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Chapter Text

A long time ago...

The arctic wolf pulled back the bowstring and lined up her sights. She sighed. "I'm really, really sorry..."

She let the arrow fly into the old paper target. I shook my head, there was no way I was letting this get her down. "It's not a big deal Lucy..." I genuinely didn't care how many false starts we had.

"But it is!" Lucy said, lowering her bow. "Ramsey I really thought I had it in me this time, you just... touched it and I flipped, and I don't know why. I really wanted it, and I just..."

I came up behind my girlfriend and hugged her back (she had told me front hugs felt weird for some reason), I wasn't much, but I was soft. "Lucy, it's okay! We literally just turned 18 three months ago, it's not like we're in some kind of race."

She had been quite insistent about us not doing certain things until we were legal. I guess when you wanted to be a cop that stuff was important. Anything that was important to my girlfriend was important to me.

Besides... If she was right about the whole 'no chances of a criminal record' might be a good career move for me too. It was a rare thing, a sheep cop, but I had four years of ranger scout experience. And with Lucy by my side, I could do anything.

I gripped her tight, except make her feel safe, apparently.

She put the bow down and took hold of my hoof. "I know it's just..." she turned around, leaving the embrace, but still holding my hoof tight. "I love you okay? In a very non-platonic way. And I don't care that we're different, it's just..." She frowned, looking down at herself. "I feel weird. Like, why would you ever want to be with someone like me?"

I snorted. Lucy was sharp as a whip, but she got crazy ideas into her head sometimes. For one, she thought she needed to wear a paper bag on her head to go out in public, when in reality she had brilliant white fur, an amazing athletic build that made me weak in the knees, adorable ears...

And when she smiled, which I admit wasn't often, but it happened, you could feel this deep well of hope building up inside you. Like everything was going to be okay.

She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen.

And yes, I know I was a sheep and she was a wolf. If you've got anything to say about that, go shear yourself.

But she wouldn't have believed any of that, so instead I just gripped her paw back and smirked, "Because you're awesome, and you smell nice, and you're good with a bow... And my stereo is still at your place."

Lucy snorted. "Oh, I see. The old 'hold your electronics hostage' gambit. I knew I was doing something right."

She slipped out of my grasp and passed me the bow. "Alright, enough with the mush, let's see if you can-"

A laugh from behind interrupted us.

I groaned, not this again.

Lucy turned around and crossed her arms, her ears laying flat back against her head. "The fuck do you want Victor?"

Behind us, a grey wolf in a polo shirt and cargo pants sauntered into the vacant lot. He wore the easy smirk of someone who viewed the entire world as his. "What, I can't visit my favorite dyke?"

I tensed at the slur. A growl built in Lucy's throat. "A: I'm Bi. B: go suck a dick."

He laughed. "See, I thought that was your boyfriend's job."

He sidled up closer, way too close. "You know it's funny, you actually get a male to clean your pipes for once and you still haven't discovered the joys of being on the bottom." He grinned. "I'm told it's quite fun. Often."

I put myself between him and Lucy, this vacant lot was getting way too crowded. "Okay, that's enough. Seriously Vic are you a Saturday morning cartoon villain or something?"

It sounded tougher in my head.

Lucy slid past me. "It's okay Rams, I got this."

She sidled up to the other wolf with a, there was no other word for it, predatory grin. "Look, I get it, you're the size of a grape, and you think if you fucked a bitch straight your dad would stop calling you his little princess. But let's get something clear here."

She leaned in real close. "I'm not one of your whores. And my sheep? He's more man than you'll ever be."

Victor was speechless.

She turned back to the target. "Now if you don't mind me, I'm going to-"

It happened so fast I didn't even have time to flinch.

Victor's fist slammed into the back of Lucy's head with a resounding thwack, and she crumpled to the ground, eyes dead and white fur splaying against the ground.

Victor stared in shock, like he didn't believe what he'd just done.

My heart started pounding. I ran over to Lucy. Her eyes were closed.

She... She wasn't breathing.

I felt my hooves shaking. Calm, focus! "Victor! Your cell phone! We need to call an ambulance!" He'd been showing it off for weeks, he had to have it on him.

The wolf was still staring at his paws. "I... I..."

I flipped Lucy over, my brain running on auto pilot. Chest compressions. I needed to do chest compressions. "Victor! Call 911!"

"Those don't work..." He said.

"What?" I pumped up and down on her chest. She had to be okay, she had to.

"This didn't happen." He said, staring at me. He shot me a terrified look... Honestly it was a thousand times more scary than his smirk.

I kept pressing, I think I heard a rib crack. "Victor, for fuck's sake, she's going to die!" I shouted.

"This. Didn't. HAPPEN!" He cried.

He slammed his foot into my chest. I felt a rib crack with the impact. A chunk of wool scraped away as I fell to the I fell to the ground, gasping for air.

He stared down at me. He looked desperate. "And neither did this..."

He extended his claws.

Time slowed.

I couldn't believe it. This was actually happening.

This was how it ended. The wealthy wolf with his hundred dollar shirt, who sang Karaoke at the school dance, played the guitar terribly and hated marshmallows...

He was going to kill me.

Worse, he was going to kill Lucy.

He'd rather have two people's blood on his paws than admit he'd gone too far...

I couldn't wrap my head around it. How could someone do that? Didn't he feel anything at all? Didn't he have a soul?

And that's when it happened.

I saw it, like a faded after image inside him, a flicker of light...

It felt... It felt like I could reach out and touch it. Like if I did, then maybe he would understand. Maybe he would be alive, feel our pain, know this was wrong.

I did it. He staggered back.

I felt it, the pain in my gut rolling over my hooves and pouring into him as he cried out. I felt Lucy's pain, I even felt *his* pain, though for the life of me I couldn't imagine what he had to hurt over.

And I poured it all inside him. A flame lit inside me and I took his pain and tripled it. Who was I kidding? He couldn't understand. All he could do was hurt, and he deserved to.

He cried out. Something between a howl and a whimper.

I didn't know what was happening. I hadn't even *touched* him... But I could feel the light inside him flicker, and somehow I knew I was making him pay. I marched over to the grey wolf, now writhing on the ground in agony, clutching at his skull. I kept pouring in the pain, filling him up with it until he was primed to burst, the fire in me burning like mad...

And then, as though someone it stopped. The after image that was his essence burst from his body and flitted off somewhere in the dirt of the lot.

He crumpled, completely and utterly lifeless.

The body was completely unmarked...

I had no idea how I'd done it, but he was gone.

I felt my guts twist... But then I heard a cough.

Lucy! I ran over, checking her. Her chest was rising and falling. She was breathing again!

She had a chance. I hurried back to the grey wolf's corpse and rifled through his pockets. I flipped open his phone and dialed.

"Zootopia 911, What is your emergency?"

"I need an ambulance! The vacant lot at the Corner of Pack and Broad Street! Hurry!"

#

She was okay.

After what felt like minutes, but the doctors told me was hours, I'd left her bedside... I needed to let them work. She'd be okay.

She had to be.

The police... Had scratched their heads over Victor. I'd told them what happened, excluding the mystical parts, but the fact of the matter was he'd just died. They said it looked like his heart had given out from shock.

I was exhausted, confused, and terrified as I finally made my way back home.

Mom and Dad had hugged me, aggravating the cracked rib. My doctors told me it would require nothing more than bed-rest and ibuprofen to fix.

My parents told me everything would be all right...

I was too old to believe them. But I really wish I wasn't.

It wasn't until the next morning, when I was stuffing books into my bag and trying to pretend it was all a dream, that he showed up.

He a black sheep with his wool tinged with grey. He had warm eyes hidden behind spectacles and he was sitting at the breakfast table reading a book with a cup of tea steaming in front of him.

He looked up when I entered. "Good morning." he said. He gestured to one of the chairs. "Please, sit."

I stepped back. "Who are you? Where are my parents?"

The ram chuckled. "Jimmy I'm hurt, you don't remember me from the herd reunion? And your parents left a note. I thought you'd see it when you walked in."

He did seem vaguely familiar. There was indeed a note on the table. Apparently there was a surprise family visit and they were at an early breakfast, leaving my great uncle behind to make sure I got to school alright.

That was weird... Not super weird, but I didn't have time to deal with it. I strapped on my backpack. "Good to see you. I really have to get going though, I have a quiz in history and-"

"I know what you did to that wolf." he said, idly.

I froze. "He... He died of a heart attack."

"Indeed. One you caused. I'm not judging by the way." The old ram held up his hooves in understanding. "You were clearly protecting yourself and your love. Lucy Fangmeyer wasn't it? Quite the character from what I hear."

I put my bag down, narrowing my eyes "What do you know."

The ram sighed, slipping off his glasses. "I know that you're scared. I know you don't know what's happening and you just want to wake up from this horrible dream... And you do have the option to. Well, at least metaphorically. First though, there is business to attend to."

That said, he pulled a small box from his pocket and opened it up.

Inside was... Light. No, just something glowing. It looked like an ugly hunk of quartz someone had dug off the sidewalk. A crystal in name only.

I caught a reflection... an image... something.

And then I saw his face. "V-victor!"

The old ram sighed. "Indeed. When you tear a soul from a body by force, it drifts into the nearest vessel. Usually it's a hunk of rock. Sometimes glass. I saw a painting with a soul in it once, though I couldn't say much for the artist."

"Cut the cryptic crap!" I shouted. My heart was beating fast.

My uncle groaned. "And here I thought I was being clear. You have powers. I have them too. We highland sheep have always been special."

"No we haven't!" I snapped. The rage over that topic was a bit surprising to be honest, but I suppose it made sense. If he was going to feed me some speciesist crap while my wolf girlfriend was in the hospital...

He held up a hoof. "Special does not mean superior. More often than not it's a curse. Why do you think we hide these abilities? They are dangerous, painful to exploit, and more often than not, they're bloody."

He clasped his hooves together. "But they can be used to help people. There's more than one type of magic in the world, and believe me when I say ours is actually one of the least dangerous." He shrugged. "But that's neither here nor there. Right now you have a choice."

He pushed the quartz to me. "You can either smash this crystal, letting Victor's soul go to whatever afterlife he's meant for and forget this ever happened... Or I can teach you to talk to him, to help him, to control your powers and fight the real monsters of the world."

He leaned towards me. "The choice is yours. But choose wisely. I won't lie to you the life isn't safe, but you will make a difference in the world, one far greater than any patrol officer." He took a sip of his tea. "Not that I want to discourage you from that. Honestly the skills would be useful."

I felt like the ground was shifting underneath me. "What are you?" I asked. I couldn't think of anything more specific.

He smiled. "A red wool, just like you. Now, let us discuss saving the world..."