Chapter 6

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AN: as said, this chapter was shorter, so you're getting it one week after the last.

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"I was supposed to be getting out," Kris said, closing his eyes. He let his breath calm, pushing down with his meditative skills; they were damaged, weaker, but he still remembered how to do them.

And he had been learning how to use them, in some cases, for this stuff.

"I was excited. My name was cleared, I was told they knew who had framed me, I was going to see my Dad and family again. Not long before, Armando and Timofey… this big polar bear… They came in to say that they knew, and were happy for me. But also… -there was this hazing tradition they had."

The bat looked on, quizzically. "What do you mean, hazing?"

"In the cells we all had paw-brushes, which were fixed to the walls by a rope. Those being released would get a spanking with them…"

"-Did you ever see this?"

"No," he said, huffing out a breath. "That's why the two were telling me. -It was to be done with whoever had the most time on their sentence left, and it was the time gap left. So whoever was meant to do it to me had eighteen left, I'd spent no years in, so eighteen…"

There was a murmur in the back of the crowd, the judge leaning in. "Was this the start of the purported incident?"

"-No," Kris said. "I mean, in a round about way, yes." He breathed out. "I guess someone knew I was due that, and they intercepted me. Tricked me into going into the cell, where Luke and the others were waiting. With Matt…"

"The coywolf pup," the bat explained, the judge nodding. "What was going on there?"

"I…" Kris breathed in. "I saw Matt being held by this bigger wolf. A very unusual wolf, I think probably emotionally underdeveloped -poor guy... There were some others, but it was Luke who did the talking."

"What did he say?"

"That if I didn't do what he wanted, the bigger wolf would hurt Matt…"

"As in spank him?"

Kris shut his eyes, tight. Big grey lupine eyes, panting tongue, wagging tail, the others staring daggers at him, don't go ahead unless we let you freak! And the whimpers… "Worse than that..."

"Okay, easy there," the bat reassured him. "Take your time."

"I'd been his, Matt's, friend. So I didn't want him to get hurt. So when Luke told me to lay down, I did it. When he tried pulling my…" A shake of a head, a breath in and out, his mind forcing itself to hold on. "My scruff…" Claws holding on, pulling. "-To make me go limp…" Control receding back like a tide, his commands shooting down but never being received, limbs like rag dolls, helpless, useless, doing nothing other than feeling… "-I had to let him." Feeling what they wanted him to feel. What he wanted him… "He mocked me a lot then, about how it was a dumb bad fox, how if I'd just been 'a good fox' it wouldn't have come to this." Mocking, teasing, prodding... "They he got some scissors…" Snip. "they'd smuggled in," snip-snip-snip "and…" Breath in and out. "Cut my tail."

"He shaved off the fur, down to the limb, correct?"

"Not quite," he said, breath in, breath out. Snip... His own paws holding his tail, tight. Snip… So he knew all the feelings were his own. Snip… And not anyones elses. "It wasn't like a shave," snip... "it was rough," snip... "it was messy." Snip… "I don't think any was really left bare," snip… "but in lots of places it was close." Snip...

"As I intend to show in later photographic evidence, taken on the day and day after," the bat carried on. "What happened next?"

"They wanted to break me," Kris said with a shiver. "So they took me to a shower, made me stand under freezing water." He sniffed. Cold… It had just felt so cold, and even now he felt a shiver in his bones. He was lucky he hadn't got sick, lucky he hadn't got ill. Lucky he wasn't lying in a hospital, tubed up, machines breathing for him, a whiskers breath away from... "I didn't like that. I was scared. But I didn't want them to win."

And then he looked up, looking on at the hare, who just looked back… bored.

Bored at it all.

Bored at all the things he'd done.

"So you suggested you hurt Matt instead, as you knew I cared about him. You told your wolf friend to start…"

"LIAR!" Luke yelled.

Kris yipped.

He couldn't help it, he buckled back from the hare, even as the judge warned him that he could be hit with a contempt charge if he interrupted like that. Kris knew he could beat him, he knew he wasn't a threat, but right there and then it was like he was back there, the mammal ruling over him like…

Like…

He didn't know what.

He couldn't think, either, the banging and ordering of the judge for order calming things down.

Eyes closed, breath in, breath out, steady yourself.

Steady yourself.

Push out the thoughts of the snipping, or the cold, or the paws on his tail or his foot or…

Foot?

He looked down, through deep breaths, to see the pika there, trying to comfort him. Standing up to a mammal so many times her own size, who she knew wasn't controlling himself, and could lash out and flick her away or stomp her without knowing it.

She didn't care.

So how brave was he, really?

Trembling at a hare across the room, who he'd beaten before, who had a whole room to stop him getting close.

He gripped the edge of the stand tighter, gritted his teeth, looked over the edge. His father was there, trying to get to him. The bailiffs had obviously stopped him, leading to an awkward standoff at the edge. And now the pair of them, looking at each other. Kris managed a nod, before the voice of the judge spoke up. "Do you want a break?" he asked.

"No," Kris said, closing his eyes. "The less time he has to make me fear him, the better." And with that he turned back to Luke, the hare's formerly smug look fading into a simmering annoyment. "I don't want him, or any of the bullies, to win."

"Very well," the judge surmised. "Mr Messenger, anything else to ask?"

"If you can," the bat said. "What happened next?"

"I remember Matt crying, screaming, as that wolf began to have his fun. There were some others there, who backed off. They hadn't agreed to this, but they didn't stop it. Others felt I deserved it, they held me down, so Luke could play. He was saying stuff, -I don't remember it, I was just staring at Matt. They still had my scruff, I could only watch, I…"

He had to take a breath. Looking away. Breathing in and out. That time, he was pushing out, everything was on Matt. But now? Everything he'd missed that first time was washing back onto him. Like it had been doing all this time, little bits of driftwood trauma landing at his shore.

"That was when Armando and Luka came in. They saw what was going on, and when they didn't stop, they tried to make them." Lips working over and under his front teeth. "Armando was just a capybara. He couldn't fight against them, he tried though." Just like he had to. After all, he could actually win here, couldn't he? Armando was probably scared, terrified, he did it anyway. So could he. So could he. "And Luka, he'd said he'd beaten off that wolf before." Somehow, Kris couldn't quite work out why, he managed a smile. "One kick and that wolf was thrown into the tiles, and Matt ran free. He then tried to turn on those holding me down, but he had to face a bison, he…" Breath in, breath out. "I remember being most scared about getting into a fight with him before… -before I knew him. A single kangaroo kick can win the match, knock you down and keep hitting before you get up. He did it to that wolf. But if a kangaroo gets kicked down… you can easily keep kicking and keep them down. So you just had Luke, left on me, pulling my scruff to stop me fighting back. So I couldn't do anything as those who tried to help were being beaten. I suppose it's lucky the guards finally came in and broke it up then."

He cut himself off.

No need to mention which guard.

What she'd done.

What she'd said.

Who she'd blamed.

"And that was the last time you saw him?" the bat asked.

Kris looked up at the hare. "Until today."

"Thank you for recounting that," the bat said. "I know it must have been hard, but it was important to get it out."

Harder than it should have been, Kris almost admitted.

Still, he looked to his family and supporters, nodding along, standing strong, giving support.

They were there for him.

Remember what Ash said, remember that, remember they are there to hold you up, and don't think, just live. Just live. He had all their strength.

And what did Luke have?

An army of young kits, looking at himself or giving him the stink eye…

They probably thought he was a big bad sneaky lying fox, didn't they? He mused, ears going down, before telling himself that even someone like Luke got to have loved ones.

And a defence too.

One that was now sitting up, the Tasmanian devil shuffling some papers, only to be distracted by Luke grabbing him and talking. Saying something, pointing at him up in the stand. His lawyer shook his head. Luke looked frustrated. He stood up, saying to him. "I can beat him!"

The devil harshly spoke back, trying to subdue his voice, but Kris could make the words out. "If that beating looks anything like what you've managed so far, you'll win your tiny little battle and lose the war."

Groaning, rolling his eyes, the hare let his lawyer, seemingly wearing the same expression, take over. "I'd like to ask a few questions," he said, breaking off as a member of the audience, very likely one of the wolves, gave an exceptionally loud howl-sneeze. One that Kris easily recognised as faked. Regardless, it drew the devil's attention to the rather large pack of very large wolves, who all looked back.

It drew the judges attention too. "Members of the audience will let the lawyers do their job, free of any intimidation," he warned. "If this is kept up, I will clear the court. And, if it influences the witnesses, I may have to throw this trial out. Need I remind you all that a mistrial and re-running of these proceedings is something that none of us want?"

If the wolves felt any guilt at their scolding, they didn't show it. Either way, the judge turned back. "Mr Harris, please continue."

So did the devil. "Mr Silverfox," he began, softly. "You made a lot of mention about my client here, from his actions against you, to those against your friends. However, there was also a wolf who was frequently mentioned a lot…"

"-Objection," the bat spoke up. "It is Mr Luke Ruta on trial here today, given that the wolf in question and his legal situation have already been dealt with."

Something Kris was glad for, thankfully. Out of all the inmates taking part, only Luke had chosen to fight it out in court. The rest had taken deals. For some, such as the big cat who'd walked out as soon as it turned into something more than just putting Kris in his place, there were no criminal proceedings as long as he testified. Both against the others, and that one.

The others had all folded after that, most getting longer sentences, the wolf the longest of them all. Not that he seemed to care, or register to care, from what Kris heard. He seemed dumb enough to not even consider the dumb move of fighting it out.

Just Luke left, though even though he hadn't done the worst, Kris couldn't help but trust his gut in knowing he could be the worst.

"Is there a point to this line?" the judge asked.

"Yes there is," Mr Harris said. "I intend to establish a bias against my client by the witness."

There was a loud rumbling in the crowd, a warning stare from the judge cutting it off. "Proceed, with extreme caution."

"The wolf in question, from what we gather, was established at the start to be the one holding power over Kristofferson's friend. The one actively threatening to harm him, a harm which, given the choice to submit or flee he was given, the client evidently thought of as more severe than that he faced."

"Objection," the bat spoke again. "My client had no idea over what level of harm he would face."

"Given his recollection of a previous encounter, I would argue he had," the devil countered. "Either way, he could assume that the threat he faced would always be equal to that the coywolf pup did, and nevertheless judged that protecting him was more important than protecting himself."

"Objection overruled," the judge dismissed. "Though the witness may make a comment if he so wishes."

"Mr Silverfox?" the devil immediately asked, Kris unable to stop a flush of worry wash over him. Back on the spotlight, once again, but he could manage against this stranger.

"I… Figured a lot of what they would do," he said, fingers fumbling together. "Except the shower." He shivered a bit. "I…" he closed his eyes and breathed in, a guilty scar tearing inside him. "I just had to try and protect Matt."

"Understood," the devil said. "Thank you." He let it pause for a second, before carrying on. "So, having established that this wolf was arguably the worse threat, the higher threat, the more dangerous threat in his eye, may I point out how he described the wolf. Specifically, 'emotionally underdeveloped'. And, referred to as a 'poor guy'. So, in this case, there's arguably at least some empathy from the client about that wolf. Yet, with my client, who was arguably the secondary danger in the witness's eye, the tone of the description was very different. Amoral. Emotionally toxic. Got what he deserved. Now, I don't deny that the client went through something very traumatic, but in doing so is it out of the question that his memory of the event got damaged? Need I point out the issues he's been having recalling some of these events?"

"Objection," the bat chimed in. "I'd argue that has often been due to your clients behavior, which could be taken to validate those claims."

"Overruled but noted," the judge said.

"In any case," the devil carried on. "That wolf, viewed with empathy despite his more heinous actions, may well have been the instigator of this affair. He may have threatened my client, forced him along with the very same threats levelled against the defendant. I would argue that my client was acting under duress…"

'No,' Kris thought, shaking his head. No, Luke was in control. Every second, every moment, as he wanted it, as he liked it, as he enjoyed it.

"In addition, due to the way the event played out, bad recollection, and potential pre-existing bias, the witness has come to greatly maximise and overstate my clients culpability in this affair."

The bat lawyer began to move, as if to speak, only for a glare from the judge, almost as if he knew, to cut him off. He gave him a knowing look. "Mr Harris," he said to the devil. "These are some weighty claims, especially with the claims of bias. Does the prosecution wish to question this?"

"We do," the bat said. "By what means do you believe my client, a fox, is biased against yours. After all, the mistrust and speciesism traditionally flows in the opposite direction, prey to pred, rather than from the fox to the bunny."

"Hare," Luke spoke, putting his foot down. "I'm not a dumb bunny, I'm a hare. Get it right."

"Order!" the judge demanded, banging his gavel. "Need I remind you Mr Ruta, I do not take interruptions to my courtroom lightly, and as I warned I can land you with a contempt charge. However, I understand that misspeciesing can be a sore subject, so in this one instance consider yourself lucky. If you wish to object, say so, and if I let you get to the point quickly and concisely. And be warned, you are on very thin ice. As said, I can add a contempt of court charge, and make sure it's made consecutive to your existing sentence."

Luke crossed his paws and sat down, stropping.

"Mr Harris," the judge carried on.

"Well, to start with in terms of bias, may I start with the misspeciesing that just occurred here. More to the point though, let us accept that lagomorph species, hares and rabbits both, are often receivers of a specific strain of stereotypes. For the sake of the young mammals in the audience, that which they are quick to seek the attention of members of the opposite sex. Both in terms of reproduction and enjoyment. Moreover, this spills over into cases around crimes of this nature. While does are often unfairly viewed as promiscuous, it's undeniable that bucks are often viewed as such too, stepping over into being forceful. Should a buck be accused of such crimes, especially against members of a different species, the prevailing view, or more accurately the prejudice, is that he couldn't keep it in his pants and thus forced himself on his accuser. To not acknowledge this would be as egregious as not acknowledging many of the biases and prejudices slighted against those of vulpine kind."

"So you're saying that this is a 'he-said she-said'?" the bat asked.

"No," the devil clarified. "I'm saying that this view, this unintentional prejudice, may have influenced the witness in the stand from the start and painted his view of my client, poisoning it, throughout the short, intense, stressful time they were together. The incident where Luke first touched my client's tail, for instance. A major faux-pas to be sure, but it may well have just been a gentle pull, my clients requisitions reasonable and in good faith. Only, the witness, coloured by the stereotypes about him, and why he was there, immediately reacted as if this was something far worse."

Kris shook his head. No… No that hare had meant it all. He knew what he was doing.

"So a knock back and insults had followed, snowballing into a two-sided fight, hence why, as his testimony, both were chastised. This truly poisoned the witness's opinion, culminating in the assessment of the final event in which my client, under duress from a vastly stronger and more dangerous mammal, something the witness's actions support, was misinterpreted as the primary instigator and shot caller."

A long pause left the room filled with an empty silence, Kris looking down, worried. He'd messed up, hadn't he? A slip of his tongue, forgetting a few things. Luke was going to get away, and he'd be smiling at him, knowing he'd won. He could feel paws working their way up his tail and…

"I hope you don't mind if I call guano on those claims, pardon any fellow chiropterans in the room," the bat cut in. "If such is the case, why was no mention of this duress made in relation to the other testimonies we have heard?"

"The subject was never broached at the time."

The bat looked decidedly unimpressed. "Regardless, surely the most logical reason for the differing in descriptions of these two characters was that, ultimately, it was Luke Ruta who physically molested and mutilated my client."

"Objection," the devil spoke. "Mutilation confers a permanent change. While undeniably traumatic, having a tail shaved is something that will grow back, heal. Not mutilation."

"But arguably a hate crime. Indeed, given my client's heritage, it is likely he has ancestors who suffered the same form of public shaming."

"My client knew about that, how?"

"That is beside the point," the bat surmised. "Regardless, in terms of the differing characterisations, I'm sure my client would be willing to add something?"

Kris stayed his nerves. Harder now, he preferred it when the two were debating each other, even if he didn't like some of the things being said. "I don't like some of the things being said. The wolf, I don't think I even know his name, I guess I described him like that as… He seemed as if he was only driven by his basal instincts. When he was hungry he tried to eat, when he was sleepy he'd go to sleep. He just did what he felt like, and didn't have the mental capacity to rise beyond that. I almost feel sad for him as…" he breathed in and out, shaking his head. "It was inevitable he'd end up in a place like this from birth, he had no chance to be better."

And then, for once, something lit inside him. "Luke did though, he can control himself. But he does so to get what he wants, no care given to others." He looked up, looked into the hare's eyes, Luke narrowing them back. "Between the two events, there was a group session. Confess your crimes, why you did it, I remember Luka the kangaroo giving his life story. Luke was also asked about his crimes. He was crying, sobbing, admiting to raping his girlfriend as he wanted it, he was a buck who just felt he had the right to rule over others. He cried tears, ran off, like a baby kit."

The hare almost rose then, teeth chittering out, nose twitching. His lawyer flashed him a toothy devil glare, that only just got him to hold back. "But on that final day again, he…" He felt his gut wrench slightly. "He was laughing, he was teasing, he was enjoying it. Just like he enjoyed pulling me by the tail, lecturing me, continually trying to reinforce that I was the unreasonable one, that I was being unfair, that I owed him what he was doing as a common courtesy." Kris let out a breath. "I said I don't like bullies. I like gaslighters even less… Luke Ruta is not a nice mammal. He plays mammals emotions, blackmails, takes advantage of others. He has the capacity to be good, if he chose so, a gift the wolf doesn't have. But he uses it for bad. After all," he said, beginning to tremble. "He suggested really doing those things at the end. And when others walked out, when good mammals came in just to try and stop it all… He just kept his paw on my scruff so I couldn't get up and fight back. He's a coward, who knows I can beat him."

The tasmanian devil began his response. "Even though he's…"

"-Hey, I can easily beat you," Luke cut in, foot beginning to drum on the floor.

"-got the size advantage," Mr Harris cut in, briefly staying the judge from calling for order. The defence attorney moved to wave his client down and rushed on with his speech. "-Maybe some resentment comes from being a fox outsized by his traditional prey… After all, remembering my claims about the potential biases, Luke's age making him larger likely drove the witnesses fear…"

"Course it did," Luke pushed in again, "I could beat your baldy tail any day to sunday! You know it."

The judge banged his gavel. "I'm pausing proceedings…"

"A loss and using blackmail is convincing evidence," Kris snarked, as the judge cut in.

"Order! Mr Ruta, if…"

"-I call pellets, wimp," he carried on, not caring. "And all those dumb fancy words, you think you're so smarter than us, so above us. You deserved to be cut down to size!"

BANG. "I hereby find you guilty of contempt," the judge ruled.

Luke snapped to him. "Oh come off it! I know how this will end, you're too scared that a jury will see through those lies, so I just get a judge looking at this and deciding my fate." He snorted, pointing at himself. "I mean, with another kangaroo as one of the 'good guys' we all know how this will end. After all, Mr Roo, they didn't put you in here for subtlety."

A harsh cut of whispers cut through the crowd. The judge stared daggers at the defendant. "One week for contempt of court. And, for someone who complained about being mis-specied, you are showing very little care for doing it yourself."

"My client," Mr Harris frantically cut in, "is just over stressed and emotional. May I request leniency…"

"Oh shove it," he hissed, pushing him away. "I don't need you being my, devil, advocate," his jeer was met with a massive grin on his face as the judge hammered again.

"Silence! One month for contempt! Bailiffs..."

The judge was even joined by a shout from Luke's mother, demanding he 'shut your big mouth you idiot'.

He didn't.

"Yeah, you'd do that anyway. Kangaroo court run by a freak kangaroo…"

"I am a Gray Dorcopsis young man…"

"Dorcopsis shmospsis, I don't care" Luke mocked. "I know what's going on, marsupial judging me, marsupial 'defending' me." He turned back to the devil. "We could have thrashed baretail goody two-shoes over there but NO! You let him go and call me weak, a coward! Well look how brave I am now, huh! Bet you regret picking a fight with me. Bet this teaches you for hating hares and bunnies. Yeah? Don't think I've forgotten you lot banning us from emigrating to your precious straya for decades, with your speciesist 'overpopulation' tears! Well, you think you can treat us like scat, I don't!"

"I, a third generation Indonesian Zootopian, hereby find you guilty of contempt of court and sentence you to an additional two months. Bailiff, take him away."

"Sure, do that! Shut up the truth. You two are siding with that sneaky fox, and his blood sucking little parasite friend."

After sitting it out and enjoying the spectacle, the bat lawyer coughed. "I am not a vampire! I'm a little brown bat and proud of it!"

He smirked. "Take a chill pill, I was talking about your profession." And then he turned to Kris. "As for you, you stinkin' liar! How does it feel for me to show 'em all what you really are! I saw you all weeping and quivering and acting like a scaredy widdle fox up there, they all know what a chicken you are. Scared of your own prey!"

He was jostled as the bailiffs grabbed him and began cuffing him, dragging him off. He held his smug look for a second or so, before it faltered on seeing Kris.

Smiling.

"Hey," Luke carried on. "You think you'll stay outta this place. You'll end up where you belong eventually! Remember that? Remember what it's like! You'll be there like the rest of us." And then, his smug grin cracked a little. "C-C'mon, remember me!?"

"Yes," Kris said, breathing in and out.

"You know I beat you here. Shoved your little muzzle on the floor! Fear me!"

"Why? You didn't even win your battle," Kris spoke, as the hare was dragged off. "Yet alone your war."

And with that, through a door, went Luke. Kris was left alone, slumping hard onto the stand, panting in and out. The devil was saying that he had no further questions, the judge was saying they'd resume proceedings the next day, yet it all fogged over for him. Indeed, it was only the light touch on his foot that broke him out of his reverie. "You did great," the pika said, smiling. "Especially at the end, after how scared you were earlier, seems like you came through."

Even though it was a complement.

Even though he appreciated it a fair bit.

Even though he was pretty sure it was largely true.

He had a nugget of truth of his own to share. "Well," he said, sighing, "it's hard when he's above you. It's easy when he's digging his own hole. It's the first bit that counts, and… I wasn't so good in that."

"You survived," she insisted. "That's the main thing. You survived until he started digging, and he's a very good digger when he gets going."

The silverfox, at the end of it all, couldn't help but let a grin grow across his muzzle. "Yeah. So he is. So he is."