~Location: Cooper Hideout - Paris, France~
~Date/Time: Present Day, Afternoon~

"Where are you gonna start looking, Bentley? Isn't Egypt kind of large?" Murray asked questioningly as they arrived at the hideout.

Bentley smiled and nodded in agreement. "It is a large place to search, but if the 'set in stone' theory is correct, Sly might've told us exactly where to look already."

"So what now?"

"Actually, you can do me a favor and pick up Inspector Fox as soon as her shift ends. I'll look through as much of the files as I can and make a quick slideshow to show everyone."

"Gotcha."

Murray did have to wait until later in the evening to find Inspector Fox leaving work. As she climbed into the van, she made a comment about Penelope escaping a second time. Murray was none the wiser about what she mentioned and took her to the Cooper Hideout for Bentley's presentation with a mere shrug.

"Is everyone seated?"

"More or less..." The Fox leaned against the wall, watching intently.

"Good enough for me. Now, you all remember the mention of things being set in stone? I went back into Sly's history and I started at Ancient Egypt. I learned that Sly had three ancestors in that time period."

Bentley changed the slides and showed the first ancestor depicted in Sly's family book.

"Slytunkhamen I... He was the creator of the Thievius Raccoonus and master of the Shadow Power technique, an ability that allows a member of the Cooper family to become invisible."

Murray and Carmelita both nodded in understanding, so Bentley continued. Another slide appeared in place of the first and the turtle explained who was depicted on it.

"Slytunkhamen II... He was the mastermind behind the Cooper Vault. It is said that he also used the Shadow Power technique as his father did before him. Slytunkhamen II was also an expert in trap-making specifically for ancient tombs and I believe that he used that skill in his production of the Cooper Vault mechanics."

The other two nodded again. Bentley had one more slide to show.

"Slytinkhamen III... He is the son of Slytunkhamen II and... That's it."

Carmelita and Murray sat up with peaked interest but Bentley simply smiled and continued. "You guys are gonna like this... I'm gonna show all three at the same time and I want you two to tell me what you see."

#Bentley's Slideshow: /a/hqrrn#

Carmelita was the first to make an observation, but not the kind that Bentley expected. "Why are you leading us into an elaborate little game? Is there a reason you're not telling us about Sly right here and now?"

Murray blinked and looked back between Inspector Fox and Bentley, waiting for one of them to give an answer.

The turtle gave an answer. "I could just tell you what I know, but I actually know a lot. I figure it would be easier this way. I have an answer and I'll tell you everything."

"So back to the little game, then..." Carmelita studied the three images and came up with an idea. "The third one... He's carrying a sack that the other two aren't... But... That... That's the dollar sign!"

"Bingo. Inspector Fox has the first one. There's one more." Bentley smirked. Carmelita had gotten the idea by now and leaned back against the wall.

It was up to Murray to get the next clue and he got it rather quickly. "The guy in the third picture has Sly's cane..."

"Very nice observation, Murray. Slytunkhamen I and Slytunkhamen II both have Cooper canes of an Ancient Egyptian style. I'm willing to bet that Slytunkhamen II used his father's canes. I find it very odd that Slytunkhamen III uses a cane very similar to Sly's and happens to be carrying a sack that bears a symbol that has a striking resemblance to the American Currency symbol."

"Slytunkhamen, the third, is Sly!" Murray exclaimed happily. "Let's go get him Bentley!"

"Now hold on a moment... We're missing a key component in order to go get him."

"And what would that be?" Carmelita stepped back to where she was before, finding that she was reaching for the door.

"The time machine needs an object from a specific time in order to transport us to that time. Without that, we might as well have nothing."

"You know where he is, though. We can get something from a museum like we did last time." Murray regretted the comment and Carmelita gave a glare.

"Off-duty or not, I'm not going to just stand around and let you steal something again." The fox huffed out her stern warning and crossed her arms to indicate that she was sincere.

"Well, we won't have to steal anything, or at least I hope not. If you let me finish, I'll tell you. I'm eager to rescue Sly, but if we're going back in time, we need to know what happened so that we don't mess anything up."

"But didn't Sly mess things up when he went back?" Murray tilted his head curiously.

"Well, technically, Sly seems to have fixed something very crucial when he went back. It was if as he was supposed to go back. We have to find out what he did and make sure that we don't arrive early and mess it up and we don't arrive too late and..." At this moment, Bentley's prompt made a short noise and Bentley tended to the alert. What he read made him speechless.

Bentley's pause caught his audience's attention and both listeners were eager for an explanation. They were both silent and waited for his response this time.

"Yeah... I know what Sly does- err... did..." Bentley pauses and takes a long series of breaths before he continues. "Are either of you familiar with what the Pharaoh is in Ancient Egypt?"

"Why don't you just tell us? You can tell us, right?"

"..." Bentley adjusted his glasses before he continued. "Sly steals from Pharaoh in order to try and signal us. He um... He left a message in hieroglyphics that my computer just translated. I'll spare the reading of the entire thing and I'll just quote it. 'My ancestor tells me that the job that we're gonna do is a dangerous mission. If I fail and can't reach you guys, then this will be my final goodbye. We've had some great times together...'"

Bentley looked up to the Inspector and showed heavy and slightly-tearing eyes through his thick glasses.

"Inspector Fox, he... wrote a personal message for you. I can-"

Carmelita remained sternly raised a hand to silence him, her reply was just as strict. "I don't want to hear it. One, if it's personal, only I should know what it says. Two, I really don't want to hear it or read it. I believe that we will find and rescue Sly. I'm confident that he will succeed in his mission just as we will in ours. Three... I am getting very impatient..."

"Impatient? You want him back so you can throw in him jail again." Bentley's retaliation was sharp. Murray remained quiet as the two had their battle.

"Of course not! I-"

"Oh, of course! He's been in an out of jail for far too long and you want him to get a death penalty with the upcoming law."

"But..."

"I'm quite sure you've heard of it, Inspector... Prisons are filling up from cops arresting their targets. Next month, all fugitives of the law that are globally wanted or have several repeated crimes in their history will be executed in order to free space in those jails."

"I know about the law!"

"Ah ha! I knew it!"

"You've got it wrong! I want to save him!"

"How would you do that?"

"I'm quitting the force!"

Bentley was struck silent and allowed her to continue.

"It's been on my mind for weeks now... I didn't have any other idea to keep him alive. If he got captured... The law is above Barkley's control. Anyone else hunting him would be authorized to use deadly force. If I caught him, I'd have to watch his execution... I can't bear that."

After a moment, Bentley rolled up to now-crying fox and cupped her hand in his. "A lot of the fun in Sly's life is having you chase him. Without that..."

"I know... Dios... I love him... I was hoping that if he kept stealing, I won't be around police to hear about what happens."

"So you are sincere about it now?" Bentley had a light smile on his face to try and cheer her up.

"Yeah. No point in hiding it anymore; is what I'm thinking."

Murray had been listening and now decided to make a comment. "But what about the whole... Carmelita Cooper, thing? Weren't you and Sly gonna get married?"

The inspector's ears perked in attention and she blushed at the question. "Oh, that? It was a bit of a joke... I- umm... don't think Sly would be giving up everything anytime soon. And before you ask... He did fake amnesia and while all that was sweet... He wasn't completely mine... you know?"

"Sly's not gonna like hearing this..."

"He's not gonna know. Not until the law keeps him away from anything with a badge."

"I see..." Bentley sighed and rolled back to his earlier position to continue the presentation.

Carmelita raised a brow. "That's it? You're not going to pester me about it?"

The turtle shook his head. "No. Your life is your own to manage. Besides, I got all I needed."

"Say again?"

"I merely noticed that something had been bugging you. I just wanted to know about what it actually was and now you've given that information."

"I- grr..." The fox crossed her arms and huffed with a slight smirk. "Unwillingly..."

"I beg to differ." Bentley adjusted his glasses again and typed out a short line of code on his prompt. "Long story short, I know where the artifact we need is, thanks to Slytunkhamen II posting something significant in his section. The artifact is in Egypt. As soon as we can find it, we can rescue Sly. Conveniently, his ancestor also gave us a message directly telling where Sly will hide out after their mission. The plan is to find what Sly's trying to accomplish, wait until he succeeds, and meet him at the rendezvous point with him and take him home."

"When can we go, Bentley?" Murray was already at the door again, eager as ever.

Bentley started closing up his display area and turning off equipment, rolling towards the door when he was finished. "I see no reason why we can't leave now. Inspector, Are you free for the next few hours?"

"Hours? It'll take days to simply drive there. But yes, I can be free for a few hours." Carmelita made sure that she was armed but would be unprepared for days out of the city."

"Well, if the hypothesis I have is correct, we will need at most two days. I think it would be wise to stock up on supplies."

Nothing that a trip to a local convenience store couldn't fix... Carmelita was still convinced that the journey itself would take days, but that was before Bentley revealed upgraded engines on the Cooper Van. They would arrive sooner than if they had taken a private jet and they did, in fact.

Now, digging through sand and rocks in the Egyptian Desert doesn't sound much of an exciting thing to do or write about... I'll just say that the artifact they found was left in the Slytunkhamen homestead and makeshift hideout. According to instructions left in one of Slytunkhamen II's entries (as well as being proven by discovery); a sewn swatch of fabric in the shape of the Cooper emblem was left alone in a secret room of Slytunkhamen's home. The Egyptian raccoon had sketched the shape in his entry to match it for reference.

Bentley was perplexed by the significance of it all. That shape must've been from something that he found on Sly, perhaps a calling card Sly left or a belt he wore. That symbol would be passed on through Sly's history. Future ancestors bore the mark and it became a signature of the Cooper Legacy.

Now the color-faded fabric that had a few holes in the weak cloth would serve as a beacon for the last remaining Cooper to find his way home.

Being an extremely piece of fragile fabric meant that it had to be gently escorted back to the van. Bentley lowered it into the receptacle and lightly prayed that the time machine would accept such an artifact. The green light was given and Bentley had to crunch some numbers to figure out the decay rate of a piece of fabric in a closed space for thousands of years. That didn't take long, but Bentley has to be accurate to not risk misjudging the time.

Through the concept of carbon-dating, Bentley discovered long ago that physical objects have a period of time in which they exist. He compared it to train tracks that ran parallel to each other, one track starting where the existence of the item began and ending where the item is destroyed. Bentley theorized that if the process of decay in an object was reversed, they'd be metaphorically riding the item's track of existence in reverse. Thus, a discovery was made when time acted as a whole amongst all objects and reversed a universal clock as well.

Bentley gave the green-light to Murray and he put the petal to the metal like he always did. Bentley's discovery was being proven again as the small piece of cloth was returning to its original state.

They made the first big step in rescuing Sly.

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