Chapter Text

Moonlit Romance

One of the many horrors of urban living was that no one came running when you screamed.

I started pacing back and forth in my suddenly much smaller apartment. "Cheese and crackers, cheese and crackers..."

"Is that really how you curse?" The disembodied voice asked.

"Who are you!?" I shouted at the nothing "Oh burrow brambles I'm going crazy. My fever is back and this is all some random coma dream."

"What is a coma? Oh never mind. Don't you want to go outside? Hunt some prey for dinner, mate with this 'Nick'?"

I threw up my arms. "What? I am not eating people! What the hell do you think I am?"

"The predator who won the right to carry my pow... Wait a minute."

I felt the oddest sensation, like a ghost was sniffing me. "YOU ARE PREY?"

I blinked, What...?

"HOW IN THE DEPTHS OF TARTARUS DID A RABBIT MIX HER BLOOD WITH THE PRIMAL!?" The voice screamed.

I don't know why I bothered, but the investigator in me tried to make sense of that. "Hang on, mix my what with the what?"

The voice started sputtering. "Are you...? Aren't you the warrior who faced my vessel and poured his blood into your veins?"

I thought back to the confrontation with the wolf from downtown (the connection was obvious). "Wait... The fish market salesman that went feral... That was you?" Well, assuming she wasn't a hallucination, which was a bit of a stretch.

"I unlocked the power of the savagery of old inside of him... Like I'd be doing for you IF YOU HAD ANY! For pity's sake child, what madness drove you to seek out the hunt? And here I thought my last host had his savagery buried deep."

I narrowed my eyes. Okay, this was messed up and terrifying, big time, that was obvious, but for some reason the fear was starting to fade to anger. I growled. A low, terrible thing. It rumbled in my chest and I found my lips curling back. "Get out of my head."

"Now we're talking..."

This was getting ridiculous. "Who the hell are you even supposed to-?"

A noise hit me, no a lot of noises, no all of the noises.

I've always had excellent hearing. Even for a rabbit I could pick out voices from across a field.

This was different. I heard people talking from 6 stories down through the walls. I heard lice crawling on my neighbors. I heard the pounding of someone's footsteps on the stairs.

Wait, I know those footsteps. That's-

My extremely enlightening conversation with the voice in my head was interrupted when Nick Wilde kicked my door open (I really needed better locks) and leveled a gun at me. "ZPD! Freeze!"

His eyes widened. I could hardly blame him. Here I was, a wolf in the tatters of his partner's pajamas clutching my head in pain and shouting at myself. I may also have been showing a bit too much fur so there was that too.

The shock ended... Then something of a transformation came over Nick too. Gone was the pretense of the cop in control. Gone was the clever good -natured snark. In its place, I saw his hackles raise and he thumbed back the hammer of his gun for good measure. "Where is Judy?"

I was both terrified and flattered.

I put my hands up, backing against the tiny bed. "Nick, I can explain..."

Okay that was a complete lie. I was sitting in my apartment having turned into a wolf and just spent quite a while shouting at voices in my head. I didn't even know what was going on, much less had the ability to explain it. Even if I could I doubted anyone would believe it.

The obvious solution was to come up with a clever lie, perhaps saying...

What? Seriously, I had absolutely nothing. Even if I told him I was someone else, how was I supposed to explain wandering into Judy Hopps' apartment, shredding her pajamas, and then putting them on before screaming for a full minute and then having a bizarre conversation with the voice in my head? Because all I was coming up with was that I was an escaped mental patient with a rabbit fetish and that really wouldn't be a great thing to say to avoid getting shot.

Plus, this was Nick we were talking about. He was a stellar detective through and through, and any lie I told him he'd be able to shoot down in seconds. Besides... He was my partner. If I couldn't tell him what was happening who could I tell?

No one would be wise. The voice chimed in, unhelpfully.

I ignored it. "Listen... I know this sounds crazy, but I'm Judy. I turned into a wolf, and I'm not sure why."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sure you are..." I saw his eyes sweep the scene, clearly coming to my 'crazy person' explanation all on his own.

"I can prove it!" I said. "My phone password, it's 'tryeverything48', no spaces! Go ahead, try it!" I pointed to my phone.

Unfortunately that made the fox tense up even more. "Where did you get that information? Have you been stalking an officer of the law?"

I sputtered. "What? No I... Wait a minute." I narrowed my eyes. "You didn't even check my phone! Why do you know my password?" Seriously, that was messed up.

He blinked, looking momentarily embarrassed. "What? I... Hey!" He steadied his grip on the gun. "First of all it's not your password, It's officer Hopps'. Secondly, I'm asking the questions here, now who are you?"

I winced. I guess I could shelve that one for later. "I know other things. When we were investigating the Missing Mammals case I got you on board by threatening to expose your tax evasion."

He flinched. Then growled. "I have no idea how you know that, but it doesn't mean you're Carrots- I mean, Officer Hopps. And if you're trying to threaten me, I think this little incident has hamstringed your credibility."

He switched to a one handed grip and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Now you're going to be nice and still while-"

"I called myself a dumb bunny!" I snapped.

He froze, handcuffs still jingling in his paw. "What?"

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "Under the bridge, after I was a huge butt to you and every other predator who didn't deserve it. I admitted how narrow minded I was..." I shuddered. "And I said... I said I would understand if you never wanted to see me again... And you still gave me a second chance."

I felt tears welling. "Because that's who you are. You're the fox that sees the good in everyone, even if you try to wall that off with cynicism or anger or plain old sarcasm. You still care. You can't stop... You can't even stop forgiving. It's why..." I shuddered. "It's why I fell in love with you."

I saw the gears turning in Nick's head. "But... I cased that spot, I had a lookout, there wasn't anyone there... How...?"

I grit my teeth. If there was ever a time when I needed someone to trust me, it was now. "Please Nick! If you don't believe me, look at the physical evidence! There's no sign of a struggle, the door didn't show any signs of being tampered with, despite the fact that I was still locked inside, and the seams of my clothes aren't burst in the way you'd expect for a larger Mammal who struggled into a small mammal's clothes to be."

He lowered the gun, his eyes wide. "But you- I..."

And then I heard it. It was a tiny thing, but it did the impossible. It made my night worse.

It was the sound of another gun being cocked. Right outside my door.

#

"NICK GET DOWN!" I shouted.

Reflexes kicked in and he hit the deck, just in time. A wolf wearing a jeans jacket wheeled around the corner (I was beginning to notice that this insane portion of my life had a theme) and moved quickly to line up a shot with a dart gun.

Fortunately, I was quicker. Much quicker.

I started learning martial arts when I was 12. I had had various teachers over the course of my life, but knew relatively few styles. The reason for this was because all my teachers were bunnies.

Now hang on, before you accuse me of prejudice... well, even more prejudice than the stupid crap I still fight, the reason I studied bunny martial arts exclusively was because they were the only ones I had any real hope of mastering. Martial arts are all about understanding how to use the little quirks of your body to your advantage in a fight. Studying Giraffe Capoeira (though very entertaining, and impressive to watch), was of little use to me.

Of course, when I joined the Police academy I had to learn a lot about how other Mammals' bodies moved so I could subdue them, but there was a wide gap between theory and practice.

As a wolf all of my muscles felt subtly different, my form of attack was an educated guess, with no real muscle memory or training behind it.

And somehow I still kicked ass.

I reached the doorway lightning quick and smacked the gun so hard out of the wolf attacker's grip that it lodged itself in the ceiling.

She entered a much more practiced fighting stance and made to claw me. It was fast, lightning fast...

I felt time slow. It felt like an adrenaline rush times a thousand, an endless blazing pit of fire I could tap into on a whim.

I grabbed her arm and flung her. It was supposed to slam her into the ground, but I was strong, impossibly strong. She sailed down the hall.

As luck would have it, she collided with two more armed wolves.

The first wolf, a male this time, was hit flat footed, smashing into the ground with his accomplice, his dart gun clattered to the floor. The final one slid in front of them, drawing a shimmering sword.

Okay, that was weird enough to cut through the haze. I blinked. Who in the heck uses-?

She didn't give me time to complete the thought, thrusting her blade straight for me.

I dodged. I dodged fast. All that connected was a thin portion of the blade against my thick fur. It was the tiniest, most miniscule scratch...

And it burned like a hot iron. The adrenaline drained from me and I felt my legs buckle. Silver! The voice shouted inexplicably. It sounded... Terrified.

I couldn't blame it. The wolf woman whipped around her sword so fast I thought she was possessed and prepared for another plunge.

"Look out behind you!" Nick shouted.

Impossibly, out of some bizzare instinct that I was sure she'd never live down, the wolf whipped her head around.

The fox tased her. She shuddered and fell to the ground.

He whipped out his gun and aimed for. "ZPD Free-"

But the other wolves had already fled.

He cuffed the swordswolf and then turned to help me up. "You okay Carrots?"

I still felt a bit sick, but I managed a smile. "Y-You believe me?"

He gave me a classic Nick Wilde shrug. "What was it that Shrewlock guy said? When the entire world's gone crazy, just accept that some of the messed up weird crap is probably real?"

I snorted. "Something like tha-"

A crackle came from within the swordswolf's coat. "Kara! Kara come in!"

I opened up the Wolf's (Kara's?) jacket, revealing an old fashioned walkie talkie.

I snagged it instantly and pressed reply. "This is Judy Hopps of the ZPD. I don't know why you attacked me, but things will go easier for you if-"

"Judith!" An old man replied. "Oh thank the gods, the beast has not yet consumed you."

I blinked. "What?"

The line crackled again. "Judith please, we know you are a noble woman, we know your will is great, but it will not last. The beast cannot be tamed, but there is a way to end it!"

I felt a chill run down my spine. Did... did he know about the voice? "Who are you?" I asked. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"Your life must end Judith Hopps." The man replied. "If it does not, then the lives of innocents will pay the price..."