Author's Note:
Some of you guessed that this was coming, but the details may surprise you! click bait
If you are just joining this series for the first time this story is in the continuum AFTER Season 2, so you will definitely want to read Thanks for the Fox and Guardian Blue Season One and Season Two for important context, you may also want to read Winter Hearth for important causal background.
So sleepy. Such work. Very employment.Wow. I don't own the characters, Zootopia, etc. I do not represent Walt Disney, the original writers for Zootopia, or a balanced breakfast. This is done for the enjoyment of the fans, and sometimes olives.
Also! A HUGE shout-out to J. N. Squire for assisting with editing this series! It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. Thank you!
Sheepless in New Reynard
Chapter 7: Severed
Time seemed to fall apart around them. No one moved. It seemed that even the wind quieted, but maybe Sharla just didn't care. Was it truly her brother? It couldn't be. If he'd been alive, he'd have contacted her at least. Somehow. She wanted to believe that he would. Was he a prisoner here, then? Was it for his own safety? Did this sheep just look exactly like him? Did it look nothing like him except for the glasses and her heart was so wounded and desperate that she couldn't even tell other sheep apart anymore?
This sheep looked like a pillow jammed into a shirt. Little Sam's comparison tumbled fleetingly back into her mind. It could be any sheep, right?
Her mind was screaming with questions which formed a maelstrom that made it impossible to hear if there actually had been real wind rustling the trees. Her body felt heavy and numb as she stared at this apparition before her, and the ghost stared right back.
"What's happening? Motti, what's going on?" Honey's voice fractured the illusion that time had stopped. The badger was still facing the wrong way, of course.
With the surreal silence broken, Sharla simply bolted. She couldn't help herself. Her body moved practically unbidden. Her brother dropped the axe. He stood limp as a living room punching sheep while his sister threw her arms around him. Then he got battered like that same effigy, Sharla pounding on his wool-padded chest and shoulders with tears in her eyes. He just kind of took it. He looked utterly numb as he stared back and forth in disbelief between the ewe and the ensnared larger mammals.
Motti answered her suspended, rear-facing friend. "It seem maybe missing sheep is actually alive, but Sharla is fixing that."
"Geeze, I wish I could see this," Honey sighed loudly.
"Sharla I - ow - Hey, I…" Gareth finally snapped out of it and tried to talk. "Quit it, let me - geeze, ow! Let me talk!"
"I went through absolute Hell because of you, Gareth!" Sharla pushed her brother, who stumbled back. He managed to keep upright, though. "I yelled at Judy… and her mate! I rode a train all the way to New-freaking-Reynard! Then I got drunk and punched out by a hyena! Why the Hell didn't you tell me you were okay!? You really don't trust me?!" She pushed him again, tears spilling out finally. It hurt. He was alive. This was wonderful, but it hurt! She went through all of this, and for what? He wasn't even dead! Surely he could have trusted her. She wasn't a conspirator, she was a teacher!
"Sharla, I'm not hiding from you, stop!" Gareth finally shouted.
"Wait, the dead sheep? Really?" asked Honey. "Ohhhh… This is a safe house! I get it! Hell yeah, I knew that wolf was gold!"
"Then why haven't you freaking contacted me, Gareth!?" his sister fairly shouted.
Taking advantage of his sister's unspoken truce for a moment, Gareth took a step forward, talking again, "There are very dangerous mammals after me. Hell, I've even broken some laws. I have a good reason to be here. You, however, do not. It's dangerous for you all to be here. You gotta go! And who the heck are these guys? Are these your… friends?" he asked, moving toward the suspended pair. "I don't have to openly explain why that's unexpected, do I?"
Oh.
Her brother thought she was…
Had she really looked so horrible, even to family? She was traumatized by a fox! She never came out and said she hated predators! She not once said something she thought was truly bigoted around her brother. Had she? Did everyone see that in her? Oh no.
"Motti." The hyena offered a paw. It was a very awkward exchange as Gareth worked out how to grasp it upside down, thumb in the wrong place, way bigger than his, and shake in greeting. "You left without telling sister. You pay for that now."
"No-!" Sharla tried to prevent it. It was futile.
He didn't get punched, he got slapped. But it was a Motti slap, and his unshorn pillowy form bounced twice before he came to rest.
Sharla looked at him a moment as he didn't immediately get up. That might have made her really angry at Motti if the ewe didn't know why exactly her spotty friend did that. Motti might have been able to save her own brother if he'd just trusted her and taken her on his dangerous journey. Ukweli might not have died. He left Motti all alone. Whatever Ukweli thought of protecting his sister… his family… it did not protect them from the pain of losing him.
She took a deep, slow breath, then said evenly, "Thanks, Motti." The hyena quietly dangled, looking a bit regretful without being chastised.
"Are my glasses broken?" asked a sullen-toned Gareth, face down in the leaves.
"No, here…" His sister retrieved them. "C'mon, get up. You didn't have to do this. We could have talked. Help me get my friends down."
"Friends? The ones that just beat me up?" asked Gareth. He sat up, none the worse for wear. It was a solid hit, but claws were spared.
"Yeah." The black sheep indicated her friends. That is what they really and truly were.
Gareth sighed slowly. "Sharla, I don't think you understand what kind of trouble I'm actually in right now. I'm hesitant even tell you anything about it because it could put you and your friends in danger too. You have to understand." Gareth crossed his arms. His sister was in no way accustomed to seeing that level of either resistance or confidence in him. He was usually such a pushover growing up. Still, to claim that she didn't have any understanding was infuriating.
"I know what kind of trouble you're in, dummy!" snapped the ewe.
"Do tell." Gareth narrowed his eyes shrewdly.
"You provided stolen documentation to a group seeking to expose the conspiracies surrounding the subsidiaries of Lanolin." His sister glared back just as shrewdly.
Sharla suddenly wished she had the presence of mind to snap a picture of Gareth's face when she plugged the reason dead to rights.
"H-how do you…?" He looked back and forth at the ewe's friends.
"You were sloppy, Gareth," explained Sharla. "You left your name on some of the document requests that you gave to Big Bad."
"How the hell do you know about Big Bad?!" cried the other sheep, back-peddling. "Sharla, I don't want you involved in all of this! These mammals are dangerous!"
"Get my friends down and we can talk." Sharla worried that hanging upside down for too long might give them both headaches and walking home with a cranky headache-suffering badger would be the absolute worst.
"No," Gareth dropped coldly. "Tell me how you know about Big Bad right bleating now!" He was borderline hysterical. Was he protecting Big Bad? Was it not the other way around? That huge wolf print flickered back into Sharla's mind. He was big, but was he actually gentle and kind? Was he afraid? Was he in more trouble than Gareth?
It was Honey who answered. "We helped the cause. You can tell Gareth who I am,"
The male sheep huffed, shaking his hornless head in some hint of compliance. "That's a start. And why the heck are you wearing th…" He stopped short, gritting his teeth tightly. He stumbled back slightly as it appeared some significant realization hit him.
"This old thing?" asked Honey. "I just had it laying around." She was obviously grumpy in how she said it. It wasn't being noticed by the right mammal.
"Where is Big Bad?" asked Sharla. She was worried for Honey. Was he okay? Had it been the wolf who got burned and not the sheep? Had he died protecting Gareth, and now Honey would have another reason to hate wool-bearers until the end of time?
"You can't actually be here. None of you can be here. How can you be here?!" Gareth was clearly beginning to freak out.
"Get me down before Big Bad gets here. This is humiliating." Honey sounded less patient. If she were facing the others, her eyes would probably have been ice cold.
Gareth spoke again, his voice soft and a little distant. "Are you… No… Only you would have worn that… I… I'm sorry." There was some silence. Sharla's stomach tightened up. This was it. Big Bad was gone. He'd be a memory, and Honey would be crushed.
"W-what?" camed the badger's wavering reply. She turned her head as far as it would go to look over her strong, heavy shoulder at the lean, bespectacled sheep who stood, crestfallen behind her. "He's okay, right? He has to be. He was the strongest one."
Gareth spoke, his lips barely moving. "There is no Big Bad. He doesn't exist. Not for real."
"Uh… Yes he does." Honey's statement was delivered in a growl.
"I uh… I'm sorry but…" Hi expression looked fearful. Why would he be fearful? How could the leader of Honey's entire movement not even be real? Who had Honey been talking to that whole time?
Sharla felt a chill spike through her.
"Oh…" the suspended hyena spoke first. Her tone was dark. She clearly understood what Sharla immediately dreaded.
There was a long pause, Honey looking over her shoulder at the sheep as best she could, eyes wide and fixed on the down-facing, apologetic caprid. She stared at him a while, eyes tracking up and down. Her expression was of disbelief at first, then growing abject horror.
"OH NOOOOO!" wailed the badger. Sharla cringed at that as the full realization slammed into her. Gareth made him up. He created a 'Big Bad' persona to be the head of that whole operation with the knowledge that his character would vanish the moment he'd been discovered. Unfortunately, it had gotten him very, very close to a certain mammal who was openly hostile to sheep.
Gareth sighed despondently, "I knew it. Moonsong. It's really you. But I thought you were a wolf!" Gareth criticized. "How the heck did you even find me?!"
"Motti! Hit me! Please hit me!" Honey sounded desperate. Motti immediately took a swing but was inches short. Sharla flinched at that. Okay, that hyena might well do literally anything her boss told her to do!
"Cannot reach, Mananasi!" the hyena apologized loudly.
"Swing your rope at me!" yelled Honey. She tried to swing herself as well. Again Motti took a swing at the badger swung out of range. They were out of sync.
"Who's house is this, even?" Sharla asked, turning back to Gareth. She had somewhat grown used to the insanity. She could still see them out of the corner of her eyes. A whiff and a miss again.
"It's in my brain! It's in my braaaaiiin!" wailed Honey.
"Stop swinging, you going opposite of Motti!" her friend demanded.
"What? Oh, this place? It… It was abandoned. I've been kinda… fixing it up," Gareth explained, more obviously distracted by the display. He shook his head and refocused. "You still gotta leave. I can't be found."
"Almost got you that time!" Motti panted. "So close!" She swung back again, and Honey swung as well.
"This is kind of hurting my feelings," Gareth gestured to the antics of Motti and Honey.
The next pass, Motti very nearly violently connected with the badger. However, Honey's rope finally snapped. Sharla had cut it quite a bit with the little time that she had.
"You're dead, sock-butt!" boomed Honey, scrambling to her feet.
"Oh shit!" Gareth cried as the badger bolted at him.
Sharla moved too. This was too much crazy. Someone had to finally take control of this runaway train. In a very uncharacteristic show of brute force, Sharla intercepted Honey on her way to Gareth.
THUMP!
Sharla brought her own skull to Honey's side. That was how sheep stopped someone. And it was not a gentle push.
Down Honey went.
Hard.
There was silence for a bit, and then Motti spoke.
"You are needing new nickname."
Sharla turned away from the badger and pled to her brother, now sitting, stunned, on the neatly trimmed lawn. "Gareth, please come home. We can work this out. We can fix this, but not if you keep running away."
"You just laid out a badger." Gareth scooted back some, putting a little more distane between himself and his perceived doom.
"It's been a long damned day. She's fine," grumbled Sharla.
"She was wanting this, really." Motti explained, looking down at her sprawled-out friend.
"This is insane," Gareth returned.
"Welcome to life post-Gareth!" snapped Sharla, gesticulating wildly. "I wouldn't be here flattening badgers if you had just trusted me and let me know you were okay. Even just that you were hiding and couldn't tell me anything else. I just needed to know you weren't dead Gareth!"
"I know that badger!" Gareth pointed at Honey. "We're both dead."
"I'm still conscious," groaned Honey on her back. "Sharla's still cool. Her brother's still mutton."
"Don't forget that you called Gareth 'Sheep Deluxe'," expressed Sharla, trying to remind her friend that he was still doing the right thing and helping when others would not. He would not come home if he thought he wouldn't survive the walk out of these woods.
Honey slowly pushed herself back up to a sitting position. "Oh no. You just took that title. Gareth is now Sheep Doomed."
"Well thank you!" chimed the ewe, trying to lighten the mood. She thought hard about how to diffuse this situation. What had he even done to Honey that was so bad?
Oh. Oh yeah.
Honey and Big Bad were romantically involved, to a point, right? That meant that Honey… with a sheep. Okay, yeah, her anger made more sense. Sharla cringed inwardly. The less she knew about that, the better.
"Honey, I thought you were a wolf," explained Gareth. "It's not like I was the only one who took on a separate persona."
Oh no. It was more information. Sharla didn't want that. He thought Honey was a wolf. That was what Gareth wanted. Did that mean that he was… No, she wasn't going to say a predophile anymore. That was bigoted. It was okay if he liked wolves.
She suddenly remembered the magazine in his box of personal effects. Oh God. He did. He was totally into wolves. Too much information.
But wait, it was Gareth playing the wolf. Honey played a sheep…
Sharla flinched outwardly this time. This was so messed up.
"I'm not talking to you, sheep." The badger was resolute. At least it had gone from killing him to giving him the quiet treatment. That was a bonus.
"Can Motti come down?" asked the hyena. Sharla was distracted immediately as she marveled at how patient the larger mammal had been. Gareth moved quickly over to the bag of stones.
"If you don't hit me again."
"Only if you are needing it," Motti returned.
"Good enough," he sighed. It was about the best he could hope for, at least. With a quiet sort of determination, Gareth began messing with the binding of the rope holding the bag of stones suspending Motti. Sharla had already thought of that but Motti's weight left it too tight, but hey, maybe he knew more about knots than his sister did.
Sharla blanched and looked away. Damn it, Gareth.
He continued to talk. "Since you know why I'm out here, you understand that it's a terrible idea to leave, right? I stole documents from the place Dad and I worked. Obviously that was a one way street, right? How am I supposed to come back from that?"
Motti answered frankly, "You supposed to take two lefts or two rights. Motti is not licensed driver though, so maybe wrong."
Honey cut in sharply. "Have you been watching the news, 'Big Bad'?" She growled the last part. Sharla tensed a little. It was gonna be a while before that sting wore off.
"Of course I've been keeping up with it," replied Gareth. "I have my laptop here. That's how I was communicating with you."
"With strangers, but not with your sister," reminded Sharla.
"Don't you get it?" asked her brother. "You could have been killed. We both still could be. There's documentation to suggest that there are conspirators in the ZBI itself. They literally have a guy who makes witnesses go missing."
"You mean Orson?" asked Honey. Sharla wondered again if she was even legally allowed to hear this conversation. It was an immediate reminder that they were big players in a very, very dangerous game.
Gareth looked at Honey with his head tilted. His mood shifted. He was focused and intense. This was his life. "I don't have names, just indications, otherwise I'd have sent you the files. What information do you have on 'Lancer'?"
"'Lancer'? Oh yeah," Honey nodded.
"Definitely it is that guy," Motti agreed.
"What, the sheep with the spear?" asked Sharla, remembering the video.
"Oh my God, you got my sister involved that deep!?" cried Gareth. "What the hell's wrong with you guys!?"
"Lancer's been taken out," Sharla answered grimly, wanting her brother to realize it was not as dangerous as it might have been in the early days.
"What, the police got him? I didn't see anything on the news." He seemed a little skeptical, grunting as he pulled harder at the rope. Yeah, not so easy, huh? Sharla looked around for the knife and replied to her brother,
"I saw it with my own eyes, Gareth."
The badger spoke up. "He attacked my home while Judy was there with other witnesses from the interior." Honey sounded so proud as she said that. Maybe the bite of finding out her lupine love interest didn't exist was softened by the reminder that they still helped take down the conspiracy together.
"Wait, Judy? Judy Hopps?" Gareth seemed appropriately surprised.
"Oh," Motti broke in. "That is right. She is growing up with Sharla and you also, yes?"
"Y-yeah…" Gareth answered, looking up from the rope he was still attempting to loosen. "Judy was there? With you?"
"She was, yes. Protecting the witnesses. I'm sure you can understand why the full details of this didn't make the networks yet. They will in time, but they are still very carefully investigating who knew what and when."
"Wow. Judy. Man, she's really… She's really what she wanted to be when she was a kit, huh? That's awesome." There was a thump that surprised Sharla a bit, but it was Motti finally dropping from her rope as Gareth managed to loosen the knot enough to let her slip free. She rested on her back a bit, probably to keep the blood from just rushing from her head.
"You have information about Orson, but do you have evidence?" asked Honey.
"We aren't doing this right now," cut in Sharla.
"Yeah, I have a damned ream of it," he replied, ignoring Sharla. "He's the grandson of a council member. Well… former council member. Illegitimate, but he was cut in on a bunch of money to get him through school and get him in the ZBI. His psychological evaluation was actually done by someone who isn't even mentioned anywhere as an employee or contractor for the ZBI. He was definitely a plant."
"That's your get-out-of-jail-free card, sheep." Honey moved over to help Motti up.
"That's not guaranteed." Gareth said.
Honey responded sternly. "You can come forward with evidence, or you can get found with evidence and they can accuse you of withholding it when they eventually do find you." Sharla went rigid at that explanation, suddenly deeply appreciating Honey's presence. The ewe might not be able to convince her brother to come out of hiding on her own, but Honey really knew the right argument.
"Yeah? Well, me being caught and getting out of serious trouble doesn't spare my family from the smear it's gonna cause."
Sharla glared at her brother."I'm enjoying the thought of a smear on the Shearer name a lot more than the funeral that we were planning. Motti, quit that." The hyena had approached the other sheep and was pressing on his chest and back through his shirt, squeezing his whole torso to examine just how puffy sheep were. It was not something Sharla was genuinely upset about, of course. It was really a nearly uncontrollable response to mammals who were very tactile-focused. The curiosity about what wool felt like was too hard to resist. Motti immediately let Gareth go. He did not complain, but he'd already been slapped silly by that same hyena.
Gareth finally sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about all that, okay? But there's no promise I won't be put in jail anyway, and if I'm there, who's gonna protect me?"
"No one's protecting you out here, either," Honey gestured.
"I've managed to deter folks so far," Gareth huffed.
"What, with fake sheep skulls?" demanded Sharla. She stepped forward. "Spooky warning signs? Simple snare traps? Impossibly huge wolf paw prints in the forest? How long do you think that'll work?"
Gareth crossed his arms, frowning. "Look, I'm going with you, alright? Honey's right, better I approach them with evidence and a reason to hide than get caught with it without a reason."
His sister smiled, giving a soft sigh of relief. Finally. Finally this mess could actually be over. Life would never be the same, but at least it would still contain her wayward, geeky, dumb brother.
He continued, however, "But, so you know… those snares caught two mammals just fine, didn't they? And the sheep skulls? I think those are particularly fear-provoking! I don't know what you're talking about with paw prints. I didn't make any prints, the leaves would just cover em anyway."
"Wait, what?" returned Sharla.
"Paw prints?" Honey asked, suddenly very interested.
Motti answered. "Sheep is finding one in the forest. She says it is like this." The hyena held out her paws. She might have exaggerated a little, but not very much.
"Yeah, no. I'm the only one out here. And that's too big for a wolf. He'd be like… seven feet tall," Gareth explained. Honey pulled up her crimson hood, a dopey grin from ear to ear.
"No, Mananasi," Motti half-whispered. "Is not the same wolf. We have sheep, we go."
"Gareth, are you sure this house was empty?" Sharla asked, her chest tightening. Why would her life not just finally calm down? Motti began looking around frantically, as if the forest itself could descend upon them. It did not make Sharla any less anxious to see her hyena friend fearful.
"I've been here for like… two months. No one's been here," Gareth responded.
"Uh, sheeps?" murmured Motti.
"Yeah?" replied Sharla.
"We go now."
"Why?" asked Honey, seeming to actually kind of snap out of a daydream.
Motti picked a tuft of black fluff off of the edge of the pretty freshly stacked woodpile. She held it up, and declared ominously, "None of us is having long, black fur."
Sharla pulled back her ears. "Gareth, you idiot…"