"Hopefully, the final two episodes won't quite take as long to complete." Hahaha, yeah, how did that go, gift?

Hi, all! Wow, it's been a minute, huh? I got caught writing Zootopia: The War Of The Worlds, felt a sense of total listlessness following the conclusion of that, and then I wrote two new one-shots – which, if I do say so myself, are pretty good and you should go read them in the One-Shot Collection on AO3.

If you're reading this on FFN, then all my stories are being updated exclusively on Archive Of Our Own now, which the exception of finishing this one off before I leave FFN as a writer entirely. You'll find me under the same pseud there (giftheck).

I actually found that I did not like the story I came up with for the finale originally, and so I wanted to rethink it. It also got cut down from two episodes to one, because the story I want to tell now is able to be told comfortably in this one episode, though it may be a tad longer than previous episodes given the story I want to tell can be put across three Acts instead of two. So, here it is!


EPISODE 5: FINALE (ACT 1)

"Run that by me again," Lucas said. He was in Lyra's office, watching as she explained her new theory.

"Okay, so up to this point, we all assumed that we were dealing with a revisable timeline," Lyra explained, pointing to the whiteboard in her office. "But… what if we've been dealing with a branching timeline instead? Look at it like this."

Lyra drew a single line on the board.

"Say I offered you a coffee," Lyra said. "Now, there's two choices you can take: yes, or no. You say no," Lyra drew a line diagonally away. "But then you really decide that you want a coffee at that time, so you travel back down the branch…" Lyra traced the line back, "and say yes. And this creates a new branch from that point."

Lyra drew another line, going in the opposite direction to the last.

"That's a very simple way of explaining it," she finished, "but that's how it works in theory."

Lucas simply stared, apparently struggling to take it in.

"Now, when applied to your situation, you're currently in a branch where we found the device you stepped on that brought you here. If we sent you back now, you'd be in this branch's future, which would create a paradox, assuming you're still born – since that version of you would never have come across the device in the first place. So, we need to send you back down the branch to a point where the device was still in place. Do you understand?"

"Not really," Lucas admitted. "I'll trust what you say, though."

"Well, that's good enough for me," Lyra nodded. "It'll take a bit of time for me to figure out the exact route before I can send you back."

"Okay… so… what do I do in the meantime?" Lucas asked. "I mean, I can't exactly just be set loose until you call me. Even being out there means I might be changing the future."

"That's not a bad point," Lyra conceded. "But we can't exactly wrap you in the temporal equivalent of cotton wool either. Your very presence here already created this branch. It won't affect the branch you came from."

"Ugh, time travel makes my head hurt," Lucas held a paw to his forehead.

"Well, maybe go get some coffee," Lyra suggested. "Can't do much damage by taking a visit to Snarlbucks. And while you're out there, I'll work on trying to get the path established."


Savanna Central was busy as ever. It hadn't changed that much in his time, but things weren't where he thought they were. Thankfully, the Snarlbucks was still where it was in Lucas' own time, and it wasn't too busy either. He joined the queue, and took a look around while he waited. The Snarlbucks in this time was certainly quainter than those in Lucas' time. Decades from now, Snarlbucks would become completely sanitised of character. The insides were all lined with bleak-looking panels meant to evoke a 'futuristic' feel. The windows were frosted, which inhibited natural light. And servers might as well have been robots, for all the enthusiasm, or lack thereof, they showed towards their jobs.

While in line, Lucas took a look around. Many mammals were simply going about their lives, unaffected and unaware that he was even there. Some college-age kids were busy working on laptops with cups of coffee steaming away next to them. Others were chatting to each other. There were a few who were content to simply sit there and read newspapers.

Something caught Lucas' attention. Two places in front of him stood a young wolf. He had to be no older than about fourteen or fifteen. His eyes were darting around as he reached for the purse of the antelope waiting in line in front of him.

Lucas was sure he was witnessing a pickpocket at work. He may have been out of time, but he still felt a duty to intervene. So, quietly, he moved forward and grabbed the wolf boy's wrist.

"Hey, what the…?" the wolf said. The antelope in front of them turned to face them.

"Sorry, ma'am," Lucas nodded his head. "Just saw this one trying to reach into your purse."

The antelope shot the young wolf a glare, before smiling warmly at Lucas.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

"You're welcome," Lucas replied, pulling the wolf boy away and out of the Snarlbucks.

"Let me go!" the boy protested. "Are you a cop or something?"

"Something like that, yeah," Lucas replied. "Now, what's gonna happen is you're going to go home and think about what you've done, and if I see you round here again, I'll run you right over to the ZPD myself."

"Hey!" a voice came from behind Lucas. He released the wolf and turned towards the source of the voice.

It was Judy Hopps, and right behind her was Nick Wilde. The very last mammals he wanted to see.

"Oh, carrot sticks…" Lucas whispered to himself.

"What do you think you're doing?" Judy demanded. "We've been watching this guy for the past half an hour, and you show up and… hey, stop!"

Lucas took the moment to run, knowing full well he was racing against his mother in her prime. He needed the head start, especially since, although he knew the city well in his own time, Lucas did not know the city quite as well in this one.

Unsurprisingly, Judy gave chase. Nick simply stepped back towards their parked cruiser. Lucas ran for a nearby alley. He knew it was probably what would be expected of somebody who was trying to evade the law. He suspected Nick might try to cut off the alley in the cruiser. So, Lucas had to try and be unpredictable. And, thankfully, he had inherited his rabbit mother's quick-footedness. Spotting a fire escape, he leapt deftly up to it and clambered up the ladder.

"Stop!" Judy ordered, watching as Lucas climbed. When he didn't listen, she leapt up the fire escape after him. He reached the roof and ran for the edge, looking to jump to the next rooftop. He knew it wouldn't stop the pursuit, but he hoped he had now put some distance between the two of them - or, perhaps, that he might be able to lose them.

'No chance of that,' Lucas dismissed the idea immediately, glancing over his shoulder. Judy was still hot on his tail, and Lucas was about to run out of rooftop. Spotting a lower roof, with a greenhouse and a spiral staircase attached to its side, Lucas leapt nimbly across to it. He slid down the spiral staircase, landing on the ground within seconds. Without sparing any more time, Lucas dashed for the exit, hoping to make it into a crowd where he could lose Judy.

Thankfully, he emerged near The Circle, which was packed with mammals. A tram rolled along the track, and Lucas grabbed hold of a rail and hopped aboard as it sped past. As he did, though, his hat fell off of his head, landing on the ground behind him. It was a small loss. Lucas watched as Judy slowed to a stop, now unable to pursue on foot.

"Lost her," Lucas sighed a breath of relief. "That… was too close."

Judy watched the tram head towards the city centre. Nick pulled up in the cruiser beside her.

"We could chase him down," Nick suggested.

"Nick, you know by the time we catch up to that tram, he'll have probably already gotten off," Judy replied. She looked to the ground, spotting Lucas' hat. Picking it up, she examined it carefully.

"He's probably just a good Samaritan," Nick pointed out.

"A good Samaritan that's just ruined our surveillance operation," Judy scoffed. "We've been tracking this pickpocket ring for weeks, and we were about to get our first real lead. I'm not looking forward to telling Bogo that our op was foiled by a try-out hero."

"Or the paperwork," Nick sighed. "Ah, well. At least you got his hat."

"I think I got more than that," Judy peered inside it, noticing some strands of fur.


"You… are… not… going… to… believe… this…" Hurriet, the resident ZPD sloth forensics specialist, said. As soon as they had returned to Precinct One, Nick and Judy had reported straight to Bogo, and then headed straight down to the lab to run DNA on the fur strands in the recovered hat.

"Don't tell me the DNA is a match to a five-year-old," Judy sighed heavily. "I really don't want to get involved in anything time travel-related again in a hurry."

"There… is… no… perfect… match… to… anybody… living…" Hurriet continued, "but… there… are… two… matches… which… means… their… parents… are… in… the… system…"

"Oh, that's perfect!" Judy swivelled around to Hurriet. "Tell us who the parents are and we can shake them down!"

"That… is… going… to… be… very… difficult…"

"Why?" Nick asked. "Are they dead?"

"No… they… are… alive…"

"Are we talking diplomatic immunity or something?" Judy frowned in confusion.

"No…" Hurriet denied.

"Then why can't we speak to them?" Judy asked. Hurriet smiled slyly as she turned back towards the computer, and pressed a button, before slowly stepping out of the way. She had activated the camera on her computer, usually reserved for video calls. Judy stared at the screen in confusion.

"Go… right… ahead… and… interrogate… his… parents…" Hurriet said. Nick and Judy looked at the monitor in befuddlement.

And then it dawned on them.

"WHAT?!" they said together.

"Congratulations… it's… a… boy…" Hurriet snarked.


"I still can't believe it," Judy said. "A son? Really? From the future?"

They were on their way to the ZIA's main building. They had to report this to the Temporal Investigation Department. Judy had gotten Hurriet to print out the DNA search results, ready to present them.

"Well, I can see it," Nick replied. "He's certainly got your impulsiveness."

"And he's got your sneakiness," Judy retorted. "But… how? Everything you've told me… everything we've known… even from the last time… says time travel won't be invented for at least another hundred years. He didn't look that much older than you. Maybe a year or two?"

Judy shook her head.

"No, wait, why am I even thinking about this?" she said. "We're not even married, we haven't even thought about kits! And it's not even possible!"

"Remember that stuff that Travis was working on?" Nick asked.

"The stuff he couldn't tell us about?" Judy replied.

"Well, I read up on it."

"You mean you had your honey badger friend hack into their systems."

"Er… No comment?"

"I don't want to know the answer to that question."

"… right. Anyway, I read that they are experimenting with… what was it? 'Embryonic manipulation'? I think the idea is that they artificially insert otherwise-incompatible donor DNA into an embryo. They say the idea is to make it possible for couples who can't conceive naturally to have kids of their own."

"Sounds an awful lot like playing God, if you ask me, and a bit like we're going to be subjects of experiments. Why would we ever agree to that?"

"Maybe it's something that's more accepted by the time we decide to go through with it? They seem to be quite far along with their research into it."

Judy stopped the cruiser outside the ZIA main building.

"Well, let's go report it to Stripes," Nick said, jumping out of the cruiser. Judy followed him out, and they walked into the building, where they were greeted by a llama receptionist.

"Detectives, how can I help you today?" she inquired.

"We need to see Agent Jack Savage," Judy said.

"Do you have an appointment?" the llama asked.

"No, but he's going to want to speak to us," Judy pressed. "We have a case for him."

"One moment," the llama picked up the receiver on her desk and dialled a number. "Agent Savage? I have Detectives Hopps and Wilde here to speak to you… Yes, sir… no, sir… they say they're here to speak to you about a case they have for you."

After a brief pause, she put the receiver back down and looked back to Nick and Judy.

"He's on his way down. Please, have a seat," she indicated to a bench to the side, pressed against the wall. They took a seat, and they didn't have to wait long before Jack emerged from an elevator.

"Hopps, Wilde, it's a pleasure to see you," Jack said. "To what do I owe this visit?"

"This," Judy replied, handing over the DNA results. Jack took and examined them, but the lack of surprise tipped Nick off that something was up.

"That's not the look of somebody who's missed someone from the future arriving," he remarked. Leaning forward, Nick added: "How long have you known he was here?"

Jack looked up at Nick, as did Judy. Both of them were shocked at Nick's question.

"Nick, surely…" Judy whispered.

"And I'm guessing that you're not only aware he's here, but he's here," Nick indicated, pointing down for emphasis.

Jack breathed deeply.

"It's very difficult to pull the wool over your eyes, Wilde," Jack said. "Yes, Lucas Wilde is in this building, and we've been trying to find a way to get him back home. You of all mammals should know, Wilde, why I didn't come to you before. Wouldn't you say the future's been altered enough?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Judy stepped forward and punched Jack straight in the face. Several ZIA Agents started forward, reaching for weapons concealed in shoulder holsters, but Jack waved them back.

"Stand down, I had that coming," he told the approaching Agents. His attention returned to the now-angry rabbit and fox in front of him.

"Frankly, I should tell you to leave and resume whatever case you're working on, and forget about Lucas Wilde," Jack told them. "But I have a suspicion that if I did that, you two would simply find a way to break into the building and find him yourselves." A brief pause, with the statement not placating either Nick or Judy. "Very well, I'll take you to him. But he may not want to see you, given he worked so hard to give you the slip. Follow me."

With that, Jack headed for the reception desk, pulled out two Visitor Passes and gave them to Nick and Judy.

"You're about to take your first steps into the Temporal Investigation Department," Jack said.

"You need a less difficult name," Nick snarked.


And that's another episode started! This episode is going to be a three-parter instead of a two-parter.

It's always been my intention for Nick and Judy to meet Lucas, but the old version of my finale, which went nuts with the very theory suggested by Lyra in the introduction, was very convoluted, so I thought of a much simpler way.

I'm hoping to have the final parts done by New Year. So, until then!