A/N -

Hello my dear readers. My muse has on occasion been described as being a cactus. The Dark Ends definitely support that claim.

Each, Dark End, is independent and not related to the others unless otherwise noted.

I do not own Zootopia, and can therefore make no claims to Zootopia or its characters. I only make claim to my own OC's included herein as needed.

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Dark Ends - 1

Judy Hopps. First Rabbit in the ZPD, valedictorian of her class. Youngest, and smallest mammal ever promoted to detective. She stood there, late in the afternoon, rain running off her ears as she stared at the casket of her partner, Nicholas Piberius Wilde. First fox in the ZPD, valedictorian of his own class, earliest promotion to detective at the same time she earned youngest.

Nick had been many things. Her best friend. Her partner. A con mammal, and at the end, an undeniable hero to the entire city. It was pouring rain, so you couldn't see her tears, but they were there, and were plentiful. With her gray fur, you could barely see her if it weren't for the blue uniform.

At the end, he apologized to her, gave her a toe curling, fur straightening, kiss, in front of hundreds of mammals and the press, and then done what was needed before she could. Nick had been many things, and her mate, in secret, had been one of those things. The city had grown, but interspecies relationships were not just taboo, they were still very illegal.

Thanks to that kiss, on camera, and him literally sacrificing his life for the city and mammals that would have otherwise happily kicked him while he was down for being a fox, there was a lot of legislation now before the city council to fix some of the systemic wrongs in the city. Laws that deliberately targeted foxes and others like them would be revoked. Due to her grief stricken candid confessions to the media, the laws about interspecies relationships were being reviewed. Judy didn't have a lot of hope there, though maybe they'd just revoke the illegal, put you in jail, part of the law.

Now, her partner, her mate, had been laid to rest. And Judy felt herself unable to do anything but hurt. He always teased her that she was part fox with the way she acted, her love of shrimp, and of him. She could feel it, and knew this would just be one more reason to tease her.

Taking off her badge, she looked at it, the black band across it. Without him, it was just a piece of metal. Using the pin on the back, she stabbed her paw, and then placed it over his name. "In this life, and the next. Right Slick?" They had talked about it. They knew what was going to happen. Rabbits are a lot more like foxes than mammals know. They may play the field when dating, but they are looking for that one mammal that they truly click with, and once they find the one, that's it. "You were my one."

Looking down again at his casket. It was simple, but far better than most foxes got. "I only wish we could have kept one of our kits. But the laws as they were, we couldn't. We'd have ended up in jail for the rest of our lives, separated but made so we could see each other. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Then any kits. They would have just been put down. The law is madness and born of such barbaric idiocy… It's why I finally got myself fixed."

She paused to get her sobs under control. " This city never deserved you, slick. They never deserved me either. I wanted to make the world a better place, and I suppose we did, at least a little bit, as a team. Anyway. I guess I'll see you soon, my love. I'm not going to have them find my decomposing body because I don't show up for work tomorrow. Not that they'll be looking. Mike will see my resignation on his desk when he gets in, in the morning."

Placing her badge on the top of his gravestone, she hopped down into the hole. Unlocking his casket was simple. "Not a real complex lock, I guess they aren't worried about someone trying to do this."

Opening the casket, she looked down at her mate, the rain having stopped for the moment. "Hey slick. Move over a bit, will you. Gonna be cramped."

Sliding into the coffin next to him, she took in his scent, still present if muted. With a quick flash of pain in her leg, Judy tossed the now used tranq dart into the surrounding mud and pulled the lid closed over them both. "Love you…" Was the last thing that might have been heard, were any mammals present to hear.

As if the universe itself chose to ensure this was final, the rain soaked walls of the grave gave way a few moments later covering the casket and tranq dart, as the rain started up even heavier than before.

A few moments after that, two mothers, so different, but bearing the same pain, stepped up to the grave site sharing an umbrella. Vivian Wilde looked over the grave, the collapsed walls. The blood that was somehow not being washed away by the torrential rain. As if the world itself were crying in sympathy with the two mammals now standing over the grave. "So, once the rain gives up?"

Bonnie Hopps nodded up at the fox. "I wasn't sure I believed it, but even if not, he deserved it. They were so good at keeping it secret, even though I understand why. The team will have the coffin moved by morning and on its way to their true final resting place. The headstone will be ready by then, and list them both."

Vivian nodded. "Good. Is your offer still open?"

Bonnie nodded, smiling despite the agony in her heart. "It is. The kits will love having their auntie Viv stay permanently." Then after a moment's silence between the two of them. "Did I really hear her right? They had kits that they aborted because of the laws?"

Vivian nodded sadly. "Three that I am aware of. They named them Jack, Skye, and Fin. When you clean out their apartment, you'll find a small shrine hidden in the closet. I found it by accident when I was taking care of them after that shoot out where they both got shot. I never confronted them about it. I cannot imagine the pain that caused them."

Bonnie nodded. She'd lost many kits, for many reasons over the years. Yet, to have to endure the agony Nick and Judy underwent to keep their love safe and secret. All because of laws mammals clung to for no reason other than traditions from before predator and prey even considered living together peaceably. It was so wrong.

The two females turned and walked towards the mammals waiting under other umbrellas and the shade of a nearby tree. A large and very old cape buffalo. A small angry looking fennec fox. An arctic fox vixen, and a striped rabbit buck. Along with a slightly overweight cheetah, three wolves, and a bengal tigress holding one of those wolves to her as they all sobbed at the loss of their friends.

Bonnie smiled up at the assembled mammals. "We all know that we couldn't have stopped her, or him for that matter. If ever there were two mammals meant to be together, it was them, and now they can be, in peace. May their next lives be longer. May they find each other sooner. May their relationship be accepted and they be granted as many kits as they can handle."

The assembled all nodded in agreement as Vivian spoke. "On many occasions they jokingly suggested that we all join together in a new pact between species. Something written to be inclusive, and written to protect all mammals. To protect them and the love they may find, regardless of species. They said it jokingly, knowing… believing that it could never happen. That the status quo and the powers that be would never allow it.

It's time we change that. It is time we fix what has quite literally cost the lives and caused the unreasonable suffering of far too many mammals. It was a friend of the family that did the procedure. They tested the genetics of the kits. They would have been perfectly healthy, and fertile, hybrids. If a rabbit and a fox can have kits, that would be able to have their own kits, then we are not so different as the mammals that maintain the laws that forced them to keep their relationship a secret and to abort their kits, would wish to believe."

Bogo nodded. "I never agreed with those laws, and I fostered a culture to look the other way when it was possible to do so. I'd much rather we end those laws outright. The pact you propose is, I think, the best way to do it. As it will provide safe haven for those like Nick and Judy."

The group then moved on. Plans needed to be made. Mammals to be contacted in secret, and a pact made to change the world and make it a better place. In memory of two mammals who loved each other more and deeper than most could fathom, and wanted nothing more than to do just that, and live their lives together in peace.

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