"The Vixen"
Author: Robert Brown

Disclaimer: This story uses characters created and copyrighted by Sucker Punch, Inc. (except where noted, in which case they were created and copyrighted by me or by another and I have permission to use them). The author hereby gives permission for this story to be downloaded and/or printed at 1 copy per user as long as (1) no changes to the story are made without my express written(not e-mailed) permission and (2) no attempt is made to profit from this story. If either or both rules are violated, it will be considered a violation of copyright law.

Chapter 10: The Final Revelations

Sly could only stare in shock as the Vixen lifted off her mask and let it fall behind her. The fur of her face was as white as he'd imagined it to be and her hair was as short and as blonde as he'd caught glimpses of in their past encounters, surrounding her head in short, frizzy curls. He could honestly say he had never met anyone that matched her description before.

But her eyes... Her eyes were a completely different matter. If he could recognize nothing else, he would never mistake those warm brown eyes anywhere. The inner strength, the playful glint, the slightly challenging stare they gaze as they gazed intently into his own eyes. Those eyes could only belong to one individual.

"CARMELITA?"

"You got it, Ringtail," Carmelita confirmed with a saucy wink. "In the flesh, if not exactly in the fur."

"But...how...when...who?" Sly spluttered incoherently. To put it bluntly, his mind was blown. He couldn't form a single rational thought as Carmelita just stood there, smirking at him. He jaw felt like it had dropped to somewhere around the floor, but he couldn't even bring himself to close his mouth.

Carmelita laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Sly's face. "I can't believe I made you speechless again!" she said, a warm smile touching her lips. "I'm really getting good at that."

Sly finally regained control of his lower jaw at Carmelita's teasing, but he still couldn't quite make any comprehensible sentences with it. After a few attempts to articulate his disbelief, he settled for just getting anything to come out of his mouth. "What the hell did you do to your hair?"

Carmelita blinked in surprise. "Of all the questions I expected you to ask," she said slowly, "that wasn't even close to being on the list. But why am I even surprised?" she added exasperatedly. "This whole time you've been doing everything but what I expected you to!"

"What are you talking about?" Sly demanded.

"Do you know how much planning went into this?" she demanded, her tail lashing the air behind her. "Every single situation had to be planned for, and we thought we had it all figured out. Then you had to try and screw things up by changing your routine. That one act almost ruined everything!"

Sly was still finding it hard to accept the fact that Carmelita was the Vixen, despite what he was seeing and hearing. There were just too many things that made no sense and even more unanswered questions. "But why all this?" he asked. "Was this all just some elaborate setup to capture me?"

"If I had wanted to capture you Cooper, I had more than one opportunity without dragging you all the way out here. This wasn't professional Cooper, this was personal.

"After our chopper ride together," she continued, "I was called into my chief's office. I was sure I was going to be chewed out for letting you escape again. And while that did happen, I was also told I would be taken off your case and replaced with Chemp."

"Chemp?" Sly asked. "Isn't he the one that shoots first and doesn't even bother asking questions?"

Carmelita nodded, and Sly could see real fear in her eyes at the thought of it. "I couldn't let that happen. The chief gave me one chance to change his mind, but only if I could give him the truest reason I could why it shouldn't happen. And after thinking about it, there was only reason I could give. I love you Sly Cooper."

Just when Sly thought he couldn't be more shocked, that announcement floored him. "You love me?" he asked in a small voice, afraid he hadn't heard her right.

"I love you," she repeated, reaching out and touching his cheek fondly. "And I couldn't let anything happen to you. You were...are...too important to me Ringtail."

Sly smiled genuinely at her confession, touched by the warmth in her eyes and in her voice. He had no doubt that she was telling the truth, but a few things still nagged at him. "So why go through all this?" he wondered. "Why not just come to me and tell me how you felt?"

Carmelita tilted her head, a few of her blonde ringlets falling down over her forehead. "Think about it Sly. If I had just popped up out of nowhere and declared my undying love for you, what would you have thought?"

"That you'd finally fallen for my irresistible charm."

She scowled at him and smacked him in the back of my head. "Be serious for a minute, would you?"

Sly wished he could rub the back of his head, but that was a little hard to do seeing as he was still manacled to the chair. "I guess I would've been suspicious," he admitted. "And if not me, Bentley definitely would have been. He wouldn't have trusted you in the least and would've tried to get me to send you away."

"And that's why I couldn't do it," Carmelita sighed, sitting down on his lap sideways and letting her legs dangle over his arm and the arm of the chair. "The mistrust between you guys and me, though understandable, would've driven a wedge between us. As hard as I would've had to try and prove myself, resentment and bad feelings would've sprouted and choked the life out of our love. We would've grown bitter and apart; any chance we had of being together and staying together would've been wrecked."

As much as it pained him to, Sly had to acknowledge the truth in her words. All his thoughts about getting together with Carmelita had been hopelessly romanticized. Now the bare facts were laid down in front of him, the way they were going it would not have ever worked out. "That answers that question," he said, looking up into her face. It still disconcerted him to no end to see her fur white and her hair short and blonde, so he focused on her eyes instead. "But you still haven't explained why you had to go through all this."

"I was told by someone who made a lot of sense that the only way I could fully accept you was to live life in your shoes for a little while. To see what drew you to being a thief, what made you keep going. I'll admit, being the Vixen was exhilarating. Outwitting other criminals, stealing from them, leaving all the loot behind except for one trophy piece... I felt alive in a way I hadn't since I first joined the force.

"But it was more than that," she continued, ignoring Sly's dumbfounded expression. "What I said as the Vixen was true; I did need to prove myself to be your equal. But I also needed to see how you would react. Did I mean as much to you as you said I did, or was I just a challenge to you? Would you forget about me and fall for the Vixen? I had to see if you truly did love me before I let you know that I love you."

"Couldn't you have just asked me?" Sly demanded though his voice held no anger behind it.

"And risk falling for your 'irresistible charm'?" she returned playfully. "No Sly, if I had outright asked you about it, you would've turned it into a situation to flirt with me and I wouldn't have gotten a serious answer out of you. You know you would have," she said a little forcefully as he opened his mouth to protest. "This was too important to me to let it be trivialized.

"And I got my answer. Not just here, but before when we were out on jobs. Every time things started to get a little heated between us, and let me say here that you are one fantastic kisser, it always stopped the moment 'Carmelita' showed up. I may have acted jealous and angry, but inside I was almost singing with happiness and relief."

"How did you pull that off anyway? I know I saw you and...well, you together on more than one occasion. You even kidnapped...you...am I making any sense here?"

Carmelita laughed again, a warm and happy sound. "Sly," she said when she noticed his ears flatten back at her laughter, "I'm not laughing at you, not really. It's just that I've never seen you so confused before and you just look so cute." Sly ducked his head a little, trying to hide his blush. But Carmelita wouldn't let him, placing a finger under his chin and lifting his face to hers. "Don't hide from me Sly," she whispered. "We've done enough hiding from each other."

Sly nodded slightly. "So how did you do it?" he asked. "How could you be in two places at the same time?"

"Who says I was?" she asked teasingly, pulling the remote from her pocket and opening the hallway. As soon as it was open a very familiar form stood within the shadows. If Carmelita wasn't sitting on his lap, he'd swear that she was in the hall, even if that one was wearing a uniform typical of an Interpol Constable. "I'd like you to meet Constable Jennifer Benton," Carmelita said with a flourish of her arm. "She's the newest recruit of Interpol."

"How ya doing sugar?" Jennifer asked as she stepped out into the light, her soft voice heavily accented with an American southern twang.

Sly's face scrunched up as she walked toward him. Now that he could see her, the differences between them were obvious. Glaringly obvious in fact. Even if you discounted the fact that she sounded nothing like Carmelita there was no way this Constable Benton could be mistaken for her. Her muzzle was a few inches shorter, her fur color was at least three shades closer to red, and her eyes were a bright blue. But perhaps the biggest difference was her hair; it was short, spiky, and neon blue. "This is not who I saw," he said confidently, starting to sound a bit angry.

Carmelita and Jennifer exchanged a knowing glance which only made Sly angrier. Jennifer slung a small duffel bag off her shoulder that Sly hadn't noticed and opened it up. She pulled out Carmelita's badge choker and attached it around her neck. While Sly could admit it helped with the look slightly, he still didn't see the big deal. The next thing she drew from the bag, however, surprised him to no end.

Jennifer smirked as she settled the mass of blue-black hair on her head. She took a moment to fix it so that the braid fell down her back just right and then fixed Sly with a harsh stare. "What are you staring at Ringtail?" she demanded in a perfect imitation of Carmelita's voice.

"Voice changer hidden in the choker," Carmelita explained before Sly could ask. "Quite the effective bit of technology if I do say so myself. I almost used it myself, but I've lived in Paris long enough to pick up a French accent."

"That wasn't what I was going to ask," Sly said slowly, "though I am interested on how you got your hands on that kind of technology. "I was going to ask you about that wig she's wearing. It's...not really a wig, is it?"

Carmelita touched her short hair self-consciously. "I knew a regular wig wouldn't fool you," she said, a wistful tinge to her voice. "Besides," she added in a pale attempt at being lighthearted, "there was no way I'd be able to conceal all that under the Vixen's mask. So I had it all shaved off and fashioned into a wig for Constable Benton to wear."

"It's Jennifer," the constable said in her own voice; she'd removed Carmelita's choker without Sly realizing it. "I've told you that before. Now go and change. I'm sure you'll feel better once you're in your normal clothes."

Carmelita caught the duffel bag that Jennifer tossed to her with one hand and got up to her feet, wincing slightly as she did so. "Is the gunk in here too?" she asked.

"Of course," Jennifer returned brightly. "But you better not let them hear you call it 'gunk' again. You know what happened last time."

Carmelita rolled her eyes but said nothing as she hooked her cane onto a small metal ring on the wall. "You two keep each other company," she said, using the cane to spring back up to the wooden platform she had used to enter the room. She landed a little awkwardly and grabbed at her ribs. "Are there any bandages in here?" she called down. "I think he busted one of my ribs."

Sly felt his blood turn to ice as he remembered the satisfaction of feeling her rib break under his fist. "Carmelita," he began in a strained and choked voice.

"Save it Sly," she said, pretty confident that she knew what was coming. "I don't blame you for this. If anything, I'm glad it happened. After all, you wouldn't have done it if you knew it was me. That just shows how completely I had you fooled! Now don't go anywhere!"

"Like I can," Sly grumbled as Carmelita ducked out a door he could not see. He still wasn't too convinced with Carmelita's words, but he had the feeling she'd beat him up if he dwelled on it. With nothing else to do, he turned his attention to the only other occupant in the room. "Hey, do you think you can let me out of this chair?"

Jennifer shook her head, pulling Carmelita's hair off her head and running her fingers through her own neon blue spikes. "No can do. Carmelita gave specific instructions not to let you out of that chair until she said so. Something about wanting you to stay and hear everything."

Sly sighed irritably. He hated being forced to sit and stay in one place. "So what else did you do?" he asked, pulling at the restraints again. "Even with the voice and the hair, I think I'd be able to tell you weren't Carmelita."

"I don't doubt it," Jennifer agreed, leaning casually against the wall. "Which is why I made sure you never got a good look at me. You only saw me three times before today: once I had a floodlight behind me and the other two were from at least a hundred feet away. You're good Cooper, but not that good. Maybe under different circumstances you might've been able to tell the difference. But you expected to see Carmelita, so that's what you saw."

"I guess," Sly said petulantly, like a small child who'd been told he could not fly no matter how hard he flapped his arms. "And the voice changer? Where did that come from?"

Jennifer dropped into a squat, her back against the wall. "From two of the most brilliant people you have ever met," she answered mysteriously.

Sly had been shocked so many times today that all these surprises were starting to lose their effect on him. "So I know these two, huh? And I suppose they're here as well?"

"Of course hun! You don't think we could have this whole big reveal party without inviting everyone who made it possible, do you?"

"What have you been telling him?" Carmelita asked as she jumped down from the platform to land between them, still favoring her injured side. "You better not have given anything away."

"Well if you had taken any longer to get back here I just might have," Jennifer retorted.

Carmelita rolled her eyes and spun around to face Sly. She was once more attired in her usual outfit, though it seemed to fit her a little bit more snugly than Sly remembered. He noticed that she had her ribs taped up and remorse shot through his soul again. He forced himself to move on though, for his sake as much as hers.

Her fur was back to its normal coloring as well, though a stray streak of white remained where she had missed it. Her hair had returned to its normal blue-black color, though it still remained in short ringlets. The only thing that remained from her alternate look was the indigo lipstick. And Sly had to admit, no matter how good she looked dressed as the Vixen, he was really happy to have the old Carmelita back.

Carmelita noticed his eyes traveling up and down her body, taking in her "new" look. "Not that I mind," she said after clearing her throat to get his attention back on her face and not on her slightly enhanced assets, "but do you just want to stare all day or get all your questions answered?"

"Tough choice," Sly quipped automatically.

Jennifer giggled as Carmelita crossed her arms in exasperation. "He is smooth," the constable said, waggling her eyebrows at Sly.

"Don't get used to it," Carmelita snapped.

"Well, before you interrupted us I was about to find out who made that voice changer," Sly said, feeling more at ease now that he had Carmelita riled up a bit. "But now that you're here, what did you use to dye your fur? I know you can't use anything like hair dye, and no matter how good it is some of it should've rubbed off on me when we fought."

"That was a problem," Carmelita admitted. "But the same two who made the voice changer came up with something that bonded to my fur so well it won't come off even if I get dunked in a vat of soapy water and scrubbed until my fur frizzed. That's why I need the gunk to get it off."

"What did I tell you about calling my invention that?" a rough voice growled from the hallway, one that sounded very familiar to Sly.

Carmelita flinched a little at the growl and tried to hide her reaction to the voice. "It's only half yours," she insisted even though it sounded lame to her own ears.

"Like that matters?" the owner of the voice asked as she stepped into the room.

Sly couldn't work up the energy to be too shocked when he saw who it was. Even though she was dressed in a grey blouse and black trousers, he knew her immediately. "Luka, right?" he asked, glaring at the arctic wolf.

Luka straightened up to her full height at being addressed in such a casual manner by Sly. "That's Special Detective Luka Destler to you Cooper," she said, pulling an Interpol badge from her pocket. "Head of the new tech department. You're already intimately familiar with one of my greatest inventions."

"And that would be?" Sly asked, arching his eyebrow. Luka whipped a black shock pistol out of a hidden holster and launched a shockbolt over his head. Despite where she aimed, Sly still ducked as much as he could. "You're the one who created the shock pistol?" At Luka's sharp nod, Sly fixed her with a calm gaze. "Then you're the one responsible for all my singed sweaters and caps. You'll be getting my dry cleaning bill."

The unexpected comment made Luka stumble slightly and the others in the room giggle. "Is he always like this?" she asked, more than a touch perturbed.

"Yes," Carmelita answered quickly and emphatically.

"Come now Luka," another feminine voice purred from the hallway. "I've only known him for a little longer than you and even I know he's always like that."

Sly's eyes swung back over to the hallway just as a familiar calico cat, dressed in a white blouse with a conservative grey skirt and a grey blazer, walked into the room. "It only makes sense," he muttered more to himself than anything else. "If Luka is part of Interpol, then I guess you had to be too."

"Chief Inspector Maia Genía," Maia said, showing Sly her badge. "Head of Interpol's North American HQ."

"Chief Inspector?" So Sly was wrong, he still could be surprised. "You can't be; it's not possible."

Maia's blue eyes hardened into little shards of ice, her gaze sharp and cutting. "And why is that Cooper?" she demanded, her voice dripping with venom. "Because I'm a woman? I thought you were better than that."

If Sly could've raised his arms defensively, he would have. "I'm not saying that at all," he protested. "It's just that after our tango together I had Bentley look up information on you to see if you were telling the truth about being a six-time champion. It said you'd disappeared from sight when they stripped the trophy from you. It's nothing about you being a woman, really! It's just that there's no way Bentley could make such a mistake."

Maia had the grace to look ashamed after Sly's explanation. But just as she was about to apologize, a soft giggle interrupted her. "Well, there is a really good explanation for that," Jennifer said, standing up and stretching her legs out. "Remember how I said the voice changer was the product of two people you know?"

"Yeah but--" Sly stopped as what Constable Benton was inferring worked its way through his brain. "No," he murmured, shaking his head. "No no no no NO!"

"It's true Sly," Bentley said as he wheeled himself into the room, Murray following close behind. "We were in on it as well."

Watching his two teammates, his two best friends, two of only three people in this world that he would gladly lay his life down for, be there now siding with the cops, Sly could feel his soul break. "Why?" he croaked out past the sharp pain of betrayal that gripped his heart and closed off his throat.

"Now don't jump to conclusions Sly," Bentley said calmly, adjusting his glasses. Inside though, he was quaking. He'd never seen such a look of utter despair on Sly's face and it broke his heart to know that he put it there. "Trust me," he forced himself to say, "there is a very good reason for this."

Sly turned a flat gaze on Bentley. "What could you possibly tell me that could possibly make me understand?" he asked in a defeated voice.

"I didn't really give them much choice," Carmelita began until Bentley held up his hand.

"We could've told you no, despite the consequences," Bentley said firmly. "If we didn't believe in this, nothing you threatened us with would have made us go along with it."

"That's right," Murray affirmed. "As it is, I had my doubts about it, but Bentley talked me around. I just hope we made the right choice."

Sly turned his face away in anger. "All right, explain yourselves then."

Bentley rolled closer to Sly, stopping in front of his friend. "Soon after the incident with Clock-La, when I was building my new wheelchair, Murray took me for a ride in the van to get some equipment I needed. Since you were busy mooning over Carmelita, we were actually going to buy it."

"Wait, I remember that day," Sly interrupted. "You spent over three hours out. I was getting ready to come looking for you two and you came home empty-handed."

Bentley shifted nervously. "Well, there was a reason behind that. Just when we got to the store, we were surrounded by cops. They came out of nowhere and took us down like it was nothing. I thought we were going to be carted off to jail without a second thought.

"But then Carmelita showed up and escorted us into the back of the van. She gave us a really simple choice: either we go to jail or we help her with her crazy scheme. She laid out what she had planned, and I immediately saw twenty things wrong with it. Even though she was angry, she admitted that's why she sought us out. She swore up and down she couldn't pull it off without us, that she needed us to make this work. But even that wasn't enough for me. I was convinced she was going to turn on us and throw us all in jail."

Despite his best efforts, Sly found himself becoming interested in Bentley's tale. "So what changed your mind?" he asked.

Bentley leaned forward slightly. "She was very persuasive," he said in all seriousness. "She made us a deal we simply could not refuse. If we helped her, no matter how it turned out, all three of us would be given full pardons and amnesty."

"No strings attached?" Sly asked, amazed. Something was bothering him about it, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Well, if we betrayed her, the deal was null and void. But that only makes sense. If she hadn't insisted on it I would've been suspicious."

"And what convinced you Murray?" Sly had to ask, turning his attention to his large friend. "How did she get you on board?"

Murray smirked a little. "I didn't care about the pardon or any of that other stuff. I told her to look me in the eyes and tell me why she was doing it."

"And the reason I gave to him was the same reason I gave to you," Carmelita said softly. "It was enough for him."

Murray nodded, his eyes peculiarly soft. "She swore to me that you wouldn't be hurt, that she only had your best interest in mind. I could see she was telling the truth, but I still didn't like how they were going about it."

"It was the only way Murray," Bentley said in a long-suffering voice. "We've been through this. This was the only thing we came up with that had a chance of working."

Sly looked back and forth between his friends. "You lied to me," he accused. "You gave Carmelita copies of the Thievius Racoonus, didn't you? That's the only way she could've gotten it."

"You're quite right Sly," Bentley agreed. "I did make copies for her, digitally altered to remove your notes. If she was going to do this, she was going to learn it the same way you did. But no, we did not lie to you about it."

"How can you sit there and say that?" Sly exploded, straining against his manacles. "I asked you if you gave the copies to the Vixen and you said you didn't!"

Even in the face of Sly's anger, Bentley had a superior smirk on his face. "Did I?" he challenged. "The way I remember it, all I said was that we would never give anything to your enemies. How many times have you told us that Carmelita is not our enemy?"

Sly bit down on the curses he wanted to spew at his friends. "I'm not even going to try and argue semantics with you," he grumbled. "It's still a cheap trick though."

"Just one of the many scenarios I cooked up for when you found out about that," Bentley said. "The only thing is, it wasn't supposed to happen quite that soon. You weren't supposed to find out until the sixth encounter with the Vixen, at least!"

"I had no choice," Carmelita explained. "When he changed the routine we had planned out, I had to do something to make sure we moved it along the right direction. I know this messed up your plan, but if we had tried to stick with it he would've figured everything out."

"I've already accepted that," Bentley assured her. "I had some plans ready in case he did stuff like this. But even then, Sly is so unpredictable, even to me, that we still almost messed up." He glanced over to Maia who cringed a little under his gaze. "What were you thinking telling him you were a six-time champion? If my computer skills were any less than what they are, there's no way I could've adjusted your online biography in time. You needed to communicate these things to me."

"That reminds me," Carmelita growled before Maia could respond, pressing her hand to her injured side. "When were you going to tell me that he was learning to fight hand-to-hand? Or did you want me to get beat up?"

Bentley looked a little ruffled at her accusation. "The agreement was for me to tell you anything I found out. If I had known he was training like that, you'd better believe I would've passed it on."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Murray said, scratching his head. "I caught Sly working over the heavy bag on his own."

Both Bentley and Carmelita slowly turned to look at Murray. "And you didn't think to share this with us...why?" Bentley asked slowly.

"Well, I meant to, but then Sly whipped me in the butt with his towel and I forgot all about it."

Bentley slapped his hands to his forehead. "Anyway, despite everything that managed to go wrong we got it to work. And you can all thank me for that."

"You?" Luka snapped, startling everyone in the room. She stalked over to Bentley, spun around his wheelchair, and bent down until she was almost nose to nose with him. "Give me a break! If I hadn't figured out how to make your voice changer portable, all your plans would've been for nothing!"

"Oh yeah?" Bentley snarled, surprising Sly with his sudden show of anger. "Don't forget that it was my voice changer to begin with! And you still needed my help to make sure it always picked up Jennifer's voice!"

"Don't give me that! I could've figured it out without your help. You just happened to barge in on me during one of my brainstorming sessions."

"I didn't know brainstorming meant 'destroying everything in my workshop because I'm frustrated.' And let's not forget the simple mistake you made with the fur dye; you nearly turned her fur black instead of white!"

"At least I was able to produce a cane for her from the scans you sent while Sly was konked out with my knockout potion that I told Murray to slip into his food. You didn't even know where to get the materials from."

Sly eyed Luka and Bentley worriedly as their argument got progressively more heated and the insults they hurled got nastier and nastier. He was a little upset at Bentley, especially hearing about that knockout potion, but he didn't want him to get hurt. He looked around, hoping that someone would interfere before it came to blows and was surprised yet again when they were all looking at them with a beyond bored expression. Carmelita was even counting down from ten under her breath. She caught him looking and winked at him just as she reached zero.

No sooner had that number left her lips than the argument abruptly stopped. He noticed that Murray had his face averted while Maia and Jennifer were giggling softly. He turned back to see what was so funny and lurched back in surprise. If the chair hadn't been bolted to the floor, it would've tipped over and made him land on his head.

Bentley and Luka were...kissing? Could what they were doing even be called kissing? Sly didn't know, but they certainly seemed like they were enjoying themselves. "Did I get dropped off in The Twilight Zone or something?" he asked rhetorically, not really expecting to get an answer.

"I said the same thing when I first saw them," Carmelita confided, seating herself in his lap again. "I had to get the others and show them to make sure I wasn't losing my mind."

"Something we weren't all that happy about," Bentley said after he and Luka broke their kiss. "I have to say, when I first met her, I was skeptical. Luka is a very pretty woman, but I didn't honestly think there could be a technological mind behind the pretty facade."

"I was no better," Luka said, laying across Bentley's lap and snuggling up to him. "I flat out refused to work with him because he was a thief and because he was paralyzed. But he proved me wrong."

"Just as you did," Bentley added, stroking Luka's cheek affectionately. "The more we got to know each other, the more we respected each other. Respect turned into friendship and friendship into love."

Sly let his head drop onto her shoulder tiredly. "I don't know if I can handle any more surprises today," he whispered. "I don't even know if I should be upset that all of you ganged up on me like this or if I should be proud that it took all of you to dupe me so badly."

Carmelita wrapped her arms around him and cradled his head to her chest gently. "I'm sorry I had to put you through all this," she murmured. "Even I wasn't sold on it the first time I heard it."

Sly was quiet a moment before he jerked his head up in surprise. "Wait a minute. This wasn't your idea to begin with?" Carmelita shook her head sadly. "Then whose was it?"

"That would be me," Chief Barkley said as he strolled into the room.

Sly stared at him for what seemed like forever, unable to understand what he was doing there. Then a light went on in his mind. "Well, that explains why Maia and Luka are in on it and how Carmelita arranged for those pardons. But what it doesn't explain is why you all helped Carmelita do this just to convince me that she loved me."

"Don't flatter yourself Cooper," the chief barked. "Truth is, I had my own reasons for forcing Carmelita to confess as well as setting you up like this. The first is that I had a promise to keep, a promise I made a long time ago."

"Dare I ask what that promise is?"

The chief drew a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to Carmelita so that she could open it up for him. "Look familiar?" he asked gruffly.

Sly really didn't want to look at the paper, but Carmelita had already lifted it in front of his eyes. It was an old wedding photograph of a couple that Sly hadn't seen for over ten years. "Mom? Dad?" he whispered. "How? How did you get this picture?"

A smile cracked Chief Barkley's face. "Take another look Sly," he urged. "This time look at everyone in the picture."

Sly reluctantly did as he was told. He didn't recognize the woman standing beside his mother as her maid of honor, but his father's best man was unmistakable. "You knew my parents?"

"Knew them? Hah! Your mother was my partner when we were both just starting out."

"She was what?" Sly asked dumbly.

The chief chuckled and rubbed his hand across his forehead. "You and your father are so much alike it's scary. We were assigned to stop your father and his gang, and he flirted with my partner every chance he got. It made her so mad that no one, not even me, dared go near her for a few hours after one of our encounters with your father. I swear she must've plotted a hundred different ways to hang your father up by his toes, among other things.

"But then came a day where he didn't flirt with her. Either he was too busy or just didn't notice her, but he didn't say a word to her all night. I thought she'd be glad not to have to deal with that, but if anything she was more furious. Instead of ranting about 'how dare he' and 'who does he think he is' and all, she was raving about him daring to find some other girl but her."

"Sound familiar Cooper?" Carmelita purred in his ear. "I was much the same way when I found out you were showing some kind of interest in Neyla. I didn't exactly let anyone know about it, but I guess the chief picked up on it anyway."

"It was hard to miss," Chief Barkley remarked dryly. "Anyway, that night I confronted your mother on her real feelings for your father and got her to admit that she'd fallen in love with him. The next time he tried to steal something, she chased him off somewhere while I dealt with the rest of the gang. The next time I saw them, they were both looking very dazed and some of their clothing was rumpled."

"That's an unwelcome mental image," Sly said, shuddering a bit. "Although I wonder what would've happened if you had tried that with me," he added with a suggestive wink.

Carmelita didn't even so much as blush as she answered him. "I don't think you could've handled me," she said, flicking his nose playfully.

Amidst the laughter that followed, Chief Barkley cleared his throat. "As much as you might've liked that, there's one big difference between your mother and Carmelita. Your mother knew and accepted that your father was often a help to us and even thanked him for it on a number of occasions. The only thing that pissed her off was his flirting. Part of the point of all this was to show you that Carmelita could accept your thieving ways."

"I see your point," Sly allowed. "So what was this promise you had to keep?"

The mood in the room grew somber, telling Sly that everyone else knew about this promise. "Before your father passed away, he left a detailed will with me in case something happened to him. He had only two requests to make of me. His first request was that I not take you in. As much as I wanted to, being your godfather and all, you were not meant to be raised in a cop's life. And that's the only way I could've raised you. Instead, I was to make sure you were placed in a warm and loving orphanage and to use the money your father left me to make sure you had everything you needed until you set out to reclaim your family's heritage."

Sly grimaced slightly at the chief's words, but he agreed it was for the best. If he'd never been in that orphanage, he would've never met Murray or Bentley, and he would've never been able to take on the Fiendish Five. Given the choice between that and being raised in a loving home, he had to admit that he wouldn't have wanted anything done differently. "So what was the second request?" he asked quietly.

"When the time was right and you committed your first successful crime, I was to scour the profiles of all my female constables to find the one that best matched your mother, promote her to inspector, and assign her to your case. Even then he knew that you would be like him; attracted to the cop that was supposed to stop you. And if I guessed right, I was to help you two try and make things work when it got to that point."

"I don't know how I feel about my life being messed with like this," Sly said, a serious expression on his face. But when he saw Carmelita's ears droop sadly, his look softened. "But I can't complain about the results," he said with a warm smile.

Carmelita lightly slapped his chest in frustration, then she kissed his cheek in gratitude. "Do you want to hear the other reason?" she asked as she slowly slid off his lap, making Sly stiffen. "I'm sure you'll find that one quite funny."

"I have a feeling I'll regret this," Sly muttered. "All right, all right, let's hear it."

"She's already got you whipped, doesn't she?" Jennifer teased only to be cut off by the others. "Well, excuse me," she huffed.

Chief Barkley resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. "The truth is, I got tired of you making a mockery out of Interpol and I wanted you out of my way. There was no way any of my officers were going to capture or stop you, I knew that and so did everyone else. And apparently, so has everyone who has pursued a Cooper down through the ages."

"I don't understand..."

"It all started with your first ancestor, Slytunkhamen. The Pharoah's guardsmen, similar to the Interpol I run now, couldn't even come close to stopping him. But then one day he just...stopped. No one could figure out why until he was located at an outlying oasis caring for his wife and his firstborn son."

Sly's ears shot straight up at that news. "What?" he asked, paying careful attention.

The chief nodded, folding his hands over his stomach. "He had given up his thieving ways to settle down and raise a family. That became his whole life and he never stole again. The guards decided to leave him alone since he wasn't bothering anyone and they enjoyed a level of peace that they hadn't since before Slytunkhamen took up his cane. Or rather, they did until his son took up the mantle of 'World's Greatest Thief' and proceeded to forge his own legacy.

"So just as there has been a Cooper line throughout the ages, so has their been a line of cops trying to keep tabs on them. We know we can't stop them, only that we can keep their mischief to a minimum. When they get too troublesome, and take too long to do it on their own, we actively try to encourage them to settle down and start a family so we can have between fourteen and twenty years of quiet. And then we pass down this information to whoever the unlucky soul is that has to oversee the crime spree of the next Cooper."

Sly couldn't help but laugh. Carmelita was right, this was hilarious. "Who said anything about me settling--" His words died in his throat as he noticed Carmelita sink down to one knee. "You've got to be kidding me."

Carmelita covered his hand with hers. "I'm not a patient woman Sly," she said earnestly, "so I don't feel like waiting around for you to ask me. Here I am, on bended knee, and all I want is to become your bride. So answer me just one question Ringtail, will you marry me?"

Sly felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. On a day filled with surprises, this one took the cake. "Umm, doesn't the guy traditionally ask the girl?" It was stupid, he knew, but it was the only thing that came to mind at the moment.

The corner of Carmelita's indigo painted lips quirked up ever so slightly. "Is there anything traditional about our love?"

"I suppose not. But it's not like I have a ring or anything."

The chief walked over and pulled a small pouch from his pocket. "Your mom left this for you in her will. Any other questions?"

Sly glanced down at his still manacled hands and looked back at him, raising his eyebrow. Carmelita sheepishly reached behind the chair and tripped a switch, causing the manacles to release Sly. He quickly rubbed his wrists, trying restore circulation to them. Once the stiffness had faded, he took the pouch from Chief Barkley and opened it up, tipping the contents into his palm.

Three rings tumbled out, glittering faintly in the light. Two were made of gold and void of any decoration, one slightly wider and thicker than the other. The third was made of white gold and had a small yet perfect diamond set in it. "My parents' rings," he said, turning them over and over in his hands.

When he was younger, he'd often asked his father why the rings weren't more flashy or intricate like someone would expect a Master Thief to have. The answer he got was very simple yet very profound: you might want to show off to the rest of the world, but the one person you should never feel you have to impress is the woman you make your wife. He didn't understand it at the time, but now he did.

Sly placed two of the rings back into the bag, placing them carefully in his pocket. "I guess here is where I ask you," he said, taking Carmelita's hand and slipping her glove off. "But since you already did it, this will be where I answer. I love you as much as you have shown that you love me. Yes Carmelita Montoya Fox. Yes I will marry you."

There were a few awws as Sly slipped the ring on her finger, but he wasn't really listening to them. His first thought was that the ring was a little loose and would have to be resized to fit her finger. Any other thoughts were going to wait as Carmelita pulled him up into her arms and kissed him soundly, a kiss that he eagerly returned.

By the time they broke apart, both of them were breathless. "You know I don't like to be kept waiting," she breathed against his lips. "This better not be one of those long and drawn-out engagements. Our wedding better be soon."

"Is tomorrow night soon enough?" Sly quipped, pecking her lightly on her nose.

Carmelita pondered it for a moment before shaking her head. "Not really, but then I doubt you could find a priest down here. So I guess it'll have to do."

"What? You mean you didn't bring one with you?"

"I thought about it, but then I realized it wouldn't be a good idea with all those Prinnies around. Having a priest in the same building as demonic exploding penguins is a tragedy waiting to happen."

"Oh yeah," Murray said, drawn from his conversation with Chief Barkley at the mention of the Prinnies. "What are you going to do with those things?"

Carmelita shrugged distractedly. "I'm not really sure. We don't know how to send them back and we can't leave them here. I'm sure we'll find some place for them until we can get them home. At the very least, I want one of them to be our ringbearer."

"Please tell me you're joking," Sly pleaded, making Carmelita burst out in laughter. "I'm not tied down anymore," he reminded her, slowly advancing on her.

Carmelita backed away with a saucy smile. "At least until tomorrow night," she said before turning tail and running, Sly hot on her heels.

Chief Barkley watched them go with a wistful grin on his face. "I hope I did you both proud," he whispered to the empty air beside him. "Your son has grown into a fine man. He's a credit to you both and to the Cooper line. I know their child will be the same way."

FIN