A Deal with the Devil

Location unknown-Time unknown

Sly was tied to a pipe, his hands looped around the pole with his back pressed against it. Emile just stared at him, a cold menacing stare, as he slowly walked towards him. Then in one swift move, Emile kicked out Sly's legs out from beneath him and listened to him cry in pain. Sly felt as though his shoulders were going to dislodge as he struggled to pull his feet back to ease the pressure on his arms. But when he managed, Emile simply kicked them out again, this time even farther. Sly tried again, but he couldn't get a good grip with just his heels digging into the ground.

"I have to say Sly Cooper," Emile said. "You are a very persistent and admirable person. I like that in people."

"What do you want?" Sly chocked out, biting his lip in pain. "Why them? Why me?"

"What everybody wants," Emile said. "The root of all evil; money! By blood you have the greatest treasure find in all of the world. Each year it's older additions grow even more valuable. Your clan is nothing more than just your simple everyday criminal. It's the wealthy behind you that makes you extraordinary…"

"SHUT UP!"

"…and now I believe its time that I 'inherit' this wealth, just as so that your predecessors 'inherited' their loot…"

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"What's with you and Sly?" Penelope asked. "I mean one moment you are god damned concerned over him when those guards tossed his limp body in the cell, but then suddenly, you back into a corner aflame with hate for him."

"He lied," Carmelita mumbled, not turning to face Penelope.

"How did he lie?"

"He knew your pink friends name!"

"So?" Murray butted in. "I gave away my name. I freakin' told him pretty much."

"There you go," Bentley pointed out. "If Murray is making sense then you'd have to have fallen out of the stupid tree ten times and hit every branch every time on the way down not to get it."

"Oh damn" Carmelita sighed, putting her face in her hands. "I screwed up. It's the fact that he'd be around you guys, his friends, that I'm just edgy that he might remember something, or even worse, faked amnesia. I mean, I didn't even clue in on how he knew Murray's name."

"Inspector Fox," Panda King said. "We as the Cooper Gang are a family. And as a family we accept what's in the best interests in each other's hearts. Sly wanted to be close with you for a long time I can gather. None of us know why, but there was always something about you that made his gears turn. Whether or not he had memory loss, we would never jeopardize what's going for him."

"Aren't you the pyromaniac that killed his father?" Carmelita asked.

"Mind your own business," Panda King muttered under his breath.

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"You need the cane to open it up!" Sly choked.

"So then where is your cane?" Emile asked, drawing back his own hand after backhanding Sly's face, leaving a gash on his left cheek from the bejeweled ring on his finger.

"I don't know," Sly gasped. The pain was as unbearable as had when Dr. M's beast was crushing him. "I haven't seen it since Kaine Island!"

"Well maybe your turtle friend will help!"

A few minutes later, two guards walked in, tossing Bentley and Penelope onto the floor. Emile simply walked over to the couple and kicked both of them in the ribs; and the couple both made loud gasps of pain.

"You two are obviously the brains behind your outfit," Emile began. "So it would only seem right that you two are the ones that hid away the cane!"

"Don't waste your effort on my Penelope," Bentley moaned. "Only I know where to find the cane."

"THEN TELL ME!" Emile grunted, yanking the turtle by his neck into a standing position. His legs, while paralyzed, locked at the knee joint, allowing him to stand up as long as balance wasn't changed.

"No," Bentley seethed. "That money belongs to the Cooper Family…"

"Then I guess I'll need to give you some motivation!" Emile sneered, pulling out a Smith & Wesson and putting the muzzle to the back of his head. "You have to the count of three before I blow your smart little brains out over this room!"

"ONE…TWO…" then Emile just stopped. "SHIT! Godammit! It wouldn't do me any good to kill you!"

Then he set his sights on Penelope. "How about this turtle-boy. Seeing as how you love your girl in all, I'll give you a chance to save her. You tell me where that cane is…and I won't let my guards fondle her like a toy before I spew her guts out everywhere. And my selected guards haven't seen any 'action' in months."

"Tell him Bentley," Sly spoke up. Sly cared about Penelope as much as all the other members. She was 'family' and Sly knew that Bentley would forever be dead from watching the woman he loves suffer a humiliating death. "The fortune's not worth it."

"Okay!" Bentley said, staring at Penelope's shocked and mute face. "I'll tell you…"

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"What am I even doing here?" Winthorpe grunted in aggravation. "That ass has nothing to gain from me!"

"First of all shrimp," Murray said. "I'm sick of hearing you whine like a baby whose candy was taken from 'em. And also, you are the biggest moron I have seen. Even I know why they kidnapped you too."

"What then lard ass?" Winthorpe retorted.

Murray's face turned a deep red from anger. It was bad enough that he had to listen to this guy whine from having slept on his arm wrong, but when the guy called him names like he was bigger than him…

"You were there when that condor freak kidnapped Inspector Fox!" Murray yelled, attracting everyone's attention, including Carmelita's. "Of course they wouldn't let you go. Cause then your co-workers would know it was a kidnapping and the cops would be all over Sly like wimp on you!"

"HEY!"

"Speaking of…" Dimitri said. "What were you doing with Sly's squeeze?"

Carmelita was about to detest to the last part of that statement when Guru butted in. "gibberish"

"HEY!" Winthorpe yelped. "That's not fair, you can read minds!"

"You gonna answer the question or not?" Panda King asked.

"Fine," by this time Winthorpe had forgotten that Carmelita was even in their cell, being that he was surrounded by 'thugs' that could kill him ten times before he hit the ground. "With Sly knocked out, I thought I could aid you know who, and maybe upon realizing that I saved her, would move onto me…"

"WHAT?!" Carmelita roared.

Winthorpe actually felt liquid warmth dripping down his tattered pant leg, while in the background he could hear Dimitri utter "You little weak freak!" Murray's rage had too risen. He had grown very far above his tolerance for the guy, and now he was about to burst knowing that this dumbass was trying to move in on Sly's woman when she was at one of her most vulnerable times.

"I OUGHT TO KICK YOU IN THE NADS SO HARD THAT IT BE CONSIDERED A V.D. YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH!" Carmelita bellowed.

Had Guru not of used his telekinesis to forcefully calm her down, she probably would have knocked his eggs out through his mouth. But the guards barged in anyway to make sure she cause any more trouble. Still kicking and screaming-though not as fiercely as a few seconds before-Carmelita continued to bellow out every word in the dictionary that could be used as an insulting swear in her native Spanish.

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Sly realized that he had must of blacked out. He could feel pain, which had its own perks on behalf that it meant he wasn't dead. But now he couldn't feel his arms. For a moment he thought they were dislocated, but he didn't panic. The back of his feet ached from being kicked out from beneath him all the time, and his wrist where chafed from their bindings. After a few more minutes in his dazed stupor, he soon realized that once again, he was not alone.

"Dammit," Sly muttered. "Not again. Not another black out…"

"Wake up Sly," a sincere voice said.

"Carmelita?"

"I'm here Sly," Carmelita replied.

Sly's daze quickly cleared up, and he was once again staring into her beautiful eyes. And like last time, they showed concern. There was not a single trace of malice in them.

"I'm sorry Sly," she spoke. "I'm the one that lied."

"What are you talking about?" Sly asked. He didn't exactly know where this was going, but he had a feeling.

"You were never a police officer," Carmelita continued. "You were a thief, and a pretty damn hard to catch one at that. Those guys…they were your cohorts, your friends. And then you lost your memories…

But Sly pressed his finger against her lips to stop her. "Carmelita, I know what happened. I never lost my memories. That was fake…but everything else between us, that date, that kiss…that was all real. I gave up that life of crime, for this thing between us. It may have only been a month…but if I could do it all over again…I would still go with you…because I love you."

Part of her wanted to smack him, to put it mildly, for his lies. But the rest of her just wanted to come clean. Then she looked at her hand. Despite the severe numbness of his arms, Sly had still managed to forced his hand gently onto hers. And for a second their hands intertwined.

But then instead, she ripped her hand away from his and leered at him. Sly thought that she was about to hit him, or yell at the top of her lungs at his face. Instead, her features proved deceptive. She swooped down on him like a vulture. After the first few seconds of his utter surprise, he managed to put his back into it. Using all his strength, he managed to push his elbows into the cement floor of their enclosed cell, pushing her over onto her back so that he was on top of her.

"Not here," Carmelita whispered.

"I had no intent on doing that," Sly replied in a hushed tone, and slid off.

What little energy he had to begin with, he had spent. And was now sleeping.

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Sly was getting sick of waking up to find he was either in pain, in a new room, or tied up. This time he was in a chair, tied to the legs and armrests. Across from him was Emile. And behind him was a TV monitor.

"You're getting on my nerves," Sly grunted.

"Don't worry Cooper," Emile said. "You won't go through any more of this pretty soon. All I need from you now is the cane."

"I don't have it!"

"I never said that you did," Emile replied. "I need you to get it for me!"

"And why should I?" Sly said.

"Because," Emile said, turning on the TV. "You wouldn't want anything to happen to her now, eh?"

On camera, Sly could see in horror Carmelita was chain to the floor by her wrists and ankles, while she was in addition surrounded by a few guards that were eyeing her hungrily.

Sly simply gasped. "Of course that Penelope girl didn't wasn't exactly my men's type," Emile said. "And I do believe that this way provides better motivation. When I release you, you'll have no more than twenty-four hours to get me your cane. If you miss the deadline, each guard will do their thing to her for every hour you are late. After five hours, she will slowly be killed, followed by all your friends. Then I will come after you."

Sly's ears flattened and he dropped his head. "Fine" he muttered in defeat.

A/N: I know it seems strange that Carmelita would freak out like she did at Winthorpe, but hey, wouldn't you be freaking mental after an explaination that someone was scheming behind your back over something like that?

I gotta say that it took forever to me to write this chapter, I in my mind this had a darker feel to it, so tell me what you think.

Also, last chapter's title 'Kicked in the Teeth' was an AC/DC song from the album Powerage (which is my favorite album made by them.)