Sunderance Chapter 5: South of Othrys

    In some long forgotten level of his mind, he understood what it was like for someone to enter the city of Zootopia for the first time. While Savanna Central was a beautiful thing to behold on the surface, with modern architecture blended seamlessly with more traditional buildings such as the courthouse itself, it was the welcome center for all visitors that arrived by train. It was an intelligent design, lacking anything that could be considered overly intimidating to a first-time visitor, while also putting forward a welcoming atmosphere of shops, food and brightly colored buildings. The mingling of various species, large and small and tiny, going about their daily lives without a care made most seeing it for the first time believe the illusion it created: a perfectly peaceful and even welcoming city.

    Downtown was another animal completely. The scattering of buildings on the outskirts that were often designed with a certain size group in mind faded; gave way and were overshadowed by those designed for mammals of all sizes. Buildings that would have been called fantastic only a century ago stood like monoliths, reaching towards the sky. And for those within the forest of massive structures, there was almost no sky worth seeing that wasn’t comprised of metal and cement and composites; standing testaments to the creativity of mammalian architecture, the willingness of a city to make certain all members of its population were given their due consideration. At the same time, when one looked closely enough, that population liked to make sure that its territory was marked in very clear, very obvious ways so that they were given their spot in the heavens. A building with stripes like those of the zebra stood, while another with the stripes of a tiger stood in competition against it for the most obvious display of “Look! Look at our species and recognize that we exist!” And still closer to the center, higher on the mountain, where the towers became truly massive in size and intricate in design, stood silver tower that was curved in a shape much like the flexible trunk of an elephant. To an outsider, it would look like a blend of buildings, with the skywalks and trams running across the sky to link everyone and gave off the same spirit of mixed species living together in harmony.

    The bunny sitting beside him seemed wrapped up in the reality of what he was sure she had only seen in pictures until this point, now that her eyes were open again. The sparkle of it all was easy enough to get lost in, the size enough to give awe to any newcomer. And while he was glad that she seemed to be focusing on something other than what had happened in Savanna Square – watching her look around with wide, lavender eyes as if she could take it all in with one slow drive through the busy streets – it wasn’t what he saw. To Nick, it looked like exactly what it really was: a way for the civilized to bow to their more animal instincts and lay claim to their own piece of Zootopia while making sure they were noticed.

    She had told him where they were going, and he knew exactly what to expect when he turned down the street. Again, he was sure that she had seen it from a distance. Seen it on the news, or in the paper when it was completed. As someone who had seen it dozens of times from various parts of the city, seeing The Tower so clearly as still something of a shock to they system. If the buildings around it were grand in scale, The Tower itself was almost mythical. Easily outreaching all other buildings in their quest to touch the sky, the colossal structure gleamed in tones of white and reflective black glass that made it seem all the more impressive in its uniqueness compared to the buildings around it. As a seat of power, it accomplished what few others did; blending in with the city itself rather than overpowering it, while remaining distinctively above the rest in both height, design, and beauty.

    A fitting throne for the Administrator.

    From the corner of his eye, he could see that Hopps had gone wide-eyed with the expected awe and wonder of someone who had never seen the like before. The expression lasted for all of thirty seconds before her face hardened a bit, and the wonder was gradually replaced with what he would have called suspicious contemplation. He found that he liked that about her, even though that look was generally turned in his direction. There was always that first moment of an innocent about her, the reactions of someone who was not prepared for everything she saw. Their first meeting, their talk during the trip to the city, their arrival and her appearance in court. In all of those cases, she had been taken off guard but had adapted and pushed back where many would have folded. And while the wonder of the city was still taking most of her attention, he knew that sooner or later, she was going to push back against what had happened after they left the courthouse.

    The tiny building didn’t surprise him. There were random, small buildings through the whole of Zootopia that often seemed out of place. Situated at the end of an easily missed street called Picayune Way, it sat in a patch of grass between two massive skyscrapers that looked destined to crush it simply by existing so close to it. Quaint would have been a generous term for the tiny building, which he doubted had more than two rooms. Red brick and classic windows made it look more like an old-fashioned house than an office of any kind, and it was likely that it had been repurposed with just that in mind. The tree standing beside it, which failed to offer any form of shade in the shadow of the massive buildings that overpowered it, seemed lonely to him when there was a literal forest just across the street. He thought it was a fitting, in a way; the tree was alone, while being within easy reach of its kind, kept separate by seemingly trivial but unbreakable barriers.

    He wasn’t sure if the comparison suited Hopps better, or himself.

    Pulling the car into the drive, he paused to turn his head towards her even as he shut down the engine, finding that her eyes were on him more than the office now. He knew that look already as well; the curious, almost accusatory look that she gave him when she was trying to figure out who he was and why he was helping her. Though there was more to it, this time. An added hesitation, the reason for which was made obvious by the noticeable twitch of that cute pink nose of hers when she didn’t make a move to leave the car. So in reply? He decided to lean back in his seat, keeping his shaded gaze on hers. This time he decided not to prompt her to ask the questions that lingered in her gaze, and simply waited to see how long it would take her to find her voice.

    “Will you take the sunglasses off?” she asked after a long moment, which may have been among the last five things he might have guessed she would say right off the bat. “Please.”

    Such a polite little bunny, so controlled even though he could almost smell the fear on her that went along with that twitching nose and the way she unconsciously kept herself pressed almost as far from him as she could. He had to respect the fact that she hadn’t bolted from the car yet, so with a sigh that he kept entirely mental, he reached up and slid the sunglasses from his muzzle.

    Careful control kept his face impassive and his eyes cool as he looked down at her, while in truth he was… Angry. Almost angry, anyway. The first attempt on her life had come more quickly than he had expected, more quickly than he had hoped for all of his talk. Someone was after her, and it was someone with the power to send a somewhat skilled assassin. The truth of the fact that she would be dead if anyone else had been with her was not lost on him. And it left a bitter taste in his mouth that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times he ran his tongue over the roof of his mouth.

    “Did you… Did you really need to kill him?” she managed after a small hesitation, and he watched her throat work as she swallowed after managing to get the words out. “That didn’t seem necessary.”

    “Is that what you think,” he said, not phrasing it as a question as he remained motionless aside from ears that were perked towards her.

    “It is what I think,” she said, her voice lowering as she glared at him. She clearly didn’t like the fact that he seemed uncaring on the subject, but he didn’t mind that in the slightest. “He was helpless, and…”

    “He was far from helpless,” he interrupted, turning his gaze out the window for a quick look around. If they were safe anywhere, it was inside of this car, but that didn’t mean he could forget the fact that they were obviously in more danger than he had anticipated. “Just because it might have seemed so when he realized he couldn’t win doesn’t mean he wasn’t more than capable of literally biting your head off. All he needed was one good foot to step on your neck and it would have snapped.”

    “That’s not the point,” she said, though the weakness of her tone caused him to return his eyes to her. He found her even more withdrawn, her arms wrapped around herself as she watched him with fear lingering in her gaze. He felt a twinge of both regret and annoyance, on fed by the other, but kept his face expressionless. The annoyance came because he wasn’t sure what she was afraid of in that moment: him, or the reality of how much danger she had been in. “I didn’t come here for this. I didn’t come to this city to have mammals die because of me.”

    “This city has a way of stripping innocent, idealist thoughts rather quickly, especially for those who step outside of the norm,” he said, this time keeping his gaze on hers as she turned her eyes towards him. Her gaze was haunted, lavender no longer cautious and curious as it had been before. Now she looked at him as if she couldn’t understand what he was as if he was something more than what she was seeing. Which was not far from the truth. “You are here now. I offered you the chance to return to Bunnyburrow; I tried to tell you what this city was like. I’m sorry if you believed that you could be protected from mammals who want to murder you without violence.”

    “Violence, yes!” she shouted, causing him to raise one dark brow as her gaze heated. Anger was far better than the fretting and near despair he had seen forming before. “But you didn’t need to kill him! You could have restrained him or knocked him unconscious. You could have called the police! And where were the police when all of this was happening?”

    “Hm. Not a bad question,” he considered, rubbing one finger down the length of his muzzle in consideration for a moment. The ZPD had told her that they could not protect her, but there should have been some presence at the Courthouse just in case things had turned very ugly. Well, uglier than an assassination attempt, at any rate. Realizing that her eyes were still on him, still angry, frightened, and unrelenting, he released a low sigh as he dropped his paw and gave an offhand wave. “What exactly do you want from me, Carrots? If you expect a promise not to kill when someone makes a move on you, then you’re going to end up getting killed. Or I’ll end up getting killed. Neither one of those scenarios would be constructive from a professional standpoint, for either of us. It is hard to defend a case when you’re not breathing. So what would you like me to do? Issue a verbal warning?”

    “Maybe! Yes!” When he lowered his muzzle to look at her as though she had lost her mind, she rushed on. “I mean, a warning. Something to at least give them a chance to change their minds. And when they realize that they can’t win, give them a chance to leave.”

    This bunny is going to be the death of me, he groaned inwardly, even as he rolled his eyes away from her and looked at the ceiling of the car. “The mammals that will come for you are not the sort that ‘change their minds,’ Hopps. But for the sake of your peace of mind, I will issue a verbal warning and allow them the chance to change their minds. But only when it is clear that I have the advantage. I will not take chances with misplaced morality and pity for those that would sooner run a knife across your throat than listen to all the legal reasoning in the world.”

    Watching her work through the words behind eyes that were still unhappy with the subject and his proposed offer of at least a temporary solution was a try on his patience. He kept it, however, until she gave a slow nod.

    “For now, I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” she said, gripping her suitcase and opening the door on her side of the car.

    He followed her after sliding his sunglasses back into place, stepping into the shaded heat of the city. Here it was quiet, at least. The sounds of the forest across the street and the river that ran down the face of the mountain very nearly drowned out the bustle of the city that waited just beyond the two massive buildings on either side of the small office. He gazed out at it silently for a moment before he heard her close her door, stepping to the front of the car to meet her; and found her intentionally keep a distance between them when he drew close.

    The flare of annoyance was as quick as the paw he shot out to grip her arm, dragging her around and lifting her up in a motion so sudden that she dropped her suitcase with a cry of alarm. He shoved her hips onto the still warm hood of the car and leaned in close to her. He saw her reaction instantly, the way her eyes widened and her nose flared and twitched quickly even as her paw shot into her jacket to reach for the Taser he knew she carried. This time, he didn’t let her draw it. His paw snapped over her wrist and pinned it flat against her chest as she stared up at him in open shock. Feeling the way she trembled as she tried to draw away from him only increased his annoyance when the motion caused her to lie flat on the hood of the car under him. Fighting it back, he kept her pinned as he leaned over her with an impassive expression. An expression that he didn’t reflect how he felt as the scent of her reached his nose all too clearly.

    “You’re afraid of me now,” said simply, feeling the quick rabbit beats of her heart against the pads of the fingers he pressed into her chest on either side of that neat, black tie. “You should be afraid of every fox in this city. Not all of them want you dead, of course. That’s not how this works. But you should always be aware of them, because if even one of them wants you dead then you should watch of all of them. Except for me.”

    “Why?” she said, her voice a squeaky whisper as she stared up at him. Her gaze moved over his face, his muzzle, and watched his eyes for a long moment.

    “Because I am here to protect you, and I am the only one in this city that I can promise will never hurt you,” he said lowly, feeling the anger fade as he felt the muscles in her arm relax under his grip. When she tugged on it, he eased his grip enough for her to withdraw it from the jacket. And then she surprised him by reaching up with trembling fingers, her tiny pink tongue sliding out over her lips once in a way that drew his gaze to them; and then she lifted his sunglasses from his muzzle easily, pulling them away.

    “Say it again,” she said softly, wide lavender eyes unwavering as they held his, and maybe there was a little more hope in them as her ears pulled up to focus on him.

    “I will never hurt you,” he said, his voice low as he held her gaze. He understood her need to see his eyes when he said the words, though it made him twitch when he realized that her scent was pleasant. A little sweet, a little earthy. A little too appealing.

    “All right,” she whispered, and he stood still when she slipped the glasses into his shirt pocket rather than placing them back onto his muzzle. “Are you going to let me up now?”

    For a moment, he considered not letting her up. A flighty thought, one that only lasted for a moment when he wondered how she might react if he leaned in closer, if he decided to breathe her scent a little deeper. Instead, he reigned to the curious and frustrating interest in a bunny and dismissed it as anger and close proximity. When he offered his paw, she hesitated for only a moment before she placed her smaller one in his. The silky feel of her tiny paw against the pad of his palm only reinforced how small she seemed, and how defenseless against the city at large. However, once she was on her feet and had recovered case, she no longer tried to press distance between them.

    It is progress, he thought again, as he walked with her to the door of what would be her home for the duration of her stay in Zootopia.

****************

    Unpredictable. It was a simplistic way to describe the directions life took, as plans were laid out so carefully, every single detail seen to, every possible outcome predicted and compensated for before the plan was even set into flawless motion. Being prepared for change was something she had always been good at. It was through this, and many other factors, that she had attained the place in the world she now held; a position that, now, had her sitting alone in the dark with her elbows resting on the smooth surface of the desk, muzzle resting on her delicately folded paws. The light of the monitor was reflected in narrowed golden eyes, the images on the screen playing over and over again in a constant loop. A reminder of how even perfectly laid plans could be changed before they even began due to something so unexpected that no amount of forethought could have predicted it.

    The fact that she learned of these things from a news report rather than a proper status update from her agent? That meant that the fox she watched on the screen had intended to be seen. Perhaps he had not known the assassin was coming as she had, but he had done nothing to keep himself from the public eye from the moment he had arrived on the scene with the bunny lawyer in front of the courthouse. No attempt had been made to move the short, efficient battle with the tiger away from the cameras or the jabbering voices of the journalists that reported the event. There was no rush in the way he stood over the tiger, looking like some emotionless, compassionless, brutal deity for just that moment in her eyes before he had taken a life without hesitation. Even as she watched it for what must have been the hundredth time, it caused the sharp tip of one ear to twitch when he brought his weapon down. The lightening quick violence and death were witnessed, recorded, spread to the masses by a means that even she could not suppress. The fox that had not so much as made a ripple in the pond who’s surface she kept glass-smooth for years had suddenly created a shock-wave so large that the entire city would tremble from it.

    His message.

    His warning.

    The return of Nicholas Wilde.

    Golden eyes reflected the image on the screen when one claw tapped a key to pause it, capturing the moment just as he handed the suitcase to the rabbit. The ache in her chest was ignored as she stared at the handsome male that she had once known so well. A statement would be needed, and in this case, the truth would work best. The Mayor and the Council did not know who this fox was or why he defended the rabbit that had been invited into Zootopia. But his actions were to be applauded by the government, not vilified. The fact that he had interrupted her plans, would force her to rethink and plan around this new and completely unexpected element? That would not change the outcome.

    Her gaze rose to the unhappy shadows that gathered around her desk when she switched off the screen at last, leaning back in her chair with her paws folded delicately in her skirted lap.

    “Welcome home,” she whispered into the dark, as a small smile curved the muzzle of the Administrator.