And the reunion had been going so well, too...

It was like Peter and Mopsy had never been apart. He'd run to the top of the hill and she'd run down and they met on the slope and both of them were going so fast that they missed each other completely. But then they turned round and ran back and bounced into each other - the warmest rabbit greeting there is.

Mopsy couldn't believe what she was seeing, and even though Peter had known for over a week that his daughter was still alive, he was still swept away on the same wave of tearful rapture as she was. They rolled over and over in the long grass together, chirping with glee and not stopping until the pollen sent flying by their acrobatics got up their noses and started to make them sneeze. Then they stopped and hopped to the top of the hill and lay down, side by side.

Peter was dizzy, giddy with good cheer, and closed his eyes, every breath an euphoric sigh. Mopsy was just as unsteady on her feet, but she wouldn't close her eyes. She couldn't take her eyes off her father. He had stepped out of her nightmares and into her dreams, but those dreams were true, and Peter was just the way she remembered him being. For a while, she couldn't believe it.

Over the next day there was no talk of Beatrice, or Flopsy and Cottontail. Peter didn't bring them up and Mopsy didn't ask. She didn't need to. If they'd been alive, they would have come with her father. If she tried hard, she could almost pretend her family had only ever consisted of her and Peter.

After giving Mopsy a few hours alone with her pa, Mark and Tom finally put in appearance. They crept up behind her and Mark cleared his throat and Mopsy was just as shocked to see them as she had been to see Peter. Sure, she'd never thought of them dead as she had her father, but she hadn't expected to ever see them again either. She asked after Angus and Travis. Tom lowered his head, awkwardly, and scuffed the ground with his paw. Mark quickly filled her in.

That conversation left a sour taste in the air for a while, but it was quickly forgotten as Mopsy took Peter and her two uncles into the warren here to introduce them to her new friends. She'd only been here a few days but she'd already met most of the rabbits that lived in this safe haven. Peter was dismayed to find that there were so few in comparison to the number living at Roadkill Turnpike.

When the sun set that night, most of the rabbits that had not been awoken by all those bizarre rumours of Mopsy's father's resurrection poured out onto the hillside to graze in the moonlight. It was a springtime full moon. The air was cool and moist and the grass they all ate was succulent, even if it tasted bland.

Over the meal, which Peter and Mopsy ate with the other rabbits, talk turned to the subject of Roadkill Turnpike's legendary war with man. Mopsy had been most disappointed to discover it wasn't like that, but the other rabbits had been fascinated by the idea of it. Mopsy had learnt of Emperor Morellius, and nobody here had a single pleasant thing to say about him. If Roadkill Turnpike was declare war on mankind, the evil Emperor would have to be toppled first...

Peter and Mopsy sat up until the moon was setting and dawn was fast approaching. Neither felt the need for sleep. Mopsy had been resting after her recent ordeals and wasn't tired. Peter, on the other hand, was physically exhausted, but his head was still buzzing so much so he thought his ears might soon pop. Eventually they both withdrew to Mopsy's new burrow, shortly after dawn. Mopsy had missed her fluffy pillow and was glad to have it back. In the end, she fell asleep even before her father, lulled into slumber by Peter's breathing beneath her head.

They got up again in mid-morning and it all went downhill after that. They went out into the grass. The sky was grey and overcast. Peter thought there might be rain. The hillside was abuzz with whispers. Peter eventually found Mark and Tom and they told him and Mopsy that there were rumours of something big happening over on the other side of the hill. None of these rabbits dared go back to their old haunting grounds, so they were all just waiting for Jack's imminent return.

It happened during breakfast. It was inevitable, really, but Peter hadn't really thought about it. For the first time since the death of his wife his mind wasn't a cluttered, festering soup of nightmarish images. It was refreshing to have a clear head, his thoughts dominated only by Mopsy's continued survival.

One of Mopsy's friends had just served them some dandelions she had picked and Peter was tucking in ravenously. For the first time in a long time he found he had a full, proper appetite again. Mopsy started to eat as well, but as she lifted her head to chew and savour her food, she saw something behind Peter. After that she stopped eating altogether. Her mouth fell open. She began to shake with rage.

Standing, just ten feet away, were Kurt, Chris and Dave.

"Murderers! MURDERERS!" she yelled again.

Peter jumped at the sound of her voice. His precious daughter, once a quiet echo of his wife, now had a storm in her eyes and a fire in her belly. He had never known she could shout so loud. Everyone turned to look.

Mopsy charged past Peter at full pelt. She didn't know what she was going to do. It was a primal force driving her toward Tyler's three killers. Maybe she would attack them. Yes, she would attack them. They were outnumbered now. She would make them feel the same paralysing fear they had made her and Tyler feel. Peter called after her, but she was beyond understanding his words.

It was only when she was three feet from them, going too fast to stop, that Mark and Tom stepped out in front of her. She hadn't seen them. Or, rather, hadn't recognised them. Kurt, Chris and Dave weren't standing in a straight line; they were standing in a huddle. Mark and Tom had had their backs to her.

Obviously, she quickly reasoned, they didn't know.

"You don't understand!" she cried, as they forcibly held her back. "These bastards killed Tyler! They're murderers! Let me go! Let me go!"

"Mopsy, there's some things you need to hear," Mark said.

"No! Let me go! Somebody seize them! Quick! They're gonna escape!"

"Look at them, Mopsy. They're not running anywhere..."

Mopsy glared up at her uncle, but she'd never get used to that misty blind eye he had now. Mark had always been the boisterous yet cuddly one, and this change to his face made him look really intimidating. She faltered momentarily.

"They have to pay for what they've done," she hissed.

"And you have to give them a fair hearing..."

Peter came up behind her quietly. She didn't notice him. This shouldn't have been an impossible situation. He should have sided with her instinctively. However, there was something about her bloodlust that scared him, most pointedly because he had a depressing feeling that she had inherited it from him.

"They never gave Tyler a fair hearing!" she cried.

"Mopsy, please listen to them," Peter whispered into her ear.

"What?!" she spat, glaring sideways. "Why?!"

"Because we have them to thank for getting us here..."

She turned her head and stared right at him. They were nose to nose. She could see he was telling the truth, shocking and frustrating as it was. And in that moment she felt entirely powerless once more. But who was there that she could lash out at but her beloved father? She snorted and shook her head.

She turned round and barged her way through the gathering crowd. Her new friends parted before her and turned their heads to watch her go. They'd all heard the terrible tale of Tyler's murder and Mopsy's escape, some of them more than once, but having Kurt, Chris and Dave in their midst made it seem altogether scarier. And not least because most of them had talked to the three murderers over the last fifteen hours, and they seemed to be their allies in the fight against Morellius...

"I think this is where we say our farewells," Kurt told Chris and Dave. His voice sounded unsteady, Peter noticed. Here was a rabbit that could kill without a flicker of uncertainty, shaken when faced with the consequences.

"No, give her time, I'll talk to her," Peter said.

"Much as I appreciate that, Pete," said Kurt. "I don't think us being here is helping matters. We've done what we said we would. We've brought you to Roadkill Turnpike. Now I think it's time we started heading back..."

"We didn't even want to come in the first place," Dave grumbled.

"Yeah, we're only here 'cause you had us by the balls," added Chris.

"We owed you one," Kurt concluded. "But now we're even..."

"But this is where your great rebellion is," Mark said. "There's several dozen rabbits on this hillside alone who I reckon would join the Roadkill Turnpike People's Front given half a chance. And we're nowhere near even yet, Kurt."

"Yeah," Peter quickly agreed. "You killed my nephew. And all you've done is lead us here. We could have done that without you when Benjamin Bunny turned up, so I figure you still owe us. That's why I want you to stay."

Kurt shook his head vehemently. "If it's all the same, I don't think we're going to be much help in this revolution. Everything's just so much... so much bigger than we had ever imagined. This isn't going to be a rebellion, Pete.

"It's going to be a war."

The hackles rose on Peter's back. He knew it was true. As he'd stood at the edge of the trees, squinting into the sunlight with Boxer beside him, and looked over the thousand copulating rabbits, he'd known what rebellion would mean.

"So you're running away..."

"I prefer to think of it as strategic repositioning," Kurt snarled. "This rebellion will fail, just like every other has failed. Look around you, Pete: fluffy bobtailed peasants against Morellius? What do you think the odds are?"

"What about Jack's plan, though?" Mark piped up. "Wait until Morellius is forced to ban sex and then turn his own people against him?"

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Jack is full of shit," he spat. "And you're all bloody fools if you believe a word he says. Where is he now, huh? Probably shopping you all into Morellius and Boxer, because that's his job..."

"Jack wouldn't betray us!" one of the gathered rabbits chirped. He was, to Peter's dismay, the picture of Kurt's stereotype: a cutesy pet rabbit, no inch the warrior. The tide was turning amongst the crowd. They knew Jack. They knew Mopsy. All they knew about this Kurt was what Mopsy had told them.

"Death to the murderers!" another suddenly cried.

"Yeah!" four or five more chimed in.

"Death! Death! Death!" went the chant.

Peter looked around warily, but Kurt stood firm. They stayed this way for almost half a minute. And then, as Kurt had expected, the chanting died down. "And after all that, we're still alive," he said sarcastically. "And that's the problem. These pretenders are all mouth and no mettle. There's no fight in them. They've never felt blood gush between their jaws. They will lose. And you know it."

Peter chewed his tongue. He was sceptical himself.

"Can you honestly tell me you've come here to join their fight, Pete?" Kurt asked hoarsely. "I thought you came for your daughter. She's the one that came to join their fight. Are you going to let her stay and die with them?"

Various words hovered on the tip of Peter's tongue, but what he eventually said was, "Actually, Kurt, I think maybe you're right, after all." Then he paused briefly for everyone to jump to the wrong conclusion.

"It is indeed about time you were going..."

Kurt ground his teeth for a moment, then he nodded curtly. He turned to Chris and Dave, who had closed in around their leader about the time the other rabbits started baying for their blood. He muttered something to them.

"I guess this is goodbye, after all," Peter said.

"And good luck," Kurt added. "I mean that."

Peter nodded. "Whatever," he said shortly.

Kurt, Chris and Dave didn't hang around much longer. They retreated along the route Jack had brought them the day before, and the rabbits along the way booed and jeered them. Peter couldn't help but think this further illustrated Kurt's point about just how unfit for rebellion these revolutionaries really were. Kurt's ominous words of warning continued to ring in Peter's mind long after the three rabbits had disappeared into the shadow of the trees at the bottom of the hill.

No sooner had they vanished, however, than Jack reappeared. All the rabbits on the hill were still looking in that direction when they saw him and another natural born come charging out of the trees. For a moment Peter thought Kurt and co might have attacked them, but then he saw it was fluster not fear on Jack's face. The crowd began to whisper excitedly as the two rabbits ran uphill to meet them.

"Hey, isn't that Benjamin?" said Tom.

"Well, I'll be. So it is!" Mark chuckled.

"Thought we'd lost him for good..."

Jack and Benjamin reached the top of the hill exhausted. The crowd enveloped them. Benjamin panted noisily like a dog and waved a forepaw at his old friends before collapsing with exhaustion. Jack, on the other hand, looked far more highly-strung. They could see the distended tendons in his legs.

"It's war," he said between gasps for air. "It's war. Morellius has engineered it. A whole warren massacred. Not a single pregnant female left alive. The hares have been blamed. But it's a lie. Morellius is taking Roadkill Turnpike to war. There are only three days left. Everyone's getting ready for it. He's never been as popular. He's invincible. Nothing can stop him now. It's war. It's war. Oh..."

Then he succumbed to the cramps of his exertion.

"So it begins," said a voice. They all turned. Mopsy had reappeared. She came through them and stood over Jack, looking down at him. She took a deep breath and let it out like a sigh. "This war will be our war, too..."

For a while, nobody said anything.

Then Benjamin woke up and grinned.

"Hey, Pete," he said. "I just got laid!"

NOTES:
Once more, Benjamin Bunny goes missing for twenty pages, but at least he wasn't sleeping the whole while this time round. This wasn't an entirely successful chapter. It was hard to cover Peter and Mopsy's reunion in a way that was satisfactory without getting sidetracked from the main storyline. Kurt, Chris and Dave's departure came completely out of the blue, but set itself up for a final resolution of their arc in an upcoming chapter. I also wanted to continue the questioning of whether Jack can be fully trusted or not. Plus it was important to suggest events are tripping along a precipice between the status quo and all out war.