Sly Cooper

And

The Shadow Thief

Chapter Eight: The Master

Last Time:

Carmelita got out of her car; she made sure she took her keys out of the ignition this time, locked her door, and followed Nick to his car. She got into the passenger side, and he drove off down the street.

She had smile. At least something went her way today.

The next morning, Merah woke up in Sly's bed, her head under the pillow. She groaned groggily, and lifted her head up from beneath it. Sly wasn't next to her. He must've gotten up already. She rolled over onto her back, and sighed, looking up at the ceiling. The memory of what they had shared the night before on the Tower made her smile slightly. She was glad to give him something so special. Then she gasped, and sat up with a start.

What if there's a baby?

She cursed in a whisper, and scrambled out of bed, frantically pulling on her jeans, and pulling her wrinkled t-shirt over her head. She swept her hair up into a pony-tail, and put the team jacket she had worn in Cairo on, and ran to the next car. Sly was sitting with Bentley by the computer, Murray was eating left over pizza from the night before, and Penelope was fixing her RC car.

"Penelope," Merah said, going to the door. She beckoned for her to follow.

"What's up?" Penelope asked.

"I need you to come with me," Merah answered.

"Where are you going in such a hurry this morning?" Sly asked, going over to her. Merah smiled.

"Just… for a walk." She said. Sly raised a brow. Merah bit her lip. "I'll come back soon, I promise."

"Okay…" Sly said. "Penelope, look after her?"

"We'll be back in half an hour," Penelope said, slipping on her shoes.

"Thanks, Penelope…" Merah said. Then she looked at Sly, and gave him a kiss. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," Sly said, and he held open the door for the girls as they went. He watched them go for a minute, and then closed the door.

"What's got Merah so flustered?" Bentley asked.

"I dunno," Sly asked, going over to the fridge to get a drink of water.

"Were you two up to anything last night on your 'outing'?" Bentley asked, a sly smile forming on his face. Sly choked on the water.

"Shut up," He said, coughing. "Let's just… concentrate on finding this Master guy, okay?"

"Why did you need me to come with you?" Penelope asked as she and Merah walked down the street.

"Just… for support, that's all," Merah answered. Penelope raised a brow.

"Right…" She said slowly. "So where are we going?"

Merah hesitated. "The… drugstore."

Penelope stopped walking, and stared at Merah in disbelief. All the pieces of the puzzle just fell into place. Merah looked back at her.

"What?" She asked after a while. Penelope's expression never faltered.

"You didn't!" She said. Merah bit her lip nervously.

"Didn't… what…?" She asked.

"You and Sly were doing something last night!" Penelope cried. But she actually seemed happy. Then she ran at Merah and dressed her ear to her stomach. "Is there a baby in there?"

"No! No, no, no!" Merah said quickly, pushing her off. "Don't say that! There can't be! I'm actually hoping there isn't."

"Why?" Penelope asked. "If you didn't want a baby, you shouldn't have done anything."

"It was…" Merah said, walking again. "Kind of an accident. He took me up to the Eiffel Tower – the very top – and we were going to have dinner, and things just kind of… happened."

"He seemed a little quiet when you two came home," Penelope said slowly. "Is that why?"

"I'm guessing," Merah answered. "He's hoping there isn't any baby, either. It's not a good time, things are too dangerous at the moment."

"That's understandable." Penelope said. "But what happens if there is?"

"I… dunno," Merah admitted in defeat. "We'll just… stick with the 'hoping there isn't' plan."

"Nothing," Bentley said after he came with the matches of his search. He and Sly were busy looking up information on the Master. Murray was out fixing the van. Sly sighed.

"How can there not be any information on him!" Sly said, aggravated. "I mean… that's just weird. It's like he… doesn't exist."

"No, he definitely does exist," Bentley said. "I found a little bit on info on him. I know he's killed a woman named… Alana Serenity Ringo."

"What?" Sly asked, looking at the screen closely. "That's… Merah's mother's name."

"I figured it must be one of her relatives, as they share the same last name," Bentley said. "How do you know her mother's name, anyway?"

"We stopped by a store yesterday when Merah saw a ring she recognized, and she went in to look at it. The name is engraved on the band."

"Why didn't you buy it?" Bentley asked.

"Someone already put a deposit on it," Sly said. Then an idea stuck him. "But… why would someone want to put a deposit on a ring that already had someone else's name on it?"

"Maybe they liked the look of the ring?" Bentley suggested.

"Or maybe the ring was a special item to that person," Sly said slowly. "Merah's only other remaining family member is her brother, and he's missing. So who—"

Sly stopped talking. The reality hit him hard.

"Bentley," He said slowly and carefully. "What if… the word Master is only a nick name to this guy we're trying to find out about?"

"Well, it has to be," Bentley answered. "I don't thing anyone would name their child 'Master'. And if they did, they definitely wouldn't call him 'The Master'."

"We call Murray 'The Murray'," Sly said. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil, and wrote 'MASTER' in big, capital letters on the paper. He looked at it for a long, long time. Then he came to a conclusion. "What if… 'Master'…"

"What are you trying to say, Sly?" Bentley asked.

"What if someone just had a really long full name and the initials just happened to spell Master?" Sly said.

"That… that's possible." Bentley said.

"Type it into the search," He ordered. Bentley did as he was asked, and hit enter. Only one result came up.

Bentley took a deep breath, and clicked on the link. The page loaded.

"Let's see who this Master guy is…" Sly whispered.

The page finally loaded. All of the information they could possibly ever want to know on M.A.S.T.E.R. was right there in front of them. And neither of them liked what they saw.

"Merah?" Penelope called through the door. They had stopped into a restaurant after buying a pack of tests at a drugstore, and now Merah was in the bathroom, obviously using the tests. "Merah, is everything okay?"

She had been in there for at least fifteen minutes. Penelope was starting to get worried. Then Merah lowly opened the door. She and Penelope looked at each other for a long, long time. Then Merah sighed.

"So… you're…?" Penelope said slowly. Merah closed her eyes briefly, and rubbing them with her hand.

"Yeah," She said quietly. "I am."

Another few minutes of silence.

"Man…" Merah whispered weakly. "What am I going to tell Sly? He has enough to worry about right now…"

"Sly's a good sport," Penelope said, patting Merah on the shoulder. "He'll be okay with it."

Merah made her decision then. "I'm not going to tell him."

"What?" Penelope said, surprised. "You shouldn't keep secrets from him like that, Merah."

"I'll tell him when the time is right," Merah said. "Promise me, Penelope, when we get home, you won't say anything. To anyone. I don't want people treating me differently, number one, and I don't what any whisper of it to get to Sly. Not yet."

"Okay," Penelope said, smiling. "I promise."

"That means you can't treat me differently, either," Merah said. Penelope nodded.

"Don't worry," She said. "You're secret's safe with me."

"Thank you," Merah said. "Thank you so much. I just… don't want everyone to worry…"

"Come on," Penelope said. "We'd better get back. We don't want Sly to worry about you."

Sly was sitting at the table silently, his elbows resting on it, and his hands clasped in front of his mouth. His eyes were closed, and to anyone who looked at him, they would think he was deep in thought. He was. But the thoughts weren't happy.

The door opened then, and Sly opened his eyes to see Merah and Penelope walk through the door. Sly didn't take his hands away from his mouth, and he stared at Merah intently. When she looked at him, the smile that had been on her face a moment ago fell, and she looked worried.

"Sly?" She said. "What's wrong?"

Sly didn't say anything, and just took his hands away from his mouth. He just continued to stare at her. Merah was getting a little scared.

"What's the matter?" She said nervously, sitting down at the table across from him.

"We need to talk," Sly said seriously. Merah's heart seemed to stop. She had never seen him so serious before. Was… was he going to break up with her?

"About…" She tried hard not to cry. "About what?"

Sly sighed, and looked down at his hands which were resting on the table. "Merah, upsetting you is the last thing I want to do… but…"

"What are you trying to say?" Merah said fearfully. Bentley came into the room then, looking stony-faced, and he wheeled his way over next to Sly. Merah was loosing it. "What the hell's going on? You guys are scaring me!"

"Bentley?" Penelope asked tentatively.

"Merah…" Bentley said. "Do you know who killed your mother?"

"N-no," Merah said. That was certainly an odd question.

"Well, we do," Bentley said. "We found out that the Master was the man behind the shooting your mother died in."

"I still don't see—" Merah started, but Bentley cut her off again.

"Does anyone in your family have a long full name?"

"We all do," She said. "I'm Merah Serenity Alana Lynn Rose Ringo."

"What about Max?" Bentley asked. Sly put his hands up to his mouth again, taking u the position he had when Merah and Penelope entered.

"He's… Maxwell Alain Severin Tave Elroy Ringo." Merah said. Then, slowly and nervously, "Why…?"

Bentley pushed a piece of paper towards her, and handed her a pencil.

"I need you to write out Max's initials." He said. "Only the initials."

Merah looked at Sly, and saw he still had his eyes closed. She slowly took the pencil from Bentley, and started to write out Max's initials.

M… A…S…

Sly opened his eyes to watch her then, but he still kept his hands at his mouth. Merah's hand started to shake as she wrote the T in her neat handwriting, and he heard her sob when she wrote the E.

After a minute or two, Merah finally let the pencil fall from her shaking hand, and she brought them up to her mouth as tears formed in her eyes. The thing she had never thought possible was staring at her right in the face. Max, her brother, the one who had helped her through her mother's death, the loss of their father, everything… he was the Master. His initials proved that.

MASTER

Maxwell Alain Severin Tave Elroy Ringo. He was the Master. And Merah's brother.

She couldn't take it anymore. Merah got up from the chair, and ran out the door, sobbing. Sly sighed, and he closed his eyes again, resting his forehead against his hands. Penelope was staring dumbfounded at the paper on the table.

"I would never have thought…" She said quietly.

"None of us thought it," Sly said bitterly. "Especially not Merah."

"Any plan we thought he had about stealing the Thievius Raccoonus back from him just blew out the window when we found this out," Bentley said. "We knew Merah would have a tough time with this."

"Just the Master thing," Sly said. "The fact that the 'Master', or Max, killed Merah's mother is even worse. He killed her father, too."

Penelope was quiet. She knew Sly was dealing with incredibly conflicting emotions right now. Would telling him about Merah's 'condition' be the right thing to do? She knew Merah didn't want her to say anything. But if Merah and the baby were to stay safe, Sly had to know.

"Maybe you should go talk to her," Penelope suggested softly to Sly. He shook his head, still resting his forehead against his hands.

"She needs some time on her own. I'll talk to her when she's ready." Then, without another word, he got up from the table, and went to the other train car to his bed. Penelope sat down at the table and looked at Bentley.

"Any thoughts?" She asked. Bentley shook his head.

"Until we know what Merah thinks, we can't make a plan of action," He said. "We'll just have to wait."

It was sun-set when Sly went outside to talk to Merah. The rest of the day had gone by slowly, and no body said a word to anyone else. When Murray found everything out from Penelope, his mood immediately went from regular, happy old Murray to quiet and depressed. Sly had never seen Murray so quiet and emotionless.

Sly heard the click of a rock hitting the ground, and he knew Merah was sitting on the roof of the train-car. He went around to the back of it, and climbed up the latter on the side to the roof. She was sitting there, rocks in her hand, and she was chucking them lazily at the ground, staring out at the horizon, watching the sunset. Sly sighed, and went to sit next to her. They stayed quiet for a long time.

"Are you okay?" Sly asked softly.

"No." Merah said flatly, never taking her eyes off the slow-sinking sun. She threw her last rock with all the force she could muster. Sly nodded, and looked at the ground.

"Understandable."

Merah suddenly slapped the roof of the train car, causing Sly to jump, and he looked at her and saw she had started to cry again.

"Why?" She asked thickly. "Why did he have to kill her?"

He knew she was talking about her mother. "I don't know, Merah."

"He helped me cope with it," Merah said, bringing her knees up to her chest. She looked like a small, lost child. She felt like one, too. "He helped me deal with the fact that I was there, that I held her when she died. I remember the people screaming, I remember… I remember when her eyes went lifeless and I knew they'd never look at me with all the love and care they always did. He took her away… and… I trusted him…"

Sly felt like he was about to cry himself. He knew exactly how Merah felt. He could still remember when his parents were killed…

"Merah," He said softly. "I'm so, so sorry. I wish I could know what to do to make you feel better."

Merah didn't say anything. Sly reached out, and gently stroked her hair. She exhaled deeply, and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, and for the first time since he had gone up there with her, she looked at him. Sly stroked her cheek, and brushed away a new tear that slide down it.

"I have something important I want to tell you," She said. "I didn't want to tell you… I knew you had a lot of other things on your mind. But it's only fair that you know."

Sly just looked at her, waiting for her to tell him. She looked a deep breath.

"Penelope and I went to the drugstore today when we went out. I bought a package of pregnancy tests. We went to use a restaurant bathroom, and I did the test. The results were positive."

Sly could have fainted. He stared at her. "What?"

"I'm pregnant, Sly." Merah said flatly. He actually smiled.

"I'm so glad there was some good news today," He said. Merah looked at him in disbelief.

"Huh?"

"I was thinking about last night," Sly said. "And I thought… it would be nice to have a child. Someone to continue with the family name. Only this time, both of his parents will be great thieves."

"How can you be so sure if this is a good thing?" Merah asked. "Our child is going to grow up with a murderer for an Uncle. He killed my mother. God only knows, he could have killed my father, too."

Sly sighed, and looked down. Merah continued in a softer tone.

"No matter what, Sly, this baby isn't going to be safe." She said. "At least not until Max is dead. And… I don't have the heart to kill him. I don't. He's still family."

Sly exhaled deeply, and then held open his arms to Merah. She found her way into them, and she rested her head on his shoulder as he kissed it.

"We'll figure something out," Sly said. "Just tell us what you want to do, and… Bentley will make a plan."

"I want Max behind bars." Merah said. "In a secure prison. I don't want him to ever get free. Being locked up is a fate worse than death, in my opinion."

"We can do that," He answered.

"We're going to need Inspector Fox's help," Merah said after a while.

"Wh-what?" Sly asked, alarmed. "What did you say?"

"We'll need Carmelita's help," Merah repeated. "If Max is to be arrested, we have to persuade the cops that they should help us arrest him. They'll have to be on our level to do that."

Sly was quiet. "We'll talk to Bentley."

Merah moved a bit, and she pulled away from Sly slightly. He looked at her, and she looked at him. The she hugged him.

"Thank you for telling me about Max," She said softly into his shoulder. "Even if the news what completely horrible."

"I'm sorry it upset you so much," Sly said, hugging her. "Thanks for telling me about the baby."

"You deserved to know," Merah said. Sly pulled away from the hug, and kissed her, letting his hand rest on her stomach. His future child was there. He would protect it. And Merah.

And Max would go down.

A/N: DUN, DUN, DUN!

Okay, show of hands, who saw the Maxwell equals Master thing coming? Be honest!

Who thought that when Sly was acting freakishly serious that Merah could've been the Master for a second? Or helped planned it all out? Let me know. I want to see how many people were freaked out. XD

R&R!