As she held Sly's face, Carmelita noticed the damage the Egyptian sun had dealt to Sly's fur. It felt dry, and some of the darker parts of his face turned to a slightly lighter color. Still, she found him as handsome as always.
"Your fur is all messed up." Carmelita smiled as she lovingly caressed his cheeks with her thumbs.
"Yeah, they always seem to run out of shampoo at the market." They both chuckled until their eyes met again. "You look as gorgeous as the last time I saw you." The thief smiled before leaning in and kissing the fox again. After being apart for almost a year, not even all the kisses in the world were enough to satiate their aching hearts.
Their lips parted, and Sly hugged her tightly. Suddenly, she was filled with a tender feeling of calm and safety.
"So…" he said while slowly breaking the hug. "...How did you find me?"
"Well, yesterday I went to your safehouse to check up on Bentley and Murray, and… Oh!" Carmelita had forgotten about the turtle and the hippo from all the emotion of their reunion. "Bentley and Murray! We have to let them know you're safe and sound." The fox took the binocucoms out from her backpack. "Bentley, come in!"
After a few seconds, the turtle answered. "Copy you loud and clear, Carmelita. Do you have any updates on Sly's whereabouts?"
"See it for yourself." She handed the device to the thief.
"Hey, pal. It's good hearing your voice after all this time." The raccoon cracked a smile.
"Sly? Oh, man… You're alive!"
"Alive and kicking, buddy."
"Wait a minute, I'll get Murray!" There was a pause in the communications. When they resumed, the hippo was the one talking.
"Sly?! Is it really you?!" he asked, excited.
"Glad to hear you too, big guy."
The pure joy and emotion contained in Bentley and Murray's voices made Carmelita forget the tough times they had gone through as they desperately searched for the thief. She just smiled, glad that she never gave up, as she watched how the three friends celebrated the raccoon's rescue.
"The van is almost out of the wheat crops. We'll probably be ready to go by the time you guys get here." said the turtle.
"Okay… I'll see you then, buddy." Sly didn't stop to question what his friend said about the van being stuck. He just wanted to leave the scorching desert and go back to his normal life.
He returned the binocucoms to the vixen, who put them back in her backpack. Then, Safir intervened in their little conversation to bid his farewell to the couple.
"So… I guess this is goodbye." He flashed a proud smile to hide the sadness of the moment.
"I guess it is." Sly, who wasn't as good as his ancestor at hiding his emotions, walked up to him and hugged him. "Thanks for everything, Safir… And you too, Kirah." The female raccoon joined them.
Those two had been the closest thing to a father and a mother he had since he lost his parents to the Fiendish Five. They welcomed him with open arms to their house, and Sly learned much from them during his stay there. Although he was eager to leave Egypt, it pained him to leave Kirah and Safir, especially knowing the latter's fate.
"So, are you two headed back to Greece?" asked Kirah after they broke the hug.
Sly smiled as he turned back to Carmelita. "There is nothing else in the world that I would rather do." The fox felt how her chest overflowed with joy and returned the smile. "I'll get my things, and then we'll be ready to go," he said before walking to his room.
"Oh! Carmelita, please, take this," said Safir as he took off his hooded cloak and handed it to her. "There will probably be a lot of guards out there looking for you. Better stay safe."
"Thanks, Safir," she said while putting it on. "I also want to thank you two for taking Sly into your home. If there's anything that I could do to ever repay you-"
"Don't worry, Carmelita. That's what family is for," said Safir with a smile.
"Yeah. Just take good care of Sly. It's clear that you make him truly happy." added Kirah.
After that, Sly walked out of his room. The thief was carrying his cane on his back and had a leather pouch slung over his shoulder and across his chest. He was also wearing a cloak similar to the one his ancestor gave Carmelita.
Before leaving the house, he stretched Safir's hand and thanked him again. The raccoon, too, insisted that he continued writing down his wisdom and memories and promised to never let their family's legacy be forgotten. As Sly and Carmelita walked out waving goodbye, Safir let out a proud smile, and Kirah clung to his husband's arm as she looked back at the time they were just a couple of young lovers.
Once in the street, Sly took Carmelita's hand, and they both headed for the city's main entrance. Thanks to their cloaks and the numerous people on the market at that time, the couple was able to go unnoticed and evade the guards roaming around the area.
"Why did you tell them we were from Greece?" The vixen chuckled.
"Well, they assumed it, and I sort of went along with it… Besides, I figured I'd be stuck here for a long time, and I didn't want to seem a weirdo with all that 'I'm your relative from the future' stuff."
"Like with your other ancestors?" She raised her eyebrow.
"That was… different."
"Right…"
Then, they decided to walk through the city's alleys to avoid drawing attention.
"So… You never finished telling me how you guys found me." Curiosity was present in the thief's voice.
"Oh… Well, as I said, I went to your safehouse to check up on Bentley and Murray and see if we found something that could lead us to you. But, then I stumbled upon that book of yours, and I… started reading it."
"You read the Thievius Raccoonus?!" asked Sly with excitement and surprise. "And that's how you found me, right? I left about a dozen hidden messages in Safir's writings. I knew at least one would make it to the final book."
"Yeah… But, look, Sly..." Carmelita stopped short in the middle of one of the alleys. The sudden shift in the tone of her voice caught all of Sly's attention. "Before I read the book, Bentley had already checked it a few times… but found nothing. I took the book home, read it from top to bottom, and didn't find anything either." The vixen held both of his hands before continuing to speak. "But that night, after I went to bed, I had some weird dream… Well, not a dream, more like a spiritual connection of some sort… Anyway… Sly, what I am trying to say is that I talked to your father."
The raccoon's eyes widened in disbelief. He took a few seconds before talking again. "B-but that can't be possible… My father-"
"I know… The spirits of your ancestors have a way of communicating with us through the book. Thanks to your father, I was able to find your message on one of Safir's pages, and he also told me that both he and your mother are very proud of the man you've become." Those words felt like a dagger to Sly's heart.
The fox's warm smile vanished as she noticed tears rolling down the thief's face. But before she could even try to comfort him, he hugged her tight and took a deep breath as he tried not to sob. Carmelita immediately returned the hug and let him rest his head on her shoulder as his agitated breathing settled down. Then, the raccoon suddenly broke the hug and held the vixen's face with his hands.
"Carmelita, you're the most important person in my life… The year we spent together was the best of my life, and I was stupid enough to throw it all away… If I could go back and-" The vixen shut him up with a soft kiss.
"I understand. You decided to fight for what you stand for… Things could indeed have gone better, but at least you're okay… Now, let's get out of this place." Her comforting expression brought Sly's smile back.
Together, they left the alleyway and crossed the market to reach the city's main exit. Just when the couple thought they had made it, a tiger guard wielding a spear blocked their path.
"Hey! Where do you two think you are going? Haven't you heard there's a lockdown? A fugitive is on the loose, and nobody is allowed to leave the city until we arrest her."
Sly turned back to Carmelita and quickly tried to think of something. "But you see, sir, we have been ordered to collect palm leaves for the city's apothecary-"
"I said nobody leaves the city." The guard remained firm.
The raccoon stepped back and started devising a plan. "Okay. Carmelita, grab a handful of sand from the ground, and when I give you the signal, throw it to Stripey's eyes. Then, I'll take out my cane, and I-"
As the thief explained his convoluted plan, the vixen whipped out her gun and blasted the tiger, unleashing panic in the city's market.
"Run!" said Carmelita before the two got out of Men-Nefer as fast as they could.
The fox and the raccoon sprinted across the sand as a bunch of more guards went after them.
"We've got company!" announced Sly.
The vixen managed to take the pair of binocucoms out of her bag and dialed Bentley.
"Bentley!" She called him until he answered.
"Copy you, Carmelita. Wh-"
"Bentley, listen! We're headed there. Turn on the van! Now!"
The desperation in her voice worried him. "Are you guys okay?"
"We're being chased!" Sly joined the conversation.
"Just turn it on! We don't have much time!" added Carmelita before cutting off the communications.
They walked up a dune and followed the river's course until arriving at the cat's farm. Bentley and Murray had followed their orders and were waiting for them inside the van. The hippo hadn't finished taking it out of the crops, so the fox and the raccoon stepped over dirt and wheat before getting into the van through the backdoor.
"Step on it, big guy!" said Sly as soon as the door closed.
Murray switched on the time machine's device, and the whole van began to rumble. Although that could have also been because of the guards trying to flip it over. Luckily for the gang, they jumped into a time tunnel right before that could've happened.