Sunderance Act 2: Chapter 3 - Epitropos Written Chapter (Patreon)

“It’s good to see you, too, Papa. I wasn’t expecting to see you this soon, though I was planning to come visit once things had settled.”

Judy’s ears twitched as she tried to wriggle her way out of his lap, not something he was making easy with his arms wrapped around her as possessively as they had before the interruption had been made. Perhaps more so, which left her perplexed as she kept her eyes turned up to him. Obviously Big wasn’t a threat; Nick wasn’t really tense in the fight-or-flight way she’d come to recognize. His face was morose and his muzzle tight, things she certainly would have missed if she hadn’t spent the last three months trying to understand the male. He certainly didn’t look like he was angry, just…

A little twinge between her legs and a grunt she never would have heard if not for how close to his chest her ears were had understanding suddenly dawning. Then her ears were dropping and flaming as heat rushed through her when she averted her gaze from the normally stoic fox. And from Mr. Big. And the polar bear that held the tiny mammal. Quickly, she realized she wasn’t embarrassed by the fact that they had been caught in a strange bed about to strip each other down with very clear intent. The embarrassment that came with realizing she was just as frustrated by the interruption and that despite the appearance of two mammals she didn’t know, she was in no hurry to acknowledge them. Or put the distance between herself and Nick that was probably needed then.

Face pressed into his chest, she considered that having the constant threat of death over her head and survival thanks to him made everything else seem a little less important.

“I know, Nicky, I know,” the tiny shrew drawled in a voice that was equal parts understanding and passively bored (how did he do that?), causing her to turn her gaze towards the door. It was fascinating that someone so small could draw all of the attention away from a mammal so large, almost like the polar bear was just there to frame the massive importance and power Big held. “But when are things ever really settled?”

A very slow, very slight wave of a tiny, sharp-clawed paw had the stoic bear stepping further into the room, though they still didn’t approach the bed. She assumed that might have had something to do with their current state of undress. Or hers. Which made her ears burn again as she pressed her paws to his chest with a little nudge to see if Nick was willing to release her yet.

His paw tightening at the small of her back told her he wasn’t.

“That’s the way it is, my boy,” the shrew continued as the bear found his way to a small pedestal table next to a chair on the far side of the room. With one of those massive paws remaining unmoving and holding Big on a perfectly even plain, the other picked up the table and carried it to what she would have called a somewhat respectable distance from the bed. “Any moments of peace and normality are temporary, separated by struggles of varying degrees of danger. The mundane, the easy to handle, people hardly notice. But the more intense the struggle, the more obvious it is that life is never as settled as we think.”

Once the table was set down, she found herself watching with one eye in fascination as the bear reached into his coat pocket and produced what was obviously a very fine – probably antique – leather chair. A chair which he then set in the center of the table, facing away from them, before his incredibly steady paw was outstretched to allow the tiny mammal to walk off as if strolling on perfectly level ground. Once he was sitting, the bear used a single dark claw to turn the chair around to face the bed while big leaned back, seeming to look at the two of them from under long, deep, bushing brows. It was very hard not to stare.

“Let’s talk about the things that are unsettling your life right now, my son.”

Judy gave the fox holding her a glance, a quick squeeze of her paws into his fur drawing his eyes from the tiny mammal down to her. Once his eyes were on her, she quirked her brows and looked meaningfully down between them. The fact that he was an intelligent male, to her knowledge anyway, was proven again when he took the obvious meaning and cleared his throat before raising his eyes to Big.

“As much as I would rather avoid a long conversation right now, I know there is no way out of it. There are obviously things we need to talk about, Papa. However,” he continued, tilting his head towards Judy with a little roll of his shoulders in a shrug, “I don’t think this is a conversation we should be having with Miss Hopps attached to my chest because of her state of undress.”

It probably proved that the older mammal was incapable of being embarrassed that he didn’t even blink. She was… Pretty sure he didn’t blink, anyway. If anything, his brow dropped and his slender muzzle twitched in amusement before he gave a wave of one ringed paw to the bear standing behind the table.

“Of course, Nicky,” he drawled, moving almost no part of his body aside from that sharp-clawed paw. Not that he needed to as the comparatively giant paw of the polar bear henchmammal – because henchmammal was really the only thing that came to mind when she looked at the obedient larger predator – very gently moved behind Mr. Big’s chair. Two fingers were used to turn the chair around one-hundred and eighty degrees until he was facing away from the bed before the bear himself stood upright and turned away as well. “Being rude wasn’t my intention but we haven’t had a conversation since before the appeal. From what I’ve been told, a very successful first showing for your bunny in the courts of Zootopia.”

“First showing?” Judy blurted out even as she pushed at Nick’s paws and scrambled out of his lap, dropping herself into a seat on the other side of the bed as she quickly worked to button her shirt. The second part of the statement wasn’t lost on her, either, particularly because Nick was looking at her with a smirk curving one side of his muzzle. The fact that he mouthed the words ‘My bunny’ caused her ears to perk fully upright and burn so hot that she was certain they were bright red.

She would deal with the way that made her heart cut flips in her chest later, when she wasn’t in a room with the largest crime boss in Zootopia. And Nick’s foster father.

Sweet cheese and crackers.

“I haven’t made any plans to leave the city because I think there is more I can do,” she pressed on after swallowing. Smoothing the front of her shirt and making sure nimble paws had managed to unfasten more than that, she sat cross-legged on the bed facing Big while keeping Nick between them. “I’m not sure that will lead to more time in court anytime soon, though. Oh. You can… Turn around now. Thank you.”

It was still incredibly fascinating to watch the massive bear, who wouldn’t even have considered the tiny Arctic Shrew a decent snack, display clear reverence as he used two fingers again to turn the chair around to face them again. This time the tiny mammal was showing his teeth in a grin rather than restrained amusement.

“Now that Zootopia has been reminded that injustice can be undone, if only in one of the most obvious cases of it, they will be hungry to see more. Even if that’s not the reason you’re staying in the city, you’ll be called on again. You’re being allowed to remain. You’ll have a chance to use that, even if the reason you’re being allowed to stay has nothing to do with it.”

“Has nothing to do with it?” she asked, frowning with a slight tilt in her head as she considered him. “I know The Administrator is Nick’s sister, but I didn’t think that had anything to do with why I was being allowed to stay.”

“It doesn’t,” Nick spoke up, pushing himself up against the headboard before closing his eyes and leaning his head back against it. “You’re still the candle. The moths are still being drawn out of the darkest corners of the city.”

“And even if there are some who disagree with her methods,” Mr. Big inserted, the way his muzzle turned to settle his attention on Nick leaving Judy with the impression that it was relevant to how Nick felt about his sister, “Neveen has an interest in rooting out the moths still hiding in those corners. The ones that nibble bit by bit on the fabric of the city, degrading and dragging it down for their own ends.”

“Like us.”

There was a short, tense pause after Nick’s words, one that made her glance uneasily in his direction to find his face calm and stoic as he regarded the suited rodent. If she hadn’t known him as well as she did now, she would have believed that surface expression. Knowing him as she did now, however, she could see the light of dry amusement in his eyes. It made her wonder if he was talking about himself and Big…

Or himself and Neveen.

“There is a level of darkness that must always exist, Nicky,” Big said, his voice as calm as before though perhaps now with a bit of amusement in his own right. “The idea of a real Utopia is flawed by the very nature of intelligent beings. There will never be a time when everyone agrees with a unified mind, unless commanded by outside forces. Mammals will be greedy, even when they claim not to be. Mammals will be violent, even when they try not to be. Mammals will want control, even when someone else has it all. It is not within our nature to accept less than we feel we are due without a fight. And because most will never be satisfied with just enough, they will take whatever they can.”

He paused again to look down at the too-large-for-his-finger ring, sticking that finger out as if to examine it for a moment before he continued without looking away.

“People like us? We take what we want, what we can. But we care about Zootopia, want to see the city grow and flourish. We want the mammals living here to get along because some of those mammals are family or could be family.” He leaned forward in his chair, gripping the armrest of the chair with tiny claws tightly enough to cause marks to appear on the leather. “But there is a darkness in Zootopia. A rot deep in the core, eating its way to the surface. Something willing to tear down this city to control it. Some think it started with ejecting the bunnies from the city, but it started before that. Some even think it was removed when the current Administrator came into power. But it proved otherwise.”

“Otterton?” Judy questioned, her muzzle pulling into a frown as she listened with rapt attention now.

“He was outspoken about the little wrongs that were slowly becoming unavoidable in the city and was drawing the attention of a lot of the mammals in it. Which made him dangerous,” Big confirmed, settling back in his chair with a sigh. “And so, his wife was murdered, and he was put away by a system so corrupt that the people didn’t dare argue. But whoever did this had not expected Neveen to reach outside of the system, using the fact that bunnies were banned as leverage to find someone uncorrupted by the system itself.”

Judy nibbled on her lower lip, looking down at the paws folded in her lap as she considered the words. It did explain why Neveen had chosen a lawyer from outside of Zootopia, but…

“I’m not sure I understand. Does Neveen expect me to fix everything?” she asked, frowning as she looked down at her paws in her lap before shaking her head and looking back at him. “That can’t be it. I’m just a lawyer.”

“And an hour after arriving in the city, someone tried to kill you,” Nick said, drawing her frown in his direction. “Then again. And again.”

“Exactly, my boy,” Big agreed, waving one paw toward her with a grin on his long muzzle that showed far too many teeth. “The candle. Whether or not Neveen expected you to fix anything doesn’t matter now. You have someone’s attention and that someone apparently thinks that you could play a part in stopping whatever they have planned. So, they expose themselves repeatedly in an attempt to remove you.”

“You’re saying I’m bait now,” she said, folding her arms over her chest, feeling indignant and aggravated.

“You’re whatever you manage to make of yourself,” he said, giving a little circular wave of his paw as he looked towards Nick. “Nicky here was a brawler, an enforcer to someone who may or may not be a crime boss. Then he was a drunk in the gutter, despite my best attempt to spare him that. And now he is the armor wrapped around you and whatever you decide you are in this city.”

Hearing someone else say that had her turning big, lavender eyes to the fox beside her to search his face. She found his eyes still hard, but no longer cold when they looked at her. He met her gaze directly and neither looked away for a long moment because he gave her a slight nod, confirming what she already knew deep down.

“But I’ve let the night wear on close to morning,” the older mammal sighed, leaning back in his chair with his eyes on them. At least she was pretty sure his eyes were on them. It could be hard to tell given the bush of his brows and the relaxed state of his expression. The sharp-clawed fingers that he waved towards the polar bear seemed to be all the signal the bear needed to very carefully wrap both large paws around the chair and lift it. Somehow, even when wrapped in two massive paws, Big’s voice still reached her clearly. “I didn’t just come here to confirm what it’s obvious you already had mostly figured out, but to let you know that I’ve invited the leader of this pack that pursues you to dinner so you can rest easy for the night.”

“I won’t ask if you’ll be careful,” Nick asked, settling back with a slight wince. A wince which only seemed to compel him to reach out to her, causing her to release a little squeak when she was drawn to his side. Something that earned him a glare even as she settled – very carefully with her arm draped across his stomach – into his side. Her expression soothed and her attention shifted when the shrew appeared again, standing minus the chair, in the folded paws of the polar bear again.

“Just a conversation, my boy. So we can discuss like civilized mammals how intent they seem to be to kill my son,” Big replied, his slender muzzle curving in a sharp-toothed grin so lacking in civility that her nose started twitching nervously. “And why it might be in their best interests to reconsider that course.”

_____________________________________________________

“Multiple bodies inside the building, all wolves,” the hyena on the screen spoke clearly and directly, showing no outward reaction to the remains of the carnage – or the multiple bodies – around them. “Tactical armor, flash shielded headgear, suppressed fully automatic arms, grenades. Bullet holes in multiple walls, the ceiling, and the floor. How many are from them is unidentified but we can confirm that a larger caliber was used to take at least one out.”

Neveen kept her paw still on a desk despite the desire to tap her fingers. Or to shout that the information she was really interested in wasn’t the state of the damned wolves. She managed to resist both impulses and kept her face calm and eyes level as she scanned the scene around the agent, watching various mammals shift through what had been the bedroom of the office she’d given to Hopps. Now it looked like remains more akin to what would find in an open war zone: hollowed out with blackened and pockmarked walls that looked ready to crumble with a strong enough kick.

“Any sign of the original occupants, Dhaka?” she asked without a hint of her emotions allowed into the words, her ears kept high and still as she returned the focus of green eyes to the hyena. She trusted them, otherwise they wouldn’t have been sent to investigate, but she didn’t trust them far enough to let them know that she cared beyond her station.

“No sign of them on location. It appears that they were cornered in the bedroom, if it can be called that, and escaped through a window,” he replied as she turned her attention to it, carrying the source of the feed with her/him and turning it slightly to face the blown-out window. “I believe your missing lawyer’s bodyguard is the reason for the state of the room. Probably a grenade taken from one of the assailants unless he made a habit of sleeping with one under his pillow. Or two, given the blast damage to the room. They survived, signs of fighting outside are still being investigated. No bodies, though. Signs that a vehicle might have been parked and used to flee the scene in an adjacent alley, but it was picked for a reason. No security footage is to be found.”

“We have a time frame, Dhaka,” the fox inserted as she turned her eyes to the shadows that surrounded the vast space in her office. “Check the footage for the surrounding area for any vehicle or vehicles leaving the scene. We need to know if Hopps escaped with her guard or if they were subdued and taken. I want a full report within thirty minutes.”

The hyena nodded once when the screen was filled with their muzzle again.

“Understood, Madam Administrator. Dhaka out.”

When the call ended, the room was returned to near-complete darkness as she leaned back in her chair, her eyes staring into the blank surface of her desk for a moment. Her claws came out in the end, gripping and scratching harmlessly over the smooth surface as she allowed her ears to fall. Aware as she was of the presence beside her, the constant shadow beside her, she was not surprised when the calm tone filled the newly born silence.

“I’ll find him.”

“I know you will, Jack,” she said before releasing a long, slow breath that was not at all effective in calming her. “It’s also time you took a more active role in all of this.”

“Active?”

“I was fine sitting back and watching, evaluating my brother’s strength. Strength which he proved time and time again was more than enough to handle what they threw at Judy. But during the trial, the focus shifted from her to him. A direct, focused attack that was intended to kill someone with his skill set rather than a helpless lawyer with an unknown bodyguard.”

“Now they are aware of his skill set, as you put it. Things will be more dangerous.”

“And with raised stakes, I need you in the field. I need you to take care of this.” She turned her eyes in his direction, making out the shapes of him with eyes practiced at spotting him in any situation in various locations. He moved to her, the luminescent orbs seeming to burn, though she was sure they remained as calm as ever. “I need you to remove whoever is trying to kill my brother. Destroy them. I…”

Her words came to a stop as she realized how freely the emotions were running now. Folding her arms across her chest, folding her ears flat against her head, closing her eyes as she drew some deep breaths to reign herself in. She knew that he was gone by the time she regained some degree of control over herself. She didn’t bother to speak, tapping the control on her chair while turning to face the dome over her office as the massive screen that changed to show the slowly growing light of sunrise over the city. Slumped back in her chair, the calm that his absence brought was based entirely on the fact that she knew he would do what she needed, leaving nothing left to be said.