The continuation of the chapter.

And once again, I reiterate—

Cover Art:The cover art for this story has changed. A fan of my story decided to make some fan art to go along with it. It was made by the wonderful gokhan16! If you enjoy it, please fave the original here: http://gokhan16.deviantart.com/art/.....Path-635772264

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"She's like a living, breathing lie detector!" Judy complained as she slumped at the table. She and Nick were in the upstairs kitchenette eating a small breakfast.

They were both counting down the minutes for the big meeting later. The others were downstairs in the large communal dining room. Nick and Judy had wanted their privacy and told Honey where they'd be if they were needed.

"You could have warned me," she pouted as she looked across the table at Nick.

He let out a regretful sigh. "The only way we're gonna get her to trust us," said Nick, "is if we're honest with her. No holding back. If we'd said something earlier about the night howlers, someone might've been able to figure things out. Anything we know might be useful."

"You still could have told me she was gonna interrogate me!" said Judy, somewhat annoyed.

"But I couldn't! Not without it looking to her like we really were trying to hide something from her. I know you, Carrots—if I'd said anything, you'd've clammed up faster than a clam."

Judy quirked an eyebrow and sat up straight as she looked at him. "Yeah, I guess," she murmured.

She'd made herself a salad out of some ingredients she found in the fridge. She munched on it absentmindedly as she thought through things in the cold light of day.

At last, she spoke. "Nick, what're we gonna do here?" she said as she swallowed a mouth full of lettuce.

He sipped his coffee and chewed some toast as he wondered the same thing.

"I guess stay here and help in whatever way we can until we get back."

"There's gotta be some way for us to get home!" she said desperately though to no one in particular. She was racking her brain as she tried to understand their current situation.

"Well," said Nick as he took another sip of coffee, "unless you know how to punch a hole through space-time and the fabric of the universe, I don't think we can do that."

"I don't get it? I mean, why of all nights did it happen the night before last?"

"Maybe we're just that good at lovemaking?"

Judy quirked a smile, her serious façade evaporating for a moment.

"It would explain a lot," he said as she laughed shyly.

She giggled and reached forwarded across the table. He leant forward too, and they took each other's paws as she answered. "Something told me that you'd be good at-"

She stopped speaking abruptly and took her paws away from Nick. Her ears twitched, and when Nick gave her a curious look, she whispered, "My brother's coming!"

"Which one?" he breathed.

Nick spoke just as a rather tall and strong-looking bunny stepped into the kitchen and eyed the two of them.

He glared at them for a moment as though mulling his options.

Judy thought back to when they'd finally all come out of the conference room and given her family their strange explanation: when it was revealed that there were two Judys and that she was a bodyguard and double for the other.

Judy hadn't thought it was much to worry about, but she had noticed that several of her siblings were missing.

As Jasper stared at them now, she realised that he hadn't heard the explanation that she was his sister's guard.

She took him in from head to foot. His paws and clothes were covered with dirt. He'd been out working in the field in spite of the cold November morning, and his white fur was damp with sweat which moistened long-sleeved shirt he was wearing over a white sleeveless one. Gloves were poking out his back pocket, and the finely hatched red and white plaid pattern swayed around his waist, untucked, as he stepped softly across the floor.

He stalked into the kitchen, staring daggers at Nick as though he were an intruder.

Unbidden, Nick's hackles rose, his red fur standing on end along the back of his neck, as he sensed a tension in the bunny's eye contact that set his teeth on edge.

Jasper went over to the fridge and opened it, scowling when he saw that it was nearly empty.

"Did you use all the lettuce?" he asked, his tone conveying indignity and annoyance.

"I used the rest of it to make a salad," said Judy gently, not wishing to rouse her brother's anger.

"Fuck," the rabbit whispered to himself.

"There are carrots!" she said helpfully.

He shook his head gently. "Too much sugar. I gotta go back out there and it'll burn off too quickly."

His voice was clipped. Judy could tell that he was trying to be civil. She also knew from his tense stance and mien that he was on the edge of snapping. Dad had probably told him to be kind and helpful, even if it went against his nature. The trouble with that was that resentment, Judy knew, had a way of simmering just beneath the surface.

"Jasper," she said as he still refused to look at her, "I think we should talk. One on one."

He closed the fridge with a slam, and Judy cringed as he regarded her with a harsh gaze.

She was still in her policeman blues, and she knew she was gonna need a change soon but had hesitated at taking anything that belonged to Hopps, though it had been freely offered when her twin had approached her at the end of the meeting.

She knew she needed a wash, anyway, and would probably take one as soon as many of the preliminaries were out of the way; however, there was too much to do, and she didn't feel she had the time to take care of any of those basic necessities. Information was coming in too quickly, and she harboured a fear that she might miss something if she took too long to shower. In part, because she was certain Nick would offer to shower with her, and she was pretty sure she knew how that would end.

But no, rather than enjoying a shower with her mate, she had elected to simply come upstairs for some privacy and some breakfast.

And now, instead of privacy, she had a very angry looking older brother looking down at her as if she were the most vile thing on Earth at her quiet suggestion that they talk. She wanted to clear the air with him, but it seemed, solely based on his expression, that he wasn't willing to do that in the slightest.

"Why?" he asked tightly.

She sighed at his tone, and slid forward, her fingers linked in a gesture of supplication. "You're mad at me."

"Mad? The fuck should I be mad for?" he said sarcastically as he took a slight step back. "My sister's just gone and betrayed our whole family to become a lousy predfucker!"

Nick growled and shot up from his seat, instantly. "Now you wait a minute!" he shouted.

Jasper stalked over quickly and pounded the table with his fist so hard that the settings jarred and clattered. Judy jumped, letting out a tiny squeak of fear as he did so and sat back in her chair as lightning seemed to crackle in her brother's eyes.

"I ain't got nothing to say to you, fox," he said, at last venting his anger. "And you," he said rounding on Judy, "you're fucking disgusting. Is that the talk you wanted to have? Because that's all I have to say to either of you!"

Judy pinned her ears back and her pink ears deepened in colour. She looked down as tears threatened to flow down her face, and she was clearly choking back emotion as she sat with her hands clasped around her purple coffee mug.

Jasper noted her reaction and couldn't help but feel a bit badly, but at the same goddamn time no, he fucking didn't! She'd wanted him to be honest with her, and here he was watching his sister nearly sob . . . because of him and what he'd said. But damn it, on the other paw she was married to a fox! There was no reconciliation with that, was there?!

His emotional state seemed to settle on anger rather than guilt, and he sat down at the table, making a big show of the act as he clacked the chair's legs on the ground loudly as he sat down. He reached forward and took a slice of warm toast before he grabbed for the butter knife.

Nick's eyes widened. "Hey-!"

"Shut up fox! I don't wanna hear nothin' from you!" he shouted as he went back to buttering his toast.

"But-!"

"Can it!" he shouted again as he started buttering it.

Nick sighed. "Okay, but I was just gonna tell you that I licked that knife," he said in a rush.

Judy, who'd been looking down into her coffee in shame spat out the sip of coffee she'd just taken.

In a flash, Jasper reached across the table and grabbed Nick by his shirt.

"Don't!" shouted Judy as she jumped up on the table and tried to separate them.

"You stay out of this, Jude! Me an' your mate have something we need to settle, male to male!"

"Judy's a big bunny and can make her own decisions!" growled Nick as his own paws broke the bunny's hold on him.

"She can make her own decision," said Jasper "but you know as well as I do that she's wide eyed! Zootopia was eating her alive! We all heard about what was happening to you on the news! Everyone's been talkin' 'bout how you're dead."

He rounded on Nick.

"And it seems like the city isn't the only thing eating her alive."

"Nick's a perfect gentleman!" she said vehemently as she went over to her brother.

"God, Judy," said Jasper as he turned to her, "being with a fox is just disgusting and you know it! But it wouldn't have been as bad if you'd picked a local like Gideon! I'm just trying to look out for you!"

"You're only looking out for your prejudice!" shouted Nick. He growled and put a possessive arm around Judy as he came around the table.

"Cut me some fucking slack!" said Jasper as she shouted back. "Are you gonna tell me that it didn't cross your minds, too?!"

He looked between the both of them for a moment, each of them remaining silent as his accusation hit home.

"I knew it," he said as he regarded his sister. "So how about you cut me some fucking slack?!"

He turned to Nick as he spoke and eyed him cruelly. "You think I wanna feel this way about my sister? You think I wanna look at her and think about how sick this is? Let's face it," he said as he turned back to Judy, "Dad's already said that you're family, and his word is law around here. You know that. That means that you're my sister through thick and thin, and you bet your ass I'll stick up for you, but me and you boyfriend here have something we need to settle between us," he finished as his eyes moved from his sister to the fox next to her.

He turned to face Nick, looking at the fox straight on as he spoke. "Now, you listen: she picked you over the laws of nature and her family blood. We're the ones who had to come over to her side because she made it clear to Mom and Dad that she was gonna pick you over us. Think about that for a fucking minute—that means that she cares about you more than her own family." He spoke tightly, as though trying to hold back his emotion. "So you mark my words—we'll always be here for her: we're her family and she has us forever, even if she chooses you. She cares and loves you a lot. She'd have to to be willing to give us up."

Nick stood dumbfounded as the bunny continued.

"I'll let you live because she would never forgive me if I did anything to hurt you," he said as he stole a quick glance at Judy. "I get that. But I wanna tell you that if you break my sister's heart, I will find you and give you a reckoning that'll leave you in pieces. We're the Hopps family, and we take care of our own."

He gave them each a fierce look before he turned and forced himself to walk away, a torrent of unresolved emotions whirling inside him as he went back outside, forgetting his snack.

-.-.-.-

10:37 AM

The meeting wasn't what anyone in the Hopps family had been expecting. Judy had taken the floor with the help of a badger and proceeded to recount the most horrific story about her time in the city to the large gathering of relatives including a large array of siblings and cousins. Many of them had been confused about news reports that morning out the Zootopia that had noted the death of Judy while in their own homes that morning and were more than shocked and elated to discover when they arrove at the Hopps residence that she was alright.

They muttered to each other in the wake of the tale she told them. Several of her sisters, along with her father and mother, came up and hugged her afterward, telling her that everything was alright as she wept at the overwhelming support for everything she'd been through.

She had watched—their mouths had hung agape as she shared the horrors which she'd witnessed and endured during her tenure at the ZPD.

Jasper had been taken by surprise when he came downstairs at ten to be told that "Carrots," whom he'd apparently met upstairs with "Red," was supposedly his sister's body double. He harboured a sneaking suspicion, however, that all was not as it seemed. For one thing, this double argued too passionately on behalf of his sister and seemed to know things about him that only family should. Finding out that his "real" sister wasn't actually mated to a fox did nothing to assuage the sense of protectiveness he felt over this other bunny.

Blood knew blood, and he had learned over time to trust his instincts. In spite of the irrational conclusion he seemed to be reaching, he sensed that somehow Carrots was his sister, too—that she was, in fact, Judy. There was no way an animal could learn to fake all the little intricacies of an individual's life, and Carrots had all of his sister's mannerisms down to a T. Even when no one was looking, he noticed that she acted exactly like Judy. Nothing was stiff, nothing was perfect—which is what a professional would have gone for. Carrots' manners were genuine, and no one could fake that.

He had looked over at her doubtfully. He contemplated her, at last taking away his gaze when his "real" sister took the floor in the large common room connecting all the offshoot tributes.

As his sister told her story, he found himself consumed by a profound desire for revenge. He had always distrusted the animals who lived in the bigger cities. Especially in recent years when they'd been trying to take away Bunnyburrow's relative autonomy. As far as he was concerned, his family farm—and indeed the whole tri-burrow area—had a culture distinct from and better than that the richies in the city.

What was odd to him, though, was that in the wake of her story he found himself emotionally on the side of the predators.

He identified naturally with the prey animals of the city. Or thought he would. And when he saw and heard what they were doing, some of the more innocuous biases Hopps recounted, he tried to justify it to himself—that somehow these predators, must have done something to merit what happened to them.

He had wanted to look at the prey animals and find in them some justification, some good reason, why they had been so antagonistic, so brutal, to the predators in the city. It was in his blood to have a natural distrust of predators, and yet as he contemplated those who stood amongst them in the group around him, he found his mistrust belied by their manners and their looks. None of them appeared to be cruel or vicious. Cubs and kits, certainly, didn't deserve to die as his sister explained had happened to several animals for being too "uppity". There was nothing that could justify what had happened to any of them.

When he looked around at the preds, he expected to see something of the arrogance which he believed accompanied everyone from the cities. As he observed them, however, he saw their faces were worn with care and worry. Their clothes were frayed along the edges. They were poor. Or, at least, poorer than he would have expected.

He watched her face as she told her story, and also eyed the looks of his brothers and sisters wore. They were sharing his mixed emotions.

The preds, however, stayed silent as she spoke; but in their eyes, he saw a reflection of the fear and anger and hatred—a response to society's treatment of them all their lives. It was the source of their frustration, and it had been all their lives. All of these preds had suffered violence and disenfranchisement at the hands of the prey animals in the city, and though he was still unnerved by it, he understood how Carrots could have come to fall in love with a fox. If Red—as they had come to call him—were half as heroic as the predators his Judy was describing, he could see his own future daughter falling in love with one. Perish the thought, but he could see it.

When she told of the human she'd met, he had no idea what the hell she was describing, and he found himself at a total loss as to how to imagine the creature.

He had turned his gaze to Honey and watched her face as she listened to the story. Something in the way the light shone around her, the scars on her arms and shoulders, and the tough look on her face won a certain admiration form him. She had a heart like his, he could tell. She got her paws dirty, and wasn't afraid of hard work, and the way her dirt green sleeveless shirt hung about her voluptuous body, somehow a perfect complement to her magical black and white fur.

She looked his way and gave him a slight smile.

His face remained impassive but he gave a slight nod in return as he looked back to his sister.

Not too long into her story, Jasper's mouth fell open as Judy described exactly what had taken place at Searton and what had happened on that bloody day in December. The cull painted a brutal picture that he was scarcely able to believe. He saw how genuine she was, though, and he could see through her earnestness that what she was saying was true. She was straightforward and honest as she described the events in brutal detail, and he was beside himself anger at the bloody injustice.

The moment that had really caught his attention, aside from her description of the mysterious creature called "The Human," was when his sister mentioned her suicide attempt.

Her head was downcast, and she began to sob as she told them of the desolation, the hopelessness, and the terror that had consumed her. The cheer and optimism with which she'd been hoping to preserve as she fought crime in the city evaporated as quickly as virga in the air over a searing dessert. She told them about the plants she'd chosen, their greens, blues, and soft whites a contrast to the deadliness they contained.

It would've been a brutal death, racking her with seizures, heart attacks, and pain.

Her tears kept coming, and she found herself unable to face her large family as she broke down and told them of that dark hour in her life. There was not a sibling among them who didn't want to rush forward and hold her, and he and several others made their way toward her, and he felt himself choke emotionally under the weight of her suffering.

He watched his mother and father start forward only to stop, as did he, along with those others who had come forward when Honey quickly dashed to the front of the assembly, put her arm around his sister, and continued the story for her. The tale needed to come out. It needed to be set free so that it could be attacked and reshaped. Its monstrosity needed to be reformed, and while her story was the beginning, he would do the best he could to give it a happy end.

Their little cop was crying as Honey told them what had happened in the aftermath. Jasper didn't know if it was fear or shame that brought his sister to tears, but He was glad she was telling them. Had he heard about any of this, Dad's orders or not, he'd've marched straight into the city and taken his sister home, and he'd've brought his brothers along with him. The Hopps boys were a rowdy bunch, and he wondered briefly to himself whether Zootopia could handle them. Already he was plotting in his head all the ways in which he'd take the city down with relish. Nobody made his sister cry.

Except him, he realised to his chagrin. He was very quickly realising that he was going to have to have a change of mind when it came to Carrots. He looked over at her and the fox as they sat whispering to each other, the fox's arm about her so.

Honey had saved his sister's life, and he owed her a debt of gratitude for that, and he knew that his brothers and sisters would feel the same.

Jasper was the eldest of the boys who'd stayed behind to help out, and as the eldest of those at home, his word in there was second only to his father's. Many of his brother's had all gone out to start warrens of their own, and his sisters—those who'd left—had all married into good families. For the most part.

As he listened to Honey's request for families in Bunnyburrow to open up their homes, he knew that his family would follow her lead; if not for the preds and their families then at least for Judy and what the city had done to her. His older brothers would be onboard in a split second if they heard half of what he'd just heard, and he knew that his sisters would be good enough to nag their husbands into joining. Any buck worth his salt wouldn't let his wife go unhappy for long. Blood ran thicker, after all.

Honey's subsequent request was a no brainer—that was, to have not just a group of Happy Towners come to Bunnyburrow to find refuge, but all of them.

His parents, he knew, had already thrown their doors open to the preds who were on their way even at that moment—but their space was limited, and they would be packed to the brim, even doubled up, in no time. That's where his siblings would be of use.

That's also where his siblings would probably have the biggest problem. At the same time, he was certain he could be convincing when he spoke to them. He could get his brothers to listen to him—especially if they knew what Judy had gone through and what was going on in the city.

When the meeting was over, his first order of business was going to be to get on the horn with everyone he knew by whatever means were available to him and let his absent siblings know what had been decided. He wasn't sure how he would since the phone lines were being watched, but he knew that he would have to. Probably just use whatever encryption the preds were using to send text messages.

He made a mental note to buy a cell phone.

-.-.-.-

12:39 PM

Nick and Judy were in the upstairs kitchen again. The downstairs meeting had turned into a love fest of sorts after both Honey and Hopps had spoken to them. Hopps' siblings surrounded her as she went through the details of her ordeal with them in a less formal manner while also filling them in on the terrible things she'd witnessed in the city on a simple day to day basis. Her description of a declawing procedure had nearly everyone wincing in sympathetic pain as they closed in on her.

Judy felt particularly out of place seeing that, and felt an acute loneliness—denied the emotional support her doppelgänger had all around her. Her family, Judy thought, been told that she wasn't really their kin, and it seemed that many were ignoring her. She was just another rabbit who was mated to a fox. Now that she wasn't their family, it seemed that many of her siblings felt they had a right to treat her just as they would have if she were anyone other than their family. Not that Judy minded in the long run: at least Hopps was getting the support she so sorely needed after such a long time of living alone.

Jasper had been particularly conscientious about making sure Hopps was alright, giving her his love, before leaving to do some business or other in town.

Judy knew that her family would have questions about what their own role in the current situation would be, and Honey and Hopps were the only two who were truly capable of giving them the answers they needed. The work which the two had been doing now served to back up and bolster their argument while also obligating the whole family to do as they asked.

Some of the others seemed to have a mind like Jasper's, and they went out to go contact their other siblings by word of mouth. The necessity of their help was undeniable: There was no way an entire subsection of a city was going to be able to be displaced without some chaos. Things needed to move quickly; and to that end, the word was going out through the city. Judy was certain that by nightfall, the city council would be convening an emergency meeting.

Slowly but surely, the wheels were turning. The predators had willingly shared the smartphone app that encrypted their messages, and her siblings—those with actual smarphones—were quick to send the app and exhortations to use it to all the others who hadn't been able to make the meeting. Information needed to be able to flow quickly, and that simply wouldn't be possible using coded over-the-phone messages.

Throughout the meeting, Judy had seen the way that Jasper periodically gave both herself and Nick appraising looks, and again just before leaving. She wasn't sure what it was, but it felt as though he were trying to decide something about the two of them. She knew that, for whatever reason, she wasn't out of the woods yet as far as things with him went.

The stress of working out the logistics of what needed to be done in order to shore up support for the incoming predators was getting to her, and watching her family talk and laugh and support her lookalike was heart-wrenching even though she'd agreed, for practical reasons, to the charade.

And it was for that reason she'd left the group and was upstairs chatting with Nick when the first predators arrove.

The doorbell rang as she was speaking, and Judy looked away from Nick as one of her younger sisters passed by the kitchen to the front door. Judy had just turned back to Nick to finish her thought when a loud scream erupted from the hall.

Nick jumped and Judy cringed at the terrified cry.

"What the hell?!" shouted Nick as he jumped out of his chair and dashed around the table.

Judy had already rounded the bend into the hallway as he reached the hall.

As he tore round the corner, he crashed into someone nearly his size that had him falling backward.

"I'm sorry-" he started quickly though cut himself off mid-apology when he saw it was Jasper. He fixed the buck with an impassive stare as the bunny lowered his ears and scowled.

Jasper fixed Nick with a hostile glare. "What the hell was that?!" he shouted angrily.

"How should I know? You think I could scream like that?" said Nick.

"You want me to answer that, City Slicker?" returned Jasper as he raised an eyebrow.

"Guys!" shouted Judy in a bid for attention before turning back to her sister.

They both turned to see Judy crouched before a slight-looking bunny. Young, perhaps sixteen or so.

"Fay, you're fine. Everything's fine!" said Judy reassuringly as she tried to soothe the young lady.

Both males turned their gazes from Judy to the entryway. The door was half opened, and the smaller bunny, crouched and huddling, gestured to it with one paw as she kept her face and eyes covered with the other.

Judy inclined her head toward the door, indicating for the boys to check it out as she rubbed her sister's arms in a bid to calm her.

Nick watched as Jasper strode forward confidently, and Nick tailed him and watched as he reached the door and opened it wide. All Nick could see were two giant stalks that seemed to stretch beyond the allowance of the doorframe: it was too low for him to see exactly what species it was, but he knew immediately that it was a bear.

As Nick approached, he had to crane his neck upward. He realised even before he got too far that he was looking at the legs of a Kodiak bear. It was probably the largest creature the terrified bunny had ever seen in her life.

Bunnyburrow was filled with animals of similar stature—from foxes to weasels to badgers, all of them were with more or less within each other's measure. The wolves at their tallest stood at five feet and a quarter—about a foot taller than Nick—and were probably the largest animals they'd become accustomed to seeing. This bear stood at a good eight feet with razor sharp claws and teeth. No wonder the little bunny was frightened!

Jasper merely eyed the bear with dull surprise and coolly looked around outside behind the tall animal to see a large group of twenty or so preds obscured by the bear's legs.

The bunny quirked an eyebrow as he turned his attention back to the bear.

"You and any other bears are gonna have to go round the back," he said. Jasper's ears twitched as he heard several feet pounding the floor as they came up from behind him.

His siblings had come running from upstairs at the sound of the scream.

"What is it?" he heard his mother ask as she walked up, a worried look on her face.

Nick stood aside as she came up even to her son. Judy was walking with her sister, quickly steering her into the kitchen. Nick whipped around and followed the pair, trying to clear out of the hallway so that others would be able to come inside.

Jasper shook his head as he spoke to his mother. "Nah, it's nothing, Mom. Some preds are here and Fay just got scared is all. You guys out there!" he called out as he looked back outside, "can come in through the front door only if you are five feet or smaller. We don't have front halls built for anything much bigger than that. But! If you come round back, we can take you larger fellers in through there."

"You have a larger entrance?" asked Nick as he poked his head out from the kitchen.

"Technically it's a loading dock," said Jasper as he turned to the fox.

As the preds started making their way in, Jasper and his mother flattened themselves against the wall and the other siblings made their way back into the living room.

"Why do you have a loading dock that comes up to your house?" asked Nick.

"Because maybe our storage area is underground for when we order seeds and roots and mulch in bulk. Hey, Mom:" he started as he looked at his mother, "Are there rooms made up for them?"

The preds shuffled in past them murmuring to each other while others looked around at home. They all looked uncomfortable, and it was clear that the part of the message mentioning that this was Hopps' parents' house was not lost on them. Their furtive looks told Jasper that there was still a lot of distrust in them, and he couldn't blame them. These preds either really trusted Wilde or had nothing left to lose in order for them to come here at all.

His mother turned back to him when they'd all passed.

"Yes, I had your brothers on it. They should be ready now. Were you able to get a hold of Justin?" she asked as the both of them started walking down the hall after the group.

"Yeah," replied Jasper, "but it wasn't easy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know. Him and Lucretia've only been married a month . . . ."

"Oh!" his mother giggled. "Yes, of course."

"I'm surprised his farm hasn't fallen apart," he laughed.

"That's how it was when your father and I-"

"Mom, please!" cringed Jasper.

"I was going to say when your father and I first got married. What were you thinking?" said Bonnie as she looked up at her son expectantly.

He merely blushed and looked around at anything and everything before gathering his wits and charging ahead with his original thoughts.

"So anyway, I was able to get a hold of him, and once I give him the rundown of the whole situation, he told me it was fine. He's gonna let the preds stay with him, too. Said he's gonna take it up with the city council. Also told him we needed to keep sis' being here a secret."

He stopped walking down the hall, and they both stood at the mouth of living-room as some preds shuffled in behind them.

He turned to his mother as she spoke. "Is he talking to Lucretia's father?"

Jasper nodded. "That's what I'm thinking would be the first thing to do since he's on the board and on the parish council."

"Alright, I'll be sure to let that badger know," said Bonnie as she turned to leave.

Jasper looked down in thought for a moment before looking up. "Honey, Mom," he called.

She had already made it across the living room and turned back to look at him as he moved to the side of the hall in order to let more preds pass by him and into the house.

"What was that?" she asked as she looked at him.

"I just meant that her name's Honey."

She gave him a curious smile before turning to the preds in the living room. Several more of Jasper's siblings joined her, many of them wearing dark and suspicious looks as they met the predators, and helped their mother lead them downstairs as she gave them a basic tour of the house.

Jasper walked back into the hall and into the kitchen. He saw "Carrots" who was hiding in a corner, feigning fear as she hid her face while holding Fay. She had wisely chosen to do so to avoid frightening the preds who were undoubtedly on the lookout for any sign of Judy Hopps, their tormentor. All bunnies might look alike to outsiders, and in hiding her face, she had avoided detection.

Not that he really foresaw any preds poking their heads around in the kitchen. But still, just a glance inside might have tipped someone off.

He had knocked off work way earlier than he normally would have and let the farm hands take care of the rest. Normally he wouldn't've quit for anything, but these were special circumstances, now.

Not too much earlier, he had gone to a small kiosk in the town centre and bought a small phone on the cheapest month-to-month plan he could. He'd had to go back when Honey told him that the only phone that would work with the encryption app they were using was one that supported apps in the first place—not the Jitterbug he'd purchased. It was halfway into her explanation of what software his phone would need that he realised he understood nothing. It was all Greek to him, and he needed a translator. They drove in what to Honey felt like an awkward silence, but Jasper enjoyed the comfortable silences; and seeing him so at ease put her at ease, too.

He'd gone back to the shop and purchased the cheapest thing he could with no plan. Honey had told him, thankfully, that plans weren't needed—the messaging services would suffice and that beyond that, there was no need to worry as long as he could connect through a local hotspot.

More gobbledygook as far as he was concerned. He handed her the phone and said, "You do it," when it came to downloading everything.

He had managed to contact all of his siblings with the details of Judy's situation as well as the current plans for getting back into the city. After several texts wherein he battled mostly his brothers—both their disbelief and out-and-out hostility—he managed to persuade a large number of them to open up their houses while many others agreed only provisionally until they spoke to Judy themselves. He conveyed this to Honey the instant he found out which ones were definitely opening their houses and gave her the addresses of those who were onboard with the basics of the situation.

The destruction of Happy Town had been on the morning news. The tragedy wasn't reported, however, without the telltale spin characteristic of any group with a vested interest in hiding the truth. The media seemed to be suggesting that an armed invasion planned by predators had been on the verge of taking place when the city hall decided to mount a pre-emptive strike.

The news had come as a shock to everyone. Especially the Happy Towners earlier in the morning. While Nick and Judy had been sleeping, the word had been spread throughout social media, and they had been able to read it.

Nick and Judy, along with the others in the group, were stunned to find out that after what had probably amounted to a large clearing out of the city, much of it had been levelled. However, even with all the devastation in the photographs and images, the narrative continued to focus on the cruelty of the predators and how they had apparently been planning to destroy the prey supremacy in the city.

That was another lie that Jasper had had to fight through when talking with his siblings. They insisted they wouldn't believe a word he spoke unless they heard it straight from Judy, who, they were glad to hear, was actually alive. The assassination attempt yesterday was just one of many things Jasper told them which got them to listen: He learned after the first three or four conversations that opening with a text reading, "Judy's alive. She survived an assassination attempt," caught their eyes mighty quick.

He had managed to do all of this with the help of his other siblings—there was no way he'd've been able to do it all by himself and he was grateful to be finally taking a break from it.

After all of his negotiating, and setting up with Honey which houses were safe and which ones hadn't yet given their permission, there was one thing that had been left burning in his mind, and that was how the hell his sister had managed to clone herself—which was the only conclusion he could come to. He felt as though he had stepped into an episode of the fucking Twilight Zone.

So Jasper stood in the entryway and stared at Judy as she looked over at him. Nick was seated at the table and eyed him wearily. The rabbit was about to speak when his thought was interrupted by one of his siblings.

"Hey, is everything alright in here? Why aren't you out there helping with the preds?" said a youngish-looking grey rabbit as he came up behind him in the doorway.

Jasper started in surprise at his brother's sudden appearance. "Jesus, Brendon, you mind not sneakin' up like that? I just gotta talk to Jude is all.'

Brendon looked at Fay and Judy huddled at the table and noticed Judy's police uniform. "I thought they said her name was Carrots?"

"Yeah, Carrots, I mean," said Jasper absently. He had no idea how the hell he and his family were expected to believe that this bunny was merely a body double for Hopps. She was a dead fucking ringer, down to the patterns of fur on her ears and face. Tiny little things that normally wouldn't stand out at a casual glance would stand out upon close inspection. Not a hair was out of place.

He told his brother to go out back to the loading dock and take the taller preds in through there and into the storage chamber. He also told him to tell Honey where those preds'd be waiting.

The lad was gone a moment later, and then it was just "Carrots," "Red," and Fay in the kitchenette with him, and he wasted little time sending Fay out after her brother to lend him a hand, assuring her that she would be fine in the presence of their larger guests downstairs.

When it was just the three of them alone, he slid the kitchen door closed and locked it before he turned to the couple and let out a sigh. And for the second time that day, Jasper sat down at the table and motioned for Carrots to sit.

"Who are you really?" he asked when she looked at him.

Neither Nick nor Judy had spoken a word as he'd shut the door and sent the others away—his behaviour was perplexing, and he had a serious air about him that carried with it a sense of supreme gravity and neither of them had had any idea what it was but had simply thought it best to mutely humour him.

Judy looked stunned in the wake of Jasper's question, and she and Nick gave each other a nervous look as they wondered what they should say. The obvious play was to deny that they were anybody save whom they said they were. But since Judy couldn't lie worth a damn, the task fell quickly to Nick, and he instinctively heard her question.

"You knew we were lying?!" asked Judy.

"Of course I knew you were lying! What, do you think I'm stupid?"

Nick raised his eyebrows. "You want me to answer that? 'Cause if you're gonna leave that door op-"

"Jesus fucking Christ, would you shut the fuck up?!" said Jasper as he put his head in his paws as exasperation sucked the wind out of him.

The bunny paused and took a deep breath before gathering his wits and continuing as he looked at Judy. "I had to talk to Mom about it because something didn't seem right. Now, that young bunny I saw downstairs tellin' her story was my sister, but I also know what I see when I look at you. You act exactly like her.

"I talked to Daisy and to Mom about what happened when you came home last night. Mom told me that you told her about what happened with Uncle Terry and the time he et a night howler. The thing about that is, when she mentioned it, even I had to ask her about that story because she didn't tell any of us about it. Dad knew, but that's just because Mom and Dad grew up together. That's what clinched it for me—you have to be Judy, somehow. Or someone really close to Mom. And Mom knows it, too. She realised it when I brought it up to her. You gave yourself away when you came up with the story that you were just Judy's body double because there's no way you could know family stories like that if you weren't a part of our family. So now, the question is why are you lying and what're you covering up?"

There was a lengthy pause where Nick and Judy only stared at the buck as they racked their brains.

"Well, obviously," said Nick after he and Judy darted a quick look at each other, "we're copies of your sister and Nick Wilde in there who came here from a parallel universe!" He laughed out loud. It quickly died, however, when he saw the buck's eyebrows lift up.

Judy nudged him and Nick closed his mouth, swallowing thickly as he tried to look innocent.

Judy giggled nervously and leant forward on the table and stretched her paws toward her brother.

"Please!" she said animatedly, speaking quickly to cover her nervousness. "That, Nick! What a kidder! No, we're not from another universe, we're from this universe. Stop talking crazy!" She trailed off in a series of giggles as her brother eyed her suspiciously.

"I thought his name was Red," said Jasper as he nodded toward the fox. His impatience was growing. If there was one thing he couldn't stand was people outright lying to him.

"Oh, his name is Red. It's just-"

"And you expect me to believe that your name is actually Carrots? And that you're a totally different bunny from my sister even though you look exactly like Judy and know all the family stories?"

"To be a convincing body double, you have to-"

"Oh, just stop it!" shouted Jasper as he pounded the table. "Do I look like I have the word 'dumbass' written on my forehead? There's no way you're body doubles!"

"Then how would you explain us looking exactly like Nick and Judy?" said Nick as he sat forward.

"Ah, and there it is," said Jasper slowly as he leant over the table toward the fox. The confidence in the bunny's eyes was disarming. He had one more trump card in this game of cat and mouse. "That's the nail in the coffin for both of you," said Jasper as a smile quirked the corner of his mouth. "See, the fact of the matter is, Fox, you don't look exactly like Nick. He has scars crossing down the front of his face and you don't. Now, you want me to believe that they got a bunny who looks and acts exactly like my sister but they didn't bother with even a cosmetic touch up for you? Now, I've seen some pretty mean scars in my life, and I can tell that Nick down there's had his for a while. So no, there's no way you would've been hired on as a body double and not been given his scars somehow."

The two merely looked at him as they sat at a total loss as to what to respond.

"Someone once said that if you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory," said Jasper, "and if you'd remembered what you told Mom last night, you wouldn't've screwed up on this one. Mom's figured it out," he said as he looked back to Judy. "She'd never forget her own kit. And if you really wanna put this to the test, I'm sure we could do a DNA you cops're so fond of and see what's what if you really wanna insist on the charade."

He sat back and regarded the two with an easy manner.

Before either of them could answer, Brandon came rushing back into the kitchen, huffing and out of breath as he spoke.

"Dad told me to come get you," he said slowly. "There's an emergency council meeting's been scheduled for right now."

"Shit, and I just got back to town," said Jasper as he stood up. "Had to make two trips to get that phone . . ."

"Look, just buck up and do it," said the younger male tiredly. "I'm just telling you what Dad said. Justin's coming, too."

Jasper lifted his eyebrows and turned back to Nick and Judy.

"Well, I guess y'all get a pass this time. Our conversation's gonna have t' wait."

-.-.-.-

Honey sat in one of the lesser common rooms. It was sparsely populated with preds as members of the Hopps family showed them to their rooms.

She was at a table reading over some papers that had been given to her by members of COR who had managed to find their way here. A lot of it was correspondence she would normally have taken the time to answer. Circumstances being what they were, however, it seemed quite impossible.

She sighed and put the papers down as a slight headache began to throb along the right side of her brain. She took several deep breaths to calm herself and felt her headache disappearing.

"Honey?" came a voice startling the badger.

She turned quickly to see Judy looking at her. Her blue paisley shirt hung loosely around her.

"No floral pattern?" asked Honey as she noted the bunny's attire.

Judy smirked and sat down on the table. "Not now. I felt like something else." She smiled as she looked down at Honey's papers which the badger quickly overturned.

The bunny quirked an eyebrow at the badger, and she merely smiled in return.

"COR still has its secrets," she said to the bunny. "We've come so far taking all of these precautions, we can't let up, now."

Judy nodded in understanding. "So, Mom told me that they've called a council meeting."

Honey's eyebrows lifted and her face seemed to brighten. "Oh, really? Well, that's some good news."

"Maybe not. They may tell the preds who're coming here to pack up and go," she replied with a worried look.

"Well," said Honey as she shrugged, "we needed to ask them, anyway. I say, rip if off like a band-aid and get it over with. Invite some preds along to share their own stories. We just have to-" she heard a ding from her Ibex-Pad and she looked down to see what it was, "-excuse me for just one second," she finished quickly.

Hopps watched as her friend picked up the pad and started reading through the message. A moment later, the badger looked up at her. "Is there a private room somewhere? There's something that I need to see."

Judy nodded slowly and hopped off the desk as she led the badger to one of the unoccupied rooms.

Checking to make sure it was empty, Hopps ushered her inside before closing the door. Judy heard the lock click and knocked gently. "Just please hurry. Mom told me we're all going to the meeting now."

"Sure thing. Tell everyone that I'll be up in just a minute," came Honey's muffled voice through the door. Judy hurried and dashed back to the commons.

-.-.-.-

In the small room, Honey looked down at her a message on her pad that read, "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY." It was from Jack Savage and contained a video file which, she noted, was relatively short.

There was a short note that came from it from Jack.

Honey, you need to see this. Not sure, but I think we have another player in town.

Ask the other Nick and Judy about him.

Honey read the message over with a puzzled expression. She tapped the file with her finger and waited for it to download before it automatically began playing.

It was grainy, out-of-focus footage of a police officer detaining what she assumed was a predator walking down the side walk. The creature turned to the officer and spoke in a voice that faded in and out of hearing, but she was just able to make out what he said.

"I'm looking for a fox and a bunny: Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. That's all I need to know," came the animals voice.

She watched as the officer strutted forward.

"You're under arrest, savage!"

"Tell me where they are!" shouted the creature so loudly the officer took a step back and fell off the curb. She heard some heavy breathing and watched as the officer slowly reached for his gun.

In the space of an instant, the creature was upon him. There were sounds of a rough scuffle and she heard the officer gagging.

Her eyes widened as she watched the animal lift the officer into the air by his throat. He aimed his gun at the attacker when the creature snatched the officer's paw. She winced as the pig squealed, letting out a shout as she heard the bones in its paw crunch all at once.

"Fucking feral! Yre goghna die!" he shouted as he gurgled in his throat. "Gonna fucking de fang y-" he was cut off again but managed to grasp his intercom. "Officer down! Officer down! Collarless fer-" The officer stopped speaking and began spluttering as the creature choked the life from him.

Honey felt her heart race, her breathing coming in more sharply, as she heard the policeman struggling before letting out a chilling rattle as he dangled in the air from the creature's paw, shuddering before going limp.

He let go, and she saw the officer fall with a thud.

The animal stood, panting for a moment. And though she tried her best, Honey for the life of her couldn't figure out what the hell she was looking at. Could be a small wolf or a fox. Maybe even a hyena. Whatever it was, she couldn't quite tell through the dark footage.

All of a sudden, as the creature stood there panting, he stopped and became silent as he slowly turned toward the camera. The infrared light made the creature's eyes gleam as they stared out at her. In an instant, it disappeared into thin air.

Honey stood there, bemused and frightened. She turned the footage back several times, thinking that there must have been some glitch, but the time stamp in the corner of the screen told her that what she was seeing had been unedited.

She paused the footage for the fifth time and looked at a frame of the creature stare out at her with shimmering eyes. Honey took a deep breath and watched again as he simply vanished. A shudder ran up her spine as she tried to rid herself of the fear she was feeling, the prickling sensation tickling the back of her neck as her hackles rose.

She closed the video player and exited all of her programs before putting her pad into sleep mode. It hung in her paw at her side and stood there motionless. That the creature seemed to be searching for Nick and Judy was a terrifying thought as well; and as much as she hated to admit it, she was now thinking she owed Red and apology for her skepticism. How the hell could she explain what she saw? Then again, she realised, perhaps the shadowy figure was somehow in league with Nick and Judy. Sure, the couple seemed nice enough, but now this? And, they had pointedly ignored the large gatherings downstairs, preferring the privacy of the kitchen. Just what had they been discussing?

She could feel her headache returning and she put a paw to her head to massage her temples before letting it drop.

She stood up straight and let her numb mind try to process what she had seen, the flash of that terrifying visage looking out at her struck terror into her heart once again, her rational mind having left her.

After a moment, she let out a sigh and muttered, "Well . . . that's not gonna haunt me for the rest of the day . . . ."