Wow, it really took way too long for me to finish this chapter. It's been nearly two months since I've updated it. This chapter wasn't hard to write, like chapter nine was, I just didn't have much motivation or muse for it. But I finally managed to get back into the swing of things long enough to finish it! I really did miss writing these dorks. This chapter is really a rollercoaster of emotions, but that's just the way it ended up playing out.

Also! This fanfic is officially one year old now! As of three days ago on July 21. Maann, time flies!


Chapter Ten: The Other Side Of The Glass

When I first became aware of existing again, I immediately decided that I did not want to. It was a familiar feeling, but this time it was acompanied by a throbbing pain in my head that seemed to originate from the left side of my forehead.

Despite being only half-concsious, I was aware of vague thoughts swimming through my head. None of them really seemed to make all that much sense, though... But somewhere in the back of my head was this urgent feeling, like something important was meant to be going on, and I needed to remember what it was.

But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what had happened, let alone what might be so important. I somehow felt like I shouldn't have forgotten... Which was another feeling that was somehow incredibly familiar...

I finally started coming to at the exact same moment that I remembered what was so important. As my brain finally decied to wake up, all the pieces finally clicked back into place, as if I had never forgotten them in the first place.

My attempt at finding a way to get both Murray and I out of prison had failed incredibly miserably. In hindsight, I shouldn't have expected anything less. It was the most secure prison I'd ever heard of, what made us think that an eighteen year old with no prior criminal training could have found a viable way of escape?

It had been a plan doomed to failure the minute we conceived it, but we figured that we had to try something... I wasn't sure if that had really been the right plan of attack, though. I was probably in way more legal trouble than I had been before. I groaned at this thought as I tried to sit up, dreading the punishment I was probably going to receive.

My head was swimming a bit as I pulled myself into a half-sitting position and rubbed at my eyes. I was aware of a bandage wrapped around my forehead, seeming to be catering to my left eyebrow region. I took a moment to regain my bearings as I stared at... The dingey wood flooring? I abruptly stopped rubbing my eyes, and slowly looked up, becoming aware of the other person in the room with me.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. We were starting to get worried about you,"

I blinked a few times, trying to get my brain to comprehend what I was seeing. Though the lighting was dim and my glasses were nowhere in sight, there was no mistaking the person whom was sitting at a table a few feet away from me. I blinked another two times, almost believing that this was a dream.

"Bentley?"

He got up from his seat and walked over to me, and now I could see that he was smiling gently at me. "You're lucky we found you before the guards got you back inside,"

...So that had really been them breaking into the evidence lockup? And they'd found me, and rescued me... I let out a flimsy sigh as I realized that some small part of this was over. I wasn't in the prison anymore, and that alone was enough to give me hope again. I was so overcome by the concept that I couldn't think of a single thing to say.

"Nyx? Are you alright?" I was snapped back to reality by Bentley's concerned query.

I gave a breathless laugh and nodded slightly. "Yeah, I'm... I'm alright. My head's just a little mixed up right now and I can't believe this is actually happening..." I pulled myself into a proper sitting position, despite my sore body and pounding head. ...And I thought I'd been sore after wrestling Clockwerk's wings...

"That's quite reasonable, you took a pretty nasty hit to the head when the guards subdued you," Bentley nodded thoughtfully. "Whatever you hit your head on was sharp enough to break the skin, probably aided by getting caught on your piercing,"

I raised my hand to touch the bandage over said spot. "I never thought I'd ever get an eyebrow piercing caught on something..." I mused. "Guess I'll have a prison scar now, huh? Be a pretty funny story later on, don't you think?"

Bentley had to laugh a little at my stupid joke. "Good to know that you're not mentally scarred,"

I laughed, too, and then finally noticed that something was missing. I'd been too focused on being happy about seeing Bentley again that I hadn't noticed. And I was immediately a bit concerned. "Where's Sly?"

"He's out trying to contact Murray. I've found a weakness in the solitary confinement cell, and if he can get thrown in there, we should be able to break him out," Bentley replied.

I let out a small sigh of relief and nodded. Some part of me had almost assumed that something had gone wrong when they'd relieved the guards of their responsibility over me. "Good... Oh man, I hope Murray doesn't think I ditched him..."

Bentley raised an eyebrow. "Ditched?"

"Why else do you think I was out there? We kinda tried to orchestrate our own jailbreak, heh..." I said, laughing nervously. "We figured it was worth the shot at the time. Murray pried open the storm drain, and I crawled out of it. I was supposed to try finding keys or some way to get both of us out - Because I wasn't gonna go anywhere without him even if I could - But then the alarms went off, and I got spotted and, well... You know the rest,"

"I wondered what you were doing out there..." Bentley replied. "That was a pretty bold move,"

"Yeah, I know... Stupidest thing I've ever done but. Hey I guess it worked out?" I shrugged. "And I mean, we couldn't just sit there and let that psychopath try and brainwash us! Do you know she's a member of the Klaww Gang?"

"That we do... Sly's been pretty angry at himself for letting you get caught by them, you know," Bentley said, and I felt like there was a specific reason he was telling me this.

Which was most likely the fact that we both knew this wasn't Sly's fault. But we also both knew that Sly is incredibly stubborn. "...I'll talk to him," I said decidedly.

Bentley smiled as if to say thank you. "You're also going to have to explain what you were thinking when you left the safehouse,"

I groaned. "I was hoping I could delay that a little more..."

"I think I understand your reasoning, but Sly probably needs to hear it from you," Bentley said. "He's going to find it hard to believe that someone like you would be willing to risk everything for him,"

"That makes sense..." I mumbled, more to myself than to Bentley. "You guys grew up together, it's always been just the three of you, huh?"

Bentley nodded. "Mhm. Sly might need a little convincing to believe that you really want to do this, but I don't think he'll mind having you around,"

"Yeah, I-" I stopped mid-sentence. "Wait a minute, did I miss something? I don't recall confessing my allegiance to your cause quite yet,"

Bentley smiled both deviously and knowingly. "You didn't need to tell me, running out of the safehouse to help Sly - Despite all the danger - Said it all,"

I blinked at him for a moment. And then I smiled and shook my head. "Sometimes you scare me, Bentley. Are you sure you're not a mind-reader? Do you have a crystal ball stowed away somewhere?"

Bentley chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I'm just a very observant turtle,"

"Pfft, sure. That's what they all say," I rolled my eyes (which made my headache worse somehow) and looked at Bentley skeptically.

We both laughed, and I felt a sense of peace that I had never realized I'd been missing until now. When the comedy finally faded, my thoughts returned to more serious matters as I began to think about Sly again.

"It's only been like a week... Is Sly really okay enough to be out there?" I asked. When I'd seen him last, he'd been a wreck, and I wasn't sure if just a week was enough to recover from a high-voltage electrocution. That stuff is deadly. That's why the electric chair is a thing.

"I wish I could tell you yes," Bentley replied, seeming just as unamused as I was. "He's alright to be up on his feet, but I don't know if he'll be able to handle one job after another... Only time will tell,"

I gave a thoughtful and worried hum. "...Well... If there's any jobs I can help with, know that I absolutely want to, okay? I've made my decision. So I wanna help,"

Bentley seemed to consider the idea for a moment. "How bad does your head hurt?"

"Not bad enough that some painkillers won't solve the problem," I replied. That was a lie, though; It hurt more than that. But if Sly could go running about when he was probably still pretty badly hurt, then I could fight through a simple headache. I was at least pretty sure I didn't have a concussion, so I figured I'd be okay.

"Alright," Bentley sighed. "I'll see what you can't help with - But first, those painkillers,"

"That sounds like a perfect order of business," I replied. "Also where in the world are my glasses? Those are kind of necessary for everything,"

"I know the feeling," Bentley replied. "They're over here, I just finished fixing them, they were a bit broken,"

"As if they hadn't taken enough abuse as it was," I sighed. Though at the least, I trusted Bentley's ability to fix things. I watched as the turtle moved about the safehouse, finding the painkillers and a bottle of water. He brought them to me, followed by my glasses.

I made a note to put my glasses on first. If I focused on it, they were just a little crooked, and there were a few scratches on the lenses. But if I didn't focus on it then it was like they weren't there at all. I took the painkillers and also downed half the water bottle. "Okay. Step one completed. Step two; Talk turkey about prison breaks,"

Bentley rolled his eyes at my wording, and motioned for me to follow him to the table where his familiar laptop sat. My legs didn't exactly want to cooperate yet, but I forced them to cross the room and sit in a chair.

"Alright, you already know that Sly's off getting Murray into solitary," Bentley began.

"'Cause there's a weakness in that cell, right?"

"Yes. In order to get in there and get out, though, we're going to have to do some more work out here," Bentley turned his laptop towards me to show me all the schematics and algorithms that were involved in all this.

I nodded blankly at the math on the screen. "It's never easy, is it?"

"Nope. If we want to get into that cell, there's a number of things we must do; Destroy the main bridge, get a sample of Contessa's decryption algorithm, pickpocket Contessa for her tank blueprints, and destroy her giant attack robot," Bentley said, showing me information on each thing as he listed them.

My brain was sort of stuck on the last one, and I tried to not laugh. "Attack robot? Bentley... Bentley that's a water tower..."

"Sly said the same thing, but that's just what Contessa wants you to think! I assure you, it's a giant attack robot," Bentley insisted.

I smothered back a laugh that still managed to escape a little, but then regained my composure and nodded. "Alright, okay. But I wanna be there for that one,"

"Permission granted," Bentley said. "Sly could use a spotter for that one, anyways,"

Spotter? I was about to question this, when the safehouse door creaked open. I turned in my chair to watch Sly slip inside, and sort of got deja-vu as I did so. It reminded me of the first time we'd properly met, after I'd regained conciousness in the Paris safehouse.

Sly turned towards the table, looking like he was going to say something to Bentley, but then seemed to forget what it was when he saw that I was awake. He looked at me for a moment, as I did the same, and neither of us seemed to know what to say.

Finally, Sly broke the ice, and gave me a familiar smirk. "Hey. You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Not as shaken up as I honestly should be," I replied. We were totally almost quoting the first things we'd said to each other back in Paris. I was conciously doing it to amuse myself, but was he aware of it?

Sly laughed, and it was almost like some unseen force suddenly lifted off of him as he crossed the room to put a hand on my shoulder. "This is like deja-vu all over again, isn't it?"

"So you were quoting what you said when we first properly met?" I asked.

"Yup. Couldn't resist, it just felt so familiar," Sly shrugged, still grinning.

I laughed, and I almost could have forgotten where we were and what was going on. Despite everything that had happened, somehow here we were, making stupid jokes. It was good to know that nothing had changed. But yet, something had.

Sly took a moment to compose himself before speaking to Bentley. "Murray's gotten himself into solitary, all that's left is for us to get in there,"

"Which sounds way easier said than done..." I mumbled. "Like how in the world are you gonna pickpocket Contessa? She has guards shadowing her 24/7," I hated having to get back to business, but it had to be done. Murray was counting on us.

"I'm a Cooper," Sly purred, giving me a cocky sidelong glance. "I'll find a way,"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Sure you will,"

Sly snorted, and then a look of thoughtfulness crossed his face. "...It's good to see that you're not hurt... Too badly," he tacked on the last part after glancing at the bandage over my eye.

"You're concerned about me being hurt, and Bentley's concerned about me being mentally scarred, jeez what's with you guys?" I asked, saying it like a joke but actually being sort of serious about it.

Sly shrugged. "Can't be concerned for a friend?"

"Well sure you can!" I replied. "But you have no right to be worried about me. What about you? You got electrocuted a week ago,"

"Nyx, I'm fine. It wasn't that bad," Sly said, obviously trying to squirm away from the subject.

"Sly, I saw you. You were a wreck," I replied, staring directly at him.

"Okay, alright, fine. But I'm okay now, will you accept that?" Sly asked, putting his hands up placatingly.

I sighed. "No, but..." I paused. Thinking about the last time I saw him wasn't pleasant. I got up from my chair and wrapped my arms around him in the tightest hug I could manage. "...I'm just glad you're not dead,"

Sly hesitated just a bit before returning the hug and holding me tightly. "It takes more than a little electricity to kill a Cooper,"

"Mhm, sure," I mumbled into his shoulder.

Eventually I pulled away, despite not wanting to. Sly was warm and huggable, but we had important business to attend to. "Oh, also, Bentley says you're blaming yourself for me ending up in a prison run by a Klaww Gang member. And that's a thing that's gonna stop right here and now,"

Sly looked very caught off-guard by my sudden change of conversational direction. And for a moment he stared at me, before finally responding. "We offered to let you come with us to avoid them, though. And here it feels like we just handed you over,"

"No," I said firmly, gesturing at him with the index finger of business. "I ended up in prison because I made the decision to help out someone I care about a lot. It hasn't been about the Klaww Gang for me for quite a while now,"

"...Then what is it about?" Sly asked.

"It's about you. About this gang. About the people I care about and the good cause you've introduced me to," I replied. "Before now, I can't think of a single thing that I actually wanted to fight for, because I loved it and the people involved. I was okay with just being over on the sidelines of life and doing my own thing,"

"And then I met you guys and I learned all about what you do. And after months of sharing it with me, and getting to know and like each other... After I actually helped a few times... Do you really not believe that maybe I care a whole lot?"

Sly stared at me, blinking slowly. I patiently awaited his reaction as he seemed to mentally organize what I'd just told him.

"This is really somthing you wanna do?" Sly finally asked. "You'd be giving up everything you've ever known, to be part of our gang. You couldn't go back,"

"I honestly think I already can't, Sly. I was arrested for being associated with you, I'm definitely in some deep trouble. I made that choice and I do not regret it," I replied.

Sly was silent just a moment more. And then he smiled and nodded. "Alright... Alright you win,"

I beamed up at him trumphantly. I had almost expected it to take more convincing, but I was glad that it hadn't. I knew that learning all the nuances of being part of this gang was going to be tough, but I'd already decided it was something I was willing to fight through.

"But now you cannot escape those pickpocketing lessons, y'know," Sly purred smugly, grinning down at me.

"You say that like it's a bad thing. That would have honestly been useful earlier," I said. Although, it would have taken way more than pickpocketing skills to have kept Murray and I's previous plan from failing.

"Perhaps instead you should begin by teaching her how to get around without being caught? That's quite essential," Bentley suggested. He'd been quiet while Sly and I had our rollercoaster moment of emotions, but now it seemed he was ready to properly dive back into business.

"Yeah, that's a good place to start, too," Sly agreed. "After all, your first attempt went pretty badly," he teased.

"Hey!" I protested. "I was doing just fine until someone tripped the alarm in the evidence lockup,"

Bentley made a sound that was half groan and half laugh as our attention was then drawn back to making fun of each other.


It had taken a bit of effort from Bentley to corral Sly and I into talking business again. But once he did, business was all that mattered. I had to remind myself that Murray was counting on us. Sly had assured me that the hippo didn't think I'd bailed on him. Sly said that he'd been pretty worried when I'd never come back (or been brought back), and was relieved to hear that I was safe.

And now we had to put all our effort into getting him out. It felt sort of strange, actually being a part of things now. It felt like being on the other side of the glass. Everything was still familiar, the same things I'd been watching... Except now I wasn't watching anymore, I was there in the thick of it.

Which was actually a little bit terrifying, considering that 'the thick of it' was currently up on the roof of the prison. Lesson one in thieving had been how to sneak around and do it properly, and lesson two had been how to climb up stuff and not freak out on the way up.

...Learning to do this thieving thing was definitely going to take some doing, I realized. But I refused to let that faze me. I had climbed up here, and was doing a pretty good job at not falling or freaking out. I'm a cat, for god's sake, we're supposed to be good at climbing.

"...Now I understand why Bentley said you'd need a spotter..." I mumbled to Sly as we both stared at our general objective. "You sure you wanna get that close to more lightning?"

"Well, I trust you to tell me before it hits so I can get out of the way," Sly replied.

"Alright, good to know you trust me, otherwise this would never work," I nodded.

"Yep, it's all about team work," Sly said, clapping me on the shoulder and then jumping from the building we stood upon to dash towards the lightning rod thing.

Our current objective was to destory the water tower that was apparently actually a giant attack robot, according to Bentley. This was to be achieved by turning off all the lightning rods that were diverting lightning from the tower - Er - Robot. Hopefully, this would make a strong bolt of lightning hit the robot and destroy it. Or just spray water everywhere, if Bentley was wrong.

The thing about the lightning rods is that you can still get electrocuted by them if you're standing close enough to, say, shut them off. That's why Sly needed me as a spotter. Bentley said they glowed red when a bolt is about to strike them, so that's what I was looking for.

Physically, this was a very easy first job. Mentally it was a bit distressing. Because if I screwed up, Sly could very well be killed. But then... This wasn't actually my first job... That had been back in India with the spice grinder, and Sly could have gotten hurt then, too... And I'd done that just fine.

So alright, yeah. I could do this. As Sly approached the platform the rod was mounted to, I brought the binocucom I'd been given to my eyes, and zoomed in on the tower and the air above it. Bentley said they would glow red when a bolt of lightning is about to hit...

Except by themselves they were already red. I supposed that they would just glow brighter, then? I sure hoped so. I concentrated on the glow of the rod as intently as possible, as Sly made his way around it, closing all four valves around it's base.

"Alright, first rod is down," Sly's voice came in over the earpiece no sooner than his statement became obvious by the lightning rod powering down and becoming a lifeless gray. "Think you can follow me to the next one, Nyx?"

The next one, as marked by the nearest holographical waypoint, seemed like it could easily be reached by climbing back to the prison wall, and just moving around it. "Yeah, I think so,"

"Alright, watch out for guards,"

"Will do," I replied as I leapt back over the gap to the wall, and began making my way across it. Part of lesson one had been learning how to stay low and be quiet whilst moving, but also still move quickly. As a feline, the low and quiet part came a bit naturally to me, but adding the quickly to the quietly wasn't quite so simple. At least if I made a bit of noise up on the wall, there weren't really many guards around to hear it. Or so I hoped. Bentley had taken out the wall guards sometime before I'd woken up, and it seemed like Contessa hadn't found the time or resources to station new ones.

As I reached lightning rod two, I waved to Sly to let him know he was clear to climb up to it. He wasted no time in doing so, and began to close the valves. I was starting to relax into the concept of this job, and just everything in general, but I wasn't going to allow that to make me complacent. While I was a bit less on edge, I continued to focus intently on the lightning rod.

Which turned out to be a pretty good thing. It was hard to see at first, considering that the rod already glowed to some extent, but I very quickly realized that it was indeed glowing brighter...

"Sly, get out of there!" I tried my best to not sound totally freaked out, and I have to say I think I did pretty well.

As soon as the words left my lips, Sly jumped backwards off the platform, and clung to a ledge below it. No sooner than he'd done that, a bright bolt of lightning struck the rod, and it lit up like a fireworks display. Seconds later, and the low sound of thunder reached my ears.

"Nice job," Sly said as he pulled himself back up onto the platform to quickly close the last valve on that rod. "You sure you haven't done this before?"

"Well, technically speaking, I have. I guided you through the spice grinder, didn't I? This time I'm just actually here instead of being in the safehouse," I replied, trying to shrug off the adrenaline rush from the lightning show.

"Oh, technicalities," Sly laughed. He would probably have been rolling his eyes at me, had we been in proper visual range.

Perhaps it was his carefree and joking attitude that was helping me relax, but as we continued around the prison, disabling all the lightning rods, I felt less and less nervous about this. Even when the rods began to glow and I knew Sly only had seconds to get my warning and get out of dodge, the tense element was slowly melting away.

"And that's the last one," Sly announced as he closed the final valve on the final rod.

My gaze was drawn to my left at the sound and flash of a lightning strike, followed by electric sparks, and grinding metal. My jaw dropped as I watched the water tower - Now with glowing robotic eyes - try to walk on it's legs like a spider as it sparked and short-circuited.

The show was short-lived, as the robot quickly stopped functioning, and collapsed into a pile of smoking metal. Even once it was over, I continued to stare at it, half expecting it to get back up.

"That..." I was at a loss for words for a moment. "Might just be the most amazing thing I've ever seen..."

"Wow. I can't believe you were right, Bentley... A water tower guard-bot..." Sly sounded just as amazed as I was.

"See? Maybe next time you'll learn to not doubt me," and Bentley sounded incredibly smug that his ridiculous claims turned out to be true.

"How much do you think that thing cost?" I asked as I watched the smoke climb into the sky. "I've never seen anything like it, so probably a lot, huh? ...Interpol is gonna be pissed that it's been destroyed, aren't they?"

"The question is; Will they be more pissed that they let a Klaww Gang member rise to be one of their highest commanding prison wardens?" Sly asked in return as we both started back for the safehouse.

"Hm. Good question,"


I chewed at the inside of my lip as Bentley set up his slide projector. I was desperately trying to not let my apprehension towards our next objective get to me. ...The last thing I really wanted to do was go back inside that prison for any reason.

But this was for Murray, I reminded myself. He was counting on us to free him, and I'd be damned if I let my overthinking keep me from helping. This mindset, while helpful, still didn't entirely keep me from feeling just a little bit uneasy about the whole idea. By the time the water tower job had been over, I'd been pretty comfortable with the specifics of it, but each new task brought on a wave of uncertainty towards my own skills. I figured it would probably be like that for a while, and all I could do was fight through and prove myself wrong.

"Hey, you alright?" perhaps I jumped a bit as Sly sat down next to me, nudging me with his shoulder. He could most likely tell that I wasn't 100% sure of what I was doing. Amongst his skills, people reading is unfortunately one of them.

I sighed a bit in embarassment at my jumping, and then nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Just. A little scared, I guess,"

"It's alright to be scared. No one expects you to go into this with nerves of steel. That comes with time," Sly replied. "You're doing great, all things considered. You've done better than I expected, that's for sure,"

"Always good to surpass expectations, I guess," I said, trying to laugh.

"I'm not gonna tell you to not worry, but I will tell you that it's gonna be fine," Sly said. "You're not expected to be perfect, but we're a team now. We've got each other's backs, okay?"

Now I had to actually laugh. "Murray said something really similar. Gave me an entire pep talk, actually,"

"That doesn't surprise me. He's really smart in his own way," Sly replied. "And I'm sure whatever he said is entirely right,"

"It was his pep talk that actually convinced me that I really could learn how to do this," I laughed quietly.

"Doubting yourself, are we?" Sly asked. While his tone was semi-light and teasing, there was definitely a serious and empathetic undertone to his words.

"I've never done anything like this before, I couldn't help but feel like I'd never be good enough to make a difference. But then Murray told me about how he'd started off just like me - Scared and not knowing how to do much. But he'd learned how to be stronger, and insisted that I could, too," I replied. Thinking about Murray's words was actually helping to ease my trepidation towards our upcoming prison break, and instead solidify my resolve to face whatever challenges it would present to me, and then learn from the outcome - Be it good or bad.

"Self-Doubt is something we all feel from time to time. But Murray's right, you can overcome it. You've already done more than expected of you, and you'll only get better from here out," Sly said, reminding me that while he's a goofball, he's also incredibly smart, too.

"For once, I'm actually starting to believe that," I said, nodding and smiling at the raccoon, who smiled back.

"Alright, slideshow's ready," Bentley announced, indicating that our campfire was over, and it was time to get down to business yet again.

Sly and I had double-teamed the encryption algorithm job together; He'd bamboozled the guard by setting off the alarms, and I'd snapped a picture of the security code that Bentley needed. Sly had then tackled pickpocketing Contessa by himself, which I did not argue about; It was undoubtedly beyond my skill level. And to finish things off, Sly and Bentley blew the main bridge to smithereens, making it harder for backup to reach the prison in time to catch us.

All that was left now was to get in, and get Murray out. After my conversation with Sly, I felt relatively ready to tackle that.

"We're all ears, pal," Sly said, prompting Bentley to fire up the projector and launch into the slideshow.

"Thanks to our recent efforts, we're ready to attempt a Murray rescue," Bentley began, cycling through various recon pictures. "I call this plan - The Trojan Tank,"

"Step one; We use the Contessa's keys to steal one of her tanks. I'll jump in and drive, while Sly keeps out of sight by crawling underneath," Bentley said. Sly didn't seem at all bothered by the notion of crawling underneath a tank, and I began to wonder just what strange and dangerous things he'd done in his life.

"With some luck, the guards won't notice anything out of the ordinary, and open the prison gates for us. We casually roll in... And then blast the security doors to Murray's cell block!" Bentley continued, enthusiastically drawing motion lines around the recon picture to indicate an explosion.

"Sly, once inside, you'll need to improvise your way up to the guard control center, and open the doors leading down to solitary confinement. Let's hope that Murray hasn't cracked under the Contessa's hypnosis..." Bentley sounded very worried as he said this. It was the first time that any of us had mentioned Contessa's hypnosis methods. It had been well over 12 hours since Sly and Bentley had rescued me (I'd been out longer than I'd thought, and getting all this work done had taken time) and the effects of the spice had mostly worn off on me by now. But we had no idea what kind of condition Murray would be in. I tried to not worry about it, but it had been obvious back in our cells that it was affecting him. Sly had seen it, too, when he'd gone to get him into solitary.

I thankfully had no time to worry and begin overthinking, though, as Bentley was suddenly addressing me. "Meanwhile, Nyx - As you know, Contessa confiscated the other half of the Clockwerk heart from Murray. We weren't able to retrieve it when we broke in for Sly's cane, so that's going to be your goal,"

They were trusting me with my own seperate part of this heist? I was almost unsure that I'd be able to manage it, but I made note to quickly shove the self-doubt away. I could do this, and even if I failed, I'd learn from it. I nodded to let Bentley know that I was ready to take on this responsibility.

"While the guards are focused on me and Sly, you can slip inside from the back, and head to the evidence lockup. I've got the access codes, so you should have no trouble getting inside and retrieving the heart. Once you have it, meet us inside solitary, and we can all blow this popsicle stand," the slideshow flickered off as Bentley concluded his instructions and looked between me and Sly, waiting for any questions we might have.

"Alright. Let's do this," I said. There were probably some questions I could have asked, sure. But I chose to not overthink the situation, and just go for it. The plan was good, I didn't need to worry about any what-ifs, did I?

Bentley nodded, and moved to begin packing the projector back into it's box. We'd have to make a quick escape, so per usual, everything was being loaded into the van before we did anything else.

"Before I forget, Nyx," I turned upon hearing Bentley address me again. "This is in case you run into any guards,"

I took the sheathed item that Bentley handed me, and upon removing it immeditely recognized it as an expandable baton; The kind that police officers sometimes use. I extended the weapon with a flick of my wrist, and then had to laugh. "Using the weapons of the police force against them, huh? I like it,"

"I figured you might," Bentley laughed. "It's not exactly meant for heavy combat, but it should at least stun any guard you may run into, and give you time to escape. Which means you shouldn't go in there looking for a fight,"

"Wouldn't dream of it," I replied as I attatched the sheath to my belt. If at all possible, I would prefer to avoid a fight, honestly. Considering the fact that my last two attempts at it hadn't gone all that well...

"Alright. Last of the stuff's in the van, we're ready to go," Sly announced as he walked back inside from putting the last collection of boxes into the van.

"Okay, gang, let's move out,"