A Fox in the Machine

by Blkdragon7

A deep dive into the psychosis of my muse. This one is both light hearted and dark as hell. In either case, it should be fun. Any summary beyond that would give away the farm, as it were.

14. Chapter 14

Hello again my good and loyal readers. Welcome to chapter 14, the Epilog of A Fox in the Machine. I really hope you have enjoyed the story, and enjoy this little peak into what happened to Henrietta after she was released.

I do not own Zootopia or its characters, that's Disney. I only own my own OC's. Though with hints and teases of Z2 at some point in 2025, one can only hope it will come up to the standard we hold Z1 to.

Anyway. On with the show, such as it is.

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Chapter 14

Epilogue

Henrietta's trial took place with her in absentia, and she was found guilty as hell. Her defense attorney, paid for by GenoM, put up as strong a defense as could be mustered. That defense mostly hinged on the idea that she was only doing as she was ordered and directed by higher ups. They told her to get X or Y done. They even tried to claim that she put up concerns about the ethics of a given project and was put down. The jury didn't buy a lick of it.

Due to her conviction in absentia. Only part of her sentence was released publically, due to privacy rights of both her and her victims such as Nick, and a rather terrifying list of others. The public part of her sentence, upon her capture, was that she would be fitted with a shock collar very much akin to what her younger sister wanted to put on every predator in Zootopia, and beyond. It had been discovered later in the investigation into Dawn that she had designs on the governor's mansion once she proved the success of her Tame Collars in Zootopia.

As for Henrietta. In addition to being fitted for a collar, she would be subject to the removal and destruction of her eChip. All of course, once she was captured and returned to the authorities. A not insignificant price was put on her head to facilitate that capture.

That however didn't fit in with Nick, Judy, and Chet's plans for her. She was transported to a nearby city that was mostly sheep and other caprids, and deposited in a safe house. Nick appeared via holo as she woke up.

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Nick smiled at her as he appeared to sit on a chair across from her. "Morning, Doc. Welcome to Woolanta."

Looking around in terror for a moment she took in Nick. "If this Woolanta, you kinda stand out, fox."

Nick chuckled, his tail swishing happily. "Good thing I'm still in Zootopia then, isn't it. Just a little hologram so I could welcome you back to the world. I suggest you take a day. Catch up on the state of the world. Figure out what all is here you can use, and then. Run.

Remember, you're tagged and tracked, and the frequency will be sold off to some less than savory mercenaries seven days from tonight. So get a shower. We made sure there is some extra strength wool dye there for you. Don't need you getting picked up by the locals right out the gate, now do we? Take stock of things, then… run. We're hoping you give them a good run before we have to step in and save you, mutton chop.

Oh, and you got lucky with your trial. They decided not to just kill you. No. You're to have your eChip removed, fitted for a shock collar, and… well. I'll let your imagination run wild on that. I know the full details as a victim, but they didn't make the entire sentence public, as you're not there to have it applied.

I will point out. As you still have your eChip, the mercs are not going to be worrying about taking you in, alive. They'll kill you, yank your chip, then have a body grown and load you up before handing you over. Anyway. I'll let you get to it. We'll talk soon."

The holo disappeared and she fell back on the bed. After a shower, and finding tools, she removed the four tags from her ears. After looking over the safe house, she realized it was actually one of hers. That they found one of her off the books, paid in cash with no paperwork, safe houses worried her. Then again, it was clear she had underestimated the fox. She took the money, IDs, and other things, loading up a case filled mostly with cred chips.

She then broke out the wool dye and clippers that had been left. Once dyed and done up, she took a nap before she headed out; case of cred chips in hoof. Her first visit was to a cyberdoc. She paid cash and creds via the case. The doc asked few questions, and did as asked, giving her a full, deep scan and removing all the trackers they could find.

After the removal of five additional trackers, three that were just under the skin, one embedded deep in the muscle of her leg, and one actually inside her femur. She then paid for the installation of a few legally dubious implants, and at least three flatly illegal ones. Henrietta then hit the train station and bought a ticket for Baahston leaving the day before the frequency would be sold.

On the way back to the safe house she bought some groceries so she could just hold up in the safe house. Her train to Baahston would be leaving late in the afternoon, so she left early to make sure she got to the train station with plenty of time. It would not do her any good to draw attention to herself by needing to rush to catch a train.

While she waited, holding up in the safe house, she watched the news and accessed the net and tried to figure out what she had missed. The confirmation of her sentence brought a freezing chill to her blood. Removal of her eChip wasn't as simple as the news stories made it seem. The fact that such a punishment was part of her sentence was part of an information leak to the press. What that actually meant is a cloned body with a specially designed cyber port through which she would be uploaded. What she worried about is that, with that port, because of its dedicated nature, her mind could be overwritten whenever they wanted. So even without a backup from an eChip, they could just keep reloading her, either overwriting the existing version of herself, or into new bodies with no memory of the fact that she had already been uploaded to a different body.

The worst part about that part of her punishment, however, was something she herself discovered, because she pioneered the supposedly one-time use upload port. The fact that it wasn't a one-time use was part of it. The worst part however is the fact that the overwrite is never perfect. There are always traces. Left overs from the previous occupant, and those manifest in a lot of ways, including, depending on the mind, attempts to take control while the person slept. If they wanted, they could truly torture her.

Once on the train, she planted the bugs in her cabin then got off in Lamburg. Getting a ticket to SeaOtter for the following day. Spending the night in another safe house and collecting the money, weapons, and data from that location. The trip to SeaOtter was supposed to take seven days and she was happy for the longer trip, hoping to relax. She figured about the time it started, they'd be hitting the Baahston bound train where the trackers were.

Late on day three as she returned to her cabin. She opened the door and found Nick sitting there in her cabin smiling at her. Deploying a weapon, she advanced into the small room to his chuckle.

"Hi, Doc. Good job on the trackers. You found one more than we expected. That doc was good. Also, yes, another hologram. Not gonna visit you personally until you calm down. Also…" Glancing past her. "You might wanna put that away and close the door. Someone is coming from the rear of the train."

She did as he suggested, and not thirty seconds later, a large ram walked past her stateroom. Glaring at Nick. "How?"

Looking at her from where it looked like he was sitting. "How, what, Doc?"

"How have you been able to track me? How did you get a holo-emitter and equipment on this train? How?"

"We told you, Henrietta." Judy spoke, materializing next to Nick. Chet doing the same on Nick's other side. "We are going to be watching you. There is no way to escape us. We finished dealing with those initial mercs. Real nasty customers, let me tell you. Then figured we'd take a short break, so we joined this ride at the last stop.

We're actually just a few staterooms away. We're going to be having dinner tonight in the VIP dining car. You're welcome to join us. As long as you're ready to behave yourself."

Henrietta looked them over in a mix of horror, abject terror, and rage. "I paid three times what I should have for that scan, and you're telling me that you are not even tracking me using those trackers?"

Judy laughed. "Of course we were, and they have done their job. Those were planted specifically to be found, just as you did, and allowed us to pinch a rather large number of very nasty mammals. No. We have other ways to keep track of you. So, do stop by for dinner. Reservations are at eight."

Judy and Chet vanished, leaving Nick. "You should join us, Doc. The meal is on us." Giving a smile before he too vanished.

Henrietta stood there for some time before checking the time. She then got ready for dinner. At eight o'clock she arrived at the last passenger accessible car, the VIP dining car. The fact she found a pass to get there pinned to her dress just increased her fear. She had thought she knew who and what she was dealing with. Two foxes and a rabbit. Two of whom she'd studied extensively.

Yet. What they'd done. The rescue. Getting the AI citizenship. Creating a second AI from the rabbit, voluntarily. The fact that the fox had not only created a backup of himself without her knowing, but had also managed to somehow get a clean copy of his genetic sample and have it hidden. Then, as the AI, was conscious enough to redirect resources, buy, have delivered, and ensure no one noticed a supposedly empty building operating automatic manufacturing equipment. He'd even managed to get checks of the building taken off the security sweeps and data logging. She had underestimated them, severely.

Standing outside the dining car, she stared at the reader that would allow her entry. What lay beyond the door terrified her, overwhelming the anger she also felt. This was an opportunity to try and understand. Something she could not let herself pass up, no matter how angry or scared she was. Scanning the pass over the reader, she was let into the mostly empty dining car. Only the two foxes and the rabbit present, and apparently enjoying a joke.

Nick noticed her first, and the smile he gave her did nothing to calm her nerves. Not that there was any warmth to it. If anything, she felt the temperature drop through her wool. "Hey, Doc. Glad you decided to join us. Pull up a chair. We took the liberty of ordering a salad for you. Unlike Judy, I'm pretty sure you are not a meat eater."

Sitting down, Henrietta nodded as she looked over the assembled. They were actually there. She figured she could try and deploy her weapon, but also figured she would fail for some reason she didn't yet understand. There were things she didn't understand about what happened, and she needed to understand. She approached the table and the chair clearly meant for her. "Look. I am unsure why you released me as you did. Well, there seems to be the part about using me as bait. But given the rest, I don't fully understand."

Judy smiled, though as with Nick there was no warmth to it and it made her want to run. She knew she was looking at a rabbit, a full cyborg, and yet she felt like she was in the sights of an elephant sized predator. "Look, Henrietta. In the time between when we decided to do this to you, and when we actually released you. We learned a few things. Dawn finally cracked about what your family did, what they taught. Oddly, the fact that I was able to get pregnant naturally by Nick seemed to be a tipping point for her. Slipping some genetic testing to her that showed she was compatible with most canines seemed to finish the job.

If anything, I think it might have broken her. She apparently had a friend, when she was little, a wolf pup. Someone that she at least had a crush on as a kit."

Henrietta frowned and sighed before straightening up in shock. "Wait. You're telling me if dad hadn't pulled her away, punished her for interacting with that wolf. She… She might have ended up with him?"

Judy nodded with a shrug. "Not only that, but would have been capable of having pups, or lambs, I suppose, with him. You, my dear, are compatible with canines, and most larger felines. Get yourself a lynx and it's all but a sure thing. Nick and I didn't even know we had gotten pregnant when we fought Doug at the GenoM lab complex. That's where Doug killed Nick, nearly killed me, and did succeed in killing the kit in my womb.

However, instead of doing the decent thing. GenoM stole Nick's genetic sample, gave us a fake, faulty eChip, and well… He ended up in your hands, and I ended up with lots of money in a settlement, then forced out of the ZPD because full conversion borgs were not allowed at the time."

Blanching, Henrietta looked between them. "But… They told me."

Nick held up a paw. "We know. Piberius showed us what happened. What you did was monstrous to be sure. You were… Are a monster, but given that, as the old saying goes. The punishment should really fit the crime."

Henrietta looked down, her heart feeling like it was locked in ice. "I… I always hated predators. It was the only defense against dad's rage. If you hated them enough openly, he left you alone. That's something Dawn learned the hard way."

Chet smiled. Yet another smile that did the exact opposite of calm her nerves or provide any comfort whatsoever. "Look. You're still going to be our bait. There is nowhere that you can escape or hide from us, and unlike these two, I have far less sympathy for you. However, they insist that we not torture you quite as badly as we had initially planned. Perhaps it's me being protective of my mates." His voice took on a hard edge that made her flinch. "But I can tell you this." Stabbing at the table with a claw to accentuate his point. "You will do as you are told. Go where you are told, when you are told, and you will get to be free. Don't, and I will personally put a bullet through your brain and turn your eChip over to the authorities, after backing it up.

I'll then wait a year or two, spin you up a new body, and point them to you again. And again. And again. They'll be convinced that you made a backup before being captured and just keep overwriting the you in prison with the new ones I keep spinning up, over and over again. That's your future if you do not do as you are told. From what I understand, that will leave traces of the previous versions. Doesn't sound very pleasant."

Henrietta blanched in horror as Chet continued. "I let you know so you understand where you stand and what your life will be from now on. When we don't need you as bait, you can live your life as best you can. Then you're going to get a message that someone new is on your trail and you'll have to run. We may, or may not, give you support. Maybe a bus ticket or something. All depending on who is after you and what our intention is to pick them up. Like this meal and the pass that got you in here. Your meals for this trip are on us, as long as you eat here."

Chet glared at her a few moments before continuing. "Enjoy it now. I doubt you'll get to enjoy food quite as good any time soon. It's a gift from these two." Indicating Nick and Judy. "Because of how many of those mercs and other unsavories we were able to snag. Don't put down roots. Don't get to know anyone well. Don't make connections. That's your punishment. You will live on the run. You'll learn how to tell which motels are going to accept cash with no questions. You'll learn to tell when you are being followed. We don't have to follow you, as I think we've proven here. You'll learn how to pay off a cop, and which cops you can pay off. You'll learn how to run away from a cop that won't take a bribe."

Henrietta looked between them and felt a cold wave of absolute terror run up her spine as ice gripped her heart even colder. It felt like she'd downed several gallons of liquid nitrogen. "Why not just turn me over? I get the whole bait part, sort of. But I… I just don't understand."

Nick smiled, something that again provided no comfort, only increasing the terror in her heart. "Because you, despite everything else, tortured me. You electroshocked me until my brain caught fire, multiple times. You cut me down to being just a head, and you enjoyed these things. I can remember all of that. I remember all of it. Every jolt of electricity directly to the pain center of my brain. Every excruciating bit of stimulation to my pleasure center. Because you had me constantly backed up to be able to do what you needed to do with me, you had to break the normal backup subroutines that prevent recording pain and things like that at the end of life. So the mammal isn't permanently traumatized. But to do what you needed, you had to override all that.

So each time you spun me up, I knew what could be coming. I knew exactly what you'd done before. I know exactly what it feels like to have my brain cooked from the inside out and how that shatters you. I don't even know how to explain what that is like. I even wanted to hook you up, much like you had me, and do the same to you. I got past that in counseling. Mostly. So instead. The vengeance, the punishment you are due, will be as described. You will be our tool to help make the world a better place by being the bait we use to eliminate bad mammals like the ones that went after you when the train pulled into Baahston.

There will be times that we allow you to be captured so we can locate bases of operation. There will be times that we step in and distract someone allowing you to escape. All of which is on our terms and our decision. We will provide you a way to contact us. It's something you can use whenever you want, but don't expect a response. Leave a message, and if we deem the request worthy of intervention, we will."

Nick paused, looking to Chet and Judy to see if they had anything to add before continuing. "So, what questions do you have, Doc?"

Looking between them, she shook her head. "I don't have other questions. I really thought I understood who and what you were. I clearly didn't."

Judy laughed. "Was I the token bunny who was fed the work of others? Nick was just running some long-con?" Seeing the nod. "What else did you think?"

"I… I really didn't think you were this twisted. I didn't think you were this intelligent. I still don't understand how you, Nick, managed to create the backup that you are based on, how you got a genetic sample stashed, or any of the other things that resulted in your escape."

Judy frowned. "Rescue would be more like it. I'll remind you that Nick and I were legally mates, and before you ask, that was my decision. Foxes are different. The female leads the relationship, so he was instinctually barred from initiating certain things, at least without me first telling him. I lost my body, and the claiming mark that was part of it. I lost the kit we were going to have. A kit that was tested and would have been a healthy, and fertile, hybrid. I lost my mate, who was stolen from me by the corporation you worked for. Stolen in order to give you a new victim to experiment on. So how he did it doesn't matter. He did it, which means you simply did not actually understand what you were creating.

That corporation rebuilt me as a cyborg, which was fine, but then included bugs and monitors in every part they added. So when I took the settlement money and built my own cyber-corp, they were able to steal all our work. I was a walking corporate espionage vector against my own company. Once that was discovered and addressed, they then performed a hostile take over and tried to steal everything they hadn't already.

So don't get it twisted in your head, Henrietta. We were not tokens, there was not a long-con going on. We were in fact just that good. Yes, there was some luck involved, but luck alone will not solve a case, and we had the highest closure rate in ZPD history. Our records still stand to this day. Nick and I are the standard to which other teams are now expected to strive. We got our promotions because we earned them, and in spite of the opposition because of mentality like yours.

We are, and were, in fact not normal examples of our species. Chet is about average for a fox, intelligence wise. He's in the top 3 percent of mammals overall. Smarter than you in fact. Nick. Well, Nick was in fact in the top one percent of foxes, but because of mammals like you, he was never given a chance to do much with that until I came along."

Nick chuckled with a glance at Judy. "Don't sell yourself short, Fluff. You are anything but a normal rabbit yourself. You're in the top one percent of one percent of rabbits, you mastered your natural fear response and turned it into an asset. You see, Doc. Judy has just as much of a fear response as any rabbit, but… She trained herself to the point that she was able to twist that fear response into action, into almost a sixth sense about the world around her. Something she was able to act on. Something we were able to act on as I was able to pick up what was going on with her. That's just part of it."

Judy continued. "We were both stronger, for many reasons, mentally and physically than most of our species and mammals in general. So when I lost Nick, I turned that into one thing, then another. Now that I have him back, we're working back to where we were. You stole him from me and robbed us of the ability to grow together. You also by doing so granted us new friends in Piberius and Laverne, and a third in the form of Chet.

And that." Judy pointed a very sharply clawed finger at Henrietta. "Is why we have chosen not to torture you as we had thought to initially. We've struck a balance. A halfway point. You will not be free of us until your final, ultimate, death. If I have anything to say about it, just as we have sworn to each other. This life, and the next. You will belong to us there as well. What you did. You, as far as I am concerned, belong to us in whatever way we want you, for as many lives as you stole from Nick. Every death he suffered is another life that you belong to us. Every time you killed him. Murdered him!" Slamming a paw on the table that caused it to rock violently and Henrietta to recoil. "Each of those is ten lifetimes that you owe us.

You broke me. You broke him. Your theft cannot be quantified save as I have just described, and even that is insufficient for everything you did! There are others in the GenoM corporation that we will and are going after legally and otherwise. However, you, and that assistant of yours. You will both be getting special treatment. So, enjoy this meal. Enjoy this trip. We've arranged a little delay so you get some extra free time. But in very short order, you'll be getting your first direction from us.

We were not like this. Even after your sister and her acolytes. After all that was done to us, we were not like this. Then you happened. I have a rage inside me directed at you for what I have witnessed you do to Nick and others. For what you did to him that he won't share, or can't, or is unable because there are no words to express it. It's a rage I don't know if I will ever be able to quench, and the only reason I am not simply ripping you limb from limb and tossing you, still alive, on a barbeque, is because of Nick and Chet. So you understand where we are. Where you sit with me, and with us."

Henrietta nodded. She was officially past fear, or terror, she was just cold. Accepting. "I… I understand. I won't even bother with an apology. There is no point and I don't think you would believe it. Perhaps another time. Perhaps I will find a way to prove to you how sorry I am."

Judy growled but nodded. "I doubt it, but you are free to try. I'm a full conversion cyborg, but you know what? Another thing you gifted us, because of what you did, and something that we would not have and therefore is a point in your favor. Piberius created an artificial womb. One that can be installed in a cyberbody. Now that I have Nick back, and Chet as well. We are going to have kits together, and I get to carry them like I should have been able to the first time around. It's something we would not have been able to do after Doug, save because you created Piberius."

Nick nodded. "I think that earns you, based on Judy's previous accounting, of one life for each kit. A life for a life. We'll send you pictures, and a full accounting of just how many lives you owe. When you reach a zero, we'll leave you. Be that finding a final end, or whatever. If it is death you seek at that point, we'll even make sure it is painless and no recovery is possible."

With that, Nick, Judy, and Chet turned to their meals and a discussion of kit names. Henrietta watched them for a long time, eating her meal without thought. If you asked her even a minute after the meal what she ate or how it tasted, she wouldn't have been able to tell you. When she returned to her cabin, she did not sleep until very early the next morning. Her mind blank, but racing at the same time. The implications of what she learned, and it was admittedly not much, left a cold terror gripping her heart. Yet, she had also moved beyond fear. A cold resignation had also set in.

When she woke at nearly noon, she found that they were stopped in a small mountain town and would be there for several days. This because there had been an avalanche in the mountains that, while it hadn't damaged the tracks, would require them to wait for them to be cleared. Something expected to take at least three days. This meant they were free to disembark, letting the steward for their respective car know that they were doing so, that way they didn't leave without them.

Henrietta wandered the town, bought some small items, and a larger different suitcase. If she was going to be living out of it, and she fully believed them that she would never get a chance to set down roots. Doing so was probably a real risk. A town like this one was something she was considering as a place to hide. However, now that she knew, she knew in her heart of hearts, that they truly could find her anywhere. Hiding in a small town was as unwise as returning to Zootopia without having permanent muzzle reshaping surgery and wool color changes. The dye she was currently using wouldn't last forever, so that was something she would probably have to do sooner than later.

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Henrietta did just as they had described on the train. She lived on the run. A few months here, a few weeks there. Never longer than four months in one place, and never learning how they were able to track her. She suspected she had some sort of bio-cybernetics, or bionetics as it was commonly called, from when she was in their custody. She knew that they had done things to her. The trackers she had removed during the first run, after they released her, proved that.

They would contact her, telling her to go to a certain city or town. That contact came in a number of ways. One of them would appear as a hologram to give her direction. Other times her burner phone would ring and it would be them. Or she'd be walking to whatever small part time job she had at the time and they'd be there. She'd be walking past a cafe after work and hear their laugh, look and there they were. She was obligated to join them, and by the end of the meal they'd have slipped her the information. When she worked as a waitress, she would often get an extra large tip that sometimes had a bus ticket and instructions.

She hated it. But if she didn't, then she'd find herself, if she was lucky, being picked up by the police. Be in a specific place at a block of time. She would show up where she was told and who she quickly realized was Nick and Judy in cyberbodies so advanced she wasn't sure they were not more alive than machines; would arrive and take out some nasty mammals that had targeted her. In the end, she found it was simply safer to do as she was told.

There were several situations where she was captured and put to work by some underworld organization or other, only to be rescued by Nick and Judy again. She lived her life in fear, and from one suitcase after another. Never more than she could pick up and run with. Something she never unpacked fully, and had enough room that, if she needed to, she could just stuff her things in it and run. She got good at that, taking no more than a minute, two at the most, to have her suitcase stuffed and be walking away from where she had been living.

The worst part though. The part that made the entire situation true hell. Is what they would do to her without her knowing it was coming. When her body would start to get old and break down. When she wasn't able to run as fast. When she would start missing steps and generally became an easier target. When she would have to abandon her suitcase because it was just too heavy anymore. She'd go to sleep one night, and wake up in a new, younger, stronger body no more than a handful of days later. That truly hurt the most. It proved that they were truly not going to let her go until she earned off the debt they had set before her in the form of a count of lives she owed for what she had done. She even had a counter that told her how many she still owed. It went down each time she completed a task, and each time she woke up young again. After the first few resets as she called them, they even started asking her if she had any requests for her next iteration.

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Henrietta looked at herself in the motel mirror of her current home, a run down place that was just shy of charging by the hour. It was actually nicer than the usual places she stayed. In that mirror she found an aging ewe, black and gray splotchy wool this time, and going silver on the edges.

She called up the HUD she'd had installed the last time she had woken up young again. It was about time for that to happen again. Looking at the count, her heart sank. She was able to walk the world freely. Watch it progress and grow. She got to watch the first successful interstellar flight. The establishment of the first off world colonies, and then the first extra-solar colony.

For four centuries she had watched the world and mammal kind learn and grow, without ever being able to have a home.

Four centuries.

624 lives ticked off her debt.

Looking with agony in her heart as Henrietta read the number she knew without ever needing to pull up anymore. It turned out her count of lives was for more than just what she did to Nick. It was for everything she did. For all the horrors and evil she committed. She hoped. She truly hoped that when she was finally allowed to die, that if there was a hell out there waiting for her, that she would have already earned her way to salvation.

She turned from the mirror, turned off the HUD and cried herself to sleep, knowing if not that night, one very soon would have her wake up the following day a spry twenty. She'd even asked for some additional extras for her next reset. Through pain and heartache, she wondered if they would grant her any of what she had asked for.

39,376…..

FIN…

I might, if Muse is so inclined, continue Henrietta's story itself, but time and Muse's fickle desire shall tell if that happens or not. Fare thee well my good readers.