That breakfast was very awkward.

Still, everyone was somehow able to power through it. Be it through thick skin and resolve. Be it through the "not giving a shake of a tail" technique. Or, as in Carolyn's case, with a lot of booze. The thing was, everyone was able to get through that uncomfortable meal, and then go their own ways.

Nick and Judy went their way to discuss a few things regarding this whole case. Judy had wanted to discuss matters with Yahya about increasing the security, but the dark horse was still out of sight. "Busy with some personal thing", was what Adrian said when asked, but Judy didn't wanted to talk to him. She already convinced herself that, when it came to actually do anything, that horse was useless, and she didn't wanted to have to talk to him after hearing how he treated his own son. Nick was pretty much of the same opinion.

Then, she tried to talk with the two mages, but she found that the wolf didn't really seemed to know what to do, while his hybrid friend was more interested in Josh than on anything the bunny could have to say. Honestly, it was kind of annoying. However, Josh seemed like he could distance himself from Melon enough to give her attention.

"I'll be putting my own protections around the house." Josh said to her, "Not wanting to offend you, Sweet-Melons, but after what happened last night I prefer not to take any chances, especially in case that guy comes back for Ben."

Melon didn't seemed offended, and Judy was satisfied for hearing that someone in there had the proper worry about the safety of the people on the house. She only hoped that Josh's magic protections would be more efficient than the ones put in place by those two.

"By the way, has anyone seen my brother?"

"I'm just saying that maybe you should stay inside for a while." Gabe said, as he walked by Ben's side. The cheetah had been talking with him and with Marcy ever since they all left the breakfast table. In fact, Ben had the very distinct impression that the two seemed like they wanted to be around him, and were finding excuses to do so.

As if they were afraid that he could be attacked again at any moment, and wanted to be nearby to act on his defense if/when he needed.

At least, that was the impression Ben was getting from the way the two seemed to always want to do something that put them on the same place as him. He could also have just read their minds to confirm it, but he knew that it would be too much of an invasion of their privacy, and Ben was raise better than that.

However, Ben had to say that he didn't found their following to be annoying. Not in the slightest. Actually, after everything he went through lately, he felt actually glad for being on the presence of two people who liked and appreciated him. It certainly felt much nicer to receive those positive emanations from their prana than the oppressive, hateful emanations that came from some other people present on that mansion.

"Oh, look at that." Said Charles said as he nearly bumped into the three after opening a door.

Speaking of which...

"If it isn't Blob, Blob's Bride and Mix 'n Match." Charles said, and Gabe gave him a glare that was positively murderous. Marcy, on her end, attained herself to look at him with contempt.

"Feeling a little humorous today, Charles?" The hybrid said as she looked at the horse.

"Just decided that there is no need to be nice to all of you." Charles said to the hybrid. "All of you brought nothing but trouble since you set foot on this mansion. And one of you was not even supposed to be here in the first place." He gave a look at Gabe as he said that, and the deer only continued to glare at the horse.

"I have been nice with all of you until now out of respect for Chandler, but I've had enough." Charles said to the three of them. "And I had enough of that indecent twin of yours. He can be nearly as detestable as you."

He was talking with Ben as he said that, and Ben lowered his head even more as he was talk to like that. It was normal to feel hostility emanating from Charles, but today he was emanating a lot more of it than usual. Nearly as much as Carolyn.

As Charles started to verbally attack Ben, Gabe and Marcy didn't wasted time. Stepping up, they put themselves between Ben and Charles, effectively shielding the cheetah from that horse, and both of them made it clear on their expressions that they would not be taking any crap from the horse.

Charles stepped back when he saw the anger on his eyes, but he then turned his gaze to the cheetah, who was still looking down.

"Incapable of standing up for yourself." Charles said, still looking at the cheetah. "Having to rely on your ex and your sister to protect you. Man, that is really sad and disgraceful."

"Did you seriously just said that?" Marcy said, glaring at the guy with a glacial stare. "Are you really calling my brother sad and disgraceful? You? The guy who is not even man enough to be faithful to his own wife?"

Charles blinked, looking at him with surprise.

"Wait, what?" Ben said, turning his eyes to look at Marcy, and the hybrid continued to glare at Charles.

"I... I don't know what you're talking about." He said, but Marcy was not buying it.

"You're not good at hiding anything." Marcy said to him. "How you keep Euphemia's family from finding out that you go around cheating on her nearly every night is beyond me. Guess those horses are not much smarter than you."

Charles was baffled, and he looked at the hybrid with an outraged expression. Meanwhile, Ben processed what he just heard, and he looked from Marcy to the horse.

"You're cheating on Effie?" Ben asked, and Charles looked in Ben's direction. Ben could feel his thoughts. He could feel the whirlwind of thoughts and apprehensive feelings that he learned was what the mind of most mammals was when they were panicking. Like, for example, when they got caught red-pawed. That was the mind of a mammal who was desperately trying to come up with an excuse, and this was enough proof for Ben.

Even if it was not, the look on Charles' face said it all.

"O... M... Goodness..." Ben said, looking at Charles. "Charles... how cold you!? How could you do it with Effie!?"

"Hey! Shut it!" Charles said, looking to the sides, as if fearing that one of the servants could be watching from hiding.

"I can't believe that you go behind Effie's back and cheat on her!" Ben said, not deterred by Charles' protests, and even his angry hissing at the cheetah to "shut up and mind his business" was not enough to make Ben stop.

"How can you treat her like that!?" Ben demanded.

"Well, can you actually blame me!?" Charles finally said back, looking at the cheetah with anger, and seeming that he finally has decided to speak his pace. "Sure, she is pretty and all, but she is awful in bed! She just lays there and does nothing while I have to do all the work! She doesn't wants to make love with me! She only did it because it was 'the expected thing', but she does no effort! She just lays there and looks at the ceiling while I do everything! It's like making love to a corpse! Can you blame me for preferring to go to someone who will actually kiss me back? Or at least show a little more enthusiasm when I'm after some action?"

"But to go behind her back like that!?" Ben demanded again, not swayed in the slightest. "And to do it every night!?"

"I have needs, okay!?" Charles said back, "I have needs and my beloved wife won't attend to any of them!"

"Why don't you get a divorce then?" Gabe asked, to what Charles once more told him to "shut it". It seemed to be his preferred answer. Marcy was the one who answered:

"Because if he does then he will no longer be a part of the Manechester family, and he will no longer have access to their funds. She might not be that good in bed, as he says, but she surely makes a convenient ATM, doesn't she?"

"I can't believe you cheat on Effie..." Ben said once more, he glared at the horse.

"I'll tell Chandler!"

"Don't you dare, you stupid blob!" Charles said, jamming a finger on his chest.

"He has to know! He has to know you are hurting his sister!"

"Do you know what will happen if you tell him?" Charles demanded.

"You will lose your ATM?" Gabe asked, looking at the horse with as much spite as Ben.

"He has to know!" Ben said, "I'll go to tell him!"

Ben turned around, but he was stopped on his tracks when Charles reached out for him and grasped his wrist rather hard.

"You can't stop meddling in what doesn't concerns you, can you!?" Charles neighed at the cheetah as he held his wrist. However, he was easily push away by Marcy and Gabe, who both glared at him with hatred for having dared to lay a single hooved finger on Ben.

"You know what? Fine! Go tell him!" Charles said, "Go tell him right now! And, when you do, I'll be sure to let him know that his dear sister is sleeping around too!"

Ben paused, looking at Charles.

"And, unlike you, I have proof to back up my claims!" The horse said, and then a smirk formed on his lips. "Yes, I have hours of footage and dozens of photos. Some of them of wonderful angles. All of them showing how correct and virtuous the daughter of the Manechester family is! I wonder how Adrian will react when he sees those. Maybe he will yell at her and disown her. And then kick her out of the house and make her leave Zootopia. I mean, he did it to Angus for fancying you, and he liked him way better than he ever liked his daughter. How would you feel, Clawhauser, if another Manechester got disowned because of your actions?"

Ben paused, and he looked at Charles, who looked back at him.

"Is this fun to you? Do you take pleasure in causing problems to other by meddling into their lives?" Charles asked, looking at him with anger. "Haven't you caused this family enough problems?"

Ben flinched as he heard that. He looked at Charles for a few more moments, before he looked down. Charles smiled in victory upon seeing that cheetah do that.

"That's right, remember your place." Charles said with satisfaction. "Effie does, that is why she doesn't says anything. You should follow her example. Just lower that head of yours and remember you have no place in our business. You never had, from the very beginning. So stop acting all high and mighty and acting like you have any right to be here!"

He was growing louder as he said that, as he now felt way more confident as he thought he had the upper hand over the cheetah, even with Marcy and Gabe glaring him with so much hated it was a surprise he could even talk big at all. However, this was Charles, when he thought he had the advantage, it was hard to make him stand down from his high ground.

Unless you were a mammal like Angus.

"You're the one who have no right to be here." The familiar voice of the eldest Manechester child came as a hoof landed on Charles' shoulder, making the other horse freeze in place and look over his shoulder.

"You greedy, disgusting little tick."

The sneering on Angus' muzzle would only be scarier of the horse had a full set of fangs ready to sink at Charles' neck on the second the other horse said one wrong word. Luckily, for Charles, he didn't. However, this did very little to reduce the amount of fear that he could instill in Charles with only that sneer, which was enough to make Charles lose his ability to form coherent phrases.

"Leave." Angus said to him, pushing Charles so hard that he nearly fell into the ground like poor sack of potatoes. He did recovered, however, and sprinted away as fast as his legs could carry him.

As he saw that parasite vanish through the doors without looking back, Angus couldn't help but smirk to himself.

I still got it. He thought, before turning his attention to the other three all of which were looking at him.

"Mundanes, huh?" He said, and none of them smiled back at him. Not even Ben, who was still looking down. Apparently, he was still upset over what Charles had been saying to him.

"Hey." Angus said, approaching. Gabe gave a step on his direction, in a way that was nearly threatening. However, Angus didn't gave him any attention. "Don't give any attention to what that parasite says. All he is good at is convincing others he is trustworthy and spending money he didn't earned. Pitiful even for a mundane, if you ask me."

He touched Ben's chin and made him look up.

"Don't give him any attention." Angus said to him, "Some mammals just don't deserve it."

"Speaking for yourself, Manechester?" Gabe chipped in, as he used his own hooved hand to push Angus' away from Ben's face. The horse looked at him as the deer got on his way, nearly as if he was shielding Ben from him, looking up in the eyes of the taller mammal with the same ferocity he would to a mammal who was the same size as himself.

"I'm sorry. You have a problem with me, Deerbrooke?" Angus asked, looking the deer.

"I have a problem with scumbags of any kind." Gabe said to him. Angus laughed.

"Scumbag, huh? Now that is a rushed judgement, don't you agree?"

"Not based on what I heard about you." Gabe said to him.

"Oh, and what exactly did you heard?" Angus asked him. "Nothing good, I presume. Not if you talked to my father or to either of my siblings. Unbelievable how our own families can be such turncoats, after everything we went together, don't you think?"

Angus was smiling as he said that, but Gabe's face was still unfriendly. Angus could see a lot of hostility on his gaze.

"Oh, come on. Don't give me that look." Angus said to him, "We are both mages. We should get along, right? Especially considering that we are both losers on our own way."

"Excuse me?" Gabe said to Angus in answer to that commentary he made.

"I make my homework, Deerbrooke." Angus said to him. "I know a little bit about your family history. How your dad is not happy with you that you still refuse to take on a bride and produce an heir for the clan. And how both you're still not on talking terms with either of your brothers because the idiots still resent you for being chosen as heir instead of them. And how they are all basically mad at you because you prefer to stay at the Clawhauser state than with them."

"A mage who holds the clan's magic crest but has no respect of the rest of his clan is a loser." Angus said to him. "A poor sod who is leader only on the name but who will be abandoned by his family at any moment. At least, that's what I understood of how things go in the world of magecraft."

Gabe frowned deeply as Angus said those words. He was letting out a low, grunting angry deer sound.

"We're both losers. More talented than any other of our families and still rejected by them." Angus said to the deer. "So, I think we should try to get along, don't you agree? So come on, shake my hoof, my fellow failure."

Gabe's answer to this was slap Angus' hoof away.

"The only failure here is you, horse!" Gabe said to him, glaring at him with hatred. "Don't chalk me on the same level as you, because we are not the same!"

Angus looked at him for a few moments, before he said:

"Yes, you're right. We are not on the same level."

He massaged his hoof. "I am all but a novice on magecraft, while you studied since you were four. I am the first generation of mage of my clan while you are the... sixth, right? And, of course, to top it all, you have your family's magic crest to support you." Angus concluded. "All of that does seems to put you on a pretty good advantage over me, ain't that right? It certainly will make any mage see you as the better one between the two of us."

Angus then looked at him. He was still smiling, but his smile was anything but friendly.

"But, you know, most of those mages out there never quite met someone like me." Angus said to Gabe, as he gave a single step forward, his muscles tensing. Under his fur, his magic circuits charged up as he got ready to use what he knew against that deer.

"You want to start a duel, Manechester?" Gabe said, noticing the horse's hostile intentions, and activating his own circuits, ready to counter whatever it was that the horse tried to do.

"Ahh, my first official duel..." Angus said as he looked at the deer, seeing how he was ready to fight. "Honestly, I was kind of looking forward to it. The last thing that will make me a full-fledge mage, according to my backstabber of a teacher. Yes, I'm all for it if you are."

Gabe tensed even more as he heard there. His face was scowling while Angus looked back at him with a smirk that was nearly predatory. Their eyes both sparkled, as the flow of prana into their magic circuits got more and more intense, so much that they were starting to glow on the visible spectrum.

Those two mammals were ready to go to battle.

Then, their focus was broken when both of them got their ears flicked.

"OUCH!"

"HEY!"

They both held their offended ears as they looked at the one who did this.

"What's the big idea?" Angus asked to Marcy, who looked at both of them with an angry expression.

She gestured with her eyes, and they both looked at Benjamin.

The cheetah had his paws balled into fists and pressed over his mouth. He looked upset, as he was nearly curled over, and his tail was curled around his body, in a clear sign of a scared cheetah.

His eyes said it all.

Seeing Ben like that seemed to put out the fire that was building up on the two of them.

"Ben..." Gabe quickly went to the cheetah, and soon he was comforting him with gentle touches to his shoulders. Ben was still a bit nervous, as he looked from Gabe to Angus.

Angus looked back at him, and then he locked eyes with Gabe one more time.

He didn't liked that deer, and the deer returned the feeling. However, with Ben there, he didn't felt like going into a fight with him.

It could wreck his future chances with the cheetah.

So, he did the smart thing on that moment and stood down.

A single glance at Gabe's eyes was enough for him and the deer to come to a mutual understanding.

I'm letting you go for now. Angus said with that single look. But this doesn't means I'm giving up. I'm going to fight for this cheetah. I'm ready for it.

With this, Angus excused himself from their presence, as he said he needed to "look for someone to talk with". As he walked away, he mentally added to himself:

Unlike others.

Bogo felt like garbage.

Amazing how a person could make him feel like that only by talking to him.

Angus Manechester was among the few people who could completely disarm him and bring him down using nothing more than words. That horse was a master of mind games.

Like most sociopaths.

He knew how to bring other people down. He enjoyed doing it to others. Apparently, this was one thing that didn't changed on the last five years, much to Bogo's dismay.

It's been a while since anyone had hit him so hard with words alone. Hard enough that Bogo needed a long time to recover from it before he could even have the will to get up from the chair and walk out of the restaurant.

Never before had anyone pointed out his mistakes to him so clearly and so aggressively like Angus. It nearly seemed that the horse had practiced this little speech that he gave Bogo, and the buffalo realized that he probably had.

Bogo was barely minding the fact that the horse spoke to him several things that he would have no way of knowing through traditional means. Like the exact words that Bogo exchanged with his brother after that fiasco of a family reunion back in January. Maybe mages did had a way of knowing things without anyone telling them it.

What truly bothered Bogo about all of the things that Angus said was that they were all true.

Every mistake he made, every bad decision, every misjudgment based on his own preconceived notions, all of them were true. And Bogo agreed that they were all mistakes of his part. Which one reprehensible on their own right, when put together they painted an image about Bogo that the buffalo was definitely not proud of.

From how he bashed Hopps and treated her unfairly because he thought a bunny didn't belonged among the bigger species, to how he completely disregarded Wilde's words and assumed anything that came out of his mouth would be lies based on nothing more than his species. All the way up to how he treated his own brother, his childhood hero, not only back in January, but during the last thirty years of both their lives.

Even to how he simply lowered his head and nodded like an idiot when Bellwether told him to "place the cheetah on the front desk out of sight to avoid making the prey who came to the police uncomfortable".

In hindsight, Bogo should have realized something was off when he heard she say those exact words the exact way she did back then. But he didn't, and only did exactly as she told him without as much as voicing a single protest, like a poor mindless idiot who was incapable of standing up for a member of his own force. Another score against Chief Bogo.

That was the reason why Bogo still had his head down when he walked out of the restaurant, nearly an hour after Adrian left. He was still feeling like garbage after the spent the last hour replaying all of those mistakes on his head and wondering how he did allowed himself to make so many stupid things.

He barely even noticed the person calling out his name, until he felt that hoof landed on his shoulder and causing him to back away instantly and look at the person who grabbed his shoulder.

"Wow, hold on, officer." Said the mammal. "No need to go all police brutality on me."

Bogo looked at his brother for a few moments, and then he relaxed.

"Please, don't sneak on me like that." Mansa said to Tim, who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Sneak on you? Mansa, I called your name three times before touching your shoulder." He said, and Mansa looked at his brother, before looking down.

"Got a lot on your mind?" Tim said, recognizing the signals, and Mansa could not help but nod at this.

"Wanna talk about it?" Tim asked, and Mansa wanted to answer that he didn't. He was never the kind who liked talking about things with others. He'd much rather deal with things on his own.

However, as of right now, Mansa's situation was so bad that he was actually in need for someone to listen to. And, in those cases, it was better if it was someone whom he knew and trusted. Like one of his old friends from all the way back when he started as a cop, his wife (now his ex), and now also his brother.

Soon, the Bogo brothers were making their way into a local café, one that Tim liked going when he had the chance. It was nice and it not overpriced like most places. The price was reasonable enough for a guy who sustained himself with odd jobs could afford to go once in a while to eat something nice.

He was ready to pay something nice for himself and his brother, but Mansa told him it would be his treat, and he insisted in it. Once they sat and ordered their food, Bogo was soon opening to his brother about all that had transpired just one hour ago.

Tim was quite surprised with what he had heard.

He knew the story of Angus Manechester. He lived in Zootopia back there, and he got interested when he heard that Angus had attacked Mansa. He even tried to contact him to see if he was okay, but Mansa was still not on speaking terms with him back on the day, so he completely ducked his calls.

Another thing that Mansa regretted in hindsight.

Luckily, the subject didn't stayed on how Mansa was still a complete jerk to his stranded brother five years back, and more on the fact that Angus Manechester was alive, back in Zootopia, and that he was a mage now.

"Can this kind of thing really happen?" Tim asked Mansa, clearly impressed by what he just heard. "Can a person just gain magic circuits and become a mage?"

"Yeah, apparently." Bogo said, taking a sip of his coffee. It was decent, considering that they were on a rather cheap place. His mind was still coming back to what happened, while Tim showed a great interest on what he just heard from his brother, as it was something really interesting.

To think that Angus Manechester was a mage now...

"He didn't hurt you, did him?" Tim asked, and Mansa shook his head.

"He tried to brainwash me, but he failed." Mansa said to his brother. "I gotta thank the enforcers for this little thing." He tapped on the brooch on the lapel of his shirt. "And he tried to intimidate me with a little water trick... before he told me to my face what a piece of garbage I am."

Tim looked at his brother as he said that. It was no secret to anyone that Mansa and Angus were not each other's favorite mammal. It seemed that didn't changed after five years, as the two still seemed ready to go for each other's throats.

"Tim?" Mansa's voice made the older of the Bogo brothers look at the younger. Mansa had a tired expression that was unlike him.

"Am I a coward?"

The question was so out of the blue that Tim was not sure how to answer it, so he just looked at his brother in surprise for a few moments.

"Huh?"

Mansa sighed, looking down at his own mug of coffee, at his own reflection.

"I've always tried to be strong." Mansa said. "I've always tried to live by the 'big and strong bull' standard that Dad hammered into my head. I did it to please him. I think how stupid it is now. I became a cop like he had told me to. I married a woman and had a son. And I always acted like a bull's bull. Never took any crap from anyone."

Mansa looked at the face of that tired-looking bull who stared back at him.

"But... being a bull's bull is not the same as being brave, is it?" His voice nearly sounded disembodied to his own ears. "A brave man will stand for what he believes, at all costs. I haven't been doing it."

"I didn't stood by you back when everyone was against you because I was afraid of the repercussions. And two years ago, I didn't stood for Ben when that cotton-candy wench had him moved to archives."

"I just didn't stood for the people I cared for when they needed me." Mansa said, "I just didn't... all those years trying to be a 'real man' to please our deadbeat drunkard of a father, and I failed to be a man on the most important part... standing for those important for me."

He sighed.

"I really am just a prideful coward."

Tim only looked at his brother as he continued that, thinking that it was better to let him talk, until it seemed that he was done. Only then Tim spoke.

"You're not a coward, Mansa." Tim said to him, and his brother looked back at the older, broken-horned bull.

"Even after I let you be targeted by everyone without ever standing for you?" Mansa asked, "Even after I took out my anger on Hopps back when she joined because I was upset at Lionheart for putting her on my force? Even when I let the one mammal I fell in love with be moved to some damp and hot basement simply because some stupid ewe told me that this 'would be better'?"

Tim spent the next five minutes comforting his brother. However, it soon became clear that Mansa was really upset as he looked back on his own actions and saw how weak he was when it counted the most, and how he failed to be a man on the most important moments.

"I'm gonna go grab some of the snacks there." Tim said, getting up, "Anything you want?"

Mansa wanted nothing, and he just stayed on their table on the corner of the café while his brother went to grab them something to eat. He was sure he would bring something he thought his brother would like...

Meanwhile, Bogo was all alone on his corner of the café, once more reflecting on Angus' words about him being a prideful coward who didn't had the resolve to do what he truly wanted to or to fight for what he desired.

But he didn't remained alone for long.

"There you are." Said a voice that caught Bogo completely off guard. He snapped his head to the side to see the familiar figure of a black fox on a suit standing by his table, looking up at him with crossed arms.

"Mieczsylaw?" Bogo asked, and the fox only looked back at him.

"Do you know for how long my niece and I have been waiting for you inside your office?" He said, as he looked up at the much bigger mammal who was sitting on the table as he suddenly became aware of this important detail.

Bogo had completely forgot about the enforcers with everything that had happened. It completely slipped his mind.

Bogo was soon apologizing to Marceli, as he said he had "a thing to deal with".

"What thing?" Marceli asked him. "Come to have a snack on a dining place on the middle of the city while leaving us waiting for you? You know, you could at least have let us know you were going to take so long."

The way he was speaking to the buffalo was no different from how Bogo himself would speak to his subordinates had they ever appeared late for debriefing and assignments. And having someone talking to him like that didn't really did wonders for Bogo's mood. However...

"Wait, how did you found me?" He asked, and the fox looked at him for a few moments, before tapping the lapel of his own shirt. Bogo wondered what he meant by this gesture, and then he realized.

"This thing?" Bogo asked as he grabbed the lapel of his own shirt, which contained the brooch the enforcers gave me.

"What, is this thing a protection charm that doubles as a tracking device?" Bogo asked the fox, and Marceli said:

"The Mieczyslaw clan has a really bad past with losing objects that once belonged to us. So, we developed the habit of making sure we will be able to track anything we fabricate ourselves or that we consider important enough. This brooch is no different. Emilia and I made sure we would be able to find it anywhere in Zootopia by identifying and following the unique prana signature it emits. I admit that it is not dissimilar of how a tracker works."

Bogo continued to look at the thing on his lapel. Let me tell you, he now felt kind of peeved to know that someone had tagged him with a tracking device without his knowledge. If that thing also doubled as a bug that recorded all of his conversations, Bogo was definitely going to start flipping.

"But, we have wasted enough time." Marceli told the buffalo. "We better go back now. Emilia is probably just about to go insane with boredom while she waits for us."

Marceli really wanted to go, and Bogo didn't liked the way this fox was talking to him. Marceli looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he saw the expression on Mansa's face.

"Is there any problem, Chief Bogo?" Marceli asked the buffalo. "Anything that prevents you from leaving?"

Bogo paused, and he did, through the corner of his eye, cast a glance on the direction his brother went. He was still on the cashier, buying food for himself and Mansa. As the buffalo looked back at the fox, he realized he had made a mistake, for them Marceli started looking on the direction he saw Mansa's eyes went...

"You want to know what the problem is, Mieczyslaw?" Mansa said, making the fox stop looking in the direction his brother was, and instead focus his attention on him, as the buffalo looked back at him with a certain ferocity of his own.

"You want to know what is bothering me?" Mansa said to him, growing louder. "Well, a lot of things. Among them, there is the fact that you are not telling me things. Partnership is a two way street, you know? And yet, you are here acting like I am the only one who is supposed to tell you anything! That gets to a guy after a while, you know?"

"You don't tell me about those leads of yours. You don't tell me about what you know of the case we are investigating. All you do is expect me to follow you around like a butler and be your driver to anywhere on the city you want to go!" Bogo was really getting loud at this stage. This caught the attention of a few of the patrons, including Tim, who was on his way walking back to the table, but stopped as he saw his brother yelling at a fox. And he was pretty sure that this one was not "Officer Wilde" that Mansa told him about.

However, his attention was called by Mansa's hoof, as he waved it in a way that most could mistake by mere result of his anger. However, to Tim, that meant way more.

The two brothers, like many siblings, developed their own secret language. One that they used to communicate with each other without their parents or anyone else notice. It has been years since they had been brothers who were in good terms, but the memory of the secret language they created was still engrave on their minds, as proved by what Mansa was doing.

He was waving his right hoof in circles, with his index and ring finger outstretched and his thumb tucked in, pressing into the palm of his hoof.

Tim recognized that sign. One for when they had been caught by their father doing something they were not supposed to, or on the not-so-rare occasion when he came home drunker than usual.

Hide now.

Tim hesitated only for a second, before immediately sitting on another table, surprising the family of camels that were sitting there. All the while Mansa continued his discussion with the fox, which was getting louder by the minute.

Mansa Bogo was never one to make a scene in a public place. Actually, after what happened, he would avoid a public scene at pretty much any cost. However, exactly due to what happened just an hour ago, Mansa was on the edge. He was angry. Angry at Angus for all the things that horse ever did. Angry at himself for being as weak as the horse accused him of. Angry at Mieczyslaw for the way he had been behaving up until now.

And he turned all of that anger on to the fox, and he was not caring if others heard him. Actually, he wanted others to hear him.

No. He wanted Tim to hear it.

"And you still haven't told me about what happened on the forest all thirty-two years ago!" Mansa yelled at the fox. From his hiding spot sitting with the camels, Tim's ears perked. Marceli, who was right before the buffalo, had his expression harden.

"You are still going on about it?" Marceli said, his expression not a friendly one. "I told you, Bogo. You better let it go."

"I can't let it go, Mieczyzslaw!" Bogo said back to him, not caring about everyone who was looking. "I can't let it go! I can't just let something like that go! That is the kind of thing that haunts you! I won't let it go! Not until you give me answers! Just what the heck was that!?"

"Bogo..." Marceli said, his voice dangerously low. "Let. It. Go."

But he was not. Bogo was never one to get easily intimidated. Perhaps he was a coward when it was to acting on what he truly wanted, but not now. Not anymore.

He was done being a coward who lowered his head.

He continued insisting. He asked again and again about what happened on the forest all those years ago, which made Mieczyslaw more and more upset. The fox was upset that Bogo was not letting it go of it? That he was so openly defying him? Or was it because more and more mammals were looking their way? Some of them had started pulling out their phones to record it.

"Answer me, Mieczyslaw!" Mansa nearly bellowed, and that was when the fox yelled.

"FINE!"

Everyone around jumped back and the fox lowered his voice, taking a deep breath before looking at the buffalo and saying:

"Fine. Fine! You want to know so bad? Okay then, I'll tell you!" Marceli said to Mansa. "But not here... Follow me."

With this, Marceli started to make his way out of the café. Mansa looked at him for a few moments, and the fox, noticing the buffalo was still sitting there, said:

"You want to know or not!?"

There was impatience on his voice. Mansa looked at him as he said that on that tone while looking at him with that expression.

Is that how I look when I'm scolding my officers? Mansa caught himself thinking, but he didn't delved in this for long. He was busy getting up from his table and walking after the fox, who continued his way out of the café, and no one dared to stand on his way.

He could be smaller than most of the patrons of the place, but the expression on his face, as well as with the clear anger on his movements made everyone step out of his way as he passed.

Everyone did, however, looked at the departing fox and buffalo. Including Tim, still on the table with the camels and completely unnoticed by Marceli. However, Mansa noticed him, and he gave him another silent signal as he passed right by his table.

Stretching and recoiling his index two times and them stretching his thumb and ring/pinky finger. Tim remembered what this signal meant:

Stay close, but hidden.

They once used when one of their parents called one of them for a scolding, so they could be close to help the other after the scolding was done. It was good because they could discuss what was happening and maybe offer each other support.

In this case, it was so Tim could be close enough to hear what Marceli would, without a doubt, be telling him.

The answer to what happened all those years ago on that forest.

Tim rushed to the cashier as soon as those two were through the door, paid the bill (using his last spare change for it) and rushed out after the two. He saw them walking down the street from behind, and made sure to follow the two, always being careful not to come so close that the fox would notice his presence.

He followed them all the way into an alley, where they both went and Mansa then stood before the fox.

"So?" Mansa asked him, as he looked the fox in the eye. "Are you going to say now?"

Marceli looked back at him.

"You really want to know bad, don't you?" He asked, and Mansa looked back at him. What, did the fox expected him to change his mind in the middle of the way or something?

Marceli sighed, and turned his back to the buffalo. Mansa heard a sound from behind. He looked over his shoulder to see his brother coming into the alley, careful not to make a sound. Mansa quickly made the "hide" gesture to him, and Tim was quick to find a hiding spot behind a bunch of cardboard boxes. They were near a small storehouse.

"Do you remember your first case, Chief Bogo?" Marceli voice made Mansa look his way, and the fox turned to look at him. "Can you remember the first case in which you worked after you joined the ZPD as a recruit full of dreams and aspirations?"

The buffalo looked back at him, as the fox looked back at him with a serious expression.

"Yes." Mansa answered. "It was a DUI. Some guy ran his car into a liquor store when they refused to sell him bourbon. Not your everyday occurrence, but pretty common for a rookie."

Marceli looked at him for a few moments, before he said:

"I envy you."

Mansa couldn't help but look at the fox with a raised eyebrow. Tim was listened to it all from his hiding spot behind those boxes, as he peered just enough to see the two from hiding without revealing his presence to the fox.

"You know how it is like, don't you?" Marceli asked the bovine, turning around and walking forward, "To be young. New to the force. Feeling like you are living a dream you always had and always wanted to chase, even with your whole family telling you that you should forget it and focus on following the tradition of your side of the clan while leaving our cousins to follow the oath of fighting for justice."

Mansa looked at the fox as he went on this. The fox obviously was talking about himself there. However, he spoke as someone who honestly thought the person he was talking with certainly understood him.

The buffalo became a cop because this was what his father insisted him to do. Not because of some particular passion, although he did came to see the need and importance of his job and to want to do it proudly for the good of other mammals. He was not sure if he could truly understand what Mieczyslaw was saying.

Maybe Hopps could. At least part of it...

"That is why Emilia is like this, you know?" Marceli continued, still with his back turned to the buffalo. "She just started doing this work, and she is excited about it, eager to prove herself and looking forward to all of the amazing adventures she will live as an enforcer... just like I was when I first joined."

The fox turned around to look at Mansa.

"I was as excited as her when I first joined." Marceli said, "I was ecstatic. On my first mission, I could barely contain myself. Especially because I would be performing my first mission with... him."

Mansa looked at him as he said that. He easily noticed the resentment on the vulpine's voice as he did.

"Him?" Mansa asked, as the fox remained silent for a second too long after speaking. That was when Marceli continued:

"Quincy Wildt. One of the most famous enforcers of the history of the Association."

"He came from a family of wolves famous for their alchemical magecraft." Marceli explained to Bogo. "He was a mage of great talent. The most talented and powerful the Wildt clan ever produced, they said. He was the hope of his lineage for greatness. However, he chose to chase the life of an enforcer, and he soon made a name for himself. He had everything it took to be a great enforcer. Deep magical knowledge. Great strength and power. A fervent desire to hunt down and punish wrongdoers..."

Marceli looked down, and he sighed.

"He was the reason why I wanted to be an enforcer on the first place." The fox said, still looking down. "He saved my life when I was seven. A criminal kidnapped me and my cousins. I thought we were going to die. And then in came that wolf wearing a suit and a fedora, with that smile on his face and acting like he was the king of the world. It was thanks to him that we managed to go back home alive. He was so amazing... at that moment, all I knew was that I wanted to be like him..."

"He was your idol." Mansa said, understanding full well how a child could come to worship someone who they saw as a hero. Like Marceli certainly saw this wolf he was talking about after he saved his life and those of his relatives. It made sense that the fox would come to look up to him.

"Yes... he was..." Marceli said, once more Mansa could notice the bitterness on the fox's voice, before he continued:

"When I saw him again, I thought I was going to fall, because my legs felt so weak. Then, we were briefed on our mission."

"There was a minor organization that was causing troubles here in your country." Marceli continued, "They have been becoming a greater and greater concern due to their increasingly aggressive and deviant behavior. There was a worry among the higher circles of the Association that they could maybe risk revealing magecraft, which was still a secret back then."

"However, the final straw came when we found out they were kidnapping mammals all around the country to use them as sacrifices for blood rituals." Marceli said to Mansa, "As soon as we heard that, we knew that we could no longer ignore them. Our commander ordered the forming of a disciplinary squadron to be dispatch there to deal with the criminals and rescue any one of the kidnapped mammals who could still be alive. A group with over twenty enforcers, including Wildt and myself."

"To me, that was all I dreamed about." Marceli said to Mansa. "My first official mission as an enforcer. Fighting against a dangerous criminal group by the side of the one mammal who inspired me to become an enforcer. This was like a dream to me..."

Marceli paused.

"Little did I knew that it was going to become a nightmare soon enough..."

"Our mission led us to follow the trait of the group all across the country, until we found them basing inside of an ancient forest. Right on the track of a ley line. You know the forest I'm talking about, don't you, Bogo?" Marceli asked, looking at Mansa. He knew well what forest the fox was referring to.

He and his brother, who was hearing every word.

"We soon found the group, right when they were in the middle of a ritual." Marceli continued, "We all proceeded as we were supposed to. We approached them right when they were about to finish another ritual. We were too late to save any hostages, but we could still take all of them under custody to face justice. It was not hard actually, they all surrendered as soon as they realized that the captain of that squadron was Quincy Wildt. They didn't wanted to go on a fight with him."

"It seemed that it would be a very easy mission. They were surrendering, and we just had to take them all under custody. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, because I expected my first mission to be full of excitement, and instead it was ending with no incidents..." The fox's features got even heavier. "If at least it had been like this. But apparently Wildt also thought that this was ending too easily."

"He walked to them. Stood before their leader. Then, with no warning or provocation, he thrust his two paws into him. He used his magecraft and then threw him away. He exploded as soon as he hit a nearby tree."

Mansa listened to those words intently. The fox looked at him.

"Like I said, the clan of Quincy Wildt was a clan famous for their alchemy. Their main use of it was to use alchemy to alter the properties of living organisms." Marceli explained to him. "Their intention was the change metabolism to accelerate healing, to causes sickness on their enemies, they even believed that they could give themselves eternal youth if they managed to alter their cells on the right way and live forever."

"Quincy found a more brutal way to use this magecraft." Marceli continued. "He figure out a way to alter the metabolism of a living being in a way to make them volatile. He would alter their cells so they became a highly unstable explosive. They still worked normally in all metabolic functions. However, if they suffered any major impact..."

"They exploded." Mansa concluded, now having a better picture of what happened on the forest.

"Yes..." Marceli said, "Like dynamite. Unless someone managed to reverse the process to restore them to normal. This was a thing that Quincy Wildt was famous for doing, and one of the reasons why he was so feared. He could literally turn you into a living bomb with a touch, and then you had to remain perfectly still and not make any sudden movements or you would detonate as if all of your flesh was made of nitroglycerin."

"As that group leader found out." The buffalo once more concluded, and this time the fox looked at him with a somber expression.

"And not only him." Marceli said, before continuing:

"We were shocked. Quincy, however, continued what he was doing. He started to use his magecraft on all of the members of that group. Destabilizing their bodies and them tossing them away for them to explode. Even when they fell to their knees and begged him not to, saying they were surrendering and would go without resistance. He just continued killing them."

"That was when someone of our own group went to him to try and get him to stop. However, that is when he did something unthinkable." Marceli said, and he paused. Once more, the bovine completed the thought:

"He turned on his own crew."

"He killed him." Marceli said, "He was just trying to stop him, and Wildt just killed him. And he laughed while he did it..."

"From there, it was just a bloodbath." Marceli spoke, as he looked in direction to the wall. To a stain in there that looked suspiciously like dried-up blood. "He started killing indiscriminately. He killed the criminals we came to apprehend. He killed his own subordinates. He just kept killing us, using his magecraft to turn us into living explosives and then either throwing us away to explode or just leaving us to explode on our own if we tripped."

"Except for you." Mansa said to him but, to his surprise, Marceli shook his head.

"Including me." The fox said, what surprised the buffalo, who looked at him with surprise. "I was stupid enough to try and jump him from behind, but he caught on to me and grabbed me on his paws. I could feel when he used his magecraft in me. I could feel when he changed my body so every ounce of my flesh was an explosive. And then, he placed me on the ground, and told me not to move, if I didn't wanted to join the night's body count."

"I was in shock. There he was, the man who I admired the most, the very reason why I wanted to become an enforcer, the man whom I paid tribute to by elaborating a new way to use runes in a way it mimicked his magecraft, looking down on me with that cruel smirk. As if the fact I was about to die was nothing more than an amusement to him."

Marceli shuddered at the memory. Mansa only looked at him. Even Tim, from behind the boxes, dared to peek a look at the fox as he heard every word.

"I asked him why." Marceli said, his voice sounding tired, nearly defeated. "I asked him why he was doing this. Why he was killing everyone. Why he turned on his own team. Why he betrayed us. You know what his answer was, Bogo?"

There was a silence, and then Marceli, looking at Mansa, said:

"He looked me right in the eyes and, with the biggest grin I ever saw in a wolf's muzzle, he said: 'because I can'."

More silence followed those words, before Marceli continued:

"From there, he continued killing the others, and then he just left me there. I didn't dare to get up and go after him. I didn't dared to do anything, because I knew what would happen if I tried doing anything. All I could do was lay there, as immobile as I could, and pray for help to come."

"Luckily, one of our group was smart enough to activate one of the mystic codes we carried that sent a distress signal to the nearest enforcers base." Marceli said, looking at the buffalo. "They received the message, and knew the place it was coming for. So they came in and found me still on the same place that Wildt placed me downing just a few hours... and ty cleaned up everything."

Both brothers knew that "cleaning up" meant covering up the whole incident so there was no evidence left behind.

"From there, they two more days carefully moving me in direction to another city. Then they put me on a boat and shipped me back to England. It was a three days trip. Then, they spent the following forty-eight hours working on my body to revert me back to normal. All the while I prayed that they would not make any sudden movement and tried to remain as still as I could, not daring to even sleep or to eat, since I could explode if I as much as sneezed, after the very same thing happened to the rest of my team because my idol betrayed all of us."

A silence followed those words. So deep that Tim became afraid the fox would hear his breathing. Luckily, he didn't.

"That, Bogo..." Marceli said, looking at Mansa. "Is the story of what happened on that forest decades ago... The story of what you witnessed..."

He then deadpanned:

"The story of how my first mission as an enforcer turned into the worst week of my life."

Marceli then asked him:

"Are you happy now?"

Mansa said nothing back. He only looked at Marceli for a few moments, assimilating all that he just heard, just like he was sure that Tim was.

"I'm sorry about that." Mansa asked him. The fox made a sound and looked away. The silence lasted for a few more moments, before Mansa asked:

"What about Wildt? Was he arrested?"

Marceli hesitated, but he then said:

"He was branded a criminal as soon as he turned on the enforcers. This is considered an act of betrayal to the very Association. He received a sealing designation, and was hunt down with all of our strength. He killed thirty more of us before we finally managed to capture him... His sealing designation was already executed. There is nothing left to do about it..."

The fox sighed.

"Let's just go back to the station." The vulpine said, looking up at the buffalo. "I'm pretty sure Emilia is ready to try and placing runes on the walls of your office to practice if we take a few minutes longer."

With this, the fox went ahead. Mansa hesitated before following him, but only when he saw the fox stop just before the boxes where Tim was hiding. After this, Mansa went ahead and followed the fox.

Both of them passed by those boxes, and the fox continued ahead, not turning his head and not noticing anything. Mansa, however, looked to the side and saw his brother.

He looked back at him silently, as Mansa continued his way after the fox.

The brothers only needed to trade that single look, and that was enough. No words. No secret gestures. Only that look on each other's eyes and they said to each other everything they needed to say.

Mansa continued on his way after the fox, while Tim, only after he was sure they were both gone, finally came out of his hiding place. However, he just stayed right where he was. His mind was still processing everything he heard.

After all those years, he finally understood better what happened on that forest...