Chapter Text
Time and date: 11:39 - Sunday, 27th October, 1985
“‘On this morning of the 7th of September, 1885, the 8 a.m. Zootopia Express was held up by unknown bandits. The train crew described a fox and a smaller animal, possibly a rabbit. With their guns, the bandits persuaded the train crew to stop before Hara Junction and uncouple the engine from the carriages. The locomotive in question was newly overhauled Charging Cheetah, one of the fastest in the Tri-Burrows, on her first run since leaving the workshop. The bandits stole the engine and drove her down a branch line.
“‘Upon reaching Shetani Ravine, the majestic locomotive tumbled down in a spectacular wreck. The search for the bandits is still ongoing but it is believed they perished in the devastating impact with the bottom of the ravine.
“‘Furthermore, passengers from the left behind express train reported the emergency brakes were pulled at some point between departing Bunnyburrow and reaching Hara Junction. Locals suggested this has occurred at the base of Potato Peak, causing a significant delay, as the locomotive struggled to reach speed afterwards. Whether or not this was related to the robbery has yet to be determined.’”
Finnick was reading a newspaper article out aloud. The two little predators were visiting a local library of the future, though on a Sunday noon, there were hardly any visitors present. “Wow, they thought you died…” murmured Kris. This revelation was surprising and a little upsetting. “Yeah,” agreed the fox. “There are more articles on that page. Maybe, one says you disappeared,” he suggested, searching over the page.
“Hmm, none of those have any pictures.” Kris looked over the tod’s shoulders. Newspapers usually almost never included photographs or drawings. The fennec read some of the other headlines out loud. “‘GROVER GREY (Fox) Arrested For ROBBING PINE CITY STAGE’… ‘THE UNDEAD IRON BUNNY: JACK SAVAGE (Bunny) Humiliates GROVER GREY (Fox) After SURVIVING GUNSHOT’… Wow, he got two headlines on one page,” mused Finnick.
“‘BOILER EXPLOSION KILLS TWO At Running Shed’, What?!” The tod had wide eyes, he looked at Kris with a worried expression. “What happened?” he asked in shock. “There was an explosion?!” The fox glanced back to the page of the by now ancient newspaper, he put a finger on the date. It matched up with the date the time travellers had departed from.
This topic was awkward for Kris, she didn’t want the tan-furred fox to worry about her. There was an explosion but she didn’t get injured or stick around to find out more details.
Another otter approached Finnick, she looked at least a decade older than Kris. “Apologies,” the newcomer greeted with a geographically foreign accent. “Do you think you could try and pronounce your syllables a little quieter?” This was an odd way to phrase her question, the older mustelid chuckled a little awkwardly at her own words.
The fox didn’t pay her much attention, he was too shocked about the last headline he had read. “Didn’t ya say that same thing thirty years ago?” the fennec asked. “Uuuh…” was the only immediate response from the librarian. “I do have to remind visitors every now and then to keep their voices down…” she explained. “I don’t want my whole section to hate me.”
“We’ll try to be quieter, madam,” assured Kris. “Thank you,” said the other otter with a friendly and professional smile. She left the time travellers alone again. Finnick didn’t spare her another glance, he kept staring at his girlfriend expectedly. The mechanic sighed, she looked at the ground, ashamed.
“I couldn’t sleep after we said our farewells,” she started slowly. Kris turned her gaze upwards a little to look at Finnick. This immediately made her feel a little bit more secure. “You had invaded my mind and I could not escape the thoughts. I went for a walk to think about things… Then, uhm…” The otter opted to skip her emotional moment at Hara Junction, it was irrelevant to this topic. “I think I heard the blast but I didn’t realise it at the time,” she continued. The fox hung on her every word.
“It was only when I returned to the shed that I found out what happened. My room was flooded with hot steam and the wall next to my bed was broken through by boiler tubes from the little shunting engine on the other side. I didn’t stick around to see what happened…”
With upsetting memories, Kris moved a hand up to the yellow pearl on her pretty item of jewelry. “I just took this necklace, my scarf, and a photograph of my favourite engine and left,” she concluded her explanation. Finnick stared at her for another moment, looking from eye to eye, probably considering asking more questions. He averted his gaze to read the newspaper article instead.
“‘BOILER EXPLOSION KILLS TWO At Running Shed: Last night, a tremendous explosion shook the running shed near Hara Junction outside Bunnyburrow. A shunting locomotive exploded in a huge puff of steam, claiming two unfortunate victims.’”
Kris gasped loudly, prompting Finnick to stop reading. The words hadn’t initially registered with her before. There were two dead people in very close proximity and all the otter had cared about was her dress and her necklace…
Were the victims even dead yet? It was likely that nobody else would have stumbled across the incident’s aftermath until the next morning, Kris herself had arrived mere minutes later. Perhaps, she could have saved someone’s life… The otter felt terrible about this revelation.
Another thought disturbed her further, though in some twisted way, it was also relieving her of at least some of her feelings of guilt. There had been a terrible smell filling up the otter’s room nearly as much as the steam had done. She remembered where she had experienced this unpleasant sensation before, it was about a month before her birthday! There had been an accident involving a circus elephant…
The smell was of blood. No mammal at the shed would even come close in size to an elephant but the hot steam might have elevated the intensity of this terrible stench. Kris felt sick.
Without knowing what else to say, Finnick glanced around, finding the two time travellers were alone in this part of the library. Then, he kept reading the newspaper article. “‘One could be identified as Percy Severus Cheeks Ruffey (Squirrel), whose task it was to examine incoming locomotives for any mechanical damages.’” The tod glanced up from the page to see the otter’s reaction. She was surprised and felt very conflicted, and she felt even more guilty now than before.
“Percy… I yelled at him,” the mustelid remembered. “He said he was going to fill up the water.” Another loud gasp escaped Kris’s mouth. “Did that fool fill up Shunting Sharla? Wherefore did he do that?! She never keeps her water above the crown sheet, so we never fill her up all the way and keep the fire to a minimum. Oh, how stupid! It’s still plenty steam for shunting at the shed…”
Kris wiped her eyes in disbelief, this explosion had such a simple explanation but it was so painfully tragic and avoidable. “I can’t say I’m surprised,” the otter continued with a pained sigh. “Oh, I feel so terrible! It is all my fault!” Finnick gave her a sceptical look. “Why would there be an explosion if he puts more water in?” he asked with confusion. Maybe, the explanation for the accident wasn’t as straightforward to him as it was to Kris. “Isn’t water only putting out fires, if anything?”
“The crown sheet, that’s the top of the firebox, it’s very hot but is kept cool by water inside the boiler,” explained the otter. She felt rather uncomfortable having to teach about locomotives now but she cared about the fox and wanted to answer his question instead of dismissing it. “Shunting Sharla has hers exposed because of a design flaw, so we keep the fire low to not melt the metal. If Percy filled her up with water, it contacted the metal, it made a lot of steam very quickly. That’s a lot of pressure that some boilers can’t handle.”
Hopefully, this brief summary would suffice, the topic was fascinating to Kris but she knew others found it rather dry and boring. The little fox thankfully nodded in apparent understanding. He continued reading.
“‘The other victim is reported to be an unidentified chomper, according to Sir Henry Topham Hatt (Bunny), the administrator of the running shed.’ Not much appreciation from that guy if he won’t even say ya name, huh?” Finnick had clearly reached the same conclusion as Kris, assuming that the time travelling otter was supposedly the second victim. She was shocked about this.
“N… No…” the otter stammered, trying to defend her former boss. “He’s all right and never bothered me. But others did. I guess he did not want any bad press.” The vulpine searched through the article briefly, then he couldn’t help but smirk a little. “Looks like ya name came up anyway,” he mused. The fox continued reading where he had left off.
“‘Another worker, a vixen, claimed the chomper in question was Kris Fisher (Otter). She put a heavy emphasis on her deep sadness at the loss of a good friend and requested the Bunnyburrow Beacon include her statement to the press in our article.’”
Kris teared up. Skye considered her a friend. The vixen’s words had been so hurtful the previous night, she hadn’t meant any of them. The heartbroken predator had simply been deeply distressed at the news of time travel being real.
Finnick noticed the mood Kris found herself in. He leaned in close to offer a comforting hug. “I need to see the time machine again,” declared a very desperate and emotional otter. “What’s left of it…” Maybe, some parts were still functional. The mustelid didn’t want to get her hopes up prematurely but perhaps, somehow there was still a way to communicate with Skye to make up with her.
It would probably not do much more than comfort Kris only slightly to see the non-functional remains of the time machine. There wouldn’t be as much as a flash from the past. The otter knew her hopes were probably delusional, she had seen the wreckage but the mustelid didn’t want to let go of one of her very few friends she had had in Bunnyburrow in 1885.
Time and date: 12:06 - Sunday, 27th October, 1985
“It’s completely wrecked,” observed Finnick matter-of-factly. “There is no way any time travel is still possible. It’s nothing but useless scrap metal now.” He probably felt bad for crushing these hopes of the otter. “Thank you for bringing me here,” Kris said sullenly. “I just needed to see it again.”
The fennec and the otter stood at the wreckage of the time machine. Kris looked around, the debris was still here. Had the railway been alerted of the accident yet? When would they send someone out here to clean up this mess? No trains were currently approaching from either direction. Next to the tracks, at the start of the bridge over Shetani Ravine stood a sign that caught the mustelid’s attention. It had two simple words written on it. ‘Savage Ravine’. Was this how it was being called now?
“You’re right, There’s not much left,” an unfamiliar voice said evenly. “Nick’s never coming back…” another said, this one belonged to Judy. The otter turned to look at the two bunnies.
Time and date: 12:11 - Sunday, 27th October, 1985
“Ciao, bunnies,” said Finnick to Judy and Skippy. They stood on the ground beside Nick’s fancy new time machine locomotive. Amidst all the messy remains of the time machine, the otter had found the framed photograph of the first steam engine she had ever worked on all by herself. “If you’re ever in prison, I’ll bust you out, all right?” the fennec offered with a smirk. The doe giggled at the suggestion. Kris remembered the fox had told her about getting wrongfully imprisoned in the future. His words now were likely mere teasing, though the otter suspected if the bunny really did find herself convicted and sentenced to some time in the future without having done any unlawful actions, Finnick would surely want to help her. Without further time travelling from the bunny, it would be a very unlikely scenario anyway. “Thanks, Fin,” the doe responded brightly.
“Bye, Judy,” Kris said her own brief farewell. “Your boyfriend looks handsome, you should kiss him.” The buck in question blushed at the compliment, Finnick could only smirk at him for it. The male bunny really did look rather fancy, the otter figured, even though she had never been interested in any type of prey species. Judy would almost certainly agree with her assessment of her lover’s visual appearance, she giggled at the lighthearted conversation.
“Quit making Fin jealous,” the bunny teased right back. Kris smiled and put a hand on her lover’s shoulder, she didn’t know if Judy had been told about her relationship with the fennec or if she was just guessing.
“Bye, guys,” the buck greeted with waving hands. “Stand back!” instructed Nick. He pressed a button next to the door and it started to close automatically. The footplate on this locomotive looked less like a normal cab and nearly like a proper living room with modern luxuries Kris had seen here in the future. “Woah, it’s so big,” the otter gushed in quiet awe. “That’s what she said,” whispered an amused fennec. In response, he got a tilted head, then a roll of eyes from his girlfriend. What only aided in this stark contrast of size was the fact that this vehicle would be operated by two foxes while all the locomotives Kris was familiar with were usually driven by far larger mammals. Therefore, the footplate of this time machine had a lot more free room that could be used for other purposes.
“All right, boys, buckle up!” the blacksmith told his children. Was he still a blacksmith? “I almost responded to that,” whispered Finnick. The otter giggled at this information, as two adorable fox pups did as they were told. The mustelid found it odd that normal seats would have harnesses to secure their occupants in place, though it was probably a useful safety feature.
“Hey, Slick,” Judy called out to the red fox. “Where’re you going now? Back to the future?” Nick gave his bunny friend a smile, he shook his head. “Nope, already been there!” was his response. Kris had surprisingly little difficulty hearing it, even though the slender vulpine leaned out the window and didn’t raise his voice much. This strangely futuristic locomotive was a whole lot quieter than the otter knew any engine to be. The red fox waved to the bunnies on the ground, then he closed the window.
He flicked some switches that no normal locomotive would ever have, then the most unexpected thing happened. The whole vehicle derailed! It got raised up! A wide-eyed otter looked around, only to find nobody else react with any sort of worry at all. “Is it supposed to start flying?” she asked warily. “None of our textbooks mention any of that,” snickered Skye happily.
“Good thing this line isn’t electrified in nineteen eighty-five,” Nick mentioned. Electrified? Did that mean trains would get electricity from the rails? Kris now understood completely why each seat would have a safety harness. She noticed Finnick had found himself an unoccupied spot to sit at, the mustelid quickly joined him. The framed photograph of her favourite locomotive was still securely in her hands, the glass would need to be replaced another time.
There was a bright light outside the time machine, Nick enthusiastically blew the whistle with a giddy smile, then more light could be seen. It was far brighter than previously but lasted only a fraction of a second. Strong acceleration was immediately followed by light deceleration.
“So, when are we now?” Finnick asked the other tod. “Who cares?” Skye retorted. “We’re going to see Zootopia, the time isn’t important.” Kris disagreed, though she didn’t press the topic any further. The otter and the fennec both took in their surroundings more closely than before.
The basic controls of the engine were identical to any other. There was a big regulator lever, the reverser, brakes, water level gauges, the door to the firebox, a whistle, and other things. The gauges included typical things like boiler pressure or brake pipe pressure, though there was also one for ground speed, one for air speed, another few for electricity, and most notably, there was an array of three lines, they displayed dates through the use of indicator lights with colourful numbers. They looked just like the ones in the other time machine that had since gotten destroyed.
Nick turned it off, though, before the otter had a chance to read any of the dates. “Hey, turn it back on!” Kris requested. “Sorry, Fishes,” excused the red fox. “I’ve had some unwanted trips through time because the flux capacitor activated unexpectedly. It’s a safety procedure to turn the time circuits off right after every time jump.”
Time and date: ??:?? - ?????, ??th ?????, ????
Skye nodded in agreement. “Though it is how you first came to eighteen eighty-five, remember?” Nick smiled at his mate. “Oh, of course I remember. And I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. But it’s still too dangerous.” It was Finnick who spoke next. “Hey, so when do you guys live?” he asked. “When didja boys grow up?” One of them, George, responded. “I went to school in eighteen ninety-two but daddy says we’re gonna move to a different time now,” he revealed.
“What’s your favourite time, ferret?” asked a curious little four-year old. Finnick barked out a short laugh. “I’m an otter, thank you very much,” insisted Kris. “What’s your favourite time, otter?” the corrected question got asked again by Nigel. It seemed he meant no disrespect and was just innocently curious about things.
“Well, I only remember a little bit from the eighteen fifties, the eighteen sixties and seventies, as well as the first half of the eighteen eighties. That’s where I lived so far. There are some things wrong there but it’s all right, all things considered. I only spent an hour in nineteen eighty-five and know no other time. This here was my second trip through time.”
The little pup lowered his curious ears slightly in disappointment. Kris felt a bit apologetic, she couldn’t tell any interesting stories about time. Finnick could, however. “Well, the nineteen sixties were fun,” he revealed. They have some strange music in twenty sixteen and a lotta weird tech stuff too.” The two youngest foxes stared in awe at the fennec of the same size as the older child. They listened with alert ears and a lot of curiosity. Kris found the two of them beyond adorable.
There was a strange sound, it reminded the otter of some birds. “What’s that beeping?” asked the tan-furred fox. “Oh, darn it, not again,” complained a pretty vixen in outrageously elegant clothes. “What?” Kris voiced her own confusion. “That fluffing sensor is broken again…” Skye explained. This confused Kris, though. “The what?” she asked.
“I put sensors all over this machine,” elaborated Nick. “They automatically inform me if something’s not quite right with this locomotive. One of them sounds the alarm constantly, even though nothing’s broken.” This was fascinating technology. Would examinations always be conducted by machines rather than mammals?
Skye’s ears moved forward, she turned to face the otter directly and showed a wide smirk. “Kris…” she started, swaying her tail lightly. “Do you remember that little bet we had going?” The mustelid perked up, she had nearly forgotten all about it. “Oh!” she exclaimed, remembering the first conversation she had ever had with this vixen. “Yes, we got Charging Cheetah up to eighty-eight! It was so exciting!”
“Eighty-eight?” the older of the two children interrupted with an incredulous question. “That’s the fastest it can go? I’ve seen trains much faster.” He didn’t really sound too interested in this topic. Kris would have loved to ask for elaboration, she wondered how fast these machines could travel in the future. Skye talked next, though.
“Well, my little otter friend… You see, the bet was that if I get our first joint project to bring the original time travellers back to the future, I can dump my next bit of work onto you and watch you suffer for me.” This fox really had the smuggest grin imaginable.
“Mum, I thought you like repairing engines,” the younger of the two boys questioned. “Oh, of course I do, sweetie,” confirmed the vixen. “But sometimes, I’m just as lazy as you and your brother when your parents ask you to help out somewhere.” The two pups gasped, Finnick chuckled at them with a smile. Then, Kris remembered the specifics of the bet.
“Skye,” she started confidently. “You get a day off. Too bad you probably don’t work at the old running shed anymore, right? Neither of us do.” The cream-furred vixen tilted her head. “I won the bet, you’re not out of the doghouse yet. And as a fox, I can use canine slurs like that,” the vixen mused. “So have fun replacing that broken sensor that’s been bothering us for a couple days now,” insisted the taller predator lady competitively. “You didn’t actually win that part of the bet,” reminded the otter. It felt very satisfying to her to be able to beat a real fox at her own game of smugness. “Yes, I did!” claimed Skye incorrectly.
Finnick and Nick looked between their respective lovers, then the smaller tod perked his ears. “Oh, no ya didn’t,” he supported his girlfriend. “Ya said if the train reaches fifty, nothing happens, seventy, and Kris gives ya a day off, and only if it goes up to ninety, she gets yo next project.” Kris nodded with a wide smirk.
“Charging Cheetah only reached exactly eighty-eight miles per hour, that’s just two miles per hour short of the ninety. I won that part of the bet.” The otter felt incredible, Skye’s reaction was priceless too. She looked utterly shocked. Nick chuckled, prompting his nervous sons to relax and be entertained as well. “Looks like you’re at Fishes’s mercy here,” he told his mate. She glared at him briefly, then formed a bright smile.
The vixen sat down on another seat, it looked more like a sofa than anything. Skye didn’t put on any harnesses. “Can we take our seatbelts off now?” George asked, getting a nod from his mother. The two children removed their harnesses, one looked out of one of the large windows while the other one fidgeted and retrieved a book from a shelf the otter hadn’t noticed before. Kris and Finnick followed suit and stood up too. The little fox stepped up to Nick to have a quieter conversation with him, Kris put down the framed photograph she had brought along, she moved closer to Skye.
“I really forgot about those details,” admitted the vixen. “It’s been a few years for me. You’re right, I didn’t win the bet.” She smiled and shook her head absentmindedly. Kris giggled. “What’s that sensor thing anyway? How hard can it be to fix?” The two ladies made themselves a little more comfortable on the sofa. “I tried repairing it but it has a microchip. I don’t have the tooling to solder that thing precisely enough. Trust me, I’ve tried.” Whatever this microchip was, it sounded very tedious to work with.
Skye stood up to get a little cardboard box from some compartment elsewhere on this footplate. “Here’s the replacement chip, I can change it out no problem but only if I remove the board computer first. I can’t remove that unless the whole time engine is shut off.” The otter wasn’t entirely sure she followed along. “Your hands are a little smaller than mine, though, so I was hoping you could crawl in there and replace it where I can’t reach it.”
The otter smiled at her friend reassuringly. “All right, tell me what to do, boss,” she requested. The two mechanics stood up and moved towards the firemammal’s side of the footplate, where two tods were catching up on things. They moved a couple of steps away to allow the ladies to work unimpeded.
Skye removed a cover in the wall just below the window, which was above and to the left of the firebox. Kris climbed up on a cushioned seat beside it. Behind the cover, there was a grey mess of tubes. They didn’t look like metal, though. Countless little blinking lights in various colours shone through between it all.
“Excuse the cable spaghetti,” dismissed the vixen. She pushed some of the apparently flexible tubes aside. “Here, that’s the computer,” she explained. “Behind it is a part that looks just like this replacement here.” Skye opened up the little box in her hands and pulled out a strange metal plate with a lot of very fine lines on it. “Just pull out the one that’s already there and replace it with this one.”
Kris took the little object and looked it over, then she climbed beside what Skye had called a computer. Lo and behold, an identical but slightly dustier copy of the replacement part could be found right there. It really was a tight squeeze, no wonder the vixen couldn’t reach this part without removing this other machine in front of it first.
Following the very short and simple instructions was easy and soon enough, the sensor was replaced. The faint beeping, as Finnick had described it, disappeared at once. “Here you go,” the otter said, handing the broken part to her friend.
“Thanks a lot, Kris,” chimed Skye happily, before stowing away the object she had just received. Finnick stepped closer and glanced up at the otter. “What are you looking at?” she asked teasingly. It had only just occurred to her that she was still wearing her pink dress, rather than work clothes. The fennec smirked.
Kris huffed humorously, then she jumped down to the floor of this locomotive’s footplate. “Hello there,” she greeted with a bright smile. The otter stepped closer to her lover to give him a hug and a kiss. “General Kenobi,” came his cryptic response. Both ladies tilted their heads while George, the older of the two children, started laughing. “Who’s that?” the mustelid asked. “What’s that mean?”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s a joke from a future movie,” he explained. “Remember, those things with actors I showed you earlier.” Kris understood it now. At least, she thought she did. The fennec and the otter stepped towards one of the large windows. Most were too high up for them to comfortably look out of but some were lower down too. Nigel, the younger pup, had looked out of one earlier but he had likely gotten bored of the view since then. He now sat beside his brother and took a nap.
“Nice view up here,” remarked Finnick. He put an arm around Kris’s waste, he wasn’t quite tall enough to do the same with her shoulders comfortably. The otter leaned a little closer to her lover, she nodded in agreement. “We’re so high up, who knew flying would ever be possible. And this view… Wow…”
There were countless trees and plains. The rolling hills of Bunnyburrow became more pronounced, in the distance there were mountains. A lot of water could be seen, it was roughly where the time machine was currently heading towards. The landscape looked magnificent from up above, Kris knew these locations from maps she had studied in the past. This large body of water that the time travelling predators were approaching was just south of Zootopia.
“You’re right, Skye,” the otter spoke up to address her friend. “Who cares what time it is, this view is amazing. I really can’t wait to see Zootopia now, no matter when. I’ve never been there before.”
This past week had been so very turbulent for the little otter lady. She had been mostly bored and lonely before. In a relatively short amount of time, she had found friends. She had found a lover too. Nick was no longer a blacksmith but that didn’t reduce his cuteness one bit. Even he had opened up to the mustelid again, it seemed, now that they both had found love separately from each other.
The little predator finally felt like she belonged, like she was part of a happy little family. Kris was happy now.