Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 25. Answers!

When Judy started to wake, her head spun a little and her vision was blurry, but it cleared up after she blinked a few more times. She then started to feel some pain in her wrists, and looked over to find them handcuffed to two pipes, and when she looked down to see if her feet were too, and saw blood on the ground that looked to be old, maybe a few weeks. She then started to look around the room and noticed that it was the same room that she was in before, except that the air was warmer than she remembered.

Just then the door ahead of her unlocked, and swung open. In walked Black followed by Jeremiah, who looked very pleased to see her.
"Hello again, Judy. Sleep well?" Jeremiah asked in a taunting voice. Judy didn't answer, only stared in anger and disgust, and turned away so she wouldn't have to look at them. But Jeremiah used the end of his tail to grab her chin, and turn her head so their eyes could meet. "Don't be like that, we have so much more to talk about." He said and released his grip on her chin.
"We have nothing to talk about." She replied in anger as she tried to loosen the cuffs a little, but it was no use.
"How so?" He asked curiously, and squinted his eyes as if trying to read her.
"Because your body guard, Black, killed Nick!" She shouted so Black could hear her.
"Nickolas? Oh, I'm terribly sorry for that, but it was nothing he could avoid. Black was only doing his duty because you found his enemy, and made him an ally. Nickolas, wasn't supposed to die, it was supposed to be White!" Jeremiah said and signaled his men. Two men, followed by Black, brought in White who was restrained in military grade, three inch thick steel cuffs around his wrists, and braces that went around his arms and chest. She looked at him once they set him down on his knees, and in the only light that was on in the room. His armor was badly cracked in his side, and was bleeding a little, almost like he had been shot point blank.
"I'm.....*cough*.....I'm sorry, Judy. They found me." White said, as he looked at her through his cracked mask, revealing his eyes that looked familiar. His voice changer was malfunctioning, making her look at him with a puzzling expression on her face, like she knew his voice, but couldn't place it. Black then walked up to him and picked up a loose pipe from the ground.
"You recognize him?" He asked Judy, who looked at him in fear. "You should, you've met him before. When he wasn't wearing his armor, didn't drive his Tomahawk GT, and went to Tundra Town to get some coffee!" He said loudly as he reeled back and hit White in the face with the pipe, knocking off his mask and sending it across the room! White began to fall over from the impact that his face was hidden in the darkness. Black then caught him by the fur, and violently brought his head back into the light, revealing a familiar yet stunning face that she had seen before!
"C-Charlie?" She shouted and stared in disbelief! Looking up through his scarred face and sky-blue and brown eyes, but he didn't look well.
"Surprise, Judy. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I didn't want the possibility of your life being jeopardized with mine." Charlie said as blood slowly dripped from his nose.
"Don't worry, Charlie. Your death will come sooner than you think, by the hands of your very own brother!" Black said while he walked back behind Jeremiah, and leaned up against the wall.
"Quiet, Black. My partner would like to meet Judy, now." Jeremiah said as he moved out of the way as the door behind him opened, and the light slowly cracked across the floor. He was only a silhouette, but was slowly moving closer and closer to her. He had just reached the light, when Judy was stunned and confused once again, by who he was.
"Jake Fangford?" She exclaimed!
"What? Stunned by my appearance, Judy?" Jake said with a smirk on his face.
"But.....but how, and why?" She asked, still in shock of this.
"Doesn't it make even the slightest bit of sense, though? Mammals are being taken all across Zootopia, not a trace, or any evidence of who the culprit could be? But then an otter, the easiest to catch because of their height manages to slip away unscathed? Whose father hid clues and the key so they wouldn't be found? Who described the box perfectly, yet claimed to have never seen it, not even a glimpse of it?" Jake explained, but it all made sense. How could someone barely see the box and yet describe it even to the splinter? And trick her into going on this adventure to find the box for him and Jeremiah? Unless he knew everything about it except its location?
"But, why would you do this? What could you possibly hope to gain?" Judy asked in frustration.
"Domination, and power! All my life I've been looked upon as small, weak, puny, and a predator! Everyone looked down upon me, including my father! That is why I sided with Jeremiah and had my parents plane be their tomb!" Jake stated thoroughly.
"Y-you had your parents killed?" She asked as she relaxed a little in her cuffs.
"Of course! My father didn't want to see the power of all this, and forced himself to become blind to it all once he discovered it." He said as he began to walk out of the room.
"Discover what?" She asked questionably.
"I don't have time to explain, but Jeremiah will for me. I have to make our preparations for our departure." Jake finished, while closing and locking the door behind him.
"Explain what, Jeremiah?" She asked with a frown upon her face.
"Why, the missing mammals gone savage of course? You see, Judy. Everyone in Zootopia is stereotyped as what kind of 'species' they are. Like, since they are 'this' kind of animal, they can't be a shop owner, a toymaker, an electrician, or even a cop." He began to explain as he looked at her. "This society is broken, it always has been, which is why I have programmed a code inside one's mind, in their DNA! See, everyone still has a bit of savageness inside them, it only takes a few random numbers or even a saying to activate it. Once it is, they will randomly attack the city and the civilian's, injuring and even killing quite a few of them! And it takes a different set of codes to undo all this, call it a safety switch if you will? Once you say the code, it will delete itself from their mind and cannot be reactivated. They won't know what they did, nor will they remember going savage! That is my mercy for them." Jeremiah explained and began to slither out of the room.
"You're a monster! There are innocent pups in Zootopia, why are you doing this?" Judy screamed at him, and began to struggle in her cuffs.
"Do you think I should apologize for being one? No one apologized for making me this way! And, why am I doing this? It's simple, Judy. Once they go savage, the animals of Zootopia will look for protection and shelter from the chaos outside. They won't care who protects them or what kind of animal, and society will repair itself and will become whole again. We will have peace and order for thousands of animals, by sacrificing a few hundred. Once we send out the rest of them at once, they will surrender themselves and their freedoms willingly." When Jeremiah finished explaining, he had a grin grow across his face just at the thought of all this.
"What made you this way?" Judy asked quietly, but it was enough for him to hear.
"You really want to know? You really want to know about this snakes past? The hardships, the pain and suffering? Don't you worry, Judy, these questions will be answered soon. But first....." Jeremiah paused for a moment and opened a suite case and pulled out a vile filled with a clear liquid.
"Where do we begin first?" Jeremiah said as he looked from the vile, to Judy and smirked as he placed it back inside the case, but left the lid open so she could still see it. When she looked into his eyes, she felt fear like she never felt it before. It coursed through her veins, up and down her spine, making her fur on her neck stand on end.
"You see, Judy. Fear is of the mind, it's not something you feel.....it's something you think, something you wish won't happen, it is an emotional part of the brain and can be irrational. Over thinking and overreacting at the littlest things, like watching the thing you love most writhe in pain before your eyes.....or worse! Which reminds me....." He paused again, but this time he signaled his men to bring in something. Two more men carried something in between them, and once they brought it into the light, her ears fell flat against her back, because she wasn't expecting.....
"Nick!" She exclaimed as tears started to flow down her face. Nick was barely conscience and had his hands restrained behind his back, but when he looked up at her, they threw him to the ground in front of her, and next to Jeremiah. Nicks' eyes began to well up with tears as he looked at her.
"C-carrots....." He moaned as he tried picking himself up to his knees.
"Oh, how sweet.....a reuniting of a loved one's thought to be lost. Something I never had.....nor ever will." Jeremiah said as he looked down at Nick.
"How did.....*sniff*.....how did you survive the fall?" She asked as her body went limp from shock.
"I-I don't know, I guess I fell into the deep end of the water, but the last thing I remember was the strong current, and hitting my head on a rock or something?" Nick replied as he blinked a couple of times to regain his focus. Suddenly, Jeremiah grabbed Nick by the neck, and lifted him up into the air!
"What are you doing, let him go!" she shouted and tried to break free of her restraints, but it was no use! Nick was choking is jeremiahs' tight grasp, and brought him closer so her could look into his eyes, and looked just beneath the pupil, but what he said next horrified, and scared Judy!
"579340." Jeremiah said. Nicks' eyes then rolled back, his eyelids closed, and his body went limp! Jeremiah released his grip, making Nick fall to the ground with a *thud!*! Then he looked at Judy with a cruel smile on his face.
"W-what did you do to him?" She asked as she glared at him.
"I relieved Nickolas from his programming. You see, Judy, when you were searching for the box, I put a simple code inside his brain. That code made him, without knowledge or memories of it, into acceptance. He would comply with everything I would ask him, or for him to go and retrieve from me, without the thought of what he was doing. He wasn't all there, Judy! Why do you think that right after he was cleared from the hospital, he accepted the phones and thumb drives I gave both of you? You kept declining, but he persuaded you into taking one of the phones. Didn't you think that after everything I did to him, the mental torture, the physical torture, and the liquid inside this vile, he would want nothing to do with me, and yet still did?" Jeremiah explained coldly. She went limp, realizing that she was more blind than she could have ever imagined, but it all made sense! Nick began to stir and blink his eyes again, and looked up to see Judy in the exact same spot that he was in, hand cuffed to the same pipes with his blood beneath her feet from weeks ago!
"Let her go! Jeremiah, release her!" Nick demanded.
"But, Nickolas? I'm not through with making you suffer!" He replied as one of his men handed him the needle filled with a familiar liquid!
"Jeremiah, no! Give it to me, Jeremiah! Please, don't hurt her!" Nick shouted and struggled in his restraints. Jeremiah then leaned in and whispered in his ear, though it was still loud enough for her to hear.
"Nickolas, good torture is hurting you for a long time, but you will learn to get over it. But the best torture, is forcing you to watch as the one you love most are screaming in pain and agony! You will hear her screams and watch her writhe in pain at every inch of her body. See, I injected you in the arm which took longer to cause any effect on you, but on her, I will inject it in the back of her neck where the central nervous system is located, with her spinal column! It will be far more excruciating than the double I gave you!" Jeremiah said cruelly as he grabbed the syringe, and turned to Judy who was shaking in fear. "Don't be scared, Judy? The only thing you have to fear.....is fear itself!" once he finished, he plunged the syringe deep in the back of her neck! Almost instantly of removing it, she began to scream from the pain and the agony! Nick tried turning away, but Jeremiah grabbed his head, turned it back, and forced his eyes open so he could watch her writhe! "Watch, Nickolas! Watch as your precious loved one writhes in pain in front of you, knowing there is nothing you can do for them.....oh, I almost forgot to mention....." He paused and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "It's a triple dose!" He said as he began to smile at his work, while Nick watched helplessly through tears as she struggled and screamed right in front of him. Charlie looked down at the ground, and his ears flattened against the back of his neck as tears began to fall from his eyes, but it lasted as long as a lifetime through Nick's, almost an eternity through his reddened and dry eyes. For the thing he feared most, came true!