Facing The Demon

By: Phoenix Ride

(Sly's POV)

After ten o'clock, I was still waiting outside of the safehouse, patiently fidgeting for Bentley to return from his solo mission.

He had gone to do a little reconiasce to see what this Black Knight character was up to, but it was running late, and my mind flooded with worry at the thought of Bentley being held hostage by enemy hands.

The full moon shot down my worry as I caught the familair glint of a wheelchair rolling up the path. Bentley had returned, and fortunately, he was still in one piece.

I ran out quickly to greet him back to the hideout, but stopped short when I saw the tortured look on his face. His usual smile had turned into a dim frown, and tears leaked out under his glasses as he cried out in sorrow.

Bentley kept his head down and silently rolled inside the hideout, barely taking notice I was there. I stood out there for a moment, stunned, not believing the sorrowful state in which I had seen my friend.

What had happened on that recon mission anyway? Did it have something to do with Penelope?

Determined to find out the answers, I rushed into the hideout where Bentley started to explain what he had learned. What Bentley said was a shock to me and Murray.

The Black Knight was really Penelope! She was the one responsible for creating all those robot guards! She was the one who stole Bentley's time machine plans and sold them to Le Paradox! All this chaos to the timestream had happened because of her!

But the worst crime she committed was the shattering of Bentley's heart. None of us knew what to say in order to comfort Bentley, as he rolled out to the mountain edge, claiming he wanted fresh air. We did try to help, but all our attempts failed. Bentley had pulled himself into his shell and refused to come out.

Giving up for the time being, we met back in the hideout to discuss the Penelope dilemma. With Bentley stuck in depression, for once, we were completely on our own. Now it was up to our brains to come up with the plan.

It feels wierd doing this stuff without Bentley, but we'd have to adjust. I just hope that whatever plan we come up, ends with coming home alive.

(Bentley's POV)

Darkness haunted me for what seemed like hours, as I dreaded over the fact that Penelope had betrayed my trust to Le Paradox. I could hardly grasp the concept that she had been working for him this whole time! Supporting in his gruesome quest to wipe out the Cooper line.

My heart lay broke with a single question, pounding over and over in my head with the annoying tone of a gong. Why? Why? Why?

Why would you betray me Penelope? For what reasonable excuse could support breaking my heart?

The sorrow in my heart was only matched by the rage boiling in my mind. Angry for being betrayed!

I had spent six, long months getting to know Penelope when really she was getting to know me. Ready to steal my inventions in order to cause chaos to the timestream.

It didn't take a genius IQ to figure out that I've been played. But the thought still shot deep in my heart. I need to understand why. I need to know the reason for her betrayal.

Finally popping out of my shell, I rolled myself back into the hideout, a little nervous to run into everyone else. My worry was ill-fated however when I got inside. Sly and the others were nowhere in sight.

Curious to where they went, I rolled over to the table and happened upon Carmelita's slideshow. Apparently a lot had happened since I had been in my shell, and the others had tried their best to come up with a plan to stop Penelope.

However, there was a little problem, there was hardly a plan at all! They were going into this completely blind!

All my depression seemed to tear away in a flash as I realized that my friends could be rushing into danger. Running over to the corner where I had been modifying the moat monster robot, I worked feverishly to get it battle ready.

Although a large chunk of my heart hated the idea about having to face Penelope, but that was no excuse for leaving my friends in danger.

The feelings I had for Penelope were gone now, but I still had my friends, and I was going to protect them, no matter what.

When I finally got to the battlefield in my newly built suit, I watched from atop one of the towers as Sly went to against Penelope's new Mega-Knight robot.

After taking out its final arm, Sly jumped up to the center platform and aimed an exploding arrow right at the robo-knight's chest.

The resulting bang brought the whole thing tumbling down. But my eyes widened with horror once I noticed where they were going to land.

The Mega-Knight crashed to ground, unleashing a large cloud of dust, and for a moment you couldn't see a thing. When the dust cleared, I was relieved to see Sly unharmed, but unfortunately his right leg was trapped under the heavy bulk of the machine.

Equally horrible, this now made him an easy target for Penelope.

Now back in her Black Knight armor, Penelope raised up her fist, ready to kill Sly when the sound of my angry voice shouted down from above.

"That's enough Penelope!"

"Bentley?" she asked, looking up at me, confusion and coldness swirling in her eyes. These definitely weren't the same eyes I have come to know when we first met.

"Is that?" she asked, taking notice of my suit " is that…my moat monster!"

"What's left of it!" I replied " The design was…adequate, but I added a few changes of my own,"

"Ha!" scoffed Penelope " it was just a prototype anyway,"

Now that we've talked tech, it was time to get some answers, but what she had to say, I really wasn't ready to hear.

She was doing all of this just so I could see crime her way. That there was more profit in being a villain than a simple thief. With our brains, we could have taken over the world a thousand times.

But just the thought of being a bad guy really steamed my shell. My refusal to join her only sparked the distance already between us. The moment I feared was at hand. It was time to take Penelope down.

Even after the fight, a small piece of my broken heart hadn't healed. It, along with my other bad experiences, would continue driving into my heart with the slick grace of a splinter. An emotional scar that no one could really, truly heal.

I apologized to Sly and the others for not being there when they needed me most. But in the end, they replied, I had been there, and thanked gratefully for saving them.

I played down their thanks, but on the inside I was smiling big. I had faced my personal demons and won, but we all still had a long way to go to reach victory.

Le Paradox was still out there. Still a threat to time.

It was time to clean up the mess my temporal device started. Together, with all my friends, it was no doubt that Le Paradox's greatest plan would soon stink.

The End