Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia: Series 3

by J Shute

Somehow, Sly Cooper returned. -Right into a Zootopia still reeling from Padriach Rattigan's actions. But once he, Nick, Judy and their various allies have put out the fires of chaos, justice is due. That and making sure the rat fails in his plans to bring back and try to harness a terrible power the raccoon is all too familiar with. Maybe even more so than he's letting on.

4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

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"I mean, sure, they were there to 'save the kits'..." Dr Amy Lupulelli nodded, the Binturong following along as the fox in front of her spoke, paws up in the air and waving about. "-I'm sure many of them were perfectly happy mammals with good lives, friends, kits. But that doesn't change the fact that they were being used. Didn't change the fact that they were the bad guys here. Doesn't mean they weren't causing carnage, or killing people, or killing themselves. -I… -I saw what was left in the end. I… I…"

Amy's ears softenned, falling back against her head. "Please, take your time."

"-No, no," the fox breathed in and out, face hardening. "I spent that whole morning sifting through the pulp that was left when mammals stampeded to get away from the savages, or were torn apart by them. I helped to sift through what remained to try and find someone that someone dear to me thought might have been lost in all of that. -He still is you know? No-one can find him, I know she goes about hoping and thinking of ways that he might turn up again and would explain why he's been gone all this time. Like it was all some horrible prank by a troll, or… -He was eaten. We all know it, even if we don't like it. Ripped apart and eaten whole or trampled into a pulp to be washed away by the street cleaners and… And…"

A black paw leant forward, holding on to the pair that had been rubbing over each other, scrubbing and washing away, over and over. Dr Amy looked up sympathetically, waiting, being there…

"-I listened to some of his podcasts… He had opinions, shall we say. -It wasn't like he was lying or making it up, what he saw was all there, albeit he painted it with a very particular filter. -And I guess maybe that's not a bad thing, I don't know. -But he enjoyed doing it, it was what interested him. Going on and on. Burrowing into the Truth, that was what his podcast was called or something. -Naturally he'd been pulled in by all those lies, even if he was on the pro-prey side or whatever. Not that he claimed to hate predators, but rather the 'institution of predation' and 'social predation', be it from preds or prey… -I don't know. But he was a mammal. I could think of him as crazy or misled, but… But after listening to him enough, not evil. Not a jerk. Not a hateful spiteful narcissistic piece of scat. -So why the cuss do I keep forgetting him, but keep thinking about her?"

Amy began to speak only to be cut off, a tan paw to her face.

"-And don't say it's because she was my mother, because she wasn't," Skye said, paw coming up over her face and wiping it down. "When… When I first heard that 'my mother' had died in the City Hall crush, I was terrified. I got there and…" Her voice hitched a little. "What would she be doing there, it couldn't, there had to be…" And then a slight smile grew on her face. "And there was. The same kind of thing Ju… -My friend, would be wanting for her cousin. It wasn't my mother, just the trashy vixen who gave birth to me."

The Binturong nodded. "Have you always had that opinion of her?"

"Yes."

"So when you were twenty."

"Yes."

"Ten."

"Yes."

"Five."

"Yes…"

"Three…"

"-What are you trying to get at?"

"A newborn kit or young child will love their mother by default. Do you not remember any time when…"

"-Do you want to know what my most vivid memory of my life before adoption was?"

The Binturong sat back in her chair. "Do you want to tell it?"

For a moment Skye held back, before leaning in, shrugging. "Sure," she smirked. "I was in a cot, paws around the bars. I knew I was starving, but I knew not to call out. Calling out meant pain. Meant I was a dumb stupid baby. So I was scared to call out over the noise of the television. -Whatever. Not that I wasn't in pain by the way. My teeth hurt, my tail hurt, all this around here stung." She tapped around her crotch area. "It was wet, and cold, and filthy, with every move I felt the sides of the diaper I was wearing cut into my skin. I didn't want it taken off and cleaned though, that meant pain too. I knew that at the time. Dumb toddler brain me, I was used to the filth in there and… Well, I suppose my… -Miss Fawkes wasn't very motherly when it came to cleaning me up. Still…" She sighed, eyes glowering at the Binturong. "I knew I was hungry. I knew not to upset 'mother' as 'mother' was not to be upset. After all, even if I was a dumb girl, I should be able to find my own food, stop the pain in my belly. I guess. Anyway, after waiting so long I came up with what to me felt like a clever solution. The only thing in that empty cot I might be able to reach and eat."

The swift fox leant forward, a look of disgust on her face before she bolted it down, staring into the therapist's eyes. "Maybe it's why I was the first to start sifting through the pulp. Because I still remember being so hungry, so wanting to stop the pain, and so young and stupid I stuck my paws into something even worse and…" The therapist looked on blankly as Skye mimed the action going on, hand reaching down to her crotch and scooping out. She showed no expression as the vixen took a bite and made a gagging expression… Eyes then locking on at her. "Of course, after some more hours or so I got hungry enough…" She took another bite, this time swallowing.

The Binturong nodded. "You engaged in coprophagy. Understandable." Skye's muzzle rivenned up, her glare burning and fists bawling up. The therapist just leant forward. "And I can understand just how distressing that might be," she said. "And I'm sorry."

The swift fox seemed taken aback for a second, calming down, head tilted as the Binturong sighed.

"In times of famine and food distress it's far more common among numerous species, predominantly prey with less efficient digestive systems, than we'd ever like to acknowledge." She explained. "And I'm afraid I've worked with enough smearers that your attempt to gross me out has no effect."

Skye blinked, pulling back. "I… I wasn't…"

"-How did Miss Fawkes react on finding out…"

"-Screamed at me," Skye said blithely. "Slapped me, called me filthy, stupid, disgusting. Honestly I believe her. Don't you, given what I did then…"

"-You don't sound like you believe it."

"-I think the rest of history has justified that," she growled.

"Were you hoping to scare me off, make me gag, vomit?" Amy asked.

"I…" Skye growled, before shrugging. "Sure, why not?"

"Why?"

"I…" Her mouth hung open.

"-You did come here to explore these issues," Dr Amy carried along. "Yet are resistant to probing. And that's natural. Understandable. Abuse, trauma, neglect, especially when young. The responses can be reactive or defensive. You're trying to protect yourself here, hence trying to shoo me off or gross me out. I understand."

"Do you, now?"

"The theory," she shrugged. "At least." She flashed a smile, Skye snorting.

"I guess," she muttered, rubbing her eyes. "-Sorry, I…"

"Nothing to be sorry about," Dr Lupuleli said. "It's a long journey, we're pushing hard against parts of your mind that are not used to being pushed, probed, prodded. They push back."

Skye just sat there, staring off into the corner of the room, the Binturong waiting.

Waiting.

"Popcorn?"

Skye looked at her, shaking her head. "No, I… -I guess it's that same reason why I can't get her out of my mind…"

The Binturong nodded. "Go on…"

"-I…" Skye gave a huff. "I just think about what a useless piece of mammalian trash she was. That's all. My dumb mind doing a dumb thing. -I should just wait and it'll go away."

"And is your mind dumb for mourning her?"

"-Yes," Skye hissed, paws out. "-And… And it's not mourning her. It's not even imaging what it'd be like if she was a decent person either. Imagining her caring for me or loving me, not yelling at me or leaving me alone, tired, hungry, filthy, I… -Do you know what my first memory of my actual mother was? It was me holding tight as she hugged me, said she'd be 'looking after me', and I was wondering what new things she'd do to me. I hugged her and kissed back and acted happy as I thought that's what they wanted and at least I could do that and be okay… Be good. -I… I don't even know when it changed to me not being scared of them, or knowing…" She wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye. "Or knowing that I could come to them for love, unconditional love. I just have one memory where I ran up and asked for uppies, and snuggled up into her… -And there was nothing more to it. I can't remember when it clicked for me that that was normal. -Can't really remember when I realised just how abnormal the rest of that was either."

"-When does red become orange?"

"Yes, I guess, I…" She sighed. "The vixen that died that night did that to me. She's nothing to me. She doesn't deserve to occupy a single neuron of my headspace, but she's still there… As if that's her last cruel little laugh. The one time she manages to actually cuss me up for good."

Amy nodded. "I… Understand. And, I think, I'm afraid to say there is no way to say this but you can't just 'make her go away', as long as the earth is round and the sky green that's a fact of life."

"Yeah, I…" Skye paused, head tilting.

The Binturong quirked an eyebrow. "Anything… The matter."

"No, misheard… Silly,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," she said, shaking her head. "Though you said the sky is green…"

"-It is."

The vixen gave her a look. "So, you're trying to get a rise out of me now, huh?"

"No," she said, shrugging. "The sky is green."

"Yeah, well I'll keep on saying it's blue…"

"-I mean that's fine," Amy continued. "Just from my cultural background and personal experience, it is green. Both our opinions are equally valid." Skye blew a snort, Amy's eyes narrowing. "So you're insinuating that my perspective is less valid than yours?"

"No, I'm saying it's wrong as…"

"You state the colour of the sky is blue and grass is green. I hold the equally valid notion that the sky is green and grass is blue."

"Listen," Skye stressed. "I'm not sure what mind game you're playing…"

"I'm not," Amy pressed, slapping her pen down. "You and the mammals you know assigned the name green to a certain set of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum and blue to a differing set. There is nothing fundamental about this assignment. Others assign the names blau, or verde, or… etcetera. And in my case, I assign the name blue to the area referred to as green by you."

"-And everyone else."

"So majority makes said social construct true…"

"-Yes."

"Ergo if enough people agree with me that blue is green and green is blue, you by your own standards must agree."

"No! Because Green is Green…"

"Why are you so hung up about this?"

"What!?"

"This does not affect you in any way, shape or form, it does not materially affect your life. And yet you insist that…"

"-I insist that reality is reality."

"You insist on meddling with my values."

"-I insist on the truth."

"Your truth."

"-Blue is blue…"

"On interfering with my personal life."

"-Green is green…"

"Dictating what I should believe."

"-Two and two is four…"

"This means nothing to you," Amy said. "Why can't you let go?"

"Because of the principle! You can't just redefine stuff like that! Blue is blue…"

"Like you are a swift fox and not a coyote…"

"Yes!," Skye said, slumping back into her chair and giving a slow clap with her paws.

"And you are a predator."

"-And green is green."

"And a mother loves her child."

"Yes, and…" Skye froze. "Well no…"

"Yes?" Amy asked.

The vixen narrowed her eyes. "I see what you did there."

"Which was?"

"Pretend me reacting to your silly green is blue thing is the same as my moth… -Birth mother being a piece of scat who never loved me. Just wanted me to be a yipping puppet she didn't need to care for but was perfectly loyal."

The Binturong nodded. "Consider the following. The assignment of the words red, blue and green have no basis in science. It is not like the light makes said noise or etches out the words. We call them that entirely due to social consensus. -A mother loving her child meanwhile is backed up by billions of years of evolution. It is one of the most driving factors in the survival of our specieses. It is literally encoded, hardwired, those who failed at it were logically weeded out by natural selection. It is as far from a social construct as you can get. A mother loves her child…"

"-Well 'mine' didn't love me."

"And I am so sorry about that," Dr Lupuleli said. "But if you couldn't let go of the blue-green thing, with no basis in reality, no effect on you…"

"I…" Skye's ears went back, the vixen turning to the ground. She snorted. "I don't have a chance of letting go of her, do I?"

"She was supposed to love you. Care for you. You were supposed to see her as a beacon of safety to run to. It is the most basic thing, maybe even the first thing, your body and mind comprehended. But two and two added up to five and the sky was green. You were able to accept that, move on from that, build a healthy and successful life. But now that there's no chance, none at all, that she could ever fix it… -Two and two added up to five and will now do so forever more. And of course you can't let that go. Is that stupid?"

Skye slowly shook her head, reaching over and grabbing a tissue from the binturong's tail and dabbing her eye. "-I… -I didn't want her to come back, help me, be a super mother…"

"But if she had?"

"I wouldn't have trusted her."

"If she'd have raised other kits, proven it…"

"I'd have told her that it didn't make up for what she did to me."

Amy nodded. "And I understand that. That's a valid reaction. Sometimes forgiveness can't be earned, sometimes the hill is too hard to climb. And you are an intelligent, mature, reasonably well adjusted mammal. But the person who birthed you and failed to love you died. You saw her body. Of course she'll steal your headspace. And it'll be like learning to love your real mother. There won't be a flip of the switch or anything between you thinking about her and not…" She shrugged.

"Like when green becomes purple."

The binturong quirked her head, only to snort out a laugh as she saw the smirk on Skye's face. "Well done."

"You deserved it."

She smirked. "I did."

"And I don't have to overthink and call myself stupid for falling into that trap now that I got my own back," Skye said.

"Dear, I have a doctorate. If I didn't get you in my trap, you'd be asking for a refund."

Skye bellowed out a snort of a laugh, leaning over and chuckling before settling back. "I… I thanks. Thanks," she said.

Amy nodded. "It's what I do. Is there… anything else you want to discuss?"

Skye looked at her. "Like…"

"Like how the fact she died ostensibly trying to rescue a bunch of tortured children makes you feel?"

"She wanted to be a big hero or something, do the easy thing," the vixen said. "Instead…" She trailed off.

For a second or two the office was filled with silence, Amy looking on as the fox's ears pulled back, her muzzle twitching a little.

"I know how she must have felt," she finally said. "I… I had an incident too, when I thought I was going to die due to my own mistake. And it was just me waiting for it to come. She must have felt the same way, just more and more mammals piling in, crushing… Realising she'd breathed out, couldn't breath in again… Feeling more and more light headed, grey coming in around the outside of her eyes, the light dying out. Not even able to scream." She shrugged. "Did she regret it? Did she just want to shout and hurt more? -Did she think of me?" She wiped her eyes, drying the tears. "Was she just terrified?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'm just curious."

"Can you blame yourself?"

"No," she said, looking up. "I don't think I can."

A short while later she left the office, pausing to text to Jack. 'It went okay.' To Nick. 'Thanks.' And, pushing her pawpad to a contact, she held the phone up to her ear, eyes misting a little as she sat down. "Hey Mum…"

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"If it's any consolation, our correct prediction that something was coming up has increased our enquiry retention rate by eighty-percent."

Retsuko looked blankly at the fennec vixen. "I don't think that's something to be proud of."

"What?" Fenneko asked, tapping a few more times on her phone before setting it down.

"You know," Finnick spoke from beside her. "She's just jealous that we predicted this whole conspiracy anti-cop whatcha call it before it was cool."

"No, I…" The red panda fumbled but it was Haida beside her that spoke.

"I don't think it's the prediction or anything that she's upset about," he said. "It's the profiting from tragedy bit…"

"Ah," Finnick nodded. "You're in it for the honour."

"-Y-yeah. It's not honourable. It's the opposite of that. It's being a heartless jerk."

"Honour goes a long way," the male fennec nodded.

"Doesn't pay the bills though," his female counterpart said.

"True dat."

"I… I just think it'd be a bad idea to go rubbing salt in the wounds," Restuko explained on.

"That's why we're running a multi-faceted, focus tested, demographic targeted social media marketing and relations strategy," the vixen said.

The red panda and hyena looked at each other before turning to Finnick. "English please."

"Okay, we do the 'this was a tragedy, we wish our prediction could have actually helped to avoid this' to the sterile corporate folk. We do 'ha, we were clever like you and not those dumb cusses' to the smug fellas who are probably happy that so many of those idiots died that night. And, for those who just hate the cops and are kinda sad this turned out to be fake, or didn't do that much damage anyhow…" He tapped through his phone and turned it to the pair, revealing a captioned image of a melanistic cougar villain from a popular TV show.

"You hated the cops as you were led to believe they were implicit in mass kit abuse," Retsuko read. "I hate the cops as critical theory proves the institution of policing is inherently anti-predator."

"-We are not the same," Haida finished off.

"From Mr Fang himself," the fennec smiled, banging the table and giving a wink.

Retsuko and Haida looked at each other before staring back at the pair in front of them. "You really are that unscrupulous."

"-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…" "-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…"

"Oh god," the hyena muttered.

Finnick cut off his laughter. "Stereo baby."

"Speaking of such," Fenneko said. "Want to start the process of upgrading to surround sound tonight?"

"Isn't tonight when you know who is coming in for their appointment with their professional hunter and huntress?" Finnick snickered.

"-Consider it paid foreplay."

"Nice…"

"You two," Haida said, pausing as their food arrived. "-Really know how to lower the class of anything, don't you?"

"What she can give, she can also take away," Finnick smiled, giving a knowing look at the fennec vixen.

She just gave a wink in return as their food arrived, the two beginning to tuck in eagerly. Haida and Retsuko were slower, messing around with their cutlery before taking two smaller bites.

"-Good job at rescuing that family by the way…"

"-Huh?"

Finnick swallowed down, staring at Haida. "Helping to protect that family or whatever? Good job hero." He then took another bite, chewing away.

The hyena relaxed a little, smiling. "Well, I guess it's when you come to it you come to it. No point training to be a hero and when the time comes not-being one, I guess."

Retsuko nodded, leaning over and rubbing her paw over his arm. "Yeah, I… Well done there." She smiled. "Good to know you got it out of your system."

…

"What do you mean, got it out my system?"

The red panda blinked. "I mean, now that you've shown you can…"

"It's not like it's a kind of one time thing," Haida said. "I mean, in that case wouldn't I be done after the battle in the forest?"

"Advantage, yeen," Fenneko called.

"-Yeah, but… -You were almost crushed by excavators. The family is safe now. We're done, aren't we?"

"Deuce," the vixen said.

Haida gave her a look before turning back to Retsuko. "But… -Well, what about next time?"

"There's… There's not going to be one, isn't there?" she said. "I mean, wasn't the riot the whole thing he had planned? That was it, that was everything. Right?" She turned to the fennecs.

"No evidence of anything else going on with a directed purpose," the fennec vixen said. "Just echoes and reactionaries on both sides throwing shade at the other side. -Ooooh, new bad Kabae take."

The red panda face-pawed. "Not another…"

"Oooh, oohhh, lemme see," Finnick said, nudging himself over before bursting out into laughter.

Retsuko and Haida looked on almost wearily as the phone was turned to face them. It was an (o)X post by Kabae, with a little lamb girl looking up into the corner, hooflet by the side of her head and a curious, questioning expression on her face. Below that read the words: 'Why would they steal kits for meat and risk the revolution, when they can discredit the revolution and use them to make plenty of meat?'

"She's still a friend right?" the hyena asked.

"I think?"

"-But wait," Finnick said, as Fenneko took over.

"There's more." She turned her screen around to reveal a cutaway of a street sweeper, modified with meat and dirt separators, part filters (big chunks one way, blended stuff the other), bone removers, automated patty formers and a storage system in the back.

Haida gave a long look at it before throwing his arms out. "Why would they think the evil pred elites would do all that just to eat pulped meat scraped off the floor?"

"Pred identifying prey as well," Fenneko said, pulling the phone away. "Predation is a concept, not a race."

Retsuko and Haida just facepawed, the two fennecs giggling along before turning back to their food. The larger mammals though looked at their meals slightly less eagerly, Retsuko eventually starting to eat, Haida just fiddling with his plate.

"Haida?"

"Hmmmm…"

"Still thinking?"

He sighed. "How do we know that all that isn't going to build up into round two. -Rattigan isn't finished. Even if, according to what I've been told, what he caught was a dud… -Which kind of makes me wonder what the point of all this actually was. -He still wants some stuff, he isn't done. He's keeping Dr Silverfox, who's to say he won't go after us? Again?"

"Why would he want to go after us. What can we give?"

"The satisfaction of taking down someone who defied him," Haida suggested.

"So you…"

"I…" His face slowly morphed into a horrid expression for a second before he shook it away. "Skye… -She said that she got involved in a lot of stuff that she didn't want to get involved in. But she found out she was already in the game. It didn't change anything, she was caught up. And so even if she didn't like it, better to be a player than a piece."

"And how would you be a player?"

"I…" He shrugged.

"-You could join us?" Fenneko suggested, both fennecs then repeating. "Join us. Join us."

"Yeah, just for that, no."

"But it's not like you can just carry around wandering around expecting a fight to start and jump in," Retsuko countered.

"Well what do you suggest?" He asked. "Just, standing around, not doing anything? People died because of him. Mammals we know lost family because of him. I… -Okay, it's complicated, but if it weren't for him someone I know would still be alive. We can't just do nothing. If people do nothing, what happens? The bad guy wins. If good people were all willing to do something…"

"-They were," she said. "They all marched out to that plaza to save a bunch of kits and two-hundred of them died to give Rattigan exactly what he wanted."

"I… -I'm not like them," Haida said, throwing his paws at himself.

"I don't think I am," the red panda nodded. "But you don't know until… -What if you'd known nothing about what was going on. What if you were just a normal mammal, you saw all that go up, and saw the mob going past ready to be a hero? -Haida, I… -I don't want to think what would have happened if you were there."

His expression dropped. "I'm… I'm not like…"

"-Realistically," Fenneko began. "I think the people who make fun of those who were at the riot should at least accept that the entire philosophical and cultural zeitgeist of heroism and righteousness engineered and created by the thinkers and influencers of their political inclination for the last sixty-seventy years, since seeing the horrors a breed of authoritarian rule can create and vowing to do everything they can to prevent it coming about again, has been about the distrust of authority and power and the ability of the united underdogs of questioning, independent, aware people to rise up and overthrow it in a collective messianic revolution."

A few seconds later she gave a glance at Finnick who translated. "This is the side that wrote 'The Hungry Games' and stuff, and wants all these plucky heroines and heroes to rise up and topple the evil government. They wanted that kinda story, taught everyone it was how it was, then act all scared and confused and superior when the people they hate decided to follow their instructions."

"Wait," Fenneko mocked. "That's not how you're meant to play the game."

Haida nodded, only to sigh. "But… -Okay, mammals were tricked, their good intentions used against them… But we shouldn't just abandon our good intentions, should it? If we're all too scared to do good, if we abandon that…" He shook his head. "Where does that leave us? Doesn't that mean the bad guys win by default?"

Retsuko nodded. "I… I get that. I think. But we're not cops, or super heroes, or whatever. We're civilians. We deal with accounts. We target tax fraud for a bonus when we report them, so we're…"

"-Snitches?" Finnick asked.

"-Financial bounty hunters," Retsuko said back, pausing to think.

"So what can we do?" Haida asked.

"Tackle insurance fraud…"

He looked down, chuckling a little. "Good one."

"No, I'm serious."

"Huh?"

Retusko turned to him. "Lots of the stuff they looted was in Tundratown right? Owned by polar bears."

"...An inside job?"

"An insurance job," she explained on. "If they owned the jewellers, during the chaos they can just hide the gold, pretend it was stolen, get the insurance money and then just pawn off their hidden goods."

"-It's more than that," Haida said, clicking his fingers. "There was one store I looked at a while back, selling this seriously overpriced art. Turns out they pay crazy rents and stuff. We thought it was money laundering for the mob, which we broke down… -Anyway, I think I saw that the place was burned down during the riots."

"Punching an artist after they lost everything," Fenneko noted. "How charitable."

"Except it was crap," Haida said. "I mean, the whole place was pointless after we busted Big, no mobsters bringing in the bucks to pay crazy amounts for cheap baskets, to fund a giant rent payment back to the boss. Even if they had zero rent, they weren't gonna pay the bills that way. But as long as their art was still listed as super valuable, smash it all up and claim the insurance…"

"It could have gone on tens, hundreds of times," Retsuko continued. "That's how he pays all his soldiers and troops, without paying his soldiers and troops!"

"And if we want to hurt the ones going out stealing, smashing, kitnapping and darting mammals!" Haida continued.

They looked at each other, high-pawing. "Yeah," Haida said, digging back into his food. "Let's do this. Let's take out the trash."

Finnick just sat back, looking over at Fenneko. "You know, if I were a slightly Big adjacent legitimate business mammal who'd had his business and everything he cared for burned down and destroyed, and suddenly I'm facing getting rutted over by two pencil pushers who wanna score points. I… -Cuss it, different story I guess. Screw that Finn, I got my own." And with that, the pair dug in.

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The air was quiet in Bunnyburrow.

Judy, head bowed and black robe wrapped around her body, stood on silently as the weeping bunnies in front of her buried what they could.

Returning Devan to the fields.

Even if all they could find of him were the odd scraps of fur and a few fur clippings swept from his bed. His parents held each other, sobbing uncontrollably as the meagre scraps were placed into the dug out grave, a vast chasm in comparison.

It didn't matter if they hadn't found anything of him. He was still a full grown Hopps buck. He'd be buried as such.

What there was was lost as it settled in the rough floor, and soon slowly buried as the bunnies lined up. A pawful of dirt each from the pile, they dropped it in, slowly building up the covering. Getting in line, Judy followed on, paw down and grabbing and then dropping it in.

She circled back down to her seat and wiped the tears away from her eye with her clean paw. By the end, all members of the wider family had done their part, most of the grave filled up. They began leaving for the wake, only for Judy to stay where she was.

A few minutes passed and she walked forward, back to the grave-site. It was up to those closest to the deceased to fill in the remainder of the grave: Devan's parents, her parents, his littermates. She walked over and, for lack of a spare shovel, grabbed a clod of earth with both her paws and carried it over, dropping it down and in.

Back to the pile, she grabbed another, walking over and heaving it in and…

"-Jude?"

She turned over to see her father, standing there.

"I want to…" She began.

"Please, you did more than enough already."

She turned down to the mostly-filled pit, remembering just how little there was underneath there. "No, I…"

"-Jude," he insisted. "Please, just… -come with me for a second."

She silently obliged, leaving the rest of the family to do their duty without her. "-I…"

"I saw one or two pictures, I…" he began, fumbling his words a little. "Sweet cheese Judy, none of us could ever imagine something like that happening. And you were there when it all went down, I… -We're all more than grateful that you even tried to find what happened to him."

"But I didn't," she said, "I…"

She was cut off, a finger on her mouth. "Judy Hopps, I suppose when you get something into your head, you just can't get it out, can you?"

Looking down, she sighed. "No, I can't."

He nodded. "I'm not gonna stop you from helping out, though I will insist you go over to the barn and grab a shovel for it."

She almost pointed out they'd be done by then, but chose better of it.

"Do it because you want to," he said, sniffing as he wiped a tear away. "Do it for your cousin, who heard the piper's call and followed on. But not because you failed to get him back, understand?"

She slowly nodded, jerking as he took her into a tight hug. Slowly, she leant forward and held him back, tight.

By the time they let go, so much of the job was done even she felt it was pointless. Instead, she offered to take the shovels back herself, taking the burden from those grieving.

With that she left the field, contemplating all that had happened.

He wouldn't spend the rest of days under the farm fields, nourishing and growing that which had nourished and grown him. He'd been washed to sea in a mix of a hundred others and stark, sterile chemicals. He'd been digested by acid and processed out through the sewer system. He'd been rendered and removed, his empty burrow and tunnels to remain without life forever more, his chronicles and writings to remain unfinished.

He'd gone to Zootopia to be part of the revolution.

To be the hero.

To follow Rattigan, who to him was the greatest mammal who'd ever lived.

To Rattigan though, he was a nothing.

But he wasn't. Nobody was. And the bunny swore that, in Devan's name, Rattigan would be captured, prosecuted, imprisoned and reduced to one too.

.

.

Bogo stared on implacably, a pair of bloodshot eyes looking back. Intubated, bandaged, oxygen tubes through his nose and bandages covering most of what had once been his fur.

Officer Wolford slowly wrote down on a small whiteboard, showing it up to him. "So it was all for nothing?"

"They got lucky," was all he could say. "You did your duty."

The wolf wiped the board clean, writing out once more. "So that's it, huh?"

"No," the buffalo spoke. "From our intel, it may seem like he won the war, but he lost what was to him the most important battle. He's emotional, we think he's turned on his allies, he's more desperate than ever, he…"

Bogo paused, watching as the wolf wrote down something new. "You're going to wait until he starts monologuing and then capture him, huh?"

"Everyone underestimated him before and he hit us with everything we got. Now he's got a fraction of his power, and everyone is thirsty for revenge. We will avenge them. Everyone!"

The wolf let out a sigh, writing down something new. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Then let me assure you, we will do our upmost to rebuild your faith in the ZPD." Standing up, he gave a sharp salute to the injured officer. Wolford strained to give a nod in return, the Chief leaving him be. He stepped out of the room, only to pause as he saw a doctor and a female wolf waiting outside.

"Oh, uh," the zebra doctor began. "I was just giving an update to Mrs Wolford on her husband's condition."

"Shall I?" Bogo began, looking at her.

"Carry on," she said to the black and white striped mare, who did just that.

"While widespread across his body, the damage is surface level. Mostly. Damage to the lungs and trachea is notable, but we believe with a course of rest and treatment it will heal itself over the course of a year maximum. The same can be said for the skin damage. He's passed the most dangerous threat, simple poisoning, though for the next few weeks there is still a heightened risk of infection. We're not starting him on pre-emptive antibiotics yet, but are keeping an incredibly close eye so at the first sign we can."

"-Will he be able to go back to being a police officer?"

Bogo looked down to see a tweenage torch-key raccoon by Mrs Wolford's side, one of the pair's adopted sons. He wasn't sure who exactly the question was aimed at, so covered his side at the least. "We'll make sure there's a position open for him. We can find one."

"-I don't think he'd like working in records."

This time Bogo let the zebra next to him answer. "Getting up to peak fitness will take longer, and there is a fair chance that a permanent, if small, hit on his fitness and stamina will occur. Shortness of breath, etcetera. -And of course after a year of recovery he'll need to train again to get up to a level of physical fitness and strength to even…"

Bogo held a paw out, turning to the two members of the family. "Knowing your husband, it was the mechanics of the beat he enjoyed. Even passing up chances to rise higher up the command chain. -An assessment I agreed with. That was where his strength was. -There are plenty of positions and locations we can assign that would still let him make the most of his skills."

"That is appreciated," Mrs Wolford said, nodding. "And what about the mammals responsible for this. Any leads?"

"Not that I can discuss with you Ma'am, apart from the fact that a new asset has got in contact with interpol. One who claims to have tried to investigate a warehouse where the rat was fielding much of his logistical operation, only to find it torched when he arrived. -Something we confirmed upon finding it."

She nodded. "So no leads then."

The cape buffalo sighed. "We're still picking up the pieces or wreckage at the moment. We're down many mammals, vastly outstretched, all community, outreach and white collar divisions have practically been paused indefinitely as we pursue damage control. But we have captured a number of his foot soldiers, we have new intel, and as we start to sift and look through…"

"He may have already gone on," she said.

"We have intelligence to suggest otherwise."

"Do you now?"

Bogo looked at her before his eyes narrowed. "Even if I was at liberty to disclose such information, I'm not sure what you would be able to do with it. Not unless certain ludicrous conspiracy theories about your nighttime activities turned out to be true."

She raised an eyebrow. "You know, I heard that while I was in the ZNN building trying to get the new messages out, there were reports of a wolf clad in dark flames wandering about the city, keeping peace and order."

Bogo gave a slight harumph. "I'm certain we've only just seen the start of rumours of what went on during that night. Don't worry though, I am certain now more than ever mammals won't call us out for protecting you against the crazies."

"It's appreciated," she smiled. "Though I assure you, it would be the crazies that need protection from me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to see my husband."

Bogo nodded, gesturing her in.

And with that, he carried down the wards, looking at the fallen as he went. He'd already seen those others who'd been on the convoy operation. They'd had it the worst. But there were others too. Looking into another room, he saw a room full of rats attending to a hyena officer, her head wrapped around with bandages. Confusing familial relationships aside, he'd heard she was one of the mammals sent to the attempted swap for Wilde. When that had failed, they hadn't received orders to move, and then found themselves and their equipment stranded on the islands when a hack by Rattigan had closed the swing bridge.

It didn't matter that the Rainforest had basically lost all of its riot control equipment then and there, when the armies of rioters had spilled out of the Sakhin Community Ziggurats and swamped the nearby Precincts, she and numerous other officers had swam the channel and tried to join the lines on foot, lest the entire district go up in flames.

She'd ended up taking a rock to the head from a biker wolf.

Next door was an arctic fox, her partner, muzzle stained with chocolate pudding as he muzzle-timed his family or something. Same fate, though he'd gotten off somewhat lighter. It seemed he was going to be discharged soon, so he was thankful for that.

Speaking of discharges…

He looked up to see Detective Oates walking towards him, Basil and Dave on his shoulder. The smaller pair had only suffered minor injuries and been discharged quickly. Oates though had been in to ensure that no permanent eye damage had been done. Cleared today, he was on his way out.

He froze as he saw Bogo in front of him, hoof coming up in salute. Something the buffalo matched. And then, reaching around his neck, he pulled off his badge, offering it to him.

"Oates?" the Chief asked, voice neutrally gruff as ever.

"Sir, not only did I fail to apprehend our suspect, ergo invalidating the sacrifice of other brother officers in the convoy. I… -I am personally responsible for the riot and devastation that followed. It was my phone, and the VPN system, that…"

Bogo grabbed his badge, thrust it back in his chest, and blew air through his nostrils. "And I gave the performance of a lifetime in front of that webcam camera. I don't care. I assume your obligatory honour test is complete now, and you're willing to come back and carry on at your job."

Smiling, the horse pulled his badge back and nodded. "Yeah, I think I am."

The two mice nodded along.

"Good," Bogo said. "We have a rat to catch, and I want everyone we have at paw to do it."

.

.

Carmelita looked out over the devastation.

Sure, she'd heard of the horror stories in the Rainforest District, but actually seeing it in the fur?

The Sakhin Ziggurats at some time… -Might have looked pleasant. She wasn't sure. All she could say was at one time, the mammals who'd designed this had one great big circle-preen with the ones who'd designed the many banlieue she was personally familiar with back in her country of residence. Either that or they had chosen to one-up their european counterparts.

The buildings were tall, squat, built out of ugly greyed concrete panels with visible seams running where they'd been slotted together. She couldn't even say they had the grace of the Mayan and Aztgat ruins she guessed they were inspired by. Rather than elegant or neat pyramids or stepped valleys, crisscrossed with the odd clear bridge or surrounding a nice symmetrical pool, it seemed like the architects had gone around to try and break any semblance of order apart, as if the idea that their product might reflect something proud and dignified was antithetical to their whole philosophy. Going up the steps of the pyramids, random towers sprouted up here and there, a few units would step out rather than stepping in as they went up, overhangs or offsets were placed… -She couldn't even figure out why. It just meant what could have been a nice looking square or avenue was instead a mish-mashed hard to police string of oddly unsatisfying spaces, bordered by repetitive flat grey walls.

One or two odd panels here and there had been moulded with intricate patterns or such, but it was if it was a tease for what could have been.

But she figured there had been a saving grace once. Baskets and growing vines, covering the concrete with leaves and moss, as if the intent had once just been to create a blank slate for the artificial flora to paint into something mystic, calming, even intriguing… A true lost temple in the jungle.

The jungle now slashed and burned, the curtain shredded and the emperor shown naked and bare.

They'd ripped off everything, an orge of destruction that had torn apart anything beautiful and good that they had, and then everything else for good measure. In between the sucker-marks where Ivy had once been were smashed up windows, ripped apart door shutters, scrawls and scrawls of graffiti and the burnt out smoke marks of old flares.

Further down were the remains of vehicles. Civilian or police, it didn't matter, just burnt out husks remained, overturned in the small pools or boxed in ugly attempts at canals.

She sighed, rubbing her head.

All this had been done after they'd got the truth out. Her eyes lingered to the burnt out husk of one small, squat, overpoweringly overshadowed inverted pyramid. The local precinct. -Now she was certain that the mammals who designed this place had not liked authority. The cops had been given a place to work with that was dominated by that which surrounded it, as if to remind the officers that they were enemies in a powerful nation. When they, with many of their most powerful mammals split off and absent, had been assaulted… They didn't stand a chance.

Checking the time and seeing her shift patrolling the area was over, she pulled herself into her cruiser and set off again. Following the route that the rioters had taken after they stormed their bastille, moving on with revolutionary fervour towards Versaille.

Anything along the wide road bore the scars, smashed up and wounded at best, torched out and gone at worst. Upturned cars, newsstands torn into shreds. Pools were still present around every single fire hydrant while, reaching a bridge over to the next neighbourhood, she saw the burnt ruins up ahead. A celebration of redistribution, the lines of brick and timber buildings picked clean, the residents in the streets slowly picking up, sweeping, looking around lost and angry.

As she went, the increasingly dense buildings were less devastated but still showing the scars, the tide mark from the waves that had come in. Those lucky enough to have shutters on their shop doors would be paying to replace them. Those unlucky enough had lost everything within. Any cars parked on the streets hadn't stood a chance, the vixen betting that some mammals had made it their duty to quality control the riot, ensuring no vehicle didn't escape.

And then she saw the proud civil centre at the heart of this area. It almost reminded her of Falling Water in a way, great long horizontal forms and rising towers with great glass windows, all while waterfalls fell from beneath cantilevered spans and collected in pools and rock gardens beneath.

Rock gardens scattered with improvised weapons, crushed riot shields, the decorations and decorative plants torn up and ploughed in from the carnage that had played out on top, the forces trying to keep the army out. Her eyes looked on at the smashed in windows, the soggy masses of thrown out papers, the scorch marks and graffiti. They lowered to the odd police baton sticking out of the ground, a cap or helmet hanging off of them.

The vixen nodded her head, paw up in salute as she carried on.

Moving up into the district.

Past more damage on the ground floor and, looking up, in the canopies too. Torn out branches and damaged rope bridges, the odd ashen scar or broken window in the giant artificial trees.

Eyes back to the road, weaving between the odd burnt out vehicle or passing over the still stamped in tiremark and donut, the devastation suddenly skyrocketed. Burnt out homes, piles of refuse up in a barricade, the bridges up above cut through and hanging in the wind, planks dropped and shattered on the ground.

-And then, it was all normal as she approached the crossroads, Vine and Tujunga to the left, Old Growth City to the right, Cloud Forest up ahead.

That was where they'd held the line.

The tsunami had left its high-tide mark before falling back, the angry mammals returning back to where they'd come from and, seeing everything there bar the police station untouched, chose to render it down to its level. Like an angry kit deciding to tear up their room to prove a point.

The rest of her journey up was spent in quiet, contemplating everything until, finally, arriving at the outside of the temple, high up in the mist and cloud.

Stepping inside the central plaza, pagoda in the centre rising up, she saw that the devastation that had gone on there had been cleaned up. A stark solemn quiet instead filled the air, Carmelita walking on and joining Tigress by a small shrine, incense burning.

The big cat sat in the lotus position, paws clasped together, head bowed.

Carmelita bowed her head with her, slowly moving a paw over to touch Tigress' leg.

She gave a glance over at the smaller mammal, before turning back to the front.

"He died honourably."

"So I have heard," the tiger said.

"He died saving us. All of us. He was a hero."

"-Yeah," a new, loud, voice called, paired with a big, deep sniff. Carmelita looked up and gave a smile as she saw Murray coming over, a…

"-Party poppers?"

"I know he liked fireworks, so these were the best I could get on short notice," he said, pulling one out and tugging at the string. With a sudden pop, a cloud of confetti was scattered out, draping over the shrine and the portrait of Panda King.

Carmelita sniffed in the sulphurous scent of the powder.

"-That was his favourite scent," Tigress said.

"-Yeah," Murray agreed, pausing as he saw Po coming over, a crying Jing next to him.. "-You feeling good? Both of you."

Jing pulled in a sniff, shaking her head, the hippo moving over to hug her along with Po.

"Still rough," Po said, sighing.

"And, uh, your battle injury?" the hippo asked.

"Never better," he said, moving into a very slight action pose. "-Still waiting on the superpowers, but…" He shrugged.

"It doesn't work like that, Master Po," Tigress said.

"I can hope," he said, turning down to the shrine and kneeling. "He… He taught us to hope."

"That he did," Jing cried out in a sob, Po moving over to comfort her.

"He taught us humility," Tigress said, paw slowly moving over to light another stick of incense. She took a breath in and let it out in a long sigh, glancing down at Carmelita. "I am sure, given his past, you would never expect him to be a hero?"

"I guess not," Carmelita said.

"Yet he proved himself. With redemption, with honour, he showed that for love the greatest enemies can become friends. Allies. To strive for good. To save the innocent." She glanced at Jing. "To give a paw out for even the worst."

The female panda nodded, sniffing in before turning to Carmelita. "Did… -Did he regret…"

"No," she said. "He only showed sadness that those who strove the path he once did, could not find the better one he discovered. He lived following his philosophy, staying true to himself…"

"And he died awesome," Po said, holding her. "Not a victim, not a failure, I am sure he died knowing victory. For us."

"For all of us," Carmelita agreed.

Pulling in a sob, Jing turned back to the shrine, Tigress moving over and comforting her.

They stayed like that for a while, soon joined by another mammal, and one non-mammal.

By the time they split off, Jing alone and Po, Tigress, Carmelita and the Cooper gang together, the group were ready to move on.

They met in a small meeting room, sitting down on the varnished timber floor, bowls of soup out in front of them and small pieces of prawn toast, bamboo rolls and other snacks available for them to nibble on.

"What now?" Po asked. "The war is not over."

"No, it's not," Sly said, the panda turning to look at the raccoon. The raccoon looked back, rising up. "I made a promise to a father torn away from his son for the third time. I would rescue him. I would take their family and put it back together again. That's why I joined with The Panda King all those years ago… Even though he helped tear apart mine when I was young. And even if he isn't here today, I, his friends, his students…"

"-Wait, wait, wait…" Po cut in. "You're…"

Sly glanced over, nodding. "I…"

"-YES!"

Sly stepped back, smirking. "You don't…"

"I GET TO JOIN THE COOPER GANG! ISN'T THAT AWESOME!"

"YES IT IS!" Murray agreed, raising up a bowl of prawn crackers like a glass for a toast and downing them all.

"TIGRESS!" Po shouted. "I get to join the Cooper gang, you get to join the Cooper gang…"

"I don't…" she began to say, only for Po to nudge up to her, holding her along.

"The greatest thieves who ever lived. Returned. Stealing only from master criminals, since there is no fun in stealing from regular, ordinary people, who…"

"-Are right by an Interpol super cop," Tigress said, glancing down to a few peking style ostrich ribs, picking them up with her chopsticks.

"Oh, uh… -We weren't talking about anything. And if we were, we are stealing from bad guys."

Carmelita rolled her eyes. "Handling stolen property is a crime," she said, waving a spring roll about. "Though, if you were to always give it back…" She raised an eyebrow, looking over at Sly.

"Not like we've got anywhere to put in now," he shrugged, grabbing a teriyaki chicken wing.

"Or more important things to talk about," Bentley said, turning to Sly.

The raccoon took a bite of his wing and shrugged.

"I suppose," Tigress mused. "If the help is needed to bring in Rattigan and his allies, to end this madness, and restore order. I believe, in Panda King's honour, I must."

"-I… -I mean that's great," Po said, "But it's 'do you want to.' We don't want to peer pressure you or…"

"Am I one to be peer pressured?" she asked, giving a smile.

Po smiled back.

"Well, welcome to the gang," Sly said, wiping one paw with a napkin and leaning over to shake hers, then Po's. He settled back down, taking another bite, only to pause.

"Anything on my face?"

"As I was saying," Bentley carried on. "Any information is of importance. Anything we have learnt about Rattigan, though you have already informed us of all you know." The raccoon nodded, paw and chicken wing leaning down against his bowl as the turtle carried on. "-Same goes to Clockwerk too. We've shared all we know about him that we gleaned while you were gone."

"And very informative," Sly agreed, a slight splashing coming from his bowl.

"Uh-hu."

"And disturbing."

"-And…?"

"-And?" Sly asked, head tilting a bit.

They were silent for a few seconds, the soft sound of sloshing ringing out, all eyes turning to the raccoon.

"-What?"

"Uh Sly," Murray began. "You're food washing."

He paused, looking down, his half-eaten chicken wing clasped in both of his wet and stained paws, half submerged in the soup. He looked up, cocking an eyebrow. "Ever heard of dunking food?"

"With both paws?" the hippo asked.

"Better grip."

"That's… Teriyaki chicken," Tigress said.

"And very nice."

"Dunked in spicy cantonese seafood soup?"

"...-Underrated combination," Sly said, bringing the food up and taking a bite. They watched on as he chewed, Po leaning over, picking up another, dunking it in his soup and taking a bite too.

"-Story checks out."

"See," Sly said, "no problem at all." He dunked his wing, brought it up and chewed the last bits off before tossing the bone. "Now, if you excuse me, just got to clean my paw." And with that he excused himself. "-Oh, and again, welcome to the crew."

Po and Tigress returned their thanks as he left, before turning to the older members. "So, uh…?" the feline began.

""I haven't seen him washing his food like that in years," Murray said, Bentley nodding along.

"I suppose then that is confirmation that something between him and Clockwerk did happen in the past," the vixen said.

"-Wait what?" Po asked.

"He returned to the present in something that was clearly Clockwerk technology," Bentley explained, pulling his glasses off and giving them a wipe. "We know our mutual fiend existed far before that as well… Something went on between them. Maybe a battle, a theft, something more or less… -Though given Sly's reaction… It's something he does not want to talk about. And I don't think we can make him."

"What if it is critical?" Carmelita asked.

"I know him," Bentley countered. "Pushing is unlikely to help, he'll say when he's ready."

"And what if that's too late?" she asked.

The turtle shrugged. "Then I'll hope the odds are in our favour."

.

.

.

Far below them, Rattigan studied his maps and his contact details.

"I don't like this," she said.

He glanced over at her. "If we are to achieve what we want, it is the only way. I know what I saw and heard, this is the place. And The General is more than ready to play his part."

She nodded, glancing over to the cells. Their former allies, too untrustworthy to be released until it was done. The captured professor. Who would have a use when they returned with what they wanted, to decode and assist. Not that he was going to. Yet. That would be her job, to make him act. And she knew how to. Kits made it all too easy, and there were plenty of ways to get to them.

Rattigan though…

He studied them, then turned to his maps and data once again.

Those pests should not be able to guess where they were going next. A little holiday down south of the border. Then again, with those filthy mice back in the game, and none other than Sly cussin' Cooper on their side…

He couldn't be certain.

After all, that was why he was going in with guns. From the start. And he would and The General would be more than willing to use them, should that damn raccoon or any of their pests show up to interrupt them.

Indeed, maybe it was just a teensy bit of cockiness, but if they were to be the ones to truly rid the criminal world of the scourge of the Cooper's…

He was looking forward to being the one to pull the trigger.