Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Truth Hurts
"Okay gang!" Bentley speaks out. "I need to update my research with these plans tonight before we leave for another heist. I'm doing this just to make sure our delays will still work out. We will leave tomorrow afternoon if no problems would occur."
Eyes of Murray, Isabella, Penelope and Sly watch him at the main table. Dimitri listens but doesn't look at the turtle. "I can't go tomorrow." He simply says while checking his nails. "I have my TV show tomorrow at noon. I need to go over the lines with da pretty ladies before the show start at five; ya know what I'm sayin'?"
Just as Bentley starts to reply, Penelope talks before him. "Wait, it takes you approximately five hours to review a thirty-minute television show?"
"Thanks for translating my words to yours, mouse."
"Why would it take five ho-"
"ANYWAY," Bentley clears his throat. "Yes Dimitri, that is fine. We won't have any diving or party distractions for a while anyway. There are some, but not now."
"A'ight!" The lizard says as he shoots out of the chair and prances towards the door. "Dimitri iz out da house!" After a door slam, Murray chooses to speak. "Well, I'm leaving too. The gym is more fun at night."
"Wait," Isabella's attention is reeled in from Murray's fishing pole. "You are going to the gym now? What activities do you prefer to do there?"
Murray scratches the back of his neck and looks around the room. "Well I uh, I lift weights, sometimes I do cardio if I hang food in front of me, I destroy the life of punching bags, and sometimes others challenge me to the boxing square." Isabella smiles and gets off of her chair. "I wanna go! I've never been to one before. It seems like a good distraction for things."
"Isabella?" She turns to Bentley. "This type of gym is different from the common gyms. This gym is highly competitive and full of professionals like Murray himself. It can be dangerous!"
"Yeah Bentley, so are the heists; packed with professional guards hunting us down. I want to go with Murray. Please?"
Bentley looks at Sly's unsure face. "It's up to Sly."
The raccoon stood from his chair and nodded. "Yeah you can come, if I come with you guys." The turtle grasps Sly's wrist before he can walk from the table. He gestures his eyes to Penelope and back at Sly, telling him what he agreed to do. Tonight was the night Bentley wanted to confess to Penelope, and might need help from Sly. He knew he couldn't let Bentley down, but couldn't leave his sister alone. Anything could happen to her, especially when she was kidnapped from the hideout.
"Actually, you guys will go. I'll stay here. You better watch over her Murray."
The hippo smiles at Sly. "Fantastic! C'mon Isabella! Hey, can I call you Bella?" The sound of a door shutting is heard again. Sly sits back down in his chair and Bentley thanks him. Penelope's eyes slowly make their way to see Sly and Bentley. "So..."
Sly looks down and grins. "And then there were three."
Bentley's anxiety forces his fingers to stop typing and commands his mouth to say simple sentences he hopes won't go wrong. "Penelope, you said you wanted to remember the memories you had with us. I am assuming you would like to hear them now?"
Sly glances at Penelope whose frown diminished from her face. "With help of the both of us of course."
"Yes!" Penelope squeals. "That would make me so pleased! I can't wait any longer!"
Bentley fakes a smile and sighs. "Great… Let me pull up the side-show I made today. I have a lot of memories here. Some are good and some are not… Are you ready?" Bentley is choking on his words. Should he do this? His stomach doesn't feel like it should.
"I am ready." Penelope smiles.
Sly's eyes look at Bentley and he can tell the turtle must feel like his insides are falling like an avalanche. He watches him type in his laptop for the side-show. He pulls out the same hologram presenter that Penelope used in ancient Egypt out of his shell. The USB cord is plugged in the laptop and almost instantaneously the hologram shows a picture of the old Cooper Vault eight years ago before it was destroyed.
"Eight years ago, Sly decided that he wanted to go to his family's vault, the Cooper vault. He's not a Coon, but a Cooper. The Cooper family has a long line of thieves going back even ten-thousand B.C.! However, the Cooper vault was heavily guarded by a former member of Sly's father's gang; the first Cooper gang, named Dr. M. To break into the vault, we needed a larger gang with specialized members. We needed a recovery member, one who specializes in telekinesis, one with radio control, one with artillery skills that far surpass mine, and one in the field of submersibles."
The slide changed to a picture of Venice, Italy. Sly decides to speak. "First, we needed Murray back. He left the gang the year before due to Bentley's accident, leaving his legs paralyzed."
"Why would Murray leave for that reason?" Penelope asked.
"He felt that accident was his fault that he should've prevented the accident but he didn't. We all disagreed but he left anyway." Penelope nodded as Sly continued. "So we needed Murray back for the sake that he's always been with us, he was like family to us, and we needed his brawn back. We found out he was in a mission for his 'master', the Guru. He must not leave until the black water ran pure. It turned out the black water was just intentional oil spills by some obsessed Opera singer. We helped Murray fix that problem and he was added back to the gang." Bentley changed the slide to a picture of the Australian Outback back when the miners were tearing up the land.
"However, Murray was not too happy joining the gang until he got word from the Guru. We traveled to the Australian Outback only to find out the land was being scratched, dug, drilled, and the Guru was imprisoned. We broke him out of his incarceration and stopped the miners. The Guru joined the gang because of that, making him the useful telekinesis gang member."
Bentley changes the slide to a large picture of Carmelita with a glowing mask on her face. "Wait, I didn't put this on there!"
Sly laughs, making Penelope giggle. "Let's not forget the time that mask turned her into a twenty-story tall giant wanting to kill me."
Bentley smacks his palm at his forehead and groans. "Why?"
"Oh come on buddy," Sly cracks up, lightly pushing him. "That was the best part of being there!"
"Right… So us, almost getting killed was fun. Awesome." Bentley quickly skipped through the few prank pictures they gave Carmelita and stopped at a picture of Penelope in her overalls eight years ago. "Wow, that's me? I looked… different!" Penelope giggles. Bentley feels a little confidence from hearing her giggle.
"Yes, she was and still is a beautiful mouse." He changes the slide to an online chat conversation he had with her. "Next we needed a radio control expert that exceeded my radio control skills. When I met you Penelope, I knew you were the one for the job. Unfortunately, you would not accept to be in our gang until we proved we could beat your boss, the Black Baron." The slide-show showed a picture of him in a biplane. "He was the leader of the ACES program in Holland, which meant he specialized in dogfights and winning every fight. We took the challenge and participated in the dogfights."
The next picture was Sly in a pilot uniform next to a blue biplane with the beauty of Holland in the background. Penelope is super amused to this story and tries to remember the memories. No memory so far. "Our first video call was when we needed your help. Guards started attacking our garage that held our biplane and we couldn't fight back so many. I told you we needed help to fight them away and using your RC helicopter, you grabbed guards and even tanks with your claw to fling them away to their death. You handled the situation flawlessly! At that point I KNEW you had to join the gang."
Penelope smirks and blushes a little, making Bentley smile too. "In the finals, Sly beat the Black Baron but in a huge plot twist…" The slide changed to the mask of the Black Baron off and shows Penelope's head replacing it. "You were the Black Baron all along."
Penelope covers her mouth. "Oh my, that is one heck of a plot twist!"
"Precisely." Bentley smirks. "After explaining, we understood your situation and you did not hesitate to join our gang." The next hologram shows various nature pictures of Holland. "You flew us around Holland and after all that fun, we went right back to business. For nights I was planning how to get into the Cooper vault but I later found out, we needed someone who is expert at artillery. As hard it was to say, we needed a former member of the Fiendish Five, the enemy group of the Cooper gang; more towards the Cooper family and Sly. We needed the Panda King, who was studied fireworks for most of his life and helped err… end Sly's father's life. We left to go to China. We all weren't happy but we let him in for business."
Sly closes his eyes and Penelope can sense his struggle. Bentley wanted Sly to talk but he knew it was bad timing. The slide changed to a picture of China. "We had to help the Panda King with his daughter issue for him to join the gang. Many jobs happened along the way and I saw that you were very vital to the gang. Also I noticed you were very intelligent like me. I liked that." Bentley pauses to smile and the slide changes to a picture of Penelope and Murray with the frozen Cooper van. Sly decided to talk for this one.
"The two of you worked a lot together and in one mission you picked up a signal coming from China's waters. It was the Cooper van that we lost the year before and you found it. You used your helicopter thing to reel in the van to land."
"I'm guessing Murray was overly excited from this?" Penelope chuckles.
"He sure was!" Bentley smiles. "Also," The slide changed to a picture of a RC car following a trail of gunpowder. "You saved Murray's life. He was strapped to a large firework to be exploded to bits. None of us were fast enough so used your go cart to extinguish the fuse. You two worked together with the operation too. You participated in getting General Tsao's ancestry treasure as shown in the next slide." After that slide, a picture of Penelope captured by the Stone Dragon shows.
"This is when the Stone Dragon was summoned and you were captured by it. Sly ended up paragliding to the dragon and defeating it, saving you."
"Thanks Sly!" Penelope yells. Sly chuckles. "Only eight years late but thanks."
"After that, I came in contact with Dimitri. He explained that his grandfather was skilled at diving and he would be more than happy to help us out for the submersibles. Unfortunately, his grandfather's diving suit was stuck on an island guarded by pirates. We had to get it for Dimitri." The next picture was a picture of Blood Bath Bay.
"I remember when you and Bentley were working together and you got temporarily blind from a trap and Bentley used his Grapple Cam to make bird noises to guide you back at the Safehouse. 'You saved my life.'"
"Yeah…" Bentley blushes. "Best thing I have done. Ever since then I kept catching you glancing at me instead of Sly. Also, we had so much in common but you didn't see that yet. Anyways, that was shortly lived… By the time we dug up Dimitri's treasure, Captain LeFwee caught up with us and kept you in his hostage." The next picture showed a pirate bird. "Either we kept the treasure and he took you or we leave the treasure and keep you. If he kept the treasure we never would've seen it again. I knew that if he kept you, we knew who you are with. So we decided to keep the treasure and-"
"YOU LEFT ME WITH HIM?!" Penelope yelped, terrified. "Are kidding me?!"
Bentley's mouth was numb and Sly gets her attention. "Penelope, I'm the one who decided on this. It's my fault. We had no choice. We KNEW we would get you back and outsmart the 'smartest man in the seven seas.'"
"I was overly worried…" Bentley admitted vacantly. "I didn't know why I was too worried about this, but I was… so afraid of what he would do to you and I would not leave that pirate infestation until I had you with me safely. I would fight until I had you."
"AARGG, indeed he was!" Sly agreed with a pirate accent. With the look on Bentley's face, he stopped. "I knew something was up and that he was not the same ever since LeFwee took you. Like something changed inside him, the same fighter side of him when Murray and I were in Contessa's prison. It was huge."
Penelope started to calm down but she was still cautious. "So what happened next?"
"We eventually caught up with that bird and with Guru's help, I was able to unlock you from your prison." Bentley said. "The look on your face was worth everything we did. However, LeFwee was too fast and as Sly and I attempted to save you, he threw Sly in the water and knocked me out of my wheelchair. This angered you, making you say that I beat him in all his plans and that I was smarter than him. This led to… a sword fight."
Bentley changed the picture to the sword fight Penelope and Lefwee had on the ship's poles. She started laughing out loud as Sly chuckles. "If only I saw that. Too bad I was busy drowning. How ironic is a girl really good at flying, boxing, AND sword fighting. A smart girl who knows how to defend herself, who would've known she could do all those things. How did you get a picture of this?"
"My wheelchair has its ways. A good picture isn't it? I have to admit, I was surprised she could do such a thing, especially in that dress. She looked so beautiful in that dress and the way her hair was when she helped me back in my wheelchair after defeating him. That's when I asked you to be my girlfriend." Bentley continues as his cheeks warm up. The next slide shows a picture of Penelope in his arms. "I felt at that moment it was the right thing to do. From liking everything you did, getting jealous when you called Sly your hero, getting super worried when you were in Lefwee's hands and how happy I was to see you again, I realized that I was in love with you, and I wanted you. I never felt that way about anyone but you. It was simply… amazing. New and amazing."
"Awww!" Penelope said. "Bentley, that is so cute!"
"I agree!" Sly smiles. "What you said was so cute and cheesy that I think I felt my heart flutter." He ended with a laugh. Bentley gave a nervous giggle and kept smiling while looking at his mouse. "Well, it's all true. Every word."
Penelope gets out of her chair and rushes to Bentley, attacking him with a full-hearted hug and her lips meet with his. Sly is happy for them for a second but realizes this won't last once she finds out; once she finds out what happened just months ago. Penelope kisses him once more and backs away, heading for her chair again. "I can't wait to hear more."
Bentley's face is flushed with emotions and can't control his facial expressions, so he is stuck with a smile on his face. "You were very helpful with the very last job as a gang of seven. The ending was a victory and a disaster. Sly got into his family vault but soon after that it started to fall apart. By the time we arrived to the vault it was destroyed but what was left was his cane and red pocket with a calling card. That told us he was alive but not wanted to be seen as Sly Cooper."
"I got hit hard trying to protect Carmelita from a deathly blow Dr. M. caused. When she defeated him and reported to me, I pretended to have amnesia which gave her the choice to start things over between us. It worked!"
Penelope nodded as Bentley continued. "We decided to go our separate ways. Sly stayed with Carmelita, Murray got into car racing with is van of course, Dimitri hosted a diving TV show that as you can see he still does, Panda King reported back to China to be with his daughter, the Guru went to New York City to share his mind with a band, and you and I stayed in that lab right next-door to this hideout. We were working on a time machine together, and we succeeded just months ago."
Bentley's voice already started to sink down. Penelope smiles again. "That sounds really nice Bentley!"
The slide showed a picture of the lovers in front of their invention with lab suits on and holding a glass of root beer. He remembered how happy he was when the picture was taken. That was the day before she left, before he was worried constantly about where she is, before he realized how she joined the darkness. This was the time; he had to tell Penelope the bad memories that would only get worse. Will it get better? The mouse notices that Bentley has not spoken or moved the slide in a while, and he was staring into space with a grimace frozen cold on his face. "Bentley dear, are you okay?"
His eyes try to build a barrier for the tears to stay in and never leave. Now is not the time to cry, but his sore throat tells him he wants to. He battles with the agony in his guts. He's thinking if he should do it. His brain says yes, his heart is everywhere. Bentley wants to tell her the truth for he cannot hold it any longer. However, if he doesn't tell her, she wouldn't be mad at him for she would not know the secret. Could he live through the guilt, just ignore it? He begins to back away but a hand grabs his arm; catching his attention. Sly searches in Bentley's eyes and sees fear and anguish. From his eyes, Sly tells his friend that he must do this, and he knows it. He must tell Penelope and be the strong turtle he is. Bentley sucks in air through his nostrils, closes his eyes, and sighs. His eyes open to hers.
"Penelope," his voice is weak but she listens. "These next memories turn bad between us, and it gets worse. I understand if you hate me forever. I need you to promise me to be understanding. Please? Do you promise?"
She is out of breath. "Of course…"
"Well, the day after this picture, you were missing. At first I waited; maybe you went out for a while or went shopping. Hours passed, you weren't there." Penelope frowns as he continues. "I searched the entire lab and the hideout. I couldn't find you. I heard an alarm from the lab. Something was wrong. I checked the lab again, hoping you were there. Instead, articles in Sly's family book, the Thievius Raccoonus, were vanishing. You were gone, and so was Sly's lineage. We traveled back in time and found out someone was trying to erase the Cooper larceny line for good. His name was Le Paradox and he hired many to help him succeed. After moving to feudal Japan, Wild West, and a time where dinosaurs ruled the world, we traveled to medieval times. There I found you, but you were working for him…"
Bentley paused and Penelope's innocent eyes never left him. "Why did I leave you to do that?"
"You said that we would've done more with our inventions. We would've ruled the world, but I'm working with a thief that happens to be my friend. I couldn't be any happier than to work in the field of thievery. You said I didn't have potential anymore for working with Sly. You wanted me to find my potential with you, but there is no other occupation I would rather have than be a mastermind in a gang. I felt the Coopers are my family, and no matter what I would never leave. When a disagreement occurred, we fought with battlebots. I won and left."
Penelope was silent as Bentley paused again. "After the gang and Sly's ancestors defeated Le Paradox, Sly was lost in time and stayed in ancient Egypt. At this time somehow, you knew where he was. The gang, including Inspector Fox, couldn't find out where he was until months later. By the time we arrived at ancient Egypt, he found a friend who is Isabella now. Sly's body parts were missing. He started disappearing. With some analyzing, the threat of eliminating the Cooper family was still there. His ancestor in ancient Egypt was executed therefore he could not pass down the family line. Sly was going to be nonexistent. Who caused this? Why?"
The mouse shook her head. "I didn't… did I? I'm sorry…"
"Yes it was you. You confronted us with vigor. You had a device that can let us see events back in time and showed us that Sly had a sister he never knew about. That was Isabella."
"You never knew?" she asks Sly.
"Nope. Thanks to you, I know now."
The slide changes through pictures of medieval times and ancient Egypt, causing Bentley to sigh. "You were going to personally kill those two to erase the family line once and for all. Isabella was not happy and you ended up… well, unconscious for a while. You… didn't look that alive."
"Oh really?" Penelope's eyes widen. "She could do that?"
"Anger can make someone do crazy things. Especially with the stuff she went through." Sly states.
Bentley's head sulks below his collarbone. "I couldn't see you like that. I needed you back. I wanted you alive, but your mind was too formidable to be with others here; considering you escaped out of a high security prison to head your way to crime and ancient Egypt."
"Well I'm alive now… What did you do?" She asked with her tone in suspicion.
Bentley looks at Sly as he feels a drop of sweat climb down the side of his face. "Well, I wanted you alive, but not with the recent memories of us. In addition, I had to prevent you from causing the death of Sly's ancestor. So I uh…" Penelope watched him bite his lip and close his eyes. Her ears craved an answer, and the final truth was pounding at his chest; about to spring out his mouth. Sly watched the action movie with severe suspense as the energy between the couple grew stronger. She is tuned in to this that any noise would be loud and clear to her.
"You what?"
"I… I erased your memory with a device I made…"
There he said it, the words as hard as cement crushed her face, her body, and most importantly, her heart. She sat there, powerless and weak as the turtle finally looked at her. "I did it." His voice trembles. "It's the only way I thought was right at that time. I was in pressure with Sly's disappearance… a-and I needed to save his existence. Your intellectual mind was too… too dangerous and having no memory would keep you safe; u-us safe. I wanted you alive but with the memor-"
"How could you…" She whispers with tears in her eyes. Her eyes no longer look at his, covers them with her eyelids and she turns her head right.
Bentley's heart was punched by the broken trust her face and voice show. His bruise leaves him speechless. His lungs reach for air but nothing comes out. Bentley's stupefied body observes her as she looks at Sly. She swallows with quaking lips. "Is this true…?"
Sly fears of her response. Will saying the truth ruin Bentley's chance with Penelope? Should he have a say in this? She deserves the truth but Bentley doesn't deserve anything rash. Or does he? He did the right thing at the time; Sly agrees. But was it right for the relationship? Penelope won't wait anymore. "Well?!" she wails with a stern yet broken face.
The raccoon forces himself to nod. Sly never knew this would get that bad. He can only imagine on what happens next. Penelope gasps slightly and reacts as if her insides were ripped out of her. "You knew…" she whispers while looks away. "I don't know who I am. I don't know my childhood or my family," Her tone rises. "Or my dreams, or all the achievements I have done, or what I felt during my greatest moments, or any of my memories…"
Her eyes stab Bentley as she finishes, "Because of you! YOU!"
In a second, Bentley's mouth drops. Never in the past eight years has he ever seen her this way. The mouse's eyes are drenched while she keeps her scowl. Penelope leaps from her chair and marches to the door. Bentley's consciousness snaps and goes after her; reaching. "Wait, Penelope!" Sly stands up with his mouth agape. "Where are you going?!" the turtle yells as he moves his wheelchair faster, but abruptly stops when she does in the hallway out. A finger is shoved in his face.
"I'm leaving Paris, and don't you DARE try to find me. Don't check up on me, don't look for me, and don't talk to me. Leave me alone, the entire gang! Leave me alone! I don't want this! I don't want to be lied to or be your memory loss experiment!"
"But -"
"But nothing! Goodbye Bentley."
The turtle sat and watched as she slams the door behind her. Penelope leaves again but with a lost mind, broken heart, and her face drowning in tears.
*I was sad writing this chapter. However I was excited in explaining it. From what Bentley did to Penelope in the first book, did you think the truth would come up eventually? Don't be afraid to comment! :D I hope to make more chapters soon for you guys!*
