Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions of the City of Zootopia, in the part of the Rainforest District where nobody goes, there stood - in the suffocating and wet heat of this synthetic jungle - one of a number of embankment points to a series of Gondolas.

A part of the fencing had been smashed, the faint impressions of claw marks were engraved on the wooden floor, and the vague smell of wolves, jaguar, and the fumes of a recently departed van. In the darkness, a shrub moved; from behind it, a voice:

"I thought this was just a missing mammal case, but it's way bigger." The voice was small and flustered, and yet assertive and professional as it came closer, stepping through the greenery. "Mr. Otterton did not just disappear," it continued, "I believe he, and this jaguar, they... they went savage, sir."

"Savage?" inquired a much louder, somewhat disinterested voice from several feet above the first. "This isn't the stone age, Hopps. Animals don't go 'savage'."

"I thought so too... 'till I saw this."

The shrubs parted suddenly, and a small, blueish-gray rabbit stepped out, closely accompanied from behind by an unimpressed cape buffalo. Each wore a blue uniform and shining, copper badge - each standard issue of the Zootopia Police Department.

The rabbit looked about at the clearing, her eyes widening at the lack of 'savage jaguar'. "What? He was right here!"

The buffalo raised a brow. "The savage jaguar?"

"Sir, I know what I saw - he almost killed us!"

"Or maybe any 'aggressive predator' looks savage to you rabbits." Her ears dropping, Bogo turned and addressed the officers gathered around them. "Let's go!"

"No, wait! Sir, I'm not the only one who saw him. Nick!"

From his partial concealment in the hedgerow, a red fox became visible, stepping out into the semicircle of officers; looking about himself, uneasily, under the combined attention of the ZPD officers and the intent scrutiny of their Chief.

"You think I'm gonna believe a fox?" the Chief said.

"Well he's a key witness and I-"

"'Two days to find the otter, or you quit. That was the deal." Showing no signs of remorse, the buffalo held out a large hand towards her. "Badge."

It took a few seconds... but eventually the weight of the situation broke upon Nick's mind as he looked from Hopps to Bogo: the diligent officer, and her bullying Chief. He was about to fire her, and for no other reason than because she was a rabbit - because of her species.

"But sir, we had-"

"Badge!"

Looking between them, the fox felt something he had not felt for many years: his hackles were rising. When he was younger, this had often happened as a result of prejudice and speciesism against himself, but he had long ago learnt to accept this as just how life was. Though, for some reason, seeing it happen to Judy - to this tiny rabbit who reminded the fox so much of himself when he was young - caused a ball of black fury to grow in his gut he had long ago forgotten he could feel.

Judy stared up forlornly at Bogo for a shot time - the stern gaze of the Chief of Police unmoved by the sad eyes of the small rabbit. She sighed softly, and then, slowly - very slowly - she raised a reluctant paw to her badge.

"Uh, no."

It was spoken so softly really - inside, Nick felt ready to tare Bogo's face off - but the fact that he had spoken at all was enough to stop both mammals in their tracks and turn towards him; Bogo's neck creaking around to face the source of the voice.

"What did you say... fox?"

"Sorry, what I said was N-"

"Keep your shifty tail out of this!" he yelled, storming away from Judy and up to the small fox who flinched back from the sudden volume of the response. "This is a police affair. This doesn't concern you, civilian, vacate the premises now."

Judy stared, dumbfounded, by the unexpected turn of events; Nick taking a step back from the towering frame of Chief Bogo - fearful, but holding his ground.

"And leave Hopps over there in the hands of the likes of you? Not gonna happen."

"Well then I throw you into a cell for the night for interfering with police business! I am the Chief of Precinct One; I am the boss; I decide who I fire and who I do not."

"Yeah? Well you're not the boss of me, so just listen to what I have to say and then decide what you're going to do."

"Look," he grunted, "fox... I neither know you, nor care who you are or what you have to say. If you have a grievance, than I suggest you take your case to a court of law, and I shall bow to fair justice."

"Fair justice?" Nick retorted, " 'Fair justice', what've you done that's 'fair'? You gave her forty-eight hours to solve a case you haven't solved in two weeks! And now you want to take her job over it? Where's the fairness in that?"

"The pseudo-Officer to whom you are referring," Bogo said, coldly, "was, and still is, guilty of grievous insubordination. By rights!" he bellowed, "She should be fired already!"

"But what about the remaining ten hours you gave her to solve the case!?"

"She is never going to solve this case - not with ten hours; not with ten years. Just look at her: a tiny little prey mammal, lost in the woods, blinking, startled, in the headlights of an oncoming car; weak, frightened, and totally useless to the ZPD; a danger to herself and to others."

Nick looked away from the buffalo and fixed his gaze on Judy; he could see none of those things. As Judy noticed Nick staring at her, her amethyst eyes flicked to look from Bogo to him and (though there was fear there at the moment) he saw her strength, her courage. He saw Judy's drive and ambition, her resolve and her raw, brilliant passion.

"I admit she is well suited to meter maid duty," Bogo continued, quite unaware he was being ignored by both, "but anything other than that would be too dangerous to risk. I know I have talked harshly of her - I know what the two of you must think of me - but I am only doing this to try and keep this deluded carrot farmer... alive. That is my first priority - not to be the 'good guy'."

Nick had rarely met someone who could even be described as 'decent', but now, able to appreciate just how special she is, his expression towards her softened, and he came to realize: meeting Judy has been an honor, and a privilege.

"...and if she ever tires to arrest a real criminal - anything bigger than a weasel - she will wind up dead. The ZPD is a place where the big boys play - not a place for rabbits like her who would be more at home packed up in a box in a toy store..."

It dawned on Nick how truly lucky he is to be able to call himself a friend of Judy's. A warm smile broke upon his face, and - despite Bogo's ranting and raging beside them - a small smile form upon Judy's face likewise.

There was so much more he could see in her eyes: things, not just about her, but about him. She looked at him like a true friend: with warmth, compassion, respect, trust... Nick had never felt 'trusted' before - relied upon by the likes of Finnick, yes - but never 'trusted.'

Judy's smile grew into a grin - failing to recognize the specieaseist comments of her Chief - as Nick started smiling even wider. His emerald eyes glistening, Judy drink in the fondness and passion - a passion which was a blazing inferno (and a heck of a lot more passion than he felt for himself) - and if she looked closely, and really believed it was there, she could see a little hint of desire to... and she did not mind that in the slightest.

The buffalo stepped between them, his towering frame casting a shadow over the fox. Loosing sight of the adorable eyes of the amazing rabbit, Nick's mood sunk; as did his resolve to face off with the Chief. Meanwhile, however, Judy's mood... shifted into rage.

"So, fox, this is your last chance. Beat it, or I 'beat' you."

"Erm," he said unsurely, "isn't, isn't that police brutality? Ergo, you can't do that?"

"I can if it's self defense." Turning about them, Bogo glanced over the assembled mammals. "And seeing as the only whiteness will be officers of the ZPD - of whom I am their Chief - I think they will all be perfectly willing to say you swung first. After all," he said, turning back to the fox, sharply, "who are they going to believe: Zootpia's Chief of Police... or a fox?"

Judy watched, aghast, as Nick shrank back in fear from the grimacing face of the Chief. Was this the true face of the ZPD? A gang of dishonest, species thugs? Judy's reached for her badge a second time, her hand trembling again as she clutched it in her paws - this time, though, it did not tremble through fear or sadness, but through her blood-boiling, righteous fury.

If this is what the ZPD is really about - I want no part of it.

"And if you're not careful -fox- you might just trip on the wet floor and fall alllll the way down the-" something small and heavy hit Bogo clean across the side of the snout. He turned to Judy, stunned, his voice is devoid of anger. "...Hopps, did - did you just throw something at me?"

"Yeah, wanna make something of it?"

"Okay, that's it! Badge now!"

"That's what I threw, jerk!"

Stunned twice over, Bogo looked down upon the small piece of brass by his feet. He bent down and picked it up, staring at the object which looked so tiny in his large grip.

"Nick?" Judy called, softly. She waited a moment, and then beamed a golden smile as his head appeared, peaking, apprehensively, around the side of Bogo's motionless form.

Judy cocked her head towards the Gondola pulling up behind her. After a still-stunned nod from Nick, he stepped past Bogo - silently avoiding the Chief who was still lost in the moment - as he left the shadows upon the edge of the parapet and took his place beside Hopps.

The rabbit wrapped a fond arm around Nick's waist (Nick didn't dare move in response) and then smiled up, playfully, at Bogo's astonished expression as it, at last, moved from the badge in his hands and up to the pair.

"We are going to solve this case, Bogo - just Wilde and me. We don't even need your help."

"But you can't hope to solve anything working on your own."

"Why not? It's been done before. And after we solve this case, we're going to do it professionally."

"Now hang on, your not seriously insinuating-"

"That's right, from this day forth, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps are going P.I.!"

"Hopps," Bogo said, gruffly, "do you have any idea how often we get called out to bail out witless 'amateur detectives' who've got themselves caught up in something way too big for them to handle?"

"They didn't have the street-smarts Nick has - or the police training I have. You may refuse to acknowledge it, but I still am top of my class. I still am a perfectly capable officer."

"Hopps," Bogo shot, "I order you not to-"

"Bogo, with respect sir, I don't work for you anymore." Sliding her arm from around Nick's waist, she stepped towards the Gondola. "I'm a Private Investigator now; your orders don't have any power over me anymore."

Bogo's expression slackened as Judy stepped into the stationary sky-tram, turning back to hold the door open for Nick as he stepped on board beside her.

"Now," she said, her voice oozing with smugness as the tram pulled away, "if you don't mind, Nick and I have a very big lead to follow... and a case to crack."

The fox dared not look at the cape buffalo behind him - though he could feel his stern gaze boring into the back of his skull as the Gondola pulled away. He gazed off blankly into the veiled nothing that surrounded them, simply thinking about all which Judy had said... and everything he'd felt.

They traveled in silence for some minutes, with both stood in deep thought - hardly even aware the other was there - as they contemplated their positions in life at that moment. Hunching down, Nick lent his weight on the railing and thought:

Why am I even considering this? Doesn't detective work take years of study and knowledge and stuff? Well... I guess Hopps is kinda right, she has had a lot of training already, and I do know this city inside out, but... can I commit like this? Heck, do I even want to commit to this: a life of crime and danger, earning a living by dealing with the scum of the earth and hoping each and every day I don't 'disappear' in a dark alley somewhere?

Nick's eyes closed, his head touching down upon the cool rail. Who am I kidding? I'm already living that lifestyle. The only difference is I'll be working on the side of the 'good guys' rather than the crooks. If we can make a decent name for ourselves the pay won't be so bad, and so long as we're careful it shouldn't be too dangerous, and on the subject of being partners... well ~

On the subject of being 'partners' there was the... other matter. That little thing Nick saw - or thought he saw - just for a moment in Judy's eyes. That little thing he felt - or thought he felt - when her arm wrapped around him.

The fox regressed back to the moment when his and her eyes had met as Bogo ranted at them. Her eyes had been so deep and shown so much fondness. It seemed too much to believe, but perhaps, maybe-

Nick shook the thought from his head. It went away for about half a second, then came straight back again. He turned to Judy, slowly, and watched her nonchalantly as she gazed out at the darkness that surrounded them.

I guess she is kinda attractive, in her own way. I mean, pfft, he added, as though trying to convince himself otherwise, heck, she's no vixen, but there is something, just... something about her that makes me keep wanting to steal glances of her, time and time again. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy.

Nick wanted to know what Judy would say if he told her how he felt - or what he thought he felt. He wanted to know what Finnic would say, and how his Mom would react and what she'd say to his Granddad. He wanted to know how the public would react, and where the law itself would stand on this matter. But, more than anything, he wanted to know why 'he wanted to know' so badly.

A small voice broke into his thoughts.

"You did well to stand up to Bogo like that."

Nick turned back to Judy. She had stopped gazing out at the nothing that surrounded them and had turned to face him, leaning her small frame on the rails of the tram. Nick drank in the sight. "Well," he said after a moment, "it's easy when you've got the right cause to fight for."

"...what was the cause?"

Nick made no reply, but saying nothing proved what Judy suspected just as much as saying 'you are' would have done.

Judy smiled. If Nick thought he had been doing a lot of thinking about what he wanted from life in the last few minutes then he was beaten, tenfold, by the amount of long-term thinking Judy had been doing. She knew what she wanted, and more than that, suspected Nick, just maybe, wanted it to.

Nick crossed his arms, resting one paw on his forearm and the other on his shoulder as he gazed down at the rabbit before him. Well, he thought, I'll have to ask sooner or later - I may as well just come out with it. "Where you serious about going PI together?" he said.

The rabbit faltered in her reply. "Well, erh... not really."

Though he didn't let it show, Nick's heart sank.

"I would - I mean, if you'd be willing," Judy continued, her voice weakening, "- like to have some help form you to see if we can solve just this case if we can, but after that I don't expect you to keep following me around. I know I'm just a dumb bunny for thinking I could be a cop. I just wanted to rub Bogo's face in it really."

"You're not a dumb bunny," Nick said, mildly. Clearing his throat; avoiding Judy's eye, the fox raised his paws and started to fiddle with his tie. "So, what you're saying is: the opening isn't available?"

Her downtrodden expression fading, the rabbit locked her gaze back upon Nick's emeralds, a tremor of hope in her voice. "What're you saying, Nick: that you... you might want to work together?"

"I certainly wouldn't mind giving it a shot," he said, hiding his growing, childish excitement behind a warm smile, "if you're happy to, that is."

"Oh, Nick, I... I'd love to!" the rabbit cried, stepping close excitedly and throwing her arms around his waist.

Nick watched her, his blood pressure suddenly rocketing at the sensation of that rabbit's arms - Judy's arms - about him. A part of Nick's mind told him he should prise himself away from the sweet-smelling bunny before he did something he regretted... but he ignored that thought and pushed it away.

Stepping close, the red fox slipped his arms firmly - tightly - around the rabbit's body, holding her close; resting his head beside her's, allowing his nose to touch upon her shoulder, so he could breath her appealing scent.

Though Nick couldn't see it, a beaming smile grew on Judy's face. She knew by how he was holding her - by how firmly and yet how tenderly - that she hadn't imagined what she'd seen in his eyes back then; that it was real.

Judy chuckled, softly, to herself - her eyes shut tight as she felt the warmth of the fox against hers. I think the sacrifice of a policing career was worth it, she thought, if it means I get to be a Private Dick... with Nick as my 'partner'.

"Carrots," Nick said, softly, his arms wrapping a little tighter around the rabbit, "whatever happens in the next few days, there's something real important I've gotta ask ya."

Turning up towards the fox, the rabbit's amethyst eyes gazed into his emeralds. "Yes, Nickey?"

"This may well be the most important question of your life. You sure your ready?"

Raising her hand, the rabbit touched her paw upon the fox's arm. "Ask."

Taking a breath, Nick prepared himself, and spoke:

"Judy... what're we gonna call ourselves?"

And so, from the ashes of a deceased career:
a new life starts; born, upon the ashes of the old.

~ From the Ashes ~
by
~ Mister Smail ~