My theory is that 'To Steal or Not to Steal' happens in the middle of season 2, probably between The Crackle Goes Kiwi Caper and The Stockholm Syndrome Caper. This is because the faculty still lives in the VILE HQ, yet Shadowsan's not present for any of this. I think Shadowsan was doing a different mission at the same time that Carmen was forced to steal for VILE. Also, Julia was wearing her ACME suit, which she only got in season 2. So, yep.

This is an AU where Carmen, Zack, and Ivy all got mind controlled in the worst ending.

( )

Also: In my mind, Zack's birthday is in October, Ivy's is in November, they celebrate Carmen's on December 1st, and Player's is, in cannon, May 6th. Shadowsan's birthday does not matter. (Sorry, Shadowsan. I love you anyway.)

(:)

It was dark when Carmen came to. The familiar concrete of the ceiling was like something out of a dream, or something she hadn't seen in a long time. Her mind was hazy, and she felt like she had just been risen from the dead. She sat up slowly, wondering why she was asleep on the living room of the couch instead of in her own bedroom.

Her gaze slid over to Ivy and Zack cuddled together on the other couch and wondered the same about them. She slowly allowed her gaze to swivel around the room, taking in the kitchen counter, which looked neater than ever before, except for the single cheerio box sitting out. Where had the cereal even come from? The siblings hated cereal, and the kitchen was their domain.

"You are awake." Shadowsan's voice drew her over to look behind her, the silent ninja appearing beside the couch in the brief moment she had been distracted. "That is quite good. Do you recognize me?"

"That's…an odd question, Shadowsan." Carmen snorted, straightening her back as if to project just how okay she was. After all, if he looked worried she probably had got hurt, and he had to know she was fine.

"Are you dizzy at all? What is the last thing you remember?" Shadowsan inquired quietly, grey eyes boring into her face, completely unamused by her tired show of strength.

"Um..." Carmen squinted her eyes. "Coming off of the ferry. I was shot…? By some kind of tranquilizing dart that Lady Dokuso projected. I think…I think the Cleaners were also there, but then…" she touched her head. "Professor Maelstorm. He was giving a big monologue about me stealing for VILE, and then he put the helmet on…" she perked up in fear, staring at nothing in horror. "How long was I out?"

"Unconscious or mind-controlled?" Shadowsan pressed, holding up a bowl of soup and making his way to the coffee table beside her, handing the bowl into her hands gently. His hand hovered close by.

"Both." Carmen persisted, rubbing her eyes tiredly with one hand and holding the bowl with the other.

"You were unconscious for about twelve hours." Shadowsan faltered for a moment before continuing. "You were mind-controlled for a little more than a year and a half."

Carmen choked and very nearly dropped the bowl, Shadowsan's supporting hand the only reason it didn't tumble onto the ground with a clatter. "You're joking!" Carmen spluttered, staring at Shadowsan in absolute terror.

"I never joke." Shadowsan deadpanned, eyebrows softening. "I am sorry, Carmen. I was unable to recover you sooner."

"One and a half years." Carmen echoed weakly, squeezing her eyes shut. She took a deep breath, then looked back up at Ivy and Zack. "And them?"

"The same amount of time." Shadowsan confirmed, pinching her arm gently. "They should be awake soon."

Carmen's gaze drifted back over to Ivy and Zack, finding them in matching black and green costumes. Probably what they wore when working for VILE. Ivy's hair was longer, pulled into a loose ponytail, and Zack was shaved. Carmen looked down on herself, gasping lightly when she recognized her Black Sheep costume. It was remade to fit her new height, though that was the only noticeable difference. Carmen hesitated, then slowly lifted her hand to touch her hair, finding it only being chin-length instead of crawling down her back.

"Oh." She whispered quietly, collapsing back against the couch, squeezing her eyes shut. Each of them was dressed as VILE operatives, the outfit designs and looks proving that even VILE understood that they worked well together and wanted them to look the part. It was fairly obvious that Ivy, Zack, and Carmen were intended by VILE to be on a team together, especially Zack and Ivy, as the siblings had identical costumes as Carmen's was merely similar. Now, Carmen just looked like a taller Black Sheep.

"This is horrible." Carmen said quietly, whimpering to herself. "I'm so, so sorry, Shadowsan, I didn't-"

"I do not find any reason to blame you. Thus, there is no reason for you to apologize, Carmen." He told her gently, tapping her shoulder with his hand gently. "We shall make amends for the crimes committed, and we shall proceed with missions using extra caution." Shadowsan's eyes drifted to the ceiling, and he thought for a long moment. "I will be accompanying you on all capers, from now on, to ensure your safety."

While Carmen would ordinarily protest, it was be fruitless and quite stupid to do so. She had gone without Shadowsan on her last mission, and… and look how badly it had failed! Carmen dipped her head dully at Shadowsan, sinking even further back into the couch, and let it envelope her in the red fabric.

Say, where was Play-

"Where's Player?" Carmen burst out before she could even register concern for her best friend, the worry following shortly after the inquiry left her lips. Surging forward desperately, Carmen sat up straight again, torn between resting and trying to learn everything that had happened in the last eighteen months. "Please tell me he's okay!"

"He is fine." Shadowsan assured gently, laying a hand on her thigh in a comforting manner. "Your friend was a bit…perturbed by your decision. Really, that is an understatement. He was positively livid. If you were not such close allies, I would think that he was preparing to preform murder."

Carmen groaned, slapping her arm over her eyes, leaning her head against the back of the couch. "I didn't mean to hurt him, it just… I couldn't just leave Zack and Ivy! I didn't… I didn't know if it was reversable, and…" she lifted her arm to stare at Shadowsan. "How was it reversable?"

"I was able to get my hands on the… mind-controlling contraption. Dr. Bellum changes the names of her devices far too often to be able to call it by his proper title. With Player's help, I was able to reprogram it to have the proper effect to return your memories and free will. Then, it was only the matter of capturing you three and returning you to normal." Shadowsan faltered for a long moment, then exhaled through his nose. "By the time I was able to capture all three of you, it was uncertain whether the effects would be permanent or not. I am relieved to find that it worked well enough on you, and I hope that it works on Ivy and Zack just as efficiently."

"We disappeared in…" Carmen squinted her eyes shut, trying to remember the date she had last been aware of. "November? What month is it now?"

"June 12th. Nineteen months later."

"We lost so much time…" Carmen mourned. "Zack's nineteen, Ivy's twenty-one, I'm…I don't know? Twenty-two?"

"Judging by what day Player told me you celebrate your birthday on, yes. You are twenty-two."

"And Player's…" Carmen froze from her calculations, dropping her fingers quietly as she stared up at Shadowsan. "He's eighteen. He's an adult, now, isn't he?"

"Indeed." Shadowsan agreed, placing a hand on her shoulder. "He moved his place of residence from Ontario to here, and currently is in his room, hopefully sleeping. I can never tell if he is or if he's simply trying to stop me from persisting he sleep." His gaze drifted upwards to the floor above him, and he scowled at the walkway. "I cannot hear him typing, so that is a good sign."

"Player lives here now?" Carmen inquired, wanting to know if she heard correctly. For as long as she had been doing capers, Player had been quite careful not to travel; even to his own local store for fear that he had been found out by VILE or, recently, ACME. For him to travel out of his neighborhood, out of his town, out of his country, and travel across a different nation… that was surprising. It was so unlike Player, but then again, maybe it was just Carmen who had convinced him to stay put with her paranoia, and he actually had wanted to move around. Either way, his move was a bit of a shock to Carmen.

"Indeed, he does." Shadowsan confirmed with a nod. "It is a good thing he moved here in the first place; long distance communication was not working with us. I could not understand how we could properly collaborate until he arrived in person; his arrival is what allowed us to properly chase you three down."

"Huh." Carmen said, biting her lip. "I've never…considered that it might be hard to keep in contact long-distance for those who aren't used to it. I never thought that Player's distance would become inconvenient in the darkest hour."

"I did not imagine as such, either, especially from how well you two work together. He has only been here for a month in total, but within a week after his arrival, our success rate grew a great deal. I am pleased by his determination and his competence. He always-"

"-gets after VILE for being incompetent." Carmen and Shadowsan finished together, le femme rouge smiling quietly to herself.

"At least that hasn't changed." She murmured, glancing around the lodging surrounding her, amazed by how put-together the entire living room was crafted. It looked better then Carmen could have imagined. "Everything seems so different."

"Yes, indeed." Shadowsan nodded, seeming to sit up straighter with pride. "A month after you and your young associates vanished, Player showed me the schematics Zack and Ivy had drawn up: I have been putting it together during my free time ever since. An epidemic shook the Earth last year, and the world was ordered to be placed in lockdown. Even VILE did not rear its head during that time, and it gave me ample time to work on the house during the several months we were instructed to stay put." He paused. "I feel like that was the most hopeless time for Player and I; there was no way to find you three while VILE stayed hidden. Their base was destroyed within the month of you being mind-controlled."

Ivy and Zack quietly stirred on the couch opposite Carmen, and she and Shadowsan both looked up on the siblings.

"Do you wish for me to show you your room so you can change out of your stealth suit while I explain the same story to them?" Shadowsan asked, and at Carmen's nod, he helped her to her feet, pointing to a room on the walkway on the second floor. "Your clothes are still in the box you had them in when you moved. It's under your bed."

"Thanks." Carmen acknowledged gratefully, smiling at him before advancing to the stairs, gripping the hand railing tightly as she traversed along the room.

She wondered what else she had missed during the year and a half she had been out of commission. Glancing down at Ivy and Zack as Shadowsan tried to get them to sit up and began to explain to them, Carmen hoped it wasn't much. She didn't want to waste any more time to being VILE's puppet.

(:)

Dinner, which was served two hours later, was eaten in silence. Ivy had already cut her hair to its usual length, and Zack kept running his fingers along his bald head with a wince. Carmen wore the wig she had donned when she first became a vigilante and was dressed in her white and red civilian outfit. The three had already tossed their VILE uniforms into the nearby ocean, not wanting to have anything else to do with them. Besides, in Carmen's case, she still had her original outfit from her time as a VILE student.

Shadowsan and Player, who had woken up, watched the three with obvious concern, continuously exchanging fearful glances as if they were worried that the ex-operatives would choke on their food, a rather foolish assumption. Fortunately, dinner went smoothly and did not have any catastrophes.

Afterwards, Shadowsan and Player set to work washing the dishes, storing the minimum leftovers – it was evident in their expressions that they were not used to having so little – in Tupperware and moving on to wipe down counters and do a general clean-up of the kitchen and dining table.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Carmen queered after several minutes of watching them work in silence. Ivy and Zack were off enjoying their break from chores (they didn't seem to be as bothered by the year and a half of having their minds compromised, referring to it with glee as 'time travel') but Carmen was fidgety; she wasn't used to doing nothing.

At her question, Shadowsan and Player looked surprised, brows furrowing as they thought about it.

"We'll have to write up a chore sheet tomorrow." Player decided quietly, speaking to Shadowsan as he tossed the dishwasher detergent into the dishwasher without putting it into its proper compartment. Carmen winced at the action.

"Two chore sheets." Shadowsan corrected with a frown. "One for when Carmen, Ivy, and Zack are recovering, and one for a later date when they have fully recuperated. You may help tomorrow, Carmen, when we have it all figured out." He said, turning to his surrogate daughter with a kind expression, despite not wearing a smile. "For now, just rest."

"Okay." Carmen agreed reluctantly, trudging back to her room. She located her computer and came back to the dining table to type on it, albeit stubbornly to try to show them that she was going to try to work on her computer even if she wasn't allowed to exert herself physically.

She almost touched on the 'Call Player' icon several times out of habit, before stubbornly reminding herself that he was literally ten feet away. That didn't stop her from wishing she could see sixteen-year-old Player again; the energetic, happy, and talkative teenager he had been instead of the sullen, quiet Player who mostly ignored her that he was now. (Oh, had she mentioned yet that Player had beard stubble?! It was very strange and looked out of place on his face, but he did.)

To Carmen's chagrin, her computer was out of date; all of the information on it long since used up by Player and Shadowsan on capers over the period of the past nineteen months. She perched her chin on her hands, exhaling through her nose as she tried to consider what to do. She was practically dying to help, but with the lack of useful information on the computer, there wasn't anything she really could do.

Shadowsan materialized behind her, settling his hands on her shoulders gently. "I can have Player update your computer properly tomorrow." He told her. "In the meantime, why don't you assist Ivy and Zack in finding out what 'Video Games', 'Movies' and 'TV Shows' have been updated or released while you have been compromised."

"That's not really helpful." Carmen insisted, tilting her head up to look at him. "It's fun, I guess, but it's more of their type of fun, you know?" She paused, sighing a bit to herself. "It's more tedious for me. For me, it doesn't seem like anything happened to warrant a break from capers or chores around the house. I got captured for a couple minutes, and then I woke up here. That's literally it, but I'm still grounded?"

"Grounded?" Shadowsan inquired, miffed. "Why do you think you're buried in the-? Oh, it probably means something different nowadays, and I'll find out later. Though I do recognize what you mean. You have to understand, Carmen, that Player and I had quite a scare when you three vanished. We are being overprotective because we do not want to let any harm befall you, correct?"

"I know." Carmen agreed sullenly, glancing down quietly. "It's still frustrating."

"I shall try to find something for you to do as soon as possible; hopefully by the time you wake up tomorrow." Shadowsan sympathized gently, adjusting the computer so that he could look at it properly. "Hmm. It does seem to be quite out of date…I did not realize how much Player and I have covered in the past several months. We really do need to update all computers properly."

Carmen slightly smiled thankfully, staring at the computer again quietly. "I think I'm going to bed for the night." She decided, rising as she closed her laptop.

Shadowsan looked a little sorrowful and confused about that, but he agreed with a pat upon her shoulder, watching her retreat quietly, advancing up the staircase and into her room without trying to trying to stop her from going.

(:)

Carmen woke up around midnight, groaning to herself when she glimpsed the time. Before going to bed, she had actually unpacked all her things and had moved about her room until everything was to her liking. Anything she could do in the bedroom was already completed. And since it was pointless to sit in her room all night long with nothing to do, she decided to get a midnight snack.

To her surprise, she could see Shadowsan and Player sitting on the couches opposite each other and typing on their respective computers, passing a piece of paper back and forth in silence. It was odd: especially since Shadowsan was not a night-person.

The two's typing was nearly silent, despite the speed at which their fingers flew across the keys. Last time Carmen could remember Shadowsan typing on a computer, he had pressed down on each key hard, as if expecting it to have the same reaction to slight button presses as a typewriter. Obviously, Player had done some serious teaching to get him accustomed to gentle and swift typing.

Shadowsan's attention was drawn to Carmen as she leaned against the handrailing, ninja and thief's eyes meeting. He gestured for her to come down, and she obeyed, descending. She considering backflipping off from the second floor like she had made a habit of doing… before but decided that she didn't want to give Shadowsan – and perhaps Player, who had noticed her by this point – a premature heart-attack. So, she came down the stairs like a normal human being.

Shadowsan looked unbelievingly thankful for that, and Player's tense shoulders seemed to slacken with relief.

"What're you two working on?" Carmen inquired as she slipped onto the couch beside Player. The hacker adjusted his position so that they both had more elbow room. "The details for a new caper?"

"As a matter of a fact, we're writing out the chore sheets." Shadowsan told her, writing something on the piece of paper and then handing it back over to Player, who added a couple of notes. "The paper is a chart of what we've agreed on, since we have yet to find a program that allows us to efficiently plot together without any 'lags' and has 'bugs' as Player calls them."

"Huh." Carmen said, squinting over Player's shoulder at the impossibly complicated graphs in wonder before glancing around. "What happened to Zack and Ivy? I'd have thought they would be staying up all night to catch up on everything. Unless if the past year was amazingly unproductive."

"They fell asleep an hour ago." Player responded shortly, sighing. "In the middle of Rogue Vendetta: 13."

"I was tasked with carrying them upstairs to their bedroom. Unfortunately, they are impossible to untangle when they fall asleep beside each other." Shadowsan noted with a groan, brow creasing. "I had to settle them both on Zack's bed instead of dividing them to each get into their own beds. I think that they are bonded at the hip on a microscopic level."

"They are not." Player snorted, though he looked thoughtful like it actually was a possibility. Honestly, judging by how close Ivy and Zack consistently were, it was probable that they were stuck together or surrounded by an invisible field that kept them trapped together. "I'm fairly certain Ivy left Zack behind on the couch when she got up to get a glass of chocolate."

"'Glass of chocolate'?" Carmen and Shadowsan stared at him together, horror setting into their gazes at the same time, perturbed. "As in, not hot chocolate or chocolate milk?"

"Nope. Just straight chocolate bars mixed with chocolate syrup and then heated up in the microwave. A glass of chocolate." At their expressions, Player sighed. "It was better than the alternative; popcorn drizzled in chocolate syrup and covered with whipped cream and sprinkles."

"That is better, I suppose." Shadowsan concurred, miffed, looking from Player up towards where Ivy and Zack's bedroom was with a frown. "With so much sugar in their system, I am surprised that they even managed to fall asleep. I would expect that they would stay awake for multiple days with such a caffeine intake."

"Same." Player agreed, nodding. "Maybe they had a sugar crash?"

"Without a sugar rush beforehand?" Shadowsan mused, crossing his arms. At Carmen and Player's knowing expressions, he grunted. "This has happened in the past, I take it?"

"Yeah." Carmen nodded. "The first time it happened, it was right after our first caper as a team, and-"

"-they fell asleep at the diner bar after each of them had their sixth smoothie." Player joined in with a grin, Carmen and Player's voices blending in together as they remembered the story. "It was tricky to carry them both back to the hotel room at the same time: the taxi driver thought that they had passed out from being too drunk."

"And since they were only eighteen and seventeen at the time, they didn't look like they were even in their twenties." Carmen smirked. "The taxi driver was certain we were coming home from a rebellious teenage party. It took a lot of money to stop him from calling the police on us: he refused to believe it was a simple sugar crash. I doubt the police would have accepted it either."

"After that, if I remember correctly, you limited them to only four smoothies, tops." Player smiled quietly at the memory, looking down at his computer. "Those were good times, huh?"

"Yeah." Carmen acknowledged, shoulders hunching. It seemed like it was just yesterday when they were having that much fun. For Player and Shadowsan, though… "Has the past year really been…that bad?"

Player closed his laptop, sliding both paper and pencil back towards Shadowsan. "I can't do this right now. I'm heading to bed." He picked up the grey computer, and marched up the stairs, vanishing into the room that Ivy and Zack had dubbed as 'Player's room, if the little dude ever comes to visit!'

"The past year really has been that bad." Carmen observed sadly, sinking into her chair.

"…yes." Shadowsan confessed, squeezing his eyes shut. "There was been little time for 'fun' or leisurely travels: we've had to keep on our toes and fight twice as hard to keep up with VILE movements. I once broke both my leg and ribs during one particularly difficult mission, and Player was nearly caught by ACME thrice and VILE twice. Without you, there is not much we can do. Without Carmen Sandiego, we fail."