The sun was high in the sky and ready to start falling with the wind ever so slightly present, leaving the feeling of want as it caressed the skin and fur of the citizens of Zootopia. The city was busy as usual as mammals went about their daily business, whether it was shopping, working or socializing. A police cruiser (small in stature compared to the rest of the cruisers) was driven by ZPD's best officer. Judy Hopps, a small town rabbit from Bunny Burrows, was accompanied by her partner for nearly eight years now, Nick Wilde. Nick was a red fox who was urged into joining the force after he had helped her solve the Nighthowler case. During all these years, they had fallen furiously in love with each other. Nick and Judy had even gotten married and were Zootopia's first public interspecies marriage.

They have been like that for nearly six years now with them as a happy married couple for the last two years and they were inseparable. Nick looked over to Judy who was covered head to toe in body armor and equipment. It amazed him that he found her so attractive despite all the things covering her body. He looked into his side mirror to see himself in similar armor. They were followed by four other cruisers and one large SWAT truck as today was the day they were going to take down the most ruthless crime orginization to ever run rampant in the city of Zootopia. They were simply known as the Nippers and their special drug (nip)was destroying the city. It was like a disease and like all diseases, they never end well. They were small, but very dangerous as they have had many gun fights with other gangs and somehow managed to win them all and push the losing gangs off their turfs.

Nick thought about what they had discussed earlier that day in the briefing room as they discussed the details of the mission they were heading to right now.

"Today is the day we bring these bastards in. For six months now these guys have been running rampant all over the city and now we can hit them on their own turf so listen up and listen carefully!" Bogo was pointing at a map of the city while everyone was standing vigilant and proper. Nick listened to the Chief as he named off officer after officer who would be going on this special assignment. His heart sank when he heard his name and Judy's name get called, but it was to be expected as they were the best the city had to offer to its citizens. He was begining to zone out all the noise when he thought of how he would approach Judy with something very important, but he was suddenly snapped out of it when Bogo began to yell in an inspirational way.

"Ok this is it. After all these months of undercover work, Officer Wolford was able to find their base of operations and who their leader is. But it cost him dearly. I will not go into the details as we will get our chance to make sure this will not have been for nothing!" Chief Bogo slammed his fist down onto the table which was covered in papers and plans.

Everyone in the room stood quietly as they listened to Bogo speak. "We will head in from the north, east and south with the help of precincts two and three. We will leave the west open since they cannot escape from that direction as there is nothing but a cliff there and they will be forced to surrender," Bogo stood up staight and rigid as he told everyone to gear up.

Nick and Judy left the room to head to the "armory" as they called it to get all the gear they will need for this operation. Nick watched as Judy began to take off her gear in front of him, causing him to blush intensely. "Uh Carrots, don't forget we are still at work, this isn't like back at your place," Nick gave her a smirk as her ears perked up and she looked at him.

"It's not like I'm going nude; I do have tanktop and shorts under this, sheesh," Judy rolled her eyes as she pulled her shirt off and replaced it with a mesh-like shirt and then covered that with heavy body armor. Nick shook his head and smiled as he followed her lead and began to remove his own shirt and put on the light-weight mesh that will then be covered in armor as well. Judy stared at Nick as he tossed his shirt to the side, causing Nick to notice the feeling of her eyes on him. He looked over to Judy and could see that look of hers she had when she just daydreams about him.

"Like what you see, Carrots? Because I can tell that you are just undressing me with those eyes," Nick flexed for her, making his muscles more pronounced making Judy laugh with embarassment.

"I'm sorry Nick. It's just- uhh- well, it's just bunny stuff," Judy turned around to hide her blushing at being caught before putting her helmet and the rest of her armor on.

"It's OK, Carrots. I understand, but I have something to tell you," Nick reached for his pocket and was turning around to see that she was no longer there. Nick sighed as he finished grabbing up the stuff that he will need and left the room.

Nick was thrown out of his memories as the car bounced when they hit a pothole. He looked around to see that Judy was not looking like her normal self and began to speak up. "Judy, you seem pretty calm about this, in fact, you seem eager," Nick commented at how her ears were standing up straight and how Judy was tense yet shaking at the same time.

"Yeah I'm looking forward to bringing in these criminals once and for all; they have hurt my home for far too long!" Judy threw a smile at Nick to reassure him all is well.

"Remember Judy to relax and be careful, these people are dangerous." Nick pulled out his shotgun and Judy's rifle and began to make sure they were loaded and the safeties were still on.

"I know, I still can't believe that they almost killed Wolford when they uncovered him," growled Judy as her paws tightened around the steering wheel as she recalled the whole scene, the blood covering the floor and how his legs had been mangled. She remembered how Fangmeyer had taken the news, him falling to the ground in a crying mess. "He has more rights then most on the force to want these bastards to be brought in. Still, I'm surprised the Chief let him go on this operation," thought Judy as she turned down a dirt road.

They were now heading out of the city's limits as the 'nip' den was just outside of the Meadowlands. Precincts one, two and three were all heading there at once. This would be the single biggest drug bust in ZPD history and Judy was in charge of her squad. She had seen what "nip" does to mammals; they completely lose control of their nervous systems, destroying them from the inside yet all the while, it caused them absolute bliss as though they were on clouds. They had warned the city over and over to avoid the drug, but it was just everywhere. To think that such a small pill could do so much in such little time.

"This is Officer Hopps. Everyone be ready to move in. We are ten minutes out from the target, get ready!" Judy picked up her car's radio and talked into it as she kept her eyes on the small dirt road.

"Judy, this might not be the right time to ask this, but I was wondering..." Nick began to reach for his pocket as he spoke, but he was cut off instantly by Judy.

"Not now, Nick. We need to focus on this operation one hundred percent," Judy said sternly as she stared at the road.

Nick stared at her with extreme concern. Judy may have been very passionate about her job and helping others, but she was taking this case way too personally. "I guess it can't be helped when one of her sisters got ahold of it when she came to visit." thought Nick as he could still hear the crying from Judy that night when she had called Nick from her phone asking for help.

She survived, but now she can't use her right arm anymore and it left her slightly groggy. It was a vile drug and Nick was more than excited to be here as well to end this problem once and for all. But he couldn't help being worried about what Judy might do. He didn't want anyone hurt by these people or their drugs and from what he had learned about himself since he had joined the force, he was a very protective person and hated to see the ones he came to care about hurt or sad at all.

"Get your weapons ready, guys. We arrive in five minutes!" Judy once again spoke into the radio mike and she was clenching the wheel like it was gold as her paws dug into it.

"Officer Hopps, we should wait! Precints two and three are still ten minutes out!" It was Fangmeyer who responded through the radio, concern could be heard covering every word.

"We are the ZPD's best and I'm sure none of you want these guys to get away because we had to wait for back up. We are covered head to toe in the best equipment this city could give us. I think we can do this!" Judy shouted this as though it was a speech of inspiration and to Nick's amazement, everyone responded with a mighty, "YEAH!"

"Judy, I think Fangmeyer may have a point, we should wait for backup. These people are very dangerous and they are not afraid to try and kill us when we attempt to arrest them," Nick put his paw on Judy's shoulder as he tried to talk some sense into her.

"Nick, my mind is made up and you know very well that I am not going to change it," stated Judy as she looked over at Nick and gave him a wink. Nick knew there was no changing her mind so all he could do was finish up with the guns and do his best to make sure this doesn't get out of hand. Nick looked out the window and could see the sun was now starting to set and very quickly as well. From that he could tell it would be dark in an hour or so. Nick sighed as he put the magazine back into Judy's rifle and placed it in its slot behind her before placing shells into his own gun.

Nick was still nervous even though they had plenty of weapons including tranquilizers and live rounds alike to bring them in. Nick looked out the front window just as he was placing the last shell into its place, to see the rundown airfield and the massive hanger that was the base of operations for these criminals. The entire field was empty and devoid of all life making him wonder. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"This is it, guys! Turn your sirens on and lets bag them up!" Judy screamed into the radio microphone and turned her sirens followed by the lights. Not even two seconds later, the whole silence had been broken by all the cars and the wailing of sirens as they drove right onto the tarmac at full speed. It didn't take even a minute for them all to pull up and surround the front of the hangar and get into position behind their vehicles.

"This is the ZPD! Come out with your hands up, we have you surrounded!" Judy was holding a megaphone in her hands and spoke into it with an absolutely commanding voice. They all stood there with their weapons in their hands waiting for their response, quietly.

"Fuck off!" called a voice from above them, causing everyone to look up and see three large bears with two of them holding assault rifles and one with a very large rifle looking down at them. Nick recognized him as the main enforcer of the Nippers and was a very cruel animal

"You have ten seconds to comply or we WILL come in there!" Judy once again demanded their surrender.

"And I said to fuck off, but now we have to do this the hard way!" the bear in the middle pulled out a whistle and blew into it, causing all the canine officers to drop to their knees and cover their ears, including Nick.

"Nick! Whats wrong? Fangmeyer? Barry?" Judy could only watch as all three of them were whining and grabbing at their ears, trying to block out the noise that no one else could hear. Judy looked over to Delgato and pointed at the bear on the roof. Without hesitation, he aimed his rifle and fired at the bear, hitting him in the chest with a dart. He stumbled back, causing him to stop blowing into the strange whistle. Almost instantly Nick, Fangmeyer and Barry all got up as fast as they could.

"We got you right where we want you, you filthy cops!" screamed one of the bears as he pointed past them all. Judy turned around and was frozen in fear by what she saw. They were completely surrounded by thugs with assault rifles and similar weapons. Judy couldn't hold back her shock as her eyes grew wide and her mouth formed a single word, "No."

"Take cover!" was all Judy had time to say before the sound of gunfire erupted all around them. Delgato the lion took three bullets as he tried to get behind a car only to be shot and hit by the bears on the roof and from inside the hangar itself as the doors opened up to reveal even more gangsters. Judy watched in horror as she saw him twitch and convulse from taking bullet after bullet before falling onto his side with blood pooling all around him. Judy took aim at those that were behind them and began to fire indiscriminately at their attackers. Judy heard the yipping of Barry the hyena when he was hit by a stray bullet as he was hiding behind a car door.

Nick ducked underneath one of the cruisers and took aim at the ones coming from the hangar and fired at them. Nick watched as two of them fell to him before he watched as a crazed looking panther rushed over towards Waggins the tiger with a large cleaver.

"Waggins look out!" Nick cried out, but it was too late as the panther tackled him into one of the police cruisers and Nick could hear his screams as blood sprayed onto the front window.

"Oh god, this is Officer Hopps requesting back up, we have multiple officers down and we are completely surrounded!" Judy screamed into the radio on her shoulder.

"This is Officer Louis from precinct two. ETA is three minutes. Hold on!" shouted a voice from her radio as Judy dropped it to continue firing at her attackers. Judy watched as her attackers closed in on them even though she had brought down a number of them. Judy was so focused on what was in front of her that she didn't hear the ones coming from behind her. She began to reload her rifle as quickly as possible and just as she was about to place the clip into the gun when she heard the animal behind her. She jumped forward and twisted her body and took aim at the mammal behind her. Judy was stunned at how young the beaver attacking her was, but she still pulled the trigger and watched as the girl beaver went limp and fell on top of her.

Nick was still firing his weapon as more and more of them came out of the hangar, incoherently screaming nonsense and hyped-up on drugs and alcohol alike. Nick suddenly heard screaming coming from behind him and quickly turned around underneath the car to see Bowell the polar bear fighting to get animals off of someone a few cars down. Nick rolled out from under the car and rushed over, shooting his pistol to his left where the mammals who surrounded them came from. Nick ran as fast as he could to reach them and just steps away Bowell's head jerked to her left and blood sprayed from her right temple and she fell over.

"NOOOO!" Nick screamed as he got there to see her eyes glazed over and unresponsive. Nick heard the muffled cries of someone underneath a dead beaver and saw that it was Judy.

"Judy get up! We need to find cover!" Nick rolled the animal off of her and held his hand out to grab hers and pulled her to her feet.

"Nick! Judy! Over here!" screamed someone behind them and they turned to see Fangmeyer the wolf bleeding from his shoulder and hiding behind the door to their massive truck that was armor plated. They could see some their friends trying to use it as cover as best as they could from the hellfire of bullets surrounding them.

Time began to slow down for Nick as she and Judy got up and ran over to the truck and their possible savior. Nick's head slowly turned to the left to see another officer and friend fall to the Nippers as he slumped against a car and slowly slide down its door. He looked to his right next, to see that the mammals that had gotten behind them were now running away as further past them was a convoy of police cars speeding their way. He felt relief at seeing back up and he began to run even harder with Judy's hand in his as he looked back towards Fangmeyer.

His blood ran cold when he saw a wolf walk up behind Fangmeyer coming from the other side of the truck and pointed his revolver at his head. Nick screamed out, but heard nothing except the blood rushing in his ears as he saw the flash of the gun and how Fangmeyer simply fell to his knees with tears instantly swelling in his eyes as he turned around to see who had shot him. Nick could see him mouth out his final words before taking a second bullet to his forehead. Nick will never forget what he saw, "I'm sorry Wolford."

Nick began to slide to a stop as he reached for the closest door to him so he and Judy could hide inside to avoid all of this. His hand clamped around the door handle. Nick began to turn the handle when the tight grip on his other hand suddenly go limp. His heart froze in mid-beat as it took nearly an eternity for him to turn around to see what had happened. Tears began to form when he saw blood expanding in the center of Judy's chest and he was terrified to see the look in her eyes. Fear, sadness, anger and finally, acceptance could all be seen at the same time as she slowly looked down at her chest. Slowly, she crumpled into Nick's arms as blood began to ooze out of her mouth.

"Judy! Oh my God! Judy!" Nick screamed as he opened the door and dragged her into the car and getting in it himself. Bullets could be heard bouncing off of the car they were inside, but that did not matter to Nick as he pulled off her armor and ripped open her shirt while grabbing at the first-aid kit next to him. Blood was everywhere and there was so much of it.

"N... Nick I... "cough" I'm so... sorry," "cough" "cough" Judy tried to speak as she violently coughed up blood, splattering it all over Nick's face and clothes.

"Judy, please be quiet, you need to save your strength. I'm going to make this all better. I promise you." Nick was panicking as he pulled out the bandages and attempted to stop the bleeding coming from the center of her chest.

"It's OK Nick... "cough" This is what I get for "cough" n... not waiting... for backup." Judy reached up to touch Nick's face, but Nick didn't notice it as he was applying pressure to try and stop the bleeding. "Nick, I got everyone killed, didn't I?" Judy suddenly asked, causing Nick to stop very quickly.

"Thats not true, Judy! Don't you dare think that!" Nick shouted as he returned to his first-aid kit and trying his best to help her. The blood began to cover

Judy's chest and stomach completely, along with Nick's hands as he continued to do all he could to stop it from leaving her body.

"Nick cough Its all my fault. I couldn't help the city and caused even more harm again cough I got Fangmeyer killed along with," started judy but was cut off when an extremely violent fit of coughs that cause her to spray even more blood onto Nick's fur.

"Judy, don't you dare think that! I will not lose you too!" cried Nick as he looked over to see Judy was crying heavily as tears rolled down her face.

"Nick, do you remember the first time we made love?" Judy asked, trying to make the most of the situation.

"We don't have time for that!" Nick's paws were soaked with blood, but he finally managed to get the bleeding to stop.

"Nick, there is always time to remember the past so now answer me, do you remember?" Judy asked sternly as her hand finally reached Nick's blood-speckled face.

"Yes, Judy. I do remember. It was just after ten at night and we had just come home from a romantic dinner in the Rainforest District. We were kissing furiously as we entered your apartment and feeling each other's hot breaths on each other. Our hands roamed and gripped whatever we could as we fell onto that rickety bed of yours," Nick slowly began to tell her the story. He looked over to see that she was smiling and her breathing was getting more and more shallow. Nick slowly press his face into her hand to let her know that he was there for her.

"You were very eager to remove my clothes and I was just a passanger on that ride that night." Nick could feel her heart beat slower and slower as tears formed in his eyes.

"Judy, I hate to bring it up now, but I just want you to know that you have made me the happiest fox in the whole world and I never want that to end." Nick was sobbing uncontrollably as he reached into his pocket one last time and pulled out a small rectangular box.

"I have a confession as well, Nick. "cough" "cough" Remember when I said I was dealing with bunny stuff?" Judy's tears were like a never ending river as she was also crying intensely.

"Me first, Judy. I saw this the other day and thought it would have been perfect for our two year wedding anniversary and just couldn't wait to give it to you," Nick opened up the box to reveal an orange-colored diamond on a gold necklace with two bright, vibrant sapphires on opposite sides of the orange diamond.

"Oh Nick, it's beautiful can you help me put it on? "cough" "cough" Oh I guess I do have a surprise of my own, I found out last night that I am "cough" one week pregnant." Nick's heart shattered when he heard those words and all of the happiness left his body.

"P... pregnant?" Nick stuttered out as he looked Judy in the eyes and he felt just the slightest of heartbeats as Nick did his best to place the necklace on Judy with his shaking hands.

"I have never been happier than I was with you and I would have loved to have a family with no one else but you. It's been quite the hustle if I do say so myself, Slick Nick," Judy managed to say before shuddering suddenly in Nick's arms causing her hand fall from his face just as he clipped the necklace on. Nick could only stare for a moment before breaking down into a crying mess.

"Judy? Judy?! NOOO JUDY! Oh God Judy no, no, no, no!" Nick cried as he brought her limp body against his own and hugged her tightly, feeling the warmth of her body slowly, very slowly receding. He looked into her eyes to see that they were empty of emotion and life. Nick held onto her tightly for who knows how long while crying the entire time until finally, the door in front of him opened up. Nick raised his pistol at the intruder only to see that it was Chief Bogo.

"My God, Nick! Are you alri..." He stopped what he was saying as he saw that Nick was covered in blood and holding onto Judy. "Nick, I'm so sorry." Bogo backed up after saying this and walked away to leave Nick to himself.

"Judy, I'm so sorry I couldn't save you or anyone. But I will make it up to you Judy, I will! I will help all I can and bring the law back into Zootopia by any means necessary." Nick looked up and felt his heart grow cold and dead as he made a pact to bring down a reign of tyranny on all who defy the law. He will do whatever it takes to keep this city clean and free of all crime even if it would kill him. He will bring down the law onto those who would spit in its face.

"Judy, I will make the world a better place!" Nick slowly put her head down onto a pillow made from clean bandages and used his two fingers to gently close her eyes before eventually climbing out of the car to see that the gunfight was over and that the police were now dragging criminals out and tossing them into trucks while zipping up black bags. He was in that car the whole time crying and he didn't even notice that it was over. Nick looked around to see that he was the only one in his squad still alive as he saw his friends lined up in bags with their badges on top of them.

"I will never let this happen again." Nick vowed as he walked to Chief Bogo to tell him what had happened. The sun was setting along with a happy chapter in his life and to be replaced by a more grim and darker one.

((((Author's Notes))))

Well all I have to say is that it was not easy (emotionally) for me to write this story. I had times where I just had to stop or else I would just break down.

This is my interpretation of what happened in the nip den mentioned by Mistermead's comic "Judy is Dead"

He/she did post a while back that we writers were allowed to write this and for that I am thankful as I just could not sit around and let this haunt my dreams.

I just had to write about it. And to the Beta who helped me with this you know who you are ;) thank you so much!

Mistermead if you are reading this please don't stop and keep going and thank you for allowing me to write this.

Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read this. Please have a great day/night.