A Zootopia to Remember

Judy and Nick bantered back and forth as they slowly approached their apartment building.

Judy stopped and cocked her head slightly to the side, her ears stood up as she contemplated the apartment before her. "Hey Slick?"

Nick stopped and turned around, his ever present smirk still on his face "What you thinking about, Fluff?"

Judy taps her lips with a paw digit "I was thinking, we should probably look to get a house in an out of the way place so avoid attention."

Nick frowns a bit then nods slowly "Yea. I see your point. Being in the center of, well, everywhere, we'll eventually get unwanted attention. Being somewhere in the rural area or on a less populated area may… wait… wait wait wait."

Nick starts to walk back and forth thinking feverishly "No, what if we do the opposite? Lay in plain sight but where they would least expect a fox and bunny, especially cops, to be housed?"

Judy looks up in confusion "I think I lost you slick."

Nick grins, truly smug this time "We live in a penthouse."

Judy gasps "Are you out of your carrot picking mind? How can we afford…" Judy stops and stares at Nick, her mind going a mile a minute then blinks her eyes and gets a wide look "We're going to be stupid rich."

Nick slowly nods his head, still grinning smugly "We're going to be stupid rich."

Judy starts to hop up and down holding her paws together "We're going to be stupid rich!" and does a binky.

Nick grins "Some bunny's happy."

Judy lands and elbows Nick in the gut hearing the satisfied 'oof' "Yu-p!" popping her P at the end.

Judy grabs Nick's paw and pulls him into the apartment "Come on slick, I want to start looking at pent houses now so we can get one that matches our needs!"

Nick's arm slips out of Judy's paw as the door closes and Judy absently runs into something in the middle of the floor "What the heck?"

Judy glances up, especially over Nick's muttered "Well… crap…" behind her. Judy's eyes land on the small fennec fox sitting on a chair, in the middle of the entry way, with a bat in his crossed arms and glaring for all he was worth.

Finnick in his rough voice growls "Yea, Nick…. Crap. What is the crap with the bunny cop? What's the crap with what I saw last week with you being all twitterpated over a bunny? Why are you both acting like you've been lovers all your life and…" Finnick twitches as he scents both Nick and Judy ".. and what the hell Wilde, you mated the bunny?"

While Judy mutters about carrot picking foxes and their carrot picking sense of smell, Nick rubs his head with a paw and looks over to Finnick "Fin, want a beer? And get comfortable on the couch. We have a long story to tell you, you won't believe it, but you will when you're done. Also grab the waste basket beside you. I expect before the evening is out you'll vomit in it at least 3 times."

Finnick scoffs then swallows what he is about to say. The bunny and Nick have the same expression on their faces. They're not joking, and their eyes. Holy karma, their eyes. What the hell happened to Nick? What the hell happened to the bunny… no… wait… Hopps… that was her name wasn't it? Hopps. Yea, those eyes deserve a name.

Finnick, not taking his eyes off either Nick or Judy, slowly gets off the chair, places the bat gently beside the couch and sits down, eyes still a bit wider than normal, and puts the waste basket beside him.

Finnick looked at Nick and sighs "I'm going to hate this, aren't I."

Nick continues to rub his head and to Finnick's surprise it's Judy who answers "You won't be happy, but you need to know. We'll need you to help us."

Finnick lifts an ear up in question "Help you with what?"

Nick finally answers with a deep sigh "With everything."

Finnick raises both ears in question "What's at stake?"

Judy replies with the same deep sigh "… everything."

Finnick looks down at his paws, clenching tightly and says lowly, still looking down "Nick, I'll have that beer. I think we need to talk."

Nick and Judy sit down on the couch beside Finnick, both with sad, weary eyes. Eyes that saw too much. Eyes that have yet to see it all again.

Judy looks to Nick and is about to talk when Nick's paw gently covers Judy's lips "No sweetheart. I need to do this. You can add in what I miss or forget, but I need to do this."

Judy, ears starting to fill with tears, gently nods her head "OK, Nick."

Nick sighs "Finnick, it all started 30 years from now, right before I came back in time, from a world that was ending. And I did it all for a bunny."

Judy smiles sadly, holding Nick's paw.

Finnick's eyes grow wide as Nick continues "So, the story begins-"

Stu Hopps was rubbing his head in his office. The planning was going slower than he wanted. He and Bonnie called in an all Hopps Black Carrot meeting for the family, and it took several days before everyone was on the farm. They managed to get over 90% of the family. Over 1000 bunnies.

Stu continued to enter data into the computer, gathering thoughts when a knock on the door startled him. Stu glanced back to the door "Come on in, Bon-bun."

The door opened, revealing not Bonnie, but Pop Pop who ambled in and sit in the chair right in-front of Stu.

Stu shifted back and forth, already nervous. The look Pops was giving him was uncanny. Almost like he was seeing through him.

Stu opened his mouth but was interrupted by Pops "Stop. Just stop. What you are about to stay. Don't. I'm here to talk. You're here to listen. And before I leave we both may have learned something."

Stu, his jaw dropping slightly sits back with a gust of air leaving his chest as Pops straightens up and smiles. An honest to god smile from Pop Pop. The world is ending. Stu knew this day would come.

Pop spoke up, surprising Stu again. Pop never started conversations.

Pop sounded far more gentle than normal "You know, Nick Wilde? Damn good mammal."

Stu blinked, the world was ending. Pop just complimented a fox. And he didn't mangle his name like he did everyone else. Pop was serious.

Pop grins, showing a few teeth "You weren't the only one who took that alpha product of Nick's. Nick can't hold his liquor worth crap to my moonshine, but don't go bragging about that Stu. You were not that far behind him."

Stu blinks large eyes to Pops as the old bunny started to cackle. Stu shook his head then stared incredulously toward Pops "You got the alpha product as well?"

Pops gently laid a hand on Stu's arm "We're a family, and we'll beat the world into submission together. That fox had a damn fine plan. Do you know why I say foxes are red like the devil?"

Stu was about to speak up but Pop's interrupted him "When I fought in the war, we had an infiltration squad. They were called 'The Red Devils'. They were called that because they would always win, regardless of the situation. They would always come back. They would always get their targets. Every. Single. Time."

Pops rubbed his head with a paw "Until one day they didn't. They had an impossible task. Rescue an impossible person of importance."

Pops banged his hand on the desk "Damn waste, the entire thing. But you know what? They still saved the person. Brought the person back. They did a bait and switch, locked the person in a safe of all things, then killed damn near every person who kidnapped them."

Pops spat on the floor, a disgusting habit, one he himself discouraged, which shows how much emotion the memory brought.

Pops growled "Was an inside job. Our commander set up the foxes for failure. Yea, the Red Devils? An entire fox team. Best mammals I've ever had the pleasure to know. Damn fine. Especially their commander. Phillip Wilde. Yea. The same Wildes. Would have been Nick's grandfather. Hell of a drinker. Hell of a poker player. Best friend I ever had."

Pops leaned back and looked up at the ceiling "The damn-est thing of it? Phillip knew it was a setup. He handed me the documents that proved it. And he and the Red Devils went anyway. Know why?"

Stu wide eyed just shook his head back and forth slowly.

Pops banged his hand on the desk again "Because they said, to the mammal, that the one they saved was innocent. Despite it being a setup from a speciest piece of filth who wanted to kill the foxes. Despite it being a death trap. Despite it being impossible. Damn me if the Red Devils didn't make it happen anyway. And they may have all died, but they still pulled the miracle. And the documentation made their commanding officer arrested and tried for treason. He was shot the next day."

Stu blinked "Who… who was…"

Pops shrugged "A rabbit officer by the name of Leaperson."

Stu looked at Pops "Leapersons… aren't they the burrow wardens who are across Bunny Burrow?"

Pops nods his head "And speciest wastes of flesh, down to the last one. They're going to be a problem for us in the future."

Stu puts his paws on the table and takes a breath "So… Pops what does this mean for us?"

Pops leans back, pops a cigar in his mouth and lights up "It means, we need to get that fox onboard with our plans, let him know what we plan, get Trudy's and Flicks thoughts and then win the war."

Stu nods slowly, relaxing since Pop was mangling names it was going to be a more relax conversation moving forward "So I was right, we're at war."

Pops looks back, a flint-eyed look "And this time we won't lose any damn foxes."

She picked up the phone after the third ring, and listened in "Yes, did you hit the target? How did it work against the Otter?" she listened for a while interrupting occasionally "Yes." she nodded her head "Yes." then started to smile a truly evil smile "Good. I'll give you the list of targets for later."

She almost put the phone down to hang up, then placed the phone next to her ear "Doug? Have you heard of a fox called Nick Wilde? No? Well, do some research. He and that bunny saw Lionheart today and I don't like surprises. You will? Good. Let me know."

Dawn Bellwether put the phone back down after hanging up and leaned back in her chair. No, she didn't like surprises at all. And having Hopps so chummy with a fox was a surprise. One that went against her plans. It would be a shame, she liked Judy and she thought she could manipulate that naive little bunny for her needs. But that fox was bad business. He saw instantly through Dawn's carefully constructed facade, and he apparently let Judy know as well. She was far more glib around her than normal, far more… cautious. No. This would not do at all.

She'd find out more about that fox. And if the fox got in her way, well, she could always use a new rug.