Welp, this is it. The last chapter. I can't believe it's almost over... I mean I finished writing this almost a year ago, but it feels like it's been on going as I've shared it with you guys.

I really need to get cracking on the sequel...

"I don't believe it."

I looked up from my examination of the bottom of my shoes, which I was surprised the propellers we'd just run across hadn't removed. "What is it?"

To me surprise, Sly swallowed heavily and laid a hand on the broken portrait frame he stood in front of. "This is my dad's challenge."

Now I was interested. I'd noticed the displays had been getting more modern, but Sly's dad?

I looked around and smiled, "Your dad sure liked his tech, didn't he?" I went to stand beside Sly and smiled at the broken portrait, "I wish I could have seen this before it was broken, I would have liked to see what he looked like."

"I have the original picture. I'll show you when we get back to Paris." He still sounded far away.

I nudged him with a shoulder and nodded to the lower part of the portrait when he looked down at me, "It's obvious he loved you very much to have made a point to include you in his display. You were so cute as a kid."

"What, just as a kid?"

There we go, he was back. "Yeah, what on Earth happened?"

He nudged me back and almost knocked me over. "So cheeky." He sighed and removed his hand from the portrait.

I looked over at the laptop, loving the Cooper symbol screensaver, then jumped when it changed to text: 'hello, world…'. That wasn't creepy. Not at all. How was it even getting power down here?

Then I spotted the little cane to start the next challenge. It was a key on the keyboard. I glanced at Sly and he nodded, so I pushed it.

To our left, bright orange lasers leapt into existence.

"This must be my father's work," Sly said, looking at the laser that spanned the vast gap in front of us, "How am I supposed to get across here? He made this challenge for a move I've never learned. There's nothing like this in the Thievius Raccoonus." He glanced back over at the portrait, "Come on, Dad. Help me out here."

"Whatever it is, your dad gets a ten out of ten for style." I pointed to the Cooper symbol laser etching on the far wall, "Lookit that!"

He spared a grin over one shoulder, "Glad you're impressed." He looked back at the laser and did a double take, "Wait… those laser beams, a thieving opportunity, you've gotta be kidding me!"

"Wait… what?"

He gestured to the laser, "Don't you see the thief lights?"

I gave the laser a good hard stare. All I succeeded in doing was making my eyes water, "No, I don't think I'm good enough for this move." I shrugged and smiled, "I guess the Inner Sanctum is really just for you."

"Yeah, but…" Then his eyes widened. "The lasers! I get it, I can slide on the laser beams! Dad, you old rascal!"

"Do you guys just get your chuckles out of throwing yourselves at lethal objects for the sole purpose of attempting to defy physics?"

His lips quirked up, then he sobered a bit. "You'll be okay here?"

"Of course. If it's okay, I'd like to take a look at your dad's laptop, it's gotta be here for a reason." I looked over my shoulder at the glass case filled with jewels, "And I think that's a Faberge egg over there. If anything, you should be worried about it." I could just slip it in my pocket, no one would have to know…

Sly smiled, "Thanks for coming with me, Jinx." He approached the laser, then hesitated and looked back at me, "If this goes horribly wrong and I fall into the water please, for the love of all that is good, come after me."

I bit my lip against a laugh and gave a mock-bow, "Always."

Fortunately, it didn't go horribly wrong and he seemed to glide along the lasers in defiance of both gravity and friction. I shook my head and turned back to the little space Connor Cooper had claimed for himself.

"I can't think of anything!" Bentley wailed, pulling on the straps of his bicycle helmet. Neither he nor Murray, nor any of their allies could get across that rope. Well, he probably could if he used his boosters to their full capacity, but what would he do when inside?! "What are we going to do!"

The hippo looked like he was going to answer, but was interrupted by two soft thumps.

Techno geek and heavy hitter both turned to look straight down the barrel of a shock pistol.

"Where are Cooper and Dr. M?"

Well, Bentley thought to himself, This could work.

It was a Faberge egg and I did try it on for the sake of vanity and a childhood dream that had never quite let go. I wandered over to the briefcases next. They were filled with cash in every denomination imaginable. I wanted to steal them, of course, but they were fairly boring.

Then I found the briefcase sandwiched between the glass display case and the laser machine and became very curious as to why it was so deliberately out of sight.

I slid the silver box out and opened it. It was not filled with money. It was filled with sheets of paper, most white, but some colored, and all bearing drawings.

I selected the first one and lifted it up. In what was undoubtedly a child's hand, it depicted a big and a little raccoon. The big one was lifting the little one up to grab a vase off of a pedestal in what was undoubtedly a museum.

I replaced the paper, closed the briefcase, and slid it back into place. I then went to stand in front of the portrait, mimicking Sly's earlier position. "You really were a good man, weren't you? I wish I'd gotten a chance to know you."

I bowed my head for a moment in respect, then lifted it. Alright then, it was settled. When we got back to Paris, I'd tell Sly I loved him, make him show me the picture of him and his dad, and have him tell me stories about his dad… quite possibly not in the order. There was no telling if he'd ever want to speak to me again after our little chat.

Oi, I was really not looking forward to that…

And yes, it was weird thinking the word 'love' so bluntly. It was thrown around haphazard by anyone and everyone nowadays but, unfortunately, there was no other word for what I was experiencing. And, honestly, I didn't want to be in love with Sly.

I was way, way too scared that he'd react badly to the information and everything I loved about the way we interacted would be reduced to ruins by the crushing awkwardness. If there were any way, any at all, that I could keep the information to myself, just not tell him, carry on as we had for this whole past year, then I would take that in a heartbeat. I had absolutely no need to have my feelings reciprocated.

I knew Sly cared for me, he cared about all of his friends, that would be obvious to anyone who interacted with the guy. But any sort of romance? Yeah, no idea there. Aside from flirting shamelessly, he gave absolutely no clues as to what he felt toward that whole concept. And me? The only relationships I had any intimate knowledge of were my parents' (yeah, and that went so well), and the weird, dysfunctional, hormone-driven things some of my friends had gotten into in high school. I had no desire for anything like that. None at all. I was happy and fine being single. Could continue indefinitely, no problems.

Sure, I loved Sly. I'd admitted that. It had taken me a while, but I did it. But I was already around the guy almost 24/7, that was all I wanted. I just wanted to be around him. I just wanted to laugh and tease and joke and be with him. I didn't want to go make out in a dark corner of the Safehouse or anything ridiculous like that. Frankly, the idea turned my stomach a little. I'd been turned off of the whole concept of that sort of thing in high school, where pretty much everyone with a 'bf'/'gf' spent a large portion of time, in public, trying to eat each other's faces. Or maybe wash them with their tongue. Either way, it was gross. And it looked uncomfortable. And horribly awkward.

No, I was perfectly content to continue on in total happiness with the way things were, without trying to deal with the inevitable complications that would arise with any admission of 'feelings'. The problem was that Sly was not going to let me. He knew me way too well by now to be able to ignore that something was up, and that man was stubborn when it came to knowing what was going on with his friends.

I sighed to myself, idly fingering the jeweled egg at my throat, liking the high, ringing noise it made when it clinked against my pendant. This wasn't going to be fun. This wasn't going to be fun at all. I didn't want things to change, but at this point, it seemed inevitable. And I saw no way they could change for the better.

My head snapped up when I heard the sound of metal grating against metal. It was coming from the platform that had been carved out of a large stalactite.

I ran over to look and saw Dr. M in some horrible metal contraption with far too many legs and was attached to his head. He'd just used it to climb up the dual cables leading to the platform and looked like he was preparing to jump toward the ledge Sly had just traversed, leading to the Inner Sanctum.

My first instinct was to look around and look for something to throw. Then I realized that no way was my arm that good and looked helplessly at the laser that stretched out before me.

"Come on." I hissed, staring at the laser, "Come on, Connor Cooper, I want to help your son. Show me, show me how to do that…"

The next three breaths seemed eternal. Dr. M jumped and landed, about to head into the final tunnel; I saw a single white light jump into existence.

I backed up two steps and ran.

I was running on the laser. How in the universe was I doing that? It was hot and had give. I didn't dare stand still or try to slide, I'd fall through. So I ran.

"Hold it!"

Dr. M immediately whipped around. His teeth barred, "You!"

I didn't have time to try to decipher his meaning. I jumped and landed on the metal contraption he had on. If I could just separate him from it, that alone would be progress.

I snapped my baton out, but he batted it away with one of his metallic limbs. The momentum loosened my grip and I was scrabbling to get a hold, accidentally (but satisfactorily) dragging my claws across his face in the process.

Then his elbow connected with the bridge of my nose and there were all sorts of colors and I was going down… down… down…

Sly slid down one of the many lasers into the Inner Sanctum. He landed on the circular platform and looked around, wanting to take in so much more than he could with just two eyes.

"This is just… overwhelming!" He looked up at one of the vehicles hanging from the ceiling, "Amazing! How'd Thaddius make a flying machine in the eighteen hundreds? I bet this thing still works…"

"Oh, I'm sure it's operational."

Sly turned, crossing his arms and settling in to a patronizing smile, "Dr. M, glad you could see all this. I know you've been looking forward to it."

"Looking forward to all this… and your death!"

The raccoon sighed and shook his head, "Come on. Aren't we supposed to banter a little?"

"I only talk with my equals," Dr. M leapt into the air, his odd contraption keeping him aloft, "And Bentley said 'no'."

Good old Bentley. "Looks like you got a few cuts for your trouble too."

"Mmm?" The doctor reached up and touching the bleeding scratches on his forehead, "No these were a parting gift from your little hybrid friend. She did have spunk didn't she?"

Sly went cold. "What?"

"Come on, hurry up!" Bentley called over his shoulder as he threw his wheelchair forward with all the strength in his arms.

The turtle was flanked on the left by Inspector Fox and on the right by Kristian. Fortunately, they both carried mega-jump gadgets and could keep up with the booster on his wheelchair.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Carmelita panted out.

"No, I'm leading you away from the fight so that my two best friends can be murdered by a psychopath."

"Shut up, both of you," Kristian barely sounded winded, "Is that Dr. M?"

Bentley followed the cougar's gaze and saw the scientist just reach the platform suspended by rock, "Yes that's him! And he's almost at the Inner Sanctum!"

A white blur came from apparently nowhere, travelling by an avenue of fluorescent orange light. It launched itself at Dr. M.

"Is that-"

A shout, a scuffle, and a horrible crack. And then she was falling.

"KAIA!"

Thirty, forty, fifty feet of freefall before she finally hit the water. There were plenty of bubbles and foam, but no hint of life.

"Carmelita, get after Dr. M." Kristian said, shucking off his pea coat, scarf, and shoes. "I'll be up in a minute."

He dove into the water.

The door to the Inner Sanctum required blasting open which, given the day she'd had, Carmelita was all too happy to give it.

"… all of you, THIEVES!"

Explosions were just so relaxing. She threw herself through the fire and landed, pistol up and with both Cooper and Dr. M in her sights.

"Hold it right there. Both of you thieves are going to jail!"

Cooper looked awful. His face was tired, he was obviously in pain, but more than that he just seemed, somehow... broken. Even still, he smiled and here came the lilting tone.

"Good to see you."

She couldn't stop the slight smile, "You too."

"Oooh, a love interest!" Dr. M mocked, glancing between them with a most sadistic look on his face, "I might be beaten, but I'll make you suffer!" He turned to face the fox and fired a bolt of energy.

And then Sly was between them, "Not her too!"

The projectile hit and the raccoon went flying into the rafters.

Carmelita saw red and brought up her pistol, "No one hurts my criminal!"

Ugh… I couldn't breathe.

Why couldn't I breathe? It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.

Ow!

No, no an elephant was definitely standing on my chest, possibly jumping up and down in some sort of convoluted, elephantine tribal ritual.

I didn't feel good… and the dancing elephant wasn't helping. Ugh, if it didn't stop I was gonna be-

Oh, yup. I was definitely being sick. Why was I on my back? That wasn't helpful. Oh, on my side now, that's much better. Being sick and coughing up water now, it's Christmas.

"That's it, get it all out."

Great, there was someone watching me be sick, happy day. Thumping me on the back does not help me breathe! Oh, that orange was even worse the second time around…

"Can you take care of her? I have to go help Sly."

Bentley?

"Yes, but you and I are going to talk later."

Kristian?

"Absolutely."

I was finally able to drag air into my lungs, just in time to smell burning of the thrusters in Bentley's wheelchair as they engaged. What was going on?

"Jenks, can you hear me?"

Sly… the Cooper Vault… Dr. M… Sly!

I tried to sit up, but my eyes decided no, that wasn't a very good idea, so they decided to give a lightshow instead.

"Careful, that's the oxygen deprivation, take a few deep breaths."

I took one and wheeze out, "Sly and Bentley…"

"Will be fine, Carmelita's up there."

A couple more deep breaths, "I am filled with confidence." My eye finally decided to cooperate and inform me that the multicolored blur filling my vision was, indeed, Inspector Kristian Garter. He was also sopping wet. "Is it raining?"

He stared at me blankly before deciding upon a very sarcastic, "Yes."

My brain finally caught up, "Did I just drown?"

"Very nearly."

Oh, don't faint. Don't faint. Don't think about how one of your worst fears almost came true and... Do. Not. Faint. "Why are the walls shaking?"

"There's a party upstairs." He was apparently liking his whole sarcastic kick. "The caves are collapsing. Can you stand?"

"Collapsing, wha…" I got my knees under me and was working on the feet, "What about the others?"

"They'll be fine." He caught me when I finally got to my feet, made a sort of gurgling noise, and fell over again. "What's wrong with you?"

"I do not know," I hissed, "My feet…" I looked at the bottoms of them. Oh… that wasn't pretty. The laser had apparently been too advanced for me, the bottoms of my shoes were scorched clean off, little bits of melted plastic clung to the soles of my very burned feet.

"No time for this."

And I was suddenly being hauled up and over a very bony shoulder and he jumped… far higher than should be allowed.

I didn't scream as the land flew away from us. I was proud of that.

"Stop clawing my shoulder!"

"How are you defying physics?!" Okay, so I did scream, but not out of fear. Okay, maybe a little bit.

"Stop asking questions and hold on tight."

Dr. M was on his last legs. It took only a few shock pistol bolts and he was crumpled at the edge of the platform, his machine scattered.

Carmelita jumped up to the rafters and found Sly groaning, with his head in his hands.

"What happened?"

The Inspector was hardly surprised, it looked like he hit his head pretty hard, "Sly?"

"Where are we?" He asked, looking around with foggy eyes, "What is this place?"

"Sly, can you remember anything?" Not remembering head trauma was common, but total amnesia?

His forehead wrinkled in thought, then he winced and grabbed the back of his head. "No… who're you? You look familiar…"

He really couldn't remember her? "I'm Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox."

"And…" he seemed hesitant about continuing, looking up at her with a blank, vulnerable expression, "Who am I?"

"You…" She should tell him who he was and arrest him. It was the right thing to do; it was what she'd been aiming for for the last four years. But his face… he trusted her completely…

"You're… my partner, Constable Cooper."

"Well, partner, we'd better get out of here." He stood, wincing, and looked up, "The ceiling's gonna go… we haven't got much time."

Sneaking off a barge filled with a dozen large mercenaries of Interpol affiliation and one cougar with eyes in the back of his head is not an easy thing to do, especially with second degree burns on the bottoms of your feet.

Fortunately, if you're a good swimmer, your chances for success are increased exponentially.

The entire island had collapsed inward. Granted, it was a mountain sticking out of the ocean and practically hollowed out and filled with tons of gold so it wasn't that surprising. What concerned me was that I didn't know if everyone had made it out okay.

So I tied some rags around my feet and slipped off the boat. I made it to the island, despite the freezing cold water, and pulled myself onto the small dock that had been our entry point mere hours before. That was weird, thinking of it like that. It felt like it had been days.

"I wonder if it's possible to make shoes out of ice cream," I mused to myself as I climbed over the rubble. "That would be awesome."

"Kaia!"

"Penelope!" I called, seeing the mouse higher up, by a small cluster of trees. I waved up at her, "Is Sly with you?"

"No, we're still looking for him and Dimitri." She said as I climbed up to her, "We've already found the Panda King and the Guru."

"And who's we?" I asked, stepping into the trees with her.

"Bentley and Murray. Where's that Interpol agent that Bentley was talking about?"

"If we're extremely lucky, he's still on the boat." I pushed a low hanging palm branch out of the way and saw a very familiar hippo, "Murray!"

Getting hugged by Murray is at once kinda nice and also good practice for not breathing. "Good to see you too, pal." I managed to wheeze out.

"Kaia?" Bentley wheeled into view, "I thought you were with Kristian."

"Hopefully he still thinks that too. Where's everyone else?"

"Looking for Sly, the Panda King found Dimitri down by the water." Bentley indicated the vague direction of the reunion with a nod.

"Alright cool, where should I check?"

"First tell me what happened to your shoes."

"Er... funny story." I looked down at the rags, "They... well, they got burned off."

"..." Bentley ran a hand down his face and pointed to a recently overturned palm tree, "Go sit over there."

"Hey, I wanna-"

"Sit. There. Go."

I rolled my eyes before skulking over, "Yes, Mother."

So I sat, tearing the leaves off palm branches and trying to ignore the intense pain from my feet now that I wasn't blocking it out. It didn't take long before the rest of the gang showed up and Bentley sent them searching in a grid-like patter for our AWOL leader.

What we found was not him.

"Over here guys!"

That was Bentley. I got to my feet and hobbled over in the direction of his voice, "Did you find Sly, Bentley?"

"No." He looked at me over his shoulder, "And I think that's what he wants."

A cold finger of dread sank its way into my stomach, "What do you-" Then I saw what was over his shoulder.

Sly's cane was propped up against the side of one of the few bits of the mountain that was still standing. His red leg pouch, which held his lock picks, was dangling off of it and a calling card sat upon it.

"What..." I went over and picked up the cane, the pouch, and the calling card, which was blank, "What is this?"

"I don't know," Bentley said, turning on a flashlight that was attached to his wheelchair and shining it into the hole in the mountain that the cane had been propped next to. "But I think it's the Cooper Clan's fortune."

I went over to stand next to him. His light reflected off of piles and pile of gold, statues, and artwork.

I tried to dredge up some awe, appreciation, or excitement. Anything positive would have been welcome.

Instead, I averted my gaze, went back to my palm tree, sat down, and ran a hand over the nicks in the wood of Sly's cane.

[[Neassa has gone into hiding. She would like to remind everyone that there will be an epilogue, though.]]