3 months earlier…

"Rascal and Skylar, get off that video game and get ready for bed!"

Rascal and Skylar sat on the couch together, playing PlayStation All Stars on their mother's brand-new flat screen tv. The small family resided in a fairly small apartment, only having two rooms. Rascal and Skylar shared a room, sleeping on a bunk bed while their mother had the master bedroom. The apartment had a fairly large living room with a modern kitchen and laundry room. A small white table sat just a few feet away from a bookcase right next to the entrance, containing 4 small white chairs. The couch was a grey fabric modern couch with 3 cushions and the plasma tv stood right in front of it. Skylar's hair was still wet from her shower, with Rascal being completely dry since he often has to be fought to take showers.

A familiar vixen opened the master bedroom door and eyed the two children. The vixen was no one other than Carmelita fox. Her hair was tied into a white towel and she wore a pink pajama set complete with blue socks. She pointed at Rascal and then to the bathroom, which was between the master bedroom and Skylar and Rascal's room. "In the shower, now." She growled.

Rascal paused the game. "Mom, I already took a shower."

Carmelita marched over to Rascal and gave him a death stare. "Why is your fur dry?"

Rascal looked up and smiled at her. "I took a shower earlier…"

Carmelita then disappeared into the siblings' room and emerged with Rascal's blue aviator pajamas. They were a navy-blue color, covered in red crop duster planes. She threw them at Rascal, who managed to catch them just in time. "Get ready for bed." She growled. "Go take a shower. I don't want to hear anything more from you."

Carmelita disappeared back into her room. Skylar looked over at Rascal and laughed. "Looks like you ticked mom off."

Rascal crossed his arms. "Like you would care. You're the perfect child."

Skylar laughed really hard. "Oh, Rascal. That's because I'm good at hiding things. If you just learn to keep your mouth shut, you will get very far in life."

Rascal angrily got up from the couch while Skylar was still laughing. He marched over to the bathroom and shut the door. Skylar stopped laughing and decided to go into her room to get her pjs on for bed. Their room was a little messy, just a few toys laying on the floor. The bunk beds were both twin sized, with Skylar sleeping on the top bunk and Rascal sleeping on the bottom. Skylar's bunk was surrounded by unicorn posters and fairies. She had been fascinated with mystical creatures lately. She had a purple bedspread with a Star Wars sheet set. She walked over to the small wooden dresser located right across from their bed and changed into her favorite blue butterfly pajamas. She then climbed onto the bunk ladder and tucked herself into bed, making sure to leave the door open for Rascal.

Rascal wasn't too far behind. As soon as he got out of the shower and dressed into his pajamas, he entered the room and crawled onto his bunk. His bunk had a green quilt with some plain blue sheets underneath. He had a few small posters on his wall, but not as much as Skylar. He had a few football posters sporting his favorite players and a poster of the Ratchet and Clank movie he had saw in theaters a while back. He leaned over and turned off the small gray lamp that sat on a dark oak night desk right next to their bed.

As the siblings tranced off into their sleep, a loud crash emerged from the living room. Skylar was stirred because she was a light sleeper, but Rascal didn't seem to be affected at all. Skylar sat up straight in her bed, confused why there would be a crash in the middle of the night. What she thought might be a stupid decision, she decided to climb down from her bunk to investigate. She quietly creaked her door open to observe what was going on.

She noticed a strange male figure enter the house. Assuming it was a robbery, she decided to just not get involved and let her mother handle it. After all, she was a cop. The man tail was all Skylar could really notice. His tail was shaped like a lion's tail, but his shape did not really follow that logic. He was quite buff, but a little short. That's really all Skylar could see since it was so dark in the apartment.

Carmelita wasn't a heavy sleeper either. She emerged from her room with her trusty shock pistol, as if she was expecting this unwelcome guest. "Get out of my house and I might not shoot you." She threatened.

The creature didn't respond to her threat, and instead pounced on her like a cat pouncing on a mouse. Skylar wasn't really sure what to do, as she didn't really have any way to defend her mother. All she could do was watch the horrifying event take place.

The creature pulled out a steak knife he had on his belt. Carmelita continued to push him away, but he resisted. This was one of her toughest men she has ever had to fight. Before Carmelita could really react, the creature stabbed her in her chest twice. Carmelita just stared in fear into the creature's eyes. All she could manage to say was "I have children…"

The creature didn't seem to care about Carmelita's concern at all. He continued to stab her in her chest until she finally was killed. Carmelita laid on her newly carpeted floor, lifeless and bleeding out by the gallons. Skylar screamed, waking up Rascal.

"Call Ariel!" She screamed.

Rascal sat up quickly and stared at his hysterical sister with a puzzled look.

"Are you deaf?" Skylar shouted. "Call Ariel! Mom is hurt!"

Rascal, without thinking much about his task, exited his room. He didn't notice his lifeless mother laying next to her door. His focus was to get onto the phone and call Ariel.

The creature finished off Carmelita and turned back over, noticing Rascal dialing Ariel's number on the house phone. The creature nearly teleported over to him, snatching the phone away and breaking it in half. "I don't think so, little man." He crossed his arms.

Rascal could hardly make out a face either. The creature looked almost like a pure shadow, sporting an almost bird-like figure with a lion's tail. Rascal wasn't sure what, or who, he was looking at, or even what he should do about it. All he could do was just stand there terrified.

"Your mother is missing now, kid." The creature growled in an unnaturally low voice. "As long as you remember that, I'll spare your life."

Rascal stood there silently, staring at the creature who was staring back at him with ruby red eyes. Rascal just backed away in fear.

"Well, my work here is done." The creature brushed his hands off on his black pants and went over to the now lifeless Carmelita. "I better take this vixen home." He picked her up and draped her over his shoulder. Skylar opened the door completely and stood there terrified. "Oh, did I scare you kid?" The creature mocked Skylar as soon as he noticed her opening the door.

Skylar couldn't respond to the creature. She felt helpless, and useless. She wasn't sure how she could've defended her mother anyway with her being just a kid."

The creature saluted to the two children. "Salut my children. Remember, your mom is missing." He threatened.

Present day

Skylar sat in front of Bentley with an upsetting expression on her face as she was telling Bentley the story.

"Rascal is your brother?" Bentley asked.

Skylar looked down at the floor. "Rascal isn't just my brother." She explained. "He's my twin."

Bentley sat silent for a moment trying to absorb what he just heard. "You are twins?"

"Yeah." Skylar nodded. "But that isn't all I need to tell you."

Bentley wheeled closer to her, curious to know what she had to say next. Skylar started speaking again. "Bentley…Sly holds the key to my mother coming back to us. We can have our family back if he comes back."

"Why would bring Sly back help you?"

Skylar looked at Bentley straight in the eye. "Sly's our father, Bentley. Mom raised us by herself while she tried to look for him. She never could find him, and it tore our family apart. If we go back and bring Sly back, that will set things back to how they should be."

Bentley raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how this will bring Carmelita back."

Skylar stretched her fingers. "Bentley, if Sly comes back to this present day right now, time will be thrown into a loop because he has been missing for so long. Sly's stuck in almost a time loop. He just goes through the same day over and over again, not ever aging. If we bring him back right now, he will be too young and might rip a hole in time."

Bentley crossed his arms. "This never happened when we traveled to other time periods."

Skylar rolled her eyes. "Bentley, that's because you didn't stay for more than one day. Look, if we bring back Sly, we will set the clock back to 12 years ago, which is the time he disappeared. Mom will come back to life."

"You're only 12?!"

She giggled a bit. "Yeah, I know that's real young, but I do my best. Anyway, once Sly is brought back to that time period, Rascal and I won't exist anymore, at least not yet. Time still has fates; we will be born again eventually."

"So, you two will basically die?"

"Well, not exactly." She scratched her head, thinking. "You see, we wouldn't have existed yet. Carmelita was pregnant with us when you guys went back in time stopping Le Paradox. We will for sure exist, we will just revert back to babies. We won't remember any of this."

Bentley raised an eyebrow. "Carmelita was pregnant? I never even noticed."

Skylar laughed a bit. "Yeah, at least that's what she told us. That's why she kind of took our dad back so fast."

"So…" Bentley started to ask. "If Sly isn't here and your mother isn't alive anymore, who is taking care of you and your brother?"

Skylar turned pale. "Um…well…you see…" She looked down. "Sly probably doesn't even really know. Daniel is taking care of us."

"Who?" He asked with great confusion.

"Daniel…Cooper. He's Sly's brother. Mom and him actually talked some. Daniel met her online on a family site trying to get back in touch with his brother. Anyway, they became friends and Daniel started to fill that father figure in role for us. Our mom left us to Daniel in her will in case anything was to happen to her."

Bentley raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh. I've never heard of this Daniel Cooper before. This is Sly's brother?"

Skylar half smiled. "Yeah. He was thought to have been killed by Dr. M when Sly was only 6. Anyway, Bentley, I really need your help to go back in time and find Sly. Rascal and I have been working on a time machine where you can manually enter the dates instead of putting an object into it from that time period."

"What…how did you…" Bentley started to grow a bit jealous. It wasn't everyday a 12-year-old tried to outsmart him, especially with his own inventions.

"Daniel is a scientist, learned from the best, I guess. Rascal is a genius too. I'm just the athletic one. I'm the 'Cooper' in the family I guess." She scratched the back of her head. "So, what do you say, will you help us?"

Bentley stood hesitantly, but eventually agreed. "Okay, I'll help you. After all, I want my best friend back, I've wanted him back since the day he went missing."

Skylar smiled big and rushed over to give the handicapped turtle a huge hug. "Thank you, Bentley!" She muffled through his collared shirt. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, some girl named Penelope has been helping too. She found us through Daniel I guess, and she just jumped on the bandwagon. She's super sweet and has been a huge help."

Bentley grew cold. "…who?"