A/N & Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the characters that are affiliated with Sucker Punch Productions (2002-05), Nihilistic Software (2011), and/or Sanzaru Games (2012-Present). I do however, own their products and highly recommend to those who don't, to please support the creators of the franchise. The portrayal of their characters in this fan fiction is just that, of fiction; they do not in any way reflect the "actual-true fictional storyline" created by the *stated above* developers of the Sly Cooper franchise.

"It's me." I said into the phone.

"What's going on?" Bentley asked with what seemed to be genuine worry.

"I'm concerned about something that just happened."

"Concerned? Concerned with what?"

"Three Arabs just tried to kill me in Hong Kong."

"What?"

"Three Arabs just tried to kill me in Hong Kong."

"I heard you. Are you serious?"

"You think I make this shit up to amuse you?" I said. There was a pause, and then he asked, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. As I said, I'm concerned."

"Are you… are you in any danger now?

"Not from the three who were after me."

There was a pause.

"You mean –"

"They're harmless now."

Another pause. He said, "You're concerned about how they found you."

A smirk crossed my face, smart guy. "Good for you."

"It wasn't me."

I know. Or at least I already half-believed that. If I had believed that Bentley was indeed trying to screw me over, I'd have done this conversation face to face rather than warning him by calling. I couldn't imagine why he would have turned on me, but you never have the full picture on things like that. Circumstances change. We develop reasons, fears, and other agenda where they had none before.

Instead of confronting his denial I said, "Who else knew I was in Macau? They knew exactly how to track me from there. One of them was waiting to pick me up when I arrived on the ferry terminal in Hong Kong."

"I don't… look, I have absolutely no reason to try and screw you, none what-so-ever. I don't know who they are…were, or how they managed to identify you, let alone track you. But I can try to find out."

"Convince me," I said an octave lower.

"I'll try." He said, before asking "How do I contact you when I find anything?"

"I'll check the electronic bulletin board."

"It would be more efficient and convenient if you would just leave your cell phone on."

"I'll check the bulletin board."

He sighed. "Okay. You can always call me at this number. It shouldn't take more than twelve hours, I'll be sure to have something posted by then. Anything else?"

"Carmelita?"

"Nothing. Still working on it, however I do have some information about the first 'lady of the night' that you asked. I've already posted it up where you told me to."

My thoughts immediately shifted towards Juliette, "About that, it's no longer needed. I… the lead turned out to be a dead end. I appreciate the –"

The phone started vibrating in my hand, indicating that a call was coming in. I looked at the screen and my eyes went wide. What the hell?

"Look, Bentley, I've got to go, something has come up."

"What? What's do you me—"

I hung up my call with Bentley, and hit the "accept call" button on the second caller.

"Juliette?"

On the other end of the phone was Juliette's voice, however it was distant and muffled, but I was able to make out the words.

"Qui êtes-vous? Que faites-vousdans ma chambre?- Who are you? What are you doing in my room?

An Arabic accented male voice responded, "Nous sommes icipour parler avec vous." –We're here to talk with you.

Shit. Was the only word that came to mind. My brain ceased and halted all its functions. I suddenly stopped and became rooted in place.

"Look, just take whatever you want. I don't have much, but please, don't hurt me." I could hear the fear in her voice.

"We mean you no harm; we are here just to speak with you." Replied a second voice.

The conversation went on. I didn't know what was going on, but the only thing I did know was, Juliette was in trouble. I hung up the call.

Shit. I stood in place for what seemed to be an eternity, knowing that every second mattered. But what to do? I instructed her specifically to what she must and mustn't do, and she disobeyed my direct instructions. I should leave her; it was her own fault for her being in the situation she's currently in. It's not unusual for a non-participant to become a casualty in my line of work, hell that's why they're called "casualties."

I gripped the phone to the point of it hurting my hand. It's gotten too hot for my taste. The op was blown, and I'll have to move up the time table that I've originally set, and go back on the deal I'd hashed out with Carmelita. Making Carmelita into an enemy was something I didn't want to do, but I'm left with no choice.

Scar should still be at the hotel, I can wait for an opportune time, take him out, and that'll be the end of it. Get in and get the hell out. That's the smart thing to do, that's how I'd survived for so long in this world, by knowing when to get out before anyone noticed I was there… so why am I hesitating now?

"Shit," I said aloud, full of annoyance and anger. I looked at my phone and dialed in a number. No answer. I rang the number a total of five times before someone finally picked up.

"H…hello?" her voice was uncertain.

"Juliette. It's me, Benneteau. I just wanted to see if you do me the honor of having dinner with me tonight." I said in French. I could hear a slight echo, and I knew I was correct to anticipate that I'd be put on speaker phone.

There was an awkward silence.

"Juliette?"

"I'm here Benneteau," another pause. "Where are you?"

"I'm near the hotel; I should be there in about ten minutes. Should I make a reservation for two or will I be dining alone tonight?"

"Yes," she replied. "Two would be sufficient, unless you have someone else you would like to invite. You haven't been cheating on me, have you Benneteau?"

Good, she was picking up the subtle message I was giving her, and her way of answering although not completely discreet, shouldn't alarm the thugs that are carefully listening along with her. She was warning me that there were more than just the two up there with her. "Of course not," I laughed. "I'll meet you downstairs in ten. Be sure to dress up, oh and use the back exit, I'll be coming from that direction. I'll see you then."

I clicked off. They'll be itching to get out of her hotel now. Which way are they likely to go? I thought, trying to decide where I could set up an ambush. It didn't take me more than five minutes to get to the hotel, thankfully the hotel she was staying at was a lower end one with little patrons, more commonly used by local tourists who were visiting friends and family in Macau, and by business types who just needed a place to stay for the night. I bolted up the stairwell and paused outside the entrance to her floor, listening. After about half a minute of silence, I heard the sound of a door opening from somewhere down the corridor.

I opened the door part way, then took out my key chain and extended the dental mirror through the opening in the doorway until I had a view of a long narrow hallway. An Arabian wolf swept his head left and right, and then nodded. A moment later, Juliette stepped out in a gorgeous black ensemble that clung to her like death, which I hoped wasn't some kind of omen; she was followed closely by a second Arabian wolf that had his paw on her shoulder, not in a gentle way.

The one in the lead checked the corridor in both directions, then they started to move toward my position. I withdrew the mirror. There was a CO2-type fire extinguisher on the wall, and I grabbed it and stepped to the right of the door, toward the side where it opened. I pulled the safety pin and aimed the nozzle face high.

Two seconds went by, then five. I heard their footsteps approaching, heard them right on the other side of the door.

I breathed shallowly through my mouth, my fingers tense around the trigger, for a split second in my imagination, I saw the door start to open, but it didn't. They had continued past the door to the stairs and were headed for the elevator.

Damn. I had hoped that they'd take the stairs. I eased the door open again and extended my mirror, adjusting its angle until I could see them. They had her sandwiched in tightly; the guy to the left was holding something against her back. I assumed a gun, but maybe a knife. The one on the right wasn't holding a weapon, but that didn't stop him from placing his hand in areas he shouldn't be touching, much to the disgust of Juliette, but she remained reluctantly silent.

I couldn't follow them from there with any hope of surprising them. I wouldn't be able to close the distance before they heard me coming, and if they were armed, my chances would range from poor to non-existent.

I immediately turned and bolted down the stairs. When I got to the first floor I cut across the lobby, stopping behind a weight-bearing pillar that they'd have to walk past as they stepped off the elevator. I braced the extinguisher against my waist and eased the mirror past the corner of the pillar.

They emerged half a minute later, bunched up in a tight formation that you learn to avoid because it makes your whole team vulnerable to an ambush. They were obviously afraid Juliette was going to try to run.

I slipped the mirror and key chain back into my pocket, listening to their footsteps. When they sounded only a few centimeters away I bellowed a warrior's kiyai and leaped out, pulling the trigger and aiming face high.

Nothing happened. The extinguisher hiccupped, then made a disappointing hissing sound. But that was all. Oh for fuck sakes.

The lead guy's mouth dropped open, and he started fumbling inside his coat. Feeling like I was moving in slow motion, sure I was going to be a second late; I brought up the butt end of the extinguisher up. Saw his hand coming free, holding a short-barreled revolver. I stepped in hard and jammed the extinguisher into his face, getting my weight behind the blow. There was a satisfying thud and he spilled into Juliette and the guy in the rear, his gun clattering to the floor.

The second guy stumbled backward, slipping clear of Juliette, pin wheeling his arms. I launched the extinguisher at him like a missile, catching him directing on his chest. He went down and I was on him in an instant. Before he could get his hands up to protect himself I pivoted my body in a whip like motion, and used my elbow to deliver a blow to his right temple. There was a loud crack and he went limp.

I picked up the loose gun and brought the gun up, but his friend wasn't moving. His face looked like he'd run into a flagpole, his nose was bent painfully to the right and blood was streaming out of it. There was a scream emanating from behind me, and I turned around just in time to see a third goon emerge from the elevator, where he must have been positioned from the beginning. He grabbed Juliette around the neck from behind with his left hand, trying to use her as a shield, while his right hand went to his jacket pocket, groping for a weapon. But before he could pull it out, Juliette spun one-eighty so that she was facing him, grabbed his right hand and wrenched it out and upwards, revealing a similar model to the one that I had in my hands. She made a grab for it, which resulted in him arching his back, and raising the gun higher, as if playing a game of "keep away", she then proceeded to knee him in the groin, which resulted in him grunting and doubling over. I had closed the distance between us, launching a field-goal-style kick at his head with enough force to lift his whole body from the ground.

Juliette was looking at me, her eyes wide, her breath coming in shallow gasps.

"Vous allez bien? " I asked, taking her by the arm. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

She shook her head. "They told me they were from the Embassy, but I knew they weren't: they wouldn't show me any identification. Who are they Benneteau? They kept asking me to tell them where to find someone named 'Cooper'?

Keeping my hand on her arm, I started moving us through the lobby toward the back exit, my eyes sweeping back and forth for signs of danger outside.

"Benneteau, can you tell me –"

"No, how about you tell me why exactly are you still here? I specifically told you to leave Macau." I said, while scanning the surrounding area.

"I… I couldn't leave, I didn't have my passport."

Christ, I should have known that was the reason.

"Benneteau can you please just tell me what's going on?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, we've got to get you someplace safe."

"Safe? With you?" She glanced back at the hotel, picturing the three wolves; their faces bloody masks, then back at me.

"I'll explain everything to you, but not now. For now, the only thing that matters is that you're in danger, and I can't help you if you don't believe me. Let me just get you somewhere safe and tell you what all of this is about, okay?"

She nodded, and remained silent.

I had wanted to search the wolves on the floor for ID of some other way of identifying them, but I couldn't do that and get Juliette moving at the same time.

We cut across the dark parking lot of the building across from her hotel, emerging onto a well-lit street where we caught a cab. I told the driver to take us to the shopping district. I checked the side views as we drove. There were few cars on the road, and none seemed to be trying to follow us.

What I had in mind was a love hotel. The love hotel is an institution, born of the country's housing shortage. With families, sometimes extend ones, jammed into small apartments, lovers, specifically moms and dads, need to have somewhere to go to be alone. Hence the idea of a "love hotel" was installed at certain rates for either a "rest" or a "stay," famously discreet front desk, no credit card required for registration, and fake names were then norm. Some of them are completely over-the-top, with theme rooms sporting Roman baths and Americana settings.

We got out of the cab and walked for fifteen minutes doing a subtle surveillance detection route before ultimately heading into the seedy love hotel districts of Macau. I chose one at random, where we told the old female calico cat standing inside at the front desk that we wanted a room with a bath, for a stay, not just a rest. I put cash on the counter and she reached underneath, then handed us a key, no questions asked.

We took the elevator to the fourth floor, and found our room at the end of a short hallway. I unlocked the door and Juliette went in first. I followed her in, locking the door behind me. We left our shoes in the entranceway. There was only one bed – twins in a love hotel would be as out of place as a Bible – but there was a decent-sized couch in the room that I could curl up on.

Juliette sat down on the edge of the bed and faced me. "Here's where we are," she said, her voice even. "Tonight three male Arabian wolves were waiting for me in my room. They claimed to be part of a mission on Embassy orders, but obviously they weren't – or, if they were agents of the embassy, they were on some kind of private mission. I'd think you were with them, but I saw how badly you hurt them. You asked me to go somewhere safe with you so you could explain. I'm listening."

I nodded, trying to find the right words to begin.

"I'm not who I say I am."

She laughed, "Oh god, please don't tell me you're some super-secret spy on a mission."

I looked at her with a deadpan face.

"You're joking…"

"I'm here on a mission, that involves a very dangerous man. I can't get into too much detail about it, but just know that you're in danger."

"So what was I? An alibi? A scape goat while you went on with your business?

"Yes," It was hard to admit to her. "I needed to look natural, an average raccoon, so I requested your company's service. I didn't mean for you to get into this situation, but I promise that I'll do everything I can to get you out of it safely."

She was silent for a moment. Then suddenly leaped off the bed and faced me squarely. "Tell me who the hell you are, or I swear I will go to the police, and I don't care what happens after that!"

Progress, of a sort, I thought. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything!"

"Okay."

"Starting with, who were those men in my hotel room?"

"Okay."

"Well? Who are they?"

"I don't know."

She got angrier by the second. She looked at me for a long beat, then sat back down on the bed. "Who do you work for?" she asked, her voice flat.

"It doesn't matter."

Another long beat and the same flat tone: "Then tell me what you want."

I looked at her, wanting her to see my eyes: "I want to make sure you don't get hurt."

Her face was expressionless. "And you're going to do that by …?"

"These wolves are coming after you because they think you can lead them to me. But as long as you're here with me, and stay out of sight for the time being, you'll be safe."

We were silent again, I could tell she had a number of questions she wanted to ask me, however she knew from the answers I gave her in the previous line of questioning, her next salvo wouldn't yield any useful information. I walked over to the windowsill and looked out onto the streets painted red, enveloped by the crimson glow of the poorly cared for neon signs. I didn't see anybody that set off my radar.

"Can't you just take me to the airport?"

I turned away from the window. "No."

"Can you stop giving such ambiguous and one-word answers? What do you mean by 'no'?"

"What I mean is: you no longer have a window of opportunity in which you can leave Macau. I specifically instructed you on the urgency of your situation to leave. They know now that you're a link, a link that can lead them back to me. Tonight, the three wolves were testing the waters by tugging on it, to see whether or not they could reel in whatever was at the other end of that chain. Whoever sent those three to your hotel room, now knows for a fact, the repercussions of pulling on that chain. The next time they get their hands on you, they will not be so nice."

Juliette went quiet, and fell into a somber mood. "So what now?" she asked.

"For now we stay here." What the hell am I saying? "I made that mistake of leaving you alone the first time. I'm not going to make it again." You idiot! She's safe, there's no reason for you to stay. You're just putting yourself in more danger; just look how much shit she's dragged with her! "However, for an unknown amount of time, you're going to have to stay here, in this room, while I tend to my work. I promise that after everything is done, I'll get you out of this safely."

I made my way to the door. Juliette quickly rushed me and barred the door with her body.

"And where the hell do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to get us some refreshments. As I said, we're going to be holed up here for an unknown period of time. I would like to stock up on food and water… now, if you don't mind?" I gestured for her to step aside.

"How do I know that you won't simply leave me here once you step out this door?"

I looked her in her eyes. "You'll just have to trust me."

She stared for three excruciatingly long beats. She was searching my eyes for any hint of lying, but she must have seen enough, because she soon stepped aside.

"Don't expect anything too fancy, the district isn't exactly known for their hygiene or quality."

"Just come back, that's all I want."

I smiled at her, "Don't miss me too much while I'm gone."

"Don't worry, I won't." she retorted, as she closed the door behind me.

A/N: I was surprised at the number of reviews that stated their sorrow for Juliette's sudden departure. As you all know, I hadn't intended for her to be such a developed character, she was used for cover no more no less. But the reviews read into her character and developed a sort of favoritism towards her, resulting in me writing that whole lunch date in a previous chapter. And again, you all cried out for some sort of justice to her character, and well, she's back. This chapter was an impromptu one that has completely changed what I had originally intended for this series. So I've completely scraped what I had originally decided for the story from a more personal want to what my audience wants.

I typed this up in the AMs, so no proper intro to my reviewers (I apologize for that, but I'm just too tired to respond to each and every one of you individually without it being rushed). Even this author's note was forced.

A/N #2: I was away from this site for a while because of school, and well, Sly Cooper: Thieves in time and Ni no Kuni. However my workload has lessened and I've beaten and achieved the platinum trophy with 100% completion about a week ago for Sly Cooper, so I now have some free time on my hands.

What this "extra time" equates to is: that I typed up this chapter of Sly Cooper: Heart of Darkness, that I am typing a chapter for Sly Cooper: Sly as a Fox, and as a special tribute to my dear friend and occasional co-author/editor of her stories, ForeverFreelancer, I've decided to create a Valentine's Day piece. Even though it's no longer Valentine's Day, and I didn't come up with the idea until a week after V-day… but I digress. Look forward as I try to release them all within the weekend.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and continue to read and review my works and PM with any suggestions or requests. I don't know to whether continue or discontinue a story unless I know what you all think. I thank those who have recently followed and favorite my stories and I, and I hope to hear from all of you soon.

Once again, leave a comment in the comment section, and let me know what you all think. Take care and have a good night, it's time for me to ZzZZzZzz…