Chapter Text
“Frankly, I’m not sure a defence is worth pursuing.”
The snow leopard across from him spread his arms wide, sighing through his teeth. He shook his head in desperation, his eyes growing ever wider as he flipped through the case files.
It was a dingy room, whitewashed and pale with a single LED lamp that blinked every few seconds in a pattern that made his head throb. He’d lost count how many hours of sleep he’d lost over the past week, how many nights he’d spent listlessly staring at the cell across as his family blew up at each other in their cramped communal cell.
Nervously tapping his feet against the floor, Pawbert (fucking really, Disney? Seriously???), eyes darting two and fro, he searched the confines of the interrogation room for any source of hope like a caged animal. For which, partially, he was.
“Mr. Lynxley?” He raised his head, a downtrodden expression plastered on his features, aging him severely. “Mr. Lynxley, have you considered capitulation? You… do recognise I’m simply a public defender?”
Thanks, Dad. Thanks world, really. Years spent grovelling at his feet, many nights of his life spent not in the deep embrace of a loving family but living up to impossible expectations. Expectations that he’d failed to live up to even now.
The cuffs against his paws ached, the harsh metal stinging and digging deep into his skin, barely concealing old wounds, gashes and scars from Father’s many lashes and outbursts. And yet, what did he have to earn from it?
Nothing.
“Levi, is it?” He began, voice monotone and level. Still wearing masks, can’t escape it… “Scrap the ‘Mr.’, you don’t have to sugarcoat your position here. “The boy finally faced the defendant head on, and was met with a pale and disenchanted face, “You… look worse than I do. Got undisclosed issues you wanna talk about?”
Levi sighed, rubbing his temples. “I want you to understand the situation. The prosecution has you on three counts of attempted murder in the first degree, one count of attempted murder on law enforcement officers, conspiracy to commit fraud, forgery, and accessory to corporate corruption. You were caught at the site, Pawbert. You engaged with the -”
“The snake,” Pawbert cut in flatly, rolling his eyes. “Yes.”
Levi hesitated. His whiskers twitched. “You manipulated him. That’s their narrative. And given the evidence… it’s not a narrative I can easily overturn.”
Of course not. Pawbert already knew the lines. He’d rehearsed them in his head the way other mammals repeated prayers. Do not Embarrass us; Don’t even think of contradicting us. Take the fall if necessary.
Pawbert snuck a smile, but the snow leopard across from him simply scowled in disgust. It withered away as quickly as it came, “I appreciate your concern but that’s beside the point.” The defender rubbed the bridge of his nose, likely wondering why he’d picked this stuck-up snob of all cases to work with. Seems like even his family didn’t love him enough to spare him an ok lawyer. But then again, why was he defending himself?
Pawbert, however, continued to shuffle his feet against the floor, really taking an interest in how the grey seemingly melted into the pool of concrete at his feet. He had a philosophy, something that pulled him up from the darkest of days and provided him the energy to keep kicking for just one more day; If you love your family, you bleed for them. What he learned the hard way was: you bleed, and they keep cutting.
“I know you’re doing your job,” Pawbert murmured. “And I know how this goes. My father’s already made the calls, he’s got the most lucrative defence the city has to offer. Saul Goodman type shit.” He chuckled to himself slightly, exhaling shakily as his eyes glossed over with tears, “They’ve already dug their paws into the jury’s pockets. Not too had to do, considering it’s 70% reptiles…” He trailed off again, studying the floor, “They’ll testify. They’ll cry. And the ZPD loves a clean narrative, right?” He laughed once, burying his head in his hands, an ear twitching slightly.
A wild look crossed his face, and he sprung up suddenly, startling Levi and his hands rattled the cuffs. “Monster son goes rogue, tries to burn evidence, almost kills three civilians and two officers. Wrap it up, push it through court, done.” He mimed a circle in the air, and slumped down once again in his chair.
Levi’s jaw tightened; Pawbert… wasn’t wrong. The narrative was already circulating in whispers among prosecutors, clerks, judges, the whole damn judicidal sector was buzzing with words of how to reap the highest rewards out of this. All of them will sell out the other in the blink of an eye... The Lynxleys, old blood money as it turns out, had lined their dominos well.
Levi tried again, gently. “Pawbert… capitulation might spare you -”
But the leopard stopped mid-sentence.
His eyes had snagged on a single line buried in a supplemental financial report. Highlighted, almost innocuously, like an afterthought:
Tehrana Bank Platinum Holder Checking Balance – Overseas Branch
Levi blinked. Then blinked again. His ears pricked forward.
“...What is this?” he breathed.
Pawbert didn’t answer, simply cocking his head curiously. Fuck… what was he thinking? The son Milton, the patriarch, openly called a ‘runt’ on the news, aware of an overseas savings account that was likely the family’s only saving grace? Shit… He probably didn’t even know. His whole life, his parents had handed him curated truths and locked-box lies. Why would they share this?
Levi scanned faster now, his fatigue forgotten. “This account… Pawbert, this isn’t declared anywhere. Not on probate filings. Not on corporate tax documentation. Not on any freeze-order compliance list. Nothing.”
He stood up briskly, pacing slightly as he began counting off of his fingers, “The Lynxley family’s overseas account. Registered under an asset trust in the Rainforest District – but the account itself is held offshore. Cayman Archipelago. And the total assets transferred in the last twelve months exceed -” He stopped, ears flattening. “- exceed the legal limit for foreign transfer while under federal investigation.”
Pawbert was intrigued, slightly disheartened… but unsurprised. After all, Father knew best.
“This is an overseas cashing account. Protected. Untouched. And based on the timestamps…” He tapped the page. “Your family transferred funds after ZPD initiated forfeiture notifications.”
Pawbert frowned faintly. “Meaning?”
“Meaning,” Levi said, leaning in, voice low, “your family knowingly moved assets to avoid seizure. That’s criminal evasion, Pawbert. Felony criminal evasion. International financial misconduct. Laundering if the right conditions are met.”
Pawbert blinked once, twice, his face contorting into that of confusion. “How the hell does that help me, Levi? I… I hired you to give me a shitty defence so I can serve my time with honour and return to my family’s good graces… What are you -?”
Levi’s tongue got stuck in his throat, as his heart quite literally skipped a beat. What… the fuck? Jesus Christ, what was going on in this bloody household?!
“Look, I can get you maybe some community service, maybe mandated time in a reptile-sympathiser programme but… Why would you want me to force you to lose the case? We’re talking about your freedom here, kid, how – How old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
There was a beat. The analogue clock in the room grew noticeably louder, and time seemed to elapse slower.
“Kid… Do you really want this?”
Pawbert hesitated, visibly torn. He lifted a claw anxiously to his mouth, gnawing on the exposed skin, tearing off chunks of dermis. There it was again, eyes darting around the room, tears welling up in his eyes.
They’ll fucking destroy him.
“This… this wasn’t you.” Levi’s electrified gate didn’t subside, he only leaned upon the metal table in an attempt to reach his client.
Pawbert’s mouth opened, then closed. His throat clicked. “My father handles finances.”
“Exactly,” Levi said. “Which means your family is actively hiding wealth from seizure. You’re not the mastermind. You’re not the one orchestrating anything. They are.”
Pawbert hung his head once more, eyeing him with an indescribable mixture of scorn… with a bit of hope and fear mixed in.
A pause.
“They’ll never let you present that,” he muttered, staring at the table. “They own every officer in the precinct. Every judge. Every juror. Every -”
“Then we don’t take it to them,” Levi chuckled, abruptly pushing back his chair and taking a seat on the table. “We take it federal. This is cross-border. Not just out of ZPD jurisdiction, but outside the confines of the whole damn city.” He tapped a finger on his chin, tracing his fur, “Tell me, kid, can any buy out the entire government of a nation as large as ours, hm?” A smile slithered across his jaws, teeth glinting harshly, “If I can get this into the paws of a federal investigator, we can get you family to lose control of the narrative entirely.”
“But… if I help expose them…” Pawbert’s voice trembled despite his best attempt to keep it flat. “Then they’ll have nothing. And I was raised to -”
“To suffer for them,” Levi replied simply, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Pawbert instinctively looked up, “I can see that. But Pawbert… you don’t owe them your life.”
Pawbert stared at the cuffs around his wrists, the old scars beneath them burning like fresh cuts.
“…don’t I?” he muttered… still a little boy in a grown up body.
Levi’s gaze softened. “No.”
Silence hovered like dust in the stale fluorescent air.
Pawbert froze, a shaking sob coming from him. As soon as Levi’s eyes darted to him, all remnants of the event simply dissipated into thin air, “I… I need to think about this. Would you -?”
“You don’t have time kid, the sooner we file this into evidence, the sooner you’re walking free and away from them. You’re already looking at a restraining order if –“
You know, Levi had really got caught up in his revelation that he’s forgotten he was practically chatting with a man capable of murder. Not only that, murder of the first-degree.
He straightened his suit, smiling falsely once more, “You know what? Take your time. Take as much as you need.”
He briskly stood to face the door, sneaking a hasty glance back at the lynx. He was almost adorably childish, almost. You’d never think that this man did not know the means to an end but… He’d nearly committed a cardinal sin for a monster’s cause.
Shit… even in mandated Ethics class in college they didn’t teach this bullshit.
The hallway back to the communal cells smelled of bleach, sweat, and… whatever else I don’t fucking know. Still, it clung to the damn walls like mildew and it made sleeping a pain. I trudged on in silence, being practically heaved by the escorting officer who constantly eyed me with a look that could melt tungsten.
Fucking public defender; I didn’t hire him to give me a bloody lecture and a new perspective on life…
You don’t owe them your life.
The gate buzzed open. The officer nudged me inside, and I obediently stumbled in.
The chorus that blessed my ears as I did so was akin to a High School Talent show; so shrill and loud it already made my ears bleed. I wondered how they did it, really, having no decency in sucking up to Father no matter what, praising him as if he’d shown he could walk on water or turn water into wine.
Dearest sister blessed my ears first, scraping against my ears like metal against metal, “- because YOU never listen, that’s why! If you had half a brain -”
“Half a brain? At least I didn’t -”
“OI!” a prisoner from down the block roared, slamming a paw against the bars. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
But the siblings didn’t stop. They never stopped; such was the beauty of our shitty family.
I stepped into the stale air of their cell, the noise washing over me like static, head already raised in preparation of the berating to come from the two until… Shit.
Why the fuck was Dad silent?
Stone-still.
Sitting upright on the bunk like a statue carved by someone who hated softness. His eyes scanned the darkness and locked on to me like bloody AAA, almost as if his eyes would shoot streams of highly concentrated bullets directly into my abdomen any moment now.
Ice slid down my spine.
For a heartbeat, neither of them moved.
Then Father finally spoke.
“Well?”
One word.
My mouth instantly dried like the Savannah, pulse thundering in my ears as I’d also noticed the noise das stopped. The silence prickled the fur fur at my neck, instinct screaming to bow my head, to apologise, to say I’d take the fall like the dutiful failure I’d always been.
And there it was again, clear as day, perforating through my skin like a disease, stinging at my eyes and whispering fancies into my ears like sweetened ice on a hot day…
You don’t owe them your life.
I swallowed, and held. Headstrong. Challenging him with my eyes, boring back into his own.
Father’s lip twitched; and my stomach did a backward somersault… landing on its head. Old instincts screamed that eye contact was provocation. Insolence enough to get me fifteen lashes… Fuck.
I’m in too deep now anyway.
The officer slammed the door behind me, buzz echoing through my skull. The siblings’ argument was still raging, but it all felt like background static under the weight of Father’s silence. Everything flattened into white noise.
“Well?” he repeated, slower this time. Slow enough to curdle the air.
I tried to wet my lips, but my tongue felt like gravel. With the cuffs slipped off, the strange new freedom made my old scars itch ever so slightly more. Gotta say thank God there was no TV cord anywhere around… Maybe the warden had snuck him one?
Would’ve been comedic if it wasn’t at my expense.
“T-the… the public defender -”
“Speak clearly, boy.” He spat, tone laced with disgust, dangerously level. Father didn’t do emotion; He’d told us Mom didn’t like weakness at all…
I inhaled shakily. “Levi says… surrendering might not be the only option.”
Kitty finally noticed the tension and cut off mid-insult, the whispering quarrels from across the cell ceasing into stunned silence. Cattrick turned too, still panting from whatever stupidity he’d engaged in; like always.
“Oh no,” Kitty muttered, arms folding tight. “Don’t tell me you panicked. Again.”
My ears pinned back before I could stop them. “I – I didn’t.”
“Of course you did. You always do,” Cattrick snapped, the bridge of his nose furrowing into a growl.
They drifted toward me like vultures scenting fresh roadkill, but neither dared to stand between me and Father. They flanked me instead, spitting questions.
“You said what exactly?”
“Are you trying to screw us over?”
“What were you THINKING -?”
“Enough.” My gaze snapped back to father, the new eyes boring down on my back didn’t help my nerves. If I stutter again I’m finished.
Father leaned back slightly; you’d be fooled he was relaxing. Pretty much how he’d fucked over the last client, got him all nice and acquainted before striking him from the rear with a proposition that pretty much stole all of his assets. Trust was so volatile it would evaporate into the air as soon as someone breathed it into the air.
“What,” he inquired, lazily filling his unsheathed claws against the bedframe, “did the lawyer say?”
The claustrophobia of the room already made my nerves burn, breath catching in my mouth. The shitty flickering lamp, the freezing metal table, Levi’s exhausted eyes scanning documents like they might suddenly sprout loopholes.
And that line.
You don’t owe them your life.
My throat locked. “He said the prosecution has… overwhelming evidence. Enough to guarantee conviction.”
“Well, of course they do,” Kitty scoffed, placing a hand on her hips smugly. “We made sure of that.”
Cattrick nodded eagerly, giving a sidelong look to me. “We gave them everything they needed. All the text messages you’re so shitty at concealing, all the security camera footage from the Tundratown wall… shit, even a witness testimony from poor Gary -”
I shot up in his face, unbridled rage shooting out from within as claws wrapped around his jumpsuit, lifting him by the scruff of his collar, “Don’t you say that fucking name, Cattshit, I might be your younger brother, but I won’t hesitate in the slightest to throw you under the fucking bus.”
Cattrick staggered back, wheezing, rubbing his throat like I had committed some unspeakable sin by touching the precious heir. Father’s slap still rang in my skull like a metal pipe against concrete. “I don’t think you’ll be doing any of that, runt.”
I shot up quickly – Wh… What? What do you mean, why…? “Dad, why -?”
He jabbed a finger into my chest, and I wilted under it, ears closing into my head, “YOU were supposed to take the fall, YOUR INSOLENCE and STUPIDITY brought us into this fucking situation. Be glad I don’t tear your name out of the fucking will for this shit.”
He straightened, fixing the fur on his head which sprung back up defiantly. He gritted his teeth.
“You should have taken the fall,” he stated, dangerously quiet. “You were designed for it. Raised for it.”
I felt my stomach twist, bile creeping up my throat. “I’m not – I’m not designed -”
Father grabbed my jaw so fast I yelped, squeezing until my teeth ground together painfully. His face hovered inches from mine, icy and merciless.
“You are nothing!” he roared, claws digging into my throat. “Nothing without this family. NOTHING without me. A defective tool that only has value when sacrificed.”
My breath shook, eyes burning with moisture as salty streams ran into the rims of my mouth. If - If I closed them, I’d fold, like always. Like Father expected.
He continued, voice sliding beneath my skin like a scalpel. “Do you think the lawyer will save you? Levi?” The way he sneered the name made my blood run cold. “He won’t. He’ll abandon you the moment it hurts him; or fuck – Maybe he has a conscience!”
He laughed shrilly, my heart skipped a beat, “You know what you did, you know your responsibility for your actions. You are the little, fucking, insane, murderous little shitstain who can’t follow BLOODY ORDERS!”
His grip tightened. I whimpered despite myself.
“And your siblings?” His eyes flicked to Cattrick and Kitty, who promptly waved derisively. “They will survive this. They have value. They have strength.”
Then his gaze snapped back to me.
“You are replaceable.”
Not a grown lynx. Not nineteen – Not worth a trip to college, not worth a celebration of the grades he’d worked so hard to achieve, not worth the funding to attend Cornell like he’d always dreamed. Not someone with agency or fear or regrets.
Just… a fucking tool. Replaceable.
Father steepled his fingers. “So… The lawyer suggested surrender? A plea deal?”
I hesitated. “No.”
Silence hit the room like a dropped anvil. The corridor grew ever quieter, as if the whole place could sense the brewing storm.
“No?” Cattrick echoed, voice cracking. “Fuck you mean ‘no’? That’s your job! That’s literally the point!”
Kitty jabbed a claw toward me. “He’s trying to weasel out. I knew it. He’s scared they’ll throw him in maximum.”
“I’m not -”
“Then say it plainly,” Father hissed, inching towards me as my fur bristled. “What. Did. He. Say.”
I exhaled, shaking. “He… he found something in the case files. Evidence of – f an overseas account. Untouched. Hidden offshore.”
Everything froze.
Kitty’s eyes widened.
Cattrick’s pupils shrank.
Father straightened by a hair – microscopic, but I caught it. Ha ha, ironic, I always caught everything.
“You’re… You’re fucking bluffing… There’s -” Cattrick stuttered, breath suddenly caught, “There’s no way.”
Kitty shook her head too fast. “Impossible. We got rid of –“
She shut her mouth a second too late, and was promptly seized by the throat, “What account?” He stated simply, his unsheathed claws dangerously close to drawing blood, “Didn’t you hear what I said, bitch?”
Ice crawled down my spine.
“N-not the main one,” she stammered, pupils smaller than ever before, “The auxiliary – Father, you know, the one the auditors never -”
“Stop.”
Father turned back to me, face composed but his eyes betraying a darting sense of panic. “And the lawyer knows this because?”
“He found a note in the files. Just a line, but enough. He said hiding assets during forfeiture proceedings violates financial disclosure statutes. And money laundering statutes. And – It’s -”
“Felony obstruction,” Father finished. He turned to face away from us, a hand running down the length of his face, incredulously staring at the ceiling.
Cattrick wheeled on me instantly, punching me in the gut, “You fucking told him, you snake? Fucking hell, obviously! You were fucking friends with one!”
“No! He – He showed me the files – I didn’t tell him anything!”
“You should’ve denied it!” Chella spat, back on the floor, collar a tinge of crimson. “Do you even have a brain? Or did you leave that in the furnace when you torched the original patent?!”
Silence.
“You didn’t even get the job done, didn’t you?”
I sheepishly stared at the floor, a guilty smile appearing on my face. It wasn’t returned by anyone in the cell.
“You manipulated him,” Cattrick growled, panting furiously, veins popping on the side of his face. “And you STILL fucked it up.”
“Enough,” Father murmured again.
The world was silent once more, and my eyes slid to his. Frankly, he looked like a wreck – Was that… fear?
“Look at me,” he muttered, desparate.
I didn’t want to. God, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want him to see the fear or the tiny flicker of something Levi had wedged inside my skull.
But being the good, obedient tool I was; I obeyed.
Finally, he breathed, “You believe him.”
Since when does father speak in sentences? I thought it was only questions with him, and absolutes…
I swallowed. “I… I think he can challenge the case. If he exposes the account -”
Cattrick practically exploded. “Expose?! You WANT us all jailed?!”
Father held up a paw.
“You think turning on this family will save you,” he said, icy calm.
“I didn’t say -”
“You think the legal system will side with you.”
“I – I don’t know -”
“You think the world wants you.”
His voice dropped, venomous.
“You think you matter.”
Father leaned in, breath cold on my fur. “So I will ask once.”
My lungs seized.
“Are you going to do your duty and take the fall,” I weighed my options, wilting under his gaze. Zugzwang. “or… are you going to betray your blood?”
It wasn’t that obvious, was it? Misleadingly so, like taking a Chemistry exam and thinking that no way it’s that easy of a mechanism…
I can just sell all these fuckers out. And the world will be better off.
The memories flooded my head like a broken dam – losing the science fair, being beaten for scoring slightly lower than the class average in Grade 6, being called defective, weak, pointless.
You don’t owe them your life.
My breathing stuttered.
“I…” My voice cracked. “I don’t know.”
Cattrick snarled, balling his paws into fists. “Wrong fucking answer.”
“You. Don’t. Know.” he repeated, unfolding each word like a scalpel.
God, the starvation I felt was suffocating. Little Pawbert, fighting out of the cramped cage I’d locked him in when my own creations were stamped out, all my dreams disregarded and shit on, all the staff told to not give me a second glance and serve me nothing. Sent to a boarding school at 10 years old, the youngest they accepted. Made an exception.
Thought I was special.
“I don’t know,” I said again, louder. “Because maybe I’m… Maybe I’m tired.”
That startled all of them.
“Tired?” Kitty echoed, chuckling slightly beside herself. “Of fucking what? Leeching off of -”
“Everything,” I cut her off, my own claws finally unsheathed too. Their expressions suddenly wilted too, all the resolve gone like the crack of dawn. “I’m tired of being blamed for everything. Of being the problem. Tired of being the bloody scapegoat, your personal doormat to wipe your feet across every time you fuck something up.” I chuckled, slightly mad,
“You know where I’ve holed up because of your shittiness, because you couldn’t bear to see your little disappointment, huh, Dad? I had to… “ I choked back a sob, voice rising ever louder, “- I had to play pretend with a naïve fucking snake to get even the semblance of warmth in my life, the semblance of trust. Fuck… they might diagnose me with psychopathy, can’t you see?! I felt fucking nothing when I did him over, no fucking gratitude, not even a shred of shame. And what were you doing, all your shitty life, Dad?”
“You killed people for daring to stand up against you. You lied and cheated your way out of everything until the point where I myself don’t even know where you end and all your lies begin.” I dropped my hands to my sides, wishing painfully that my green sweater was still on me, “Fuck, I don’t even know who my father is because he’s become some… terrifying concept, without a personality, without a soul.”
“So yes. I won’t back you up. I hope you rot. And there’s not a thing you can do, other than take me the fuck out.”
He smiled slightly, the skin stretching itself across his features like a plague, inhumane.
Ah. I’d fucked up.
“Tired?” he murmured. “Then let me relieve you of your burden.”
My pulse spiked so hard my vision blurred.
“You will take the fall,” he continued softly, “not because we ask. Not because you fear us. But because you are nothing without us. Because the world will never want you. And because you have nowhere else to go.”
My stomach twisted into knots.
“Say it,” he ordered. “Say you’ll do as you’re told.”
My lips parted – but a flicker of Levi’s face surfaced. The page strewn across the desk, the black cursive of the signature, the thick lettering of the document clearer than dawn. Maybe my future wasn’t bright, or safe or anything, but it certainly was in my hands.
I didn’t have to win right now.
I just had to… not surrender.
“I’ll… think about it,” I whispered.
They all actively exploded in my face, but I stayed steadfast. The pain and the noise dulled into thrumming at the back of my head and suddenly… it was just so clear.
Father stared at me for a long, excruciating moment. Within his gaze, contempt was there but… also a tinge of respect.
Then, slowly… He nodded.
“Very well,” he stated, turning to face the wall as he lay back down on the bunk. “Think.”
“But do not think too long,” he added, throwing a glance back at me, “The world outside that gate is hungry. And without us, it will devour you.”
Maybe the world devouring me is still better than letting my family finish the job, Dad.
Maybe it really is.