I'm going to kill that rabbit the next time I see her.

Bogo slid his phone back into his pocket and fought the urge to huff in annoyance. Hopps had seemed to have developed a habit of sending him text messages at particularly embarrassing times—knowing full well that he had to keep his notification tone on, in case an emergency popped up. It was bad enough she had sent him a message in the middle of the press conference, but her message wasn't even important.

"I just want you to remember, love you lots. ~L"

The buffalo gripped his hooves into fists so hard he felt his fingers grow numb. Yeah, we'll see just how long you "love me" once I'm done with you. He gritted his teeth and bared them at the cement wall in front of him. I'm going to drown you in so much paperwork you won't see daylight until the next—

"Chief Bogo?"

Bogo spun around, startled. Rolfe was walking up to him, paws folded behind his back, an eyebrow raised. The press conference had ended, and it seemed Rolfe wanted to speak with Bogo one last time before heading back inside City Hall.

Bogo quickly composed himself, stood tall, and cleared his throat. "Yes, Interim Mayor?"

Rolfe came to a stop a few steps in front of the chief. "I do hope that was not an emergency." His eyes glanced down at the pocket where Bogo had stuffed his phone.

He tried forcing a half-hearted smile, though it only lasted a second or two before his irritation overpowered it. "No, not at all," he assured. "My mother simply decided to send me a message of affection."

"Hmm." Rolfe's expression and tone of voice were both unamused by Bogo's excuse. "She seems to enjoy sending you such messages at the most peculiar times as of late."

Bogo groaned. "Believe me, I'll have a word with her about it," he replied, letting his displeasure toward Hopps bleed into his response.

To his relief, Rolfe decided to drop the subject and return to more important matters. "I have a meeting in the mayor's office in five minutes. It shouldn't be long, and afterwards, I would like to discuss some pressing business with you." He took a quick look around to make sure nobody was listening, and then lowered his voice to add, "Concerning Mayor Lionheart's wellbeing."

Bogo crossed his arms. "And what about his wellbeing?" he asked, keeping his voice just as quiet as the wolf's.

"I want to set up an investigation to determine how he could have gone savage." This time, Rolfe's voice dropped all the way down to a whisper. "We need to make that our top priority, to ensure it does not happen again."

"Top priority?" Bogo frowned. "Mayor Lionheart is perfectly fine."

"He is fine now." Rolfe leaned forward, whispering so quietly that Bogo had to strain to properly hear him. "But he had a savage episode this morning, behind closed doors, in the most secure building in Zootopia. We have to find out why."

Bogo glared at him for a second. He did not appreciate Rolfe dictating what should be his top priority; as chief of police, he had a duty to decide for himself what should be the top priority. His officers were bending over backwards trying to maintain peace and order in this blasted city right now, and he was spending as much of his time and resources as he could to help Hopps crack the savage predators case so that all the predators' shock collars could just be taken off already.

No savage predators, no shock collars. No shock collars, no riots. No riots, everyone's happy, and I can get back to handing out parking tickets.

But ultimately, Rolfe was right. Lionheart had gone savage—or so Rolfe and the staff at Zootopia General said—and it was important to make sure it wouldn't happen again, either to the mayor or to anyone else who worked in City Hall. He let out a sigh of defeat. "Okay, you're right," he relented. "We'll discuss this then."

Rolfe nodded, satisfied. Then he stood straight back up and returned to his normal speaking voice. "I'll see you in my office in thirty minutes, Chief Bogo."

Bogo closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly. "I'll be there, Interim Mayor—"

A sudden, loud sound once again interrupted him as Gazelle's voice once again blared from his pocket. This time, however, instead of the five-second-long squeal that had embarrassed Bogo so many times in the past, Gazelle was belting out one of her more obscure songs, Her Wolf.

The explicit version. With lots of words that instantly turned Bogo's face red.

Rolfe stared at him in bewilderment as, for the third time today, Bogo scrambled to fish the noisy phone out of his pocket. "Chief Bogo." He made a face, making his displeasure obvious. "Really."

Bogo finally brought the phone to his face, made a note of who was calling, and threw a smile in Rolfe's direction. "My mother—" he started.

Rolfe waved a paw dismissively. "Never mind." He turned on his heel and walked away from the chief. "My office. Thirty minutes."

"I'll be there!" Bogo painfully waited for Rolfe to walk a few feet away, then finally answered the call and pressed the phone to his ear. "What are you doing?" he snapped in a hushed voice. "I told you never to call me!"

Hopps' voice screamed out of the earpiece, so loudly that Bogo winced and had to move the phone a few inches away from his ear. "Chief, listen to me! You have to get to Rolfe right away!"

Bogo took a second to recover, then glanced at the front doors of City Hall, just a few feet away. He could see Rolfe walking inside, headed towards the elevator.

He returned his attention to the phone, tempted to hang up and resume their conversation over coded text. However, there had to have been a reason Hopps called him now, and whatever the reason was, it was important enough for her to risk blowing her cover to get the information to him.

"Don't worry, I've already got an eye on him," he whispered. He glanced around at the other mammals loitering about, one or two of which gave him curious stares. "And we are going to have to have a talk later about this, do you—"

"Get to Rolfe!" Hopps' voice blared in his ear again. "We've solved the case! It's synthetic Night Howlers! Rolfe is about to go savage!"

The news dropped on Bogo like a bombshell. At first, all he could do was stand there in silence as his brain tried to process what the bunny had just announced to him. The brief moment of surprise, relief, and interest in Judy's claim that the case had been solved, immediately gave way to dread, confusion, and panic when he finally comprehended what she had said afterward.

"Say that again?" he asked, hoping he had misheard her.

"Rolfe is about to go savage," Hopps repeated, this time a little slower, though her voice remained desperate. "He's the next target. You have to get to him! Now!"

Bogo did not have time to question her further, nor to contemplate what she had told him. He swiftly hung up the call, pocketed the phone, and ran to the front doors of City Hall. A few seconds later, he burst inside and ran in the direction of the elevator. He spotted Rolfe standing just outside the elevator, currently facing away from Bogo and having a conversation with someone else too short for Bogo to see behind Rolfe's body.

"Rolfe!" Bogo yelled.

Rolfe turned around upon hearing the chief's cry. Bogo continued to run at full speed, not a second to waste. The wolf had a steaming-hot cup of coffee in his paw, seemingly just now handed to him by whoever it was he was talking to.

Bogo realized immediately what was happening. "Don't drink that!" he yelled.

Rolfe's attention turned to the cup in his paw, but before he had a chance to fully comprehend what Bogo had said, the chief had closed the gap between them. With a rapid swing of his arm, he knocked the cup out of Rolfe's paw, sending it and its piping-hot liquid flying across the lobby.

Everything seemed to come to a stop around Bogo. The other mammals in the lobby, who had watched the scene unfold, looked on with confusion and curiosity. Rolfe stared at Bogo incredulously. And Bogo found himself in a state of shock, as he finally realized who it was Rolfe had been speaking to—and who had just given Rolfe a cup of coffee, in an attempt to turn him savage.

"Dr. Wood?"

The beaver was standing there, shocked by Bogo's sudden actions. He carried a bundle of papers under one arm; it seemed he was the one Rolfe was to meet in his office mere minutes from now. His mouth was half-open, and it appeared he struggled to come up with any words for the chief.

Rolfe, however, knew exactly what he wanted to say. "Chief Bogo," he huffed, lightly brushing the front of his suit, "what is the meaning of this?"

Bogo barely heard him. He continued to stare at Dr. Wood. The beaver kept swallowing and averting his gaze, clearly shaken from the ordeal, but something about his demeanor seemed different than the other times Bogo had met with him.

The other times…

Bogo felt his heart quicken in his chest. Dr. Wood was the one who had delivered the shock collars to the ZPD for him to distribute to his officers. Dr. Wood was the one who had examined the savage predators after they were jailed. Dr. Wood was the one who had recommended Wilde's termination, and recommended Hopps interrogate the predators, and had insisted that Rolfe…

Rolfe. Realization flooded him. It's not Rolfe. It was never Rolfe. It was…

He turned to look at the wolf. "What was it you said at the end of the press conference?" he asked.

Rolfe glared at Bogo. "You're going to question me? Really? Now?" He waved an arm at the crowd that had begun to grow behind them. "After this show you just put on?"

Bogo ignored him, instead doubling down on his question. "'It's been a real slice of heaven', isn't that what you said?"

Rolfe huffed. "Yes, I said that," he responded. "What of it? It's a phrase I say all the time."

"No you don't." Bogo's voice remained calm, but his mind raced as he put all the pieces of the case together. He turned back to Dr. Wood and pointed at the beaver. "He's the only one I've ever heard say that." Dr. Wood continued to blankly gaze at him, unsure of what to say.

"Nonsense!" Rolfe raised his voice and took a menacing step closer to Bogo. "I have said it more than I can remember! In fact, I…" He paused, suddenly unsure of what to say next. "I mean, I…" His face transformed from annoyance to confusion. "When I worked in construction I …" He slowly turned to Dr. Wood.

Bogo studied the wolf's face. Rolfe's eyes darted back and forth as he thought, and he was quiet for several long seconds. But finally, it seemed a realization came to him. He fixed his attention back on the beaver, his face a mixture of bewilderment and, for the first time since Bogo knew him, rage.

"You mean…" Rolfe raised a finger and pointed it in accusation. "This whole time, you've been lying to me?" When Dr. Wood did not promptly deny it, his jaw dropped in disbelief. "Why? How could you do this?" His paw curled into a fist. "Do you have any idea what you've done to me, Chuck? To Zootopia?"

Dr. Wood finally reacted, though not in the way either Bogo nor Rolfe expected. He simply set his jaw, straightened his stance, and gave a small smile. "I know exactly what I've done," he replied. "And I think it's time to finish it."

Bogo wasted no time. He drew his gun and aimed it at the beaver, ignoring the sudden collective gasp from the crowd behind them. "Dr. Chuck Wood, you are under arrest!"

The elevator door opened behind the beaver, though he made no motion to enter it. He instead looked straight at Bogo and kept smiling. "For what?" He shrugged. "You can't prove I've done anything wrong."

"No?" Bogo wanted nothing more than to rush Wood and put him in cuffs, but he couldn't risk hurting Rolfe or any of the several civilians that were gathered nearby. He opted instead to continue training his gun on Wood and maintain his distance. "How about conspiracy? Fraud? Racketeering? Domestic terrorism? Corruption? Treason?" He tilted his head toward Rolfe. "Attempted poisoning just now, perhaps? Just to name a few."

Wood patiently waited for Bogo to finish rattling off his list, then simply shrugged. "And you can prove all of this?" he asked calmly.

Bogo was sure Hopps had all the proof, but until she could give it to him, he was technically powerless to do anything to Wood. But he couldn't just let the beaver go free right now; if he did, Wood would run away, and he would probably inform the other mammals involved in the conspiracy that the jig was up, and they would all get away scot-free.

So he resorted to doing something he always chastised his officers for doing themselves.

He bluffed.

"The NDAs." A look of worry crossed Wood's face, only for a split second, before he went back to his unassuming calm expression. "Timothy Fields wrote NDAs for a group of predators who met at the Trunk Hotel every Thursday night." He glared at the beaver. "You were the one in charge of those meetings, weren't you?"

Rolfe, who had remained quiet this whole time, stared at Wood in disbelief upon hearing this accusation from Bogo. "Chuck?"

Bogo did not give him a chance to respond. "Those poor predators." He took a step in Wood's direction, though he still remained a few feet away. "You prescribed them medicine, didn't you?" He realized it as he said it out loud. "They thought it was anti-stress medication, but it was really synthetic Night Howlers." He jerked his gun forward. "Wasn't it?" Wood continued to be silent, so Bogo took one more step. This time, Wood took an uneasy step backwards, towards the elevator. "That backup dancer for Gazelle—you gave it to him, too. He put it in his coffee that evening. That's why he and my best cop both went savage!" His next step towards Wood was so aggressive it shook the ground. "Admit to it, you good-for-nothing beaver!"

"Night Howlers…" Rolfe stared at Wood, who by now had backed into the elevator. "Chuck, you promised me!" Before Bogo could stop him, he lunged at the beaver, all teeth and claws. "I trusted you, Chuck! I trusted—"

A black blur emerged from inside the elevator, intercepting Rolfe mid-air. Bogo quickly lowered his gun, not wanting to accidentally shoot the wolf, and tried to make out what exactly was going on.

A black skunk, smaller even than Wood, fought against Rolfe inside the elevator, their struggle ferocious but brief. In mere seconds, Rolfe was overpowered. The next thing Bogo knew, the skunk had Rolfe on the floor of the elevator, caught in a headlock. To Bogo's horror, the skunk produced a knife and pressed it against the wolf's throat just below his dummy shock collar. Rolfe felt the steel against his flesh and froze, eyes wide open in a panic. The skunk glared at Bogo and bared his teeth, silently warning the chief against raising his gun again.

The entire time, Wood stood still. The smile remained on his face. His composure remained calm and collected. It seemed to him that all of this was no more remarkable than the weather that day. He looked at Bogo and gave a small shrug, before turning his attention to Rolfe.

"We're done here, anyway," he said. His tone of voice was the same as Bogo had heard during the beaver's psychology meetings—a thoughtful, steady voice, meant to put patients at ease, now used to torment a hostage.

By now the crowd of onlookers were pressing up against Bogo's back, curiosity overtaking their common sense. He wanted to turn around and yell at all of them to flee the scene, but he knew it would do no good, so he turned his attention instead to trying to keep as much of the situation under control as he could.

Which was, at the moment, practically no control at all.

The skunk looked at his gun and gave a demanding nod. Bogo promptly obeyed, laying the gun gently on the ground beside him, then kicking it harmlessly to the side. "So what was your plan?" he asked. "Turning the city against predators again?" He crossed his arms. "How original."

Wood glanced down and saw that Rolfe's tail was currently lying in the path of the elevator doors. "Mr. Mayor," he quietly requested, "can you please move your tail? We have an appointment in your office upstairs, and I do not wish for us to be delayed any further." A threatening jerk from the skunk's knife forced Rolfe to comply, curling his tail just far enough inside the elevator to clear the doorway.

The skunk decided to answer Bogo's question himself. "You're so simple-minded." He looked at the mammals gathered behind Bogo. "You all are!" His raspy voice echoed across the lobby. "We don't want to rule Zootopia." He locked eyes with Bogo again, and his voice dropped to an ominous purr. "We want to watch it burn to the ground."

Bogo felt his heart catch in his throat. What?

This whole time, everyone in the city had been trying to figure out why this was happening. What would anyone have to gain from predators going savage, or from locking them up in shock collars? It was a question that had perplexed Bogo since the very first instance, and in his wildest dreams, he had never expected this.

The reason is… that there is no reason? He couldn't believe it, even though he had just heard the confession with his own two ears. They just want to see Zootopia end?

He stared at Wood in bafflement, barely able to ask his next question. "But… why?"

"Why?" Wood let out a single chuckle. "Zootopia is an idealized society, Chief Bogo." The smile on his face finally began to fade away. "And an unrealistic one. Predators and prey are natural enemies, and there are those of us who have decided that they cannot continue to exist together." He reached with one paw to the panel inside the elevator and pressed a button. "It is unnatural, preds and prey mixing. We are simply returning to the natural order."

Rolfe managed to turn his head to the side enough to shoot daggers at Wood. "And you're the mastermind?" he snarled.

"No." Wood turned to address him. "Just playing my part. Same as you." A flash of recognition crossed Rolfe's face, before the elevator door began to close, blocking him from Bogo's view. The beaver gave one final look at Bogo and smiled again. "It's been a real slice of heaven."

And then the doors closed.

Bogo knew he had no time to waste. He turned to the crowd behind him and raised his voice as loud as he could. "You all need to leave!" To his annoyance, however, they stood still, apparently trying to make sense of the scene they had just witnessed. "Now!" he barked. His booming voice shook them from their trance and most of them ran for the closest exit. The rest ran around aimlessly, unsure of where to go.

He had a way to fix that. He quickly retrieved his gun from the floor, pulled his radio from his belt, and ran toward the wall on the far side of the lobby. "Clawhauser! This is Bogo!" he yelled into the radio

A burst of static greeted him, and a second later, the cheetah's voice replied. "Yes, Chief?"

"We've got a 136 at City Hall! I repeat, a 136 at City Hall! I want all available officers on site!" Bogo did not wait for Clawhauser to respond; he placed his radio back on his belt and doubled his speed.

A few seconds later, he reached the wall and found what he was looking for: the fire alarm. He grabbed it and pulled it, nearly ripping it off the wall in his haste. Immediately, the alarm bells sounded loudly inside the lobby, and the sprinkler system activated; Bogo knew that the same was happening in every other room of the building as well. Every mammal inside City Hall had just been given the signal to evacuate, as quickly as possible, and it would not be long before the building was completely empty aside from the three mammals now trapped inside the mayor's office at the top.

The elevator would no longer work once the fire alarm had been triggered, so the only way for anyone to leave the building would be through the stairwell. Bogo made his way there next, ready to assist in evacuating the building. He grabbed his radio once again, tuned the frequency, and spoke into it as he walked.

"Attention, officers," he announced, keeping his voice as calm and clear as he could. "This is Chief Bogo. Please be advised, Interim Mayor Rolfe has just been taken hostage inside City Hall. The assailants are armed and extremely dangerous. I am currently evacuating City Hall of civilians, and once I am done, I will join all of you outside, where we will formulate a plan to free Mayor Rolfe."

He reached the stairwell, where already a few mammals were beginning to run out, soaking wet and bolting for the nearest exit. He paused to gather his thoughts, then raised his radio to his mouth again. This time, his voice was low and uneasy.

"This may be the greatest threat Zootopia has ever faced. I now know who we are dealing with, and they have made their intentions clear to me. They will not negotiate, and they will not surrender. They want to rip Zootopia apart. They want to burn down our society. They want to prove that predators and prey cannot coexist, and that we are better off without each other. They want to us to prove them right."

The weight of his own words crushed him. They weren't fighting some classic criminal. They were fighting an ideal—an ideal that many mammals all over the world held. That wasn't something that could be fought, even if Wood and his skunk companion could be brought down. Even if they managed to bring down every single mammal that was part of this conspiracy, the world would always face prejudice, where predators and prey would distrust each other, and it was likely that would continue for all eternity.

He sighed. Try to make the world a better place, eh, Hopps?

He paused. Hopps… Wilde…

He was wrong. His two best cops were proof. The bunny and fox had the strongest bond of anyone he had ever met, and they were about as different as could be. They were partners on the force, they were best friends, and he suspected they might even be more than that.

He allowed himself a smile, if only because he knew nobody was around to see it. "Wood," he mumbled, "you're dead wrong." A new resolve filled him, and he spoke into his radio once again. "So I say, let's show them just how strong the ZPD is. Let's show them just how united we can be! No matter what type of animal you are…"

He delayed the rest of his transmission. From the bravest bunny, to the craftiest fox… "Let's make the world a better place, together!"

Bogo placed his radio back on his belt and looked up the stairwell. When he saw no one else making their way down, he turned around and made his way back to the main entrance. By now he could see countless police cruisers parked out front. Most of his officers were taking cover behind their vehicles, guns drawn on the building, while a few were standing back controlling the growing crowds outside.

Bogo set his jaw and marched out the front doors, ready to bring his cops up to speed on the situation. The case might have been solved, but this wasn't over yet—not by a longshot.