Ziggy's Corner: And this makes 20 chapters! The final and ultimate confrontation with Charlie the Great begins and ends in this chapter, new revelation comes to the front and Sly's world will never, ever be the same again. Enjoy.

Things were looking bad. Sly was barely conscious, and his leg was still dripping blood, despite what Carmelita had done for it. True the police and Interpol were cracking down on the citadel and had actually entered it, but they might not arrive in time. Charlie the Great had somehow donned a mechanized battle suit, and was marching slowly toward them, water pumping from cords that were planted into his gills rapidly. He smiled, his metal choppers glistening with light and drenched in blood, Sly's blood.

"This would be end game," he cackled.

"And once you're done with us, what are you going to do about the police and Interpol officers swarming your home?" Carmelita snapped.

He frowned, his eyes turning black again. "I was promised neutrality in this matter," he growled. His mechanized fingers clenched and flexed as he thought about it. "The Director is going to pay for lying to me like this."

"The Director?" Carmelita asked, her eyebrows bending down. She thought for a moment, could he mean the director of Interpol? That couldn't be right, how could the most powerful cop in the world get paid off so easy? So then the name Director was some kind of code name?

"You won't need to worry about it, lass," the shark howled. "You'll be mostly in my belly before too long," he chuckled again. "Not to mention all over this room for that matter." He rushed at them and with all his strength, Sly shoved Carmelita away just in time to keep her hit from the shark, unlike himself.

"Sly," she cried. She rushed to him, holding his limp body. "Sly, please, don't do anything stupid." He smiled at her faintly and gazed into her eyes. "You just promise me you won't give up, and you let me handle this freak."

His eyes betrayed his worry, but she overruled him with a kiss as she took his cane, and turned to the shark, her own eyes bitter and violent. "How dare you? Who the hell is it that you think you are!" She twirled the cane a little and held it out in a defensive position.

"Why should you care what happens to him?" Charlie asked, totally bewildered. "He's just another thief, like me. I would think you would want him off the streets any way you could find."

Carmelita bit her lips and growled lowly. "No, you have it wrong. Sly is a thief, but he is nothing, absolutely nothing like you. He has class, style, commitment, and most importantly… he has a good heart. He worries about people, all people. He doesn't look for ways to hurt people so he can make himself better than them, or lord it over them, he looks for ways to help, even when it's outside the established law."

"Is that why he goes around stealing things from governments, such as England's crown jewels, or your own Spain's fine art pieces?" Charlie cackled, and took a step forward, howling with laughter as she raised the cane to protect the raccoon. "Are the kings, queens, and presidents dangerous people that he feels the need to steal the very property of said people?"

"Sly has his issues, but he's not a deranged madman, like you," Carmelita growled so tightly that she could feel blood flow down her throat from biting her lips so hard. She never thought she would be defending Sly, her, the woman who had chased him for so very long, wanting to put him behind bars, using the same arguments that Charlie was now using against her. But she no longer cared about that. All that mattered was Sly, and protecting Sly. The walls had come crashing down, sure he was infuriating and yes, no doubt there would be times she'd chase after him with her shock blast pistol, especially if he continued on his life of crime and she her life of law enforcement, but the walls were down, and she could finally admit what was in her heart all this time.

"You don't even know how to use that cane," Charlie snapped, crouching down, ready to launch another attack.

"It's a cane," she snapped. "It doesn't take much to know how to use it."

"Why bother? Why defend him?" He was frowning, as if her actions were truly that alien to him.

"Because it's the right thing to do," she said. "Because he's a living being and because …," she paused; her mind not quite sure it was ready to say the words, though she actually felt them. Say them Carmelita, you know it is the only way to release all this frustration in your heart. "Because I love him."

He stared at her motionless, contemplating the words, and screamed with laughter. "Love? Love! What a weak, pathetic excuse! Such a stupid, useless emotion."

"It's the emotion of all humanity," She growled. "It's the most powerful emotion that we have, it can bring brightness to the corners of the world that embrace dark, and bring warmth when you need it most. But I wouldn't expect someone like you, someone who's sold his soul to the devil to know anything about that."

"You foolish little girl," he growled begin his charge.

"Love is too simple an answer. Make no mistake, the enemy does not love humans, its just a front. There must be something more that he plans to use them for," Sly muttered, stopping the shark in his tracks. It pained him to talk, but he couldn't help but defend his woman's position. "C.S. Lewis wrote something very similar like that in his book The Screwtape Letters, in which two demons consider whether or not love was really the issue."

"What does that have to do with anything," Charlie growled.

"It means that Satan could not see the truth even though it was right in front of his eyes," Carmelita finished off. "He had seen pure love, had seen God in person, and still felt that love was too simple an answer for his existence. In other words he preferred to justify his own ego to make himself feel better, and rejected both God and love, just are you are doing now." She smiled at Sly, shocked that he knew of Lewis' more religious writings other than just the Chronicles of Narnia.

"This is pointless," Charlie screamed and rushed at the fox. She dodged him numerous times, her heart pounding out of both adrenaline and love. She was well trained in combat with numerous weapons and Carmelita had fought Sly enough, or at least given chase, that she knew the basic workings of his cane.

She leapt into the arm, and landed on the top of the machine, banging against the edges of it with the cane, until the shark raised his fists and tried to slam her. She quickly leapt off of the machine and his fists smashed his small aquarium a little, water oozing out.

"I won't give up now!" he howled. "I won't give up, I'll rebuild my empire."

"You never had an empire to begin with," Carmelita growled. She leapt into the air and swatted with the cane, smacking the chest plates of the machine, causing sparks to fly from it.

"You little witch," he screamed. Charlie reached out and grasped the detective from her leg and swung her around and around like a lasso, before letting her go into the wall. There was a thick thud and Carmelita dropped like a rock. He smiled and stormed up to her. "That seemed to work out perfectly didn't it?"

"You're forgetting one little thing," Sly snarled. As the shark turned to look, the master thief landed a right hook to the glass case of the aquarium, right where Carmelita had been pounding when she was on top of the machine. With the grace of a ballerina, he swirled around, grasped his cane and yanked the water tubes from the shark's gills, and then dropped, his strength abandoning him.

"You … you can't," the shark screeched.

"I just did," he said with a grin.

Charlie did the best he could to get the tubes back into his gills, while holding his small aquarium tight against the machine. He groaned, moaned, and toppled over like a turtle on his back, losing the fight as the water exploded from the glass in the machine, and the tubes dropped loosely onto the ground, tiny rivers of liquid flowing from them. Charlie's eyes grew wide as he gasped for air, and then with the aide of his mechanical legs he screeched and backed away as if he saw something that Sly could not.

"No, I'm not ready yet," he cried. "You promised me an empire, you said I would rule the world in your name, it's not fair! I didn't expect them to beat me, it's not fair!" His body arched out on its own … twisting and thrashing as if invisible hands had clutched onto his body and was using it like silly putty. Then his skin became white and pale, stretching against itself pushing inward as if Charlie were imploding. Finally, to the terrified eyes of Sly and a reawakening Carmelita, the Shark became nothing but dust, his metal teeth all that remained of him.

Neither of them wanted to say it, but as they watched they could feel something enormously evil in that room with them. Something that came from hell itself. They could feel the heat of the flames of the damned on their fur, as could they feel the eyes of something so vicious, that their hearts felt as if they were going to burst. Sly did happen to see one thing that Carmelita did not. From the far corner of the room, he could spy the shadow of what looked like an owl, zooming downward into the ground. Shivers ran through his body at he said a prayer for the first time in years that he had not seen what he had.

S L Y

Four weeks had passed, and Sly sat in his chair, in a new headquarters, still contemplating what he had seen. It was an owl, no doubt about it, but it wasn't Clockwerk. It didn't look like him at all, for in fact it was three times the size of the evil robotic villain. That sent even more shudders up his spine.

Other things had bothered him too. The Tricoli tribe had received their Ruby back, in thanks to Christian and Gabriel, and the Fox family had given Sly thanks for taking care of them, giving him and his friends a break by letting them go, but Eko had no idea what had happened to the computer chip that he held for Murray and Christian. And what was more; Morgan Skye had disappeared just before the announcement, which could only mean she had taken it, and probably had the other too. But why? He knew she was competitive, but was she working for someone, was she in on this deeper conspiracy?

Nyoko had also vanished from the scene. Dr. Goren was still in his prison that Morgan had put him in, and all of the other thugs working for the shark had been caught, but the crafty scorpion had somehow managed to elude the law. Sly had no doubt he'd see her again one day.

Finally, and utterly shocking to Sly was a piece of paperwork that Bentley had found in that shark's base about the master thief's family. To his utter shock and confusion, he discovered that his mother, who was supposed to have died in a car wreck, was very much alive! Sly wanted to run and search for her right then and there, but of course was in no shape for it.

He still could not believe it. Mom's alive out there, somewhere. Did she mean to leave me? Or was she kidnapped, and the car wreck made to look like she had died? Did dad really know? He stroked his head, so many thoughts, so many questions. He didn't think sitting here would get them answered.

Sly sighed, looking at the empty lair, and smiled. Murray was off getting a bite to eat, and Bentley had left a few days earlier to go to Rose Marie Shell's vista in England for a weekend vacation. So this left him all alone. He walked out of the headquarters, and breathed in the night air.

"COOPER!" her voice echoed through the late autumn, Paris air. The master thief paused for a moment to smirk, and he turned to see Carmelita leaping through the night down to the base.

"Is there a problem, detective?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She scowled at him for a moment, and then punched him in the shoulder. "You are darn right there is," she snapped. "What are you doing out here in the cold? Trying to get sick and get out of our date I suppose?" Then she smiled and held him tightly.

"Careful, detective," Sly chuckled. "Whatever would your father and mother think of you dating a thief?"

"Who do you think packed this basket of food for us to enjoy?" she giggled, lifting a small brown basket and winked. "And just you wait Ringtail, play your cards right, and there might be some extra desert in here for you too."

Sly smirked again and poked his girlfriend in her sides, making her squeal and punch him in the shoulder again. "Okay, okay I'll behave," he chuckled.

"Good boy," she laughed as she entered the headquarters. "Who says you can't teach an old raccoon any new tricks?"

His jaw dropped as he closed the door behind them, "Who are you calling old, girl?"

S L Y

Two dark and strong eyes watched them from afar. They were angry, bitter eyes, furious at last months' dealings. It should have all worked out, but that idiot shark blew everything to kingdom come. The short answer was that he had underestimated his opponents, and the Cult had been dealt a blow because of it. But no matter; Charlie, Nyoko, Alexandr, Goren, they had all been useful in their own ways. It was time to take the Cult into its next phase, and when that happened, the Director was determined to be there personally to offer Sly Cooper and his little girlfriend to the will of his dark god.

The Cult of the Owl would crush the will under its clawed feet, and when everything was said and done, the Director would become a new deity, rising to greatness unlike anyone had ever seen before. The dark fiend punched a button on his cell phone and asked in a thickly dark, gravely voice, "Are the next phase ready to go?"

"But of course," Neyla cooed from the other end. "Cooper and his friends are walking into a trap, whether or not they know it. And once they do, game over."

The Director smiled wickedly. "Good."

Okay, the end of chapter twenty, and the half way marker. You all now know the name of the true villains of this story, The Cult of the Owl. In truth this was going to be the name of a new story, a sequel to Everything's Relative, but since the story still massively deals with family dealings with what's going on, I decided to keep this path of the storyline right in line with Everything's Relative and make it a forty chapter fic. I'm still doing good, yes?

I plan on submit chapters 21-26 in January, but if you don't see them there, then look for them around February. Then, since the 7th is my birthday (31st! Wow!), I plan on submitting chapters 27-33 in March, probably on the 4th or 5th of March, as I will no doubt be going to get an allergy shot on the 7th. Finally the final seven chapters (chapters 34-40) will be updated sometime in May. Now Heiduska I know this may seem upsetting, but remember, I can't control my updating schedule. And Kaiseronni, now you get to know when all the chapters are coming out . Of course nothing is written in stone, but this is hopefully how it will go.

Since it's the December 15th tonight at my house, I thought I would ask Heiduska and The Divine One a question about Christmas Celebrations in their respective countries.

Heiduska, do you watch the Peace of Christmas festival in Turku, Finland on television, or does that city no longer do that anymore? For a city that calls itself your country's "Christmas City" I should hope it does. I read in the Christmas Encyclopedia that most Finnish people watch this on their televisions, so that's the reason of my questioning.

The Divine One, Do they still do "Carols by Candlelight" in Australia? I read it was something like sitting by the radio as it plays Christmas Carols and sing along by candlelight. I hope I got that right. I just thought it sounded like a cool thing to do, so I was wondering if you or anybody you know does this.

Cooper Fan, I don't know if your actually Portuguese, actually living in Portugal or one of its former territories, or Portuguese-American, living here in the states, and I can't find any information on what they do special for the Holidays to ask you about, so sorry. But if you are from truly from Portugal, and your people do something interesting, I'd love to hear about it.

The same thing goes for anyone else who reads this story, and are from a different nation, or culture. One thing maybe someone can help me out on, is where did the story of Mrs. Santa Claus first come from? If you could let me know about this, I would be most appreciative. I can't find anything about her, and its driving me a little batty. Thanks in advance, and on to chapter 21!

Okay, so Merry Christmas gives all his readers a pretty cyber Christmas tree, Happy New Year, and know I keep you all in my prayers. See ya guys! These six chapters will probably be submitted a little after Christmas Day, but I hope to have it in before the 6th of January, as that is one day after the Christmas season actually ends. December 25-January 5, the twelve days of Christmas, it was actually celebrated like that in medieval times, a tasty tidbit for you trivia fans. I wanted to get them in sooner, but my family as well as my sister's were too busy for me to do so this month. I hope you all understand. Oh and for my non Christian readers, the Cyber Christmas tree can turn into any decoration (so long as its not occultic) that you could want with the switch of a button, and turns into a groovy cyber race car for your amusement when not the holiday season. Okay see ya guys!

Okay I just wanted you all to know that I had gotten a cold earlier this month, and now my monitor is really nasty, it looks like it is going to fall right off, and the computer repair guy simply made things worse. I'll try to update as soon as possible, maybe in May, but do not hold me to that, as my time is not my own in updates. I just promise to do the best that I can. Heidi, I am truly very sorry for the long wait. I'll just have to give you a lot more cyber stuff (hmm a black cyber cheek for whatever type of gift you want from me should do I hope). I'll promise to do my best next time.

Okay it's the 23rd of February, this weekend I'll be updating, and I have a question for you all. I'm planning on writing either a one shot story, or a chapter story about one of my original characters, but I'm not really sure who to use. So here is what I'd like from you my fans, would you like to see a fiction about Nyoko, Morgan Skye, or one of Carmelita's siblings, and if so, which one (two counting the twins I suppose). Let me know in your reviews, and when next I update, I'll let you know who the winner (or winners) is/are. Thanks in advance. Ziggy.