Hi, all! Here's the final part of the finale, and the closure of Temporal Investigation Department! What a ride it's been for me! I hope you enjoy this closure of the story.

EPISODE 5: FINALE (ACT 3)

Rainforest District

"Does it have to be here?" Lucas asked.

Jack, Skye and Koyoton had arrived back where it had all started for Lucas, at the intersection between Acacia Road and Mangrove Street.

"I could set it up anywhere, yes," Koyoton said, "but it occurred to me that the device uses up less power if we're going from as close to the original location as possible. We don't have a way of powering these devices ourselves if its battery dies, so we're here to reduce the risk of things going wrong."

"It's not going to go wrong, though," Skye said. "This is going to work… right?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm… ninety-eight percent sure," Koyoton nodded. "Well, in these kinds of things there's no such thing as one hundred percent."

"That's reassuring," Lucas muttered.

"Don't worry," Koyoton reassured him. "I'm going with you to make sure that this goes off without any problems."

"Well, let's get this over with," Jack said. "Uh… you did remember to put the detector into silent mode before you came out?" He looked at Koyoton.

"Yes, of course," Koyoton chuckled lightly. "Well, not 'silent mode'. It doesn't have one of those, but I did set it to exclude this area, so it won't pick up what we're doing."

"Okay, well…" Jack said. "Let's get this over with." He turned to Lucas. "You ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," Lucas nodded.

"Then, here we go," Koyoton held up the device and pointed it forward, pressing a button. A beam of light shot from the top of it, and a portal flared to life, bathing them all in its light.

"Well, I guess this is it," Lucas started forward.

"Wait!" came a voice from behind them. They turned around. Nick and Judy were making their way up to them.

"What are you doing here?" Lucas asked.

"Thought you'd leave without saying goodbye?" Nick said. His gaze caught the portal, and he stopped, mesmerised by it.

"It's an oddly beautiful sight, isn't it?" Koyoton said.

"Yeah…" Nick replied. "Sure is. But not the most beautiful thing."

"We just wanted to see you off," Judy turned to Lucas. "Well… you might not even be born yet, but we are your parents. It didn't feel right to not do that."

A small tear formed in Judy's eye. Nick placed a supportive paw on her shoulder.

"We should go," Koyoton said. "The portal won't last forever."

"I guess this is goodbye," Lucas said. "I'm glad I could meet you now."

Judy stepped forward and drew Lucas into a hug.

"No, it's not goodbye," Judy replied. "We'll see you later."

Judy let Lucas go, and Nick stepped forward, offering a paw to him. Lucas took it.

"Yeah, I can't say more than that," Nick said. "We'll see you around."

"Thank you, Mom, Dad," Lucas smiled warmly. "Yeah… I'll see you around."

Koyoton tapped Lucas on the shoulder, nodded to the portal, and the two headed through it.

Koyoton and Lucas emerged in the same spot in Acacia and Mangrove, but weeks before the present.

"Up there," Koyoton indicated to a platform above them. "We can wait there."

The platform Lyra was indicating to was two stories higher than the ground, and had a perfect view of the spot Lucas' first portal would appear.

"Okay, but why are we waiting?" Lucas asked. "And why are we going higher up than the ground in the first place?"

"Because we're waiting for you to come through, and we can't risk you meeting yourself if this is to work," Koyoton replied. "Once you're through, we can open a portal up and use the one you first came in to mask the second one. Around about now, the detector's being tested, so it won't pick up the portal we arrived in, but it will once you come through, and this device needs a moment to recharge between opening portals."

Lucas simply nodded his understanding. The pair watched on, waiting for the original portal to appear.

They didn't have to wait long. It flared to life below, and the past Lucas stumbled through it, his eyes jammed shut.

"Urgh… what did he hit me with?" past Lucas asked himself. He looked around, trying to locate his quarry.

"Okay, this is it," Koyoton said. She raised the device and pressed a button. A new portal flared open.

"Go, now," she said to Lucas, nudging him on. He got up and ran towards the light. Stopping just before he stepped into it, he turned back once more, saluted, and vanished into it. Koyoton smiled briefly, before pressing a button on the device and closing the portal. Looking down, she saw past Lucas had already found the past device.

"Okay," she said to herself, turning back around towards her portal. "It's time to get going."

She started forward. She was two steps when she slipped on a wet patch of leaves. She could feel herself flying through the portal, and landed with a thud on the other side.

"Ow!" she winced as she got to her feet.

"Koyoton!" Skye and Jack dashed forward.

"Are you okay?" Skye asked.

"I'm okay," Koyoton dusted herself off. It was then she realised: she didn't have the device any more.

And at that moment, the portal collapsed on itself.

Rainforest District, 40 Years Into The Future…

Lucas stepped through the portal, finding himself in the same spot he had left. For a moment, he took it all in, and then he took his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. It read: 'PB&J, Full Signal'.

Lucas laughed to himself. He was home. It had worked.

Turning back around. He watched as the portal collapsed on itself.

"It's over…" he sighed. He started laughing to himself. Right now, it didn't matter to him if he had a perp to catch. The rabbit was probably long-gone anyway. He could always go back and check the jam cams and pick up the rabbit burglar later.

At that moment, though, only one thing crossed Lucas' mind. He dialled his mother's phone number and held the phone to his ear.

"Hi, Son," came Judy's voice. It was a voice that was similar, and yet older than the one of the Judy he had just met, forty years prior. "You don't usually call this time of day. Is everything okay?"

"It's fine, Mom," Lucas replied. "Uh… this is kinda sudden, but are you busy? I want to come see you. Dad too."

"No, we're just at home," Judy replied. "Tell you what, why don't we meet at Snarlbucks just off the Plaza?"

"I… have a different place in mind," Lucas said. "Can we meet up at Wild Times?"

There was a brief pause at the other end of the line before Judy answered.

"Yeah, we can get there," she replied. "… Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong, but… I'll… explain when we see each other," Lucas answered cryptically. "It'll be easier to explain face-to-face than it will over the phone."

"Well, okay," Judy said. "We'll be there in… can you give us about thirty minutes?"

"That'd be cool," Lucas replied. "See you soon."

Lucas hung up and headed for the nearest sky tram that would take him out of the Rainforest District and back into Savanna Central.

Wild Times Entertainment District

Lucas arrived at the Arena. He wasn't waiting long before Nick and Judy arrived. Nick was wearing one of the suits he usually wore, a contrast to his younger self. It still carried some of the flair of his past, though, as the jacket had leaf patterns printed on it and his shirt was still bright green. His muzzle had greyed with age. Judy was dressed in a muted blue dress. She was carrying a bag with her. They had been retired from the ZPD for a few years at that point.

"Interesting place to meet up," Nick said. "I haven't been here in years."

"Yeah, I think the last time we came here was…" Judy thought about it. "Wasn't it when we busted your ancestor for running that smuggling ring?"

"Yeah, that'd be it," Nick looked around. "Heh, looks very different now, doesn't it?"

Lucas held in a smile. His parents would be completely unaware that he was there with them, even if it wasn't 'them' as such. His eyes returned to the bag Judy was carrying.

"What's in the bag?" Lucas asked, breaking Nick and Judy from their thoughts.

"Oh, right!" Judy said. She offered the bag to Lucas. "We have something for you."

Lucas took the bag and peered inside. It was a hat, very much like the one he had lost in the past. It certainly looked like it could be that old, but there was no way…

"You see…" Nick said, "we thought you might want that back."

Lucas' ears shot up and he stared at Nick.

"Sure, it took us nearly forty years to give it back," Nick continued, "but until today, you technically hadn't lost it yet."

His mouth agape, Lucas once again looked down at the hat.

"But… how?" Lucas asked. "I dropped this… somewhere else."

"Koyoton said you'd probably think that, when she talked to us about three weeks after you left," Judy nodded. "I didn't quite understand it myself, but…"

"Looks like it was fate, us meeting like that," Nick concluded. "We said we'd see you later."

"I… I don't know what to say," Lucas said, his gaze fixed on the old hat.

"Well, we do," Judy stepped forward. She pulled Lucas into a hug. "You're our son, and we love you. And I am so glad we could get to meet you back then too. Even if… it didn't go the right way."

She let Lucas go.

"How did you even know I'd been gone?" Lucas asked.

"You're not that hard to read, son," Nick grinned. "Figured it out when you said this was where you wanted to meet."

"Yeah, we might be retired, but we were detectives once," Judy let out a small laugh. She once again offered Lucas his hat. He took it.

"Carrots here wanted to chase you round Savanna Central again," Nick said. "She wanted to recreate our first meeting."

"Ignore your father," Judy shook her head, nudging Nick lightly in the ribs. "So… what do you want to do? We're here, so why don't we go get a drink?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," Lucas smiled.

Present Day

"I can't believe you dropped the device," Jack said incredulously. They had returned to the office in the aftermath, ready to report to Smallington about the day's events.

"I didn't mean to drop it," Koyoton defended herself. "And you saw it yourself. I didn't have time to go back and find it, either!"

Jack shook his head in disbelief.

"You know what this whole thing means, right?" Koyoton said. "I still theorise that branches are possible, but it looks like closed loops can also happen within a branch. I don't want to make it sound like I believe in fate, but…"

"But it sounds an awful lot like fate," Skye finished her sentence for her.

"Yeah, that'll work," Koyoton agreed.

"Well, we should go back and find the device," Jack suggested. "We can't leave it out there!"

"Jack, by this time, it's been weeks since Koyoton dropped it," Skye pointed out. "Unless you want to get on your hands and knees and dig through a ton of dirt, we're not going to find it. If Koyoton's right, then nobody's going to find it until Lucas steps on it about forty years from now anyway."

"That's one heck of a chance to take," Jack said.

"We'll keep an eye on the detector, just in case," Koyoton added. "But… if I'm right, and I think I am, we won't be finding it for another forty years, and nobody else will."

"Fine…" Jack threw his paws up in defeat. "If that's all we can do."

"Right, with that sorted out," Skye said. "Jack, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure," Jack frowned.

"Um… in private," Skye indicated to his office.

"Okay," Jack said in slight confusion. He followed Skye out from Koyoton's office and into Jack's, closing the door behind her.

"What's this about, Skye?"

"Well, it's been how long since we've been working together?" Skye said. "And… well, I don't know if you've noticed."

"Noticed what?"

"Noticed that I've been dropping some pretty obvious hints. But… I never thought you were this… I don't want to say it, because it sounds like I'm being mean here, but… Jack, you're dense as heck. Every single hint I've thrown at you has gone straight over those long, black-tipped ears. So… I'm going to make it obvious: go out with me."

Jack's ears dropped behind his head and his mouth dropped.

"I, ah… thought you were just being nice," he stammered.

"Well, I was, but I was also trying to make you see that I'm interested in you," Skye said.

"But… there's a rule…"

"No, there isn't, and you know that," Skye shook her head. "So, I'll ask again: will you go out with me?"

The alarm sounded. Jack and Skye stared at each other for a moment longer before leaving his office for Koyoton's. The screen on the detector flared to life, giving them a location fix for a new portal.

"Ah, saved by the bell," Skye said. "Duty calls. But think about it, yeah?"

"Uh, yeah…" Jack said. "I will."

For a moment, he stared at the detector screen, taking in the location of the new portal.

"Okay, gear up!" he said finally. "We've got a portal to secure and time travellers to contain."

ZOOTOPIA: TEMPORAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT: FIN

And that's a wrap on Temporal Investigation Department! I don't know if I'll make another entry into this series, I feel like I definitely want to give it a break and explore other things for a while and I would need a really good idea to create a fourth entry. If or until that happens, you can catch some of my other stories, and my One-Shot Collection.

I want to just take a moment to thank everybody who has read, commented, favourited, bookmarked, and otherwise assisted in the creation of this series – it wouldn't have happened without any of you. In particular, I want to thank the Zootopia Authors Association Discord server for helping me with beta-reading and offering suggestions.

And, as one final note: this is the last thing I'll be posting to FFN, but it's definitely not my last rodeo. You will be able to find new works from me on Archive Of Our Own (AO3). I hope to see you over there!

So, all that remains to be said is: see you soon!