Disclaimer: Sly Cooper and the Cooper gang are property of Sucker Punch and I am just using them to entertain the masses with a good story. I only own the characters I have inserted into the story and the other elements that are the creations of my imagination.

Sly and the Pure Magic Gems

Chapter 1

A Year of Paradise

It has been a year since the events of Sly3, & Constable Sly Cooper, the thief turn cop, was in paradise. His memory had not yet returned from when he fought Dr. M and had the Cooper Vault come crashing down around him. For the first few weeks he desperately wanted to remember something, anything about his past, but all that he could remember was two names, Bentley and Murray. Other then that his past was a blank. Soon though, he found himself thinking less and less about his past, and more about his partner, Inspector Carmelita Fox. She had been there during the first few weeks after Sly had lost his memory and helped him believe he was a cop, and her partner in the fight against crime. He wanted to believe her, but something in the back of his mind was contradicting what she said, and Sly couldn't tell what.

After being partners for about 6 months, or 5 years and 6 months according to what Carmelita had told Sly, Sly got up the nerve to ask Carmelita out on a date, and the rest was history. The whole department knew that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and many were making bets on how long it would be before Sly proposed to Carmelita. Some were guessing in a few days, while others thought it would be some time next year. Sly and Carmelita never really took notice of this because they were too wrapped up in their job, or in enjoying each others company. That's where are story begins.

Sly and Carmelita were working late on their most recent case. It was a on a guy name Bill "Blood Lust" Marauder, and he was supposedly printing a large amount of counterfeit money. They had spent the last week on the case with no new breaks until that morning when someone called into the Interpol and reported seeing some strange stuff going on in a warehouse outside of Paris. Carmelita and Sly had a warrant and were down there by lunch, and had the whole gang, including Blood Lust, in custody by 1:00. They were now doing the final touches on their reports since the case was now someone else's problem.

Carmelita had just finished the last bit of her report, and was placing it in the filing cabinet when she said, "Hey, Constable Cooper, you almost done."

Sly stood up with report in hand and said, "Here is the last report Carmelita."

Carmelita took the report from Sly and then gave him a weak glare as she said, "I told you that it's Inspector Fox while we are on duty."

Sly sighed and said, "It just so hard not to use your true name Inspector Fox, it is such a beautiful name after all."

Carmelita blushed slightly and said, "Now flattery will get you no where Sly."

Sly eyed Carmelita a second and said, "I don't call it flattery when I am telling the truth, and why did you just break you own rule and call me by my first name."

Carmelita smiled and said, "Because we are no longer on duty, with these reports finished the chief said we could take a tomorrow off and relax. It's a reward for getting this case open and shut so quickly."

Sly smiled and said, "That's great. So, you feel like doing anything tomorrow? Maybe grab us some lunch and then go for a walk in the park near your apartment."

Carmelita smiled and said, "That would be lovely, I'll be at your place at 11:30 then, does that sound good."

Sly nodded his head and said, "You bet it does, spending time with you always does."

Carmelita and Sly left the office as Carmelita said; "Now I told you to cut the flirty chit-chat."

Sly suddenly got the feeling of De-Javu, like he had heard Carmelita say to cut the flirty chit-chat somewhere before, but he couldn't put his finger on it. After saying good night to Carmelita and Sly walked the 6-blocks to his apartment. He arrived at his front door still pondering why he had got the strange feeling of De-Javu. He then decided it was nothing and went inside his apartment. It was a simple apartment, perfect for a bachelor, but he still felt the place was missing something he could never quite name. He pushed the thought aside and sat down on his couch. He flipped the TV on and after flipping through a few channels saw that one of the channels had a stock van race on it.

Not having anything better to watch Sly decided to watch the race, for some reason he kept rooting for the blue van with flames and a raccoon head on the side. For some reason he felt that it should be the van to win. It was a close race, the final lap the blue van was neck & neck with another van, but at the last moment the blue van pulled ahead and won the race. Sly felt his heart lift a little as the reporter ran up to the purple hippo that was driving the van. The reporter smiled to the camera a second and then said, 'Well, how does it feel to have won your 6th race in the row when you have only been in the professional league for only 6 months?"

The hippo smiled and said, "It feels great, I couldn't have done it without my van, a vehicle I got from a good friend a long time ago."

The reporter went off camera for a second and then, looking a little embarrassed, asked, "I am terribly sorry, but I don't know your name."

The hippo smiled and replied, "I'm called "The Murray"".

Sly's jaw dropped when he heard the driver's name. Murray, that name just bounced back and forth through Sly's skull as he tried to make logic of the situation. The drivers name was Murray, and one of the two things he could remember before the accident happened was that name, Murray. He wondered to himself, "Could I have known this guy before the accident. I couldn't know him as a race car driver because the reporter said he had only been in the professional league for about 6 months." Sly could only conclude that he must have known the guy from before he had lost his memory and that if he wanted to learn about his past, he would have to ask him about it.

Now that the race was over Sly flipped through the channels again, but after seeing that nothing was on he turned the TV off and decided to hit the hay early. As he dreamed he saw himself in a dark cave filled with piles of gold. As he ran through the difficult obstacles of the cave he stopped by the portraits of different raccoons, and felt as if he should know them. When he finally reached the end of the cave he was standing by a portrait that had been broken in half, and it was of a guy raccoon bouncing a younger raccoon on his knee.

He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt extremely sad, as if his heart ached at the fact he couldn't remember who the guy was. He then saw a set of lasers turn on, and against his better judgment he jump onto the laser and slid across the dark abyss below him, but half way across the laser shut off and he fell down into the darkness.

Sly's eyes flew open to the sound of his alarm clock and he scrambled to turn it off. He slowly got out of bed and began to rub his head wondering, "Why do I keep having that dream. Is it trying to tell my something, or is it something from my past trying to resurface."