First I want to again thank UmbraTsuki (Nokusu on reddit) for all the proofreading help, and point people at UmbraTsuki's awesome stories. I know the ending wasn't what folks were expecting, so if it left you feeling empty, go check out my next story, Judy Jumps in Headfirst. I promise it will set the world right again.

I just realized, I should have titled this story, "The Badger Strikes Back" or maybe "Revenge of the Badger".

This story was tough to write, especially the last two chapters. Writing it made me feel like I unraveled my favorite sweater and then reused the yarn to make some scratchy socks that I hate. If this story bugs you too much, think of it as an alternate universe to my first two stories, and enjoy them even more now that you know what the frightening alternative is.

I realize this story is a confusing one, but I got the idea stuck in my head to write a "what if?" story, with the premise being, "what would happen if Nick and Judy hadn't started developing romantic feelings for each other early on in my first story?" I know, I know, all the shippers out there hate me now, but not as much as I hate myself. I'm one too, which I have to say made it really tough for me to write this, as I stripped away each thing they had together, starting with Holly. In the end I had to write it though, because there were so many comments lamenting each terrible event that befell our favorite fox and bunny couple in my previous stories. That's right, I'm blaming you, the readers, for this story. Plus I made the dumb decision to post the first chapter before I was done writing the whole thing, and people started reading it and liking it, so I didn't have any choice but to finish it.

Nick and Judy mostly avoided the forest fire in this story, but was it worth it? (The answer, in my biased opinion, is "No") The best stories have forest fires, which leave room for new growth afterwards. If nothing else, I do think it was a great writing exercise. I hope other writers will consider the effect that changing this one event had on character growth (or lack thereof).

I initially was going to have Judy get an STI which would lead to an infection (PID) that made her sterile, but Judy battling a sexually transmitted infection wasn't exactly a compelling story (plus I can just imagine the seething mass of angry readers I would have gotten over that).

I don't know why I keep writing these. Probably because as I write, I come up with ideas for even more stories in the amazing universe of Zootopia. I swear I have other things I should be working on, but it isn't impossible that I could write more fanfic in the future.