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Chapter One: A Prisoner's Reflections

"...and I'll dart every predator in Zootopia to keep it that way!" The voice was her own, but somehow she was looking down on herself as if she were outside. The ewe stood triumphantly, watching the events unfold in the pit below. She wanted to stop herself, to do something, but it was like watching a movie. The Bellwether standing there couldn't hear her pleas to stop.

Suddenly she found herself in a body again, but in a different perspective. She could see the painted diorama surrounding her, she could feel the fake grass beneath her hooves, and most horrifyingly she could see a dark shape creeping toward her. As Dawn backed against the wall in terror, she glanced up to still find herself standing near the rim of the pit. Now standing among the various members of the ZPD, Judy and her fox friend included, all leering down at her. More mammals approached, and she could make out the various predators who had went missing, each wearing a veneer of revulsion as they joined to watch the spectacle.

"It's time you see what a true "savage" is Dawn." Her doppelganger said, looking at her with disgust. Dawn turned back to the beast in the pit, it was closer now and the shadow cast over it had begun to fade. She could see its hunched and gnarled form, its unevenly clipped wool randomly strewn about its body, its long hooves untrimmed and twisted into sharp spiky protrusions. Its teeth, uneven and oddly sharp as drool slathered out of its maw, Its piercing green eyes filled with so much ire, so much pure hate. It was her, a disgusting, twisted, mutated reflection of her. It moved closer, steam pouring from its nostrils. It sneered at its quarry, causing the ewe to start sobbing. She looked up again to see the pit had become surrounded with various mammals, both predator and prey, all staring at her with the same burning hatred the beast now did. She pleaded and begged them to help her, to show her mercy, but not one of them moved. She turned again to see the creature nearly on her now, frothing at the maw.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." She sobbed. The beast reared back and dove straight for her neck.

Dawn started awake with a gasping sob. She sat up and quickly felt around for her glasses. Finding them at the edge of her cot, she fumbled to get them to her face. Once they were finally on, she began to use the exercise her therapist had taught her to calm her breathing.

"Breath in." She sucked in air sharply. "Hold it." She thought as she counted a full ten seconds. "And exhale." The air escaped her lungs and she could start to feel the tension fall away.

As her mind began to clear her room began to come into focus. Same grey walls, same stone floor, same reinforced steel door. She was still in prison, still in solitary, her modern day home. She slowly laid back down, glancing at the nearby window to see the beginning of the golden rays of dawn peeking between the bars. It was probably about an hour till wake up call, so she surmised. With so little stimuli being confined, after a while she became attuned to small things like that. The different ways the sunlight spilled across the floor at various times throughout the day. Bellwether sighed, staring up at the concrete ceiling.

Today was the day, the day that filled her with a horrible mixture of both joy and dread. And now, unable to get back to sleep she found her thoughts drifting back to the start of everything.

The ride in the squad car was silent. There were no protests or pleas. The ewe was too frozen in sheer terror. So many thoughts were running through her head that it left her paralyzed. She was caught, outsmarted, her plans unraveled so suddenly and unexpectedly. The previous half hour was especially a blur, almost as if someone else had been in control of her at the time.

"Did I really try to kill Judy?" That was the primary thought that kept rising in her mind. Despite the steadily rising torrent of emotions, she remained silent during the short ride. Only occasionally did she glance at the rearview mirror fearing she'd catch Chief Bogo's glare. The water buffalo had announced that he'd personally deal with Bellwether's detainment back at the museum. She expected he'd volunteered so he could tell her just what he really thought of her in the privacy of the squad car, but he remained as silent as the grave. His silence simply persisted as they arrived at the ZPD, as he lead her through the registration process, and finally as he dropped her off in an empty jail cell. It was only as he went to leave the cellblock that she finally caught a glance, and realized why he hadn't spoken. His eyes were filled with disappointment, and there were no words the water buffalo could say to convey just how much. When she was finally left alone, the tears finally came and the little ewe collapsed into a heap on the cold stone floor.

Neither Bogo, nor Judy were put in charge of her interrogation, instead she was grilled by several different officers over the course of the next day. They had all been prey thankfully; chances are Bogo didn't want any member of the force who may be too emotionally invested in the nature of the case dealing with her. Even the best predator officers probably risked their composure slipping when faced with her crimes, but that's not to say the prey were without their reservations. One rhino had to be restrained to keep from striking her; apparently he had a great deal of predator friends.

Bellwether did her best to cooperate, to tell them everything. But all the thoughts, all the emotions strangled her words. And at the end of the day her accounts were rendered incomprehensible to most. In the grand scheme of things it hadn't mattered anyway, the police got enough out of her accomplices to put the story together.

Within the week she heard news that Leodore Lionheart had been released, although he was not fully exonerated of his role in the whole affair. While he was free, he would be monitored for several months, and his political career was over. His former job went to the next officials in line after Bellwether. A Snow Leopard named Adele Snow was inducted as mayor, and the one below her, a buck by the name of Elton Hart became the replacement assistant mayor. There was a ceremony to honor the newly sworn in and shortly after there was yet another celebration to honor the diligent work of Officer Hopps and her fox friend for cracking the night-howler case. She remembered watching that one on the close circuit TV, and the particularly biting comment referring to her"...a deranged and corrupt un-mammal." The words stung, but they weren't wrong.

The next few weeks felt like an eternity. Her bail was set astronomically high, not that it mattered. It could have been as low as a penny and there wouldn't have been a soul to bail her out. She hadn't cultivated many friendships over the years, and her attempts to contact her family had led to their refusal to even visit her. Her father was especially adamant to recant her as his daughter over the phone, claiming her actions had forever tainted the "Bellwether" name. Her father had always been a hard ram, very cold and un-emotional. And if she hadn't been so upset she would have laughed at his hypocrisy. If she had never been caught and he had known what she did he would have been bursting with pride. So she remained in jail, left to keep herself occupied with what little it had on offer, which consisted of limited TV, and three novels she had fully read on her second day. All that remained was her thoughts, which at this point were stifling. She used her time to try to organize them, to figure out what she was going to say. Most importantly, to try to make some sense of how she reached the point where she had been willing to kill.

When the trial finally came a month later, she faired a bit better than her interrogation. On the witness stand she was able to lay out everything she thought and did in the correct order, only breaking into tears a few times during. She didn't lie, she was far too afraid to. She explained that she had problems with predators all her life, but working under Lionheart was what broke her. What started as simple revenge spiraled into a logic that saw all predators the same way, a problem that needed to be dealt with. The ultimate plan was eventual exile of all predators to a predator only district which would have been proposed and designed when the frenzy of fear reached its zenith. The earliest dartings were of predators directly around Lionheart, and each subsequent darting was calculated in such a way that Lionheart would capture the savage before any mammals were hurt.

Her plan nearly had derailed a few times, but she managed to steer it back in the right direction. The otter was an accident, she never wanted to dart him. But he happened to witness a savage transformation, and being a florist he was able to deduce the cause. She initially had her Hench Rams follow him and instructed them to scare him. Rather than cower in response, Otterton doubled down and ran to Mr. Big. At that point there was no going back, he had to be silenced. Unfortunately he had to blab to the limo driver before his transformation, so again the problem had to be dealt with. Still Dawn had been able to steer the missteps into the desired outcome, and Officer Hopps exposed Lionheart placing Bellwether in power.

When it came to Judy's role in the plan, Dawn admitted it came from a feeling of kinship to the rabbit. She could have left breadcrumbs for any ZPD officer to find, but she saw herself in Judy and wanted her to reach her dreams. She wanted her to be living proof that even the smallest of prey were capable of great things. But then came the beginning of the end, starting with Judy's refusal of Dawn's offer and subsequent resignation. That had surprised and hurt Dawn. At the point she had seen Judy as her friend, someone who would understand her, and Dawn had helped make her career after all. At first she was left saddened by the rabbit's departure, but as the days went on it grew into anger. How dare she spurn Dawn's efforts after all she had done for her, she had offered her greatness, to be an Idol to Zootopians as well as prey everywhere. She thought if she ever saw Judy again she would make her pay for insulting her somehow. It was later when she would get that chance. The train, the museum, Judy and that fox. The little lamb, already furious and now close to being exposed tipped over the edge and attempted to put Judy down for good.

She had ended her testimony stating how thankful she was that the serum had been switched, after the anger faded she couldn't have lived with thought of being responsible for Judy's death. She was sorry, sorry for everything. The Jury seemed unmoved, not that Dawn cared. She knew they wouldn't believe a word of her testimony anyway. That last line was delivered to reach out to the rabbit sitting in the courtroom, an attempt at an apology to a friend she once held dear.

The other testimonies went the way you would expect of them. Those who had worked with Bellwether like Doug and Walter passed the blame strictly on her. Bogo had simply gone over the facts of the case. The fox, who she would learn was named Nick opened his statements with various jokes before the judge threatened to hold him in contempt of court. After which the clearly fear stricken fox just stuck to his account of events. During all this she simply sat, trying her best to keep it together. If she kept crying she felt the Jury could be even harder on her, perceiving it as crocodile tears.

Lionheart accidently called her Smellwether on the stand, which was the only time she felt anger wash over her during the proceedings. It didn't surprise her that despite everything he hadn't changed, still a pompous jackass. He boldly stated that he had always found something off about Dawn, and should have known one day she'd crack.

"They say it's the quiet ones you have to watch, and I should have." Leodore spoke in faux sorrow. In that moment she was at least glad that if anything good came from her crimes, it was ruining his career.

Judy's testimony had hurt Dawn the most. It was not filled with vitriol or bile. In fact it was simply somber and clinical. Each fact was delivered with seemingly no feeling. It was only when they had caught each others eyes near the end of her testimony did Dawn see the disappointment and pain in Judy's eyes. She couldn't stop the tears this time, although they were soundless. Throughout the rest of Judy's account Dawn's tears continued to flow, and they didn't stop even when she was returned to the holding cell that evening.

The physical evidence is what really ended up sparing the ewe a harsher sentence, much to the distaste of the Zootopian populace. Doug's paperwork and files that he hadn't eaten showed him mapping out variations of this plan since college. At that time his only connection with Dawn had been a brief romantic relationship. None of the records during that period hinted at the plans, only heavy anti-predator sentiments from Doug which Dawn seemed to agree with to a lesser degree. When Dawn took up the position of Assistant Mayor, Doug's correspondences sharply increased after years of sparse contact post the end of their relationship. Dawn's continued complaints about the treatment from her boss became a catalyst for the proposal of Doug's plans. At first, she adamantly refused, and she ceased contact with him for an entire year after Doug's suggestion. Then out of the blue she reconnected with him, and agreed to put the plan in motion.

While Dawn's emails and records showed her careful planning and deliberation on how to avoid any prey being hurt in the savage infections up until the last few weeks before she was apprehended. Doug's in house emails between Walter, Jesse, and several other rams involved with scheme were less concerned about safety. Several phrases continually cropped up that amounted to "the more casualties the quicker the success". Dawn's Idea for a predator containment district which she had jokingly named "Savage City" was also among the private discussions, although Doug's version of the idea changed the roll of the district from a home for predators to a massive extermination center.

Doug also had been discussing plans to take out some of the strongest pro-pred opposition with precision savage strikes, which again ran against Dawn's original plans for non-violence against prey. In the final weeks, a highly sensitive email between Doug and Walter discussed taking out Gazelle. Her unflappable support of predators combined with her social status continued to set-back the operation. They intended to wait until her predator benefit concert, and dart all of her tiger dancers in one simultaneous wave in the middle of her performance.

"If they don't kill her, she'll definitely change her tune. So either way it's a win" Doug concluded.

All this information was kept hidden from Dawn at Doug's request, despite the unease of the other rams. When Dawn took her place as mayor, the others pressed Doug more and more about Dawn's loyalty should she learn the full nature of the plan and fears of her going rogue.

"Dawn's soft, she needs to be eased into some of these larger steps. But I know how to help her see things the right way" Doug mailed to the others.

"And what if she won't play ball? You won't let your feelings get in the way? Will you take care of her?" A reply from Walter.

"I don't want to hurt her, but we already have all we need. So if she jeopardizes what we've been working toward...I'll do what I have to do." Was Doug's final reply.

Dawn and her cohorts were inevitably found guilty. But it was those very emails that landed the ewe with a fairly light ten year sentence, with an option for monitored parole in as little as four provided she underwent therapy. The other rams were saddled with thirty plus years, with no parole option.

The clang of the various cells automatically unlocking roused Bellwether from her thoughts. She quickly sat up, staring at her door. She could hear the usual morning muffled chatter barely permeating from outside. The prison was now officially awake, and she shifted her legs off the cot in response to the usual regiment. It was only when she heard the approaching foot falls did she hitch her breath. Her eyes grew wide as she watched the door. Today wasn't the day for the usual routine; she had nearly forgotten with her little trip down memory lane. Her breathing halted completely as shadows cast over the window of her cell door. The heavy clang of the door caused the sheep to flinch, and as the door swung open she jumped to her feet.

Standing in the frame were two guards, a grizzly bear and a cheetah. "Bellwether" the grizzly bear spoke. "You are officially paroled."