Chapter 1: Captured

This is another teaser to a story I may or may not update soon. It begins from the final operation of the third episode of Sly 2. Nothing more to say about it I think... Enjoy!

Betrayal! The Cooper Gang, along with Carmelita had been betrayed by someone they had thought as a close ally. The treacherous tigress had obviously taken great pleasure in slapping the handcuffs on all four of them. The gang couldn't believe Neyla would do this to them. She'd worked with them to catch members of the Klaww Gang, in the process helping them to acquire the Clockwerk parts. They had even thought her as a friend, but now she'd stabbed them all in the back.

Despite feeling angry, Sly also couldn't stop the feeling of hurt that was evoked by Neyla's betrayal. He was the one who really couldn't fathom that the tigress could sell them out like this. He had really started to like working with her. She hadn't seemed all black and white like Carmelita and was always ready to bend the law a bit to catch the criminals. That was what Sly and his gang did too and she seemed to understand that. He had also been looking forward to their date in Bollywood...

"Take them away!" the Contessa ordered.

Her three guards harshly grabbed Bentley, Murray and Carmelita and lead them to separate vehicles meant for transporting prisoners. Sly watched helplessly as his friends and crush were thrown in them. The guards went with them, leaving Sly with Neyla and Contessa.

"Time to go, Cooper" Neyla hissed as she gripped his arm in a similar fashion as the guards had.

He too was lead to a vehicle with small, barred windows and roughly pushed in. Neyla was about to just shut and lock the door, but the Contessa came from behind her and announced that she would be riding with "Mr. Cooper" and keeping an eye on him. The tigress had glanced at her with annoyance, but climbed in without an argument. She sat across from Sly and regarded him with a cold, emotionless stare. He returned it, but in his gaze, the sadness and hurt he felt showed along with the anger and contempt. The vehicles drove away, leaving the spice temple completely abandoned.

Neither the raccoon nor the tigress relented their stares until the other fell asleep.

Some days later, Sly couldn't tell, they arrived at the Contessa's rehabilitation centre. A fancy word for prison, Sly had thought when he'd heard it. Neyla had been forced to spend most of the various rides from place to place with Sly and to say she was unhappy would be an understatement. She didn't want to be with him. Every minute with him made her feel increasingly uncomfortable and she didn't like it. He shouldn't have had such an effect on her, he was just another person on that long list of people whose usefulness had come to an end.

Sly didn't speak a word to the tigress during the time they were forced to spend together. He'd given up staring at her and just leant his head back and closed his eyes. He thought he'd heard Neyla release a breath after doing this, but once Sly's eyes returned to the tigress, her unrelenting stare was there again. He didn't bother returning it anymore. It didn't really matter.

But when the windowless car they were sitting in slid to a stop and the door was opened, Sly looked at Neyla dead in the eye and voiced only one, single word:

"Why?"

And for one fleeting moment before he was dragged away from the car, Sly thought he saw a flicker of genuine remorse cross Neyla's features. But when he blinked, it was gone, replaced again by that emotionless look.

After that, they'd gone separate ways. Both were thankful for not having to look at one another. Sly because it made him sad to look at her. He'd given up trying to be angry. The hateful emotions had long since dissipated and only his sorrow remained.

Neyla on the other hand, was tense and the uncomfortable feeling from earlier refused to go away. Her mind was invaded by this new sentiment, regret. She tried to push it away, telling herself that she had never been sorry for anything and wouldn't start now. But her mind was haunted by Sly's face. The face he had worn when her betrayal was revealed, the spiteful and woeful stare she'd received in the first few days of their journey from India, and finally, the sorrowful look without any feelings of ire clouding it.

Her mask of insensibility had almost broken and she had been close to showing some manner of feeling towards the raccoon thief. Neyla didn't like that, she didn't like these new feelings that were emerging in her mind with every passing minute. She wanted it to stop. She didn't need him! He shouldn't have mattered this much!

Neyla looked at the C-shaped cane she was still holding in her hand. The Contessa, when she had asked, told her to do what she wanted with it. The tigress hadn't yet decided what to do. Should she just throw it in the river and be done with it or... should she keep it?

"Why on earth would I want to keep it?" she questioned herself.

Neyla was unable to provide an answer to that question, but when she turned to go back to her current apartment, the cane was still in her hand.

Sly let out a sigh when he was dragged away. He didn't bother resisting the guards dragging him. They were already within the prison's walls and he couldn't escape just like that. In fact, he doubted he could ever get out on his own. No, it would require help. He dared to hope that Bentley could come up with some sort of escape plan in time. They wouldn't be going anywhere anyway.

His thoughts returned to the tigress who'd so callously deceived them. Sly had thought, or more so hoped that Neyla would have understood him and why he was a thief and what it meant to him to destroy the Clockwerk parts. Apparently, he'd been wrong about her. She didn't even care!

Letting out another sigh, Sly looked up from his somber contemplation. The guards were hauling him towards a small metal bunker. He guessed it was where they were going to be keeping him during his stay. One of the guards opened the heavy metal door and the other pushed the raccoon in. Once the door shut, almost complete darkness fell into the little hole. There was a small opening in the bunker's door that let in a little light from outside, but it didn't matter much in there.

"Guess I won't be seeing Bentley or Murray in some time"

It's a bit short, but not too bad, wouldn't you agree? Review and stuff...