Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this out, but a lot of things have been happening. The fun thing is though that this chapter was already written. I just had to my editing. By the way, thank you all very much for the wonderful reviews! I can't believe you all liked it that much. smiles Now back to the point of this note. You need to keep in mind that in this story the past is very important. To that end, there are going to be a whole lot of flashbacks. This is one of them. Also the first couple of chapters are sort of an introduction to the main story.

I hope you all like this as much as you did the prologue!

Death by Vengeance

Chapter One: A Token of Admiration

By: Kyra-Arcide


December 19, 1937
The Himalayans 2:27 a.m.

The Fire Ruby of the Phoenix…

Macaria felt her breath catch in her throat as she gazed upon the object of her mission. It was gorgeous. There just wasn't a word that could better describe it than that. The flawless crimson orb was about the size of a new born infant's fist, and it quite simply made the last four months of planning and effort all worth wild.

Not that she was going to sell it on the market…Oh, no. She hadn't climbed the Himalayans in the height of winter just to sell that precious baby. The raccoon absently leaned slightly backwards so that she had an unobstructed view of the stone hallway leading off in both directions. Every moment she stood there thinking was another minute something could go horribly wrong.

Not that getting to it was going to be a walk in the park.

Macaria cocked her head to the side as she examined the barren room in front of her. One would think that the outside would be more heavily guarded than the inside, you know to keep people from getting in, but in her experience it was almost always the complete opposite. People seemed to build their defenses under the assumption that no matter what they did someone was going to break in.

Which was correct, but still it should be a matter of pride to keep your lair defensible against at least a small army.

The room was completely empty except for the pedestal that the ruby resided on in the center of the circular room. A sure sign that somebody had done some serious booby trapping. No use in getting perfectly good furniture destroyed every time someone tried to sneak, or drunkenly fall, into the room.

Now if only she could figure out what they had decided would make the best trigger. Any of the tiles on the floor were a definite possibility, but she had also seen wall panels used as well…Macaria pursed her lips as she thought. That left pretty much everything in the room, including the pedestal itself. She smiled ironically.

It was all for the love of the sport after all.

Almost as an after thought Macaria pulled out one of the many pebbles she had pocketed before wondering into the main building and tossed it into the room. It hit the floor…and nothing happened. Frowning, she tossed in the rest, all landing in different spots, and still nothing happened.

Now she was puzzled and just a little bit worried

This could all only mean one of three things: there were no traps in the first place, someone had turned the traps off for whatever reason, or the traps were weight sensitive. None of which appealed to her overly, and all of which unfortunately only left her with one option: saying a quick prayer and walking on across.

Macaria took a deep breath and drew her fluffy tail closer against her body. She just hoped that she was fast enough to dodge anything she might trigger accidentally. Then, holding her breath, she lifted her right foot into the air and…fell forward.

Unconsciously she hunched herself down so as to make a smaller target, her ears pressed tight against her skull, but just like when she threw the stones nothing happened. The next few steps weren't nearly as traumatic, but with each step her caution grew. No one, but no one, left the room where they had put a highly valuable treasure unguarded.

It just wasn't done.

By the time she reached the pedestal she was such a nervous wreck that had something actually happened she might have died of a heart attack right there, but then it hit her.

What if this wasn't the real Fire Ruby?

She leaned forward with her hands behind her back to get a better look at it, her black hair forming a drape around her face and cutting off the light source that reflected off the ruby turning it dark. It looked real, but if it wasn't and she took it the theft would signal to its previous owner that someone was after it, tripling security.

But if it was real, and she didn't take it…

Shaking her head Macaria took a step backwards straightening as she went.

"Something is not right here." She muttered still looking at the jewel intensely. "No traps, no guards…" One wrong step could very easily land her with a one-waystage coach ticket from the Grim Reaper himself. That was the inevitable downside to stealing from fellow thieves. They very rarely felt it necessary to send you to jail. The bottom of the sea, maybe, but not jail.

"No, I just happened to think that we'd both might find the traps a little problematic and took care of them." Macaria automatically grabbed the ruby from the pedestal and jumped backwards, unfortunately though she landed on what was probably the only trap left active in the entire room. Instantly a giant spike slammed up from the floor underneath her, effectively scaring the living daylights out of her.

She jumped upwards and somehow or another managed to end up perched on top of the spike itself, her heart going a mile an hour and her breathing erratic.

"Oops." The voice that had spoke before said apologetically. "I guess I must have missed that one, and I was so sure I got them all. It was awfully nice of you to find it for me." Macaria's eyes snapped to the place where it was coming from. Damn, she must have been no more than five feet from him, and yet she hadn't noticed a damn thing. Now the only question was, was he an enemy or a…enemy.

Dumb question.

She narrowed her eyes menacingly as she tried almost desperately to penetrate the thick shadows cast by the torches placed everyfive feet or so on the wall. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your point of view, her mystery speaker decided to come out of hiding all on his own.

He was a raccoon, and, judging just by eye alone, he was good couple of inches taller than her own 5'2". He was wearing a dark blue cap cocked jauntily over one ear and a shirt of the same color. His brown eyes were calm and alive with mischief. Casually he walked towards her, but before making it the whole way he bent down and picked something up off the floor.

"It was also very nice of you to try to get this for me, but I'm more than capable of picking this up," Just as casually as he had walked over a moment before he now held out the ruby. Macaria quickly patted her pockets, but they were empty. It must have fallen out during her more distressing situation of the spike. "myself."

Macaria continued to eye him with as much menace as possible. That smug confident smile on his face just rubbed her the wrong way. What she won't give to swipe the floor with him. She glanced from him to ruby and then back again. Why not?

Without a second thought, she lunged forwards. The raccoon, foolishly thinking she was after the ruby closed his hand tightly around it, but didn't move an inch. His mistake. Using the momentum she had gained on her lunge Macaria planted her fist quite solidly into his jaw sending him straight to the ground and sending the ruby flying into the air…right into her hand.

She hadn't actually thought that was going to happen, but when Lady Luck decided to smile on you, you just smiled right along.

"Thanks for picking it up for me." If raccoons could purr, she would have. "It was so careless of me to drop it." She smiled down at him, but was slightly put off by the speculative gleam in his eyes as he rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

Then before she knew what was happening he was up off the floor and moving towards her with incredible speed. Macaria tightened her grip on the ruby and prepared herself, as much as she could in the two seconds she had, to take a hit. Dodging, even if she had been prepared for his sudden burst of speed, was completely out of the question. He was just moving too fast.

She closed her eyes, her body tense…and nearly jumped out of her skin when an arm wrapped itself around her waist even as another gloved hand gently covered the fist that held the ruby and moved it out from between them. Her eyes snapped open as she jerked her face up only to see that their faces were now only inches apart. The bastard had posed them as if any second now they would take off in a waltz.

Macaria just gaped up at him, her mind having stopped all processes.

"What's your name?" He asked cockily with that annoying smile back on his face.

"How-" Macaria stuttered. "How did you-"

"Move so fast?" He finished for her. "I'll tell you if you tell me your name." She remained silent thinking it over. It was just her name, but somehow it seemed like he was asking for something much more personal. The again if she could learn how to move like that…

"Macaria." She said finally

"Macaria." He rolled it off his tongue thoughtfully as if he was savoring the sound of it. "That sounds more like a last name to me." His eyebrow raised, his expression turned chiding. Macaria blushed under her fur, but still managed to make a steady retort.

"It is." Yeah, yeah, it wasn't the greatest comeback, but it worked. She sure wasn't about to tell him that her first name was Kairos. It was none of his business, and besides she tended to use her first name in most of her aliases.

He however just laughed.

"Alright, a half truth for half truth then." He paused. "One of my ancestors taught it to me. In fact-" He broke off as they both heard a noise coming from the hallway. For a moment he pulled her even closer to him, almost protectively, but then it passed and he had completely let her go, ruby and all.

"Oops. It looks like we've overstayed our welcome. I'll let you keep the ruby for now. Consider it a token of my admiration." He smiled again, but this time it was more distracted then before. He dashed over to the wall where he must have been when she had entered the room and scooped a cane up off the ground.

Macaria was positive that he was going to be out a nearby window before she could blink, but surprisingly he stopped and turned towards her.

"By the way, I'm called Cooper." She just couldn't resist throwing his ownwords back at him.

"That sounds more like a last name to me."

"It is." He replied smiling this time at her, and then he was gone.


To: Sly Cooper

My Dear Sir,

Your family's reputation has always been great, but as of late many have said that your own reputation has outshined them all. I however see you as the disgrace to your family that you truly are and here by challenge you to a game of wits. I have in my possession an object that once, I am told, belonged to your grandfather, the Fire Ruby of the Phoenix. I will reveal to the world the charlatan you are!

Come get it, if you can.

The Master of Paris,

Monsieur P.