Chapter 16: Old Ends, New Beginnings

The shrapnel began to rumble. As of somebody were trapped inside trying to get out. Nick, Judy and Skye looked at the wreckage to see Honey, crawling his way out of the mess.

Site's felt with sad and angry tears as she pulled the badger out of the wrecked chopper.

She punched him again and again until her knuckles began to bleed. Once again, the honey badger just laughed. "Didn't I tell you honey baggers don't die?"

"You're really going to pay for this now! What do you think you and your stupid, crazy philosophy will get you anyway?!z The only thing that will happen is other powers will come and rip you to shreds."

"You don't get it, do you, ya stupid bitch?" He growled with a sadistic chuckle as he coughed up blood. "I don't follow James Todd's stupid philosophy bullshit. I was hired to kill you lot and pretend to follow that belief. He's the one who's faithful to this Cleansing thing."

Nick leaned over Judy's shoulder. "Who the hell is he?" He shouted.

Honey gave another chuckle. "It was your daddy. Mr. John Wilde."

Nick fell silent. He was in complete shock. His jaw dropped and his sense of logic was gone. He dropped his gun in the sand. Judy put her arm around his shoulders. Then the most confusing thing happened. He gave a tiny chuckle. The same one in which he gave Judy that day when he asked if she was afraid of him. "That makes...so much sense now."

Skye hit Honey again across the cheek with the butt of her gun. He glared up at the angry fox. "What's wrong, deary? Are you still mad about what I did to your mommy and daddy?" Skye's eyes dilated and her finger went for the trigger, but she held off for a second. Honey gasped sarcastically. "You wanna shoot me, don't you? Well, why don't you do it? Or are you too afraid to do it?"

She hit the breaking point. She snarled as she put the barrel of the gun right square in the center of his forehead. She was breathing heavily. Nick and Judy just stood there. Watching. "Oh believe me you piece of shit. I want to kill you. I want to kill you again, and again, just like I've wanted to for 16 years." She pushed the gun deeper into his head, starting a little welt. "But unlike you, I'm capable of following through with orders. You took my parents' lives, but at least you'll be rotting in prison for the rest of your's. An eye for an eye."

Skye took the gun off of his head, and brought it to her side. She turned around and walked towards Nick and Judy. At that moment, she recieved a call. The fox pressed her phone and put it on speaker.

"Yes sir?" She asked.

"Agent Winter. You have now been given new orders. Honey is to be terminated."

Nick and Judy stared at Skye. She had a blank face on. It was probably the best mission she had ever received, but she kept her complete composure. She didn't even crack a smile. She didn't want to, in memory of Jack, and all the training she had received from him. He was a great partner, and an even greater friend. Skye just took a deep breath and replied. "Yes sir."

The phone hung up. She put it back in her pocket. Mr. Honey let out another laugh, this time it was louder and almost insane. "What good'll it do ya?! You'll still be killed by John. This doesn't change a single thing!"

"No...it doesn't..." Skye said calmly with her eyes shut. "because you can't change the past...this one's for you, Jack."

Skye cocked the gun, aimed at Honey's skull, and finally shot the last bullet in her chamber. Honey's head flung back from the impact, and he fell into the sand, motionless. It was done.

It was all over now.

She had finally set out to do what she had wanted to do for so long. Her parents were avenged, and they could finally be at peace. It was a strange feeling. A sense of pride and honor, yet not in a happy tone. The only way she could describe it, was that it just felt... right. She could finally let the past that had been eating her and tormenting her go. She could finally move on with her life. Acceptance. One has to let go before letting back in, just as one needs to exhale before taking another breath. And Skye Winter had had been holding her breath for a very long time.

Now she supposed she could quit. The only reason she joined was to hopefully someday find who killed her parents and take him out. Now that she has, she thought to herself...now what? She could just quit and go back to being Zootopia's best mechanic. She could go back to what she loved. But that's not all she loved.

She loved Jack. She loved him so much, and she felt so foolish to never show him that side of her. Now, she would never get the chance to tell him. Skye dropped the gun, it fell soundly in the sand, finally empty. As police and ambulances came and coerced with Nick and Judy, she just stared at the sunset, hovering above the calm ocean, fading from white and painting the sky in a warm sherbet tone. This was why she had always wanted to be a deep sea diver. To come home from work, or rather, come up from work to see this. This beautiful display of beauty that the world always takes for granted.

"Skye?" She felt a paw on her shoulder. The vixen turned around to see Judy looking up at her. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live. I guess now I just need to find a new reason to."

The bunny gave her a hug. "Jack was a good mammal, and a hero to many. Just remember, we're always here for you."

Skye wrapped her arms around her friend, and leaned her head on hers. She felt a tear in her eye, but she would not let it fall. She would be strong, for Jack, and for her parents. "Thank you Judy."

Nick stared at the sunset. It truly was a beautiful thing, and he was grateful he had animals to share it with. He was grateful for his wife and kids, hopefully which he would finally be able to hold again tonight. He was about to turn and walk away, when he noticed something in the water, swimming towards the shore. He got a closer look. His eyes widened, then fell as he once again let out that hustler grin of his. "Skye."

The fox and bunny looked over at him. "I don't think you need to try and find a new reason to live, just yet." He said, still looking at the water.

Skye looked in the direction he was. Her eyes went were filled with joyous tears as she recognized the black suit and gray fur. She ran for the beach. Jack was alive. He stopped his swimming as he was in shallow enough water to touch the ground. He saw Skye, and a smile came out of him. A very exhausted smile, but a genuine one. She ran into the water and tackled the jack rabbit. The two stood up and let out laughs.

Skye just stared into that hare's gorgeous blue eyes. She could stare at them for hours, but she was distracted by an unbelievably strong smell of copper. She looked down. Her paws went of to her muzzle at rocket speed. His right hand was gone. He must not have escaped the cuffs in time, and they must have malfunctioned. "Oh my god Jack, your paw!" She shouted.

"Don't worry about that, Skye. For now, you're all I want to worry about." He cupped her cheek in his remaining paw and stroked her cheek. "You're all I've ever wanted to worry about. For such a long time, I've wanted to just, look at you. At the most beautiful creature in this world... I...I love you, Skye."

Skye mimicked his actions and cupped his cheek. Her smile was bigger than it ever has been before, and just like Jack, it was real. "I love you too, Jack."

Nick and Judy walked up behind them and just stared, holding each other close for the first time since Easter.

"Well, I guess it was good that I lost my right paw, otherwise this might be hard."

Skye was confused. "What would be hard?"

Jack reached into his coat pocket, and got down on one knee. He pulled out a wet, red velvet box. "I know this isn't really an ideal place to do this, but I've wanted to do this for years." He looked at his right paw, and all he saw was his coat sleeve and a lot of blood, so he just gave her the box. The fox took it from him and opened it. Inside was a beautiful ring. A princess cut diamond sat in the center, and on both sides of the diamond were two smaller blue topaz stones. Skye's birthstones.

"Skye... will you marry me?"

She took out the ring and slid it on her finger. She cupped both of her cheeks and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Of course I will marry you."

Jack and Skye just stared into each other. They leaned in, and shared a long needed, and very passionate kiss. Nick and Judy just smiled. As soon as Jack's lips left hers, the jackrabbit fell into the water. Skye chuckled as she knelt down next to him. "What? Was it that great?" She said laughing.

"Aaactually I'm getting really weary from all the blood loss. If you could help me out?"

The realization came and Skye called for some paramedics to come their way. She helped him to the shore and Nick and Judy came up to them.

Nick came over to Jack's right side and helped support him Judy was still at his side, and all four walked together up the beach. "Now that's what I call showing how much you love each other. That was something out of a story book right there." Nick said with a sly grin.

"Are you just jealous my proposal was more epic than yours?" Jack rebuttal-ed with a wink.

"Oh, you don't even have half the idea of what I went through to propose to Judy. I just have one question. When did you get that ring?" Nick asked. Skye was curious of that too. Judy just smiled.

She decided to answer the question. "Remember the day you two fixed the car and went to Bugburger? Well, Jack needed me to keep a secret. And that secret was his plan to propose to her after we finished the case. So while you two were getting food, we went to a jewelry store in Tundratown. They have the best winter stones and diamonds."

Skye was amazed. She helped him with all of this. She couldn't thank her enough for this. She couldn't believe how much this fox and bunny wanted their happiness. But then again, they had already gone through their tough times of getting engaged, and she supposed it was a bit more personal considering they were a fox and bunny too. Regardless, she was unbelievably happy, and unbelievably thankful.

Jack was put on the stretcher and put in the ambulance. Skye jumped in with the paramedics. Nick and Judy stayed behind to work things out with their coworkers. "We'll get everything sorted out, and we'll catch John." Nick said.

"Once I'm taken care of, we'll come and help you." Jack said.

"This is of personal matters. After all, he may be my father, he is not family, and we'll bring this son of a bitch down, just like James.I just want you to take care of her and yourself for right now."

Jack gave a grin. "You can count on that."

Nick's ear twitched and he heard someone coming up behind them. It was Chief Bogo. He had a grin on his face too. "Speaking of family, I'm sure you won't be too upset seeing these little ones." He said as he gestured his arm to his left.

Nick and Judy looked. The two of them smiled large as they saw Clawhauser, Fru Fru's assistant Koslov, and the Ottertons walked towards them, holding Peter, Alex and Johanna. The two of them rushed to finally hold there babies again. Nick picked up Peter, and Judy got Alex and Johanna. They laid kiss after kiss on all of them, and the five huddled together in a close group hug.

Skye smiled at the sight of them. That was genuine love right there. A happy, loving family reunited after what must have felt like an eternity without them. She saw that love unfold in the Wildes, and now she felt it as she held Jack's paw.

"Maybe we'll have that too someday." Jack said softly as he stroked the top of her paw with his thumb.

"It'll be hard though."

"Well, if we wanted to, we could always do that splicing experiment like they did, but it won't be for quite a whi-"

"Jack." She interrupted. "It still wouldn't work...because I'm completely sterile. I can't have my own kids."

Jack's ears drooped. He felt down. He never knew that, nor did anybody. It was a secret she has never told anyone until now, but he didn't let it get him down. He took a tighter grip of her paw. She looked down at him. "We'll figure it out...We always do. In the meantime, there's only one thing I want to worry about." He said with a smile.

Skye smiled and rubbed his right arm. "That goes for two of us, you little rascal." She said with a smile.

The two shared another kiss as the ambulance doors shut, and the vehicle sped off to the hospital. Judy sighed as she watched the ambulance drive out of sight."That's so romantic."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "They certainly do have a different take on romance."

"They sure do. Now, as for my romance, I'm living it right now. And I'm ready to keep living it until the end." She said with eyes half closed.

Nick smiled as he took his free paw and grabbed her waist. "Until the end."

The bunny reached up and stole a long kiss from her husband on the beach with their babies.

This was it. The end of the Honey case, but it was certainly not the end of their mission quite yet. Next came the mastermind behind Honey's paid actions. Next came John Wilde, the father of Nick and firm believer in his son, James's beliefs. Unfortunately this case was family tied, but Nick had no problem. He could barely even call him father after not knowing him for his entire life. To him, he was just another criminal, just like James, The police came and went, and Nick and Judy hitched a ride with Clawhauser to finally go back home with their family. The sun began t set further and further over the ocean. The air grew colder and colder, and the babies started to shiver, but Nick and Judy were there to keep them warm. They were ready to take on anything that would try to get between them. They were a family, and Nick was ready to protect that, even from other family. No matter what life tried to throw at them, Nick and Judy would be ready. They would always be ready.

Until the end.

To Be Continued in Part 2...