Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.
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The Fire Triangle—A Zootopia Fanfiction
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Part One:
Fuel
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Chapter 10 – When A Fox Goes Rabbit
(Pt. 1)
Judy Hopps leaned back against the wall and folded her arms, her weary face suffused with a pained expression.
She was inside the Zootopia Superior Court Annex building, parked next to the door to the Male's Restroom. At times like this, her oversized ears could be a major inconvenience; there was no way for her NOT hear the noises Nick was making. (What she was actually doing was keeping watch until he was done.)
She didn't blame him one bit; if rabbits were capable of puking, she'd probably be saying 'adios' to her breakfast right now as well. In her two years with the ZPD, Judy had been privy to some fairly sickening spectacles—and while the scene inside of George Schatten's courtroom might not have been the goriest thing she'd witnessed in that time, she couldn't remember experiencing anything quite so gut-wrenching, (or heart-wrenching.)
No...that wasn't exactly true, was it? The truly disgusting part had come after she'd left the courtroom, when Nick had revealed to her the full identity of the woodchuck presiding from the judge's bench. That information had not only turned the doe-bunny's stomach; it had also made her blood boil. To think that such a bigoted jerk was passing judgment on the city's juvenile defendants.
And putting Conor Lewis in V-3 restraint, just to bait Nick? If Judy hadn't heard it for herself, ('did that ever stop me before?') she would never have believed it.
She looked towards the door of the restroom, feeling her heart go out to the fox on the other side. Even now, more than two decades after the fact, he still carried the pain of what had happened in that community center basement—and that smirking creep behind the judge's bench had recognized it instantly. But why...why had he chosen to exploit it after all this time, and for no apparent reason? It didn't make any sense.
It hadn't been the muzzle that had so traumatized her partner; Judy understood that much, if nothing else. No, it was everything else that had come with it. All Nick had wanted was to belong, to be accepted, to be part of something. As an only cub, he'd yearned for the fraternity he didn't have at home.
And George Schatten had not only crushed that dream; he'd ground it to dust beneath his heel. The thought of it conjured up a line in Judy's head, a fragment of spoken monologue from a song her Uncle Terry liked to play.
"I'll tell ya one thing Judge, ol' buddy, ol' pal...if you wasn't wearin' that black robe...I'd take ya'll out back of this court house...and I'd try a little bit of your honor on."
...or...something like that; whatever the actual line was, it was how she felt about Judge George L. Schatten at this particular moment.
The thought also reminded her of her own childhood encounter with a bully. Unlike Nick, she carried no lingering trauma from her dust-up with Gideon Grey at the Carrot Days Festival. Why was that?
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The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One
Mystery / ThrillerIt's been two years since Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps broke the Savage Predator conspiracy. Now a brilliant and effective team, they're only a few steps away from making the detective bureau and growing closer with every passing day. But even as thei...
