FSE

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The drive was as interminable as the silence that pervaded the van. The quiet seemed to penetrate into the very minds and hearts of the vehicle's occupants as the shock of sadness and horror to which they'd been witnesses arrested any deep thoughts they might've had. The only thing that seemed to fuel Wolford as he drove northward, having by now left Happy Town and the lights of Zootopia far behind, was the desire to get the hell away from what they'd experienced.

They were running away.

Everybody knew it.

And though it felt cowardly, there was a prevailing sense that there was nothing left for them in the city--even as a tremendous sense of guilt began to envelop them, forcing them to think of everyone whom they were leaving behind without staying to help.

And so what?! Was there anything really holding them back? The city didn't want them there: They'd been tortured, massacred, and hated! The relentless discrimination was enough to bear as it was but the fact that what amounted to an open season had just been declared on them closed the matter definitively.

To Hell with it!

But even as they all thought these things, they all knew that they were going to have to go back--and they knew that things were likely to get a lot worse before they got better. Still, they hid that thought away as though it were essentially non-existent. The hesitancy to return was not merely a matter of resentment--there was a very real and visceral fear that had formed in reaction to what they had seen. In their minds eyes, they could still see the predators jumping out of that mist! The sight of that tiger, its yellow eyes burning as it roared, sharp claws outstretched, its dagger-like fangs gaping wide . . . ! That tiger along with all the other predators caught within that mist had become Death.

No! Returning was the unthinkable thought--and no one, in fact, did think it. Not consciously. It was a feeling--a terrible gnawing in the gut--that found itself at a loss for words.

Hopps was the sole exception to the general feeling in the van. She knew she was going to have to go back: She was duty bound. She'd been silent long enough, she felt, but knew that her very presence amongst the predators here was an affront to their sensibilities which was why she was hesitant to speak up in the first place; and yet, she knew she had to.

She cleared her throat, in so doing startling many in the van out of their reveries.

Nothing but the pitch-blackness of the road lay ahead of them. They were in open country now, and the eerie sense of solitude had seeped into the very bones of those present.

She licked her lips and braced herself for what she had to say. "We have to go back."

The sentence hung in their midst like a corpse at the end of a noose. She had expressed The One Thought. The ill-feeling in the car increased ten-fold as the sudden confrontation with reality lay before them, impressing upon them the terrible events that had transpired only moments ago--or so it felt: What they thought had been the subject of mere superstition, legend, and propaganda had stared them right in the face--Ferals! Whatever had happened, it had occurred at the heart of their culture. The floors of the place they had come to associate with their sense of fun, joy, and freedom--the only freedom they'd experienced save when they were very young children--had now had its halls and floors soaked with the blood of friends and neighbours, its air filled with the stench of death and burning flesh. Even the screams of horror still resounded in the ears of those present, echoing through their skulls!

The ferals had escaped into Happy Town itself, and the travellers feared going back not only because of the hammer that City Hall was certain to bring down swinging on every predator there but also because they feared those creatures that had at one time been their friends. All of those who had been present in the warehouses save for those on one extreme end of the park or the other had most certainly been transformed or killed. Or both.

"We're not going back," said Wolford as he let out a sharp laugh of incredulity.

Their path had eventually led them down the slopes and back up some others as they now drove through a pine forest that sprawled before them.

"Maybe not," said Judy, speaking up next to a dozing Nick, "but we have to figure out where we're going. Nick . . . I mean, Wilde . . . is wanted back in Zootopia. If he's lucky, they'll just assume he died in the building. We can't just drive. We need a place to hide, and we need to stop someplace so we can work this out."

They wouldn't get anywhere if they didn't keep their wits about them. They'd been driving more or less northward with the sole aim of escaping the horror behind them. Their focus had been such that no one had really given much thought to where they were going or what they were even going to do beyond the next day or two.

Hopps' breaking the silence had stirred Judy from her from her mental shut-down--her mind having stopped doing other things as it worked to process what it had experienced in the space of what had amounted to only a few short minutes of her life. She agreed with Hopps that they needed to go back, but not for the same reasons. Where Hopps, she reckoned, wanted to return in order to continue on with her work at the ZPD, Judy had a different plan in mind. A preliminary scheme that needed to be fleshed out, but they needed to stop and talk things through.

"And you can shut the hell up, too!" growled Wolford from the front seat as he tried to spy Judy in the rear-view.

"You mind running that past me one more time?" asked Nick as he suddenly perked up, tightening the hold around his bunny.

"And that goes double for you, preyfucker!" snarled Wolford. "You know Fangmeyer and me saved your life? And turns out you've been fucking the sister of the cunt who beat you up? We shoulda left you in that alley. Bringing you to the park was how they fuckin' knew where we were. You deserved it, fox! You fuckin' deserved it!"

Nick started angrily and was about to retort when he saw Clawhauser put his arm on the wolf's shoulder. The lupine turned slightly, not quite taking his eyes from the road, to see Clawhauser shaking his head gently. "You don't know what we know. She's with us. So is he."

Wolford baulked, his eyes rolling slightly in disbelief. "What about you, Finn? Are you-"

"Leave 'em alone," said Finnick definitively. "Besides, she's right: We need to work out where we're going before we go another mile."

Wolford chuffed but acquiesced begrudgingly.

He looked for and found a wide scenic shoulder whose overlook opened out on a beautiful valley dotted with houses far below. Their humble lights could be seen glimmering in the hills and woods for miles, it seemed.

The fresh air was quiet and terribly still--but not awkwardly or fearfully so, as such silences might sometimes be. Here, instead, was a gentle silence--one that prompted a feeling of calm and peace.

They got out of the van, all save Wilde who now sat with his back against his son's trunk: It had never been unloaded from the van and had been pushed up lengthwise against the right side of the vehicle's interior.

Judy and Hopps shivered in the bitter cold. Everyone else, it seemed, had a marginally thicker winter coat which seemed to help them with the chill.

"Now I know you've been living in Zootopia," said Finnick as he stepped up next to Nick.

Nick cocked his head. "Since I told you that it's where I live I'm shocked you were able to figure it out."

Finnick chuckled. "What I mean is that if you'd been living in Happy Town you'd definitely have a winter coat. Only mammals in Zootopia can maintain a spring coat year-round. Climate walls and all that." He nodded to himself knowingly.

Nick nodded. He looked around to see if he could find where Judy went. He caught sight of her sitting on a bench at the lookout point. He came toward her, sat down next to her, and put his arm around her. She shivered into his side and they huddle together.

"What I don't know," began Judy after a moment of silence, "is what they wanted? I mean, why did they make so many ferals in the same place?"

Hopps snorted as she came up behind them. "It's obvious. They wanted preds to kill each other. They probably did. Most of them anyway."

Wolford and Clawhauser sucked in a breath as though they'd just been punched in the gut while Fangmeyer gave her a sharp look--not that she could see--before turning to see Wilde's reaction. None of them had wanted to mention the subject of death--especially not in front of Wilde. He seemed to barely notice the attention he was being given; and when he did and saw animals near the van waiting for his reaction, he let out a sad bark of mirthless laughter before saying, "I don't know what you're all looking at me for." His voice trembled. "She's probably right."

And with that, he simply turned away and put his head in his paw.

Within the first forty-five minutes of their aimless driving after his outburst, Wilde had gone from vacillating between frantic texting and hopeless sobs to simply shutting down completely. He was numb. He had nothing in him left to give. Everything he'd worked for in his life had been stripped away--but what stung was that those things that he'd held most dear to his heart had been stolen from him in one fell swoop: Wild Times was forlorn. It had been shattered in every way imaginable--from how the roof had been blown off to the blood that now stained its floors, beach, and the surrounding waters.

His mind had remained in a pool of distancing numbness from that time till now as the conversation slowly drew him back to the present--back to reality.

The choice of target had been well-made, he mused; for no other place in the minds of predators had ever been more associated with the hope of freedom than his park.

Topping it all off in the worst possible way was the fact that that was where his son had died.

His son . . . who had only been there at his insistence.

"It's true," insisted Hopps. "There's no doubt in my mind that that's what was going on. If Nick had listened to me when I first realised what was happening and evacuated everyone, the deaths wouldn't've been anywhere near as numerous."

"Sure you wouldn't like to cap that off with an 'I told you so'?" snarled Wilde as he hopped off the back of the van and turned to look at Hopps.

She spun around, cocked an eyebrow as she regarded him, and kissed the air in his direction.

Wilde let out a cry of anger and broke into a run before diving into Hopps, tackling her to the ground. His paws were around her throat before anybody could react as he growled at her angrily.

"You fucking bitch! You planned this from the start! You knew that the plan was to kill us all!"

Suddenly there were arms all around him, pulling him back as his paw worked to crush her.

Voices all around him were shouting at him to desist!

"Let her go!"

"We need her information!"

Wilde growled. "Let me go! She killed my son! She killed my son!" He choked out a sob.

He was finally torn off her and held back by Nick, Judy, Finnick, and Clawhauser.

"No," choked Hopps as she gasped for breath and struggled to stand, "you killed your son. I told you that ferals were real, but you insisted I was lying." Her voice was harsh like gravel as she tried to speak. "I told you that something bad was going to happen--that everyone needed to leave--but you didn't wanna hear it. You saw how frantic I was to get out of there! But somehow you just didn't get that there was a problem!" She broke off and clutched her throat, leaning on the bench as she struggled for breath.

Wilde's shoulders slumped.

"You had three or four minutes of warning ahead of time that you didn't take advantage of--and all of it because I'm prey," she continued harshly.

"Because you've been killing us!" retorted Fangmeyer as he came to Wilde's side, growling menacingly. "What makes you think that we should have trusted you at all?"

"You go ahead and rationalise it any way you want, but the evidence should've been right there for anyone who took the time to look," she insisted as her voice came back to her. "The fact that I was there at all should've been a major tip off. But none of you wanted to believe that a pred could go feral. I didn't know it was happening at first. But I'd seen it with my own two eyes."

"Because you prey would never try to use propaganda to foment fear, would you?" growled Wolford.

"I was right, wasn't I? You may have the moral high ground in your argument, but I have the truth in mine! If you had just accepted the truth of what the news outlets--of what I--had been saying, none of this would have happened! Not the way that it did, anyway. And any moron can see it! Let me put it to you, Wolfy," she said with no small hint of anger as Wolford snarled, "now that we know that preds are going feral, what's the first question that comes to your mind?"

They were all silent for a moment.

"Who's behind it," said Judy.

Hopps looked at the doppelgänger who stood behind her and smirked. "Bingo." She turned back toward the preds in front of her. "In other words, if you had accepted the truth of the situation sooner, you could have worked on a solution. You would have realised that someone or something was behind it. But you can't do anything until you acknowledge there's a problem! You dismissed the news interviews and the press conferences that covered the whole thing from A to B, and you ignored it because you were all so certain that it was all part of some plot to make you look bad in the news. It still may be part of a plot--but just a different one than you thought. Either way, you were caught totally unawares."

Her accusation stung, and while they all looked on angrily they were unable to see past the truth of the matter. As they looked back on their actions, the individual predators realised that they wouldn't have done anything differently--so much of their lives had been spent being lied about and slandered that they would have had no choice but to imagine that the news about preds going feral was just one more attempt to make citizens of the city fearful. There was no way around it: they had essentially been programmed to ignore most negative things said about their species' history as so much of it had been slanted through the perspective of those with an agenda.

Even Wilde grunted to himself angrily as, even while it had been taking place right in front of him, he'd insisted to the sergeant's double that predators no longer went savage.

"You have eyes and ears everywhere," continued the Hopps. "You'd have been able to figure out what was happening in a second if you only just considered the possibility that what was being said was true."

Wilde started. "How do you kn-"

"Can we please stop," started Judy. "Sorry for interrupting, but we've got a serious problem on our hands: We need to figure out where we're going." She came forward hesitantly. "And I have an idea, but you're going to have to bear with me."

Wolford growled again. "Are we seriously going to listen to her?" he asked as he turned to the others standing around. "I don't care what you say, Ben, there's no way I'm trusting a fucking prey--especially not one whose the same as the bitch who had me fucking declawed!" He spun on his feet and turned back to her. "I say we kill 'em both!"

He looked around at the animals surrounding him.

"Fang!" he pointed, "I know you're with me on this!"

Fangmeyer had remained silent throughout the argument though he was positively seething. "You know I'm with you," he spoke--though it came out more as a snarl. He came to stand next to Wolford. "It's because of you that my cub died in your 'care'," he said as he addressed Judy. "I've been waiting a long time for the moment when I'd get to tear you open for what you did to me and to him. I can barely understand your reasons for declawing me, but not him--and definitely not killing him." He strode forward.

Nick growled and put his arm around his mate protectively. "Don't you dare lay a hand on her!"

"She's not the right one!" shouted Clawhauser.

The white wolf growled again. "I don't give a shit. I'm takin' one of 'em out. And I know for a fact Nick here'd enjoy takin' out the other. I'm sure we'd all enjoy a piece," he said half over his shoulder.

"Don't you fuckin' dare!" said Finnick as he now came around to stand by Nick and Judy. "I know for a fact that she's innocent."

Everyone was surprised when Wilde spoke up. "The only one we're taking out is the sarge."

"You can't seriously mean to kill her!" shouted Judy.

"The hell I can't!" he shouted back furiously.

"It's useless, Jude," said Hopps as she turned to Judy. "He needs someone to blame for his failure."

Judy whirled angrily. "You know, your reputation isn't too great around here so I might shut my mouth if I wanted to live!"

"Excuse me!" shouted Hopps, "but if I had my children's lives on the line you can bet that I would never have taken the chance that he did!" She turned back to Wilde. "You had a fox with a tracking device that led right to you on the beach. And your first thought was to bring your kid there?! You must have known that police were coming there at some point, and yet you still held a gathering of preds in the same place!"

Wilde snarled. "We didn't think-"

"That's fucking right! You didn't think!" She was shouting now. "It doesn't matter what you were expecting, you should have guessed that something was off. My sources in Happy Town told me that Mr. Big was attending, but I didn't see or hear him anywhere on the building. There was even a chair set up for him on the stage, I saw, and he wasn't there. Did he leave early? And if he did, was it because something didn't feel right?!"

Wilde stood there. He was totally convicted.

"I knew it! Someone you trusted even told you that they had a bad feeling and you ignored it anyway!"

"Don't you dare compare yourself to him! He's been helping us since the day things went to shit!" shouted Wolford.

"Even Mr. Big knew when things were getting too shady for his liking. He knew to get out because his whole family's been living by their wits from the day they moved here. When your main goal is self-preservation you stick to that model," she said, slapping her paws together for emphasis. "It's great that you all wanted to stick around and help each other out--normally that can work out great. But when you live your life under a fucking microscope, mistakes like the kind you made tonight can be catastrophic. We're all lucky to be alive!"

They all stood there as she walked forward and stood in the midst of the sort-of circle they all formed.

"So don't you blame me for what happened there tonight! Especially after I warned you that something was going down. I knew that something was wrong."

Fangmeyer pulled a switchblade from his pocket. "You know you talk too fucking much."

"And you!" she said breathlessly as she turned to Fangmeyer, either stupidly or bravely challenging him, "You blame me for your cub's death? For your getting declawed? How about the fact that you were breaking the law!"

"That's no exc-"

"No!" she interrupted, "Maybe it fucking isn't! But guess what? This is the city you live in and these are the rules of that city! This didn't spring up on you unannounced! This is the way things've been in this city for generations! The problem you all seem to have is that you were expecting things to somehow magically change! Fuck no, they're not going to magically change. What goes for you goes for me too and every other fucking person out there whether they're prey or pred--no one gets a pass.

"What do you think's gonna happen to all your prey informants when it comes out that they were in league with preds? What do you think's going to happen to every single one of them?! I can guarantee you that they're all dead. All of them. Down to the last child in their family. You will never hear from them again. When you see the shit-show from the inside it becomes abundantly clear that this is how things're going to apply to everyone. You also learn real quick how to play by those rules, and--most importantly--what the rules are. You have to be pragmatic in the face of crisis because if you fall the fuck apart there isn't anyone to help you out of it but yourself. So, yeah, you all did fuck up. Because you didn't get just how far we were willing to go to enforce the rules--and that was your mistake, not ours."

"Never underestimate your enemy," said Wilde quietly as he nodded to himself, a slight edge to his voice. He looked up suddenly, staring directly at Hopps, a profound darkness to his eyes. "Trust me when I say I won't make that mistake again," he growled. Before anyone could move, and to everyone's surprise, Wilde suddenly dove and tackled the bunny to the ground. Before she could cry out, he lifted her by the shoulders and quickly whipped her back down. Her head slammed into the ground beneath her, cracking as it made contact, even as she struggled to fight him.

"Bring me some rope!" he shouted as she started to lose consciousness. "We'll keep her in Mike's trunk for the rest of the ride; wherever we go."

"Don't!" she exclaimed softly. "I have to go back! You don't understand!"

She continued her protests as they bound her and brought her over to the van. Wilde opened up his son's trunk and packed her inside before closing it and latching it with a key.

"You ask me, we should be throwing them in with her," said Fangmeyer as he nodded toward both Nick and Judy.

"They're with us," said Wilde as he let out a shaky sigh.

"And why the hell do you keep saying that?!" shouted Wolford as he came around to look at Wilde. "Just this morning we saw you all bringing her in! Isn't it obvious that they're twins or something?"

Wilde looked at the others in the group. "I think we need to bring them in," he said as he looked over to Clawhauser and Finnick who nodded in approval. He looked back toward Nick and Judy who were now practically glued together--The more the two wolves went on the more it started to feel as though it were just the two of them against everyone else.

"P, come over here and stand next to me," said Wilde. He turned toward the two wolves before him. "Maybe the two of you haven't really had the chance to figure this out, but Garou took his time and was able to clear things up for us." He finished speaking as Nick, along with Judy, came up and stood next to him. "You notice anything similar between the two of us?" he asked the wolves, carefully.

"I don't need to be told that you two have the same scent," began Fangmeyer. "I'm not stupid and neither is Wolford. We picked up on it a while after you all got together at Wilde Times, but it's not possible for you to be the same."

"Then use your eyes. I don't have a twin. Now that the bandage is gone and the swelling has gone down around his face I know you can see it. Yeah, maybe Hopps could have a twin, but not me."

"I don't get what you're trying to say," said Fangmeyer.

Wilde turned to Judy. "Can I see your phone?"

She handed it to him carefully.

Wilde swiped it open and tapped to her camera roll, flicking past all the embarrassing pictures of "him" and Judy together and got to some of the more-innocuous photos that showed members of the ZPD. Of the few Judy had shown him, he was certain that he had seen some of Wolford and Fangmeyer as full officers on the force. He was moderately surprised to find a few of them all out for drinks together: Clawhauser, Nick, Judy, Wolford, Chief Bogo, and some other whom he couldn't recognise were all obviously out at a bar after hours.

He went over to the wolves' side so that both Fangmeyer and Wolford could look over his shoulder and see the pictures.

After the first few, Wolford spoke up. "So she's good at photoshop!"

Wilde swiped to the video at Gazelle's concert. He went through several other videos as well such as one where the force seemed to be celebrating the birthday of an elephant named Francine.

Then there were other photos of prey and predator creatures walking together, collarlessly, in the city.

"What is this?" asked Wolford.

"It's Zootopia. The Zootopia where she comes from," said Wilde.

"It doesn't look like any Zootopia I know of," said Fangmeyer. "Those photos of us and the video, though . . . that never happened."

"It's real footage," started Wilde, "and she's not from this world. Neither of them are," he finished, referring to Nick and Judy.

"That can't be real!" said Wolford. "It's a trick!"

"But then how do you explain an actual copy of me? Both of them come from a Zootpia that works!"

"Mostly!" chimed in Judy.

"Where? What other Zootopia?" asked Wolford.

"Yeah, I think we would've heard if there were another one," said Fangmeyer.

"It's in another universe," said Nick.

The two wolves only stared before Fangmeyer let out a belt of laughter.

"Are you out of your fucking minds?!" he exclaimed loudly as he looked from Wilde to Finnick to Clawhauser. "You mean based on some doctored footage and photoshopped pictures you're gonna believe them?!" the white wolf exclaimed.

"How do you explain there being two Hopps and two of us?" said Wilde. "I know you know that even twins don't share the same scent. He and I do and so does she and Hopps," he said as he gestured to the rabbit.

"There's gotta be some rational explanation for it! The idea that they came from another world is an impossibility so let's not mess around with that anymore. We have to figure out where they're really from and what they're doing here and why, of all times to show themselves, did they do it today--on the day an attack was planned!" said Wolford.

"I believe they're telling the truth!" said Wilde.

"You're being played!" shouted Wolford. "All of you!" he finished as he looked around. He couldn't believe that they were being taken in by such a stupid idea!

"Then you tell me the fucking reason!" shouted Wilde, his temper flaring. "You tell me how it's possible for two animals to mask their scents so completely as to look and smell so alike that it impossible to tell the difference between them! Answer me that in some rational way and maybe I can go along with what you're saying!"

"They are masking their scents! And your 'look-alike' might've just had some surgery or whatever to look like you!"

"If that were his intent, then why didn't he get my scars, too?"

"Maybe he got bad intel and didn't know about them? Maybe he had an older picture! There are a million scenarios that could be playing out here but parallel fucking universes?! And if that were true, what brought them here and how? And forget that, why? Just you wait! In twenty-four hours--less than that, even--we'll know the truth."

"What makes you say that?" asked Wilde, curious now.

"In twenty-four hours," started Wolford slowly, "whatever they took to mask their scents'll wear off and we'll be able to figure out who they really are. I only know a few drugs that're able to mask scents and change them, but even the most potent can only last a day--maybe a little more--since your scent is in your sweat. It's out of your system in a snap." He looked now at the two standing beside Wilde though still addressed his friend. "So if in that time they don't change their scents . . . then . . . then I may be a bit more willing to believe what you're saying. What they're saying," he corrected. "I trust 'em about as far as I can throw them."

Nick smirked. "Considering we're on the edge of a cliff, that's pretty damn far."

Wolford was about to retort when was cut off by his partner.

"We need to call Honey in on this," said Fangmeyer. "She has more ways than Mr. Big to get to the bottom of things," he finished decisively.

Wilde seemed to bristle and neither Judy nor Nick knew why. Whatever the reason for Wilde's discomfort, it gave them a bad feeling.

"We would've needed to call her in, anyway," he continued calmly, sensing Wilde's discomfort. "Better we do it now than later."

"I think we should wait on that till we know where we're going," said Clawhauser.

"Or even call her after we get to where we're going," said Finnick.

"Uh . . ." said Nick, speaking up for the first time in a while, "would anybody mind if we continued this discussion in the van? Judy and I're both cold."

"Good idea," said Wilde as he rubbed his own arms.

They all slowly climbed into the back of the vehicle and sat in a sort of circle.

"So," said Wolford in Judy's direction once it seemed they'd all settled in, "you seem to have some idea where we should go," he continued hesitantly, "where was that?"

"I . . . uh . . . well . . ." started Judy, not quite sure how to frame what she had to say. "We need a place to find cover. We also need to find a place where we can regroup-"

"There's no one left," said Wilde. His mood was still shrouded in depression, but being forced to deal with arguments and planning and thinking had gotten him out of himself, though now as he sat his mind seemed to be reverting. Though his soul could go no lower it somehow figured that it had to carry on: The biological need to survive now created an odd paradox in the fox's being--his heart wanted nothing more than to cease existing but his instincts were nowhere near through fighting.

Judy shook her head as she sensed the fox's inner turmoil and she shivered slightly. Wordlessly, Nick wrapped his tail around her and she gently took it, using it as a makeshift blanket.

"That's not true," she said in response to Wilde. "I've been hearing your phones going off since you sent the text bomb-" she cut herself off and covered her mouth. "I mean . . . since you sent the universal text," she corrected, the word bomb setting off an unfortunate association in the minds of those gathered. Everyone had winced at the mention of the word, but Judy quickly gathered their attention. "We know we aren't the only ones out there. There are other mammals out there--just as alone and just as scared as we are now. Why wouldn't we want to get together if we could?"

"And risk another attack?" said Fangmeyer.

"'Cause that worked out so well, before!" said Wolford.

"It can if we find the right place. Look, we know they're looking for . . . Wilde. Is it okay if I call you Wilde? Anyway, they're looking for him. Maybe. Unless they think he's dead. But besides that, we need to question Hopps still, and we need a safe place where we can do these things."

"So do you have a point or a plan or something in mind?" asked the grey wolf.

Judy sighed. Wolford went unheeded for a few moments as she braced herself. She grit her teeth and looked up at him, knowing already where they might go.

"Bunnyburrow."

Nearly everyone on the car merely looked at her for a moment before breaking into a hearty laugh.

"Y-you can't be serious!" laughed Wilde.

"Like we're gonna go to some prey infested place!" howled Fangmeyer.

"There's no way we're going there!" chuckled Finnick.

Nick tightened his arms around Judy and pulled her into his lap. She was still shivering and he wanted to warm her up. He had told a white lie when he said they were both cold. He had felt his mate shivering next to him and wanted to warm her up. His fur was long enough to have given him more protection against the cold and he would've been fine staying out there a bit longer if not for her. He was just glad to see a bit more colour in her ears, now.

As for the laughter, he suppressed an angry growl. He wasn't keen on the idea of anyone taking his mate for granted. She wasn't stupid--not the least bit. If anything, he had learned during the time he'd first met her that she was one of the smartest minds out there with an excellent capacity for quick thinking. He had learned that himself the hard way. He could understand their attitude toward her and their instinct that veered toward underestimating her, but she'd had to face it so often that it got very tiring very quickly. It seemed like with every new group she met she had to work twice as hard to prove herself.

"Alright," she said, somewhat combatively, "then maybe you can think of a place other than my parents' house that's better for hiding out? I have two-hundred and seventy-five brothers and sisters, and the house is built to accommodate them all and more for when we have family reunions. There are secret tunnels everywhere, and--best of all--who would suspect a group of predators living there, staying there, and holding their meetings in the area?"

"And I suppose your family wouldn't try to betray us?" growled Wolford.

"Not at the risk of betraying me, too. You may be--doubtfully--betrayed by my siblings if you went alone, but no one there would betray me. I'm your collateral! If you go down I'll go down, too--Hopps just said that those who aided preds were dead anyway: No one there would risk betraying you if it meant I'd get caught up in it.

"But think about it: What place more improbable for you to meet up? And, as I said before, what other choice is there?"

When no one said anything, she pressed her advantage.

"Is there any doubt about the fact that we need to get out of the area?"

No one said anything.

"Then is there anybody with any ties at all to anyplace outside Happy Town or Zootopia? Someplace we could hide out?" she asked as she looked around.

Still nothing.

"Then?" she prompted.

Finnick had his chin in his hand, and when it seemed to no one--including himself--had any counterargument, he said, "Okay, so we do things your way. You sure you can get us out?"

Now it was her turn to look doubtful. "No . . ." she said slowly, "I'm not sure. To get there we're gonna have to go through Zootopia. Bunnyburrow's two-hundred and eleven miles or so from there. Most preds are nocturnal, so we have to wait a bit till the majority of them are asleep. I'd suggest waiting till ten or so. We're about two hours from Happy Town and it'll be about ten minutes through the city to get the bridge that connects to the mainland. At seventy miles an hour on the highway, we could be there in about three hours and some change before we get to my parents' home. We're looking at something around five hours, eleven minutes, and fifty seconds. If our speed is good."

"It'll take us till three in the morning to get there at that rate!" said Wolford who didn't relish the thought of driving this late. Now that they'd all been stationary for a bit, the adrenaline had left their systems leaving them incredibly drained.

"Well," said Judy, "my way we all eventually get to sleep in a bed. Eventually. And, obviously, get to spend some of the day sleeping in before we figure out what we're gonna do. I say, we take some time to rest now. We all need it. It's about . . ." she looked at her phone, "six O five, now. We rest up for four or so hours," she said as she looked back up at them, "and head back at ten. We'll reach Zootopia by twelvish--I think for the most part I saw that there was virtually zero nightlife there. We should be covered."

"And how about police looking for preds?" asked Clawhauser.

"I'll drive!" she said brightly.

"But didn't they try to kill you? I mean, or, kill whoever that was?" said the cheetah as he motioned toward the trunk.

"Besides, the van's not built for you," said Fangmeyer.

"And, you're still in uniform," said Nick. "They'll probably still recognise you."

"We're all taking a risk either way," she said as she tilted her head straight back and looked up at him. "Either way, there's no way to Bunnyburrow along the coast since there's no bridge connecting it to the mainland--unless that's changed here, too." She looked around at those in the van who shook their heads slowly. She nodded. "It's likely we won't see any cops anyway."

"What makes you so sure?" he asked.

"Think about who took the night shifts," she said.

Nick suddenly nodded in understanding. "Preds did."

"Exactly. And for the same reason you wear shades in the daytime."

"Because we're nocturnal," said Wilde as it dawned on him, "and direct sun can hurt our eyes."

Judy eyed him. "Right on. So sometimes I take the night shift with him," she motioned to Nick. "And if I know anything about this Zootopia it's that they openly hate the preds that work there. It wasn't too long ago that there was a problem in Zootopia, and the preds were the first to get fired or shuffled around the ZPD. It led to chaos when it came time for us non-nocturnals to take the night shifts because it tends to be bad. I mean our vision."

At Wilde's quizzical look, Judy amended--"I mean our Zootopia," she said as she nodded to Nick.

"What happened in your Zootopia?" asked Wilde, somewhat interested now.

"Carrots broke the city," said Nick flatly.

"It was an accident!" she huffed.

"Yeah, a really bad one, too, though, you have to admit!" he replied somewhat playfully.

"Yeah," she sighed. "You know I'm sorry, though, right?"

"What did you do?" Wilde asked, an uncertain edge in his voice.

"Well . . . I may have accidentally started a species war when I suggested that the reason why predators were going savage had to do with the fact that they were all genetically predisposed to that kind of behaviour."

Wilde cocked an eyebrow. "And you still mated her?" he asked Nick.

"To be fair, she did realise her mistake," said Nick. "Besides," said Nick as he smirked down at the bunny in his lap, "how can you weesist such an adowabow widdow face?" he finished in baby talk.

Judy rolled her eyes, here ears flushing red and let out a sharp breath through her nose. She was clearly biting her tongue and she shook her head gently. Everyone in the van could see that the fox had just royally stomped on the bunny's nerves but by God, if it wasn't the cutest fucking thing they'd ever seen. Everyone was thinking it but no one dared laugh. They could see her foot twitching as though to thump it and if she did it'd all be over.

To sober himself and the rest of the group, Wilde pressed on. "Then why's she carrying around fox repellent?" he asked somewhat tensely, though keeping himself in check.

"It might," she started, "have something to do with the fact that if I'd refused to use it when chief Bogo gave it to me, something would've seemed off. Like, it would've been out of character for me to refuse it. That's the sense I was getting, anyway."

"So you just went along with it because you were scared of getting caught?" said Wilde. "You still have a moral obligation to refuse it if you really think it's wrong!"

"Depends on what your end goal is," she returned. "Are you telling me that you would've been better off if I'd been caught, put in a cell, and left unable to give you guys any kind of warning at all? I may not agree with everything that Hopps said, but I do agree with at least one thing: Survival is the main goal. I know you feel it, too," she said, pointedly looking at Wilde. "I'm bred to have that instinct, as are most of us here! So yeah, I use trickery and subterfuge in order to get my way in a pinch:

"I blackmailed Nick into helping me find Emmitt Otterton, threw the blackmail material into a suspicious lot so that I could claim probable cause and go onto Mr. Big's property to continue the investigation. And then, when I figured out that night howlers were bulbous roots I had Mr. Big threaten to kill Weasleton if he wouldn't give us the information we needed."

Nick only looked down at her. "You know, when you put it that way, you make me think that you're more of a hustler than I am."

She tilted her head back so that they were nose to nose and grinned widely. "And don't you forget it, Sweetheart."

"Ugh, gross!" scoffed Fangmeyer, "Could you wait till we get a room?"

She turned her head back to face Wilde and laughed a little at the wolf's reaction, turning her eyes to him. She realised that the majority of her story had gone over the heads of the animals there but had noticed some reaction to the name Otterton though she couldn't tell whether it were fear or sadness. Or both.

"The point is," she continued, "that you have to live your life by a different set of rules when you're undervalued and given a short straw in life. I don't have strength or height or sharp teeth or fangs to help me out there in the real world, so I have to rely on what I have and that's my speed and my ability to think quick. I took the repellent because I was on the spot and refusing it would've sent up immediate alarm bells."

"Then why were you more open with us?" asked Wilde. "If what you're saying's true, you were being more truthful with the rest of us than you were with the police department. What made you think you could drop your guard with us?"

Judy rolled her shoulders. "I woke up driving this morning around five o'clock or so. From then till I got to your . . . establishment . . . I figured out whose side I wanted to be on."

"Then that actually leads me to the question that I asked when I first met you: Why did you come to pick me up?"

Judy nodded. "I answered that question truthfully when I first met you. I think I'd already decided by that point that I wasn't going to turn you in. I mean, the Nick I knew was really a good fox beneath his hardboiled mask so I figured that you'd also be helpful. I mean, I had to hope. So, I was trying to probe what kind of animals you were while trying to keep a lid on things. My one mistake was telling you that the chief wanted me to bring you in. I honestly didn't know why. But since I got the email I knew I was going to have to come out and see you. Otherwise, it'd look odd. I was ready to just go back and say that I couldn't find you."

"But then why did you do it--I mean, why come and meet me--when you could've just let Hopps come for me? I mean, why d'you feel that you had to come?"

"Because I didn't know there were two of us at the time. If I'd known that, then I might've been able to let her go by herself. It's lucky for you that I didn't, though, because if I hadn't you wouldn't've had any warning at all."

"Not that it did us any good, anyway," murmured Finnick.

"It might've helped if you'd told us about the night howlers beforehand," growled Wilde angrily and with no small amount of bitterness, though it wasn't specifically directed at her and more toward the situation.

"If she'd known," said Nick, "she would've told you. Hell, I could've told you. We both had a front row seat to what happened."

"If we'd been able to talk with Sgt. Hopps sooner, we might've been able to figure out what was happening sooner," nodded Judy.

Nick laughed behind her. "How dare you suggest it?" he joked.

Judy chuckled slightly before her face turned serious. "She was right, though. About everything. She had the information that you wanted, not me," she continued as she looked at Wilde.

She thought back to when she'd initially been questioned by Wilde and Koslov. If she'd known what Hopps had known, she would have been able to share that information in an instant. It seemed to her, though, that Hopps had at least tried if only to save her own skin.

"Anyway, yeah," she continued "it's true about ferals. What's left out--and she didn't really get to this part--is that it was all a conspiracy by Assistant Mayor Bellwether."

Everyone looked at her oddly.

"Bellwether?" said Finnick.

"Who's that?" asked Wolford.

Clawhauser turned to answer. "She's an assistant to Mayor Pricilla."

Nick and Judy looked at each other.

"Who's that," asked Nick.

"She's been the mayor of this city for the past ten years," Fangmeyer said.

"Ten years?!" Nick exclaimed. "I didn't know a term could last that long!"

"It can't," said Judy as she shook her head, looking straight ahead.

"What about Mayor Lionheart?" asked Nick.

"Who?" asked Finnick.

"I think he means Leodore," said Fangmeyer.

Finnick nodded. "I know him. He's one of the richies who can afford to live in Animalia."

Wilde nodded. "Yeah. I guess he was about as close to a representative for us in the city as you could get. He was really one of the few original families who could afford to do anything when it came to government. Both Koslov and Mr. Big's families were deep into crime by the time things started turning the way they did--it was too late for them to get out of crime and run a legitimate business by that time so they just had to go further underground."

"Lionheart was mayor where we came from," said Nick. "Bellwether plotted to divide the city. She wanted to take power for herself and get rid of all the preds in the city, making it so that only prey would be in power. She started having predators shot with a serum of night howler extract. Her minions boiled down the roots to extract the chemical. It doesn't actually transform anyone into a feral, it just has a psychotropic effect on individual's minds. What we saw back there wasn't a 'reversion' or anything of the sort."

"Will it wear off?" asked Wilde.

"I don't--well, we don't know," said Judy. "The last time Nick and I dealt with it, there was some antidote that had to be administered. Left to its own devices, the stuff lasts for weeks in a mammal's system. I mean, regardless of what species they were or anything."

"Do you know what the antidote is?" asked Finnick.

"Not really," said Nick. "She and I were mostly involved with the investigation side of it. But it probably had something to do with administering some anti-hallucinogen. I have no idea what it was but they probably reverse-engineered it from the plant."

"We might be able to figure it out, though . . ." said Judy pensively. "I mean, if we do go to Bunnyburrow we'll be able to get our hands on a few bulbs of it."

She turned back to them.

"So . . ." she started tentatively, "back to my original question: Does Bunnyburrow seem like it would work? Maybe we take a nap now and work our way through the night there? Then we can rest up, have a place to sleep, eat, and make contact with whoever we need to."

"One possible flaw in your plan, though," started Fangmeyer. "If you're really not from this world, how do you know your parents are going to be any friendlier to you than Hopps or the police were?"

Judy shrugged and sighed exhaustedly. "I guess I don't, really, but I think we have to take a chance 'cause where else can we turn?"

-.-.-.-

Some hours later, after they had slept there in the van on the side of the road, the group was startled awake by a thumping that came from Mike's trunk. Judy yawned and got out her phone and used it as a flashlight to see around the van enough to turn on an overhead light. The others were stirring groggily in the suddenly brightened space, their sleep having given way to sober thoughts.

"Sorry, sorry!" she yawned as she sat back down.

Nick walked over to the trunk and opened it to find a bound Hopps kicking the inside of the trunk.

"Thanks for waking us, Sunshine. What seems to be the problem?" the fox asked.

"I . . . I need to go to the bathroom," she said as her ears blushed somewhat.

Nick yawned and turned to Wilde who was also yawning. "I think we ought to take her in a group in case she tries to get away from us." He turned back to her. "Not that she really has anywhere to go. Not in the middle of the woods, two hours from civilisation," Nick finished.

They all helped her into the woods but let Judy follow her alone since she was the only female.

"Why're you helping them!" asked Hopps when the two were alone.

"Why wouldn't I? They need help."

"You realise that you're risking your life and your . . . what, did you say he was your mate? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! And you were stupid to admit it to anyone."

"Maybe," murmured Judy as she continued into the woods. Her groggy mind didn't feel like arguing at the moment. "But they seem trustworthy."

"Not everybody's going to be so welcoming when it comes to your relationship. Animals are likely to turn you in for just that."

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

Hopps stopped behind Judy and let out a sharp laugh. "I thought at least you'd be smarter than this. You can't trust any_body_."

"Maybe not," started Judy as she turned around, started toward Hopps, and led her behind a tree, "but I had to start somewhere. If there's anyone I don't trust with my information, it's you."

"And you're the one I don't trust. You were the one who was in the police department earlier passing yourself off as me, weren't you? I wanna know who you're working for and who you got to do such a damn good job on your surgery."

Judy looked bemused. "Huh?"

"You look exactly like me--I know I don't have a sister who looks exactly like me, so I wanna know who the hell you are. I mean, really."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she returned. She couldn't help but wonder at her gutsy lookalike--here she was tied up in the middle of a cold forest at the end of autumn, going to the bathroom next to a tree and she had the self-confidence to attempt an interrogation? If Judy weren't so suspicious of her double, she'd be impressed at her courage.

"I may have misjudged you," Hopps conceded. "Maybe you're not the one who needs to look out--I'd wager they're the ones who need to look out for you. What was your aim in going to Wilde Times? And what's with that fox? I can see he's a beat up version of Nick, back there. If I didn't know any better I'd think he wanted to get caught on purpose. Am I right?"

Judy gave her a quizzical look. "Why would he want to get caught?" She was honestly curious, now.

"Maybe you were part of the mayor's plan to kill the preds in Happy Town."

"You say that like it's an accusation. I thought that's what you wanted."

Hopps bristled and became suddenly taciturn.

Nothing more was said between the two of them despite Judy's attempts to get her double to talk more. Something wasn't adding up right. She thought back to the fact that'd been brought up in conversation in the van and snippets she picked up earlier: That somehow her double had been the target of an attempted assassination. She recalled that Hopps had touched on that subject when they'd all argued earlier that evening, but it seemed now that all attempts to get her to speak were failing and she didn't know why.

She had managed to get Wilde's cell number as well as the numbers of everyone else in the group who had a phone--which included everyone but Nick--and she took the opportunity while they were waiting to say nothing of their destination to Hopps for fear that it would start a fight--the bunny might take it as a threat or an attack on her family. Judy knew herself well enough to know that if she were in a position where she thought individuals were plotting to hurt her family in any way she'd be frantic to think of a way to escape--and she probably would. Or die trying. Hopps seemed more or less resigned now to the fact that she was trapped, her earlier protests insisting that she needed to stay having died down. It seemed that it'd dawned on Hopps as it had on Judy earlier that any attempt to remain would be costly.

Hopps knew she was up against steep odds, to begin with. Coal had tried to kill her, she reminded herself. Just that one fact told her so much about what was happening and where she stood with the rest of the police department and the city itself. She had no idea where to turn. Well, that wasn't entirely true, she reminded herself. The trouble was that she had no idea how to get to the area of Happy Town she'd need to--there was no way she'd be able to take on a group of friends and an eerie facsimile of herself.

Before she knew it, Judy was leading her back to the van. She considered escape but realised that it was futile to consider it. She was still cuffed, two wolves and two foxes were nearby and she was in the middle of nowhere on a freezing, near-winter night with only a thin layer of daywear.

Wilde was the one who lifted her back into the trunk.

"You have no idea how much I resent this," she murmured.

"You have no idea how much we all enjoy this," he retorted.

"So what's your plan? Where're we headed."

"You'll see once we get there," said Fangmeyer.

Nick closed the trunk and latched it again. They all got into the van, this time with Fangmeyer in the driver's seat in order to give Wolford a rest.

"It's not exactly ten yet, but I think it's close enough," said Judy with a slight shrug.

"Did you have an objection?" asked Wolford in a resentfully calm tone, though Judy was not oblivious to the hard edge in his eyes.

"Not really. I'm probably just over-thinking things. Either way, we'll be in Zootopia at a late enough time that we'll be able to get through the city with relatively no problem. Actually, that brings me to another point," she said as Fangmeyer started the van and began to turn around on the highway, "do you have any idea whether there are any preds who are working against you?"

They all looked at each other with confused expressions.

"What makes you ask?" said Clawhauser.

"Well," started Judy as she snuggled into Nick's lap as he wrapped an arm around her, "it just seems like, from something that Sgt. Hopps said, that there were some predators who weren't exactly on our side. It was something about the way that she warned me not to trust anybody."

"You think there may be double agents?" asked Nick.

She nodded to herself silently. "We have to consider that it's a possibility. I don't think it would have been possible to pull off the stunt tonight unless there had been someone on the inside feeding city hall information. More than just Nick's collar, I mean. All the collar tells you is that there's one animal in one particular location--but there would've had to've been someone on the inside who would've had mentioned the number of bodies present."

"Are you sure?" asked Fangmeyer from the front. "If you just keep a tally by watching the front entrance it would give you a good enough idea how many were inside."

Judy nodded. The only real reason for her suspicion was Hopps' comment and even then, the doppelgänger had never actually said it. Still, there was enough in the comment and a few other things she'd said that made her wonder. There'd be no way to know for sure without asking a member of the police force directly. Maybe there were no predator traitors at all--she remembered a case not too long ago involving a sheep dressing up in a wolf costume and committing crimes in order to sway public opinion on predators.

When she brought this up to the group, some nodded while others were in total denial that such a thing could happen--it was unimaginable that any pred would betray his own kind. She pointed out to them that it might not necessarily be a betrayal--police officers where she was from were often successfully able to pass themselves off as another species in order to gather intelligence and otherwise go undercover. Judy was certain that Hopps would've been aware of such tactics and related as much to the group--including her notion that it was possibly this fact to which Hopps had been alluding.

No one really said anything either confirming or denying what she was saying--How could they without direct evidence?--but seemed to come to a general consensus that they all needed to be extra careful. While the possibility had occurred to many, the fact of the matter was that since none of them had spent any real time within or around members in the upper echelons of the ZPD, they had no real way of knowing either way. Garou's name was brought up along with the suggestion that he might have known since he actually worked there semi-voluntarily. He might've heard something about any such plans--but all efforts to contact him or Cevilla had failed.

Mr. Big had responded to the texts and mentioned that he and his family were safe but that several of the animals who worked for him weren't answering and were presumed transformed, dead, or out of range. Koslov was MIA, too; along with several others. Of all those whom they texted, hardly any were still in the city. Only a few vague warnings were given regarding the urban area, suggesting that they needed to take extra care when coming through; though there was little information given as to what the threat was, exactly. All attempts to gather more information went unanswered though they felt they could take a guess as to what the threat was.

The two or so hours spent in the van were whiled away with idle chat interspersed with natural silences and private conversations.

As they reached Happy Town, they slowed so as to travel within the speed limit of the city. They passed a sign reading "Welcome to Happy Town." Claw marks had been drawn across it in downward and diagonal swipes as though a large creature had been attempting to use it as a scratching post.

Nick, along with everyone else in the van, pinned his ears back tensely as they entered the city.

"Because that's not at all ominous," said Nick as they drove on. Judy nudged him in the ribs and he winced slightly. "Ow! Careful, Carrots. I'm not all the way fixed yet!"

"Sorry!" she replied in a hushed whisper. She reached over and gently rubbed his side. "I'm just scared right now."

"I know. This is like the start to every horror movie. I already know that you're gonna be the final female survivor. The bitch in the trunk will probably die last."

"Stop . . ." she moaned out.

"Just wait: Something's gonna fall into the middle of the road and look dead--or maybe it'll be a tree branch or something. One of us in the back will go out to investigate and-or get it out of the road. Then either the thing'll come alive and kill whoever's looking or the attack'll come from the sides.

"For extra tension, the diver's the one who'll get out of the car and we'll all start scrambling to get in the front seat to drive away while he's being torn to shreds. After we're all picked off one by one it'll just be you, me, and Wilde left. I'll die horribly right in front of you and Wilde will save you and get you safely to Bunnyburrow and you'll end up forming a kind of romance with him while wistfully reminiscing about the life you could have had with me."

Wolford raised an eyebrow at Nick while also keeping an eye on the road ahead. He had no idea how Fangmeyer was able to keep a straight face while driving. The pitch blackness of the road ahead of them wasn't conducive to the mood at all, and it seemed to him that all the streetlights had been turned off. He growled to himself slightly as the fox's words, though a joke, were hitting a little too close to home, emotion-wise.

Wolford shook his head. "You are so fucked up it's unbelievable," he said as they continued onward.

"Blame my upbringing," Nick said flatly, though he was unable to suppress a smirk that came to his face.

Finnick was about to say something when something jumped in the road ahead of them. Fangmeyer hit the brakes instantly and paused in front of the creature.

Nick opened his mouth to speak but was stopped when Judy gripped his arm tightly and gave him a harsh look.

"Don't. You. Dare," she enunciated in a stern staccato that brooked no argument.

Fangmeyer slowly edged the van forward and growled. "I know you were joking back there, Nick; but seriously: Fuck you."

It earned a timid laugh as they continued forward past what they could now see was a naked tiger. It growled at them as they passed by and continued forward so as not to hit it. They managed to pass it as it growled at them.

"Maybe it thinks we're one big animal?" asked Judy.

"Well, he's not stupid," said Wolford as he watched them pass the tiger by, slowly.

"It has nothing to do with being stupid and everything to do with the fact that these animals are hallucinating and are out of their minds. There's no way to know what it is they're seeing," she replied.

They travelled on through the city encountering other ferals, many of whom attacked the vehicle while still others showed a kind of fear that the earlier tiger had.

Fangmeyer took a different root down by the water front as often as he could to avoid the busier highway in case there were police on the roads. Judy stuck close to Nick as rapid-fire guns could be heard going off in the distance.

"What kind of darts are they using?" asked Nick. "Those shots sound like they're just one after another."

"They aren't dart-guns," replied Fangmeyer from the front. "They're using bullets."

"Bullets?"

"Yeah. Don't tell me you've never heard of bullets!"

"Well, yeah, but only for hunting! And wars! What the hell are the mammals here doing with guns with bullets in them?!" he exclaimed.

"Prey are allowed to use them on predators," said Wilde from beside Nick.

Judy looked up at Wilde. "You're joking!"

Wilde shook his head sadly. "When you were confronted by police today," he said to Nick, "they had two guns on their belts, right? One on the left and another on their right?"

Nick nodded slowly, thinking about the pig he'd encountered when first coming here. "Yeah, she held me up with one of 'em," said Nick. "She was a pig and I'd just been assaulted and she was arresting me and holding me up."

"She would've had two guns on her," continued Wilde in an odd reverie, "one on the left and the other on her right. I'll bet she held you up with the gun on her left."

A shudder went through Nick as he had a terrible feeling of what he was about to hear.

"She was holding you up with a bullet gun. She could've killed you with it. They're using rapid fire guns in the city, now, either to take out preds or to take out the ferals. Either way, they don't give a shit. We'll be lucky if they don't pick us up."

"As long as we stick to the low roads we won't be," said Fangmeyer from the front.

Judy brought her paw to her mouth. "That's terrible1 I can't believe they'd do that!"

Wilde snorted. "I'm sure it wasn't that much better where you're from. How many did you save?"

"All of them," said Nick. "None of them died. We saved them all."

Wilde chuffed. "Oh, of course . . ." he said in a quiet growl.

"Part of it's due to the fact that we don't use bullet guns in our world."

"Yeah?" said Wilde quietly as he tilted his head back. "Well, in this world we have the Razorbacks."

"What're those?" asked Nick.

"A group of elite special forces trained very well in the art of killing. They're known for their ability to sniff out any predator and take him out. The only trouble is, they don't care who gets caught in the crossfire."

"You've crossed paths with them before?" asked Judy.

Wilde nodded solemnly. "Yeah. I . . . Well, you know Vixy, right?"

Nick nodded, his ears tilted back slightly.

"Well, she and I were gonna get married. But she got killed."

Nick's ears perked up in shock. "Vixy's dead in this universe?"

"Yeah. The ZPD was trying to take down a drug cartel in Happy Town--a seedy part of town, and she was walking home. The ZPD set up a perimeter--after she went into the area. She had no idea she was walking into a battle zone. Someone who escaped told me that he was there when the Razorbacks were sweeping the area and everyone got out. They found her and at first all they did was arrest her. She tried to escape, though, and she didn't get too far before they caught her again . . . and put her to death."

Nick and Judy sat there like stones.

"Is Vixy Mike's . . ." Nick trailed off.

Wilde nodded. "Yeah. She was Mike's mother. The . . ." he broke off as he was suddenly reminded of his son. "The kid you met earlier." Tears started pouring down his face though he refused to sob--his face impassive as his red fur became matted. He laughed scornfully. "I was seventeen and had my first fuck with her. I found out later she was gonna have my first kit, too. I thought I'd fucked up her life and mine, but she said she loved me and wanted to make it work. I dunno if I loved her but I wanted to be there for my kit.

"I was living in the streets by then--Mom and Dad were both gone--and I had Mike on the way and I didn't know what to do. So I had to man the fuck up. I wasn't gonna let my kit be born and have a harder life than I did, so I had to make something of myself. I went back to school and got into college, got on benefits an' all that so we could take care of him and ourselves.

"The kit came along when I was eighteen. I had four years of premed ahead of me; but eventually, I was ready to start the next phase. That's when Vixy . . . ." He broke off and shuddered, unable to prevent his sobs from coming now.

"Take your time," said Judy softly as he choked back his sadness.

After a moment, he continued. "They said that she'd been shot by one of the gang members they'd been after. I found out later that the police shot her. They didn't even seem to care. We were living apart at the time and . . . and we were gonna have a life together."

Judy's ears were pinned back. She said nothing as she waited for him to continue.

"I remember getting to the hospital when I found out that she'd been shot. I left Mike with Vixy's sister and went to go see her. The surgeon told me that she'd lost a lot of blood, so I knew there was a chance that . . ." he paused and swallowed, "but I was just hoping . . . ." He broke off again and took a shuddering breath as he recalled the night, speeding through it as though to rip off a band-aid. "But she'd lost too much blood. Her pressure was dropping--her heart rate was speeding up to try and pump non-existant blood through her body, screaming for oxygen. But there wasn't enough to go round and her heart . . ." he broke off as he stifled a sob. He took a breath. "Her heart . . . ." He couldn't.

Judy kept her composure as best she could and nodded carefully.

"But I didn't want to fail him."

He was talking about his son, she realised.

"I didn't want him to have a hard life--well, harder than I'd had it. I just kept on thinking that if he hadn't had me for a dad that none of this would've happened to him. So I promised myself that I wouldn't let him see any of it. I would do anything and everything I could to keep him from seeing the shitty side of life. Zootopia would show him how awful life could be as soon as he turned five and had to put that fucking collar on. But for the rest of it . . . I told myself that I was never going to let it hit him as hard as it hit me."

Judy nodded and was holding back her own emotions. "And that's when you thought up the park."

Wilde half laughed, half sobbed. "Yeah . . . yeah, Wilde Times, yeah . . . ." He wiped a hand over his face. "So then that's just kind of a cosmic coincidence isn't it?" he asked with a pained smile on his face. He chuckled painfully and mirthlessly. "That they were both destroyed on the same night?"

Judy seized his paw tightly as Nick pulled him into a tight embrace. Finnick and Wolford scooched over and put their arms around him, too.

"Listen to me," said Judy, "we're here for you. We're here for you."

"We got you, Red. You know we're always gonna back you up," said Wolford tightly.

"You have us," said Finnick firmly.

"I know it doesn't make it better, but you're not alone," said Nick. Reflecting on his own life, he had suffered alone--and suffered alone a lot. There was nothing he'd feared more in his life than being totally isolated; and the tragedies that he'd suffered in his life, the vast majority of them--starting with his trauma at the hands of the Junior Ranger's club--, had been endured alone. It was what he had come to fear most in his life. He had longed for a pack not only for the camaraderie and an end to his societally imposed, solitary existence but also so that he could have someone to rely on when things went to shit.

Here now, in this space, he wanted to give himself--his twin, anyway--the one thing which seemed to have been missing from his life: a pack.

He took the fox by the shoulders and turned him to look at him. "I know it doesn't fix anything," he started as his reflection stared back at him blearily, "but you need to hear this: We're your pack now. You're with us. And we're not going anywhere." He sighed and paused for a moment before continuing. "Here's a lesson I had to learn the hard way--Even a shitty life has value."

Wilde's face quickly changed from one expressing a kind of apathy to one displaying surprise, then confusion, then realisation. He chuckled and nodded agreeably even as ripples of sorrow passed through him.

"Thank you," was all he said in a quiet tone.

Nick let the fox go even as the group stayed around him. Wilde sat there facing Nick for a moment before allowed himself to turn away and lean back against the side of the van. The others stayed near him, keeping close by, as the van went on into the night, making it out of Happy Town, leaving the sounds of gunfire and chaos behind them. They made it through Zootopia without incident and then across the bridge as they finally began their two-hundred and eleven-mile journey to Bunnyburrow.

-.-.-.-

Hours of driving later, they were all relieved when they pulled up to the front of a house in the wee hours of the morning. It was three or so, and after having traded drivers twice in the course of their journey they had managed to make it to their destination without further incident. There had been a few close calls along the way--including a few where they were almost caught by patrolmen who were guarding the roads to and from the city. Arriving at the house, then, meant not only a kind of safety for them--or so they hoped--but also a place to finally take some real rest.

It seemed to those in the van that the majority of the house must be underground--there was no way that two-hundred and seventy-five individuals plus relatives were going to be able to live inside the house if all there were to the home was building that sat before them. When they expressed this to her, she nodded that their hunch was correct and then went on to fight off the litany of jokes that proceeded to tease her. God, she live-down the fact that she was basically a walking stereotype, she thought to herself.

As her attention turned from her companions to the house, Judy became curious about the fact that the lights seemed to be on--at least at the top level. She hummed to herself as they unloaded the trunk carefully. Wolford and Fangmeyer took it between the two of them to as to keep it even. Judy groaned with relief as she walked up the steps to the front door and imagined that she'd finally being able to get out of uniform and slip into something more comfortable.

She walked up to the door and knocked, hearing a slight commotion from within. Judy wasn't certain, but she was somewhat sure she could hear the sound of someone sobbing from within. She heard someone stand up from the kitchen table, round the corner into the front hall, and come to the door.

The lock clicked.

The knob turned.

And the door opened a crack.

Looking out at them, to Judy's surprise, was her tearful mother. The older rabbit's face suddenly seemed to break into an expression of stunned surprise, her eyes widening and her sadness seeming to vanish almost instantly.

Before Judy had a chance to say anything she was suddenly knocked forward suddenly as the door burst open, sending her crashing into her mother. The younger bunny instinctively pushed her mother up against the side of the hall as the two wolves carrying the trunk shoved their way into the house and went down the hall.

Her mother looked on stunned, fearful, and with no small amount of bemusement.

Before her mother could say anything, the wolves stopped. The grey one turned toward them and called, "Hey, Hopps, which way did you want us to take this?"

Judy sputtered in anger at the sudden and rude invasion but stemmed the flow of anger out of a need to calm what was likely to be an explosive situation, calling back, "Just set it there! And get back here, now!" She was about to continue but stopped when she noticed her mother's terrified expression.

The older bunny was edging toward the door when she suddenly let out a scream and backed away, nearly stumbling over her feet as she scampered from the doorway, as two red foxes and one small fennec made their way in followed by a rotund cheetah.

"Bonnie, are you okay?" came a deep, gravelly voice from a room off the hall to the left. A chair was heard scraping on the floor, then the sound of footsteps. A moment later a stocky male rabbit, moderately advanced in age, rounded the corner and came to a dead stop the moment his eyes landed on the crowd before him.

"Cheese and crackers! Bonnie, get the fox repellent!"

All hell broke loose as the foxes and wolves started forward suddenly as all at once they voiced a cacophony of protests as the older female scurried about to find the weapon.

The older male screamed as they all started talking at him at once, everyone trying to explain the situation. Though every predator was shouting boisterously they attempted to seem as harmless as possible. All the older rabbit saw, however, was a blended chimaera of sharp claws and teeth, tall stances and angry and snarling countenances that whirled together in a terrifying vision.

His limbs went numb and his mind went blank as the certainty that he was about to die at that very moment flooded his instincts, pumping him full of adrenaline as his mind strained itself to think of a way out of the situation.

Before anything else happened, Judy pinned her ears back, put her fingers in her mouth, and let out a sharp whistle that blasted through the house and instantly silenced everyone present.

"Jeez, what the fuck did you go an' do that for?!" shouted Wolford.

"Hey, listen to me!" started Judy angrily. "You're in my parents' house. You burst in unannounced and're frightening them to death!"

"Judy, are you alright?!" her mother shouted tearfully as she shakily aimed the fox taser.

"Mom, I'm fine! Everybody," she said calmly, her firm tone intending to project that she was in charge of the situation, "let's calm down. Mom, Dad--these are my friends," she said as she gestured to the predators behind her.

"Those savages?!" started her father as he looked over her head incredulously as he beheld the odd assembly behind her.

Judy sucked in breath. "Okay, Dad: They're not savages. They are predators." She spoke slowly though she was trying to keep her temper down. "And they are my friends. And . . . what the hell--you're gonna figure it out anyway: This fox," she gestured to Nick, "is my mate."

Her parents looked as though she'd just told them that she'd been on a killing spree. She took advantage of their silence and pressed on.

"I've been betrayed by the ZPD," she started as she tried to present as much true information as she could--what she understood about the sergeant's situation, anyway. "Prey animals in the city hall are trying to kill me and were trying to kill all the preds you see here-"

"They must have done something illegal!" her mother cried. "Did you even think of that?!"

"Mom," she started off calmly, "the ZPD has been killing and torturing predators by the scores in order to make the city into a prey-only city. Look!" She surprised Fangmeyer as she grabbed his paw, pulled him forward, splaying his fingers. He winced in pain, shame, and surprise as she showed her father, who backed away fearfully but then looked closely in curiosity as she went on:

"This was done to him without anaesthesia! For a _non_violent offence!" she said as she indicated the clawless fingers. No one had told her specifically that it had been done without the benefit of pain suppressants but it had seemed relatively clear to her that that'd been the case. She went on. "I was attacked by a member of my own force because they figured out that I wasn't entirely with them--I think."

She stopped for a moment and eyed her parents before pressing on. "Anyway, city hall has been using night howlers to make preds go savage. It's all manufactured by them! They aren't going savage by themselves, they're all victims! Tonight, they were all at a theme park. They were bombed with a night howler gas and turned into ferals. These preds," she indicated the group behind her "along with a few others who went their own way, are the only ones who were able to escape."

A pregnant silence followed where no one said anything.

"I don't believe it," her father said.

"It's true!" she pressed.

"What even are night howlers?" her mother asked. "Some kind of drug?!"

"If they were taking drugs then they deserved it!" her father said angrily as he regarded the preds standing around her. "And I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I am in you for getting yourself mixed up in this!"

"It's not a drug!" Judy shouted as her temper flared. "And they are innocent!" she insisted. She thought for a moment before backtracking. "Well, I guess it is a drug, but it's nothing they're taking themselves! They're being incriminated!"

"What kind of a drug is it?!" her father shouted. "What have you gotten yourself into?!" He seized her and shook her fiercely. Judy was stunned. At no time in her life had her father ever laid a hand on her. She broke free and stood back to look at him.

"Dad!" she said defensively, "you know what night howlers are!" she cried.

"No, I don't!"

"Night howlers! Night howlers! Uh . . ." she wracked her brain before suddenly realising why she wasn't getting through. "It's midnicampum holicithias!" she said. "Mom, do you remember when Uncle Terry ate a whole one?!" she said as she turned her pleading gaze to her mother.

Her mother looked stunned. "Who told you about that?" she asked. "I never told you that."

"You remember how he took a chunk out of your arm? Mom," she turned toward her father, "Dad, you know that it can turn even the most gentle animal into a savage! They took whatever it is in the bulbs and concentrated it!"

Her parents looked on, stunned.

She nodded--it seemed she was winning the argument. "They were changed--transformed!--right in front of us! We all saw it!" she gestured around emphatically. "I found out what city hall was up to and they came after me in order to keep me from talking!" It was a lie, she thought. On the other hand, she stopped suddenly, that would make sense. What if Hopps, in spite of her rough exterior, were somehow still attempting to be a good cop and, in so doing, abiding by the letter of the law--however unjust? What if abiding by that letter meant that she were going to have to expose city hall?

It was a long shot, but it was the most educated guess she could make at the moment. It was something she was going to ask the sergeant when they questioned her. Remembering the sergeant suddenly, she wondered why their captive wasn't kicking and screaming to warn her parents of the intruders. She intended to put both that question and the question as to why she had been targeted by city hall to her later.

Right now, her parents seemed to be processing the information.

"So, we needed a place to hide and we decided on here."

"Mom, Dad," came a voice from another room, "what's going on up-" The bunny came up from the downstairs area, a cup of either tea or coffee in her paws, and stopped when she beheld the scene in front of her. "Wha-wha-" she stuttered as she took everything in, dropping her cup in dumb shock. Her her sad, red eyes roamed before finally landing on Judy, a gasp of surprise escaping her when she saw her sister. "Y-you're alive!" she said brokenly, tears threatening to escape. She ran to Judy and hugged her tightly and sobbed.

Judy hugged her sororal sister uncertainly. "Yeah . . ." she started timidly, "I'm not dead. What made you think I was dead?"

The young bunny turned to her mother. "Mom and Dad said . . . ." She broke off as she waited for an explanation from anyone. She had no idea what to think about the situation. And especially not of the conspicuously collarless savages in the house.

"Your sister," their father started as he addressed the newcomer, "says that somebody's trying to kill her." He paused. "She says it came from city hall."

Her sister looked confused. "You don't believe her?"

"I'm not sure what to think. She just told us she's mated to a fox."

She whirled around to look at Judy, stunned. "Are you serious?!"

"At this point," said Judy quickly, "I would like to remind you that I'm not dead which you all apparently thought I was a few seconds ago!"

The bunny just looked at her, a war of emotions being fought inside her. "And . . ." she started slowly, "you're saying that city hall really was trying to kill you?"

Judy looked over her sister's shoulder to her father. "Who told you that I was dead?"

"We got a call from . . . from Mayor Pricilla's assistant. Uh . . . Bellwether . . . ." He tried to recall the name and nodded certainly when he reassured himself of the name.

"So . . ." started Judy slowly, "that proves that city hall is in on it." She wanted to lead her parents carefully through the logic. "They didn't even wait to recover my body, they couldn't have waited to even try, because I'm here. They tried to murder me themselves and just assumed it was done and then, well--they just told you that I was dead."

Stu nodded to himself and Judy's mother came to stand beside him, taking his arm gently.

"And they wanted me dead," she pressed, "because I found out that they were manufacturing the fear of predators by turning them into ferals. Doesn't the fact that they wanted to kill me prove that . . . that something's not right in Zootopia? That they're corrupt?"

Working their way backwards, her parents nodded--begrudgingly accepting that what she was saying was the truth, though their misgivings and fear of the predators in their entrance hall had not evaporated in the slightest.

"I'm calling the police," said her sister flatly and went into the kitchen to grab the phone off the wall.

Judy followed her quickly. "Daisy, you can't!" she shouted as she snatched the phone away.

"Judy, I have to!" her sister shouted back. "If we get caught with these collarless savages we could be targeted, too!"

"But they'll arrest me too!"

Her sister paused as she struggled for the receiver, the coiled line stretching between the two of them.

"W-we could hide you here . . ." her sister trailed off.

"And can you guarantee that they would never say anything?" said Judy as she nodded to the crowd in the hall. It was below the belt, of course--Judy knew that none of them would ever willingly betray her. Or Nick.

Daisy thought for a moment before continuing. "I recognise the fox in there." She was whispering, though it made little difference since everyone had sharp ears. "He was on the news. After we got the call that you had . . ." her sister sobbed. "When we heard that you'd passed away, I turned on the news in my room to see if there was going to be anything about it--they didn't give us any details. They told us that that fox--the one with all the scars on his face--was at the centre of a drug ring that was turning savages into ferals!"

"It's actually city hall. I told mom and dad this already, but the government in Zootopia has been secretly boiling down night howlers-"

"Huh? What?"

Judy groaned. "Midnicampum holicithias. They've been boiling down the roots and using the broth to make a chemical that makes mammals go feral."

Daisy looked on in stunned silence.

"So I found out about it and they wanted to kill me for it. And now it seems like they're trying to frame Nick--Mr. Wilde--for it. Did they mention anything about night howlers? Or midnicampum holicithias?"

Her sister shook her head slowly.

"Then that means that they're still trying to pin this all on ferals. They did--in the news--didn't they?" Judy asked.

Daisy seemed to stare off into space, her head slowly moving from side to side as she seemed to be trying to work something out in her mind. She suddenly snatched the phone receiver from Judy's paw and held it for a moment as Judy looked on, saying and doing nothing.

Suddenly: "Mom, Dad," she started. She abruptly hung up the receiver. "We can't call anyone. I believe her." She smoothed out her nightgown as she stepped back into the hall. "I'll call everyone in the morning and let them know that Judy's alive and warn them that they can't tell anyone!"

"No!" said Judy. "You can't tell them, not over the phone. I know that we're really far from Zootopia but we can't chance that there're animals listing who're in cahoots with them! They got their information on us somehow."

"So . . . ?" her sister trailed.

"So," said Judy certainly, "call them here. I know most everyone's moved away, but bring them here: They can only hear this in person."

Her sister nodded.

Her father shook his head as he tried to take in the depth of the situation. "I . . . I . . . ."

"Dad, Mom . . ." started Daisy slowly, "just go to bed. Thing's'll be clearer in the morning."

"I'm gonna call Honey," said Finnick as it seemed to him the matter had been to some degree settled.

"Oh yeah," started Judy as she perked up to her mom and dad, "other preds are going to be meeting here too."

"What?!" shouted her father. "That's too far!"

"We need a place large enough to gather!"

"There's no way I'm letting a bunch of collarless freaks into my house!"

"Dad, if you would just listen!"

"No!" he shouted. "Not another word! Get out!"

Judy looked for a moment as though she'd been slapped but then stood her ground. "No."

"I'm your father and I-"

"I'm your daughter! I'm a grown rabbit now and you're still treating me like a child! Listen to me! The government in Zootopia has been making ferals wear shock collars--not only that, they've been torturing them and killing them with bullets! Executing them, just like tonight, in the streets! They can't move about freely, they're being forced to live in poverty and now they're being transformed into ferals and being made to kill each other; and all of this while the city hall is using this as an excuse to blame them and drive them out of the city! I know you wanted to raise me to be safe but you also raised me to be fair!

"I know you know that what's happening in the city and to them isn't fair! You want to uphold the law--that's great! But you always taught me and told me that the law needed to be based in morality--you always told me that. If predators started doing the same thing to us there'd be panic in the streets and we would scramble to fight them off!" She pointed at the group behind her. "Their lives are being threatened!" She looked at Wilde. "His son!" She broke off in a choked sob. "His son was probably killed tonight. How was that fair? What did he do to deserve that fate? What did any of them do?"

Her father looked on, stunned at the picture she was painting for him.

"If there were only rules, Daddy, you might think to yourself, 'If all I do is follow the law, I won't get hurt.' But the cops I'm working with, with the murderers and corrupt officials I'm working for--the law doesn't apply to them! They tried to kill me and they would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been through sheer dumb luck!"

Her chest heaved and her face was flushed as she looked on.

"So yeah, we're going to stay here. We're all going to stay here. And if more animals come to us for help fleeing the city we're going to give it to them, damn it, because that's who we are! That's who I am--and I know you're the same. I know we're all the same!"

Her voice seemed to resonate through the hall.

She finished, quietly and subdued. "So if you want us gone, you'll have to turn in your daughter, too."

The silence that followed was resounding.

Nick suddenly spun her around. "Damn, you're hot!" he shouted as he kissed her fiercely--possessively--as he tipped her back before setting her on her feet again.

She was flushed even more, now; and she turned to regard the crowd behind her. She saw that the preds behind her now seemed to be standing a little taller.

She turned back to her parents and saw her father's expression. He seemed to be at war with himself, too. He looked up, somewhat sheepishly, and said. "You're right, but I . . ."

He was still holding on to his prejudice. Of course he did. Deep-seated feelings such as his were not so easily dismissed. He couldn't rid himself of them in spite of his daughter's impassioned speech.

"Do it for me!" Judy implored. "If not for them then for me! You still trust me, right? You know I would never do anything that would hurt the family."

Again, he nodded. "Okay . . ." he started slowly, "for you. But!" he started as he cut off a premature celebration, "You keep them under control. Do they have collars?"

Judy tried not to scoff at the comment in the face of her father's relenting. Gathering as much patience as she could she said, "They don't. And even if they did, they wouldn't wear them here."

"They have to!"

"There's no law in Bunnyburrow," she insisted calmly, "that says they have to wear collars!" At least, she hoped there weren't a law.

Her father made to protest but she cut him off again.

"And even if there were, and if this large group of preds went into the DMV for collaring, it might raise a few questions." She absolutely despised having to checkmate her father but she had to advocate for them.

She touched her father's arm. "I'm not against you Dad, but circumstances are what they are--and desperate measures are called for. I know it's not what you want--so please just try to bear with me until we get this whole thing sorted out."

Her father seemed pleased with her bargain. He nodded again and pulled her into a hug. "I just want you to know that I worry about you."

"I know. I know," she said as she hugged back. "But trust me when I say that they're not bad."

He stood back and looked at her warmly.

"We're tired," she said abruptly, "and we need to sleep. Do you mind if we . . . ?"

Her father sighed. There was so much more that needed to be said, but it would keep till then. "You know where you're room is," he said and he turned to his wife who'd been in some thought as she listened to the exchange between them. "Is that branch of rooms empty?"

Bonnie nodded slowly as she looked at Judy timidly.

"Not entirely," said Daisy, "I sleep off Judy's room, remember?"

Her mother nodded apologetically. "You know how large the house is. Sorry, Dear," she said quickly.

Daisy smirked at her mother before turning to her father. "I'll lead them down," she said. "You two go to bed. It's really late," she yawned, "and you should get some shut-eye."

Her parents walked on through the tiny kitchen whispering to each other.

"Why do you guys have such a tiny kitchen?" asked Wilde as he craned his head to allow his gaze to follow where the two were walking.

"This is the one we have at ground level that we use for guests. You know, it'll make tea, coffee, toast and a small meal or snack. For the larger one, it's all down stairs."

She led them into another room off the living room whence she'd come and opened the door to what appeared to be a closet. Wilde was surprised to see that it led to a stairwell and he couldn't help but be surprised at the ingenuity. They went down two levels before starting down a hallway that stemmed off a large common area which in turn led to another, smaller common area that was built in a circle. Light could filter in through a dome that covered the roof, two stories up. All along the tall walls of the common area that stretched above them were doors leading to rooms. They spiralled up all the way to the top and were accessible by a staircase that followed them op.

'I guess when you have a tin of kids, you have to be a skilled craftsman to pack 'em all in,' thought Wilde to himself.

All the rooms, then, fed into area where there were couches and tables full of books. As they stepped into the common circle they could see that there were ten doors that were on their own level. To the far left was the landing of the staircase that led up.

"The far-right room is Judy's" yawned Daisy. "The rest of you can pick whichever one you want," she motioned. "I'm going to bed."

She wandered off to the left and up to the first landing of the stairs and then walked down to the fourth door from the right along the curved wall and entered.

As the door closed, the others standing there let their shoulders fall as the tension they didn't quite realise they were carrying left them in a sudden rush.

"Is this a house or a school?" asked Finnick as he let out a chuckle.

Judy walked into the centre of the common area and sat down on one of the sofas there. Nick followed her and took a seat next to her.

"I gotta tell ya', Carrots," he said, "it's so sexy when you switch on your righteous indignation button." He kissed her gently.

"Well," she said as she sighed, tilting her head back as Nick planted another soft kiss on her neck, "it's what I do to keep my lover safe."

He chuckled to himself and pulled back slightly as the others in the group sat down around them in the other chairs and sofas that were arranged in a semi-circle.

Nick turned to Finnick. "So, who's Honey?" he asked.

Wilde answered. "She's a spy and a contact we have in the city. What did she say, by the way?" he asked as he turned to Finnick.

"Not much," he replied. "Just that she was on her way."

"You gave her directions here?" asked Judy.

"Didn't need to. She has GPS. All she needed was the address."

"That's all she said?" asked Nick.

"Well," said Finnick as he turned away from Wilde, "she did seem kinda surprised that we had Hopps with us."

"Oh, shit, the trunk!" shouted Wolford as he suddenly shot up and dashed back the way they came along with Fangmeyer.

Everyone had forgotten that they'd left it in the living room. It'd've been funny if it hadn't been such a serious matter. After all the work that Judy'd been doing to try to earn her father's trust, and getting him to trust her associates by extension, it would've been a tragedy to have it all washed away the instant someone discovered the real Hopps in a trunk--handcuffed and slightly beaten.

The other's stayed put and waited for Wolford and Fangmeyer to return with it.

When they got back, they sat the trunk down in the midst of the circle and opened it.

Sgt. Hopps sat up, glaring at them.

"You remorseless bastards!" she hissed. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?!"

"We needed a place to stay," said Judy.

"Bullshit! This is a threat!"

When Judy only looked at her quizzically Hopps continued.

"Sending me a message that if I don't do as you say you'll kill my parents?!" she asked as if it were the obvious answer.

"Nope," said Nick nonchalantly as if he knew everything, "we just needed someplace we could wait before Honey gets here."

Hopps opened her mouth to answer but stopped herself, looking down pensively. She let out a sigh. "I need to go to the bathroom again," she said quietly.

"I'll take her," said Judy.

She took Hopps' arm and began to lead her.

"It's-" began Hopps.

"I know where it is," Judy interrupted quickly.

Hopps gave her a sidelong look and seemed somewhat incredulous. That expression and the sentiment that accompanied it quickly evaporated as Judy successfully navigated the twists and turns of the hallway, ending up at the restroom. Hopps was deeply troubled at the implications of this success but said nothing. She complied entirely and made no attempt to escape--even when she was led back to Wilde's trunk which had by now been lined with blankets and pillows off someone's bed.

"Why're the bed's here so huge? I mean, large enough to accommodate_ us_?" asked Fangmeyer.

"So that we could double up if we ever needed to," said Judy. "Also, sometimes we had larger guests staying with us like bison or pigs--you know, fellow farmers--and we had to accommodate them. Not that we could accommodate a bison in this part of the house, of course. Just that we do have a place for larger prey."

Hopps got into the trunk slowly and sucked in a deep, resentful breath as the lid was closed.

"So did anybody else think that was weird?" asked Nick when Wilde finished locking it.

"What do you mean?" asked Wilde.

"Well," began Nick, "the fact that she isn't fighting?"

The others nodded.

"She's got a plan," said Clawhauser. "We have to figure out what it is."

"Not tonight!" said Nick and Wilde in unison.

This earned a brief chuckled from those gathered.

They were all so tired that without any pretense at politeness they all bade each other goodnight and chose rooms for themselves. Judy watched as Wilde, Fangmeyer, and Wolford decided which rooms they would take. The trio decided to sleep in the same room in order to guard Sgt. Hopps in the trunk. She watched the two wolves slowly bring it into the room Wilde had chosen before they closed the door.

Nick, she noticed, had already gone into the room that had been pointed out as being hers. Clawhauswer and Finnick chose separate rooms and bade each other and Judy good night.

Soon, it was just Judy alone in the common area.

It started as a crack in her spiritual fortitude. Soon, it became a larger. The dam of emotions within her was breaking as the stress from the whole day accompanied by a lack of sleep suddenly came crashing down on her--it's weight, crushing her. She started hyperventilating as emotion threatened to overrule her but maintained her composure as she slowly headed to the door Nick had gone through. She started out walking but broke into a quick skip, dashing toward her room as the anguish she felt flooded through her being. She was going to crash and she needed a soft place to land. She needed Nick!

She reached the door and yanked it open, stepped through it, and slammed it behind her, soundly.