Chapter Text
Nick pushed off, his stomach lurching as he rapidly gained speed, the edge approaching at a terrifying velocity. He dropped all anchors – his claws nearly ripping out as they dug in – and slid right up to his target: the envenomiser. He snatched it out of the ice, aimed, and lobbed it under the ledge toward the distant platform where the snake lay.
***
A far-off yell of warning. Judy’s eyelids were heavy, and she was so, so tired… the vague impression of an impact and Gary’s startled yelp stirred her. There was something… something she had been supposed to do. But it didn’t matter now. Nothing did; the venom had taken hold, and she was slipping away as surely as Gary was.
She watched through tear-blurred vision as the snake struggled, his movements sluggish and clumsy. What did that feel like? Being cold to the core. No fur, no heat inside… she almost wanted to turn away, feeling it oddly intrusive to watch another animal’s death. Given she was so close herself, though, it was… comforting?… to not be alone. A sense of grand empathy filled her: they were on this journey together. She imagined waving goodbye to everyone in her life, and even thought she could see everyone in Gary’s; their love and grief wrapped together, overwhelming her.
I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry, Dad.
I’m so, so sorry, Nick.
I love you.
Total honesty; too late.
From what little she could see, Gary’s movement had mostly stilled. He was doing something odd, though, his tail up near his neck; the sunlight glinted off an object as he fiddled with it.
But darkness soon crowded out Judy’s vision, and Gary was gone. The wind and pain faded as she lost any sense of her body, the floor dematerialising as she drifted in space.
It might’ve been hours later when she felt the turbulence. No… that wasn’t supposed to happen here. Here there was nothing, and that was okay.
‘Judy!’
She could distantly feel scales around her, as though it were someone else’s body being squeezed tight by a snake; then she was rolled over, sent spinning in the void as the scales moved past…
‘Stab me straight into the heart!’
PAIN. TERROR. AIR. UP.
Judy was on her paws, heart pounding. Reality crashed into her senses like a runaway train: the monitors, Nick! Barely visible, clawing up ice toward the camera. Ice cracking around him, the tremours shaking the walls of even this room.
Still alive!
She sprinted, jumped, kicked open the door – toppling Hoggbottom, who dominoed the officers behind her – dodged around the ZPD’s finest, Gary apologising in her wake. Save Nick. Save Nick! She couldn’t fail, she had to get there in time. The pain in her muscles was dulled as she slid around corners and thundered up stairs, the shot of adrenaline and antivenom transforming her body from a dying frame into a high-efficiency machine of singular purpose. She burst through the outer door and crossed the lookout in a heartbeat.
Then the ice vanished. Without missing a beat, Gary sprang to action; he hooked himself over the railing and wrapped Judy in his tail the instant she leapt over the edge, freefalling for a stomach-churning second – then securely grasping Nick’s paw and being bungeed up again.
They all hit the snow, and slid to a stop. Judy’s heart kept pounding, but the searing single-mindedness was receding. She raised to a crouch and took in the scene.
Nick was safe. Panting hard, just like her, but undoubtedly, wonderfully, alive!
Gary was coiled up a short distance from them. Injured, maybe. Cold, definitely; they’d have to help him soon, but he looked okay…
Pawbert Lynxley was nowhere to be seen.
The fox and bunny scrambled together and collided, each holding the other like a lifebuoy on a stormy sea. Each trying to explain themselves between gasps, but both content to touch the other, feel their fur, their warm breath, the sound of their voice… alive.