Why Did You Do It, Penelope? - Chapter 1

The Safehouse, Paris, France, seven months since Sly Cooper's disappearance.

Bentley was miserable. It had been months since the time-travelling heist, and he still hadn't found Sly. His best friend was lost a hundred, a thousand years in the past, and Bentley had no idea when or where his pal was. To make things suck even more, it was all Penelope's fault. His ex-girlfriend, who he met in Holland a few years before and fallen hopelessly in love with her. After what seemed like the perfect relationship, she tore his heart out and stomped on it. She was the one who ran to Cyrille Le Paradox with Bentley's time machine schematics. Because of Penelope, Le Paradox had a time machine. And Sly is gone because Le Paradox had a time machine. This simple fact made Bentley sick to his stomach. If he hadn't got romantically involved with Penelope, she wouldn't have any knowledge about the time machine. They would have finished their Cooper Vault heist and gone their separate ways.

Sly would still be here...

Penelope was arrested and put in a prison in England once Bentley had beaten her in robot hand-to-hand combat, but she promptly escaped. Bentley was still receiving mysterious postcards to date, most likely from her. However, he hadn't seen her since that day. He tried to act like he didn't care anymore, but he was hurting all the time.

Carmelita was also struggling. She'd lost the love of her life to time, and she noticed every second without him there. Her ringtail... suddenly him being a thief didn't matter anymore. He was a wonderful man, who was smart, charming, kind, funny, and she loved him for years without even realising her true feelings, instead focusing more on throwing him behind bars. She also felt awfully guilty about the way she treated Sly after she found out he was back to his thieving ways. She was angry, because Sly had lied to her about his amnesia, but she refused to accept that she had been no better, by telling him he was a police officer, changing who he was as a result. Her stubborn pride prevented her from realising that Sly had sacrificed his family's trade, which spanned for generations, to be with her. She was only a fourth-generation police officer, she should have given up her career for him, but she was too much of a coward. When Sly vanished, she realised how much of a sacrifice he had made for her, and she treated him like dirt, ignoring him, being unpleasant to him, even flirting with his ancestors, just to make him jealous. She hated herself for her petty behaviour. She'd been dying to apologise to him for months, but Penelope, she's the reason Sly will never know how much he meant to Carmelita. She resented the mouse for her two-faced greed.

Murray took Penelope's betrayal pretty hard. Ever since she helped him save his beloved van in China, she became his best buddy for life. Both being vehicle enthusiasts, they spent every free moment they had talking about various cars, vans and planes, and their many experiences with them. Murray loved hearing Penelope's many victories in ACES, while she had a particular favourite story of his; the time he raced for a treasure key in Mesa City. The tight corners, the gangster dogs, the necessity for the key! If Murray didn't get that key, Sly wouldn't be able to get Muggshot's section of the Thievius Raccoonnus, and the mission would fail! Her first hearing of the story had her on the edge of her seat, mouth hanging open in pure awe.

Meanwhile, on the roof of the safehouse, was an old friend of Bentley's. A rabbit with white fur, long, curly brown hair, dark blue eyes, and piercings was sat on the flat roof, smoking a cigarette while gazing across the city's nighttime view. She had to smoke outside to avoid triggering Bentley's asthma, as well as to avoid Carmelita's wrath, as the police inspector despised smoking. She obliged, but preferred sitting on the roof instead of standing outside, watching the Parisian scenery. She saw the many buildings across the city, with its twinkling lights dotted across the landscape. The Eiffel Tower loomed in the distance. The night breeze blew through her fur, ruffling it slightly. Up here, it was peaceful, and it was her favourite place to be. The beautiul sights, the many sounds, a quiet place to be alone and smoke; it was perfect.

Her nose twitched as she smelled the smoke trailing off her cigarette, as did the nose ring in her left nostril. She took another drag, before exhaling sadly. Like Bentley, Mona Douglas had been torn by Penelope's betrayal. Her and Bentley went way back, to their Junior year of high school. Mona, being quite an accomplished hacker, taught Bentley all she knew. Hailing from England, her accent caught the attention of many classmates. Many of them tried hitting on her, whereas Bentley was the one person who finally spoke to her like a normal person. Through Bentley, she met Sly and Murray, and provided some assistance for their few heists during semester breaks. She and Bentley kept in contact after graduation, with the rabbit returning to England, and Bentley and his crew relocating to Paris to begin tracking the Thievius Raccoonus.

Two years after gradation, Mona met Penelope at an RC convention, and was incredibly impressed by the mouse's skill, controlling a little RC car as if it were simply an extension of her own body. Coincidentally, the Cooper Gang were trying to impress the same mouse a year later. Upon Mona's realisation that it was the same Penelope she knew, she immediately vouched for her RC abilities, saying she was "an absolute goddess" when it came to RC vehicles. She also said Penelope was the "sweetest person you could ever meet".

So when Bentley told Mona about her betrayal, she was crushed. There was no way that the woman who sold the Cooper Gang out was the same woman Mona met at ArSeeCon 2004. She couldn't believe it. On top of that, the explanation Penelope had provided didn't seem right, almost out-of-character. Money? Penelope was not a greedy person, it didn't add up. To be a celebrated person? From what Bentley had told Mona, Penelope didn't think twice about giving up being the Black Baron, a celebrity. Then what what is?

She found herself in Paris the following day to not only help Bentley get over this devastating blow, but to help him find Sly, and so far, they had had no luck. She found herself fiddling with her lip rings, two rings next to each other on the right side of her mouth. She always did this when she was thinking, or stressed. Or both. She sighed, took a final drag, then threw her cigarette butt off the roof. She was about to get up when she saw a flash of purple and yellow duck into an alleyway. Normally Mona wouldn't have thought twice of this, but the speed the figure moved at was incredible. Mona quickly crouched down and stared hard into the alley, to see if the figure would emerge. It did.

And there Mona saw the familar mousey features of Penelope, much to her disbelief. Before she registered what she was doing, she scrambled off the roof and barrelled into the safehouse.

Alright, here's another story. This one does tie in with Fight of Fancy, not just with chronology, but with OC Mona. You don't have to read it (as of 05/03/2018, it's not even finished), as I've included everything you need to know here. I figured I would add an OC because it would give Bentley & Co. a fresh angle in their search for Sly.

As I'm sure many people would agree, I wasn't happy with Penelope's betrayal, but Sanzaru's reasoning just didn't make sense, and was incredibly out of character. This is just a piece to create some logic as to why Penelope would do such an awful thing.

If you liked this, please follow and review, as more is sure to come.

Cheers!

~TWRSB