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Carmelita sighed again as she sat on her bed after yet another failed attempt at finding Sly who had disappeared after the fight with Le Paradox. She had thought he could make it but when the airship fell into the river, Carmelita hadn’t seen him fly away from it using his parachute like she believed he would but he never did. Carmelita refused to think that he had died and had decided to try to find him no matter what it took. However, she had had to use her free time on this because if she did it during working hours, her coworkers might start asking her why she was so interested in what happened to Sly Cooper, the infamous master thief. She didn’t think it would look good if they knew she loved him deeply and he had loved her just as much.
She would definitely get fired if that secret came out.
After Sly had disappeared, Carmelita had refused to believe that he was gone forever. She knew his friends were looking for him as well and at the beginning they had worked together but eventually his best friends started working on it on their own, leaving Carmelita to work on it on her own. She didn’t mind it though because she was used to working alone–sometimes it was better to investigate things alone too because then Carmelita found answers quicker.
Eventually Carmelita found the photo of him and Sly during a romantic night out together. He had had the photo with him the whole time during the adventure and Carmelita hadn’t even noticed due to being busy at being angry with him because of him lying to her about his amnesia. Carmelita had cried right then and there, realizing how much she actually missed him. She was also angry at herself for letting her temper get the best of her and staying mad at him for so long.
She should’ve talked to him about it.
She should’ve let him explain things to her without yelling at him.
What if Sly was really gone for good and she could never see him again…?
No, Carmelita refused to accept the possibility of Sly Cooper to die like this. He always survived somehow. It didn’t matter what happened, Sly always made it out alive. She was sure he had done so this time as well and refused to give up.
Well, until six months of no traces of him being found. That was when even Carmelita started thinking that maybe she should just accept that Sly wasn’t going to come back after all. Maybe Sly had really drowned into the river along with the wreckage of Le Paradox airship. Even though the thought broke Carmelita’s heart into pieces, she thought she probably should just accept the inevitable truth–he was gone forever and there was nothing she could do to bring him back.
Carmelita sighed again and traced Sly’s features on the worn out photo that she had found months ago. She truly missed those days of happiness even though he had been lying to her the whole time. She didn’t care anymore. She just wanted those days to come back because what she had felt for him was something she had never felt. Sly Cooper was probably the only man who really understood her and losing him hit really deep.
“I’m not really someone who believes in soulmates or any of that ‘The One’ nonsense but I think you were that to me”, Carmelita whispered and sighed again. She pressed the photo against her chest and laid down on the bed while a thunderstorm raged outside.
*
Eventually Carmelita stopped searching for clues on Sly’s whereabouts. It was no point because there was no traces anywhere. Le Paradox’s airship’s remains where also pulled out of the river to clean it up so it’d be safe to use once again. Carmelita had gone there hopefully to see if more traces could be found but there was nothing. She had been disappointed and soon afterwards she decided to just let it go and say goodbyes to her only true love. Then she drowned herself in work to keep her mind occupied. She didn’t get rid of the photo though and she wasn’t sure why.
Or maybe she just didn’t want to let go yet somewhere deep down?
Whatever.
As time went on, something weird started to happen–Carmelita started to receive reports of none other than Sly Cooper stealing valuable treasures once again. What made inspector Fox furrow her eyebrows, however, was that Sly wasn’t interested in stealing things from museums and other places with treasure in them. He was more interested in stealing things that should stay protected and hidden because they were dangerous if they were in wrong hands. Then he disappeared into thin air right after and no one could tell where he went. It was so odd and out of character for, Sly that Carmelita didn’t think twice whether or not she should take the case when it was suggested by her boss.
At first Carmelita considered on contacting Sly’s friends to ask if these new, weird heists were just their new thing but she was aware that the rest of the gang weren’t in Paris right now and she hadn’t even talked to them much in the past two years so she decided to work on this little problem on her own instead and started tracking Sly down from the latest place he had been seen at–the eugenics laboratory in Paris.
After few weeks of tracking Sly down, and missing his heists seven times by arriving on the spot only after he had already stolen what he had been after, Carmelita finally got lucky. She happened to be at the headquarters of Interpol working late into the night when she heard a door open and footsteps so quiet that she barely even heard them. It was very unusual because the last of her coworkers had already left the building. Carmelita had stayed behind to work on her case. She stood up from her chair, took her shock pistol ready and walked over to the door as quietly as she could and turned the lights off. Then she opened the door a little bit to see what was happening in the dark corridor that was only lit by the moonlight outside.
It was rather spooky.
Carmelita didn’t let the spookiness bother her though. The very idea that she could catch a criminal inside Interpol’s headquarters made adrenaline run high in her body. She loved to ambush her targets because they were often unable to even react. Often they were already beaten up by Sly himself, too. As much as that annoyed Carmelita at times, she had to admit that it was also a quite delightful thing to occur as it made arresting criminals a lot easier.
At the same time it was also annoying because Carmelita had missed a chance to catch Sly and his gang but she didn’t complain. She always had a new chance to catch the raccoon thief later.
A shadow in the corridor’s wall brought Carmelita out of her thoughts. The silhouette of the intruder was clearly a raccoon’s. Raccoon’s who was holding a familiar looking cane. Carmelita felt a jolt in her heart. It couldn’t be possible. Sly was assumed to be dead because there hadn’t been any traces of him or signs of his survival of the fall from the sky two years ago! But here we were–Sly Cooper was definitely sneaking around in the corridor. Carmelita was sure of it because soon the raccoon walked into the moonlight himself wearing his familiar blue shirt, gloves, hat and was holding his family heirloom, the infamous Cooper cane, in his hand.
Carmelita watched as the raccoon walked past her room and made his way to the northern parts of the building. She decided to follow him to see what he was after. Her plan was to catch him before he could for two reasons; she wanted to 1) call him out for hiding and making everyone think he was gone forever and 2) see what he was up to this time and stop it before it was too late.
Sly made his way towards the files room. Carmelita followed him quietly, hiding only if it seemed like he might catch her following him but then the chase continued until he found the door to the archived files room. He kneeled and picked the lock with a pink hairpin which made Carmelita raise an eyebrow. Didn’t Cooper’s gang has their own package of tools for lock picking? How come Sly had come to this building without one?
Another uncharacteristic trait noticed, Carmelita thought as she watched how Sly eventually succeeded at unlocking the door. She noticed how Sly dropped the hairpin on the floor and added that to the list of Sly’s uncharacteristic behaviors. She then followed him into the room. He mumbled something incoherent as he went in which made it easier for Carmelita to follow him and, hopefully, catch him in the act, too.
I wonder what he’s looking for, Carmelita wondered when Sly walked past the C section of the room. She couldn’t tell why but for some reason she had thought that he might be looking for Bentley and Murray and thought he’d find information on their current location from this archive room. Carmelita was immediately more curious–if Sly wasn’t looking for his buddies, what was he looking for then?
“I’m not ready yet”, Sly said to someone suddenly behind a shelf. “You need to learn patience and quick, woman. What? I’m doing exactly what you wanted! Just wait. I’ll get your file! Over and out”, he said in an irritated tone and then he sighed, mumbling something incoherent–Carmelita could swear she had heard him cuss, too.
She furrowed her eyebrows as she started following the raccoon again. Sly was working for someone else that wasn’t his gang? That only explained why he passed by the file Carmelita had assumed he was looking for. It didn’t, however, answer what he was after and also raised a question of who was this woman he had been talking to. Carmelita didn’t know the answer but she hoped to find out soon. She probably wasn’t someone he liked very much judging by the way he had talked to her.
“You can come out now”, Sly suddenly said.
Carmelita stopped walking at once. Was he talking about her or was there someone else in the room with them, too?
Sly chuckled. “I noticed you were following me since we came to this room, cop lady. There’s only us here.”
Carmelita decided to just confront him. It was easiest that way and she turned around the shelf she had been hiding behind and came face to face with the raccoon who looked so identical to the man she was still longing for every day despite the fact that she had decided to let him go forever. He was looking at her amused look on his face.
“Sly”, Carmelita greeted him.
“Is that some new cop tactic to manipulate us outlaws?” he asked her as he leaned into his cane.
“What the hell?” Carmelita asked. “You don’t recognize me?”
“Why should I know you? You’re a cop and I’m a thief. We can’t exactly be buddies.”
“Don’t mess with me, Ringtail. We’ve met multiple times in the past!”
Sly chuckled again, looking at her mockingly. His brown eyes showed no signs of him recognizing her nor did they have any traces of all that love that he had once showed as he looked at her.
“I don’t remember ever seeing you before in my life, copy lady.”
It was a shocking realization for Carmelita. Who was this raccoon who looked like Sly then? He looked exactly like him! He even sounded like him! He had Sly’s cane, too!
“Who the hell are you then?” Carmelita demanded to know, pointing his shock pistol at him.
“My name is Sly Cooper.”
“You can’t be.”
“But I am, and now I’m gonna leave”, Sly mocked her. “Until we see again, cop lady”, he added and before Carmelita could do anything, raccoon pulled out a smoke bomb which he threw on to the floor. It exploded and covered Carmelita’s sight. All she could hear was a window being opened and a mocking chuckle before the raccoon disappeared.
When the smoke dissipated few moments later, Carmelita knew two things: 1) Sly Cooper had stolen a file from the section S which meant that he worked to someone who was extremely difficult to catch because they were so good at keeping themselves hidden and 2) something was very, very wrong with Sly Cooper because the man she had just met was not the same Sly she knew.
*
Penelope was walking in circles in her hidden headquarters. She was waiting for Sly to bring her the file she had asked him to steal for her–it was a report on her. She didn’t want anyone to come after her to catch her when she hadn’t even started her operation’s first phase yet. That’s why she didn’t need the police anywhere to have any sort of information of her in any shape or form. If they had anything on her, they’d quickly figure out how to catch her and that was one of Le Paradox’s plan’s big flaw in her opinion. She wasn’t going to have it that way at all. She was going to succeed in her plans no matter what.
“I’m here”, said an irritated voice from the door. Sly Cooper walked in, dropped the cane on the couch and threw the yellow file on her table.
“What are you so mad about?” Penelope asked him amusedly and picked up the file and looked at it.
“I was seen by a cop who was at the Interpol HQ tonight”, Sly said. “She saw what I took.”
Penelope sighed in frustration. She hated it when she heard news like this. Every time it had happened in the past Sly had been a little bit distracted and when Penelope had casually suggested that the distraction should be purged out of their way, Sly had been against the idea which lead to Penelope getting rid of him.
“Who saw you?” she asked casually.
“One of the inspectors. A fox lady. Blue hair, brown eyes.”
Penelope gasped in surprise. The worst possible thing had finally happened. He had been seen by Carmelita Montoya Fox. She had to be the most stubborn cop ever. She had followed Cooper’s Gang everywhere they went for years and was dedicated to solve all her cases. Penelope also knew that Carmelita and Sly had eventually gotten romantically involved with each other as well even though Sly had basically tricked her to make it happen. Penelope was sure that her bosses probably didn’t know that there was feelings involved between the two. Maybe, instead of having inspector Fox killed, she could just have her fired from Interpol by exposing her and ruining her reputation? She smiled. Maybe she should let Sly decide instead?
“She needs to be purged”, Penelope casually said. “Which one do you prefer–murder or tarnishing her reputation?”
“Are you seriously asking my opinion?” Sly asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
“You know the previous ones failed.”
“Oh, you want to know if I’m as weak as they were then.”
“Yes. Well?”
“Aren’t both options just as bad?”
Penelope raised her eyebrow curiously. This Sly was avoiding the whole question? What an interesting outcome! This one didn’t have no trace of the free will and didn’t want to make his own decisions? Perfect!
“Do you think so, Sly?” she asked him. “What if I’m letting you decide? You have her fate in your hands now. Which one do you want to pick?”
Sly looked utterly confused by the question as if he didn’t understand what had been said to him. Penelope looked at him and slowly began to smile victoriously. She couldn’t believe she had finally been successful at suppressing Sly Cooper’s free will and stubbornness. This was a moment of celebration!
“I’m fine with anything you decide”, Sly just said and yawned. “Can I take a nap first though?”
“Of course. You’ve deserved it”, Penelope said and she clapped her hands to make the lights turn off. She then walked over to the opposite side of her office to enter the laboratory where she did all of her “crazy” inventions. It was a high tech laboratory. One that Bentley could only dream about. If he had just agreed to join forces with her, they could’ve made the world kneel before them like true peasants that they were! Now she would have to rule the world on her own without him. She was used to the idea of doing things on her own though as she had always done so. It was not a big deal. The only sad thing about this was that Bentley would waste his time and potential helping the “good guys” win.
Penelope grinned as she looked at the raccoon tied up on a device that extracted genetic material from him for Penelope to use in her plan to create more clones of him. Raccoon glared back at her angrily like he did every time when Penelope entered the room.
“Don’t look so gloomy, Mr. Master Thief. This is a day of celebration as I finally got the recipe for my clone army perfected. You will be used as an ingredient in changing the fate of this world”, Penelope informed the real Sly Cooper as she lit the file in her hands on fire and put it into a trash can next to a table nearby.
“Yeah right”, Sly spat. “I heard fake me tell you he was seen by Carmelita. She knows me and will find you.”
“If she lives that long, you mean”, Penelope chuckled.
“Bullshit. Neither of you decided anything”, Sly told her and grinned. “You know she knows me and we both know you messed up.”
“What do you mean?” Penelope asked, feeling exactly what Sly had said she would feel. Deep down she knew she had messed up big time but she wasn’t going to let this stupid raccoon know that he was correct 100%.
“She will find my gang and they will all come for you together”, raccoon said proudly.
Penelope grins menacingly at that information. What a delightful moment to show them all what she was truly made of! This time she wouldn’t lose!
“Well, my dear raccoon, let them come then. I’ll be waiting.”