Chapter 16

Collision Course

June 15th, Friday, 12:11 am

Gabby sat in front of her home office computer, attempting to distract herself with updating her ongoing cases, while also attempting to reverse the medical board's decision to terminate Claire's employment. She remained firmly against that decision, even keeping in mind her harsh words for the unfortunate zebra.

However, her mind kept replaying the scene with Nick from a few hours ago. It was why she couldn't get to sleep, like her mind and body were pulling her in two different directions.

The look on the tod's face as he had grabbed her hand was exactly the same as Gregory's after the poor lion realised that Rachel was dead, as well as their child – and her grandson. The only difference being that Nick knew it was likely to happen and was desperate to prevent it.

The doctor in her screamed out to help him, regardless of the potential consequences. But the moment she thought about doing exactly that, the memory of her daughter's lifeless form, still clutching her dead baby, filled her head. She had told herself that she could never go through that again, though the reasons behind it had gradually shifted over time.

Not to mention the chances of actually saving Judy Hopps were slim to none even if she did everything in her power, if luck allowed her to get that far.

And yet, a real doctor would take that chance…

She reflexively flinched and buried her head in her hands.

No, it's too late already… They should just do the sensible thing… at least she can live…

Her conflicting thoughts repeated over and over in her head. It was at this point she realised she would be up all night at this rate.

Claire… Finnick… I guess they were right. I am destroying myself.

Then she jolted at a knock on her door. It was the last thing she was expecting at this time of night. Normally she'd be furious at such an interruption, but anything to distract her from her destructive train of thought felt like a blessing at this point.

She slowly got up from her chair, exited her small study room and opened the door, only to see the fennec fox she was just thinking about. She couldn't help but give a weak smile.

'Funny… I was just thinking about you.'

Finnick raised a brow, his weary gaze placing him in no better state than her. 'I would've thought you'd yell at me or somethin'. Y'know, after that thing with Nick.'

She shrugged. 'I'm practically yelling at myself right now. Your voice, while loud and rude, won't make much of a difference.'

'Yeah… I guess so.'

She wordlessly invited him in by returning inside to sit at her coffee table, and Finnick followed while glancing up at her kitchen cupboards. Against both their better judgement, Gabby began brewing coffee while Finnick hopped up to gather sugar and milk, as they'd done regularly long ago. They both were sipping coffee at the table before they knew it.

'You ever think about the good ol' days?' Finnick said wistfully while standing on the table. 'Back before you had a real job?'

Gabby slowly nodded as she stared out the far window. 'Back when reality hadn't slapped me in the face yet. And a time when I still thought having a loving partner and a happy marriage were worth pursuing.' She managed a small smile. 'At least you knew the latter was a pipe dream. It took you a while to be done with women, far as I can recall.'

'Eugh… don't remind me…' Finnick took another sip. 'I should've known friends were the only relationships that really counted, at least for me.'

Gabby's expression fell a little. 'Even now, that doesn't seem to be enough…' She hung her head in shame. 'I truly am pathetic.'

Finnick studied her for a few seconds before shaking his head. 'I dunno… at least you stuck to your guns and became a doctor. I can't say I'm too proud of what I've done with my life since those days.'

'Even now, I still don't know if I can say that I am proud.'

They sat in silence for another minute. Finnick finished his coffee, and finally inhaled long and heard before he continued.

'You probably know why I'm here, Gabs. I'm not going to force you to do anything – I know that kind of thing doesn't work on ya. But I have information for you that you might want to see.' He pulled out a small black USB from his polo shirt pocket. 'I found this with my – "skills" – as you're well aware of. And I'm going to let you decide what to do with it.'

He slowly placed it on the table, studying Gabby's reaction. She barely moved, but she didn't recoil or shy away from it, which was an encouraging sign.

'I'm just going to leave you with a question to ask yourself… what really drives you?'

He slowly hopped down from the chair and went for the door.

'It's up to you. You have my number if you wanna talk.'

Gabby didn't answer, still staring at the small storage device even as the small vulpine closed the door behind him.

The gazelle sat there for several minutes. Finnick could only distract her for so long. Now, instead of wrestling whether to help Nick, her thoughts shifted over to whether she should open the USB or delete its contents. She knew that whatever information was stored in it, Finnick would have backups; that's how prepared he usually was. She also knew that whatever was in there would likely help her finally end her several months' worth of internal struggle.

And yet, she still hesitated. The fear of what she might find, and what she might end up doing by going down that path, remained at the back of her head.

Just how stupid are you? You're like one of those procrastinating students that leave things to the last minute. Either you want to do well, and should put in the effort, or you don't.

Her self-directed vitriol called back some memories from university. After another minute, she made up her mind. She pulled out her mobile phone, stood up and went over to her window.

He's surely asleep. But I don't care about that right now – I just need to hear his advice.

The phone rang about four or five times before the owner finally picked up. She heard loud and congested coughing on the other end, mixed in with some heavy snorts only a moose could make.

'I'm sorry to bother at this ungodly hour, Professor… but I need your counsel on something.'

The moose grunted with recognition at her voice.

'…Gabrielle? I've always had time for one of my brightest – and most obtuse – students. But please, call me Murphy. I've left that title behind, for the most part.'

'I suppose it's not too good for paying the bills…' She sighed. She couldn't beat around the bush any more.

'I'm sitting on information, prof–Murphy. I can't go into any real detail… but it's the kind of information where I can barely bring myself to look at it. If I pry it open, I will risk unleashing information that I can never go back on, and will bring changes reaching far and wide. I don't know if it's better to just let it go, or take the plunge regardless. And the circumstances around it… I've been running from them for so long. I've spent the better part of five hours just sitting around doing nothing because I'm so pathetic that I can't make a decision.'

Murphy was silent for several seconds. He knew of her circumstances; like Finnick, she'd kept in contact with the moose over the years.

'Did I ever tell you that you're too hard on yourself?'

Gabby groaned. 'Yes. Many, many times.'

'But that's why you need to lean on the people around you. Unfortunately, you kept most mammals at arm's length… but not completely. We're having this conversation, after all. Albeit at 1 in the morning.'

They both snorted with amusement.

'I think you already know the answer. But I'm going to repeat a singular point that I made in the first class of every year I taught. What were you, first and foremost, before you became a doctor, Gabrielle?'

'… A scientist.'

She could picture Murphy nodding on the other end.

'And, first and foremost, what is the purpose of science?'

Her breath caught before she managed to answer.

'To seek the truth.'

Murphy waited with a slight "mmm"?

'… No matter what society thinks of it.'

The moose was silent, but she could tell he was smiling. In those few seconds, she slowly smiled to herself, and the weight on her shoulders of the past several months finally felt like it was beginning to lift.

'Sometimes all you need is a little encouragement, Gabrielle. You were always capable of great things. The possibility of failure, while scary at times, should never dissuade us. I'm not going to pretend to know the exact circumstances behind this strangely timed phone call… But, do your best. That's all any of us can do.'

She closed her eyes with renewed determination. 'Thanks, Murphy… that's all I needed to hear.'

'And the scientist in me will be curious to find out what these so-called "changes" are. Good luck, Gabrielle.'

'Good… morning, professor.'

Murphy grunted with slight annoyance as he hung up.

Gabby took one last look out the window and took a deep breath. She turned around, grabbed the USB, and plugged it into her computer in the study.

June 15th, Friday 3:00 pm

Judy sat on the dark couch, after having aimlessly gone around the house several times. That morning, she and Nick woke up with impending dread. They had only managed to get to sleep yesterday from sheer mental exhaustion.

The only thing of note they'd been able to do at that point was to call Bogo and give him an update, as pointless as it felt. To the buffalo's credit, he was calm and patient, listening to all they had to say. The unsettling feeling that something was off never left them. Nick quietly wished after the call that the chief yelled at them or something similar, for some semblance of familiarity.

However, the worst part for Judy was the pair of them trying just to talk to each other. Whenever she tried to speak with Nick, or vice versa, she saw that same pained look in his green eyes that she remembered in her dream. They both ended up falling silent, leaving the house feeling cold and stifled, rather than the safety and comfort they had come to expect from it, and from each other.

The rational part of Judy's mind pushed her to reconsider abortion, even this late into her pregnancy. If going through with it was all but guaranteed to fail, and kill her, and their child – then what was the point?

But then, she remembered the pained look in Nick's eyes, not a few minutes ago, as well as going back to what she remembered in that dream of hers. If she went through with it, she knew things would never be the same.

In an attempt to distance herself from these thoughts, she had pushed Nick to get some rest, as the rings around his eyes were getting worse. He tried to go for a walk, but came back only a few minutes later. She put herself to work and cooked an omelette with assorted berries mixed in in an attempt to cheer Nick up at least a little. The fox was thankful, but it didn't lift the heavy mood gripping the house, and Nick went back for another attempt at a nap.

However, she heard stirring from their bedroom only fifteen minutes later. She spotted Nick out of the corner of her eye in winter light-blue pyjamas. She avoided eye contact at first, but he approached her, and as she looked up at her fox husband, he put on the bravest smile he could muster.

She smiled weakly back, and the fox sat next to her. She let herself lean against him, and his tail slowly curled around her – as if it was the only form of help he could give her now.

'You dumb fox… You've already done so much for me…' Her ears fell guiltily. 'Maybe too much.'

Nick slowly wrapped his arms around her. 'I'm… sorry it wasn't enough.'

Judy sniffled. '… That's…'

She tried to say "not your fault" but the words escaped her, for she knew Nick blamed himself for their predicament in a way that she couldn't argue with. The ashen look on his face had said it all.

Judy wrapped her paws around his waist, neither of them knowing what to do. She wished she could just stay with Nick, free of the burdens they both now carried.

They stayed like that in silence for a minute, until Judy sucked in a breath. She hated feeling this way. Even if she knew in her head that it was impossible to go through with the birth without complications, she had heard that many times before.

The rabbit then remembered something she had picked up while Nick had been out over the past several days. It might not be the best time, but she knew it might have been the last chance she would get.

She gently pushed away from Nick's embrace, and at his questioning glance, she smiled gently.

'I want to show you something.'

The tod nodded reluctantly, and Judy retreated for a moment into their bedroom. She opened their wardrobe and fetched a yellow box and brought it out.

Nick's ears immediately perked up as she emerged, but his ears folded back slightly right after. Nevertheless, he remained where he was as Judy approached, hopped on the couch next to him, and passed it over to him.

He didn't open it, but raised his brow in bewilderment.

'Carrots, I don't…'

'Go on. Read it.'

He hesitated, but spoke in a low, pained voice.

'"Zippypaws Squeaky Rattle Carrot. Ages 0-3."'

The rabbit nodded with a smile. 'I… picked it up at around the time you met with the Assistant Mayor. Maybe I was feeling rebellious at the time after seeing all those doctors, but I just wanted to feel like a normal mother. So I got this.'

They both glanced down at the brightly coloured box. The Comic Sans font and bright colours were so far from how they were feeling that it was jarring.

Nick had trouble speaking for a moment, before he voiced what he'd been thinking the entire time.

'Why did you want me to see this?'

Judy's ears fell slightly as she glanced away. She fidgeted a little as she began to speak.

'Look, Nick… I can't imagine how you must feel right now. There doesn't seem to be much either of us can do, despite how hard we've tried. It kind of reminds me of our talk on the back porch... That feels like it was ages ago.'

She paused and took a deep breath, but Nick was paying rapt attention.

'Despite how terrible things might seem, I've led a pretty good life. I haven't made any mistakes that I wasn't able to put a lot of effort towards learning from. I mean, the things I said in that conference hurt you a lot, and that was one of my biggest regrets. But then, I think back to us solving that case, you becoming part of the ZPD… I think we did well, all things considered.

'And if you think, maybe in some part of yourself, that we should have stayed friends… I wouldn't have changed anything. Knowing what we do now, I don't regret getting closer to you. Marrying with you. Even getting pregnant…' She paused and looked off wistfully. 'Though I guess I would have liked us to be more cautious about it, but it wouldn't have been fair to beat myself up over it. And it isn't fair to you to be so hard on yourself about it, either.'

Nick was speechless, but she smiled and slowly took his paw in hers.

'I still haven't decided what to do, either way. But we both know I'm not one to change my mind easily. So… I guess this is my way of believing that if I went through with it, I believe the baby would survive… somehow.'

Nick extricated his paw and picked the box up as if to shove it in her lap, but he stopped at the last moment. He froze, and they gazed at each other for several pained seconds.

'I… can't accept this, Judy. I can't lose you.'

Judy frowned miserably. 'But what else can we do…?'

Nick could only answer by putting the box aside and hugging her close.

They sat there, stuck in place, both feeling trapped – both physically and mentally. In the back of Nick's mind, he was scared that the Razorbacks would come for them. Ever since Nick's meeting with Ethan, they both were on guard; it wasn't a stretch to believe the group would come after them in their own home, too. To be honest, he wasn't sure why they hadn't already.

As if in answer to his paranoid thoughts, Judy's ears perked up reflexively. A vehicle, a van by the sound of it, had turned into their suburb, and was heading straight for them.

'What is it?' Nick asked as he felt Judy's ears brush against him.

'Something's coming.'

As they both braced themselves to run, Judy heard a familiar sputter.

'Wait… Finnick?'

'… Really?' Nick said weakly. 'Sounds… almost too good to be true.'

Despite his doubts, Nick followed Judy to the front door, who peeked through the mail flap. It was indeed Finnick's Lobos Z1, its daring design reflected under the sun's rays. Nick peeked through the flap as well, wondering if it was some trick, but the fennec fox opened the driver's door and plopped onto the sidewalk with a serious look on his face. Nick hadn't seen that look in many years.

The red fox slowly opened the door, and Finnick watched them stiffly as they approached him. After an awkward pause, the tan vulpine took a deep breath.

'There's… a chance. A small chance. But if you come with me now, you might just be able to save yer kid.'

'What do you mean?' Judy said. 'Did you–?'

Finnick cut her off with a shake of his head. 'I don't want to stand around and talk, if ya know what I mean.' He bowed his head, frowning guiltily as his eyes wandered down the pavement. 'Do you trust me?'

Nick and Judy took a glance at each other. After looking in each other's eyes, now with a glimmer of hope, they knew what their answer was, and collectively nodded.

The red fox cupped Judy's shoulder. 'I'll lock up. Finnick, get her in somewhere comfortable, if you can.'

Finnick nodded as the red fox dashed back inside, grabbed his keys, and dashed back out in the span of thirty seconds. Just when he was about to leave, he took a glance at the box still sitting on the couch, and dashed for that as well. Then he locked the door and joined Judy in the back as Finnick had opened the large door for her and had started strapping her to a side seat. Finding a shred of courage, Nick put the box in her lap.

'Promise me you'll look after that, okay?'

Judy looked him in the eye for a moment. She closed her eyes and smiled.

'Okay. It's a promise.'

Judy pushed the box next to her under the seatbelt, and Nick managed a smile back before looking around. As Nick studied the back of the van, he couldn't help but worry just how bumpy the ride would be. But he knew they couldn't stick around; Grenn could be coming, and that was enough to drop everything and leave – even with him still in his night clothes.

He helped Finnick with the belts, adjusting them to Judy's inflated belly and the box, and jumped into the passenger's seat after sliding the large door shut. However, as Nick and Judy sat in their seats and Finnick started the engine, they instinctively scrunched their noses.

'Uh… Finn…' Judy asked candidly, 'just what have you been keeping in this thing?'

Finnick grimaced as he hit the modified accelerator. 'Uh… yeah, sorry, I haven't had time to clean up before this all came together. Don't go poking around in the cans.'

'Just what is going on, buddy?' Nick asked, still in disbelief, as he shoved his keys into the van's front compartment. 'It's as if you deliberately came at the best possible time.'

'Let's just say that Gabs, me, and a few others have been busy.'

As the van sped down the street and made a right around the bend, some curtains in the neighbour's front window drew shut.

Clawhauser scrolled through the latest coverage on Gazelle's most recent event in the town square, in an attempt to distract himself from the dour mood that had pervaded the precinct.

At first, it had been strange for Judy and Nick to be absent from work, but after a few days the ZPD had shifted their schedule to work around that. What really bothered Clawhauser was knowing what the fox and rabbit were going through, but him being in no position to help them. Just greeting them whenever they came to the ZPD never felt like enough.

As the other officers began to pick up the story on their own, the mood around the building slowly came down, as well as building resentment against the council and mayor in general. It wasn't a secret that they were preventing Bogo, and by extension, them, from helping Nick and Judy in any meaningful way. It was also a reminder every day that the married pair had been trying to get help but getting barred at every opportunity.

Clawhauser's own performance had slipped somewhat, as he slipped into distracting himself more than he used to, sometimes at the expense of whatever mammal he was serving at the moment. As such, he didn't notice the large grizzly bear with an Akubra hat come through the glass doors until he cleared his throat with a deep rumble.

'Excuse me?'

The cheetah yelped and had to catch his phone out of the air.

'Ahh! I'm so sorry!' He coughed and put his phone away, scanning the area to make sure he hadn't missed any other mammals. 'Can I help you, sir?'

'No, but I can help you.'

Clawhauser paused with a confused look, raising a brow as the bear slowly took out a folder from his brown leather jacket. He jiggled it a bit, and Clawhauser could see under the light that it was full of papers.

'…Got somethin' your chief might want to see.'

Upon initial inspection, the folder didn't seem suspicious. It was completely flat, with no signs of metal, chemicals or other suspicious material that the ZPD would deem questionable. However, it was an unexpected package, so Clawhauser remained on guard.

'Can I get your name, sir?'

'… I'd rather not.'

Clawhauser frowned, gently leaning his elbows on the desk.

'Sir, you must understand that I have to treat unsolicited packages as suspicious. If I can verify your identity, it will smooth out delivery.'

The bear shrugged. 'You can call me Frank.'

'I'm afraid that isn't–'

'Let me make this clear,' the bear continued. 'I was paid to deliver this to the ZPD, no more, no less. If you take it and destroy it, I still get paid. Don't matter to me either way.' He paused, glancing at the tense cheetah with some sympathy. 'However… I can say that involves your friends, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. It is in your chief's interest to read these.'

Clawhauser was silent, pondering his next action.

'And if it helps, I'm no friend of the Council.'

Clawhauser tightened his jaw, conflicted. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to ignore something that might help Nick and Judy.

He bowed his head in defeat. 'Ugh… fine. But I still need to run it by security first.'

The cheetah drew out a large sealable bag from under the desk and held it open, and Frank obediently slid it in. With a small smile and a tip of his hat, he turned to leave.

'I suggest you hurry. Your little friends – as well as the Council – are on the move.'

After calling Wolfard over, Clawhauser and the wolf quickly concluded that Frank's package was indeed genuine. After getting the approval from Bogo, they brought the package up, with the cheetah needing to hold back from opening the documents himself. Andersen had offered to sub in for Clawhauser while he was away.

And so the wolf and cheetah waited as Bogo began reading through the individual pages, the buffalo's beady eyes growing wider with each sheet. By the end, his hands were trembling with barely restrained rage.

'Clawhauser!'

The cheetah couldn't tell who the rage was being directed to. 'Uh… chief?'

'Just who dropped this bombshell on our doorstep!?'

'He was a grizzly bear who only identified himself as "Frank".' Clawhauser grimaced. 'I'm pretty sure I told you this already…'

'What kind of bombshell, sir?' Wolfard asked calmly.

Eyes still wide with fury, Bogo laid out several of the pages side by side. They each had information about a deceased mammal, but he pointed out the cause of death and the dates.

'I knew the Council was hiding something! All these years, I'd known that there were mammals who just "didn't exist" in our records. But now…' He pointed at a young gazelle's profile in particular. 'Remember that young lion that Johnson took in a couple of weeks ago?'

Wolfard and Clawhauser stared at the picture for several seconds.

'… WHAAAT?!'

Wolfard poked Clawhauser in the side, and the cheetah covered his mouth.

'Are you serious, chief? Gregory Sunride was the father?'

'If you think about it, it all lines up,' Bogo continued. 'They're around the same age. He was financially cut off by his parents – not long after the gazelle's death. Most tellingly, it was too painful for him to talk to us about. One of the factors in her death was him being a predator, after all.'

Clawhauser's ears fell, and he looked on the verge of tears. 'No wonder he was like that… that's terrible…'

Wolfard and Bogo frowned grimly in silence. Bogo then began rapidly tapping on his work phone as the other two looked on.

The connection went through after Bogo waited a couple of rings. The voice that came out was oddly relieved.

'Chief?'

'Hopps!' Bogo barked. 'Where are you now?'

'I'm with Nick… and a friend. He picked us up just a few minutes ago. He still hasn't told us where we're going.'

'Elaborate on "friend".'

'It's Finnick… you know, the grouchy fennec fox we hang out with on Friday Nights?'

Another voice came from the background. 'I'm sittin' right here!'

Bogo relaxed. 'As long as he can be trusted. We just had a grizzly bear drop some… troubling information on our doorstep.'

The background voice spoke up again.

'Grizzly, huh?'

Nick's voice then came through. 'You wouldn't have anything to do with that… would you, Finnick?'

Bogo opened his mouth to speak, but a blinking red light came up on his handset. As the bull spotted the registered name, he fought the urge to throw the entire phone against the wall. Instead, he composed himself and sat up straight.

'Apologies, Hopps, but I'll need to call you back. Don't do anything reckless.'

'A little late for that, Chief… but I appreciate the sentiment.'

Bogo terminated the call and switched over to answer the incoming signal.

'ZPD – Chief Bogo speaking.'

'Bogo.' Grenn's voice was low and grim. 'We have a 15-53 brewing. I'm requesting backup.'

'15-53.' As Bogo said the code indifferently, Clawhauser blanched while Wolfard stared in disbelief. 'I'm going to need you to elaborate on that.'

'Does the chief of police seriously need me to explain a code-15 category?!'

'Indeed. City-wide safety being compromised is a serious allegation. I need to be sure, you understand.'

The boar growled. 'Two of your officers are on their way to a facility that has been compromised, and it is not an exaggeration to say that what they unleash could destroy Zootopia.'

You know, Grenn, a former Lion mayor said something like that too, and his claim had more credence than yours.

'Sounds serious. Give me the location and your requirements.'

Wolfard's jaw dropped open as Grenn described the rendezvous point as well as the vehicles and personnel he would require.

Bogo seemingly nodded as Grenn concluded his report.

'Very well. You'll have your vehicles within fifteen minutes, Commander.'

However, before Grenn could say anything, Bogo hung up, taking care to avoid breaking the handset with his trembling wrist.

'… You can't be serious, Chief…' Wolfard said after a tense pause.

However, the buffalo turned around in his chair, placing his hands behind his head. Wolfard glanced over at Clawhauser quizzically, and the cheetah was smiling.

The wolf's ears perking up, he slowly cleared his throat.

'Ahem… so, you going to give the order, chief?'

Bogo paused, his voice aloof and indifferent.

'Order? I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about.'

Nick and Judy were mostly silent for the first few minutes of their trip, recognising the borders of the rainforest district that they had often patrolled and at times visited on their days off together. Finnick had reassured them that they would be able to go back to the house to get supplies soon, but the number one priority for them was to get Judy somewhere safe first.

However, when they passed into a multi-laned tunnel, both Nick and Judy began to get familiar vibes, and not the good kind.

'Uh… Finnick?' Judy asked from the back. 'I might have asked this before, but… exactly where are we going?'

'Yeah, I'm… not liking the atmosphere, big guy,' Nick followed up.

'I think you both know. You've been there before.' The small vulpine momentarily stood up and glanced around and behind them. 'Well, it'll be obvious soon enough.'

As the van veered slightly to the right, both Nick and Judy's ears drooped as Finnick approached a single-lane maintenance tunnel. It had been a few years, but neither of them would ever forget that road, nor what came after.

'I… guess I should've known,' Judy squeaked. 'I don't really have pleasant memories of this place.'

'At least it makes a morbid kind of sense,' Nick managed to say with reassurance. 'If it managed to slip under the ZPD's radar for two weeks, the same could be said for us.'

Then he blinked in realisation, turning around to look at Judy again. 'Wait… two weeks? Isn't that…?'

'Yeah,' Judy nodded with a conflicted smile. 'That might be how much time before...' she gazed down at her belly, '"it" happens. Talk about a twist of fate, huh?'

'That's kinda scary, Carrots.'

Their gaze lingered with another weak smile exchanged, but there was a glimmer of hope that their lives from just a fortnight ago might be returning.

However, Nick narrowed his eyes past his wife, and Judy's ears twitched as she turned around in the same direction. They spotted two black trucks turn into the road only a few hundred metres behind. Nick froze, but even though he couldn't see through the windshield, he knew what it meant.

So now they're coming for us… Then that means there really is hope where we're going.

'Finnick… we have company.'

The tan vulpine pressed his head down for a moment. 'Shit.' He sped up the van, but the narrow road leading onto a cliffside prevented him from standing up again. 'How many? What can you tell me, Nick?'

The red fox squinted, and as Finnick's van cleared the tunnel and into the afternoon sun, he was able to deduce some more details, as the vehicles were similar in design to the ZPD's Z-240 models. He could also see the driver and passenger were wolves; but Grenn was likely in the back, or driving the second vehicle.

'They look like… Razorvacs. You know, the models you thought were only useful in war zones?

'Are you frickin' serious?!' Finnick exclaimed. 'They're sending those after a pregnant rabbit? Those fuckers!'

With that, he floored the accelerator as hard as he could, with Nick and Judy clinging to their seats.

'Rusk – where are those ZPD reinforcements?' Grenn barked to the Razorback guard in the passenger seat as he drove into the closed tunnel. 'Have they arrived at the rendezvous yet?'

Rusk shook his head. 'Negative. The two who remained haven't reported any contact with them.'

'Get me Bogo!'

The swine, somewhat begrudgingly, tapped on the large touch interface before them and dialled Bogo's office number, and the buffalo's voice sounded on speaker.

'This is Chief Bogo.'

'Bogo! Where are your officers? I had to leave two of my guards after your "fifteen" minutes, and there is still no sign of them.'

'Ah. My sincere apologies, Commander, but the traffic this afternoon has been dreadful. Friday afternoons just aren't what they used to be.'

'Don't play games with me, Bogo,' Grenn barked, 'lest you forget your entire precinct relies on funding by the Council's efforts.'

'… What was it you said? That my officers could "destroy Zootopia"?' Some papers started to shuffle on Bogo's end. 'I would appreciate you verifying this, as I received a report by chance that Judy Hopps is pregnant in the passenger seat of a van, and her husband, Nicholas Wilde, is in his night clothes. Please explain to me how this could "destroy Zootopia".'

Rusk interrupted before Grenn could answer, momentarily muting them. 'There's no point, sir. He's wasting our time.'

'Tch…'

Grenn, after a moment of consideration, resumed the call.

'Thanks to your delay, Chief, I don't have time to explain the situation in further detail. However, you, the mayor, and I will have a long, serious discussion once this threat has been dealt with.'

The boar reluctantly terminated the call with a swift tap on the interface. However, he could picture the buffalo on the other end sitting there with a defiant smile on his face. That defiance, more than his interference, was what Grenn truly found aggravating.

Doesn't he know that life in Zootopia as we know it is built on our efforts?

After another moment, he narrowed his beady eyes at the car in front as they both exited the tunnel onto the cliffside road.

'What's taking them so long? They should be intercepting the vehicle by now.'

Rusk scowled. 'I told you us Razorbacks should have handled this alone.'

As the lead armoured truck slowly closed in despite Finnick's efforts, Nick was able to make out the shapes behind the thick windscreen after his eyes adjusted to the angled sunlight. They were wolves, and just from looking at their ears, he could tell they were not comfortable even being here. More so with the guard in the passenger seat meeting his gaze; Nick could swear he had seen the wolf before.

Despite their hesitation, they were clearly and steadily gaining on them. For a private security group like them, the job would probably come before their personal feelings.

'Finnick… we're not outrunning them.'

The two foxes exchanged a quick glance.

'Tag me, then.'

Nick frowned for a moment, then nodded. Without a word, Nick slipped into the driver's seat while Finnick leapt into the back. The van didn't miss a beat in its speed. Judy was reminded that these two definitely ran together at some point or another.

She watched the small fox's gaze darting between his smelly cans on the side and the van trailing behind.

'Sorry 'bout this, Judes, but desperate times call for desperate measures.'

'What do you–?'

Finnick grabbed several cans and, while maintaining his grip on a sidebar, pulled himself to the back. Judy's training kicked in, and the possibility of the Nightstalkers shooting at them was not out of the question. She unstrapped herself and carefully followed, ready to pull Finnick down should see any sign of a gun.

However, she was not prepared for what came out of Finnick's mouth as he unlatched the rear door and yelled at the top of his lungs.

'You miserable fucks! What kind of mammal murders a mother and her unborn kid?!'

The two wolves stared at him in shock, and their eyes were drawn to Judy as well. The guard in the passenger seat immediately dialled out to someone, and from what Judy could gather by the few words she picked up and their severe tone, the wolves were contacting the Nightstalker commander. He seemed unaware of their current assignment – and the commander was not happy to have his authority apparently superseded by Grenn.

Unfortunately, Finnick soon lost his patience, as the Razorvac didn't slow down. He undid his first container and threw black-brown sludge at the truck's windshield.

'Finn!'

He glanced over at her quizzically. 'What?'

The wolves whined, and Judy instinctively covered her nose at the stench. The Razorvac slowed down, and with their vision blocked, the wolves soon drove off the road and came to a rough stop, but not before the other truck pushed forward. Judy's ears fell as she saw the grim scowls of the two Razorbacks, recognising Grenn as the driver.

'Oh no…'

Finnick then knew that he had screwed up. 'Shit.'

Nick's ears flicked back at them, but just from their voices he knew who they were talking about.

'Well, I figured he would show up sooner or later…'

Finnick and Judy glanced at him for a moment, but Nick shifted gears and sped up.

It was little use, however. Grenn easily kept pace, with Nick doing his best to block the truck from getting any closer. The boar attempted to ram the back, but Finnick, then Judy, tossed more motor oil, and Grenn veered out of the way just in time. After two more attempts, Grenn just ignored the oil and slammed into the back, despite the thick oil covering the windshield. The van's rear fender broke off and tumbled underneath the truck.

Finnick and Judy ducked and clung to the nearby bars.

'Do you have any backup at the asylum?' Judy raised her voice above the noise. 'We can't fend him off ourselves!'

Finnick shook his head. 'They're doctors, not soldiers! I was hoping to slip under the radar. I'm waiting on someone else, but…' He stared down at the metal floor worriedly. 'The old girl isn't going to stand up to a monster like that.'

Damn it J, where's that wild card you were talking about?!

Nick said nothing, frowning with intense concentration as Grenn rammed the back again while wiping off the oil. Nick managed to swerve to avoid the impact, but it clipped the back corner and sent them swerving out of control for several seconds.

Grenn then sped up and pulled up alongside their van, wedging them between the armoured truck and the rocky wall on their left.

The two boars glared daggers at Nick, but undaunted, he glared straight back at them.

Predictably, Grenn swerved to ram the van's side, but Nick braked just enough for them to glance off his headlight instead. The shattered glass clinked against the road as the armoured truck swerved and corrected itself.

However, this left them in an unfortunate position: the truck was now moving to block them as Nick was doing before. Then, it slowed down suddenly, the large metal doors slamming against the van's hood, and Nick barely slowed down enough to avoid the full impact.

He managed to swerve the vehicle when the Razorvac braked again, but in the narrow road he ended up against the rock wall. Grenn kept pace with Nick again, as Finnick's van brakes didn't come close to the truck's performance.

Grenn managed to ram them into the rock wall, scraping the paint and metal off the side for several seconds.

'Nick!' Judy cried out. 'What are we gonna do?!'

The red fox clenched his teeth. Without more help, they couldn't do anything.

As if in answer to Judy, the distant sound of a familiar motorbike sounded off above the rock wall. Judy heard it first, then Finnick.

'A motorbike…' Judy said out loud. 'Is it them?'

'Who?' Finnick asked, still clinging on to the bars for dear life. As the motorbike got louder, he projected his voice up to his former partner. 'You got somethin' up yer sleeve, Nick?'

'Well…'

Judy caught a glimpse of the married wolves, both wearing helmets, before the bike drove alongside them riding the edge of the wall. Alex, clad in a black military vest and sitting in the bike's sidecar, pulled out a marksman's rifle and shot at the armoured truck's back tires. Unfortunately from that angle, it had little effect. The pale-furred wolf frowned as he holstered his rifle, then leapt from the sidecar and landed with a heavy thud on top of their van. Bertha, after observing the events for a few seconds, veered away and drove off to get clear of the edge.

'You sure he's friendly?!' Finnick exclaimed, eyeing the noticeable divot in the van's ceiling.

Just as soon as Finnick protested, the military wolf jumped again, using a metal sickle to catch the top edge of the Razorvac and steady himself. The fennec fox watched in morbid fascination as Alex pried off a metal panel from the top, with precision only one familiar with such vehicles would be capable of. The wolf then slipped inside with his gun brandished.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Nick was able to pull the van ahead as Grenn began to slow down. Gunshots, yells and growls began to blare from inside the truck.

'Will he be all right?' Judy said worriedly.

'Don't you worry about my husband!' All of them turned their heads towards Bertha speeding off down the forest area above. 'I'll keep an eye on him. He did all this for you three to get going, anyway.'

Nick frowned thoughtfully as he kept driving, before he glanced between the other two mammals in the van. 'I guess… We'd probably get in his way if we tried to help.'

The truck's back door slammed opened, and Finnick spotted two vest-clad boars get thrown out onto the grass alongside the road. They were bleeding, but only from their arms or legs.

'Nick… might have a point. Let's get outta here!'

The red fox obliged, albeit reluctantly – sparing one last glance back at the Razorvac as he slowly lost sight of it around the cliffside path.

Thanks, old man… and good luck.

Rusk immediately undid his seatbelt as soon as the wolf landed on their vehicle, but by the time he opened the door, pulled himself up the side ladder and dropped down, the wolf had already thrown the rest of the squad out the back. The wolf viewed him with indifference, standing just behind the divide.

His fur is basically white! They should have had no trouble seeing him!

He pulled out his combat knife at the ready, but the wolf's pale fur flickered away into the shadows. However, Rusk was able to pick up his footsteps, if barely. Turning around, he saw a glint of Alex's rifle, and he charged forward – knowing he wasn't fast enough to dodge. The wolf got a shot off through his leg, but not before Rusk collided with the wolf and brought his reinforced knife down.

Alex blocked with the gun, but Rusk tore through its chamber while attempting to gore the wolf with his tusks. The wolf twisted the gun in his grip, disarming the boar and gripping a tusk to send him face-first into the metal wall.

As Rusk recoiled, the wolf dragged him back by his vest's straps and hurled him onto the grass off to the truck's left.

The wolf paused to check the coast was clear, then trained his gun towards the driver. However, the chamber had been shorn, and he tossed the gun to the side. Grenn, however, kept driving – unwilling to stop the vehicle even after the rest of his squad had been neutralised. He continued even as Alex approached and growled through the bars.

'Stop this, Grenn. This has gone far enough.'

The boar shook his head stubbornly.

'I have a job to do – you have no business interfering.'

Alex's ears folded back miserably as he brandished his reinforced sickle once more.

'Even after losing your squad, that's all you have to say?'

The wolf gripped the metal mesh with one paw and his sickle, and from the bottom, pried the whole sheet back enough for him to slide into the front. He immediately went for the steering wheel, and with deep roars and squeals of protest, Grenn fought for control. After struggling with the wheel for several seconds, Alex managed to steer the truck into the rock face, sending the truck screeching sidewards before slowly tipping over. The thick-plated vehicle came to a sudden stop, with its roof pressed against the rock wall.

For half a minute, there was nothing but the faint grinding of the van's spinning tires. The driver's door then began to pulse from pounding underneath, and the handle slowly turned, Grenn coughing and sputtering as he pulled his bulk out of the driver's seat.

The airbag had gone off, but his tusk had punctured as it was inflating. His head had slammed against the steering wheel, but being a boar, as well as his seat belt, had saved him from any real injury aside from a bruised scalp.

He scanned the road, and he saw Alex getting up from the road a few paces back. He had bloodied fur around his head, and the wolf's helmet had come off, but his bulletproof vest had absorbed most of the impact to the rest of his body.

The wolf unsheathed a second sickle, grimly stalked toward the boar – and Grenn made no effort to run. He had worked with the Nightstalkers long enough to know he could never outrun a wolf, let alone the former commander. The boar slowly drew out a long truncheon from his weapon bag on his back, and Alex stopped about ten metres away. The two mammals stared each other down for several seconds, as the wind howled in the depths below.

'Grenn.'

'…Grayson.'

The grey wolf continued to study the boar for several seconds, his ears folded back with grave disappointment.

'What have you done?'

Grenn frowned back, unwavering.

'My duty. As you did yours.'

Alex tightened the grip on his sickles, raising his right arm to point at the boar.

'A duty that the Razorbacks are privy to, but the Nightstalkers are not? Do our core values of leaning on each other's strengths as prey and predator mean nothing to you?'

Grenn broke eye contact for a moment of guilt. '… It was necessary. If the Nightstalkers had known, they would have undoubtedly objected, whether practically or morally. We couldn't risk internal division when Gilesby's policies were beginning to take traction with the citizens.'

'… So you merely delayed the inevitable.'

Grenn's brow furrowed, and a frenzied glint appeared in his beady eyes. 'It is not inevitable! We can stamp this disease out of our society!'

'And who gave you the right to decide what is and is not a disease? Especially when it comes to unborn children.'

'Adrian Gilesby did!' Grenn roared back. 'This is the only way Zootopia as it is will survive.'

Alex fixed the boar with a long, searching gaze. 'You really do believe in him, don't you?' With a calm breath, he put one foot in front of the other and assumed a combat stance. 'I gave my word that I would protect Nicholas and Judith from you. I'm not letting you go any further.'

Grenn's thick snout twitched as he switched on his thick truncheon, and electric zaps lit up down its surface. 'I may owe you my life… but I can't let you stop me. Not now, after we've come so far.'

They both stiffened as they began to circle one another. Alex studied his former colleague; the boar always had the advantage in raw bulk and power, which he had only tested through training drills. He'd also witnessed Grenn shrug off wounds that would have incapacitated anyone else. And out in the open, he no longer had the advantage of surprise or darkness – though the setting sun was heavily blocked by cloud cover.

Growling his intent, the boar charged with sudden speed, his metal club brandished defensively. Alex danced backwards, but the boar's reach was wide as he swung the truncheon in a wide arc. The wolf managed to block the blow with both sickles, but was sent skidding backwards.

Grenn charged again and brought the truncheon down, but Alex sidestepped the blow while slashing at the boar's arms. Despite his weapon still being on the ground, Grenn turned to face the blow directly, and his sickles deflected off the boar's tusks.

The boar followed up with an upward swing after the club scraped against the asphalt road. Alex ducked to the side and swiped at Grenn's exposed belly, but the boar rapidly reversed the momentum and brought the truncheon's hilt down to catch the sickle's curve. Grenn yanked Alex forward and clubbed the side of the wolf's head, sending a shocking discharge at the point of contact.

As Alex fell, Grenn backed off towards the upper road, but after a second of twitching, the wolf pushed himself up again, despite his bloodied, numb jaw.

'… It would be better if you stayed down. I would rather not kill you, Grayson.'

'I know.' The wolf shook his head after exercising his jaw. 'But I made a promise.'

Grenn readied his truncheon again, seeing the wolf still moving as fast as usual despite the beating he took.

Alex charged forward this time, with one sickle on either side. As Grenn got a look in the wolf's eyes, he stepped back, as Alex's gaze took on a manic glint in the moonlight.

Now the canine went on the attack. Whenever Grenn tried to swing his club, the wolf dodged it by a hair's breadth, or even allowed the blow to hit, when it meant getting a cut or slash on Grenn's body. Over the next several minutes, they both accumulated gashes and tears all over their bodies, with their vests slowly wearing down. Throughout that whole time, not a word was spoken, both combatants grimly and silently trying to beat the other down.

In that time, the sun gradually set, leaving their battling figures trailing long shadows down the dim road until the road was dark. Grenn's movements slowed, his arms and legs sagging. Alex, on the other paw, showed no sign of exhaustion.

The swine's truncheon was losing its charge, to the point of the electricity only creating a slight glow. Upon attempting to swing down once more, Alex simply grabbed the barbed conductor and shrugged off the electric shock as Grenn instinctively upped the power. The wolf slashed at the boar's wrist, forcing him to drop the weapon, and he caught it while it was falling. Alex wound up and swung directly at the boar's head, forcing Grenn to twist his tusk in the way. There was an audible crack as the tusk fractured, causing Grenn to squeal in pain.

Alex swung down with the truncheon as the boar was momentarily stunned, and Grenn fell to the ground. The wolf swiftly brought his foot down on Grenn's left arm to pin him in place. He then gripped the fractured tusk in his paw, and used a sickle to shear it clean off. With the tusk out of the way, Alex pressed the sickle's tip to the boar's neck.

'… Go on. Do it.'

Alex was silent, but raised a brow questioningly as the boar glared back defiantly.

'I've devoted my life to protecting Zootopia's order and prosperity. I would gladly die for it. So do it!'

Alex slowly shook his head.

'I'm afraid you're misunderstanding, old friend. I only promised to stop you. I don't need to kill you.'

'If you don't, then I'll keep coming for them. You can't keep protecting them forever.'

Despite keeping the boar firmly pressed down, the wolf's scowl softened a little as he looked up at the sky with a strangely satisfied expression.

'That is true. You don't fear death; that's why it will be pointless to kill you. There is something you do fear, however. And it's upon you now.'

'…What…?'

It was then that Grenn heard the distant sound of a thumping rotor, getting closer and closer. A dancing spotlight waved over their position, then fixed upon them. The boar stared in horror as his eyes pierced the blinding glare. It was a news chopper, "ZNN" plastered in white on its dark blue paint job.

Alex gradually stepped back, but not before securing the truncheon on his vest's back straps.

'It's over, Grenn. The city will know what you've done, as well as your precious mayor. Your "order" was nothing more than a convenient lie. Whether it was right or not is irrelevant. I wonder if you can justify your actions to the ZNN rather than just me.'

The boar simply stared up at the chopper in horror. The wolf backed away out of the spotlight, and it remained fixated on Grenn. As Alex expected, Bertha came rocking up on the motorbike, and after a moment of shock at his wounds, she waited for him to get in the sidecar. As they gave one final glance at the stupefied boar, they rode off towards the asylum.