my head hurt." Zillah confessed, looking at them, "Not to mention when I see only the future."
"But, that should be easier, right?" Emilia asked, and Zillah shook her head.
"It would if the future was linear like the past." Zillah said, "But the future, at least to me, is like a series of bifurcations and crossroads. When I look at the future, it is as if I'm looking at different possible paths. Sometimes I can see two, three, even four possible futures all at once. It is like trying to look at four different directions at the same time."
"Not to mention that I never had much control over it." Zillah admitted, "I mean, I can look at the future and at the past when I focus, and I can see one possible future in particular when I focus, but these mystic eyes mostly act as if they had a mind of their own. There was a time when I had so little control that I didn't knew if I was seeing the future, the past, or even a possible future."
"Sweet cheese and crackers." Judy said, and Nick had similar thoughts as the ferret explained that.
"Yeah, it was troublesome." Zillah said, and she tapped on her glasses. "This is why I wear these."
"What, glasses can block it?" Nick asked, looking at the glasses that the ferret wore.
"I do believe that these are mystic eye killers." Marceli said, causing the eyes to turn to him, as he looked at Nick. "They are a special type of mystic code that has the function of blocking the activation of mystic eyes. They are used to prevent the captured criminals from activating their own, but they might also be used by the holders of mystic eyes who have difficulty to control them, so they can function normally in the world."
"Which is my case." Zillah said, "Without these glasses I would be overwhelmed with visions of the past and the future and would be unable to function normally."
"Man, who would guess that having a special power would suck." Nick said, looking at the ferret.
"Yeah, sometimes it does." She said, "But, it is also very useful sometimes. As it was during the event of the mall. And right after, when it let me know that you would need to question the mages who were at the mall." She said, looking at the enforcers once more, "It let me know that I needed to stay at the city so you guys could find me more easily."
"Oh, yeah." Nick said, "Glad to know that our presence in here does not gets in the way of the enforcers' job."
Judy looked at her fox partner, giving him a glare. However, deep down, she somewhat agreed with Nick. It really did felt that the enforcers were the ones who were truly doing any kind of cop work, while Nick and Judy were only tagging along.
It made her feel kind of useless.
"It is good to see you two, by the way." She said, and looked at the two cops. "Really good."
"Yeah, I guess it is." Nick said, "It is good to meet you in an occasion where our lives are not immediately in danger."
"You two talking about the mall?" Emilia asked, looking at the two, and Judy then said:
"Actually, the first time we met Mrs. Ferron was months ago." Judy said, "Before she gave the interview."
The enforcers both looked at the ferret and at the cops, and that was when Zillah and the cops explained to them about the first time that Zillah met with the cops, which was the first time that the cops actually had contact with the group known as "Black Vipers". It was an information that truly caught the enforcers' attention.
"Wow." Emilia said, and her uncle was soon saying:
"You know, this is the kind of information that you two should have told us sooner."
Judy looked to the side, "Sorry, I guess it slipped from our minds with all that happened."
Nick nodded.
"Yeah, it truly was a lot. But, I guess that we kind of got back at you guys, right?" The tod said, and this caused everyone to look at him.
"I mean, you guys are keeping things from us nearly all the time." He said, looking at the other two foxes, "Only fair that we get our own turn to keep things from you, even if by accident, right?"
Marceli and Emilia looked at the tod for a while, before sharing a look. Judy was glaring a bit at her partner, and this was enough to make him stand down.
"Those Black Vipers are a real problem." Zillah said, "You should really keep an eye on them. Who knows what they could have done with that crystal."
"That's true." Marceli said, looking at the ferret. "Perhaps you did a good job by impersonating an enforcer at the moment. You apprehended the crystal before they could use it and saved the lives of civilians. You really did well, so much that I'm not even going to ask you where or how you got a dagger of the enforcers." He looked at her, "But, I'll have to ask you to turn the dagger in as soon as you have the chance." He said, and Zillah nodded, fully understanding.
"Now... I have a few more questions." The enforcer said, as the five mammals stood nearby the cruiser, having a word.
They proceeded to ask the same questions that they asked at the others, like what she was doing at the morning of the event, how she found out, if she had previous knowledge of that, or if anyone contacted her in the previous days to talk on anything similar.
Nick had the impression that they were being a bit more insistent than they were with the others when asking if she knew that it was going to happen.
Probably because they now knew she had magic eyes that allowed her to predict the future...
Soon, they were done with the questions.
"That would be all, Ms. Ferron. Please, remain-" Marceli was saying, but Zillah completed it for him.
"Remain accessible in the case of we need to ask further questions."
Marceli and the other three looked at her, and she only looked back at them.
"Those are some nice eyes you got." Nick mentioned, "Really effective. Any chance you could use them to help us solve this case?"
"They would be of little help." Zillah said, "These eyes are really hard to control, even when I focus, and even then, the farther something is in the past or future, the harder it is to see it clearly. For instance, I can see clearly something that is away from the present by a few minutes or even a few hours, but trying to see something that far from the present by a few days is like trying to see something in a distance with your naked eyes, the vision is not clear and you might mistake what you are seeing. It takes a great deal of focus and energy, more than I have."
"Even so, it could be useful." Marceli said, and he looked at her, "Try to reach us out if you believe you got any information that could help us."
Zillah looked at him and she nodded, and soon, the enforcers and the cops were driving back to Precinct 1.
It was already the end of the day, and the rest of the time that they had was destined to writing their reports. The enforcers went to do whatever it was that they would do, while Nick and Judy were to write down what happened during the day. As always, Judy was very thorough with her report, while Nick... well, he did it the way he was used to, professional enough to please his boss, but unprofessional enough so others would know that it was him who wrote it.
As they did, they were able to hear how the other cops did during their day.
They heard on how the ones who were in charge of investigating the mall told how they had to pretty much scouted the people from forensic as they went from floor to floor into the place. They also heard how the ones in charge of interviewing the witnesses spent the day picking up reports from them and writing it down, as they pretty much confirmed all that happened into the mall during the previous day.
Of course, in this they also heard about the true amount of victims that there were on the mall. Which included both staff and the ones who were in there to shop. This was something that bothered everyone; once it let them know the amount of innocent mammals that had lost their lives in that tragedy.
On other subjects, they were able to hear from the ones who were with Eliot how the wolf suddenly vanished from the place. It was probably at the moment when he was on the phone with his wife and heard that the enforcers had taken them there to question her. By what they heard, the wolf was with the rest of his group in Savannah Central, and he had managed to arrive in the place in impressive ten minutes, when it would have taken longer than that to go through the traffic, more if he was going on foot.
This was just another thing to add to the list of impressive feats that the wolf was capable of when he truly wanted to.
However, there was still something that was on the mind of the two cops:
All that they learned about their mothers.
Judy could not shake from her mind all the difficulties that her mother had while growing up. Having an abusive mother, siblings and possibly other relatives that were like her sister. That was when Judy realized that she could have arrested Helvetica then and there, for she had assaulted someone with a weapon in her presence, she was going to remember it next time that she saw that bunny. Not the mention the fact that she had to use little corpses as toys while she was four! This was all so much, and going through all of that would be enough to make most mammals grow up to become serial killers and criminals! Judy could never have imagined that someone so kind and sweet like her mother could have gone through all of that growing up.
Meanwhile, Nick thought of his own mother. He thought on how she grew up into a family of mages, and how she gave up it all just because of him. She wanted him to have a better life than the one that she had, a peaceful life. Of course, Nick didn't lived up to this, as he threw himself in the world of hustling and of dealing with the seedy underbelly of the city of Zootopia. This once more reminded to him how his mother cared about him, and how she considered him important, enough to give up on most of her plans and ambitions only so he could live peacefully. He also remembered on what the enforcers said, about some people who said that she "renounced magecraft to protect the honor of her clan". Nick never liked the rich and aristocratic, and it seemed that his mother's relatives were exactly like that. He wondered if any of them ever even cared for her...
The two cops continued to think about that as they wrote down their reports and, by the time they were finished with these, they were meeting face to face as it was close to the time they were to finish their job. That was when Nick presented a suggestion to his bunny partner.
"A night in the city?" Judy asked, looking at Nick, who smiled back at her.
"That's right." The fox confirmed, "A night in the city with our families. I bring my mother, and you bring your relatives. I know a very nice place that serves both predators and prey, and that is used to have tables with a lot of small mammals in them."
Judy looked at him, as she was unsure.
"Come on, Carrots." Nick said to her. "I guess that our families deserve it after all that they went through yesterday." He said, looking at her, "One nice dinner at a nice place, where they can forget all of the trouble that they faced since the mall. It does sounds nice, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but... doing that tonight? Ain't it a little sudden?"
"Why not?" Nick asked, shrugging. "I mean, we have free time now, and I'm pretty sure that our families also have."
Judy was still unsure.
"Carrots." Nick said, looking at her. "It will be a good way of letting the trouble behind, both for us and for them. After all, I guess that all of us could use some unwinding by now, right?"
Judy looked at him, and she looked away as she was thinking on what happened on the previous day. She thought on all that she learned about her mother's past, a past that she had been trying to leave behind, and that she was forced to remember. She thought on all that her mother did for her and for the rest of her family...
She then looked at her partner.
"You know what?" she said, looking at him, "Let's do this."
Soon, the two cops were pulling out their phones and calling their families, telling them that they wanted to take them out for dinner.
Here it is the new chapter.
Sorry for the delay, had some problems to access internet.
Also, Chloe and Eliot Fanghanel both belong to Koraru-san, from DeviantArt.